Humans are a creature of fellowship, created with tendencies that find their fulfillment in a variety of natural groupings, each concerned with a certain facet of human’s life in society. From creation, learn to admire the Lord! And if any of the things which you see exceed your comprehension, and you are not able to find reason for its existence, then for this reason, glorify the Creator that the wisdom of the Lord’s works surpasses your own understanding. Throughout life we constantly interact with people—some of our associations are a great help to us spiritually, while others may be a great hindrance to us. All of our relationships affect our well-being in some way—be it physically, emotionally, or spiritually. It is through relationships with others that we grow and evolve into the people we become. Therefore, it is important that we cultivate relationships that improve our lives spiritually, and imbue us with Godly values and meaning. If living a healthy, productive life is really important to us, we will give serious attention to the relationships we foster. There is a strong correlation between healthy relationships and physical health and psychological well-being, as strong social networks are associated with healthier endocrine system and cardiovascular functioning, and better immune system performance. The heart and blood pressure of people with healthy relationships respond better to stress. All of these factors contribute to a longer life. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9

One of the groupings that people are involved in is the church, another the state. Church and state are differentiated primarily by reference to their different tasks. The concern of the church is the spiritual realm, the life of the inner human being; the concern of the state is the temporal realm, the regulation of external conduct. In regulating external conduct, the general ai of the state is to insure justice or equity in society at large. This equity has two facets. Obviously the state much enforce restrictive justice, but the state should also secure distributive justice, doing its best to eliminate gross inequalities in the material status of its members. In scriptural terms, justice is the unchanging law that brings consequences for actions. Because of the law of justice, when we obey God’s commandments, we receive blessings. The law of justice also demands that a penalty be paid for every sin we commit. When the Savior carried out the Atonement, he took our sins upon himself. If we repent and because the Savior has paid the price of our sins, we will not have to suffer eternal punishment. “God himself shall come down among the children of humans, and shall redeem his people,” reports Mosiah 15.1. Guys, the perspective in prison is really bad. It really looks better outside. Try to remember that. You people are the light in a dark place. If it were not for love like yours, we would not be able to get from where we are to where we need to be. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9

It is the duty of the church to seek the welfare of that state, but equally it is the duty of the state to seek the welfare of the church. Thus, part of the state’s duty is to promote piety; and blasphemy is a civil crime. Nonetheless, that church and state ought to be structurally independent of each other. Church officials are not, by virtue of their office, to have any official voice in the state; and state officials are not, by virtue of their office, to have any official voice in the church. Therefore, be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a person soweth, that shall he also reap,” reports Galatians 6.7. If we sow peaches, we do not really plan to get strawberries. If we sow hate, we do not really expect to receive an abundance of love. We get back in kind that which we sow because human thoughts, emotions, and sensory perceptions of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell are all synchronized. It is all just objects of consciousness, and we are the consciousness. It is one thing to reap in kind, but we reap, somehow, always in greater quantity. We sow a little thistle, and we get a lot of thistle—years and years of it, big bushes and branches of it. We never get rid of it unless we cut it out. If we sow a little bit of hate, before we know it we have reaped a lot of hate—smoldering and festering and belligerent and finally warring, malicious hate because the light of consciousness has back onto itself. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9

When we start to explore consciousness instead of form, we realize that consciousness only appears to be small and limited because we are focusing on small and limited objects. However frightening it may be that most of us have sinned, however terrifying it maybe to contemplate a just God, it is infinitely more fearsome to contemplate an unjust God. We have to know that God is just in order to go forward. One of God’s attributes is justice. If we did not think that justice would count for us, if somehow we thought God would change his mind and decide there was another set of rules, then we would not have the faith—because of fear—to live righteously or to love better or to repent more readily. Thus the duty of the magistrate is to apply the law of God, implanted on the hearts of all and clarified in the Scriptures, to the affairs of civil society. To be a good Christian is to share in God’s rationality, as distinct from blindly obeying an omnipotent God. God, being rational, will ordain what is good, but what he ordains is good in its own nature, not because he ordains it. To go against Reason, is to go against God; it is the elf same thing, to do that which the Reason of the case doth require; and that which God himself doth appoint: Reason is Divine Governor of Human’s Life; it is the very Voice of God. However, there is no genuine and proper effect of religion where the mind of humans is not composed, sedate, and calm. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9

Because we know God is just and would cease to be God if he were not so, we have the faith to go forward, knowing that we will not be the victims of whimsy or caprice or bad day or a bad joke. That assurance is very encouraging. How grateful we are because God is God, God has to be a merciful God also. All who choose wrong roads do not perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A mathematical sum, incorrectly worked, can be put right: but only by going back until we find the error and then working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot be developed into good. Time does not heal evil. The spell must be unwound because careful reasoning, exact argumentation, and liberality of spirit were joined with uncritical speculation, unscholarly interpretations, and fanciful legends to a degree which bewilders and confuses modern people.  What has not reason in it, or for it is human’s superstition: it is not religion of God’s making. Philosophy is an inquiry after truth of both human and divine things, based on the testimony of God who reveals himself either through the World of created things or by direct teachings. Consequently, nature and the Scriptures are the two codes on which philosophy must be built. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9

Innate knowledge (notitia illata) is cognition through self-presence and belongs to the very essence of the soul; acquired knowledge (notitia illata) is the soul’s cognition of external things. Innate knowledge is superior to, and more certain than, acquired knowledge; for the soul cannot be mistake about what belongs to its nature. Knowledge of the external World can be obtained either by intuition or by abstraction. By intuition one grasps a thing immediately in its concrete reality, so that nothing of the object escapes the penetrating and all-embracing act of the intellect. One will begin to have deep experiences within one’s own center of consciousness. These will be profound, intuitive experiences of the true nature of the individual. It is truly expansive. God is pure and infinite being, creatures are composites of finite being and infinite nonbeing. Being and nonebeing concur in making up finite things. Humans are a composite of three substances, body, spirit, and mind or mens. The spirit or sensitive soul is the corporeal principle that animates the body and serves as a link between body and mind. The mind or intellective soul is created and infused by God into the body already organized by the spirit; it is a spiritual substance and the form of the whole human. “Say nothing but repentance unto this generation; keep my commandments,” reports Doctrines and Covenants 6.9. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9

Many mortals have some areas in which we need to unchain ourselves, we have some bonds and fetters we could be free of, and we may have some sins we could repent of. In this space God placed mater, a body that is formless and inactive but capable of being molded into many forms, just as wax is acted upon by a seal. Matter is not pure potency, but has a reality of its own distinct from the form. We can isolate the bondage of ignorance. What seems to some the supreme initial bond in our lives is simply not to know enough. We learn little clichés early in our lives. Three of them are, “This is the land of opportunity” and “Ignorance is bliss” and “What I don’t know won’t hurt me.” However, with all the intensity in the World, it is hard to learn from experience that nothing will hurt us more than what we do not know. We will be indicted for the resulting bondage that we incur and we will serve some sentence in this life or the next for that which we fail to learn. Within the tenants of our faith we learn that we cannot be saved in ignorance. What we learn in this life rises with us in the resurrection, and we have so much advantage in the World to come if we are knowledgeable. This planet is not our home, it is a place that facilitates education, while we are all on mortal probation. We are saved in proportion to that which we have learned, and light and truth forsake the evil one, which is the glory of God’s intelligence. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9

God is his own supreme good and does not look to another being outside himself for his preservation. God is therefore the supreme good toward which humans must direct all their acts and operations. For the Work of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit. Every movement of your body, every emotion you have, and every thought that passes through our minds is an expenditure of energy. Just as everything that happens outside in the physical World requires energy, everything that happens inside requires an expenditure of energy. Creating thoughts, holding onto thoughts, recalling thoughts, generating emotions, controlling emotions, and disciplining powerful inner drives, all requires a tremendous expenditure of energy. Where does all this energy come from? Why is the energy there sometimes, and at other times we feel completely drained? Have you ever noticed that when you are mentally and emotionally drained, food does not help that much? Conversely, if you look at the times in your life when you were in live, or excited and inspired by something, you were so filled with energy that you did not even want to eat. There is a source of energy we can draw from inside. We have the freedom to err, but ultimately the freedom to succeed. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9

As many safeguards as possible and all the powers of the Universe were brought to bear to guarantee our freedom to exercise our agency and return to our celestial home. These safeguards include the fullness of the gospel truths and the Atonement of the Savior. We really do experience bondage and prison when we are not free. Most people have been there at some time in their lives. We feel that there is no way out and we will stay there forever. However, we thank God that we live in such a time as we do, when we do not need to live in fear of imprisonment and when we are not, at least politically and physically, required to go into bondage or into slavery. However, there are other kinds of prisons in our lives that we need to destroy. All that we came here to do, we need to do. We must believe with all our hearts that if we can repent of our sins, if we can be charitable with the sins of others, if we can take courage toward our circumstances and want to do something about them, the living Father of us all will reach down and, in the scriptural term bear us up as on eagle’s wings. We have this wellspring of beautiful energy inside of us. When we are open we feel it. That spiritual energy is what we are experiencing when love rushes up into your heart. That is what we are experiencing when we are enthused by something and all this high energy comes up inside of us. Take great delight in the scriptures. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9The skies cannot keep their secret! They tell it to the hills–the hills just tell the orchards–and they the daffodils! A bird, by chance, that goes that way soft overhead the whole. If I should bribe the little bird, who knows but she would tell? I think I will not, however, it is finer not to know; if Summer were an axiom what sorcery had snow? So keep your secret, Heavenly Father! I would not, if I could, know what the sapphire fellows do, in your new-fashioned World! The love for our motherland grows out of our hearts. It is more beautiful than any other kind. May we forever be attached to our motherland! I like to gaze at you in silence, and to be gazed at the same; I wish to be deeply loved by you and love as deeply. Missing is like an endless river, a tender and soft cloud, a fragrant flower and a music of bamboo flute.