The price of greatness is responsibility. Leadership is the quality that transforms good intentions into good action; it turns a group of individuals into a team. The first row houses in San Francisco, California USA were built in 1854 by London-born George Gordon. His elite, block-square South Park development of stucco-covered brick party-wall houses followed West End London precedents and featured a private oval park around which the houses were arranged. Local builders took this compact row-house form, dropped the expensive park, and built in word rather than costly brick. Brick is not an option used often in California due to the Earthquakes, it is more common in Texas. San Francisco’s two-story  row houses are actually freestanding; they do not share party walls with their neighbours. The challenge in designing these houses was getting light and air into the rooms in the middle of the building. This was solved by the introduction of a “slot” along one side of the narrow houses that pulled back to the middle of the building. The dinning room, a room that does not need direct Sunlight, was placed in the center of the first floor, the darkest part of the house. A service alley passed under the dining room’s side by window, giving access to the back of the lot. This “slot” seems to have been a San Francisco invention. No one knows who came up with the idea, but many people believe it was Sarah Winchester. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

A standard floor plan quickly evolved that places a long, narrow hall on the side opposite the “slot” with a staircase giving access to the second floor. Rooms branched off the long hallway on both floors. A formal front parlor with a bay window, an informal second parlor, and a dining room, pantry, and kitchen occupied the first floor from front to back. Paris of pocket doors connected the first-floor rooms. On the second floor were the master bedroom in front with a bay window, a sitting room, and two to three smaller bedrooms in the back. The separate water closet (toilet) and bathroom were often placed halfway back on the second floor. Back stairs connected the upstairs rear with the first floor. Most San Francisco row houses did not have full basements; they were simply raised up off the damp ground on brick or stone footings. Roofs were usually steeply pitched and angular, but some were flat. Most Victorians San Franciscans did not keep horses or carriages; they used the city’s dense network of cable car lines and later, electric streetcars. Row houses were an efficient, and profitable, way to build city houses. Often these houses were built in groups to further reduce construction costs. While exterior decoration and bay window shapes changed with the whims of fashion, the basic form of the row house lasted from the 1860s into the early twentieth century. Showier, more ornate houses were usually built only large lots, in prestigious neighbourhoods. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

Many people believed that the efflorescent, floriated bulbousness and flamboyant eccentricness that decorated the city carried a sort of prize. And yet, such was the glittering and metallic brightness of the air, when it was not surcharged with fog, that proved the run of architectural fancy was just what the city needed to redeem its otherwise cold, intimidating character. These hoses were as eclectic as the people living in them, who came from every corner of the World. Carpenter Gothics, French Renaissance palaces, Turkish towers, stately Italianates, accented Sticks, embellished Eastlakes, and regal Queen Annes advanced triumphantly up and down every hill. A growing middle class, a fast-developing industrial technology, and a flourishing economy were responsible for the rapid growth of the city. Money heightened the desire for opulence. Scrolls, fretwork, fans, cut and beveled glass, pediments, cornices, balusters, and designs of lionheads, rosettes, and vines were piled on top of each other. The new iron stream press and gang and scroll jigsaws made it possible to bend, curve, shape, and stamp wood into any desired form, and economically. Mass housing was both possible and profitable. Mendocino’s redwood provided the perfect medium. Handy, durable, affordable, and extremely strong, it has a clear opening grain that did not splinter when nailed and was soft and easy to cut in the sensuous shapes in demand. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

The new “Victorian Styles” freed living plans from the rigid symmetry of Colonial New England and Southern plantation architecture. This new freedom also allowed for towers, balconies, and rooms of all shapes arranged purely according to the owner’s whims. The jaunty lines of comfortable one- and two-story houses with festooned fronts and jutting bay windows provided efficient, well-lighted, sanitary shelter to the growing majority of working, middle-class families who had usually been ignored by architects. The styles were equally suited to rich and less affluent and also had the necessary advantage of the perfect amount of skill from their architect or builder. For all their rules and flourishes, Victorian row houses maintained an appearance of airy lightness, because of their distinguishing features were their architectural styles, doors, and windows. The large windows gradually became the principal structural element until entire street fronts seemed to look like faceted walls of glass and colour. There are so few ways you can do something that is uniquely yours. It was realized that decorative houses could serve to get others inspired in the movement of loving, living in, and saving old houses. Neighbourhood activist, working to help the city by building beautiful homes are also planting trees to show permanence, and making a physical contribution to maintaining and enlivening California’s architectural tradition. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

These new homes are supposed to inspire and people and show them what a home can be. If people can pick up on the fact that one person can fix up a house, save it from the wrecker’s ball, it will beautify the community and they will save it and others. Many historical homes are being torn down by the carload. People are just really asleep. They cannot see the buildings. They will miss all the ornamentation—especially on the larger homes. However, many houses are now being saved from extinction by on-site restoration or by moving them to other locations. A painter as well as a colour designer is usually called in to interview a prospective client to decide whether the house will be done in a light, medium, or dark colours. Then one puts a primer on and puts a color sample of all the colours one plans to use in a small area so the owner can see the juxtaposition of the colours. Because many people cannot express in words what they really want, it is important to take the time to talk to them, and help them express their ideas. Also, what needs to be taken into account is the architecture and the neighbourhood, so the building will not stick out. If it is grand architecture, often times not too much liberty is taken. Many people do not want the original colours of their houses and also want to “outdo” their neighbours. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

Colour make a psychological statement about a person. Colour can reflect character, philosophy, sentiments, even political leanings. Different, brighter hues can be used with good taste. Sometimes architects have to sneak in a third or fourth colour to convince people that the neighbours will not hate them or think they are strange. However, most of the resistance one usually encounters is from the architects because they traditionally like to trim to accent itself by means of shadows. However, some architects demand some colour or they will not take on a project. They come up with a dazzling but tasteful combination of navy blue, pale yellow, gold, silver, maroon, saddle brown, gold gilt, green, and light blue. It is an important, imposing house on a heavily used street that sometimes architects put everything they have into it, spending twice as long as they have been paid for, to make every detail perfect. People have seen what can be done with old houses, can see the craftsmanship and wood ornamentation that could never be duplicated today. Now, even people who have newer stucco buildings are turning to paint to give their homes new life. Colours can control people’s emotions, can make houses cheerful, and bring joy to the streets. Clear, vivid colours brings a little bit of the countryside into the city so it is not so gray and depressing. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

Sometimes people save money for years and when they see how well their neighbour’s house turned out, they will ask the painter to pain theirs as well. It only takes one good flower to make everyone want to fancy up. Many times new homes inspire people. Gardening tools appear, the street gets swept, windows are cleaned. The people in the neighbourhood do not change, but now they have something to be proud of, to respect, and none of the newly painted Victorians ever get abused after they are finished. The word “parlor” belongs to the Victorian period. Siting room, drawing room, living rooms are all synonymous, but it is only the word “parlor” that is synonymous with the Victorians. That is quite fitting as, for the Victorians, the parlor, or parlor life, represented the most important aspects of Victorian life. Victorians would not have been Victorians without their parlors. Here families assembled, met their guests and entertained themselves and others through conversation, playing games, putting on plays, viewing stereographs, singing and enjoying music, writing letters, book clubs, and engaging in the paramount parlor activity, reading. Parlors ranged from the simple front room with its center table before the fireplace, topped by a family Bible, to the multi-purposed rooms in the house of the well-to-do, where different functions of the parlor had separate spaces devoted to them. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

In the mid-nineteenth century, as American society changed from agrarian to industrial, individualism began to assert itself, homes life became paramount. The love of the family, the love between husbands and wives, and above all, a mother’s love for her children, were felt to be an extension of God’s love, and therefore home was a “little Heaven on Earth.” So it was to the parlor, the center of that home, that Victorians directed their best efforts at decorating and at self-expression. The center table, whether left bare or covered by a fringed cloth, depending on the fashion at the time, was the most important piece of furniture. It was around this table that the family gathered to read, to sew, to play games—to relax, in other words. Lighting was a kerosene or oil lamps on the table, or hung above it. Some speculated that the table was originally placed in the center of the room to be under the center-hung light so prevent people from hitting their heads. Beyond the center table and the chairs gathered around it, early Victorians did not think about how furniture might be pleasingly arranged or how to accessorize their room that represented them to others, until they caught a glimpse of “model parlors,” parlors in hotels, steamboats, and railroad cars. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

By the 1880s, the parlor had filled up with “art units.” The furniture was like to be a matched set and was upholstered to match. The choice and arrangements of objects and furniture in the parlor were primary ways the “lady of the house” could express her artistic sensibilities. By ornamenting and decorating every surface, by arranging easels, lightweight “fairy tables,” urns, pedestals, palms, and fans, the mistress introduced beauty to her family, heightened their aesthetic sensibilities, and fostered a moral and refined atmosphere. The change in the parlor reflected the change in women’s roles. The Greek Revival parlor was a formal room for entertaining. It was spare and uncluttered and not particularly personal. During this period women were restricted to traditional roles but, at least, were part of a cohesive life where their contribution was essential. The Rococo Revival parlor represents a half-way point in the industrialization of urbanization of America. The furniture was not entirely machine-made. The room had become more “feminized” as the roles of men and women have diverged; the workplace had become the man’s sphere and the home the woman’s (in modern homes made by Cresleigh, they now have room specifically designed for workspaces, where tools and hardware can be stored, and they are flex spaces, which can be art rooms, offices, and multi-generational options). #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

The furniture in the Victorian home was arranged in conversational groups as middle-class women were restricted more and more to visiting and handicrafts. By the 1880s, the woman had become a demigoddess of art and morality, and the parlor was her temple. An obsessive and self-conscious decorating and collecting frenzy resulted when women were cut off from participation in the World and made the guardian of the family’s aesthetic and moral well-being. In houses like the Winchester mansion, in the parlor is an ivory-colored parlor set in Marie Antoinette style and it looks as though the ladies went into the next room for tea and did not return for a hundred years. Parlor games—Parcheesi, chess, charades, excreta—filled the long hours no taken up by visiting and needlework. Part of personalizing the parlor was filling it with photographs. Through the nineteenth century, tintypes, daguerreotypes, and Eastman’s box cameras allowed families to memorialize themselves often. Our problem in the immediate future will not be the lack of opportunities for the really motivated, but the lack of motivated people ready and able to take advantage of the opportunities. A sense of humour is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

Words alone, if the be of the time to come, and contain a bare promise, are an insufficient sign of a free-gift and therefore not obligatory. For if they be of the time to come, as, “Tomorrow I will give,” they are a sign I have not given yet, and consequently that my right is not transferred, but remains till I transfer it by some other act. However, if the words be of the time Present, or Past, as, “I have given, or do give to be delivered tomorrow,” then is my tomorrow right given away today; and that by the virtue of the words, though there were no other arguments of my will. And there is a great difference in the signification of these words, Volos Hoc Tuum Esse Cras, and Cros Dado; that is between “I will that this be thine tomorrow,” and, “I will give it tomorrow:” For the word I Will, in the former manner of speech, signifies an act of the will present; but in the later, it signifies a promise of an act of the will to come; and therefore the former words, being of the present, transfer a future: as if a person propound a prize to one that comes first to the end of a race, the gift is free; and though the words be of the future, yet the right pass: for if one would not have one’s words so be understood, one should not have let them run. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

Signs of contract are words both of the past, present, and future in contracts, the right passes, not only where the words are of the time present, or past; but also where they are of the future; because all contract is mutual translation, or change of right; and therefore one that promises only, because one has already received the benefit for which one promised, is to be understood as if one intended the right should pass: for unless one has been content to have one’s words so understood, the other would not have performed one’s part first. And for that cause, in buying, and selling, and other acts of contract, a promise is equivalent to a covenant; and therefore obligatory. Integrity is honesty carried through the fibers of the being and the whole mind, into thought as well as action so that the person is complete in honesty. That kind of integrity I put above all else as an essential of leadership. It is not necessary for disciples to indulge in fulsome panegyrics about their master. This helps no one, for it raises extravagant hopes in their hearers; it lowers their own capacity to receive truth; and it embarrasses the master oneself. They need to learn that one’s greatness can be far more sincerely appreciated by restrained description, that the grandeur of one’s inner being is better pictured, and more readily believed, by dignified statement of the truth as it is. If other can be impressed only by fanciful embellishment or foolish exaggeration, they are not ready for one and should seek elsewhere among the cults which cater to the naïve. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

In their overpraise of the guru, the disciples prevent the careful inquirer from learning the truth. In their refusal to see the plain facts of the guru’s human weakness or imperfection because they are committed by their theory to see one only as God, they alienate such an inquirer and strengthen one’s involuntary feeling that to become anyone’s disciple is to abandon that very search for truth which is supposed to be the motive for doing so. All this exaggerated praise tends to put off cooler and clearer minds, so that what is deservedly laudable tends to get minimized. Why do they arbitrarily try to make the illuminate into a perfect and superhuman creature and not let one remain the human being that one really is? Why do they remain quite unseeing to one’s shortcomings and find glib excuses for one’s failings? Is there not enough geniuses or greatness still left in one to be quite worthy of our deepest admiration? Why not give one one’s due without this unnecessary act of deification, which merely drags the sublime down to the absurd? It is because they inhabit a plane where emotion runs high and fanaticism runs deep, where discrimination is absent and imagination all too present. It is because they have not attained the attitudes of, nor felt the need for, philosophy. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

One of the real sources of difficulty here is confusion of our desire for what is good and right to prevail with our desire to have our own way. One often sees the effects of this confusion in controversies in families, in churches, or between religious and political groups. In such cases, very important values are often at stake, and people are passionately committed to one side or another. That is as it should be. However, more often than not, the contempt and anger for others that emerges in the conflict is nothing but a manifestation of the will to have my way. Families, churches, communities, and sovereign nations become embroiled in deadly conflicts that would immediately disappear or be resolvable but for the relentless will to have my/our way. Very likely the First World War—with horrific Worldwide consequences that reverberate to this day—was entirely due to this human tendency. A significant part of the business of police, courts, and hospitals is the result of the drive of mere self-will and has no genuine bearing on the good of individuals and groups, much less on the glory of God. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the Earth and dies,” Jesus said, “it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. One who loves one’s life [soul] loses it; and one who hates one’s life in this World shall keep it to life eternal,” reports John 12.24-25. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

This is a law of human life, partly visible at the level of purely human understanding and fully demonstrated in the life of Jesus and that of one’s people throughout the ages, for all to see. It is the controlling principle of the renovated heart and the restored soul. Its radical goodness progressively subverts and replaces the radical evil in the fallen human heart, mind, body, soul, and social and other environment. To accept, with confidence in God, that I do not immediately have to have my way releases me from the great pressure that anger, unforgiveness, and the “need” to retaliate imposes upon my life. This by itself is a huge transformation of the landscape of our life. It removes the root and source of by far the greater part of human evil we have to deal with in our World. Thus Paul directed the Christians in Thessalonica to “see that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people,” reports 1 Thessalonians 5.15. Jesus commanded not to “resist one who is evil; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to one the other also,” reports Matthew 5.39. And Peter calls us to follow Jesus “not returning evil for evil, or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing,” 1 Peter 3.9. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

These remarkable teachings and examples, which do so much to immediately transform life, all presuppose that one has laid down the burden of having one’s own way. You cannot begin to even understand them, much less follow them, except from a posture of self-denial firmly supported upon confidence, and this based, in turn, in a strong experience of God’s all-sufficient presence in your life. However, to step with Jesus into the path of self-denial immediately breaks the iron-clad grip of sin over human personality and opens the way to a fuller and ever fuller restoration of radical goodness to the soul. It accesses incredible, supernatural strength for life. Because we must be active agents in this progression from strength to strength, it is crucial that we now seek to understand the three main components of any process of spiritual transformation. Can we avoid egotism (pride of will) in standing for what is right and good? How would we do that—beyond anger? This can only happen through a profound exposure to and continual immersion in God’s Word, accompanied by the illumination of the Holy Spirit—an exposure that is within the reach of all literae and semiliterate Christians. Lt. General William K. Harrison was the most soldier in the 30^th Infantry Division, rated by General Eisenhower as the number one infantry division in World War II. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

General Harrison was the first American to enter Belgium, which he did at the head of the Allied forces. He received every decoration for valor except the Congressional Medal of Honour—being honoured with the Distinguished Silver Cross, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart (he was one f the few generals to be wounded in action). When the Korean War began, he served as Chief of Staff in the United Nations Command—and because of his character and self-control was ultimately President Eisenhower’s choice to head the long and tedious negotiations to end the war. General Harrison was a soldier’s soldier who led a busy, ultra-kinetic life, but he was also an amazing man of the Word. When he was twenty-year-old West Point Cadet, he began reading the Old Testament through once a year and the New Testament four times. General Harrison did this until the end of his life. Even in the thick of war he maintained his commitment by catching up during the two- and three-day respites for replacement and refitting which followed battles, so that when the war ended he was right on schedule. When, at the age of ninety, his failing eyesight no longer permitted his discipline, he had to read the Old Testament seventy times and the New Testament 280 times! No wonder his Godliness and wisdom were proverbial, and that the Lord used him for eighteen fruitful years to lead Officers Christian Fellowship (OCF). #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

General Harrison’s story tells us two things. First, it is possible, even for the busiest of us, to systematically feed on God’s Word. No one could be busier or lead a more demanding life than General Harrison. Second, his life remains a demonstration of a mind programmed with God’s Word. His closet associates say that every area of his life (domestic, spiritual, and professional) an each of the great problems he faces was informed by the Scriptures. People marveled at his knowledge of the Bible and the ability to bring its light to every area of life. He lived out the experience of the Psalmist: “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts,” reports Psalms 119.97-100. You must remember this: You can never have a Christian mind without reading the Scriptures regularly because you cannot be profoundly influenced by that which you do not know. If you are filled with God’s Word, your life can then be informed and directed by God—your domestic relationships, your child-rearing, your career, your ethical decisions, your interior moral life. The way to a Christian mind is through God’s Word! #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

Mercifully regard, O Lord, the prayers of Thy family, and while they submit themselves to Thee with their whole heart, do Thou prosper, support, encompass them; that relying on Thee as their Guide, they may be entangled in no evils, and replenished with all good; through Jesus Christ our Lord. “And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go on to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Amen,” reports Moroni 10.34. O Lord, my every sense, member, faculty, affection is a snare to me, I can scare open my eyes but I envy those above me, or despise those below. I convert honour and riches of the mighty, and am proud and unmerciful to the rags of others; if I behold beauty it is a bait to lust, or see deformity, it stirs up loathing and disdain; how soon do slanders, vain jests, and wanton speeches creep into my heart! Am I comely? what fuel for pride! Am I deformed? what an occasion for repining! AM I GIFTED? I lust after applause! Am I unlearned? how I despise what I have not! Am I in authority? how prone to abuse my trust, make will my law, exclude others’ enjoyments, serve my own interests and policy! #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

Am I inferior? how much I grudge others’ pre-eminence! Am I rich? how exalted I become! Thou knowest that all these are snares by my corruptions, and that my greatest snare is myself. I bewail that my apprehensions are dull, my thoughts mean, my affections stupid, my expressions low, my life unbeseeming; yet what canst thou expect of dust but levity, of corruption but defilement? Keep me ever mindful of my natural state, but let me not forget my Heavenly title, or the grace that can deal with every sin. We beseech Thee, O Lord, in Thy loving-kindness, set in order our life and conversation, that no adversities may prevail against us, and nothing salutary be wanting to us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. O God, the Author and Giver of true blessedness, guide us into the path of the undefiled; that seeking the testimonies of Thy law with pious hearts, we may continually love what Thou commandest, and desire that whereunto they lead; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Make us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, obedient to Thy commandments, for then shall all things go prosperously with us, if we follow the Author of our whole life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try one more time. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

A professional is one who does one’s best when one feels that least like working. If you want to be successful, it is just this simple: Know what you are doing. Love what you are doing. And believe in what you are doing.

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