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Let Us Live then and be Glad while Young Life is Before Us!
Enjoy your own company. Learn to welcome solitude and work on your own inner being—your character. Solitude allows you opportunity to think deep thoughts. To think about where you have been. To think about where you are going. To think about why you feel so strongly about certain issues. To think about how different your values are from those other people you know. To think about wat all people have in common. To question yourself about why you cling to bad habits. To praise yourself for your strengths. To challenge yourself to follow your dreams. Reflection and solitude feed the soul. Again, all you have to do is pause to rest. Nature herself, when we let her, will take care of everything else. It is our impatience that spoils things. Perhaps we can come a little closer to the nature of memory by looking at it in the company of its traditional associates, common sense and imagination. The internal senses, as the are called, are distinguished from the external senses. They are three in number: common sense, memory, and imagination. The common sense was the faculty that unified the data of the external or special senses. Each sense did what is “proper” to it, the eye seeing, the ear hearing, and the like. What was “common” to disparate sensations was organized into a whole by the common sense. The result was a shape or figure of an object. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
Common sense also gave meaning to successive affective aspects of experiences, such as pleasure and pain, and oragnised experience into things to be pursued and things to be avoided. To some philosophers, notably Avicenna, the evaluation of sensory experience was distinctive enough to furnish evidence of a separate power, the estimative faculty. The common sense moreover, supplied the dimensions of consciousness or awareness of experience. No sense was aware of its own activity, but the common sense identified the work of each sense. Hence, one “knew” that one as subject was undergoing or “receiving” the experience. In brief, common sense was the receiver, organizer, and evaluator of stimuli from the special senses. In the vocabulary of Schoolmen, its products were the “common sensibles,” as St. Thomas Aquinas said, or in modern parlance, perceptions. Its work dealt with the realities of concrete, everyday experience. In the system of communication among things mental and sensory, the common sense passed along its products to the memory for storage. The basic material of memory, then, was held to be a first-level classification of experience—possibly one could say, first-level abstraction—that in character was much closer to the World of the senses than to the life of the intellect. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
The imagination as an internal sense was the sole faculty having the power to handle images in the absence of the stimulation that originally gave rise to them. A person might look at London Bridge and go on about one’s business. Later one’s visions of it were the work of the imaginative faculty, imagination. It also made images of its own and in this, its creative role, it was often called fancy. In its reproductive capacity, say imagining London Bridge in the absence of the object, was the imagination responsible for recall or was the memory? Some theorizers, Descartes for example, held that common sense acted like a seal and impressed shapes on the imagination, which retained them, at least for a time. If imagination remembered the shapes of things and recalled them, did memory in its proper role have nothing to do with images? Believers in Galen would quote him: “that part of the soul which imagineth, whatsoever the same may be, seemeth to be the selfe that also remembereth.” Followers of Aristotle maintained that sense images go directly to the imagination which transmits them to the memory. There they are kept until wanted, whereupon the imagination returns and scans the record, behaving much like a person who writes something, lays it aside, and returns to read. In this account, some of the stuff of memory included images. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
As the retentive faculty, memory also stored the products of the understanding and reason. These products were much more abstract than those of common sense and imagination, ranging from the less abstract forms only slightly removed from the sensory levels of experience to the highest abstractions humans were aware of when they thought in terms mathematical, philosophical, and theological. It seems clear, then that, memory is the recorder, the storehouse, the treasury, of a human’s entire experience. However, it is not clear whether memory is held to be solely, or even primarily, responsible for recall and recollection. Especially in recovering and reinstituting a particular image from the past, one’s imagination seemed to be chiefly involved in the effort and to be doing much of the remembering. In the seventeenth century keen analysts of human nature were less ready then Schoolmen to draw neat borderlines among the psychological functions. When we assert that the senses respond to individuals only, that individuals pass entire into the memory, that individuals are impressions and images, we are implying that the end product of sensory activity is an image of a particular object—the sensory counterpart of a particular tree, a musical note, a spoken word. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
Sense experience involves selection and rejection among stimuli emanating from objects—and that is all. The forms and shapes of things are part of the data presented to the senses. The sense do not interpret their own movements. Whatever the object of sensation, the object produces, in so far as it can, a likeness and image of itself, in imitation of incorporeal and spiritual nature. However, the immaterial copy of a material object was not merely that of a particular shape; upon it was impressed the species of the object as well. So what went into the memory whole was the shapes and species of things. The memory records the species of things, as a good register, ready when called for by the imagination and reason. Among human’s faculties we find no place for a common sense. We never use the term, nor do we allude to it. We never speak of common sensibles. Do we attribute any of the functions to this faculty to memory? As we have remarked, we give to memory the task of evaluating sense experience, because secondary objects—sense images—please or displease but in memory. Possibly this is another way of saying that the affective and emotional aspects of experience are stored in memory and that in the storehouse through some process of association they become guides to decision and conduct. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
We seem to have found no spot for an estimative faculty. This power, responsible for evaluating sense-bound or practical experience as distinct from intellectual or contemplative activity, sometimes has another name, the cogitative faculty. The French Academie, for example, takes note of those who recognize a knowing soule. All beings who possess this power are not sensitive creatures merely, but show a certain virtue and vigour, as of cogitation, of knowledge and memorie, that they may have skill to preserve their life, and know how to guide and govern themselves according to their natural inclination. A cogitative power so understood must not be confused with Bacon’s vis cogitiva, a power of thought fundamental to the functioning of all of human’s faculties. The passage in which Bacon announces that thinking goes on whenever humans exercise any of their faculties is important to us here in two ways. First, the distinction drawn among the mental faculties are broad ones in which Bacon is thinking in terms of genus and species. The genus of mental life is vis cogitiva; the species can be considered as memory, imagination, reason and the will and affections. On this basis, the faculties share in an activity that is substantial, not merely formal. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
The faculties can be designated in part by noting their most general manifestations. Indeed, in the passage under scrutiny, reason is taken broadly enough to include understanding, as it does when Bacon, classifying all knowledge in sweeping terms, relates philosophy to reason. Second, in employing broad language Bacon assigns to memory the functions of remembering and recollecting. It is evident that to him memory was something more than a repository of experience. In the human being, memory referred to a kind of thinking, possible only because experience of all sorts and from all sources of stimulation could be both retained and recalled. The material of memory came from other kinds of thinking. At the higher levels of organized behaviour, the materials were products of understanding, reason, and will; at the lower levels of behaviour they were the experiences of the special sense, the affections, and the appetite. Among the qualities of affective states as they relate to memory were the pleasant and unpleasant. These became the guides to future action; they gave meaning to expectation. In the middle of things, as it were, was imagination. This faculty not only created images of its own and revived sense images but translated abstract thought into objects of sense. These, too, were engraved in memory, and on demand of the other faculties they were summoned up again. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
In recognizing an art of memory and placing it among the intellectual arts, Bacon was doubtless well aware that reasoning must presuppose memory. Reason typically isolates items of experience, analyzes them, and combines them into statements and patterns of which the classic examples are deduction, induction, and analogy. Such intellectual activity is reducible to separate, sequential operations. Each must be held in mind until the full pattern is completed. So memory is involved in reasoning. It is no merely evident in each insane of reasoning, but it also provides a storehouse of materials upon which the intellect can draw whenever it wishes. On these matters Edward Reynolds, a near contemporary of Bacon’s, is more explicit. Memory “preserveth” each separate act of the understanding “until a through [sic] concoction be wrought; so proportionably is the Faculty of Memory given to Reason, as a meanes to consolidate and enrich it.” In retaining experience, memory remembers not only the species of things brought to it by the senses, but it functions as “Consors & co-operatrix Rationis…a joynt-worker in the operations of Reason; which the Latins call Reminiscentia, or Recordatio; including some acts of the Understanding: Which is a reviewing, or (as we speake) a calling to minde of former objects, by discourse, or rationall searching for them.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
The dependence of intellectual life upon memory led Aristotle, so Reynoldes reminded his readers, to regard remembrance as the remote ground of all the arts. Hobbes also linked memory to the retention of sense experience and to the “cause” and “coherence” of thoughts or conceptions. Sense always had “some memory adhering to it.” Certain sequences or coherences of thought, called reminiscence, experience, and expectation, were the chief manifestation of memory. It is somewhat surprising to find that Bacon has nothing to say about the physiological basis of memory. Another near contemporary of Bacon’s Sir Kenelm Digby, tried to explain remembrance by postulating vibratory, undulatory behaviour of atom-like particles in a “liquid vaporous” substance. The movements were analogous to those of musical sounds. Similar and simultaneous movements reinforced each other. A particular movement long at rest was revived by a similar undulatory motion. However, Bacon’s interest in the phenomena of recall, the art of memory, and the general nature of the faculty did not lead him int physiological speculations. In sum, Bacon regarded memory as a human’s power of recording and recalling their experience. It received and stored images from the external senses and it organized the affective accompaniments of sensory life in ways that made them meaningful guides to action. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
In common with human’s other faculties memory at work appeared to be thinking; hence, remembering was memory at work appeared to be thinking; hence, remembering was memory thinking. Memory kept the records of human’s analytical, critical, and imaginative thinking which in its symbolic and imageful garb was peculiarly the work of understanding, reason, and imagination. It not only kept the intellectual record; it was essential to its making. If they were to reason at all, humans had to remember. In reflecting on memory and its relationship to other faculties, one becomes aware of two striking, possibly unique, features. The explanation of human’s behaviour is being managed without recourse to as many “entities” and divisions of the soul as was the usual practice. The soul customarily had at least three parts or levels of being: vegetative, sensible, and rational. This vocabulary was abandoned by Bacon. The sensible soul was usually divided into two parts: the external or special senses, and the internal senses. Human’s internal sensory powers had numbered as many as seven, although common practice in the seventeenth century reduced the number to three: common sense, memory, and imagination. Bacon eliminated the common sense. As a result—or perhaps the cause—of the reduction in the number of human’s parts, a second important feature becomes evident. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
Human’s sensory functions are closely associated with their intellectual functions, and vice versa. Bacon found that the faculties overlapped in their operations and that it was impossible to fix precise boundaries. The operations were often mutually dependent and the communication direct. Yet a rational act or a memorative act could be recognized as such, and hence was subject to study and improvement, without knowing exactly where reason began and memory left off. The operations of the faculties were very different, yet they closely linked and so near neighboured that they could be discerned separately: the understanding cannot work without the memory being present, representing unto the same the figures and fantasies agreeable thereunto, it behooved that the understanding part busy itself in beholding the phantasms, and that the understanding part busy itself in beholding the phantasms, and that the memory cannot do it, if the imagination do not accompany the same we shall easily understand, that all the powers are united in every several ventricle [of the brain], and that the understanding is not solely in the one, nor the memory solely in the other, nor the imagination in the third..but that this union of powers is accustomably made in human’s body [as is the union of the four natural abilities: digestive, retentive, attractive, and expulsive. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
As we first turned away from God in our thoughts, so it is in our thoughts that the first movements toward the renovation of the heart occurs. Thoughts are the place where we can and must begin to change. There the light of God first begins to move upon us through the word of Christ, and there the divine Spirit begins to direct our will to more and more thoughts that can provide the basis for choosing to realign ourselves with God and his way. The ultimate freedom we have as human beings is the power to select what we will allow or require our minds to dwell upon. We are not totally free in this respect. However, we do have great freedom here, and even though “dead in trespasses and sins,” we still have the ability and responsibility to try to retain God in our knowledge—if only in an inadequate and halting manner. And those who do so will surely makes progress toward him; for if we truly do seek God as best we can, he, who always knows what is really in our hearts, will certainly make himself known to us. It is because of this fact that we always remain responsible before God, even though we are spiritually dead. By “thoughts” we mean all of the ways in which we are conscious of things. That includes our memories, perceptions, and beliefs, as well as what we would ordinarily refer to when we say “I thought of you yesterday,” or “I was just thinking of our meeting tomorrow.” #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
Now clearly, our thoughts are one of the most basic sources of our life. They determine the orientation of everything we do and evoke the feelings that frame our World and motivate our actions. Interestingly, you cannot evoke thoughts by feeling a certain way, but you can evoke and to some degree control feelings a certain way, but you can evoke and to some degree control feelings by directing your thoughts. Our power over thoughts is of great and indispensable assistance in directing and controlling our feelings, which themselves are not directly under the guidance of our will. We cannot just choose our feelings. Our ability to think and represent things to ourselves also enables us to bring vast ranges of reality—and non-reality—before us. This is not always done in a way that is adequate to what we think about or in a way that is even correct. It is actually a part of the greatness of thought that it is not limited to accuracy or even reality. It can consider—bring before our mind—what is not the case but could be, or what ought to be though it is not, as well as what never should be. Our essential nature as active and creative beings depends upon our ability to envision what is not the case as well as what is. Our ability to plan for the future must constantly run ahead of reality. And this we do in thought. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
A will that runs ahead depends, of course, upon our abilities to think; and what we think, imagine, believe, or guess sets boundaries to what we can will or choose, and therefore to what we can create. As our senses present a landscape for our body and its actions, so our thoughts present the “lifescape” for our will and our life as a whole. Within that “thought lifescape” (including our perceptions) we make the decisions that determine what we will do and who we will become. The realm of thought involves four main factors. These are ideas, images, information, and our ability to think, but the two most powerful ones are ideas and images. “And now, my sons, I speak unto you thee things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the Heavens and the Earth, and all things that are in them are, both things to act and thing to be acted upon. And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of human, after he created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter. Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto humans that they should act for oneself. Wherefore, humans could not act for oneself save it should be that one was enticed by the one or the other. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
“And I, Lehi, according to the thing which I have read, must needs suppose that an Angel of God, according to that which is written, had fallen from Heaven; wherefore, he became a devil, having sought that which was evil before God. And because he had fallen from Heaven, and had become miserable forever, he sought also the misery of all humankind. Wherefore, he said unto Eve, yea, even that old serpent, who is the devil, who is the father of all lies, wherefore he said: Partake of the forbidden fruit, and ye shall not die, but ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. And after Adam and Eve had partaken of the forbidden fruit they were driven out of the garden of Eden, to till the Earth. And they have brought forth children; yea, even the family of all the Earth. And the days of the children of human were prolonged, according to the will of God, that they might repent while in the flesh; wherefore, their state became a state of probation, and their time was lengthened, according to the commandments which the Lord God gave unto the children of humans. For he gave commandment that all humans must repent; for he showed unto all humans that there were lost, because of the transgression of their parents. And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remined in the garden of Eden. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
“And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end. And they would have no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. However behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things. Adam fell that humans might be; and people could raise their beautiful children true to their heritage; and humans are, that they might have joy. And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that one may redeem the children of humans from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given. Wherefore, humans are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto people. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all people, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for one seeketh that all humans might be miserable like unto oneself. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
“And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit; and not choose eternal death, according to the will of the flesh and the evil which is therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate, to bring you down to hades, that he may reign over you in his own kingdom. I have spoken these few words unto you all, my sons, in the last days of my mortal probation on Earth; and I have chosen the good part, according to the words of the prophet. And I have none other object save it be the everlasting welfare of your souls. Amen,” reports 2 Nephi 3.14-30. If the machine were used deliberately to vanquish human inequality, hunger, overwork, dirt, illiteracy, and disease could be eliminated within a few generations. And in fact, without being used for any such purpose, but by a sort of automatic process—by producing wealth which it was sometimes impossible not to distribute—the machine did raise the living standards of the average human being very greatly over the past one hundred and fifty years. However, by lack of understanding some people remain sane. They simply swallow everything, and what they swallow does them no harm, because it leaves no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
Lord Jesus, Great High Priest, Thou hast opened a new living way by which a fallen creature can approach Thee with acceptance. Help me to contemplate the dignity of Thy Person, the perfectness of Thy sacrifice, the effectiveness of Thy intercession. O What blessedness accompanies devotion, when under all the trials that weary me, the care the corrode me, the fears that disturb me, the infirmities that oppress me, I can come to Thee in my need and feel peace beyond understanding! The grace that restores is necessary to preserve, lead, guard, supply, help. And here Thy saints encourage my hope; they were once poor and are now rich, bound and are now free, tried and now are victorious. Every new duty calls for more face than I now possess, but not more than is found in Thee, the divine Treasury in whom all fullness dwells. To Thee I repair for grace upon grace, until every void made by sin be replenished and I am filled with all Thy fullness. May my desires be enlarged and my hopes emboldened, that I may honour Thee by my entire dependency and the greatness of my expectation. Do Thou by with me, and prepare me for all the smiles of prosperity, the frowns of adversity, the losses of substance, the death of friends, the days of darkness, the changes of life, and the last great change of all. May I find Thy grace sufficient for all my needs. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
I divine all teachers into two classes: titular gurus and real gurus. The former are quite common, the gap between their doctrines and their behaviour being noticeable, whereas the latter are rare indeed for they have achieved a conquest over the ego which reveals itself in their conduct and reflects itself in their lives. The demand for inspired teachers is always insistent but the supply is wholly insufficient. Unless the teacher is an inspired one one will be of little help to the would-be mystic. By inspired, we mean either in communion with one’s higher self or fully united with it. Almighty and everlasting God, Wo succourest those that labour under perils and afflictions, we humbly beseech Thy Majesty, that may please Thee to send Thy holy Angel to uphold with Thy comfort Thy servants, who in this house are suffering distress and affliction; that they may both receive Thy present assistance, and attain eternal healing; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Please visit Thy servants, O Lord, as Thou wast pleased to visit Peter’s mother-in-law and the centurion’s servants. Restore them, O Lord, to their former health; that they may be enabled to say in the courts of Thine house, “The Lord hath chastened and corrected me, but He hath not given me over unto death, He Who is the Saviour of the World.” Grant this, O Lord, Who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, God, throughout all ages. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
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I am humbled by my realization of the sacredness of the time we are given and stunned by our irreverence for the time we have. Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, savour you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it will not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the Earth, or burry my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky, and want, more than all the World, your return. #CresleighHomes
One Half of the World Cannot Understand the Pleasures of the other, but in Charity there is No Excess!
A professor is someone who talks in someone else’s sleep. Excellence in education is the key to our nation’s future. If we are truly to prepare for the challenges of tomorrow, we must empower all our students with the best schools and guidance possible. At a time when we face stark choices about how best to strengthen our economic future, our commitment to education and to children must stand absolutely firm. We have a sacred obligation to put our children’s needs first and to make the essential investments that will help them to succeed. The importance of the family for the moral development of individuals was far more often recognized by political theorists of the past than it is by those of the present. Hegel, Rousseau, Tocqueville, Mill, and Dewey are obvious examples that come to mind. Rousseau, for example, shocked by Plato’s proposal to abolish the family, says that it is “as though there were no need for a natural base on which to form conventional ties; as though the love of one’s nearest were not the principle of the love one owes the state; as though it were not by means of the small fatherland which is the family that the heart attaches itself to the large one.” Defenders of both autocratic and democratic regimes have recognized the political importance of different family forms for the formation of citizens. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22
On the one hand, the nineteenth-century monarchist Louis de Bonald argued against the divorce reforms of the French Revolution, which he claimed had weakened the patriarchal family, on the grounds that “in order to keep the state out of the hands of the people, I is necessary to keep the family out of the hands of women and children.” Taking this same line of thought in the opposite direction, the United States Supreme Court decided in 1879 in Reynolds v. Nebraska that familial patriarchy fostered despotism and was therefore intolerable. Denying Mormon men the freedom to practice polygamy, the Court asserted that it was an offense “subversive of good order” that “leads to the patriarchal principle, [and] when applied to large communities, fetters the people in stationary despotism, while that principle cannot long exist in connection with monogamy.” However, while de Bonald was consistent in his adherence to an hierarchical family structure as necessary for an undemocratic political system, the Supreme Court was by no means consistent in promoting an egalitarian family as an essential underpinning for political democracy. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22
For in other decisions of the same period—such as Bradwell v. Illinois, the famous 1872 case that upheld the exclusion of women from the practice of women from the practice of law—the Court rejected women’s claims to legal equality, in the name of a thoroughly patriarchal, though monogamous, family that was held to require the dependence of women and their exclusion from civil and political life. While bigamy was considered patriarchal, and as such a threat to republican, democratic government, the refusal to allow a married woman to employ her talents and to make use of her qualifications to earn an independent living was not considered patriarchal. It was so far from being a threat to the civil order, in fact, that it was deemed necessary for it, and as such was ordained by both God and nature. Clearly in both Reynolds and Bradwell, “state authorities enforced family forms preferred by those in power and justified as necessary to stability and order.” The Court noticed the despotic potential of polygamy, but was blind to the despotic potential of patriarchal monogamy. This was perfectly acceptable to them as a training ground for citizens. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22
Most theorists of the past who stressed the importance of the family and its practices for the wider World of moral and political life by no means insisted on congruence between the structures of practices of the family and those of the outside World. Though concerned with moral development, they bifurcated public from private life to such an extent that they had no trouble reconciling inegalitarian, sometimes admittedly unjust, relations founded upon sentiment within the family with a more just, even egalitarian, social structure outside the family. Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville—all thought the family was centrally important for the development of morality in citizens, but all defended the hierarchy of the material structure while spurning such a degree of hierarchy in institutions and practices outside the household. Preferring instead to rely on love, altruism, and generosity as the basis for family relations, none of these theorists argued for just family structures as necessary for socializing children into citizenship in a just society. The position that justice within the family is irrelevant to the development of just citizens was not plausible even when only men were citizens. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22
John Stuart Mill, in The Subjection of Women, takes an impassioned stand against justice in the family being considered irrelevant to the development of just citizens. He argues that the inequality of women within the family is deeply subversive of justice in general in the wider social World, because it subverts the moral potential of men. Mill’s first answer to the questions, “For whose good are all these changes in women’s rights to be undertaken?” is: “the advantage of having the most universal and pervading of all human relations regulated by justice instead of injustice.” Making marriage a relationship of equals, he argues, would transform this central part of daily life from “a school of despotism” into a “s school of moral cultivation.” He goes on to discuss, in the strongest of terms, the noxious effect of growing up in a family not regulated by justice. Consider, he says, “the self-worship, the unjust self-preference,” nourished by a boy growing up in a household in which “by the mere fact of being born a male he is by right superior of all and every one of an entire half of the human race.” Mill concludes that the example set by perpetuating a material structure “contradictory to the first principles of social justice” must have such “a perverting influence” that it is hard even to imagine the good effects of changing it. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22
All other attempts to educate people to respect and practice justice, Mill claims, will be superficial “as long as the citadel of the enemy is not attacked.” Mill felt as much hope for what the family might be as he felt despair at what it was not. “The family, justly constituted, would be the real school of the virtues of freedom,” primary among which was “justice, grounded as before on equal, but now also on sympathetic association.” Mills bot saw clearly and had the courage to address what so many other political philosophers either could not see, or saw and turned away from. Despite the strength and fervor of his advocacy of women’s rights, however, Mill’s idea of a just family structure falls short of that of many feminists even of his own time, including his wife, Harriet Taylor. In spite of the fact that Mill recognized both the empowering effect of earnings on one’s position in the family and the limiting effect of domestic responsibility on women’s opportunities, he balked at questioning the traditional division of labour between the genders. For him, a woman’s choice of marriage was parallel to a man’s choice of a profession: unless and until she has fulfilled her obligations to her husband and children, she should not undertake anything else. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22
But clearly, however equal the legal rights of husbands and wives, this position largely undermines Mill’s own insistence upon the importance f marital equality for a just society. His acceptance of the traditional division of labour, without making any provision for wives who were thereby made economically dependent upon their husbands, largely undermines his insistence upon family justice as the necessary foundation for social justice. Thus even those political theorists of the past who have perceived the family and the wider social order, which suggests that families themselves need to be just. Even when they have, as with Mill, they have been unwilling to push hard on the traditional division of labour within the family in the name of justice or equality. Contemporary theorists of justice, with few exceptions, have paid little or no attention to the question of moral development—of how we are to become just. Most of them seem to think, to adapt slightly Hobbes’s notable phrase, that just men spring like mushrooms from the Earth. Not surprisingly, then, it is far less often acknowledged in recent than in past theories that the family is important for oral development, and especially for instilling a sense of justice. As I have already noted, many theorists pay no attention at all to either the family or gender. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22
In the rare case that the issue of justice within the family is given any sustained attention, the family is not viewed as potential school of social justice. In the rare case that a theorist pays any sustained attention to the development of a sense of justice or morality, little if any attention is likely to be paid to the family. Even in the rare event that theorists pay considerable attention is likely to be paid to the family. Even in the rare event that a theorist pays any sustained attention to the development of a sense of justice or morality, little if any attention is likely to be paid to the family. Even in the rare event that theorists pay considerable attention to the family as the first major locus or moral socialization, they do not refer to the fact that families are almost all still thoroughly gender-structured institutions. Among major contemporary theorists of justice, John Rawls alone treats the family seriously as the earliest school of moral development. He argues that a just, well-ordered society will be stable if its members continue to develop a sense of justice. And he argues that families play a fundamental role in the stages by which this sense of justice is acquired. From the parents’ love for their child, which comes to be reciprocated, come the child’s “sense of one’s own value and the desire to become the sort of person that they are.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 22
The family, too, is the first of that series of “associations” in which we participate, from which we acquire the capacity, crucial for a sense of justice, to see things from the perspectives of others. This capacity—the capacity for empathy—is essential for maintaining a sense of justice of the Rawlsian kind. Rawlsian justice is a theory of justice as fairness describes a society of free citizens holding equal basic rights and cooperating within an egalitarian economic system. The goal is to create a permanently peaceful and tolerant international order. For the perspective that is necessary for maintaining a sense of justice is not that of the egotistic or disembodied self, or of the dominant few who overdetermine “our” traditions or “shared understandings,” or (to use Nagel’s term) of “the view from nowhere,” but rather the perspective of every person in the society for whom the principles of justice are being arrived at. The problem with Rawls’s rare and interesting discussion of moral development is that it rests on the unexplained assumption that family institutions are just. If gendered family institutions are not just, but are, rather, a relic of caste or feudal societies in which responsibilities, roles, and resources are distributed, not in accordance with innate differences that are imbued with enormous social significance, then Rawls’s theory of moral development would seem to be built on uncertain ground. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22
This problem is exacerbated by suggestions in some of Rawls’s most recent work that families are “private institutions,” to which it is not appropriate to apply standards of justice. However, if families are to help form just individuals and citizens, surely they must be just families. In a just society, the structure and practices of families must give women the same opportunities as men to develop their capacities, to participate in political power and influence social choices, and to be economically secure. However, in addition to this, families must be just because of the vast influence that they have on the moral development of children. The family is the primary institution of formative moral development. And the structure and practice of the family must parallel those of the larger society if the sense of justice is to be fostered and maintained. While many theorists of justice, both past and present, appear to have denied the importance of at least one of these factors, my own view is that both are absolutely crucial. A society that is committed to equal respect for all of its members, and to justice in social distributions of benefits and responsibilities, can neither neglect the family nor accept family structures and practices that violate these norms, as do current gender-based structures and practices. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22
It is essential that children who are to develop into adults with a strong sense of justice and commitment to just institutions spend their earliest and most formative years in an environment in which they are loved and nurtured, and in which principles of justice are abided by and respected. What is a child of either gender to learn about fairness in the average household with two full-time working parents, where the mother does, at the very least, twice as much family work as the father? What is a child to learn about the value of nurturing and domestic work in a home with a traditional division of labour in which the father either subtly or not so subtly uses the fact that he is the wage earner to “pull rank” on or to abuse his wife? What is a child to learn about responsibility for others in a family in which, after many years of arranging her life around those needs of her husband and children, a woman is faced with having to provide for herself and her children but is totally ill-equipped for the task by the life she agreed to lead, has led, and expected to go on leading? Difficulties already present in partnerships are sometimes brought in the open in person-centered climates. A young could had been living together and were planning to marry. They were together in an encounter group and asked the group’s permission to explore their relationship with the help of the participants. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22
As they began to open up to each other, it was clear that they knew each other hardly at all. They had differing goals and sharply differing perceptions. For example, the young woman thought of herself as reasonably adequate, certainly not inferior. She was astonished and hurt to find that her lover saw her as much inferior to him in social status and intellect. As they explored their differences, they became much more open with each other, but their partnership seemed highly precarious. Yet a letter more than a year later told me of their marriage, their growing areas of mutual interest and work, and their current satisfaction with their relationship. Evidently the risk they took in exploring their profound differences had deepened the bonds of partnership rather than breaking them. The areas of difference may occur in a variety of fields. In one couple the husband is hedonistic, works when he had to, regards himself as essentially “a lazy bum,” while his wife is strongly imbued with a work ethic. Says she, “My heart skips a beat when I hear him say, ‘I just want to be rich and have fun.’” She thinks he should be more serious about his work. It is an indication of the incredible complexity of human relationships that the work-oriented wife is, with her husband’s consent, a topless go-go danger, while the “lazy bum” is business! However, exploration of their differing goals is helping to bring them together. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22
At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus enjoined His followers to prayerful tenacity: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; known and the door will be opened to you,” reports Matthew 7.7. The language is unusually compelling because the three verbs (“ask…seek…knock”) indicate an ascending intensity. “Ask” implies requesting assistance for a conscious need. It also suggests humility, for the Greek word here was commonly used by one approaching a superior. “Seek” involves asking, but adds action. The idea is not just to express need, but to get up and look around for help. “Knock” includes asking, plus seeking, plus persevering—for example, one who keeps pounding on a closed door. The stacking of these verbs is powerful, and the fact that they are present imperatives gives them even more punch. Jesus’ words actually read: “Keep on asking, and it shall be given to you; keep on seeking, and you will find; keep on knocking, and it shall be opened to you.” Such tenacity is exactly what Paul has in mind in his call to petitionary prayer when he says to “be alert and always keep on praying.” Men and women, do we pray with Scriptural persistence for our families? For the Church? Are there individuals, groups, causes, souls for which we hold up our hands in prayer? There ought to be, for God answers persistent prayer. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22
Now, the simplicity of spiritual formation is possessed in its intention. Its aim is to bring every element in our being, working from inside out, into harmony with the will of God and the kingdom of God. This is the simple focus. We must keep it constantly before us and not be distracted by other things, no matter how good they may appear. Of course, we cannot realize this goal on our own. However, there is no need for that. God has made provision for achieving this aim. To “grow in grace” means to utilize more and more grace to live by, until everything we do is assisted by grace. Then, whatever we do in word or deed will all be done in the name of the Lord Jesus. “And whatever you do whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him,” reports Colossians 3.17. The greatest saints are not those who need less grace, but those who consume the most grace, who indeed are most in need of grace—those who are saturated by grace in every dimension of their being. Grace to the is like breath. Spiritual formation is holistic. Each dimension of spirituality is not separate, so we must keep a sharp awareness that they are always profoundly influencing one another in the flow of real life. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22
Real life means the totality of the events we are actually involved in and the actions we actually carry out. In Spiritual formation the process and the outcome in Christ is beneficial to our lives. There are no formulas—no definitive how-tos—for growth in the inner character of Jesus. Such growth is a way of relentless seeking. However, there are many things we can do to place ourselves at the disposal of God, and “if with all our hearts we truly seek him, we shall surely find him,” reports Jeremiah 29.13. Or, as the prophet Azariah said, “If you seek Him, He will let you find him,” We can count on God’s goodness. The Second Book of Nephi—an account of the death of Lehi. Nephi’s brethren rebel against him. The Lord warns Nephi to depart into the wilderness. His journeyings in the wilderness, and so forth. In chapter 1, Lehi prophesies of a land of liberty—his seed will be scattered and smitten if they reject the Holy One of Israel—he exhorts his sons to put on the armor of righteousness. About 588-570 Before Chris. “And now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had mad an end of teaching my brethren, our father, Lehi, also spake many things unto them, and rehearsed unto them, how great things the Lord had done for them in bringing them out of the land of Jerusalem. And he spake up them concerning the rebellious upon the waters, and the mercies of God in sparing their lives, that they were not swallowed up in the sea. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22
“And he also spake unto them concerning the land of promise, which they had obtained—how merciful the Lord has been in warning us that we should flee out of the land of Jerusalem. For, behold, said he, I have seen a vision, in which I know that Jerusalem is destroyed; and had we remained in Jerusalem we should also have perished. However, he said, notwithstanding our afflictions, we have obtained a land of promise, land which is choice above all other lands; a land which the Lord God hath covenanted with me should be a land for the inheritance of my seed. Yea, the Lord hath covenanted this land unto me, and to my children forever, and also all those who should be led out of other countries by the hand of the Lord. Wherefore, I, Lehi, prophesy according to the workings of the Spirit which is in me, that there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord. Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him who he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shell be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall blessed forever. And behold, it is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations; for behold, many nations would over run the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22
“Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. And if it so be that they shall keep his commandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor take away the land of their inheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever. However, behold, when the time cometh that they shall dwindle in unbelief, after they have received so great blessings from the hand of the Lord—having a knowledge of the creation of the Earth, and all people, knowing the great and marvelous works of the Lord from the creation of the World; having power given them to do all things by faith; having all the commandments from the beginning, and having been brought by his infinite goodness into this precious land of promise—behold, I say, if the day shall come that they will reject the Holy One of Israel, the true Messiah, their Redeemer and their God, behold the judgments of him that is just shall rest upon them. Yea, he will bring other nations unto them, and he will give unto them power, and he will take away from them the lands of their possessions, and he will cause them to be scattered and smitten. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22
“Yea, as one generation passeth to another there shall be bloodsheds, and great visitations among them; wherefore, my sons, I would that ye would remember; yea, I would that ye would hearken unto my words. O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of humans, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gul of misery and woe. Awake! And arise from the dust, and hear the words of a trembling parent, whose limbs ye must soon lay down in the cold and silent grave, from whence no traveler can return; a few more days and I go the way of all the Earth. However, behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love. And I desire that ye should remember to observe the statuses of the judgments of the Lord; behold, this hath been the anxiety of my soul from the beginning. My heart hath been weighed down with sorrow from time to time, for I have feared, lest for the hardness of your hearts the Lord your God should come out in the fullness of his wrath upon you, that ye are visited by sword, and by famine, and are hated, and are led according to the will and captivity of the devil. O my sons, that these things might be a choice and a favoured people of the Lord. However, behold, his will be done; for his ways are righteous forever. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22
“And he hath said that: Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; but inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence. And now that my soul might have joy in you, and that my heart might leave this World with gladness because of you, that I might not be brought down with grief and sorrow to the grave, arise from the dust, my sons, and be men, and be determined in one mind and in one heart, united in all things, that ye may not come down into captivity; that ye may not be cursed with a sore cursing; and also, that ye may not incur the displeasure of a just God upon you, unto the destruction, yes, the eternal destruction of both soul and body. Awake, my sons; put on the armour of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity and arise from the dust. Rebel no more against your brother, whose views have been glorious, and who hath kept the commandments from the time that we left Jerusalem; and who hath been an instrument in the hands of God, in bringing us forth into the land of promise; for were it not for him, we must have perished with hunger in the wilderness; nevertheless, ye sought to take away his life; yea, and he hath suffered much sorrow because of you. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22
“And I exceedingly fear and tremble because of you, lest he shall suffer again; for behold, ye have accused him that he sought power and authority over you; but I know that he hath not sought for power nor authority over you, but he hath sought the glory of God, and your own eternal welfare. And ye have murmured because he hath been plain unto you. Ye say that he hath used sharpness; ye say that he hath been angry with you; but behold, his sharpness was the sharpness of the power of the word of God, which was in him; and that which ye call anger was the truth, according to that which is in God, which he could not restrain manifesting boldly concerning your iniquities. And it must needs be that the power of God must be with him, even unto his commanding you that ye must obey. However, behold, it was not he, but it was the Spirit of the Lord which was in him, which opened his mouth to utterance the he could not shut it. And now my son, Laman, and also Lemuel and Sam, and also my sons who are the sons of Ishmael, behold, if ye will hearken unto the voice of Nephi ye shall not perish. And if ye will hearken unto him I leave unto you a blessing, yea, even my first blessing. However, if ye will not hearken unto him I take away my first blessing, and it shall rest upon him. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22
“And now, Zoram, I speak unto you: Behold, thou art the servant of Laban; nevertheless, thou hast been brought out of the land of Jerusalem, and I know that thou art a true friend unto my son, Nephi, forever. Wherefore, because thou hast been faithful thy seed shall be blessed with his seed, that they dwell in prosperity long upon the face of this land; and noting, save shall be iniquity among them, shall hard or disturb their prosperity upon the face of this land forever. Wherefore, if ye shall keep the commandments of the Lord, the Lord hath consecrated this land for the security of thy seed with the seed of my son,” reports 2 Nephi 1-32. All-sufficient King, when I come into Thy presence I see the gory of Thy perfections, the throne f eternal and universal empire, the ten thousand times ten thousand who minister to Thee. Impress my mind with the consciousness of Thy greatness, not to drive me from Thee but to inspire me to approach thee; not to diminish my confidence in Thee, but to lead me to admire Thy great condescension. Thou has been mindful of me and visited me, taken charge of me from birth, cared in all conditions for me, fed me at Thy table, drawn the curtains of love around me, given me new mercies every morning. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22
Suffer me not to forget that I look for yet greater blessings—a hope beyond the grave, the earnest and foretastes of immortality, holiness, wisdom, strength, peace, joy—all these thou hast provided for me in Christ. I grieve to think how insensible I have been of the claims of Thy authority, and the endearments of Thy love; how little I have credited Thy truth, trusted Thy promises, feared Thy threats, obeyed Thy commands, improved my advantages, welcomed Thy warnings, responded to Thy grace; but notwithstanding my desert I yet live. May Thy goodness always lead me to repentance, and Thy longsuffering prove my salvation. O God, by Whose command the moments of our life run their course; receive our prayers for Thy servants lying sick, on whose behalf we implore Thy mercy; that our fears on account of their danger may be turned into joy at their recovery; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Almighty and everlasting God, the eternal Salvation of believers, hear us for Thy servants, for whom we implore the assistance of Thy mercy; that their healthy may be restored to them, and they may give thanks to Thee in Thy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. O God, Who didst add fifteen years to the life of Thy servant Hezekiah; please let Thy power raise up Thy servants from the bed of sickness unto health; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22
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It is Warm Work and this Day May be the Last to Any of Us at a Moment—But I Would Not be Elsewhere for Thousands!
I have found that if you love life, life will love you back. I accept life unconditionally. Life holds so much—so much to be happy about always. And keep in mind, a pint of example is worth a gallon of advice. Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity. Though the Philistines may jostle, you will rank as an apostle in the high aesthetic band, if you walk down Picadilly with a poppy or lily in your medieval hand. And everyone will say, as you walk your flowery way, “If he or she is content with a vegetable love which would certainly not suit me, why, what a most particularly pure young man or young woman this pure young person must be!” The confusion of moral values and artistic design found expression in the Aesthetic Movement, a credo of the late nineteenth century. At its heart was the belief that good design or beauty is elevating and that bad design or ugliness is corrupting. Followers of the Aesthetic Movement believed that Truth and Beauty were intertwined and that Falsehood and Ugliness were one. Aesthetics, then, had a moral implication, and good proportion, honesty, and harmony with natural laws were as much a characteristic of personal morality as of design. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23
This movement began in England and was Championed by the “Goths,” that is, the supporters of the Gothic Revival. In general, they wanted to restore the ritual and mystery of the medieval church and remove the more recent “low church” alterations which bring the congregation and the priest closer together. They came to believe in Gothic as the peculiarly English style (despite the Abbe Suger, Notre-Dame de Paris,Saint-Denis, and Chartres). Aesthetic Movement devotees generally fell into two camps. One camp led by John Ruskin (he celebrated the buildings of medieval Venice and believed that Gothic design was superb because it was the honest work of true crafts-people who worked anonymously and cared more for the glory of God than the glory of artistic fame), the great art critic of his time, felt that art must be inspired by nature to be true good, that no creation of compass and rule with mechanical repetition could ever hope to contain the spark of true art. Gothic Venice stood for an organic, communal way of life, and the beauty of its buildings reflects a wholesome social order. The most famous practitioner in this branch of the Aesthetic Movement was William Morris, whose plant-design wallpapers and carpets became very popular. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23
The Aesthetic Movement, was also known as “art for art’s sake,” and it permeated British culture during the latter part of the nineteenth century, as well as spreading to other countries such as the Untied States of America. The idea that beauty was the most important element in life, lead writers, artists, and designers to create works that were admired simply for their beauty rather than any narrative or moral function. The movement blossomed into a cult devoted to the creation of beauty in all avenues of life from art and literature, to home decorating, to fashion, and embracing a new ornate style. The other camps of aestheticians had a number of famous leaders. They believed that the direct imitation of nature in the applied arts was fakery. They deplored the use of perspective and modeling in wallpapers and carpet and insisted on flat, “conventionalized” forms for flat surfaces. Charles Locke Eastlake was a spokes-person for this camp. He wrote Hints on Household Taste and made the Aesthetic Movement popular in America. Another one of the most famous people in the Aesthetic Movement was Sarah Winchester with her World famous, marvelous, Gothic Queen Anne Victorian mansion. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23
Owen Jones, the chronicler of ornament and cofounder of the South Kensington School (later part of the Victoria and Albert Museum) was a famous champion. Another, of many, noteworthy people, and later infamous, spokes-person for this group of aesthetes was the writer Oscar Wilde. It is through his persecution as a homosexual that the word “aesthetic” has come to have conflicting implications. As a result, the Aesthetic Movement came to be regarded as both a moral crusade and an “immoral effeminate” circle at the same time. To understand this movement, however, one must look at the World against which they were reacting. The middle of the nineteenth century saw the end of crafted home furnishings in America. Just as the Rococo Revival style became popular, it became possible to make everything by the carload. Curved parlor chairs with naturalistically carved roses at the crest became the rage. Wallpapers with roses and ribbons were printed in so many modulated colours that they seemed three-dimensional. Wall-to-wall, Aubusson, patterned carpets had more roses and arabesque. China was transfer-printed with French shepherdesses and more roses. All of this factory-made prettiness in the French tastes was cloying to English aesthetic tastes. Badly made furniture and lumpy vases with oddly placed roses made them cringe. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23
People usually worked together to give the exteriors of Victorian houses a bright, elegant look and to highlight the carving and detail on the pillars and panels. Sometimes flowers on the houses might be painted a colour like navy blue on the capital as a lark. An element many Queen Anne’s have is a tower or a turret with a witches cap. Victorians were big on celebrating holidays, which is why one can find many religious and occult symbols and patterns on these estates. When we turn to the great tradition of Western political thought with questions about the justice of the treatment of the genders in mind, it is to little avail. Bold feminists like Mary Astell, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Thompson, Harriet Taylor, and George Bernard Shaw have occasionally challenged the tradition, often using its own premises and arguments to overturn its explicit or implicit justification of the equality of women. However, John Stuart Mills is a rare exception to the rule that those central position in the tradition almost never question the justice of the subordination of women. This phenomenon is undoubtedly due in part to the fact that Aristotle, whose theory of justice has been so influential, relegated women to a sphere of “household justice”—populated by person who are not fundamentally equal to the free men who participate in political justice, but inferiors whose natural function is to serve those who are more fully human. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23
The liberal tradition, despite its supposed foundation of individual rights and human equality, is more Aristotelian in this respect than is generally acknowledged. In one way or another, almost all liberal theorists have assumed that the “individual” who is the basic subject of the theories is the male head of the household. Thus they have not usually considered applying the principle of justice to women or to relations between the genders. When we turn to contemporary theories of justice, however, we expect to find more illuminating and beneficial contributions to the subject of gender and justice. As the mission of the family and the falseness of their gender-neutral language suggest, however, mainstream contemporary theories of justice do not address the subject any better than those of the past. Theories of justice that apply to only half of us simply will not do; the inclusiveness falsely implied by the current use of gender-neutral terms must become real. Theories of justice must apply to all of us, and to all of human life, instead of assuming silently that half of us take care of whole areas of life that are considered outside the scope of social justice. In a just society, the structure and practice of families must afford women the same opportunities as men to develop their capacities, to participate in political power, to influence social choices, and to be economically as well as physically secure. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23
Unfortunately, much feminists intellectual energy in 2020 has gone into the claim that “justice” and “right” are masculinist ways of thinking about morality that feminists should eschew or radically revise, advocating a morality of care. The emphasis is misplaced, I think, for several reasons. First, what is by now a vast literature on the subject shows that the evidence for differences in women’s and men’s ways of thinking about moral issues is not (at least yet) very clear; neither is the evidence about the source of whatever differences there might be. It may well turn out that any differences can be readily explained in terms of roles, including female primary parenting, that are socially determined and therefore alterable. There is certainly no evidence—nor could there be, in such a gender-structured society—for concluding that women are somehow naturally more inclined toward contextuality and away from universalism in their moral thinking, a false concept that unfortunately reinforces the old stereotypes that justify separate spheres. The capacity of reactionary forces to capitalize on the “different moralities” strain in feminism is particularly evident in an Apostolic Letter from Pope John Paul II, “On The Dignity of Women,” in which he refers to woman’s special capacity to care for others in arguing for confining them to motherhood or celibacy. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23
Second, I think the distinction between an ethic of justice and an ethic of care has been overdrawn. The best theorizing about justice, I argue, has integral to it the notions of care and empathy, of thinking of the interests and well-being of others who may be very different from ourselves. It is, therefore, misleading to draw a dichotomy as though they were two contrasting ethics. The best theorizing about justice is not some abstract “view from nowhere,” but results from the carefully attentive consideration of everyone’s point of view. This means, of course, that the best theorizing about justice is not good enough if it does not, or cannot readily be adapted to, include women and their points of view as fully as men and their points of view. But what are the conditions that change the equilibrium and mobilize aggression? What are the causes of “innate” aggression in animals and humans? If we can figure this out, we can then start to understand why some people feel threated by the equality of women. In reviewing both the neurophysiological and the psychological literature on animals and human aggression, the conclusion seems unavoidable that aggressive behaviour of animals is a response to any king of threat to the survival. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23
Or, as I would prefer to say more generally, to the vital interests of the animal—whether as an individual or as a member of its species. This general definition comprises many different situations. The most obvious are a direct threat to the life of the individual or a threat to one’s requirements for sex and food; a more complex form is that of “crowding,” which is a threat to the need for physical space and/or to the social structure of the group. However, what is common to all conditions for the arousal of aggressive behaviour is that they constitute a threat to vital interests. Mobilization of aggression is the corresponding brain areas occurs in the service of life, in response to threats to the survival of the individual or of the species; that is to say, phylogenetically programmed aggression, as it exists in animals and humans, is a biologically adaptive defense reaction. That this should be so is not surprising if we remember the Dr. Darwinian principle in regard to the evolution of the brain. Since it is the function of the brain to take care of survival, it would provide for immediate reactions to any threat to survival. Do men think they will be robbed of their roles as providers and be forced to submit and be subordinate? #RandolphHarris 9 of 23
Well, some people also believe that the lessening of women’s dependence on their husbands is what is to blame for the weakening of the family stability. Some people believe that paid work is “men’s” and it is “fathers” who bequeath wealth or poverty on their children. Aggression is by no means the only form of reaction to threats. The animal reacts to threats to one’s existence either with rage and attack or with fear and flight. In fact, flight seems to be the more frequent form of reaction, except when the animal has no chance to flee and therefore fights—as the ultima ratio—the final argument and also the last resort. Dr. Hess was the first to discover that by the electrical stimulation of certain regions of the hypothalamus of a cat, the animal would react either by attack or by flight. As a consequence he subsumed these two kinds of behaviours under the category of “defense reactions,” indicating that both reactions are in defense of the animal’s life. So with the oppression of women, it may be a primitive function in the brains of some people, that is triggered as a response to make sure there will still be homemakers and someone to produce children. This urge to discriminate against women could be a subconscious behaviour that some are not aware of because they have not been made to go to therapy and unearth the issues they are having subconsciously. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23
By ignoring that people need help and not punishing those who are not acting righteously, we are producing and allowing a sick society to flourish. Any animal, regardless of it species, reacts to a life-threatening attack with one of two patterns of behaviour: either with flight, or with aggression and violence—that is, fight. The brain always acts as a unit in directing any behaviour; consequently, the mechanisms in the brain that initiate and limit these two dissimilar patterns of self-preservation are closely linked to one another, as well as to all other parts of the brain; and their proper functioning depends on the synchronization of many complex and delicately balanced subsystems. A further important impediment to criticism and accusation is directly linked up with the basic anxiety. If the outside World is felt to be hostile, if one feels helpless toward it, then taking any risk of annoying people seems sheer recklessness. For the neurotic the danger appears all the greater, and the more one’s feeling of safety is based on the affection of others the more one is afraid of losing that affection. For one annoying another person has an entirely different connotation from what it has for the normal person. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23
Since one’s own relations to others are thin and fragile one cannot believe that others’ relations toward one are any better. Hence one feels that annoying them involves the danger of a final break; one expects to be dropped altogether, to be definitely spurned or hated. Besides, one assumes consciously or unconsciously that others are as much terrified as one is of being found out and criticized, and therefore one is inclined to treat them with as much delicacy as one would have them use toward one. One’s extreme fear of making or even feeling accusations put one in a special dilemma because, as we have seen, one is filled with pent-up resentment. In fact, as everyone knows who is acquainted with neurotic behaviour, plenty of accusations do find expression, sometimes in veiled, sometimes in open and most aggressive forms. Since I nevertheless asset that there is an essential meekness toward criticism and accusation it is worth while to discuss briefly the conditions under which such accusations will find expression. They may be expressed under the stress of despair, more specifically, when the neurotic feels one has nothing to lose by it, when one feels that one will be rejected in any cause, regardless of one’s behaviour. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23
Such an occasion arises, for example, if one’s special efforts to be kind and considerate are not returned right away or are rejected. Whether one’s accusations are discharged explosively in one scene, or whether they last for some time, depends on the duration of one’s despair. One may in a single crisis thrust upon others all one has ever held against them, or one’s accusations my extend over a longer period. One really means what one says, and expects the others to take it seriously—with the secret hope, however, that they will realize the depth of one’s despair and therefore condone one. Even with no despair a similar condition exists if the accusations concern person whom the neurotic consciously hates and from whom one expects nothing good. In another condition, which we shall discuss presently, the very element of sincerity is missing. If one feels that one is, or is in danger of being, found out and accused, the neurotic can also be accusatory with more or less vehemence. The danger of upsetting others may then appear as the lesser evil compared to the danger of being disapproved of. One feels oneself in an emergency and makes a counter-attack, like an animal which is apprehensive by nature and strikes out when in danger. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23
Patients may thrust violent accusations upon the analyst (or wife, husband, child, and so forth) at the time when they are most afraid of something being uncovered, or when they have done something for which they anticipate disapproval. Unlike the accusations made under the stress of despair, attacks of this kind are made blindly. They are expressed without any conviction of being right about them, for they are born out of a sheer feeling of the need to ward off an immediate danger, regardless of what means are used. While they may incidentally contain reproaches which are felt to be real, in the main they are exaggerated and fantastic. Deep down the neurotic does not believe in them oneself, does not expect them to be take seriously and is greatly amazed if the others does so, if the other, for example, enters into a serious argument or shows signs of being hurt. When we realize the fear of accusation that is inherent in the neurotic structure, and when we realize furthermore the ways in which this fear is dealt with, then we can understand why on the surface the picture is often contradictory in this respect. A neurotic person is often unable to express a warranted criticism, even though one is full of intense accusations. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23
Every time one loses something one may be convinced that the maid or his wife has stolen it, but be quite unable to accuse her or even to object because she has not served dinner punctually. The accusations which one does express have often somehow a character of unreality, are not to the point, have a false colouring, are unwarranted or entirely fantastic. As a patient one may fling at the analyst wild accusations of ruining him, but be unable to express a sincere objection to the analyst’s taste in coffee. To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy is impossible, to forget, whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it is needed, and the promptly to forget it gain, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that is the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, one again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you have just performed. Even to understand the word “doublethink” involves the use of doublethink. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23
These open expressions of accusations are not usually sufficient to discharge all the pent-up resentment that is present. In order to do that indirect ways are necessary, ways which allow the neurotic to express one’s resentment without being away that one does. Some of it comes out inadvertently, some is shifted from the person one really means to accuse to comparatively indifferent persons—a woman may scold her maid, for example, when she had a grudge against her husband—or to circumstances or fate in general. These are safety valves which in themselves are not specific for neuroses. The specifically neurotic method for expressing accusations indirectly and unconsciously is to use the medium of suffering. By suffering the neurotic may present oneself as a living reproach. A wife wo becomes ill because her husband comes home late expresses her grudge more effectively than by making a scene, and also reaps the advantage of appearing in her own eyes as an innocent martyr. The family is a crucial determinant of our opportunities in life, of what we “become.” It has frequently been acknowledged by those concerned with real equality of opportunity that the family presents a problem. However, though they have discerned a serious problem, these theorists have underestimated it because they have seen only half of it. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23
They have seen that the disparity among families in terms of the physical and emotional environment, motivation, and material advantage they can give their children has a tremendous effect upon children’s opportunities in life. We are not born as isolated, equal individuals in our society, but into family situations: some in the social middle, some poor and without homes, and some superaffluent; some to a single soon-to-be-separated parent, some to parents whose marriage is fraught with conflict, some to parents who will stay together in love and happiness. Any claims that equal opportunity exists are therefore completely unfounded. Decades of neglect of the poor, especially of poor African American and Hispanic House-holds, accentuated by the policies of the Reagen years, have brought us farther from the principles of equal opportunity. To come close to hem would require, for example, a high and uniform standard of public education and the provision of equal social services—including health care, employment training, job opportunities, drug rehabilitation, and decent housing—for all who need them. In the Book of Mormon, in 1 Nephi, Chapter 21, the Messiah will be a light to the gentiles and will free the prisoners—Israel will be gathered with power in the last days—Kings will be their nursing fathers—Compare Isaiah 49. About 588-570 Before Christ. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23
“And again: Hearken, O ye house of Israel, all ye that are broke off and are driven out because of the wickedness of the pastors of my people; yea, all ye that are broke off, that are scattered abroad, who are of my people, O house of Israel. Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from far; the Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath He made mention of my name. And He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me; and said unto me: Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and in vain; surely my judgement is with the Lord, and my work with God. And now, saith the Lord—that formed me from the womb that I should be His servant, to bring Jacob again to him—through Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And He said: It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the Earth. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, to Him who humans despiseth, to Him whom the nations abhorreth, to servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship because of the Lord that is faithful. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23
“Thus saith the Lord: In an acceptable time have I heard thee, O isles of the sea, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee my servant for a covenant of the people, to establish the Earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; that thou mayest say to the prisoners: Go forth; to them that sit in darkness: Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high paces. They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor the Sun smite them; for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall He guide them. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. And then, O house of Israel, behold, these shall come from far; and lo, these from the north and the west; and these from the land of Sinim. Sing, O Heavens; and be joyful, O Earth; for the feet of those who are in the east shall be established; and break forth into singing, O mountains; for they shall be smitten no more; for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. However, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forgotten me—but he will show that he hath not. For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23
“Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. Thy children shall make haste against thy destroyers; and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee. Lift up thine eyes round about and behold; all these gather themselves together, and they shall come to thee. And as I live saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on even as a bride. For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants; and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. The children whom thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the first, shall again in thine ears say: The place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart: Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? And who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where have they been? Thus saith the Lord God: behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall by thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their face towards the Earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for thy shall not be ashamed that wait for me. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23
“For shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives delivered? However, thus saith the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be take away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with one that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine; and all flesh shall know that I, the Lord, am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob,” reports 1 Nephi 21.1-26. With the work of God in our sanctification, transforming work of progressive sanctification is the work of God’s Spirit. He is the One who changes us more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ. This transformation is much more than merely a change of outward conduct. It is a renovation of our inner beings, or as someone has said, it is a transformation of the essential being. It means our motives as well as our motivations are being constantly changed, so that we can say with the psalmist, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long,” and “I rejoice in the following your statues as one rejoices in great riches,” reports Psalm 119.47 and 14. However, although the verb be transformed is in the passive voice, it is in the imperative mood; that is, it is a command to do something. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23
This indicates that we as believers are not passive in this transforming process. We are not like blocks of marble being transformed into a beautiful sculpture by a master sculptor. God has given us a mind and hearth with which to respond to and cooperate with the Spirit as He does His work in us. That thought leads naturally to the Scripture passage that is considered to be the classic statement of the working together of the believer with the Holy Spirit who is at work within him. “Therefore, my dream friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and act according to His good purpose,” reports Philippians 2.12-13. O God, Who ever governest Thy creatures with tender affection; incline Thine ear to our supplications, and graciously regard Thy servants, who are suffering from bodily sickness; and visit them with Thy salvation, and bestow the medicine of Heavenly grace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. O Lord, Length of days does not profit me except the days are passed in thy presence, in Thy service, to Thy glory. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23
O God, Who hast vouchedsafe to humankind the remedies that bring salvation, and the gifts of eternal life; preserve to Thy servant the gifts of Thy power, and grant that not only in one’s body, but also in one’s soul, one may experience Thy healing; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Please give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides, sustains, sanctifies, assists every hour, that I may not be one moment apart from Thee, but may rely on Thy Spirit to supply every thought, speak in every word, direct every step, prosper every work, build up every mote of faith, and give me a desire to show forth Thy praise; testify Thy love, advance Thy kingdom. I launch my bark on the unknow waters of this year, with Thee, O Father, as my habour, Thee, O Son, at my helm, Thee, O Holy Spirit, filling my sails. Guide me to Heaven with my loins grit, my lamp burning, my ear open to Thy calls, my heart full of love, my soul free. Give me Thy grace to sanctify me, Thy comforts to cheer, thy wisdom to teach, Thy right hand to guide, Thy counsel to instruct, Thy law to judge, Thy presence to stabilize. May Thy fear by my awe, Thy triumph my joy. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23
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And can I ever bid these joys farewell? Yes, I must pass them for a nobler life, where I may find the agonies, the strife of human hearts: for lo! I see afar, O’ersailing the blue cragginess, a car and steeds with streamy manes–the charioteer looks out upon the winds with glorious fear: and now the numerous tramplings quiver lightly along a huge cloud’s ridge; and now with springtly wheel downward come they into freshers skies, tipt round with silver from the Sun’s bright eyes. Still downward with with capacious whirl they glide; and now I see them on the green-hill’s side in breezy rest among the nodding stalks. The charioteer with wond’rous gesture talks to the trees and mountains; and there son appears shapes of delight, of mystery, and fear, passing along before a dusky space made by some mighty oaks: as they would chase some ever-fleeting music on they sweep.
“The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. However, I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and he parched ground into the springs,” reports Isaiah 41.17.18 Life is not about accomplishment; it is all about doing, participating, progressing, growing, learning. “I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name,” reports Isaiah 45.3
Justice and the Human Good–A Dream Left Uninterpreted is Like a Letter Left Unread!
The biggest dream in life is the American Dream, which is supposed to represent Heaven. Use the stones that life throws at you to lay the foundations of your future. Worry can drag yesterday’s clouds over today’s Sunshine. Perceptual researchers have given us a lot of information and guidance thus far. In the future, perhaps, they can help us widen our perceptions in more natural, evolutionary ways so that we can see things more clearly, as they are, without the blinders we now use, which lead to racism, sexism, elitism, and all the stereotyping and selective perception we now experience. These loom large as major problem areas to be overcome in the coming years. In it speculative to say, but we also feel that the nettling questions about Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) and other parapsychological phenomena will be answered in ways that more and more of us can accept. Our guess is that our limited view of our perceptions shots out a whole range of perceptual experiences for most of us. There are far too many credible people describing super-ordinary perceptions today to ignore them any longer or to brush them aside as mystical, superstitious, or psychotic. The possibilities of developing nonverbal communications (telepathy or whatever) are mind-boggling, especially if space exploration is to continue beyond the range of our present communications systems. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
Learning is another area into which we have only begun to probe. Knowing what we do, we can amplify this information to try to account for many paradoxical facts in human experience: the presence of intellectual disabilities in people who demonstrate sheer genius in some special area like math or music (called idiot savants); the question of whether or not newborns have any inborn information; what newborns dream about, since almost 80 percent of their sleep Rapid Eye Movement (REM), and during this type of sleep, the eyes move quickly in different directions, and people are known to have intense dreams. Babies can spend up to 50 percent of their sleep in the REM state, compared to only about 20 percent for adults. In addition, in the future we may learn other paradoxical facts such as whether learning can be improved past certain ages; whether “smart pills” can be developed to assist in learning and retention; and dozens of others. It is not inconceivable that hypnosis and altered states of consciousness will get far more attention in academic psychology in the coming decades; indeed, they already are. The difference is that they will lose their labels as “unscientific” or “philosophico-religious” and be shown to be integral parts of complete holistic psychology. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
The possible contributions to each and every conceptual field in psychology are marvelous to anticipate. A high-ranking executive who is subordinate to only a single director in his firm cite an interesting dream. In his waking life, the executive has convinced himself that he is on very good terms with his boss. He like him; he has no problems with him. Then he had this dream: His hands are tied together with a telephone cord, from which the phone is still dangling. Then he sees his boss, who seems to be asleep, lying next to him on the ground. The executive feels an overpowering rage. He finds a hammer picks it up in both hands, and tries to smash the director’s head with it. He hits the mark, but nothing happens. Then the director opens hos eyes and smiles ironically at his attacker. Though the man may have felt that he was on good terms with his boss, his dream tells us that he really hated his superior. He felt that the director oppressed him and kept him tied up. He felt powerless and at his chief’s mercy. That is the reality that this man experienced in his dream. In his waking life that reality was, it seems, hidden from him. What does the sleeping state give us that being awake cannot? We are free. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
That may sound like a strange thing to say, but only when we are asleep, in a certain sense, are we free. That is, when we are asleep we are n longer obliged to participate in the struggle for life. We do not have to conquer; we do not have to defend ourselves; we do not have to conform. We are no longer living from the habit of instinct—in the assumption that every sound we make is overheard, and that, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized. We do not have to worry about the Thought Police hacking into our dreams. We think and feel what we think and feel. Our thoughts and feelings in sleep are subjective as they can get. In sleep, we do not have to do anything; we can simply be. In sleep we have no goals. We can experience the World as it really seems to us, as we really see it, and not in the way it is supposed to look if we mean to achieve a certain goal. To put it another way, we can say that in sleep the unconscious has it center stage. There is nothing at all mysterious about the unconscious. It means simply that in sleep we have access to what we do not know when we are awake. Or to put it the other way around: In the waking state we do not have access to what we known when we are asleep. We might even say that in the waking state the consciousness of sleep is unconscious, while in sleep the consciousness of waking is unconscious. There are two different types of consciousness involved. The one is operative in waking; the other, in sleeping. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
Does that mean that we are more irrational in sleep, more subject to our drives? Yes, sometimes, but by no means always and not even in the majority of cases, even through Dr. Freud thought that dreams always pitted the irrational against the rational. However, as I mentioned before, we often achieve greater insight and greater wisdom in our dreams because we are more independent, because we can see and feel without blinders on. Even in sleep we censor our dreams. We do not dare accept the freedom dreams gives us, so we change and hide the real messages of the dream the way we would if we wanted to prevent someone else from understanding what we really meant. In a case like that we are expressing even in sleep, a reluctance to understand ourselves. That is why we often forget dreams, for most of them would not fit neatly into our waking lives. They would only disturb and irritate us. In our dreams our creativity increase. We develop creative capabilities that we do not recognize, indeed, that we have no inkling of, when we are awake. I have in mind here a dream that another successful business executive had. (The dreams I am citing here do not come from patients of mine but from studies made of executive personalities.) This man felt very happy because he was successful. Judging by his income and the power he wielded, he had every right to feel that way, for we usually feel what we are expected to feel. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
So this man thought he was very happy. Then he had a dream. In the first part of the dream he is at a small lake. The lake is dirty. The atmosphere is dark, gloomy, grim. He recalls later, after the dream, that the lake is just like the one near which his parents had lived. The unpleasant memory is not just of the lake but also of the dreary, poverty-stricken mood of his childhood home. In the second scene of the dream he is in an extremely expensive Ultimate Driving Machine, driving up a mountainside on an ultramodern highway. He is driving fast; he has a feeling of power and success; and he is happy. Then comes a third scene, which takes place after he has reached the top of the mountain. Suddenly he is in a shop that caters to materials dealing with pleasures of the flesh. His wife is with him in the Ultimate Driving Machine, but now he is alone. No one else is there. Everything is dusty and dirty, and he feels totally alone and abandoned. This dream tells us what the man really feels about his life and fate. Put in the simplest terms, the dream translates into something like this: When I was a child, everything around me was dismal and dirty. Now I am a successful man who has driven to the peak of success with incredible speed. However, ultimately, when this whole success game is over, I will be right back in that same filth, that same poverty, that same sadness, that same isolation I experienced as a child. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
Everything will drop away, and I will be right back where I started. The dream does not express a wish. It provides instead, in a creative, artistic language, a profound insight int the emptiness of the man’s life. We might say that many people are capable of that kind of creativity, but in the daytime they are so subject to the pressures of society—what Heidegger has called the “they”—that they lack the courage to be themselves and to create something themselves. That is a sad commentary indeed on our society, which does not permit people to realize the creative capacities they have in them. In our dreams we are telling ourselves something. As the Talmud (Berachot 55a) puts it: “A dream left uninterpreted is like a letter left unread. The word “interpret” is not really correct in this context. We do not have to interpret dreams. There is nothing to interpret. We do not have to interpret Mandarin Chinese or Italian if we have learned those languages. Dream language is a language that we can learn, that has its own grammar, its own forms, a language that does no describe “fact” but conveys experience. It is easy to learn dream language, and you do not have to become a psychoanalyst to learn it. We could be learning it in school at the same time that we learn foreign language. If we are to understand our dreams, we will understand more about ourselves and others, and I believe it would be a great advantage for us to start learning dream language. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
I have said this could be an advantage to us, but it could also have its disadvantages. As a rule, we really do not want to know too much about ourselves or others. That knowledge can bother us. However, the more we know about ourselves and the fewer illusions we have about others, the richer, stronger, more vital our lives will be. Then, too, if we understand dream language, we are not limited to the one-sided, intellectual perspective that has come to dominate most people’s thinking in our time more than ever before in the past. We are not restricted to thinking exclusively in concepts but develop an eye for emotional differentiation. We integrate intellect and emotion and put unrealistic alternative behind us. I am in no way propounding a dangerous anti-intellectualism here, much less a new sentimentality. However, I do want to suggest that the language of dreams can teach us something that is essential to our own lives, now more than ever: In our dreams we can become poets. I have found that if you love life, life will love you back. I accept life unconditionally. Life holds so much—so much to be happy about always. Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can be felt only if you do not set conditions. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
In the past, political theorists often used to distinguish clearly between “private” domestic life and the “public” life of politics and the marketplace, calming explicitly that the two spheres operated in accordance with different principles. They separated out the family from what they deemed the subject matter of politics, and they made closely related, explicit claims about the nature of women and the appropriateness of excluding them from civil and political life. Men, the subjects of the theories of justice, superficial appearances can easily lead to the impression that they are inclusive of women. In fact, they continue the same “separate spheres” tradition, by ignoring the family, its division of labour, and the related economic dependency and restricted opportunities of most women. The judgment that the family is “nonpolitical” is implicit in the fact that it is simply not discussed in most works of political theory today. In one way or another, as will become clear, almost all current theorists continue to assume that the “individual” who is the basic subject of their theories is the male head of a fairly traditional household. Thus the application of principles of justice to relations between the genders, or within the household, is frequently, though tacitly ruled out from the start. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
In the most influential of all twentieth-century theories of justice, that of John Rawls, family life is not only assumed, but is assumed to be just—and yet the prevalent gendered division of labour within the family is neglected, along with the associated distribution of power, responsibility, and privilege. Moreover, this is typical of contemporary theories of justice. They persist, despite the wealthy of feminist challenges to their assumptions, in their refusal even to discuss the family and its gender structure, much less to recognize the family as a political institution of primary importance. Recent theories that pay even less attention to issues of family justice than Rawls’s include Bruce Ackerman’s Social Justice in Liberal State, Ronald Dworkin’s Taking Rights Seriously, William Galston’s Justice and the Human Good, Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue and Whose Justice? Whose Rationality?, Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia, and Robert Unger’s Knowledge and Politics and The Critical Legal Studies Movement. Philip Green’s Retrieving Democracy is a welcome exception. Michael Walzer’s Spheres of Justice, too, is exceptional in this regard, but…the conclusion that can be inferred from his discussion of the family—that its gender structure is unjust—does not sit at all easily with this emphasis on the shared understandings of culture as the foundation of Justice. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
For gender is one aspect of social life about which clearly in the Untied States of America in the latter part of the twentieth century and beginning of the twenty-first century, there are no shared understandings. What is the basis of my claim that the family, while neglected, is assumed by theorists of justice? One obvious indication is that they take mature, independent human beings as the subjects of their theories without any mention of how they got to be that way. We know, of course, that human beings develop and mature only as a result of a great deal of attention and hard work, by far the greater part of it done by women. However, when theorists of justice talk about “work,” they mean paid work performed in the marketplace. They must be assuming that women, in the gender-structured family, continue to do their unpaid work of nurturing and socializing the young and providing a haven of intimate relations—otherwise there would be no moral subjects for them to theorize about. However, these activities apparently take place outside the scope of their theories. Typically, the family itself is not examined in the light of whatever standard of justice theorist arrives at. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
The continued neglect of the family by theorists of justice flies in the face of a great deal of persuasive feminist argument…Scholars have clearly revealed the interconnections between the gender structure inside and outside the family and the extent to which the personal is political. They have shown that the assignment of primary parenting to women is crucial, both in forming the gendered identities of men and women and in influencing their respective choices and opportunities in life. Yet, so far, the simultaneous assumption and neglect of the family has allowed the impact of these arguments to go unnoticed in major theories of justice. However, the progressive nature of sanctification is implied throughout the New Testament epistles in all those instances where we are exhorted to grow, to change, to put off the deeds of the old person (the person who lived in sin) and out on the new Godlike character, and so on. It is also clearly implied in Paul’s own testimony that he had no yet been made perfect and his statement that he had learned to be content in all circumstances. “Not that I have already obtained this or am already made perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Jesus Christ has made me his own. Brother and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of upward call of God in Jesus Christ,” reports Philippians 3.12-14. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
“Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have,” reports Philippians 4.11. Then Romans 12.2 and 2 Corinthians 3.18 explicitly teach the progressive nature of sanctification. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this World, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will,” reports Romans 12.2. “And We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit,” reports 2 Corinthians 3.18. The common word in both passages is transformed. In both instances the verb transformed is present tense, indicating that the action is continuous. The phrase be transformed in Romans 12.2 means “Continue to let yourselves be transformed.” The term [transformed] used here implies that we are to be constantly in the process of being metamorphosed by renewal of that which is the seat of thought and understanding. Sanctification is a process of revolutionary change in that which is the centre of consciousness. It is the thought of progression and strikes at the stagnation, complacency, pride of achievement so often characterizing Christians. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
As to the nature of this process, 2 Corinthians 3.18 indicated it is the work of the “Lord, who is the Spirit,” while Romans 12.2 indicates it is through the renewing of our minds. In both passages, however, the transformed is passive, indicating it is a work done in us rather than by us. In Chapter 19 of 1 Nephi, in The Book of Mormon, Nephi makes plates of ore and records the history of his people—the God of Israel will come six hundred years from the time Lehi left Jerusalem—Nephi tells of His sufferings and crucifixion—the Jews will be despised and scattered until the latter days, when they return unto the Lord. About 588-570 Before Christ. “And it came to pass that the Lord commanded me, wherefore I did make plates of ore that I might engraven upon them the record of my people. And upon the plates of which I made I did engrave the record of my father, and also our journeyings in the wilderness, and the prophecies of my father; and also many of mine own prophecies have I engraven upon them. And I knew not t the time when I made them that I should be commanded of the Lord to make these plates; wherefore, the record of my father, and the genealogy of his fathers, and the more part of all our proceedings in the wilderness are engraven upon those first plates of which I have spoken; wherefore, the things which transpired before I made these plates are, of a truth, more particularly made mention upon the first plates. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
“And after I had made these plates by way of commandment, I, Nephi, received a commandment that the ministry and the prophecies, the more plain and precious parts of them, should be written upon these plates; and that the thing which were written should be kept for the instruction of my people, who should possess the land, and also for other wise purposes, which purposes are known unto the Lord. Wherefore, I Nephi, did make a record upon the other plates which gives an account, or which gives a greater account of the wars and contentions and destructions of my people. And this have I done, and commanded my people what they should do after I was gone; and that these plates should be handed down from one generation to another, or from one prophet to another, until further commandments of the Lord. And an account of my making these plates shall be given hereafter; and then, behold, I proceed according to that which I have spoken; and this I do that the more sacred things maybe kept for the knowledge of my people. Nevertheless, I do not write anything upon plates save it be that I think it be sacred. And now, if do err, even did they err of old; not that I would excuse myself because of other people, but because of the weakness which is in me, according to the flesh, I would excuse myself. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
“For the things which some people esteem to be of great worth, both to the body and soul, others set at naught and trample under their feet. Yea, even they very God if Israel do people trample under their feet; I say, trample under their feet but I would speak in other words—they set him at naught, and hearken not to the voice of his counsels. And behold he cometh, according to the words of the Angel, in six hundred years from the time my father left Jerusalem. And the World, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of humans. And the God of our Fathers, who were led out of Egypt out of bondage, and also were preserved in the wilderness by him, yea, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, yieldeth himself, according to the words of the Angel, as a man, into the hands of the wicked men, to be lifted up, according to the words of Zenock, and to be crucified, according to the words of Neum, and to be buried in a sepulcher, according to the words of Zenos, which he spake concerning the three days of darkness, which should be a sign given of his death unto those who should inhabit the isles of the sea, more especially given unto those who are of the house of Israel. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
“For thus spake the prophet: The Lord God surely shall visit all the house of Israel at that day, some with his voice, because of their righteousness, unto their great joy and salvation, and others with the thunderings and the lightnings of his power, by the tempest, by fire, and by smoke, and vapor of darkness, and by the opening of the Earth, and by mountains which shall be carried up. And all these things must surely come, saith the prophet Zenos. And the rocks of the Earth must rend; and because of the groanings of the Earth, many of the kings of the isles of the sea shall be wrought upon by the Spirit of God, to exclaim: The God of nature suffers. And as for those who are at Jerusalem, saith the prophet, they shall be scourged by all people, because they crucify the God of Israel, and turn their hearts aside, rejecting signs and wonders, and the power and glory of the God of Israel. And because they turn their hearts aside, saith the prophet, and have despised the Holy One of Israel, they shall wander in the flesh, and perish, and become a hiss and a byword, and be hated among all nations. Nevertheless, when that day cometh, saith the prophet, that they no more turn aside their hearts against the Holy One of Israel, then will he remember the covenants which he made to their fathers. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
“Yea, then will he remember the isles of the sea; yea, and all the people who are of the house of Israel, will I gather in, saith the Lord, according to the words of the prophet Zenos, from the four quarters of the Earth. Yea, and all the Earth shall see the salvation of the Lord, saith the prophet; every nation, kindred, tongue and people shall be blessed. And I, Nephi, have written these things unto my people, that perhaps I might persuade them that they would remember the Lord their Redeemer. Wherefore, I speak unto all the house of Israel, if it so be that they should obtain their things. For behold, I have workings in the spirit, which doth weary me even that all my joints are weak, for those who are at Jerusalem; for had not the Lord been merciful, to show unto me concerning them, even as he had prophets of old, I should have perished also. And he surely did show unto the prophets of old all things concerning them for they are written upon the plates of brass. Now it came to pass that I, Nephi, did teach my brethren these things; and it came to pass that I did read may things to them, which were engraven upon the plates of brass, that they might know concerning the doings of the Lord in other lands, among people of old. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
“And I did read my things unto them which were written in the books of Moses; but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning. Wherefore I spake unto them, saying: Here ye the words of the prophet, ye who are a remnant of the house of Israel, a branch who have been broken off; hear ye the words of the prophet, which were written unto all the house of Israel, and liken them unto yourselves, that ye may have hope as well as your brethren from whom ye have been broken off; for after this manner has the prophet written,” reports 1 Nephi 19.1-24. O God, Who justifies the ungodly, and willest not the death of a sinner; we humbly beseech Thy Majesty that Thou wouldest graciously protect with Heavenly assistance They children, who rely on Thy mercy, and keep us safe with unceasing protection; that we may continually serve Thee, and not be parted from Thee by any temptation; though our Lord Jesus Christ. O Lord of the Oceans, my little bark sails on a restless sea, please grant that Jesus may sit at the helm and steer me safely; suffer no adverse currents to divert my Heavenward course; let not my faith be wrecked amid storms and shoals; bring me to harbour with flying pennants, hull unbreached, cargo unspoiled. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
I ask great things, expect great things, shall receive great things. I venture on Thee wholly, fully, my wind, Sunshine, anchor, defence. The voyage is long, the waves high, the storms pitiless, but my helm is held steady, Thy word secures safe passage, Thy grace wafts me onward, my haven is guaranteed. This day will bring me nearer home, grant me holy consistency in every transaction, my peace flowing as a running tide, my righteousness as every chasing wave. Help me to live circumspectly, with skill to convert every care into prayer, halo my path with gentleness and love, smooth every asperity of temper; let me not forget how easy it is to occasion grief; may I strive to bind up every wound, and pour oil on all troubled waters. May the World this day be happier and better because I live. Let my mast before me be the Saviour’s cross, and every oncoming wave the fountain in His side. Help me, protect me in the moving side. Help me, protect me in the moving sea until I reach the shore of unceasing praise. One cannot help all the billions of humankind. One can help only the seekers among humankind. Nor can one help all the seekers. One can help only those come into sympathetic and receptive contact with one or with one’s work. The master will teach with love what the student must learn with reverence. It is a wise parent who knows one’s own child. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
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Faith and the World: Oh, Earth, You are too Wonderful for Anybody to Realize You!
An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life. Drugs make people susceptible to ideas, and that is why propaganda is so effective. Gaslighting is a manipulation tactic used to gain power, and it works too well. In order to gain more power, gaslighting makes a victim question their reality by putting them through situation that are prohibited by law and thought to not be practiced in modern society. Gaslighters tell blatant lies, and they deny they said something even though one may have blatant proof that they did. These aggressors often use what is near and dear to one as ammunition to upset you. They may assault you, steal vandalize your property, break and enter into your home, cyberstalk you and spy on you. The goal is to try and wear a person down over time, usually by a variation of a violation of your rights and physical and mental attacks. Gaslighters often use law enforcement as tools to act as intimidators. Often times people who use these tactics display actions that do not match their words, and sometimes what they say means nothing when the real issue is their actions. Another tactic is they try to make a person schizophrenic by praising them and then cutting them down so an individual is always questing their own thought process and self-value. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21
People who try to use mind control also project their own problems and insecurities onto a victim, as gaslighters are masters at manipulation. They will often tell people you are crazy because dismissing your credibility is one of the main ways to make sure no one believes what one is saying. Legal subordination between members of the same gender or opposite gender is wrong in itself, and now is one of the chief hindrances to human improvements; and it ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other. So long as an opinion is strongly rooted in the feelings, it gains rather than loses in stability by having a prepondering weight of argument against it. For if it were accepted as a result of argument, the refutation of the argument might shake the solidity of the conviction; but when it rests solely on feeling, the worse it fares in argumentative contest, the more persuaded its adherents are that their feeling must have some deeper grounds, which the arguments to not reach; and while the feeling remains, it is always throwing up fresh intrenchments of argument to repair any breach made in the old. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21
And there are so many causes tending to make the feelings connected with this subject the most intense and most deeply rooted of all those which gather round and protect old institutions and customs, that we need not wonder to find them as yet less undermined and loosened than any of the rest by the rest by the progress of the great modern spiritual and social transition; nor suppose that the barbarism to which people cling longest must be less barbarism than those which they shake off. The study of objected image that preconscious perception grew out of the observation that subjects dreamed about parts of a projected image that were not immediately recalled. In fact, people seem to record subconsciously a lot more than they consciously relate. Further, what they record subconsciously does not lie passive but works actively on the mind. Subliminal projection uses this phenomenon by planting sensations in minds that are not aware of the process. Although no conclusive evidence exists to confirm the effectiveness of subliminal projection in practical situations such as buying popcorn, the possibility itself is suggestive. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21
Education is a foundation of facts and values, and the aim of education is to make people free. The biological principle upon which humanistic education rests is that humans are all different. Unfortunately for humankind, the opinion in favour of the present system, which entirely subordinates women as a weaker gender to men, who are viewed as the stronger gender, rests upon theory only; for there never has been trial made of any other; so that experience, in the sense in which it is vulgarly opposed to theory, cannot be pretended to have pronounced any verdict. And in the second place, the adoption of this system of inequality never was the result of deliberation, or forethought, or any social ideas, or any notion whatever of what conduced to the benefit of humanity or the good order of society. It arose simply from the fact that from the very earliest twilight of human society, every women (owing to the value attached to her by men, combined with her inferiority in muscular strength) was found in a state of bondage to some man. Laws and systems of polity always begin by recognising the relations they find already existing between individuals. They convert what was a mere physical fact into a legal right, give it the sanction of society, and principally aim at the substitution of public and organized means of asserting and protecting the sights, instead of the irregular and lawless conflict of physical strength. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21
To avoid the tyranny that seems inevitable, education is the great equalizers for the masses and will greatly contribute to the freedom of humanity. This program should include environmental studies, the facts of individual diversity and genetic uniqueness and the values of freedom, tolerance and mutual charity. The forces of evil propaganda must be combatted by a critical study of language, which should include a full study of the devices that are used against freedom. Those who have already been compelled to obedience by the masses have become in this manner legally bound to it. Slavery, from being a mere affair of force between the master and the slave, become regularized and a matter of compact among the masters, who, bind themselves to one another for common protection guaranteed by their collective strength the private possessions of each, including the people they enslave mentally and/or physically. In early times, the great majority of the male gender were slaves, as well as the whole of the female. And many ages elapsed, some of the ages of high cultivation, before any thinker was bold enough to question the rightfulness and absolute social necessity, either of the one slavery or of the others. We must find a willing to help society and yet make them aware of the wiles of mind-manipulators. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21
Above all, values need to be taught—individual freedom, charity and compassion, and intelligence. With these values, humans should be able to pierce through the veil of propaganda, and they would be able to remain free. Those who wish to control humankind want to believe that all people are easily categorized and easily manipulated, that all are essentially the same, and that individuals are not very important in the historical process. We do not want to see demagogues and charlatans abusing humankind, the environment, nor animals or other living being—animate or inanimate. We must refrain from creating a nation of Mary’s sheep. It is important that value is placed on genetic differences and on environmental differences, and people are taught respect for human differences. At the same time, respect for the integrity of the social order, which allows freedom to be exercised has to be preserved, without making it a dictatorship masquerading as a free society. Less than two hundred and fifty-four years ago, people might still by law hold human beings in bondage as saleable property; within the present century they might kidnap them and carry them off, and work them literally to death. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21
This absolutely extreme case of the law of force, condemned by those who can tolerate almost every other form of arbitrary power, and which, of all others, presents features the most revolting to the feelings of all who look at it from an impartial position, is the law of civilized and the Christian World within the memory of persons now living: and not only in the past did slavery exist, but the slave trade, and the breeding of slaves expressly for it, was a general practice between slave states. Yet not only was there a greater strength of sentiment against it, but it was also considered the customer abuse of force: for its motive was the love of gain, unmixed and undisguised; and those who profited by it were a very small numerical fraction of the country, while the natural feeling of all who were not personally interested in it, was unmitigated abhorrence. The possessor of the undue power, the person directly interested in it, only one person, while those who are subject to it and suffer form it is literally all the ret. The yoke is naturally and necessarily humiliating to all persons, expect the one who is on the throne, together with, at most, the one who expects to succeed to it. How different are these cases from that of the power of men over women! I am not now prejudging the question of its justifiableness. I am showing how vastly more permanent it could not but be, even if not justifiable, than those other dominations which have nevertheless lasted down to our own time. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21
Whatever gratification of pride there is in the possession of power, and whatever person interest in its exercise, is in this case not confined to a limited class, but common to the whole male gender. Instead of being, to most of its supporters, a thing desirable chiefly in the abstract, or, like the political ends usually contended for by factions, of little private importance to any but the leaders, it comes home to the person and hearth of every male head of family, and of every one who looks forward to being so. The clodhoppers exercise, or is to exercise, one’s share of the power equally with the highest noble person. And the case is that in which the desire of power is the strongest: for everyone who desires power, desires it most over those who are nearest to one with whom one’s life is passed, with whom one has most concerns in common, and it who any independence of one’s authority is oftenest likely to interfere with one’s individual preferences. If, in the other cases specified, power manifestly grounded only on force, and having so much less to support them, are so slowly and with so much difficulty got rid of, much more must it be so with this, even if it rests on no better foundation than those. We must consider, too, that the possessors of the power have facilities in this case, greater than in any other, to prevent any uprising against it. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21
In struggles for political emancipation, everybody knows how often its champions are bought off by bribes, or daunted by terrors. In the case of women, each individual of the subject-class is in a chronic state of bribery and intimidation combined. In setting up the standard of resistance, a large number of the leaders, and still more of the followers, must make an almost complete sacrifice of the pleasures of the alleviations of their own individual lt. If ever any system of privilege and enforced subjection had it yoke tightly riveted on the necks of those who are kept down by it, this has. All causes, social and natural, combine to make it unlikely that women should be collectively rebellious to the power of men. They are so far in a position different from all other subject classes, that their masters require something more from them than actual service. People do not want solely the obedience of women, they want their sentiments. All me, expect the brutish, desire to have in the woman most nearly connected with them, not a forced slave but a willing one, not a slave merely, but a favourite. They have therefore put everything in practice to enslave their minds. The masters of all other slaves rely, for maintaining obedience, on fear; either fear of themselves, or religious fears. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21
The masters of women wanted more than simple obedience, and they turned the whole force of education to effect their purpose. All women are bought up from the very earliest years in the belief that their ideal of character is the very opposite to the of men; not self-will, and government by self-control, but submission, and yielding to the control of others. All the moralities tell them that it is the duty of women, and all the current sentimentalities that it is their nature, to live for others; to make complete abnegation of themselves, and to have no life but in their affections. And by their affections are meant the only ones they are allowed to have—those to the men with whom they are connected, or to the children who constitute an additional and indefeasible bond between them and a man. When we put together three things—first, the natural attraction between opposite genders; secondly, the wife’s entire dependence on the husband, every privilege or pleasure she has being either his gift, or depending entirely on his will; and lastly, that the principal object of human pursuit, consideration, and all objects of social ambition, can in general be sough or obtained by her only through him, it would be a miracle if the object of being attractive to men had not become the polar star of feminine education and formation of character. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21
And, this great avail themselves of it to the utmost as a means of holding women in subjection, by representing to them meekness, submissiveness, and resignation of all individual will into the hands of a man, as an essential part of attractiveness in pleasures of the flesh. Can it be doubted that any other yokes which humankind have succeeded in breaking, would have subsisted till now if the same means had existed, and had been as sedulously used to bow down their minds to it? If it had been made the object of the life of every young plebeian to find with one, and a share of one’s personal affection, had been held out as the prize which they all should look out for, the most gifted and aspiring being able to reckon on the most desirable prizes; and if, when this prize had been obtained, they had been shut out by a wall of brass from all interests not centering in him, all feelings and desires but those which he shared or inculcated; would not serfs and seigneurs, plebeians and patricians, have been as broadly distinguished at the day as men and women are? And would not all but a thinker here and there, have believed the distinction to be a fundamental and unalterable fact in human nature? #RandolphHarris 11 of 21
To deal with overpopulation, the birth rate must be reduced so that it does not exceed the death rate, and natural resources managed to increase food and fuel. In the absence of a Pill for birth control, some way must be found to reduce the birth rate—and problems of all sorts are involved here. And how soon can the industrial and social potential of underdeveloped nations be enhanced? Both food and raw materials will be in short supply by the end of the century. Does humankind really want to solve the problems they have? The urge towards freedom diminishes as long as people are well fed, but if conditions change, they will rise up in their chains. If youth does not value freedom, the future will surely be slavery. And not only do the young fail to see the value of freedom, they also wish for some form of benign totalitarian control. Overpopulation and overorganization may be inevitable even if people rise to the banner of freedom now, but the freedom fighters are few and time is short. The dodo, now extinct, is what humankind will become if we do not think about freedom now. We will no longer be able to fly, through we may wish to fly to escape our captor later. Humans will sacrifice their wings of freedom to become flightless like the dodo, and regret the act latter, when the game is up. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21
Sometimes when people finally achieve the social status they desire, they will no longer mock or hold disdain for people they could not stand when they were not able to achieve the social status they wanted. Nonetheless, personal liberty is absolutely essential to human dignity and happiness. When people kill, they kill the Bible: those who senselessly kill, kill God’s image; but one who destroys a good book kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye. Realizing that suffer and frustration are necessary for creation, some accept voluntary exile in preference to stability and conformity. The World structure has changed, human nature has not improved: people are still petty, hypocritical, malicious, dishonest, emotionally sterile and quite capable of revenging themselves on others for their own lapses of accepted “good taste.” For, what is the peculiar character of the modern World—the difference which chiefly distinguishes modern institutions, modern social ideas, modern life itself, from those of times long past? It is, that human beings are no longer born to their place in life, and chained down by an inexorable bond to the place they are born to, but are free to employ their faculties, and such favourable chances as offer, to achieve the lost which may appear to them most desirable. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21
Human society of one was constituted on a very different principle. All were born to a fixed social position, were mostly kept in it by law, or interdicted from any means by which they could emerge from it. Nobody things it necessary, still, to this day, to throw each operation into the hands of those who are best qualified for it. Nobody thinks in necessary to make a law that only a strong-armed person shall be a blacksmith. Freedom and competition suffice to make blacksmiths strong0armed people, because the weak-armed can earn more by engaging in occupations for which they are more fit. In consonance with this doctrine, it is felt to be an overstepping of the proper bounds of authority fit beforehand, on some general presumption, that certain persons are not fit to do certain things. It is now thoroughly known and admitted that is some such presumptions exist, no such presumption is infallible. Even if it be well grounded in a majority of cases, which it is very likely not to be, there will be a minority of exceptional cases in which it does not hold; and in those it is both an injustice to the individuals, and a detriment to society, to place barriers in the way of their using their faculties for their own benefit and for that of others. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21
In the cases, on the other hand, in which the unfitness is real, the ordinary motives of human conduct will on the whole suffice to prevent the incompetent person from making, or from persisting in, the attempt. Nephi is commanded to build a ship—his brethren oppose him—e exhorts them by recounting this history of God’s dealings with Israel—Nephi is filled with the power of God—his brethren are forbidden to touch him lest they wither as a dried reed. About 591-591 Before Christ. “And it came to pass that we did again take our journey in the wilderness; and we did travel nearly eastward from that time forth. And we did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness and our women did bear children in the wilderness. And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like uno the men; and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings. And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of humans keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the things which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21
“And we did sojourn for the space of many years, yes, even eight years in the wilderness. And we did come to the land which we called Bountiful, because of its much fruit and also wild honey; and all these things were prepared of the Lord hat we might not perish. And we beheld the sea, which we called Irreantum, which being interpreted, is many waters. And it cam to pass that we did pitch our tents by the seashore; and notwithstanding we had suffered many afflictions and much difficulty, yea, even so much that we cannot write them all, we were exceedingly rejoiced when we came to the seashore; and we called the place Bountiful, because of is much fruit. And it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had been in the land of Bountiful for the space of many days, the voice of the Lord came unto me, saying: Arise, and get thee into the mountain. And it came to pass that I arose and went up into the mountain, and cried unto the Lord. And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters. And I said: Lord, whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may make tools to construct the ship after the manner which thou hast shown unto me? And it came to pass that the Lord told me whither I should go to find ore, that I might make tools. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21
“And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did make a bellows wherewith to blow the fire, of the skins of beast; and after I had made a bellows, that I might have wherewith to blow the fire, I did smite two stones together that I might make fire. For the Lord had not hitherto suffered that we should make much fire, as we journeyed in the wilderness; for he said: I will make thy food become sweet, that ye cook it not; and I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led. Yea, and the Lord said also that: After ye have arrived in the promised land, ye shall know that I, the Lord, did deliver you from destruction: yea, that I did bring you out of the land of Jerusalem. Wherefore, I, Nephi, did strive to keep the commandments of the Lord, and I did exhort my brethren to faithfulness and diligence. And it came to pass that I did make tools of the ore which I did molten out of the rock. And when my brethren aw that I was about to build a ship, they began to murmur against me, saying: Our brother is a fool, for he thinketh that he can build a ship; yea, and he also thinketh that he can cross these great waters. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21
“And thus my brethren did complain against me, and were desirous that they might not labour, for the did not believe that I could build a ship; neither would they believe that I was instructed of the Lord. And now it came to pass that I, Nephi, was exceedingly sorrowful because of the hardness of their hearts; and now when they saw that I began to be sorrowful they were glad in their hearts, insomuch that they did rejoice over me saying: We knew that ye could not construct a ship, for we knew that ye were lacking in judgment; wherefore, thou canst not accomplish so great work. And thou art like unto our father, ed away by the foolish imaginations of his heart; yea, he hath led us out of the land of Jerusalem, and we have wandered in the wilderness for these many years; and our women have toiled, being big with child; and they have borne children in the wilderness and suffered all things, save it were death; and it would have been better that they had died before they came out of Jerusalem than to have suffered these afflictions. Behold, these may years we have suffered in the wilderness, which time we might have enjoyed our possessions and the land of our inheritance; yea, and we might have been happy. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21
“And we know that the people who ere in the land of Jerusalem were a righteous people; for they have kept that statutes and judgments of the Lord, and all his commandments, according to the law of Moses; wherefore, we know that they are a righteous people; and our father hath judged them, and hath led us away because we would hearken unto his words; yea, and our brother is like unto him. And after this manner of language did my brethren murmur and complain against us. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, spake unto them, saying: Do ye believe that our fathers, who the children of Israel, would have been led away out of the hands of the Egyptians if they had not hearkened unto the words of the Lord? Yea, do you suppose that they would have been led out of bondage, if the Lord hand not commanded Moses the he should lead them out of bondage? Now ye know that the children of Israel were in bondage; and ye know that they were laden with tasks, which were grievous to be borne; wherefore, ye know that it must need be a good thing for them, that they should be brought out of bondage. Now ye know that Moses was commanded of the Lord to do that great work; and ye know that by his word the waters of the Red Sea were divided hither and thither, and hey passed through on dry grounds. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21
“But ye know that the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea, who were the armies of Pharaoh. And ye also know that they were fed with manna in the wilderness. Yea, and ye also know that Moses, by his word according to the power of God which was in him smote the rock, and there came forth water, that the children of Israel might quench their thirst. And notwithstanding they being led, the Lord their God, their Redeemer, going before them, leading them by day and giving them light unto them by night, and doing all things for them which were expedient for humans to receive, they hardened their hears and blinded their minds, and reviled against Moses and against the true and living God,” reports 1 Nephi 17.1-30. I urge that requests, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for everyone. Varied prayer grows out of what we have learned about continual prayer, because it we pray continually, the various situation we encounter will demand a variety of prayers. Think of the variety of appropriate to life’s situations—prayer to resist temptation, prayer for wisdom, for power, for self-restraint, for protection of others, for growth, for conviction. On all occasion with all kinds of prayer request will we learn to survive. I always pray before I drive. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21
We must have a vibrant inner spiritual reality which emanates with all kinds of prayer requests. Grant Thy servants whom Thou hast united to us by the intimacy of holy affection, or by the bonds of blood, or hast associated with us in the unity of faith, to be subject to Thee with their whole heart; that being filled with the Spirit of Thy love, they may be cleansed from Earthly desires, and be made worthy, by Thy grace, of Heavenly blessedness. O Lord, the World is artful to entrap, approaches in fascinating guise, extends many a gilded bait, presents many a charming face. Let my faith scan every painted babuble, and escape every bewitching snare in a victory that overcomes all things. In my duties give me firmness, energy, zeal, devotion to Thy cause, courage in Thy name, love as a working grace, and all commensurate with my trust. Let faith stride forth in giant power, and love respond with energy in every act. I often mourn the absence of my beloved Lord whose smile makes Earth a paradise, whose voice is sweetest music, whose presence gives all graces strength. However, by unbelief I often keep Him outside my door. Let faith give entrance that he may abide with me forever. Thy word is full of promises, flowers of sweet fragrance, fruit of refreshing flavour when culled by faith. May I be made rich in its riches, be strong in its power, be happy in its joy, abide in its sweetness, feast on its preciousness, draw vigour from its manna. Lord, please increase my faith. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21
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O God, Who bestowest Thy mercy at all times on them that love Thee, and in no place art distant from those that serve Thee; direct the way of Thy Children in Thy will, that having Thee for their Protector and Guide, they may walk without stumbling in the paths of righteousness; through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Some Circumstantial Evidence is Very Strong, as When You Find a Trout in the Milk!
Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom. It does not require many words to speak the truth. Stimuli are events, sights, sounds, smells, movements, which put in motion processes of sensation and perception. Stimuli set off (neural) impulses. These impulses have effects. By effect what we mean is the activation of other (neural) impulses—usually more central ones in language we have used so far, that is further away from the original stimulus. By “classification” we mean a process by which an event has the same effect whenever it occurs. Events which produce the same effects belong to the same classes. For instance, o activates x; o belongs to the class x. And if o and p activate x; they belong to the class x. Any impulse, therefore, which activates a subsequent impulse X thus belongs to class X. Some of these impulses may also activate a subsequent impulse Y—in that case they belong to class Y as well as class X. This can be further complicated in many ways. For instance, not only may each individual event belong to more than one class, but is may also contribute to produce different effects if (and only if) it occurs in combination with certain other events. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18
The connection we are here looking at could be of cell-assemblies or phase-sequences or phase-cycles. These can build up into concepts. And concepts are classifying processes, classes for short. So we can write the o is part of the class (that is, the concept) X or that o is part of both the class (the concept) X and the class (the concept) Y. A logician and neurophysiologist would arrive at exactly the same position. The transmission of impulses from neuron to neuron within the central nervous system, which is conceived as constituting the apparatus of classification, may either take place between different neurons carrying primary impulses, or between such neurons and other (“internuncial”) neurons which are not directly connected with receptor organs. In the former instance, the same event may occur either as the primary object of classification or as a “symbol” classifying some other primary impulse. All impulses, whether primary or secondary, are likely to be subject to further classification, and therefore appear both as instruments and as objects of classification. For instance, a, b, c are objections of classification. D is the instrument of classification. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18
Picture D as being a point, like the Sun and a, b, c, being planets that receive light from D, making D like a nucleus. D stands for a, b, c. D is a symbol for a, b, c. If we incorporate D with other galaxies, when can then make D an object and instrument of classification because D is now drawing energy from a source greater or equal to itself, but a, b, and c, are only drawing energy from D. Now, a, b, c contributes to concept D, and D contributes to the higher-order concept J. So stimuli (in the external World) set off impulses, and because the patterns of stimuli affect the patterns of impulses, a subtle classification-system comes into being, with many connections and interconnections. The network of these connections will reproduce a sort of record of the past associations which any particular stimuli have had with other stimuli acting on the organism at the same time. The word classification scarcely conveys an adequate idea of the almost infinite wealth of variety and graduation of the discriminations which can be performed by this apparatus. Since it is not merely a question of a particular impulse either belonging or not belonging to a particular class, but also of its belonging to more or less strongly, it would be more appropriate to describe these complex processes by some such term as evaluation. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18
And so we have arrived by a new route at the idea of central dominance. The gradual evolution of the mental order involves thus a gradual approximation to the order which in the external World exists between stimuli evoking the impulses which represent them in the central nervous system. In discussing the relationship between a network of connexions and the structure of external events which it can be said to reproduce, it will be useful sometimes to employ the simile of the map which, in a somewhat analogous manner, reproduces some of the relations which exist in certain parts of the physical World. This map reflects the relationship between various events in the external World, relationships which the linkage gradually produce in the higher nervous centres. The map consists of connections between concepts. It must not be thought of as flat and two-dimensional like a geography map, however; it is multi-dimensional, defining the relationships of everything to everything else. At the beginning of life there is no map; it is in process of construction from incoming experiences, all new. However, as the system becomes more and more complex, and more and more firmly established, any new events is less likely to affect the general system of interlinking concepts to any marked degree. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18
We must now consider the manner in which the many impulses proceeding at any one moment can mutually influence each other. The centres at which such impulses arrive are never to be found in an inactive state. As the impulses ascend to higher and higher levels, they will be less and less likely to evoke specific responses. Increasingly their function can only be to modify behaviour in the light of the whole situation, which is represented not only by other impulses arriving simultaneously but also by the whole retained representation of the environment. Regarded from this point of view, the map will be seen as a relatively enduring structure, steering the organism in terms of past experience. The patterns of information coming in at any particular moment make a sort of representation of the environment at that moment. This representation is a model of the environment, which will enable the organism to take account of the environment at the moment. This model, which is formed at any moment by the momentarily active impulses, must not be confused with what we have called the map, the semi-permanent connexions representing not the environment of the moment but the kind of events which the organism has met during its whole past. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18
The map is a representation of all that has happened to the organism. The map is timeless. Because it is composed of memories, it is a map of past experiences. Because it is a map from which the current position (the World) can be read off, it contributes to a model of the present situation. On the map there is no sense of a flow from the past to the future via now. This is a formulation of the unconscious. By providing a model of the environment as it is now, against a background of all previous information, the organism’s reactions are adjusted to those elements in the environment which are active just now. In so far as the present model and the past experiences produce attention, the map contains at least an expectation of what the future could hold. It is therefore not fanciful to call this whole organization of map and model an instrument of orientation, like a gyroscope. We all feel that we are fully at home only in one language, and we call that one our mother tongue. We may have learned a few foreign languages as well: French, Russian, Italian. However, we forget that we all speak one other language, and that is the language of dreams. This language is a remarkable one. It is a universal language that has existed in all periods of human history and in all cultures. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18
The dream language of primitive humans, the dream language of Pharaoh in the Bible, the dream language of someone in Stuttgart or New York—they are all almost the same. We speak this language every night. Although we usually forget what we have dreamed and therefore think we have not dreamed at all, we do dream every single night. What are the characteristics of dream language? Its most obvious characteristic, of course, is that it is a night language, a language of sleep? It is as if we could speak French only at night and did not understand a word of it during the day. Furthermore, dream language is a symbolic language. We could say that the language makes use of visible, almost palpable things to express inner experiences in concrete form. That is just what literature does. If a writer says: “The red rose warms my heart,” no one understands that to mean that the temperature has risen. The writer is referring to a feeling, an experience, that one expresses in the form of a concrete physical process. Perhaps I can use the very example of a very interesting dream to show what I mean here. Dr. Sigmund Freud has this dream and then related it afterward. It is his dream about a herbarium and that the herbarium has a dried follow in it. That is the whole dream. Dr. Freud had some idea of what it meant. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18
The flower was his wife’s favorite flower, and his wife often complained that he never gave her flowers. Then, too, the flower was in some way linked to cocaine, of which he had become aware at just about the same time that its medical uses were being discovered. The flower in the herbarium was a symbol, but it was rich in meaning. It revealed something about one of the most important aspects of Dr. Freud’s personality. Flowers are symbols of love, of pleasures of the flesh, the living. However, this flower in the herbarium is a dried one whose only remaining value is as an object of scientific scrutiny. It can be studied as an object of research but not experiences as something blossoming, living. If we look a Dr. Freud’s attitude toward love and pleasures of the flesh, we in fact find that although he made pleasures of the flesh an object of scientific study, he was in his own life a rather shy and prudish man. When he was in his early forties, he wrote to a friend once that he was surprised at how attractive he found a woman he had seen. That is just one example of Dr. Freud’s attitude toward life at an age when most men would not be the least surprised over such an occurrence. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18
Thus, in this little symbol of a dried flower, a symbol that can be sketched in just a few words, we find clues to Dr. Freud’s character that would oblige us to fill many pages if we were to attempt to spell out in detail everything that was implicit in the symbolic language of that brief dream. Another important quality of dream language is that we know more about other people and ourselves when we are dreaming than we do when we are awake. We may be more irrational in our dreams—and I will be coming back to this point later—but in a certain sense we are much wiser, much more perceptive. The example of Dr. Freud’s dream shows this, too. As we know from Dr. Freud’s own analysis of his dream, he was hardly aware of the aspect of his character that the dream reveals. However, in this dream he could clearly recognize his equivocal attitude toward that the dream symbolized. Related to this aspect of dream language is still another feature that most discussions of dreaming do not adequately acknowledge. Most people (I say “most people,” but we have no stastics on this, so perhaps I should be more cautious and just say “many people” or, better still, “most of the people I have seen in my practice as a psychanalyst”) are creative in their dreams to an extent they never would have thought possible in their waking lives. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18
In their dreams people who, when awake, would never mange to do anything of the sort, not even with the greatest effort, become creators of stories, poems, myths. I do not know how many dreams I have heard that could be published word for word and that would give many a short story by Kafka a run for its money. And yet when that same individual is awake one would look at you as if you were mad if you were to say to one, “Well, now, write me a short story in Kafka’s style.” In fact one would be unable to write such a story. However, in one’s dreams one is a poet, an artist, this same person who has no artistic capabilities at all when one is awake. To sate my point in extreme form, we could say that a creative artist is someone who is creative even though one is awake. During the day we live in the context of a given culture. What we say in the daytime depends to a large extent on where we were born. It is obvious that an African who is a member of a hunting tribe will speak about other things and make use of other terms than we do. What we say is partially determined by our society. However, in our dreams we speak a universal language. Our daytime language, whether our mother tongue or a foreign one, is always a socially determined language. Dream language, however, is a universal language, the language of all humankind. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18
What is the explanation for this capability? Let me begin with something that may seem complex but is actually quite simple: the difference between waking and sleeping. We spend our lives in two modes of existence that we take so much for granted that we are often not even conscious of them. We spend part of our time awake and part of it asleep. What does it mean, though, to say we are awake? When we are awake we are in a state that requires us to tend to our lives. We have to work, we have to acquire the things we need to live; we have to defend ourselves against attacks; in short, we are absorbed in the struggle for existence. And that struggle influences what we do and what we think. It influences what we do because we have to conform. We have to behave the way society expects us to behave so that we can produce, so that we can work. However, more important still, this struggle strongly influences our feelings and the categories in which we think. During the day we look at things the way we have to look at them to manipulate them, use them, make something out of them. We have to behave reasonably, and “reasonably” means the way other people do, so that they will understand us but also will like us and not think: That is a totally eccentric or insane person. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18
We think and feel what “common sense” and so-called ordinary human decency tells us we should think and feel. We all think and feel that we love our parents, that they and all other authorities not only want the best for us but also know and do what is best, and so on. We feel happy or cheerful when the occasion demands, or if the occasion demands the opposite, we feel sad. In reality, we may not feel anything at all, but we think we do simply because we have assumed an appropriately happy or sad expression. And we do not think what strikes us as absurd because we assume that things that ought not to exist do not exist. Anderson’s fairy tale about the emperor’s new clothes illustrates that principle beautifully. The emperor is naked, but all the adults think he has gorgeous clothes on because that is what they expect. Only the little boy, whose thinking has not yet been pressed into the mold of most adults’ daytime minds, can see that the emperor is not wearing any clothes at all. When we are awake, we do, feel, and think what others expect of us. Do you view God as an ogre who has set before you an impossible code of conduct you cannot keep or do you view Him as your divine Heavenly Father who has accepted you and loves you on the basis of the merit of Christ? #RandolphHarris 12 of 18
In other words, in terms of your acceptance with God, are you willing to rely solely on the finished perfect work of Jesus, instead of your own pitifully imperfect performance? There probably is no other passage of Scripture that suggests more starkly the contrast between living by grace and living by works than does Romans 7.6. Paul intended the contrast between serving in the new way of the Spirit and the old way of the written code to represent the contrast between the believer and the unbeliever. All believers have died to the law, whether we recognize it or not. However, the sad fact is, many believers do not recognize it or are unwilling to accept it because, to them, it seems to good to be true. All too often we who are believers living in the realm of grace, live out our daily lives as if we were still living under the bondage of the law. And to the extent we live that way, we are still serving the old way of the written code and not in the new way of the Spirit. I am convinced that the sinful nature still present within every believer tends toward a legalistic spirit as much as it tends toward sin. The sinful nature despises the righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus Christ as much as it despises the ethical righteousness that comes from obeying God’s law. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18
If we are going to serve in the newness of the Spirit, we must resist the legalistic spirit of trying to “live by the law” as vigorously and persistently as we do temptations to sin. Sanctification brings about radical change, through God, in the heart of a person who trusts Jesus Christ as Saviour. It is the passing from spiritual death to spiritual life. It is the beginning of a new creation in Christ and the writing of God’s law in our hearts. It means a new relationship to the law of God and a new attitude toward it. And all this is from God. It is a gift of His grace just as surely as is the gift of justification. God does not bring us into His Kingdom then leave us on our own to grow. He continues to work in our lives to conform us more and more to the likeness of His Son. “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, spake much unto them concerning these things; yea, I spake unto them concerning the restoration of the Jews in the latter says. And I did rehearse unto them the words of Isaiah, who spake concerning the restoration of the Jews, or of the house of Israel; and after they were restored they should no more be confounded, neither should they be scattered again. And it came to pass that I did speak many words unto my brethren, that they were pacified and did humble themselves before the Lord. And it cam to pass that they did speak unto me again, saying: What meaneth this thing which our father saw in a dream? What meaneth the tree which he saw? #RandolphHarris 14 of 18
“And I said unto them: It was a representation of the tree of life. And they said unto me: What meaneth the rod of iron which our father saw, that led to the tree? And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction. Wherefore, I, Nephi, did exhort them to give heed unto the word of the Lord; yea, I did exhort them with all the energies of my soul, and with all the faculty which I possessed, that they would give heed to the word of God and remember to keep his commandments always in all things. And they said unto me: What meaneth the river of water which our father saw? And I said unto them that the water which my father saw was filthiness; and so much was his mind swallowed up in other things that he beheld not the filthiness of the water. And I said unto them that it was an awful gulf, which separated the wicked from the tree of life, and also from the saints of God. And I said unto them that it was a representation of that awful hell, which the Angel said unto me was prepared for the wicked. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18
“And I said unto them that our father also saw that justice of God did also divine the wicked from the righteous; and the brightness of thereof was like unto the brightness of a flaming fire, which ascendeth up unto God forever and ever, and hath no end. And they said unto me: Doth this thing mean the torment of the body in the days of probation, or doth it mean the final state of the soul after the death of the temporal body, or doth it speak of the things which are temporal? And it came to pass that I said unto them that it was a representation of things both temporal and spiritual; for the day should come that they must be judged of the work, yea, even the works which were done by the temporal body in their days of probation. Wherefore, if they should die in their wickedness they must be cast off also, as to the things which spiritual, which are pertaining to righteousness; wherefore, they must be brought to stand before God, to be judged of their works; and if their works have been filthiness they must needs be filthy; and if they be filthy it must needs be that they cannot dwell in the Kingdom of God; if so, the Kingdom of God must be filthy also. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18
“But behold, I say unto you, the King of God is not filthy, and there cannot any unclean thing enter into the Kingdom of God; wherefore there must needs be a place of filthiness prepared for that which is filthy. And there is a place prepared, yea, even that awful hell of which I have spoken, and the devil is the preparator of it; wherefore the final state of the souls of humans is to dwell in the Kingdom of God, or to be cast out because of that justice of which I have spoken. Wherefore, the wicked are rejected from the righteous, and also from that tree of life, whose fruit is most precious and most desirable above all other fruits; yea, and it is the greatest of all the gifts of God. And thus I spake unto my brethren. Amen,” reports 1 Nephi 15.19-36. Almighty and everlasting God, have mercy on all Thy servants, and guide us according to Thy clemency into the way of everlasting salvation; that by Thy grace we may desire what pleases Thee, and with all power may perform it; through our Lord. O God, though I am allowed to approach Thee, I am not unmindful of my sins, I do not deny my guilt, I confess my wickedness, and earnestly plead forgiveness. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18
May I with Moses choose affliction rater than enjoy the pleasures of sin. Help me to place myself always under Thy guiding and guardian care, to take firmer hold of the sue covenant that binds me to Thee, to feel more of the purifying, dignifying, softening influence of the religion I profess, to have more compassion, love, pity, courtesy, to deem in an honour to be employed by Thee as an instrument in Thy hands, ready to seize every opportunity of usefulness, and willing to offer all my talents to Thy service. Thou hast done for me all things well, hast remembered, distinguished, indulged me. All my desires have not been gratified, but Thy love denied them to me when fulfilment of my wished would have proved my ruin or injury. My trails have been fewer than my sins, and when I have kissed the rod it has fallen from Thy hands. Thou hast often wiped away my tears, restored peace to my mouring heart, chastened me for my profit. All Thy work for me is perfect, and I praise Thee. O Christ, my Creator and Redeemer, Almighty Lord God, forgive all their sins to all who are joined to me by friendship or blood, and for whom I am desired to pray, or have resolved to pray—and to tall Thy faithful people. Deliver them from all evil, preserve them in all good, and bring them everlasting joy. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18
CRESLEIGH MEADOWS AT PLUMAS RANCHCRESLEIGH MEADOWS AT PLUMAS RANCH
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But of All Plagues, Good Heaven, Thy Wrath Can Send, Save Me, Oh, Save Me, from the Candid Friend!
With all the changes and challenges you face each day, there is never been a greater need to take the time to determine your priorities, and then with renewed focus, align your daily actions with your purpose or goals. Since you cannot know it all or do it all, it is vital that you learn to take the time to contemplate what it is you need to know and what you need to do. And keep in mind, the art of being wise is to know what to overlook. For what do we give thanks? Are there limits to giving thanks? Our text says—“In everything give thanks!” This does not mean—give thanks for everything, but give thanks in every situation! There are no limits to situations in which to thanks, but there are limits to thing for which thanks can be expressed. This is again a question the answer to which might lead us into a new understanding of the human predicament. In the letter to 1 Timothy 4.4 we read—“For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving; for then it is consecrated by the word of God and prayers.” In these words, thanksgiving receives a new function. It consecrates everything created by God. Thanksgiving is consecration; it transfers something that belongs to the secular World into the sphere of the holy. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22
Thanksgiving is not transformed, as superstition in and outside of Christian beliefs would transform it, but it is elevated to represent the divine. It has become a bearer of grace. Therefore, we say “grace” when we give thanks for our daily food, and thus consecrate it. Every created thing can be a bearer of holiness, an object of thanks, of consecration. There are no limits to thanksgiving in this respect. We can give thanks for our bodily and our mental powers, for the darkness of our unconscious as well as for the light of our consciousness, for the abundance of nature and the creations of history, for everything that is and manifests its power of being. We can give thanks for all these despite their rejection by those who, through World-hating asceticism and fanatical puritanism, blaspheme the God of creation. Everything for which we can give thanks with a good conscience is consecrated by our thanks. This is not merely a profound theological insight; it is also a practical standard in situations where we are uncertain about accepting it, we can give thanks for it, we witness to its goodness as crated. In giving thanks seriously, we consecrate it to the holy source of being from which it comes. And we even take the risk that Protestant Christians must take—that their conscience may fall into error and consecrate something which should be rejected. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22
One reason we have this new attitude toward sin and God’s law is that we “died” to the law. Such a statement may sound strange after we have learned insistently about the importance of God’s law as a moral rule in the believer’s life. However, through the law reveals God’s moral will for us, the law in itself has no power to enable us to obey it. Because the law commands obedience without providing any enabling power, it is in this sense a course of bondage. And because we were hostile to God’s law prior to our salvation (The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so, reports Romans 8.7), it was also a source of provocation to us. Instead of being a means of obedience to God, the law actually provoked us and incited us to sin (What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have know what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law has not said, “Do not covert.” However, sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead, reports Romans 7.7-8). Such a human’s actions, however much they outwardly appear to be like those of other beings, are done under the impulsion of a higher will than the personal. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22
“So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to one who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. However, now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code,” reports Romans 7.4-6. “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin,” reports Romans 3.20. “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace,” reports Romans 6.14. “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law,’” reports Galatians 3.10. From these passages we understand that we died to the observance of the law as a requirement for attaining righteousness before God. We died to the curse and condemnation that resulted from our inability to perfectly keep the law. Then we see in Romans 6.14 that being under the law is opposite of being under grace. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22
Because of our sin against the law, being under law implied the wrath of God, whereas grace implies forgiveness and favour. Law implies a broken relationship with God, whereas grace implies a restored relationship with Him. So when Paul said we died to the law, he meant we died to that entire state of condemnation, curse, and alienation from God. The most important thing for us to see in our death to the law, however, is the purpose of our death. We died to the law in order that we might live in the realm of grace. We died to the law that we might bear fruit to God. And according to Romans 7.6, we died that we might “serve [God] in the new ways of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code [the law].” The new way of the spirit is not a new and less rigorous ethic than the old way of the written code. The difference does not lie in the content of the moral will of God. Since that is a reflection of the holy character of God, it cannot change. Rather, the difference lies in the reason to obey and in the ability with which to obey. Verse 6 gets right to the heart of what it means to live by grace. For serving in the new way of the Spirit is the same as living by grace instead of by works. Although it is clearly God’s design that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, far too many Christians still serve in the old way of the law. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22
There are no limits to giving thanks in the whole of creation. However, are there not limits in our life? Can we honestly give thanks for the frustrations, accidents, and infirmaries that strike us? We cannot in the moment when they take hold of us. Here is one of the many situations where piety can degenerate into dishonesty. For we rightly resist such evils. We want to remove them; we are often angry against our destiny and its divine ground. And there are depths of suffering, bodily and mental, in which even the question of thanking or not thanking does not appear. Out of the depths the psalmist cries to God; he does not thank Him. This is honest, realistic—a realism born out of the awareness of the divine presence. And I believe that at some time in our lives all of us have had experiences that were nothing but evil when they happened, but that became a good later and the object of honest thanks. And we also cannot give thanks for our own acts that make us guilty or for those that make us good. We cannot give thanks for that which makes us guilty; and sometimes things for which we have given thanks become evil by our own guilt. Nor should we give tanks for that in us which makes us good. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22
The thanks of the pharisee for one’s good work is an outstanding example of thanks which should not be given. In reality, one does not thank God when one is thankful for one’s own goodness, but thanks oneself. How many of us thank ourselves when we give thanks to God! However, one cannot thank oneself, because the sacrifice of thanking, if given to oneself, ceases to be a sacrifice. Thanks to oneself is not thanks, even when prayers of thanks to God are hidden ways of thanking oneself, as after work well done or success achieved by great toil. It I a surprising experience to read the Bible, and especially the last third of the books of Psalms, with the questions of thanks in one’s mind. One discovers that the praise of God fills page after page in which the misery of all beings, including the writers of those books, is also most drastically described. Reading them, we feel as though we walk in another realm. We cannot reproduce in ourselves what is happening to these beings. (We are not in the mood of praising, hardly in the mood of thanking.) We look into the depth of our predicament and do not see much reason for praise and thanks. And if we think that it is our duty to God to thank Him, of if we participate in church services that include praise and thanks, we do not feel that we have truly expressed our state of mind. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22
Although this experience of not feeling that we have truly expressed our state of mind is not invariable, it is a predominant trait of our religious situation. It expresses itself in the messages of our best present preachers and theologians. It is a dominating theme of our great poets and philosophers. We are not called to pas judgment on these beings. We have a part in them. They express us as they express themselves. And we should thank those who do it seriously, and often out of deep spiritual suffering. The differences of our situation from that of former periods becomes visible when we read about the passion and intensity with which the members of the early church gave thanks for the gift of the Christian message in a World of pagan glory, disintegration and despair. Is the same passion and intensity in us when we give thanks for the gift of God which is the Christ and His church? Who can honestly answer “yes”? And do we not sense the same difference when we read how the fighters of the Reformation thanked God for the rediscovery of the good news of the divine acceptance of those who are sinners? Is the same infinite concern in us as was in them? Who can honestly answer “yes”? We must therefore be grateful to those who express our present situation honestly. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22
When I am not prized and appreciated, I not only feel very much diminished, but my behaviour is actually affected by my feelings. When I am prized, I blossom and expand, I am an interesting individual. In a hostile or unappreciative group, I am just not much of anything. People wonder, with very good reason, how did he ever get a reputation? I wish I had the strength to be more similar in both kinds of groups, but actually the person I am in a warm and interested group is different from the person I am in a hostile or cold group. Thus, prizing or loving and being prized or loved is experienced as very growth enhancing. A person who is loved appreciatively, not possessively, blooms and develops one’s own unique self. The person who loves nonpossessively is oneself enriched. There is some consolation: We are not separated from the ever active presence of God, and we can become aware of it in every moment. Our hearts can become filled with praise and thanks without the use of words; and sometimes we may also find those words of praise and thanks. However, this is not the first step, and, often, not even the last. Let us not follow those who use what is called the present religious revival to force us back into forms of prayer and thanks that we cannot honestly accept, or that produce joy and thanks through self-suggestion. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22
The repetition of the words that reinforce class consciousness make the mind one coherent conviction. People become so wrapped up in explanations that their social construction of reality becomes deep—so deep that their fictious responses seem natural. These psychological revolutions that are formed create confusion because they are not natural nor heart felt. Therefore, let us keep ourselves open to the power that carries our life in every moment, that is here and now, that comes to us through nature and through the message of Jesus as the Christ. May we keep open to it, so that we may be filled with silent gratefulness for the power of being which is in us. And then perhaps words of thanks, words of sacrifice and consecration, may come to our tongues, so that we again may give thanks in truth and honesty. Almighty God! We raise our hearts to Thee in praise and thanks. For we are not by ourselves and nothing is ours except what Thou hast given us. We are finite; we did not bring anything into our World; we shall not take anything out of our World. Thou hast given us the life which is ours so long as it is Thy will. We thank Thee that we have being, that we share in the inexhaustible riches of life, in the smallest and in the largest part of it. We praise Thee when we feel strength in body and soul. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22
We give thanks to Thee when joy fills our hearts. We are gratefully aware of Thy presence, be it in silence, or in words. Awaken us to such awareness when our daily life hides Thy presence from us, when we forget how near Thou art to us in every place and in every moment, nearer than any other being is to us, nearer than we are to ourselves. Let us not turn aware from Thy giving and creating presence to the things Thou hast given us. Let us not forget the Creator behind the creation. Keep us always ready for the sacrifice of giving thanks to Thee. Thine is what we are and have. We consecrate it to Thee. Receive our thanks when we say grace, consecrating our food and with it all that we receive in our daily life. Prevent us from using empty words and forms when we give thanks to Thee. Save us from routine and mere convention when we dare to speak to Thee. We thank Thee when we look back at our life, be it long or short, for all that we have met in it. And we thank Thee not only for what we have loved and for what gave us pleasure, but also for what brought us disappointment, pain and suffering, because we now know that it helped us to fulfill that for which we were born. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22
And if new disappointments and new sufferings takes hold of us and words of thanks die on our tongues, remind us that a day may come when we will be ready to give thanks for the dark road on which Thou hast led us. Our words of thanks are poor and often we cannot find words at all. There are days and months and years in which we were or are still unable to speak to Thee. Give us the power, at such times, to keep our hearts open to the abundance of life, and in silent gratefulness, to experience Thy unchanging, eternal presence. Take the silent sacrifice of a heart when words of thanks become rare in us. Accept our silent gratefulness and keep our hearts and our minds open to Thee always! We thank Thee for what Thou hast given to this nation far beyond the gifts to any other nation! Let us remain thankful for it, so that we may overcome the dangers of shallowness of life and emptiness of heart that threaten our people. Prevent us from turning Thy gifts into causes of injury and self-destruction. Let a grateful mind protect us against national and personal disintegrations. Turn us to Thee, the source of our being, eternal God! Amen. An Angel tells Nephi of the blessings and cursings to fall upon the Gentiles—there are only two churches: the Church of the Lamb of God and the church of the devil—than Saints of God in al nations are persecuted by the great and abominable church—the Apostle John will write concerning the end of the World. About 600-592 Before Christ. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22
“And it come to pass, that is the Gentiles shall hearken unto the Lamb of God in that day that He shall manifest Himself unto them in word, and also in power, in very deed, unto the taking away of their stumbling blocks—and harden not their hearts against the Lamb of God, they shall be numbered among the seed of thy father’ yea, they shall be numbered among the house of Israel; and they shall be a blessed people upon the promised land forever; they shall be no more brought down into captivity; and the house of Israel shall no more be confounded. And that great pit, which hath been digged for them by that great and abominable church, which was founded by the devil and his children, that he might lead away their souls of humans down to hell—yea, that great pit which hath been digged for the destruction of humans shall be filled by those who digged it, unto their utter destruction, saith the Lamb of God; not the destruction of the soul, save it be the casting of it into that hell which hath no end. For behold, this is according to the captivity of the devil, and also according to the justice of God, upon all those who will work wickedness and abomination before him. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22
“And it came to pass that the Angel spake unto me, Nephi saying: Thou hast beheld that if the Gentiles repent it shall be well with them; and thou also knowest concerning the concering the covenants of the Lord unto the house of Israel; and though also hast heard that whoso repenteth not much perish. Therefore, wo be unto the Gentiles if it so be that they harden their hearts against the Lamb of God. For the time cometh, saith the Lamb of God, that I will work a great and a marvelous work among the children of humans; a work which shall be everlasting, either on the one hand or on the other—either to be the convincing of them unto peace and life eternal, or unto the deliverance of them to the hardness of their hearts and the blindness of their minds unto their being brought down into captivity, and also into destruction, both temporally and spiritually, according to the captivity of the devil, of which I have spoken. And it came to pass that when the Angel has spoke these words, he said unto me: Rememberest thou covenants of the Father unto the house of Israel? I said unto him, Yea And it came to pass that he said unto me: Look, and behold that great and abominable church, which is the mother of abominations, whose founder is the devil. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22
“And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches only the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belondeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church , which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the Earth. And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the whore of all the Earth, and she sat upon many waters; and she had dominion over all the Earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people. And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters; nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon the face of the Earth; and their dominions upon the face of the Earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw. And it came to pass that I beheld that the great mother of abominations did gather together multitude upon the face of all the Earth, among all the nations of the Gentiles, to fight against the Lamb of God. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the Earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22
“And it came to pass that I beheld that the wrath of God was poured out upon that great and abominable church, insomuch that there were wars and rumors of wars among all the nations and kindreds of the Earth. Ans as there began to be wars and rumors of wars among all the nations which belonged to the mother of abominations, the Angel spake unto me, saying: Behold, the wrath of God is upon the mother of harlots; and behold thou seest all these things—and when they day cometh that the wrath of God is poured out upon the mother of harlots, which is the great and abominable church of all the Earth, whose founder is the devil, then at that day, the work of the Father shall commence, in preparing the way for the fulfilling of his covenants, which he hath made to his people who are of the house of Israel. And it came to pass that the Angel spake unto me, saying: Look! And I looked and beheld a man, and he was dressed in a white robe. And the Angel said unto me: Behold one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Behold, he shall see and write the remainder of these things which have been. And he shall also write concerning the end of the World. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22
“Wherefore, the things which he shall write are just and true; and behold they are written in the book which proceeded out of the mouth of the Jew, or, at the time the book proceeded out of the mouth of the Jew, the things which were written were plain and pure, and most precious and easy to the understanding of all people. And behold, the things which this apostle of the Lamb shall write are many things which thou hast seen; and behold, the remainder shalt thou see. However, the things which thou shalt see hereafter thou shalt not write; for the Lord God hath ordained the apostle of the Lamb of God that he should write them. And also others who have been, to them hat he shown all things, and they have written them; and they are sealed up to come forth in their purity, according to the truth which is in the Lamb, in the own due time of the Lord, unto the house of Israel. And I, Nephi, heard and bear record, that the name of the apostle of the Lamb was John, according to the words of the Angel. And behold, I, Nephi, am forbidden that I should write the remainder of the things which I saw and heard; wherefore the things which I have written sufficeth me; and I have written but a small part of the things which I saw. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22
“And I bear record that I saw the things which my father saw, and the Angel of the Lord did make them known unto me. And now I make an end of speaking concerning the things which I saw while I was carried away in the Spirit; and if all the things which I saw are not written, the things which I have written are true. And thus it is. Amen,” reports 1 Nephi 14.1-30. Pray continually, and in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. Is continual prayer possible? Yes and no. It is, of course, impossible to carry on a running dialogue while we are working or at other times, but the prayer called for here is not so much the articulation of words as the posture of the heart. There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we can be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of external affairs. However, deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship, and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings. The time of business does not differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different cuisines, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were on my knees. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22
My heart is ever lifted up to God at all times and in all places. In this I am never hindered, much less interrupted, by any person of thing. In retirement or company, in leisure, business, or conversation, my heart is ever with the Lord. Whether I lie down or rise up, God is in all my thoughts; I walk with God continually, having the loving eye of my mind still fixed upon God, and everywhere seeing God that is invisible. Thus, we see that a life of continual prayer is not only possible, but some actually live it out. Understand that this life is not meant just for some, or for a spiritual elite, but for all of us. Continual prayer is God’s will for every Christian, no exceptions. I can do it; you can do it. Business people, students, young parents—all can do it. We are to have a perpetual inner dialogue with God. We must always be looking up, even when driving to work or mowing the lawn. Almighty and everlasting God, be Thou present to our duties, and grant the protection of Thy presence to all that dwell in this house; that Thou mayest be known to be the Defender of Thy family, and the Inhabitant of this dwelling; through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour and Redeemer, my we be granted entrance into Heaven and always remain at God’s side. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22
Hear us, holy Lord, Father Almighty, everlasting God, and be pleased to send Thy holy Angel from Heaven, to guard, cherish, protect, visit, and defend all who dwell in this habitation; through Jesus Christ our Lord may all of us be blessed and receive eternal life. O Spirit of God, help my infirmities; when I am pressed down with a load of sorrow, perplexed and knowing not what to do, slandered and persecuted, made to feel the weight of the cross, help me, I pray Thee. If Thou seest in me any wrong thing encouraged, any evil desire cherished, any delight that is not Thy delight, any habit that grieves Thee, any nest of sin in my heart, then grant me the kiss of Thy forgiveness, and teach my feet to talk the way of Thy commandments. Deliver me from carking care, and make me a happy, holy person; help me to walk the separated life with firm and brave step, and to wrestle successfully against weakness; teach me to laud, adore, and magnify Thee, with the music of Heaven, and make me a perfume of praiseful gratitude to Thee. I do not crouch at Thy feet as a slave before a tyrant, but exult before Thee as a child with a father. Give me power to live as Thy child in all my actions, and to exercise family-ship by conquering self. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22
Preserve me from the intoxication that comes of prosperity; sober me when I am glad with a joy that comes not from Thee. Lead me safely on to the eternal kingdom, not asking whether the road be rough or smooth. I request only to see the face of Him I love, to be very content with bread to eat, with raiment to put on, if I can be brought to Thy house in peace. Then the events of this wide World I would seize like a strong giant, and my spirit teaze till at its shoulders it should proudly see wings to find out an immortality. Stop and consider! Life is but a day; a fragile dew-drop on its perilous way from a tree’s summit; a poor Indian’s sleep while his boat hastens to the monstrous steep of Montmorenci. Why so sad a moan? Life is the rose’s hope while yet unblown; the reading of an ever-changing tale; the light uplifting of a maiden’s veil; a pigeon tumbling in clear Summer air; a laughing school-boy, without grift or care, riding the springy branches of an elm. O for ten years, that I may overwhelm myself in posey; so I may do the deed that my own soul has to itself decreed. Then will I pass the countries that I see in long perspective, and continually taste their pure fountains. The night has a thousand eyes, and the day but one; yet the light of the bright World dies with the dying Sun. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22
First the realm I will pass of Flora, and old Pan: sleep in the grass, feed upon apples red, and strawberries, and choose each pleasure that my fancy sees; catch the white-handed nymphs in shady places, to woo sweet kisses from averted faces—play with their finger, touch their shoulders white into a pretty shrinking with a bite as hard as lips can make it: till agreed, a lovely tale of human life we will read. And one will teach a tame dove how it best may fan the cool air gently over my rest; another, bending over her nimble tread, will set a green robe floating round her head, and still will dance with ever varied ease, smiling upon the flowers and the trees: another will entice me on, and on through almond blossoms and rich cinnamon; till in the bosom of a leafy World we rest in silence, like two gems up curled in the recesses of a pearly shell. We beseech Thee, O Lord, make Thy servants always to join together in seeking Thee with their whole heart, to serve Thee with submissive mind, humbly to implore Thy mercy, and perpetually to rejoice in Thy blessings; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Stretch forth, O Lord, Thy mercy over Thy servants, even the right hand of Heavenly help; that they may seek Thee with their whole heart, and obtain what they rightly ask for; thought Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22
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Watch the Walkthrough of Residence #2
Have I Ever Loved Anyone? I Do Not Really think I Have Ever Loved Anyone!
May we never let the things we cannot have, or do not have, or should not have, spoil our enjoyment of the things we do have and can have. As we value our happiness, let us not forget it, for one of the greatest lessons in life is learning to be happy without the thing we cannot or should not have. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks,” reports 1 Thessalonians 5.16-18. “In everything give thanks.” These are the words that we want to make the center of our meditation. Do we need this admonition? Is not “thank you” one of the most frequently employed phrases in our language? We use it constantly for the smallest services performed, for a friendly word, for every word praising ourselves and our acts. We use it whether we are grateful or not. Saying thanks has become a form that is employed with or without feeling. When we mean it, we must therefore say it with great emphasis and in strong words. Anyone who observes the behavior of religion groups—ministers as well as laymen—is familiar with their inclination to say “thank you” to God almost as often as to their neighbors. It seems important, therefore, to ask the reason for this behavior towards humans and God. Why do we thank? What does it mean to give thanks and to receive thanks? Can this event of our daily life, and of daily religious life, be understood in its depth and elevated above automatic superficiality? #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
If this proves possible, we might discover that the simple “thank you” can tell us much about what we are withing ourselves and our World. We might find that one of the most used and abused words of our language can become a revelation of the deeper levels of our being. When we ponder the experiencing and giving of love, which is related to giving thanks, I think of one governmental executive in a group in which I participated, a man with high responsibility and excellent technical training as an engineer. At the first meeting of the group he impressed me, and I think others, as being cold, aloof, somewhat bitter, resentful, and cynical. When he spoke of how he ran his office, it appeared that he administered it by the book, without any warmth or human feeling. In one of early sessions he was speaking of his wife, and a group member asked him, “Do you love your wife?” He paused for a long time and the questioner said, “O.K. That is answer enough.” The executive said, “No. Wait a minute. The real reason I did not respond was that I was wondering, ‘Have I ever loved anyone?’ I do not really think I have ever loved anyone.” A few days later, he listened with great intensity as one member of the group revealed many personal feelings of isolation and loneliness and spoke of the extent to which he had been living behind a façade. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
The next morning the engineer said, “Last night I thought and thought about what he told us. I even wept bit myself. I cannot remember how long it has been since I have cried, and I really felt something. I think perhaps what I felt was love.” It is not surprising that before the week was over, I had thought through different ways of handling his growing son, on whom he had been placing very rigorous demands. He had also begun to really appreciate the love his wife had extended to him—love that he now felt he could in some measure reciprocate. Because of having less fear of giving or receiving beneficial feelings, I have become more able to appreciate individuals. I have come to believe that this ability is rather rare; so often, even with our children, we love them to control them rather than loving them because we appreciate them. One of the most satisfying feelings I know—and also one of the most growth-promoting experiences for the other person—comes from appreciating this individual in the same way that I appreciate the Sun changing angles in the sky. If I can let them be, people are just as wonderful as what we call Sunsets. In fact, perhaps the reason we can truly appreciate a Sunset is that we cannot control it. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
When I look at a Sunset as I did the other evening, I do not find myself saying, “Soften the orange a little on the right hand corner, and put a bit more purple along the base, and use a little more pink in the cloud color.” I do not do that. I do not try to control a Sunset. I watch it with awe as it unfolds. When I can appreciate my staff member, my son, my daughter, my friends, in this same way, I like myself best. I believe this is an attitude of the self-actualized; for me it is a most satisfying one. It is important not to seek any reward, not even being reborn in a paradise. We must seek the welfare of humanity. I seek to enlighten those who harbor wrong thoughts. I cannot help teaching confidence in the laws of life or expressing joy in the inspiration of life. One cannot help making strong affirmations of the Soul’s dominion and power. One is exultant because one is in harmony with the Universe. Saying thanks is not always merely a form of social intercourse. Often we are driven by real emotions; we are almost compelled to thank someone, whether one expects it or not. And sometimes our emotion overpowers us and we say thanks in words much too strong for the gift we have received. This is not dishonest. It is honestly felt in the moment. However, soon afterwards we feel somehow empty, somehow ashamed—not much perhaps, but a little! #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
Occasionally, it also happens that for one moment we feel abundantly grateful. However, since for external reasons, we have no immediate opportunity to express our thanks, we forget it and it never reaches the one to whom we are grateful. Of the ten lepers who were held by Jesus probably none was without abundant gratefulness to Jesus, but only one returned from the priests who whom they had shown themselves to thank Jesus. And Jesus was astonished and disappointed. I have suggested way in which the performance of an individual accentuates certain maters and conceals others. If we see perception as a form of contact and communion, then control over what is perceived is control over contact that is made, and the limitation and regulation of what is shown is a limitation and regulation of contact. There is a relation here between informational terms and ritual ones. Failure to regulate the information acquired by the audience involves possible disruption of the projected definition of the situation; failure to regulate contact involves possible ritual contamination of the performer. It is a widely held notion that restrictions placed upon contact, the maintenance of social distance, provide a way in which awe can be generated and sustained in the audience, in which the audience can be held in a state of mystification in regard to the performer. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
How far it is possible for a person to work upon others through a false idea of oneself depends upon a variety of circumstances. As already pointed out, the person may be a mere incident with no definite relation to the idea of one, the latter being a separate product of the imagination. This can hardly be except where there is no immediate contact between leader and follower, and partly explains why authority, especially if it covers intrinsic personal weakness, has always a tendency to surround itself with forms and artificial mystery, whose object is to prevent familiar contact and so give the imagination a chance to idealize. The discipline of armies and navies, for instance, very distinctly recognizes the necessity of those forms which separate superior from inferior, and so help to establish an unscrutinized ascendency in the former. In the same way manners are largely used by people of the World as a means of self-concealment, and this self-concealment serves, among other purposes, that of preserving a sort of ascendancy over the unsophisticated. One night the King of Norway told me of his difficulties in face of the republican leanings of the opposition and how careful in consequence he had to be in all he did and said. He intended, he said, to go as much as possible among the people and thought it would be popular if, instead of going in an Ultimate Driving Machines, he and Queen Maud were to use the tramways. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
I told him frankly that I thought this would be a great mistake as familiarity bred contempt. As a naval officer he would know that the captain of a ship never had his meals with the other officers but remained quite aloof. This was, of course, to stop any familiarity with them. I told him that he must get up on a pedestal and remain there. He could then step off occasionally and no harm would be done. The people did not want a King with whom they could hob-nob but something nebulous like the Delphic oracle. The Monarchy was really the creation of each individual’ brain. Every person liked to think what one would do, if one was King. People invested the Monarch with every conceivable virtue and talent. If they saw the King going about like an ordinary man in the street, they were bound therefore to be disappointed. The logical extreme implied in this kind of theory, whether it is in fact correct or not, is to prohibit the audience from looking at the performer at all, and at times when celestial qualities and powers have been claimed by a performer, this logical conclusion seems to have been put into effect. Of course, in the matter of keeping social distance, the audience itself will often co-operate by acting in a respectful fashion, in awed regard for the sacred integrity imputed to the performer. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
To act upon the second of these decisions corresponds to the feeling (which also operates elsewhere) that an ideal sphere lies around every human being. Although differing in size in various directions and differing according to the person with whom one entertains relations, this sphere cannot be penetrated, unless the personality value of the individual is thereby destroyed. A sphere of this sort is placed around humans by their honor. Language very poignantly designates an insult to one’s honor as “coming too close,” the radius of this sphere marks, as it were, the distance whose trespassing by another person insults one’s honor. The human personality is a sacred thing; one does not violate it nor infringe its bounds, while at the same time the greatest good is in communion with others. It must be made quite clear, in contradiction to the implications that awe and distance are felt toward performers of equal an inferior status as well as (albeit not as much) toward performers of superordinate status. Whatever their function of the audience, these inhibitions of the audience allow the performer some elbow room in building up an impression of one’s own choice and allow one to function, for one’s own good or the audience’s, as a protection or a threat that close inspection would destroy. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
The matter which the audience leave alone because of their awe of the performer are likely to be the matters about which one would feel shame were a disclosure to occur. We have, then, a basic social coin, with awe on one side and shame on the other. The audience sense secret mysteries and powers being the performance, and the performer sense that one’s chief secrets are petty ones. As countless folk tales and initiation rites show, often the real secret behind the mystery is that there really is no mystery; the real problem is to prevent the audience from learning this too. Not only are we driven by a deep emotion to give thanks, but we also have a profound need to receive thanks when we have given ourselves in either a large or small way. When thanks is not forthcoming, we feel a kind of emptiness, a vacuum in that place of our inner being which the words or acts of thanks should fill. However, just as we feel ashamed when we use too strong an expression of gratitude, we feel uneasy when we receive it and we refuse to accept it, whether we say or not. It is always difficult to receive thanks without some resistance. The American reply, “you are welcome,” or the German reply, “please,” expresses the refusal to accept thanks without hesitation. “Do not mention it” is the simplest expression of this resistance to accept thanks, which, however, we do accept at the same time. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
These uncertainties in the simple act of giving or receiving thanks teach us something about our relationship to others, and our predicament. In every act of giving or receiving thanks, we accept or reject someone, and we are accepted or rejected by someone. Such acceptance or rejection is not always noticed, either by ourselves or by the other. If we are sensitive, we often feel it and react with joy or sorrow, with shame or pride, and mostly with mixtures of these emotions. A simple “thank you” can be an attack or a withdrawal. It can be the expression of giving someone a place within us, or a successful way of protecting ourselves from someone’s attempt to find a place with us. A word of thanks can be a complete rejection of one whom we thank, or it can be the unlocking of one’s and our hearts. However, probably in most cases, it is a polite form of stating that one whom we thank does not really concern us very much. The fiftieth Psalm says—“Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,” and “One who brings thanksgiving as one’s sacrifice honors me.” Here the original meaning of thanks shines through. Giving thanks is a sacrifice. Here the literal meaning of “thanksgiving” is felt. Thank is expressed through sacrificial acts. Valuable objects are removed from their ordinary use and given to the gods. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
It is an acknowledgement of the fact that humans did not create themselves, that nothing belongs to them, that vulnerable one was thrown into the World and vulnerable one will be thrust out of it. What one has is given to one. In the act of sacrifice one expresses one’s awareness of this destiny. One gives a part of what is given to one, but something that is ultimately not one’s own. In sacrificing thanks one witnesses to one’s finitude, to one’s trasitoriness. Every serious giving of thanks implies a sacrifice, an acknowledgment of one’s finitude. A person who is able to thank seriously accepts that one is creature, and, in acceptance, one is religious even though one denies religion. And a person who is able to accept honest thanks without embarrassment is mature. One knows one’s own finitude as well as that of the other, and one knows that the mutual sacrifices of thanks confirms that one and the other are creatures. In chapter 13, of The Book of Mormon, Nephi sees in vision the church of the devil set up among the Gentiles, the discovery and colonizing of America, the loss of many plain and precious parts of the Bible, the resultant state of gentile apostasy, the restoration of the gospel, the coming forth of latter-day scripture, and the building up of Zion. About 600-592 Before Christ. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
Remember Thy congregation, O Lord, which Thou hast created from the beginning; forget not the Church which of old times Thou hast predestinated in Christ; be mindful of Thy mercy, look upon Thy covenant, and bless us continually with the promise of freedom. “And it came to pass that the Angel spake unto me, saying: Look! And I looked and beheld many nations and kingdoms. And the Angel said unto me: What beholdest thou? And I said: I behold many nations and kingdoms. And he said unto me: These are the nations and kingdoms of the Gentiles. And it came to pass that I saw among the nations of the Gentiles the formation of a great church. And the Angel said unto me: Behold the formation of a church which is most abominable above all other churches, which slayeth the saints of God, yea, and tortureth them and bindeth them down, and yoketh them with a yoke of iron, and bringeth them down into captivity. And it came to pass that I beheld this great and abominable church; and I saw the devil that he was founder of it. And I also saw gold, and silver, and silks, and scarlets, and fine-twined linen, and all manner of precious clothing; and I saw many harlots. And the Angel spake unto me, saying: Behold the gold, and the silver, and the silks, and the scarlets, and the fine-twined linen, and the precious clothing, and the harlots, are the desires of this great and abominable church. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
“And also for the praise of the World do they destroy the saints of God, and being them down into captivity. And it came to pass that I looked and beheld many waters; and they divided the Gentiles from the seed of my brethren. And it came to pass that the Angel said unto me: Behold the wrath of God is upon the seed of my brethren. And I looked and beheld a man among Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land. And I came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters. And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of the Gentiles upon the land of promise and I beheld the wrath of God, that it was upon the seed of my brethren; and they were scattered before the Gentiles and were smitten. And I beheld the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles, and they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance; and I beheld that they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people before they were slain. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity did humble themselves before the Lord; and the power of the Lord was with them. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
“And I beheld that their mother Gentiles were gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them. And I beheld that the power of God was with them, and also that the wrath of God was upon all those that were gathered together against them to battle. And I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles that had gone out of captivity were delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations,” reports 1 Nephi 13.1-19. The blessed possess these three things in God; because they see Him, and in seeing Hi, possess Him as present, having the power to see Him always; and possessing Him they enjoy Him as the ultimate fulfilment of desire. God is called incomprehensible not because anything of Him is not seen; but because He is not see as perfectly as He is capable of being see; thus when any demonstrable proposition is known by probable reason only, it does not follow that any part of it is unknow, either the subject, or the predicate, or the composition; but that it is not as perfectly known as it is capable of being known. The whole is comprehended when it is seen in such a way that nothing of it is hidden from the seer, or when its boundaries can be completely viewed or traced; for the boundaries of a thing are said to be completely surveyed when the end of the knowledge of it is attained. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
The word “wholly” denotes a mode of the object; not that the whole object does not come under knowledge, but that the mode of the object is not the mode of the one who knows. Therefore one who sees God’s essence, sees in Him that He exists infinitely, and is infinitely knowable; instance, a person can have a probable opinion that a proposition is demonstrable, although one does not know it as demonstrated. The indwelling Holy Spirit, through His superior intimate knowledge, both prays for us and joins us in our praying, infusing His prayers into ours so that we pray in the Spirit. Jude 20 challenges us to cultivate and experience this wonderful Spirit-wrought phenomenon: “But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.” Praying in the Spirit is the will of God, and what God wills He empowers as we let Him. Two supernatural things happen here: First, the Holy Spirit tells us what we ought pray for. Apart from the Spirit’s assistance, our prayers are limited by our own reasons and intuition. However, with the Holy Spirit’s help they become informed by Heaven. As we seek the Spirit’s help, He will speak to us through His Word, which conveys His mind regarding every matter of principle. Thus, in Spirit-directed prayer we thin God’s thoughts after Him. His desires will become our desires, His motives our motives, His ends our ends. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
Further, as God shows our hearts which matter to pray for, He gives us the absolute conviction they are God’s will. The very fact hat God lays a burden of prayer on our hearts and keeps us praying is prima facie evidence that He purposes to grant the answer. When asked if he really believed that two men for whose salvation he had prayed for over fifty years would be converted, George Muller of Bristol replied, “Do you think God would have kept me praying all these years if He did not intend to say them?” Both men were converted, one shortly before, the other after Muller’s death. Such confident direction in one’s prayer life is not unusual. I had a similar conviction regarding my brother, who came to Christ after I had been praying for him for ten years! When God’s people truly pray in the Spirit, they receive similar direction and conviction, not only about people, but about events and projects and even whole nations. The second benefit or praying in the Spirit is that it supplies the energizing of the Holy Spirit for prayer, infusing tired, even infirm, bodies and elevating the depressed to pray with power and conviction for God’s work. People, learn to pray in the Spirit! To help myself to do this, I have written ‘Pray in the Spirit” at the top of my prayer list as a constant reminder to patiently wait on the Lord, asking the Spirit to give me prayers. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
Prayers is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to the Word of God, for the good of the church, with submission in faith to the will of God. Let us learn to pray in-Spirited prayer using the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit. The natural desire of the rational creature is to know everything that belongs to the perfection of the intellect, namely, the species and the genera of things and their types, and these everyone who see the Divine essence will see in God. However, to know other singulars, their thoughts and their deeds does not belong to the perfection of the created intellect nor does its natural desire go out to these things; neither, again, does it desire to know things that exist not as yet, but which God can call into being. Yet if God alone were seen, Who is the Fount and principle of all being and of all truth, He would so fill the natural desire of knowledge that nothing else would be desired, and the seer would be completely beatified. Unhappy is the person who knows all these (id est all creatures) and knoweth not Thee! but happy whoso knoweth Thee although he know not these. And whoso knoweth both Thee and them is not the happier for them, but for Thee alone. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
Complex personhood means that even those who haunt our dominate institutions and their systems of value are haunted too by things they sometimes have names for and sometimes do not. At the very least, complex personhood is about conferring the respect on others that comes from presuming that life and people’s lives are simultaneously straightforward and full of enormously subtle meaning. When seeking to understand justice, it is first important to begin from the simple premise, that power, personhood, and social relations are complex, contested, and often, fragile. By addressing social relations, we seek to put into focus the relationships between people and everyday life. Human nature is frequently constructed in binary terms—good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, selfish vs. self-interested—but, as theorists will argue, human nature is far more complex and dynamic than any dichotomy. We emphasize that human nature is complicated and discussion of human nature may be explicit and implicit and that human nature if one of many beginning points for deconstructing notions of justice and injustice. The means to that end are not all directly under my control, for some are the actions of God toward me and in me. However, some are directly under my control. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
Sovereign Commander of the Universe, I am sadly harassed by doubts, fears, unbelief, in a felt spiritual darkness. My heart is full of evil surmisings and disquietude, and I cannot act faith at all. My Heavenly pilot has disappeared, and I have lost my hold on the rock of ages; I sink in deep mire beneath storms and waves, in horror and distress unutterable. Help me, O Lord, to throw myself absolutely and wholly on Thee, for better, for worse, without comfort, and all but hopeless. Give me peace of soul, confidence, enlargement of mind, morning joy that comes after night heaviness; water my soul richly with divine blessings; grant that I may welcome Thy humbling in private so that I might enjoy Thee in public; give me a mountain top as high as the valley is low. Thy grace can melt the worst sinner, and I am as vile as he; a trophy of redeeming power; in my distress let me not forget this. All-wise God, Thy never-failing providence orders every event, sweetens every fear, reveals evil’s presence lurking in seeming good, brings real good out of seeming evil, makes unsatisfactory what I set my heart upon, to show me what a short-sighted creature I am, and to teach me to live by faith upon Thy blessed self. Out of my sorrow and night give me the name Naphtali—“satisfied with favour”—help me to love Thee as Thy child, and to walk worthy of my Heavenly pedigree. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
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The Universe is Not Hostile, Nor Yet is it Friendly—it is Simply Indifferent!
I still believe that Joseph Barbera and William Hanna made the best cartoons ever when they formed Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. Charlotte’s Web, The Flintstones, The Snorks, The Jetsons, The Smurfs, Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, Casper’s First Christmas, Richie Rich, Jonny Quest, and many more wonderful cartoons I enjoyed as a kid. One has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, worked hard, and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent beings and the love of all kinds of people; who has filled one’s niche and accomplished one’s task; who leaves the World better than one found it, whether by an improved garden, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who never lacked appreciation of Earth’s beauty or failed to express it; who looked for the best in others and gave them the best one had; whose life was an inspiration; whose memory a benediction. But we ask—how can we possess such wisdom? In the book of Proverbs, Wisdom says—“I was…rejoicing before Him always, rejoicing in His inhabited World and delighting in the sons of men…and now, my sons, listen to me…one who finds me, find life…but all who hate me love death.” To aspire to wisdom, or to despise it, is a matter of life and death. This could never be said of knowledge in the ordinary sense of the word. Those who know much and do not have life because of their knowledge, and those who know little; and do not try to learn much, do not prove that they love death. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
Wisdom is a matter of life and death because it is more than knowledge. It can be united with knowledge, but it can also stand alone. It belongs to a dimension which cannot be reached by scholarly endeavour. Wisdom is insight into the meaning of one’s life, into its conflicts and dangers, into its creative and destructive powers, and into the ground out of which it comes and to which it must return. Therefore, the preachers of wisdom tell us that the first step in acquiring it is the fear of God and the awareness of the holy. Such words can easily be misunderstood. They do not command subjection to a god who arouses fear. Nor do they advise us to accept doctrines about him. Suh a command and such advice would lead us straight away from wisdom and not towards it. However, our text says that there cannot be wisdom without an encounter with the holy, with that which creates awe, and shake the ordinary way of life and thought. Without the experience of awe in face of the mystery of life, there is no wisdom. Most removed from wisdom are not those who are driven by desire for pleasure or power, but those brilliant minds who have never encountered the holy, who are without awe and know nothing sacred, but who are able to conceal their ultimate emptiness by the brilliant performances of their intellect. No wisdom shines through knowledge of many people who play a great role in our academic and non-academic society. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
The wisdom at which God looks in the creation of the World, the eternal wisdom, calls them fools. There is a distortion of the 1 Corinthians 1-2. Two frequently cited but misunderstood texts relevant to the Christian mind are 1 Corinthians 1-2 and Colossians 2.8. In 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, Paul argues against the wisdom of the World and reminds his readers that he did not visit them with persuasive words of wisdom. Some conclude from this that human reasoning and argument are futile, especially when applied to evangelism. There are several problems with this understanding of the passage. For one thing, if it is in fact an indictment against argumentation and reasoning, then it contradicts Paul’s own practice in Acts and his explicit appeal to the argument and evidence on behalf of the Resurrection in the very same epistle (1 Corinthians 15). Second, this passage is more accurately seen as a condemnation of the false, prideful use of reason, not of reason itself. It is hubris (pride) that is in view, not nous (mind). God chose foolish (moria) things that were offensive to human pride, not to reason properly used. For example, the idea of God being crucified was so offensive that the Greek spirit would have judged it to be morally disgusting. The passage may also be a condemnation of Greek rhetoric. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
Greek orators prided themselves in possessing persuasive words of wisdom, and it was their practice to persuade a crowd of any side of an issue for the right price. They did not base their persuasion on rational considerations but on speaking ability, thus bypassing issues of substance. Paul is most likely contrasting himself with Greek rhetoricians. If so, then Paul is arguing against evangelists who spend all of their time working on their speaking techniques yet fail to address the minds of unbelievers in their gospel presentations! Paul could also be making the claim that the content of the gospel cannot be deduced by pure reason from some set of first principles. No one could start off with an abstract concept of a first mover and deduce that a crucifixion would happen from this information alone. Thus, the gospel could never have been discovered by pure deductive reason from self-evident first principles, but had to be revealed by the biblical God who acts in history. Paul was insistent that the intellect could assess whether nor not there was sufficient evidence to judge that God had so acted (1 Corinthians 15). So we cannot conclude from this passage that using reason is futile. The distortion of Colossians 2.8—in this passage, Paul says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this World rather than on Christ.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
Some take the distortion of Colossians 2.8 to be a command to avoid secular studies, especially philosophy. However, upon close inspection of the structure of the verse, it become clear that philosophy in general was not the focus. Rather, it is a certain sort of philosophy—hollow and deceptive philosophy. In the context of Colossians, Paul was warning the church not to form and base doctrinal views according to a philosophical system hostile to orthodoxy. His remarks were a simple waring not to embrace heresy; in context, they were not meant to represent his views of philosophy as a discipline of study. In fact, one of the best ways to avoid hollow and deceptive philosophy is to study philosophy itself, so you can learn to recognize truth from error, using Scripture and right reason as a guide. His is exactly what Paul himself did. Colossians reveals an apostle who was entirely familiar with the type of proto-Gnostic philosophy threatening Colossians believers, who possessed a thorough knowledge of that philosophical system and an ability to point out its inadequacy. And remember, Paul himself cited pagan philosophers approvingly in Acts 17.28. “’For in him we live and move and have our own being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring,’” reports Acts 17.28. Neither of these texts should dampen our enthusiasm to cultivate a Christian mind or use reason in our Christian walk. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
One who has encountered the mystery of life has reached the source of wisdom. In encountering it with awe and longing, one experiences the infinite distance of one’s being from that which is the ground of one’s being. One experiences the limits of one’s being, one’s finitude in the face of the infinite. One learns that acceptance of one’s limits is the decisive step towards wisdom. The fool rebels against the limits set by one’s finitude. One wants to be unlimited in power and knowledge. One who is wise accepts one’s finitude. One knows that one is not God. There is an area of my learning in interpersonal relationships—one that has been slow and painful for me. When I can let in the fac, or permit myself to feel that someone cares for, accepts, admires, or prizes me, I feel warmed and fulfilled. Because of elements in my past history, I suppose, it has been very difficult for me to do this. For a long time I tended almost automatically to brush aside any optimistic feelings aimed in my direction. My reaction was, “Who, me? You could not possibly care for me. You might like what I have done, or my achievements, but not me.” This is one respect in which my own therapy helped me very much. I am not always able even not to let in such warm and loving feelings from others, but I find it very releasing when I can do so. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
I know that some people flatter me in order to gain something for themselves; some people praise me because they are afraid to be hostile. However, I have come to recognize the fact that some people genuinely appreciate me, like me, love me, and I want to sense that fact and let it in. I think I have become less aloof as I have been able to take in and soak up those loving feelings. I feel enriched when I can truly prize or care for or love another person and when I can let that feeling flow out to the person. Like many others, I used to fear being trapped by letting my feelings show. “If I care for him, he can control me.” “If I love her, I am trying to control her.” I think that I have moved a long way toward being less fearful in this respect. Like my clients, I too have slowly learned that tender, beneficial feelings are not dangerous either to give or to receive. To illustrate what I mean, I would like again to draw an example from a recent basic encounter group. A woman who described herself as “an out spoken, sensitive, hyperactive individual” whose marriage was on the rocks, and who felt that life was just not worth living said, “I had really buried under a layer of concrete many feelings I was afraid people were going to laugh at or stomp on which, needless to say, was working all kinds of hell on my family and me. I had been looking forward to the workshops with my last few crumbs of hope—it was really a needle of trust in a huge haystack of despair.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
She spoke of some of her experiences in the group and added, “The real turning point for me was a simple gesture on your part of putting your arm around my shoulder, one afternoon when I had made some crack about you not really being a member of the group—that no one could cry on your shoulder. In my notes I had written, the night before, “My God, there is no man in the World who love me.” You seemed so genuinely concerned the day I fell apart, I was overwhelmed…I received the gesture as one of the first feelings of acceptance—of me, just the unenlightened way I am, sensitivities and all—that I had ever experienced. I have felt needed, loving, competent, furious, frantic, anything and everything but just plain loved. You can imagine the flood of gratitude, humility, almost release, that swept over me. I wrote, with considerable joy, “I actually felt love. I doubt that I should soon forget it.” This woman, of course, was speaking to me, and yet in some deep sense she was also speaking for me. I too have had similar feelings. Those of one’s followers who expect one to behave with impeccable propriety and are ready to leave and follow someone else if one does not will either be victims of, or gainers by their own judgment. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
If the teacher is really unified with God, any judging of one done by external standards will be only partly applicable. There is a point where neither one’s character nor one’s motives can be correctly measured by such standards, and beyond which they may be quite misleading. The mystical and cultist circles which talk much about these matters use the name “Master” to trail such an accumulation behind it of falsified facts, superstitious ntions, and nonsensical thinking, that it is needful to be on guard for semantic definitions whenever this term is heard. The mistake that some followers make is to fail to see that their demigod is recognizably human. The mistake that most non-followers make is to fail to see that one is, in one’s best moments, superhuman. The excessively critical attitude which seeks to find a flaw in a holy being and soon succeeds is as foolish as the excessively devout attitude which pronounces one perfect and continuously faultless. This hostility of the one leads to imbalance; the naivete of the other leads to expectancy. The holy being is still a human subject to limitations of one’s species. In order to minimize the risks, experiential confrontation must be done carefully, artfully, and with deep sensitivity to its effects. Use of the first person singular, for example, can minimize unwarranted overtones of accusation or punishment. The statements “I believe you can do more,” or “I do not but what you are saying” serve to illustrate this contention. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
Posing confrontations in the form of questions or descriptions can also enhance their impact. “You are scared out of your wits,” may reflect how a “hail-fellow-well-met” client felt! Alternatively, I often challenge clients to differentiate between cannot and will not at given junctures. “You mean you will not respond to that job offer,” I suggested to a client invested in her inadequacy; “You mean you will not make time in your day for a lunch break,” I remarked to another client invested in his invincibility. It is sometime useful, finally, to appraise clients of the difficulty of confronting their resistances, especially when those resistance are threatened with extinction. “A part of you is doing everything it can to keep you where you were,” I tell clients in such circumstances. “The most you can do is realize this and look at what is suggests.” To this, all humankind’s literature about wisdom is a witness. Wisdom is the acknowledgment of limits; it is the awareness of the right measure in all relations of life. However, in saying this, one must protect wisdom against a dangerous distortion of its meaning—the confusion of wisdom with philistine avoidance of radical decisions, with clever compromises and shrewd calculations of usefulness, all of which is far removed from the wisdom that comes upon us in the awe-inspiring encounter with the holy. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
We need only look at the great figures in whom people of all periods and cultures recognized wisdom, the people who gave new laws to their nations, the teachers of new ways of life for continents, the people who withdrew to the deserts of nature and the deserts of the soul to return with abundance. None of them kept to the middle of the road; they had to find new roads in the wilderness. You cannot find wisdom in those who always avoid radical decisions and adjust themselves to the given situation, the conformists who have decided to accept the accepted opinion of society. Wisdom love the children of men, but she prefers those whom come through foolishness to wisdom, and dislike those who keep themselves equally distant from foolishness and from wisdom. They are the real fools, she would say, because they were never shaken by an encounter with the mystery of life, and therefore never able to see the unity of creation and destruction in the working of the divine wisdom. In those, however, who have recognized this working of wisdom, and become wise by it, artificial limits are broken down, often with great pain, and the real limits, the true measures, are found. When wisdom comes to humans, that is what happens. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
Therefore, wisdom comes to all humans, and not only to those who are learned. You can find quiet and often great wisdom among very simple people. There may be wise ones among those with who you live, and those with whom you work, and those whom you encounter as strangers in crowded streets. There is wisdom in mothers and lonely women, in children and adolescents, in shepherds and cabdrivers; and sometimes there is wisdom all in those who can have much learning. They all prove their wisdom by creatively accepting their limits and their finitude. However, who can accept one’s finitude? Who can accept that one is threatened by the vicissitudes of life, by infirmary, by death? Who can take into oneself the deep anxiety of being alive without covering it up with pleasure and activity? In the book of Job, which powerfully expresses the mystery of life, the question is asked and an answer given that is not an answer in the ordinary sense of the word. Only in the confrontation with eternal wisdom in all its darkness and inexhaustible death can humans accept the misery of one’s finitude, even if it is as extreme as Job’s. In our encounter with the holy, facing with awe the ultimate mystery of life, we experience a dimension of life that gives us the courage and the strength to accept our limits and to become wise through this acceptance. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
The created light is necessary to see the essence of God, not in order to make the essence of God inteligible, which is off itself intelligible, but in order to enable the intellect to understand in the same way as a habit makes a power abler to act. Even so corporeal light is necessary as regards external sight, inasmuch as it makes the medium actually transparent, and susceptible of colour. Nephi sees the Spirit of the Lord and is shown in vision the tree of life—he sees the mother of the Son of God and learn the condescension of God—he sees the baptism, ministry, and crucifixion of the Lamb of God—he sees also the call and ministry of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb About 600-592 Before Christ. “For it came to pass after I had desired to know the things that my father had seen, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I have never before set foot. And the Spirit said unto me: Behold, what desirest thou? And I said; I desire to behold the things which my father saw. And the spirit said unto me: Believest thou that thy father saw the tree of which he hath spoken? And I said: Yea, thou knowest that I believe all the words of my father,” reports Nephi 11.1-5. This light is required to see the divine essence, not as a similitude in which God is seen, but as a perfection of the intellect, strengthening to see God. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
Therefore it may be said that this light is to be described not as a medium in which God is seen, but as one by which He is seen; and such a medium does not take away the immediate vision of God. “And when I have spoken these words, the Spirit cried with a loud voice, saying: Hosanna to the Lord, the most high God; for he is God over all the Earth, yea, even above all. And blessed thou believest in the Son of the most high God; wherefore, thou shalt behold the things which thou hast desired. And behold this thing shall be given unto three for a sign, that after thou hast beheld the tree which bore the fruit which they father tasted, thou shalt also behold a man descending out of Heaven, and him shall ye witness; and after ye have witnessed him ye shall bear record that it is the Son of God. And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me: Look! And I looked and beheld a tree; and it was like unto the tree which my father had seen; and the beauty thereof was far beyond, yea, exceeding of all beauty and the whiteness thereof did exceed the whiteness of the driven snow. And it came to pass after I had seen the tree, I said unto the Spirit: I behold thou hast shown up me the three which is precious above all. And he said unto me: What desirest thou?” reports 1 Nephi 11.6-10. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
The disposition to the form of fire can be natural only to the subject of that from. Hence the light of glory cannot be natural to a creature unless the creature has a divine nature; which is imposible. However, by this light the rational creature is made deiform. “And I said unto him: To know the interpretation thereof—for I spake unto him as a man speaketh; for I beheld that he was in the form of a man; yet nevertheless, I knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord; and he spake unto me as a man speaketh with another. And it came to pass that he said unto me: Look! And I looked as if to look upon him, and I saw him not; for he had gone from before my presence. And it came to pass that I saw the Heavens open; and an Angel came down and stood before me; and he said unto me: Nephi, what beholdest thou? And I said unto him: A virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins. And he said unto me: Knowest thou the condescension of God? And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things. And he said unto me: Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh. And it came to pass that I beheld that she was carried away in the Spirit; and after she had been carried away in the Spirit for the space of time the Angel spake unto me saying: Look! #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
“And I looked and behold the virgin again bearing a child in her arms. And the Angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father! Knowest thou the meaning of this tree which thy father saw? And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore it is the most desirable above all things. And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul, reports 1 Nephi 11.11-23. “In Thy light we shall see light,” reports Psalms 35.10. Everything which is raised up to what exceeds its nature, must be prepared by some disposition above its nature. However, when any created intellect sees the essence of God, the essence of God itself become the intelligible form of the intellect. Hence it is necessary that some supernatural disposition should be added to the intellect in order that it may be raised up to such a great and sublime height. It is necessary that the power of understanding should be added by divine grace. Now this increase of the intellectual powers is called the illumination of the intellect, as we also call the intelligible object itself by the name of light of illumination. And this is the light spoken of in the Apocalypse (Apoc. 21.23): “The glory of God hath enlightened it; the society of the blessed who see God. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
By this light the blessed are made “deiform”—id est like to God, according to saying: “When He shall appear we shall be like to Him, and because we shall see Him as He is,” reports 1 Jon 3.2. “And fater he had said these words, he said unto me: Look! And I looked, and I beheld the Son of God going forth among the children of men; and I saw many fall down at his feet and worship him. And it came to pass that I beheld that the rod of iron, which my father had seen, was the word of God, which led to the fountain of living waters, or to the tree of life; which waters are a representation of the love of God. And the Angel said unto me again; Look and behold the condescension of God! And I looked and beheld the Redeemer of the Redeemer of the World, of whom my father had spoken; and I also beheld the prophet who should prepare the way before him. And the Lamb of God went forth and was baptized of him; and after he was baptized, I beheld the Heavens open, and the Holy Ghost come down out of Heaven and abide upon him in the form of a dove. And I beheld that he went forth ministering unto the people, in power and great glory; and the multitudes were gathered together to hear him; and I beheld that they cast him out from among them. And I also beheld twelve others following him. And it came to pass that the Angel spake unto me again, saying: Look! #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
“And I looked, and I beheld the Heavens open again, and I saw Angels descending upon the children of men; and they did minister unto them. And he spake unto me again, saying: Look! And I looked, and I beheld the Lamb of God going forth among the children of men. And I beheld multitudes of people who were sick, and who were afflicted with all manner of diseases, and with devils and unclean spirits; and the Angel spake and showed all these things unto me. And they were healed by the power of the Lamb f God; and the devils and the unclean spirits were cast out. And it came to pass that the Angel spake unto me again, saying: Look! And I looked and beheld the Lamb of God, that he was taken by the people; yea, the Son of the everlasting God was judged of the World; and I saw and bear record. And I, Nephi, saw that he was lifted upon the cross and slain for the sins of the World. And after he was slain I saw the multitudes of the Earth, that they were gathered together to fight against the apostles of the Lamb; for thus were the twelve called by the Angel of the Lord. And the multitude of the Earth was gathered together; and I behold that they were in a large and spacious building, like unto the building which my father saw. And the Angel of the Lord sapke unto me again, saying: Behold the World and the wisdom thereof; yea, behold the house of Israel hath gathered together to fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
“And it came to pass that I saw and bear record, that the great and spacious building was the pride of the World; and it fell, and the fall thereof was exceedingly great. And the Angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Thus shall be the destruction of all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, that shall fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb,” reports 1 Nephi 11.23-36. We beseech Thee, O Lord, to guide Thy Church with Thy perpetual governance; that it may walk warily in times of quiet, and boldly in times of trouble; through our Lord. O Lord, Thou knowest my great unfitness for service, my present deadness, my inability to do anything for Thy glory, my distressing coldness of heart. I am weak, ignorant, unprofitable, and loathe and abhor myself. I am at a loss to know what thou wouldest have me do, for I feel amazingly deserted by thee, and sense thy presence so little; Thou makest me possess the sins of my youth, and the dreadful sin of my nature, so that I feel all sin, I cannot think or act but every motion is sin. Return again with showers of converting grace to a poor gospel-abusing sinner. Help my soul to breathe after holiness, after a constant devotedness to Thee, after growth in grace more abundantly every day. The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a great lie than to a small one. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
O Lord, I am lost in the pursuit of this blessedness, and am ready to sink because I fall short of my desire; help me to hold out a little longer, until the happy hour of deliverance comes, for I cannot lift my soul to Thee if Thou of Thy goodness bring me not nigh. Help me to be diffident, watchful, tender, lest I offend my blessed Friend in thought and behaviour; I confide in Thee and lean upon Thee, and need Thee at all times to assist and lead me. O that all my distresses and apprehensions might prove but Christ’s school to make me fit for greater service by teaching me the great lesson of humility. May Thy Word, O Lord, Which endureth for ever in Heaven, abide continually in the Temple of Thy Church; that the presence of the Inhabitant may be an unfailing glory to the habitation; through Thy mercy and love. Remember Thy congregation, O Lord, which Thou hast created from the beginning; forget not the Church of old time Thou hast predestinated in Christ; be mindful of Thy mercy, look upon Thy covenant, and bless us continually with the promised freedom. The Dodo never had a chance. He seems to have been invented for the sole purpose of becoming extinct and that was all he was good for. There is no greater grief than to recall a time of happiness when in misery. However, the marines have landed, and the situation is well in hand. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

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God Moves in a Mysterious Way, His Wonders to Perform Gives Life All its Flavour!
Finding a way to live the simple life is today’s most complicated problem. In the traditional family the politics of the situation is very clear. The father’s authority is backed by religious and legal sanctions. They only way that family members can to any degree live independent lives is to do so secretly, deceiving him. In the usual present-day family, control is theoretically unified in the hands of both parents, but in practice they often disagree. This opens the way for a power struggle between family members, with temporary or permanent factions forming. Subtle strategies are used by the children to set the parents against each other. The sanctions for parental authority are no longer strong, further weakening the control structure. Consequently one of the most frequent characteristics is a continual wrangle over decisions involving control. “Why do I have to help with the dishes?” “Why can I not have the ultimate driving machine tonight?” “I want to wear my blue jeans!” “Why do I have to come home at eleven, when my friend Brady can stay out till midnight?” The children are struggling for more independence of parental authority. The parents are in the position of a weak government, alternatively being very firm and then giving in to demands. The politics of the family is very unstable. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
I am disappointed when I realize—and of course this realization always comes afterward, after a lag of time—that I have been too frightened or too threatened to let myself get close to what I am experiencing, and that consequently I have not been genuine or congruent. There immediately comes to mind an instance that is somewhat painful to reveal. Some years ago I was invited to be a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. The Fellows are a group of brilliant and well-informed scholars. I suppose it was inevitable that there is a considerable amount of one-upmanship, of showing off one’s knowledge and achievements. It seems important for each Fellow to impress the others, to be a little more assured, to be a little more knowledgeable than one really is. I found myself doing this same thing—playing a role of having greater certainty and greater competence than I really possess. I cannot tell you how disgusted with myself I felt as I realized what I was doing; I was not being me, I was playing a part. I regret it when I suppress my feelings too long and they burst forth in ways that are distorted or attacking or hurtful. I have a friend whom I like very much but who has one particular pattern of behavior that thoroughly annoys me. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
Because of the usual tendency to be nice, polite, and pleasant I kept this annoyance to myself for too long and, when it finally burst it bounds, it came out not only as annoyance but as an attack on him. This was hurtful, and it took some time to repair the relationship. When I have the strength to permit another person to be one’s own realness and to be separate from me, I am inwardly pleased. I think that is often a very threatening possibility. In some ways I have found it an ultimate test of staff leadership and of parenthood. Can I freely permit this staff member or my son or daughter to become a separate person with ideas, purposes, and values which may not be identical with my own? I think of one staff member this past year who showed many flashes of brilliance but who clearly held values different from mine and behaved in ways very different from the ways in which I would behave. It was a real struggle, in which I feel I was only partially successful, to let one be oneself, to let one develop as a person entirely separate from me and my ideas and my values. Yet to the extent that I was successful, I was pleased with myself, because I think this permission to be a separate person is what makes for the autonomous development of another individual. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
I am angry with myself when I discovered that I have been subtly controlling and molding another person in my own image. This has been a very painful part of my professional experience. I hate t have “disciples,” students who have molded themselves meticulously into the pattern that they feel I wish. Some of the responsibility I place with them, but I cannot avoid the uncomfortable probability that in unknown ways I have subtly controlled such individuals and made them into carbon copies of myself, instead of the separate professional persons they have every eight to become. From what I have been saying, I trust it is clear that when I can permit realness in myself or sense it or permit it in another, I am very satisfied. When I cannot permit it in myself or fail to permit it in another, I am very distressed. When I am able to let myself be congruent and genuine, I often help the other person. When the other person is transparently real and congruent, one often helps me. In those rare moments when a deep realness in one meets a realness in the other, a memorable “I-thou relationship,” as Martin Buber would call it, occurs. Such a deep and mutual personal encounter does not happen often, but I am convinced that unless it happens occasionally, we are not living as human beings. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
God has given us the strength, truth, love, and peace and we must share what we have received, or at least proclaim its existence. It is a compassionate obligation to share the fruits of such a rare attainment with less fortunate seekers. However, only individuals of large generous natures can recognize this obligation. The self-actualized does not ask for service from others, but only to be allowed to serve them. One does not seek to attach them to oneself, but only to God. The illuminate never achieves perfect happiness because one is well aware that others are unhappy and that they are not alien to one. When the wonderful compassion wells up with in human, one can no longer remain enthralled by the satisfactions of one’s own personal peace. The cries which come to one’s ears out of the great black night which envelops humankind tell one that all is not well with such a self-centered life. One may not turn away from them by uttering the alibi that God is in His Heaven and all is well with the World. No! One realized that one must go down into the very midst of that darkness and somehow give out something of what one has gained, offer true hope to a hopeless epoch. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
It is impossible for the materialist to perceive that we live and move and have our being in a universal Mind. However, the self-actualized, knowing this, knows also that this universal life will take care of one’s individual life to the degree that one opens oneself out to it, to the extent that one takes a large and generous view of one’s relation to all other individual lives. Amidst peaceful landscape in calm forests retreats or beside lonely seashores, where the attractions of Nature are all-powerful to one and where one could gladly spend the remainder of one’s life in solitude, a stinking phenomenon will mark itself repeatedly on memory. Again and again, faces of different people will float up and confront one. Some will be the faces f friends or people known to one but others will be the faces of strangers. All call to one to leave one’s solitude and give up one’s silence. It is not difficult to understand this occurrence. The mountain eyrie, the jungle retreat, or the forest cottage may continue to attract one powerfully, but the awakening of one’s fellow people into truth must eventually seem a worthier objective than one’s own external peace. So long as there are others acutely conscious of their spiritual need, so long must one go out among them. One does not do this by an external command but only by an internal one—the command of compassion. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
One no longer feels for oneself alone but also for others. Indeed one cannot help doing so, for the same reason that Jesus could not help proclaiming the gospel of the Israelites, even though he foreknew the end would be impalement upon the Cross. One’s service is done out of the pure joy of giving it. The self-actualized does not have to be told to help humankind in its struggles toward the light. One is a helper by nature. One’s compassion overflows and it is out of this, not out of condescension, that one works for them. However, one’s help will not necessarily take the particular forms that humanity in its unenlightened states expects from one. Actualized being or life unites dynamics with form. Everything real has a form, be it an atom, be it the human mind. That which has no form has no being. At the same time, everything real drives beyond itself. It is not satisfied with the form in which it finds itself. It urges toward a more embracing, ultimately to the all-embracing form. Everything wants to grow. It wants to increase its power of being in forms which include and conquer non-being. Metaphorically speaking, one could say that the molecule wants to become a crystal, the crystal a cell, the cell a centre of cells, the plant animal, the animal human, the human god, the weak strong, the isolated participating, the imperfect perfect, and so on! #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
In this drive of evolution, it can happen that a being, when transcending itself loses itself. It can happen that it destroys its given form without attaining a new form, thus annihilating itself. Life meets this threat by creating forms of growth. The self-transcendence of being occurs in forms which determine the process of self-transcendence. However, this determination is never complete. If it were, one could not speak of self-transcendence. One would have to speak of self-expression. The incompleteness of the laws of growth produce a risk in everything living. In transcending itself a being may fulfill and it may destroy itself. One could call this risk of creativity. Symbolically, one could say that even God, in creating, took the risk upon Himself that creation would turn into destruction. In the vision in which Parmenides receives the answer to the philosophical question, it is dike, the goddess of justice, who introduces him into the truth about being. Justice is not a social category far removed from ontological inquires, but it is a category without which no ontology is possible. In the poetic fragment of Parmenides we have an archaic ontology of justice. Heraclitus, in his words about the logos, the law which determines the movement of the kosmos, applies the concept of the logos both to the laws of nature and to the laws of the city. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
According to Plate, justice is the uniting function in the individual person and in the social group. It is the embracing form in both cases. Their power of being depends on it. In Stoicism it is the same logos which works as physical law in nature and as a moral law in the human mind. It judges as principle of justice all absolute laws. It gave the Roman Stoics criteria for the formulation and administration of the Roman law. It was seen in its absolute, cosmic validity, whatever the consequences of its execution may be. Whenever the ontological foundation of justice was removed, and absolute interpretation of law was tried, no criteria against arbitrary tyranny or utilitarian relativism were left. In the fight of Socrates with the Sophists this was the decisive point. In the defence of the “rights of humans” against cynicism and dictatorship, the same fight is going on today. It can be won only by a new foundation of natural law and justice. A glimpse at the Old Testament shows that in spite of the unmetaphysical character of prophetic thinking, the principle of justice they pronounce governs not only Israel, but also humankind and nature. In later Judaism the law is hypostasized in the eternal realm. Only its manifestation is temporal. This implies that it is the form of being which is valid for everything in every period. Obedience to it gives power of being. Disobedience involves self-destruction. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
If justice is the form in which the power of being actualizes itself, justice must be adequate to the dynamics of power (as discussed before). It must be able to give form to the encounters of being with being. The problem of “justice in encounter” is given with the fact that it is impossible to say before the encounter happens how the power relation will be within the encounter. Many possibilities are given in every moment. Each of these possibilities demands a special form. A wrong, unjust, power relation may destroy life. In every act of justice daring is necessary and risk is unavoidable. There are no principles which could be applied mechanically and which would guarantee that justice is done. Nevertheless there are principles of justice expressing the form of being in its universal and unchanging character. Nephi makes two sets of records—each is called the plates of Nephi—the larger plates contain a secular history; the smaller ones deal primarily with sacred things. About 600-592 Before Christ. “And all these things did my father see, and hear, and speak, as he dwelt in a tent, in the valley of Lemuel, and also a great many more things, which cannot be written upon these plates. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
“And now, as I have spoken concerning these plates, behold they are not the plates upon which I make a full account of the history of my people; for the plates upon which I have given the name of Nephi; wherefore, they are called the plates of Nephi, after mine own name; and these plates also are called the plates of Nephi. Nevertheless, I have received a commandment of the Lord that I should make these plates, for the special purpose that there should be an account engraven of the ministry of my people. Upon the other plates should be engraven an account of the reign of the kings, and the wars and contentions of my people; wherefore these plates are for the more part of the ministry; and the other plates are for the more part of the reign of the kings and the wars and contentions of my people. Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not. However, the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of humans; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen,” report 1 Nephi 9.1-6. The angelic intellect is not defective, if defect be taken to mean privation, as if it were without anything which it ought to have. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
However, if the defect be taken negatively, in that sense every creature is defective, when compared with God; forasmuch as it does not possess the excellence which is God. The sense of sight, as being altogether material, cannot be raised up to immateriality. However, our intellect, or the angelic intellect, inasmuch as it is elevated above matter in its own nature, can be raised up above its own nature to a higher level by grace. The proof is, that sight cannot in any way know abstractedly what it knows concretely; for in no way can it perceive a nature except as this one particular nature; whereas our intellect is able to consider abstractly what is knows concretely. Now although it knows things which have a form residing in manner, still it resolves the composite into both of these elements; and it considers the form separately by itself. Likewise, also, the intellect of an Angel, although it naturally knows the concrete in any nature, still it is able to separate that existence by its intellect; since it knows that the thing itself is one thing, and its existence is another. Since therefore the created intellect is naturally capable of apprehending the concrete form, and the concrete being abstractedly, by way of a kind of resolution of parts; it can by grace be raised up to know separate subsisting substance, and separate subsisting existence. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
Now participated existence is limited by the capacity of the participator; so that God alone, who is His own existence, is pure act and infinite. However, in intellectual substances there is composition of actuality and potentiality, not, indeed, of matter and form and participated existence. Wherefore some say that they are compose of that “whereby they are” and that “which they are;” for existence itself is that by which a thing is. However, human morality and submission to God’s law are entirely different in principle, though they may appear to be similar in outward appearance. Human morality arises out of culture and family training and is based on what is proper and expected in the society we live in. It has nothing to do with God expect to thee extent that Godly people have influenced that society. Submission to God’s law arises out of a love for God and a grateful response to His grace and is based on delight in His law as revealed in Scripture. When the societal standard of morality varies from the law of God written in Scripture, we then see the true nature of human morality. We discover that it is just as hostile to the law of God as is the attitude of the most hardened sinner. Sanctification begun in our hearts by the Holy Spirit changes our attitude. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
Instead of being hostile to God’s law, we begin to delight in it. “For in my inner being I delighted in God’s law,” reports Romans 7.22. “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us,” reports Romans 8.18. This radical and dramatic change in our attitude toward God’s commands is a gift of His grace, brought about solely by the might working of His Holy Spirit within us. We play no more part in this initial act of sanctification than we do in our justification. As Paul said, “All this is from God.” When the Angel of devotion has gone, the Angel of prayer has lost its wings and it becomes a deformed and loveless thing. Our previous study was about our devotional wings (meditation, confession, adoration, and submission). Now, wings formed and stretched in flight, we come to petition, the offering of our requests to God. It is my hope this study will instruct and motivate us to a soaring life of petitionary prayer which will call down God’s power upon our lives and the Church. The Scriptural setting for the classic text on petitionary prayer could scarcely be more dramatic—it is a soldier preparing for battle. One’s heart pounds boom, boom under one’s metal breastplate. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
As one steadies oneself, one hitches up one’s armor belt and scuffs at the Earth like a football player with one’s studded boots, testing one’s traction. One repeatedly draws one’s great shield across one’s body in anticipation of the fiery barrages to come. Reflexively one reaches up and repositions one’s helmet. One gingerly tests the edge of one’s sword and slips it back into one’s scabbard. The enemy approaches. Swords pulled from their scabbards ring in chilling symphony. The warriors stand motionless, breathing in dreadful spasm. And then the believing soldier does the most astounding thing. One falls to one’s knees in deep, profound, petitionary prayer—for one has obeyed one’s divine instructions to take of all-prayer. The Holy Scriptures themselves portray this weapon: “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints,” reports Ephesians 6.18. We are charged with five elements necessary to fully experience the power of petitionary prayer. “And he who searches our hearts know the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will,” reports Romans 8.27. Then the vision and the solid intention obey Christ will naturally lead to seeking out and applying means to that end. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
Here the means in question are the means for spiritual transformation, for the replacing of the inner character of the “lost” with the inner character of Jesus: His vision, understanding, feelings, decisions, and character. In finding such means we are not let to ourselves but have rich resources available to us in the example and teachings of Jesus, in the Scriptures generally, and in one’s people. Suppose, for example, we would like to be generous to those who have already take away some of our money or property through legal process. Pure will, with gritted teeth, cannot be enough to enable us to do this. By what means, then, can we become the kind of person who would do this as Jesus Himself would do it? If we have the vision and we intend (have decided) to do it, we can certainly find and implement the means, for God will help us to do so. We must start by discovering, by identifying, the thoughts, feelings, habits of will, social relations, and bodily inclinations that prevent us from being generous to these people. Our education and teachers should help us here, and perhaps they do to some extent—but nearly always insufficiently. We might with a little reflection identify resentment and anger toward the person who needs our help as a cause of not helping one. And then there is justice. Ah, justice! Perhaps in the form of “I do not owe it to him. He has no claims to me.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
Or perhaps we feel the legal case that went against us and in his favor was rigged. Or again, perhaps we think we must secure ourselves by holding onto whatever surplus items we have. After all, we may say, who knows what the future holds? Or perhaps we think giving to people what is unearned by them will harm them by corrupting their character, leading them to believe one can get something for nothing. Or perhaps it is just not our habit to give people with no prior claim on us—even if they have not injured or deprived us. Or perhaps our friends, including our religious friends, would think we are fools. And so forth. What a thicket of lostness stands in the way of doing a simple good thing: helping someone in need, someone who just happens to have previously won a legal case against us, possibly quite justly. At this point it is the all-too-customary human thinking, feeling, and social practice that stands in the way. And, truthfully, it is very likely that little can be done in the moment of need to help one do the good things that Jesus commands. This is characteristic of all his example and teaching. When my neighbor who has triumphed over me in the past now stands before me in a need I can remedy, I will not be able on the spot to do the good thing if my inner being is filled with all the thoughts, feeling, and habits that characterize the ruined soul and its World. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
Rather, if I intend to obey Jesus Christ, I must intend and decide to become the kind of person who would obey. That is, I must find the means of changing my inner being until it is substantially like his, pervasively characterized by his thoughts, feelings, habits, and relationship to the Father. Almighty and everlasting God, Who hast revealed Thy glory, by Christ, among all nations, preserved the works of Thy mercy; that Thy Church, which is spread throughout the World, may preserve with stedfast faith in the confession of Thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Incomprehensible, great, and glorious God, I adore Thee and abase myself. I approach Thee mindful that I am less than nothing, a creature worse than nothing. My thoughts are not screened from Thy gaze. My secret sins blaze in the light of Thy countenance. Enable me to remember that blood which cleanseth all sin, to believe in that grace which subdues all iniquities, to resign myself to that agency which can deliver me from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Thou hast begun a good work in me and canst alone continue and complete it. Give me an increasing conviction of my tendency to err, and of my exposure to sin. Help me to feel more of the purifying, softening, influence of religion, its compassion, love, pity, courtesy, and employ me as Thy instrument in blessing others. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
Give me to distinguish between the mere form of Godliness and its power, between life and a name to live, between guile and truth, between hypocrisy and a religion that will bear Thy eye. If I am not right, set me right, keep me right; and may I at last come to Thy house in peace. “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of the sinful person is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God,” reports Romans 8.5-8. O God, of unchangeable power and eternal light, look favourably on Thy whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; and, by the tranquil operation of Thy perpetual Providence, carry out the work of human’s salvation; and let the whole World feel and see that tings which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and all things are returning to perfection through Him from Whom they took their origin, even through our Lord Jesus Christ. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
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