Watching Good Times, I always wanted to see them come up out of the transient high rise building. I used to not like the show, but after ever episode, I thought maybe the tide would turn in their favor, so I keep tuning in. We are not here to punish the innocent. Forgiveness is the economy of the heart. The focus of life should be on the calmness of the mind. Only when the mind is calm—that is, free from selfishness, cunning, and deliberate effort—can it be peaceful. One can then respond to things as they come and naturally maintain a balance between the internal and the external. Changes have exerted tremendous influence throughout the ages, and progress is naturally turned to for inspiration and support. We live in the most enlightenment since the creation of the World. Scientific achievements of today are staggering to the human mind. We realize that the law under what these achievements have been accomplished has always been in existence, but it was not until this era that human learning and understanding have sufficiently increased to make use of natural laws to produce the accomplishments of today’s World. A few generations ago, goods were manufactured with hand tools from crude materials; but in these times, mass production has replaced the antiquated methods with greater efficiency and in some cases superior quality because of the genius and skills of humans and the machines that have been developed. #RandolphHarris 1 of 17

 However, much of modern architecture cannot rival the hand built houses, with decadent materials, and geometrical shapes of the Victorian era, which proves old is sometimes superior. Perspective is a study of human nature and destiny on the basis of principle ascetics. The spirit of life is in everything. It is the principle of Nature, the self-evident Universal truth that carries with it the dictate to distinguish right from wrong and the imperative to do good. Agriculture is the means of livelihood for more than half of the World’s population. As we pass through modernized farming areas, we no longer see farmers tilling the land with horse and plow, cutting one furrow at a time, or families working together in the fields at harvest time. These things seem to have disappeared. Today, large pieces of mechanical equipment with the strength of a hundred horses plow many furrows at one time. Not many years ago, the hand sickle was used to harvest the fields of ripened grain. The sheaves were flailed by hand and tossed into the wind to separate the chaff. Large combines now do all of the work in one operation as they mow the fields. #RandolphHarris 2 of 17

Unfortunately, ducks build nests in the fields and because humans are no longer harvesting the fields by hand, many duck eggs are being destroyed before they even hatch.  However, because humans were originally good and endowed with the innate knowledge of the good and the innate ability to do good, some farmers are inviting dozens of volunteers to scour their fields over a few weekends before the harvest to collect the wild eggs. Over the past 15 years, on just one farm, more than 30,000 eggs were brought to a local wild bird hatchery before the tractor blades got there. Inside of those little eggs, it starts with a little tiny heart and little tiny veins going to the inner lining of the egg. That is the embryo, and it just grows and grows and eventually turns into a little duck in there. And that is amazing. It is life. It is amazing how it happens. Also, eradicating the wild grasses and then over-farming the land leads to deep erosion that helped contribute to the Dust Bowl crisis. People hope that in Sacramento, California America that we can sustain the land and leave this ground better than we found it. We do not want be mining the soil, and chasing away wild life, instead we want to build it up and improve it. #RandolphHarris 3 of 17

We have to be ecologist and keep the spirit. Happenings in faraway places are viewed in the quiet of our own houses, a phenomenon which would have been considered a miracle in the generations preceding ours. Modern living requires that we have instantaneous communications at our side so that we may quickly dial and transact business or have the luxury of visiting, regardless of long intervening distances. Animals provided human beings transportation for centuries, but these have now been replaced by vehicles of great speed and comfort. There has always been a curiosity to what lies beyond the river. Today’s rapid flight through the air has made the oceans no wider than the rivers of years past and humans have quick access to the World. We take great pride in modern accomplishments—the fact that we are better housed and fed, have greater conveniences, improved medical facilities, greater advantages in education, and the highest standard of living ever enjoyed in the history of the World. Currently, President Trump set up a new hotline to help the 470,000 veterans who are appealing their denied claims for financial and medical disability assistance with the Department of Veteran Affairs. #RandolphHarris 4 of 17

Many of my ancestors were engaged in the World’s most followed occupation of tilling the soil. Some of them left their old moorings in England and came to the shores of the New World, settling in the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies. I get a warm feeling when I read the soul-stirring accounts of their conquest against hardships and the difficulties that faced them and their families. They used to rotate their crops—letting the fields go fallow every other year to replenish the soil’s nutrients, and used cover crops in the off season. We have to stop paving over our food-producing land. Also, I do not think what the ordinary farmer is doing can be long-term, because pretty soon the ground will not produce anymore. It will just be poison. If you want sustainability, you protect the land that grows our food. Early missionaries of the Church went to Germany, Italy, Scotland, Denmark, Africa, and Norway where other of my early ancestors lived. They accepted the teachings of the gospel, gave up the security of their homelands, and participated in the gathering of Zion’s descent from Heaven. #RandolphHarris 5 of 17

These people faced hardship and sudden death, as they walked across the dust plains of the Middle West and over the Rocky Mountains, pushing all of their Earthly belongings in carriages. The difficulties they endured brings tears to their eyes of those who are their beneficiaries today. The stories of these people who have gone before us are ones of faith, devotion, and dedication. Although there were trials, hardships, and lack of the conveniences we think necessary in our World today, there seems to have been a happiness in their living, in their individual lives, and in their families. In their houses, there was faith and prayer—faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and prayers asking God for their needs and thanking him for his goodness to them. The Good Book (Bible) was read in the house and there was profound belief in its teachings.  America would be the place of the New Jerusalem, where the Saints believed they could find protection from the desolation and tribulation soon to descend upon the wicked. Life was more simple, but can we say that there was less happiness in simplicity? #RandolphHarris 6 of 17

Today, many people have all the riches they could dream of, but wake up to sin and make life hard on others. They actually dream of ways to offend people they do not like and find ways to make life difficult for them. That is so wicked and so far from God. We learn American history for its purpose, discipline, and solidarity that is supposed to show us what people have overcome and how, through the evolution of time and the cultivation of the human mind, we should treat people with kindness and show them the love of God. The purpose of learning history is so people do not repeat the mistakes of the past. If you are walking around with 525 years of hate and animosity, one-sided in your emphasis on principle and the investigation of things, and looking to hurt others, it is important to seek professional help because you have invited the Devil into your soul and he is planting roots of hatred and poison in your heart and mind. Both the principle and Nature of human desires are good, and they should not be constrained. The mind fills the whole Universe. Throughout all ages and in all directions, there is the same mind. It is identical with all things, for there is nothing outside of God and there is no God outside of things. #RandolphHarris 7 of 17

The mind is the Universe. To investigate things, then, is to investigate the mind. Since all principles are inherent and complete in the mind, there is no need to look outside, as do people who worship Satan do. In the writings of Enoch, revealed in December of 1830, the Saints found a concrete example in the righteous achievements of Enoch and his city: “And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them” (Moses 7.18). We must honor moral nature, which will give rise to intellectual creativity by means of moral vigor in it. This idealistic movement can take us to the highest point in American and World history. The direction of the mind is the will. A thing (or affair) is nothing but the mind determined to realize it. There is no such thing as a filial piety, for example, unless one is determined to put it into practice and actually does so. The investigation of things is the investigation of the mind. However, since the most important aspect of the mind is the will, the sincerity of the will must precede the investigation of things. #RandolphHarris 8 of 17

Because of one’s innate ability to do good, one necessarily extends the innate knowledge into action. Knowledge and action are really identical; one is beginning and the other the completion. The extension of the innate knowledge and the unity of knowledge and action, both of which represent new steps in American thought. Society has made a great effort to modernize the World in education, communication, travel, health, commerce, housing, and in many other ways, so as to increase the standard of living; but what has this socialization and modernization done to the family—the basic institution of society? The spirit of the time demanded the evident, the concrete, and the practical. Never before has there been greater instability. The divorce rate is 53 percent, and is higher than any time in history. Modernization has transferred the responsibility of education from the family to public institutions where modern thoughts has become paramount and moral principles have become abandoned. The crime rate has increased alarmingly, in 2016, there were 762 homicides in Chicago, Illinois. Drug addiction, disobedience to the law, increase in venereal disease, and corruption in all forms seem to be accepted in this new tradition. #RandolphHarris 9 of 17

In this day of modernization, and this new doctrine of consciousness and freedom of thought and action is sponsored and promoted without consideration of the responsibilities that must accompany such freedoms if society is to be stabilized. Ungendered species are spreading and the youth are being brainwashed at young ages to be unsure of their gender and question their sexuality. The perpetual transition of deviance being spread by the media at every instant is continually arising anew and this resulting in many ungodly manifestations. When a three-year-old boy comes back to the house from school telling his grandfather he is not a boy, something is very wrong with our system because that thought surely came from somewhere outside the house. Surely we would agree that the family institution has been seriously, if not irreparably, damaged, in our society. In the past, churches have taken a leading role through extensive and vigorous religious and intellectual reform in teaching men and women and children to have faith in God and to develop moral stability. Their work and advancement is quickly disappearing. What is happening to organized religion as a stabilizing force in society? #RandolphHarris 10 of 17

To my grandparents, church was the order of things, and by things they mean daily affairs, it was as important as drinking water and eating food. The way to investigate principle is by critical, analytical, minutely detailed, and objective study of things based on concrete evidence. Many of the largest Christian churches have reported losses in membership and also in income to carry on the work of their religious endeavors. Here again, modernization has taken a heavy toll and created a burden on society. Modernism has become the order of the day in some religious thought. Modernists advocate a restatement of traditional doctrine on the grounds that today’s modern scholastic and scientific advances require a new critical interpretation of The Gook Book, and the history and doctrines. The term “modernism” is often used interchangeably with “liberalism.” Its advocates claim that religious truths are subject to constant reinterpretation in the light of modern knowledge; therefore, new and more advanced concepts are required to express modern thought and progress. Principle can never prevail when feelings are not satisfied, for principles are merely feelings that do not err. #RandolphHarris 11 of 17

God knows what he is doing in your life. Do not be discouraged. Healing is coming. Promotion is coming. We are the leaders of an intellectual revolution and must remain strong, as we establish our state philosophy. The Bible has been subject of attack by modernists. It is said by some that science refuses to support the authenticity of God, his Son, and the Biblical accounts as the creation of the World, placing life upon Earth, Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, the flood, and many other happenings in Old and New Testaments. However, these same people who refuse to believe in God think The Queen of the Damned is a true and factual documentary and that they have a legal and moral right to eliminate certain bloodlines by any means necessary. What is claimed to be superior knowledge in this day of enlightenment causes some people to look upon these accounts as fables. Because of this, can believers in Christ repudiate them? In an attempt to regain the confidence of communicants who have ceased to believe, many liberal churches have abandoned one doctrine after another, even to extent of failing to stand by the doctrine of the existence of a personal God. #RandolphHarris 12 of 17

Reality is endless transformation of closing and opening, which constitutes a process of unceasing production and reproduction. The original substance is in perpetual transition at every instant, continually rising anew and thus resulting in many manifestations. People no longer uphold as reality the resurrection of the crucified Savior, they believe the World would be better off if he had stayed dead, and the atoning sacrifice has lost its credibility. Under such circumstances, how can organized religion maintain its place as a stabilizing influence of society? In its closing, the aspect original substance has the tendency to integrate, resulting in what may temporarily be called matter, whereas in its opening aspect is has the tendency to maintain its own nature and be its own matter, resulting in what may temporarily be called mind. This mind itself is one part of the original mind, which in its various aspects is minds, will, and consciousness. In this day of increased knowledge, higher thought, and a modernization of the antiquated, the simple has been overlooked and the profound sought after. The basic, simple, fundamental truths of the gospel are being ignored. #RandolphHarris 13 of 17

We marvel at so many of your who are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Perception, conception, mind, and consciousness are all syntheses, or constructs, and constructs are products of society and culture. Although we have combined Western logic with modern psychology and sociology, this system is our own. It is the gospel of Christ. However, in modern times, we are surrounded by people who will murder a father so they can torture, experiment on and kill his son. There are people who will take money from a dead man, renovate their house, then let it go into foreclosure, and let his family suffer, while they marry Satan, and steal money and use it to abuse the righteous. This seems to drag down people, destroy faith and morality. Where, then, is hope in this World of frustration and moral decay? It lies in the knowledge and understanding of the truths taught by the Master, which must be taught by the Church of Christ without deviation and believed in and lived by in its membership. #RandolphHarris 14 of 17

We can be modern and enjoy the benefits of a modern World and its high standard of living, and we can have the benefits of modern scholarship and scientific advances without turning to the theories of the modernist. The principles of the gospel announced by Jesus Christ is our Heavenly Father’s plan for the happiness and salvation of his children. According to his plan, our Heavenly Father sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into the World to show us how to live meaningful and happy lives and experience eternal joy after this life. Through the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, you can become clean from sin and enjoy peace of conscience. You can become worthy to live in Heavenly Father’s presence after this life by enduring to the end. Truth is eternal and never changing. These are eternal truths and will be so perpetuity regardless of changing circumstances in society, development of new scientific achievements, or increase of human knowledge. The gospel of Jesus Christ is ever contemporary in a changing World. The knowledge explosion which the World is so proud of is not of human creation. It is their discovery of portions of the unlimited knowledge and information which is part of God’s knowledge. #RandolphHarris 15 of 17

How we use knowledge is determined by whether we are of the eternal kingdom of God are a part of the temporary understanding of the World. The question is simply this: are we seeking to find our place in the World in the realm of the Worldly, or are we seeking to find our place in the unchanging kingdom of God? Knowledge is a function of reason. Since actual existence, as distinct from the merely possible, is not an indeterminate, anarchic chaos, there must also be an initial creative, purposeful act, determining the pure possibility; this is God. Through God, possibility becomes identified with potentiality; and one may speak of the tendency of freedom to become, or of freedom linked with cosmic aim. Insofar as this aim achieves existential embodiment, God is the Creator bringing value into being ex nihilo; that is, out of freedom. Since all existents (but especially human) participate in the determination of value, God and creatures are mutually related in the pursuit of the common goal or realizing maximum value. Due to this fundamental correlation, all beneficial value experience may be interpreted as the immanence of God. #RandolphHarris 16 of 17

Contrariwise, all evil and frustration, as instances of unrealized potentiality, involve a separation between the divine purpose and the creatures’ actuality that may be described as the transcendence of God. How grateful am I for my membership and association in The Church of Jesus Christ. I know that God, our Eternal Father lives; that the Bible is inspired writing; that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is real and also lives, having shed his blood for us, and is truly and literally resurrected. I also bear witness that there is a prophet of God on Earth today. May the Lord bless us in our righteous endeavors to shun the influences that lead into the ways of the World, that we may take our place, in faith, and believing, in the kingdom of God. Enlarge your vision. Make room in your thinking for the new thing God wants to do. Do not let your temporary provision become permanent. If you will learn this principle of faith in God and not settling, then you will see the fullness of what God has in store and make it all the way to your Promised Land. I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. #RandolphHarris 17 of 17