Randolph Harris II International

Home » infants (Page 29)

Category Archives: infants

But I Will Wear My Heart Upon My Sleeve for Daws to Peck at!

ImageThe way to love other people is to express what we feel—anger and love—without aiming to hurt feelings. Open but reverent communication is how to make love in our lives. I have talked of equality as a right ad of equality as a goal. And I have taken, as the principal thing, to be able to state what goal we are seeking when we say equality is a goal. When we are in a position actually to achieve that goal, then that same equality becomes a right. The goal we are seeking is an equality of basic condition for everyone. Let me say a bit what this is: everyone, as far as possible, should have equal life prospects, short of genetic engineering and the like and the rooting out of any form of family and the undermining of our basic freedoms. There should, where this is possible, eb an equality of access to equal resources over each person’s life as a whole, though this should be qualified by people’s varying needs. Where psychiatrists are in short supply only people who are in need of psychiatric help should have equal access to such help. This equal access to resources should be such that it stands as a barrier to there being the sort of differences between people that allow some to be in a position to control and to exploit others; such equal access to resources should also stand as a barrier to one person having power over other adult person that does not rest on the revocable consent on the part of the persons over whom one comes to have power. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

ImageWhere, because of some remaining scarcity in a society of considerable productive abundance, we cannot reasonably distribute resources equally, we should first, where considerations of desert are not at issue, distribute according to stringency of need, second according to the strength of unmanipulated preferences and third, and finally, by lottery. We should, in trying to attain equality of condition, aim at a condition of autonomy (the fuller and the more rational the better) for everyone and at a condition where everyone alike, to the fullest extent possible, has his or her needs and wants satisfied. The limitations on the satisfaction of people’s wants should be only were the satisfaction is incompatible with everyone getting the same treatment. Where we have conflicting wants, such as where two persons want to marry the same person, the fair thing to do will vary with the circumstances. In the marriage case, freedom of choice is obviously the fair thing. However, generally, what should be aimed at is having everyone have their own wants satisfied as far as possible. To achieve equality of condition would be, as well, to achieve a condition where the necessary burdens of the society are equally shared, where to do so is reasonable, and where each person has an equal voice in deciding what these burdens shall be. Moreover, everyone, as much as possible, should be in a position—and should be equally in that position—to control one’s own life. The goals of egalitarianism are to achieve such equalities. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

ImageIf we are egalitarians, then minimally, classlessness is something we should aim at. It is necessary for the stable achievement of equalities of the type discussed. Beyond that, we should also aim at a statusless society, though not at an undifferentiated society or a society which does not recognize merit. It is only in such a classless, statusless society that the ideals of equality (the conception of equality as a very general goal to be achieved) can be realized. In aiming for a society, we are aiming for a society which, while remining a society of material abundance, is a society in which there are to be no extensive differences in life prospects between people because some have far greater income, power, authority or prestige than others. This is the via negativa of the egalitarian way. The via positivia is to produce social conditions where there is generally material abundance, where well-being and satisfactions are not only maximized (the utilitarian thing) but, as well, a society where this condition, as far as it is achievable, is sought equally for all (the egalitarian thing). This is the underlying conception of the egalitarian commitment to equality of condition. In our description of the encounter of power of being with power of being we have limited our task to the encounter of individuals with individuals. We must also extend our description to the encounter of social groups with social groups. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

ImageIf we do so find the same marks of power encounters, the pushing ahead and withdrawing, the absorbing and throwing out, the amalgamation and separation. This is unavoidable. For every power group experiences growth and disintegration. It tries to transcend itself and to preserve itself at the same time. Nothing is determined a priori. It is a matter of trial and risk, and decision. And this trial has elements of intrinsic power untied with compulsion whether the group or their representatives want it or not. These encounters are the basic material of history. In them human’s political destiny is decided. What is their character? The basis of all power of a social group is the space it must provide for itself. Being means having space or, more exactly, providing space for oneself. This is the reason for the tremendous importance of geographical space and the fight for its possession by all power groups. Our time gives a striking example for this fact. In the necessity of having space the Zionist fight is rooted. Israel lost its independent power of being and often its power of being altogether, when it lost its space. Now it has its space and has shown a rather strong power of being. However, perhaps something is lost: the intimate relation to time which made Israel the elected nation and which belongs to the problem of the resignation of power. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

ImageThe struggle about space is not simply the attempt to remove another group from a given space. The real purpose is to draw this space into a larger power field, to deprive it of a center of its own. If this happens, it is not the individual power of being which has changed, but the way in which the individual participates in the center, in which one influences the law and the spiritual substance of the new, larger power organization. It is, however not only geographical space which gives power and being to a social organism. It is also the radiation of power into the larger space of humankind. One of these radiations which enlarge one’s own space without reducing that of others is economic expansion. Another one is technical expansion or the spread of science and civilization. In none of these cases is a preceding calculation possible. Every factor is changing, the number of the population, the productive power, new discoveries, movements, emigration, competition, the rise of new countries, the disintegration of old ones. History, so to speak, tries what will be its next constellation. And in these trials nations and empires are scarified, and others are called into existence. The power of being of each political power group is measured by its encounter with the power of being of other power groups. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

ImageHowever, now we must remember that power is never only physical force, but it is also the power of symbols and ideas in which the life of a social group expresses itself. The consciousness of such a social group expresses itself. The consciousness of such a spiritual substance can become, and in the most important cases of history does become, the feeling of a special vocation. If we look at European history we find a series of expression of such a vocational consciousness, and we find tremendous historical consequences following from it. In an indistinguishable unity of power drive and vocational consciousness the Romans subjected the Mediterranean World to the Roman law and the order of the Roman empire, based on this law. In the same way Alexander brought Greek culture to nations which were subjected in terms of bot arms and language. Considering the fact these two imperial drives in their amalgamation created the oikoumene, the condition and frame of the spread of Christianity, we cannot say that their vocational consciousness was wrong. The same must be said about the medieval German Empire, which, on the basis of the power drives of the Germanic kings, created the structure for the united Christian body with all the glory of medieval religion and culture. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

ImageAfter the end of the Middle Ages the European nations combined power drives with vocational consciousness of different character. Spain’s World-conquering imperialism was united with the fanatical belief in being the divine tool of the Counter-Reformation. England’s vocational consciousness was rooted partly in the Calvinistic idea of World politics for the preservation of pure Christianity, partly in a Christian-humanistic feeling of responsibility for the colonial countries and for a solid balance of power between the civilized nations. This was inseparably united with an economic and political power drive and produced the largest Empire of all times and almost eighty years of European peace. The vocational consciousness of France was based on its cultural superiority in the seventeenth an and eighteenth centuries. Modern Germany was under the impact of the so-called Real-Politik, without a vocational consciousness. Her ideology was the struggle for Lebensraum, party in competition with the colonial nations and therefore in conflict with them. Adolph Hitler’s use of an obviously absurd vocational idea, that of Nordic blood, was artificially imposed an only reluctantly accepted, because there was no genuine vocational symbol. Today two great imperialistic systems fight with each other in terms of both force and vocational consciousness: Russian and America. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

ImageThe Russian vocational consciousness was based on its religious feeling that it had a mission towards the West, namely, to save the disintegrating Western civilization through Eastern mystical Christianity. This was the claim of the Slavophile movement in the nineteenth century. President-day Russian has a similar missionary consciousness towards the West civilization and at the same time towards the Far East. Her power drive, which in the official counter-propaganda appears as the desire for World domination, is not understandable without her fanatical vocational consciousness, which must be compared with that of all other imperialistic movements. America’s vocational consciousness has been called “The American dream,” namely to establish the Earthly form of the kingdom of God by a new beginning. The old forms of oppressive power were left behind and a new start was made. In the Constitution and the living democracy (both are quasi-religious concepts in the United States of America) the will is embodied to actualize what is felt as the American vocation. This was originally meant for America alone. Now it is meant explicitly for one-half of the World and implicitly for the whole World. The actual power drive working together with this vocational feeling is still rather limited. However, the historical situation increases it more and more. And it is already justified to speak of half-conscious American imperialism. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

ImageVocational consciousness expresses itself in laws. In these laws both justice and love are actual. The justice of the empires not only subject, they also unite. And in so far as they are able to do this, they are not without love. Therefore those who has subjected acknowledge silently that they have become participants of a superior power of being and meaning. If this acknowledgement vanishes because the uniting power of the empire, its strength, and its vocational idea vanishes, the empire comes to an end. Its power of being disintegrates and external attacks only execute what is already decided. The present decrease in national sovereignty, the rise of embracing power groups, and the split of the World into two all-embracing power groups, and the split of the World into two all-embracing systems of political power rises naturally the problem of a united humankind. What can be derived from our analysis of power, justice, and love for this question? There are three answers to this question. The first one does not recognize the inescapable character of the recent developments towards large organisms of power and expects a return to a number of relatively independent power centers, perhaps not national but continental. The second answer seeks for the solution in a World state, created by a kind of federal union of the present main powers and by their subjection to a central authority in which all groups participate. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

ImageThe third answer expects that one of the great powers will develop into a World center, ruling the other nations through liberal methods and in democratic forms! The first answer is a matter of foresight. It belongs to the movement of social organisms that the centralizing tendency is always balanced by a decentralizing one. The question is: Which tendency determines the present situation? The technical union of the World favours centralization, but there are other, above all psychological factors which may prevail. The second answer, the expectation of the World state, contradicts the analysis of power as we have given it. A power center which unites strength with vocational consciousness cannot subject itself to an artificial authority without both of them. The presupposition for a political World unity is the presence of a spiritual unity expressed in symbols and myths. Nothing like this exists today. And before it does exist a World state has no power to create silent acknowledgment. The most probable answer seems to be the third one. It may well be that after the period of World history which is characterized by the rise of one power structure to universal power, with a minimum of suppression, the law and the justice and the uniting love which are embodied in this power will become the universal power of humankind. However, even then the kingdom of God has not come upon us. For even then disintegration and revolution are not excluded. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

ImageNew centers of power may appear, first underground, then openly, driving towards separation from or towards radical transformation of the whole. They may develop a vocational consciousness of their own. Then the power struggle starts again and the period of the fulfilled World empire will be as limited as the Augustan period of was. Can uniting love never unite humankind? Can humankind never become as a whole a structure of power and a source of universal justice? With this question we have left the realm of history and approach the question of love, power, and justice in their relation to that which is ultimate. Thus Revelation makes sense because it is the answer to the finitude and ambiguities of actual reason; the terms God, as a symbol of the Unconditioned, is meaningful insofar as it resolves the contradictions of finite being; Christology itself answers the dilemma of existence and fulfills humankind’s quest for Christ. Being, existence, life thus anticipate, in human’s conscious and unconscious experience, the revelation of the Unconditioned as God, as Christ and as Spirit. The notion of the Kingdom of God will resolve the ambiguities of history. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

ImageThe basic purpose of theology is neither to establish facts, nor to build a speculative synthesis; it is to investigate meanings.  Leaving the former task to positive theologians and their recurrent flirtation with historicism, and the latter to speculative theologians and the permanent danger of over intellectualism, we open another way, a search for the meanings of religious attitudes through a critical phenomenology, uniting an intuitive-descriptive element with an existential-critical element. However, by doing so, we boldly head for a third pitfall, which we may call a philosophical distortion of faith. If the only ultimately valid content of their faith is merely the intuition of a philosophical principle, there is not much point in the tremendous spiritual effort of all the religions of humankind. Yet the meaning of faith, as drawn out of belief-ful experience is simply that in the depth of my own being, I participate in both abyss and ground, in nothingness and in being-itself. The difference between the philosopher and the faith-ful would be that the former is relatively detached whereas the latter is involved. If this is the meaning of faith and religion, we have obviously been let down by priests and prophets, and what is more, we have been led astray. For neither priest nor prophet has taught that this was faith. To be sure, a certain amount of demythologizing is necessary—be it Primordial Humans in India or Gilgamesch in Mesopotamia, myth have to be interpreted. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

ImageThe contrast between the religious myths of faith and their reduction to one common philosophical denominator confirms what I have said elsewhere: a philosophical description of being and concern is altogether distinct from a theology of faith and grace. Speaking in specifically Christian terms, it is a fallacy to approach the faith of Christianity from a preconceived phenomenological notion of faith at large. In the first place, this does not do justice to the fact that the Christian faith, in its Catholic form and also in its Protestant form before Schleiermacher, has always described itself, not as one faith among other, but as the only saving faith. Secondly, it introduced a distinction between the conveying message of faith (called, here, its myth or symbol) and its ultimate meaning. The Christian message, however, is essentially historical. Arising out of a historical event, the preaching of the man Jesus, it was confirmed by his Resurrection from the dead in Judea under the governor Pontius Pilate. This historical structure of the Christian faith stands in judgment over our analyses for it implies that the form of the Christian Revelation is inseparable from its content. If it only expressed unconditional concern as philosophical intuition of being and non-being, its historical structure would be altogether irrelevant to its meaning. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

ImageActually it would be difficult to discover a systematic theology that appeals less to the historical sources of Christian doctrine than ours. What this implies for Christology proper will detain us later. It is enough now to note that the notion of faith, the notion of original sin, the notion of revelation, have been stripped of their specifically Christian elements and made into universal philosophical concepts. One could heed Calvin’s warning: “Should some mind, abandoning the wisdom contained in the Word of God, bring us a different doctrine, he must rightly be suspected of vanity and falsehood.” For a theologian to straitjacket the Christian faith in a scheme which is supposedly valid for all and sundry faiths is highly suspect. At this stage, however, we should suspend judgment. In the development of our Christology, we are bringing in the necessary corrections. “But, behold, in the last days, or in the days of the Gentiles—yea, behold all the nations of the Gentiles and also the Jews, both those who shall come upon this land and those who shall be upon other lands, yea, even upon all the lands of the Earth, behold, they will be drunken with iniquity and all manner of abominations—and when that day shall come they shall be visited of the Lord or Hosts, with thunder and with Earthquake, and with a great noise, and with storm, and with tempest, and with the flame of the devouring fire. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

Image“And all the nations that fight against Zion, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision; yea, it shall be unto them, even as unto a hungry man which dreameth, and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty; or like unto a thirsty human which dreameth, and behold one drinketh but one awaketh and behold one is faint, and one’s soul hath appetite; yea, even so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion. For behold, all ye that doeth iniquity, stay yourselves and wonder, for ye shall cry out, and cry; yea, ye shall be drunken but not with wine, ye shall stagger but not with strong drink. For behold, the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep. For behold, ye have closed your eyes, and ye have rejected the prophets; and your rulers, and the seers hath one covered because of your iniquity. And it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall bring forth unto you the words of a book, and they shall be the words of them which have slumbered. And behold the book shall be sealed; and in the book shall be a revelation from God, from the beginning of the World to the ending thereof. Wherefore, because of the things which are sealed up, the things which are sealed shall not be delivered in the day of the wickedness and abominations of the people. Wherefore the book shall be kept from them. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

Image “However, the book shall be delivered unto a human, and one shall deliver the words of the book, which are the words of those who have slumbered in the dust, and one shall deliver these words unto another; however, the words which are sealed one shall not deliver, neither shall one deliver the book. For the book shall be sealed by the power of God, and the revelation which was sealed shall be kept in the book until the own due time of the Lord, that they may come forth; for behold, they reveal all things from the foundation of the World unto the end thereof. And the day cometh that the words of the book which were sealed shall be read upon the house tops; and they shall be read by the power of Christ; and all things shall be revealed unto the children of humans which ever have been among the children of humans, and which ever will be even unto the end of the Earth. Wherefore, at that day when the book shall be delivered unto the human of whom I have spoken, the book shall be hid from the eyes of the World, that the eyes of none shall behold it save it be that three witnesses shall behold it, by the power of God, besides him to whom the book shall be delivered; and they shall testify to the truth of the book and the things therein. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

Image“And there is none other which shall view it, save it be a few according to the will of God, to bear testimony of his word unto the children of humans; for the Lord God hath said that the words of the faithful should speak as if it were from the dead. Wherefore, the Lord God will proceed to bring forth the words of the book; and in the mouth of as many witnesses as seemeth him good will he establish his word; and wo be unto him that rejecteth the word of God! However, behold, it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall say unto him to whom he shall deliver the book: Take these words which are not sealed and deliver them to another, that he may show them unto the learned, saying: Read this, I pray thee. And the learned shall say: Bring hither the book, and I will read them. And now, because of the glory of the World and to get gain will they say this, and not for the glory of God. And the human shall say: I cannot bring the book, for it is sealed. Then shall the learned say: I cannot read it. Wherefore I shall come to pass, that the Lord God will deliver again the book and the words thereof to one that is not learned; and the human that is not learned shall say: I am not learned. Then shall the Lord God say unto him: The learned shall not read them, for they have rejected them, and I am able to do mine own work; wherefore thou shalt read the words which I shall give unto thee. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

Image“Touch not the things which are sealed, for I will bring them forth in mine own due time; for I will show unto the children of humans that I am able to do mine own work. Wherefore, when thou hast read the words which I have commanded thee, and obtained the witnesses which I have promised unto thee, then shalt thou seal up the book again, and hide it up unto me, that I may preserve the words which thou hast not read, until I shall see fit in mine own wisdom to reveal all things unto the children of humans. For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the World that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I am work not among children of humans save it be according to their faith. And again it shall come to pass that the Lord shall say unto him that shall read the words that shall be delivered him: forasmuch as this people draw near unto me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their hearts far from me, and their fear towards me is taught by the precepts of humans—therefore, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, yea, a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise and learned shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent shall be hid. And wo unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord! And their works are in the dark; and they say: Who seeth us, and who knoweth us? #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

Image“And they also say: Surely, your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay. However, behold, I will show unto them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that I know all their works. For shall the work say of him that made it, he made me not? Or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, he had no understanding? However, behold, saith the Lord of Host: I will show unto the children of humans that it is yet a very little while and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field; and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest. And in that say shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. And the meek also shall increase, and their joy shall be in the Lord, and the poor among humans shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For assuredly as the Lord liveth they shall see that the terrible one is brought to naught, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off; and they that make a human an offender for a word and lay a snare for one that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of naught. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. However, when he seeth his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

Image“They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and the that murmured shall learn doctrine,” reports 2 Nephi 27.1-35. O LORD our God, the Bread of Heaven, the Life of the World, I have sinned against Heaven and before Thee, and am not worthy to partake of Thine immaculate Mysteries;–but in Thy Divine tenderness do Thou vouchsafe my by Thy grace to partake of Thy holy Body and precious Blood, without condemnation, unto remission of sins and eternal life. O God of my delight, Thy throne of grace is the pleasure ground of my soul. Here I obtain mercy in time of need, here see the smile of Thy reconciled face, here joy pleads the name of Jesus, here I sharpen the sword of the Spirit, anoint the shield of faith, put on the helmet of salvation, gather manna from Thy word, am strengthened for each conflict, nerved for the upward race, empowered to conquer race, empowered to conquer every foe; please hep me to come to Christ as the fountain head of descending blessings, as a wide open flood-gate of mercy. I marvel at my insensate folly, that which such enriching favours within my reach I am slow to extend the hand to take them. Have mercy upon my deadness for Thy name’s sake. Ouicken me, stir me, fill me with holy zeal. Strengthen me that I may cling to Thee and not let Thee go. May Thy spirit within me draw all blessings from Thy hand. When I advance not, I backslide. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

ImagePlease let me walk humbly because of good omitted and evil done. Impress on my mind the shortness of tie, the work to be engaged in the account to be rendered, the nearness of eternity, the fearful sin of despising Thy Spirit. May I never forget that Thy eye always sees, Thy ear always hears, Thy recording hand always writes. May I never give Thee rest until Christ is the pulse of my heart; the spokes-person of my lips, the lamp of my feet. O LORD our God, Who hast called us Christians after the Name of Thine Only-begotten Son, as hast given us Baptism in the Font for the remission of sins; please make us, we beseech Thee, worthy now to receive this Communion for the remission of our sins, and to glorify Thee with thanksgiving. O LORD my God, grant me so to receive the Body and Blood of Thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ, that by means thereof I may receive forgiveness of all my sins, and be filled with Thy Holy Spirit, O our God, Who livest and reignest World without end. Cleanse us, O Lord, from our secret faults, and mercifully absolve us from our presumptuous sins, that we may receive Thy holy things with a pure mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Grant, O Lord, that our bodies may be sanctified by Thy holy Body, and that they may avail for the pardon of our offences and remission of our sins. Glory be to Thee forever, O Lord God. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21   Image

Image

Counting sheep will be a thing of the past when you live #MillsStation. 💭🐑😴

Image

#CresleighRanch
#CresleighHomes

Humans were Born Free, and Everywhere Humans are in Chains!

ImageWhen people are regarded superficially their differences are accentuated. However, as we understand each other, differences fade and the oneness of humans emerges—the same needs, the same fears, the same struggles, the same desires. Here comes everybody! Education stands firmly as the cornerstone of our great nation. A commitment to education is a commitment to our children and their future. Our children are our most precious resource and we, as citizens and communities, must never forget that the skills and knowledge we provide our children with today will become the foundation of tomorrow. We must make certain that the opportunity for a quality education is available for all children. The dedication and tireless efforts put forth by our educators to enhance the learning process is essential to the growth and prosperity of our communities and our nation. If you lecture upon morality, or political economy, official bodies will be found to make this request to the Government: That henceforth science be taught not only with sole reference to free exchange (to liberty, property, and justice), as has been the case up to the present time, but also, and especially, with reference to the facts of legislation (contrary to liberty, property, and justice) that regulate French industry. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24

ImageThat, in public lecterns salaried by the treasury, the professor abstain rigorously from endangering the slightest degree the respect duet to the laws now in force. So that is a law exists that sanctions slavery or monopoly, oppression or plunder, in any form whatever, it must not even be mentioned—for how can it be mentioned without damaging the respect that it inspires? Still further, mortality and political economy must be taught in connection with this law—that is, under the supposition that it must be just, only because it is law. Another effect of this deplorable perversion of the law is that it gives to human passions and to political struggles, and, in general, to politics, properly so called, an exaggerated importance. I could prove this assertion in a thousand ways. However, I shall confine myself, by way of an illustration, to bringing it to bear upon a subject which has of late occupied everybody’s mind: universal suffrage. Whatever may be thought of it by the adepts of the school of Rousseau, which professes to be very far advanced, but which I consider 20 centuries behind, universal suffrage (taking the word in its strictest sense) is not one of those scared strict and rigid doctrines with respect to which examination and doubt are crimes. Serious objections may be made to it. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24

ImageIn the first place, the word universal conceals a gross sophism. There are, in France, 67,000,000 inhabitants. To make the right of suffrage universal, 67,000,000 electors should be reckoned. The most extended system reckons only 18,000,000. Approximately 74 percent, then, are excluded. Upon what principle is this exclusion founded? Upon the principle of incapacity. Universal suffrage, then, means: universal suffrage of those who are capable. In point of fact, who are the capable? Are age, gender, and judicial condemnation the only conditions to which incapacity is to be attached? On taking a nearer view of the subject, we may soon perceive the reason why the right of suffrage depends upon the presumption of incapacity; the most extended system differing from the most restricted in the conditions on which this incapacity depends, and which constitutes not a difference in principle, but in degree. This motive is, that the elector does not stipulate for oneself, but for everybody. If, as the republicans of the Greek and Roman tone pretend, the right of suffrage had fallen to the lot of every one at one’s birth, it would be an injustice to adults to prevent women and children from voting. Why were women in the past, and minors currently prevented from voting? Because they are presumed to be incapable. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24

ImageAnd why is incapacity a reason for exclusion from voting? Because the elector does not reap alone the responsibility of one’s vote; because every vote engages and affects the community at large; because the community has a right to demand some assurances, as regards the acts upon which its well-being and its existence depend. I know what might he said in answer to this. I know what might be objected. However, this is not the place to settle a controversy of this kind. What I wish to observe is that, that this same controversy (in common with the greater part of political questions) that agitates, excites, and unsettles the nations, would lose almost all its importance if the law had always been what it ought to be. In fact, if law were confined to causing all persons, all liberties, and all properties to be respected—if it were merely the organization of individual right and individual defense—if it were the obstacle, the check, the chastisement opposed to all oppression, to all plunder—is it likely that we should dispute much, as citizens, on the subject of the greater or lesser universality of suffrage? Is it likely that it would compromise that greatest of advantages, the public peace? Is it likely that the excluded classes would not quietly wait for their turn? Is it likely that the enfranchised classes would be very jealous of their privileges? And is it not clear, that the interest of all being one and the same, some would act without much inconvenience to others? #RandolphHarris 4 of 24

ImageHowever, if the fatal principle should come to be introduced, that, under pretense of organization, regulation, protection, or encouragement, the law may take from one party in order to give to another, help itself to the wealth acquired by all the classes that it may increase that of one class, whether that of the agriculturists, the manufacturers, the ship owners, or artist and comedians; then certainly, in this case, there is no class which may not try, and with reason, to place its hand upon the law, that would not demand with fury its right of election and eligibility, and that would overturn society rather than not obtain it. Even beggars and vagabonds will prove to you that they have an incontestable title to it. They will say: “We never buy wine, tobacco, or salt, without paying the tax, and a part of this tax is given by law in perquisites and gratuities to humans who are rich than we are. Others make use of the law to create an artificial rise in the price of bread, land, meat, dairy, fuel, water, iron, or cloth. Since everybody traffic in law for one’s own profit, we should like to do the same. We should like to make it produce the right to assistance, which is the less affluent human’s plunder. To effect this, we ought to be electors and legislators, that we may organize, on a large scale, alms for our own class, as you have organized, on a large scale, protection for yours. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24

Image“Do not tell us that you will take cause upon yourselves, and throw to us $1,400,000 francs to keep us quiet, like giving us a bone to pick. We have other claims, and, at any rate, we wish to stipulate for ourselves, as other classes have stipulated for themselves!” How is this argument to be answered? Yes, as long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true mission, that it may violate property instead of securing it, everybody will be wanting to manufacture law, either to defend oneself against plunder, or to organize it for one’s own profit. The political question will always be prejudicial, predominant, and absorbing; in a word, there will be fighting around the door of the Legislative Palace. The struggle will be no less furious within it. To be convinced of this, it is hardly necessary to look at what passes in the Chambers in France and England; it is enough to know how the question stands. With this understanding, let us examine the value, the origin, and the tendency of this popular aspiration, which pretends to realize the general good by general plunder. The Socialists say, since the law organizes justice, why should it not organize labour, instruction, and religion? Why? Because it could not organize labour, instruction, and religion, without disorganizing justice. For remember, that law is force, and that consequently the domain of the law cannot properly extend beyond the domain of force. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24

ImageWhen law and force keep a person within the bounds of justice, they impose nothing upon one but a mere negation. They only oblige one to abstain from doing harm. They violate neither one’s personality, one’s liberty, nor one’s property. They only guard the personality, the liberty, the property of others. They hold themselves on the defensive; they defend the equal right of all. They fulfill a mission whose harmlessness is evident, whose utility is palpable, and whose legitimacy is not to be disputed. This is so true that, as a friend of mine once remarked to me, to say that the aim of the law is to cause justice to reign, is to use an expression that is not rigorously exact. It ought to be said, the aim of the law is to prevent injustice from reigning. In fact, it is not justice that has an existence of its own, it is injustice. The results from the absence of the other. However, when the law, through the medium of its necessary agent—force—imposes a form of labour, a method or a subject of instruction, a creed, or a worship, it is no longer negative; it acts positively upon humans. It substitutes the will of the legislator for their own will, the initiative of the legislator for their own initiative. They have no nee to consult, to compare, or to foresee; the law does all that for them. The intellect is for them a useless encumbrance; they cease to be humans; they lose their personality, their liberty, their property. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24

ImageTry to imagine a form of labour imposed by force, that is not a violation of liberty; a transmission of wealth imposed by force, that is not a violation of property. If you cannot succeed in reconciling this, you are bound to conclude that the law cannot organize labour and industry without organizing injustice. When, from the seclusion of one’s office, a politician takes a view of society, one is struck with the spectacle of inequality that presents itself. One mourns over the sufferings that are the lot of so many of our brethren, sufferings whose aspect is rendered yet more sorrowful by the contrast of luxury and wealth. One ought, perhaps, to task oneself whether such a social state has not been caused by the plunder of ancient times, exercised in the way of conquests; and by plunder of more recent times, effected though the medium of the laws? One ought to ask oneself whether, granting the aspiration of all humans to well-being and improvement, the reign of justice would not suffice to realize the greatest activity of progress, and the greatest amount of equality compatible with that individual responsibility that God has awarded as a just retribution of virtue and vice? One never gives this thought. One’s mind turns towards combinations, arrangements, legal or factitious organization. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24

ImageOne seeks the remedy in perpetuating and exaggerating what has produced the evil. For, justice apart, which we have seen is only a negation, is there any one of these legal arrangements that does not contain the principle of plunder? You say, “There are people who have no money,” and you apply to the law. However, the law is not a self-supplied fountain, whence every stream may obtain supplies independently of society. Nothing can enter the public treasury, in favour of one citizen or one class, but what other citizens and other classes have been forced to send to it. If everyone draws from it only the equivalent of what one has contributed to it, your law, it is true, is no plunder, but it does nothing for people who want money—it does not promote equality. It can only be an instrument of plunder. Examine, in the light, the protection of tariffs, subsidies, right to profit, right to labour, right to assistance, free public education, progressive taxation, gratuitousness of credit, social workshops, and you will always find at the bottom legal plunder, organized injustice. You say, “There are people who want knowledge,” and you apply to the law. However, the law is not a torch that sheds light that originates within itself. It extends over a society where there are people who have knowledge, and others who have not; citizens who want to learn, and other who are disposed to teach. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24

ImageThe law can only do one of two things; either allow a free operation to this kind of transaction, id est, let this kind of want satisfy itself freely; or else preempt the will of the people in the matter, and take from some of them sufficient to pay professors commissioned to instruct others for free. However, in this second case, there cannot fail to be a violation of liberty and property—legal plunder. You say, “Here are people who are wanting in mortality or religion,” and you apply to the law; but law is force, and need I say how far it is a violent and absurd enterprise to introduce force in these matters? As the result of its systems and of its efforts, it would seem that socialism, notwithstanding all its self-compliancy, can scarcely help perceiving the monster of legal plunder. However, what does it do? It disguises it cleverly from others, and even from itself, under the seductive names of fraternity, solidarity, organization, association. And because we do not ask so much at the hands of the law, because we only ask it for justice, it alleges that we reject fraternity, solidarity, organization, and association; and they brand us with the name of individualists. We can assure them that what we repudiate is not natural organization, but forced organization. It is not free association, but the forms of association that they would impose upon us. It is not spontaneous fraternity, but legal fraternity. It is not providential solidarity, but artificial solidarity, which is only an unjust displacement of responsibility. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

ImageIn any encounter of humans with humans, power is active, the power of the personal radiation, expressed in language and gestures, in the glance of the eye and the sound of the voice, in face and figure and movement, expressed in what one is personally and what one represents socially. Every encounter, whether friendly or hostile, whether benevolent or indifferent, is in some way, unconsciously or consciously, a struggle of power with power. In this struggle decisions are made continuously about the relative power of being, actualized in all those who are involved in the struggle. Creative justice does not deny these encounters and the conflicts implicit in them. For this is the price which must be paid for the creativity of life. Such struggles start in the life of an individual in the moment of one’s conception and go on up to the moment of one’s last breath. They permeate one’s relations to everything and everybody one encounters. Justice is the form in which these struggles lead to ever-changing decision about the power of being in each of the struggling beings. The impression given by this picture, the truth of which can hardly be denied, is the complete dependence of justice in personal encounters on the power of relation between person and person. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24

ImageHowever, this impression is false because it does not take into consideration that every being which enters the struggle of power with power has already a definite power of being. It is a plant and not a stone, a beast and not a tree, a man and not a dog, a female and not a male. These and innumerable other qualities are given before the struggle in the personal encounter starts and they are the basis for the intrinsic claim for justice, which every being has. However, this claim has a large margin of indefiniteness, rooted in the dynamic side of every power of a being. And it is this undefined element in the power of a being about which new decision are always me. This of course is also the source of all injustice. If the new decision destroy the essential claim of a being, they are unjust. It is not unjust that in the struggle between power and power one of the beings involved shows a superior power of being. The manifestation of this fact is not unjust but creative. However, injustice occurs if in this struggle the superior power uses its power for the reduction or destruction of the inferior power. This can happen in all forms of personal encounters. Most frequent are those forms in which the personal encounter occurs within the frame of an institutional structure and the preservation and growth of the institution gives the pretext for unjust compulsion. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24

ImageThere is unjust psychological compulsion in family relations, in educational relations and in all other authority relations. It often happens that parents who look at a young child with an especially severe or angry expression become responsible for a life-long abnormal anxiety of the child. It feels rejected and loses any self-assurance concerning the power and justice of its own being. Its just claims are repressed or transformed into unjust ones, exempli gratia unconscious destructiveness against itself or against others. This, on the other hand, gives the parents a feeling of being resisted or avoided by the child. Their intrinsic claim as parents is not fulfilled either. Authority can, besides its external compulsory power, exercise a psychological compulsion which conflicts with the justice of person-to-person encounters. Here the large problem arises as to whether there is a type of authority which is, by its very nature, unjust, and another one which is by its very nature just. This seems to be the case: there is “authority in principle” and there is “authority in fact.” Authority in principle means that a person has authority by the place one occupies and that one is beyond criticism because of the place. So—to give the most famous example—the Pope as Pope is ultimate authority for every Catholic believer. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24

ImageThus, the Bible as Bible is ultimate authority for every orthodox Protestant. Thus, the dictator as dictator is ultimate authority in a totalitarian system. Thus, parents are authority for infants and try to remain in this place for ever. So teacher become authorities for pupils without trying to liberate the pupils from their authority. All this “authority in principle” is unjust authority. It disregards the intrinsic claim of group, or, as it is called if it has a manifest center, a social organism. An organism is the more developed and has a greater power of being, the more different elements are united around an acting center. Therefore, humans produce the richest, most universal and most powerful social organisms. However, the individuals who constitute this organism are each independent centers for themselves, and so they can resist the unity of the social organism to which they belong. And there the limits of the analogy between biological and social organism becomes visible. In a biological organism the parts are nothing without the whole to which they belong. This is not the case in social organisms. They destiny of an individual who is separated from the group to which one belongs may be miserable but the separation is not necessarily fatal. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24

ImageThe fate of a limb which is cut off from the living organism to which it belongs is in decay. In this sense no human group is an organism in the biological sense. Neither is the family the cell of a quasi-biological organism, nor is the nation something like a biological organism. This statement is politically significant. Those who like to speak of social organisms do it usually with a reactionary tendency. They want to keep dissenting groups in conformity and they use for this purpose biological metaphors in a literal sense. Prussian conservatism and Roman Catholic family glorification agree at this point. However, the individual person is not a limb of a body; one is an ultimate, independent reality, with both personal and social functions. The individual human is a social being, but the society does not create the individual. They are interdependent. Another moral problem is the inability to take a definite stand and the undependability that goes with it. The neurotic rarely takes a stand in accordance with the objective merits of a person, idea, or cause but rather on the basis of one’s own emotional needs. Since these, however, are contradictory, one position can easily be exchanged for another. Hence many neurotics are readily swayed—unconsciously bribed, as it were—by the lure of greater affection, greater prestige, recognition, power, or “freedom.” #RandolphHarris 15 of 24

ImageThis applies to all their personal relationships, whether individual or as part of a group. They often cannot commit themselves to a feeling or opinion about another person. Some unsubstantiated gossip may alter their opinion. Some disappointment or sight, or what is felt as such, may be reason enough to drop a “very good friend.” Some difficulty encountered may turn their enthusiasm into listlessness. They may change their religious, political, or scientific views because of some personal attachment or resentment. They may take a stand in a private conversation but give way under the slightest pressure by some authority or group—often without knowing why they changed their opinion or even that they have do so at all. A neurotic may unconsciously avoid obvious wavering by not making up one’s mind in the first place, but “sitting on the fence,” leaving every alternative open. One may rationalize such an attitude by pointing to the actual intricacies of the situation, or one may be determined by a compulsive “fairness.” Unquestionably a genuine striving to be fair is valuable. It is true also that a conscientious wish to be fair makes it harder to take a definite stand in many situations. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24

ImageHowever, fairness can be a compulsory part of the idealized image, and its function then is to make taking a stand unnecessary, while at the same time allowing the person to feel “anointed” for being above prejudiced struggle. In this case there is a tendency to be indiscriminate in believing that two viewpoints are really not so contradictory, or that in a dispute between two persons there is right on both sides. It is a pseudo objectivity which prevents a person from recognizing the essential issues in any matter. Earlier I mentioned our various list of “do’s and do not’s.” We have looked at some typical “do not’s”: do not go to the beach, do not play pool, do not eat peanut butter. If this list seems humorous to you, you are wondering how anyone could have such unusual notions, consider that your own list could look just as foolish to someone else. However, foolish or not is not the issues. The issue is that God has not appointed any of us to be the Thought Police or other believer. However, what about the “do’s.” By the “do’s” I am thinking particularly of activities I call spiritual disciplines: having regular private devotions, studying the Bible, memorizing Scripture, meeting with a group Bible study, or faithfully attending a weekly prayer meeting. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24

ImageSpiritual disciplines are provided for our good, not for our bondage. “Spiritual disciplines were made for human, not humans for spiritual disciplines,” reports Mark 2.27. We can become just as legalistic about our “do’s” as we can about the “do nots.” In fact, newer believers coming into our fellowship from totally unchristian backgrounds usually do not have many cultural “do nots.” However, the spiritual disciplines are fertile ground for legalistic thinking. They can easily become a performance measurement by which we gauge whether to expect God’s blessing or not. If I have been doing pretty well, having a regular quiet time, studying my Bible, and so on, then I am hopeful about God’s blessing. However, if I have not been doing so well—have not “been faithful” as we say—then, I might as well go back to bed. We get more legalistic about spiritual disciplines with others. We try subtly (or maybe not so subtle) coercion by communicating ever so slightly that a person who is not practicing the same disciplines we are is not “committed.” Or we do not allow a person into our “in” group if he or she is not doing what we do. Again we think God should lead everyone else in spiritual growth as He does us. I do not think we should actively promote spiritual disciplines. They are absolutely necessary for growth in our Christian lives. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24

ImageAnd since ours is a largely undisciplined age, many believers are losing out on the benefits of those disciplines that could help them grow to maturity in Christ. However, we should promote them as benefits, not as duties. Perhaps we should stop talking about being “faithful” to have a quiet time with God each day, as if we were doing something to earn a reward. It would be better to talk about the privilege of spending time with the God of the Universe and the importance for our own sake of being consistent in the practice. If we are involved in a one-to-one discipling relationship, we must remember Paul’s attitude when he wrote, “Not that we Lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm,” reports 2 Corinthians 1.24. In a one-to-one discipling relationship, we are there to serve, not to Lord it over the other person. We should encourage the use of spiritual disciplines and do all we can to help the person succeed in them, but we should never require them as a condition of acceptance—either by God or by us. We must remember that the methods of spiritual disciplines are a means to the end, not the ends themselves. We need to teach grace before commitment, because, as we saw, grace understood and embrace will always lead to commitment. However, commitment required will always lead to legalism. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24

ImageChrist will minister to the Nephites—Nephi foresees the destruction of his people—they will speak from the dust—the Gentiles will build up false churches and secret combinations—the Lord forbids humans to practice priestcrafts. About 559-545 Before Christ. “And after Christ shall have risen from the dead he shall show himself unto you, my children, and my beloved brethren; and the words which he shall speak unto you shall be the law which ye shall do. For behold, I say unto you that I have beheld that many generations shall pass away, and there shall be great wards and contentions among my people. And after the Messiah shall come there shall be signs given unto my people of his birth, and also of his death and resurrection; and great and terrible shall that say be unto the wicked, for they shall perish; and they perish because they cast out the prophets, and the saints, and stone them, and slay them; wherefore the cry of the blood of the saints shall ascend up to God from the ground against them. Wherefore, all those who are proud, and that do wickedly, the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, for they shall be as stubble. And they that kill the prophets, and the saints, the depths of the Earth shall swallow them up, saith the Lord of Hosts; and mountains shall cover them, and whirlwinds shall carry them away, and buildings shall fall upon them and crush them to pieces and grind them to powder. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24

Image“And they shall be visited with thunderings, and listenings, and Earthquakes, and all manner of destructions, for the fire of the anger of the Lord shall be kindled against them, and they shall be as stubble, and the day that cometh shall consume them, saith the Lord of Hosts. O the pain, and the anguish of my soul for the loss of the slain of my people! For I, Nephi, have seen it, and it well nigh consumeth me before the presence of the Lord; but I must cry unto my God: They ways are just. However, behold, the righteous that hearken unto the words of the prophets, and destroy them not, but look forward unto Christ with steadfastness for the signs which are given, notwithstanding all persecution—behold, they are they which shall not perish. However, the Son of Righteousness shall appear unto them; and he shall heal them, and they shall have peace with him, until three generations shall have passed away, and many of the fourth generation shall have passed away in righteousness. And when thee things have passed away a speedy destruction cometh unto my people; for, notwithstanding the pains of my soul, I have seen it; wherefore, I know that it shall come to pass; and they sell themselves for naught; for, the reward of their pride and their foolishness they shall reap destruction; for because they yield unto the devil and choose works of darkness rather than light, therefore they must go down to hell. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24

Image“For the Spirit of the Lord will not always strive with a human. And when the Spirit ceaseth to strive with a human then cometh speedy destruction, and this grieveth my soul. And as I spake concerning the convincing of the Jews, that Jesus is the very Christ, it must needs be that the Gentiles be convinced also that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God. And that he manifesteth himself unto all those who believe in him, by the power of the Holy Ghost; yea, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, working mighty miracles the children of humans according to their faith. However, behold, I prophesy unto you concerning the last days; concerning the days when the Lord God shall bring these things forth unto the children of humans. After my seed and the seed of my brethren shall have dwindled in unbelief, and shall have been smitten by the Gentiles; yea, after the Lord God shall have camped against them round about, and shall have laid siege against them with a mount, and raised forts against them; and after they shall have been brought down low in the dust, even that they are not, yet the words of the righteous shall be written, and the prayer of the faithful shall be heard, and all those who have dwindled in unbelief shall not be forgotten,” reports 2 Nephi 26.1-15. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24

ImageWe beseech Thee, O Lord, please let the earnest desire of Thine obedient people move Thy pity, and let their faithful supplication obtain Thy mercy; that what they cannot claim by merits they may receive by the abundance of Thy pardon; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Great God, in public and private, in sanctuary and home, may my life be steeped in prayer, filled with the spirit of grace and supplication, each prayer perfumed with the incense of atoning blood. Please help me, please defend me, until from praying ground I pass to the realm of unceasing praise. Urged by my need, invited by Thy promises, called by Thy Spirit, I enter Thy presence, worshipping Thee with Godly fear, awed by Thy majesty, greatness, glory, but encourage by Thy love. I am all poverty as well as all guilt, having nothing of my own with which to repay Thee, but I bring Jesus to Thee in the arms of faith, pleading his righteousness to offset my iniquities, rejoicing that he will weigh down the scales for me, and satisfy Thy justice. I bless Thee that great sin draws out great grace, that, although the least sin deserves infinite punishment because done against an infinite God, yet there is mercy for me, for where guilty is most terrible, there Thy mercy in Christ is most free and deep. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24

ImagePlease bless me by revealing to me more of his saving merits, by causing Thy goodness to pass before me, by speaking peace to my contrite heart; strengthen me to give Thee no rest until Christ shall reign supreme within me, in every thought, word, and deed, in a faith that purifies the heart, overcomes the World, works by love, fastens me to Thee, and ever clings to the cross. O God of Heavenly powers, Who givest more than we ask or deserve; please grant, we beseech Thee, that what we cannot have by reliance on our own deserts may be granted to us by Thy mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. May Thy perpetual gifts, O Lord, be confirmed to Thy faithful servants, that in receiving them they may seek Thee, and in seeking Thee may endlessly receive them; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Bless, O Lord, Thy family in Heavenly places, and fill them with Thy spiritual gifts; grant them love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, hope, faith, chastity; that being replenished with all Thy gifts, they may attain their desires of coming safe unto Thee; through our Lord. Take away from us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, all our iniquities, and the spirit of pride and arrogance, which Thou resistest, and fill us with the spirit of fear, and give us a contrite and humbled heart, which Thou dost not despise,–that we may be enabled with pure minds to enter into the Holy of Holies; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24Image

EJN0elGVUAM6FQQ

Dinner is served. 🤩 #BrightonStation Residence 4 has a beautiful formal dining room accessible through the butler’s pantry (in the back left) or through the main hallway, creating connectivity and flow. 🙌 https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/residence-4/

Image
#CresleighRanch
#CresleighHomes

God Bless the Inventor of Sleep, the Cloak that Covers All People’s thoughts, the Food that Cures All Hunger!

ImageThe rewards of educating comes from a teachers’ innate belief that every day they have the opportunity to enrich the lives of their students by igniting the human spirit, dignifying the human experience, and inspiring human excellence. You know the old saying, “If you plan ahead God goes with you.” Commerce is everything, but everybody goes about consulting astrologers, talking about magic, and trying to drive out evil spirits. People have families, eat, drink, and try to achieve success in every way possible, yet carry on all the time about luck. Now Americans do not talk about demons, no, but they rattle on about “negative thinking,” and “self-destructive ideas” and “bad self-image.” It is a lot the same, Babylon and America. The law has become perverted! The law—and, in its wake, all the collective forces of the nation—the law, I say, not only diverted from its proper direction, but made to pursue one entirely contrary! The law has become the tool of every kind of avarice, instead of being its check! The law guilty of that very iniquity which it was its mission to punish! Truly, this is a serious fact, if it exists, and one to which I feel bound to call the attention of my fellow citizens. We hold from God the gift that, as far as we are concerned, contains all others, Life—physical, intellectual, and more life. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24

ImageHowever, life cannot support itself. One who has bestowed it, has entrusted us with the care of supporting it, of developing it, and of perfecting it. To that end, He has provided us with a collection of wonderful faculties; He has plunged us into the midst of a variety of elements. It is by the application of our faculties to these elements that the phenomena of assimilation and of appropriation, by which life pursues the circle that has been assigned to it are realized. Existence, faculties, assimilation—in other words, personality, liberty, property—this is human. It is of these three things that it may be said, apart from all demagogic subtlety, that they are anterior and superior to all human legislation. It is not because humans have made laws, that personality, liberty, and property exist. On the contrary, it is because personality, liberty, and property exist before hand, that humans make laws. What, then, is law? Law is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense. Nature, or rather God, has bestowed upon every one of us the right to defend one’s person, one’s liberty, and one’s property, since these are three constituent or preserving elements of life; elements, each of which is rendered complete by the others, and that cannot be understood without them. For what are our faculties, but the extension of our personality? And what is property, but an extension of our faculties? #RandolphHarris 2 of 24

ImageIf every person has the right of defending, even by force, one’s person, one’s liberty, and one’s property, a number of humans have the right to combine together to extend, to organize a common force to provide regularly for this defense. Collective right, then, has its principle, its reason for existing, its lawfulness, in individual right; and the common force cannot rationally have any other end, or any other mission, than that of the isolated forces for which it is substituted. Thus, as the force of an individual cannot lawfully touch the person, the liberty, or the property of another individual—for the same reason, the common force cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, the liberty, or the property of individual classes. For this perversion of force would be, in one case as in the other, in contradiction to our premises. For who will dare to say that force has been given to us, not to defend our rights, but to annihilate the equal rights of our brethren? And if this be not true of every individual force, acting independently, how can it be true of the collective force, which is only the organized union of isolated forces? It is not for one to work for humanity by only helping particular persons and by alleviating isolated distresses. One’s form of service must be stretch over wider areas, must affect a multitude of persons. However, this is possible only if one works in deeper ground and through secret unobtrusive ways. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24

ImageThe World being what it is, human nature what it has long been, and human affairs all-too-repetitious, one will not waste time and energy attempting to re-arrange the by surface efforts.  One may do nothing more than put one’s mite of cheering truth and softening goodness into the grim World around one, but this will be enough. One cannot contribute more than one has. The ultimate result of this contribution may be little, but one has tried to do God’s will on Earth. Nothing, therefore, can be more evident than this: The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense; it is the  substitution of collective for individual forces, for the purpose of acting in the sphere in which they have a right to act, of doing what they have a right to do, to secure persons, liberties, and properties, and to maintain each in its right, so as to cause justice to reign over all. Just the fact that one is here, on this planet and at this time, makes its own contribution to humanity’s welfare. This is still true even though one may not try to manage other people’s lives on the plea of serving them. One’s service may not be immediately, or locally, apparent; it may need time to come up from the subconscious levels that are the deeper layers of mind and spirit, but it will be nevertheless real. Although it is not one’s direct purpose, one’s existence will lessen humanity’s suffering, and increase its hope and goodwill through obeying and enforcing law and order. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24

ImageAnd if people established upon this basis were to exist, it seems to me that order would prevail among them in their acts as well as in their ideas. It seems to me that such people would have the most simple, the most economical, the least oppressive, the least to be felt, the most restrained, the most just, and, consequently, the most stable Government that could be imagined, whatever its political form might be. For under such an administration, everyone would feel that one possessed all the fullness, as well as all the responsibility of one’s existence. So long as personal safety was ensured, so long as labour was free, and the fruits of labour secured against all unjust attacks, no one would have any difficulties to content with in the State. When prosperous, we should not, it is true, have to thank the State for our success; but when unfortunate, we should no more think of taxing it with our disasters than our less affluents think of attributing to it the arrival of hail or of frost. We should know it only by the inestimable blessing of Safety. Those who cross this path may feel like it is only a once in a lifetime experience, and they will receive instruction, even though they are not outwardly being taught. America is under God’s divine blessing and God’s grace has bestowed us with Manifest Destiny, which has influenced kings and rulers and leaders of humans and culture. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24

ImageManifest Destiny has guaranteed America with the birth rite to expand its boarders from sea to shining sea. The poem of the Statue of Liberty is a prophecy that one day, America will be One World, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I mean, really, who would not like to move around the World and be protected by the laws, rights, and justice that Americans are granted on their beautiful island? Americans have emerged into public view in order to quicken the pace of evolution by active external work, but some do not have their spiritual identity and as a result their efforts where not always successful because they had to deal with frail stubborn human nature. Knowing this convinces us better than printed arguments of the eternal Spiritual truths. It may further be affirmed, that, thanks to the non-intervention of the State in private affairs, our wants and their satisfactions would develop themselves in their natural order. We should not see less affluent families seeking for literary instruction before they were supplied with bread. We should not see those great displacements of capital, of labour, and population, that legislative measures occasion; displacements that render so uncertain and precarious the very sources of existence, and thus enlarge to such an extent the responsibility of Governments. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24

ImageUnhappily, law is by no means confirmed to its own sphere. Nor is it merely in some ambiguous and debatable views that it has left it proper sphere. It has done more than this. It has acted in direct opposition to its proper end; it has destroyed its own object; it has been employed in annihilating that justice which it ought to have established, in effacing amongst Rights, that limit which it was its true mission to respect; it has placed the collective force in the service of those who wish to traffic, without risk and without scruple, in the persons, the liberty, and the property of others; it has converted plunder into a right, that it may protect it, and lawful defense into a crime, that it may punish it. How has this perversion of law been accomplished? And what has resulted from it? The law has been perverted through the influence of two very different causes—naked greed and misconceived philanthropy. Let us speak of the former. Self-preservation and development is the common aspiration of all human, in such a way that if every one enjoyed the free exercise of one’s faculties and the free disposition of their fruits, social progress would be incessant, uninterrupted, inevitable. However, there is also another disposition which is common to them. This is to live and to develop, when they can, at the expense of another. This is no rash imputation, emanating from a gloomy, uncharitable spirit. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24

ImageHistory bears witness to the truth of it, by the incessant wars, the migrations of races, sectarian oppressions, the universality of slavery, the frauds in trade, and the monopolies with which it annals universal, and invincible sentiment that urges it towards its well-being, and makes it seek to escape pain. Humans can only derive life and enjoy from a perpetual search and appropriation; that is, from a perpetual application of one’s faculties to objects, or from labour. This is the origin of property. However, also one may live and enjoy, by seizing and appropriating the productions of the faculties of one’s fellow humans. This is the origin of plunder. Now, labour being in itself a pain, and humans being naturally inclined to avoid pain, it follows, and history proves it, that whatever plunder is less burdensome than labour, it prevails; and neither religion nor morality can, in this case, prevent it from prevailing. When does plunder cease, then? When it becomes more burdensome and more dangerous than labour. It is very evident that the proper aim of law is to oppose the fatal tendency to plunder with the powerful obstacle of collective force; that all its measures should be in favour of property, and against plunder. However, law is made, generally, by one human, or by one class of humans. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24

ImageAnd as law cannot exist without the sanction and the support of preponderant force, it must finally place this force in the hands of those who legislate. This inevitable phenomenon, combined with the fatal tendency that, we have said, exists in the heart of humans, explains the almost universal perversions of law. It is easy to conceive that, instead of being a check upon injustice, it becomes its most invincible instrument. It is easy to conceive that, according to the power of the legislator, it destroys for its own profit, and in different degrees amongst the rest of the community, personal independence by slavery, liberty by oppression, and property by plunder. It is in the nature of humans to rise against the injustice of which they are the victims. When, therefore, plunder is organized by law, for the profit of those who perpetrate it, all the plundered classes tend, either by peaceful or revolutionary means, to enter in some way into the manufacturing of laws. These classes, according to the degree of enlightenment at which they have arrived, may propose to themselves two very different ends, when they thus attempt the attainment of their political rights; either they may wish to put an end to lawful plunder, or they may desire to take part in it. Woe to the nation where this latter thought prevails amongst the masses, at the moment when they, in their turn, seize upon the legislative power! #RandolphHarris 9 of 24

ImageUp to that time, lawful plunder has been exercised by the few upon the many, as is the case in the case in countries where the right of legislating is confined to a few hands. However, now it has become universal, and the equilibrium is sought in universal plunder. The injustice that society contains, instead of being rooted out of it, is generalized. As soon as the injured classes have recovered their political rights, their first thought is not to abolish plunder (this would suppose them to possess enlightenment, which they cannot have), but to organize against the other classes, and to their own detriment, a system of reprisals—as if it was necessary, before the reign of justice arrives, that all should undergo a cruel retribution—some for their iniquity and some for their ignorance. It would be the consequences of such a perversion? It would require volumes to describe them all. We must content ourselves with pointing out the most striking. In the first place, it would efface from everybody’s conscience the distinction between justice and injustice. No society can exist unless the laws are respected to a certain degree, but the safest way to make them respected is to make them respectable. When law and morality are in contradiction to each other, the citizen find oneself in the cruel alternative of either losing one’s moral sense, or of losing one’s respect for the law—two evils of equal magnitude, between which it would be difficult to choose. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

ImageIt is so much in the nature of law to support justice that in the minds of the masses they are one and the same. There is in all of us a strong disposition to regard what is lawful as legitimate, so much so that many falsely derive all justice from law. It is sufficient, then, for the law to order and sanction plunder, that it may appear to many consciences just and sacred. Slavery, protection, and monopoly find defenders, not only in those who profit by them, but in those who suffer by them. If you suggest a doubt as to the morality of these institutions, it is said directly—“You are dangerous experimenter, a utopian, a theorist, a despiser of the laws; your would shake the basis upon which society rests.” The imagination is responsible for imagery of all kinds. It is the representation of an individual thought. The imagination reproduces images made originally by the senses or held in memory and creates images either in cooperation with reason or in its own right. These functions are in turn revealed in three kinds of imagination, the first joined with belief of that which is to come; the second joined with memory of that which is past; and the third is of things present, or as if they were presented; imaginations are feigned and at pleasure; as if one should imagine such a person to be in the vestments of a Pope, or to have wings. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24

ImageExamination of the three kind of imagination, the first joined with the memory of that which is to come; the second joined with memory of that which is past; and the third is of things present, as if they were present, discloses the reproductive and creative roles of imagination, and about the force of imagery qua imagery, exempli gratia, imagination intensive. What is the representation of an individual thought? At the level of understanding and reason, thought could be so abstract as to be impalpable. Imagination has the power of rendering abstract thought tangible. The tangible manifestation appeared most widely as words in speech and writing, for the words were the images of thought, the images of cogitations. Thinking can occur in the absence of imagery, but if it were to be available to sense, it has to appear as auditory and verbal imagery. Thought images serve as if they were the contents of perception, but thinking does not take place at all without some kind of an image. The mind can frame a purely mental proposition without the use of words. So from the point of view of the mind that makes them, the imagery of speech and language is the concrete analogue of abstract thought. The imagination thus gives body to thought. A thought occurred, an image followed upon it. Imagery is in this sense a re-presenting of thought. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24

ImageThe objectification of thought as verbal imagery is strikingly perceived when one contemplates the context within which we locate speech and writing along with the communication, or transmission, of ideas among the rational or intellectual arts. We distinguish four intellectual or logical activities, and these give their names to corresponding arts. Reason is the discursive movement of the understanding, and logic is a term applied to the study of its modes of discursion as they appear in discourse. There is invention—the finding and discovering of ideas; there is judging—the evaluation and criticism of the results of invention; there is memory—the retention of what is judged acceptable; and there is the transmission and communication of ideas. The first three of these activities are mental, or as more properly, psychological, processes. They were unavailable to our sense directly. To the extent that they became available as discourse, rather than through spirit (human or divine) or in other nondiscursive, immediate ways, they must appear as material and form. So we place under the transmission of ideas three other features of intellectual discursiveness; the organ of discourse, the method of discourse, and the illustration of discourse. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24

ImageThe organ of discourse deals with the smallest physical elements, and the smallest number of them, that can be used alone or in combination to depict thought and its process. In ordinary languages these are speech and writing, though other kinds of characters have been used, such as hieroglyphics. Abstractly considered, the organ of discourse is grammar; concretely considered, the organ of discourse is speech and writing. The organ is so designated precisely because reason in its discursiveness needs and organ. On the other hand, the understanding as such, or pure reason, does not require an organ. In brief, the sound images of voice and speech and the visual images of language written are the simplest and most pervasive products of imagination. They are somehow bound in with thought. Imagine and thought are two facets of a unitary whole. The whole may be a modulation of the spirit. As to miracle, it is the sign-event which has occasioned or provoked the ecstatic awareness of revelation. It does not require special supernatural interference in natural process. The structure of natural causality is not broken. What happens is that certain natural events, when encountered in a special turn of mind, point to the mystery of being and non-being, and induce the beholder to commit oneself unconditionally to this revelation. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24

ImageThe sign-events in which the mystery be being gives itself consist in special constellations of elements of reality in correlation with special constellations of elements of the mind. Miracle occasions ecstasy; yet the event in question has become a miracle only through ecstasy. The subjective and the objective condition one another. Taking these revelatory elements together, one can say that ecstasy is the miracle of the mind and that miracle is the ecstasy of reality. By definition, religion originates in a correlation of miracle and ecstasy. The basic problem of all religions, however, is that literally anything may be a medium of revelation. Any event may be a miracle. Nature, history, groups, individuals and the word may be, and have been, mediums of revelation. The multiplicity of revelatory situations is at the origin of many different symbols of ultimate concern which have been developed by religions. Faith is unique. However, its symbols are manifold. Could there be only one symbol, there would be only one concrete content of faith, and therefore one religion. This naturally raises the problem of a final revelation: is there one revelatory event that transcends and underlies all others? The problem of Christianity and of its universal claim is thus posited. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24

ImageNo discussion of Christianity is meaningful if we leave out the sight of conception of a revelatory experience: a final revelation, if there is one, is first of all a constellation of revelatory character. The discipline of petitionary prayer: The practice of prayer—the list, the quiet, the place, the time, the posture, preparation, and the length—all suggest one thing—discipline. Work—candidly, prayer is work, not a sport. It is not something that you do if you like it, or devote your spare time to, or do only if you are good at it. Prayer is the proper work of the soul which loves Christ (Ephesians 6.18): And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayer and requests. With this in mind, be alter and always keep on praying for all the saints. This is a call to work! We must never wait until we feel like praying—otherwise we may never pray, unless, perhaps, we fall headfirst into an open wall. The context of Paul’s charge in Ephesians 6 is spiritual warfare—and that is what prayer is! Christian people face the World in prayer. Work and war, war and work—these are the words we must keep before us if we are to become humans of prayer. “Now I, Nephi, do speak somewhat concerning the words which I have written, which have written, which have been spoken by the mouth of Isaiah. For Behold, Isaiah spake many things which were hard for many of my people to understand; for they know not concerning the manner of prophesying among the Jews. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24

Image“For I, Nephi, have not taught them many things concerning the manner of the Jews; for their works were works of darkness, and their doings were doings of abominations. Wherefore, I write unto my people, unto all those that shall receive hereafter these things which I write, that they may know the judgments of God, that they come upon all nations, according to the word which he hath spoken. Wherefore, hearken, O my people, which are of the house of Israel, and give ear unto my words; for because the words of Isaiah are not plain unto you, nevertheless they are plain unto all those that are filled with the spirit of prophecy. However, I give unto you a prophecy, accord to the spirit which is in me; wherefore I shall prophesy according to the plainness which hath been with me from the time that I came out from Jerusalem with my father; for behold, my soul delighteth in plainness unto my people, that they may learn. Yea, and my soul delighteth in the words of Isaiah, for I came out from Jerusalem, and mine eyes hath beheld the things of the Jews, and I know that the Jews do understand the things of the prophets, and there is none other people that understand the things which were spoken unto the Jews like unto them, save it be that they are taught after the manner of the things of the Jews. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24

Image“But behold, I, Nephi, have not taught my children after the manner of the Jews; but behold, I, of myself, have dwelt at Jerusalem, wherefore I know concerning the regions round about; and I have made mention unto my children concerning the judgments of God, which hath come to pass among the Jews, unto my children, according to al that which Isaiah hath spoken, and I do not write them. However, behold, I proceed with mine own prophecy, according to my plainness; in the which I know that no person can err; nevertheless, in the days that the prophecies of Isaiah shall be fulfilled people shall know of a surety, at the times when they shall come to pass. Wherefore, they are of worth unto the children of humans, and one that supposeth that they are not, unto them will I speak particularly, and confine the words unto mine own people; for I know that they shall be of great worth unto them in the last days; for in that day shall they understand them; wherefore, for their good have I written them. And as one generation hath been destroyed among the Jews because of iniquity, even so have they been destroyed from generation to generation to generation according to their iniquities; and never hath any of the been destroyed save it were foretold them by the prophets of the Lord. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24

Image“Wherefore, it hath been told them concerning the destruction which should come upon them, immediately after my father left Jerusalem; nevertheless, they hardened their hearts; and according to my prophecy they have been destroyed, save it be those which are carried away captive into Babylon. And now this I speak because of the spirit which is in me. And notwithstanding they have been carried away they shall have return again, and possess the land of Jerusalem; wherefore, they shall be restored again to the land of their inheritance. However, behold, they shall have wars, and rumors of wars; and when that day cometh that the Only Begotten of the Father, yea, even the Father of Heaven and of Earth, shall manifest himself unto them in the flesh, behold, they will reject him, because of their iniquities, and the hardness of their hearts, and the stiffness of their necks. Behold, they will crucify him; and after he is laid in a sepulcher for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead, with healing in his wings; and all those who shall believe on his name shall be saved in the kingdom of God. Wherefore, my soul delighteth to prophesy concerning him, for I have seen his day, and my heart doth magnify his holy name. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24

Image“And behold it shall come to pass that after the Messiah hath risen from the dead, and hath manifested himself unto his people, unto as many as will believe on his name, behold, Jerusalem shall be destroyed again; for wo unto them that fight against God and the people of his church. Wherefore, the Jews shall be scattered among all nations; yea, and also Babylon shall be destroyed; wherefore, the Jews shall be scattered by other nations. And after they have been scattered, and the Lord God hath scourged them by other nations for the space of many generations, yea, even down from generation to generation until they shall be persuaded to believe in Christ, the Son of God, and the atonement, which is infinite for all humankind—and when that say shall come that they shall believe in Christ, and worship the Father in his name, with pure hearts and clean hands, and look not forward any more for another Messiah, then, at that time, the day will come that it must needs be expedient that they should believe these things. And the Lord will set his hand again the second time to restore his people from their lost and fallen state. Wherefore, one will proceed to do a marvelous work and a wonder among the children of humans. Wherefore, he shall bring forth his words unto them, which words shall judge them at the last day, for they shall be given them for the purpose of convincing them of the true Messiah, who was rejected by them. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24

Image“And unto the convincing of them that they need not look forward any more for a Messiah to come, for there should not any come, save it should be a false Messiah which should deceive the people; for there is save one Messiah spoken of by the prophets, and that Messiah is one who should be rejected of the Jews. For according to the words of the prophets, the Messiah cometh in six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem; and according to the words of the prophets, and also the word of the Angel of God, his name shall be Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And now, my brethren, I have spoken plainly that ye cannot err. And as the Lord God liveth that brought Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and have unto Moses power that he should heal nations after they have been bitten by the poisonous serpents, if they would cast their eyes unto the serpent which he did raise up before them, and also gave him power that he should smite the rock and the water should come forth; yea, behold I say unto you, that as these things are true, and as the Lord God liveth, there is none other name given under Heaven save it be this Jesus Christ, of which I have spoken, whereby humans can be saved. Wherefore, for this cause hath the Lord God promised unto me that these things which I write shall be kept and preserved, and handed down unto my seed, from generation to generation, that the promise may be fulfilled unto Joseph, that his seed should never perish as long as the Earth should stand. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24

Image“Wherefore, these things shall go from generation to generation as long as the Earth shall stand; and they shall go according to the will and pleasure of God; and the nations who shall possess them shall be judged of them according to the words which are written. For we labour diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do. And, notwithstanding we believe in Christ, we keep the law of Moses, and look forward with the steadfastness unto Christ, until the law shall be fulfilled. For, for this end was the law given; wherefore the law hath become dead unto us, and we are made alive in Christ because of our faith; yet we keep the law because of the commandments. And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins. Wherefore, we speak concerning the law that our children may know the deadness of the law; and they, by knowing the deadness of the law, may look forward unto that life which is in Christ, and know for what end the law is given. And after the law is fulfilled in Christ, that they need not harden their hearts against him when the law ought to be done away. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24

Image“And now behold, my people, ye, are a stiffnecked people; wherefore, I have spoken plainly unto you, that ye cannot misunderstand. And the words which I have spoken shall stand as a testimony against you; for they are sufficient to teach any human the right way; for the right way is to believe in Christ and deny him not; for by denying him ye also deny the prophets and the law. And now behold, I say unto you that the right way is to believe in Christ, and deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before hum, and worship him with all your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul; and if ye do this ye shall in nowsie be cast out. And, inasmuch as it shall be expedient, ye must keep the performances and ordinances of God until the law shall be fulfilled which was given uno Moses. O LORD God, Who hast taught us to pray all together, and hast promised to hear the united voices of two or three invoking Thy Name; hear now, O Lord, the prayers of Thy servants unto their salvation, and give us in this World knowledge of Thy truth, and in the World to come life everlasting. Living by prayer—O God of the open ear, please teach me to live by prayer as well as by providence, for myself, soul, body, children, family, church; please give me a heart frameable to Thy will; so might I live in prayer, and honour Thee, being kept from evil, known and unknown. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24

ImagePlease help me to see the sin that accompanies all I do, and the good I can distil from everything. Let me know that the work of prayer is to bring my will to thine, and that without this it is folly to pray; when I try to bring Thy will to mine it is to command Christ, to be above him, and wiser than he: this is my sin and pride. I can only succeed when I pray according to Thy precept and promise, and to be done with as it pleases Thee, according to Thy sovereign will. When Thou commandest me to pray for pardon, peace, brokenness, it is because Thou wilt give me the thing promised, for Thy glory, as well as for my good. Help me not only to desire small things but holy boldness to desire great things for Thy people, for myself, that they and I might live to show Thy glory. Teach me that it is wisdom for me to pray for all I have, out of love, willingly, not of necessity; that I may come to Thee at any time, to lay open my need acceptably to Thee; that my great sin lies in my not keeping the savour of Thy ways; that the remembrance of this truth is one way to the sense of Thy presence; that there is no wrath like the wrath of being governed by my own lusts for my own ends. Regard, O Lord, the prayers of Thy family, and please grant Thine assistance to their humble supplications; that, by means of the assistance which they require, they may persevere in the confession of Thy Name: through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24Image

BRIGHTON STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH
Rancho Cordova, CA |
Now Selling!

4 Bedrooms – 3.5 Bathrooms – 2,757 square feet

ImageBrighton Station at Cresleigh Ranch is Rancho Cordova’s newest home community! This charming neighborhood offers an array of home types with eye catching architecture styles such as Mid-Century Modern, California Modern, Prairie, and Contemporary Farmhouse.

ImageLocated off Douglas Road and Rancho Cordova Parkway, the residents of Cresleigh Ranch will enjoy, being just minutes from shopping, dining, and entertainment, and quick access to Highway 50 and Grant Line Road providing a direct route into Folsom. Residents here also benefit from no HOA fees, two community parks and the benefits of being a part of the highly-rated Elk Grove Unified School District. https://youtu.be/yQTnZ0oO2OEhttps://youtu.be/yQTnZ0oO2OE

Image

#CresleighHomes

We Have Seen Better Days–Is this the Man That Made the Earth to Tremble, that Did Shake Kingdoms?

Capture5Through education, we have the ability to change and improve the World in which we live. By touching the lives of students, outstanding educators make the future brighter for all of us. If it be true that, in ages of equality, humans readily adopt the notion of a great central power, it cannot be doubted on the other hand that their habits and sentiments predispose them to recognise such a power and give it their support. Humans connect the greatness of their idea of unity with means, God with ends; hence this idea of greatness, as humans conceive it, leads us into infinite littleness. To compel all humans to follow the same course toward the same objects is a human notion;–to introduce infinite variety of actions, but so combined that all these acts lead by a multitude of different courses to the accomplishment of one great design, is a conception of the Deity. The human idea of unity is almost always barren; the divine idea pregnant with abundant results. Humans think they manifest their greatness by simplifying the means they use; but it is the purpose of God which is simple—His means are infinitely varied. As the humans who inhabit democratic countries have no superiors, no inferiors, and no habitual or necessary partners in their undertakings, they readily fall back upon themselves and consider themselves as being apart. I had occasion to point this out at considerable length in treating of individualism. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

ImageHence such humans can never, without an effort, tear themselves from their private affairs to engage in public business; their natural bias leads them to abandon the latter to sole visible and permanent representatives of the interest of the community, that is to say, to the State. Not only are they naturally wanting in a taste for public business, but they have frequently no time to attend to it. Private life is so busy in democratic periods, so excited, so fully of wishes and of work, that hardly any energy or leisure remains to each individual for public life. I am the last person to content that these propensities are unconquerable, since my chief object in writing this essay is to combat them. I only maintain that at the present day a secret power is fostering them in the human heart, and that is they are not checked they will wholly overgrow it. I have also had occasion to show how the increasing love of well-being, and the fluctuating character of property, cause democratic nations to dread all violent disturbance. The love of public tranquility is frequently the only passion which these nations retain, and it becomes more active and powerful among them in proportion as all other passions droop and die. This naturally disposes the members of the community constantly to give or to surrender additional rights to the central power, which alone seems to be interested n defending them by the same means that it uses to defend itself. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

ImageAs in ages of equality no human is compelled to lend one’s assistance to one’s fellow-humans, and none has any right to expect much support from them, every one is at once independent and powerless. These two conditions, which must never be either separately considered or confounded together, inspire the citizen of a democratic country with very contrary propensities. One’s independence fills one with self-reliance and pride among one’s equals; one’s debility makes one feel from time to time the want of some outward assistance, which one cannot expect from any of them, because they are all impotent and unsympathizing. In this predicament one naturally turns one’s eyes to that imposing power which alone rises above the level of universal depression. Of that power one wants and especially one’s desires continually remind one, until one ultimately views it as the sole and necessary support of one’s own weakness. In democratic communities nothing but the central power has any stability in its position or any permanence it its undertakings. All the members of society are in ceaseless stir and transformation. Now it is in the nature of all governments to seek constantly to enlarge their sphere of action: hence it is almost impossible that such a government should not ultimately succeed, because it acts with a fixed principle and a constant will, upon, humans, whose position, whose notions, and whose desires are in continual vacillation. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

ImageIt frequently happens that the members of the community promote the influence of the central power without intending it. Democratic age are periods of experiments, innovation, and adventure. At such times there are always a multitude of people engaged in difficult or novel undertakings, which they follow alone, without caring for their fellow-humans. Such persons may be ready to admit, as a general principle, that the public authority ought not to interfere in private concerns; but, by an exception to that rule, each of them craves for its assistance in the particular concern on which one is engaged, and seeks to draw upon the influence of the government for one’s own benefit, though one would restrict it on all other occasions. If a large number of people apply this particular exception to a great variety of different purposes, the sphere of the central power extends insensibly in all directions, although each f them wishes it to be circumscribed. Thus a democratic government increases its power simply by the fact of its permanence. Time is on its side; every incident befriends it; the passions of individuals unconsciously promote it; and it may be asserted, that the older a democratic community is, the more centralized will its government become. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

ImageThis may ore completely explain what frequently takes place in democratic countries, where the very people who are so impatient of superiors patiently submit to a master, exhibiting at once their pride and their servility. The hatred which people bear to privilege increases in proportion as privileges become more scarce and less considerable, so that democratic passions would seem to burn most fiercely at the very time when they have least fuel. I have already given the reason of this phenomenon. When all conditions are unequal, no inequality is so great as to offend the eye; whereas the slightest dissimilarity is odious in the midst of genera uniformity: the more complete is this uniformity, the more insupportable does the sight of such a difference become. Hence it is natural that the love of equality should constantly increase together with equality itself, and that it should grow by what it feeds upon. This never-dying, ever-kindling hatred, which sets a democratic people against the smallest privileges, is peculiarity favourable to the gradual concentration of all political rights in the hands of the representative of the state alone. The sovereign, being necessarily and incontestably above all the citizens, excites not their envy, and each of them thinks that one strips one’s equals of the prerogative which one concedes to the crown. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

ImageThe human of a democratic age is extremely reluctant to obey one’s neighbour who is one’s equal; one refuses to acknowledge in such a person ability superior to one’s own; one mistrust one’s justice, and is jealous of power; one fears and one contemns one; and one loves continually to remind one of the common dependence in which both of them stand to the same master. Every central power which follows its natural tendencies courts and encourages the principle of equality; for equality singularly facilitates, extends, and secures the influence of a central power. In like manner it may be said that every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relives it from inquiry into an infinite number of small details which must be attended to if rules were to be adapted to humans, instead of indiscriminately subjecting humans to rules: this the government likes what the citizens like, and naturally hates what they hate. These common sentiments, which, in democratic nations, constantly unite the sovereign and every member of the community in one in the same pardoned for the sake of its tastes; public confidence is only reluctantly withdrawn in the midst even of its excesses and its errors, and it is restored at the first call. Democratic nations often hate those in whose hands the central power is vested; but they always love that power itself. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

ImageThus, by two separate paths, I have reached the same conclusion. I have shown that the principle of equality suggests to people the notion of a sole, uniform, and strong government: I have now shown that the principle of equality imparts to them a taste for it. To governments of this kind the nations of our age are therefore tending. They are drawn thither by the natural inclination of mind and heart; and in order to reach that result, it is enough that they do not check themselves in their course. I am of opinion, that, in the democratic ages which are opening upon us, individual independence and local liberties will ever be the produce of artificial contrivance; that centralization will be the natural form of government. A democratic people is not only led by its own tastes to centralize its government, but the passions of all the humans by whom it is governed constantly urge it in the same direction. It may easily be foreseen that almost all the able and ambitious members of a democratic community will labour without ceasing to extend the powers of government, because they all hope at some time or other to wield those powers. It is a waste of time to attempt to prove to them that extreme centralization may be injurious to the State, since they are centralizing for their own benefit. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

ImageAmong the public people of democracies there are hardly any but humans of great disinterestedness or extreme mediocrity who seek to oppose the centralization of government: the former are scarce, the latter powerless. Justice as proportional justice cannot fulfill the quest implied in a concrete situation, but love can. One should never say that love’s work starts where the work of justice ends. For love shows what is just in the concrete situation. Nothing is more false than to say to somebody: since I love you and you love me, I do not need to get justice from you or you from me, for love eliminates the need for justice. Such language is used by people who want to avoid the obligations which are connected with justice. It is said by tyrannical rulers to their subjects and by tyrannical parents to their children. And even if they do not say it, they act accordingly. It is a clever way of trying to escape the responsibility and the self-restriction demanded by justice. Often, the love which supposedly transcends justice is nothing more than an emotional outburst of self-surrender, alternating with emotional outburst of hostility. Therefore it is false to say: Loves gives what justice cannot give; love drives to a self-surrender which is beyond the demand of justice. There is much self-surrender which the demand of proportional justice, exempli gratia death for a cause on which one’s own existence depends. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

ImageHowever, there are other kinds of self-surrender which are not demanded by proportional justice. They are demanded by love. However, if they are demanded by love they are demanded by creative justice. For the creative element in justice is love. Love, in this respect, has the same relation to justice which revelation has to reason. And this is not an accidental analogy. It is rooted in the nature of both revelation and love. Both of them transcend the rational norm without destroying it. Both of them have an “ecstatic element.” Love in some of its expressions, exempli gratia in which Paul gives in Cor. Xiii can be called justice in ecstasy, as revelation can be called reason in ecstasy. This also is confirmed by Paul when he derives both revelatory experiences and the working of love from the divine spirit. And as revelation does not give additional information in the realm where cognitive reason decides, so love does not drive to additional acts in the realm where practical reason decides. Both give another dimension to reason, revelation to cognitive reason, love to practical reason. Neither of them denies that to which it gives the dimensions of depth, namely to reason. As revelation does not contradict the structures of cognitive reason (otherwise revelation could not be received), so love does not contradict justice (otherwise it could not be actualized). This consideration points to the dependence of the whole realm of moral action on the presence of the Spiritual power. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

ImageThe relation of justice to love in personal encounters can adequately be described through three functions of creative justice, namely, listening, giving, forgiving. In none of them does love do more than justice demands, but in each of them love recognizes what justice demands. In order to know what is just in a person-to-person encounter, love listens. It is its first task to listen. No human relation, especially no intimate one, is possible without mutual listening. Reproaches, reactions, defences may be justified in terms of proportional justice. However, if there were more mutual listening, perhaps they would prove to be unjust. All things and all humans, so to speak, call on us with small or loud voices. They want us to listen, they want us to understand their intrinsic claims, their justice of being. They want justice from us. However, we can give it to them only through the love which listen. Love in its attempt to see what is the other person is by no means irrational. It uses all possible means to penetrate into the dark places of one’s motives and inhibitions. It uses, for example, the tool provided by depth psychology which give unexpected possibilities of discovering the intrinsic claims of a human being. Through it we have learned that human expression can mean something quite different from what they seem or intended to mean. They seem to be aggressive, but what they express may be love, inhibited by shyness. They seem to be sweet and submissive and they are actually symptoms of hostility. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

ImageWords, well meant, but uttered improperly, may produce in reaction complete injustice. Listening love is the first step to justice in person-to-person encounters. And it has also a function in encounters with living nature and nature generally. However, if we tried to purse the problem of human justice and injustice toward nature, a large new field of inquiry would be opened, too large for our present task and too much in need of references to art and poetry task and too much in need of references to art and poetry for an ontological analysis. The second function of creative justice in personal encounters is giving. It belongs to the right of everyone whom we encounter to demand something from us, at least that even in the most impersonal relations the other one is acknowledged as a person. However, this minimum of giving drives toward a maximum—including possible self-sacrifice if the occasion demands it. If it serves the purpose of reuniting love, giving is an expression of creative justice. It is obvious that under this criterion it may mean the demand to resist and to restrain and to deprive. Here again psychological wisdom can help to do what appears to be the opposite of giving love. Creative justice includes the possibility of sacrificing the other one in one’s existence, though not in one’s being as a person. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

ImageThe third and most paradoxical form in which justice is untied with love is forgiving. Their unity is indicated in the Pauline term: justification by grace. Justification literally means: making just, and it means in the context of Paul’s and Luther’s doctrine to accept as just one who is unjust. Nothing seems to contradict more the idea of justice than this doctrine, and everybody who has pronounced it has been accused of promoting injustice and amorality. It seems to be utterly unjust to declare one who is unjust, just. However, nothing less than this is what has been called the good news in Christian preaching. And nothing less than this is the fulfilment of justice. For it is the only way of reuniting those who are estranged by guilt. Without reconciliation there is no reunion. Forgiving love is the only way of fulfilling the intrinsic claim in every being, namely its claim to be reaccepted into the unity to which it belongs. Creative justice demands that this claim be accepted and that one be accepted who is unacceptable in terms of proportional justice. In accepting one into the unity of forgiveness, love exposes both the acknowledged break with justice on one’s side with all its implicit consequences and the claim inherent in one to be declared just and to be made just by reunion. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

ImageFor the most part, “religion” is not equated with the ultimate dynamic of faith, but rather with human’s systematic ambition to give a name to the Unconditioned. This ambition is not only justified; it is also necessary to faith itself. For faith cannot be communicated unless it is couched in language; and language, if it is to be understood, must have a recognizable frame of reference. A system of speech that will express the Unconditioned by pointing to it cannot be purely intellectualistic. Faith as being ultimately concerned is a centered act of the whole personality. If one of the functions which constitute the totality of the personality is partly or completely identified with faith, the meaning of faith is distorted. An intellectualistic bias makes faith into an act of intellectual, unconditional belief in a set of supposedly revealed, or at least infallible, statements; this distortion forgets that faith is not knowledge, but beyond knowledge. A voluntaristic overemphasis makes faith into a product of the will-to-believe; but no command to believe and no will to believe can create faith. Finite humans cannot produce the certainty which belongs to faith. Finally, there are emotionalistic distortions where faith is a matter of merely subjective emotions, without a content to be known and a demand to be obeyed. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

ImageA safe course avoiding these pitfalls must be charted. The concrete content of faith, the linguistic expression of the Unconditioned, is neither mere knowledge, nor mere will to believe or mere feeling. Connected with all three, it lies deeper than any. Yet only the rational faculties can provide a distinct knowledge of anything. One must then conclude that, although it is intellectual, the process of tacking a name on the Unconditioned cannot aim at a distinct knowledge. All it can do is to devise adequate symbols and myths. The symbols and myths must be related to the elaborate conception of Revelation. No concrete content of faith is human-made in the ordinary sense of the terms. One cannot invent symbols of the infinite; none can be produced intentionally. No poet can purposely set oneself the task of elaborating a new symbolic of the Absolute. Rather, symbols are provided along with human’s perceptions of the Unconditional. Those elements of the concrete Universe that were present to one’s consciousness, or even to one’s unconscious, within the situation where one identified oneself with an unconditional concern, may all become for one adequate symbols of faith. In order to be meaningful to a collective unconscious of the group in which they appear. The peculiar experience in which the ground of being (the Unconditional) is reached any potential symbols of it are provided by revelation. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

ImageThe congeries of elements that contribute to this experience form a revelatory situation, a revelatory event, a constellation of revelatory character. A revelatory event, since it is an event, can be studied historically. It is dated and located. Yet there is no new revelation with each new revelatory event: always and everywhere there is only the one revelation, namely the manifestation of the depths of being. What strikes humans as a new revelation actually is a new awakening. Thus understood, revelation is the manifestation of what concerns us ultimately. Negatively, it opens our eyes to the abysmal element in the ground of being; it lays bare the fact that, though we are, we might not have been; this threat of non-being, or shock of non-being, is a necessary element in revelation. Apart from it one cannot reach ultimacy, for ultimacy faces us precisely when every conditioned element of being has been discarded. What remains is then, seen from the dark night, non-being, abyss. However, a revelation that would end there would foster despair, not faith. Faith is sparked wen revelation shows the beneficial sides of the mystery of being: as ground and not only as abyss. The correlation of abyss and ground in revelation nevertheless show how near despair may be to faith. The hell of despair is the strange work that love odes within us in order to open us up for its own work, justification of one who is unjust. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

ImageA revelatory situation always has two side both of which escape the ordinary superficial structure of life. We are now touching the rock bottom of being-itself. We are at the parting of nothingness and being. What then takes place is no longer simply an event; it is a miracle! And what is experiences is no mere experience; it is ecstasy. Ecstasy is the state of mind in which reason is beyond itself, that is, beyond its subject-object structure. The mind then is thrown out of its normal balance, shaken in its structure. Reason reaches its boundary line, is thrown upon itself, and then is driven again to its extreme situation. What is then known is known as the Unconditional; it escapes all the conditions of common human knowledge and experience, since it underlies all of them and gives them the power to be. If inspiration is the same for the cognitive quality of the ecstatic experience, it cannot mediate knowledge of finite objects or relations. It does not add anything to the complex of knowledge which is determined by the subject-object structure of reason. Inspiration opens a new dimension of knowledge, the dimension of understanding in relation to our ultimate concern and to the mystery of being. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

ImageIsrael will be gathered and will enjoy millennial rest—Lucifer was cast out of Heaven for rebellion—Israel will triumph over Babylon (the World)—Compare Isaiah 14. About 559-545 Before Christ. “For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land; and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them and bring them to their place; yea, from far unto the ends of the Earth; and they shall return to their lands of promise. And the house of Israel shall possess them, and the land of the Lord shall be for servants and handmaids; and they shall take them captives unto whom they were captives; and they shall rule over their oppressors. And it shall come to pass in that day that Lord shall give thee rest, from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve. And it shall come to pass in that day, that thou shalt take up this proverb against the kind of Babylon, and say: How hath the oppressor creased, the golden city ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers. One who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, one that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. The whole Earth is at rest, and is quiet; they break forth into singing. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

Image“Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and also the cedars of Lebanon, saying: Since thou art laid down no feller is come up against us. Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the Earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kinds of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee: Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave; the noise of thy viols is not heard; the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! Art thou cut own to the ground, which did weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thy heart: I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the aides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and shall consider thee, and shall say: Is this the man that made the Earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms? And made the World as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, and opened not the house of his prisoners? All the kings of the nations, yea, all of them, lie in glory, every one of them in his own house. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

Image“However, thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and the remnant of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcass trodden under feet. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land and slain thy people; the seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned. Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquities of the fathers, that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor sill the face of the World with cities. For I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of Hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the Lord. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of Hosts. The Lord of Hosts hath sworn, saying: Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposes, so shall I stand—that I will bring the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot; then shall his yoke burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposes upon the whole Earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations. For the Lord of Hosts hath purposes, and who shall disannul? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

Image“In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden. Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken; for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant. Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved; for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in one’s appointed ties. What shall then answer the messengers of the nations? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it,” 2 Nephi 24.1-32. LORD and Master, Jesus Christ, Co-eternal Word of the Father, made like us in all but sin, for the salvation of our race: enable us to be not only hearers of Thine oracles, but also doers of the word, and to bring forth good fruit, thirty-fold and an hundred-fold, that we may attain the kingdom of Heaven: and speedily may Thy compassion overtake us; for in Thee are our glad tidings, O Saviour and Guardian of our souls and bodies, and to Thee we ascribe all glory. O LORD, in prayer I launch far out into the eternal World, and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs over all evils on the shoes of mortality. Time, with its gay amusements and cruel disappointments, never appears so inconsiderate as then. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

ImageIn prayer I see myself as nothing; I find my heart going after Thee with intensity, and long with vehement thirst to live to Thee. Blessed be the strong gales of the Spirit that speed me on the way to the New Jerusalem. In prayer all things where below vanish, and nothing seems important but holiness of heart and the salvation of others. In prayer all my Worldly cares, fears, anxieties disappear, and are of as little significance as a puff of wind. In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts at what thou art doing for Thy church, and I long that Thou shouldest get Thyself a great name from sinners returning to Zion. In prayer I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries of life, and tastes of Heavenly joys; entering into the World I can give myself to Thee with all my heart, to be Thine forever. In prayer I can place all my concerns in Thy hands, to be entirely at Thy disposal, having no will or interests of my own. In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers, sinners, the church, Thy kingdom to come, with greatest freedom, ardent hopes, as a son to his father, as a lover to the beloved. Please help me to be all prayer and never to cease praying. “Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching,” reports 1 Timothy 4.11. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21Image

 

BRIGHTON STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH

Rancho Cordova, CA |

Now Selling!

Capture3Brighton Station at Cresleigh Ranch is Rancho Cordova’s newest home community! This charming neighborhood offers an array of home types with eye catching architecture styles such as Mid-Century Modern, California Modern, Prairie, and Contemporary Farmhouse.

ImageLocated off Douglas Road and Rancho Cordova Parkway, the residents of Cresleigh Ranch will enjoy, being just minutes from shopping, dining, and entertainment, and quick access to Highway 50 and Grant Line Road providing a direct route into Folsom. Residents here also benefit from no HOA fees, two community parks and the benefits of being a part of the highly-rated Elk Grove Unified School District. https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/home-site-78/

Business Underlies Everything in Our National Life, Including Our Spiritual Life!

ImageSome humans are more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children. To be conscious that you are unaware of the true facts is a great step toward knowledge. What The Real Advantages Are Which American Society Derives From The Government of The Democracy: The political institutions of the Untied States of America appear to me to be one of the forms of government which a democracy may adopt: but I do not regard the American constitution as the best, or as the only one which a democratic people may establish. In showing the advantages which the Americans derive from the government of democracy, I am therefore very far from meaning, or from believing, that similar advantages can be obtained only from the same laws. General Tendency of The Laws Under The Rule of The American Democracy, And Habits of Those Who Apply Them: Defects of a democratic Government easy to be discovered.—Its Advantages only to be discerned by long Observation.—Democracy in America often inexpert, but general Tendency of the Laws advantageous.—In the American Democracy public Officers have no permanent interest distinct from those of the Majority.—Result of this State of things. The defects and the weaknesses of a democratic government may very readily be discovered; they are demonstrated by the most flagrant instances, while it is beneficial influence is less perceptibly exercised. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

ImageA single glance suffices to detect the defects and weaknesses of a democratic government and its evil consequences, but its good qualities can only be discerned by long observation The laws of the American democracy are frequently defective or incomplete; they sometimes attack vested rights, or give a sanction to others which are dangerous to the community; but even if they were good, the frequent changes which they undergo would be an evil. How comes it, then, that the American republics prosper, and maintain their position? In the consideration of laws, a distinction must be carefully observed between the end at which they aim, and the means by which they are directed to that end; between their absolute and their relative excellence. If it be the intention of the legislator to favour the interests of the minority at the expense of the majority, and if the measure one takes are s combined as to accomplish the object one has in view with the least possible expense of time and exertion, the law may be well drawn up, although its purpose be bad; and the more efficacious it is, the greater is the mischief which it causes. Democratic laws generally tend to promote the welfare of the greatest possible number; for they emanate from a majority of the citizens, who are subject to error, but who cannot have an interest opposed to their own advantage. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

ImageThe worth of a State, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it. The laws of an aristocracy tend, on the contrary, to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of the minority, because an aristocracy, by its very nature, constitutes a minority. It may therefore be asserted, as a general proposition, that the purpose of a democracy, in the conduct of its legislation, is useful to a greater number of citizens than that of an aristocracy. This is, however, the sum total of its advantages. Aristocracies are infinitely more expert in the science of legislation than democracies ever can be. They are possessed of a self-control which protects them from the errors of a temporary excitement; and they form lasting designs which they mature with the assistance of favourable opportunities. Aristocratic government proceeds with the dexterity of art; it understands how to make the collective force of all its laws converge at the same time to a given point. Such is not the case with democracies, whose laws are almost always infective or in inopportune. The means of democracy are therefore more imperfect than those of aristocracy, and the measures which it unwittingly adopts are frequently opposed to its own cause; but the object it has in view is more useful. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

ImageLet us now imagine a community so organized by nature, or by its constitution, that it can support the transitory action of bad laws, and that it can await, without destruction, the general tendency of the legislation: we shall then be able to conceive that a democratic government, notwithstanding its defects, will be most fitted to conduce to the prosperity of this community. This is precisely what has occurred in the United States of America; and I repeat, what I have before remarked, that the great Advantage of the Americans consist in their being able to commit faults which they may afterward repair. An analogous observation may be made respecting public officers. It is easy to perceive that the American democracy frequently errs in the choice of the individuals to whom it intrusts  the power of the administration; but it is more difficult to say why the sate prospers under their rule. In the first place it is to be remarked, that if in a democratic state the governors have less honesty and less capacity then elsewhere, the governed on the other hand are more enlightened and more attentive to their interests. As the people in the democracies is more incessantly vigilant in its affairs, and more jealous of its right, it prevents its representative from abandoning that general line of conduct which its own interest prescribes. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

ImageIn the second place, it must be remembered that if the democratic magistrate is more apt to misuse one’s power, one possesses it for a shorter period of time. However, there is yet another reason which is still more general and conclusive. It is no doubt of importance to the welfare of nations that they should be governed by people of talents and virtue; but it is perhaps still more important than the interests of those humans should not differ from the interests of the community at large; for if such were the case, virtues of a high order might become useless, and talents might be turned to a bad account. I say that it is important that the interests of the persons in authority should not conflict with or oppose the interests of the community at large; but I do not insist upon their having the same interests as the whole population, because I am not aware that such a state of things ever existed in any country. No political form has hitherto been discovered, which is equally favourable to the prosperity and the development of all the classes into which society is divided. These classes continue to form, as it were, a certain number of distinct nations in the same nation; and experience has shown that it is no less dangerous to place the fate of these classes exclusively in the hands of any one of them, than it is to make one people the arbiter of the destiny of another. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

ImageWhen the rich alone govern, the interests of the less affluent is always endangered; and when the less affluent makes the laws, that of the rich incurs very serious risks. The advantage of democracy des not consist, therefore, as has sometimes been asserted, in favouring the prosperity of all, but simply in contributing to the well-being of the greatest possible number. The humans who are intrusted with the direction of public affairs in the Untied States of America, are frequently inferior, both in point of capacity and of morality, to those whom aristocratic institutions would rise to power. However, their interests are identified and confounded with that of the majority of their fellow-citizens. They may frequently be faithless, and frequently mistake; but they will never systematically adopt a line of conduct oppose to the will of the majority; and it is impossible that they should give a dangerous or an exclusive tendency to the government. The mal-administration of a democratic magistrate is a mere isolated fact, which only occurs during the short period for which one is elected. Corruption and incapacity do not act as common interests, which may connect humans permanently with one another. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

ImageA corrupt or an incapable magistrate will not concert one’s measures with another magistrate, simply because that individual is as corrupt and as incapable as oneself; and these two humans will never unite their endeavours to promote the corruption and inaptitude of their remote posterity. The ambition and the maneuvers of the one will serve, on the contrary, to unmask the other. The vices of a magistrate, in democratic states, are usually peculiar to one’s own person. However, under aristocratic governments public humans are swayed by the interest of their order, which, if it is sometimes confounded with the interests of the majority, is very frequently distinct from them. This interest is the common and lasting bond which unites them together; it induces them to coalesce, and to combine their efforts in order to attain an end which does not always ensure the greatest happiness of the greatest number; and it serves not only to connect the persons in authority, but to unite them to a considerable portion of the community, as well as by the government of which one is a member. The common purpose which connects the interest of the magistrates in the aristocracies, with that of a portion of their contemporaries, identifies it with that of future generations; their influence belongs to the future as much as to the present. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

ImageThe aristocratic magistrate is urged at the same time toward the same point, by the passions of the community, by one’s own, and I may almost add, by those of one’s posterity. Is it, then, wonderful that one does not resist such repeated impulses? And, indeed, aristocracies are often carried away by the spirit of their order without being corrupted by it; and they unconsciously fashion society to their own ends, and prepare it for their own descendants. The English aristocracy is perhaps the most liberal which ever existed, and no body of humans has ever, uninterruptedly, furnished so many honourable and enlightened individuals to the government of a country. It cannot, however, escape observation, that in the legislation of England the good of the poor has been sacrificed to the advantage of the rich, and the rights of the majority to the privileges of the few. The consequence is, that England, at the present day, combines the extremes of fortune in the bosom of her society; and her hands perils and calamities are almost equal to her power and her renown. In the United States of America, where the public officer have no interests to promote connected with their caste, the general and constant influence of the government is beneficial, although the individuals who conduct it are frequently unskillful and sometimes contemptible. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

ImageThere is, indeed, a secret tendency in democratic institutions to render the exertions of the citizens subservient to the prosperity of the community, notwithstanding their private vices and mistakes; while in aristocratic institutions there is a secret propensity, which, notwithstanding the talents and the virtue of those who conduct the government, leads them to contribute to the evils which oppress their fellow-creatures. In aristocratic governments public humans may frequently do injuries which they do not intend; and in democratic states they produce advantages which they never thought of. Ethical norms are given by God. Moral commandments are expressions of a divine will, which is sovereign and without criteria. It cannot be measured in terms of adequacy to human nature. It must be obeyed as it is given through revelation. However, the question then is: Why should anyone obey the commandments of this divine lawgiver? How are they distinguished from the commands given by a human tyrant? He is stronger than I am. He can destroy me. However, is not that destruction more to be feared which would follow the submission of one’s personality center to a strange will? Would not this be just the denial of the moral imperative? #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

ImageThe other way of the theological foundation of the moral imperative is the theonomous one. It avoids the destructiveness of the heteronomous way. However, just for this reason it become ontological. It assets (in agreement with the predominant trend of classical theology) that the law given by God is human’s essential nature, put against one as law. If humans were not estranged from oneself, if one’s essential nature were not distorted in one’s actual existence, no law would stand against one. The law is not strange to humans. It is natural law. It represents one’s true nature from which one is estranged. Every valid ethical commandment is an expression of human’s essential relation to oneself, to others and to the Universe. This alone makes it obligatory and its denial self-destructive. This alone accounts for the unconditional form of the moral imperative, however questionable and conditioned the contents may be. The theonomous solution leads inescapably to ontological problems. If God is not seen as a strange an arbitrary lawgiver, if His authority is not heteronomous but theonomous, ontological presuppositions are accepted. Theonomous ethics include ontology. And they also verify the ontological foundations on which they rest. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

ImageThe ontological statements about the nature of love, power, and justice are verified if they are about to solve the otherwise insoluble problems of the ethics of love, power, and justice. To show that his is the case we must consider the ethical functions of love, power, and justice in the spheres of personal relations, of social institutions and of the holy. In the first sphere, justice is leading, in the second sphere, power, and in the third sphere, love. However, all three principles are effective in each sphere. And the sphere of the holy is a quality in the other spheres, and only in some respects a sphere of its own. So we shall speak first of justice, love, and power in human relations, then of power, justice, and love in social institutions, then of love, power, and justice in relation to the holy. Our treatment of the Fall is superior to many others in trying to meet the philosophers half way. It duly recognizes that philosophical intuition opens insights into sin. It happily borrows from psychology its description of a state before the Fall as dreaming innocence, distinguished from awakeness and from experience. However, the dreaming innocence is not anterior to a subsequent event which would give the acquired knowledge of good and evil. It is the psychological background of all human acts. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

ImageHuman actions mark a passage from the dreaming innocence of one who has not been subjected to the conditions of human existence to the wide-awake experience of humans in existence. In other words, the state before the Fall corresponds, in mythological language, to what philosopher call essence. The choice between good and evil corresponds to existence itself. This leap from essence to existence ins universal fact, but is not a fact distinct from creation. Every human being, by the very fact that one is created, is in existence. As such one is in a state of wide-awake experience; one has the experiential knowledge of good and evil as soon as one is able to act humanly. Original sin is not original in the sense that the first man sinned and that from this we derived the fact that we are born sinners. The notion of a moment in time in which humans and nature were changed from good to evil is absurd, and it has no foundation in experience or revelation. There is a danger of this identification of sin and creation; critics has voiced the justified fear that sin may become a rational necessity. The Fall of man is the transition from uncreated essence, or non-being, to created existence, or being. This happens to every human. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

ImageEvery person is caught in the following tragedy: no exercise of one’s faculties is possible without the experience of estrangement from one’s essence in God, that is, without sin. Now, the trouble with this is that it certain is not the meaning of Revelation. That a theologian should argue against the Fall as a primordial catastrophe of the human race on the basis that it has no foundation in experience is disconcerting, for no supporter of this classical Christian belief has ever claimed that we have experience t. It would be as absurd to base the Fall of the First Man on present-day experience as it would be childish to deny that Fall arguing from the absence of a direct experience of it by humankind today. The original Fall has no foundation in revelation. It is significant that the account is exclusively based on Genesis and on the story of Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Yet it is recognized by exegetes that if Genesis tells a story of the first sin, it does not speak of transmission of that sin. The Old Testament had no notion of original sin as taught by Christianity. It has no notion of the sin of Adam and that of his descendants, imitating their forefathers, have also sinned, but it never suspected that there could be a causal link between Adam’s sin and man’s being born in sin. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

ImageOn the contrary, rabbinical tradition taught, and still teaches the humans are born without sin. It is not on Genesis, but on St. Paul, that the Christian view is founded. “As the fault of one has brought condemnation of all humans, so the righteousness of one brings on all a lifegiving righteousness,” reports Romans 5.18. St. Paul knows the Fall in the light of the Redemption. They are two correlative events. The historicity of Redemption stands facing the historicity of the Fall. One who would deny the latter would by implication negate the former. These words are not obscure: that several are justified through the obedience of Christ, as they have been constituted sinners through the disobedience of Adam; and accordingly, that just as Adam, enfolding us in his ruin, has caused our perdition, likewise Christ brings us back to salvation through his grace. I do not think that a longer proof is needed in such a clear light of truth. Whereas the contents of the personal unconscious are acquired during the individual’s lifetime, the contents of the collective unconscious are invariably archetypes that were present from the beginning. Their relation to the instincts has been discussed elsewhere. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

ImageThe archetypes most clearly characterized from the empirical point of view are those which have the most frequent and the most disturbing influence on the ego. These are the shadow, and the anima, the animus. The most accessible of these, and the easiest to experience, is the shadow, for its nature can in large measure be inferred from the contents of the personal unconscious. The only exceptions to this rule are those rather rare cases where the absolute qualities of the personality are repressed, and the ego in consequence plays an essentially negative or unfavourable role. The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involved recognizing the dark aspects of the personality are present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge, and it therefore, as a rule, meets with considerable resistance. Indeed, self-knowledge as a psychotherapeutic measure frequently requires much painstaking work extending over a long period. Closer examination of the morbid characteristics—that is, the inferiorities constituting the shadow—reveals that they have an emotional nature, a kind of autonomy, and accordingly an obsessive or, better, possessive quality. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

ImageEmotion, incidentally, is not an activity of the individual but something that happens to one. Affects occur usually where adaption is weakest, and at the same time they reveal the reason for its weakness, namely a certain degree of inferiority and the existence of a lower level of personality. On this lower level with its uncontrolled or scarcely controlled emotions one behaves more or less like a primitive, who is not only the passive victim of one’s effects but also singularly incapable of moral judgment. Although, with insight and good will, the shadow can to some extent be assimilated into the conscious personality, experience shows that there are certain features which offer the most obstinate resistance to moral control and prove almost impossible to influence. These resistances are usually bound up with projections, which are not recognized as such, and their recognition is a moral achievement beyond the ordinary. While some traits peculiar to the shadow can be recognized without too much difficulty as one’s own personal qualities, in this case both insight and good will are unavailing because the cause of the emotion appears to lie, beyond all possibility of doubt, in the other person. No matter how obvious it may be to the neutral observer that it is a matter of projections, there is little hope that the subject will perceive this oneself. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

ImageOne must be convinced that one throws a very long shadow before one is willing to withdraw one’s emotionally-toned projections from the objects. Let us suppose that a certain individual shows no inclination whatever to recognize one’s projections. The projection-making factor then has a free hand and can realize its object—if it has one—or bring about some other situation characteristic of its power. As we know, it is not the conscious subject but the unconscious which does the projecting. Hence one meets with projections, one does not make them. The effect of projection is to isolate the subject from one’s environment, since instead of a real relation to it there is now only an illusory one. Projections change the World into the replica of one’s own unknown face. In the last analysis, one dreams a World whose reality remains forever unattainable. The resultant sentiment d’incompletude and still worse feeling of sterility are in their turn explained by projection as the malevolence of the environment, and by means of this vicious circle the isolation intensified. The more projections are thrust in between the subject and the environment, the harder it is for the ego to see through its illusion. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

ImageA forty-five-year-old patient who had suffered from a compulsion neurosis since he was twenty and had become completely cut off from the World said to me: “But I can never admit to myself that I have wasted the best twenty-five years of my life.” We can all blame Adam for or problems or recognize that Jesus is or Redeemer. It is often tragic to see how blatantly a person bungles one’s own life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in oneself, and now one continually feeds it and keeps it going. Not consciously, of course—for consciously one is engaged in bewailing ad cursing a faithless World that recedes further and further into the distance. Rather, it is an unconscious factor which spins the illusions that veil one’s World. And what is being spun is a cocoon, which in the end will completely envelop one. One might assume that projections like these, which are so very difficult if not impossible to dissolve, like being caught in Satan’s web of sins, would belong to the realm of the shadow—that is, to the negative side of the personality. This assumption becomes untenable after a certain point, because the symbols that then appear no longer refer to the same but to the opposite gender, in a man’s case to a woman and vice versa. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

ImageThe source of projections is no longer the shadow—which is always of the same gender as the subject—but a contrasexual figure. Here we met the animus of a woman and the anmia of a man, two corresponding archetypes whose autonomy and unconsciousness explain the stubbornness of their projections. Though the shadow is a motif as well known to mythology as anima and animus, it represents first and foremost the personal unconscious, and its content can therefore be made conscious without too much difficulty. In this it differs from anima and animus, for whereas the shadow can be seen through and recognized fairly easily, the anima and animus are much further away from consciousness and in normal circumstances are seldom if ever realized. With a little self-criticism one can see through the shadow—so far as its nature is personal. However, when it appears as an archetype, one encounters the same difficulties as with anima and animus. In other words, it is quite within the bounds of possibility for humans to recognize the relative evil of their nature, but it is a rare and shattered experience for one to gaze into the face of absolute evil. The stem of Jesse (Christ) will judge in righteousness—the knowledge of God will cover the Earth in the Millennium—the Lord will raise an ensign and gather Israel—Compare Isaiah 11. About 559-545 before Christ. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

Image“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon  him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall makes him quick understanding in the fear of the Lord; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. However, with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth and he shall smite the Earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reigns. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

Image“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek; and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the Earth. The envy of Ephraim also shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim also shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. However, they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines towards the west; they shall spoil them of the east together; they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind he shall shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make humans go over dry shod. And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt,” reports 2 Nephi 21.1-16. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

ImageLord God, of might inconceivable, of glory incomprehensible, of mercy immeasurable, of benignity ineffable; do Thou, O Master, look down upon us in Thy tender love, and show forth, towards us and those who pray with us, Thy rich mercies and compassions. O God, Thou art very great, my lot is to approach Thee with Godly fear and humble confidence, for Thy condescension equals Thy grandeur, and Thy goodness is Thy glory. I am unworthy, but Thou dost welcome; guilty, but Thou art merciful; indigent, but Thy riches are unsearchable. Thou hast sown boundless compassion towards me by not sparing Thy Son, and by giving me freely all things in him; this is the foundation of my hope, the refuge of my safety, the new and living way to Thee, the means of that conviction of sin, brokenness of heart, and self-despair, which will endear to me the gospel. Happy are they who are Christ’s, in Him at peace with Thee, justified from all things, delivered from coming wrath, made heirs of future glory; give me such deadness to the World, such love to the Saviour, such attachment to his house, such devotedness to his service, as proves me a subject of his salvation. My every part of my character and conduct make a serious and amiable impression on others, and impel them to ask the way to the master. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

Image Let to no incident of life, pleasing or painful, injure the prosperity of my soul, but rather increase it. Please send me Thy help, for thine appointments are not meant to make me independent of Thee, and the best means will be vain without super-added blessings. The self-actualized may tell of truth, as one knows it, by refraining from speech and entering the Stillness. However, if one’s interlocutors have not been preciously prepared to understand what lies behind one’s silence, they may not benefit by it. Serving humanity in one’s secret way, drawing benediction for all from this divine source, it would seem to be an unrequited activity; but one is included as recipient and beneficiary. Some come to illuminate, not to instruct. Some who have attained true wisdom make no special attempt to communicate it through speech or writing, or to express it in action. Does this mean the World never benefits from them, as it benefits by the existence and work of even the humblest primary school teacher? It does not. For their contribution, though quite noiseless, is not at all valueless. It is to let the silent influence of their presence among us touch those who can receive it, even though they do so unwittingly. Business underlies everything in our national life, including our spiritual life. Witness the fact that in the Lord’s Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love one’s neighbour on an empty stomach. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23Image

HOME SITE 78

4-5 Bedrooms – 3.5 Bathrooms – 3,501 square feet – $589,854

ImageGorgeous two-story home located in the growing Cresleigh Ranch community! This sleek and modern home is an entertainer’s dream! The California Room directly off the Great Room offers an indoor/outdoor living experience while the extended kitchen island is perfect for large gatherings or busy households. A contemporary kitchen with stained recessed cabinetry, quartz counters, and single basin sink! 

ImageThere is a bedroom on the first floor, located off the entry, with its own bathroom making it ideal for a guest suite or multi-generational living. The formal dining room provides ample space for entertaining and has convenient access to the kitchen via Butler’s Pantry. The kitchen comes fully equipped with a large eat-in island, stainless steel appliances, and quartz counters and opens onto the spacious great room. Upstairs you’ll find the master retreat, two bedrooms, and the loft perfect for a game room or TV lounge. The master retreat is spacious and inviting with a large bedroom and spa like bathroom featuring a free-standing soaking tub, walk-in shower, dual vanities, and two walk-in closets. https://youtu.be/TikCeN8MlLA

Image

https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Truth Shall March–We Shall Not, I Believe, be Obliged to Alter Our Policy of Watchful Waiting!

ImageI do not divine the World into the weak and the strong, or the success and the failures, those who make it and those who do not. I divine the World into learners and non-learners. We live under a government of humans and morning newspapers. However, one, on God’s side is a majority. The gulf that exists between partners may be due to old hurts. Pierce Thorndyke III and Bianca Dupree-Thorndyke have been married for fifteen years, have worked out many difficulties due to differing religious and cultural backgrounds, and their relationship now seems quite stable. Yet in an interview she reveals that she has held back much of her affection, and is not now freely giving toward him, because of an old resentment. During the early years of marriage, Bianca felt she did 90 percent of the giving, Pierce 10 percent. She has never talked out her resentment, and has carried evidence of this old scar into her present relationship with him. Both of them are now sad that she did not express her feelings much earlier—the partnership might have been much improved. Another effect is that communication becomes more open, more real, with more mutual listening. One can sometimes see the exact moment in which this process is taking place. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22

ImageIn a couples group a husband and wife were constantly attacking each other. The group tried to help them to listen more, to express their own feelings, not their judgments. The husband seemed to absorb something of this, and took the risk of stating, rather poignantly, the trap he felt he was in. The moment he ceased speaking, his wife took off in her attack on his motives and his behaviour toward her. The facilitator interrupted her, “Did you hear what your husband was trying to tell you?” “Of course I did.” The facilitator said, “Would you just tell him the essence of what he said, so that he know you heard him?” She fell silent, obviously searching her memory. She began to look very embarrassed. Finally she said to her husband, in the softest voice she had used since the group began, “What did you say?” It was the beginning of more listening. In the climate of a person-centered approach the partners come to recognize the value of separateness. Larke and Radley, a wealthy couple with a seemingly happy marriage, had all the external trappings imaginable. Both were well educated. Eighteen years earlier, Radley, a student at Harvard Law School, meets Larke Tanner at an auction in Nantucket, were they bid on the same antique. Radley Rose chats Larke up and they become friends. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22

Image When Larke misses her ferry home, the two end up spending the night together. Things went well for them. Eventually the two marry and have two children and settle an opulent suburban home, in Cresleigh Ranch, and own impressive new Ultimate Driving Machine. They did everything together, and over the years, the Roses grow richer. Everyone regarded theirs as a very successful marriage. Inwardly they both found the marriage uninteresting and frustrating. They were disillusioned and angry—at each other, but especially at life. They attended a couples group, and began to realize that they had stopped growing when they married, and more important, that they were not communicating. Finally Radley risked revealing himself and told Larke of the affairs he had been having Empress, Fifi, Jett, Jillian, Nikki Darling, and Tara Belle. Larke was frightened and jealous. She had assumed that there was security in her World, and now that World had collapsed. Her marriage was out of control, and she was very threatened. However, even in her fright there was a dawning realization, “If he can separate, perhaps I can too.” She became much more open in the group, and hence was seen as more lovable. Yet, to see that she was lovable in the eye of the group members was scary to Radley. He in his turn felt threatened and hurt. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22

ImageHowever, his courage in being open about his affairs led Larke to be more courageous. Soon they were talking all night, each discovering new and interesting facets of the other. More and more each became aware of their separateness. They now can permit each other to date and pursue other relationships. Larke especially has dropped her “nice” image and become more of a real self, a self in which she feels much more confidence. For Larke and Radley both, a growth-promoting climate has meant a complete alteration in the politics of their marriage. No longer are they controlled by society’s expectations—that they must do everything together, must follow a conventional pattern, must submerge their lives in each other. They are becoming unique and separate persons, pursuing differing paths, and bound together by communication and mutual love, not by some imagined conventional pattern from outside. Another result such a climate is that the woman’s growing independence is recognized as valuable in the relationship. This is another example of the separateness we have just been noting, but it is such an important part of modern partnership that it deserves special mention. Troy Jeffries recently experienced what he called a “blockbuster” in his marriage. He has been preoccupied with his work. Bianca has carried the difficult task of raising their son, not without buried resentment. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22

ImageAs Bianca’s time became more free with the passing years, she returned to the university for further education, being exposed to several person-centered influences. She decided that she wanted to take a professional position in the town where they had formerly lived. She told Troy, but he simply could not take it seriously. When it did hit home that she meant it and that he would either have to give her up or change jobs himself, it was, as he says, a “blockbuster.” The family discussions were heated, and Bianca fortunately talked out some of her resentment, becoming more willing to make accommodation. However, the family is moving, Troy is changing jobs, and the dynamics of their relationship has altered dramatically. Troy has more respect for his wife; he seems more clearly the role he has played of being married to his job; and the ability of each of them to share their feelings has been markedly increased. Even in regard to their relationship in the pleasures of the flesh, which have never been ideal, there is more communication and hope. Part of the problem is that successful intimacy in pleasures of the flesh has been difficult when Bianca has been harbouring a buried resentment toward her husband. The problem of where to live, when both husband and wife are working and have attractive opportunities in different communities, is an increasing one. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22

ImageSolving marital differences demands the utmost of shared feelings, exploration of all the options, and willingness to reach a solution that may not be ideal for either. Such problems are certain to occur more frequently as marriage is seen as an equalitarian partnership, with each spouse being respected as able to make important choices. However, negotiation implies that something negative is happening to both side in order to reach a mutual agreement that also accommodates the demands of both parties. This new trend is often especially threatening to the husband of the developing professional woman. Her increased independence makes him feel unneeded as a provider, his old role. There is always the possibility that she may earn more than he. Where both are in the same or similar professions, competition becomes implicit in their relationship. As a consequence the quality of their pleasures of the flesh, the degree to which each is growing, the extent to which they are developing mutual interests—all of these become far more important than in conventional marriages. Inevitably, in person-centered situation, there is increasing recognition of the importance of feelings, as well as reason, of emotions as well as intellect. A feeling is an emotionally tinged experience, together with its personal meaning. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22

ImageThus, a feeling includes the emotion but also the cognitive content of the meaning of that emotion in its experiential context. [They are] experienced inseparably in the moment. Including as it does both emotion and meaning, feeling is the broader term. The stress that recent centuries have placed upon reason, thinking, and rationality is the attempt to divorce the two actually inseparable components of experience, to the detriment of our humanity. This divorce of reason from feeling is one of the first myths to disappear in a person-centered approach. Individuals find themselves communicating with their whole beings, expressing their experiences, not some desiccated intellectual representation of them. This is one of the major reason why a person-centered approach has been so valuable to married couples and those living together in relationships. “Pure” reason and “objective” evaluation are not a basis on which two human beings can effectively live together. It means that they are attempting to exclude half of their experience (and perhaps the most important half) from their communication. Through intensive groups, student-centered classes, books, couples groups, and other sources more and more persons are learning the folly of such pseudo-communicate themselves as they are. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22

Image I will not attempt to deal here with the ways in which such real communication can be thwarted by jargon or by an encounter-group ritual. “I want to know what you really feel,” can be as much a pseudo-communication as any other, if it is not based on what the speaker is experiencing at the moment. Our American culture has been so corrupted by the fictional TV News media that anything can be turned into a “gimmick.” There is no doubt that this has often happened in the encounter groups and in the training of parents to be “real.” These false notes do not, however, change the importance of true communication, which is also on the increase. Exposure to a person-centered approach means that there is a thrust toward the experiencing of greater mutual trust, personal growth, and shared interests. The partners tend to develop more trust in each other as they are more real with each other. Being more real, they take more risks in being open, and thus enhance their growth as persons. As they communicate more deeply, they are likely to discover, and to wish to develop, more interest that they do or can share. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22

ImageExperience in a person-centered psychological atmosphere has another result. Roles, and role expectations, tend to drop away and are replaced by the person, choosing her own way of behaving.  Here are the expected roles of the male in the partnership. The man is head of the family. He is the sole provider. He is the stronger, the superior individual in the pair (and most women let their husbands believe this because they want a happy marriage and a confident man), though helped by “the little woman.” His life is governed by intellect, not by emotion. He alone may occasionally have need of an “affair.” He takes the lead in pleasures of the flesh. He is the stern disciplinarian of his children. All these roles and expectations collapse in a person-centered experience. The focus becomes the man as an individual person—human, fluctuating, behaving in the light of his immediate feelings and his long-range goals. The expectations for the woman are likewise open to challenge. The wife is submissive to her husband. She finds complete satisfaction in her home and children. She doe all the task of making and keeping a home happy, healthy, clean and fresh. She is the nest-builder. In comparison with her husband she is physically not as strong and usually allows him to act as ultimate authority. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22

ImageThe woman of the house plays an important role, she is capable of feelings, but usually what the husband says is the rule of law. She subordinates her interest to those of her spouse. Her pleasures of the flesh are usually subdued. She is not to engage in extramarital pleasures of the flesh. Again, the behaviour that is expected in playing these roles collapses in an encounter group or in person-centered therapy or in women’s consciousness-raising group. The individual woman emerges, with a sharply defined personality that is hers alone, behaving in the way that suits her needs and her choices. The sociological role loses its force in a person-centered experience. The male and female roles are rarely put forward so bluntly in today’s culture. They have already been weakened by social forces. However, we find them implicit in our social structure. Why are men paid more than women for the same job? Why are women permitted to weep when hurt, but not men? These roles are still very much alive and functioning, even though weakened. However, they lose their force completely in a person-centered encounter group. Here we find a man weeping, and a woman with the strength to help him find his way out of sorrow. Here we find a man who feels secure only in his present nest, with an adventurous wife to takes steps to a new life. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22

ImageWe find all of the usual role expectations being contradicted in the experience of men and women struggling to be their own experiencing. This leads to behaviour that is sometimes in line with role expectations, and sometimes not, but at no time is the behaviour governed by the role the person is expected to play. There is a more realistic appraisal of the needs each can meet in the other. When a man is thinking of his partner as a person, it becomes apparent that it is most unlikely that he can meet all of her needs—social, in pleasures of the flesh, emotional, intellectual. With equal force it strikes the woman that she cannot be everything to this man. When we are thinking not just of today but of years of being together, these statements become especially true. So it become only realistic to recognize that each partner will need to grant the other more living space for outside interests, outside relationships, time alone—all of the elements that enrich life. This in no way contradicts the continuing search for a wider and deeper mutual life. It simply means that, as Pierce and Bianca learned, they do not have to do everything together. Experiencing that greater freedom leads them to a more rewarding life together. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22

ImageA general disturbance is symptomatic and relevant here and is known as inertia. Patients suffering from it sometimes accuse themselves of being lazy, but actually they cannot be lazy and enjoy it. They may have a conscious aversion to effort of any kind, and may rationalize it by saying tat it is up to others to carry out the “details”—that is, do the work. The aversion to effort may also appear as a fear that effort would be injurious to them. This fear is understandable in view of the fact that they know they tire easily; and it may be enhanced by the advice of physicians who take the exhaustion at its face value. Neurotic inertia is a paralysis of initiative action. Generally speaking, it is the result of a strong alienation from self and a lack of goal-direction. Long experience of strained and unsatisfactory effort leaves the neurotic with a fairly pervasive listlessness—although periods of hectic activity sometimes intervene. Of the single contributing factors the most influential are the idealized image and sadistic trends. The very fact of having to make a consistent effort may be felt by the neurotic as humiliating evidence that he is not his idealized image, while the prospect of doing something that might be only mediocre is so deterring that he prefers not to do it at all but perform magnificently in fantasy. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22

ImageThe gnawing self-contempt that invariably follows from the image robs him of the assurance that he can do anything worth while, thereby burying as in quicks all incentive and joy in activity. Sadistic trends, particularly in their repressed form (inverted sadism), make a person lean over backward from anything resembling aggression, with the result that a more or less complete psychic paralysis may ensure. Since it covers not only action but feelings as well, general inertia is of particular significance. The amount of energy that is wasted in consequence of unresolved neurotic conflicts is unfathomably great. Since neuroses are ultimately a product of the particular civilization, such a thwarting of human gifts and qualities stands as a serious indictment of the culture in question. Living with unresolved conflicts entails not only a diffusion of energies but also a split in matters of a moral nature—that is, in moral principles and all the feelings, attitudes, and behaviour that bear upon one’s relations with others and affect one’s own development. And as in the case of energies division leads to waste, so in moral question it leads to a loss of moral wholeheartedness, or in other words to an impairment of moral integrity. Such impairment is brought about by the contradictory positions assumed as well as by the attempts to conceal their contradictory nature. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22

ImageIncompatible sets of moral values appear in the basic conflict. Despite all attempts to harmonize them, all of them keep operating. This means, however, that none is or can be taken seriously. The idealized image, for all that it includes elements of true ideals, is essentially a counterfeit, and as difficult for the person oneself or for the untrained observer to distinguish from the real thing as a counterfeit bank note from a valid one. The neurotic, as we have seen, may believe—in good faith—that one follows ideals, may castigate oneself for every apparent lapse, thus giving an impression of over conscientiousness in pursuit of one’s standards; or one may intoxicate oneself with thinking and talking about values and ideals. My assertion that one nevertheless does not take one’s ideals seriously means that they do not have obligating power for one’s life. One applies them when it is easy or useful for one to do so, while at other times one conveniently blots them out. We have seen instances of this in our discussion of blind spots and compartmentalizing—instances that would be inconceivable in the case of persons who took their ideals seriously. Nor if the ideals were genuine could they be thrown overboard as easily as they are—for instance in a person who, again in good faith, claims ardent devotion to a cause, but when exposed to temptation turns a traitor like the mutineers from Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). #RandolphHarris 14 of 22

ImageClosely associated with governing ideas are images that occupy our minds. Images are always concrete or specific, as opposed to the abstractness of ideas, and are heavily laden with feeling. They frequently present themselves with the force of perception and have a powerful emotional and sensuous linkage to governing idea systems. They mediate the power of those idea systems into the real situations of ordinary life. Every idea system is present among us as a life force through a small number of powerful images. In recent American and European history, hair (long, short, skinhead; green, blue, yellow, orange, purple) undershirts (or the absence of burning thereof) flags (and their desecration) rock music, and hipster clothes have provided powerful images and symbols of conflicting idea systems and the attached ways of life. Images sustaining traditional cultural authority—“The Establishment” it was called—have, by contrast, lost power. In many Christian churches today the services have divided into “traditional” and “contemporary,” primarily over imagery and the explosive feelings attached thereto. The guitar and pipe organ are no longer just musical instruments, they are powerful symbols. This is not to say that such divisions are either unimportant or sinful. However, in order to act responsibly in relation to them, one does have to understand what drives such divisions. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22

ImageJesus Christ of course understood the great significance of images and has, indeed, become one Himself. Intentionally. He also carefully selected an image that brilliantly conveys Himself and His message; the cross. The cross presents the lostness of a person as well as the sacrifice of God and the abandonment to God that brings redemption. No doubt it is the all-time most powerful image and symbol of human history. Need we say he knew what he was doing in selecting it? He planned it all and is also the Master of images. For their own benefit, his followers need to keep the image of the cross vividly present in their mind. However, ideas and images are also a primary stronghold of evil in the human self and in society. They determine how we “take” the things and events of ordinary life. They control the meanings we assign to what we deal with, and they can even blind us to what lies plainly before us. Again, this is seen over and over in biblical and in Christian history, and in human life generally. Their power for evil cannot be overestimated and is constantly at play in most human governments and media organizations. Ideas and images are, accordingly, the primary focus of Satan’s effort to defeat God’s purposes with and for humankind. When we are subject to his chosen ideas and images, he can take nap or holiday. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22

ImageThus Satan undertook to draw Eve away from God, he did not hit her with a stick, but with an idea. It was with the idea that God could not be trusted and that she must act on her own to secure her own well-being. This is the basic idea back of all temptation: God is presented as depriving us by his commands of what is good, so we think we must take matters into our own hands and act contrary to wat he has said. This image of God leads to our pushing him our of our thoughts, as discussed in previous lectures, and putting ourselves on the throne of the Universe. The condition of the ruined soul and World naturally results. The single most important thing in our mind is our idea of God and the associated images. That our idea of God corresponds as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us. Compared with out actual thoughts about Him, our creedal statements are of little consequence. Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is. Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God. A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22

ImageIt is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God. The destruction of Assyria is a type of the destruction of the wicked at the Second Coming—few people will be left after the Lord comes again—the remnant of Jacob will return in that day—compare Isaiah 10. About 559-545 Before Christ. “Wo unto them that decree unrighteous degrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; to turn away the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! And that will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory? Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is their indignation. I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like mire of the streets. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22

Image“Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but in his heart it is to destroy and cut off nations not a few. For he saith: Are not my princes altogether kings? Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus? As my hand hath founded the kingdoms f the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria; shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so to do to Jerusalem and to her idols? Wherefore it shall come to pass that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and upon Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. For he saith: By the strength of my hand and by my wisdom I have done these things; for I am prudent; and I have moved the borders of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man; and my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people; and as one gathereth eggs that are left have I gathered all the Earth; and there was none that moved the wings, or opened the mouth, or peeped. Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? As if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up itself as if it were not wood! #RandolphHarris 19 of 22

Image“Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, send among his fat ones, leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame, and shall burn and shall devour his thorns and his briers in one day; and shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body; and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth. And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them, but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return, yea, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return; the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. For the Lord God of Hosts shall make a consumption, even determined in all the land. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Hosts: O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian; he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt. For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22

Image“And the Lord of Hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and as his rod was upon the sea so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt. And it shall come to pass in that day that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages. They are gone over the passage; they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramath is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled. Lift up the voice, O daughter of Gallim; cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth. Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee. As yet shall he remain at Nob that day; he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. Behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts shall lop the bough with terror; and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down; and the haughty shall be humbled. And he shall cut down the thickets of the forests with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a might one,” reports 2 Nephi 20.1-34. Holy, Most High, Awful, Who dwellest in the holy place, make us holy, and bring us near to Thee, and cleanse us from all defilement, that we may perform the worship of our fathers in Thy fear; for Thou art He that blesses and hallow all things. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22

ImageThou Maker and Sustainer of All Things, day and night are tine, Heaven and Earth declare Thy glory; but I, a creature of Thy power and bounty, have sinned against Thee by resisting the dictates of conscience, the demands of Thy law, the calls of Thy gospel; yet I live under the dispensation of a given hope. Deliver me from Worldly dispositions, for I am born from above and bound for glory. May I view and long after holiness as the beauty and dignity of the soul. Let me never slumber, never lose my assurance, never fail to wear armour when passing through the enemy land. Fit me for every scene and circumstances; stay my mind upon Thee and turn my trials to blessings, that they may draw out my gratitude and praise as I see their design and effects. Render my obedience to Thy will holy, natural, and delightful. Rectify all my principles by clear, consistent, and influential views of divine truth. Let me never undervalue or neglect any part of Thy revealed will. May I duly regard the doctrine and practice of the gospel, prizing its commands as well as its promises. Sanctify me in every relation, office, transaction and condition of life, that if I prosper I may not be unduly exalted, if I suffer I may not be over-sorrowful. Please balance my mind in all varying circumstances and help me to cultivate a disposition that renders every duty a spiritual privilege. Thus may I be content, be a glory to Thee and an example to others. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22Image

Capture13

The best part of a Cresleigh home is making it your own! This #MillsStation Residence 2 floor plan comes with an upstairs loft that’s perfect for a play area, study space, or even just a spot to relax. That couch does look pretty inviting.

ImageGo on a virtual walkthrough of this plan on our website. Link in bio. https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/move-in-ready-home-site-61/

Image

#CresleighRanch
#CresleighHomes

 

Well, if I Called the Wrong Number, Why Did You Answer the Phone?

ImageAll happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. The aim of education should be to convert the mind into a living fountain and not a reservoir. That which is filled by merely pumping in, will be emptied by pumping out. A social condition is commonly the result of circumstances, sometimes of laws, oftener still of these two causes united; but wherever it exists, it may justly be considered as the source of almost all the laws, the usages, and the ideas, which regulate the conduct of nations: whatever it does not produce, it modifies. It is, therefore, necessary, if we would become acquainted with the legislation and the manners of a nation, to begin by the study of its social condition.  The striking characteristic of the social condition the Anglo-Americans is its essential democracy. The first Emigrants of New England.—Their Equality.—Aristocratic Laws introduced in the South.—Period of the Revolution.—Change in the Law of Descent.—Effects produced by this Change.—Democracy carried to its utmost Limits in the new States of the West.—Equality of Education. Many important observations suggest themselves upon the social condition of the Anglo-Americans; but there is one which takes precedence of all the rest. The social condition of the Americas is eminently democratic; this was its character at the foundation of the colonies, and is still more strongly marked at the present day. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

ImageGreat equality existed among the emigrants who settled on the shores of New England The germe of aristocracy was never planted in that part of the Union. The only influence which obtained there was that of intellect; the people were used to reverence certain names as the emblems of knowledge and virtue. Some of their fellow-citizens acquired a power over the rest which might truly have been called aristocratic, if it had been capable of invariable transmission from father to son. This was the state of things to the east of the Hudson: to the southwest of that river, and in the direction of the Floridas, the case was different. In most of the states situated to the southwest of the Hudson some great English proprietors had settled, who had imported with them aristocratic principles and the English law of descent. I have explained the reasons why it was impossible ever to establish a powerful aristocracy in America; these reasons existed with less force to the south west of the Hudson. In the south, one man, assisted by enslaved people, could cultivate a great extent of country: it was therefore common to see rich landed proprietors. However, their influence was not altogether aristocratic as that term is understood in Europe, since they possessed no privileges; and the cultivation of their estates being carried on by slaves, they had no tenants depending on them, and consequently no patronage. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

ImageStill, the great proprietors south of the Hunsdon constituted a superior class, having ides and tastes of its own, and forming the center of political action. This kind of aristocracy sympathized with the body of the people, whose passions and interests it easily embraced; but it was too weak and too short-lived to excite either love or hatred for itself. This was the class which headed the insurrection in the south, and furnished the best leaders of the American revolution. At the period of which we are now speaking, society was shaken to its center: the people, in whose name the struggled had taken place, conceived the desire of exercising the authority which it had acquired; its democratic tendencies were awakened; and having thrown off the yoke of the mother-country, it aspired to independence of every kind. The influence of individuals gradually ceased to be felt, and custom and law untied together to produce the same result. However, the law of descent was the last step to equality. I am surprised that ancient and modern jurists have attributed to this law a greater influence on human affairs. I understand by the law of descent all the laws whose principal object it is to regulate the distribution of property after the death of its owner. The law of entail is of this number: it certainly prevents the owner from disposing of one’s possession before one’s death; but this is solely with a view of preserving them entire for the heir. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

ImageIt is true that these laws belong to civil affairs: but they ought nevertheless to be placed at the head of all political institutions; for, while political laws are only the symbol of a nation’s condition, they exercise an incredible influence upon its social state. They have, moreover, a sure and uniform manner of operating upon society, affecting, as it were, generations yet unborn. Through their means humans acquire a kind of preternatural power over the future lot of their fellow-creatures. When the legislator has once regulated the law of inheritance, one may rest from one’s labour. The machine once put in motion will go on for ages, and advance, as if self-guided, toward a given point. When framed in a particular manner, this law unites, draws together, and advance, as if self-guided, toward a given point. When framed in a particular manner, this law unites, draws together, and vests property and power in a few hands: its tendency is clearly aristocratic. On opposite principles its action is still more rapid; it divides, distributes, and disperses both property and power. Alarmed by the rapidity of its progress, those who despair of arresting its motion endeavour to obstruct by difficulties and impediments; they vainly seek to counteract its effect by contrary efforts; but it gradually reduces or destroys every obstacle, until by its incessant activity the bulwarks of the influence of wealth are grounded down to the fine and shifting sand which is the basis of democracy. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

ImageWhen the law of inheritance permits, still more when it decrees, the equal division of a father’s property among all his children, its effects are of two kinds: it is important to distinguish them from each other, although they tend to the same end. In virtue of law of partible inheritance, the death of every proprietor brings about a kind of revolution in property: not only do one’s possessions change hands, but their very nature is altered; since they are parceled into shares, which become smaller and smaller at each division. This is the direct, and, as it were, they physical effect of the law. It follows, then, that in countries where equality of inheritance is established by law, property, and especially landed property, must have a tendency to perpetual diminution. The effects, however, of such legislation would only be perceptible after a lapse of time, if the law was abandoned to its own working; for supposing a family to consist of two children (and in a country peopled as France is, the average number is not above three), these children, sharing among them the fortune of both parents, would not be poorer than their father or mother. However, the law of equal division exercises its influence not merely upon the property itself, but it affects the minds of the heirs, and brings their passion into play. These indirect consequences tend powerfully to the destruction of large fortunes, and especially of large domains. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

ImageAmong the nations whose law of descent is founded upon the right of primogeniture, landed estates often pass from generation to generation without undergoing division. The consequence of which is, that family feeling is to a certain degree incorporated with the estate. The family represents the estate, the estate the family; whose name, together with its origin, its glory, its power, and its virtues, is thus perpetuated in an imperishable memorial of the past, and sure pledge of the future. When the equal partition of property is established by law, the intimate connexion is destroyed between the family feeling and the preservation of the paternal estate; the property ceases to represent the family; for, as it must inevitably be divided after one or two generations, it has evidently a constant tendency to diminish, and must in the end be completely dispersed. The sons of the great landed proprietor, if they are few in number, of it fortune befriend them, may indeed entertain the hope of being as wealthy as their father, but not that of possessing the same property as he did; their riches must necessarily be composed of elements different from his. Now, from the moment when you divest the land-owner of that interest in the preservation of his estate which he derives from association, from tradition, and from family pride, you may be certain that sooner or later he will dispose of it; for there is a strong pecuniary interest in favour of selling, as floating capital produces higher interest than real property, and is more readily available to gratify the passions of the moment. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

ImageGreat landed estates which have once been divided, never come together again; for the small proprietor draws from his land a better revenue in proportion, than the large owner does from his; and of course he sells it at a higher rate. (I do not mean to say that the small proprietor cultivates his land better, but he cultivates I with more ardour and care; so that he makes up by his labour for his want of skill.) The calculations of gain, therefore, which decided the rich man to sell his domain, will still more powerfully influence him against buying small estates to unite them into a large one. What is called family pride is often founded upon an illusion of self-love. A man wishes to perpetuate and immortalize himself, as it were, in his great-grandchildren. Where the esprit de famille ceases to act, individual selfishness comes into play. When the idea of family becomes vague, indeterminate, and uncertain, a man thinks of his present convenience; he provides for the establishment of the succeeding generation, and no more. Either a man gives up the idea of perpetuating his family, or at any rate he seeks to accomplish it by other means than that of a landed estate. Thus not only does the law of partible inheritance render it difficult for families to preserve their ancestral domains entire, but it deprives them of the inclination to attempt it, and compels them in some measure to co-operate with the law in their own extinction. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

ImageThe law of equal distribution proceeds by two methods: by acting upon things, it acts upon persons; by influencing persons, it affects things. By these means the law succeeds in striking at the root of landed property, and dispersing rapidly both families and fortunes. (Land being the most stable kind of property, we find, from time to time, rich individuals who are disposed to make great sacrifices in order to obtain it, and who willingly forfeit a considerable part of their income to make sure of the rest. However, these are accidental cases. The preference for landed property is no longer found habitually in any class but among the poor. The small land-owner, who has less information, less imagination, and fewer passion, than the great one, is generally occupied with the desire of increasing his estate; and it often happens that by inheritance, by marriage, or by the chances of trade, he is gradually furnished with the means. Thus, to balance the tendency which leads men to divide their estates, there exists another, which incites them to add to them. This tendency, which is sufficient to prevent estates from being divided ad infinitum, is not strong enough to create great territo rial possessions, certainly not to keep them up in the same family.) Most certainly it is not for us, Frenchmen of the nineteenth century, who daily behold the political and social changes which the law of partition is bringing to pass, to question its influence. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

ImageIt is perpetually conspicuous in our country, overthrowing the walls of our dwellings and removing the landmarks of our fields. However, although it has produced great effects in France, must still remains for it to do. Our recollections, opinions, and habits, present powerful obstacles to progress. In the Untied States of America it has nearly completed its work of destruction, and there we can best study its results. The English laws concerning the transmission of property were abolished in almost all the states at the time of the revolution. The law of entail was so modified as not to interrupt the free circulation of the property. The first having passed away, estates began to be parceled out; and the change became more and more rapid with the progress of time. At this moment, after a lapse of little more than sixty years, the aspect of society is totally altered; the families of the great landed proprietors are almost all commingled with the general mass. In the state of New York, which formerly contained many of these, there are but two who still keep their heads above the stream; and they must shortly disappear. The sons of these opulent citizens have become merchants, lawyers, or physicians. Most of them have lapsed into obscurity. The last trace of hereditary tanks and distinctions is destroyed—the law of partition has reduced all to one level. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

ImageI do not mean that there is any deficiency of wealthy individuals in the United States of America; I know of no country, indeed, where the love of money has taken stronger hold on the affections of men, and where a profounder contempt is expressed for the theory of the permanent equality of property. However, wealth circulates with inconceivable rapidity, and experience shows that it is rare to find two succeeding generations in the full enjoyment of it. This picture, which may perhaps be thought overcharged, still gives a very imperfect idea of what is taking place in the new states of the west and southwest. At the end of the last century a few bold adventurers began to penetrate into the valleys of the Mississippi, and the mass of the population very soon began to move in that direction: communities unheard of till then were seen to emerge from their wilds: states, whose names were not in existence a few years before, claimed their place in the American Union; and in the western settlements we may behold democracy arrived at its utmost extreme. In these states, founded off hand, and as it were by chance, the inhabitants are but of yesterday. Scarcely known to one another, the nearest neighbours are unaware of each other’s history. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

ImageIn this part of the American continent, therefore, the population has not experienced the influence of great names and great wealthy, not even that of natural aristocracy of knowledge and virtue. None are there to wield that respectable power which men willingly grant to the remembrance of a life spent in doing good before their eyes. The new states of the west are already inhabited; but society has no existence among them. It is not only the fortunes of men which are equal in America; even their acquirements partake in some degree of the same uniformity. I do not believe there is a country in the World where, in proportion to the population, there are so few uninstructed, and at the same time so few learned individuals. Primary instruction is within the reach of everybody; superior instruction is scarcely to be obtained by any. This is not surprising; it is in fact the necessary consequence of what we have advanced above. Almost all the Americans are in easy circumstances, and can therefore obtain the first elements of human knowledge. In America there are comparatively few who are rich enough to live without a profession. Every profession requires an apprenticeship, which limits the time of instruction to the early years of life. At fifteen they enter upon their calling, and thus their education ends at the age wen ours begins. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

ImageWhatever is done afterward, is with a view to some special and lucrative object; a science is taken up as a matter of business, and the only branch of it which is attended to is such as admits of an immediate practical application. What is meant by the remark, that “at fifteen they enter upon a career, and thus their education is very often finished at the epoch when ours commences,” is not clearly perceived. Our professional men enter upon their course of preparation for their respective professions, wholly between eighteen and twenty-one years of age. Apprentices to trades are bound out, ordinarily, at fourteen, but what general education they receive is after that period. Previously, they have acquired the mere elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic. However, it is supposed there is nothing peculiar to America, in the age at which apprenticeship commences. In England, they commence at the same age, and it is believed that the same thing occurs throughout Europe. It is feared that the author has not expressed himself with his usual clearness and precision. In American most of the rich men were formerly poor: most of those who now enjoy leisure were absorbed in business during their youth; the consequences of which is, that when they might have had a taste for study they had no time for it, and when the time is at their disposal they have no longer the inclination. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

ImageThere is no class, then, in America in which the taste for intellectual pleasures is transmitted with hereditary fortune and leisure, and by which the labours of the intellect are held in honour. Accordingly there is an equal want of the desire and the power of application to these objects. A middling standard is fixed in America for human knowledge. All approach as near to it as they can; some as they rise, others as they descend. Of course, an immense multitude of persons are to be found who entertain the same number of ideas on religion, history, science, political economy, legislation, and government. The gifts of intellect proceed directly from God, and man cannot prevent their unequal distribution. However, in consequence of the state of things which we have here represented, it happens, that although the capacities of men are widely different, as the Creator has doubtless intended they should be, they are submitted to the same method of treatment. In American the aristocratic element has always been feeble from its birth; and if at the present day it is not actually destroyed, it is at any rate so completely disabled that we can scarcely assign to it any degree of influence in the course of affairs. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

ImageThe democratic principle, no the contrary, has gained so much strength by time, by events, and by legislation, as to have become no only predominant but all-powerful. There is no family or corporate authority, and it is rare to find even the influence of individual character enjoy any durability. American, then, exhibits in her social state a most extraordinary phenomenon. Men are there seen on a greater equality in point of fortune and intellect, or in other words, more equal in their strength, than in any other country of the World, or, in any age of which history has preserved the remembrance. The political consequences of such a social condition as this are easily deducible. It is impossible to believe that equality will not eventually find its way into the political World as it does everywhere else. To conceive of men remaining forever unequal upon one single point, yet equal on all others, is impossible; they must come in the end to be equal upon all. Now I know of only two methods of establishing equality in the political World: Every citizen must be put in possession of one’s rights, or rights must be granted to no one. For nations which have arrived at the same stage of social existence as the Anglo-Americans, it is therefore very difficult to discover a medium between the sovereignty of all and the absolute power of one person: and it would be vain to deny that social condition which I have been describing is equally liable to each of these consequences. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

ImageThere is, in fact, manly and lawful passion for equality, which excites men to wish all to be powerful and honoured. This passion tends to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom. Not that those nations whose social conditions is democratic naturally despise liberty; on the contrary, they have an instinctive love of it. However, liberty is not the chief and constant object of their desires; equality is their idol: they make rapid and sudden efforts to obtain liberty, and if they miss their aim, resign themselves to their disappointment; but noting can satisfy them excent equality, and rather than lose it they resolve to perish. On the other hand, in a sate where the citizens are nearly on an equality, it becomes difficult for them to preserve their independence against the aggressions of power. No one among them being strong enough to engage singly in the struggle with advantage, nothing but a general combination can protect their liberty: and such a union is not always to be found. From the same social position, then, nations may derive one or the other two great political results; these results are extremely different from each other, but they may both proceed from the same cause. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

ImageThe Angelo-Americans, are the first who, having been exposed to this formidable alternative, have been happy enough to escape the dominion of absolute power. They have been allowed by their circumstances, their origin, their intelligence, and especially by their moral feeling, to establish and maintain the sovereignty of the people. Isaiah speaks messianically—the people in darkness will see a great light—unto us as a child is born—he will be the Prince of Peace and will reign on David’s throne—compare Isaiah 9. About 559-545 Before Christ. “Nevertheless, the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, and afterwards did more grievously afflict by the way of the Red Sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and increased the joy—they joy before Thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broke the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor. For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

Image“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of government and peace there is no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will Perform this. The Lord sent his word unto Jacob and it hath lighted upon Israel. And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart: the bricks are fallen down, but we will build when hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together; the Syrians before and the Philistine behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts. Therefore will the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush in one day. The ancient, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

Image“Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows; for every one of them is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. For wickedness burneth as the fire; it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forests, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke. Through the wrath of the Lord of Hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire; no person shall spare one’s brother. And one shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry; and one shall eat on the left hand and they shall not be satisfied; they shall eat every person the flesh of one’s own arm—Manasseth, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still,” 2 Nephi 19.1-21. O Life-Giving Master, and Bestower of good things, Who hast given unto people the blessed Hope of everlasting life, our Lord Jesus Christ; grant us to perform this Divine service unto Thee in holiness, that we may enjoy the blessedness to come; and being evermore guarded by Thy power, and guided into the light of truth, may continually render unto Thee all glory and thanksgiving. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

ImageGracious God, my heart praises Thee for the wonder of Thy love in Jesus; He is Heaven’s darling, but is for me the incarnate, despised, rejected, crucified sin-bearer; in him Thy grace has almost out-graced itself, in him Thy love to rebels has reached its height; O to love Thee with a love like this! My heart is locked, let Thy love be the master key to pen it; O Father, I adore Thee for Thy great love in the gift of Jesus, O Jesus, I bless Thee for resigning Thy life for me, O Holy Spirit, I thank Thee for revealing to me this mystery; Great God, let Thy Son see in me the travail of His soul! Please bring me away from my false trusts to rest in Him, and Him only. Let me no be so callous to his merit as not to love him, so indifferent to His blood as not to desire cleansing. Lord Jesus, Master, Redeemer, Saviour, come and take entire possession of me; this is Thy right by purchase. In the arms of love enfold and subdue my willful spirit. Take, sanctify, use my every faculty. I am not ashamed of my hope, nor has my confidence led me into confusion. I trusted in Thee regarding my innumerable sins, and Thou hast cast them behind my back. When evils encompassed me, I trusted in Thee, and Thou broughtest me out into a wealthy place. I trusted in Thee in an hour of distress, and Thou didst not fail me, though faith trembled. O God of the eternal choice, O God of the restored possession purchased on the tree, O God of the effectual call, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, I adore Thy Glory, honour, majesty, power, dominion forever. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19Image

Image

Find everything you need to keep your furry friend feeling their best at @HUBApts! 🐶 Our pet-friendly facilities include a dog park and pet wash area to keep your dog fit and squeaky clean! ✨ImageExplore a (long!) list of other amenities on HUB’s website. Link in bio. 👉 https://www.hub-folsomapts.com/

Image

#CresleighHomes

The Health of Nations is More Important than the Wealth of Nations!

Capture25The people’s judgment is not always true; the most may err a grossly as the few. The primary purpose of goal setting is to pull change in the direction you have chosen—one which fits your expertise and overall plan. Governance is more than just the structure and administration of a nation’s government. It is the rules and rulers, the law, and the bureaucracy embedded in the system of that government, it is about the relationship between the state and the individual. The various theories of justice, including the polity, law, structure, communication, and administration of governance are rooted in democracy as a governance system that emphasizes the “rule by the people” and citizenship, participation, and communication. A republic is a governance system in which the constitution is seen as an essential document organizing the collective will and rule of law. Governance systems of anarchy promote the idea that humankind should have the individual liberty to act in accordance to their own will and absent of constraint. Communism and theocracy are both governance ideas which emphasize a government that is “absolute” in rule and regulation in order to maintain a stronger communal liberty. Equality in the United States of American is supposed to be so great in both fortune and intellect that the strength of democracy will spread throughout the World. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

Image Within this democratic republic are core theories of justice, such as contractarianism and egalitarianism. This view holds that a social contract is assembled by the collective will of the people, along with guiding principles of equality and joint responsibility. Integration of differing theories of justice intersect and work in agreement toward a stronger and fairer governance structure of democratic republic, and this self-governance is the goal of justice. However, at times, the law can be guilty of the very iniquity which it was its mission to punish! All people have a right of defending, even by force, one’s person, one’s liberty, and one’s property. However, much like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “We believe in law and order. We are not advocating violence. We want to love our enemies. Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate, but to win one’s friendship and understanding.” Systems of justice within governance must reflect the goal of equality of basic conditions for everyone. One cannot dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools. The tools may allow us temporarily to beat one at one’s own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

ImageTo consider the consequences of unresolved conflicts is to enter a seemingly limitless territory and one that has been little explored. We could, perhaps, approach it by embarking on a discussion of certain symptomatic disorders like depression, alcoholism, epilepsy, or schizophrenia, hoping thereby to gain a better understanding of particular disturbances. I prefer, however, to examine it from a more general vantage point and to pose the question: What do unresolved conflicts do to our energies, our integrity, and our happiness? I adopt this approach because it is my conviction that we cannot grasp the significance of any symptomatic disorder without an understanding of its fundamental human basis. The tendency in modern psychiatry to reach for a handy theoretical formulation to account for existing syndromes is not unnatural in view of the need of the clinician whose job it is to deal with them. However, to do so is as little feasible, let alone scientific, as for a construction engineer to build the top floors of a building before laying the foundation. Some of the elements that enter into our question have already been mentioned and need only be elaborated here. Others are implicit in our previous discussions; still other will have to be added. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

ImageOur aim is to leave the reader not with some vague notion that unresolved conflicts are injurious but to convey a fairly clear and comprehensive picture of the havoc they inflict on the personality. Living with unresolved conflicts involves primarily a devastating waste of human energies, occasioned not only be the conflicts themselves but by all the devious attempts to remove them. When a person is basically divided one can never put one’s energies wholeheartedly into anything but wants always to pursue two or more incompatible goals. This means that one will either scatter one’s energies or actively frustrate one’s efforts. The former is true of persons whose idealized image, like Peer Gynt’s, lures them into believing that they can excel in everything. A woman, in this case, want to be an ideal mother, a perfect cook and hostess, dress well, play a prominent social and political role, be a devoted wife, have affairs outside marriage and do productive work of her own to boot. Needless to say, this cannot be done; she will be bound to fail in all these pursuits, and her energies—no matter how potentially gifted she is—will be wasted. Of more general relevance is the frustration of a single pursuit where incompatible motivations block each other. A man may want to be a good friend but be so domineering and demanding that his potentialities in this direction are never realized. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

ImageAnother wants his children to get on in the World, but his drive for personal power and his insistent rightness interfere. Someone want to write a book but get a splitting headache or is seized with a deadly fatigue whenever he cannot immediately formulate what he wants to say. In this instance it is again the idealized image that is responsible: since he is the mastermind, why should not brilliant thoughts flow from his pen like rabbits from a magician’s hat? And when they do not, he bursts with rage at himself. Someone else may have an idea of real value that he wants to present at a meeting. However, one wishes not only to express it in a way that will be impressive and put others in the shade; one also wants to be liked and to avoid antagonizing, and at the same time anticipates ridicule because of this externalization of one’s self-contempt. The result is that he cannot think at all and the pertinent thought he might have produced never reaches fruition. Still another could be a good organizer but by reason of one’s sadistic trends antagonizes everyone around one. If we look at ourselves and those about us, it is hardly necessary to give further examples because all of us can find plenty of them. There is an apparent exception to this lack of clear direction. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

ImageSometimes neurotic persons show a curious single-mindedness of purpose: men many sacrifice everything including their own dignity to their ambition; women may want nothing of life but love; parents may devote their entire interest to their children. Such persons give the impression of wholeheartedness. However, as we have shown, they are actually pursuing a mirage which appears to offer a solution of their conflicts. The apparent wholeheartedness is one of desperation rather than of integration. It is not the conflicting needs and impulses alone that consume and dissipate energies. Other factors in the protective structure have the same effect. There is the eclipse of whole areas of the personality due to the suppression of parts of the basic conflict. The parts eclipsed are still sufficiently active to interfere, but they cannot be put to constructive use. The process thus constitutes a loss of energy that might otherwise be used for self-assertion, for co-operation, or for establishing good human relationships. There is, to mention only one other factor, the alienation from self that robs a person of one’s motor force. One can still be a good worker, one may even be able to make a considerable effort when put under external pressure, but he collapses when left to his own resources. This does not only mean that he cannot do anything constructive or enjoyable with his free time; it means nothing less than that all his creative forces may go to waste. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

ImageFor the most part, a variety of factors combine to create large areas of diffuse inhibition. In order to understand and eventually remove a single inhibition, we usually have to come back to it again and again, tackling it from all the angles we have discussed. Waste or misdirection of energy can stem from three major disturbances, all symptomatic of unresolved conflicts. One of these is a general indecisiveness. It may be prevalent in everything, from trifles to matters of greatest personal importance. There may be an endless wavering whether to eat this dish or that, whether to buy this or that suitcase, whether to go to the movies or listen to the radio. It may be impossible to decide on a career or on any step within a career; to decide between two women; to decide whether or not to get a divorce; whether to die or to live. A decision that must be made and that would be irrevocable is a real ordeal and may leave a person panic-stricken and exhausted. Though their indecisiveness may be marked, people are often unaware of it because they unconsciously exert every effort to avoid decision. They procrastinate; they allow themselves to be swayed by chance or else leave the decision to someone else. They may also becloud issues to a degree that leaves no basis upon which to make a decision. The aimlessness that follows from all this is likewise not usually apparent to the person oneself. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

ImageThe many unconscious devices employed to cover up pervasive indecision account for the comparative rarity with which analysts hear complaints about what is actually a common disorder. Another typical manifestation of divided energies is a general ineffectualness. I do not have in mind here an inaptitude in a particular field, which might be due to lack of training or interest in the subject. Nor is it a question of untapped energies such as William James describes in a most interesting paper pointing to the fact that a reservoir of energy becomes available when one does not succumb to the first sigh of fatigue, or under pressure of external circumstances. In effectualness in this context is that which results from a person’s incapacity to exert one’s best efforts by reason of one’s inner crosscurrents. It is as if one were driving a care with the brakes on; inevitably the car is slowed down. Sometimes this is literally applicable. Everything a person attempts may be done much more slowly than either one’s abilities or the inherent difficult of the task would warrant. Not that one makes insufficient effort; on the contrary, one must put in an inordinate amount of effort into anything one does. It may take one hours, for instance, to write a simple reports r master a simple mechanical device. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

ImageWhat exactly impedes one suffering from ineffectualness of course varies. One may unconsciously rebel against what one feels as coercion; one may be driven to perfect every minute detail; one may be furious at oneself—as in an example above—for not acquitting oneself superbly at the first attempt. The ineffectualness does not only manifest itself in slowness; I may also appear in awkwardness or forgetfulness. If one secretly feels it is unfair, gifted as one is, a domestic worker or a housewife will not do one’s work well because it is beneath one to do such menial work. And one’s ineffectualness will usually not be confined to this particular activity but will pervade all one’s endeavours. From the subjective standpoint this means working under strain, with the inevitable consequences of becoming easily exhausted and needing much sleep. Any kind of work under these conditions is bound to take more out of a person, just as if a car is drive with locked brakes, it will suffer. The inner strain—and the ineffectualness as well—is present not only in work but also to a very marked degree in dealing with people. If someone wants to be friendly but at the same time resent the idea because one feels it to be ingratiating, one will be stilted; if one wants to ask for something but also feels one should command it, one will be ungracious; if one wants to assert oneself but also to comply, one will be hesitant. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

ImageSimilarly, if one wants to make contact people but anticipate rejection, one will be sky; if one wants to have pleasures of the flesh but also wants to frustrate the partner, one will be frigid—and so on. The more pervasive he countercurrents, the greater the strain of living. Some persons are aware of such inner strain; more often they become aware of it only if under special conditions it is increased; sometimes it strikes them only by contrast with the few occasion when they can relax, feel at ease, and be spontaneous. For the resulting fatigue they usually hold other factors responsible—a weak constitution, an overdose of work, a lack of sleep. Any of these, it is true, may play a role, but a much less significant one than is ordinarily believed. In contrast, a self-actualized person’s state will not be easily discernible to others, unless they happen to be the few who are themselves sufficiently advanced and sufficiently sensitive to appreciate it. Yet it is one’s duty to announce the glorious news of its discovery, to publish the titanic fact of its existence. However, one will do so in one’s own way, according to one’s own charactertistics and circumstances. One will not need to announce it in a speech, or print in it a book; one will not publish the fact in daily newspapers or shout it from the housetops. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

ImageOne’s whole life will be the best announcement, the grandest publication. Without oneself being a priest, one performs the true priestly office. The strange and sweet spell flung forever over sensitive, ripe, and ready minds by the self-actualized, when one uses one’s wisdom and goodness, is like a caduceus to enchant them into becoming seekers after truth. One is a prophet without a church, a teacher without a school, a reformer without an institution. The adept can do much more through the prestige of true ideas set down in writing than through the mechanical efforts of any formal organization, more by helping individuals than by creating a collective body which would one day exploit them. One is the abstract, far-off ideal, but embodied visibly for our benefit and put near us for our inspiration. Can one person transfer spiritual grace to another? If by grace if meant here can one give a glimpse of God to another, the answer is Yes!—if the other is worthy, sensitive, and above al karmically ready. Ne can if the other person is capable of absorbing the stimulus radiated to one. In the case of those who are ready for it or who have affinity with one, a master may be able to bring about a temporary illuminating glimpse through one’s inner contact with the other person by the power of one’s spiritual force. This force can be expressed through the Master’s spoken words or in silent meditation. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

ImageTraditional subjective faith results from a divine light which is freely accepted. It formally constitutes the saving element of faith. However, this subjective faith cannot be analysed alone, for it never exists without an object. This object, as we have said, comes from the Church: we are told what the Church believes and, enlightened by God, we believe it too. In scholastic terms, subjective and objective faith are likened to form and matter; and as philosophers know, there is neither form without matter, nor matter without form. The Reformation, with its dislike of scholasticism, avoided these terms; but it maintained their purpose: subjective faith was essentially correlative to objective belief. Where a distinction existed, one sees a separation. Admittedly, faith always has a concrete content. The content matters infinitely for the life of the believer, but does not matter for the formal definition of faith. We thus face a strange paradox: what matters infinitely for the believer does not concern the nature of one’s faith. How can this be, if faith is infinite concern? Subjective faith could stand by itself, without a concrete content. There is nothing in faith but faith itself: what is called absolute faith is the accepting of the acceptance without somebody or something that accepts. Those who are always hoping to receive full enlightenment from a master, exaggerate the service one can render. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

ImageThe most that a master can give is a glimpse, and that not to everyone. Those who penetrate into the holy of holies bless the World when they bring forth the treasures they find therein. What they achieve and accomplish mentally in the period of prayer, they will later express automatically in action during the days that follow. Theirs is the balanced life which is true sanity, so lacking in modern existence. Neither the Unconditioned nor something unconditional is meant as a being, not even the highest being, not even God. Yet faith cannot exist without a person believing something, without a subject and an object. Unless one is bidden from the higher power (and one is sure of the source) to become an apostle, one will not take on the task of making available to others in such a public fashion, truths which most are not ready enough to recognize, which would create bewilderment or scorn in their minds. Nor, again, will one communicate privately without the inner command and thus become a leader to others. The awareness that one existed on this planet made its grievous and troubled life more bearable, gave a little meaning to what seemed otherwise quite chaotic. For one’s own higher development reminded, nay assured, us that there was some sort of an evolution going on, that there was a goal and a purpose behind it all.  Thus, merely to know that this being was alive, even though we might never again meet one and could never hope to become intimate with one, sustained our faith in Life itself and helped us to live. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

ImageThe prayers of such a being are not lightly uttered nor egotistically born. Therefore they are always heard and generally answered. One can communicate to others something of one’s mystical enlightenment through words and something of one’s mystical serenity through silence. One carries with one a perpetual blessing, although it is seldom possible for those who identify themselves with their fleshly bodies to receive this unheralded gift with their conscious minds. Faith is the true reading of human’s existential estrangement as a relating estrangement, as a healing wound. This means that one has given faith a preliminary content distinct from its concrete content. Thus faith appears on three levels: as subjective it is ultimate concern; as content of this concern, it is reunion in estrangement, forgiveness in guilt, ground of being in separation from this ground; as objective, related to a concrete content, it is still a third phenomenon. The Fall of Man is the existential condition that inspired human’s desire for salvation—the quest for Christ. The Christian document of original sin is a theological explanation of estrangement. As such it belongs to Christology: Christ, by hypothesis, will bring salvation from this basic anguish of existence. It belongs a fortiori to a theology of faith. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

ImageIf faith implies awareness of estrangement and courage to endorse and bear estrangement, it also implies knows of “original sin” and rests on the experience of the fall of man. What the legend of the Fall tells humankind in general, faith discovers in each person: that existence is tragic this tragic element, if accepted, becomes a way to holiness and peace. In such a perspective, faith experiences the Fall. Christ will be as a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense—seek the Lord, not peeing wizards—turn to the law and to the testimony for guidance—compare Isaiah 8. About 559-545 Before Christ. “Moreover, the word of the Lord said to me: Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a human’s pen, concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz. And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zecharish the son of Jeberechiah. And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived and bare a son. Then said the Lord to me: Call his name, Maher-salal-has-baz. For behold, the child shall not have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, before the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king Assyria. The Lord spake also unto me again, saying: Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son; Now therefore, behold the Lord bringeth upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria and all his glory; and he shall come up over all his banks. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

Image“And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel. Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear all ye of far countries; grid yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand; for God is with us. For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying: Say ye not, A confederacy, to all whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and let hum be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. Behold, I am the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

Image“And when they shall say unto you: Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and mutter—should not a people seek unto their God for the living to hear from the dead? To the law and to the testimony; and if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. And they shall pass through it hardly bestead and hungry; and it shall come to pass that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the Earth and behold trouble, and darkness, dimness of anguish, and shall be driven to darkness,” reports 2 Nephi 18.1-22. We sinners do beseech Thee, please hear us. That it may please Thee to defend and exalt Thy Church; we beseech Thee, Lord Jesus, to please hear us. That is may please Thee to grant to Thy Church the tranquility of peace; that it may please Thee to put down the enemies of God’s Holy Church; that it may please Thee to defend us from dangerous enemies; that it may please Thee to preserve the people, and our pastor and chief, and the flock committed to him; that it may please Thee to preserve the Queen in perpetual prosperity; that it may please Thee to preserve all orders of the Church, the clergy and laity, and the whole people; that it may please Thee to make us persevere in good works. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

ImageFurthermore, that it may please Thee to give us celestial armour against the devil; that Thy mercy and pity may keep us safe; that Thou wouldest give us the will and the power to repent in earnest; that it may please Thee to give us pardon of all sins; that it may please Thee to give us right faith, firm hope in Thy goodness, and perfect live, and constant fear of Thee; that it may please Thee to remove evil thoughts from us; that it may please Thee to pour in our souls the grace of the Holy Spirit; that it may please Thee to give us perpetual light; that it may please Thee to give us a happy end; that it may please Thee to bring us to everlasting joys; that it may please Thee to hear us; Son of God; O Lamb of God, please give us pardon. O Lamb of God, please hear us. Please give perfection to beginners, give intelligence to the little ones, give us assistance to those who are running their course. Please give compunction to the negligent, give fervour of spirit to the lukewarm, give to the perfect a good consummation. O Lover of the loveless, it is Thy will that I should love Thee with heart, soul, mind, strength, and neighbour as myself. However, I am not sufficient for these things. There is by nature no pure love in my soul; every affection in me is turned from Thee; I am bound, as slave to lust, I cannot love Thee, lovely as Thou art, until Thou dost set me free. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

ImageBy grace I am Thy freeperson and would serve Thee, for I believe Thou art my God in Jesus, and that through Him I am redeemed, and my sins are forgiven. With this freedom I would always obey Thee, but I cannot walk in liberty, anymore than I could first attain it, of myself. May Thy Spirit draw me nearer to Thee and Thy ways, please. Thou art the end of all mean, for if they lead me not to Thee, I go away empty. Please order all my ways by Thy holy word and please make Thy commandments the joy of my heart, that by them I may have happy converse with Thee. May I grow in Thy love and manifest it to humankind. Spirit of love, make me like the loving Jesus; please give me His benevolent temper, His beneficent actions, that I may shine before people to Thy glory. The more Thou doest in love in me and by me, please humble me the more; keep me meek, lowely, and always ready to give Thee honour. May hope spring eternal in the human heart; people never is, but always to be blessed. To err is human, to forgive is divine. If thou must love me, let it be for naught except for love’s sake only. God’s gifts put humans best gifts to shame. Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern but impossible to enslave. My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight for the ends of Being and ideal Grace. The night has a thousand eyes, and the day but one; yet the light of the bright World dies with the dying Sun. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19Image

CRESLEIGH MEADOWS AT PLUMAS RANCH

Plumas Lake, CA | from the mid $300’s

Now Selling!

ImageCresleigh Meadows is now selling! Found just north of Feather River Boulevard, Cresleigh Meadows is home of the largest neighborhood in Plumas Ranch as well as the popular Bear River Park. With four floor plans available, ranging from approximately 2,000 – 3,500 square feet offering, three to five bedrooms, we are certain you will find the home that fits your needs and lifestyle.

ImagePopular design elements include open floor plans, large kitchen islands, and flex spaces are staples in Cresleigh homes. Multi-generational living options also available in select homes. https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-meadows-at-plumas-ranch/residence-4/

Respect for God Demands that the Face, the Hands and the Feet be Washed One a Day!

ImageA thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness. Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today. However, let us speak about the colonized. I see clearly what colonization has destroyed: the wonderful Native American civilizations—neither Deterding nor Royal Dutch nor Standard Oil will ever console me for the Aztecs and the Incas. I see clearly the civilizations, condemned to perish at a future date, into which it has introduced a principle of ruin: the South Sea islands, Nigeria, Nyasaland. I see less clearly the contributions it has made. Security? Culture? The rule of law? In the meantime, I look around and wherever there are colonizers and colonized face to face, I see force, brutality, cruelty, sadism, conflict, and in a parody of education, the hasty manufacture of a few thousand subordinate functionaries, “boys,” artisans, office clerks, and interpreters necessary for the smooth operation of business. I spoke of contact. Between colonizer and colonized there is room only for forced labour, intimidation, pressure, the police, taxation, theft, assault by physical force, compulsory crops, contempt, mistrust, arrogance, self-complacency, swinishness, brainless elites, degraded masses. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18

ImageWith colonization, there is no human contact, but relations of domination and submission which turn the colonizing being into a classroom monitor, an army sergeant, a prison guard, a slave driver, and the indigenous person into an instrument of production. My turn to state an equation: colonization = “thingification.” I hear the storm. They talk to me about progress, about “achievements,” diseases cured, improved standards of living. I am talking about societies drained of their essence, cultures trampled underfoot, institutions undermined, lands confiscated, religions smashed, magnificent artistic creations destroyed, extraordinary possibilities wiped out. They throw facts at my head, statistics, mileages of roads, canals, and railroad tracks. I am talking about throughs of people sacrificed to the Congo-Ocean. I am talking about those who, as I write this, are digging the habour of Abidjan by hand. I am talking about millions of people torn from their gods, their land, their habits, their life—from life, from the dance, from wisdom. I am talking about millions of people in whom fear has been cunningly instilled, who have taught to have an inferiority complex, to tremble, kneel, despair, and behave like flunkeys. They dazzle me with the tonnage of cotton or cocoa that has been exported, the acreage that has been planted with olive trees or grapevines. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18

Image I am talking about natural economics that have been disrupted—harmonious and viable economies adapted to the indigenous population—about food crops destroyed, malnutrition permanently introduced, agricultural development oriented solely toward the benefit of the metropolitan countries, about the looting of products, the looting of raw materials. They pride themselves on abuses eliminated. I too talk about abuses, but what I say is that on the old ones–very real—they superimposed others—very detestable. They talk to me about local tyrants brought to reason; but I note that in general the old tyrants get on very well with the new ones, and that there has been established between them, to the detriment of the people, a circuit of mutual services and complicity. They talk to me about civilization, I talk about proletarianization and mystification. For my very part, I make a systematic defense of the non-European civilizations. Every day that passes, every denial of justice, every beating by the police, every demand of the workers that is drowned in blood, every death from COVID-19, every scandal that is hushed up, every punitive expedition, every police van, every gendarme and every militiaman, brings home to us the value of our old societies. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18

ImageThey were communal societies, never societies of the many for the few. They were societies that were not only ante-capitalist, as has been said, but also anti-capitalist. They were demonstrative societies, always. They were cooperative societies, fraternal societies. I make a systematic defense of the societies destroyed by imperialism. They were the fact, they did not pretend to be the idea; despite their faults, they were neither to be hated nor condemned. They were content to be. In them, neither the word failure not the word avatar had any meaning. They kept hope intact. Whereas those are the only words that can, in all honesty, be applied to the European enterprises outside Europe. My only consolation is that periods of colonization pass, that nations sleep only for a time, and the peoples remain. For my part, I search in vain for the place where I could have expressed such views: where I ever underestimated the importance of Europe in the history of human thought; where I ever preached a return to any kind; where I ever claimed that there could be a return.  The truth is that I have said something very different: to wit that the great historical tragedy of Africa has been not so much that it was too late in making contact with the rest of the World, as the manner in which that contact was brought about. Europe began to propagate at a time when it had fallen into the hands of the most unscrupulous financiers and captains of industry. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18

ImageIt was our misfortune to encounter that particular Industrialization on our path, and Industrialization is responsible before the human community for the highest heap of corpses in history. In another connection, in judging colonization, I have added that Europe has gotten on very well indeed with all the local feudal lords who agreed to serve, woven a villainous complicity with them, rendered their tyranny more effective and more efficient, and that it has actually tended to prolong artificially the survival of local past in their most pernicious aspects. I have said—and this is something very different—that colonialist Europe has grafted modern abuse onto ancient injustice, hateful racism onto old inequality. That if I am attacked on the grounds of intent, I maintain that colonialist Europe is dishonest in trying to justify its colonizing activity a posteriori by the obvious material progress that has been achieved in certain fields under the colonial regime—since sudden change is always possible, in history as elsewhere; since no one knows at what stage of material development these same countries would have been if Europe had not intervened; since the technical outfitting of Africa and Asia, their administrative reorganization, in a word, their “Europeanization,” was (as is proved by the example of Japan) in no way tied to the European occupation. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18

ImageThis is because Europeanization of the non-European continents could have been accomplished otherwise than under the heel of European occupation. Since the Europeanization of the non-European continents could have been accomplished otherwise than under the heel of Europe; since this movement of Europeanization was in progress; since it was even slowed down; since in any case it was distorted by the European take over. The proof is that at present it is the indigenous peoples of Africa and Asia who are demanding schools, and colonialist Europe which refuses them; that it is the African who is asking for ports and roads, and colonialist Europe which is insufficiently on this score; that it is the colonized person who wants to move forward, and the colonizer who holds things back. Another fear born of the protective structure is a fear of exposure. Its sources lies in the many pretenses that go into the development and maintenance of the structure itself. These will be described in connection with the impairment of moral integrity brought about by unresolved conflicts. For our present purpose we need only point out that a neurotic person wants to appear, both to oneself and others, different from what one really is—more harmonious, more rational more generous, or powerful, or ruthless. It would be hard to say whether one is more afraid of being exposed to oneself or to others. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18

ImageConsciously, it is others one is most concerned about, and the more one externalizes one’s fear the more anxious one is that others should not find one out. If only others can be kept in the dark, one may say in that case that what one thinks of oneself does not matter; one’s own discovery of one’s failings can take in one’s stride. That is not so, but it is the way one feels consciously and indicates the degree to which externalization is present. Fear of being exposed may either appear as a nebulous feeling that one is a bluff or may be attached to some particular quality only remotely associated with what one is really bothered about. A person may be afraid that one is not as intelligent, as competent, as well educated, as attractive as one is believed to be, so shifting the fear to qualities that do not reflect on one’s character. Thus a patient recalled that in his early adolescence he was haunted by the fear that his being at the head of his class was due entirely to bluffing. Each time he changed schools he was sure that this time he would be found out, and the fear persisted even when again he captured the top rank. His feeling puzzled him, but he was unable to put his finger on the cause of it. He could not gain an insight into his problem because he was on the wrong track: his fear of exposure did not at all concern his intelligence but had merely been shifted to that sphere. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18

ImageIn reality it concerned his unconscious pretense of being a good fellow who did not care about grades, whereas the fact was that he was obsessed by a destructive need to triumph over others. This illustration leads to a pertinent generalization. Fear of being a bluff is always related to some objective factor, but it is usually not the one the person oneself thinks it is. Symptomatically, its outstanding expression is blushing or a fear of blushing. Since it is an unconscious pretense that the patient fears will be disclosed, the analyst will make a serious mistake if, noting the patient’s fear of being found out, he searches for some experience that he thinks the latter is ashamed of and is hiding. However, the patient may not be holding back anything of the ort. What happens then is that one becomes more and more fearful that there must be something particularly bad in one which one is unconsciously loath to reveal. Such a situation is conductive to self-condemnatry scrutiny but not to constructive work. One will perhaps go into further detail about episodes of pleasures of the flesh or destructive impulses. However, the fear of exposure will remain so long as the analyst fails to recognize that the patient is caught in a conflict and that one oneself is working on only one aspect of it. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18

ImageFear of exposure can be provoked by any situation which—to the neurotic—means being out to a test. This would include starting a new job, making new friends, entering a new school, examinations, social gatherings, or any kind of performance that might make one conscious even if it is no more than taking part in a discussion. Frequently what is consciously conceived as a fear of failure actually has to do with exposure, and hence is not allayed by success. The person will merely feel that one “got by” this time, but what about the next? And if one should fail, one will only be the more convinced that he has always been a bluff and that this time one was caught. One consequence of such a feeling is shyness, particularly in any new situation. Another is wariness in the face of being liked or appreciated. The person will think, consciously or unconsciously: “They like me now, but if they really knew me, they would feel otherwise.” Naturally this fear plays a role in analysis, whose explicit purpose is to “find out.” Every new fear requires a new set of defenses. Those erected against fear of exposure fall into opposite categories and hinge on the whole character structure. On the other hand, there is a tendency to avoid test situations of any kind; and if they cannot be avoided, to be reserved, self-controlled, and wear an impenetrable mask. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18

ImageOn the other than, there is an unconscious attempt to become so perfect a bluff that exposure need not be feared. The latter attitude is not defensive alone: magnificent bluffing is also used by individuals of the aggressive type who live vicariously, as a means of impressing those whom they wish to exploit; any attempt to question them, then, will be met by a wily counterattack. I refer here to openly sadistic persons. We shall see later how this trait fits in with the entire structure. We shall understand the fear of exposure when we have answered two questions: What is a person afraid to disclose? and, What is it that one fears in case one should be exposed? The first we have already answered. In other to answer the second we must deal with still another fear emanating from the protective structure, the fear of disregard, humiliation, and ridicule. While the ricketiness of the structure is responsible for the fear of disturbed equilibrium, and the unconscious fraudulence involved breeds fear of exposure, the fear of humiliation comes from an injured self-esteem. We have touched on this matter in other connections. Both the creation of an idealized image and the process of externalization are attempts at repairing damaged self-respect, but as we have seen, both only injure it still further. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18

ImageIf we take a bird’s eye view of what happens to self-esteem in the course of a neurotic development, we come upon two pairs of seesaw processes. While the level of realistic self-esteem falls, up comes an unrealistic pride-pride in being so good, so aggressive, so unique, so omnipotent or omniscient. On the other seesaw we find a dwarfing of the neurotic’s actual self counterweighted by the raising of others to the stature of giants. Through the eclipse of large areas of the self by repression and inhibition as well as by idealization and externalization, the individual loses sight of oneself; one feels, if one does not actually become, like a shadow without weight or substance. And meanwhile one’s need of others and one’s fear of them make them not only more formidable to one but more necessary. Hence one’s center of gravity comes to rest more in others than in oneself and one concedes to them prerogatives that are rightly one’s own. Its effect is to give their evaluation of oneself undue important, while one’s own self-evaluation loses significance. This lends to the opinion of others an overwhelming power. The above sets of process taken together account for the neurotic’s extreme vulnerability to disregard, humiliation and ridicule. And these processes are so much a part of every neurosis that hypersensitivity in this respect is most common. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18

ImageIf we are cognizant of the manifold sources of the fear of disregard we can see that to remove or even diminish it is no simple task. It can recede only to the extent that the entire neurosis recedes. In general, the consequence of this fear is to set the neurotic apart from others and make one hostile to them. However, more important is its power to clip the wings of those afflicted with it so any strong degree. They do not dare to expect anything of others or to set high goals for themselves. They do not dare to approach people who seem superior to them in any way; they do not dare to express an opinion even though they may have a real contribution to make; they do not dare to exercise creative abilities even when they have them; they do not dare to make themselves attractive, to try to impress, to seek a better position, and so on and so on. When tempted to reach out in any of these directions the ghastly prospect of ridicule holds them back and they take refuge in reserve and dignity. More imperceptible than the fears we have described in one that may be regarded as a condensation of all of them as well as of other fears that arise in a neurotic development. This is the fear of changing anything in oneself. Patients react to the idea of changing by adopting either of two extreme attitudes. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18

ImageThe two attitudes range from they either leave the whole subject nebulous, feeling that a change will occur by some sort of miracle at some hazy future time, or they attempt to change too rapidly, with too little understanding. In the first instance they harbour a mental reservation that catching a glimpse of a problem or admitting a frailty should be enough; the idea that in order to fulfill themselves they must actually change their attitudes and drives comes as a shock to them and makes them uneasy. They cannot help seeing the validity of the proposition, but unconsciously they reject it all the same. The reverse position amounts to an unconscious pretense of changing. It is in part wishful thinking, growing out of the patient’s intolerance of any imperfection in oneself; but it is also determined by one’s unconscious feeling of omnipotence—the mere wish to have a difficulty disappear should be enough to dispel it. Behind the fear of changing are qualms about changing for the worse—that is, losing one’s idealized image, turning into the rejected self, becoming like everybody else, or being left by analysis an empty shell; terror of the unknown, of having to relinquish safety devices and satisfactions hitherto gained, particularly those of chasing after phantoms that promise solution; and finally a fear of being unable to change—a fear that will be better understood when we come to discuss the neurotic’s hopelessness. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18

ImageAll these fears spring from unresolved conflicts. However, because we must expose ourselves to them if we want eventually to find integration, they also stand as a hindrance to our facing ourselves. They are the purgatory, as it were, through which we must wander before we can attain salvation. The faith of both the New and the Old Testament is selective, subtracting people from the kingdom of this World and adding them to that of Heaven. It leaves people in the World but takes care to make one not of the World where one lives as a stranger and pilgrim inhabiting no permanent city. It united one to the holy community of the World. In this Church there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither male nor female, but only if one has abandoned a World where Jews and Gentiles are foes, and male and female try to dominate each other. Faith implies separation: a person from one’s brother, a daughter from her mother. However, we also focus on a different type of faith. A faith where instead of erecting the holy community out of the World, it sees the whole World as already being the holy community. Nobody escapes it. All, even unawares, belong to it. Is this still the Christian faith? Ephraim and Syria wage war against Judah—Christ will be born of a virgin—Compare Isaiah 7. About 559-545 Before Christ. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18

Image“And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. And it was told the house of David, saying: Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. Then said the Lord unto Isaiah: Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field: and say unto him: Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint-hearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying: Let us go up against Judah and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, yea, the son of Tabeal. Thus saith the Lord God: It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus, Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken that it be not a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If ye will not believe surely ye shall not be established. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18

Image“Moreover, the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying: Ask thee a sigh of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depths, or in the heights above. But Ahaz said: I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. And he said: Hear ye now, O house of David; is it a small thing for you to weary people, but will ye weary my God also? Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign—Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and to choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kinds. The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, the king of Assyria. And it shall come to pass in that day that they Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the holes of the rock, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes. In the same day shall the Lord have with a razor that is hired, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18

Image“And it shall come to pass in that day, a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep; and it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk they shall give he shall eat butter; for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land. And it shall come to pass in that day, every place shall be, where there were a thousand wines at a thousand silverlings, which shall be for briers and thorns. With arrows and with bows shall people come thither, because all the land shall become briers and thorns. And all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and the treading of lesser cattle,” reports 2 Nephi 17.1-25. Almighty Lord our God, direct our steps into the way of peace, and strengthen out hearts to obey They commands: may the Day-spring visit us from on high, and give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death; that they may adore Thee for Thy sweetness, Who are the blessed Lord God of Israel. Father of Jesus, dawn returns but without thy light within no outward light can profit; give me the saving lamp of thy Spirit that I may see thee, the God of my salvation, the delight of my soul, rejoicing over me in love. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18

ImageI commend my heart to Thy watchful care, for I know its treachery and power; guard its every portal from the wily enemy, give me quick discernment of His deadly arts, help me to recognize His bold disguise as an Angel of light, and bid Him begone. May my words and works allure others to the highest walks of faith and love! May loiterers be quickened to greater diligence by my example! May Worldlings be won to delight in acquaintance with thee! May the timid and irresolute be warned of coming doom by my zeal for Jesus! Cause me to be a mirror of Thy grace, to show others the joy of Thy service, may my lips be well-tuned cymbals sounding Thy praise, let a halo of Heavenly-mindedness sparkle around me and a lamp of kindness Sunbeam my path. Teach me the happy art of attending to things temporal with a mind intent on things eternal. Send me forth to have compassion on the ignorant and miserable. Help me to walk as Jesus walked, my only Saviour and perfect model, His mind my inward guest, His meekness my covering garb. Let my happy place be amongst the poor in spirit, my delight the gentle ranks of the meek. Let me always esteem others better than myself, and find in true humility an heirdom to two Worlds. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18Image

Image

Welcome to #BrightonStation! In today’s blog post we want to reacquaint you all with our community at #CresleighRanch. Pictured here is Home Site 78, a Residence 4 home that is available for move in! 🏡 Read more about it on today’s post. Link in bio. 👉 https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/home-site-78/

Image

#CresleighHomes

 

A Fear of a Different Order is Generated—the Fear that Something May Jeopardize these Treasures!

ImageSometimes it takes falling into an open well to discover what we need. All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talents. As for me, all I know is that I know nothing. In its crucial features the ideal speech situation is strictly formal. To arrive at it we abstract from all social circumstances and institutions, as well as particular technical economic, political and cultural circumstances. The ideal speech situation abstracts out any interests speakers might have other than an interest in discursive consensus, and assumes for the speakers that all their experience and feeling is communicable. It also abstracts from the speaking situation those real material factors that require us to cut discussion short (such as having to eat, sleep, and so forth) and to acquire the means for doing so. Only this complete formality of the ideal speech situation permits it to have a universal character. Given the correctness of the theory of communication in which it is embedded, the ideal speech situation implicitly underlies any act of speaking which aims at understanding, as a quasi-transcendental condition for that speaking. This universality provides a theory of justice with a grounding that makes it less arbitrary than some other starting points. It also can provide a critical theory of justice with its needed capacity to distance itself from any and all actual social circumstances. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

ImageThere is a price for this universalizing distance, however. Because the ideal speech situation is formal and abstract, it cannot itself serve as a standard or goal of justice. The ideal speech situation offers the vision of social relations free from domination, the ideal of pure democracy and social reciprocity. It offers this as a mere vision, however; it is no more than an unreal projection that interests thought. It is too abstract to serve as a means of evaluating particular social circumstances. Nor can principles of the evaluation of a society be derived from the ideal speech situation directly. As we have already seen, it is illegitimate to derive substantive normative principles from a purely formal beginning. To use the ideal speech situation for developing a conception of justice applicable to the evaluation of actual societies, we must introduce material premises derived from actual social circumstances. Habermas suggests a method for the introduction of such material content into the ideal speech situation. Utilization of the ideal speech situation, on the other hand, entails incorporating specific knowledge of the particular society one seeks to evaluate. The participants in the discussion know at least the following things about their society: They know the basic natural constraints of their location, such as climate, topography, the character and general amount of land and material resources to which they have access, and so on. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

ImagePeople involved in the discussion also have basic demographic knowledge such as how much relative space they have and how much food can be produced relative to the given and projected population. They know the sort of problems their technology can solve and the general level of productive capacity they have at their disposal. All the above say in concrete terms that the persons here know approximately at what point their society lies on the scale between social scarcity and social abundance. As I interpret this model, moreover, the members of the discussion also know much about the culture and traditions of their particular society. They have a notion of the tastes of their artistic and decorative traditions of their particular society. They have a notion of the tastes of their artistic and decorative tradition and a set of shared symbols and stores. They know their language, the games they play, their educational practices, and so on. In principle, if they were in a situation of equality and reciprocity in this model of reasoning about justice, the only things abstracted from real society are those conditions of domination which prevent people in real society from pressing interests that all would agree to as legitimate. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

ImageThis model of reasoning must be purely hypothetical, of course, since in reality material conditions and relations of domination are inextricably linked. Imagining persons with these material constraints as standing in the ideal speech situation—even though no such persons could exist—provides a means of locating the sources of domination. Given discussion unconstrained by domination, the model has individuals choose first principles of social organization that best serve what they judge as their collective needs and legitimate individual interests, given the material constraints under which they operate. They choose, that is, the basic rules of interaction, authority relations, and forms of decision making within and among institutions. Among the principles and rules chosen, of course, are those relating to the distribution of the benefits of social cooperation. Such principles of distribution, however, would be dependent on prior determination of institutional forms, conditions and relations of production and authority relations, as well as on the level of material abundance of which the society is capable. For without the prior knowledge of the forms of social organization, we do not know what sort of social benefits are to be distributed, nor what sort of social positions and interest groups there are to decide among in distributing. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

ImageThe conception and principles of justice which emerge in this way from the application for the formal conditions of the ideal speech situation to the material situation of a particular society are thus quite particular. Unlike most theories of justice, this model of reasoning about justice does not call for the construction of an idea of the just society in general. Rather, the model allows for, even requires, a multitude of conceptions of justice, each derived from the particular conditions of the society and applicable only to them. The model thus satisfies the condition developed in the previous section, that a theory of justice recognize the historical specific of conceptions of justice. It grants that it is not in fact possible to articulate a substantive conception of justice that applies to the evaluation of all or many societies. This form of reasoning about justice in effect measures a society against itself rather tan measuring the society directly against an ahistorical set of principles. The conception of justice resulting from application of the ideal speech situation to particular social conditions, expresses the interests of all insofar as they are compatible. It thus shows that latent possibilities of the society given its historical and material conditions with the systemic sources of its conflicts of interest removed. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

ImageThis process of reasoning about justice serves two purposes. Its main function is to identify sources of domination in the social arrangements of a particular society. The thought experiment discovers relations of domination in the process of setting up its starting point of reasoning. For every social relation whose justice one wishes to examine one asks whether there are aspects of it that tend to create asymmetries in the situation of discussion. The hypothetical models abstracts from them, but not from the material conditions and constraints. The second function served by the model is to project a vision of an alternative organization of that society which is free from domination. Therefore, utilization of the ideal speech situation in a model of reasoning about justice that applies it to the particular material and cultural situation of given society satisfies both the requirements for a theory of justice which have been raised in this essay. First, since the ideal speech situation focuses on relations of interaction and its application reveals the sources of domination, a theory of justice that uses it focuses primarily on forms of social organization. Secondly, the method of applying the ideal speech situation to particular material and cultural conditions points to a theory of justice that contains an a priori universal aspect without producing a conception of justice which claims transhistorical application. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

ImageTranshistorical is the quality of holding throughout human history, not merely within the frame of reference of a particular form of society at a particular stage of historical development; it is eternal. In searching for the deeper meaning of any neurotic problem we can easily lose our bearings in a maze of intricacies. Since we cannot hope to understand neurosis without facing its complexity, this is not unnatural. It is helpful, though, to stand aside from time to time in order to regain our perspective. We have followed the development of the protective structure step by step. We have seen how one defense after another is built up until a comparatively static organization is established. And the element that impresses us most deeply in all this is the infinite labour that has gone into the process, a labour so tremendous that we are led again to wonder what it is that drives a person along so arduous a path and one so fraught with cost to oneself. We ask ourselves what are the forces that make the structure so rigid and so difficult to change. Is the motive power of the whole process simply the fear of the disruptive potency of the basic conflict? An analogy may clear a way to the answer. Like any analogy it is not a precise parallel and so can only be applied in the broadest terms. Let us assume that a man with a shady past has found his way into a community by false present. He will, of course, live in dread of his former state’s being disclosed. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

ImageIn the course of tie his situation advances; he makes friends, secures a job, founds a family. Cherishing his new position, he is best with a new fear, the fear of losing these goods. His pride in his respectability alienates him from his unsavory past. He gives large sums to charity and even to his old associates in order to wipe out his old life. Meanwhile the changes that have been taking place in his personality proceed to involve him in new conflicts, with the results that in the end his having commenced his present life on false premises becomes merely an undercurrent in his disturbance. So in the organization the neurotic has established, the basic conflict remains but is transmuted. Tempered in some respect, it is enhanced in others. Due, however, to the vicious circle inherent in the process, the ensuing conflict become more urgent. What sharpens them most is the fact that every fresh defensive position further impairs one’s relations with oneself and others—the soil, as we have seen, out of which conflicts grow. Moreover, as new elements, however wrapped in illusion—love or success, an achieved detachment or an established image—come to play an important part in one’s life, a fear of a different order is generated, the fear that something may jeopardize these treasures. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

ImageAnd all the while, one’s increased alienation from oneself deprives one more and more of the capacity to work on oneself and so get rid of one’s difficulties. Inertia sets in, taking the place of a directed growth. The protective structure, for all its rigidity, is highly brittle and itself gives rise to new fears. One of these is a fear that its equilibrium will be disturbed. While the structure lends a sense of balance, it is a balance that is easily upset. The person oneself is not consciously aware of this threat, but one cannot help feeling it in a variety of ways. Experience has taught one that one can be thrown out of gear for no apparent reason, that one becomes infuriated, elated, depressed, fatigued, inhibited when one least desires it. The sum total of such experiences gives one a feeling of uncertainty, a feeling that one cannot rely on oneself. It is as if one were skating on thin ice. One’s imbalance may also be expressed in gait or posture, or in lack of skill in anything requiring physical balance. The most concrete expression of this fear is a fear of insanity. When that is present in a marked degree it can be the paramount symptom that drives a person to seek psychiatric help. In such instance the fear is also determined by repressed impulses to do all sorts of “crazy” things, mostly of a destructive nature, without feeling responsible for them. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

ImageThe fear of insanity, however, is not to be construed as an indication that the person may actually go insane. Usually it is transitory and emerges only under conditions of acute distress. Its most poignant provocations are a sudden threat to the idealized image, or a mounting tension—most commonly due to unconscious rage—that puts excessive self-control in jeopardy. A woman, for example, who believed herself to be both even-tempered and courageous had an onset of panic when, in a difficult situation, she was struck with a feeling of helplessness, apprehension, and violent anger. Her idealized image, which had held her together as with a band of steel, suddenly burst and left her with a fear of going to pieces. We have already spoken of the panic hat may seize a detached person when one is pulled from one’s shelter and brought into close proximity to others—when, for instance, one has to join the army or live with relatives. This terror, too, may be expressed as a fear of insanity; and in this instance psychotic episodes may actually occur. In analysis a like fear will emerge when a patient who has gone to great lengths to create an artificial harmony suddenly recognizes that one is divided. That fear of insanity is most frequently precipitated by unconscious rage is demonstrated in analysis, when, this fear having subsided, its residues take the form of an apprehension that one may insult, beat or even kill people under conditions where self-control is impossible. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

ImageThe commission of an act of violence in sleep or under the influence of drink, anesthesia, or excitement involving pleasures of the flesh will then be feared. The rage itself may be conscious or it may appear in consciousness as an obsessive impulse toward violence, unconnected with any affect. On the other hand, it may be entirely unconscious; in that case all the person feels are sudden spells of vague panic, accompanied perhaps by perspiration, dizziness, or a fear of fainting—signifying an underlying fear that the violent impulses might get out of control. Where the unconscious rage is externalized, the person may have a terror of thunderstorms, ghosts, burglars, snakes, and so on—that is, of any potentially destructive force outside oneself. However, after all, fear of insanity is comparatively rare. It is simply the most conspicuous expression of the fear of losing equilibrium. Ordinarily that fear operates in more hidden ways. It appears then in vague, indefinite forms and can be precipitated by any change in life’s routine. Persons subject to it may feel profoundly disturbed at the prospect of making a journey or of moving or changing jobs or employing a new maid or whatever. Wherever possible they try to avoid such changes. Its threat to stability may be a factor in deterring patients from being analyzed, particularly if they have found a way of living that permits them to function fairly well. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

ImageWhen they discuss they advisability of analysis they will be concerned about questions that at first glance seem reasonable enough: Will analysis uproot their marriage? Will it temporarily incapacitate them for work? Will it make them irritable? Will it interfere with their religion? As we shall see, such questions are in part determined by the patient’s hopelessness; one does not think it worth while to take any risks. However, there is also a real apprehension behind one’s concern: one needs to be reassured that analysis will not upset one’s equilibrium. In such cases we can safely assume that the equilibrium is particularly shaky and that the analysis will be a difficult one. Can the analyst give the patient the assurance one wants? No, one cannot. Every analysis is bound to create temporary upsets. What the analyst can do, however, is to go to the root of such questions, to explain to the patient what one really is afraid of, and tell one that while analysis will upset one’s present balance it will give one an opportunity to attain an equilibrium more solidly grounded. Faith is not distinctly Christian phenomenon. All philosophers have tried to reach the bottom of human’s self-awareness. They have attempted to overcome the distinction between subject and object. That all this has been done since philosophy began is not surprising: for this effort is none other than that of making ourselves like God. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

ImageUnity with God is a natural desire which is at least implicit in the heart of humans. Humans may or may not be able to give a name to God. At any rate, they tend to God as the goal of their fulfilment. They seek him in the dark along the winding roads of their anxieties, through the ups and downs of their fevers. And there is a sense in which they words that Pascal places on the lips of the Lord are true: “You would not seek for me, had you not already found me.” Other descriptions of faith, like Paul Tillich’s, when it describes human’s seeking and inclining towards God, is extremely valuable. Yet as we have seen, human’s search for God remains essentially ambiguous. The coincidence of guilt and forgiveness may be understood in two ways: either guilt I subsumed in forgiveness, or guilt already is forgiveness. An option between these two interpretations completely changes the meaning of guilt. Or, take faith as the acceptance of being accepted. If we are accepted, we are accepted, whether we accept it or not. What does our acceptance add to our being accepted? Strictly nothing. The conscious element of faith (our acceptance) is tacked on to a more basic element (our being accepted). If Paul Tillich thinks he is being radical in seeing this acceptance as faith, his radicalism can be outdone: faith is our being accepted. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

ImageEverything is accepted; all is love; all is forgiveness. It is better, for our own peace, to know this experientially; but at bottom it makes no difference. We are accepted in any case. Faith is no longer a free act of human’s entire personality. It is the stuff of all human life. Tillich comes dangerously near to saying this when he underlines the universality of faith: “Every religious and cultural group and, to a certain extent, every individual is the bearer of a special experience and content of faith.” “There is no human being without an ultimate concern and, in this sense, without faith.” If every person cannot help having faith, what is unique in the Christian faith? Between classical theology, Catholic or Protestant, and Tillich something has intervened. What has happened is that Tillich has ontologized the concept of faith. Catholicism, followed by the Reformation, sees faith as a freely accepted act. Humans can reject faith. It is also an act of God: God enlightens the soul; and the soul, accepting or rejecting this light, believes or disbelieves. With Tillich, faith underlies everything. Doubt itself stems from underlying faith. Only faith can attempt to refute faith. “Our ultimate concern can destroy us as it can heal us…But we never can be without it.” #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

ImageSome people are distinguished from others, not in that they freely accept God’s light and believe, but rather in that they suddenly, ecstatically, realize what is common to all, though hidden, namely, that estrangement is also reunion, that life has an ultimate meaning. Personally, with this understand, I take worship of the Lord serious, and I also try to give my best time to prayer—which for me is never the time just before going to bed. One’s last waking moments should never be given to powerful intercessory prayer (except, perhaps, for students who have a final exam in the morning). Here Jesus’ habit is instructive: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed,” reports Mark 1.35. The early birds get the prime time. The real question for you is, when is your best time? For some it may be at lunch or before dinner. A certain person could not find the right posture for prayer. One tried praying on one’s knees, but that was not comfortable; besides, it wrinkled one’s slacks. One tried praying standing, but soon one’s legs got tired. One tried praying seated, but that did not seem reverent. Then one day as one was walking though a field, one fell headfirst into an open well. And did one ever pray! #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

ImageSeriously, one’s prayer posture can make a difference. While the Scriptures mention numerous postures for prayer, none is prescribed. What is important is that your posture enhance reverent attention. Sometimes I kneel, sometimes I walk about the house, often I sit at my desk with list in hand. There are times when I lift my hands, and other time I have been on my face. Heart attitude is the key factor. As to preparation for prayer, honest practicality is of greatest importance. Sometimes a person needs a shower and to get other grooming hygiene matters taken care of. If you are into coffee like I am, a good cup of coffee is a divine cordial. Again, it is not the physical details that are of prime importance but the condition and stance of the heart. Whatever helps you focus on the Lord. Often the best prayers are short and passionate. Luther himself said: “Look to it that you do not try to do all of it, do not try to do too much, lest your spirit grow weary. Besides, a good prayer must not be too long. Do not draw it out. Prayer ought to be frequent and fervent.” A legalistic commitment to duration can kill one’s prayer life because it takes a lot of energy and you make look at it as a big, exhausting obstacle. So the best thing to do is just to get into and be honest and pour out your heart. It may surprise you where you go. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

ImageIf you go long enough without a bath even the fleas will let you alone. Isaiah see the Lord—Isaiah’s sins are forgiven—he is called to prophesy—he prophesies of the rejection by the Jews of Christ’s teachings—a remnant will return—Compare Isaiah 6. About 559-545 Before Christ. “In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim; each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts; the whole Earth is full of His glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I: Wo is unto me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips; and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Host. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar; and he laid it upon my mouth, and said: Lo, this has touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said; Here am I; send me. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

Image“And he said: Go and tell this people—Hear ye indeed, but they understood not; and see ye indeed, but they perceived not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes—lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted and be healed. Then said I: Lord, how long? And he said: Until the cities he wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate; and the Lord have removed people far away, for there shall be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. However, yet there shall be a tenth, and they shall return, and shall be eaten, as a teil tree, and as an oak whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves; so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof,” reports 2 Nephi 16.1-13. O God Who art rich in mercy to all, O Father of glory, Who madest Thy Son to be a Light to the Gentiles, to proclaim redemption to the captives and sight to the blind; do Thou, Who by Christ art bounteous in compassion, grant them remission of sins, and a portion among the Saints through faith. Lord of immortality, before whom Angels bow and Archangels veil their faces, enable me to serve Thee with reverence and Godly fear. Thou who art Spirit and requirest truth in the inward parts, help me to worship Thee in spirit and in truth. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

ImageThou who art righteous, please let me not harbour sin in my heart, or indulge a Worldly temper, or seek satisfaction in things that perish. I hasten towards an hour when Earthly pursuits and possessions will appear vain, when it will be indifferent whether I have been rich or poor, successful or disappointed, admired or despised. However, it will be of eternal moment that I have mourned for sin, hungered and thirsted after righteousness, loved the Lord Jesus in sincerity, gloried in His cross. May these objects engross my chief solicitude! Produce in me those principles and dispositions that make Thy service perfect freedom. Expel from my mind all sinful fear and shame, so tat with firmness and courage I may confess the redeemer before humans, go forth with one bearing one’s reproach, be zealous with one’s knowledge, be filled with one’s wisdom, walk with one’s circumspection, ask counsel of one in all things, repair to the Scriptures for one’s orders, stay mind on one’s peace, knowing that nothing can befall me without one’s permission, appointment and administration. The notion of infinity implies that it cannot be extended, and whoever understands this will not look in this World for anything which contradicts the implication. The tremendous monumentality of the World-Idea, the staggering breadth of its scope and variety are a mere hint of the divine wisdom behind both. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19Image

Image

Here you can see how spacious your #BrightonStation Residence 3 backyard will be. 😍 There is plenty of patio space to relax, and even more space to create the backyard of your dreams! Additionally, Residence 3 also has 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, over a spacious 2,757 square feet. Interactive floor plan and virtual tour on our website. Link in bio. https://youtu.be/yQTnZ0oO2OE

Image

#CresleighRanch
#CresleighHomes