The torment and torture was so painful that even the innocent would confess. A human being must care for one’s soul more than anything else. We all make mistakes. It is then in our nature to feel guilt and humiliation and suffering, which we alone cannot cure. That is when the healing power of the Atonement will help.  Many people care more for wealth, reputation, and their bodies while neglecting their souls. We must give our first and greatest care to the improvement of our soul. The care for the soul means to become a thoroughly ethical human being. The soul exists prior to its life in the body, and it is immortal. Therefore, we must make ourselves good and wise as possible. Wealth does not bring about human excellence nor virtue, but virtue makes wealth and everything else good for human beings. Of the many illnesses of the intellect humans must cure themselves of, the most pressing are in ethics. Matthew 16.26 reports: What does it profit a person to gain the whole World, but lose one’s soul? The soul is the distinguishing mark of living things, as something that is the subject of emotional states and that is responsible for planning and practical thinking, and also as the bearer of such virtues as courage and justice. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7

All of us sometime, and some of us much of the time, suffer remorse of conscience from things we did wrong or things left undone. That feeling of guilt is to the spirit what pain is to the physical body. However, guilt can be harder to bear than physical pain. Physical pain is nature’s warning system that signals something needs to be changed, or cleansed, or treated, perhaps even removed by surgery. Guilt, the pain of our conscience, cannot be healed the same way. If one is burden with depressing feelings of guilt or disappointment, of failure or shame, there is a cure. The intent is not to hurt one’s tender feelings, but to help one and help those you love. The prophet Alma reports: I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins. Racked means to be tortured. A harrow is a frame with spikes through it. When pulled across the ground, it rips and tears into the soil. The soul is not only responsible for mental or psychological functions like thought, perception and desire, and is the bearer of moral qualities, but in some way or other accounts for all the vital function that any living organism performs. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7

Faith then must clearly be a trusting and confident attitude toward God. Faith is belief in revealed truth.  Not only is the soul immortal, but it also contemplates truths after its separation from the body at the time of death. The disembodied souls enjoy lives of thought and intelligence. It is natural for the soul either to be altogether indissoluble, or nearly so, but in any case, the souls is less subject to dissolution and destruction than the body. The soul is like intelligible being on the grounds that it is not visible and, in general, not perceptible, and it shares it natural function with the divine, namely to rule and lead the body in one case, mortals in the other. Religion supports people’s need to feel personal control over events in their lives and reduces stress over events that are out of our control or that simply do not meet our expectations. However, it is not only belief in personal control that helps protect people against feelings of randomness, disorder, and chaos, but also the belief that the World is under the control of God. Thus, a belief in a controlling God may be interchangeable with a sense of personal control and helps one deal with events that are genuinely beyond our control. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7

Ultimately the object of faith is God himself, who is not, however, known by the human mind in his divine simplicity, but only discursively and by means of propositions. These revealed truths are authoritatively presented in the creeds. Thus, to have faith means to believe the articles of faith. We believe in God, the Eternal Faith, and in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. People will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression. Through the Atonement of Christ, he paid the price to make up for the fall of man, and all humankind may be saved, by ordinances of the Gospel. We are to have faith in the Lord first, Jesus Christ second, practice repentance. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. We claim the privilege of worshiping the Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all humans the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may. It is important to be honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and to do good to all people. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. Alma 37.7 reports: And the Lord God does work by means to being about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord does confound the wise and bring about the salvation of many souls. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7

Suppose there was no cure, no way to ease spiritual pain or to erase the agony of guilt. Presume each mistake, each sin, was added to the others with the racking, the harrowing up, the torment going on forever. Too many of us needlessly carry burdens of guilt and shame. For some reason, we think the Atonement of Christ applies only at the end of mortal life to redemption from the Fall, from spiritual death. It is much more than that. It is an ever-present power to call upon in everyday life. When we are racked or harrowed up or tormented by guilt or burdened with grief, Jesus Christ can heal us. The gospel plan is the great plan of happiness. Happiness is what I found yesterday when I saw my father and he told me that I was blessed. It was nice to see him, he was wearing a nice suit, and it good spirits. And what a joy, and what marvelous light I did behold. My soul was filed with joy as exceeding as my pain. Under the influence of divine grace, to certain external evidence, it was a miracle. A supernatural virtue, by which was guided and assisted by divine grace, and it what true what God revealed because the authority of God can neither deceive nor be deceived. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7

Faith is an act of the intellect assenting to divine truth at the command of the will moved by the grace of God. That is to say, whereas in knowledge the intellect is moved to assent by the object itself, known either directly or by demonstrative reasoning, in faith the intellect is moved to assent through an act of choice, whereby it turns voluntarily to one side faith the other. When we have faith, it is a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit. There is a permanent relationship between faith and the Word, which is why 85 percent of people in the World believe in God. I can testify that if you have an undying faith in something, something good, if you believe hard enough, long enough, and keep praying to God it will come true. The important thing to remember, we magnify what we focus on, so let us magnify God in our lives. The objective uncertainty of the religious realm, can be entered only by a leap of faith. It is a tremendous risk involved, like being out upon the deep, over seventy thousand fathoms of water. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7

One must decide to believe or to disbelieve; and regarding the decision as a wager, it is prudent to decide to believe. One will then gain eternal life and felicity if God indeed exits, which he does. Whereas if one decided not to believe, one will gain nothing and may forfeit eternal life. Alma: 37.12 and 14 reports: They are preserved for a wise purpose, which purpose is known unto God; for he does counsel in wisdom over all his works, and his path are straight, and his course is one eternal round. And now remember, my son, that God has entrusted you with these things, which are scared, which he has kept sacred, and also which he will keep and preserve for a wise purpose in him, that he may show forth is power unto future generations. Physical pain requires treatment and a change in lifestyle. So, it is with spiritual pain. There must be repentance and discipline, most of which is self-discipline. Religion has survived for over 100,000 years and the findings are getting strong. It is hard to then build the case that religion is a pathology. Go through each day of your life and find something that you are thankful for. Acknowledge and give thanks for all the abundance your life has brought you. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7

The Winchester Mystery House

Stories about The Winchester Mystery House being haunted are different than most because there is evidence that is difficult to ignore. These are not myths and fables, but events and individuals whose existence can be proven. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/