God is an obscure representation of the essence or essential presence of the divine being. The idea of the highest good cannot be realized by human beings themselves; yet they cover within themselves the duty to work for this end. Hence, humans find themselves impelled to believe in the cooperation or management of a moral Ruler of the World, by means of which alone this goal can be reached. We are under obligation to attain the highest good and our individual moral perfection. The theory of time forms a sensibility that makes continuing moral development and the attainment of the highest good in hereafter a reality, as the moral order is an objectively valid order, and moral values belong to the nature of reality. Through the history of the World, the human condition, both mentally and physically, is supposed to improve as it is moral law that we are supposed to become good beings. In fact, this is morally binding, as it is the process we must follow to realize the natural order. If we were to assume that the goal of the World-process is the realizing of happiness, there would be the weightiest empirical evidence against us. With moral worth and goodness, it is different. Conditions that work against happiness may work for, not against, the developing, trying, and testing of moral fiber. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10

There are two properties of being extended and being spiritual. If the moral law is eternally valid, and valid whether we recognize it or not, how could this eternal validity stand alone, not embodied in matter and neither seen nor realized by finite minds, unless there were an eternal mind whose thought and will were therein expressed? One can readily agree that the World as we experience it is better adapted to be a vale of soul-making than a hedonistic holiday camp. I want to tell you of an incident that happened many years ago. Two of our sons, then little boys, were wrestling on the genuine mahogany hardwood floors. Mahogany’s beauty—such as that found in red mahogany—improves as it ages, which is just one of the reasons why it is so sought after. As the wood ages, its reddish-brown color continues to deepend. This hardwood is naturally resistant to decay caused by both insects and water. It is tightly grained and usually naturally free of imperfections such as air pockets. With these traits, it is less likely to crack or check in the future. So anyway, they had reached that line which separates laughter from tears. I quickly got up and worked my foot carefully between them and lifted the older one back to a sitting position on the mahogany. As I did so, I said, “Hey there, you little monkeys. You had better simmer down.” #RandolphHarris 2 of 10

To my surprise, he folded his little arms, his dreamy eyes swimming with deep hurt, and protested, “I not a monkey, Daddy, I a person!” Some human suffering (the unmerited suffering of young children, for instance) cannot always be treated plausibly as developing moral fiber, or as realizing any other moral value. The natural environment can figure as the destroyer of moral personality as well as its preserver and nourisher. The years have not erased the overwhelming feeling of love I have for my little sons. Many times over the years, his words have slipped back into my mind, “I not a monkey, Daddy, I a person!” I was taught a profound lesson by my little boy. Perhaps now they know how much their father loves them. Hopefully, they know as well why prayers begin, “Our Father who art in Heaven.” Persons enter life through mortal birth and, in due time, disappear through the evil of death. Most of them never sense why we are here. The moral life is not as a mere conforming to given static principles and rules, but as directing the moral agent along certain paths of self-development. There is development within the moral ideal: We discover tomorrow that today’s ideal had more in it than we had supposed. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10

The goal of life transforms itself as we approach it. The further we pursue it, the less able we become to conceive the human good is purely this-World, secular terms. There is development also within our awareness of time. Purposeful, valuable activity produces an extension of our conscious present; it delivers us from the dullness of one thing after another. Eternity is the complete and simultaneous fruition of a life without bounds. Occasionally, as at the time of birth, we pause in awe of what nature has to say. We see patterns of creation, so ordered and so beautiful as to sponsor deep feelings of reverence and humility. Then, just when we might discover the meaning of life, we are jerked back by the wild, uncontrolled things that humanity is doing to itself. There are so many unanswered questions. Why the inequalities in life? Some are so rich. Some so wretchedly poor. Some so beautifully formed, and other with painful disabilities. Some are gifted and others have intellectual deficiencies. Why the injustice, the untimely death? Why the neglect, the sorrow, the pain? Why divorce, incest, perversion, abuse, and cruelty? As for our motives for pursing good and avoiding evil, they may be summed by as self-interest. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10

If there be order and meaning to life, they are hardly visible in what mortals do to one another and to themselves. The true peace of God begins at any spot a thousand miles from the nearest land. Among these plain and precious truths is the doctrine of humankind. As the truth concerning these revelations comes incrementally, so does our understanding. There can be no religion without some previous knowledge of God. God sees at one view the whole thread of our existence, not only that part which we have already passed through, but that which runs forward into all the depths of eternity. The reality of premortality responds to puzzlings which suggests we are strangers here. It is a curative for the yearnings expressed in music and poetry and literature. Humans are still hunters, through this quarry be a hope, a mystery, a dream. Everything in our life happens as though we entered upon it with a load of obligations contracted in a previous existence. Obligations whose sanctions is not the present life, which seems to belong to a different World, founded on kindness, scruples, sacrifice, a World entirely different from this one, a World whence we emerge to be born on this Earth, before returning thither. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10

 Christ is presented as a living demonstration that a human being can be wholly possessed by God. Our birth is but a sleep and forgetting, but the trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home. Amid all the trials and tribulations we have to wade through, the Lord, who well knew our infantile and delicate situation, vouchsafed for us a supply of strength, and granted us a line upon line of knowledge—here a little, and there a little, of which the following was a precious morsel. God’s work involves other planets, but only an account of this Earth, and the inhabitants thereof. There are many Worlds that have passed away by the word of God’s power. The plan and purposes of God were to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life human beings. Thus, the vastness of space reflects the vastness of God’s love for all of his children. Humans were also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or light of truth, was not created nor made, neither indeed can be. For the human is spirit. The element, inseparably connected, received a fulness of joy. People are called by the Church to better behavior, behavior befitting Church member who have been called from before the foundation of the World. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10

Earth is a soul searching bondage. The life we live, not the creed we preach, is our path to salvation. The intelligences that were organized before the World were many and noble and great. If there be two spirits, notwithstanding one is more intelligent than the other, they have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end for they are eternal. There was a pouring down of knowledge from Heaven, a cascade of plain and precious truths including the pivotal doctrine of the premortal existence of human beings. Our adversity and time afflictions are but a small moment. One’s life, therefore, is brevity compared to eternity-like being dropped off by a parent for a day at school. But what a day! Babies have no concept of time and never know when their parents are coming back and cannot pick up a phone and call when they are scared or worried. Much like adults waiting on God. We ask only for tolerance, freedom, and a mutual good will. Premortality is not a relaxing doctrine. We must know that we have these duties and aspirations without already presupposing God and immortality. Only in this way could the existence of God and immortality be the conclusion in our argument. For each of us, there are choices to be made, incessant and difficult chores to be done, ironies and adversities to be experienced. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10

Our observations of an instance of virtuous action sits the occasion for a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction, which enables us to distinguish that action as virtuous. We have time to be well spent, talents, and gifts to be well employed. Similarly, our observation of an instance of vicious action is the occasion for a feeling of pain or uneasiness, which enables us to distinguish that action as vicious. The moral sense is also an influencing motive in our pursuit of virtue and our avoidance of vicious behavior, and it plays a part in our bestowal of praise and blame. Just because we were chosen there and then, surely does not mean we can be indifferent here and now. We must be prepared to prove we are chosen and faithful. In fact, adequacy in the first estate may merely have ensured a stern, second estate with more duties and no immunities! Additional tutoring and suffering appears to be the pattern for the Lord’s most apt pupils. Our existence, therefore, is a continuum matched by God’s stretching curriculum. This doctrine brings unarguable identity, but also serves accountability to our lives.  It also reminds us that we do not have all of the data. Spirit exists at various levels. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10

There are many times when we must withhold judgement and trust God, even in the midst of all these things. Only with the help of this doctrine can we begin to understand things as they really were, are, and will become. Agreeing to enter this second estate, therefore, was like agreeing in advance to anesthetic—the anesthetic of forgetfulness. Doctors do not de-anesthetize a patient, in the midst of what was previously authorized, to ask him or her again, if it should be continued. We agree to come here and to undergo certain experiences under certain conditions. We have forgotten! However, our forgetfulness cannot alter the facts. We have an inward sense of the divine presence. We often catch a sparkle  from the awakened memories of the immortal soul, which illuminates  our whole being as with the glory, grace, love, and protection of our former home. There can be sudden premonitions and déjà vu. A vision from the database of memory can beckon us forward to that far pavilion, filled with everlasting splendors and resurrected beings. God determined us to be pleased by benevolent actions. Society exists because the far greater number of people want peace. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10

Prayers for the people in Canada, as their pristine cobalt blue skies are being inundated by ominous bulges and blankets of smoke, as more than 20 wildfires are, making it look like they are living on the planet Mars. Thick blankets of red smoke are blacking out the Sun and engulfing the Sky. Canada has also been dealing with record-breaking temperatures. We have seen violent weather hurl houses and vehicles through the air, cause inland floods, and storm surges along coastal areas. A heatwave, by contrast, can appear benign and is often marked by high pressure and long, hot, sunny days. As the thermometer climbs into the danger zone, and stays there for days—even weeks on end, a heatwave become malevolent. People are complaining of burning eyes, trouble breathing, water tasting like burnt plastic, ashes on their cars, and smoke has forced them to seek treatment for breathing conditions and heat exhaustion, as temperatures soar to over 107 degrees Fahrenheit. The smoke is so thick that fighter jets cannot be seen nor heard. More than 7,000 people are living under evacuation orders. These are some of the worst fires in decades. With the Korean missile crisis, Hurricane Harvey, and the fires in Canada all starting after the eclipse, maybe it is a sign of angry or quarreling gods. Korean folklore says solar eclipses happen because mythical dogs are trying to steal the Sun.  The eclipse has been said to be a bad omen for centuries. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10