The art of religion has been to offer a way of looking at the World in which explanation and assurance are part of a single integrated package. The claim made by believers, of course, is that this is not a matter of art but a matter of truth. No doubt it will take some specialist skill to reveal exactly what the World is presently like and to provide the one and only proper explanation—but, once this has been done, there will be no question about what follows (or might follow) as consequence. Life is hard. It is a challenge. At every age life presents trials to bear and difficulties to overcome. Growing up is hard. There are often the heartaches of feeling wronged or rejected. Pursuing an education can press us to financial, emotional, and intellectual limits. Serving a mission is not easy. It requires total dedication, spiritually and physically. The problems accompanying marriage, rearing a family, earning a living, or coping with infirmary, the golden years, and the thought of passing into Heaven are realities of life which we may be unprepared or unwilling to deal. We will be able to face and solve these challenges more willingly and courageously when we understand that such obstacles are encountered as a natural part of living. We can still confidently say that the very fact that we are living in this present means we have a hope of going forward to that future. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11

The attraction of supernatural belief system has a foundation in the reasonableness with which things fit together. The Lord has made available to us a power which will turn challenges into opportunities, a power which will enable us to understand the declaration that trials of our faith are indeed more precious than gold. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons why religion often has such strength and staying power. Why do arches stand, while single columns fall? Because their parts mutually support each other. Why do skulls survive on the plains of Africa while diamonds disappear? Because there is no way for predators to get a hold of them, their teeth slip off. We have been referred to as a believing people. Certainly, individual faith is the foundation stone of the gospel and the quality which is most important to us as individuals. Faith is the assurance which people have of the existence of things which they have not seen, and the principle of action in all intelligent beings. It is the first great governing principle. We must have perfect faith in God, or we cannot be saved in the Kingdom of God. As a principle of power and of action, and as the key to our salvation, or individual faith, then, becomes of absolute importance to us. “Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity,” reports 1 Timothy 4.12. #RandolphHarris 2 of 11

Youth is a time for growth. Our minds during these formative years are receptive to truth, but they are also receptive to error. The time that does not belong to us excites our anxiety and hopes. The need for a personal code of honor is demanded not only on a daily basis, but frequently many times in a given day. We must have a spirit of determination to do the right thing. Hence, we set up goals and try to change the facts to meet them. We decide what we want (or perhaps what we do not want), work out what would be required to deliver it (or stop its being delivered), and then attempt to find it (or prevent it). When we are hungry, for instance, and want to obtain a gourmet meal, we do whatever we can now do to procure it. When we are in love and want to bring about a consummation, we say and do whatever seems suitable now to bring it about. And so on. This kind of constructive thinking is what our brains are best at. The whole kaleidoscope of human intelligence is concerned with, and has evolved for, and inspired by our devotion to responsibility in the cause of God. Faith is the ability to recognize the Lord as all-powerful and the giver of all blessings. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11

There is a very obvious reason why not, or at least why we should be very careful about manipulating our theory of present facts to deliver the theoretical future that we hope for. If we do this, we are in danger of losing touch with reality and becoming cocooned within a circle of self-delusion. Pray always in the performance of your responsibilities, and you will never be in the position of Alice in Wonderland. Alice was following a path through a forest in Wonderland when it divided into two directions. Standing irresolute, she inquired of the Cheshire Cat, which has suddenly appeared in a nearby tree, which path she should take. “where do you want to go?” asked the cat. “I do not know,” said Alice. “Then,” said the cat,” it really does not matter, does it?” We who believe in God know where it is we wish to go. Our objective is the celestial kingdom of our Heavenly Father. Ours is the sacred duty to follow the well-defined path that leads to it. Still, cocoons are relatively comfortable places (so would-be butterflies have been reported as saying). And, whatever the risks of circularity, there is no denying that this way of construing the present in order to construct the future ay be an effective psychological technique. It can be made to work well at the level of social propaganda to invite a Wonderland and convenient myths (sometimes translated as noble lies). #RandolphHarris 4 of 11

However, after being forced to deal with the realities of life, Wonderland may become less attractive, and you may need some psychotherapy to conspire to bring yourself to a future state of health by uncovering the memories of past events and appropriate explanations to go with them. And soon, you will be ready to serve a mission. It will be wonderful when you and prepared to serve wherever the Spirit of the Lord directs. This alone is a modern miracle, considering the times in which we live. We should pray that people be lifted up together and rejoice in the beautiful things of the gospel. I have in my pocket a silver dollar. One side says, “In God we trust.” We have been taught by the prophets to truth in the Lord, to trust as did young David when facing the giant Goliath. Now, there is another side to that coin. Would that it read, “And God can trust in you.” The Lord wants us to trust in him, but he also wants to be able to trust in us. To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be liked or loved. It is sad that many people have this strategy of shamelessly writing facts and explanations into history so as to delver the prognosis that their clients want. In the USSR the joke used to be that the works of Lenin were still being written many years after his death. In fact, many succeed to such a degree that, just as with stories told in therapy, the mythical history may easily become established as the false memory of real events. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11

However, the art of truth is a self-validating argument. One of the principal purposes of this life is to find out if the Lord can trust us. We are destined to be tried, tested, and proven during our journey on Earth to see if we are trustworthy. The Lord loves all of his children, but he can trust some more than others. It is far better when he can both love and trust each one of us. The premises, once accepted, do lead to the conclusions—as so we should, since that is what we are designed to do. The Lord needs to know if he can trust us to do the right thing in every situation. And, there is art as well as truth—the art of begging the question. It is the art of a sculptor who sees the finished block of marble before one sets to work, the art of a Hollywood screenwriter whose first scene lays the ground for the happy ending…art of putting gas in the car before you drive it. A person of high character testifies and then lives in harmony with one’s testimony. “I cannot and I will not recant, for it is neither safe nor expedient to act against conscience. Here I take my stand I can do no otherwise, so help me God,” reports Martin Luther.  If it is to be of any service, all observation must be for or against some view. #RandolphHarris 6 of 11

Our chief concern in life should not be the acquiring of gold, or of fame, or of material possessions. It should not be the development of physical prowess, nor of intellectual strength, but our aim, the highest in life, should be the development of divine character. Reason must approach nature in order to be taught by it. It must not, however, do so in the character of a pupil who listens to everything that the teacher chooses to say, but of an appointed judge who compels the witnesses to answer questions which he or she has formulated. Compelling a witness to answer pre-formulated questions is not the same thing as compelling a particular answer. When the Bishop asked his page, “Who is that sees and hears all we do, and before whom even I am but as a crushed worm?” he did not expect to be told “Your wife, my Lord.” When Little Red Ridinghood asks the creature in her bed, “Why do you have such big teeth, Grandmother?” she was not looking forward to the answer she actually received. When we do science we are, for sure, going to get an explanation of the present, and from this explanation we are certain to get a future. However, we are living dangerously. The explanation may not be what we were anticipating, and the future that follows from it may no longer be the one for which we hope. #RandolphHarris 7 of 11

The United States Constitution was the first written constitution in the World. It has served Americans well, enhancing freedom and prosperity during the changed conditions of more than two hundred years. Frequently copied, it has become the United States’ most important export. After two centuries, every nation in the World except six have adopted written constitutions, and the U.S. Constitution was a model for all of them. No wonder modern revelation reports that God established the United States Constitution and that it should be maintained for the rights and protections of all flesh, according to just to just and holy principles. President George Washington was perhaps the first to use the word miracle in describing the drafting of the United States of America Constitution. In a letter written in the year 1788 to Lafayette, “It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the delegates from so many different states (which states you know are also different from each other in their manners, circumstances, and prejudices) should unite in forming a system of a national Government, so little liable to well-founded objections,” reports President George Washington. Every teaching of truth is an explanation rather than a suggestion, and in drawing our line we realize that if the teaching of truth is a mental suggestion, the it is a most desirable one. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11

The only suggestions we need to avoid are the destructive ones, those which coerce the mind. Unless America could adopt a central government with sufficient authority to function as a nation, the thirteen states would have remained a group of insignificant, feuding little nations united by nothing more then geography and forever vulnerable to the impositions of aggressive foreign powers. No wonder that the first preamble of the new United States Constitution was “To form a more perfect union.” Without a constitution, economically and politically, the country would be alarmingly weak. The states would suffer a paralyzing depression. Everyone would be in debt. The national treasure would be raided by foreign governments and sit empty. Inflation would become rampant. The various currencies would be nearly worthless. We would have a staggering trade deficit, and it is possible that human capital would be the only form of currency valued by our debtors. Since we are finite I supposed we are generally exchanging one belief for greater ones, I presume we have done well. However, if we were not a United States of America, we would suffer dearly. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11

People rant and rave about how prosperous California is and defies rules imposed by the federal government. The federal government is the very entity that has allowed California to flourish. California, right now, is acting like a pissy brats listening to stylistic tuns, who live off of their parents money, land, room and board and legacy and thinks he or she is all that in a bag of chips. However, without parents, that child, much like California in the absence of a federal government, would be on the mean streets and forced to protect itself against predators it did not know existed and would have no money, no place to stay, and no friends. People only like when we you are rich and willingly to give them a little piece, but as soon as you are down on hard times, the only person that will be there for you is your family and God, unless your tore your britches so bad that you become a child only God can love. The success of America has attributable in large to God and the remarkable wisdom, intelligence, wisdom, and unselfishness of the delegates. Truly, the United States Constitution was established by the hands of wise men and women whom the Lord raised up unto this very purpose. And I include women because everyone knows that the wife is the one who makes important decisions for her husband, even if she is not given credit. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11

This word is for America: Understand that love overcomes both hate and fear. Love does not overcome hate and fear by argument or force, but by some subtle power of transformation, transmutation, sublimation, invisible in its essence but apparent through its act. As light overcomes the darkness, as the presence of heart causes the atmosphere of the room to change until it is warm and comfortable, so the radiant presence of love and peace dissipates fear, hate, and confusion. Know that you are dominated by love and appreciated in love by everyone who contact you. Fear and hate cannot motivate you, cannot operate through you, cannot do anything to you, does not belong to you, and is not apart of you. Nothing enters your consciousness but a sense of peace. You do not fight evil. There is no evil. Allow the people in your lives to cover you with love. Love is the victor in every case. Love breaks down the iron bars of thought, shatters the walls of material belief, severs the chain of bondage which thought has imposed, and sets you free from captivity. There is nothing to coerce because there is no one there to be coerced. You cannot influence anyone because there is no one in your environment to be influenced or to influence. However, you can attract new friendships into your life. You must believe it. #RandolphHarris 11 of 11