If it were possible, every human would be like God; some few find it difficult to admit the impossibility. The good news is we are not alone. We all face hard times. I have encountered more than one trying circumstance in my own life. These are the days when prophecies are being fulfilled. We live in the dispensation of the fulness of times, which is the time to prepare for the Saviour’s return. It is also the time to work out our own salvation. We must know what we know. We must stand spiritually and temporarily independent of all Worldly creatures. This begins by understanding that God the Father is the Father of our spirits and that He loves us, that Jesus Christ is our Redeemer and Saviour, and that the Holy Ghost can communicate with our minds and our hearts. This is how we receive inspiration. We need to learn how to recognize and apply these promptings. We need to be acquainted with the promptings of the Holy Ghost, and we need to practice and apply the gospel teachings until they become natural and automatic. These promptings become the foundation of our testimonies. Then our testimonies will keep us happy and safe in troubled times. Effective Christian ministry, whether it is to one person or thousands, inevitably involves sacrifice. The Greek word we use to designate a minister is also the word used for servant. #RandolphHarris 1 of 26

Thus a minister of the gospel is a servant, not only of God, but of those to whom one ministers. That is why Paul could very naturally say, “For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake,” reports 2 Corinthians 4.5. To minister effectively, we need not only the strength and ability to minister but also the heart and disposition of a servant. We must have the sacrificial attitude Paul had when he said, “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us,” reports 1 Thessalonians 2.8. A testimony of the gospel is a personal witness borne to our souls by the Holy Ghost that certain facts of eternal significance are true and that we know them to be true. Testimony is to know and to feel, conversion is to be become. We can learn how answers come through inspiration. They come as thoughts and feelings to our minds and hearts. Occasionally answers may come as a burning in the chest. Watch for answers by paying attention to the thoughts and feelings that come into our minds. Over time we will learn to recognize these as promptings. A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26

This inspiration of ideas may allow you to achieve your goals sooner than you realize, maybe even in that day. Those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus. Asking for a testimony of truth opens the window of inspiration. Prayer is the most common and powerful way to invite inspiration. Merely asking a question, even in our minds, will start to open the window. The scriptures teach, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” God’s grace will work in unusual ways in your life. Grace is the workings of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. The sense is not that God’s unmerited favour considered as the source of blessing, but rather the working of His Spirit as a concrete expression of that favour. The freest and most spontaneous acts of humans, their inward states and the outward manifestations of those states, when good, are due to the secret influence of the Spirit of God, which eludes our consciousness. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26

So it is God’s grace operating in them through the Holy Spirit, not the superiority of their own character, that caused such an abundant outpouring of generosity. God does not leave people to the resources of their own human nature—which is not naturally generous—but intervenes in their hearts by the power of His Spirit to create this amazing generosity. There is no question of human resources, but only of divine grace; and that same grace is available to everyone. That same grace is available to you and me to enable us to be generous in giving ourselves, which is after all the concrete expression of a sacrificial spirit. We need to be encouraged to realize that God’s grace is both sufficient and effect. We can, by His grace, fulfill whatever ministry He has given us to do in the body of Christ. We are unworthy to minister, but God considers us worthy through Christ. We are inadequate to minister, but God makes us adequate through the powerful workings of His Holy Spirit. We are not naturally given to self-sacrifice, but God gives us that spirit by His grace. All is of grace. No human worthiness or adequacy is required or accepted. Such a strong, but I believe biblical, emphasis on God’s grace apart from human worthy or adequacy does lead to the question of the relationship of grace and rewards. Does not God promise rewards to His faithful servants? #RandolphHarris 4 of 26

Did not Paul himself teacher that we must appear before the judgement seat of Christ to receive what is due us? If all our efforts are the results of God’s grace, what room is left for “faithful service”? God does not promise rewards, and what must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you have entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’ His master replied, ‘Well done, good faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’” (Matthew 25.21). “I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this World who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this World,” reports 1 Corinthians 5.10. However, these rewards are rewards of grace, not of merit. We never by our hard work or sacrificial service obligate God to reward us, for as Paul said in Romans 11.35, “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay one?” If all our service to God is made possible by His undeserved favour and made effective by the power of His Spirit, then we have really brought nothing to Him that we did not first receive from Him. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26

If there was anything of human’s bringing, which was not of God’s bestowing, though it were never so small, it would overturn the nature of grace, and make that of works which is of grace. However, it is all of God’s bestowing. Every thought, word, or deed emanating from us that is in any way pleasing to God and glorifying to Him has its ultimate origin in God, because apart from Him, there is nothing good in us. “But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out,” reports Romans 7.8 and 18. Even the good works we bring to God are in themselves defective, both in motive and performance. It is virtually impossible to purge our motives completely of pride and self-gratification. And we can never perfectly perform those good works. The best we can do falls short of what God requires, but the truth is, we never actually do the best we can, let alone what would meet God’s perfect standard. That is why Peter spoke of our “offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ,” reports 1 Peter 2.5. Our best works are acceptable to God only because they are made acceptable by the merit of Jesus Christ. #RandolphHarris 6 of 26

However, God does accept our merits through Christ; God accepts them on the basis of His grace. We do not do all that is commanded but come short of our duty, and that which we do is imperfect and defective in respect of manner and measures; and therefore in justice deserves punishment, rather than reward: and consequently the reward, when it is given, is to be ascribed to God’s undeserved mercy and not to our merit. Remember the parable of the workers in the vineyard. You will remember that, in the verses immediately preceding the parable, Jesus promised a reward “a hundred times as much,” ore ten thousand percent. God’s rewards to us will not only be of grace, but will indeed be gracious—that is, generous beyond all measure. So the grace of God in our service to Him does not negate rewards but rather makes them possible. However, the blessing Christ promised, the blessing of great reward, is a reward of grace. The blessing is promised even though it is not earned. Our rewards in Heaven are a result of God’s crowing His own gifts. This is the amazing story of God’s grace. God saves us by His grace and transforms us more and more into the likeness of His Son by His grace. In all our trials and afflictions, He sustains and strengthens us by His grace. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26

 By the power of the Holy Ghost we may know the truth of all things which are right and expedient for us. We will receive strength, comfort and help to make good decisions and act with confidence in troubled times. God calls us by grace to perform our own unique functions within the Body of Christ. Then, again by grace, He gives to each of us the spiritual gifts necessary to fulfill our calling. As we serve God, He makes that service acceptable to Himself by grace, and then rewards us a hundredfold by grace. In Romans 1.17, Paul spoke of the gospel as revealing “a righteousness that is by faith from first to last”—that is, from beginning to end. That is also an appropriate term for grace, for faith is no more than the response to and appropriation of the grace of God. So the entire Christian life is a life lived under grace from first to last, from beginning to end, all “to praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves,” reports Ephesians 1.6. The Scriptural/Christian doctrine of work has an exalted origin because it is closely related to the doctrines of the creative energy of God and the image of God in humans. We meet God the Creator as a worker in Genesis 1.1-2.2. In fact, that entire section is a log of God’s work, ending with the statement that upon completion “He rested from all the work of creating that he had done,” reports Genesis 2.2. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26

As Milton expressed it: The planets in their stations listening stood, while the bring pomp ascended jubilant. “Open, ye everlasting gates,” they sung; “Open, ye Heavens, you living doors; let the great Creator, from his work return’d magnificent, his six days’ work, a World. (Paradise Lost, VII.563). God’s being a worker endows all legitimate work with an intrinsic dignity. The additional teaching of Genesis 1 is that “God created humans in his own image” (1.27). We are compelled to understand from this that the image of God in humans means humans are to be workers. The way we work will reveal how much we have allowed the image of God to develop in us. There is immense dignity in work and in being workers. Humans, you mist set this on your hearts: Your work matters to God! A further observation of great importance is that work was given to humans before the Fall, before sin, before imperfection: “Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden” (Genesis 2.8); “The Lord God took the human and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (2.15). From this we come to the inescapable conclusion that work is good, despite the modern thinking that it is evil and dehumanizing. Having the power to receive personal inspiration will be necessary in the coming days. #Randolphharris 9 of 26

We do not consider manual work as a curse, or a biter necessity, not even as a means of making a living. We consider it as a high human function. As a basis of human life. The most dignified thing in the life of a human being and which ought to be free, creative. Humans ought to be proud of it. If we look at this from the viewpoint of one still at an early stage of spiritual formation, it is a major step forward just to sincerely desire, not to not sin, but to have different feelings—feelings that lead away from sin. At that early stage, one has to strongly want to not want what one now wants, and to want to want what does not now want. One has to feel strong revulsion toward the wrong feeling one now has or is likely to have and at the same time strong attraction to good feeling that one does not now feel. This proves to be absolutely necessary in order to “put off the old person” (involving the wrong feeling) and “put on the new person” (involving the good feeling). So, for example, one does not merely want to not assault others verbally, or to not fall into fornication, but one really wants to not have the feelings that lead to it and takes steps to avoid those feelings. If a strong and compelling vision of myself as one who is simply free from intense vanity or desire for wealth or for indulgence in pleasures of the flesh can possess me, then I am in a position to desire to not have the desires I now have. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26

If I want to purge myself of Worldly desires, those means ca be effectively sought to that end. The Vision Intent Mission (VIM) pattern of change will work here as elsewhere. This is a great time to be alive! He Lord needs each of us. This is our day; it is our time! And now let us look down into ourselves to discover there the struggle between separation and reunion, between sin and grace, in our relation to others, in our relation to ourselves, and in our relation to the Ground and aim of our being. If your soul responds to the description that I intend to give, words like “sin” and “separation”, “grace” and “reunion”, may have a new meaning for us. However, the words themselves are not important. It is the response of the deepest levels of our being that is important. If such a response were to occur among us this moment, we could say that we have known grace. Who has not, at some time, been lonely in the midst of a social event? The feeling of our separation from the rest of life is most acute when we are surrounded by it in noise and talk. We realize then much more than in moments of solitude how strange we are to each other, how estranged life is from life. Each one of us draws back into oneself. We cannot penetrate the hidden center of another individual; nor can that individual pass beyond the shroud that covers our own being. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26

Even the greatest love cannot break through the walls of the self. Who has not experienced that disillusionment of all great love? If one were to hurl away one’s self in complete self-surrender, one would become a nothing, without form or strength, a self without self, merely an object of contempt and abuse. Our generation knows more than the generation of our fathers about the hidden hostility in the ground of our souls. Today we know much about the profusive aggressiveness in every being. Today we can confirm what Immanuel Kant, the prophet of human reason and dignity, was honest enough to say: there is something in the misfortune of our best friends which does not displease us. Who amongst us is dishonest enough to deny that this is true also of one? Are we not almost always ready to abuse everybody and everything, although often in a very refined way, for the pleasure of self-elevation, for an occasion for boasting, for a moment of lust? To know that we are ready is to know the meaning of the separation of life from life, and of “sin abounding”. The most irrevocable expression of the separation of life today is the attitude of social groups within nations toward each other, and the attitude of nations themselves towards other nations. The walks of distance, in time and space, have been removed by technical progress; but the walks of estrangement between heat and heat have been incredibly strengthened. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26

The madness being seen in American streets provides too easy an excuse for us to turn our thoughts from our own selves. However, let us just consider ourselves and what we feel, when we read, this morning and tonight, that in the entire World nearly 1 million people have died from COVID-19, and the millions are freezing, burning up, being flooded out of their homes, are sick and dying, and starving to death. The strangeness of life to life is evident in the strange fact that we can know all this, and yet can live today, this morning, tonight, as though we were completely ignorant. And I refer to the most sensitive people amongst us. In both humankind and nature, life is separated from life. Estrangement prevails among all things that live. Sin abounds. It is important to remember that we are not merely separated from each other. For we are also separated from ourselves. Humans Against Themselves is not merely an abstract idea, but rather also indicates the rediscovery of an age-old insight. Humans are split within themselves. Life moves against itself through aggression, hate, and despair. We are wont to condemn self-love; but what we really mean to condemn is contrary to self-live. It is that mixture of selfishness and self-hate that permanently pursues us, that prevents us from loving others, and that prohibits us from losing ourselves in the love with which we are loved eternally. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26

One who is able to love oneself is able to love others also; one who has learned to overcome self-contempt has overcome one’s contempt for others. However, the depth of our separation lies in just the fact that we are not capable of a great and merciful divine love towards ourselves. On the contrary, in each of us there is an instinct of self-destruction, which is as strong as our instinct of self-preservation. In our tendency to abuse and destroy others, there is an open or hidden tendency to abuse and to destroy ourselves. Cruelty towards others is always also cruelty towards ourselves. Nothing is more obvious than the split in both our unconscious life and conscious personality. Without the help of modern psychology, Paul expressed that fact in his famous words, “For I do not do the good I desire, but rather the evil that I do not desire.” And then he continued in words that might well be the motto of all depth psychology: “Now if I should do what I do not wish to do, it is not I that do it, but rather sin which dwells within me.” The apostle sensed a split between one’s conscious will and one’s real will, between oneself and something strange within and alien to one. One was estranged from oneself; and that estrangement one called “sin”. One also called it a strange “law in one’s limbs,”, an irresistible compulsion. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26

How often we commit certain acts in perfect consciousness, yet with the shocking sense that we are being controlled by an alien power! That is the experience of the separation of ourselves from ourselves, which is to day sin,” whether or not we like to use that word. Thus, the state of our whole life is estrangement from others and ourselves, because we are estranged from the Ground of our being, because we are estranged from the origin and aim of our life. And we do not know where we have come from, or where we are going. We are separated from the mystery, the depth, and the greatness of our existence. We hear the voice of that depth; but our ears are closed. We feel that something radical, total, and unconditioned is demanded of us; but we rebel against it, try to escape its urgency, and will not accept its promise. We cannot escape, however. If that something is the Ground of our being, we are bound to it for all eternity, just as we are bound to ourselves and to all other life. We always remain in the power of that from which we are estranged. That fact brings us to the ultimate depth of sin: separated and yet bound, estranged and yet belonging, destroyed and yet preserved, the state which is called despair. Despair means that there is no escape. Despair is “the sickness unto death.” However, the terrible thing about the sickness of despair is that we cannot be released, not even through open or hidden suicide. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26

For we all know that we are bound eternally and inescapably o the Ground of our being. The abyss of separation is not always visible. However, it has become more visible to our generation than to the preceding generations, because of our feeling of meaninglessness, emptiness, doubt, and cynicism—all expressions of despair, of our separation from the roots and the meaning of our life. Sin in its most profound sense, sin, as despair, abounds amongst us. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound”, says Paul in the same letter in which he describes the unimaginable power of separation and self-destruction within society and the individual soul. He does not say these words because sentimental interests demand a happy ending for everything tragic. He says them because they describe the most overwhelming and determining experience of his life. In the pictures of Jesus as the Christ, which appeared to him at the moment of his greatest separation from other humans, from oneself and God, he found himself accepted in spite of his being rejected. And when found that he was accepted, he was able to accept himself and to be reconciled to others. The moment in which grace struck him and overwhelmed him, he was reunited with that to which he belonged, and from which we was estranged in utter strangeness. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26

Do we know what it means to be struck by grace? It dies not mean that we suddenly believe that God exists, or that Jesus is the Saviour, or that the Bible contains the truth. To believe that something is, is almost contrary to the meaning of grace. Furthermore, grace does not mean simply that we are making progress in our moral self-control, in our fight against special faults, and in our relationships to human and to society. Moral progress may be a fruit of grace; but it is not grace itself, and it can even prevent us from receiving grace. For there is too often a graceless acceptance of Christian doctrines and a graceless battle against the structures of evil in our personalities. Such a graceless relation to God may lead us by necessity either to arrogance or to despair. It would be better to refuse God and the Christ and the Bible than to accept Them without grace. For if we accept without grace, we do so in the state of separation, and can only succeed in deepening the separation. We cannot transform our lives, unless we allow them to be transformed by that stoke of grace. It happens; or it does not happen. And if we try to force it upon ourselves, just as it shall not happen so long as we think, in our self-complacency, that we have no need of it, certainly it does not happen. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26

Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of meaningless and empty life. It strikes us when we feel that our separation is deeper than usual, because we have violated another life, a life which we loved, or from which we were estranged. It strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility, and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable to us. It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsion reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage. Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: “You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!” If that happens to us, we experience grace. After such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before. However, everything is transformed. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26

In that moment, grace conquers sin, and reconciliation bridges the gulf of estrangement. And nothing is demanded of this experience, no religious or moral or intellectual presupposition, nothing but acceptance. In the light of this grace we perceive the power of grace in our relation to others and to ourselves. We experience the grace of being able to look frankly into the eyes of another, the miraculous grace of reunion of life with life. We experience the grace of understanding each other’s words. We understand not merely the literal meaning of the words, but also that which lies behind them, even when they are harsh or angry. For even then there is a longing to break through the walls of separation. We experience the grace of being able to accept the life of another, even if it be hostile and harmful to us, for, through grace, we know that it belongs to the same Ground to which we belong, and by which we have been accepted. We experience the grace which is able to overcome the tragic separation of the genders, of the generations, of the nations, of the races, of the cultures, and even the utter strangeness between humans and nature. Sometimes grace appears in all these separations to reunite us with those to whom we belong. For life belongs to life. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26

And in the light of this grace we perceive the power of grace in our relation to ourselves. We experience moments in which we accept ourselves, because we feel that we have been accepted by that which is greater than we. If only more such moments were given to us! For it is such moments that make us love our life, that makes us accept ourselves, not in our goodness and self-complacency, but in our certainty of the eternal meaning of our life. We cannot force ourselves to accept ourselves. We cannot compel anyone to accept oneself. However, sometimes it happens that we receive the power to say “yes” to ourselves, that peace enters into us and makes us whole, that self-hate and self-contempt disappear, and that our self is reunited with itself. Then we can say that grace has come upon us. “Sin” and “grace” are strange words; but they are not strange things. We can find them whenever we look into ourselves with searching eyes and longing hearts. They determine our life. They abound within us and in all of life. May grace more abound within us! Thus, according to these principles, every thing is full of God.  Nothing exists but by His will. Nothing possesses any power but by His concession. It may seem that these principles rob nature, and all created beings, of every power, in order to render our dependency on the Deity still more sensible and immediate. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26

This theory argues surely more power in the Deity to delegate a certain degree of power to inferior creatures. It argues more wisdom to contrive at first the fabric of the World with such perfect foresight, that, of itself, and by its proper operation, it may serve all the purposes of providence, than if the great Creator were obliged every moment to adjust its parts, and animate by His breath all the wheels of that stupendous machine. “And it came to pass that they did stop and withdrew a pace from them. And Moroni said unto Zerahemnah, that we do not desire to be humans of blood. Ye know that ye are in our hands, yet we do not desire to slay you. Behold, we have not come out to battle against you that we might shed your blood for power; neither do we desire to bring any one to the yoke of bondage. However, this is the very cause for which ye have come against us; yea, and ye are angry with us because of our religion. However, nor, ye behold that the Lord is with us; and ye behold that he has delivered you into our hands. And now I would that ye should understand that this is done unto us because of our religion and our faith in Christ. And now ye see that ye cannot destroy this our faith. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26

Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye se that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith. And now, Zerahemnah, I command you, in the name of that all-powerful God, who has strengthened our arms that we have gained power over you, by our faith, by our religion, and by our rites of worship, and by our church, and by the sacred support which we owe to our wives and our children, by that liberty which binds us to our lands and our country; yea, and also by the maintenance of the sacred word of God, to which we owe all our happiness; and by all that is most dear unto us—yea, and this is not all; I command you by all the desires which ye have for life, that ye deliver up your weapons of wars unto us, and we will seek not your blood, but we will spare your lives, if ye will go your way and come not again to war against us. And now, if ye do not this, behold, ye are in our hands, and I will command my men that they shall fall upon you, and inflict the wounds of death in your bodies, that ye may become extinct; and then we will see who shall have power over this people; yea, we will see who shall be brought into bondage. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26

“And now it came to pass that when Zerahemnah had heard these sayings he came forth and delivered up his sword and his cimeter, and his bow into the hands of Moroni, and said unto  him: Behold, here are our weapons of war; we will deliver them up unto you, but we will not suffer ourselves to take an oath unto you, which we know that we shall break, and also our children; but take our weapons of war, and suffer that we may depart into the wilderness; otherwise we will retain our swords, and we will perish or conquer. Behold, we are not of your faith; we do not believe that it is God that has delivered us into your hands; but we believe that it is your cunning that has preserved you from our swords. Behold, it is your breastplates and your shields that have preserved you. And now when Zerahemnah had made an end of speaking these words, Moroni returned the sword and the weapons of war, which he had received, into Zerahemnah, saying: Behold, we will end the conflict. Now I cannot recall the words which I have spoken, therefore as the Lord liveth, ye shall not depart except ye depart with an oath that ye will not return again against us to war. Now as ye are in our hands we will spill your blood upon the ground, or ye shall submit to the conditions which I have promised. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26

“And now when Moroni had said these words, Zerahemnah retained his sword, and he was angry with Moroni, and he rushed forward that he might slay Moroni; but as he raised his sword, behold, one of Moroni’s soldiers smote it even to the Earth, and it broke by the hilt; and he also smote Zerahemnah that he took off his scalp and it fell to the Earth. And Zerahemnah withdrew from before them into the midst of his soldiers. And it came to pass that the soldiers who stood by, who smote off the scalp of Zerahemnah, took up the scalp from off the ground by the hair, and laid it upon the point of his sword, and stretched it forth unto them, saying unto them with a loud voice: Even as this scalp has fallen to the Earth, which is the scalp of your chief, so shall ye fall to the Earth except ye will deliver up your weapons of war and depart with a covenant of peace. Now there were many, when they heard these words and saw the scalp which was upon the sword, that were struck with fear; and many came forth and threw down their weapons of war at the feet of Moroni, and entered into a covenant of peace. And as many as entered into a covenant they suffered to depart into the wilderness. Now it came to pass that Zerahemnah was exceedingly wroth, and he did stir up the remainder of his soldiers to anger, to contend more powerfully against the Nephites. #RandolphHarris 24 of 26

“And now Moroni was angry, because of the stubbornness of the Lamanites; therefore he commanded his people that they should fall upon them and slay them. And it came to pass that they began to slay them; yea, and the Lamanites did contend with their sword and their might. However, behold, their naked skins and their bare heads were exposed to the sharp swords of the Nephites; yea, behold they were pierced and smitten, yea, and did fall exceedingly fast before the swords of the Nephites; and they began to be swept down, even as the soldier of Moroni has prophesied. Now Zerahemnah, when he saw that they were all about to be destroyed, cried mightily unto Moroni, promising that he would covenant and also his people with them, if they would spare the remainder of their lives, that they never would come to war again against them. And it came to pass that Moroni caused that the work of death should cease again among the people. And he took the weapons of war from the Lamanites; and after they had entered into a covenant with him of peace they were suffered to depart into the wilderness. Now the number of their dead was not numbered because of the greatness of the number; yea, the number of their dead was exceedingly great, both on the Nephites and on the Lamanites. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26

“And it came to pass that they did cast their dead into the waters of Sidon, and they have gone forth and are buried in the depths of the sea. And the armies of the Nephites, or of Moroni, returned and came to their houses and their lands. And thus ended the eighteenth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi. And thus ended the record of Alma, which was written upon the plate of Nephi,” reports Alma 44.1-24. Surrounded by the forest’s trees I am surrounded by the spirits of the forest. I sit here, on the needles and leaves, and spread my arms in greeting. Come to me, if you wish; I hope for your coming. I wait here for you, hoping to see you. And if you do not come, I will still leave these gifts for you, for my hands are not closed. My hands are open in generosity towards you, God, they are extended in friendship towards you. Do you hear me, Lord? I am calling to you. Here I am, Lord: Please come to me. Here are gifts for you: Come and I will give them. I am calling you, Lord. Please come and talk to me. Riding the sound of the deep drumming, please come to me as I call to you. Please come to the rhythm of the heartfelt pounding, please come to me as I call you here. Dear Lord in Heaven, please come to me as I call you hear. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26

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