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O Golden Tongued Romance, with Serene Lute! Leave Melodizing on this Wintry Day!

Everybody else is talking about how hard life is, and here I am singing about how good it is to be alive. You can destroy your now by worrying about tomorrow. If the Universe were obviously based on mere chance, if it were in a state of complete disorder, if the Moon, the Sun, and the Earth wandered about at their individual will, and if no sign of organization appeared anywhere in it, then we might justly assert that there was no Mind behind it. However, because we see the very contrary of these things all around us, because the energy out of which the Universe is made is everywhere inseparable from thought, we can definitely assert that a World-Mind must exist. Events may seem to happen at random, but it is not really so. They are connected with our own thinking and doing, with the pattern of the World-Idea and with the activity of the World-Mind. Whatever we call it, most people feel it in their heart and soul—whether vaguely or strongly—that there must be a God and that there must be something which God has in view in letting the Universe come into existence. This purposed is called the World-Idea, because God is the World’s Mind. This is a thrilling conception. It is an ancient revelation. #RandolphHarris 1 of 26

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This ancient revelation came to the first cultures, the first civilizations, of any importance, as it has come to all others which have appeared, and it is still coming today to our own. With this knowledge, deeply absorbed and properly applied, humans come into harmonious alignment with their Source. If it ignores the facts, truths, laws, and principles of cosmogony, all spiritual study is incomplete. To attempt to justify this neglect with the accusation that they belong to the World of illusion is an unenlightened disposition. For the accuser must still continue to live in an illusory body and use an illusory self governed by those laws. After every such attempt and for each violation of those laws—upon which the order and harmony of the Universe depend—which one’s neglect brings about, one must pay the penalty in suffering.  â€œFor the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves, teachers to suit their own passions, and they will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths,” 2 Timothy 4.3-4. Everything around us and every event that happens to us is an expression of God’s will. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26

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The forces in the Universe and the figures on the Universal scene are all connected with each other and are all related with the World-Mind. Nothing stands alone except in its illusory belief. In living things, to live is to be. Our intellect, which takes cognizance of the essence of a thing as its proper object, gains knowledge from sense, of which the proper objects are external accidents. Hence from external appearances we come to the knowledge of the essence of things. And because we name a thing in accordance with our knowledge of it, as it is clear from what has already been said, so from external properties names are often imposed to signify essences. Hence such names are sometime taken strictly to denote the essence itself, the signification of which is their principal object; but sometimes, and less strictly, to denote the properties by reason of which they are imposed. And so we see that the word “body” is used to denote a genus of substances from the fact of their possessing three dimensions: and is sometimes taken to denote the dimensions themselves; in which sense body is said to be a species of quantity. The same must be said of life. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26

The name is given from a certain external appearance, namely, self-movement, yet not precisely to signify this, but rather a substance to which self-movement and the application of itself to any kind of operation, belong naturally. To live, accordingly, is nothing else than to exist in this or that nature; and life signifies this, though in the abstract, just as the word “running” denotes “to run” is the abstract. Hence “living” is not an accidental but an essential predicate. Sometimes, however, life is used less properly for the operations from which its name is taken, and thus the Philosopher says (Ethic. ix, 9) that to lice is principally to sense or to understand. The Philosopher here takes “to live” to means an operation of life. Or it would be better to say that sensation and intelligence and the like, are sometimes taken for the operations, sometimes for the existence itself of the operator. For one says (Ethic. ix, 9) that to live is to sense or to understand—in other words, to have a nature capable of sensation or understanding. Thus, then, one distinguishes life by the four operations mentioned. For in this lower World there are four kinds of living. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26

 It is the nature of some to be capable of nothing more than taking nourishment, and, as a consequence, of growing and generating. Others are able, in addition, to sense, as we see in the case of shellfish and other animals without movement. Others have the further power of moving from place to place, as perfect animals, such as quadrupeds, and birds, and so on. Others, as humans, have the still higher faculty of understanding. By vital operations are meant those whose principles are within the operator, and in virtue of which the operator produces such operations of itself. It happens that there exist in humans not merely such natural principles of certain operations as are their natural powers, but something over and above these, such as habits inclining them like a second nature to particular kinds of work in which a human takes delight, so that one is bent is towards it, one’s time is spent in it, and one’s whole life ordered with a view to it, is said to be the life of that human. Hence some are said to lead to life of self-indulgence, others a life of virtue. In this way the contemplative life is distinguished from the active, and thus to know God is said to be life eternal. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26

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If God expresses His will through, and in, the Universe then why are the horrors we find there unbeatable by any of the tortures perpetrated by humans? The wanton malignancy of certain parasites, ants, worms; the poisonous bites and stings of certain insects and reptiles; the dreadful fish like piranhas which strip unfortunate wretches to a skeleton in a few minutes; the infectious germs in jungle and city alike; the intimidating hordes of vermin which threaten to multiply and destroy other forms—are they all God’s goodness? Even believers may sometimes ask themselves the question: “Is God blind and unseeing to human suffering—so small an item in the vastness of His Universe—or callous and indifferent to it?” Those who see no sign of God in the Universe, and leave it at that, are at least in a better position than those who think they can detect an underlying hostility in the Universe. The absurdity of life and the insanity of humans cast doubt upon the sanity of their Source. However, this is a surface point of view. The order which has been established throughout the cosmos is a perfect one. #RandolphHarris 6 of 26

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If the human mind fails to see this fact, it is partly because human feelings, prejudices, aversions, and attractions sway it and partly because the World-Idea unveils itself only to those who are ready. The Universe is perfect because God is perfect. However, for each human to find and see this perfection for oneself otherwise the trouble and tragedy in life may obstruct one’s vision and obscure one’s path. If the Mind behind the Universe is perfect, then the pattern of the Universe itself must be perfect too. And if we muster up the heroism needed to cast out our feeble, sentimental and emotional way of looking at things, if we put aside for a few minutes our personal and human demands that the Universe shall conform to our wishes, so it will show itself to be perfect. The more intellectual they are, the more they feel that God has somehow blundered, that they could have made a better or kindlier job of the Universe than one has, and that too much unnecessary suffering falls upon his creatures. The self-actualized, however, with one’s deeper insight and one’s serener mentality, finds the contrary to be the cause and is set free from such bitter thoughts. It is preposterous presumption to look in the divine Intelligence for what can only be found in the limited and little human one. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26

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 Humans judge the World without knowing the World-Idea, certainly without conscious contact with the World-Mind. The moment we establish a right relation with the Mind behind the Universe, in that moment we begin to see as ultimately good certain experiences which we formerly thought to be evil, and we begin to see as dreamlike many sufferings which we formerly saw as real. The answer to this enigma but simple religious trust for the shallow multitude and movement to another level by mystical experience for the serious seekers. In the first case there is the hope that in a God-governed World all is arranged for the best, while in the second there is the overwhelming feeling that it is so. The philosopher is also a possessed of hope and feeling but, venturing int a wider area, adds knowledge. We see the underside of the pattern only—and merely a par of it at that—and inevitably judge Nature to be cruel, “red in tooth and claw.” If we could see the upper side and the whole of it, the pattern would show itself perfect. From this ultimate point of view there are no sins, only ignorance; there are no clumsy falls, only steps forward to heart’s wiser levels; there are no misfortunes, only lessons in the art of disentanglement. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26

Pain and suffering belong only to this physical World and its shadow-spheres. There is a higher World, where joy and happiness alone are human’s experience. The structure and working of the Universe may not be stamped with “goodness” as we understand it, nor with “perfection” as we envisage it. Consider them from all aspects, however, in a philosophical manner and you will find the essentially “right.” Because there is a Divine Mind back of the Universe, there are Divine Wisdom and Goodness in the Universe. The Universe of our experience is governed by justice and wisdom, by ultimate goodness and infinite power. The Universe has infinitely more intelligence behind it than the humans who live in it. This remains true even though there is much that seems unnecessarily brutal and unacceptable to compassionate believers in a divine order. Let evil appearances be what they are, the revelation of insight contradicts them and shows the divine presence throughout the whole Universe and behind all happenings. Even the violent, sudden, and unwanted deceased of such a multitude of persons in war, pestilence, famine, epidemic, pandemic, or eruption has beneficial meaning in the divine World-Idea and is not at all vain or useless. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26

The truth about cosmic laws is sometimes terrifying to our human fears, sometimes repulsive to our human feeling. It may fitly be called ugly at such times. However, the infinite power behind those laws is always beautiful. In spite of contrary appearances this is still God’s World. We live in an orderly World but not in a humane one. We must find faith and some of us even the certitude that if it has been possible to think a better cosmos into being, the World-Mind’s infinite wisdom would have done so. We cannot believe in God without accepting God’s Universe also. We must accept and submit to the World-Idea with its ascending hierarchy of creatures and pre-established order of things. If we do not know why we are here, the Universal Mind does. We may and must trust it. The Supreme Essence nurtures all things with care and love. There is an infinite number of possibilities in the evolution of humans and the Universe. If only certain ones out of them are actually realized, this is because both follow a pattern—the World Idea. All the activity of this entire Universe is God’s activity. Everything is being carried on according to the pattern and the rhythm set by the divine World-Idea. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26

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All the forms and developments, the creatures and objects which make the never-ending picture of the cosmos derived from the World-Idea; everything conforms to it. But often the parts or members that “are upon the Earth” are also very nice. This is generally true among religious people, and it is a deadly trap. When Paul explained to the Philippians what “flesh” he could have confidence in he lists: “Circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless,” reports Philippians 3.5-6. One can easily translate this into modern-day terms by listing the things religious people are apt to present as “good qualifications.” However, Paul actually regarded all this “nice flesh” as loss, and even as feces, compared to the real treasure of the resurrection life of Christ moving in him. “For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reasons for such confidence. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26

“If anyone else thinks one has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. However, whatever was to my profit I now consider loss of the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead,” reports Philippians 3.3-11. That is why he said to the Colossians: “Therefore kill off your parts (members) that are of the Earth.” The “therefore” refers back to the fact he had just cited in this passage, that Christ’s people have received a different life, one not “of Earth” but of Christ himself, raised up beyond natural death. “You have died,” he said, “and your real life is now concealed along with Christ in God,” reports Colossians 3.1-3. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26

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This, as is well known, is a theme developed at many other points in Paul’s writings, but at greatest lengths in Romans chapter 5 through 8. There Paul had been describing how sin (and therefore death) has reigned over (governed) human life. However, now as he comes toward the end of chapter 5, a new kind of “reign” emerges. Death had reigned because of sin, which came into the human World by one man and one woman (Adam and Eve). Yes, but “much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign [govern] in life through the One, Jesus Christ,” reports Romans 5.17. Sin indeed has flourished. However, grace (life from above) has and will flourish all the more, “that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness into eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord,” reports Romans 5.21. Now we must emphasize that the grace in question is not merely a judicial action, though it involves that too. It is above all a presence and power in life, which provides an alternative to the merely natural forces (flesh) accessible to the individual in and through the body without any specific divine intervention from above. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26

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So now Paul lays out the alternative open to the one already born from above and therefore experiencing a life that is not of the flesh. Such a one is given the option of walking in the new, different life that is already “doing things,” in them. “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,” Paul said, “so we too might walk in newness of life,” reports Romans 6.4. Walk in it, as a steadily moving force, not just feel it in spurts and starts! However, because we are now in the grip of grace it is up to us—though never on our own—to “not let sin have dominion in our death-bound (mortal) body to obey Sin’s desires,” reports Romans 6.12. And this we do by refusing to surrender our body parts to sin as weapons of wickedness. Instead, having been invaded by a life beyond death, and hence by one that is not of the body or flesh, we “present our body parts (members) to Christ as weapons of righteousness,” reports Romans 6.13. Because we are in the grip of grace, sin does not exercise control over us except insofar as we allow it. And, with divine assistance provided, we can break whatever strict control remains to it in every aspect of our life,” reports Romans 6.14. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26

So, just as once—while “dead in…trespass and sins,” reports Ephesians 2.1—we surrendered our body parts to be servants of impurity, and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now we are to “present our body parts to be servants of righteousness leading to sanctification,” reports Romans 6.19. Now, these words of Paul refer precisely to the process and outcome of spiritual formation, of which we have spoken. “Now that you have been released from slavery to sin and enslaved to God by your dependence on him for your new kind of life, the benefit you get is sanctification, and the outcome is eternal life,” Romans 6.22, “the life that really is life,” reports 1 Timothy 6.19. The parts of our death-bound body are not mere physical things, but now carry in them a life that is not of them. He who raised Jesus from the dead now dwells in us and “will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you,” reports Romans 8.11. After the forty years of wandering, it came about on the plains of Moab that, according to Numbers 26.65, “not one of them was left except Caleb son of Jephunneth and Joshua son of Nun.” #RandolphHarris 15 of 26

 It was time for Joshua’s commissioning: “So the Lord said to Moses, ‘Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him; and have him stand before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation; and commission him in their sight,” reports Numbers 27.18-19. Notice that the Spirit, capital S—that is, the Holy Spirit—was upon and in Joshua. He had the indispensable qualification for all spiritual leadership. Spiritual leadership is not a matter of superior spiritual power, and it can never be self-generated. There is no such thing as a self-made spiritual leader. The New Testament agrees: “Brothers, choose seven people from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” They chose Stephan, a mand full of faith and of the Holy Spirit (Acts 6.3,5). There is no spiritual leadership apart from the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it follows that is we aspire to leadership in the Church, we must be full of the Holy Spirit. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26

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Practically, this means that we must continually confess our sins, keep ourselves in God’s Word, and continually submit to God, asking the Spirit to fill us. The telltale sign of this will be that we effervesce Christ. “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get inebriated on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ,” reports Ephesians 5.17-21. As we walk and serve in the Spirit, the Spirit will ordain us to specific tasks in the Church, and these will be tasks of leadership at all levels, be it waiting tables or heralding the gospel. “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused t love the truth and so be saved,” report 2 Thessalonians 2.9-10. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ,” reports Romans 10.17. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26

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Each individual is a Spirit child of Heavenly Father and existed as a spirit before this life on Earth. During this life, the spirit of the individual is housed in a physical body, which was born of mortal parents. The scriptures teach that at the time of physical death, the Spirit does not die. It separates from the body and lives in the postmortal Spirit World. At the time of resurrection, the spirit is reunited with the body, “never to be divided; thus the whole becoming spiritual and immortal,” reports Alma 11.45. The Scriptures also teach about the nature of spirits. Through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord revealed that “all spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 131.7. The Lord also revealed that “the spirit of Humans is in the likeness of one’s person, as also the spirit of the beast, and every other creature which God has created,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 77.2. Just as the World-Idea is both the expression of the World-Mind and one with it, so the Word (Logos) mentioned in the New Testament as being with God is another way of saying the same thing. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26

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The World with its form and history is the embodiment of the Word and the Word is the World-Idea. “Behold I, Moroni, do finish the record of my father, Mormon. Behold, I have but few things to write, which things I have been commanded by my father. And now it came to pass that after the great and tremendous battle at Cumorah, behold, the Nephites who had escaped into the country southward were hunted by the Lamanites, until they were all destroyed. And my father also was killed by them, and I even remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people. However, behold, they are gone, and I fulfill the commandment of my father. And whether they will slay me, I know not. Therefore I will write and hide up the records in the Earth; and whither I go it mattereth not. Behold, my father hath made this record, and he hath written the intent thereof. And behold, if I had room, I would write it also upon the plates, but I have not; and ore I have none, for I am alone. My father hath been slain in battle and all my kinsfolk, and I have not friend nor wither to go; and how long the Lord will suffer that I may live I know not. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26

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“Behold, four hundred years have passed away since the coming of our Lord. And behold, the Lamanites have hunted my people, the Nephites, down from city to city and from place to place, even until they are no more; and great has been their fall; yea, great and marvelous is the destruction of my people, the Nephites. And behold, it is the hand of the Lord which hath done it. And behold also, the Lamanites are at war one with another; and the whole face of this land is one continual round of murder and bloodshed; and no one knoweth the end of the war. And now, behold, I say no more concerning them, for there are none save it be the Lamanites and robbers that do exist upon the face of the land. And there are none that do know the true God save it be the disciples of Jesus, who did tarry in the land until the wickedness of the people was so great that the Lord would not suffer them to remain with the people; and whether they be upon the face of the land no human knoweth. However, behold, my father and I have seen them, and they have ministered unto us. And whoso receiveth this record, and shall not condemn it because of the imperfections which are in it, the same shall know of greater things than these. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26

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“Behold, I am Moroni; and were it possible, I would make all things known unto you. Behold, I make an end of speaking concerning this people. I am the son of Mormon, and my father was a descendent of Nephi. And I am the same who hideth up this record unto the Lord; the plates thereof are of no worth, because of the commandment of the Lord. For he truly saith that no one shall have them to get gain; but the record thereof is of great worth; and whoso shall bring it to light, one will the Lord bless. For none can have power to bring it to light save it be given one of God; for God wills that it shall be done with an eye single to his glory, or the welfare of the ancient and long dispersed covenant people of the Lord. And blessed be one that shall bring this thing to light; for it shall be brought out of darkness unto light, according to the word of God; yea, it shall be brought out of the Earth, and it shall shine forth out of darkness, and come unto the knowledge of the people; and it shall be done by the power of God. And if there be faults they be the faults of a human. However, behold, we know no fault; nevertheless God knoweth all things; therefore, one that condemneth, let one be aware lest one shall be in danger of hell fire. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26

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“And one that saith: Show unto me, or ye shall be smitten—let one beware lest one commandeth that which is forbidden of the Lord. For behold, the same that judgeth rashly shall be judged rashly again; for according to one’s works shall one’s wages be; therefore, one that smiteth shall be smitten again of the Lord. Behold what the scripture says—humans shall not smite, neither shall one judge; for judgment is mine, saith the Lord, and vengeance is mine also, and I will repay. And one that shall breathe out wrath and strifes against the work of the Lord, and against the covenant people of the Lord who are the house of Israel, and shall say: We will destroy the work of the Lord, and the Lord will not remember his covenant which he hath made unto the house of Israel—the same is in danger to be hewn down and cast into the fire; for the eternal purposes of the Lord shall roll on, until all his promises shall be fulfilled. Search the prophecies of Isaiah. Behold, I cannot write them. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26

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“Yea, behold I say unto you, that those saints who have gone before me, who have possessed this land, shall cry, yea, even from the dust will they cry unto the Lord; and as the Lord liveth he will remember the covenant which he hath made with them. And he knoweth their prayers, that they were in behalf of their faith, for in his name could they remove mountains; and in his name could they cause the Earth to shake; and by the power of his word did they cause prisons to tumble to the Earth; yes, even the fiery furnace could not harm them, neither wild beasts nor poisonous serpents, because of the power of his word. And behold, their prayers were also in behalf of him that the Lord should suffer to bring these things forth. And no one need say they shall not come, for they surely shall, for the Lord hath spoken it; for out of the Earth shall they come, by the hand of the Lord, and none can stay it; and it shall come in a day when it shall be said that miracles are done away; and it shall come even as if one should speak from the dead. And it shall come in a day when the blood of saints shall cry unto the Lord, because of secret combinations and the works of darkness. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26

“Yea, it shall come in a day when the power of God shall be denied, and churches become defiled and be lifted up in the pride of their hearts, even to the envying of them who belong to their churches. Yea, it shall come in a day when there shall be heard of fires, and tempests, and vapours of smoke in foreign lands; and there shall also be heard of wars, rumors of wars, and Earthquakes in divers places. Yes, it shall come in a day when there shall be great pollutions upon the face of the Earth; there shall be murders, and robbing, and lying, and deceivings, and whoredoms, and all manner of abominations; when there shall be many who will say, Do this, or do that, and it mattereth not, for the Lord will uphold such at the last day. However, wo unto such, for they are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity. Yea, it shall come in a day when there shall be churches built up that shall say: Come unto me, and for your money you shall be forgiven of your sins. O ye wicked and perverse stiffnecked people, why have ye built up churches unto yourselves to get gain? Why have ye transfigured the holy word of God, that ye might being damnation upon your souls? #RandolphHarris 24 of 26

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“Behold, look ye unto the revelations of God; for behold, the time cometh at that day when all these things must be fulfilled. Behold, the Lord hath shown unto me great and marvelous things concerning that which must shortly come, at that day when these things shall come forth among you. Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. However, behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing. And I know that ye do walk in the pride of your hearts; and there are none save a few only who do not lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts, unto the wearing of very fine apparel, unto envying, and strifes, and malice and persecutions, and all manner of iniquities; and your churches, yea, even every one, have become polluted because of the pride of your hearts. For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted. O ye pollutions, ye hypocrites, ye teachers, who sell yourselves that which will canker, why have ye polluted the holy church of God? #RandolphHarris 25 of 26

“Why are ye ashamed to take upon you the name of Christ? Why do ye not think that greater is the value of an endless happiness than that misery which never dies—because of the praise of the World? Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not? Yea, why do ye build up your secret adominations to get gain, and cause the windows should mourn before the Lord, and also orphans to mourn before the Lord, and also the blood of their fathers and their husbands to cry unto the Lord from the ground, for vengeance upon your heads? Behold, the sword of vengeance hangeth over you; and the time soon cometh that he avengeth the blood of the saints upon you, for he will not suffer their cries any longer,” reports Mormon 8.1-41. From out of the brightness, God who marks the passing of the days, with your sharp edges, cut out this month from the time before and the time after. Measure it out to fit the pattern laid out for you. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, in the city of our God, His holy mountain; beautiful in elevation, the Earth’s joy is Mount Zion in the far north, the city of great King. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26

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A Human Delirious, or Noted for Falsehood and Villainy, Has No Manner of Authority with Us!

In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law….that would lead to anarchy. An individual who breaks the law that conscience tells one is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. All we want is that we get our story told, and get it told right. Spiritual feelings are good and necessary but they are not enough; they need to be completed and complemented by spiritual knowledge. We have much to gain by learning the laws and knowing the process which the World-Mind has imprinted upon the cosmos. Otherwise we are likely to violate those laws or interfere with those processes through ignorance. The result will then be suffering and unhappiness. It is Human’s true business in the World to discover one’s real self and to ascertain one’s relationship to the surrounding World. One’s mind will then shine with the Secret glory of human nature and one’s life will come into harmony with the cosmic order and beauty. Is life only a stream of rando events following one another haphazardly? Or is there an order, a meaning, a purpose behind it all? #RandolphHarris 1 of 26

Philosophy offers as a first truth the affirmation that we live in a Universe of purpose and not one of caprice. We live in an orderly Universe, not an accidental one. Its movements are measured, its events are plotted, and its creatures develop towards a well-defined objective. All this could not be possible unless the Universe were ruled by immutable laws. There is an invisible mechanism within the universe and an intelligent mind directing this mechanism. The cosmic order behind thins is a divine one or it would be supplanted by nothing less than chaos. It is creative, intelligent, conscious—it is MIND. If there were not some sort of equilibrium holding it together, some sort of balancing arrangement as in the spinning of the Earth on its axis and the planets around the sun, the Universe could not exist as such. A little thought will show the same principle in the just relation of human beings to the World-Mind and among themselves. Here it appears as the seeds we sow. If the moon, Earth, and planets came into existence, and were thenceforward directed, by mere chance or whim, there would be no pattern in their positions and no rhythm in their movements; that is, there would be no World order. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26

Were the sun and stars involved in the same caprice, we would not know when to expect daylight and darkness, nor where the North Pole would be found. However, because there is a World-Idea, there is law, orderliness, and some certainty: there is a Universe, not a chaos. If there were no World-Idea, then would all things be governed by mere chance, then would all be in dense obscurity; all our lives would flit through past, present, and future in a haphazard way. If it were itself without the World-Idea behind it, the Universe would be without meaning and without purpose. If there were no World-Idea there would be no World as we now know it, for its elements would have interacted and associated quite irresponsibly by mere accident and chance. In the result the sun might or might not have appeared today, the seasonal changes would have no orderly arrangement nor food-crops any predictable or measurable probability; instead of humans there might have evolved a frightful monstrosity, half-animal and half-demon, utterly devoid of any aspiration, any conscience, any pity at all. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26

All our reasonings concerning matter of fact are founded on a species of ANALOGY, which lead us to expect from any cause the same events, which we have observed to result from similar causes. Where the causes are entirely similar, the analogy is perfect, and the inference, drawn from it, is regarded as certain and conclusive: Nor does any human ever entertain a doubt, where one sees a piece of iron, that it will have weight and cohesion of parts; as in all other instances, which have ever fallen under one’s observation. However, where the objects have not so exact a similarity, the analogy is less perfect, and the inference is less conclusive; though still it has some force, in proportion to the degree of similarity and resemblance. The anatomical observations, formed upon one animal, are, by this species of reasoning, extended to all animals; and it is certain, that when the circulation of blood, for instance, is clearly proved to have place in one creature, as a frog, of fish, it forms a strong presumption, that the same principle has place in all. These analogical observations may be carried farther, even to this science, of which we are now treating. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26

And any theory, by which we explain the operations of the understanding, or the origin and connexion of the passions in humans, if we find, that the same theory is requisite to explain the same phenomena in all other animals. We shall makes trial of this, with regard to the hypothesis, by which, we have, in the foregoing discourse, endeavoured to account for all experimental reasonings; and it is hoped, that this new point of view will serve to confirm all our former observation. First, it seems evident, that animals, as well as human learning many things from experience, and infer, that the same events will always follow from the same causes. By the principle they become acquainted with the more obvious properties of external objects, and gradually, from their birth, treasure up a knowledge of the nature of fire, water, Earth, stones, height, depths, and et cetera, and of the effects, which result from their operation. The ignorance and inexperience of the young are here plainly distinguishable from the cunning and sagacity of the old, who have learned, by long observation, to avoid what hurt them, and to pursue what gave ease or pleasure. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26

A horse, that has been accustomed to the field, becomes acquainted with the proper height, which one can leap, and will never attempt what exceeds one’s force and ability. An old greyhound will trust the more fatiguing part of the chase to the younger, and will pace oneself so as to meet the hare in her doubles; nor are the conjectures, which one forms on this occasion, founded in anything but one’s observation and experience. This is still more evident from the effect of discipline and education on animals, who, by the proper application of rewards and punishments, may be taught any course of action, the most contrary to their natural instincts and propensities. When you menace one, or lift up a whip to beat him, is it not experience, which renders a dog apprehensive of pain? Is it not even experience, which makes one answer to one’s name, and infer, from such an arbitrary sound, that you mean one rather than any of one’s fellows, and intend to call one, when you pronounce it in a certain manner, and with a certain accent? In all these cases, we may observe, that the animal infers some fact beyond what immediately strikes one’s senses; and that this inference is altogether founded on past experience, while the creature expects from the present object the same consequences, which it has always found in its observation to result from similar objects. #RandolphHarris 6 of 26

Secondly, It is impossible, that this inference of the animal can be founded on any process of argument or reasoning, by which one concludes, that like events must follow like objects, and that the course of nature will always be regular in its operations. For if there by in reality any arguments of this nature, they surely lie too abstruse for the observation of such imperfect understandings; since it may well employ the utmost care and attention of a philosophic genius to discover and observe them. Animals, therefore, are not guided in these inferences by reasoning: Neither are children: Neither are the generality of humankind, in their ordinary actions and conclusions: Neither are philosophers themselves, who, in all the active parts of life, are, in the main, the same with the vulgar, and are governed by the same maxims. Nature have provided some other principle, of more ready, and more general use and application; nor can an operation of such immense consequence in life, as that of inferring effects from causes, be trusted to the uncertain process of reasoning and argumentation. Were this doubtful with regard to humans, it seems to admit of no question with regard to the brute creation. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26

And the conclusion being once firmly established in the ought to be universally admitted, without any exception or reserve. It is custom alone, which engages animals, from every object, that strikes their sense, to infer its usual attendant, and carries their imagination, from the appearance of the one, to conceive the other, in that particular manner, which we dominate belief. No other explication can be given of this operation, in all the higher, as well as lower classes of sensitive beings, which fall under our notice. Since all reasonings concerning facts or causes is derived merely from custom, it may be asked how it happens, that humans so much surpass animals in reasoning, and one human so much surpasses another? Has not the same custom the same influence on all? We shall here endeavour briefly to explain the great difference in human understandings: After which the reason of the difference between humans and animals will easily be comprehended. When we have lived any time, and have been accustomed to the uniformity of nature, we acquire a general habit, by which we always transfer the known to the unknown, and conceive the later to resemble the former. By means of this general expect a similar event with some degree of certainty, where the experiment has been made accurately, and free from all circumstances. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26

It is therefore considered as a mater of great importance to observe the consequence of things; and as one human many very much surpass another in attention and memory and observation, this will make a very great difference in their reasoning. Where there is a complication of causes to produce any effect, one mind may be much larger than another, and better able to comprehend the whole system of objects, and to infer justly their consequence. One human is able to carry on a chain of consequences to a great length than another. Few humans can think long without running into a confusion of ideas, and mistaking one for another; and there are various degrees of this infirmity. The circumstances, on which the effect depends, is frequently involved in other circumstances, which are foreign and extrinsic. The separation of it often requires great attention, accuracy, and stability. The forming of general maxims from particular observation is a very nice operation; and nothing is more usual, from haste or narrowness of mind, which sees not on all sides, than to commit mistakes in this particular. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26

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When we reason from analogies, the human, who has the greater experience or the greater promptitude of suggesting analogies, will be a better reasoner. Biases from prejudice, education, passion, party, et cetera, hang more upon one mind than another. After we have acquired a confidence in human testimony, books and conversation enlarge much more the sphere of one human’s experience and thought than those of another. It would be easy to discover many other circumstances that make a difference in the understandings of humans. However, though, animals learn many parts of their knowledge from observation, there are also many parts of it, which they derive from the original hand of nature; which much exceed the share of capacity they possess on ordinary occasions; and in which they improve, little or nothing, by the longest practice and experience. These we denominate INSTINCTS, and are so apt to admire, as something very extraordinary, and inexplicable by all the disquisitions of human understanding. However, our wonder will, perhaps, cease or diminish; when we consider, that the experimental reasoning itself, which we possess in common with beast, and on which the whole conduct of life depends, is nothing but species of instinct or mechanical power, that acts in us unknow to ourselves. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26

And in its chief operations this instinct or mechanical power, is not directed by any such relations or comparisons of ideas, as are the proper objects of our intellectual faculties. Though the instinct be different, yet still it is an instinct, which teaches a human to avoid the fire; as much as that, which teaches a bird, with such exactness, the art of incubation, and the whole economy and order of its nursey. The real presence—the presence of the body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine of the Eucharist is acknowledged on all hand, and the learned prelate, says that the authority, either of the scripture or of tradition, is founded merely in the testimony of the apostles, who were eye-witness to those miracles of our Saviour, by which he proved his divine mission. Our evidence, then, for the truth of the Christian religion is less than the evidence for the truth of our sense; because, even in the first authors of our religion, it was no greater; and it is evident it must diminish in pass from them to their disciples; nor can anyone rest such confidence in their testimony, as in the immediate object of one’s senses. Those sceptics who assert that the Universe is meaningless are themselves making a meaningful statement about it. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26

That is, they are unconsciously setting themselves up as being more knowledgeable about whatever intelligence lies behind the designs and patterns we see everywhere in nature. However, weaker evidence can never destroy a stronger; and therefore, were the doctrine of the real presence ever so clearly revealed in scriptures, it were directly contrary to the rules of just reasoning to give our assent to it. It directly contrary to the rules of just reasoning to give our assent to it. It contradicts sense, though both the scripture and tradition, on which it is supposed to be built, carry not such evidence with them as sense; when they are considered merely as external evidences, and are not brought home to everyone’s breast, by the immediate operation of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is so convenient as a decisive argument of this kind, which must at least silence the most arrogant bigotry and superstition, and free us from their impertinent solicitations. I flatter myself, that I have discovered an argument of a like nature, which, if just, will with the wise and learned, be an everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusions, and consequently, will be useful as long as the World ensures. For so long, I presume, will the accounts of miracles and prodigies be found in all history, sacred and profane. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26

Though experience be our only guide in reasoning concerning matter of fact; it must be acknowledged, that this guide is not altogether infallible, but in some cases is apt to lead us into errors. One, who in our climate should expect better weather in any week of JUNE than in one of DECEMBER, would reason justly, and conformably to experience; but it is certain, that one may happen, in the event, to find oneself mistaken. However, we may observe, that, in such a case, one would have no cause to complain of experience; because it commonly informs us beforehand of he uncertainty, by that contrariety of events, which we may learn from a diligent observation. All effects follow not with like certainty all ages, to have been constantly conjoined together: Others are found to have been more variable, and sometimes to disappoint our expectations; so that, in our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence. A wise human, therefore, proportions one’s belief to the evidence. In such conclusions as are founded on an infallible experience, one expects the event with the last degree of assurance, and regards one’s past experience as a full proof of the future existence of the event. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26

In other cases, one proceeds with more caution: One weighs the opposite experiments: One considers which side is supported by the greater number of experiments: To that side one inclines, with doubt and hesitation; and when at last one fixes one’s judgment, the evidence exceeds not what we properly call probability. All probability, then, supposes an opposition of experiments and observations, where the one side is found to overbalance the other, and to produce a degree of evidence, proportioned to the superiority. A hundred instances of experiments on one side, and fifty on another, afford a doubtful expectation of any event; though a hundred uniform experience, with only one that is contradictory, reasonably beget a pretty strong degree of assurance. In all cases, we must balance the opposite experiments, where they are opposite, and deduct the smaller number from the greater, in order to know the exact force of the superior evidence. The great World which move so marvellously and rhythmically through our sky, however, must least the more reflective minds with a wondering sense of sublime intelligence which has patterned the Universe. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26

The materialist who sees in the course of Life only a blind, irrational, chaotic, and arbitrary movement, has been deceived by appearances, mislead by the one-sidedness of one’s own psyche. There is enough evidence in Nature and in humanity for the existence of God. Those who say they cannot find it have looked through the coloured spectacles of preconceived notions or else in too limited an area. There is plenty of it for those who look aright, and who widen their horizon; it will then be conclusive. There are orderly pattens in Nature which we can call “laws” in its timings, properties, measurements, and lives. The cosmos exists in a great harmony for it obeys laws which are divinely perfect. It requires deep thought to discover that the improvements in Nature’s laws which can so easily be suggested would, in the long term, probably lead to worse results than those now existent. There is an established order in the Universe, scientific laws which govern all things, and no magician who seems to produce miracles has been permitted under special dispensation to violate that order or to flout those principles. To apply these principles to a particular instance; we may observe, that there is no species of reasoning more common, more useful, and even necessary to human life, than that which is derived from the testimony of humans, and the reports of eye-witnesses and spectators. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26

This species of reasoning, perhaps, one may deny to be founded on the relation of cause and effect. I shall not dispute a word. It will be sufficient to observe, that our assurance in any argument of this kind is derived from no other principle than our observation of the veracity of human testimony, and of the usual conformity of facts to the reports of witnesses. It being a general maxim, that no objects have any discoverable connexion together, and that all the inferences, which we can draw from one to another, are founded merely on our experience of their constant and regular conjunction; it is evident, that we ought not to make an expcetion to this maxim in favour of human testimony, whose connexion with any event seems, in itself, as little necessary as any other. Were not the memory tenacious to a certain degree; had not humans commonly an inclination to truth and a principle of probity; were they not sensible to shame, when detected falsehood: Were not these, I say, discovered by experience to be qualities, inherent in human nature, we should never repose the least confidence in human testimony. A human delirious, or noted for falsehood and vallaniny, has no manner of authority with us. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26

And as the evidence, derived from witnesses and human testimony, is founded on past experience, so it varies with the experience, and is regarded either as a proof or a probability, according as the conjunction between any particular kind of report and any kind of object has been found to be constant or variable. There are a number of circumstances to be taken into consideration in all judgments of this kind; and the ultimate standards, by which we determine all disputes, that may arise concerning them, is always derived from experience and observation. Where this experience is not entirely uniform on any side, it is attended with an unavoidable contrariety in our judgments, and with the same opposition and mutual destruction of argument as in every other kind of evidence. We frequently hesitate concerning the reports of others. We balance the opposite circumstances, which cause any doubt of uncertainty; and when we discover a superiority on any side, we incline to it; but still with a diminution of assurance, in proportion to the force of its antagonist. This contrariety of evidence, in the present case, may be derived from several different causes; from the opposition of contrary testimony; from the character or number of witnesses; from the manner of their delivering their testimony; or from the union of all these circumstances. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26

We entertain a suspicion concerning any matter of fact, when the witnesses contradict each other; when they are but few, or of a doubtful character; when they have an interest in what they affirm; when they deliver their testimony with hesitation, or on the contrary, with too violent asseverations. There are many other particulars of the same kind, which may diminish or destroy the force of any argument, derived from human testimony. Suppose, for instance, that the fact, which the testimony endeavours to establish, partakes of the extraordinary and the marvellous; in that case, the evidence, resulting from the testimony, admis of a diminution, greater or less, in proportion as the fact is more or less unusual. The reason, why we place any credit in witnesses and historians, is not derived from any connexion, which we perceive a priori, between testimony and reality, but because we are accustomed to find a conformity between them. However, when the fact attested is such a one as has seldom fallen under our observation, here is a contest of two opposite experiences; of which the one destroys the other, as far as the force goes, and the superior can only operate on the mind by the force, which remains. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26

The very same principle of experience, which gives us also, in this case, another degree of assurance against the fact, which they endeavour to establish; from which contradiction there necessarily arises a counterpoise, and mutual destruction of belief and authority. I should not believe such a story were it told me by CATO; was a proverbial saying in ROME, even during the lifetime of that philosophical patriot. The incredibility of a fact, it was allowed, might invade so great an authority. The INDIAN prince, who refused to believe the first relations concerning the effect of frost, reasoned justly; and it naturally required very strong testimony to engage his assent to the facts, that arose from a state of nature, with which he was unacquainted, and which bore so little analogy to those events, of which he had had constant and uniform experience. Though they were not contrary to his experience, they were not conformable to it. (The inhabitants of SUMATRA have always seen water fluid in their own climate, and the freezing of their rivers ought to be deemed a prodigy: But they never saw water in MUSCOVY during the Winter; and therefore they cannot reasonably be absolute what would there be the consequence.) Consider how orderly is the periodicity of a giant-dimensioned planetary travels as well as microscopic atomic weights. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26

Can we rightly say it is a mere chance that our Earth rotates around the sun, and does s in a certain precise measured rhythm? Is there not evidence of intelligence here? Whenever we search in the Universe, whether among the stars or the molecules, its structure reveals both orderliness and intelligence. The facts of history pre-exists in the minds as laws. The presence of these laws should not make us picture the Universe to ourselves as if it were a kind of manufactory filled with the whirr of wheels turning mechanically and automatically—ugly, lifeless, and loveless—utterly indifferent toward the hapless individuals who happen to find themselves in it. In order to increase the probability against the testimony of witnesses, let us suppose, that the fact, which they affirm, instead of being only marvellous, is really miraculous; and suppose also, that the testimony, considered apart and in itself, amounts to an entire proof; in that case, there is proof against proof, of which the strongest of its antagonist. A miracle is a violation of these laws of nature; and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26

Why is it more than probable, that all humans must die; that lead cannot, of itself, remain suspended in the air; that fire consumes wood, and is extinguished by water; unless it be, that these events are found agreeable to the laws of nature, and there is required a violation of these laws, or in other words, a miracle to precent them? If it ever happened in the common course of nature, nothing is esteemed a miracle. It is no miracle that a man, seemingly in good health, should die on a sudden: because such a kind of death, though more unusual than any other, has yet been frequently observed to happen. However, it is a miracle, that a dead man or woman should come to life; because that has never been observed, in any age or country (that we know of yet, except in the tales of Anne Rice). There must, therefore, be a uniform experience against every miraculous event, otherwise the event would not merit that appellation. And as an uniform experience amounts to a proof, there is here a direct and full uniform proof, from the nature of the fact, against the existence of any miracle; nor can such a proof be destroyed, or the miracle rendered credible, but by an opposite proof, which is superior. Sometimes an event may not, in itself, seem to be contrary to the laws of nature, and yet, if it were real, it might by reason of some circumstances, be denominated a miracle; because in fact, it is contrary to these laws. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26

Thus if a person, claiming to be a divine authority, should command a sick person to be well, a healthful man or woman to fall down dead, the clouds to pour rain, the winds to blow, in short, should order many natural events, which immediately follow upon one’s command; these might justly be esteemed miracles, because they are really, in this cause, contrary to the laws of nature. For if any suspicion remain, that the event and command concurred by accident, there is no miracle and no transgression of the laws of nature. If this suspicion be removed, there is evidently a miracle, and a transgression of these laws; because nothing can be more contrary to nature than that the voice or command of a human should have such an influence. A miracle may be accurately defined, a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent. A miracle may either be discoverable by humans or no. This alters not its nature and essence. The raising of a house of ship into the air is a visible miracle. When the wind wants ever so little of a force requisite for that purpose, the raising of a feather is a real miracle, though not so sensible with regard to us. The elements which chemically make up the physical Universe interact mechanically. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26

However, because it is a Universe and not a chaos there is a direct chaos there is a directing Intelligence behind the orderliness of this interaction. The plain consequence is (and it is a general maxim worthy of our attention), “That no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavours to establish: And even in that case there is a mutual destruction of arguments, and the superior only gives us an assurance suitable to that degree of force, which remains, after deducting the inferior.” When anyone tells me, that one saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself, whether it be more probable, that this person should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact, which one relates, should really have happened. I weigh the one miracle against the other; and according to the superiority, which I discover, I pronounce my decision, and always reject the greater miracle. If the falsehood of one’s testimony would be more miraculous, than the event which he relates; then, and not till then, can he pretend to command my belief or opinion. “And now, behold, I would speak somewhat unto the remnant of this people who are spared, if it so be that God may give unto them my words, that they may know of the things of their fathers. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26

“Yea, I speak unto you, ye remnant of the house of Israel; and these are the words which I speak: Know ye that ye are of the house of Israel. Know ye that ye must come unto repentance, or ye cannot be saved. Know ye that ye must lay down your weapons of war, and delight no more in the shedding of blood, and take them not again, save it be that God shall command you. Know ye that ye must come to the knowledge of your fathers, and repent of all your sins and iniquities, and believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God and that he was slain by the Jews, and by the power of the Father he hath risen again, whereby he hath gained victory over the grace; and also in him is the sting of death swallowed up. And he bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead, whereby humans must be raised to stand before his judgment-seat. And he hath brought to pass the redemption of the World, whereby he that is found guiltless before him at the judgment day hath it given unto him to dwell in the presence of God in his kingdom, to sing ceaseless praises with the choirs above, unto the Father, and unto the Son and unto the Holy Ghost, which are one God, in a state of happiness which hath no end. #RandolphHarris 24 of 26

“Therefore repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus, and lay hold upon the gospel of Christ, which shall be set before you, not only in this record but also in the record which shall come unto the Gentiles unto you. For behold, this is written for the intent that ye may believe that; and if ye believe that ye will believe this also; and if ye believe this ye will know concerning your fathers, and also the marvelous works which were wrought by the power of Gd among them. And ye will also know that ye are a remnant of the seed of Jacob; therefore ye are numbered among the people of the first covenant; and if it so be that ye believe in Christ, and are baptized, first with water, then with fire and with the Holy Ghost, following the example of our Saviour, according to that which he hath commanded us, it shall be well with you in the day of judgment. Amen,” report Mormon 7.1-10. What is that there, appearing in the purple west, what swims into sight as the Sun sets? A new Moon is shining. You have followed the Sun, and now you are ready to take your own place. Welcome, New Moon, Welcome, Sweet Maiden. “The Earth is the Lord’s and all its fulness, the World, and they that dwell therein. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26

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“For He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord? And who shall stand in His holy place? He that has clean hands, and a pure heart; who has not set in one’s mind on what is false, and has not sworn deceitfully. One shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of one’s salvation. Such is the generation of them that Seek God, that seek the presence of the God of Jacob. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, yea, lift them up, ye everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, yea, lift them up, ye everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who then is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts; He is the King of glory,” reports Psalm 24. When the existence of Power is granted and its reality accepted, it will be easy to grant and accept that causation is everywhere present. Life in the Universe then becomes meaningful. Because the Universe is mental in origin and character, it cannot be devoid of intelligibility and purpose. This far-stretching Universe is the expression of Mind and therefore it is under the rule of law, not chance, for all laws are the consequences of mental activity. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26

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In His Immortal Spirit, Been as Free as the Sky-Searching Lark, and as Elate!

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Being an entertainer, especially in times like these, is really a public service. When a great person dies, the World looks for one’s successor. One has no successor. Liberty is a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will; that is, if we choose to remain at rest, we may; if we choose to move, we also may. All humans agree liberty is essential to morality, and that no human actions, where it is wanting, are susceptibe of any moral qualities, or can be the objects either of approbation or dislike. For as actions are objects of our moral sentiment, so far only as they are indications of the internal character, passions, and affections; it is impossible that they can give rise either to praise or blame, where they process not from these principles, but are derived altogether from external violence. I pretend not to have obviated or removed all objections to this theory, with regard to necessity and liberty. I can foresee other objections, derived from topics, which have not here been treated of. It may be said, for instance, that, if voluntary actions be subjected to the same laws of necessity with the operations of matter, there is a continued chain of necessary cases, pre-ordained or pre-determined, reaching from the original cause of all, to every single volition of every creation. No contingency anywhere in the Universe; no indifference; no liberty. #RandolphHarris 1 of 26

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While we act, we are, at the same time, acted upon. The ultimate Author of all our volitions is the Creator of the World, who first bestowed motion on this immense machine, and, placed all being in particular position, whence every subsequent event, by an inevitable necessity, must result. Human actions, therefore, either can have no more turpitude at all, as proceeding from so good a cause; of if they have any turpitude, they must involve our Creator in the same guilt, while he is acknowledged to be their ultimate cause and author. For as a humans, who fired a mine, is answerable for all the consequences whether the train one employed be long or short; so wherever a continued chain of necessary causes is fixed, that Being, either finite or infinite, who produces the first, is likewise the author of all the rest, and must both bear the blame and acquire the praise, which belong to them. When we examine the consequences of any action, our clear and unalterable ideas of morality establish this rule, upon unquestionable reasons; and these reasons must still have force, when applied to the volitions and intentions of a Being, infinitely wise and powerful. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26

Ignorance or impotence may be pleased for so limited a creature as humans; but those imperfections have no place in our Creator. He foresaw, he ordained, he intended all those actions of humans, which we so rashly pronounce criminal, or that the Deity, not humans, are accountable for them. However, as either of these positions is absurd and impious; it follows, that the doctrine, from which they are deduced, cannot possibly be true, as being liable to all the same objections. An absurd consequence, if necessary, proves the original doctrine to be absurd; in the same manner as criminal actions render criminal the original cause, if the connextion between them be necessary and inevitable. The objection consists of two parts, which we shall examine separately; First, that, if human actions can be traced up, by a necessary chain, to the Deity, they can never be criminal; on account of the infinite perfection of that Being, from whom they are derived, and who can intend nothing but what is all together good and laudable. Or, secondly, if they be criminal, we must retract the attributes of perfection, which we ascribe to the Deity, and must acknowledge him to be the ultimate author of guilt and moral turpitude in all his creatures. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26

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The answer to the first objection seems obvious and convincing. There are many philosophers, who, after an exact scrutiny of all the phenomena of nature, conclude, that the WHOLE, considered as one system, is, in every period of its existence, ordered with perfect benevolence; and that the utmost possible happiness will, in the end, result to all created beings, without any mixture of positive or absolute ill and misery. Every physical ill, say they, makes an essential part of this benevolent system, and could not possibly be removed, even by the Deity himself, considered as a wise agent, without giving entrance to greater ill, or excluding greater good, which will result from it. From this theory, some philosophers, and the ancient Stoics among the rest, derived a topic of consolation under all afflictions, while they taught their pupils, that those ills, under which they laboured, were, in reality, goods to the Universe; and that to an enlarged view, which could comprehend the whole system of nature, every event became an object of joy and exultation. However, though this topic be specious and sublime, it was soon found in practice weak and ineffectual. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26

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You would surely more irritate, than appease a human, lying under the racking pains of the gout, by preaching up to one the rectitude of those general laws, which produced the malignant humours in one’s body, and led them through the proper canals, to the sinew and nerves, where they now excite such acute torments. These enlarged views may, for a moment, please the imagination of a speculative human, who is placed in ease and security; but neither can they dwell with constancy on one’s mind, even though undisturbed by the emotions of pain or passion; much less can they maintain their ground, when attacked by such powerful antagonists. The affections take a narrower and more natural survey of their object; and by an economy, more suitable to the infirmity of human minds, regard alone the beings around us, and are actuated by such events as appear good or ill to the private system. The case is the same with moral as with physical ill. It cannot reasonably be supposed, that those remote considerations, which are found of so little efficacy with regard to one, will have a more powerful influence with regard to the other. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26

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The mind of humans is so formed by nature, that, upon the appearance of certain characters, dispositions, and action, it immediately feels the sentiment of approbation or blame; nor are there any emotions more essential to its frame and constitution. The characters, which engage our approbation, are chiefly such as contribute to the peace and security of human society; as the characters, which excite blame, are chiefly such as tend to public detriment and disturbance: Whence it may reasonably be presumed, that the moral sentiments arise, either mediately or immediately, from a reflection of these opposite interest. What though philosophical meditations establish a different opinion or conjecture; that every thing is right with regard to the WHOLE, and that the qualities, which disturb society, are, in the main, as beneficial, and are as suitable to the primary intention of nature, as those which more directly promote its happiness and welfare? A human who is robbed of a considerable sum; does one find one’s vexation for the losses any wise diminished by the sublime reflections? #RandolphHarris 6 of 26

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Why then should one’s moral resentment against the crime be supposed incompatible with them? Or why should not the acknowledgement of a real distinction between vice and virtue be reconcilable to all speculative systems of philosophy, as well as that of a real distinction between person beauty and deformity? Both these distinctions are founded in the natural sentiment of the human mind: And these sentiments are not to be controller or altered by any philosophical theory or speculation whatsoever. The second objection admits not of so easy and satisfactory an answer; nor is it possible to explain distinctly, how the Deity can be the mediate cause of all the actions of humans, without being the author of sin and moral turpitude. These are mysteries, which mere natural and unassisted reason is very unfit to handle; and whatever system she embraces, she must find herself involved in inextricable difficulties, and even contradictions, at every step which she takes with regard to such subjects. To reconcile the indifferences and contingency of human actions with prescience; or to defend absolute decrees, and yet free the Deity from being the author of sin, has been found hitherto to exceed all the power of philosophy. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26

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Happy, if she be thence sensible of her temerity, when she pries into these sublime mysteries; and leaving a scene so full of obscurities and perplexities, return, with suitable modesty, to her true and proper province, the examination of common life; where she will find difficulties enough to employ her enquiries, without launching into so boundless an ocean of doubt, uncertainty, and contradiction! From the standpoint of justice as fairness there is no reason why the persons in the original position (Often referred to as the veil of ignorance, one is asked to consider which principles one would select for the basic structure of society, but one must selectas if one has no knowledge ahead of time what position one would have in that society. This choice is made from behind a veil of ignorance, which prevents one from knowing your ethnicity, social status, gender and, crucially, your individual idea of how to lead a good life. Ideally, this would force participants to select principles impartially and rationally.) would agree to the approvals of an impartial sympathetic spectator as the standard of justice. This agreement has all the drawbacks of the classical principle of utility to which it is equivalent. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26

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If, however, the parties are conceived as perfect altruists, that is, as persons who desired conform to the approvals of such a spectator, then the classical principle (the classical principle of utility, the best actions produce the greatest amount of utility for the greatest number of individuals) would, of course, be adopted. The greater net balance of happiness with which to sympathize, the more perfect altruist achieves one’s desire. Thus we arrive at the unexpected conclusion that while the average principle of utility is the ethic of a single rational individual (with no aversion to risk) who tries to maximize one’s own prospects, the classical doctrine is the ethic of perfect altruists. A surprising contrast indeed! By looking at these principles from the standpoint of the original position, we see that a different complex of ideas underlies them. Not only are they based upon contrary motivational assumptions, but the notion of taking chances has a part in one view yet none in the other. In the classical conception one chooses as if one will live through the experiences of each individual, seriatim as Lewis says, the then sum up the result. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26

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The idea of taking a chance on which person one will turn out to be does not arise. Thus even if the concept of the original position served no other purpose, it would be a useful analytic device. Although the various principles of utility may often have similar practical consequences, we can see that these conceptions derive from markedly distinction assumption. There is, however, a peculiar feature of perfect altruism that deserves mention. A perfect altruist can fulfill one’s desire only if someone else has independent, or first-order, desires. To illustrate this fact, suppose that in deciding what to do all vote to do what everyone else wants to do. Obviously nothing get settled; in fact there is nothing to decide. For a problem of justice to arise at least two persons must want to do something other than whatever everyone else wants to do. It is impossible, then, to assume that the parties are simply perfect altruists. They may have some separate interests which may conflict. Justice as fairness makes this assumption, in the form of mutual disinterest, the main motivational condition of the original position. While this may prove to be an oversimplification, one can develop a reasonably comprehensive conception of justice on this basis. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26

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Some philosophers have accepted the utilitarian principle because they believed that the idea of an impartial sympathetic spectator is the correct interpretation of impartiality. Indeed, Hume thought that it offered the only perspective from which moral judgments could be made coherent and brought into line. Now moral judgments are, or should be, impartial; but there is another way to achieve this, another point of view by reference to which our judgments of justice may be organized. Justice as fairness provides what we want. An impartial judgment, we can say, is one rendered in accordance with the principles which would be chosen in the original position. An impartial judgment, we can say, is one rendered in accordance with the principles without bias of prejudice. Instead of defining impartiality from the standpoint of a sympathetic observer who responds to the conflicting interests of others as if they were one’s own, we define impartiality from the standpoint of the litigants themselves. It is they who must choose their conception of justice once and for all in an original position of equality. They must decide by which principles their claims against one another are to be settled, and one who is to judge between humans serves as their agent. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26

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The fault of the utilitarian doctrine is that it mistakes impersonality for impartiality. If one adopted the sympathetic spectator idea, but did not character this spectator as conflating all desires into one system, the preceding remarks naturally lead one to ask what sort of theory of justice would result. Hume’s conception provides one modus operadi for benevolence, but is it the only possibility? Now love clearly has among its main elements the desire to advance the other person’s good as this person’s rational self-love would require. Very often how one is to realize this desire is clear enough. The difficulty is that the love of several persons is thrown into confusion once the claims of these persons conflict. If we reject the classical doctrine, what does the love of humankind enjoin? It is quite pointless to say that one is to judge the situation as benevolence dictates. This assumes that we are wrongly swayed by self-concern. Our problem lies elsewhere. Benevolence is at sea as long as its many loves are in opposition in the persons of its many objects. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26

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We might try out here the idea that a benevolent person is to be guided by the principles someone would choose if one knew that one is to split, so to speak, into many members of society. That is, one is to imagine that one is to divine into a plurality of persons whose life and experiences will be distinct in the usual way. Experiences and memories are to remain each person’s own; and there is to be no conflation of desires and memories into those of one person. Since a single individual is literally to become many persons, there is no question of guessing which one; once again the problem of taking chances does not arise. Now knowing this (or believing it), which conception of justice would a person chose for a society comprised of these individual? As this person would, let us suppose, love this plurality of persons as one loves oneself, perhaps the principles one would chose characterize the aims of benevolence. Leaving aside the difficulties in the idea of splitting that may arise from problems about personal identity, two things seem evident. First of all, it is still unclear what a person would decide, since the situation does not offhand provide an answer. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26

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However, secondly, the two principles of justice now seem a relatively more plausible choice than the classical principle of utility. The latter is no longer the natural preference, and this suggests that the conflation of persons into one is indeed at the root of the classical view. The reason why the situation remains obscure is that love and benevolence are second-order notions: they seek to further the good of beloved individuals that is already given. If the claims of these goods clash, benevolence is at a loss as to how to proceed, as long anyway as it treats these individuals as separate persons. These high-order sentiments do not include principles of right to adjudicate these conflicts. Therefore a love of humankind that wishes to preserve the distinction of persons, to recognize the separateness of life and experience, will use the two principles of justice to determine its aims when many goods it cherishes are in opposition. Love is guided by what individuals themselves would consent to in a fair initial situation which gives them both equal representation as moral persons. We now see why nothing would have been gained by attributing benevolence to the parties in the original position. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26

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We must, however, distinguish between the love of humankind kind and the sense of justice. The difference is not that they are guided by different principles, since both include a desire to give justice. Rather, the former is manifest by the greater intensity and pervasiveness of this desire, and in a readiness to fulfill all the natural duties in addition to that of justice, and even to go beyond their requirements. The love of humankind is more comprehensive than the sense of justice and prompts to acts of supererogation, whereas the latter does not. Thus we see that the assumption of the mutual disinterestedness of the parities does not prevent a reasonable interpretation of benevolence and of the love of humankind within the framework of justice as fairness. The fact that we start out assuming that the parties are mutually disinterested and have conflicting first-order desires still allows us to construct a comprehensive account. For once the principles of right and justice are on hand, they may be used to define the moral virtues just as in any other theory. The virtues are sentiments, that is, related families of dispositions and propensities regulated by a higher-order desire, in this case a desire to act from the corresponding moral principles. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26

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Although justice as fairness begins by taking the persons in the original position as individuals, or more accurately as continuing strands, this is no obstacle to explicating the higher-order moral sentiments that serve to bind a community of persons together. Otherwise people can spend years groping amid-semi darkness for the entrance to the path which they have missed, but justice will gladly lead them in due course. Spiritually, at the moment of dying one will WILL one’s own rebirth again and again until one’s flock are brought safely through the narrow gate which leads to the kingdom of Heaven. Therefore it is said, for such is the mysterious reality of one’s telepathic power, that the birth of the self-actualized sends forth an echoing vibration within the Universe, which acts as a call to one’s unborn chelas (disciples) to incarnate with one, and as a command to the principle of rebirth to make effectual the event. The one sacrifices oneself for the salvation of one’s chelas (disciples). There are several self-styled spiritual guides who can guide their flocks into all kinds of queer experiences, but they cannot guide them into the Kingdom of Heaven. That territory is barred to them. Consequently it is barred to those who meekly walk behind them. The reason is quite simple. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26

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Jesus explained it long ago. The lower ego with its baggage of desires is too big, while the door leading into the Kingdom is too small. In all their activities, these teachers fail to achieve a truly spiritual result because they are thinking primarily of themselves rather than of what they are supposed to be thinking. In some cases the process is an unconscious one, but in many it is not. The difference between a false teacher and a genuine one is often the difference between a dominating dictator and a quiet guide. The false teacher will seek to emasculate your will or even to enslave your mind, whereas the true teacher will endeavour to exalt you into a sense of your own self-responsibility. The teacher who demands or accepts such servility is dangerous to true growth. In the end, one will require a loyalty which should be given only to God. The true teacher will carry your soul into greater freedom and not less, into stabilizing truth and not emotional moods. The true teacher has no desire to hold anyone in pupilage, but on the contrary gladly welcomes the time when the disciple is able to stand without help from outside. However, because talk is easy and redemption is not demanded except in the distant future, these false teachers thrive for a while. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26

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Many of the false teachers are but students, yet find it hard to take the low places where humility dwells. Hence their gravity; hence the laughter of the gods at them. Could they but laugh at themselves awhile, and perhaps at their doctrines occasionally, they might regain balance, a sense of proportion—but greatest of all true Humility. They are not necessarily deliberate misleaders of others, these self-appointed saviours, but their mystical experiences have given them false impressions about themselves. Their authority is fallible and their doctrines are false. They find it easy to deliver themselves of lofty teachings, but hard to put the same teachings into practice. These gurus promise much, but in the sequel do not redeem their word. These self-styled adepts appear to be adepts in circumlocution more than in anything else. Those who openly court worship or secretly exult in it cannot possibly have entered into the true Kingdom of Heaven. For the humility it demands is aptly described by Jesus when he describes its entrance as smaller than a needle’s eye. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26

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Would-be disciples who are so eager to fill this role that they are swept straightaway into enthusiasm by the extravagant promises of would-be masters, usually lack both the desire and the competence to investigate the qualifications of such masters. Consequently they pay the penalty of their lack of discrimination. If a nation accepts and follows a wicked human as its leader, then there must be some fault in it which make this possible. And if a seeker accepts a false guide on one’s spiritual path, then there must be some false intuition, false thinking, or false standards which made this possible to. There are various ways of appraising a teacher at one’s true worth. We may watch one’s external life and notice how one conducts one’s affairs, how one talks and works, and how one behaves toward other humans. Or we may dive deep into one’s interior nature and plumb the depths of one’s mental life. The latter course presupposes some degree of psychic sensitiveness. The best way is to combine both to penetrate the unseen and to observe the visible. Do not reverence those who call themselves guru and beg for alms. Only who live by the fruits of their labours and do honest and useful work are in the way of truth. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26

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Spiritual knowledge is not to be bought and sold. Indeed it could not be. That which could be got and given in this way is only the pretense of it. It is utterly impossible for a human who has entered into communion with the World-Mind to sell one’s power for money. The very act would of itself break one’s connection with it, leaving for one’s possession only those undesirable lesser powers which come from contact with the fringes of the nether World of dark spirits. There are too many aspirants who are hoping, like Micawber in Dicken’s story, for something to turn up. In their cause it is a spiritual master who will not only take their burdens and responsibilities off their shoulders but, much more, translate them overnight into a realm of spiritual consciousness for evermore. They go on waiting and they go on hoping, but nothing turns up and no one appears. What is the reason for this frustration of their hopes? It is that they fail to work while they wait, fail to prepare themselves to be fit for such a meeting, fail to recognize that whether they have a master or not they must still work upon themselves diligently, and that they harder they work in this task or self-improvement, the more likely it is that they will find a master. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26

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They are like children who want to be carried all the way and coddled while they are being carried. They are waiting for someone to do what they ought to be doing for themselves. They are waiting to receive from outside what they could start getting straightaway by delving inside themselves. Instead of wandering about looking for Christs to come, we should be better employed wandering inward looking for Christ there, the Christ within. Such a truth is our best Saviour and the surest Avatar of our time. After he has “seen” you take the plunge and try to “feel” his presence as the next stage. Only When one has reached a point where one no longer thinks of the Master as another person but as the core of one’s inner self, can it be said that the Master’s work for one is done. When Jesus said that one who eats His flesh and drinks His blood abides in Him and He in one, Jesus meant no theatrical rite of purely ceremonial order such as is performed outwardly through the Eucharist today. He meant this inwardly achieved union here described. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26

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There are untouched forces back of self which we seldom include when we reckon up our mortal accounts. One of these is that aspect of God in man which we denominate Power. Once found it makes us feel greater than we seem. When the divine will works through our hands, we may go forth into the World and master it. Strong in the consciousness of Power, we can advance without fear, asking favour of none, yet conferring it upon all we meet. “And now I finish my record concerning the destruction of my people, the Nephites. And it came to pass that we did march forth before the Lamanites. And I, Mormon, wrote an epistle unto the king of the Lamanites, and desired of him that he would grant unto us that he would grant unto us that we might gather together our people unto the land of Cumorah, by a hill which was called Cumorah, and there we could give them battle And it came to pass that the king of the Lamanites did grant unto me the thing which I desired. And it came to pass that we did march forth to the land of Cumorah, and we did pitch our tents around the hill Cumorah; and it was in the land of many waters, rivers, and fountains; and here we had hope to gain advantage over the Lamanites. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26

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“And when three hundred and eighty and four years had passed away, we had gathered in all the remainder of our people unto the land of Cumorah. And it came to pass that when we had gathered in all our people in one to the land of Cumorah, behold I, Mormon, began to be old; and knowing it to be the last struggle of my people, and having been commanded of the Lord that I should not suffer the records which had been handed down by our fathers, which were sacred, to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, (for he Lamanites would destroy them) therefore I made this record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni. And it came to pass that my people, with their wives and their children, did now behold the armies of the Lamanites marching towards them; and with that awful fear of death which fills the breast of all the wicked, did they await to receive them. And it came to pass that they came to battle against us, and every soul was filled with terror because of the greatness of their numbers. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26

“And it came to pass that my men were hewn down, yea, even my ten thousand who were with me, and I fell wounded in the midst; and they passed by me that they did not put an end to my life. And when they had gone through and hewn down all my people save it were twenty and four of us, (among whom my son Moroni) and we having survived the dead of our people, did behold on the morrow, when the Lamanites had returned unto their camps, from the top of the hill Cumorah, then ten thousand of my people who were hewn down, being led in the front by me. And we also beheld the ten thousand of my people who were led by my son Moroni. And behold, the ten thousand of Gidgiddonah had fallen, and he also in the midst. And Lamah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Limhah had fallen with his tend thousand; and Jeneum had fallen with his ten thousand; and Cumenihah, and Moronihah, and Antinum, and Shiblom, and Shem, and Josh, had fallen with their ten thousand each. And it came to pass that there were tend more who did fall by the sword, with their ten thousand each; yea, even all my people, save it were those who with me, and also a few who had escaped into the south countries, and a few who had deserted over unto the Lamanites, had fallen. #RandolphHarris 24 of 26

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“And their flesh, and bones, and blood lay upon the face of the Earth, being left by the hands of those who slew them to molder upon the land, and to crumble and to return to their mother Earth, And my soul was rent with anguish, because of the slain of my people, and I cried: O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you! Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would have fallen. However, behold, ye are fallen, and I mourn your loss. O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have fallen! However, behold, ye are gone, and my sorrows cannot bring your return. And the day soon cometh that your mortal must put on immortality, and these bodies which are now moldering in corruption must soon become incorruptible bodies; and then ye must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, to be judged according to your works; and if it so be that ye are righteous, then are ye blessed with your fathers who have gone before you. O that ye had repented before this great destruction had come upon you. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26

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“However, behold, ye are gone, and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of Heaven, knoweth your state; and he doeth with you according to his justice and mercy,” reports Mormon 6.1-22. Out of the bright sky as the Sun goes down, appears the Father who rules the darkness. I pray to him, my eyes facing west at the end of the day, and the beginning of the month. You will not be here with us long; you dance quickly toward the horizon. While you are still with us, though, I will look on you with love. Hope in the west, prophet of return from darkness: you show us it is possible to go from age into the shadowland and emerge, new yet the same. When I am surrounded by the shadows, come to me and remind me of this night’s lesson I pray to you, who wear the silver crescent, not to let me forget. Unto Israel and unto our scholars, unto their disciples and pupils, and unto all who engaged in the study of the Scriptures, here and everywhere, unto them and unto you, may there be abundant peace, grace, lovingkindness, mercy, long life, sustenance and salvation from their Father in Heaven; and say ye, Amen. May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and a happy life for us, and for all Israel; and say ye, Amen. May He who establisheth peace in the Heavens, in His mercy, grant peace unto us and unto all America; and say ye, Amen. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26

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Winchester Mystery House

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Sarah Winchester kept building over 38 years. Supernatural guidance or something to keep her occupied – what do you think?

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A Beauty is a Joy forever: Its Loveliness Increases and it Will Never Pass into Nothingness!

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Dignity and humility are the cornerstones of compassion. Compassion for myself is the most powerful healer of them all. People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes. To forgive is a divine attribute. It is to pardon or excuse someone from blame for an offense or misdeed. The Lord commands us to repent of our sins and seek His forgiveness. He also commands us to forgive those who offend or hurt us. If we can find forgiveness in our hearts for those who have caused us hurt and injury, we will rise to a higher level of self-esteem and well-being. We must learn to do away with fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desires, and covetousness, which is idolatry. One needs no help from supernatural sources to engage in fornication, the many pollutions involving pleasures of the flesh, indulgences in passions and desires for what is evil, or greed to possess what belongs to others. The inclinations just happen. These are the parts of human life that are upon the Earth, in the sense that they do not come from Heaven or God. Because of them, human beings become children of disobedience. Their basic nature becomes disobedience or rebellion. #RandolphHarris 1 of 26

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They are inherently at war with God and therefore subject to God’s wrath. “Cease, therefore, whatever belongs t your Earthly nature: immorality in pleasures of the flesh, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. However, now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, sine you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self with, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator,” reports Colossians 3.5-10. Our relationship with God and other humans must have a solid foundation on which they can be built. It must be founded on love, affinity, and trust. For we must carry credentials brought down from Heaven. In the end, it is n external person who can save us but only the internal soul itself. Forget the teacher’s person, remember the teacher’s doctrine. The lessons we learn are the gate through which we can pass to reach God. When we have fully learned our lesson, we will look to no other humans being for that which our Heavenly Father alone ought to be looked to. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26

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No matter what your past has been, you have a spotless future. Do not spend too much time looking back. If your past is gaining on you and you keep looking back, one of these days it will run you over. If we understand the purpose for doing so, it is not wrong to look back. The Lord wants us to learn from our mistakes. However, we can learn from them only by keeping them in perspective and not dwelling of them. If we continually dwell on past mistakes, we fall into a deep pit of discouragement. We can also become discouraged by blaming ourselves for sins we did not commit. For example, victims of abuse often feel responsible somehow for the abuse they received. They sometimes even feel guilty for having survived the abuse. If people blame themselves and dwell on the past, those who have been victimized by the sins of others continue to be victims. When they seek the Lord’s help to rise above the sorrow and turn their pain into a blessing, healing comes. Forgiveness is freeing up and putting to better use the energy once consumed by holding grudges, harbouring resentments, and nursing unhealed wounds. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26

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Forgiveness is rediscovering the strengths we always had and relocating our limitless capacity to understand and accept other people and ourselves. Most of us need time to work through pain and loss. We can find all manner of reasons for postponing forgiveness. One of these reasons is waiting for the wrongdoers to repent before we forgive them. Yet such a delay causes us to forfeit the peace and happiness that could be ours. The folly of rehashing long-past hurts does not bring happiness. Some hold grudges for a lifetime, unaware that courageously forgiving those who have wronged us is wholesome and therapeutic. When we have faith in God and trust in His word, forgiveness comes more readily. Such faith enables people to withstand the worst of humanity. It also enables people to look beyond themselves. More importantly it enables them to forgive. However, just because you forgive someone, it does not mean you can trust them again. That is an important distinction. It just means you are letting go of the poison of anger and hurt and resentment. To achieve frequent inner contact with God, we must relax our mind from everyday affairs and concentrate upon the quest anew, must separate it from it burden of cares and desires and doubts, and let everything go. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26

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We must abate the everlasting dominance of the personal ego and come as a humble child into the presence which we seek to invoke. This is how we catch the mental radiations from the Lord and transform them into intuitions and inspirations as a radio set catches electrical waves from a broadcasting station and transforms them into sounds. The impact of such telepathic blessings upon the disciple’s mind may be instantaneously felt. Or it may first start a subconscious process working which will produce the same result more slowly and less certainly. An important part of the process is to understand God holds us continually inside His own heart. Inevitable, this draws forth our affection and creates desire for union with God. The effect will be like the sun holding a tiny seedling continually within its rays. The seedling cannot escape natural growth through the actions of the sunlight nor the inevitable seeking for and love of the sun itself. In the same way, we who are given God’s grace, may depart from or desert the Lord, but in the end, we will have to recognize that the presence of God, the efficiency of God and we will accept God back in our lives again. To complete this process, we should also keep a mental picture of God in our hearts. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26

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By keeping God in our hearts, we are pointing the path, clearing intellectual doubts and difficulties, encouraging, inspiring and so on. The help is given telepathically and we will begin to sense during quiet periods and at odd times the current of peace flowing toward us. It is not human power we are receiving; it is spiritual power. We come to God for inspiration, improvement, purification, and blessings. Superior people know how to shut out the Worldly voices, and let in only the presence of God—nothing else. This is nonduality. We know that one mind can influence another through the medium of speech or writing: we know also that it may even influence another directly and without any medium through the silent power of telepathy. All this work takes place on the level of thought and emotion. Therefore, one must go into the innermost core of one’s own being and there touch the innermost core of God. In this way, Spirit speaks to Spirit, but without words or even thoughts. Within our inner most being there is a mysterious purity. A place that is morally clean. #RandolphHarris 6 of 26

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In this morally clean threshold, there is a peculiar power, filled with a magical potency. Those echoes reverberate telepathically across space. When we feel this power, the inner greatness, we are approaching the verge of spiritual attainment, and are stimulated and excited as a result. If we have enough faith in the principle of mentalism to believe that this blessing will come our way, the spiritual help which we need, we will be in a position to receive it. There will be advancement, a renewed effort at self-improvement, and the renewed determination to eliminate evil qualities from the character. The human embryo gets its earliest nutrition in the mother’s matrix by absorbing it from the fluids which surround it; this process of nourishment by osmosis leads to its growth and development until the first of its organs, the heart, is born. Then, with the later appearance of blood-tubes, the litter being begins to pump blood and feel itself. Osmosis is a process which may help us to understand its parallel—putting on the armour of God. Such experiences of a divine inflow are not imaginary ones but are the genuine reception of grace. When there is external silence, even then help is being given. Do not measures it volume against the volume of physical communications. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26

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The power of God is such that we become its channel and it can affect others. God illuminates and transfers Grace to us all the time, even though we may be unaware. The inward relationship matters. There is a system very much like a telephone switchboard. The incoming “calls” are plugged into God. The “line” itself is composed out of our own faith and devotion; one alone can make this connection. Then, one’s wishes, dreams, and thoughts travel along it to God, where they are registered and dealt with according to one’s needs. The Lord has said that “there is a law, irrevocably decreed in Heaven before the foundation of this World, upon which all blessings are predicated. And when we obtained any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 130.20-21. All laws being founded on rewards and punishments, it is supposed as a fundamental principle., that these motives have a regular and uniform influence on the mind, and both produce the good and prevent the evil actions. We may give this influence what name we please; however, as it is usually conjoined with the action, it must be esteemed a cause, and be looked upon as an instance of that necessity, which would here establish. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26

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The only proper object of hatred or vengeance, is a person or creature, endowed with thought and consciousness; and when any criminal or injurious actions excite that passion, it is only by their relation to the person, or connexion with one. Actions are, by their very nature, temporary and perishing; and where they proceed not from some cause in the character and disposition of the person who performed them, they can neither redound to one’s honour, if good; nor infamy, if evil. The actions themselves may be blameable; they may be contrary to all the rules of mortality and religion: But the person is not answerable for them; and they proceeded from nothing in one, that is durable and constant, and leave nothing of that nature behind them, it is impossible one can, upon their account, become the object of punishment or vengeance. According to the principle, therefore, which denies necessity, and consequently causes, a human is as pure and untainted, after having committed the most horrid crime, as the first moment of one’s birth, nor is one’s character any wise concerned in one’s actions; since they are not derived from it, and the wickedness of the one can never be used as proof of the depravity of the other. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26

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Humans are not blamed for such actions, as they perform ignorantly and casually, whatever may be the consequences. Why? but because the principles of these actions are only momentary, and terminate in them alone. Humans are less blamed for such actions as they perform hastily and unpremeditatedly, than for such as proceed from deliberation. For what reason? but because a hasty temper, though a constant cause of principle in mind, operates only by intervals, and infects not the whole reformation of life and manners. How is this to be accounted for? but by asserting, that actions render a person criminal, merely as they are proofs of criminal principles in the mind; and when, by an alteration of these principles, they cease to be just proofs, they likewise cease to be criminal. However, except upon the doctrines of necessity, they never were just proofs, and consequently never were criminal. Something is right, a social system say, when an ideally rational and impartial spectator would approve of it from a general point of view should one possess all the relevant knowledge of the circumstances. A rightly ordered society is one meeting the approval of such an ideal observer. Now, there may be several problems with this definition, for example, whether the notions of approval and relevant knowledge can be specified without circularity. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26

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However, I shall leave these questions aside because the essential point here is that there is no conflict so far between this definition and justice as fairness. For suppose we define the concept of right by saying that something is right and only if it satisfies the principles which would be chosen in the original position to apply to things of is kind. (First, the original position states: we are to assume a veil of ignorance, we know nothing about the parties. This is a principle that guarantees each citizen a robust package of liberal rights to such things as freedom of conscience, freedom to vote and stand in elections, and right to due process in law. Second, a principle that ensured fair equality of economic opportunity as well as shares of income and wealth that were maximally beneficial to people with the least amount of income and wealth.) It may well be the case the an ideally rational and impartial spectator would approve of a social system if and only if it satisfies the principles of justice which would be adopted in the contract scheme. The definition may be true of the same things. This possibility is not ruled out by the ideal observer definition. Since this definition makes no specific psychological assumptions about the impartial spectator, it yields no principles to account for one’s approvals under ideal conditions. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26

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One who accepts this definition to accept justice as fairness for this purpose: one simply allows that an ideal observer would approve of social systems to the extent that they satisfy the two principles of justice. (The two principles of justice as fairness—these guiding ideas of justice as fairness are given institutional form by its two principles of justice: First Principle: Each person has the same indefeasible claim to a fully adequate scheme of equal basic liberties, which scheme is compatible with the same scheme of liberties for all. Second Principle: Social and economic inequalities are to satisfy two conditions: a. They are t be attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity; b. They are to be to the greatest benefits of the least-advantaged member of society.) Fulfillment of the first principle takes priority over the difference principle. Unequal rights would not benefit those who get a lesser share of the right, so justice requires equal rights for all, in normal circumstances. Citizens’ equal liberty must have priority over economic policy. The impartial spectator definition makes no assumptions from which the principles of right justice must be derived. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26

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The impartial spectator definition is designed instead to single out certain central features characteristic of moral discussion, the fact that we try to appeal to our considered judgments after conscientious reflection, and the like. The contractarian definition is more ambitious: it attempts to provide a deductive basis for the principles that account for these judgments. The conditions of the initial situation and the motivation of the parties are intended to set out the necessary premises to achieve this end. Now while it is possible to supplement the impartial spectator definition with the contract point of view, there are other ways of giving it a deductive basis. Thus suppose that the ideal observer is thought of as a perfectly sympathetic being. Then there is a natural derivation of the classical principle of utility along the following lines. An institution is right, let us say, if an ideally sympathetic and impartial spectator would approve of it more strongly than any other institution feasible in the circumstances. For simplicity we may assumes that approval is a special kind of pleasure which arises more or less intensely in contemplating the workings of institutions and their consequences for the happiness of those engaged in them. This special pleasure is the result of sympathy. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26

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Sympathy is quite literally a reproduction in our experience of the satisfactions and pleasures which we recognize to be felt by others. Thus an impartial spectator experiences this pleasure in contemplating the social system in proportion to the net sum of pleasures felt by those affected by it. The strength of one’s approval corresponds to, or measures, the amount of satisfaction in the society surveyed. Therefore one’s expressions of approval will be given according to classical utility. To be sure, sympathy is not a strong feeling. Not only is self-interest likely to inhibit the frame of mind in which we experience it, but self-interest tends to override its dictates in determining our actions. Yet when humans do regard their institutions from a general point of view, sympathy is the main psychological propensity at work, and it will at least guide our considered moral judgments. However, weak sympathy may be, it nevertheless constitutes a common ground for brining our moral opinions into agreement. Human’s natural capacity for sympathy suitably generalized provides the perspective from which they can reach an understanding on a common conception of justice. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26

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Thus we arrive at the following view. A rational and impartial sympathetic spectator is a person who takes up a general perspective: one assumes a position where one’s own interest are not at stake and one possesses all the requisite information and powers of reasoning. So situated one is equally responsive and sympathetic to the desires and satisfactions of everyone affected by the social system. One’s own interests do not thwart one’s natural sympathy for the aspirations of others and one has perfect knowledge of these endeavours and what they mean for those who have them. Responding to the interests of each person in the same way, an impartial spectator gives free reign to one’s capacity for sympathetic identification by viewing each person’s situation as it affects that person. Thus one imagines oneself in the place of each person in turn, and when one has done this for everyone, the strength of one’s approval is determined by the balance of satisfactions to which one has sympathetically responded. When one has made the rounds of all the affected parties, so to speak, one’s approval expresses the total. Sympathetically imagined pains cancel out sympathetically imagined pleasures, and the final intensity of approval corresponds to the net some of positive feeling. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26

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It is instructive to note that a contrast between the features of the sympathetic spectator and the conditions defining the original position. The elements of the sympathetic spectator definition, impartiality, possession of relevant knowledge, and the powers of imaginative identification, are to assure the complete and accurate response of natural sympathy. Impartiality prevents distortion of bias and self-interest; knowledge and the capacity for identification guarantee that the aspirations of others will be accurately appreciated. We can understand the point of the definition once we see that its parts are designed to give free scope to the operation of fellow feeling. In the original position, by contrast, the parities are mutually disinterested rather than sympathetic; but lacking knowledge of their natural assets or social situation, they are forced to view their arrangements in a general way. In the one case perfect knowledge and sympathetic identification result in a correct estimate of the net sum of satisfaction; in the other, mutual disinterestedness subject to a veil of ignorance leads to the two principles of justice. There is a sense in which classical utilitarianism fails to take seriously the distinction between persons. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26

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The principle of rational choice for one human is taken as the principle of social choice as well. (Rational choice theory states that individuals use rational calculation to make balanced choices and achieve outcomes that are aligned with their own personal objectives. These results are also associated with an individual’s best, self-interests. Social choice theory is the study of collective decision processes and procedures. It is a theoretical framework for analysis of combining individual opinions, preferences, interests, or welfares to reach a collective decision of social welfare in some sense.) How does this come about? It is the consequence, as we can now see, of wanting to give a deductive basis to an ideal observer definition of right, and of presuming that human’s natural capacity for sympathy provides the only perspective from which their moral judgments can be brought into agreement. With this background, it is tempting to adopt the approvals of the impartial sympathetic spectator as the standard of justice. The one person of the classical doctrines is, then, identical with the impartial sympathetic spectator. This spectator is the one self who includes all desires and satisfactions within one experience as one imaginatively identifies in turn with the members of society. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26

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It is one who compares their aspirations and approves of institutions according to the extent to which they satisfy the one system of desires that one constructs as one views everyone’s desires as if they were one’s own. The classical view results, then, in impersonality, in the conflation of all desires into one system of desires. We can equally well ask why we should concern ourselves about our own future feelings as about the feelings of other persons. Presumably because the answer is identical in each case: it is necessary to achieve the greatest sum of satisfaction. These remarks seem to suggest the conflation view. Only if the proper steps are taken, time can heal wounds. Fear can lead to a lifetime of sorrow and pain. The only real release is repentance. Heavenly Father has provided the Atonement for us so that we may rise above sorrow and pain. Why is it that so many—if not most—seekers feel the need of personal spiritual guidance, and emotional inspiration, there is a further, a profounder, and sometimes unconscious need. The formless Infinite is a conception the human mind can hardly comprehend, much less hold for any sustained period. Therefore many people know only those who has experienced it can say how utterly true and intensely real it is. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26

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God the impersonal assumes the form of a personal guide. This is why Jesus proclaimed himself to be the door. If so many students are running hither and thither in search of a master, it is not only for the commonly given reasons that they do so, but also because of their need of a personal symbol of the impersonal God, their need of a human gate to the gateless Void. There are some seekers who can draw from within themselves the guidance they need, the light upon their path, and the intuition to comprehend the Absolute. They can get along quite well without a human guide. Such souls are fortunate and blessed, and those others who do not come into their category need and must find a spiritual leader. First they must find one in the World without. Later, with more understand and increased development, they must find one within themselves. “And it came to pass that I did go forth among the Nephites, and did repent of the oath which I had made that I would no more assist them; and they gave me command again of their armies, for they looked upon me as though I could deliver them from their afflictions. However, behold, I was without hope, for I knew the judgments of the Lord which should come upon them; for they repented not of their iniquities, but did struggle for their lives without calling upon that Being who created them. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26

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“And it came to pass that the Lamanites did come against us as we had fled to the city of Jordan; but behold, they were driven back that they did not take the city at that time. And it came to pass that they came against us again, and we did maintain the city. And there were also other cities which were maintained by the Nephites, which strongholds did cut them off that they could not get into the country which lay before us, to destroy the inhabitants of our land. However, it came to pass that whatsoever lands we had passed by, and the inhabitants thereof were not gathered in, were destroyed by the Lamanites, and their towns, and villages, and cities were burned with fire; and thus three hundred and seventy and nine years passed away. And it came to pass that we did again take to flight, and those whose flight was swifter than the Lamanites’ were swept down and destroyed. And now behold, I, Mormon, do not desire to harrow up the souls of human in casting before them such an awful scene of blood and carnage as was laid before mine eyes; but I, knowing that these things must surely be made known, and that all things which are hid must be revealed upon the house-tops. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26

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“And also that a knowledge of these things must come unto the remnant of these people, and also unto the Gentiles, who the Lord hath said should scatter this people, and this people should be counted as naught among them—therefore I write a small abridgment, daring not to give full account of the things which I have seen, because of the commandment which I have received, and also that ye might not have too great sorrow because of the wickedness of this people. And now behold, this I speak unto their seed, and also to the Gentiles who have care for the house of Israel; yea, they will sorrow for the destruction of this people; they will sorrow for that this people had not repented that they might have been clasped in the arms of Jesus. Now these things are written unto the remnant of the house of Jacob; and they are written after this manner, because it is known of God that wickedness will not being them forth unto them; and they are to be hid up unto the Lord that they may come forth in his own due time. And this is the commandment which I have received; and behold, they shall come forth according to the commandment of the Lord, when he shall see fit, in his wisdom. #Randolphharris 21 of 26

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“And behold, they shall go unto the unbelieving of the Jews; and for this intent shall they go—that they may be persuaded that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; that the Father may bring about, through his most Beloved, his great and eternal purpose, in restoring the Jews, or all the house of Israel, to the land of their inheritance, which the Lord their God hath given them, unto the fulfilling of his covenant; and also that the seed of this people may more fully believe his gospel, which shall go forth unto them from the Gentiles; for this people shall be scattered, and shall become a dark, a filthy, and a loathsome people, beyond the description of that which ever hath been amongst us, yea, even that which hath been among the Laminates, and this because of their unbelief and idolatry. For behold, the Spirit of the Lord hath already ceased to stive with their fathers; and they are without Christ and God in the World; and they are driven about as chaff before the wind. They were once a delightsome people, and they had Christ for their shepherd; yea, they were led even by God the Father. However, now, behold, they are led about by Satan, even as chaff is driven before the wind, or as a vessel is tossed about upon the waves, without sail or anchor, or without anything wherewith to steer her; and even as she is, so are they. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26

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“And behold, the Lord hath reserved their blessings, which they might have received in the land, for the Gentiles who shall possess the land. However, behold, it shall come to pass that they shall be driven and scattered by the Gentiles; and after they have been driven and scattered by the Gentiles, behold, then will the Lord remember the covenant which he made unto Abraham and unto all the house of Israel. And also the Lord will remember the prayers of the righteous, which have been put up unto him for them. And then, O ye Gentiles, how can ye stand before the power of God, except ye shall repent and turn from your evil ways? Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God? Know ye not that he hath the power, and at his great command the Earth shall be rolled together as a scroll? Therefore, repent ye, and humble yourselves before him, lest he shall come out in justice against you—lest a remnant of the seed of Jacob shall go forth among you as a lion, and tear you in pieces, and there is none to deliver,” reports Mormon 5.1-24. We are affected by our associates; one who keeps company with criminals is apt to descend into crime oneself; one who seeks the spiritually minded as friends is apt to ascend to spirituality. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26

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Chase your Father, little one; swiftly he sinks and swiftly you follow him. Grow in strength and in sureness. Grow into yourself as the month goes by. As one rises in the morning, let one declare: Sovereign of all Worlds! Not because of our righteousness do we offer our supplications before Thee, but because of Thy great mercies. What are we? What is our life? What is our goodness? What is our righteousness? What our help? What is our strength? What is our might? What can we say before Thee, O Lord our God and God of our fathers? Are not the mightiest as naught before Thee, and humans of renown as though they were not, wise humans as if they were without knowledge, and humans of understanding as though they were lacking in discernment? For in Thine eyes the multitude of their works is emptiness, and the days of their life mere vanity. The pre-eminence of human over beast would be naught; all would be vanity—were it not that we are Thy people, children of Thy covenant, descendants of Abraham Thy beloved, to whom, at Mt. Moriah Thou didst give Thy promise, seed of Isaac his only son, who was bound upon the altar, the congregation of Jacob Thy first born, whom Thou didst name Israel and Jeshurun out of Thy love for him and Thy delight in him. #RandolphHarris 24 of 26

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It is therefore our duty to give thanks unto Thee and extol Thee, to bless and hallow Thy name in offering Thee praise and thanksgiving. Happy are we! How goodly is our portion, how pleasant our lot, how beautiful our heritage! Happy are we who pray morning and evening, declaring twice every day: Here, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Blessed be His glorious kingdom for ever and ever. Thou, O Lord, wast God before the World was created. Thou art God since the World was formed; Thou art God both in this World and in the World to come. Sanctify Thy name through those who call Thee holy. Yea, hallow Thy name in Thy World, and through Thy salvation rise up and exalt our destiny. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who hallowest Thy name before all humans. Thou art the Lord our God in Heaven and on Earth and in all the Heavenly sphere. In truth Thou art the first and Thou art the last, and besides Thee there is no God. O gather from the four corners of the Earth those that Hope in Thee. Then all humankind shall understand and acknowledge that Thou alone art God over all the kingdoms of the Earth. Thou hast made the Heavens and the Earth, the sea and all that is therein. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26

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Who of all Thy handiwork, both above and below, can say unto Thee: What doest Thou? Our Father who art in Heaven, deal mercifully with us for the sake of Thy great name by which we are called; and fulfill unto us, O Lord our God, the words of Holy Scripture: At that time will I bring you in, and at that time will I gather you; for I will make you a name and a praise among all the peoples of the Earth, when I redeem you from captivity before your every eyes, saith the Lord. May it by Thy will, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, to grant our portion in Thy Scriptures and may the Temple be rebuilt in our day. There we will serve Thee with awe as in the days of old. Magnified and sanctified be the name of God throughout the World which He hath created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom during the days of your life and during the life of all the house of Israel, speedily, yea, soon; and say ye, Amen. May His great name be blessed for ever and ever. Exalted and honoured be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, whose glory transcend, yea, is beyond all praises, hymns and blessings that human can render unto Him; and say ye, Amen. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26

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Cresleigh Homes

Today we’re giving you an inside look at Residence 1 at #MillsStation, located in beautiful #CresleighRanch. Head to the link in our bio to check it out! https://cresleigh.com/blog/

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Thoughtfully designed with exquisite amenities, luxury, and welcoming sophistication.
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And My Soul Had Been Poured Out in Prayer unto My God All the Day Long for them!

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People think love is an emotion. Love is good sense. Put together, narcissistic people can provide considerable misery for each other and an interesting evening for others. Social relations among the members of hunting-gathering society are characterized by the absence of what is called “dominance” among animals. Hunting-gathering bands differ more completely from the apes in this matter of dominance than do any other kinds of human society. There is no peck-order based on physical dominance at all, nor is there any superior-inferior ordering based on other sources of power such as wealth, hereditary classes, military or political office. The only consistent supremacy of any kind is that of a person of greater age and wisdom who might lead a ceremony. Even when individuals possess greater status or prestige than others, the manifestation of the high status and the prerogatives are the opposite of ape-like dominance. Generosity and modesty are required of persons of high status in primitive society, and the rewards they receive are merely the love or attentiveness of others. A man, for example, might be stronger, faster, braver, and more intelligent than any other member of the band. Will he have higher status than the others? Not necessarily. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

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If these desirable qualities are put to work in the service of the group—in hunting, let us say—and if he therefore produces more game to give away, and if he does it properly, modestly, only then will prestige be accorded him. Thus, to simplify a bit, greater strength in ape society results in greater dominance, which results in more food and mates and any other things desired by the dominant one; in primitive human society greater strength must be used in the service of the community, and the person, to earn prestige, must literally sacrifice to do so, working harder for less food. As for the mates, he ordinarily has but one wife just like other men. It seems that the most primitive human societies are at the same time the most egalitarian. This must be related to the fact that because of the rudimentary technology this kind of society depends on cooperation more fully more of the time than any other. Apes do not regularly cooperate and share, human beings do—that is the essential difference. Service gives a picture of the kind of authority we find among the hunter-gatherer peoples. In these societies there is of course a need for administration of group action: Administration is the role authority assumes with respect to problems of concerted group action. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

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It is what we ordinarily mean by the word “leadership.” The necessities for administration of group action and close coordination are varied and numerous in hunting-gathering societies. They would include such usual things as camp movements, a collaborative hunting drive, and particularly any kind of skirmishing with enemies. However, despite the obvious significance of leadership in such activities, a hunting-gathering society is, as in other matters, distinctive in that it has no formal leadership of the sort that we see in later stages of cultural development. There is no permanent office of headman; leadership moves from one person to another depending on the type of activity that is being planned. For example, one very old man might be the favourite for planning a ceremony because of his great ritual knowledge, but another person, younger and more skilled at hunting, might be the normal leader of the hunting party. Above all, there is no leader or headman in the sense usually associated with the word chief. This lack of hierarchy and chiefs is all the more noteworthy because it is a widely accepted cliché that such control institutions are to be found in virtually all civilized societies are based on a genetic inheritance from the animal kingdom. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

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We have seen that among chimpanzees the dominance relationships are rather mild, but they are nevertheless there. The social relationships of primitive people show that humans are not genetically prepared for this kind of dominance-submission psychology. An analysis of historical society, with five or six thousand years of exploitation of the majority by a ruling minority, shows very clearly that the dominance-submission psychology is an adaptation to the social order, and not its cause. For the apologist of a social order based on control by an elite, it is of course very convenient to believe that the social structure is the outcome of an innate need of man and, hence, natural and unavoidable. The egalitarian society of the primitive shows that this is just no so. The question must arise how primitive humans protect themselves against asocial and dangerous members, in the absence of an authoritarian or bureaucratic authoritarian regime. There are several answers to this first questions. Frist of all, much of the control of behaviour is achieved merely in terms of custom and etiquette. However, assuming that custom and etiquette did not prevent individuals from asocial behaviour, what are the sanctions against them? #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

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The usual sanction is a general withdrawal from the culprit and a diminished degree of courtesy toward one; there is gossip and ridicule; in extreme cases, ostracism.  If a person constantly misbehaves, and one’s behaviour harms groups other than one’s own, one’s own group may even decided to terminate the life of that individual. However, these cases are extremely rare, and most problems are solved by the authority of the older and wiser males in the group. Although feuds and warfare are relatively rare in band societies, they do consistently threaten and there must be some way of stopping them or of preventing their spread. Often they begin as mere quarrels between individuals, and for this reason it is important to stop them early. Within a given community the adjudication of a quarrel between two persons will ordinarily be handled by an elder who is a common relative of them both. If this person were in the same relationship to each of one of the quarreling humans, it would be ideal for them it would be evident that one would not be so likely to take sides. However, of course this is not always the case, nor is it possible that the person in this kinship status position might wan to adjudicate. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

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Sometimes one person is clearly enough in the right and the other in the wrong, or one person popular and the other unpopular, that the public becomes the adjudicator and the case is settled as soon as this common opinion becomes well-known. When quarrels are not settled in any of the above ways, then some form of contest is held, preferable a game, that takes the place of an outright battle. Wrestling or head-butting contests are typical forms of quasi-dueling in Eskimo society. It is done in public and the winner is considered by the public to have won his case. Particularly interesting is the famous Eskimo song duel: the weapons used are words, “little, sharp words, like the wooden splinters which I hack off with my axe.” Song duels are used to work off grudges and disputes of all orders, save termination of life. An East Greenlander, however, if one is physically too weak to gain one’s end, or if one is so skilled in singing as to feel certain of victory, may seek one’s satisfaction for the loss of the life of a relative. Inasmuch as East Greenlanders get so engrossed in the mere artistry of singing as to forget the cause of the grudge, this is understandable. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

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Singing skill among these Eskimos equals or outranks gross physical powers. The singing style is highly conventionalized. The successful singer uses the traditional patterns of composition which one attempts to deliver with such finesse as to delight the audience to enthusiastic applause. One who is most heartily applauded is “winner.” To win a song contest brings no restitution in its train. The sole advantage is in prestige. One of the advantages of the song duel carried on at length is that it gives the public time to come to a consensus about who is correct or who should admit guilt in the dispute. Ordinarily, people have some idea of whose side they are on, but as in most primitive communities the unanimity of the community as a whole is felt to be so desirable that it takes a while before the people can find out where the majority opinion lies. Gradually more people are laughing a little harder at one of the duelist’s verses than at the other’s, until it becomes apparent where the sympathy of the community lies, and then opinion quickly becomes unanimous and the loser retires in discomfiture. Among other hunting societies private quarrels are not solved as charmingly as by the Eskimos, but by a spear throwing duel. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

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When a dispute is between an accuser and a defendant, which is commonly the case, the accuser ritually hurls the spears from a prescribed distance, while the defendant dodges them. The public can applaud the speed, force, and accuracy of the accuser as he hurls his spears, or then can applaud the adroitness with which the defendant dodges them. After a time unanimity is achieved as the approval for one or the other’s skill gradually becomes overwhelming. When the defendant realizes that the community is finally considering one guilty, one is supposed to fail to dodge a spear and allow oneself to be wounded in some fleshy part of one’s body. Conversely, when the accuser becomes aware that public opinion is going against him, he simply stops throwing the spears. In modern times, we see much of the same behaviour playing out amongst Worldly people. However, Christians are supposed to employ different methods for settling disputes. The dynamics of resistance (conflict) builds strong bodies. If all decisions had but two alternatives, one clearly marked “right” and the other clearly marked “wrong,” our personal development in spiritual muscle building would not be nearly so strengthening. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

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Quite conceivably, the Lord recognized that humans would gain much more learning and experience through dealing with conflict than with simple, clear-cut alternatives, and He therefore provided for this in our mortal period of life. If it is not so, why did He place a set of principles in conflict before Adam and Even in the very beginning? The first mortals were commanded to multiply and replenish the Earth and at the same time not to partake of the fruit of the tree of good and evil. To obey one command required the violation of the other. Here are steps that may provide a start in handling the problems of conflict. Clarify exactly which principles may be in conflict. Arrange a priority of principles. That is, we know that some principles are more important than others. For instance, there is no conflict in, “Thou shalt not kill,” and “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” When two principles are in conflict, choose to obey the higher law. One of the important keys to obeying the higher law is to approach the decision with prayer. When attempting to apply this concept of principles in conflict, the agony is not removed from all decision making, but will assist in selecting better alternatives. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

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When the principles involved are wide apart in priority, the decisions are easier. As the principles are more nearly aligned in priority, the more difficult it becomes to identify the higher of the two. For example, a man works for a store whose owner decides to do business on Sundays. The man can get another job but it would mean a 25 percent reduction in income. It would be difficult to manage, but the family could handle their financial obligations on the reduced salary. Here is the principle of Sabbath observance versus available money for such things as education, music lessons, travel, and vacations. What should he do? It is easy to rationalize, to do what is most comfortable, but the Saviour did not promise that His way would be easy. There are some who may say that one cannot live by hard and fast principles. They contend that the circumstances at any particular time will determine what one should do. Under social or economic pressures, rationalizing is often mistaken for reason. It becomes a matter of placing priority on alternatives, in selecting ones that, in our judgment, are most consistent with gospel principles. Those principles will be best served in the spirit of humility, guided by prayer and fasting. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

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Never let things which matter most be at the mercy of things which matter least. The choices are sometimes difficult, but then living by principle has never been very easy. Agency is the ability God gives us to choose and to act for ourselves. Agency is essential in the plan of salvation. Without agency, we would not be able to learn or progress or follow the Saviour. With it, we are “free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all humans, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil,” reports 2 Nephi 2.27. In our premortal life we had moral agency. One purpose of Earth life is to show what choices we will make. “And to being about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter. Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one of the other,” reports 2 Nephi 2.15-16. If we were forced to choose the right, we would not be able to show what we would choose for ourselves. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

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Also, when we have made our own choices, we are happier doing things. Agency was one of the principle issues to arise in the premortal Council in Heaven. It was one of the main causes of the conflict between the followers of Christ and the followers of Satan. The Lord has said that all people are responsible for their own motives, attitudes, desires, and actions. Even though we are free to choose our course of action, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions. The consequences, whether good or bad, follow as a natural result of any choice we make. “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what one has done,” reports Revelation 22.12. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his might power. Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against the flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the power of this dark World, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the Heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evils comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand,” reports Ephesians 6.10-13. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

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Therefore Paul tells us that those who live in terms of the “flesh”—the merely natural powers of the human being, based in the human body—have their minds set on (or are totally preoccupied with) the flesh (or what they can manage on their own). He continues on to say that to have the mind “set on” the flesh in this way is “death.” “Those who lives according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God,” reports Romans 8.5-8. A sinful mind is hostile toward God because God threatens its god. And it is unable to live in accordance with what God says, because it is working against God. To understand this situation and how it must be transformed, we must look more deeply into the role of physical reality, especially of our own body, in the human life. The Master can help the aspirant with the benefit of a lifetime’s experience on the Quest and with the Grace ne has attained from having to endure the vicissitudes, ordeals, temptations which mark the way. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

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From a true spiritual leader, the aspirant can lean painlessly in a short time what another has to learn through years of suffering and blundering alone. For the earnest seeker, the true spiritual leader will not only provide all these helps, one will also give assistance in the art of prayer so that it will be more easily and quickly learned than could otherwise have been possible. Unfortunately, church leaders have not always appropriated this lesson. John Claypool said in his 1979 Yale Lectures on Preaching that while in seminary he experienced jealous jockeying for position, and that life in the perish ministry had not been much different. His tragic comments came after attending national conventions of church leaders where most of the conversation in the hotel rooms either were full of envy for a leader who was doing well or scarcely concealed delight over the failure of another. Truly spiritual leadership knows none of this, as the example of the great Charles Simeon eloquently shows. Simeon, who pastored Holy Trinity in Cambridge at the beginning of the nineteenth century, is credited with establishing the evangelical wing of the Church of England through his immense leadership exhibited in his powerful personality, his great preaching which filled twenty-one influential volumes, and his personal discipleship of some of the Church’s greatest missionaries and leaders. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

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Such a man could have been tempted to resent others who might displace him—as, for example, when his health broke and he had to spend eight months away recuperating his curate, Thomason, stepped in to preach. Thomason surprised everyone with a preaching ability that rivaled Simeon’s. And what was the great man’s response? Rejoicing! In fact, as his biography says, he referenced John 3.30 (“He must become greater; I must become less”) and told a friend, “Now I see why I have been laid aside I bless God for it.” True spiritual leadership knows nothing of a self-promoting Spirit. “For who is greater, the one who is at the same or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves,” reports Luke 22.27. Those who qualify for spiritual leadership are big-hearted, supportive to each other and to all those around. Leadership should be structured in such a fashion that it gives rise to experience by giving voice to it, regardless of how frightening or anxiety-provoking it may be. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

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People are looking for in a leader, signs of sincerity, genuine, and goodwill underneath all. They are looking to make contact with the sane part of the personality, irrespective of how insane the rest of it might be. The help provided by a spiritual leader during a joint intercessory prayer is provided by one’s simply being there! One’s presence may help to deepen the student’s own prayer. One who has awakened one’s own super-physical energy, intuited one’s own higher knowledge, can develop a skill beneficial to others whenever they come within one’s orbit. For one can inform them of what they can do to themselves for themselves and how they can do it. To receive instruction from an inspired teacher or from inspired books has been the most common way in most cases resulting in enlightenment. This, or course, has been accompanied by the following practices, doing the exercises, making the studies, and undergoing the purification required by the teaching. However, there have also been a few causes where enlightenment has come by itself, spontaneously, without either the help of a teacher or the labour of training. Such humans can thereafter radiate their grace as much as the other but, not having travelled the path to enlightenment, cannot properly or adequately or satisfactorily engage in teaching and act the master. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

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It is not for the spiritual leader to make one’s disciples’ decisions for them. One’s statement may or may not be justified by argument and certified by documentary quotations, for one leaves it to others to take them up or not as clues, hints, suggestions to be tried experimentally on the way. One cannot tell with certainty whether one is on the right path. It is then that one needs a guide. The master will benefit one’s students no only by one’s verbal or written instruction but also by one’s example and counsel. One does not insist, like lesser humans, on making one’s disciples into facsimiles of oneself, subject solely to the influence of one’s personality. “And it came to pass that the Lamanites did not come to battle again until ten years more had passed away. And behold, I had employed my people, the Nephites, in preparing their lands and their arms against the time of battle. And it came to pass that the Lord did say unto me: Cry unto this people—Repent ye, and come unto me, and be ye baptized, and build up again my church, and ye shall be spared. And I did cry unto this people, but it was in vain; and they did not realize that it was the Lord that had spared them, and granted unto them a chance for repentance. And behold they did harden their hearts against the Lord their God. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

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“And after it came to pass that after this tenth year had passed away, making, in the whole, three hundred and sixty years from the coming of Christ, the king of the Lamanites sent an epistle unto me, which gave unto me to know that they were preparing to come again to battle against us. And it came to pass that I did cause my people that they should gather themselves together at the land Desolation, to a city which was in the borders, by the narrow pass which led into the land southward. And there were did place our armies, that we might stop the armies of the Lamanites, that they might not get possession f any of our lands; therefore we did fortify against them with all our force. And it came to pass that in the three hundred and sixty and first year the Lamanites did come down to the city of Desolation to battle against us; and it came to pass that in that year we did beat them, insomuch that they did return to their own lands again. And in the three hundred and sixty and second year they did come down again to battle. And we did beat them again, and did slay a great number of them, and their dead were cast into the sea. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

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“And now, because of this great thing which my people, the Nephites, had done, they began to boast in their own strength, and began to swear before the Heavens that they would avenge themselves of the blood of their brethren who had been slain by their enemies. And they did swear by the Heaven, and also by the throne of God, that they would go up to battle against their enemies, and would cut them off from the face of the land. And it came to pass that I, Mormon, did utterly refuse from this time forth to be a commander and a leader of this people, because of their wickedness and abomination. Before, I had lead them, notwithstanding their wickedness I had lead them, according to the love of God which was in me, with all my heart; and my soul had been poured out in prayer all the day long for them; nevertheless, it was without faith, because of the hardness of their hearts. And thrice have I delivered them out of the hands of their enemies, and they have repented not of their sins. And when they had sworn by all that had been forbidden them by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that they would go up unto their enemies to battle, and avenge themselves of the blood of their brethren, behold the voice of the Lord came unto me saying: #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

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“Vengeance is mine, and I will repay; and because this people repented not after I had delivered them, behold, they shall be cut off from the face of the Earth. And it came to pass that I utterly refused to go up against mine enemies; and I did even as the Lord had commanded me; and I did stand as an idle witness t manifest unto the World the things which I saw and heard, according to the manifestations of the Spirit which had testified of things to come. Therefore I write unto you, Gentiles, and also unto you, house of Israel, when the work shall commence, that ye shall be about to prepare to return to the land of your inheritance; yes, behold, I write unto all the ends of the Earth; yea, unto you, twelve tribes of Israel, who shall be judged according to your works by the twelve whom Jesus chose to be his disciples in the land of Jerusalem. And I write also unto the remnant of this people, who shall also be judged by the twelve whom Jesus chose in this land; and they shall be judged by the other twelve whom Jesus chose in the land of Jerusalem. And these things doth the Spirit manifest unto me; therefore I write unto you all. And for this cause I write unto you, that ye may know that ye must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, yea, every soul who belongs to the whole human family of Adam. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

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“And ye must stand to be judged of your works, whether they be good or evil; and also that ye may believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, which ye shall have among you; and you that the Jews, the covenant people of the Lord, shall have other witness besides him whom they saw and heard, that Jesus, whom they slew, was the very Christ and the very God. And I would that I could persuade all ye ends of the Earth to repent and prepare to stand before the judgment-seat of Christ,” reports Mormon 3.1-22. From the deep emptiness of a sleepless night, my pleas are sent to God of sleep. To the giver dreams I call, to Him who comes in the night, not as a danger, but as a bringer of peace. Please come to me, as I lie alone in the dark. Please quietly through the night and place your hands on my brow, soothing me gently until I slide into sleep. O my God, the soul with which Thou didst endow me is pure. Though didst create it and fashion it; Thou didst breathe it into me and Thou preservest it within me. Thou wilt reclaim it from me but Thou wilt restore it to me in the life to come. So long as the breath of life is within me, I will give thanks unto Thee, O Lord my God and God of my fathers, Master of all works, Lord of all souls. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who restores life to mortal creatures. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

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Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast given the mind understanding to distinguish between day and night. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has made me in Thine image. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast made me free. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast made me free. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has made me an American. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who openest the eyes of the blind. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who clothest the naked. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe who releasest the bound. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who raisest up them that are bowed down. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who stretchest out the Earth over the waters. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast provided for all my needs. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who guidest the steps of humans. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast provided for all my needs. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

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Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who girdest America with strength. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who crownest America with glory. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe who givest strength to the weary. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who removest sleep from mine eyes and slumber from mine eyelids. May it by Thy will,  Lord my God and God of my father to deliver me this day and every day from arrogance and from the arrogant humans, from every corrupt person, from every evil companion and neighbour, and from all mishap; from the dangers that lurk about me, from a harsh judgment and an implacable opponent, whether or not one be an adherent of out faith. May be Thy will, O Lord our God and God of our father, to cause us to walk in the way of Thy law and to cleave to Thy precepts. Let us not fall into the power of sin, transgression or iniquity, nor succumb to temptation or shame. Please keep us far from the influence of wicked humans and corrupt companions. Please make us cleave to our good inclination and to perform good deeds. O bend our will to Thy service, and please grant us this day and every day, grace, kindness, and mercy, both in Thy lovingkindness upon us. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who bestowest Thy bountiful love upon the people of America. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23

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Cresleigh Homes

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Residence One is the smallest of the floor plans offered at Cresleigh Riverside but at 2,293 square feet, there is plenty of space in this single story home. With three bedrooms, two bathrooms, den, great room, and dining room, there is enough room for all members of the family to have their corner of the house. The two car garage boasts ample storage and a covered patio comes included in the home. The den can easily be transformed into a fourth bedroom if needed.
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These graceful windows flood the great room, kitchen, and dining room with glittering light, making this home the perfect place for entertaining loved ones this Thanksgiving. // #Riverside Residence 1

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This home is a beauty and is designed to maximize views of your very own private backyard. You can watch the kids play while you are cooking or resting on the cozy sofa watching a movie.
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I Might Lose Myself in Bottomless Abysses of Ignorance—Cleanse the Horrible Darknesses of Our Mind!

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The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved…the ones who…are passionate, compassionate, enthusiastic. In order to seize hold of the fantasies, I frequently imagined a steep descent. I even made several attempts to get to the very bottom. The very first time I reached, as it were, a depth of about a thousand feet; the next time I found myself at the edge of a cosmic abyss. It was like a voyage to the mon, or a descent into empty space. First came the image of a crater, and I had the feeling that I was in the land of the dead. The atmosphere was that of the other World. Near the steep slope of a rock I caught sight of two figures, an old mand with a white beard and a beautiful young lady. I summoned up my courage and approached them as though they were real people, and listened attentively to what they told me. The old man explained that he was Elijah, and that gave me a shock. However, the young lady staggered me even more, for she called herself Salome! She was blind. What a strange couple: Salome and Elijah. However, Elijah assured me that he and Salome had belonged together from all eternity, which completely astounded me. They have a black serpent living with them which displayed an unmistakable fondness for me. #RandolphHarris 1 of 27

I stuck close to Elijah because he seemed to be the most reasonable of the three, and to have a clear intelligence. Of Salome I was distinctly suspicious. Elijah and I had a long conversation which, however, I did not understand. Naturally I tried to find a plausible explanation for the appearance of Biblical figures in my fantasy by reminding myself that my father had been a clergyman. However, that really explained nothing at all. For what did the old man signify? What did Salome signify? Why were they together? Only man years later, when I knew a great deal more then I knew then, did the connection between the old man and the young lady appear perfectly natural to me. In such dream wanderings one frequently encounters an old man who is accompanied by a young girl, and examples of such couples are to be found in many mythic tales. Thus, according to Gnostic tradition, Simon Magus went about with a young lady whom he had picked up in a brothel. Her name was Helen, and she was regarded as the reincarnation of the Trojan Helen. Klingsor and Kundry, Lao-tzu and the dancing girl, likewise belong to this category. I have mentioned that there was a third figure in my fantasy besides Elijah and Salome: the large black snake. #RandolphHarris 2 of 27

In myths the snake is frequently counterpart of the hero. There are numerous accounts of their affinity. For example, the hero has eyes like a snake, or after his death he is changed into a snake and revered as such, or the snake is his mother, et cetera. In my fantasy, therefore, the presence of the snake was an indication of a hero-myth. Salome is an anima figure. She is blind because she does not see the meaning of things. Elijah is the figure of the wise old prophet and represents the factor of intelligence and knowledge; Salome, the erotic element. One might say that the two figures are personifications of Logos and Eros. However, such a definition would be excessively intellectual. It is more meaningful to let the figures be what they were for me at the time—videlicet, events and experiences. Soon after this fantasy another figure rose out of the unconscious. He developed out of the Elijah figure. I called him Philemon. Philemon was a pagan and brought with him an Egypto-Hellenistic atmosphere with a Gnostic colouration. His figure first appeared to me in the following dream. #RandolphHarris 3 of 27

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The sky was blue, like the sea, covered not by clouds but by flat brown clods of Earth. It looked as if the clods were breaking apart and the blue water of the sea were becoming visible between them. However, the water was blue sky. Suddenly there appeared from the right a winged being sailing across the sky. I saw that it was an old man with the horns of a bull. He held a bunch of four keys, one of which he clutched as if here were about to open a lock. He had the winds of the kingfisher with it characteristic colours. Since I did not understand this dream-image, I painted it in order to impress it upon my memory. During the days when I was occupied with the painting, I found in my garden, by the lake shore, a dead kingfisher! I was thunderstruck, for kingfishers are quite rare in the vicinity of Zurich and I have never since found a dead one. The body was recently dead—at the most, two or three days—and showed no external injuries. Philemon and other figures of my fantasies brought home to me the crucial insight that there are things in the psyche which I do not produce, but which produce themselves and have their own life. Philemon represented a force which was not myself. #RandolphHarris 4 of 27

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In my fantasies I held conversations with him, and he said things which I had not consciously thought. For I observed clearly that it was he who spoke, not I. He said I treated thoughts as if I generated them myself, but in his view thoughts were like animals in the forest, or people in a room, or birds in the air, and added, “If you should see people in a room, you would not think that you had made those people, or that you were responsible for them.” It was he who taught me psychic objectivity, the reality of the psyche. Through hum the distinction was clarified between myself and the object of my thought. He confronted me in an objective manner, and I understood that there is something in me which can say things that I do not know and do not intend, things which may even be directed against me. Psychologically, Philemon represented superior insight. He was a mysterious figure to me. As if here were a living personality, at times, he seemed to me quite real. I went walking up and down the garden with him, and to me he was what the Indians called a guru. Whenever the outlines of a new personification appeared, I felt it almost as a personal defeat. It meant: “Here is something else you did not know until now!” #RandolphHarris 5 of 27

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Fear crept over me that the succession of such figures might be endless, that I might lose myself in the bottomless abysses of ignorance. My ego felt devalued—although the success I had been having in Worldly affairs might have reassured me. In my darknesses (horridas nostrae mentis purge tenebras— “cleanse the horrible darkness out of our mind” – the Aurora Consurgens* says) I could have wished for nothing better than a real, live guru, someone possessing superior knowledge and ability, who would have disentangled for me the involuntary creations of my imagination. This task was undertaken by the figure of Philemon, whom in this respect I had willy-nilly to recognize as my psychagogue. And the fact was the he conveyed to me many an illuminating idea. More than fifteen years later a highly cultivated elderly Indian visited me, a friend of Gandhi’s, and we talked about Indian education—in particular, about the relationship between guru and chela. I hesitantly asked him whether he could tell me anything about the person and character of one’s own guru, whereupon he replied in a matter-of-fact tone, “Oh yes, he was Shankaracharya.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 27

“You do not mean the commentor on the Vedas who died centuries ago?” I asked.

“Yes, I mean him,” he said, to my amazement.

“Then you are referring to a spirit?” I asked.

“Of course it was his spirit,” he agreed.

At that moment I thought of Philemon.

“There are ghostly gurus too,” he added. “Most people have living gurus. However, there are always some who have a spirit for teacher.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 27

This information was both illuminating and reassuring to me. Evidently, then, I had not plummeted right out of the human World, but had only experienced the sort of thing that could happen to others who made similar efforts. Later, Philemon became relativized by the emergence of yet another figure, whom I called Ka. In ancient Egypt the “king’s ka” was his Earthly form, the embodied soul. In my fantasy, as if out of a deep shaft, the ka-soul came from below, out of the Earth. I did a painting of him, showing him in his Earth-bound form, as a herm with base of stone and upper part of bronze. High up in the painting appears a kingfisher’s wing, and between it and the head of Ka floats a round, glowing nebula of stars. Ka’s expression has something demonic about it—one might also say, Mephistophelian. In one had he holds something like a coloured pagoda, or a reliquary, and in the other a stylus with which he was working on the reliquary. He is saying, “I am he who buries the gods in gold and gems.” Philemon had a lame foot, but was a winged spirit, where as Ka represented a kind of Earth demon or mental demon. Philemon was the spiritual aspects, or “meaning.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 27

Ka, on the other hand, was a spirit like the Anthroparion of Greek alchemy—with which at the time I was still unfamiliar. [The Anthroparion is a tiny man, a kind of homunculus. He is found, for example, in the visions of Zosimos of Panopolis, an important alchemist of the third century. To the group which includes the Anthroparion belong the gnomes, the Dactyls of classical antiquity, and the homunculi of the alchemists. As the spirit of quicksilver, the alchemical Mercurius was also an Anthroparion.] Ka was he who made everything real, but who also obscured the halcyon spirit, Meaning, or replaced it by beauty, the “eternal reflection.” In time I was able to integrate both figures through the study of alchemy. The archetype of the wise old man, also called the “Mana-personality,” tend to be projected upon human beings who set themselves up as leaders, secular or spiritual. This may have disastrous results, as when religious sects or political movements are led by charlatans or madmen. Alternatively, the subject may identify oneself with the archetype, believing that one oneself has superior wisdom. Analysts and priests, as well as politicians, sometimes succumb to this danger, referred to as “inflation.” #RandolphHarris 9 of 27

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I have frequently considered, what could possibly be the reason, why all humankind, though they have ever, without hesitation, acknowledged the necessity, in their whole practice and reasoning, have yet discovered such a reluctance to acknowledge it in words, and have rather shown a propensity, in all ages, to profess the contrary opinion. The matter, I think, may be accounted for, after the following manner. If we examine the operations of body, and the production of effects from their causes, we shall find, that all our faculties can never carry us farther in our knowledge of this relation, than barely to observe, that particular objects are constantly transition, from the appearance of one to the belief of the other. However, though this conclusions concerning human ignorance be the result of the strictest scrutiny of this subject, human still entertain a strong propensity to believe, that they penetrate farther into the powers of nature, and perceive something like a necessary connexion between the cause and the effect. When again they turn their reflections towards the operations of their own minds, and feel no such connexion of the motive and the action; they are thence apt to suppose, that there is a difference between the effects, which result from material force, and those which arise from thought and intelligence. #RandolphHarris 10 of 27

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However, being once convinced, that we know nothing father of causation of any kind, than merely the constant conjunction of objects, and the consequent inference of the mind from one to another, and finding, that these two circumstances are universally allowed to have a place in voluntary actions; we may be more easily led to own the same necessity common to all causes. And though this reasoning may contradict the systems of many philosophers, in ascribing necessity to the determination of the will, we shall find, upon reflection, that they dissent from it in words only, not in their real sentiment. Necessity, according to the sense, in which it is here taken, has never yet been rejected, nor can ever, I think, be rejected by any philosopher. It may only, perhaps, be pretended, that the mind can perceive, in the operations of matter, some farther connexion between the cause and effect; and a connexion that has not place in the voluntary actions of intelligent beings. Now whether it be so or not, can only appear upon examination; and it is incumbent on these philosophers to make good their assertion, by defining or describing that necessity, and pointing it out to us in the operations of material causes. #RandolphHarris 11 of 27

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When they enter upon it by examining the faculties of the soul, the influence of the understanding, and operations of the will, it would seem, indeed, that humans begin at the wrong end of this question concerning liberty and necessity. Let them first discuss a more simple question, namely, the operations of body and of brute unintelligent matter; and try whether they can there form any idea of causation and necessity, except that of a constant conjunction of objects, and subsequent inference of the mind from one to another. If these circumstances form, in reality, the whole of that necessity, which we conceive in matter, and if these circumstances be also universally acknowledged to take place in the operations of the mind, the dispute is at an end; at least, must be owned to be thenceforth merely verbal. However, as long as we will rashly suppose, that we have some farther idea of necessity and causation in the operations of external objects; at the same time, that we can find nothing farther, in the voluntary actions of the mind; there is no possibility of bringing the question to any determinate issues, while we proceed upon so erroneous a supposition. #RandolphHarris 12 of 27

The only method of undeceiving us, is, to mount up higher; to examine the narrow extent of science when applied to material causes; and to convince ourselves, that all we know of them, is, the constant conjunction and inference above mentioned. We may, perhaps, find, that it is with difficulty we are induced to fix such narrow limits to human understanding: But we can afterwards find no difficulty when we come to apply this doctrine to the actions of the will. For as it is evident, that these have a regular conjunction with motives and circumstances and character, and as we always draw inferences from one to the other, we must be obliged to acknowledge in words, that necessity, which we have already avowed, in every deliberation of our lives, and in every step of our conduct and behaviour. The prevalence of the doctrine of liberty may be accounted for, from another cause, namely, a false sensation or seeming experience which we have, or may have, of liberty or indifference, in may of our actions. The necessity of any action, whether of matter or of mind, is not, properly speaking, a quality in the agent, but in any thinking or intelligent being, who many consider the action. #RandolphHarris 13 of 27

And it consists chiefly in the determination of one’s thoughts to infer the existence of that action from some preceding objects; as liberty, when opposed to necessity, is nothing but the want of that determination, and a certain looseness or indifference, which we feel, in passing, or not passing, from the idea of one object to that of any succeeding one. Now we may observe, that, though, in reflecting on human actions, we seldom feel such a looseness or indifference, but are commonly able to infer them with considerable certainty from their motives, and from the dispositions of the agent; yet if frequently happens, that, in performing the actions themselves, we are sensible of something like it: And as all resembling objects are readily taken for each other, this has been employed as a demonstrative and even intuitive proof of human liberty. We feel, that our actions are subject to our will, on most occasions; and imagine we feel, that the will itself is subject to nothing, because, when by a denial of it we are provoked to try, we feel, that it moves easily every way, and produces an image of itself (or a Velleity, as it is called in the schools) even n that side, on which it did not settle. #RandolphHarris 14 of 27

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This image, of faint motion, we persuade ourselves, could, at that time, have been completed into the things itself; because, should that be denied, we find, upon a second trial, that, at present, it can. We consider not, that the fantastical desire of showing liberty, is here the motive of our actions. And it seems certain, that, however we may imagine we feel a liberty within ourselves, a spectator can commonly infer our actions from our motives and character; and even where one cannot, one concludes in general, that one might, were one perfectly acquainted with every circumstance of our situation and temper, and the most secret springs of our complexion and disposition. Now this is the very essence of necessity, according to the foregoing doctrine. However, to proceed in this reconciling project with regard to the question of liberty and necessity; the most contentious question, of metaphysics, the most contentious science; it will not require many words to prove, that all humankind have ever agreed in the doctrine of liberty as well as in that of necessity, and that the whole dispute, in this respect also, have been hitherto merely verbal. For, when applied to voluntary actions, what is meant by liberty? #RandolphHarris 15 of 27

We cannot surely mean, that actions have so little connexion with motives, inclinations, and circumstances, that one does not follow with a certain degree of uniformity from the other, and that one affords no inference by which we can conclude the existence of the other. For these are plain and acknowledged matters of fact. By liberty, then we can only mean a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will; that is, if we choose to remain at rest, we may; if we choose to move, we also may. Now this hypothetical liberty is universally allowed to belong to every one, who is not a prisoner and in chains. Here then is no subject of dispute. Whatever definition we may give of liberty, we should be careful to observe two requisite circumstances; first, that it be consistent with plain matter of fact; secondly, that it be consistent with itself. If we observe these circumstances, and render our definition intelligible, I am persuaded that all humankind will be found of one opinion with regard to it. It is universally allowed, that nothing exists without a cause of its existence, and that chance, when strictly examined, is a mere negative word, and means not any real power, which has any where, a being in nature. #RandolphHarris 16 of 27

However, it is pretended, that some causes are necessary, some not necessary. Here then is the advantage of definitions. Let any one define a cause, without comprehending, as a part of the definition, a necessary connexin with its effect; and let one show distinctly the origin of the idea, expressed by the definition; and I shall readily give up the whole controversy. However, if the foregoing explication f the matter be received, this must be absolutely impracticable. Had not objects regular conjunction with each other, we should never have entertained any notion of cause and effect; and this regular conjunction produces that inference of the understanding, which is the only connexion, that we can have any comprehension of. Whoever attempts a definition of cause, exclusive of these circumstances, will be obliged, either to employ unintelligible terms, or such as are synonymous to the term, which one endeavours to define. Thus, if a cause be defined, that which produces any thing; it is easy to observe, that producing is synonymous to causing. In like manner, if a cause be defined, that by which anything exists; this is liable to the same objection. For what is meant by these words by which? #RandolphHarris 17 of 27

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Had it been said that a cause is that after which anything constantly exists; we should have understood the terms. For this is, indeed, all we know of the matter. And this constancy forms the very essence of necessity, nor have we any other idea of it. And if the definition above mentioned by admitted; liberty, when opposed to necessity, not to constraint, is the same thing with chance; which is universally allowed to have no existence. “And it came to pass that the thirty and fourth year passed away, and also the thirty and fifth, and behold the disciples of Jesus had formed a church of Christ in all the lands round about. And as many as did come unto them, and did truly repent of their sins, were baptized in the name of Jesus; and they did also receive the Holy Ghost. And it came to pass in the thirty and sixth year, the people were all converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land, both Nephites and Lamanites, and there were no contentions and disputations among them, and every human did deal justly one with another. And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift. And it came to pass that the thirty and seventh year passed away also, and there still continued to be peace in the land. #RandolphHarris 18 of 27

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“And there were great and marvelous works wrought by the disciples of Jesus, insomuch that they did heal the sick, and raise the dead, and cause the lame to walk, and the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear; and all manner of miracles did they work among the children of men; and in nothing did they work miracles save it were in the name of Jesus. And thus did the thirty and eighth year pass away, and also the thirty and ninth, and forty and first, and the forty and second, yea, even until forty and nine years had passed away, and also the fifty and first, and the fifty and second; year, and even until fifty and nine year has passed away. And the Lord did prosper them exceedingly in the land; yea, insomuch that they did build cities again where there had been cities burned. Yea, even that great city of Zarahemla did they cause to be built again. However, there were many cities which had been sunk, and waters came up in the stead thereof; therefore these cities could not be renewed. And now, behold, it came to pass that the people of Nephi did wax strong, and did multiply exceedingly fast, and become an exceedingly fair and delightsome people. And they were married, and given in marriage, and were blessed according to the multitude of the promises which the Lord had made unto them. #RandolphHarris 19 of 27

“And they did not walk any more after the performances and ordinances of the law of Moses; but they did walk after the commandments which they had received from their Lord and their God, continuing in fasting and prayer, and in meeting together oft both to pray and to hear the word of the Lord. And it came to pass that there was no contention among all the people, in all the land; but there were mighty miracles wrought among the disciples of Jesus. And it came to pass that the seventy and first year passed away, and also the seventy and second year, yea, and in fine, till the seventy and ninth year had passes away; yea, even an hundred years had passed away, and the disciples of Jesus, whom he had chosen, had all gone to the paradise of God, save it were the three who should tarry; and there were other disciples ordained in their stead; and also many of that generation had passed away. And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people. And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among al the people who has been created by the hand of God. #RandolphHarris 20 of 27

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“There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but there were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God. And how blessed were they! For the Lord did bless them in all their doings; yea, even they were blessed and prospered until an hundred and ten years had passed away; and the first generation from Christ had passes away, and there was no contention in all the land. And it came to pass that Nephi, he that kept this last record, (and he kept it upon the plates of Nephi) died, and his son Amon kept it in his stead; and he kept it upon the plates of Nephi also. And he kept it eighty and four years, and there was still peace in the land, save it were a small part of the people who had revolted from the church and taken upon them the name of Lamanites; therefore there began to be Lamanites again in the land. And it came to pass that Amos died also, (and it was an hundred and ninety and four years from the coming of Christ) and his son Amos kept the record in his stead; and he also kept it upon the plates of Nephi; and it was also written in he book of Nephi, which is this book. And it came to pass that two hundred years had passed away; and the second generation had all passed away save it were a few. #RandolphHarris 21 of 27

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“And now I, Mormon, would that ye should know that the people had multiplied, insomuch that they were spread upon all the face of the land, and that they had become exceedingly rich, because of their prosperity in Christ. And now, in this two hundred and first year there began to be among them those who were lifted up in pride, such as the wearing of costly apparel, and all manner of fine pearls, and of the fine things of the World. And from that time forth they did have their goods and their substance no more common among them. And they began to be divided into classes; and they began to build up churches unto themselves to get gain, and began to deny the true church of Christ. And it came to pass that when two hundred and ten years had passes away there were many churches in the land; yea, there were many churches which professed to know the Christ, and yet they did deny the more parts of his gospel, insomuch that they did receive all manner of wickedness, and did administer that which was sacred unto him to whim it had been forbidden because of unworthiness. And this church did multiply exceedingly because of iniquity, and because of the power of Satan who did get hold upon their hearts. #RandolphHarris 22 of 27

“And again, there was another church of Christ, because of their humility and their belief in Christ; and they did despise them because of the many miracles which were wrought among them. Therefore they did exercise power and authority over the disciples of Jesus who did tarry with them, and they did cast them into prison; but by the power of the word of God, which was in them, the prisoners were rent in twain, and they went forth doing mighty miracles among them. Nevertheless, and notwithstanding all these miracles, the people did harden their hearts, and did seek to kill them, even as the Jews at Jerusalem sought to kill Jesus, according to his word. And they did cast them into furnaces of fire, and they came forth receiving no harm. And they also cast them into dens of wild beasts, and they did play with the wild beasts even as a child with a lamb; and they did come forth from among them, receiving no harm. Nevertheless, the people did harden their hearts, for they were led by many priests and false prophets to build up many churches, and to do all manners of iniquity. And they did smite upon the people of Jesus; but the people of Jesus did not smite again. And they thus did dwindle in unbelief and wickedness from year to year, even until two hundred and thirty years had passed away. #RandolphHarris 23 of 27

“And now it came to pass in this year, yea, in the two hundred and thirty and first year, there was a great division among the people. And it came to pass that in this year there arose a people who were called the Nephites, and they were true believers in Christ; and among them there were those who were called by the Lamanites—Jacobites, and Josephites, and Zoramites; therefore the true believers in Christ, and the true worshipers of Christ, (among whom were the three disciples of Jesus who should tarry) were called Nephites, and Jacobites, and Josephites, and Zoramites. And it came to pass that they who rejected the gospel were called Lamanites, and Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites; and they did not dwindle in unbelief, but they did willfully rebel against the gospel of Christ; and they did teach their children that they should not believe, even as their fathers, from the beginning, did dwindle. And it was because of the wickedness and abomination of their fathers, even as it was in the beginning. And they were taught to hate the children of God, even as the Lamanites were taught to hate the children of Nephi from the beginning. #RandolphHarris 24 of 27

“And it came to pass that two hundred and forty and four years had passed away, and thus were the affairs of the people. And the more wicked part of the people did wax strong, and became exceedingly more numerous than were the people of God. And they did still continue to build up churches unto themselves, and adorn them with all manner of precious things. And thus did two hundred and fifty years pass away, and also two hundred and sixty years. And it came to pass that the wicked part of the people began again to build up the secret oaths and combinations of Gadianton. And also the people who were called the people of Nephi began to be proud in their hearts, because of their exceeding riches, and become vain like unto their brethren, the Lamanites. And from this time the disciples began to sorrow for the sins of the World. And it came to pass that when three hundred years had passes away, both the people of Nephi and the Lamanites had become exceedingly wicked one like unto another. And it came to pass that the robbers of Gadinaton did spread over all the face of the land; and there were none that were righteous save it were the disciples of Jesus. And gold and silver did they lay up in store in abundance, and did traffic in all manner of traffic. #RandolphHarris 25 of 27

“And it came to pass that after three hundred and five years had passed away, (and the people did still remain in wickedness) Amos died; and his brother, Ammaron, did keep the record in his stead. And it came to pass that when three hundred and twenty years had passed away, Ammaron, being constrained by the Holy Ghost, did hide up the records which were sacred—yea, even all the sacred records which had been handed down from generation to generation, which were sacred—even until the three hundred and twentieth year from the coming of Christ. And he did hide them up unto the Lord, that they might come again unto the remnant of the house of Jacob, according to the prophecies and the promises of the Lord. And thus is the end of the record of Ammaron,” reports 4 Nephi 1.1-49. Night is called the first of all things because of the common belief that the World came out of darkness. In part, this reflects the obvious truth that before something there was nothing, and that “nothing” is equated with darkness. The connection between these two is not so subtle, however. For, after all, if light (and everything else) was born out of darkness be thought of as nothing? It is a creative force in itself. #RandolphHarris 26 of 27

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Thus, among the Celts and Germans, the day began with night, and the year with Winter. To this day, our day begins in the middle of night and our year in the middle of Winter. The World rests beneath night’s blanket and I sit quietly, finally myself at rest. All day, I have been the one talking; my time for silence has arrived. Speak to me, Holy Ones, and I will listen. Here I am, waiting to hear your words. Lord of the World, the King supreme, ere aught was formed, He reigned alone. When by His will all things were wrought, then was His sovereign name made known. And when in time all things shall cease, He still shall reign in majesty. He was, He is, He shall remain all-glorious eternally. Incomparable, unique is He, no other can His Oneness share. Without beginning, without end, Dominion’s might is His to bear. He is my living God who saves, my Rock when grief or trials befall, my Banner and my Refuge strong, my bounteous Portion when I call. My soul I give unto His care, asleep, awake, for He is near, and with my soul, my body, too; God is with me, I have no fear. #RandolphHarris 27 of 27

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Only when truth already exists in the mind of the teacher can one convey it in one’s teaching. If it does not, then one is merely indulging in a piece of pantomime. It has been my feeling that we are not as innocent as we said, or as guilty as they said. For an agreement to be valid, the parties must be able to honour it under all relevant and foreseeable circumstances. There must be a rational assurance that one can carry through. The two principles of justice are the Principle of Equal Liberty and Difference Principle. The Principle of Equal Liberty states that each person has an equal right to the most extensive liberties of all. Difference Principle states that social and economic inequalities should be arranged so that they are both (a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged persons, and (b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of equality of opportunity. The arguments adduced fit under the heuristic schema suggested by the reasons for following the maximin rule. The maximin rule states that we should compare alternatives by the worst possible outcomes under each alternative, and we should choose one which maximize the utility of the worst outcome. That is, they help to show that the two principles are an adequate minimum conception of justice in a situation of great uncertainty. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22

Any further advantages that might be won by the principle of utility, or whatever, are highly problematical, whereas the hardship if things turn out badly are intolerable. It is at this point that the concept of a contract has a definite role: it suggests the condition of publicity and sets limits upon what can be agreed to. Thus justice as fairness uses the concept of contract to a greater extent than the discussion so far might suggest. The first confirming ground for the two principles can be explained in terms of what I earlier referred to as the strains of commitment. I said that the parties have a capacity for justice in the sense that they can be assured that their undertaking is not in vain. Assuming that they have taken everything into account, including the general facts of moral psychology, they can rely on one another to adhere to the principles adopted. Thus they consider the strains of commitment. They cannot enter int agreements that may have consequences they cannot accept. They will still avoid those that they can adhere to only with great difficulty. Since the original agreement is final and made in perpetuity, there is no second chance. In view of the serious nature of the possible consequences, the question of the burden of commitment is especially acute. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22

A person is choosing once and for all the standards which are to govern one’s life prospects. Moreover, when we enter an agreement we must be able to honour it even should the worst possibilities prove to be the case. Otherwise we have not acted in good faith. The Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing—in general, every contract contains an implied duty of good faith and fair dealing. This duty requires that neither party will do anything that will destroy or injure the right of the other part to receive the benefits of the contract. The doctrine of utmost good faith is a principle used in contract, legally obliging all parties to act honestly and not mislead or withhold critical information from one another. Violations of the doctrine of good faith can result in contracts being voided and sometimes even legal action. Thus the parties must weigh with care whether they will be able to stick by their commitment in all circumstances. Of course, in answering this question they have only a general knowledge of the human psychology to go on. However, this information is enough to tell which conception of justice involves the greater stress. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22

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In this respect the two principles of justice have a definite advantage. Not only do the parties protect their basic rights but they insure themselves against the worst eventualities. They run no chance of having to acquiesce in a loss of freedom over the course of their life for the sake of a greater good enjoyed by other, an undertaking that in actual circumstances they might not be able to keep. Indeed, we might wonder whether such an agreement can be made in good faith at all. Compacts of this sort exceed the capacity of human nature. How can the parities possibly know, or be sufficiently sure, that they can keep such an agreement? Certainly they cannot base their confidence on a general knowledge of moral psychology. To be sure, any principle chosen in the original position may require a large sacrifice for some. The beneficiaries of clearly unjust institutions (those founded on principles which have no claim to acceptance) may find it hard to reconcile themselves to the changes that will have to be made. However, in this case they will know that they could not have maintained their position anyway. Yet should a person gamble with one’s liberties and substantive interests hoping that the application of the principle of utility might secure one a greater well-being, one may have a difficulty abiding by one’s undertaking. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22

A second consideration invokes the condition of publicity as well as that of the constraints on agreements. When the basic structure of society is publicly known to satisfy its principles for an extended period of time, those subject to these arrangements tend to develop a desire to act in accordance with these principles and to do their part in institutions which exemplify them. When the public recognition of its realization by the social system tends to bring about the corresponding sense of justice, a conception is stable. Now whether this happens depends, of course, on the laws of moral psychology and the availability of human motives. We may observe that the principle of utility seems to require a greater identification with the interests of others than the two principles of justice. Thus the later will be a more stable conception to the extent that this identification is difficult to achieve. When the two principles are satisfied, each person’s liberties are secured and there is a sense defined by the difference principle in which everyone is benefited by social cooperation. Therefore we can explain the acceptance of the social system and the principles it satisfies by the psychological law that persons tend to love, cherish, and support whatever affirms their own good. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22

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Since everyone’s good is affirmed, all acquire inclinations to uphold the scheme. When the principle of utility is satisfied, however, there is no such assurance that everyone benefits. Allegiance to the social system may demand that some should forgo advantages for the sake of the greater good of the whole. Thus the scheme will not be stable unless those who must make sacrifices strongly identify with interests broader than their own. However, this is not easy to bring about. When all or some must pitch in for the common good, the sacrifices in question are not those asked in times of social emergency. The principles of justice apply to the basic structure of the social system and to the determination of life prospect. What the principle of utility asks is precisely a sacrifice of these prospects. We are to accept the greater advantages of others as a sufficient reason for lower expectations over the whole course of our life. This is surely an extreme demand. In fact, when society is conceived as a system of cooperation designed to advance the good of its members, it seems quite incredible that some citizens should be expected, on the basis of political principles, to accept lower prospects of life for the sake of others. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22

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It is evident then why utilitarians should stress the role of sympathy in moral learning and the central place of benevolence among the moral virtue. Their conception of justice is threatened with instability unless sympathy and benevolence can be widely and intensely cultivated. Looking at the question from the standpoint of the original position, the parties recognize that is would be highly unwise if not irrational to choose principles which may have consequences so extreme that they cud not accept them in practice. They would reject the principle of utility and adopt the more realistic idea of designing the social order on a principle of reciprocal advantage. We need not suppose, of course, that persons never make substantial sacrifices for one another, since moved by affection and bonds of sentiment they often do. However, such actions are not demanded as a matter of justice by the basic structure of society. Furthermore, the public recognition of the two principles gives greater support to human’s self-respect and this in turn increases the effectiveness of social cooperation. Both effects are reasons for choosing these principles. It is clearly rational for humans to secure their self-respect. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22

If they are to pursue their conception of good wit zest and to delight in its fulfillment, a sense of their own worth is necessary. Self-respect is not so much a part of any rational plan of life as the sense that one’s pan is worth carrying out. Now our self-respect normally depends upon the respect of others. If not impossible, unless we feel that our endeavours are honoured by them, it is difficult for us to maintain the conviction that our ends are worth advancing. Hence for this reason, especially when the claims of others are overruled, the parties would accept the natural duty of mutual respect which asks them to treat one another civilly and to be willing to explain the grounds of their actions. Moreover, one may assume that those who respect themselves are more likely to respect each other and threatens their good as much as envy does. Self-respect is reciprocally self-supporting. Thus a desirable feature of a conception of justice is that it should publicly express human’s respect for one another. In this way they insure a sense of their own value. Now the two principles achieve this end. For when society follows these principles, everyone’s good is included in a scheme of mutual benefit and this pubic affirmation in institutions of each human’s endeavours supports human’s self-esteem. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22

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The establishment of equal liberty and the operation of the difference principle are bound to have this effect. The two principles are equivalent, as I have remarked, to an undertaking to regard the distribution of natural abilities as a collective asset so that the more fortunate are to benefit only in ways that help those who have lost out. I do not say that the parties are moved by the ethical propriety of this idea. However, there are reasons for them to accept this principle. For by arranging inequalities for reciprocal advantage and by abstaining from the exploitation of the contingencies of nature and social circumstances within a framework of equal liberty, persons express their respect for one another in the very constitution of their society. In this way they insure their self-esteem as it is rational for them to do. Another way of putting this is to say that the principles of justice manifest in the basic structure of society human’s desire to treat one another as means only but as ends in themselves. The notion of treating humans as ends in themselves and never as only a means obviously needs an explanation. There is even a question whether it is possible to realize. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22

How can we always treat everyone as an end and never as a means only? Certainly we cannot say that it comes to treating everyone by the same general principles, since this interpretation makes the concept equivalent to formal justice. On the contract interpretation of treating humans as ends in themselves implies at the very least treating them in accordance with the principle to which they would consent in an original position of equality. For in this situation humans have equal representations as moral persons who regard themselves as ends and the principles they accept will be rationally designed to protect the claims of their person. The contract view as such defines a sense in which humans are treated as ends and not as means only. Whoever has attained this stage can pass on to the proper persons both a foretaste of mystical experiences which lie beyond them and an impetus to their quicker self-development. If one is only a mystic one may do so quite unconsciously, but if one is a philosopher one will give this wordless instruction quite consciously. The enlightened human who has to deal with those who are not sensitive enough to receive clearly in the silence that which is one’s best communication, meaning most people, must then give it in a more familiar and easier form—words! #RandolphHarris 10 of 22

However, here the illuminate may oneself be at a disadvantage. One may lack fluency and have a limited vocabulary—be inarticulate. If the illuminate has a wide command of good language, if one can teach in sentences that are clear, beautiful, powerful; if one is eloquent, here others will be served better. One whose course embraces a mission of spiritual service to others is invested with a greater power and enlightenment than ne has actually earned. This does not make one greater than one is. However, as the excess of inspiration gradually uses one as its channel, it becomes gradually integrated into one’s own character little by little over a period of several years. We may sit before the saintly phenomenon and enjoy the peace issuing from one. However, when we leave one, the peace leaves us, too. When working with a Master, we may have no such dramatic experience. However, one will guide our feet each step of the way; one will listen to our difficulties, problems, or questions and give us one’s wise counsel. That is the wide difference between these two types of illuminated humans. It is true that many of those who attained enlightenment gave some of their wisdom or counsel to others but did so only incidentally or occasionally and to a limited extent. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22

Ohers made it their chief and whole-time mission in life to teach others and preach truth. Those who did so had better capacities for teaching and preaching than those who did not. Moreover, they had to leave an example of conduct in their own lives worthy of being imitated—a duty which was no incumbent upon the non-teachers and was sometimes disregarded by them. There has occasionally been a human who entered into awareness of God without the help of the teacher and without the laboured struggles of most other humans. One is like a horse which has crossed the river by swimming around without touching the ground. Such a human does not usually go out of one’s way to teach the path to others nor try to help them individually, or even to announce the truth to the World. One is satisfied with one’s own place and with the knowledge that “God is in His Heaven, all is well with the World.” One is an inward-looking mystic who has a perfect right to enjoy one’s attainment. There are two types of illumined human, of those who have attained spiritual perfection. The first have sought the goal of their own sake alone and are satisfied to rest on their labours with the attainments. The second type does not accept this rest, for their very search was made with the intention to share with others. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22

The first type have been called, in the scholastic, intellectual, business and religions centers. The second type have been called preachers, teachers, and compassion consolers. In the case of the first type, the renunciation of the World is usually abrupt and sudden, though the period spent between renunciation and the attainment of Enlightenment may be long and weary. It is possible for one to become a Silent Master while yet a lay person, but, in the case, the marks of lay persons, such as the clothes one wears, immediately disappear. The spiritual attainment of a Preaching Master and those of a Silent Master are alike; but in the case of the latter, though one attains to supreme and perfect insight, yet one’s enlightenment is individual. One’s enlightenment is of benefit to oneself alone; one does not proclaim to the World the great Truths discovered by one. One cannot instruct others “effectively”; one’s realization of the Truth is “like a dream seen by a deaf-mute.” “Silent” is unsatisfactory because they do preach to those who come to them, though their preaching is restricted to admonitions regarding good, righteous, and proper conduct. They even have personal attendants whom the World may regard as disciples, but they give no instruction other than ethical instruction. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22

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There are humans of enlightenment who cannot down a bridge from where they are to where they once were, so that others too can cross over. They do not know or cannot describe in detail the way which others must follow to reach the goal. Such humans are not the teaching-masters, and should not be mistaken for them. The human of enlightenment who have never been a learner, who suddenly gained one’s state by the overwhelming good spiritual blessings of God’s grace, is less able to teach others than the ones who slowly and laboriously worked one’s way into the state—who remembers the trials, pitfalls, and difficulties one had to overcome. The Master has fund one’s way to God; one daily enjoys the blessing of God’s presence; one has passed from mere existence into significant living, and one knows there is peace and love at the heart of the Universe. One wants now to help other share in the fruits of one’s discoveries. The Master, who is a dedicated teacher also, wishes ardently for others on the Path to attain the goal and share its bliss. Do we then lose ourselves? To succeed in identifying our will with God’s will is not, as is often mistakenly said, to have no will of our own. Far from it. To have no will is impossible. It would be to not even be a person. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22

Rather, it is for the first time to have a will that is fully functional, not at war with itself, and capable of directing all of the parts of the self in harmony with one another under the direction of God. Now we do not hesitate to do what is right; and to do wrong would have to work against ourselves. A person with a well-kept heart is a person who is prepared and capable of responding to the situations of life in ways that are good and right. When through spiritual transformation we have in some measure come to know the well-kept heart in real life, we experience it as a gift of grace, no matter how hard we may have had to struggle in the process of growing into it. And it is a gift in which we find, precisely, ourselves as Jesus taught: “One who has lost one’s life for My sake shall find it,” reports Matthew 10.39. For the first time we not only have a fully functional will, but we also have a clear identity in the eternal kingdom of God and can day by day translate out time into an eternity embedded in our own life and in the lives of those near us. The will of God is not foreign to our will. Our heart sings, sweet will of God, oh, hold me closer, util I am wholly lost in Thee. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22

If in the moment of choice we are always dependent upon the thoughts and feelings we have at the moment, how can we be responsible for our character? How can we purposively set about to change our own character (with God’s assistance of course)? What kind of person is God actively seeking? What is the condition of the will in a “lost” person (one who is lost in one’s Worldly ways)? How do duplicity, deception, and darkness descend upon those who would be their own God? What would it be like for you to be wholly lost in the will of God? We can gather to what things life belongs, and to what it does not, from such things as manifestly possess life. Now life manifestly belongs to animals, for that in animal’s life is manifest. We must, therefore, distinguish living from lifeless things, by comparing them to that by reason of which animals are said to live; and this it is in which life is manifested first and remains last. We say then that animals are said to live: and this it is in which life is manifested first and remains last. We say then that an animal begins to live when it begins to move of itself: and as long as such movement appears in it, so long as it is considered to be alive. When it no longer has any movement of itself, but is only moved by another power, then its life is said to fail, and the animal to be dead. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22

Whereby it is clear that those things are properly called living that move themselves by some kind of movement, whether it be movement properly so called, as the act of an imperfect being, id est, of a thing in potentiality is called movement; or movement in a more general sense, as when said the act of a perfect thing, as understanding and feeling are called movement. Accordingly all things are said to be alive that determine themselves to movement or operation of any kind: whereas those things that cannot by their nature do so, cannot be called living, unless by a similitude. These words of the Philosopher may be understood either of the first movement, namely, that of the celestial bodies, or of the movement in its general sense. In either way is movement called the life, as it were, of natural bodies, speaking by a similitude, and not attributing it to them as their property. The movement of the Heavens is in the Universe of corporeal natures as the movement of the heart, whereby life is preserved, is in animals. Similarly also every natural movement in respect to natural things has a certain similitude to the operations of life. Hence, if the whole corporeal Universe were one animal, so that its movement came from an “intrinsic moving force,” as some in fact have held, in that case movement would really be the life of all natural bodies. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22

To bodies, whether heavy or light, movement does not belong, expect in so far as they are displaces from their natural conditions, and are out of their proper place; for when they are in the place that is proper and natural to them, then they are at rest. Plants and other living things more with vital movement, in accordance with the disposition of their nature, but not by approaching thereto, or by receding from it, for in so far as they recede from such movement, so far do they recede from their natural disposition. Heavy and light bodies are moved by an extrinsic force, either generating them and giving them form, or removing obstacles from their way. They do not therefore move themselves, as do living bodies. Waters are called living that have a continuous current: for standing waters, that are not connected with a continually flowing source, are called dead, as in cisterns and ponds. This is merely a similitude, inasmuch as the movement they are seen to possess makes them look as if they were alive. Yet this is not life in them in its real sense, since this movement of theirs is not from themselves but from the cause that generates them. The same is the case with the movement of other heavy and light bodies. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22

Were a person, whom I know to be honest and opulent, and with whom I live in intimate friendship, to come into my house, where I am surrounded with my servants, I rest assured, that one would not stab me before one leaves it, in order to rob me of my silver standish; and I no more suspect this event, than the falling of the house itself which is new, and solidly built and founded. However, one may have been seized with a sudden and unknown frenzy. Do you know anyone who cannot tell the difference between desire and will, and hence does not know how to oppose one’s own desires? Because a man who at noon leaves his purse full of gold on the pavement at Charing-Cross, may as well expect that it will fly away like a feather, as that he will find it untouched an hour after. Above one half of human reasonings contain inferences of a similar nature, attended with more or less degrees of certainty, proportioned to our experience of the usual conduct of humankind in such particular situations. Does it make sense to you that spiritual disciplines could retrain the will and reform character? “And now behold, I say unto you that when the Lord shall see fit, in his wisdom, that these sayings shall come unto the Gentiles according to this word, then ye may know that the covenant which the Father hath made with the children of Israel, concerning their restoration to the lands of their inheritance, is already beginning to be fulfilled. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22

“And ye may know that the words of the Lord, which have been spoken by the holy prophets, shall all be fulfilled; and ye need not say that the Lord delays his coming unto the children of Israel. And ye need not imagine in your hearts that the words which have been spoken are vain, for behold, the Lord will remember his covenant which he hath made unto his people of the house of Israel. And when ye shall see these sayings coming forth among you, then ye need not any longer spurn at the doings of the Lord, for the word of his justice is in his right hand; and behold, at that day, if ye shall spurn at his doing he will cause that it shall soon overtake you. Wo unto him that spurneth at the doings of the Lord; yea, wo unto one that shall deny the Christ and his works! Yea, wo unto one that shall deny the revelations of the Lord, and that shall say the Lord no longer worketh by revelation, or by prophecy, or by gifts, or by tongues, or by healings, or by the power of the Holy Ghost! Yea, and wo unto one that shall say at that day, to get gain, that there can be n miracle wrought by Jesus Christ; for one that doeth this shall become like unto the son of perdition, for whom there was no mercy, according to the word of Christ. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22

“Yea, and ye need not any longer hiss, nor spurn, nor make game of the Jews, nor any of the remnant of the house of Israel; for behold, the Lord remembereth his covenant unto them, and he will do unto them according to that which he hath sworn. Therefore ye need not suppose that ye can turn the right hand of the Lord unto the left, that he may not execute judgment unto the fulfilling of the covenant which he hath made unto the house of Israel,” reports 3 Nephi 29.1-9. “Hearken, O ye Gentiles, and hear the words of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, which he hath commanded me that I should speak concerning you, for, behold he commandeth me that I should write saying: Turn, all ye Gentiles, from your wicked ways; and repent of your evil doings, of your lyings and deceivings, and of your secret abominations, and your idolatries, and of your murders, and your priestcrafts, and your envyings, an your strifes, and from all your wickedness and abominations, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, that ye may receive a remission of your sins, and be filled with the Holy Ghost, that ye may be numbered with my people who are of the house of Israel,” reports 3 Nephi 30.1-2. Welcome sleep, I spread my arms in response to your ever-open ones.  #RandolphHarris 21 of 22

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Please take me to yourself softly, as a knitter returns a scattered skein to order, rolling it into a ball; even so, draw me in, restore me, please open the door to your World that I might enter, my Lord and Saviour. The living God O magnify and bless, transcending time and here eternally. One Being, yet unique in unity; a mystery of Oneness, measureless. Lo! form or body He has one, and humans no semblance of His holiness can frame. Before Creation’s dawn He was the same; the first to be, though never He began. He is the World’s and every creature’s Lord; His rule and majesty are manifest, and through His chosen, glorious sons exprest in prophecies that through their lips are poured. Yet never like to Moses rose a seer, permitted glimpse behind the veil divine. This faithful prince of God’s prophetic line received the Law of Truth for Israel’s ear. The Law God gave, He never will amend, nor ever by another Law replace. Our secret things are spread before His face; in all beginnings He beholds the end. The saint’s reward He measures to one’s meed; the sinner reaps the harvest of one’s ways. Messiah He will send at end of days, and all the faithful to salvation lead. God will the dead again to life restore in His abundance of almighty love. Then blessed be His name, all names above, and let His praise resound forevermore. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22

Cresleigh Homes

Residence Four at Brighton Station is one of the largest homes available in the market! At 3,501- 3,634 square feet we are sure you will have enough room for the entire family here! The open concept design includes four bedrooms, three and one half bathrooms and a three car garage.

Looking to switch up your decor this year? We got you! Check out today’s blog post to explore 10 new decor ideas for your table.😍 Link in bio. https://cresleigh.com/blog/

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When entering this expansive home, take note of the two story ceiling height at the entry. There is a bedroom on the first floor, located off the entry, with its own bathroom making it ideal for a guest suite or multigenerational 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.

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Upstairs you’ll find the Owner’s retreat, two bedrooms, and the loft perfect for a game room or TV lounge. The Owner’s 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://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/residence-4/

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At this brand new community, you will open your eyes to new possibilities. Brighton Station is an elevated living experience that thrives from the energy and expression of the unrivaled architecture and the natural beauty of the region. #CresleighHomes

Ye Shall be Changed in the Twinkling of an Eye from Mortality to Immortality!

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To understand a society it is essential to understand how people climb. If there are more than two people together, if there are three, one of them is climbing. Where do ideas come from? To a considerable extent they come from other ideas picked up during our learning years, from teachers and from books. They also come from our experience of life. In addition, writers on psycho-analytically based theories draw on their experiences with their patients. Typically they use a kind of backward reasoning which asks, “If people can talk to me, a psychotherapist (or psycho-analyst), in this way, what does this tell us about their mental processes?” “What kind of experiences of life must this person have had, particularly at the time when the personality was being formed, for one to be relating to me in this way?” They feel justified in this kind of theory—building because of particular assumptions: That people related to others on the basis both of their past experience (Hayek’s map) and of present perceptions of their situation (Hayek’s working model); that people at times experience the psychotherapist or psycho-analyst in terms of the past (map) more than in terms of the present (model). #RandolphHarris 1 of 26

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In psycho-analytic language, a transference can be observed; that people can at times experience the therapist or analyst in terms of quite early maps. In psycho-analytic language, regression can be observed. What happens in regression and transference provides the material from which theories of personality-development can be constructed. Classical psycho-analysis concerns itself with experiences which, though perhaps repressed, come from a time of life when words are already available, and when people are recognized as whole persons and are not just fragments of experience which come and go. The very complex process of ambivalence belongs to this period of life—quite a late and sophisticated stage of development, relative to the very early processes we have been considering. When a person is barely barely capable of experiencing self and others as differentiated, this is the narcissistic level of experiences. The other is not exactly a person at this stage, but more like an environment, a not-self. This level of experience is pre-verbal and patients can at first convey it to their therapist only by action, analogy, and implication; the phenomena belonging to this level have to be interpreted in the context of what the patient is actually doing in the relationship with the therapist—in the transference. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26

The next level is called the “area of creation,” in which there are as yet no distinctions between self and other. Coming from a very different starting point. According to this theory, the individual is born in a state of intense relatedness to one’s environment, both biologically and libidinally. Prior to birth, self and environment are harmoniously “mixed up,” in fact they interpenetrate each other. In this World there are as yet no objects, only limitless substances and expanses. Here are no persons, no words, and no boundaries: to talk to a person in this state is to remove them from that state. If that is thought undesirable, the person must not be addressed until one is out of it and ready to talk. Being allowed to be in that regressed limitless state of mind is sometimes exactly what people need in order to get better. The important thing will have been that they got to feel like that and were allowed to be like that, not that it was discussed with the therapist and interpreted. People who have seen deeply into the hidden meaning of life are the one’s best qualified to guide us in matters of conduct and motive. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26

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The infant’s first experiences are at this deepest level, where what is called Primary Love is to be found, a term preferred on humane and theoretical grounds to the more generally used “narcissism”—Primary Love, the first rudimentary experience of relationship with others. The harmonious interpenetrating mix-up is what comes across in various contexts, called by such terms as merging, symbiosis, primary narcissism, facilitating environment, self-object states, oceanic feelings, the pure sense of being; and so on. These words attempt to describe a state of mind in which self and other merge and drift apart like seaweeds in the sea, as it may be at the very start of the e-merging of self from mother. If we consider how this might be experienced by the foetus in the womb, it seems that it is an existence with hardly any structure, in particular with no sharp boundaries. Environment and individual penetrate into each other, they exist together in a “harmonious mix-up.” An important example of this harmonious interpenetrating mix-up is the fish in the sea (one of the most archaic and most widely occurring symbols). It is an idle question to ask whether the water in the gills or in the mouth is part of the sea or of the fish. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26

Exactly the same holds true of the foetus. Foetus, amniotic fluid, and placenta are such a complicated interpenetrating mix-up of foetus and environment-mother, that its histology and physiology are among the most dreaded questions in medical examinations. It is worth remembering that our relationship to the air surrounding us has exactly the same pattern. We use the air, in fact we cannot live without it. We inhale it in order to take parts our of it and we use the as we want. Then, after putting substances into it that we want to get rid of, we exhale it—without paying the slightest attention to it. In fact, the air must be there for us, and as long as it is there insufficient supply and quality, we do not take any notice of it. This kind of environment must simply be there, and as long as it is there—we take its existence for granted, we do not consider it as an object, that is, separate from us; we just use it. If the environment is altered—if the supply of air is interfered with for instance; then the apparently negligible environment assumes immense importance. All this is relevant to our interest in the question: Where is the boundary between self and other? How does the infant come to experience some things as “me” and others as “nor me”? Consequently, when that life flowers into bloom, one becomes its fullest embodiment. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26

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When dealing with “Object and Subject,” note that first the “object has two different meanings, more of less according to whether the word is being used as noun or verb. It can mean “objective” as in “target” (and the Hungarian word for object is targy). When Dr. Freud chose the word for his instinct-based theory, where the object is the body-area to which the instinctive drive is directed, this is the meaning which he had in mind. The other meaning has to do with “objecting to” something, experiencing something as having to be pushed away. The other meaning of “object” seems to be “obstacle in the way of action,” in fact a resistant obstacle that has to be negotiated…our very first perceptions about objects may be those of resistance, id est something firm against which we may pitch our strength…This conception is certainly in harmony, with the cluster of associations surrounding the word “object.” For quite a time, nature—or life—was conceived as a collection of solid, separate, clearly defined and sharply contoured entities called “objects.” If one had not oneself done so, one could not tell others how to struggle out of the depths, or how to realize the soul. One has cultivated the special virtue of compassion for others throughout the whole course of one’s mystical life.  #RandolphHarris 6 of 26

Parts of the external World which are felt to be firm, resistant, and sharply contoured are called by a special somewhat aggressive name—“object”—which suggests both resistance against our wishes and aim or target for our strivings. Other parts of the same World, which are not solid, do not resist much, and have no real contours, are called by non-aggressive names, such as substance, substrate, both showing similarity to “subject,” denoting ourselves. A third very generally used word—matter—describing these not so sharply contoured less resistant parts of the World, derives from a root denoting mother. The inescapable inference is that at ne time there must have been a harmonious mix-up in our mind between ourselves and the World around us, and that our “mother” was involved in it. Though this mix-up strikes us as childish and primitive, we must admit that it preceded our “modern,” “adult” or “scientific” picture of the World which, so to speak, grew out of it. This touches on the possibility that we may experience some stimuli as intrusive and lumpy—impinging. There is something that comes to mind, like the frightened reason of some children to lumps in their food—it may be remembered that autistic children might be experiencing these as scary not-self intrusions into the smooth evenness of life which they wanted so much. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26

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In psycho-analytic theory we are wont to classify mother’s milk among the earliest objects, but it is arguable whether milk, a liquid, is ever considered to be an object by an unprejudiced common-sense human. One cannot reject out of hand the suspicion that the idea of milk as an object emerged in the mind of sophisticated analysts and not necessarily in the mind of infants. If I am right, milk would be another instance of the friendly expanses with no objects in it, a matter, a substance. If we accept this then the widespread inexplicable fads in many people about the skin in milk might be understood. The skin is hazardous object appearing in the substance “milk,” painfully disturbing the primitive harmony. From the view of reason and for further insight into the nature of understanding, one must see rational activities as they were supposed to function. This is to view them with reference to their uses and objects. This is handled under the notion of logic, which we offer under the caption Artes Logicae, or Logical Arts. The logical arts are four in number: the art of invention in which humans systematizes ways of finding or discovering that which one seeks. All qualified teachers are illumined but not all illumined people are teachers. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26

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The art of judgment, in which humans arrange and dispose what one has found so as to weigh its relevance and consistency with respect to the requirements of truth; the art of memory, in which humans train oneself to retain what one has learned; and the art of transmission or communication, in which human discourses for and with others. Discourse requires an organ of thought, id est, speech sounds, words, and their management in grammatical forms; requires methods of structuring discourse in unified wholes that all may be clear and appropriate to the many purposes of communication; and finally, calls for ways of illustrating discourses, in which imagination is applied to ideas that they may be rendered vivid and acceptable. In brief, when they are dominated by certain ends: invention, judgment, remembrance, and communication, there are ways in which understanding, reason, memory, and imagination behave. The logical arts were so maned because first, they were methodological in nature. When it was directed to useful tasks, they engage the mind. Some have greater powers to inquire; they can show the goal but not the path to it; others have a greater capacity to lead aspirants step by step along the path. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26

Second, they involved a number of faculties working in close concert or sequence, the dominant ones being understanding and reason. The terms “Intellectual Arts,” and “Arts of Reason,” can be defined as a primary source of Advancement. Thus suggestive to the fact that methodical and purposive behaviour of the mind involves more than one faculty. Memory is recognized because the mind must draw upon its past experience Imagination is mentioned because in discourse and communication that thought of a speaker is made tangible to others as words and speech sounds, which are images of thought. In communication, also, imagination joins with reason in producing images whose meanings are fitting and appropriate to the audience addressed. When it is said to “exercise,” the conception of the logical arts is derived from traditional analyses of the mind. When it works, or is “in act,” it is inventing, judging, remembering, or interpreting Interpretatio, id est, the transmission or communication of ideas to others, referred to excogitation, the physical basis, the events or carriers, necessary for the transmission of thought, and to signification, the sign of thought associated with codes and symbols and affording meanings for one who listens. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26

It is immediately apparent that the vocabulary of logical arts directly reflects the vocabulary customarily employed to describe the mind at work. The analysis of mind transmitting its experience, however, seems to be a refinement upon tradition. When it is engaged in invention, the understanding searches around in available materials and in likely “places.” From them it abstract and apprehends and comes up with ideas. If they reach the level of imagery and logical scrutiny, as we have indicated, ideas are revealed in phrasal terms and statements. In a desire to improve the ways of interpreting nature, we lay great emphasis on two modes of searching. One is labeled, “Remembrance or Suggestion, with an application,” where the end is to find arguments for speeches and popular discourse. The sources of search lay in one’s own experience and in books and literature. Guides for rousing expectancy and directing attention to likely places of search were the topics and categories of invention that had been built up for centuries by rhetoricians and logicians. This mode of search amounts to a systematic prodding of memory, heightened by some expectation that would find what one was looking for. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26

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Not all those who attain enlightenment necessarily become teachers in the personal sense. Such a one is entitled to choose anonymity. Unknown to the World at large, one still by virtue of that very attainment is a benignant presence mentally. The mind ranged comfortably over materials that the understanding itself has made and that imagination presents to it. They were the material of every person’s reason. What was sought was in a sense familiar, and direct experience with nature is easily ignored. In fact, literary materials were once or twice removed from natural phenomena. As “letters” they were but a degree and rudiment of nature. So traditional guides and habits of invention are useless in discovering truths of nature. The nature of the inventive process does not—and cannot—yield new knowledge and this reminds one of Descartes’ belief that when reason and imagination team up in creative endeavour, their product is not really new. Since images by their nature involve shape and magnitude, and compared with apprehensions are concrete, the understanding is being assisted by the species [of things] depicted in the phantasy; and…nothing can be asserted of magnitudes in general save what can be found to hold true of some magnitude in specie. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26

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Again: When something hitherto unknown is deduced from something previously known, we are not thereby discovering some new kind of entity: all we are doing is to extend our total knowledge in such a way that we are enabled to see that the thing sought participates in this or that way in the nature of the data being provided in the question which is being asked. What is discovered is a sort of equality of ratios. The complaint that syllogistic reasoning is useless in scientific discovery rests on the perception that the minor premise reveals psychologically two ratios which are identified in accord with the context, or concrete question, which prompted them. Is Socrates mortal? He is, because he is a man. The rations involved are: Men: individual man:: men: Socrates. Men in general are related to man in particular in the same way that men in general are related to Socrates. To see these ratios is to allow the possibility of transferring whatever is familiar and known about all humans, or about most humans, to the object posed by the question, namely Socrates. The operation thus has had so much of the old and familiar imbedded in it that one cannot regard the product—the conclusion—as being new in the same ways that the product of scientific thinking was new. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26

When one is looking for something, inventive activity of the understanding is marked by searching movements, by a flitting to and fro of the spirit stuff. The materials explored are the materials of memory; hence whatever is found always feels familiar. The second mode of search is called “new logic” or new induction. We deliberately try to hook the understanding directly to sensory data, and to control and restrict the abstracting process, to sharpen and make accurate the apprehending of comparable qualities of experience, and to discipline such conceptualization as went on in the production of an axiom. Thus the mind is to discover what no human has known before. Either mode of invention is the ordinary use of the understanding in inquiring and discovering. Just as a think has being by its proper form, so the knowing faculty has knowledge by the likeness of the thing known. Hence, as natural things cannot fall short of the being that belongs to them by their form, but may fall short of accidental or consequent qualities, even as a human may fail to possess two feet, but not fail to be a human; so the faculty of knowing cannot fail in knowledge of the thing with the likeness of which it is informed; but may fail with regard to something consequent upon that form, or accidental thereto. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26

For it has been said that sight is not deceived in its proper sensible, but about common sensibles that are consequent to that object; or about accidental objects of sense. Now as the sense is directly informed by the likeness of its proper object, so is the intellect by the likeness of the essence of a thing. Hence the intellect is not deceived abut the essence of a thing, as neither the sense about is proper object. However, in affirming and denying, the intellect may be deceived, by attributing to the thing of which it understands the essence, something which is not consequent upon it, or is opposed to it. For the intellect is in the same position as regards judging of such things, as sense is as to judging of common, or accidental, sensible objects. There is, however, this difference, as before mentioned regarding truth, that falsity can exist in the intellect not only because the intellect is conscious of that knowledge, as it is conscious of truth; whereas in sense falsity does not exist as known. However, because falsity of the intellect is concerned essentially only with the composition of the intellect, falsity occurs also accidentally in that operation of the intellect whereby it knows the essence of at thing, in so far as composition of the intellect is mixed up in it. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26

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This can take place in two way. In one way, by the intellect applying to one thing the definition of proper to another; as that of a circle to a human. Wherefore the definition of one thing is false of another. In another way, by composing a definition of parts which are mutually exclusive. For thus the definition is not only false of the thing, but false in itself. A definition such as “a reasonable four-footed animal” would be of this kind, and the intellect false in making it; for such a statement as “some reasonable animals are four-footed” is false itself. For this reason the intellect cannot be false in tis knowledge of simple essences; but it is either true, or it understands nothing at all. Because the essence of a thing is the proper object of the intellect, we are properly said to understand a thing when we reduce it to its essence, and judge of it thereby; as taken place in demonstrations, in which there is n falsity. In this sense Augustine’s words must be understood, “that one who is deceived, understands not that wherein one is deceived;” and not in the sense that no one is ever deceived in any operation of the intellect. The intellect is always right as regards first principles; since it is not deceived about them for the same reason that it is not deceived about that a thing is. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26

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For self-known principles are such as are known as soon as the terms are understood, from the fact that the predicate is contained in the definition of the subject. There is a widespread belief among questers that a human who becomes enlightened automatically becomes a teacher and attaches followers to oneself for instruction. This is not inexorably so. One may, or may not. Few have penetrated the secrets of being, fewer still have revealed them to others. Not everyone who is illumined becomes a spiritual teacher of humanity. Only one whose previous tendency, genera character, constant aspiration, allotted destiny, or personal capacity fits one for that function becomes a teacher. It is not every spiritually enlightened human who is called to hold one’s chandelier in humankind’s darkness, or is required to be a teacher of others. This is a special art and requires special gifts. Those who attain enlightenment fall into two grades: the first, mystics who are possessed by God but who can neither show others the way to this state nor expound in detail the truth they have realized; the second, self-actualized beings who can do both these things. To be a teacher, to be able to educate others in philosophic doctrines, to prepare pupils for the wise life, requires qualities which knowledge alone does not necessarily confer. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26

Every self-actualized being must be a teacher because every self-actualized being must wish to promote the enlightenment of humankind. A major service of spiritual disciplines—such as solitude (being alone with God for long periods of time), fasting (learning freedom from food and how God directly nourishes us), worship (adoration of God), and service (doing good for others with no thought of ourselves)—is to cause the duplicity and malice that is buried in our will and character to surface and be dealt with. Those disciplines make room for the Word and the Spirit to work in us, and they permit destructive feelings—feelings that are usually veiled by standard practices and circumstances and by long accepted rationalizations—to be perceived and dealt with for what they are: our will and not God’s will. Those feelings are normally clothed in layer upon layer of habitual self-deception and rationalization. Typically, they will have enslaved the will, and it in turn will have coerced the mind to conceal or rationalize what is really going on. When you begin to deny fulfillment to your desires, your mind will really “talk to you,” and you will find how subtle and shameless it is. I know this from experience. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26

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For example, our “righteous judgments” on others may, as we practice solitude or service, be recognized as ways of putting them down and us up. Our extreme busyness may be revealed as inability to trust God or unwillingness to give others a chance to contribute. Our readiness to give our opinions may turn out to be contempt for the thoughts and words of others or simply a willingness to shut them up. Truly becoming one who wills above all to act with the kingdom of God and to have one’s kind of goodness (Matthew 6.33) will not happen overnight. However, upon a path of clear intention and decision, with appropriate spiritual disciplines and accompanying grace to illumine and correct us when we fail, it is not as far away as many would suppose. The duplicities, entanglements, and evil intents that infect our will can be clarified and eliminated as we keep our eyes on Jesus, who initiated and perfects our faith, and “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God,” reports Hebrews 12.2. “And it came to pass when Jesus had said these words, he spake unto his disciples, one by one, saying unto them; What is it that ye desire of me, after that I am gone to the Father? #RandolphHarris 19 of 26

“And they all spake, save it were three, saying: We desire that after we have lived unto the age of man, that our ministry, wherein thou hast called us, many have an end, that we may speedily come unto thee in thy kingdom. And he said unto them: Blessed are ye because ye desired this thing of me; therefore, after that ye are seventy and two years old ye shall come unto me in my kingdom; and with me ye shall find rest. And when he had spoken unto them, he turned himself unto the three, and said unto them: What will ye that I should do unto you, when I am gone unto the Father? And they sorrowed in their hearts, for they durst not speak unto him the thing which they desired. And he said unto them: Behold, I know your thoughts, and ye have desired the thing which John, my beloved, who was with me in my ministry, before that I was lifted up by the Jews desire of me. Therefore, more blessed are ye, for ye shall never taste of death; but ye shall live to behold all the doings of the Father unto the children of men, even until all things shall be fulfilled according to the will of the Father, when I shall come in my glory with the powers of Heaven. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26

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“And ye shall never endure the pains of death; but when I shall come in my glory ye shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortality to immortality; and then shall ye be blessed in the kingdom of my Father. And again, ye shall not have pain while ye shall dwell in the flesh, neither sorrow save it be for the sins of the World; and all this will I do because of the thing which ye have desired of me, for ye have desired that ye might bring the souls of humans unto me, while the World shall stand. And for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one. And the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and the Father giveth the Holy Ghost unto the children of humans, because of me. And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words, he touched every one of them with his finger save it were the three who were to tarry, and then he departed. And behold, the Heavens were opened, and they were caught up into Heaven, and saw and heard unspeakable things. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26

“And behold, the Heavens were opened, and they were caught up into Heaven, and saw and heard unspeakable things. And it was forbidden them that they should utter; neither was it given unto them power that they could utter the things which they saw and heard; and whether they were in the body or out of the body, they could not tell; for it did seem unto them like a transfiguration of them, that they were changed from this body of flesh into an immortal state, that they could behold the things of God. However, it came to pass that they did again minister upon the face of the Earth; nevertheless they did not minister of the things which they had heard and seen, because of the commandment which was given them in Heaven. And now, whether they were mortal or immortal, from the day of their transfiguration, I know not; but this much I know, according to the record which hath been given—they did go forth upon the face of the land, and did minister unto all the people, uniting as many to the church as would believe in their preaching; baptizing them, and as many as were baptized did receive the Holy Ghost. And they were cast into prison by them who did not belong to the church. And the prisons could not hold them, for they were rent in twain. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26

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“And they were cast down into the Earth; but they did smite the Earth with the word of God, insomuch that by his power they were delivered out of the depths of the Earth; and therefore they could not dig pits sufficient to hold them. And thrice they were cast into a den of wild beasts; and behold they did play with the beasts as a child with a suckling lamb, and received no harm. And it came to pass that thus they did go forth among all the people of Nephi, and did preach the gospel of Nephi, and did preach the gospel of Christ unto all people upon the face of the land; and they were converted unto the Lord, and were untied unto the church of Christ, and thus the people of that generation were blessed, according to the word of Jesus. And now, I Mormon, make an end of speaking concerning these things for a time. Behold, I was about to write the names of those who were never to taste of death, but the Lord forbade; therefore I write them not, for they are hid from the World. However, behold, I have seem them, and they have ministered unto me. And behold they will be among the Gentiles, and the Gentiles shall know them not. They will also be among the Jews, and the Jews shall know them not. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26

“And it shall come to pass, when the Lord seeth fit in his wisdom that they shall minister unto all the scattered tribes of Israel, and unto all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, and shall bring out of them unto Jesus many souls, that their desire may be fulfilled, and also because of the convincing power of God which is in them. And they are as the angels of God, and if they shall pray unto the Father in the name of Jesus they can show themselves unto whatsoever man it seemeth them good. Therefore, great and marvelous works shall be wrought by them, before the great and coming day when all people must surely stand before the judgment-seat of Christ; yea even among the Gentiles shall there be a great and marvelous work wrought by them, before that judgment day. And if ye had all the scriptures which give an account of the marvelous works of Christ, ye would, according to these things must surely come. And wo be unto one that will not hearken unto the words of Jesus, and also to them whom he hath chosen and sent among them; for whoso recieveth not the words of Jesus and the words of those whom he hath sent recieveth not him; and therefore he will not receive them at the last day. #RandolphHarris 24 of 26

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“And if they had not been born, it would be better for them. For do ye suppose that ye can get rid of the justice of an offended God, who hath been trampled under feet of men, that thereby salvation might come? And now behold, as I spake concerning those whom the Lord hath chosen, yea, even three who were caught up into the Heavens, that I knew not whether they were cleansed from mortality to immortality—but behold, since I wrote, I have inquired of the Lord, and he hath made it manifest unto me that there must needs be a change wrought upon their bodies, or else it needs be that they must taste death; therefore, that they might not taste of death there was a change wrought upon their bodies, that they might not suffer pain nor sorrow save it were for the sins of the World. Now this change was not equal to that which shall take place at the last day; but there was a change wrought upon them, insomuch that Satan could have no power over them, that he could not tempt them; and they were sanctified in the flesh, that they were holy, and that the powers of the Earth could not him them. And in this state they were to remain until the judgment day of Christ. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26

“And at that day they were to receive a greater change, and to be received into the kingdom of the Father to go no more out, but to dwell with God eternally in the Heavens,” reports 3 Nephi 28.1-40. Sleep, little one, in the comforting night that spreads like a blanket over your bed. Goddess is waiting to guide you to sleep in His arms that are ready to rock you so gently. The God stands by, watching to keep you from harm, to lay His cool hand on your head as you sleep. Sleep, little one, in the gathering dark, wrapped in the love of your Mother and Father, wrapped in the love of your mother and father. Magnified and sanctified be the name of God throughout the World which He hath created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom during the days of your life and during the life of all the house of Israel, speedily, yea, soon; and say ye, Amen. May His great name be blessed for ever and ever. Exalted and honoured be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, whose glory transcends, yea, is beyond all praises, hymns and blessings that humans can render unto Him; and say ye, Amen. May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and life for us and for all Israel; and say ye, Amen. May He who establisheth peace in the Heavens, grant peace unto us and unto all Israel; and say ye, Amen. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26

Cresleigh Homes

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Residence Four at Cresleigh Meadows is one of the largest homes available in the market! At just under 3,500 square feet we are sure you will have enough room for the entire family here! The open concept design includes four bedrooms, three and one half bathrooms and a three car garage.
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One of our favorite parts of the homes at #PlumasRanch is the open floor plan. You won’t have to excuse yourself to baste the turkey ever again!

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These suburban sanctuaries offer carefully crafted homes, with exquisitely designed amenities, rising the standard, with a holistic focus on living well.
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When the Morning Blesses Thee for Enlivening All the Cheerful Eyes the Heart Upsprings!

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Change is the biggest story in the World today, and we are not covering it adequately. Leadership is a work one everyone’s lips. The young attack it and police seek it. Experts claim it and artists spurn it, while scholars want it…bureaucrats pretend they have it, politicians wish they did. Everybody agrees that there is less of it than there used to be. The pessimistic consensus and longing for leadership extends to the Church, which many today believe suffers from an alarming lack of leadership when compared to history as recent as the decades between the forties and seventies (decades which produces leaders of the stature of Harold John Ockenga, Billy Graham, Carl F.H. Henry and Francis Schaeffer, as well as dynamic local church and layleaders). Is there really less leadership than there used to be? It appears so, but objective analysis is difficult. Statistics do indicate this, however: male leadership in the Church is on the decline as women outnumber men, for men comprise only 41 percent of adult church attenders, and some smaller churches cannot find even one man to fill the office of elder. More and more men are content to let others shoulder the heavy responsibilities while they go along for the ride. #RandolphHarris 1 of 25

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It is certainly true that leadership is more difficult today due to the sheer complexity of life and the size of today’s institutions, and because of the contemporary confusion as to what leadership is. Secular analysis has produced more than 350 definitions of leadership. Leadership, to some, is like the Abominable Snowman, whose footprints are everywhere but he is nowhere to be seen. However, none of this excuses today’s Church—or today’s Christian humans. Unlike our culture, the Bible provides clear instruction regarding leadership through the lives of its great leaders and through specific teachings regarding the character, qualifications, and commitment of spiritual leaders. In addition to this, amidst our culture’s confusion about leadership there are some astute analysts who have pinpointed the essentials of leadership and are providing information which has immense benefits for the general culture, including the Church. As we tackle the topic of the discipline of leadership, we will draw from both sources, with the greatest reliance being upon God’s word. When the Saviour was on the Earth, He taught His Apostles about leadership service: “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25

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“These things I command you, that ye love one another,” reports John 15.16-17. After His ascension into Heaven, His disciples became greater leaders and built up the Church in their day. The first mention of Joshua comes in Exodus 17.8, 9 after the Amalekites’ attack upon the stragglers at Israel’s rear: “Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.’” Moses, then in his eighties, took the rod of God with which he had parted the Red Sea and ascended a nearby hill. Joshua, in his fighting prime, took charge of the army below. In the ensuing battle, when Moses lifted his hands in intercessory prayer, Israel prevailed. However, as Moses wearied and began to lower his arms, the tide of battle turned to the Amalekites. Then again, as Moses mustered all his power and elevated his hands, the advantage returned to Israel. Israel’s fate ebbed and flowed with Moses’ aged hands. Soon Aaron and Hur were called to assist Moses, seating him on a stone and standing at his sides to hold his hands Heavenward. When sunset came, Moses’ hands were still reaching upward to God, and Israel had carried the day. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25

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The lessons for Joshua were clearly manifest. He learned that the real power was not in his sword, but in God. The victory undoubtedly tempted him to forget that. He was an instant hero, and that night all the campfires sang the name of Joshua. However, fixed in Joshua’s mind was the image of Aaron and Hur coming to Moses’ side and lifting his hands up to God. No one attains true spiritual leadership who thinks one’s power is one’s own or the past victories are due to one’s own genius. The overriding lesson Joshua learned that day was the backbone of any work done for God is prayer. Those who have effective leadership are not leaders because of brilliancy, but because, by the power of prayer, they could command the power of God. How contrary this is to conventional thinking on leadership. The first thing the World (and all too often the Church!) considers is a leader’s magnetism and elan—does one have the charisma to magnetize people? But the Holy Spirit places prayer first. In our day we are called on to be leaders and to beckon others to follow Jesus’s teachings. You may be a leader in your ward or branch or among your group of friends. Young people in the Church are learning. “I learned not to just pay attention to how things are done, but to go to individuals and help them in whatever way they need,” said Leo. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25

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There may be time when we do not know what to do and that is when one should recall to open up the scriptures. Also, keep in mind that Christian leadership includes helping everyone feel welcome. Now, when we set out on the path of the surrendered will we find we must come to grips with our fallen character. This character will have taken over our habitual or “automatic” ways of thinking and feeling, shaped our social World past and present, permeated our body and its responses, and even sunk down into the unconscious depths of our soul. In their fallen character thoughts, feelings, social interactions, body, character, will, and the soul will usually not be in accordance with the genuine intentions of our reborn spirit or will. The fallen character in fact poises every element of our being against God. When we are subjected to environments where people may or may not have willfully, knowingly and enthusiastically submitted to the influence of Satan and are attacking us, we must remember to seek spiritual counsel even more, and commit to more Bible study so our souls do not become sucked into their blackhole of evil. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25

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We do not want to end up in the adversary’s web because we want to go to Heaven and not suffer any legal consequences while on Earth either because the bad people are going to get themselves in trouble with God and human’s laws. The condition we find ourselves in can best be described as one of entanglement. By contrast, the condition we must move to is that of single-minded focus upon doing the will of God in everything, distracted by nothing. Do not care about anything but Christ. Make sure your intention is that you and your team care for nothing before Christ, which means the ways of the Lord must come first. Nothing should be allowed to detract from that or conflict with it. All lesser desires have to be done away with (hence they are macabre baggage!). Some people, of course, are more concerned about language they think is wrong than about hearts not set wholly on Christ. In our fallen World very few people live with a focused will, even a will focused on an evil. The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. #RandolphHarris 6 of 25

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However, in fact—and we can be thankful for this—even “the worst” rarely have much intensity about them. There are always hecklers in this World, however. Evil people who are genuinely focused can gain the great power they do over others because of the fact that good people and evil people alike are, for the most part, simply drifting through life. The “Chief Executive Officer” of the self has abandoned its post to other dimensions of the self and is dragged hither and thither by them. If it is recognized at all, in our culture today the direction of the self is usually left to feelings; and the will is either identified with feelings or else regarded as helpless in the face of feelings. The cognitive aide of the mind is hijacked to renationalize it all by producing or borrowing suitable “insights,” usually lying ready to hand in surrounding culture.  David Hume’s eighteenth-century claim that “reason is and ought only to be the slave of the passions” was prophetic of a World to come—our present World—to the existence of which e significantly contributed: a World of perpetual drift in which manipulation and entanglement of the will is simply unavoidable. Purity of heart is to will one thing. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25

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Before we can come to rest in such single-mindedness as the habitual orientation of all dimensions of our being, to allow it and to sustain it, a serious battle is required. However, the call of grace and wisdom is nonetheless to “lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus,” reports Hebrews 12.1-2. “No soldier in active service entangles oneself in the affairs of everyday life,” Paul reminded Timothy, “so that one may please the one who enlisted one as a soldier,” reports 2 Timothy 2.4. Dear Martha was “worried and bothered about so many things,” as Jesus pointed out, while only a few things are necessary, really only one, “Many has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her,” reports Luke 10.41-42. And Paul’s own testimony was that he really did only one thing, which was to “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus,” reports Philippians 3.13-14. According to the classical principle of utility, the best actions produce the greatest amount of utility for the greatest number of individuals, and the best actions maximize the average utility which may be enjoyed by each individual. Now it is tempting to argue against the principle that it presupposed a real and equal acceptance of risk by all members of society. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25

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At some time, one wants to say, everyone must actually have agreed to take the same chances. Since clearly there was n such occasion, the principle is unsound. Consider an extreme case: when confronted by his slaves, a slaveholder, in his attempts to justify his position to them by claiming that, first of all, given the circumstances of their society, the institution of slavery is in fact necessary to produce the greatest average happiness; and secondly, that in the initial contractual situation he would choose the average principle even at the risk of its subsequently happening that he is justifiably held a slave. Now offhand we are inclined to reject the slaveholder’s argument as beside the point, if not outrageous. One may think that it makes no difference what one would choose. Unless individuals have actually agreed to a conception of justice subject to real risk, no one is bound by its requirements. On the contract view, however, the general form of the slaveholder’s argument is correct. It would be a mistake for the slaves to retort that his contentions are irrelevant since there has been no actual occasion of choice, no equal sharing of risk as to how things would turn out. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25

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The contract doctrine is purely hypothetical: if a conception of justice would be agreed to in the original position, its principles are the right ones to apply. It is no objection that such an understanding has never been nor ever will be entered into. We cannot have it both ways: we cannot interpret the theory of justice hypothetically when the appropriate occasions of consent cannot be found to explain individuals’ duties and obligations, and then insist upon real situations of risk-bearing to throw out principles of justice that we do not want. Thus in justice as fairness the way to refute the slaveholder’s argument is to show that the principle one invokes would be rejected in the original position. We have no alternative but to exploit the various aspects of this initial situation (on the favoured interpretation) to establish that the balance of reasons favours the two principles of justice. People can often say that everyone makes choices and decisions and because they have a troubled life that you should also have to suffer a life of hardships and they may manufacture a situation to make sure that you do. The issues here is, while what they are saying is true, there life turned out bad because of the probability of the choices and decisions they made. Usually people are not victims of a conspiracy. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25

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In many cases the lot of evidence shows that a particular coin is unbiased, but when a group of people plot to ruin a person and no one step in to help, even after the situations are reported, not only is that biased, but it is illegal, unconstitutional and unfair. What is distinctive about the use of the principle is that it enables one to incorporate different kinds of information within one strictly probabilistic framework and to draw inferences about probabilities even in the absence of knowledge. Prior probabilities however arrived at are part of one theory along with estimates of chances based on random sampling. The limiting case of no information does not pose a theoretical problem. As evidence accumulates the prior probabilities are revised anyway and the principle of insufficient reason at least insures that no possibilities are excluded from the outset. Now I shall assume that the parties discount likelihoods arrived at solely on the basis of this principle. This supposition is plausible in view of the fundamental importance of the original agreement and the desire to have one’s decision appear responsible to one’s descendants who will be affected by it. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25

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 We are more reluctant to take great risks for our descendants than for ourselves; and we are willing to do so only when there is no way to avoid these uncertainties of the original position. Recall that the original position is an elegant thought experiment. It asks one to imagine that they are temporarily ignorant (veil of ignorance) about certain things, including important facts about themselves, such as how well off they are especially talented, and what their core personal values—religious or otherwise—are. One is then to ask oneself: If I did not know these things, what principle of justice would I choose to regulate the basic institutions of society? To be a little more precise, we are employing a vision of the familiar idea of a social contract. The parties to the contract are choosing basic principles of justice for their society. However, they are behind what is referred to as the veil of ignorance: they do not know how well off they are especially talented, and what their core personal values are. In such a situation, given certain additional stipulations, it would be rational for the parties to choose the following two principles of justice. First, a principle that guaranteed each citizen a robust package of liberal rights to such things as freedom of conscience, freedom to vote and stand in elections, and rights to due process in law. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25

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Second, a principle that ensured fair equality of economic opportunity as well as shares of income and wealth that were maximally beneficial to people with the least amount of income and wealth. So the people in our scenario can guarantee the protection of their liberties and a reasonably satisfactory standard of life as the conditions of their society permit. In fact, it is questionable whether the choice of the average principle really offers a better prospect anyway, waiving the fact that it is based on the principle of insufficient reason. It seems, then, that the effect of the veil of ignorance is to favour the two principles. This conception of justice is better suited to the situation of complete ignorance. If they were sound, there are, to be sure, assumptions about society that would allow parities to arrive at objective estimates of equality. The idea is to formulate certain reasonable assumptions under which it would be rational for self-interested parties to agree to the standard of utility as a political principle to assess social policies. The necessity for such a principle arises because the political process is not a competitive one and these decisions cannot be left to the market. Some other method must be found to reconcile divergent interests. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25

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The principle of utility would be agreed to by self-interested parties as the desired criterion. Over the long run of many occasions, the policy of maximizing utility on each occasion is most likely to give the greatest utility for any person individually. Consistent application of this standard to taxation and property legislation, and so on, is calculated to give the best results from any one human’s point of view. Therefore by adopting this principle self-interested parties have reasonable assurance that they will not lose out in the end, in fact, will best improve their prospects. However, there are some flaws in these positions, especially the basic structure. For one, people who move from one social position to another in random fashion must live long enough for gains and losses to average out, or else there is some mechanism which insures that legislation guided by the principle of utility distributes its favours evenly over one time. However, clearly society is not a stochastic process of this type; and some questions of social policy are much more vital than others, often causing large and enduring shifts in the institutional distribution of advantage. Therefore, we must not be enticed by mathematically attractive assumptions into pretending that the contingencies of human’s social positions and the asymmetries of their situations somehow even out in the end. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25

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Rather, we must choose our conceptions of justice fully recognizing that this is not and cannot be the case. From our point of view it is often easy enough to appraise another individual’s situation as specified say by one’s social position, wealth, and the like, or by one’s prospects in terms of primary goods. We put ourselves in one’s shoes, complete with our character and preferences (not the individual’s), and take account of how our plans would be affected. We can go much further. We can assess the worth to us being in another’s place with at least some of one’s traits and aims. Knowing our plan of life, we can decide whether it would be rational for us to have those traits and aims, and therefore advisable for us to develop and encourage them if we can. It suffices to observe here that what we cannot do is to evaluate another person’s total circumstances, one’s objective situation plus one’s character and system of ends, without any reference to the details of our conception of our good. If we are to judge these things from our standpoint at all, we must know what our plan of life is. The worth to us of the circumstances of others is not, as the constructed expectation assumes, its value them. #RandolphHarris 15 of 25

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Furthermore, as we have seen, the clearest basis for interpersonal comparisons is in terms of primary goods, things that every rational person is presumed to want whatever else one wants. The more we ascend to the higher aims and aspects of the person and try to assess their worth to us, the more tenuous the procedure becomes. The reason for this is that these evaluations contemplate more fundamental changes in our way of life, more far-reaching revisions in our plans. Indeed, it seems pointless to try to define a measure between persons which includes the full range of final ends. The problem is similar to comparing different styles of art. There are simply many things in which human beings become engaged and find fully worthwhile depending upon their inclinations. The expectation finally arrived at in the reasoning for the average principle seems spurious for two reasons: it is not, as expectations should be, founded on one system of aims; and since the veil of ignorance excludes the knowledge of the parties’ conception of their good, the worth to a person of the circumstances of others simply cannot be assessed. The argument ends up with a purely formal expression for an expectation that is without meaning. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25

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This difficult about expectations is analogous to that concerning the knowledge of probabilities. In both instances the reasoning carries on with these notions aster the basis for their legitimate use has been ruled out by the conditions of the original position. Anger at the absence of an attachment figure is not like the anger that is felt when an instinctual drive is frustrated (unless we take attachment to be the frustrated instinct) and it is not like the anger felt during an experience of deprivation or persecution—two frequent sources of anger mentioned in psycho-analytic literature. Whenever separation is only temporary, which in the large majority of cases it is, anger has two functions: first, it may assist in overcoming such obstacles as there may be to reunion; second, it may discourage the loved person from going away again. This is coercive anger, and is thought of as the anger of hope. Angry coercive behaviour, acting in the service of an affectional bond, is not uncommon. It is seen when a mother, whose child has run foolishly across the road, berated and punishes it with an anger born of fear. It is seen whenever one berates one’s partner for being or seeming to be disloyal. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25

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Dysfunctional anger, on the other hand, occurs whenever a person becomes so intensely or persistently angry that the bond of affection is weakened instead of strengthened. Clinical experience suggests that the situations of separation and loss with which this work is concerned are especially liable to result in anger that crosses the threshold of intensity and becomes dysfunctional. Separations, especially when prolonged or repeated, have a double effect. On the one hand, anger is aroused; on the other, love is attenuated. Thus not only many angry discontented behaviour alienate the attachment figure but, within the attached, a shift can occur in the balance of feeling. Instead of a strongly rooted affection laced occasionally with “hot displeasure,” such as develops in a child brough up by affectionate parents, there grows a deep-running resentment, held in check only partially by an anxious uncertain affection. “And now it came to pass that when Jesus had told these things he expounded them unto the multitude; and he did expound all things unto them, both great and small. And he saith: These scriptures, which ye had not with you, the Father commanded that I should give unto you; for it was wisdom in him that they should be given unto future generations. #RandolphHarris 18 of 25

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“And he did expound all things, even from the beginning until time that he should come in his glory—yea, even all things which should come upon the face of the Earth, even until the elements should melt with fervent heat, and the Earth should be wrapt together as a scroll, and the Heavens and the Earth should pass away; and even unto the great and last day, when all people, and all kindreds, and all nations and tongues shall stand before God, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil—if they be good, to the resurrection of everlasting life; and if they be evil, to the resurrection of damnation; being on a parallel, the one on the one hand and the other on the other hand, according to the mercy, and the justice, and the holiness which is in Christ, who was before the World began. And now cannot be written in this book even a hundredth part of the things which Jesus did truly teach unto the people; however, behold the plated of Nephi do contain the more part of the things which he taught the people. And thee things have I written, which he taught the people; and I have written them to the intent that they may be brought again unto this people, from the Gentiles, according to the words which Jesus hath spoken. #RandolphHarris 19 of 25

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“And when they shall have received this, which is expedient that they should have first, to try their faith, and if it shall so be that they shall believe thee things then shall the greater things be made manifest unto them. And if it is so be that they will not believe these things, then shall the greater things be made manifest unto them. And if it so be that they will not believe these things, then shall the greater things be withheld from them, unto their condemnation. Behold, I was about to write them, all which were engraven upon the plates of Nephi, but the Lord forbade it, saying: I will try the faith of my people. Therefore I, Mormon, do write the things which have been commanded me of the Lord. And now I, Mormon, make an end of my sayings, and proceed to write the things which have been commanded me. Therefore, I would that ye should behold that the Lord truly did teach the people, for the space of three days; and after that he did show himself unto them oft, and did break bread oft, and bless it, and give it unto them. And it came to pass that he did teach and minister unto the children and multitude of whom hath been spoken, and he did loose their tongues, and they did speak unto their fathers great and marvelous things, even greater than he had revealed unto the people; and he loosed their tongues that they could utter. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25

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“And it came to pass that after he had ascended into Heaven—the second time that he showed himself unto them, and had gone unto the Father, after having healed all their sick, and their lame, and opened the eyes of their blind and unstopped the ears of the deaf, and even had done all manner of cures among them, and raised a man from the dead, and had shown forth his power unto them, and had ascended unto the Father—behold, it came to pass on the morrow that the multitude gathered themselves together, and they both saw and heard these children; yea, even babes did open their mouths and utter marvelous things; and the things which they did utter were forbidden that there should not any human write them. And it came to pass that the disciples whom Jesus had chosen began from that time forth to baptize and to teach as many as did come unto them; and as many as were baptized in the name of Jesus were filled with the Holy Ghost. And many of them saw and heard unspeakable things, which are not lawful to be written. #RandolphHarris 21 of 25

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“And they taught, and did minister one to another; and they had all things common among them, every human dealing justly, one with another. And it came to pass that they do all things even as Jesus had commanded them. And they who were baptized in the name of Jesus were called the church of Christ,” reports 3 Nephi 26.1-21. If one can look back and reflect that a hundred people have firmly grounded their minds in truth and planted their feet on the road to eternal liberation through the word done by this transitory body, one will count the years gloriously spent. For those who welcome the Truth-bringer must needs be few, those who want the truth must be fewer still, and of these again those who can endure it when brought face to face with it are rare. The sages of old deliberately restricted the public from their full knowledge so that their immediate following was always numerically insignificant. Yet the paradox was that they excised an indirect influence disproportion to their small numbers. This was achieved by a concentrating their tuition on humans in positions of high authority or leadership, and establishing popular religions and cults suited to the capacity of the multitude. #RandolphHarris 22 of 25

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For a religious leader to try to convince others of the truth would require that they are seeking the truth. However, how many are consciously and deliberately doing so? Falsity is not to be sought in the senses except as truth is in them. Now truth is not in them in such a way that the senses know truth, but in so far as they apprehend sensible things truly.  And this takes place through the senses apprehending things as they are, and hence it happens that falsity exists in the sense through their apprehending or judging things to be otherwise. The knowledge of things by the senses is in proportion to the existence of their likeness in the senses; and the likeness of a thing can exist in the senses in three ways. In the first way, primarily and of its own nature, as in sight there is the likeness of colours, and of other sensible objects proper to it. Secondly, of its own nature, though not primarily; as in sight there is the likeness of shape, size, and of other sensible objects common to more than one sense. Thirdly, neither primarily nor of its own nature, but accidentally, as in sight, there is the likeness of a human, not as a human, but in so far as it is accidental to the coloured object to be a human. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25

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Sense, then, as no false knowledge about its proper objects, expect accidentally and rarely, and then, because of the unsound organ it does receive the sensible form rightly; just as other passive subjects because of their indisposition receive defectively the impressions of the agent. Hence, for instance, it happens that on account of an unhealthy tongue sweet seems bitter to a sick person. However, as to common objects of sense, and accidental objects, even a rightly disposed sense may have a false judgment, because it is referred to them not directly, but accidentally, or as a consequence of being directed to other things. Our Holy King lowers Himself to bed to rest for tomorrow’s travel. I, too, will soon go to my bed, resting with the dreams of the Holy Ones send. Eternal God, who sendest consolation unto all sorrowing hearts, we turn to Thee for solace in this, our trying hour. Though bowed in grief at the passing of our loved ones, we affirm our faith in Thee, our Father, who art just and merciful, who healest broken hearts and art ever near to those who are afflicted. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25

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Israel’s hope for Thy true kingdom here on Earth, impel us to help speed that day when peace shall be established through justice, and all humans recognize their brotherhood in Thee. With trust in Thy great goodness, we who mourn, rise to sanctify Thy name. Life is good and life’s tasks must be performed. Help us, O Lord, to rise above our sorrow and face the trials of life with courage in our hearts. Please give us insight in this hour of grief, that from the depths of suffering may come a deepened sympathy for all who are bereaved, that we may feel the heartbreak of our fellow beings and find our strength in helping them. Heartened by this hymn of praise to Thee, we bear our sorrow with trustful hearts, and knowing Thou art near, shall not despair. With faith in Thine eternal wisdom, we who mourn, rise to sanctify Thy name. As around our home the darkness grows, I light the evening lights. As the daytime spirits depart, I say my goodbyes: you will stay in our hearts the whole night through. As the nighttime spirits gather about, I give greetings to them: may these lights honour you who come with the darkness. Where there is shadow, there is light. #RandolphHarris 25 of 25

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Cresleigh Homes

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A courtyard like this is not going to enjoy itself! 😉 Get the most out of your home and live @HUBApts! Head to their profile to learn more about luxury living in #Folsom.

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The community blends stylish spaces and the finest amenities into a retreat-like setting near the heart of local shopping, dining, and entertainment.  Each apartment or townhouse is designed with modern and contemporary styles complete with finishes and features that lend a simple elegance to the space you will call home. Some units even come with private garages connected to your home. https://sites.google.com/fpimgt.com/hubvirtualtours/home

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#HUBApts
#CresleighHomes

Full Golden—In Her Eyes a Brighter Day Dawned Blue and Full of Love!

If you wander around in enough confusion, you will soon find enlightenment. Life is an unanswered question, but let us believe in the dignity and importance of questions. When one finds one’s life unlivable, a person needs a place to go. When you want to be offstage, free from your usual roles, free to discover and define your being-for-yourself, society seems to conspire such that there is nowhere to go. Judges, critics, and commissars are omnipresent. If a human steps out of line and departs from one’s usual roles, someone is there to remind one of who one is, to define one, and to punish one for daring to define oneself. The upshot is many wives and mothers find they cannot face their families another moment without shrieking in protest against the sameness of their unappreciated daily grind. However, they stifle the shriek and carry on. Fathers and husbands become bored with the wives, infuriated by their children, and worn out by the work that lacks joy—continued only because there is no other work to do, and the bills fall due each day, week, month, quarterly, semi-annually, and annually. The children, in turn, cannot get along with each other, or with their parents. Grandparents, aunts, and uncles live a thousand miles away and cannot take the youngsters in for a day, week, or a month of respite. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

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Without anyone to help with housing, new employment opportunities, bills, nor child care, the trapped ones persist on their joyless, desperate treadmills until physical illness grants them a ticket admission to a hospital emergency room. Or they “blow up,” suffer from a case of neurosis, and are treated as “not in their right minds.” They may manifest a physical condition that takes years to recover from, or could lead to permeant disability, where they truly are unable to work. Or they many enter a mental hospital, there to be placed in storage until the regime of shock, tranquilizers, and periodic consultations with an overworked psychiatrist bring them “to their senses.” However, even in the hospital, there in no respite from roles; patients are cast into new ones and lack the freedom to choose their being. They return to the way of life they lived before, perhaps with the protest in them electroshocked or drugged out of existence. If new alternatives could be provided, before this drama reached its climax in the sickroom or the sanitarium, it would be helpful. If we had acceptable “checkout places,” what would life in our society be like? In moments of reverie, I have invented some. Let me describe one such, a healing-house that appeals to me. It is probably healing only for middle-class people. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

It is a place where one can enter and find confirmation for any way one has chosen to be, or any way that circumstances have brought to one. If a human wises solitude, one can find it there; and if one wishes to remain silent, no one will speak to one. If one wishes congenial and enlivening body-contact, a masseur or masseuse (one can choose which) is available to provide the physical therapy. If a housewife or househusband wants to paint, listen to music, or just sit and have intercessory prayer, there is a room for one to do so. The place would be like a brand-new mansion in the suburbs, with all the amenities one could imagine, and close to shopping centers. It would be like an upscale bed and breakfast, a social club, where people could check-in, their medical insurance, employer, or government subsidy would pay for the cost of the vacation to help reduce the strain on health care system. Each person would be entitled to a rom with inviolate privacy. There one could go, and stay for a day, a week, a month, or years. It would be like an extended family with people who actually like each other and can respect others. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

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In this home, no one would enter your room without your invitation; and once a person closed the door, no one else could enter. There would be dinner, breakfast and lunch served as a group, or one could eat their mean in a private area of the house. Otherwise, the pantry would be always available, with abundant supplies of milk and honey, fruit, bread, raw vegetables, various kinds of meats, juice, water, and similar snacks. A resident could come and go, nibbling as one wished. If one wised conversation, one could go to the great room, where one could sit; and one’s presence alone would signify that one would be willing to talk. Or if one wished to enter into uninterrupted dialogue, one could invite someone to the privacy of the upstairs lobby, or home hub. The rule of the house would be freedom for the self, with respect for the freedom of the other. People who entered would leave their roles at the doorstep. No status, no rank, would interpose itself between the guests—who would have a first name, or surname, or no name, or a pseudonym, if that is what they chose. This would be a place where people could quite freely go out of their minds and roles, as these were known outside. All the paperwork would be handled by a confidential office before anyone reached the house so no one would know what anyone’s status and rank in society is, and all people would be screened to make sure they are safe. Also, office stand would be required to be bonded. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

It would be a place for people to unwind, relax, and get cozy before they had a nervous breakdown. Kind of like going home to your mother’s house and knowing you are safe and welcomed as long as you want to stay. It would also be a place where creative people—writers, painters, dancers, architects, lawyers, cooks, poet, et cetera—could go to live awhile and present their more tender creations in an accepting, or better, honest milieu, where commercial criteria for judging art and ideas are irrelevant. This would be a place where one could go to redefine oneself, apart from the people “back home,” who have a vested interest in keeping the person in the roles by which they knew one, but which were sickening to one. It would be a place where people could reach their ideal body image. The tense and nervous could find surcease and relaxation; the aimless might meet people with aims that could inspire and redirect their lives. These houses would be the place for one went for recreation. The directors would eschew drugs and medicines. They would heal by letting healing take place. The houses would be places where joy could be experienced, and peace. The staff of permanent residents, which would be the goal because people like stable communities, could include professional psychotherapists, resident artists, playwrights, dancers, masseurs, writers and teachers, and musicians. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

Some of these residents might come and go; but all would provide seekers with an atmosphere of spiritual freedom, and examples of the quest for new avenues of being and expression. A working persons, professional person, wife or mothers, or lonely person could come daily for an hour or so, or weekly, and find relaxation, edification, or companionship. Much like a house-church, there could be a book club or house-coffee shop for friends. If they were on a private, pay-as-you-go basis, I have little doubt that such houses would pay for themselves. And I suspect that is they were underwritten by some grant, or by public-health moneys—but with their operation strictly in the hands of the director of each house—they would more than pay for themselves, in the for of physical breakdown that did not happen and a mental breakdown that would not materialize. I suspect that for the people who patronized such a house, intake of drugs and medicines would diminish radically. The mass invasion of physicians’ clinics and waiting-rooms would be reduced to manageable dimensions. And the waiting lists of practicing psychotherapists would doubtless be less packed with names. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

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Such houses of retreat and healing will, alas, not become part of every village, town, or city neighbourhood. However, sensible people will find ways to pool resources so that they can organize them by themselves. Or if they can afford it, they will buy or rent a “pad” on the other side of town, away from family and friends. Perhaps some organizational genius will find the necessary staff, and the capital to invest; and one will become a millionaire by providing what everyone needs, at a price all can afford to pay. If such places came into being as a normal part of society, I suspect psychotherapists would lose some of their present raison d’etre, and would have to apply their knowledge of how people sicken and become whole to teaching, and to living fulfilled lives themselves, so that by their being, they would represent viable ways. And I suspect that physicians would find their practices confined to delivering babies, setting broken bones, and stanching the flow of blood. Sales of drugs would diminish, and people could return to work or home refreshed. Transcendent-behaviour has been shown to occur most usually in persons who are committed to some goal to which they assign high value. Commitment implies price. The more fully a person is committed to some project, problem, or outcome, the more of one’s time, energy, and personal resources one freely devotes to the quest on which one is launched. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

The conditions under which people are able to become strongly committed to their work, or to truth, justice, beauty, or goodness, are not as yet fully understood. When there have been leaders or predecessors who provide an inspiring example to imitate, since values are created by humans, it is most likely that an individual will become committed to some goal, achievement. Another factor which seems to promote commitment is the promise of large rewards, whether immediate or remote, concrete or symbolic. The persons who become committed to some unpopular cause—who have to fight public opinion, poverty, and even danger to life without support—are more difficult to explain. People in whom transcendent behaviour is relatively frequent occurrence likely are persons who trust themselves and have developed some measure of confidence in their powers to themselves. Self-confidence seems to derive both from history of graduated successes in coping with increasingly difficult and complex problems, and from the experience of being seen by other people as competent and trustworthy. Lack of self-doubt, is often characteristic of explorers, daredevils, and others whose achievements transcend their own previous exploits, as well as the achievements of many of their fellow humans. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

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Any experiences which permit average people to diminish their distrust of their own capacities and their own worth, and which permit them to attribute power to themselves, probably would contribute to the frequency with which they transcend their own usual levels of functioning. The self-concept, which, as we have seen, is a limiting factor in behaviour, can also be a freeing factor for transcendent achievement. If it is true, as existential thinkers insist, that human cannot define oneself in any fixed way, but is always in process of creating and then re-creating oneself, then it follows that the most accurate self-concept is one which permits a human to see oneself as a being with relatively unplumed capacities for all modes of function. Humans have powers of survival and adaptation which they have never imagined. It seems likely that any person who formulates a fixed concept of oneself, including a concept of one’s powers to cope, is doing oneself an injustice. Since humans tend to behave in accordance with their concepts of themselves, then they will not rise to meet a challenge that calls for behaviour in conflict with one’s present self-concept. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

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If a human sees oneself as weak, one will not take challenges posed by life, but will instead avoid them. If a human sees oneself as always in process of being challenged and “tested” by life, and one’s capacities as always in process of unfolding, one probably has a self-concept more closely in tune with reality. Transcendent-behaviour has been portrayed as the release of modes of behaviour that ordinarily are suppressed by habit. Challenges can release transcendent behaviour in a person, but so also can symbols like mandalas, cameos, metaphors such as the flag, the Star of David, the name God, or the image of a loved person to whose well-being one has pledged oneself. When he was in the army, my father said that a few of the things that inspired him to actions which kept him alive where thinking about God, his family, and house. Deeply religious people report that they experience God as a Being who perpetually challenges them; and under the instigation of this challenge, they continually bring forth from themselves achievements and feats of endurance which might be impossible for persons less challenged. It may be proposed as a hypothesis that challenge, however brought about, is a highly important condition for some types of transcendent behaviour. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

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One of the aims of the field of personality hygiene, beyond that of preventing mental illness, should be to understand and master the conditions for transcendent-behaviour, so that, ultimately, the average person will not be a mere non-candidate for a psychiatric hospital, but instead a being who can release one’s capacities for transcendent functioning as needed. Therapists of personality then would not be experts at restoring those with neurosis or psychosis to “normal” levels of function; rather, they would be more like those few inspired and inspiring teachers who are able to elicit transcendent performance from their students, to the surprise and delight of all. I suspect that our heroes of the playing field, of the cultural arena, of the study, or of the laboratory are persons whose fulfillment is a proof or pledge of hidden potentiality in the broad mass of the population. Too few people have any idea of their latent possibilities. Perhaps their concepts of their powers are false, and perhaps they are false because our educational procedures and fake news media indoctrinate people with a view of themselves as beings with sclerosed possibility. However, we can, indeed, seek to learn more about helping humans to experience their will and to eschew resignation to the thrust of determining forces. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

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If it is possible for multibillion-dollar education program to train people to see themselves as limited beings, it should be also possible for that program to encourage people to see themselves as embodiments of the capacity to transcend their present concepts of themselves and their powers. They can explore the path to those possibilities for optimal functioning that lie buried beneath habit and socialized being, so that more can realize the experience of liberation, satori, awakening, or the attainment of selfhood. I would like to see more psychotherapists functioning as gurus and as protectors of human freedom and enlightenment, as disclosers of humans to themselves, to balance the efforts of those of us whose work has served as guidance for industrial, business, political, and institutional leaders in ways to direct masses of little humans. I would like to see psychology leading psychiatry in the arts of evoking potentials for health and full functioning, rather than following psychiatry in its search for pockets of pathology. I think the concern for human possibilities that marks a humanistic psychologist makes one an important resource person to such agencies as the Office of Education, offering guidance and suggestions as to means for enriching our present institutions. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

We need to have teachers who can guide, educate, and liberate people as well as presently they indoctrinate and socialize them. We are on the brink of new leaps in the evolution of humans—because of the fantastic development of technology. We must welcome this possibility, and those of us who study humans can help our fellows and ourselves to find our ways and our possibilities in an unprecedented era. It is either that, or be grim, soulless mortals, furiously busy with irrelevant issues in the backwaters of the swamp, not the crisp, clean, waters of the mainstream, of the human course. A person’s experience with one’s attachment figures during the years of immaturity—infancy, childhood, and adolescence—are the principal determinants of the pathway along which that person’s attachment develops. When things go wrong this is due to the psychological development having somehow followed a deviant pathway. It is not due to a fixation at, or a regression to, some earlier stage of development. Disturbed patterns of attachment behaviour can be present at any age, due to a deviant development. When attachment behaviour is overreadily called forth, resulting in over-anxious attachments, a common form of disturbance occurs.  Another common form is the partial or total de-activation of attachment behaviour. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

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However, children do suffer when removed from their parents, and this must be taken seriously. Even now, as those know who have been an inkling of what goes on in some nursery schools, day-centers and creches, there are many misconceptions about the norms of behaviour to be expected of young children when left, even briefly, in a strange place with strange people. Misconceptions persist, especially among professional people. Again and again it is implied that a healthy normal child should not make a fuss when mother leaves, and that is one does so it is an indication either that mother spoils one or that one is suffering from some pathological anxiety. When the natural history and function of attachment-behaviour are understood, it is hoped that such reactions will be seen in a new and more realistic light. When no special effort has been made to prepare and cushion the child: yearning and searching for the missing mother, sadness, increasing protest at her absence and growing anger with her for staying away, increase ambivalence on return home and evident fear of being separated again become ingrained in the child’s consciousness. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

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Whenever young children who have had an opportunity to develop an attachment to a mother-figure are separated from her unwillingly, they show distress: and should they also be placed in a strange environment and cared for by strange people such distress is likely to be intense. The way they behave follows a typical sequence. At first they protest vigorously and try by all the means available to recover the mother. Later they seem to despair of recovering her but nonetheless remain preoccupied with her and vigilant for her return. Later they seem to lose interest in the mother and to become emotionally detached from her. Each of the three main phases of the response of a young child to separation is related to one or another of the central issues of psycho-analytic theory. Thus the phase of protest is found to raise the problem of separation anxiety; despair that of grief and mourning; detachment that of defence. In view of the damage done by this early separation is totally reparable, and always leaves some mark on the adult personality, in severe cases having so strong an effect as to be the main determinant of the adult’s thought and feeling. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

Attachment behavior has deep biological roots, and therefore the anxieties which attend separation from an attachment figure must also have deep biological roots. The deepest anxieties with the currently more widely held view that the deepest anxieties concern the fear that the organized self may be disrupted when the nervous system has to handle more stimulus than it can manage at a time, so that the emerging neural structuring disintegrates. In that view, the mother’s function is to take the overload and prevent disintegration. (There is, of course, no reason why there should be just one basic anxiety: it can certainly be argued that both may be aspects of the same anxiety.) Many take for granted the stimulus-situations that arouse fear can be regarded as naturally occurring clues to events that constitute a potential danger to the species in question. This applies especially to situations that arouse fear on the first occasion that an individual encounters them. A number of these are strangeness, being unsupported on a height, being alone, having something zoom rapidly into view, and other such. None of these is intrinsically dangerous, but to the being they indicate the possibility of an increased risk of danger. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

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A natural clue is associated as a rule with a raised degree of risk, and this can make a child’s behaviour appear phobic when it occurs in situations which appear incomprehensible to the adult World. Anxiety has a survival function for the species. Anxiety motivated action to remove the painful stimulus. The person would prefer less and less stimulation till the peace of death overs all. The human being is naturally equipped to relate, indeed, to cling, and naturally equipped to move about and explore and seek stimulus, always providing that there was a person or a place of safety to move back to. However, we are not done yet! Beyond contentment lies intelligent, energetic participation in accomplishing God’s will in our World. We are no longer spectators, but are caught up in a vivid and eternal drama in which we play an essential part. We embrace our imposed circumstances, no matter how tragic they seem, and act for the good in a power beyond ourselves. “We are reigning—exercising dominion—in life by One, Christ Jesus,” reports Romans 5.17. We are “looking toward an eternity of reigning with God through ages of ages,” reports Revelation 22.5. We take action to accomplish the will of God in his power. Our tiny “willpower” is not the source of our strength. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

We hardly notice any exercise of our willpower, though it is fully dedicated to carrying out God’s purposes in every respect. However, we are carried along by the power of the divine drama within which we live actively engaged. So far from struggling to resist sin, we are devoted to realization of righteousness all around us. This is the real meaning of “Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” The strongest human will is always the one that is surrendered to God’s will and acts with it. This progress toward full identification of our will with God’s will is one that, perhaps for most people, may not be fully realized in this life. However, that does not really matter. It is a progression that tis there for us to enter into now, through the power at work within us as disciples of Jesus Christ. It may be that at present we cannot even imagine what it would be like for us to have a will significantly identified with God’s will as just described. However, we must never forget that He “is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, in terms of the power that is working within us,” reports Ephesians 3.20. Our part is to begin as best we can. “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him” reports Isaiah 64.4. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

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At any given time there are several spiritual shepherds in the World, each with one’s own distinct and separate flock. It is inevitable and right that one should sieve humanity for those alone who need one or who were born to follow one or who seek the kind of guidance which one especially can give. One’s compassion is broad-based; it is for all. However, one’s personal work is extremely narrow for it is only for the few who will receive it most readily. This implies that one works among the sympathetic and mature, not among the hostile and immature. The reason for this is the need to practise economy of time and energy that one may not waste one’s arrows of effort on the vacant air. For a similar reason one prefers to enlighten the leaders, and let the flocks alone. “For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. However, unto you that fear my name, shall the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves in the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of Hosts. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

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“Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with that statues and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their father, les I come and smite the Earth with a curse,” reports 3 Nephi 25.1-6. Darkness descends, as the Sun lowers itself behind the horizon and I stand facing the last light, with my shadow at my back. Farewell to you, Lord of Light, as you go to your rest. I turn to face the darkness and greet it without fear. O Lord and King who art full of compassion, in whose hand is the soul or every living thing and the breath of all flesh, to Thine all-wise care do we commit the souls of our dear ones, who have departed from this Earth. Teach all who mourn to accept the judgment of Thine inscrutable will and cause them to know the sweetness of Thy consolation. Quicken by Thy holy words those bowed in sorrow, that like all the faithful in Israel who have gone before, they too may be faithful to Thy Torah and thus advance the reign of Thy Kingdom upon Earth. In solemn testimony to that unbroken faith which links the generations to one another, let those who mourn now rise to magnify and sanctify Thy holy name. I bow to the setting Sun, lowering myself as it descends over the World’s edge. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20


Cresleigh Homes

Residence One at Mills Station holds 1,932 square feet of single story living. The open concept design includes three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a two car garage. Each home includes a Home Hub located at the front of the home which can be used as a study, playroom or sitting room.
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All homes are beautiful, but there is just something about the blank canvas of a new #MillsStation Residence 1 home that takes our breath away! 😍

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Explore this and other #CresleighRanch homes on our website. Link in bio. https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/residence-1/

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The kitchen comes fully equipped with a large eat-in island, stainless steel appliances, and quartz counters. The great room is spacious and full of natural light with a covered patio! The Owner’s suite is nestled in the rear of the home separate from the secondary bedrooms, providing maximum privacy. Enjoy a spa like experience in the Owner’s bathroom with a large walk in shower, dual vanities, and makeup counter.

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This suburban sanctuary is thoughtfully designed with luxury and sophistication in mind to keep spirits high and good energy flowing through the carefully curated interiors, inspired by the neigbourhood’s culture and creativity with a holistic focus on living well. #CresleighHomes

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O, thus be it ever when free humans shall stand, between their loved homes and the war’s desolation; blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land. Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!

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Then conquer we must, when our cause is just, and this be our motto: “In God is our trust.” And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave!

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