Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your own work. Note just what it is about your work that the critics do not like—then cultivate it. That is the only part of your work that is individual and worth keeping. I tend to learn the most from small, intense experiences which illuminate for me different aspects of what I am doing. They also illustrate in a vivid fashion some of the more abstract concepts of a person-centered approach. Frequently I write them down in order to store them as memories or to provide them for the use of the people involved. We must look still more closely at feeling. “Feeling” encompasses a range of things that are “felt”: specifically, sensations, desires, and emotions. We feel warm, hungry, an itch, or fearful. “Feelings” include dizziness and thirst, sleepiness and weariness, pleasures of the flesh and desire, pain and pleasure, loneliness and homesickness, anger and jealousy; but also comfort and satisfaction, a sense of power and accomplishment, curiosity and intellectual gratifications, compassion for others and the enjoyment of beauty, sense of honour, and delight in God. Aesthetic experiences (of art and beauty), personal relations, and actions all involve feeling and, moreover, require that the feeling be somehow “right.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 26

There is no complete list of human feelings, and it would be a formidable task to define what feeling is. We have not attempted that here and need not concern ourselves with it. A familiar range of feelings frame our day-to-day existence, and we know a lot about these feelings and how important they are to our lives and to how we act and relate to one another. We know, for example, that feelings move us, and that we enjoy being moved. They give us a sense of being alive. Without feeling we have no interest in things, no inclination to action. To “lose interest in life” means we have to carry on by mere exertions of will or by waiting for things to happen. That is a condition to be dreaded, and it cannot be sustained for long. That is why so many people become dependent upon “substances” and activities that give them feeling, even if the dependence badly harms them and those near them. Such a condition is also the frequent background of suicide. A beautiful young woman, an artist, committed suicide after the death of her old, unprepossessing father. It was her last wish to be buried with him. The question this woman’s death posed continued to gnaw at those who loved her. How could she have loved her father so much that she chose death with him over the joys of life, joys that were accessible and familiar to her? #RandolphHarris 2 of 26

Feeling is essential to life. We must accept this and work with it. And you can be sure that harmful feeling, feeling associated with evil—arising from it or producing it—will eventually be take by a human being as better than no feeling at all. Healthy feelings, properly ordered among themselves are essential to a good life. So if we are to be formed in Christlikeness, we must take good care of our feelings and not just let them “happen.” The one known as the Good Samaritan, in the story by Jesus (Luke 10.30-37) was distinguished from the priest and the Levite by the fact that “when he saw him [the wounded man], he felt compassion” (verse 33). This feeling of compassion is what led him to help them man and “be a neighbour to” him (verses 36-37). Did the priest and the Levite then have no feelings? Of course not. They had feelings alright: feelings of disdain, perhaps, or of fear for the harm that might come to them if they became involved, or a feeling of urgency as they remembered the business awaiting them at the end of their journey, which, being their own business, moved them more than did the need of this unfortunate man to be helped out of his mortally dangerous situation. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26

They had feelings that motivated them to selfish actions, and they hardened their hearts to any other feelings of sympathy and concern for the half-dead man that might have competed for their attention. My sense of the World is not that of a modern human but of a premodern one; and that attitude is reinforced by studying the Talmud, reading the Bible a lot, and hearing a lot of stories about my ancestors, who had all lived in a World that predated the bourgeois World. Let me tell you a story to illustrate what I mean. One of my great-grandfathers was a great Talmudist, but he was not a rabbi. He has a small shop in Bavaria, and he earn very little money. Then one day he was offered a chance to earn more money if he would do a little traveling. He had a lot of children, and that did not make his lot any easier. His wife said to him: “Maybe you should think about taking this opportunity. You would be gone only three days a month, and we would have a little more money.” And he said: “Do you think I should do that and lose more than three days of study a month?” She replied: “For God’s sake, of course not!” And that was the end of that. So my great-grandfather sat in his shop and studied the Talmud. Whenever a customer came in, he would look up and snap at him: “Is there not some other shop you can go to?” That was the World that was so real to me. I found the modern World strange. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26

I recall that when I was ten or twelve whenever someone told me he was a salesman or businessman I always felt a little embarrassed. I would think to myself: God, he must feel awful having to admit that he is not doing anything else with life except earning money. Imagine, having nothing else to do! In the meantime I have learned that that is quite normal. What eventually attracted me to the modern World was that in capitalism, there was a synthesis between the things of the past that were still alive for me and the things of the modern World that I loved. The aspects of the modern World that had their roots in the old and felt close to me, and that is why I experienced no contradiction between those two Worlds. Such was the World I was familiar with, the World I enjoyed, and so I became an eager student of everything that created this link between the old and the new. Many of the feelings that animate us are destructive of others and ourselves. Jesus’s younger brother, James, pointedly asked, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel,” reports James 4.1-2. And elsewhere he points out that “where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing,” reports James 3.16. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26

This goes far to explain what happens in many homes, churches, and other social groups. However, the need is to remove the cause (the underlying feelings) and not just the effect (the conflict), which, if denied or suppressed without removal of the feelings, will only break out again. The Old Testament book of Proverbs is full of wise sayings about the good and evil of feelings in human life. As we have already seen, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,” reports Proverbs 9.10. Moreover, “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions, reports Proverbs 10.12. “When pride comes, then comes dishonour,” reports Proverbs 11.2. “Anxiety in the heart of humans weighs it down,” reports Proverbs 12.25. “A cheerful heart has a continual feast,” reports Proverbs 15.15. “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones,” reports Proverbs 17.22. “One who loves pleasure will become a poor human; one who loves wine and oil will not become rich,” reports Proverbs 21.17. “The reward of humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, honour and life,” reports Proverbs 22.4. “They heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags,” reports Proverbs 23.21. “The fear of humans brings a snare, but one who trusts in the LORD will be exalted,” reports Proverbs 29.25. #RandolphHarris 6 of 26

And so forth. It is part of divine and human wisdom to realize that feelings are central to our existence and to make sure they are good feelings. And indeed they can be strong, healthy ones. We do not have to be victimized by destructive feelings. Even the feelings that harm us are, for the most part, not bad in themselves, but are somehow not properly limited or subordinated. They are not of order feelings are, with a few exceptions, good servants. However, they are disastrous masters. Denial and repression of the feeling are not the answer. Now, if we have destructive feelings, and everyone does sometimes, we should not deny that we have them nor try to repress them—though we also should not, normally, dump them on others by acting them out. In any case, let it be very clear that we are not in favour of denying feelings or repressing them. That is not the answer to our problem. The proper course of action is to replace destructive feelings with others that are good, or to subordinate them—anger and pleasures of the flesh, for example—in a way that makes them constructive and transforms their effects. The process of spiritual formation in Christ will do this by grace—effectively and intelligently received, and put into constant practice. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26

Several other points about feelings must be considered before we come to deal with particular feelings (emotions, sensations, desires) and what can be done for their transformation into Christlikeness. If therapy is successful the individual will inevitably have taken care of the tag ends of one’s past unsolved problems, because these tag ends are bound to cause trouble in the present, and so they are bund to come up in the course of the therapeutic session, disguised in any number of different ways—disassociations, nervous habits, fantasies, et cetera. However, these tags ends of the past are also current problems which inhibit the individual’s participation in the present. The neurotic is, by accepted definition, a person whose difficulties make one’s present life unsuccessful. In addition, by our definition, one is a person who chronically engages in self-interruption, who has an inadequate sense of identity (and thus cannot distinguish properly between oneself and the rest of the World), who has inadequate means of self-support, whose psychological homeostasis is out of order, and whose behaviour arises from misguided efforts in the direction of achieving balance. Within this general framework, we can see what must be done. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26

The neurotic finds it difficult to participate fully in this present—one’s past unfinished business gets in one’s way. One’s problems exist in the here and now—and yet too often only part of one is here to cope with them. Through therapy, one must learn to live in the present, and one’s therapeutic sessions must be one’s first practice at this hitherto unaccomplished task. Gestalt therapy is therefore a “here and now” therapy, in which we ask the patient during the session to turn all one’s attention to what one is doing at the present, during the course of the session—right here and now. Gestalt therapy is an experiential therapy, rather than a verbal or an interpretive therapy. We ask our patients not to talk about their traumas and their problems in the removed area of the past tense and memory, but to re-experience their problems and their traumas—which are their unfinished situations in the present—in the here and now. If the patient is finally to close the book on one’s past problems, one must close it in the present. For one must realize that if one’s past problems were really past, they would no longer be problems—and the certainly would not be present. In addition, as an experiential therapy, the Gestalt technique demands of the patient that one experiences oneself as fully as one can here and now. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26

We ask the individual to become aware of one’s gestures, of one’s breathing, of one’s emotions, of one’s voice, and of one’s facial expressions as much as of one’s pressing thoughts. We know that the more one becomes aware of oneself, the more one will learn about what one’s self is. As one experiences the ways in which one prevents oneself from “being” now—the ways in which one interrupts oneself—one will also begin to experience the self one has interrupted. In this process, the therapist is guided by what one observes about the individual. Here lit it suffice to say that the therapist should be sensitive to the surface the patient presents so that the therapist’s broader awareness can become the means by which the patient is enabled to increase one’s own. The basic sentence with which we ask our patients to begin therapy, and which we retain throughout its course—not only in words, but in spirit—is the simple phrase: “Now I am aware.” The now keeps us in the present and brings home the fac that no experience is ever possible except in the present. And the present, itself, is of course an ever changing experience. Once the now is used, that patient will easily use the present tense throughout, work on the phenomenological basis and, provide the material for the past experience which is required to close the gestalt, to assimilate a memory, to right the organismic balance. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26

The “I” is used as an antidote to the “it” and develops the individual’s sense of responsibility for one’s feelings, thoughts and symptoms. The “am” is one’s existential symbol. It brings home whatever one experiences as part of one’s being, and, together with one’s now, of one’s becoming. One quickly learns that each new “now” is different from the previous one. The “aware” provides the individual with the sense of one’s own capacities, and abilities, one’s own sensoric and motor and intellectual equipment. It is not the conscious—for that is purely mental—it is the experience sifted, as it were, only through the mind and through words. The “aware” provides something in addition to the conscious. Workings, as we do, with what the individual has, one’s present means of manipulation, rather than with what one has not developed or what one has lost, the “aware” gives both therapist and patient the best picture of the patient’s present resources. For awareness always takes place in the present. It opens up possibilities for action. Routine and habits are established functions, and any need to change them requires that they should be brought into the focus of awareness afresh. The mere idea of changing them presupposes the possibility of alternative ways of thinking and acting. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26

Without awareness, there is no cognition of choice. Awareness, contact, and present are merely different aspects of one and the same process—self-realization. It is here and now that we become aware of all our choices, from small pathological decisions (is this pencil lying straight enough?) to the existential choice of devotion to a cause or avocation. How does this “now I am aware,” this here and now therapy work in action? Let us take the example of a neurotic whose unfinished business is the unfinished labour of mourning a dead parent. Aware or unaware, such a patient fantasizes that one’s guiding parent is still around; one acts as if the parent were still alive and conducts one’s life by outdated directions. To become self-supportive and to participate fully in the present as it is, one has to give up this guidance; one has to part, to say a final good-bye to one’s progenitor. And to do this successfully, one has to go to the deathbed and face the departure. One has to transform one’s thoughts about the past into actions in the present which one experiences as if the now were the then. One cannot do it merely by re-recounting the scene, one must re-live it. One must go through and assimilate the interrupted feelings which are mostly of intense grief, but which may have in them elements of triumph or guilt or any number of things. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26

It is insufficient merely to recall a past incident, one has to psychodramatically return to it. Just as talking about oneself is a resistance against experiencing oneself, so the memory of an experience—simply talking about it—leaves it isolated as a deposit of the past—as lacking in life as the ruins of Pompei. You are left with the opportunity to make some clever reconstructions, but you do not bring them back alive. The neurotic’s memory is more than simply a hunting ground for the archeologists of human’s behaviour we call psychoanalysts. It is the uncompleted event, which is still alive and interrupted, waiting to be assimilated and integrated. It is here and now, in the present, that this assimilation must take place. The psychoanalysts, out of the vast stores of one’s theoretical knowledge, might explain to the patient: “You are still tied to your mother because you feel guilty about her death. It was something you wished for in childhood and repressed, and when your wish came true, you felt like a murderer.” And there may be elements of truth in what one says. However, this kind of symbolic or intellectual explanation does not affect the individual’s feelings, for these are the result not of one’s sense of guilt, but of one’s interruption of it when one’s mother died. If one has permitted oneself fully to experience one’s guilt then, one would not feel distressed now. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26

In Gestalt therapy we therefore required that the individual psychodramatically talk to one’s dead mother. Because the neurotic finds it difficult to live and experience oneself in the present, one will find it difficult to stick to the here and now technique. One will interrupt one’s present participation with memories of the past, and one will persist in talking about them as if they were indeed past. One finds it less difficult to associate tan to concentrate and, in concentrating, to experience oneself. Whether concentrating on one’s body sensations or one’s fantasies—although at first one will find this a miserable task—one’s unfinished business makes concentration a major project for one. One no longer has a clear sense of the order of one’s needs—one tends to give them all equal value. One is like the young man Stephen Leacock once spoke about who hot on his horse and galloped off madly in all directions. It is not a desire to make one’s life miserable that lies behind our request to make one capable of concentrations. If one is to move towards full participation in the present, to take the first step towards productive living, one must learn to direct one’s energies—that is, to concentrate. One will be able to move from “now I need this” to “now I need that,” only if one truly experiences each now and each need. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26

In addition, the concentration technique (focal awareness) provides us with a tool for therapy in depth, rather than in breadth. By concentrating on each symptom, each area of awareness, the individual learns several things about oneself and one’s neurosis. One learns what one is actually experiencing. One learns how one experiences it. And one learns how one’s feelings and behaviour in one area are related to one’s feelings and behaviour in other areas. We often use mercy and grace, as referred to God, interchangeably as synonyms, and some Bible commentators understand their use that way. Though the two words are very close in their meaning, they are usually distinguished as follows: “God’s goodness, exercised toward the unworthy, is called grace; toward the suffering, it is called pity, or mercy.” It may be defined as the goodness or love of God shown to those who are in misery or distress, irrespective of their deserts. Then, I understand the term grace in Hebrews 4.16 to mean that particular expression of grace we have been considering: divine enabling thought the Help of the Holy Spirit. Thus, we approach the throne of grace needing first mercy, because we come as ones in misery of distress. God in His mercy then gives us grace—that is, divine enabling through His Spirit—to help us in our time of need. We are thus enabled to cope with whatever adversity, trial, or dilemma we face in a Godly manner. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26

I have analyzed Hebrews 4.15-16 rather extensively because we need to understand how to appropriate the grace of God through prayer. I believe all of us need to grasp more fully what it means to come to the throne of grace. We need to grasp in the depth of our souls what it means that we do have a High Priest, Jesus, who is able and disposed to sympathize with out weaknesses. Above all, we simply need to go to the throne of grace to find the grace to help in time of need. That is what I did in the incident I recounted at the beginning of this essay. I went to the throne of grace and told God I did not have the ability to respond to what I thought was His will for me at the time. I asked Him for the spiritual strength to say yes to Him. The disciples went to the throne of grace when Peter and John had been commanded by the Jewish rulers not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. They prayed, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your words with great boldness,” reports Acts 4.29. They went to God’s throne of grace, and they asked for grace, specifically the grace to speak boldly for Christ in the face of tremendous opposition. September 11, 2001 was a crucial event in the development of many people. People were in grips of fear when what seemed like a war broke out on American soil. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26

Many youths did not understand what was going on. However, it was not long before they began to see through all the supposed justifications for it, and so they started to puzzle over a question that has pursued them for the rest of their lives. How it is possible that millions of people can kill millions of other people, that they let themselves be killed, that it can take years before an end can be called to this inhuman situation? And all that for goals that are in part quite obviously irrational and for political notions that no one would sacrifice one’s life for if one could only see them for what they are. How is war politically possible, and how is war psychologically possible? These have become burning questions that have influenced the thinking of many more than any others right up to the present day. And 19 years later, we are now faced with another crisis. COVID-19 is sweeping the World and leveling millions of people physically and financially, and when they need help, no one is there for them because our lawmakers are taking their $10,000.00 a month in salary and other endorsements they may receive and living comfortably, while people struggle, lose their homes, go hungry, suffer and die. Remember us this day, O Lord our God, for our good, and be mindful of us for a life of blessing. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26

With Thy promise of salvation and mercy, please deliver us and be gracious unto us; have compassion upon us and save us. Unto Thee do we lift our eyes for Thou art a gracious and merciful God and King. O Lord our God, please bestow upon us the blessings of Thy festivals for life and peace, for joy and gladness, even as Thou hast graciously promised to bless us. [Our God and God of our fathers, accept our rest.] Sanctify us through Thy commandments, and grant our portion in Thy Torah; please give us abundantly of Thy goodness and make us rejoice in Thy salvation. Purify our hearts to serve Thee in truth. In Thy living favour, O Lord our God, let us inherit with joy and gladness Thy holy [Sabbath and] festivals; and may Israel who sanctifies Thy name, rejoice in Thee. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who hallowest [the Sabbath and] Israel and the festivals. “Now we will return in our record to Amalickiah and those who had fled with him into the wilderness; for, behold, he had taken those who went with him, and went up in the land of Nephi among the Lamanites, and did stir up the Lamanites to anger against the people of Nephi, insomuch that the kind of the Lamanites sent a proclamation throughout all his land, among all his people, that they should gather themselves together again to go to battle against the Nephites. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26

“And it came to pass that when the proclamation had gone forth among them they were exceedingly afraid; yea, they feared to displease the proclamation had gone forth among them they were exceedingly afraid; yea, they feared to go to battle against the Nephites lest they should lose their lives. And it came to pass that they would not, or the more part of them would not, obey the commandments of the king. And now it came to pass that when the proclamation had gone forth among them they were exceedingly afraid; yea, they feared to displease the king, and they also feared to go to battle against the Nephites lest they should lose their lives. And it came to pass that they would not, or the more part of them would not, obey the commandments of the king. And now it came to pass that the king was wroth because of their disobedience; therefore he gave Amalickiah the command of that part of his army which was obedient unto his commands, and command him that he should go forth and compel them to arms. Now behold, this was the desire of Amalickiah; for he being a very subtle man to do evil therefore he laid the plan in his heart to dethrone the king of the Lamanites. And now he had got the command of those parts of the Lamanites who were in favour of the king. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26

“And he sought to gain favour of those who were not obedient; therefore he went forward to the place which was called Onidah, for thither had all the Lamanites fled; for they discovered the army coming, and supposing that they were coming to destroy them, therefore they fled to Onidah, to the place of arms. And they had appointed a man to be king and a leader over them, being fixed in their minds with a determined resolution that they would not be subjected to go against the Nephites. And it came to pass that they had gathered themselves together upon the top of the mount which was called Antipas, in preparation to battle. Now it was not Amalickiah’s intention to give then battle according to the commandments of the king; but behold, it was one’s intention to gain favour with the armies of Lamanites, that he might place himself at their head and dethrone the king and take possession of the kingdom. And behold, it came to pass that he caused his army to pitch their tents in the valley which was near the mount Antipas. And it came to pass that when it was night he sent a secret embassy into the mount Antipas, desiring that the leaders of those who were upon the mount, whose name was Lehonti, that he should come down to the foot of the mount, for he desired to speak with him. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26

“And it came to pass that when Lehonti received the message he durst not go down to the foot of the mount. And it came to pass that Amalickiah sent again the second time, desiring him to come down. And it came to pass that Lehonti would not; and he sent again the third time. And it came to pass that when Amalickiah found that he could not get Lehonti to come down off from the mount, he went up into the munt, nearly to Lehonti’s camp; and he sent again the fourth time his message unto Lehonti, desiring that he would bring his guards with him. And it came to pass that when Lehonti had come down with his guards to Amalickiah, that Amalickiah desired him to come down with his army in the night-time, and surround those men in their camps over whom the king had given him command, and that he would deliver them up into Lehonti’s hands, if he would make him (Amalickiah) a second leader over the whole army. And it came to pass that Lehonti came down with his men and surrounded the men of Amalickiah, so that before they awoke at the dawn of the day they were surrounded by the armies of Lehonti. And it came to pass that when they saw that they were surrounded, they pled with Amalickiah that he would suffer them to fall in with their brethren, that they might not be destroyed. Now this was the very thing which Amalickiah desired. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26

“And it came to pass that he delivered his men, contrary to the commands of the king. Now this was the thing that Amalickiah desired, that he might accomplish his designs in dethroning the kind. Now it was the custom among the Lamanites, if their chief leader was killed, to appoint the second leader to be their chief leader. And it came to pass that Amalickiah caused that one of his servants should administer poison by degrees to Lehonti, that he died. Now, when Lehonti was dead, the Lamanites appointed Amalickiah to be their leader and their chief commander. And it came to pass that Amalickiah marched with his armies (for he had gained his desires) to the land of Nephi, to the city of Nephi, which was the chief city. And the king came out to meet him with his guards, for he supposed that Amalickiah had fulfilled his commands, and that Amalickiah had gathered together so great an army to go against the Nephites to battle. However, behold, as the king came out to meet him Amalickiah caused that his servants should go forth to meet the king. And they went and bowed themselves before the king, as if to reverence him because of his greatness. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26

“And it came to pass that the king put forth his hand to raise them, as was the custom with the Lamanites, as a token of peace, which custom they had taken from the Nephites. And it came to pass that when he had raised the first from the ground, behold he stabbed the king to the heart; and he fell to the Earth. Now the servants of Amalickiah raised a cry, saying: Behold, the servants of the kind have stabbed him to the heart, and he has fallen and they have fled; behold, come and see. And it came to pass that Amalickiah commanded that his armies should march forth and see what had happened o the king; and when they had come to the spot, and found the king lying in his gore, Amalickiah pretended to be wroth, and said: Whosoever loved the king, let him go forth, and pursue his servants that they may be slain. And it came to pass that all they who loved the king, when they heard these words, came forth and pursued after servants of the king. Now when the servants of the king saw an army pursuing after them, they were frightened again, and fled into the wilderness, and came over into the land of Zarahemla and joined the people of Ammon. And the army which pursued after them returned, having pursued after them in vain; and thus Amalickiah, by his fraud, gained the hearts of the people. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26

“And it came to pass on the morrow he entered the city of Nephi with his armies, and took possession of the city. And now it came to pass that the queen, when she had heard that the king was slain-for Amalickiah had sent an embassy to the queen informing her that the king had been slain by his servant, that he had pursued them with his army, but it was in vain, and they had made their escape—therefore, when the queen had received this message she sent unto Amalickiah, desiring him that he would spare the people of the city; and she also desired him that he should come in unto her; and she also desired him that he should bring witnesses with him to testify concerning the death of the king. And it came to pass that Amalickiah took the same servant that slew the king, and all them who were with him, and went in unto the queen, unto the place where she sat; and they all testified unto her that the king was slain by his own servants; and they said also: They have fled; does not this testify against them? And thus they satisfied the queen concerning the death of the king. And it came to pass that Amalickiah sought the favour of the queen, and took her unto him to wife; and thus by his fraud, and by the assistance of his cunning servants, he obtained the kingdom. #RandolphHarris 24 of 26

“Yea, he was acknowledged king throughout all the land, among all the people of the Lamanites, who were composed of the Lamanites and the Lemuelites and the Ishmaelites, and all the dissenters of the Nephites, from the reign of Nephi down to the present time. Now these dissenters, having the same instruction and the same information of the Nephites, yea, having been instructed in the same knowledge of the Lord, nevertheless, it is strange to relate, not long after their dissensions they became more hardened and impenitent, and more wild, wicked and ferocious than the Lamanites—drinking in with traditions of the Lamanites; giving way to indolence, and all manner of lasciviousness; yea, entirely forgetting the Lord their God,” reports Alma 47.1-36. I think now of the ancient times, when your worship first was established. It has been a long time now since your worship was celebrated as it should be, with processions in the marketplaces, with games to unite the scattered tribes, with hospitality granted to strangers in your name. Throughout the lonely times, you have waited patiently, in the sure foreknowledge that the night would end. See now, on the horizon; the light of dawn begins to creep over the edge of the World! #RandolphHarris 25 of 26

We need not wait much longer before the Sun will rise again and shine down once more on a World in which your worship is no longer neglected. Through the long night, we have kept your faith; in secret or in disguise we have performed the sacred acts. Sometimes, even unbeknownst to us, we have kept ancient lore alive. Now we hope to return to the light, to practice your ways openly and without fear, drawing the thoughts of other to you. In the backs of our people’s minds, they have remembered you, God. God, we pray to you! We who has been faithful, pray to you! Repository of all wisdom, out of which all others have only a share: it is to you we look when we need advice. The words you speak drop like late Summer rains, refreshing after a drought, awakening the dormant grass. Again and again I call to you, again and again you answer me. Old Wise One, it is you whom I worship. My love pours out, even as your bounty pours out. What I do here is only an image of your greater generosity. I pour out my love to the ancient High One, I make my offerings to One who should be worshipped. The Lord reigneth; He is robed in majesty; the Lord if robed, He hath girded Himself with strength. Now is the Earth firmly established; it shall not be moved. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26

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