Faith is not so much the knowledge of truth as loyalty to it. The individual who plays a part in historical events never oneself understands their significance; one cannot foresee the full effects of one’s actions, and one cannot say what the outcome would have been if one action had been left undone. There is a flow of historical events made up of an infinity of individual actions; the flow can be observed, but it cannot be charted, determined by free will from outside, or reduced to law. Not the people who seek to control this flow, but those who surrender themselves to it, in an almost elemental way, understand most what is going on. The meaning of life cannot be based on personal satisfaction and enjoyment, since death destroys all such satisfaction and makes it meaningless. Life has meaning on the basis of two beliefs: that God exists and that we need to renounce completely the welfare of the individual personality and seek the meaning of our life in its divine origin, which is expressed in love of other beings. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6

Humans have a real or special self which is immortal. True Christianity rests on love and a few commandments: do not be angry; do not lust; do not fight. The purpose of the human spirit is to merge itself in God by merging itself in other people; people are more valuable when they express of love of God and other people as a manifestation of the divine impersonal force, which is love. Humans must therefore renounce the person life, in which one loves oneself alone and seeks maximum enjoyment for oneself, and learn to love all people. This does not mean renouncing one’s natural personality, one’s attributes in time and space, which will not melt away: it means making the natural personality a tool of the spirit. There is no personal immortality, but humans become immortal only through merging one’s personality into humanity as such. Language is the thought of the race expressing itself. It is also rational—we cannot express emotions and sensations linguistically. We speak our thoughts; we speak of our feelings and emotions. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6

Every one of us must answer for oneself, and the practices of others will never warrant and secure us. Even after the Fall of Man from primordial innocence there can be steady progress toward universal rehabilitation. It is the highest folly to regulate our actions by any other standard than by which we must be judged. Evil is inherited from time and change and they are only condition of redemption. The ultimate perfection of humankind is the potential in the human essence to be realized. All humans are to be rehabilitated, regardless of their present merits. There is no eternal Hell. Even religion will progress, in that God will reveal its truths bit by bit as humans become worthy of receiving them. Each person will make oneself worthy by listening to one’s heart by the means of the grace of God. Essential factors in life are love and devotion, which activate the journey and give strength to the endeavor. The destination is sought because one is impelled towards it and attracted by it. The way is lighted by God’s grace as the Holy Spirit, which is the guide to our Creator. The soul is seeking the progressive surrender of the obstacles to Love.  #RandolphHarris 3 of 6

If ever we will cleanse our way, it must be by taking heed thereto according to the word of God; and that word which is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two edges sword, piercing even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, an of the joints of marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart will certainly discover many things to be sinful and hideous, which pass for very innocent in the eyes of the World. Let us therefore keep from the path of the destroyer. Let us acquaint ourselves with the strict and holy laws of our religion. Let us consider the discourses of our blessed Saviour, (especially that divine sermon on the mount,) and the writings of his holy apostles, where an ingenuous and unbiased mind may clearly discern those limits and bounds by which our actions ought to be confined. And then let us never look upon any sin as light and inconsiderable; but be fully persuaded, that the smallest is infinitely heinous in the sight of God, and prejudicial to the souls of humans; and if we have the right sense of things, we should be as deeply affected with the least irregularities, as now we are with the highest delinquencies. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6

The will delights in its own free exercise, but a will governed by knowledge or understanding cannot take unqualified pleasure in its determinations. If the will was confined to the choice of those things that the understanding declared to be good, we must of necessity hesitate in many things, and be anxious and solicitous in all. We would subsequently fail to experience the pleasure that arises from the exercise of liberty. It is therefore convenient for us to derive our peculiar and chief happiness from the will itself; for if it depended on the understanding it would come with difficult, pains, and anxiety, and we could seldom enjoy it pure and unmixed. This is better therefore for us to be able to please ourselves without a long speculation of antecedents and consequences, though with a danger of sinning, than to cease from election, and be restrained from the exercise of our faculties, till a whole train of these were perfectly apparent. So, what is it in your life that God has given you that he is breathing on and wanting to multiply? #RandolphHarris 5 of 6

Father God, you are the most powerful force in the Universe and you made me just the way I am. I do not know how all the situations in my life are going to work out. I do not know how my dreams can come to pass. However, I trust you. My life is in your hands. I believe that I am anointed, equipped, empowered, the right size, the right nationality, and the right personality. I know the right people. I have the right amount of talent. I believe that I have exactly what I need to fulfill my destiny. The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. Righteousness goes before us and prepares the way for our steps. God supplies perfectly measured grace to meet the need of the godly. For daily needs, there is daily grace: for sudden needs, sudden grace; for overwhelming need, overwhelming grace. God’s grace is given wonderfully, but not wastefully; freely but not foolishly; bountifully but not blindly. Try claiming God’s blessings instead of merely longing for them. God, thank you that your gracious hands are upon me. I know I have an advantage. I have the favor factor and will be able to fulfill my destiny. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6

I have exactly what I need to fulfill my destiny. What an infinite pleasure must it needs be, thus, as it were, to lose ourselves in God, and, being swallowed up in the overcoming sense of his goodness, to offer ourselves a living dedication, always ascending unto God in flames of love! Never does a soul know what solid joy and substantial pleasure is, till once, being weary of itself, it renounces all propriety, give itself up unto the Author of its being, and feel itself become a hallowed and devoted thing, and can say, from an inward sense and feeling, “My beloved is mine,” (I account all his interest in mine own,) “and I am his:” I am content to be any thing for him, and care not for myself, but that I may serve him. A person, moulds into this temper, would find pleasure in all the dispensations of Providence: temporal enjoyments would have another relish, when one should taste the divine goodness in them, and consider them as tokens of love, sent by one’s dearest Lord and Maker: and chastisements, though they be not joyous, but grievous, would hereby lose their sting, the rod as well as the staff would comfort one: one would snatch a kiss from the hand that was smiting one, and gather sweetness from that severity.  #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

One would rejoice, that though God did not the will of such a humble and innocent creature as oneself, yet he did his own will, and accomplished his own designs, which are infinitely more holy and wise. The experiences we have in seeing such movements can be described by saying that visual sensations linger and very rapidly fade. (This fact rarely obtrudes on us because we follow a moving object in which we are interested by head or eye movements and do not attend to the resultant blurring of background objects.) However, we are obliged to describe the facts by saying that a moving object can be simultaneously seen (sensed) in a series of different positions? We are obliged to do this if we adopt a realist theory of perception. Consider the case of the moving watch, and as we conceive such a physical object, it cannot occupy different regions of space at the same time; thus, the realist must describe this experience by saying that, for a very short time, a person still senses (very indistinctly) the watch at place 1 when it has visibly reached place 2. The exercises of religion, which to others are insipid and tedious, do yield the highest pleasures and delight to souls possessed with divine love. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

People who God rejoice when they are called to go up to the house of the Lord, that they may see his power and his glory, as they have formerly seen it in the sanctuary. They never think themselves so happy, as when, having retired from the World, and gotten free from the noise and hurry of affairs, and silenced all their clamorous passions (those troublesome guests within,) they have placed and communion with God: they delight to adore his perfections, and recount his favors,–and to protest their affection to him, and tell him a thousand times that they love him; to lay their troubles or want before him, and disburden their hearts is his heart. Repentance itself is a delightful exercise, when it flows from the principle of love. There is a secret sweetness which accompanies those tears of remorse, those meltings and relentings of a soul returning unto God, and lamenting its former unkindness. God is conceived as the God of reason, and because human nature is inalterable, human’s reason has known God being and attributes from the beginning of time. Rational people, then, reason downward from the divine perfections to morality and religion. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

All people, whether of the highest intellect of the meanest capacity are equally capable of knowing the immutable law of nature or reason and the religion of nature. There are things which show, by their inner nature, that they are the will of an infinitely wise and good God (for example, the relations between God and human beings, the immutability of morality). Also, there are things that have no worth in themselves, which are to be considered solely as means (forms of worship, beneficial regulations and precepts); these are to be used as humans see fit in their quest for happiness. Furthermore, there are things (the vested interest of priestcraft, miracles, enthusiasm) so indifferent that they cannot be considered as either means or ends, and if emphasis is placed on them in religious matters, the worst sort of superstition ensures—and superstition is the enemy of true religion. And keep in mind, many people are totally incapable of right reason. We need not desire a better evidence that any human is in the wrong, than to hear one declare against reason, and thereby acknowledge that reason is against him or her. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

The severities of a holy life, and that constant watch which we are obliged to keep over our hearts and ways, are very troublesome to those who are ruled and acted by an external law, and have no law in their minds inclining them to the performance of their duty: but where divine love possesses the soul, it stands as sentinel to keep out everything that may offend the beloved, and does disdainfully repulse those temptations which assault it: it complies cheerfully, not only with explicit commands, but with the most secret notices of the beloved’s pleasure, and is ingenious in discovering what will be most grateful and acceptable unto one: it makes modification and self-denial change their harsh and dreadful names, and become easy, sweet, and delightful things. The spirit of God in the form of love begins to dissolve hardened extremes, and humanism and situational ethics which take context into account emerge to bring about greater balance and a sense of ethics to counteract extremism. The heart is the bridge the opens the doors for benevolence, mercy, and forgiveness through understanding and acceptance. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

The next branch of the Divine Life, is a universal charity and love. The excellency of this grace will be easily acknowledged; for what can more noble and generous than a heart enlarged to embrace the whole World, whose wishes and designs are leveled at the good and welfare of the Universe, which considers every human’s interest as its own? One who loves one’s neighbor as oneself, can never entertain any base or injurious thought, or be wanting in expression of bounty. One had rather suffer a thousand wrongs, than be guilty of one; and never accounts oneself happy, but when someone or other has been benefitted by one: the malice or ingratitude of humans is not able to resist one’s love: one overlooks their injuries, and pities their folly, and overcomes their evil with good: and never designs any other revenge against one’s most bitter and malicious enemies, than to put all objections one can upon them, whether they will or not. Is it any wonder that such a person be reverenced and admired, and accounted the darling of humankind? #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

This inward goodness and benignity of spirit reflects a certain sweetness and serenity upon the very countenance, and makes it amiable and lovely: it inspires the soul with a holy resolution and courage, and makes it capable of enterprising and effecting the highest things. Those heroic actions which we are wont to read with admiration, have, for the most part been the effects of the love of one’s country, or of particular friendships: and, certainly, a more extensive and universal affection must be much more powerful and efficacious. Again, as charity flows from a noble and excellent temper, so it is accompanied with the greatest satisfaction and pleasure: it delights the soul to feel itself thus enlarged, and to be delivered from those disquieting, as well as deformed passions, malice, hatred and envy; and become gentle, sweet, benign. Had I my choice of all things that might tend to my present felicity, I would pitch upon this, to have my heart possessed with the greatest kindness and affection towards all people and things in the World. I am sure this would make e partake in all the happiness of others: their inward endowments and outward prosperity; everything that did benefit and advantage them would afford me comfort and pleasure. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God’s thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking. And though I should frequently meet with occasions of grief and compassion, yet there is a sweetness in commiseration, which makes it infinitely more desirable to be kind than a stupid insensibility: and the consideration of that infinite goodness and wisdom which governs the World, might repress any excessive trouble for particular calamities that happen in it: and the hopes or possibility of human’s after happiness, might moderate their sorrow for their present misfortunes. Certainly, next to the love and enjoyment of God, that ardent charity and affection wherewith blessed souls do embrace one another, is justly to be reckoned as the greatest felicity of those regions above; and did it universally prevail in the World, it would anticipate that blessedness, and make us taste of the joys of Heaven upon Earth. For all we know, we may never meet again. Before you go, make this moment sweet again. I will hold out my hand and my heart will be in it.  #RandolphHarris 8 of 8

Light is the first essential. Light stimulates, nourishes, preserves. You can no more do without it, than if you were a flower. The love of God is a delightful and affectionate sense of the divine perfections, which makes the soul resign and sacrifice itself wholly unto God, desiring above all thing to please him, and delighting in nothing so much as in fellowship and communion with him, and being ready to do or suffer any thing for God’s sake, or at his pleasure. When a person is intrinsically motivated, a certain amount of challenge, surprise, and complexity makes a task rewarding. Never was anyone unwelcomes to Jesus Christ when they came with honest intention, nor did he deny any request which tended to the good of those that asked it. All of his miraculous works were instances of his goodness as well as his power; and they benefited those on whom they were wrought, as well as they amazed the beholders. The charity of Jesus Christ was not confined to his kindred or relations; nor was his kindness swallowed up in the endearment of that peculiar friendship which he carried toward his beloved disciples; but everyone was his friend who obeyed his holy commands. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9

The soul cannot be a form perfecting that of the body. It is itself composite and is related to the body as a pilot is to a ship. The soul is able to gain knowledge by abstracting universals from singulars through sense (the complete universal can be known from one singular), but it gains more certain knowledge from above, receiving ideas from Ideas through interior illumination. Knowledge also begins from experience of the material World, and understanding is developed through reason; free activity determines personal and eternal destiny. When extrinsic motivation is stressed, complexity, surprise, and challenge just become barriers to reaching a goal. A person who is extrinsically motivated wants to take the fastest, most direct route to a goal. Typically, this undermines creativity. Extrinsic motivation is often needed to develop enough skill or knowledge to make an activity intrinsically rewarding. This can be observed in learning to read, to play a musical instrument, or enjoy a sport. This is part of the role of the sense and divine enlightenment in the acquisition of knowledge. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9

Nature represents an absolute freedom and wildness, whereas society provides a freedom and culture merely civil. Humans should be regarded as an inhabitant, or part and parcel of Nature, rather than members of society. It is only through a sustained involvement with the vast personality of nature that humans can simplify their existence, clarify their senses, drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, thus achieving in practice a purer and tougher form of the self-reliance extolled. Individual communion with nature is more fundamental then relationships with other people, even in societies where the worse forms of economic alienation have been overcome. For, unlike any social experience, the experience of nature becomes as much a discipline for the moral will as a stimulant to creative imagination. However, essentially, it is the spontaneity of wilderness or nature that is to be favorably contrasted with the politico-economic organization of advanced European and New England societies. All good things are wild and free. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9

The creative spontaneity of nature that is so crucial for human’s spiritual well-being is embodied in all enduring products of culture, in religious scriptures, in music, and especially in mythologies of all kinds. People are more likely to be creative when they are intrinsically motivated. On the job, for instance, salaries and bonuses may increase the amount of work done. However, work quality is tied more to intrinsic factors, such as interest, freedom to choose, and useful feedback. Intrinsic motivation also promotes personal involvement in a task. This, in turn, tends to lead to greater creativity. However, creativity killers on the job are: Working under surveillance, having your choices restricted by rules, working primarily to get a good evaluation (or avoid a bad one) or working mainly to get more money. Commerce—that incessant business—and its political manifestations are indeed vital function of human society, yet a bare minimum of time should be consciously spent on them. They are infra-human, a kind of vegetation, whose operations, like those of the human body, should be performed for the most part automatically, unconsciously. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9

Reality is a visible process; the movements of the phenomenal World are a branch of the divine purity in life. Love is that powerful and prevalent passion, by which all the faculties and inclinations of the soul are determined, and on which both its perfection and happiness depend. The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love. One who loves mean and sordid things does thereby become base and vile, but a noble and well-placed affection does advance and improve the spirit into a conformity with the perfections which it loves. The images of these do frequently present themselves unto the mind, and, by a secret force and energy, insinuate into the very constitution of the soul, and mould and fashion it unto their own likeness. Hence, we may see how easily lovers or friend do slide into the imitation of the persons whom they affect; and how, even before they are aware, they begin to resemble them, not only in the more considerable instances of their deportment, but also in their voice and gesture, and that which we call their mien or air; and certainly, we should as well transcribe the virtues and inward beauties of the soul, if they are the object and motive of our love. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9

However now, as all the creatures we converse with have their mixture and alloy, we are always in hazard to be sullied and corrupted by placing our affections on them. Passion does easily blind our eyes, so that we first approve, and then imitate the things that are blamable in them. The true way to improve and ennoble our soul is, by fixing our love on the divine perfections, that we may have them always before us, and derive an impression of them on ourselves; and beholding with open face, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, we may be changed into the same image, from glory to glory. One who, with a generous and holy ambition, has raised one’s eyes towards that uncreated beauty and goodness, and fixed one’s affections there, is quite another spirit, of a more excellent and heroic temper, then the rest of the World, and cannot but infinitely disdain all mean and unworthy things; will not entertain any low or base thoughts which might disparage one’s high and noble pretensions. Love is the greatest and most excellent thing we are masters of and therefore it is folly and baseness to bestow it unworthy. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9

If a mad scientist were to replace your best friend’s brain with a computer, how would you know that something was wrong? One of the first telltale signs might be an absence of emotion. Emotion is a state characterized by arousal, plus changes in facial expression, gestures, posture, and subjective feelings. Have you ever waited until someone was in a good mood to ask for a favor? If you have, you are aware that emotions have a powerful influence on motivation. People who are feeling happy are more likely to help others in need. It is equally apparent, however, that emotions can have a negative impact. Hate, anger, contempt, disgust, and fear all disrupt behavior and relationships. The foundation of the word emotion means to move, and emotions do indeed move us. It is indeed the only thing we can call our own: other things may be taken from us by violence, but not can ravish our love. If anything else be counted ours by giving our love, we give all, so far as we make over our hearts and wills, by which we possess our other enjoyments. It is not possible to refuse one anything, to whom by love we have given ourselves. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9

Since love is the privilege of gifts to receive their value from the mind of the giver, and not to be measured by the event, but by the desire, one who loves may, in some sense, be said not only to bestow all that one has, but all thing else which may make the beloved person happy; since one does heartily wish them, and would really give them if they were in one’s power: in which sense it is that one makes to say, that divine love does, in a manner, give God unto oneself, by the complacency it takes in the happiness and perfection of God’s nature. However, though this may seem too strained an expression, certainly love is the worthiest present we can offer unto God, and it is extremely debased when we bestow it another way.  Divine love does advance and elevate the soul, so it is that alone which can make it happy. The highest and most ravishing pleasures, the most solid and substantial delights that human nature is capable of, are those which arise from the endearments of a well-placed and successful affection. Thank you, God, I know I am saved and sanctified. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9

That which embitters love, and makes it ordinarily a very troublesome and hurtful passion, is the placing it on those who have not worth enough to deserve it, or affection and gratitude to require it, or whose absence may deprive us of the pleasure of their converse, or their miseries occasion our trouble. To all these evils are they exposed, whose chief and supreme affection is placed on creatures like themselves; but the love of God delivers us from them all. God has in Himself all power to defend you, all wisdom to direct you, all mercy to pardon you, all grace to enrich you, all righteousness to clothe you, all goodness to supply you, and all happiness to crown you. I believe that I will see the surpassing greatness of Your favor and blessings that will catapult me years ahead. My hopes and dreams are in Your hands. I trust God. I am expecting a sudden and widespread increase, and to rise to a new level. God has great things in store for His people; they ought to have large expectations. It is the last fair deal gone down I love the way you do, good Lord. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9

If a kingdom be a great family, a family likewise is a little kingdom, torn with factions and exposed to revolutions. The family is regarded as a natural and reasonable type of small society, designed to provide for the procreation and raising of children and for the mutual good of husband and wife. The main reason why people get married is to raise children, so our approach to the family is child-oriented. There should be but one husband and wife in a family; they should stay together until the children are fully grown and educated; they should deal honestly and charitably with each other as marriage partners. Stop listening to the tyranny of your individual natural life and win freedom into the spiritual life. The Savior has set us free from sin, but this is the freedom that comes from being set free from myself by the Son. We tend to rely on our own energy instead of being energized by the power that comes from identification with Jesus Christ. God has written on every side of our nature,–on the mind, on the soul, yes, and in our very flesh,–the interdict forbidding love to have any one direction only, under penalty of being forever dwarfed. #RanolphHarris 1 of 12

God’s being and that of created things do not belong within the same genus, but there is some remote resemblance between divine and nondivine beings. The soul is capable of existing apart from the human body; it is brought into existence directly by God’s creative action; it is without constituent parts and so cannot be disintegrated, that is to say, the human soul is immortal. Moreover, human’s soul is the immediate source of life, existence, and all perfection in the human body. Subsequent propositions emphasize the higher human functions of cognition and volition, and they distinguish sensitive knowledge of individual bodies and their qualities from intellectual understanding of the Universal features of reality. Willing is subsequent to intellect cognition, and the free character of volitional acts of choice is strongly asserted. The presence of the beloved person, the Divine love makes us partake of an Infinite Happiness. One that loves God finds sweetness in every dispensation and the duties of religion are a delight. There is an excellency of charity and pleasure attends the charity in the children of God. #RandolphHarris 2 of 12

There are despondent thoughts of some newly awakened to a right sense of things, but we must do what we can and depend on the Divine Assistance. We must shun all manner of sin, and we must know what things are sinful. We must resist the temptations of sin by considering the evils they will draw on us and keep constant watch over ourselves. It is also important to often examine our actions so that we fit to restrain ourselves in many lawful thing. Forgiveness does not merely mean that I am saved from hell and have been made ready for Heaven (no one would accept forgiveness on that level). Forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a newly created relationship which identifies me with God in Christ. The miracle of redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One. He does this by putting into me a new nature of excellency of purity and a pleasure and sweetness of a humble temper, which is the nature of Jesus Christ. To beget Divine Love, we must consider the miracle of grace. The cost to God was the Cross of Christ. #RandolphHarris 3 of 12

We should meditate on God’s goodness and love. The only way we can be forgiven is by being brought back to God through the atonement of the Cross. God’s forgiveness is possible only in the supernatural realm. Once you realize all that is costs God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vise, constrained by the love of God. Prayer, another instrument of religion, and the advantage of mental prayer are that we experience a union in the soul with God. Prayer kindles in the soul a sympathetic power, and lifts it into connection with higher realms. With its holy fervor, there is blended a natural calmness.  Health and healing are in its influence. To the young, prayer will prove to be the armor of strength; to the aged, perpetual renovation and Christians of all communions will find within it a foretaste of immortality. The life to which it will lead is a Heaven upon Earth, and that is but the commencement of Heaven without end. To all who hold in honor Christ and His gospel, to those who will love God and humans, to each one who will so live in time as to make it the joyous gateway to a glorious eternity, this is the forgiveness of God. #RandolphHarris 4 of 12

I wish I could vent my affection and express my gratitude towards God, Jesus, and all of the World. I am thankful that you have come to honor me with your friendship, and that I am kindly accepted by you, and God’s providence and true religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, it is Christ formed within us. The nature of religion is best expressed by calling it a Divine Life. It is a love which a pious person bears to God and goodness. The holy and religious person do much eye the law of God, and have a great regard unto it, yet it is not so much the sanction of the law, as its reasonableness, purity, and benevolence, which does prevail with them. They account it excellent and desirable in itself, and in keeping of it there is great reward; and that divine lobe wherewith they are actuated, makes them become a law unto themselves. Who shall prescribe a law to those that love? Love is a more powerful law which does move them. Love is in all things a most wonderful teacher. The most interesting and pardonable of human weaknesses—love. #RandolphHarris 5 of 12

The beloved lover is always called happy, and happiness is considered as a well-fleshed indifference to sorrow outside it. That simple, primitive love which knits us to the beings who have been nearest to us, in their times of helplessness or of anguish. Perfect love has a breath of poetry which can exalt the relations of the least-instructed human beings. Love makes the image God become wrought in the souls of humans by the power of His Holy Spirit; but also in regard of love’s nature, it is a resemblance of the divine perfections, the image of the Almighty shining in the soul of humanity. Love is a beam of the eternal light, a drop of that infinite ocean of goodness; and they who are endowed with it may be said to have God dwelling in their souls, and Christ formed within them. Our state of mind is powerful in its effects. It can be the enemy that penetrates right into our soul and distracts our mind from God. There are certain attitudes we should never dare to indulge. If we do, we will find they have distracted us from faith in God. #RandolphHarris 6 of 12

Until we get back into a quiet mood before Him, our faith is of no value, and confidence in the flesh and in human ingenuity is what rules our lives. Our eyes should be riveted on God and we should focus on His Scriptures. This is how knowledge of God’s countenance is gained and how God reveals Himself to us. Our spiritual strength begins to be drained when we stop lifting our eyes to God. Our stamina is sapped, not so much through external troubles surrounding us but through problems in our thinking. The glorious things that are spoken of in Heaven, may make even a carnal heart in love with it: the metaphors and similitudes made use of in the Scriptures, of crowns and scepters, and rivers of pleasure, will easily affect an individual’s fancy, and make one wish to be there, though on neither understand nor desire those spiritual pleasures which are described and shadowed forth by them: and when such a person comes to believe that Christ has purchased those glorious things for one, one may feel a kind of tenderness and affection towards so great a benefactor, and imagine that one is mightily enamored with him. #RandolphHarris 7 of 12

Pay attention to the external Source and the internal power will be there. We lose power because we do not focus on the right thing. Concentrate on God’s focal point. We have to focus on the great point of spiritual power—the Cross. If we stay in contact with that center of power, its energy is released in our lives. If we are to share in Christ’s glory, we must be willing to share in His sufferings. The suffering the Scripture refers to occurs when we have to say no to our flesh, when we remain calm after we do not get out way, and when we stay in faith even when life seems unfair. Our character is being developed in this way. Our gold is being polished. What are the irritants in your life that God is using to become Gold and Diamonds? The love of God is a delightful and affectionate sense of the divine perfections, which makes the soul resign and sacrifice itself wholly unto us, desiring above all things to please God, and delighting in nothing so much as in fellowship and communion with God, and being ready to suffer any thing for his sake, or at his pleasure. #RandolphHarris 8 of 12

*Purity means that we find pleasure in more divine and intellectual aspects of life. Through this affection may have its first rise from the favors and mercies of God toward ourselves, yet it does, in its growth and progress, transcends such particular considerations, and ground itself on God’s infinite goodness, manifested in all the works of creation and providence. A soul thus possessed with divine love, must needs be enlarged, toward all humankind, in a sincere and unbounded affection, because of the relation they have to God being His creatures, and having something of His image stamped upon them; and this is that charity called the second branch of religion, and under which all the parts of justice, all the duties we owe to our neighbor, are eminently comprehended: for He who does truly lobe all the World, will be nearly concerned in the interest of every one; and so far from wronging or injuring any person, that God will resent any evil that befalls others, as if it happened to Himself. My enemies have betrayed me, have overtaken poor Bob at last. And there is one thing certainly, they have stones all in my pass. Now you trying to take my life, and all my lovin’, too. #RandolphHarris 9 of  12

You laid a passway for me, now what are you trying to do? I am crying please, please let us be friends, and when you hear me howling in my passway rider, please open your door and let me in. I have three lanes to truck home, boys, please do not block my road. I have been feeling ashamed about my rider, baby I am booked and I got to go. Humility imports a deep sense of our own meanness, with hearty and affectionate acknowledgment of our owing all that we are to the divine bounty; which is always accompanied with a profound submission to the will of God, and great deadness toward the glory of the World and applause of humans. These are the highest perfections that either humans or angels are capable of—the very foundation of Heaven laid in the soul; and one who hath attained them, needs not desire to pry into the hidden rolls of God’s decrees, or search the volumes of Heaven to know what is determined about his everlasting condition; but one may find a copy of God’s thought concerning one, written in one’s own heart. #RandolphHarris 10 of 12

One’s love to God may give one assurance of God’s favour to one; and those beginnings of happiness, which one feels in the conformity of the powers of one’s soul to the nature of God, and compliance with His will, are a sure pledge that God’s felicity shall be perfected, and continued to all eternity; and it is not without reason many would rather see the real impression of a God-like nature upon our own souls, than have a vision from Heaven, or an angel sent to tell me that my name was enrolled in the book of life. We all face situations that seem impossible, and it is easy to become discouraged. We might think that things will never work out, but the Scripture says God is going before us making our difficult places more beneficial to us. You may not have the right connections now to accomplish your dreams, but you do not have to worry. God is going before you and lining up the right people, opportunities, and situations. God has already written every day of your life in His book. “The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all people will see God’s salvation” (Luke3.5-6). #RandolphHarris 11 of 12Are just now, until we start again. We travel alone, this is not the end. You have to let it go. All alone. Because buried in the sand, the bones of man. Everything you know, carry on in us. Somewhere in my dreams is everything I lost. Follow that road. Meet me. Ashes burning. The smoke settles on my skin, someone save me, help me breathe. Fire spreading everywhere, I feel we are running out of air. This loved was cursed some lone ago, to play with fire you will never win. We are burning. We must never allow anything to interfere with the consecration of our spiritual power. Consecration (being dedicated to God’s service) is our part; sanctification (being set apart from sin and being made holy) is God’s part. We must make a deliberate determination to be interested only in what God is interested. In the heart of the city, where you and I are free, I do not know what this means, but let us choose to believe it. And wait till the light will guide us home. Take me to a life I have never know. I have been waiting it all my life. #RandolphHarris 12 of 12