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This is a kind of Spiritual Adultery that is Spearing Across the Earth
By withdrawing oneself from society and into contemplation, the social nature of human beings and one’s ability to perform good works becomes insignificant, unimportant, and irrelevant. How can we then uphold the requirement of performing good works found in the scriptures? The mysterious process by which our Earthly life instructs us for another state of being tells of that our action obey an unknow law, implicit in ourselves, but which does not conform to our logic. We know that every creature has a private good and interest of one’s own, which nature has compelled one to seek. We know that there is in reality a right and a wrong state of every creature; and that one’s right state is forward by nature and affectionately sought by oneself. And because every creature has a certain interest or good, there must be also a certain end or purpose to which everything in one’s constitution must naturally be related. If anything in one’s appetites, passions, or affections runs contrary to this end, we must count it as being bad for one. In this way, one can be bad with respects to oneself; just as one is certainly bad with respects to other of one’s kind when any of one’s appetites or passions make one any way injurious to them. Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into still subtler form. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9
When first formed visionary schemes, we know them to be absurd, but familiarize them by degrees, and in time lose sight of their folly. This is unacceptable because any interpretation that disallows humans their ability to understand the scriptures produces moral ramifications. Religion undoubtedly contains some perfect daemonists, people who believe that the governing mind or minds are not absolutely and necessarily good—are not confined to what is best, but are capable of acting according to mere will or fancy, because we know whole nations who worship the devil or fiend to who they sacrifice and offer prayers and supplications, really just because they fear him. And we know very well that in some religious there people who do not proclaim any idea of God except that of a being who is arbitrary, violent, a cause of bad, and condemning people to misery—which amounts to substituting a daemon or devil in place of God. One who has nothing external that can divert one must find pleasure in one’s own thoughts, and must conceive oneself what one is not, for who is pleased with what one is? A person can be more an atheist than a theist, or more a daemonist than a theist, depending on which of the relevant opinions predominates thought. Moral standards are to be severe and rigorous in order to prevent condemning the masses to Hell. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9
This globe, the Earth, appears to have a real dependence on something beyond it (e.g. the Sun, the Galaxy, or its fellow planets), then it—the Earth—really is only a part of some other system. And if there is similarly a system of all things, and a Universal nature, every particular being or system must be either good or bad in that general system of the Universe. What about something insignificant and useless? That would be an imperfection, and so would be bad in the general system. Therefore, a being cannot be wholly and really bad except by being bad with respect to the Universal system; and in that case the system of the Universe is bad or imperfect. However, if the evil of one private system is the good of others, if it contributes still to the good of the general system (as when one creatures lives by the destruction of another, one thing is generated from the corruption [= ‘rotting’] of another, or one planetary system or vortex swallows up another) then the evil of that private system is not really bad in itself; any more than the pain of cutting new teeth is bad in a system or body which is so constituted that without this episode of pain it would suffer worse by being defective. The Bible is for everyone to understand and practice, including the poor and uneducated. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9
So we cannot say of any being that it is wholly and absolutely bad unless we can show for certain that what we are calling bad is not also good in some other system or in relation to some other order or economy. However, if the World contained one species of animals that were destructive to every other species, that could rightly be called a bad species, because it is bad in the animal system. And if in any species of animals (for example the human species) one person has a nature that makes one pernicious to the rest, then one can in this respect rightly be called a bad person. Prediction is vague. The notion of prediction is unquestionably an essential part of the subject matter of logic, but the predicates might be extralinguistic and even extramental entities. Thus crucial vagueness, which was to some extend also the source of the medievals’ concer with universals, left open to the possibility that logic might be essentially a science of reality, resembling or subsumed under metaphysics. Prediction occurs only in a proposition, and the only constituents of propositions are utterances; thus, only utterances may be predicated. Some utterances are significant; some are not. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and will all thy mind. You do not need me to go through envy, malice, ill-temperament, or other such hateful passions to show how each is bad and makes the creatures that has them bad. However, perhaps I should point out that even kindness and love of the most natural sort (e.g. a creature’s love for its offspring) is vicious if it is immoderate and beyond a certain degree of intensity. Why? Because excessive tenderness destroys the effect of love, and excessive pity makes us incapable of giving help. Thus, excessive motherly love is a vicious fondness; excessive pity is effeminacy and weakness; undue concern for self-preservation is meanness and cowardice; having too little concern for self-preservation, or none at all, is rashness; and the opposite concern (namely a passion leading to self-destruction) is a mad and desperate depravity. God was manifest in flesh, justified by the Spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the World, and received up into glory. With God all things are possible, but oftentimes he does his work with awful instruments, there is a peacemaker called Death. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9
To be sure, proof in existence of the ineligible World, also known as the mind of God, the environmental movement protested the consequences of abundant consumption. Yet, it did not therefore, rethink the practices and aims of living itself, but only those of living too extravagantly. Air, water, space, nature: these are the subject of scarcity. Economics focuses on the scarcity of time in which to enjoy abundance. Thus, for the first time ever, humans are faced with this real, permanent problem—the World being overpopulated and there not being enough money nor resources to take care of the rapidly expanding population. While people demand letting illegal immigrants inhabit America, they are not paying attention to the fact that we are losing jobs, for instance, Sears is closing 149 stores this year. Also, new houses, which are 300 square feet, and would not uphold in a storm and have no foundation, are being built in parking lots because people with jobs can no longer afford food and a traditional house or an apartment, but yet Americans want to keep adding more of a strain on their resources. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9
The permanent problem on Earth—how to use this freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy leisure which science and compound interest will have won for them, to live wisely and agreeably and well. A builder of larger social whole, the instinct for peace and quiet, for respite for respite from stimulation and disturbances, in short, for death (not in death as destruction, but death as peace) is an expression that has emerged out of the experiences of immature minds as mediator between this pleasure-seeking mass of instinct and of the reality principle. You cannot always get what you want, but if you try some time, you might just find what you need. We must turn work into something enjoyable. We must treat the World as a garden to cultivate, not as a storehouse to pillage. For as by the existence of the creatures, we come to know there is a creator, so by their loveliness is that we come to know that their Author, and come to love him. We must first experience and come to know the things on Earth before we can come to know and love God. Experience is not only critical to general knowledge, but it is absolutely necessary to our ability to know God and to know the duties of a good life. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9
Love is to be inherently centered upon God. Love is the movement of the soul towards good, or God. Love is a disposition or act of the mind as a reaction to anything which we find pleasure. When we love the creature, we are then wishing something good for it, that is be improved or endure; this love is referred to as benevolence and charity. This love cannot apply to God because we cannot wish upon God anything more since he is absolute. Thus, our love for creatures is the love of benevolence (since we wish them well), but this is not equivalent to what we might call real live, these are only acts of charity. Therefore, we must love God with the love of desire. For our love of God brings no additional goodness to God, but benefits only us; to love creatures would be sinful. Love of desire is a complete love, while benevolence is only partial love. We cannot love something fully if it is not completely loveable. Our heart is so much God’s property and peculiar, and out so entirely to be devoted to him, that this is a kind of Spiritual Adultery to admit any creature in a partnership with one in our love. It is in loving something partially that is completely loveable that we are depriving it of our love and committing ourselves to sin. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9
This World and this life matters. God created our sense organs and real flowers. This World is not just an illusion. The material World is important. If none of this matter, if Earth was not our home, then there would be no reason at all for God to have created our sense organs or any real flowers to begin with. God could easily produce in us the ideas and sensations of flowers with or without there being actual flowers. Likewise, God would have worked in vain in creating our sense organs since these would have nothing to contribute in our experience of the World. For if we must love nothing but what is lovely, and nothing is lovely but what is our good, and nothing is our good but what does us good, and nothing does us good but what causes pleasure in us. I fear so many people live and die as idolaters, and the greatest part of the future will do so; since I guess not one in a million will be found capable of apprehending, and being convinced of this new hypothesis of seeing all things in God. The purpose of Christian doctrine is to enable its subscribers the opportunity for a good life entailing the need for good actions. Turn your heart over to God and know that he is the creator of all that is good and pleasurable and the rest of your life will be the best of your life. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9
The Morning Star is the Evening Star
Life and the World around us is a painted veil, an illusion though which we penetrate to the reality behind. Religion and virtue seem in many respect to be so nearly related that they are generally presumed to be inseparable companions. We are so willing to think well of their union that we hardly allow it to be permissible to speak or even think of them separately. However, it may by questioned whether this attitude can be theoretically justified. We certainly do sometimes encounter cases that seem to go against this general supposition. We have known people who have the appearance of great zeal in religion, but have lacked even the common affections of humanity, and shown themselves extremely degenerate and corrupt. Others who have paid little regard to religion and been considered as mere atheists have been seen to practice the rules of morality and in many cases to act with such good meaning and affection towards humankind that one seems forced to admit that they are virtuous. In our everyday lives, our wiliness to have dealings with someone may depend on one’s answer to “What are his or her morals?” A person who is aware of the superior pleasures to be found in virtuous action will naturally prefer virtue to mere self-interest. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Our notions of God are projections of our own humor, as we are, so shall we think God to be. God must necessarily be good humored. However, we can never understand this quality unless we possess it ourselves. Hence, the necessity for permitting good humor in the discussion of religion. I give a lot of credence to the grace of God because much of what we do, in fact, more of what we do than we do not do has to do with our fortune and misfortune. And I think there are people who the miseducation has taken a greater toll on than me. And you know, but for the grace of God, I would have been confused about my identity. We cannot understand qualities of mind and character which we do not possess ourselves. The best foundation for rendering a just account of human nature is thorough knowledge of oneself. No one who knows oneself can possibly believe that all human action stem from selfish motives. God is a good-tempered, benevolent being who orders the World. Sincere the affection for virtue is natural, religion is unnecessary to its presence in us. However, theistic opinions about a benevolent God may reinforce the affection. Yet, so many the good example of others and rewards and punishment. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
When religion and morality are separated, a selfish interest in one’s own welfare is not all that is left to provide a foundation for morality. There is more than accounting for the possibility of morality than a simple choice of religion. It is the function of both poetry and religion to provide people with a coherent view of the World that will help them understand both themselves and their fellow human beings, and to provide it in a form that will kindle the imagination as well as the intellect. The ultimate solution is a community small enough for each member to know the other members as individuals. Such intimate person knowledge will bring understanding and sympathy, so that people will be prepared to cooperate for the common good, without the coercion of law. People will indeed value their neighbors’ opinions, but they will not take their neighbors’ opinion on trust. To do so would be useless, because even a true opinion is of little value unless one understands the grounds for holding it. It is only when people see things as they are, in all their intricate interconnections, that they will feel the right emotions and thus lead happy and virtuous lives. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
People see life as if through a veil—the veil of their own prejudices, which are imposed by social institutions. We must transcend their prejudices in order to understand and love our fellow humans. If we are to fear the wrath of God, then there must be some principle by which we regulate our fears. If we are to fear God’s blame, we must already know what is blame worthy. Nothing is blameworthy simply because it displeases God. God and human beings must share a sense of deformity which enables them to identify the morally odious. There is no divine monopoly here. Morality may arise independently of religion. Virtue is natural because human nature provides a foundation for virtue. Why should selfishness or self-interest be the only natural passion? Social feeling or sense of partnership with humankind may be natural. The social feeling must be natural, for how could there be society if this feeling did not exist first? If society is a set of conventional arrangements, then the existence of society implies the pre-existence of a disposition among people to make conventions. Thus, the selfish picture of human nature cannot be the whole story, for if selfishness were the only natural feeling, there would be no society. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
What is more, since the existence of a social feeling is sufficient to account for the origin of society, appeals to the religious sanctions for society are necessarily subsequent to the actual foundation of society and therefore of secondary importance. Virtue is the pursuit of the public interest. There is no real love of virtue without the knowledge of public good. We are disposed to act virtuously by our affection for virtue. This affection for virtue is called the moral sense. This sense is like a harmony in music and a sense of proportion in architecture and art. In a creature capable of forming general notions of things, not only the outward beings which offer themselves to the sense are objects of the affection, but the very actions themselves and the affections of pity, kindness, gratitude, and their contraries, being brought into the minds by reflection become objects. So that by means of this reflected sense, there arise another kind of affection towards those very affections themselves, which have been already felt, and are now become the subject of a new liking or dislike. One way we evaluate ourselves is to compare ourselves to others and to our own ideal self-image. If an ideal image cannot be met, it may have to be discarded or revised, but this is not easy to do. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Once we remove the veil of unreality, the World will be seen as a unity—both in the sense in which science may be said to be a unity (the truth about one field of study cohering with and illuminating the truth about another), and in the sense that a true understanding of our fellow humans will give rise to virtuous behavior. This is the indestructible order that it is the business of poetry to reveal. We live surrounded by an infinite multitude of mysteries. For God, all things are possible, even what one may considered a logical absurdity, that is, causing what has in fact happened not to have happened. The fundamental property of life is daring; all life is creative daring and this an eternal mystery, irreducible to anything finished or intelligible. In human’s very existence, thought has discovered something improper, a defect, a sickness, or sin, and has demanded that this be overcome at its foundation by a renunciation of existence. Disclosure by talking seriously and honestly together on an equal level is the necessary condition for reducing the mystery that one person is for another. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
We need to take better care of ourselves mentally, physically, and spiritually. Because the times that are coming up are going to be challenging times. Progress come both in the realization of the need for re-education and further in the re-education process itself. A good beginning to understanding and appreciating life fully is knowing that at some point it will end. Games prevent honest, intimate, and open relationships between the players. Yet people play them because they fill up time, provoke attention, reinforce early opinions about self and others, and fulfill a sense of destiny. We have to learn to make the time period between life’s only two certainties, birth and death meaningful and significant. Human beings place far too much stress upon defining the purpose in and of our lives. Our only purpose in life if purpose is needed, is to be what we are fully, vitally and in context of other people having the same right. We each need to find a purpose or goal in our existence but we should not dwell on it. People are known and respected for their commitment and dedication to the uplift of people. Each of us must know that others may try to push us down or disqualify us, but we will be able to fulfill our destinies. The rest of your life will be the best of your life. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Is the Sun of Blue Heaven Guilty of the Shadow it Casts?
The beauty and loveliness of friendship is too strong for dim eyes. The soul is form giving being to humans, and it assists in operation of the body and mind as a sailor presides over the operation of an already formed ship. It is important to control the mind, and for an individual to have a rapport with nature. God is identified with the regularity governing the World, and must be thought of as the essence or embodiment of regularity in general; as the totality of logical regularity, of natural laws, and of the laws of mental and spiritual life. All moral values disappear if God does not exist. Therefore, it is important for people to believe in God. Christ and his disciples through the ages have experienced the divine presence of God the loving Father and with it a sense of moral repentance and an inner energy of the spirit. As with all personal experience, no symbolic structure can act as substitute. Such structures are, in every field, merely hypothetical attempts to grasps experience. God lives in human’s consciousness. Before a new direction is sought, it is necessary to discern the error of the old and awaken a desire to transcend that error. This requires courage and fearless honesty. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
The recovery from many serious and incurable, potentially fatal disorders is based on the willingness and capacity to face the truth and choose a different pathway. To break down denial and admit the truth takes one above the lower levels of humanity. Spiritual awakening is fostered by a desire for salvation and peace. The Human need for and experience of God’s presence proves his existence. Science and philosophy are masters of their own proper domain. Thus, God is the final reason of everything, but not necessarily the scientific explanation of anything. The idea of God is so embedded in the consciousness of human beings that we find some version of it in most legends. One knows but little of human nature who has not discovered that, to all who rise one step above the brutes, it is far pleasanter to starve and freeze after their own fashion than to be fed and clothes and worked upon compulsion. Friendship is a mighty pretty invention, and, next to love, gives of all things the greatest spirit to society. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
We lie in nature very close to God; and though, further on, the stream may be corrupted by the banks it flows through; yet at the fountain’s rim, where humankind stand, there the stream infallibly bespeaks the fountain. Whatever the number of a person’s friends, there will be times in one’s life when one has too few; but if one has only one enemy, one is lucky indeed if one has not one too many. In life, however, it is sometimes difficult to say who does you the most mischief, enemies with the worst intentions, or friends with the best. Friendship is a passion. It entrances the being; it tears the soul. All loves of after life can never bring its rapture, or its wretchedness; no bliss so absorbing, no pangs of jealousy or despair so crushing and so keen! Our consciousness rarely registers the beginning of a growth within us any more than without us: there have been many circulations of the sap before we detect the smallest sign of the bud. What we say is important for in most cases the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Equality is the soul of friendship. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
When I do entertain, in the Summer, which is rare, I receive my guest on the front porch, set up wicker trays found at Draper James, and serve ice cold sweet tea, cucumber finger sandwiches, and miniature chess pies. The ice tea is so delicious that it can stand alone as a refreshment, but we like to embellish things a bit. There are different reasons for receiving guest. Visits of congratulations are paid after the birth of an infant; when it is also customary to send tasteful and elegant baskets or bouquets of flowers. Also, upon friends who have received an appointment to any office or dignity in the community, state, or government. If a friend has published a book, you call to congratulation him or her upon its success; or if one has delivered a lecture, sermon, or oration, which has elicited your applause, you express your high estimation of the discourse. A good orator is pointed and impassioned, and they get their subjects into the heart of the audience. It is also a good idea to pay visits of congratulation when you hear that your friends are intending to marry, and take upon themselves new responsibilities. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
There are times when people must act as though life were equally sweet in any company. In this World, sometimes we experience sickness, sorrow, and bereavement, visits of condolence must occasionally be made; and, if possible, they should be paid within a week after death has entered the family circle. If your acquaintance is ceremonious, it is the custom, however, to wait until the family has appeared at church. One should send up your card, and ask if your friends will receive you; and it is in good taste for ladies to be attired in quiet apparel, rather than in bright, beautiful colours. And you do not necessarily have to wear black. In formal visiting, a card can be left in lieu of a call. In many places, it is customary to send invitations to friends to attend a funeral, and only those receiving cards are expected to attend. Notes are also usually sent to those who are requested to serve as pall-bearers. One should always leave it to those who are in affliction to make the first allusions to their bereavement. Grief is an experience common after the passing of a loved one. There is a crying for someone to help because we cannot do anything about it. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation. That is the best. When calling upon friends at hotels, or boarding houses, always send up by an assistance, a request to see them; and never enter a room until you have received an invitation to do so. When a gentleman calls upon a lady, and finds a lady friend also visiting her, he should rise when she takes her leave, and accompany her to the hall door; and is she has a carriage, should hand her into it. Also, when arriving at someone’s house, do not blow the horn of the carriage, nor holler and scream like you lost your mind for them to open the door. Get out of the carriage, and ring the doorbell like a well-bred person with sanity. People generally want to keep their communities as quiet and peaceful as possible. Gentlemen should always carry their hats in their hands when paying morning or evening calls, but should not place them on the chairs or parlor table. Every well-bred man knows that a hat can be made a very graceful part of his attire, especially if he knows how to hold it. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
In our country, we are allowed considerable freedom in receiving and paying visits, and can appear, in the daytime, in all public places. It is actually becoming proper for ladies and gentlemen to have brothers, husbands, or friends of either gender attend meetings with them for safety reasons. It was a common practice for women, in the Victorian ages, but people are now always preying on men. I had a friend who went to meet up with people I thought he knew well, and he came back with a missing tooth. I did not expect he would actually keep company with someone he was unfamiliar with, and thought it was some kind of skit. Nonetheless, it was not my business to advise him. People used to be able to attend public exhibitions, libraries, etc., and appear on the promenades alone, but this may no longer be the case. If you attempt such proceedings in a World class city, or even a small rural town, you may expose yourself to indignities which would annoy you sadly. In the United States of America, women and men, who behave with discretion, can go wherever they please without molestation; but an escort is always desirable, especially in the evening. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
There is no light without its shade, no good without its inconvenience. It is not considered comme il faut for the lady of the house to accompany ceremonial visitors to the door; she merely rises from her seat, bows, or shakes hands, according to her intimacy when the persons, and if her ménage supplies a parlor assistance, she rings the bell to summon him to open the outer door. With intimate friends, one can do as they please, either accompanying them to the door, or leaving them to find their way out of the house alone, or calling an assistant to escort them. However, in these modern times, with people changing like the seasons and acting all brand new when you least expect it, it is best to be safe and see your guest find them way out. In almost everything, we act on probabilities. Good sense will shew you the power of self-conquest, and point out its means. It should be the desire of us all to be well-bred, but it is not a veneering that can be applied, or laid aside at pleasure. Keeping witty company sharpens the apprehension. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
More light a candle and fewer to curse the darkness. We should carry our good manners everywhere; and unless we cultivate them constantly, and exercise them upon all occasions, and towards all persons, they can never become a part of ourselves; and when we try to assume them, they will often fail us at our greatest need. If you are impolite to your washerwoman, or to your maid, you are in great danger of being so to those whose good opinion your desire to possess. Life is full of the saddest and the strongest contrasts. The charm which true politeness sheds over its possessors, is not easily described; yet, it is felt by everyone, and invariably responded to by the best feelings of their nature. It is the secret sympathy, the silver link, like the silken tie, which heart to hearts, and mind to mind, in body and in soul can bind. A companionable man or woman will put up with many inconveniences for the sake of enjoying agreeable society. The wine cannot be bad where the company is agreeable. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
Glorious Father in Heaven, filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of our troubles, we cast ourselves at your feet and humbly beg you to take the present affair which we recommend to you under your special protection and make the rest of our lives the best of our lives. When we realize God’s favor is upon you, you will accomplish your dreams faster than you ever thought possible. telling yourself the wall is too big, the dream is too great, or the obstacles are too high. It will not happen in your own strength. It will not happen in your own powers. It will happen because Almighty God favors you. Try claiming God’s blessing instead of longing for them. The humblest painter of real life, if he could have his desire, would select a picturesque background for his figures; but events have an inexorable fashion of choosing their own landscape. Success if for everyone and your life becomes better the moment you become better. There is no success without sacrifice. You will be as small as your controlling desire, as great as your dominant aspiration. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
A Vital Doctrine—God Manifest in the Flesh
Never in a human head was contemplation more separated from desire. The Architects and advocates of the modern English translations of the Holy Scriptures unequivocally declare that Christ was God manifest in the flesh. He appeared in body. Two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one Person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and human beings. The Westminster Divines evidently regarded this verse as one of the essential proofs of the Trinitarian doctrine of the Bible, that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. The first Reason, why the then Greatness of the Roman Empire was a fit Circumstance of Time for the Mission, of Christ, is that he might better manifest his Divine Authority and Commission to the civil Powers of the World. Hell, Satan, and the devils are in reality sates of the mind. However, some events can never be explained. When we limit the mental to the realm of conscious events (the actual), it is called psychology without a soul. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13
Faithfulness to fact is raised to the level of genius. Behavior at the house is one of the best touchstones of good manners; for many persons will appear well abroad, and yet cannot exhibit any degree of ease at their own fireside table. However, to entertain company without embarrassment or excitement, is an art which it requires some usage to perfect. Company, various company, is the only school of this knowledge. Nothing forms a young person so much as being used to keep respectable and superior company, where a constant regard and attention is necessary. It is true, this is at first a disagreeable state of restraint; but it soon grows habitual, and consequently easy; and you are amply paid for it by the improvement you make, and the credit it gives you. Hospitality is also a Christian duty, and all homemakers should exercise it to some extent. We were not designed to live alone, to shut ourselves up in our houses, and enjoy the blessings up in our houses, and enjoy the blessings which have been given us in a spirit of exclusiveness. The idea is therefore essentially the divine nature and formally the ratio according to which God intelligizes creatures. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13
These ideas make up the creative mind of God. In a parallel fashion the universal (on human level) is its singular. The singular participates in its universal, which is by nature a projection of an idea in the mind of God. As a creation of God’s mind, the singular is incapable of annihilation. For God to allow a singular to be annihilated would be to permit the annihilation of a part of himself—an obvious impossibility. Nature teaches us a lesson in this direction. She keeps open house for innumerable winged and creeping insects, and their banquets are always spread among the beautiful, fragrant flowers, whose hospitable abodes are every filled with guests, from the bees and the butterflies to the tiniest winged fairy. Elegant hospitality can be exercised at a moderate expense; and those of us who cannot afford to give costly dinner or evening parties, can surely entertain a few friends at tea or coffee, or of an evening, and this promote a social feeling among neighbors and acquaintances. It is not well for young persons to entertain too much company when they first commence housekeeping, but neither is it well to pay no heed to hospitality. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13
God’s intellection, his knowledge, his will, the Trinity, his ideas and his power to create outside himself is the grand design. Young people should live frugally and you will live happily; shut not your doors or hearts against those who have a claim upon your hospitality;–but remember, that if they really esteem and love you, they will come not to look at your table or your furniture, but to enjoy your society. Psychology is the common basis for all scientific and cultural knowledge and the bond uniting all the individual sciences, and therefore as the science directly preparatory to philosophy. Certain knowledge is possible for humans of one realm but not of the other, where only opinion is possible, although God may be able to have the knowledge of both. The chief art of pleasing is to make everyone feel at home; that is, at one’s ease. And if anything has occurred in your ménage to ruffle your temper, do not annoy your guest by telling your grievances. Of course, they cannot be interested in such petty details; and the relation may tend to mar their pleasure. We can improve our understanding, but this will always fall short of knowledge. #RandolphHarris 4 of 13
The most perfect being must owe one’s exemption from vice to the absence of temptation. We never quite understand why another dislikes what we like. There are those who are born with the faculty of rendering everyone happy who comes in contact with them, and they seem endowed with great discernment of character, and can encourage the timid, repress the encroaching, and call forth the peculiar talents and perfections of all. Such persons can always make themselves agreeable; while there are others who, strive as they can, can never attain to the same position. Yet, a desire to please—a desire to entertain one’s guest, will usually prove successful; and if you are cheerful, animated and pleasant yourself, you cannot fail to shed a halo of pleasure upon those around you. People of an enormously strong moral character have an unselfishness and self-control. It is important to be ambitious generals and politicians to acquire knowledge, and draw analogies to show that all skills must be learned. The significance of your knowledge can be usefully increased by deeper understanding of the purposes of your various crafts. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13
If your friends become your guests for awhile, it is well to give them some insight into your mode of life. Then they will readily comprehend your duties, and will often think it advisable not to encroach too much upon your morning hours, which may be required for some domestic occupations. After luncheon, or early dinner, your time, however, should be given up to them; either to drive out, walk, shop, or in some entertainment in the house. Of course, you will always attend to the arrangement of their sleeping-rooms, and provide everything that is essential for their comfort before they arrive, unless you are blessed with a most superior housekeeper. It is merciless to invite friends to visit you in cold weather, without providing a fire in their bedroom or dressing-room (heat). Neither is it courteous to wait until they arrive, and then inquire—“Would you like a fire?” Therefore, if you cannot afford to make your friends comfortable, do not invite them; at least in the wintry season. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13
There are temptations which it is not in the power of human nature to resist. Let your guest see, by your manner, that their presence is a decided pleasure to you; and make it also an incentive to recreations and amusements which do not belong to the common routine of your life. One should try to make their visits as agreeable as possible, but without any apparent effort; so that they many not think that you are putting yourself out of the way to afford them pleasures in which you do not often indulge. It is your duty to endeavor to make the time pass pleasantly, but if your visitors perceive that you are altering the daily tenor of your life on their account, it will detract greatly from their happiness. Mental training is paramount; serenity, sincerity, magnanimity, introspection, and self-restraint are the virtues to be cultivated. An ethical formula of devotion within, righteousness without is a virtue to be cultivated. Learning is knowing and practice. Therefore, we must rely on intelligence rather than strength. Intelligence is a great asset in the struggle for existence. #RandolphHarris 7 of 13
We do not injure others, nor harm ourselves in the pursuit of fame, wealth, and rank. These are to be avoided as temptations external to one’s nature. On the other hand, there is inherent in human beings a craving for the pleasures of this World. To seek the gratification of one’s desires for such things as fine food and beautiful objects is to yield to one’s original nature and in this way to work for its completion. We must seek happiness to our heart’s content, as well as longevity and immortality. One should not unnecessarily shorten one’s life. It is a good plan, when inviting guests to visit you, to state a given period for their visit. Mention the day when you would be happy to receive them, and the length of time of their visit. Perhaps a young lady is invited to make a visit in the country, or in the city, and no mention is made of days, weeks, or months, for its limit, and, therefore, she is utterly at a loss to know what amount of clothing to bring. It is impossible to study the human frame without a little studying the human mind. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13
The imprudence of our thoughts recoils upon our heads. When your guests intimate their intention of leaving you, if you really desire them to remain longer, say so frankly, and urge them to prolong the visit; but if you do not care for their society any longer, do not be so insincere as to urge it; or, on the other hand, if they cannot prolong their visit, do not worry them by your pertinacity in urging them to do so—but, while you invite them to renew their visit at their earliest convenience, facilitate their departure by every means in your power, and give them all needful information as to routes, times tables, etc. Of course, no guest will leave a friend’s house without some expression of regret and good-will. A good warm heart will, however, dictate the forms of speech requisite upon such occasions. And when you are at the house, be sure and inform your friends of your safe arrival, and express the gratification you have received from your visit, and gracefully allude to different members of the family, while you thank them for their kindly hospitality. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13
The transcendental knowledge attained involves a vivid awareness of the nature of the soul and its essential distinctness from the psychophysical organism. This bring liberation. No well-bred person will ever fail to acknowledge your hospitality and charming family; and a failure to do so, is a decided mark of ignorance of both etiquette and politeness. Guests will never take the part of either host or hostess in any trifling disagreement or opinion. As visitors, they can express their ideas upon various matters, of course; but shun any partisanship. And they will also scrupulously respect the rights of their entertainers, and never criticize their surroundings and manners to other persons. A house guest never speaks ill of those whose food one has tasted; and well-bred persons will never repeat what Mrs. Hearst said, nor tell what Mr. Hearst. did, when they were visiting. There has been some investigation of the physiology, and there seems little doubt that a kind of hibernation can be achieved and that the control over lungs, heartbeat, and the viscera organs is, by ordinary standards remarkable. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13
Some of the ore spectacular physical claims, however (such as levitation), are unconfirmed, and some of them are mythological in style. The ascription of magical powers to the host or hostess is part of the traditional tendency in India to think that with austerity and mental discipline can create a force which can even threaten the gods. This in turn both reflects and generates the view that mystical experience is the supreme religious goal, transcending the cult of supernatural beings. Such discrepancies of good manners are perfectly unendurable, and no respectable person will excuse them. Visitors should always give the housekeepers who waited upon them some little presents, either in money or its equivalent. They have had extra work in waiting upon them, and, therefore, deserve extra compensation. The chain which binds society together is composed of innumerable links, and it should be the part of hosts and guest to keep them uniformly bright; and to let neither moth nor rust corrupt them. There is nothing so difficult as to manage the public mind. The rest of your life will be the best of your life, which is socially engaged, but still retains its intellectual independence and freedom of social criticism. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13
Seeing may be contrasted both with hearing and with feeling by touching. One way in which seeing differs from hearing follows from the truth of our language that we hear an object if and only if we hear a sound which is made by the object. There is no comparable linguistic practice in the case of seeing. This may lead us to think of sight as presenting objects to us directly, hearing only indirectly. One way in which seeing differs from feeling by touching is that if we feel something by touching it, our experience is of feeling it with a particular part of the body. Our visual experience, however, is not of seeing with our eyes. We can imagine a disembodied mind having visual experiences but not having tactile ones. Sight does not require our being part of the material World in the way in which feeling by touching does. One way in which seeing differs from both hearing and feeling by touching is in respect to time. It takes time to hear a tune or to feel the shape of a statue, but one seems to be able to see a landscape instantaneously. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13
Sweet pliability of a human’s spirit, that can at once surrender itself to illusions, which cheat expectations and sorrow of their weary moments! Thus, the directness of seeing when contrasted with hearing, its noninvolvement with its object when contrasted with feeling by touching, and its apparent temporal immediacy when contrasted with both hearing and feeling by touching are features that may partly explain the belief that sight is the most excellent of the senses; this envied in the use by ancient and modern philosophers of predominantly visual metaphors to describe intellectual apprehension. Pray that we may finally receive the consolations and the succor of Heaven in all our necessities, tribulations and sufferings, particularly in Sacramento, and that we may bless God with the Elect through eternity. As mere human knowledge can split a ray of light and analyze the manner of its composition, so sublime intelligence may read in the feeble shining of this Earth of ours, every thought and act, every vice and virtue, of every responsible creature on it. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13
There is No Secret of Success—Success is for Everyone
No advice on success works unless you do. Your life becomes better only when you become better. Beware of the barrenness of an overcrowded life. The secret of the heart is its pressing love of self. The purpose of history—what happens at any time is not simply or wholly the effect of what has already happened; and event is dependent upon its past as the material upon which activity may be expended, but it is also a new and fresh expenditure of activity upon that material. What occurs is reconstruction, transformation, remaking. What was is thus pushed back into the past, and what becomes takes the place of what was. Time does not move from past through present to future; rather, it moves from the possible to the actual, that is, from one of the potentialities of what formerly was to a single actuality which is brought into existence by an action (whether that action be unconscious chance or conscious choice) upon what was. What comes to us from the past offers us opportunities and often imposes cruel limitations, but it does not make our choices for us. Rather, it allows us to realize our ends insofar as we have understanding of the potentialities it contains. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
History has no one end; it includes many processes with their many, often incompatible, ends. And human choices, insofar as they are intelligent, may well be effective to some degree. A naturalistic theory of nature thus issues in a humanistic theory of man. Habitual inattention is sometimes attributed to great genius, but we cannot endorse that idea. Such a peculiarity of manner is subversive of all politeness, and tends to shut a person within oneself, and make one of little importance in life. There are some young persons, however, who delight to pass for geniuses or originals, and they think it very interesting to appear as if in a “brown study” while in the company of others. They like to seem entirely absorbed, and are delighted if anyone observes their eccentricities. Such manners are entirely at variance with good-breeding. If a person speak to you ever so foolishly or frivolously, it is the height of ill manners not to heed what he or she says; and if he or she every forces conversation upon you, it is unkind, to say the least, to assume a perfectly indifferent demeanor. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
Besides, you cannot offer anyone more flattering attention than by that pleasing deference which, though it may involve somewhat of a sacrifice yet, is worth making. It is a good rule to endeavor to please everyone as far as is possible for us to do without too great a breach of sincerity. In this country, free and easy manners are too prevalent; but space would fail us to particularize all the little trifles in which even well-bred persons sometimes fall short. We will, however, briefly remark, that nothing can be more adverse to good manners than the habit of sitting with the hat on in the house—be it in the parlor, dining-room, kitchen, store, or office; or then yawning and whispering in company, lounging upon the chairs, by tipping them back upon two legs; taking the best seat in the room, and keeping them when your elders enter; or standing with the back to an open fire, when other persons are near it; and last, but not least, spitting into the fire, etc. These practices are deemed almost peculiar to our country, and have been severely animadverted upon by European travelers in our midst. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
Not only that, but during police investigations, when people are suspected of crimes and refuse to give a DNA sample (in order to match the blood or body fluid to a crime scene) investigators will be undercover, watching you and waiting for you to spit on the ground or drop a cigarette so that they can collect your DNA and tie you to the crime. They will photograph or video tape you so they can prove that they legally obtained the same from you, even without you knowing. The evidence can be disputed. However, if you do not know the victim, then your DNA has no business being at the crime scene. And if you know the victim, you better hope you have a good reason for living your DNA behind. So be care when you spit or liter, and realize there is usually a witness to everything that happens. A man or woman may have virtue, capacity, and good habits, and yet his or her lack of good-breeding may made him or her unendurable to those who are well-bred. There are three classes of people; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. If a person neglects education, one walks lame to the end of one’s life. The style and manner which we neglect as too trifling for us to heed, are often the things by which the World judges us. There are many little matters of personal bearing and conduct which must be attended to, if we desire to be agreeable to society. It is useless to say that such a man or woman, whose attire is neglected, whose whole appearance bespeaks the sloven, is a good and able man or woman and therefore must be agreeable and pleasing. His or her ability and goodness are, doubtless, desirable qualities, but the personal juxtaposition of the individual is insupportable to those who are accustomed to cleanliness and refinement. Not that it is essential that every person should be externally elegant, or an adept in the rules which constitute good-breeding; but no one can hope to be admired and sought after, who is addicted to conspicuous uncleanliness, the special tendency of which is to inspire painful feelings in those around him or her. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Never by monkeyish or clownish—attempting to introduce the manners of the circus into the house. Some rude boys and girls seem to ride themselves upon their exhibitions of low, vulgar tricks, antic gestures, foolish jests, and odd, slangy expression. This is an example of the contrast between the brilliant skill, ingenuity, and care bestowed upon observation and experiment in biology, and the almost complete neglect of caution in regard to the definition and use of etiquette and good breeding. The effect of this has been to arrest the development of the life sciences. They cause chronic controversies and antitheses of biology, such as those between mechanism and vitalism, preformation and epigenesist, teleology and causation, structure and function, organism and environment, and body and mind. Such low, shameful vulgarity may excite the laughter of foolish persons, for the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness; but no one possessing common sense can see such behavior without disgust and abhorrence. And every person that acts like the buffoon puts oneself on the level with a clown, and lowers oneself in the estimation of the good and the wise. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue. Be polite, respectful and modest to all, and especially to your elders and superiors. There is nothing more disgusting than a youth who assumes an air of disrespect and self-importance towards one’s superiors, equals, or inferiors. Never stare people in the face. It is exceedingly impolite, and a certain mark of ill-breeding to stare idly at strangers or anyone, as though you were entirely unused to seeing visitors. In conversing with anyone, however, it is right to look him or her in the face, with cheerful, dignified and respectful assurance. Never jerk, twitch or slam doors or window blinds; but endeavor to be cautious and gentle in all your motions. No well-bred child will ever slam a door in anger, or even give it a strong twitch. Never enter a house or parlor with your boots all mud and slush, or sit down with your hat or cap on. Never go up and down stairs, or about the house, with the speed or a trotting horse and the tread of an elephant; step lightly, quickly, and orderly. Never be rude and boisterous with your young friends. You can share in all kinds of sports, and yet never lose the command of yourself so as to become hoydenish and bold. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. Avoid loud screaming and rude merriment. Remember what Lear says of Aaliyah: “Her voice was ever sweet, gentle and low; and excellent thing in a woman. If we will study to introduce home etiquette into our families; to learn to be always courteous—always conciliatory—always well-bred—we should find that we had gained an immeasurable amount of happiness and the rest of our lives will be the best of our lives. Negligence and carelessness with regard to the little amenities of life, are the fruitful source of much domestic unhappiness. Good manners are to the family, what good morals are to society, their cement and their security. We think not that we daily see about our hearts—angels that are to be, or may be if they will, and we prepare their souls and ours to meet in happy air—a child, a friend, a wife whose soft heart sings in unison with ours, breeding its future wings. We should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
Almighty God, who, when the hearts of your people have grown cold, send your Holy Spirit to relight the flame of your love in their hearts, and raise up faithful ministers to recall your people to their former devotion and service. Mercifuly grant that we, following the teachings and example of Teresa of Avila, may be filled with your Holy Spirit, may be aflame with zeal for your glory and love for your goodness and hunger for your love, and that our feet may be set upon the path that leads to true holiness. We ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Bless it be. You may be discouraged because your plans did have not worked out, but those closed doors were not an accident. That was God directing your steps. The reason God closed them because he has something better in store. Will you trust God? Gods ways are not our ways, they are better than our ways. There will be times when you do not get what you want, and you cannot understand why not. You may be experiencing that right now. Will you stay in faith while you wait to see what God is up to? #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
Our first scrape generally leads to our first travel. Disappointment requires change of air; desperation change of scene. God is wonderful in his design and excellent in his process and projects and houses. Believer, God overrules all things for your good. Your course is mapped out by your Lord. Nothing will take God by surprise. There will be no novelties to God. Real satisfaction comes not in understanding God’s motives, but in understanding his character, in trusting in his promises, and in leaning on him and resting in God as the Sovereign who knows what he is doing and does all things well. Perhaps there is a pattern set up in the Heavens for one who desires to see it, and having seen it, to find one in oneself. Time—I see it not, I feel it not: it is but a shadowy name—a succession of breathings measured forth by night by the clank of a bell, by day by a shadow crossings along a dialstone. Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements. Protect your dreams. Feed them. Nurture them. Encourage them to grow, Care for them. For someday, they may take care of you. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
Chicken, Chicken! why did you Not have Beef or Moose Meat Stew?
Living bodies are machines, but machines directed toward the fulfillment of God’s purposes. My father was a business man and I am a business man, too! I want this philosophical work to be businesslike, to settle things. Sometimes, lighthearted moments become somber, when one is dismayed by the insincerity, vanity, and coldness of the human heart. Two people can be friends only if both of them are pure, so that they can be completely open with one another without causing offense. A relationship founded on hypocrisy, censorious, suspicion, and demands is intolerable. Human kindness and human concern are more important attributes in a person than intellectual power or cultivated taste. Many people have an acute need for friendship, and it is striking when one can meet a friend who displays generosity. Children and assistants are greatly influenced by the demeanor of masters and mistress of the house; and the husband who addresses his wife, in their presence, in a derogatory manner, does both himself and her a decided injury. While the wife, on her part, is equally bound to show all due respect to her husband. #RandolphHarris 1 of 15
Every human being possesses an innate perception of what is right. Children and servants are not exceptions to this general rule; and those of us who indulge in unkind expressions towards each other, lower ourselves more than we can, perhaps, understand in the opinions of those about us. Empirical psychology studies the powers of the soul as they are discovered by inner senses. There are two general fields of the soul—the cognitive powers and the will (which includes the feelings of pleasure and pain). The cognitive powers begin with the inferior faculty, or sensibility, because knowledge comes only from sensation. There is a pre-established harmony of soul and body. The soul is an immaterial substance possessing the power of representing the Universe and free will. Rationally, the soul is simple and immortal. The structure of the World and the objects in it are aimed at the fulfillment of God’s wise ends and the study of this method is a good method of studying nature. Good is what increases our perfection and evil is what diminishes it, and perfection is an objective metaphysical concept. #RandolphHarris 2 of 15
Therefore, moral and juridical laws do not depend on God’s will, but on the structure of being. They can be discovered by natural reason independent of Christian revelation. In many cases, a feeling of dislike is engendered, which no after circumstances can obliterate—a feeling near akin to contempt, also; for who can cherish respect for individuals who cannot govern themselves? Human beings are moved to acts by the rational representation of perfection and obligations or duties independent of rewards and punishment for carrying them out. Sin arises when sensibility prevails over reason; but sensibility is ruled by free will. A generous-minded boy will never forget the unkind and taunting words which he has heard an irritable and ill-governed father address to his dearly loved mother; nor will either girls or boys forget similar breaches of politeness and good-breeding exhibited by their mother towards the father. Truly, we have need of patience! and in the family circle it is one of the brightest virtues. #RandolphHarris 3 of 15
Ethics are based on an empirical psychology that describes the virtues, passions, and practical customs. Theology and ethics entirely are the foundation of natural reason. By reason, we mean scientific thought rather than common sense. The human intellect must be extended beyond the limits traditionally set for it by the German philosophical schools. “Cannot you both have patience?” murmured a little gentle boy once in our hearing, while his parent were indulging in unseemly bickerings, and there was a whole volume of reproof in that one sentence. William Wirt Winchester, a pattern of good-breeding, tells his son that—“The most familiar and intimate habitudes, connections and friendships, require a degree of good-breeding both to preserve and cement them. The best of us have our bad sides; and it is an imprudent as it is ill-bred to exhibit them. I shall not use ceremony with you, it would be misplaced between us; but I shall certainly observe that degree of good-breeding which, I am sure, is absolutely necessary to make us like one another’s company long.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 15
This is the best advice which can be given to husbands and wives, parents and children, and also to relatives and friends. The foundation of religion consists in moral distinctions among the acts of humans, whether they be good, evil, or indifferent, is an intelligent and free agent. Truth is the expression of things as they are, and vice constitutes a rejection of the truth; to deny things as they are is virtually to deny the existence of God. To follow nature is to follow God. This does not mean, however, that one should follow exclusively the inclinations of one’s individual nature. Since no one is purely rational, each individual must consider the nature of others. The great law of religion is for each person not to contradict truth, but to treat everything as it really is. Happiness is based on the pleasure—pain thesis, pain being a real evil, pleasure a real good. Ultimate happiness is the excess of pleasure over pain, and it is the duty of everyone to make oneself as happy as possible consonant with the happiness of others. #RandolphHarris 5 of 15
The habit of bantering, which is so often adopted by married people before children and assistances, is very undesirable, and frequently leads to serious consequences. How does a man know what is true? The husband will give a ridiculous appellation to the wife, which will raise a laugh at her expense; but in the end, it may lower him far more than the mother in the opinion of the children; and in their turn, they will often feel more respect and affection for the mother than for the father. Nothing can be more injurious, or inconsistent with true politeness and good-breeding, than the constant habit of fault-finding concerning little petty trifles, when indulged in by either husband or wife, in the presence of others or by themselves. There are men who never come to the table but they will find fault with the dishes served upon it. If roast beef is the chief dish, they will say:–“Chicken, Chicken! why did you not have beef or moose meat stew? I am tired of this everlasting chicken!” #RandolphHarris 6 of 15
Or vice versa. No matter what the wife may have provided, such a man will always evince a desire for something else. We reason about particulars, or from them; but not by them. Action according to right reason and action according to truth are identical. This is the general law laid down by the author of nature, and this constitutes the religion of nature. The senses are inferior to reason but are to be followed, nevertheless, when not contrary to reason. In instances where certainty concerning the truth is unobtainable, one may act on probability but always under the guide of reason. The necessity of education by the cultivation of reason is thus demonstrated. Man’s desires, his passions, must be submitted to reason. Since man is individual and the principles of reason are universal, the laws of nature forbid the individual to transgress the rights of others. All injustice is wrong and evil, and compassion is one of the highest virtues. Man is to be regarded not only as an individual, but also as a social creature, and the purpose of society is common welfare of all the people. #RandolphHarris 7 of 15
Human-made laws are not infallible, but may require alteration from time to time, and no human-made law should contradict a law of nature. Since mutual defense is one of the great ends of society, war against aggression is legitimate and necessary. Now, were the gentleman accused of fault-finding, he would indignantly deny it; and he may be a kind and good and true husband and father, and only have inadvertently fallen into this habit of not being satisfied with what has been provided. A good way to cure him, would be for the wife to hand him a pencil and a card every morning as he leaves the house, and request him to put down what he desires for dinner; so that the daily fault-finding can be, in measure, averted. This would convince him of his practice of picking flaws in the menage; and go far towards effecting a reformation in it. Half of us find fault from habit; but some of us, we fear, do so from an inborn ugliness of disposition. #RandolphHarris 8 of 15
Of the latter class we have little hopes; but the former can cure themselves—and it pleases them. Bad habits are very easily acquired; therefore, young persons must take special pains to avoid them. We are always disgusted with sons and daughters who do not show a marked respect to their parents, elders, and superiors; and who do not scruple to contradict them, and set up their own opinions, with the utmost pertinacity, against those of their parents. And why should our young men put aside the honored name of “Father,” and substitute for it the objectionable words “Governor” or “Old Man?” Some persons may reply, “What signifies a name?” A great deal; and Father is a holy name, given to us directly from God, the Father of all humankind; and he who attains to that rank and stands as a father of the family, occupies a high position, and his children should recognize his sacred office and give him the name assigned to it. #RandolphHarris 9 of 15
No one thinks of calling his mother “Governess” or “Mrs. Governor.” If a daughter should attempt it, it would be esteemed highly irreverent and ridiculous; yet it is not in reality any more absurd a practice. Young persons often fall into erroneous habits from want of thought; therefore, it is needful to remind out young friends of certain little discrepancies regarding good-breeding, which they should carefully endeavor to avoid. Good manners are taught in the house, by line upon line and precept upon precept. Undoubtedly, a well-bred father and mother will not have so much difficulty in rearing polite and well-mannered children as those who are the reverse—not because they ae born so, perhaps; but because, as we have said before, good manners are learned by imitation more readily than by precept and rule. It follows from God’s perfect justice that humans are immortal and that the iniquities and evils of this World will be corrected; a particular providence and a future state necessarily exist. #RandolphHarris 10 of 15
And the God of nature, who is the God of reason and the God of justice, is to be worshipped. Let brothers and sisters be taught to respect each other’s rights; be as thoughtful to please, and as watchful to avoid anything which will perplex and annoy each other, as they would be to a young guest whom they desired to honor; and they will then learn a due observance of home etiquette and politeness. Rude and rough boys are often allowed to treat their sisters in a very disagreeable, overbearing manner, and annoy them on every occasion, by breaking up their baby houses, cutting their hair off their dolls, and destroying their playthings, and speaking very slightingly of “the girls.” We consider such behavior as exceedingly reprehensible, and entirely at variance with all rules of good-breeding. Such boys will also make unkind and rude husbands; for by being permitted to exhibit and indulge such traits of character in their youth, they will be likely to indulge in them in their manhood, and pursue the same pleasing pastimes in their own families. #RandolphHarris 11 of 15
A sister is the best judge of a brother’s abilities in playing the role of a good husband. And a brother can estimate very fairly the position which a sister would hold in a husband’ home. We delight in the freedom of childhood; in its merry—quips and cranks and wanton wiles; and in the cheerfulness of youth, and its many delights and pleasures; but still more charming is the gentlemanly demeanor of brothers toward their sisters. Boastful persons, and such as disregard truth in their statements, are usually to be avoided; these sins, in the lowest point of view, are decidedly against the etiquette of god society. No woman can either resect or love a man who is in the habit of deceiving her; nor can a man esteem or love a woman whose statements do not possess the virtue of truth. Life and mind are products that develop, here and there, in the course of the manifold developments in the natural World. Mind, life, consciousness, and soul are activities of certain types of bodies; they never appear apart from those bodies, although mind, once is has emerged in Nature, may come to guide and thus to master some of the occurrences in the World about it. #RandolphHarris 12 of 15
Men will sometimes conceal from women the realities of their lives on the plea that they are too narrow minded, weak, or simple to understand them; while women, in their turn, conceal the details of their daily life on the score that they do not wish to e interfered with; or for fear lest their hidden pleasures be denied them. Hence arises the theory that wives must be kept in the dark concerning their husbands’ pursuits; and that men must be managed so that they shall not forbid this, that or the other desired pleasure. And this is styled diplomacy in the house circle. Of course, this state of affairs is very uncertain and slippery; and an expose will be threatened daily. Consciousness, far from being the source of the objective World, presupposes it existence. In all this realistic position, both husband and wife feel that they are deceived, yet cannot tell exactly how, when or where; cannot place their hand on the very spot—cannot prove what they suspect. Nature indicates a norm of perfection which the historical processes in this World seldom bring to fulfillment. It is contrasted with an allegedly superior spirit or supernature. #RandolphHarris 13 of 15
Men always know that they are managed even when they cannot see the way; women understand they are deceived;–are sure that excuses given for uncalled-for absences are not the right one—even though they cannot discover the truth. Such things go in the air, and consciousness is evolved even in the senses reveal naught. Such houses, however, are but the stepping-stones to a deeper abyss of woe. A love of truth, a high sense of honor, delicacy of manner, and strict adherence to correct principles, are the chief essentials of home etiquette. Be careful to avoid the habit of sauntering into a room without attending to anything that passes there;–thinking, it may be, of a trifling affair that need not occupy the attention, or very likely not thinking at all. In this way some persons trespass upon the rules of politeness which enjoin that each one should do one’s part in society. Let Nature be, as I love to put it, Heaven and Earth, the Sea, and all that is in them is, and I do not see how one can here complain of ambiguity. Make it a rule wherever you are, to take an interest in all that passes, observe the characteristics of the persons you meet, and listen to and take part in the subjects of their conversations. #RandolphHarris 14 of 15
Nature is what we find around us, whether we are looking on a top closet shelf, or through telescopic instruments at stellar Universes that are distant in both time and space, or at the evidences for ancient cities that long ago disappeared from view. Daily life, technical science, and history alike presuppose. Nature; that is, all these kinds of quests for knowledge presuppose simply that there is much to investigate. As we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, he will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect. God has a bank vault of blessings stored up for you. Something new and good is going to happen and the rest of your life will be the best of your life. God has extraordinary miracles coming your way. Angel of God, my Guardian, to whom his lobe commits me here, ever this day and night, be at my side to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen. #RandolphHarris 15 of 15
The Secrets of Your Heart are Mine
God sees, in one eternal glance, all the decisions of each soul, now and to come. The omnipotence of God and his absolute freedom are the two articles of Christian belief that we must never lose sight of. The articles of faith are justification and prove that God is not bound or obligated by the order of nature he has established, so he is not bound or obligated by the order of grace he has established as the common way of salvation of souls. Salvation or the deliverance of humankind from such fundamentally negative or disabling conditions as suffering, evil, finitude, and death entails the restoration or raising up of the natural World to a higher realm or states. There is one supreme being, and this being is the cause of the movements and order of the World. The being is of an intellectual nature. However, in present life, not everyone has an intuitive cognition of God. The intellective soul is an immaterial and incorruptible form that exists as a whole in the whole body and as a whole in each part, it cannot be evidently known by reason or experience that such a form exists in us, nor that the understanding proper to such a substance exists in us, nor that such a soul is a form of the body. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9
The soul has an interpreter—often an unconscious, but still a truthful interpreter—in the eyes. The soul of humans seems to have been constructed for another sphere of existence. The human intellective soul (mind is a close synonym) might be defined as the source of a person’s thoughts and actions; it is not a material part of a person, but something that is higher and thought to be immortal, part of a realm of immaterial matter. You cannot hide the soul. The individual must receive sense images and must abstract Universal content from them. However, the soul can be killed. There is poison that can kill the body and the soul when a person commits the gravest of crimes. A sickness in your spirit has immediately its appropriate manifestation in your bodily frame. Pain, imperceptible psychic and emotional pain, can be felt by the soul having made an immoral decision that cannot be undone. The pain is less bodily and more mental. This higher mental pain is associated with not finding the pleasure one seeks. There is a dark cloud of negative thoughts filled with anger, hatred, bitterness, resentment, or sadness. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9
The liberty of will is the basis of human dignity and of moral goodness and responsibility, more than the power of thinking—although the two are mutually involved. The seat of morality is the will itself because every act other than the act of will, which is the power of the will, is only good in such a manner that it can be a bad act, because it can be done for evil and from an evil intention. Also, every action, other than the act of willing itself, can be performed by reason of natural causes and not freely, and every such action could be caused in us by God alone instead of by our will; consequently, the action in itself is neither virtuous nor vicious, except by the denomination from the act of the will. The problem of how God knows, with certainty and from all eternity, the contingent and free decisions of the human will is an insoluble problem; for both the freedom of the human will and the power of God to know all contingent acts of created beings must be conceded. It is impossible for any [created] intellect, in this life, to explain or evidently know how God knows all future contingent events. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9
While recognizing the conception of natural good and of virtuous choices in accordance with right reason, humans are obligated to love and obey God above all else. Thus, what God wills humans to do of human’s free will defines the right, and disobedience to God’s will defines sin. Moral evil is doing of the opposite of what one is obligated to do, and since God is not obligated to any act, it is impossible for God to sin by his causal concurrence in the production of an act sinfully willed by the creature. To obey God is to love God, and to love God is to do his will. I once knew someone I would talk to and would tell when I would do bad things. And this person told me the people probably deserved it, which is a way of justifying sin and will lead one to sin more because you think if a person invokes a bad reaction from you that they deserve it. However, it is not up to me or anyone else to decide what a person deserves. I was raised to be kind and tolerate as much as I can from other people and if they do not bring out the best in me to leave them alone. We should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. If we trust in our own abilities instead of God’s, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9
As Christ did not come into the World in order to take away from people their goods and rights, so Christ’s vicar, who is inferior and in no way equal to him in power, has no authority or to deprive others of their goods and rights. God has established laws binding the Christian to live in a certain way as a member of the church, participant in its sacraments, and believer in its articles of faith, this fact imposes no obligation on God to either bestow eternal life on the Christian who obeys God’s precepts and loves him above all else, or to withhold eternal life from those who do not follow God’s laws and love him above all else. It is not impossible that God could ordain that a person who lives according to right reason, and does not believe anything except wat is conclusive to him or her by natural reason, should be worthy of eternal life. God always contingently and freely and mercifully and of his own graciousness beatifies whomsoever he chooses with eternal life, purely from his kindness he will give eternal life to whomsoever he will give it. God’s gift of existence to creatures and of freedom of choice to humans is perfectly free gift with no clauses attached. God is the law of liberty and not one of oppression nor coercion. The law of the Gospels is not supposed to be a law of slavery. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9
We know what it is to believe, opine, and wonder, and we know when we know. We know, noninferentially, that there are other persons. Possibly through religious experience, and in particular the experiences of solemn awe, we know that God exists. Our battles are won or lost in the secret places of our will in God’s presence, never in full view of the World. The Spirit of God seizes me and I am compelled to get along with God. We do not want merely inferred friends. Could be possibly be satisfied with an inferred God? Sometimes instruction is taught visibly and not always verbally. The pastor told me not to get too familiar with people, and I took heed to his words. Every time I would see him, he would say kind things like, “Hey, young man. I appreciate what you do around here,” and “it is good to see you.” These comments made me feel good, but as I watched him more I realized he says these things to everyone, it is part of his script. He may not actually, personally, being paying attention to what you are doing. So, make sure your friends are real and not just inferred and being nice. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9
Theoretical judgments are judgments of action and are always beneficial; their purpose is to extend the limits of knowledge in a given science, whether it be social, physical or biological. Philosophy examines the relations between the ability of individual consciousness to render judgments and that consciousness in general. Philosophy has its own proper field and its own problem in those values of Universal validity which are the organizing principles for the functions of culture and civilization for all the particular values of life. What I have learned in the business World is not to trust people, never tell too much about your personal life, and be care of people who act like they already know you. Also, proceed with caution when a conversation seems out of context. Generally, when you do not know someone you ask them how they are doing, talk about sport, weather, TV or their plans for the weekend. Never tell anyone you do not know about your family, life, or even where you work. Critical judgments, then, are rendered in respect not what is but of what ought to be; in accordance, not with laws but with norms. This is a normative consciousness. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9
The essence of who you are should be closed to the public’s knowledge; they should never know more than a few fragments of it, and there is no prospect of their every being able to patch it together out of scraps they gather. Life is not a talk show, it is not to air your business to strangers. The goal of life is to keep your business behind closed doors and when in public give off the impression that everything is perfect and beautiful. Society has become so loose. People often speak of good manners as an accomplishment. I see them as a duty. Such manners are the usages of society to be recognized as agreeable and take away the rudeness, and remit to the brute creation all coarseness. There are a great many who feel that good manners are effeminate. They have a feeling that rude bluntness is a great deal more manly than good manners. It is a great deal more beastly. However, when we live in crowded communities, the art of living together is no small are. How to diminish friction; how to promote ease of association; how to make human life contribute to the welfare and satisfaction of those around us; how to keep down offensive pride is essential to life. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9
How to banish the rasping of selfishness from the intercourse go human life; how to move among people inspired by various and conflictive motives, and yet have no collisions—the is the function of good manners. Not only is the violation of good manners inexcusable on ordinary grounds, but it is sinful. When, therefore, parents and guardians and teachers would inspire the young with a desire for the manners of society, it is not to be though that they are accomplishments which may be accepted or rejected. Every person is bound to observe the laws of politeness. It is the expression of good-will and kindness. It promotes both beauty in the person who possess it, and happiness in those who are about the individual. It is a religious duty, and should be part of religions training. The reason of etiquette might be ridiculed, but the main reason for etiquette is the avoidance of offense. There is reason in comfort and happiness. And no one can afford to violate the unwritten customs of etiquette who wishes to act as a good Christian. Etiquette governs social intercourse, and is desirous of cultivating both politeness and good-breeding. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9
God is Not in His Heaven: All is Wrong with the World!
We are overhasty to speak as if God did not manifest himself by our silent feeling, and make his love felt through ours. I think that our Universe must be like a sea walnut. Sea walnuts are a jelly fish type creature and they live in the ocean, they are actually shaped like a walnut, and they produce their own light. Some scientist think they produce their own light to scare off predators, but others disagree. It is possible that sea walnuts are a microcosm, like a living organism, with other organism that live inside of it, and it produces light for them to see and grow food. Of course, these organisms inside of the sea walnut would probably microscopic. So, I wonder if the Universe is like a sea walnut and we are encased inside of another Universe? Because something about the creation myths is baffling to me. Human behavior is response to desire or aversion. Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them. Will is the very nature or essence of human beings and indeed of everything, identifying it with the thing-in-itself that underlies all phenomena. #RandolphHarris 1 of 16
Human life partakes of the unravelable inscrutableness of God. All people ideally perceive certain ends or goals by their reason and then direct their wills to the attainment of these ends or goals. This is why no human can knowingly will evil. So, then why is their evil on Earth? Either God can remove evil from the World and will not; or being willing to do so, cannot; or he neither can nor will; or he is both able and willing. If he can but will not, he is not benevolent. If he is neither willing nor able, he is neither omnipotent nor benevolent. If he both wants to and can, whence comes the evil over the face of the Earth? God may cause our circumstances to suddenly fall apart, which may bring the realization of our unfaithfulness to hum for not recognizing that he had ordained the situation. This is where the test of our faithfulness comes. If we will just learn to worship God even during the difficult circumstances, he will change them for the better very quickly if he so chooses. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God. #RandolphHarris 2 of 16
What are the comprehensible terrors of humanity compared with the interlinked terrors and wonders of God! The ascent of the soul is traced towards higher and higher ends, the supposition being that these ends are apprehended first by the senses and then ultimately by the pure or unfettered intelligence, which enlists the will or desire for their pursuit. The corruption of a human was precisely the dominance of the will, that is, of human’s appetites or desires, this being a deviation from what human nature ideally should be. The understanding first grasps certain ideas or presents certain ends to the mind and the will then either assents or withholds its assent, thus following rather than directing the understanding. Ends and goal become such only because they are willed; they are not first perceived as ends and then willed. Reason is concerned entirely with demonstrations (dedication) or with the relations of cause and effect (induction). In neither case can it give us ends or goals. Mathematics is used in mechanical arts and the like, but always as a means of attaining something that has nothing to do with reason. #RandolphHarris 3 of 16
As we know not what purpose any event is ultimately directed, so neither can we affirm from what causes it originally sprung. The computations of a merchant, for example, can be fallacious, but the ends for which they are undertaken can in no sense be fallacious or irrational. They can only be wise or foolish, that is, such as to promote or to frustrate other ends that are again products of the will. Similarly, no discovery of casual connections in nature can by itself have the least influence on the will. Such discoveries can only be useful or useless in enabling people to choose appropriate means to certain ends, which are in no way derived from reason. It can never in the least concern us to know that such objects are causes, and such other effects, if both causes and effects be indifferent to us. Reason therefore can never produce actions or impulses, nor can it oppose them. An impulse to act can be opposed only by a contrary impulse, not by reason. There can, accordingly, be no such thing as a conflict between reason and passion, and the only way in which willed behavior can be irrational is for it to be based upon some misconception—for instance, on some erroneous conception of what is a fit means to the attainment of an end which I entirely the product of will. #RandolphHarris 4 of 16
There is no creature whose inward being is so strong that it is not greatly determined by what lies outside. All agree that people are moved by their impulses, appetites, passions, or wills and that these are incapable of fallacy or error. There is thus no such thing as a rational or irrational will, although one may will imprudently in relation to other things that one wills. A free being wills because it wills, and the willing of an object is itself the last ground of such willing. Human nature contains implications of the highest importance for ethics. If ends or goals are entirely products of the will and the will is neither rational nor irrational, then ends themselves cannot be termed either rational or irrational and it becomes meaningless to ask whether this or that end is really good or bad independently of its being willed. To say something is good, is to say nothing more than it is an object of one’s appetite, and to say that something is bad is only to say that one has an aversion to it. Good and bad are thus purely relative to desires and aversions, which are, of course, sometimes quite different in different people. Wise behavior, on this conception, can be nothing other than prudence, that is, the selection of appropriate means to the attainment of whatever goals one happens to have. #RandolphHarris 5 of 16
The inconsistency so common in dreams. There is one goal, however, that is fairly common to all people: the goal of self-preservation. People can preserve themselves in safety and security within a commonwealth. People are the measure of all things. Things are good solely by virtue of the fact that they are demanded, this is, that someone wants them or lays claim to them, and such a demand might be for anything under the Sun. Considered apart from the demands of sentient beings, nothing in the Universe has any worth what so ever. The only proper ethical maxim is to satisfy as many demands as possible, no matter what these happen to be, but at the least cost, this is, with the minimum of frustration to other demands. It is clear that within the framework of theories like this, no meaning can be attached to asking what is truly worthy of one’s desires, unless this question is interpreted to mean, “What is in fact satisfying of one’s desires?”; nor does it make sense to see, any metaphysical principles of morals. #RandolphHarris 6 of 16
People will dream; the most that can be asked of them is but that the dream be not in too glaring discord with the thing they know. Truth and falsity in ethics are exhausted in questions as to the truth and falsity of various opinions concerning the utility of proposed means to the achievement of ends, that is, to the satisfaction of appetite, desire, and demand. They have no relevance to any questions concerning ends themselves. Human reason or dialectic is worthless in theological maters, for the simple reason that the very laws of logic are valid only by the concurrence of God’s will. God is omnipotent and can therefore render true even those things which reason declares to be absurd or contradictory. It is thus idle for philosophers to speculate upon what must be true with respect to divine matters, since these depend only on God’s will. Faith is found in the very act of faith itself, which is an act of the will, rather than in rational proof. God has some type of powers that, as humans, we cannot even conceive. #RandolphHarris 7 of 16
I believe in order that I may understand. The divine will is the only and the ultimate moral justification for any act. Strictly understood, this means that an action that might otherwise be deemed heinous is not so, provided it is commanded by God. The divine will, and not human or divine reason, is the ultimate standard of morality, that certain acts are sins other acts are meritorious only because they have been commanded by God. God does not forbid certain things because they are sins or commands certain things because they are virtues, for it seems that this would be a limitation upon God’s will. There can be no higher justification for any act than that God wills it, nor any more final condemnation of an act than that God forbids it. The moral law is simply a matter of God’s free choice, for God’s choice cannot be constrained by any moral law, being itself the sole source of that law. The concept of the will is crucial to the understanding of the law, ethics, and human behaviour generally; this is crucial to the understanding of reality itself. #RandolphHarris 8 of 16
Dreamers see the Heavens open every day. The will is the underlying and ultimate reality and the whole phenomenal World is only the expression of will. Living things are the objectifications of their wills and explains not only the behaviour but also the very anatomical structures of planets, animals, and people. The will is a blind and all-powerful force that is literally the inexhaustible creator of every visible thing. The sexual appetite, which I considered to be fundamentally the same in all living things, is a blind urge to love and to perpetuate existence without any goal beyond that, and it has nothing whatever to do with reason or intelligence, being in fact more often than not opposed to them. The religious impulse found in all cultures at all times is similarly explained as the response to a blind and irrational will to possess endless existence. In the growth and development of all living things is the unfolding of the will in nature, wherein certain things appear and transform themselves in accordance with a fairly unvarying pattern and in the face of obstacles and impediments, solely in accordance with at is willed in a metaphysical sense but entirely without any rational purpose or goal. #RandolphHarris 9 of 16
Strong drink makes every hidden seed sprout up in the soul and show itself. The feelings of self-love, malice, and compassion, all of which are expressions of the will, may have nothing to do with reason or intelligence. People have free will only in the sense that every person is the free or unfettered expression of a will and people are therefore not the authors of their own destinies, characters, or behavior. The irrational factors in human behaviour is now taken for granted in those sophisticated circles that have come under the influence of modern psychological theories. Moral laws cannot guide human conduct successfully, because they are rational rules directed to the conscious will and are defeated by the irrational antagonism that stems from the human’s subconscious. For moral ideals to be significant and effective they must take possession of the subconscious, which they can do only if they are reached through the sublimation of subconscious impulses. Sublimation, operating through the imagination, transforms human’s lower impulses into higher ones and turns one’s inherent, arbitrary freedom into moral freedom that seeks the good. #RandolphHarris 10 of 16
Such sublimation is assisted by divine grace and is possible only where the soul turns freely toward the Absolute. Christian ethics is not ethics of law, but the ethics of sublimation. Sublimate means to express potentially violent or socially unacceptable impulses in a modified, socially acceptable manner. Thus, my dear friend, I have briefly proposes the method which I judge proper for molding the soul into a holy frame; and the same means which serve to beget this divine temper, must still be practiced for strengthening and advancing it; and therefore I shall recommend but one more for that purpose, and it is the frequent and conscientious use of that holy sacrament, which is peculiarly appointed to nourish and increase spiritual life, when once it is begun in the soul. All the instruments of religion do meet together in this ordinance; and while we address ourselves unto it, we are put to practice all the rules which were mentioned before. Then it is that we make the severest survey of our actions, and they lay the strictest obligations on ourselves; then are our minds raised up to the highest contempt of the World, and every grace does exercise itself with the greatest activity and vigor. #RandolphHarris 11 of 16
All the subjects of contemplation do there present themselves unto us with the greatest advantage; and then, if every does the soul make its most powerful sallies toward Heaven, and assaults it with a holy acceptable force. And certainly the neglect or careless performance of this duty, is one of the chief causes that bedwarfs our religion, and makes us continue of so low a size. And now, most gracious God, Father and fountain of mercy and goodness, who has blessed us with the knowledge of our happiness, and the way that leads unto it! Excite in our souls such ardent desires after the one. Let us nether presume on our own strength, nor distrust thy divine assistance: but while we are doing our utmost endeavours, teach us still to depend on thee for success. Open our eyes, God, and teach us out of thy law. Bless us with an exact and tender sense of our duty, and a knowledge to discern perverse things. That our ways were directed to keep thy statues, then shall we not be ashamed when we have respect unto all thy commandments. #RandolphHarris 12 of 16
Possess our hearts with a generous and holy disdain of all those poor enjoyments which this World holds out to allure us, that they may never be able to inveigle our affections, or betray us to any sin: turn away our eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken us in thy law. Fill our souls with such a deep sense, and full persuasion of those great truths which you have revealed in gospel, as may influence and regulate our whole conversation; and that the life which we henceforth live in the flesh, we may life through faith in the Son of God. That the infinite perfections of thy blessed nature, and the astonishing expressions of thy goodness and love, may conquer and overpower our hearts, that they may be constantly rising toward thee in flames of devoutest affections, and enlarging themselves in sincere and cordial love towards all the World for thy sake; and that we may cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in thy fear, without which we can never hope to behold and enjoy thee. #RandolphHarris 13 of 16
God, grant that the consideration of what you are, and what we ourselves are, may both humble and lay us low before thee, and also stir up in us the strongest and most ardent aspiration towards thee. We desire to resign and give up ourselves to the conduct of the Holy Spirit; lead us in thy truth, and teach us, for you are the God of salvation; guide us with thy counsel, and afterwards receive us unto glory, for the merits and intercessions of thy blessed Son and Saviour. If you are sensitive to God’s way, your message as his servant will be merciless and insistent, cutting to the very root. Otherwise, there will be no healing. We must drive the message to the house so forcefully that a person cannot possibly hide, but must apply its truth. Deal with people where they are until they begin to realize their true need. Then hold high the standard of Jesus Christ for their lives. #RandolphHarris 14 of 16
Love is misunderstood to be an emotion; actually, it is a state of awareness, a way of being in the World, a way of seeing oneself and others. The great God absolute! The centre and circumference of all democracy! His omnipresence, our divine equality! Everyone has been created with the ability to reach out beyond one’s own grasp. However, it is God who draws me, and my relationship to God in the first place is an inner personal one, not an intellectual one. I come into the relationship through the miracle of God and through my own will to believe. Then I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of the transformation in my life. Wisdom brings with it peace, balance, and wholeness, but to benefit from this wisdom, we must first learn to feel the Source of truth. #RandolphHarris 15 of 16
Love for God or nature and animals opens the doors to spiritual inspiration. There comes a time when one falls in love with everything and everyone they meet. This tendency to be intensely loving has to be curtailed because love, curiously enough, frightens many people. Many people cannot look fully into another person’s eyes for more than a brief second, if at all. This is especially so if the one looking at them radiates lovingness. Some people even panic when exposed to love. I believe one reason I have seen God’s favor in my life is that I have learned to ask big. When my father died and I was left with nothing, I prayed an extraordinary prayer asking God to help me not only to maintain what my parents have built, but also for God to let me excel in life. It was a bold prayer when I walked in that jewelry store, met Michelle for the first time, and prayed: “God, please let her see how good-looking I am!” Ask God for your dreams. Your Father owns it all. He created the Universe. If you want to see the fullness of what he has in store, you should learn to ask big. Love leads to God, through art or in acts. #RandolphHarris 16 of 16
Monday Morning Quarterbacking Following Absentee Ownership
No matter how healthy, intelligent, or affluent we may be, if our minds are weak, then our happiness will also be a frail and brittle thing. We cannot be manned by mental defectives whose business it is to promise everything and deliver nothings. No meaning can properly be attached to the probability of a single event, and the notion becomes equally inapplicable to the large range of judgments expressing partial belief (in theories and the like) which have hitherto been dealt with under this head. There are difficulties, moreover, in assuming that observed frequencies are a reliable clue to long-run or limiting frequencies—that is it possible, in effect, on inductive grounds to arrive at such long-run frequencies by means of sample observations, however, extended. Thus, a knowledge of statistical frequency, even if obtainable, would be no sufficient ground for preferring one expectation to another. A miracle is the supernatural intervention of God. God created this World and everything physical around us, and the physical World is orderly. God’s desire is for you to prosper. God’s will is for you to be healthy. Probability is clearly not a guide to life. You are the one who controls God’s ability on your life. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
All of our wickednesses and imperfections, all of our follies and our sins, may help to pull down that fond and overweening conceit which we are apt to entertain of ours. That which makes anybody esteem us, is their knowledge or apprehension of some little good, and their ignorance of a great deal of evil that may be in us; were they thoroughly acquainted with us, they would quickly change their opinion. The thoughts that pass in our hearts, in the best and most serious day of our life, being exposed unto public view, would render us either hateful or ridiculous. And now, however we conceal our failings from one another, yet sure we are conscious of them ourselves, and some serious reflections upon them would much qualify and allay vanity of our spirits. Thus, holy people have come really to think worse of themselves, than of any other person in the World: not but that they knew that gross and scandalous vices are, in their nature, more heinous than the surprises of temptations and infirmity; but because they were much more intent on their own miscarriages than on those of their neighbours, and did consider all the aggravations of the one, and everything that might be supposed to diminish and alleviate the other. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
How should acts be judged? Often times, reason deceives us more often than the heart. Thoughts of God give us the lowest thoughts of ourselves because there are things many of us have done that we have never forgiven ourselves for, and also because we know that God sees everything and knows everything. However, to make progress and to change takes more effort than feeling guilty, but it is a more appropriate response. On the scale of consciousness, guilt is one of the lowest levels, whereas God is the highest level. Consequently, wallowing around in guilt will not help of progress. Humility means that we see our own life as the evolution of spiritual consciousness. We learn from our mistakes. Ideals clash and choices are usually between alternatives that contain some evil. An ethically sensitive person therefore is more subject than others to doubt, crisis, and remorse satisfied conscience is more readily found in those who have a narrow awareness and ready formulas. However, an ethically sensitive person may exemplify the perfection of individual morality, in which are combined a feeling for each individual act and a care for all possible results. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
A lot of times things we do in the past seem like a good idea at the time. Yet, later on, in retrospect, when we place or consider the situation in a different context, by doing some Monday morning quarterbacking, and we criticize the actions and decision we made or others made, after the fact, we use hindsight to assess situations and specify more better alternative solutions, the errors become crystal clear. Along with giving up the guilt, it is also very helpful to give up the sin as reality, we have to change our ways and make atonements for our mistakes. There has been moral progress in the course of history: Ideals have been added from time to time, more persons now share to some degree in all ideals, and there is greater resistance to evil. More people have their principle in the love of being [and desire for its] perfection, or in the feeling of its imperfection or withering. However, we must be warned against submitting to a single dominating passion. The feeling of our imperfection makes our eternal torture. Our need for greatness and importance is laudable, and we should also respond with charity to the needs of others. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
Error is usually correctable; sin is typically a mistake, and generally can be forgiven. It is also well observed by a pious individual, that the deepest and most pure humility does not so much arise from the consideration of our own faults and defects, as from a calm and quiet contemplation of the divine purity and goodness. Our spots never appear so clearly, as when we place them before this infinite light; and we never seem less in our own eyes, than when we look down upon ourselves from on high. O how little, how nothing, do all these shadows of perfection then appear, for which we are wont to value ourselves! That humility, which comes from a view of our own sinfulness and misery, is more turbulent and boisterous; but the other layer is full and low, and want nothing of that anguish and vexation wherewith our souls are apt to boil, when they are nearest objects of our thoughts. Instead of hurting someone for fun, spiritual values replace Worldly ones, temptations diminish and error is less likely to occur. There remains yet another means for begetting a holy and religious disposition in the soul, and that is, fervent and hearty prayer. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Holiness is the gift of God—indeed the greatest gift he does bestow, or we are capable to receive; and God has promised his Holy Spirit to those who ask it of him. In prayer, we make the nearest approaches to God, and are open to the influences of Heaven; then it is that the Sun of Righteousness does visit us with his directest rays, and dissipates our darkness, and imprints his image on our souls. I shall only tell you, that as there is one sort of prayer wherein we make use of the voice, which is necessary in public, and may sometimes have its own advantages in private; and another, wherein though we utter no sound, yet we conceive the expressions, and forms the words, as it were, in our minds; so there is a third and more sublime kind of prayer, wherein the soul takes a higher flight, and having collected all its forces by long and serious meditation, it darts itself (if I may so speak) towards God in sighs and groans, and thoughts too big for expression. As when, after a deep contemplation of the divine perfections appearing in all his works of wonder, it addresses itself unto him in the profoundest adoration of his majesty and glory. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
For, when after sad reflections on its vileness and miscarriages, it prostrates itself before God with the greatest confusion and sorrow, not daring to lift up its eyes, or utter one word in his presence; or when, having well considered the beauty of holiness, and the unspeakable felicity of those that are truly good, it seeks God, and sends up such vigorous and ardent desires as no words can sufficiently express, continuing and repeating each of these acts, as long as it finds itself upheld by the force and impulse of the previous meditation. This mental prayer is of all others the most effectual to purify the soul, and dispose it unto a holy and religious temper, and may be termed the great secret of devotion, and one of the most powerful instruments of the divine life; and, it may be, the apostle has a peculiar respect unto it, when he says, that the Spirit helps our infirmities, making intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered, or that cannot be worded. Yet, I do not so recommend this sort of prayer, as to supersede the use of the other. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
For we have so many several things to pray for, and every petition of this nature requires so much time, and so great an attention of spirit, that it is not ease therein to overtake them all: to say nothing, that the deep sighs and heavings of the heart, which are wont to accompany it, are something oppressive to nature, and make it hard to continue long in them. However, certainly a few of these inward aspirations will so more than a great many fluent and melting expressions. The phase to accomplish all spiritual progress as well as success in the World, means we have to tune into the awareness of the presence of God. There is a sudden release of enormous energy, an emergence into an almost enlightened state in which all is happening of its own. There is a peace, a serenity, and a stillness. Acceptance is the great healer of strife, conflict, and upset. It also corrects major imbalances of perception and precludes the dominance of negative feelings. Everything serves a purpose. Self-interest is naturally good, and we also must preserve the ethical character of acts. The realization of spiritual progress is the result of God’s grace and not the results of one’s personal endeavors. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
We are allowed to seek happiness outside ourselves: One is not one’s own unique object. Not all acts are motivated by self-interest, and it is absurd to call sacrifice of life, for example, an act of self-interest, for in such an act we consider ourselves as the least part of the whole and lose everything. Jesus Christ, law enforcement, fire department, people in the army, military, veterans, and emergency medical services constantly risk their lives to save others and make the World a better place. The criterion of acts is their effect on others; acts are virtuous of they tend to the good of all, even if they also satisfy self-interest. Activity, courage, glory, and ambition summarize the ideal of life and concept of virtue. Greatness of soul depends on character and education. The great soul does not care about public esteem; true glory is an intimate feeling, self-satisfying to the point where it may paradoxically disdain actions. People are not naturally, politically or socially equal. A good person is one thing; enlightenment is another. One is responsible for the effort and not the results, which is up to God in the Universe. Law cannot make people equal in spite of nature. Hierarchy, in all respects, is inevitable. Although there may be deficiencies in our lives, it is important to have a proud, heroic soul. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
Our attitude must be one of complete reliance on God. Once we get to that point, there is nothing easier than living the life of a saint. We encounter difficulties when we try to usurp the authority of the Holy Spirit. Any problem that comes while I obey God increases my delight, because I know that my Father knows and cares, and I can watch and anticipate how he will unravel my problems. We must be lovers of peace. Greatness of soul and action are absolute virtues. We should be resolutely optimistic about life. History records more frequent and more spectacular instances of the triumph of imbecile institutions over life and culture than of peoples who have saved themselves alive out of a desperately precarious institutional situation, such, for instance, as now faces the people of Christendom. “Peace I leave you with, my peace I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled” (John 14.27). God, you are wonderful providence. Grant, we beg you, that we may be worthy for our intercessor in Heaven, whom we venerate on Earth as our protector. You who live and reign forever and Ever. Bless it be. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
Secrets and Lies–Make Your Stories Sell!
He who is in the clutches of the law may think himself lucky if he escapes with the loss of his tail. Nature has created inequalities in men and things, and, as human institutions are intended to prevent the strong from oppressing marginalized members of the human population, ergo, the laws should encourage natural inequalities as a legitimate consequence. Secrets and Lies incorporates subliminal angles of the human psyche—obsessions some aspire to conceal, wickedness many refuse to admit. Detective Cornell acts as a malevolent force to Ben Crawford throughout the mini-series, representing the seduction of evil and the fear and torment within Ben Crawford. Once she realizes that Ben is out there, Detective Cornell becomes compelled with finding him and making him pay for a crime he did not commit, allowing the criminal to walk free, so she can inflict the venom of evil into his soul and turn him into a villain before the eyes of the community. detective Cornell knows Ben Crawford is innocent and feels culpability for the part she played in ceasing a man who has already suffered a tragic lose, and destroying his home, family, career, and life. As long as Ben continues to remain free, not only is it a constant reminder that law enforcement and community members tortured and persecuted and innocent man, but it also leaves the city and aggressors with criminal liability and possibly civil liability as well, and they all regret the decisions they made. However, the thugs keep profiling and trying to convict Ben Crawford because they feel if they can just convince themselves, and others that he is bad, it will remove any guilt or liability they have. However, what is done in secret will be brought to the light. So, detective Cornell and the community obsessively purses Ben Crawford. Detective Cornell probably projects her rage and frustration onto Ben Crawford for other things she has done in the past. Ben Crawford and detective Cornell are opposites, he has the World to live for, he is whole and complete and loved, but detective Cornell has committed some egregious sins, and is cold, fragmented, and lost. However, this villain, detective Cornell helps to bring out the hero in Ben Crawford, the audience sees his true qualities of love, compassion, strength, and perseverance, and he grows in the process—David and Goliath, a biblical example.
Although detective initially appears as an evil villain, there comes a turning point where she realizes that she is wrong and that they are putting Ben Crawford’s life in danger. She realizes that they are no better than ISIS and the people who attacked Paris, France, and takes a real interest in “helping” him. The innocents, determination, and compassion that Ben Crawford conveys, allows Ben Crawford to bring out the true detective in Cornell, to fight her way back to being a righteous detective. Yet, detective Cornell’s rage is one of her more enduring characteristics. She is constantly harassing and stalking Ben Crawford and using her job as an investigator to justify her actions, she allows people to interrogate him to see how she can twist and mangle his words, making him look like he committed a murder, even though her constant profiling of Ben has almost gotten him killed twice. However, sometime detective Cornell feels guilty about the ferocity of the evil she inflicts Ben Crawford and his family. Detective Cornell takes extreme measures to judiciously project her anger onto Ben Crawford by expending immeasurable city resources to try and wrongly convict him, at the expense of taxpayers and potentially putting other members of the community in danger. The resources used to make Ben Crawford look guilty could have been used to hire more law enforcement to protect others and pay unfunded pensions. However, detective Cornell’s interactions with Ben Crawford are slowly changing, she is no longer blaming him for her short comings, but instead feels a sadness and tries to connect with him and even protect him by letting him know his life is in danger. Detective Cornell desperately wants Ben Crawford to be saved, and her ability for good surpasses her ever-present anger and frustration. We see detective Cornell reach a point of clarity as she now is trying to save Ben Crawford.
Through the mini-series of Secrets and Lies, we see that people want to disrupt Ben Crawford’s life, and detract him, with strict authority, to slow down his accelerating movement to adulthood. Ben is accused of murder to keep him from growing and expanding beyond this sadistic cult in the small town. They want Ben to stay suppressed and small. However, Ben Crawford is a force of youthful heroism and is oblivious to danger. While the rest of the community is constantly acting, but rarely thinking about the repercussions of their actions. It becomes more and more easy for the audience to relate to Ben Crawford because we see he is righteous, and the rest of the community, and law enforcement are looked at as the bad guys. They see one person struggling, and instead of helping him, they attack him, without even knowing the facts. Not everyone can relate to Ben Crawford’s desire for justice, or his role as an empathetic hero, nor detective Cornell’s journey for domination and force to salvation. This is a story of good and evil and is meant to open the mind and show people that pack mentality is wrong and often times dangerous. Get your facts straight before acting on your limited vision, releasing your fear and frustration onto others. Unauthorized and abhorrent thoughts will sometime invade the best human heart. Remember, we live in a World, were an African American woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested because she refused to move to the back of the bus and let a Caucasian man have her seat. Now Rosa Parks is a legendary hero for calling attention to civil rights. By standing up for herself, Rosa Parks has protected countless lives from being wrongly stalked and harassed by law enforcement like our hero Ben Crawford is done in Secrets and Lies.
Randolph Harris II International Institute 