The Good Shepherd is always in search of lost sheep. When a person who is still in one’s pupilage deems oneself to be wiser than one’s master, one is being led astray by the cunning flattery of one’s ego. If this stimulation by contact with a master makes one assert one’s little ego, because one thinks one has become more “spiritual” than others, then the good done one and the inspiration given one are endangered by the conceit bred in one. If a person is strongly egoistic and arrogantly self-opinioned, if one lacks humility even when one approaches a Master, then not only can one not follow the path but one must circle around looking for its gate. Such a person, uneducable and unteachable, is unfit for the path of discipleship. Life is the only teacher one is ready for. It is intelligent enough to being one exactly the kind of experiences one needs—crushing disappointments, frustrations, humiliations, and disasters. If the disciple does not obey the regime laid down by the teacher but follows one’s own ideas as to what one ought to do, then one is not truly surrendering one’s ego, but is thereby showing one’s attachment to the ego. Consequently one will not get the hoped-for results. When disappointment follows one should not blame the ineffectiveness of one’s teacher for this but rather one’s own obstinate egotism. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

The teacher has an immense task when one is asked by the ordinary seeker to accept one as a personal pupil. For the latter unconsciously seeks confirmation of what one already believes and therefore has come to teach the teacher! Consequently the master is compelled to refuse one. For the seeker comes to one filled with one’s own ideas of what constitutes truth and in what direction the path leads, what the teacher ought to say and how behave. All these modes of thought are mere encumbrances from the teacher’s standpoint, and all these prejudices are heavy shackles. To ask the seeker to abandon these obsessions with the past immediately will meet with failure in almost every cause—only in the rarest type of seeker is there likely to be an immediate obedience. With others there is not even the desire for release from these intellectual and emotional patterns which imprisons the human, these habit-mechanisms in which one has allowed oneself to be caught. While waiting to find a trustworthy spiritual guide, the best things to do in the meantime is to constantly discipline one’s character and endeavour to gain inner tranquillity so as to provide imposed conditions for the reception of Grace. Let one search out the defects of character and exert oneself to get rid of them. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

Let one examine one’s life every day and see where one has done well and where ne has failed in this manner. Too many aspirant waste their time in trying to follow the path of discipleship when they possess too little qualification even to permit their entry. They are unprepared. It would be more profitable for them to bestow upon the improvement of their own psyche the thought they bestow upon the quest of a master. If a person insists on asking for the attentions of a personal teacher before one is sufficiently prepared to benefit by them, then one’s rash importunity will be punished. For one will find a false teacher, a guide to untruth and darkness rather than to reality and light. Enough work should have been done on oneself and by oneself in mental and emotional discipline, in moral striving, in intellectual preparation, and in meditational practice to justify one’s request for instruction. Otherwise one may be really actuated by egoistic ambitions which are secretly hiding beneath one’s spiritual aspirations, or one may be too unbalanced emotionally to accept in one’s heart the serene impersonal wisdom even when it is proffered one. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

Even if there are no adepts who could give the necessary inner assistance to quicker progress on the Path, this need not deter one from continuing efforts towards spiritual realization and thus making oneself ready for a guide when Destiny permits one to have one. The inner work which one alone can perform consists in the unremitting efforts to develop a high moral character, together with religious aspiration and mystical contemplation. The ideal of altruistic service should also be held in mind, combined with intelligent judgment and practicality. Despite the absence of a teacher, it is still possible to intensify one’s efforts. One’s surroundings offer part of the material for study; one’s personal history can be explored for a greater awareness of the meanings of one’s part and present experiences; and situation offers an opportunity for a more objective observation of oneself. Continuous and honest effort in self-study and self-observation, an objective analysis of past and present experiences when subjected to the light of higher understanding, daily practice in meditation, and an ever-present attitude of faith and devotion certainly will improve the student’s possibilities for the opportunity of meeting with the Master. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

Another group of virtues contains faith (trust) and hope. One must have peace and serenity of mind in order to develop a life of understanding, reflection, and meditation. An anxious, depressed, distracted soul is not conducive to intellectual growth. We Christians trust and hope that truth is good and worth having because we are confident in the God of truth is good and worth having because we are confident in the God of truth. In my opinion, this is one reason why intellectual growth and cultural flourishing are often a result of the Christian penetration of a society. Trust and hope in God help build confidence that truth is a valuable thing to have because it is ultimately good. A confident mind is free to follow the truth wherever it leads, without the distracting fear of anxiety that come from the attitude that maybe we are better off not knowing the truth. This is one reason why Christians need not fear the honest examination of their faith. A lack of faith and hope creates a distracted mind incapable of intellectual growth and devotion to God. Noise and busyness can rob one of serenity of mind as well. If you truly desire to develop a Christian mind, then you must squarely fact this fact: The mind cannot grow without reflection and prayer on what has been studied, and reflection and prayer require periods of quiet and solitude on the one hand and simplicity of life on the other. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

One must order one’s life so as to remove as far as possible, given your other commitments, unnecessary modern gadgets and distractions to maintain focus and quiet in your life. Take the phone off the hook regularly. Do not just rely on your answering machine, because even a ringing phone will rouse your curiosity about the identity of the caller and distract you. Do not spend all your time in front of a computer or the television. If you can afford it, pay to have your taxes done or your yard mowed. Do what you can to free yourself from unnecessary distraction. As an application, you may want to draw up a list of ways you can simplify your life and create more time for quiet reflection. Humility and the associated traits of open-mindedness, self-criticality, and non-defensiveness form another aspect of the group of virtues relevant to the intellectual life. We must be willing to seek the truth in a spirit of humility with an admission of our own finitude; we must be willing to learn from our critics; and we need to learn to argue against our own positions in order to strengthen our understanding of them. I once heard a Christian college professor tell a group of parents that the purpose of a Christian college is to challenge the students’ faith. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

I spoke up in disagreement and asserted my opinion that the purpose (among other things) was to strengthen and develop their faith, and one way to do this was to face questions honestly. The purpose of intellectual humility, open-mindedness, and so forth is not to create a skeptical mind that never lands on a position about anything, preferring to remain suspended in midair. Rather, the purpose is for you to do anything you can to remove your unhelpful biases and get at the truth in a reasoned way. A proper development of this group of virtues can assist in that quest. Here is something to practice. When your view is criticized or even ridiculed on television, a radio talk show, or in a trade paper editorial, do not just react angrily. Take a moment to jot down on paper the person’s main thesis and how that thesis was supported. Then do two things. First, even very smart people can be wrong so assume the person is expressing at least some good points and try to identify them. This assumption may be false, but the search for common ground with intellectual opponents is a good habit. In the process of identifying these good points, try to argue against your own view. Second, try to state on paper exactly how you would argue against the view being expressed in an intellectually precise yet emotionally clam way. This exercise may take a few minutes, but if repeated regularly it will assist one in developing this group of virtues. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

Next, the Christian mind requires ardor, vigilance, and fortitude. The Christian thinker should be a passionate person filled with ardor or zeal—zeal for God and truth. This zeal expresses itself in a passion to know and do the truth and to live a religiously reasonable form of life. It also helps make possible the vigilance necessary to stick to a life of study when it is not convenient or not particularly valued by those around you. Often a topic of study requires the patient development of a long, complicated chain of arguments before the issues can be understood, and vigilance is needed to see it to completion. An impatient generation looking for instant solutions and quick answers will be a generation of shallow slogans. Fortitude or courage is also needed, and this comes from confidence in God’s providential care of His children, including His children, including His availability to comfort them even in the face of martyrdom. The Christian mind requires the courage to face the truth and to stand up for it even when doing so is not popular. Bravery does not imply the absence of fear, but the ability to rise above and not be controlled by it. If one defends unpopular Christian positions in the public square, the person with an articulate, well-reasoned Christian Worldview will be attacked. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

Fortitude will be needed to enable one to continue to hunger for, cling to, and propagate the truth in such circumstances. Fortitude contains two elements: endurance and attack. Even if it is risky and painful, the courageous person, especially one with intellectual courage, must learn to endure suffering and hardship in the interests of the truth and continue attacking harmful falsehoods. A person must have motivation to develop zeal, vigilance, and courage. One of the best ways to gain this motivation is to put yourself in a slightly threatening yet not overwhelming situation in which you must defend your views Regularly, when I teach an adult education class in a church, I require class members to develop a ten-question survey and interview five different people they do not know to be Christians—at a mall, at work, or somewhere else. Inevitably, two things happen. First, the class members gain firsthand exposure to the menagerie of ideas held by those in their own community. Second, they realize how ill-prepared they are to articulate and defend their own beliefs. Such exposure creates an initial hunger to grow in diligence as a learner and to be more courageous about that one believes. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

Fidelity is also a virtue to God and a dedication to His cause in the World as one’s chief end. The Christian intellectual is here to serve a Name, not to make one. Unfortunately, I have seen too many Christian thinkers who have a certain texture or posture in life that gives the impression that they are far more concerned with assuring their academic colleagues that they are not ignorant fundamentalists than they are with pleasing God and serving His people. Such thinkers often give up too much intellectual real estate far too readily to secular or other perspectives inimical to the Christian faith. This is why many average Christian folk are suspicious of the mind today. All too often, they have seen intellectual growth in Christian academics lead to a cynical posture unfaithful to the spirit of the Christian way. I have always been suspicious of Christian intellectuals whose primary agenda seems to be to remove embarrassment about being an evangelical and to assure their colleagues that they are really acceptable, rational people in spite of their evangelicalism. While we need to be sensitive to our unbelieving friends and colleagues, we should care far less about what the World thinks than about what God thinks of our intellectual life. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

Fidelity to God and His cause is the core commitment of a growing Christian mind. Such a commitment engenders faithfulness to God and His people and inhibits the puffiness that can accompany intellectual growth. Joy is natural in the presence of such love. Joy is a pervasive sense—not just a thought—of well-being: of overall and ultimate well-being. Its primary feeling component is delight in an encompassing good well-secured. It is not the same as pleasure, though it is pleasant. It is deeper and broader than any pleasure. Pleasure and pain are always specific to some particular object or condition such as eating something you really like (pleasure), such as a hero from Regina’s Grocery or Lou Malnatis pizza, or recalling some really foolish thing you did (pain). However, for joy, all is well, even in the midst of specific suffering and loss. Self-sacrificial love is therefore always joyous—no matter the pain and loss it may involve. For we are always looking at the larger scene in which love rules: Where all things (no matter what) work together for god to those who love God and are drawn into his purposeful actions on Earth. Joy is a basic element of inner transformation into Christlikeness and of the outer life that flows from it. Thus when Jesus was explaining things to his closest friends on the night before his crucifixion, he left his peace with them (John 14.27). #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

Then, after explaining to them how one would be the vine and they the branches, constantly drawing rich life from him, he said, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full,” reports John 15.11. This theme of being full of joy is repeated twice more in John’s version of his final discourse and prayer (16.24; 17.13). Having one’s joy “full” means that there is no room for any more of it. Full joy is our first line of defense against weakness, failure, and disease of mind and body. However, even when they break through into our life, “the joy of the Lord is our strength,” reports Nehemiah 8.10. Thus the tribulation that came upon those in Thessalonica who received the word of Christ went hand in hand “with the joy of the Holy Spirit,” report 1 Thessalonians 1.6. The joy of Christ that fills us is received as a gift of divine impartation. “The kingdom of God is…righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,” reports Romans 14.17. That is, it is righteousness (love), peace, and joy of a kind that can only be produced in us by the Holy Spirit. However, here again we must not be passive. We may allow joy to dissipate through looking backward at our sins and failures, or forward at what might happen to us, or inward at our struggles with work, responsibilities, temptations, and deficiencies. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

However, this means we have placed our hopes in the wrong thing, namely ourselves, and we do not have to do this. It is our option to look to the greatness and goodness of God and what He will do in our lives. Therefore Paul, in jail, speaks to the Philippians of one’s own contentment “in whatever circumstances” (4.11) and urges them to “rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” (4.4). If we choose to fix our minds on the good that God is and will certainly bring to pass, we will be empowered by the Spirit of God to do this. “For Thou, O LORD, hast made me glad by what Thou has done, I will sing for joy at the works of Thy hands,” reports Psalm 92.4. Instead of searching vainly for a teacher or waiting idly for one, one should take the teaching one already has, follow the injunctions already laid down, use the knowledge already available. Students who fail to do the work on themselves yet look for a master, waste their time. Work on oneself is most important. When one has purified one’s character, cultivated discrimination, achieved some measure of balance, finally understood the lessons of past experience, acquired a certain degree of self-control—mental, moral, and physical—and developed the necessary aspiration to lead a truly spiritual life, then, and then only, will one be in a position to benefit from instruction from a Master. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

If young aspirants would take a sufficiently long time in a general survey course in comparative religion and metaphysics before they settle down to some kind of choice, it would be well. They should first come to such a clearness. The badly balanced, the wildly hysterical, the unadjusted and unintegrated personality, the neurotically self-centered, should not trouble a teacher for higher development when they have to attend to, and finish, their ordinary development as human beings. They have not the right to claim entry on a path which demands so much character and capacity from its very beginning. Most of the aspirants who want to associate themselves with a master do so prematurely. Consequently they fail to find one or else find only pseudo-masters. What they really need is to associate themselves with a psychological counsellor or with a broad-minded wise clergyman, with someone who has effected a good solution of one’s own personal, emotional, and relational problems and is competent to help them solve theirs. Only after one’s work is done, only after one has cleared the way for a higher activity, only after one has prepared them to respond readily to the guidance of a master, should they seek such a one. It is needful at times to remind a human that one—and not those to whom one has entrusted one’s soul and spiritual destiny—is responsible for it. The belief that one has passed on its care is illusory. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

It is not the teacher who can sever the disciple’s attachment to Worldly life, for a human’s heart is one’s own most intimate, most private possession. The disciple must do it for oneself. It is one who must realize the necessity of renunciation and it is one alone who must change one’s feelings accordingly. Such a change requires constant thinking about values and incessant disciplining tendencies. Who else but the disciple is to think these thoughts and exercise this will if the result is to be shown in one’s character? The teacher cannot really help one in any vicarious sense, cannot save one from the stern task of working upon oneself. The reason why the master cannot remake another human miraculously is because no human can think for another one. Each can do it for oneself alone. We must gain our advancement through our own personal efforts and by our own merits. No master can do our walking for us nor hide our weaknesses from the inexorable laws which govern the quest. Flattery helps little. It is the duty of the guide clearly to perceive and frankly to expose to the disciple the evil parts of one’s character and the weak places of one’s consciousness. One may give the correct technique but one cannot give its ineffable result. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

That result, you must earn for yourself. One cannot even promise you a successful outcome of your own endeavours. That is bestowed only by the grace of God. No one can purify another. No master can or will do for a human what one is quite unwilling to do for oneself. No master can take away from a disciple one’s failings and weaknesses. No human can really be responsible for another human: each makes, and must accept, one’s own fate and consequences. Even in the ancient Egyptian mysteries, the disciple who attended the college temple after having successfully passed the initial test which gave one entry had to learn this same lesson of self-reliance. One was left much to oneself, so that one might become rather than merely know, and so one was often surprised at one’s teacher’s coldness and indifference. To one’s anxious queries came the reply: “Wait and work.” Doubts came to one at times, frightful suspicions of one’s teachers, but they would pass. The true and the false reside not in things, but the intellect. As the good denotes that towards which the appetite tends, so the true denotes that towards which the intellect tends. Now there is this difference between the appetite and the intellect, or any knowledge whatsoever, that knowledge is according as the things known is the knower, whilst appetite is according as the desirer tends toward the thing desired. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

Thus the term of the appetite, namely good, is in the object desirable, and the term of the intellect, namely true, is in the intellect itself. Now as good exists in a thing so far as that thing is related to the appetite—and hence the aspect of goodness passes on from the desirable thing to the appetite, in so far as the appetite is called good if its object is good; so, since the true is in the intellect in so far as it is conformed to the object understood, the aspect of the true must needs pass from the intellect to the object understood, so that also the thing understood is said to be true in so far as it has some relation to the intellect. Now a thing understood may be in relation to an intellect either essentially or accidentally. It is related essentially to an intellect on which depends as regards its essence; but accidentally to an intellect by which it is knowable; even as we may say that a house is related essentially to the intellect of the architect, but accidentally to the intellect upon which it does not depend. Now, we do not judge a thing by what is in it accidentally, but by what is in it essentially. Hence, everything is said to be true absolutely, in so far as it is related to the intellect from which it depends; and thus it is that artificial things are said to be true a being related to our intellect. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

For a house is said to be true that expresses the likeness of the form in the architect’s mind; and words are said to be true so far as they are the signs of truth in the intellect. In the say way natural things are said to be true in so far as they express the likeness of the species that are in the divine mind. For a stone is called true, which possesses the nature proper to a stone, according to the preconception in the divine intellect. Thus, then, truth resides primarily in the intellect, and secondarily in things according as they are related to be the intellect as their principle. Consequently there are various definitions of truth. Truth is that whereby is made manifest that which is; truth makes being clear and evident and this pertains to truth according as it is in the intellect. As to the truth of things in so far as they are related to the intellect, truth is a supreme likeness without any unlikeness to a principle; truth is rightness, perceptible by the mind alone; for that is right which is in accordance with the principle; the truth of each thing is a property of the essence which is immutably attached to it. Truth is the equation of thought and thing. It is impossible for any proclaimed master to give lasting illumination to any disciple, however fervent, since it is impossible for the later to establish completeness of development and the balance which it follows automatically, except by one’s own inner activity. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

Despite all delusions to the contrary, no master can pick up a disciple and transfer one at a jump to the goal—permanently. The ancient philosophers held that the species of natural things does not proceed from any intellect, but are produced by chance. However, as they saw that truth implies relation to intellect, they were compelled to base the truth of things on their relation to our intellect. “And it came to pass that thus passed away the ninety and fifth year also, and the people began to forget those signs and wonders which they had heard, and began to be less and less astonished at a sign or a wonder from Heaven, insomuch that they began to be hard in their hearts, and blind in their minds, and began to disbelieve all which they had heard and seen—imagining up some vain thing in their hearts, that it was wrought by men and by the power of the devil, to lead away and deceive the hearts of the people; and thus did Satan get possession of the hears of the people again, insomuch that one did blind their eyes and lead them away to believe that the doctrine of Christ was a foolish and a vain thing. And it came to pass that the people began to wax strong in wickedness and abominations; and they did not believe that there should be any more signs of wonder given. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

“And Satan did go about, leading away the hearts of the people, tempting them and causing them that they should do great wickedness in the land. And thus did pass away the ninety and seventh year; and also the ninety and eight year; and also the ninety and ninth year; and also an hundred years had passed away since the days of Mosiah, who was king over the people of the Nephites. And six hundred and nine years had passed away since Lehi left Jerusalem. And nine years had passed away from the time when the sign was given, which was spoken of by the prophets, that Christ should come into the World. Now the Nephites began to reckon their time from this period when the sign was given, or from the coming of Christ; therefore, nine years had passed away. And Nephi, who was the father of Nephi, who had the charge of the records, did not return to the land of Zarahemla, and could nowhere be found in all the land. And it came to pass that the people did still remain in wickedness, notwithstanding the much preaching and prophesying which was sent among them; and thus passed away the tenth year also; and the eleventh year also passed away in iniquity. And it came to pass in the thirteenth year there began to be wars and contentions throughout all the land. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

“For the Gadinaton robbers had become so numerous, and did slay so many of the people, and did lay waste so many cities, and did spread so much death and carnage throughout the land, that it became expedient that all the people, both the Nephites and the Lamanites, should take up arms against them. Therefore, all the Lamanites who had become converted unto the Lord did unite with their brethren, the Nephites, and were compelled, for the safety of their lives and their women and their children, to take up arms against those Gadianton robbers, yea, and also to maintain their rights, and the privileges of their church and of their worship, and their freedom and their liberty. And it came to pass that before this thirteenth year had passed away the Nephites were threatened with utter destruction because of this war, which had become exceedingly sore. And it came to pass that those Lamanites who had united with the Nephites were numbered among the Nephites; and their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites; and their young men and their daughters became exceedingly fair, and they were numbered among the Nephites, and were called Nephites. And thus ended the thirteenth year. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

“And it came to pass in the commencement of the fourteenth year, the war between the robbers and the people of Nephi did continue and did become exceedingly sore; nevertheless, the people of Nephi did gain some advantage of the robbers, insomuch that they did drive them back of their lands into the mountains and into their secret places. And thus ended the fourteenth year. And in the fifteenth year they did come forth against the people of Nephi, and their many contentions and dissensions, the Gadianton robbers did gain many advantages over them. And thus ended the fifteenth year, and thus were the people in a state of many afflictions; and the sword of destruction did hang over them, insomuch that they were about to be smitten down by it, and this because of their iniquity,” reports 3 Nephi 2.1-19. The God of dawn sends his maidens before Him as heralds to announce the coming of the light. There, in the east, the night increases as He appears on the horizon. God, please bring down the God. God, please bring down the light. God, please bring down the day. I set my face toward the eastern horizon and wait, in the dark, for the coming of day. See, there, He rises, the shining one rises, and I stand here praising, revering the wonder. Christ helps us to correct our thinking, encourages and inspires us, but we must do the work and keep the scriptures in our hearts. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

O most loving Father, Who willest us to give thanks for all things, to dread nothing but the loss of Thee, and to cast all our care on Thee Who carest for us; preserve us from faithless fears and Worldly anxieties, and please grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of Love which is immortal, and which Thou hast manifested unto us in Thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. For Grace to speak the Truth in love, in the presence of the illumined Christ, we have the chance to become different for a while, to reflect some of His light into ourselves. However, unless we keep up with our prayers and reading of the scriptures, the reflected light, being borrowed, will fade away. We cannot find exemption from the labours necessary to generate our own merely because we have found association with someone whose own labours are finished. No one can teach you how to realize your own true being, that is, no one except yourself, for the realization has to be yours. The revelation leading to it will have to be yours, too, and the understanding which will lead up to the revelation comes from your own effort. Without Jesus Christ, salvation is impossible. Spiritual awareness is not like a landed estate which can be handed down as an heirloom to another. Those who want it must create it for themselves. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23

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