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Do Not Be Sadden by the Doctrine of the Mean
We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people. It is truly wonderful how easily Society can console itself for the worst of its problems and difficulties with a bit of a clap-trap (contrived but foolish talk). The father of lies is the Devil—mischief and the Devil are never far apart. The good or evil we confer on others very often recoils on ourselves. The distinction between good and evil arises when human nature is aroused and manifested in feelings and actions and when these feelings and actions abide by or deviate from the mean. The chief task of moral and spiritual cultivation is to calm one’s nature through absolute impartiality and the identification of internal and external life. To achieve this end, one must advocate sincerity and seriousness. It was ordained as a scourge upon the pride of human wisdom that the wisest of us all should outwit ourselves. Principle is a fundamental idea or general rule that is self-evident and self-sufficient, extending everywhere and governing all things. It is laid before our eyes. It cannot be augmented or diminished. It is a universal truth, universal order, universal law. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Most important of all, principle is the universal spiritual capacity of creation. It is dynamic and vital. Human beings and all things form one body because all of them share this principle. It is identical with mind and with the nature of man and things. Since principle is the natural ability of creation and since life-giving is good, principle is the source of goodness. To be good is to obey principle. Thus, principle is both natural and moral and both general and specific. It has meaning as an abstract reality, but more so are the moral law of humans. We must learn to maintain a strong degree of character in our lives, even to the level that has been revealed in our vision of Christ. The lasting characteristic of a spiritual being is the ability to understand correctly the meaning of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life, and the ability to explain the purpose of God to others. Readiness for God means that we are prepared to do the smallest things or the largest thing—it makes no difference. Material force is the physical aspect of principle. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
Every moment of time solicits to be employed in the important business of love. Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. In the process of creation each operation is new, for material force is perpetually generated by Origination. (Origination is comparable to creation, except that it is natural and self-caused and is not an act of being.) The intellectual approach of understanding principle is balanced by the moral, for whereas the pursuit of learning depends on the extension of knowledge, self-cultivation requires seriousness. Humans are a complex chemical compound whose behavior is strictly subject to the law of causality, who in every action seeks one’s own pleasure, and whose character is determined by the features of the environment within which one is obliged to act. Radical reconstruction of the social environment is needed to create happy and productive individuals. Human beings are organs and instruments of a universal spirit and under certain conditions, a nationality (narodnost) may become an individual person. On the other hand, human beings as rational creatures and bearer of the Absolute is an end in oneself and must not be treated as a mere instrument. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Not society, but individuals, think, feel, and desire; the monstrous notion that society is a higher organism, an all-devouring Moloch, whose function is to make humankind happy by putting it in chains is false. However, there are encroachments by the social and political spheres on the private and personal realm; the individual life is the foundation-stone of the entire social edifice—as a single spiritual substance, possessed of reason and free will, and hence of a moral worth and dignity that demand respect. The dialectical movement of both thought and being are a passage from initial unity to final multiplicity, through two intermediary stages of relation and combination. The superior being is one who is wise, humane, and courageous, who is motivated by righteousness instead of profit, and who loves other people. A person is good by nature, but only by nature people are alike, but through practice they have become far apart. All children know how to love their parents and a person seeing a child about to fall into a well will instinctively try to save him because human nature is originally good. #RandophHarris 4 of 7
Remember principle: no expediency, no compromise. The four main principles of humanity are altruism, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom—and the innate knowledge of the good and the innate ability to do good. Evil is due not to one’s nature but to bad environment, lack of education, and casting oneself away. The superior person is one who develops one’s mind to the utmost and nourishes one’s nature. The nature of some is essentially evil. They seek for gain and are envious. Because conflict and strife inevitably follow, rules of propriety and righteousness have been formulated to control evil and to train humans to be good because propriety and righteousness has to be taught to some as their native nature has been corrupted and they abuse people and do drugs because they to recognize humanity and righteousness originated with Heaven. It is the will of Heaven that people should practice humanity and righteousness, be economical, and practice universal love, and it is human’s duty to obey the will of Heaven. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
The harmonious development of the individual in society is through the investigation of things, the extension of knowledge, the sincerity of the will, the rectification of the mind, the cultivation of the personal life, the regulation of the family, national order, and World peace. The goal is a harmonious World in which people and society are well developed and adjusted. The virtues, such as kindness, benevolence, and affection are the way in which we can get a life that has no lust, no self-interest, and is not sensitive to the ridicule of others. Humanity is the moral character, which enables humans to attain true fellowship. The moral character is developed in oneself and in one’s relations with others. A person wishing to establish one’s own character, also established the character of others. This is the two aspects of conscientiousness and altruism. By this time a clear distinction between what is good, correct, or proper and what is evil, incorrect, or improper has be made. God wants the innate sense of correctness fully exercised through the precision of and distinctions made in law, rules of propriety, and music. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
The Spirit of God witnesses to the redemption of our Lord and nothing else. The Spirit witnesses only to His own nature and to the work of redemption, never to our own reason. If we are trying to make God witness to out reason, it is no wonder that we are in darkness and uncertainty. Throw it all overboard, trust in God, and God will give you the witness of the Spirit. We have to correct errors in our hearts (moral errors). Centrality in the individual is the state of equilibrium in one’s mind before the feelings are aroused, and harmony is the state after they are aroused. In society centrality and harmony together mean complete concord in human relations. Ultimately, through the moral principle, Heaven and Earth will attain their proper order and all things will flourish in a harmonious universal operation. When the individual behaves correctly and society operates in the right manner, the way of God is aid to prevail. The way of God is the moral law, and moral order. It is the way of Heaven. Heaven is the Supreme Reality. Love levels all distinction. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
The Winchester Mystery House
Why would a ghost haunt anywhere? If there is an afterlife, it must be more interesting then here. However, this is not a science with clear-cut rules. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Where the Battle is Won or Lost
Altruistic people, who remain mindful and true to their values of helping others are more like to experience beneficial emotions such as love and joy, while helping others. Research also indicates that people who practice mindfulness (noticing the experiences in the present moment rather than fixating on the past or the futures) are more likely to be altruistic and exhibit better mental health. In fact, people who tend to be more mindful and those who follow their values are less likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder, and are more likely to recover from addiction, depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. In contrast, people who are more impulsive are more likely to be driven by immediate gratification, are more likely to struggles with their academic commitments, and may be more likely to struggle with regulating their emotions. You may have been told that you have already spent more than enough time remembering your past and analyzing it. Many kinds of recovery treatments do direct people to stay away from their painful pasts and focus on learning new skills and new ways of retraining the brain. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5
Philosophers currently place less focus on remembering and more emphasis on learning to cope in the present. We once spoke so freely of causes as things having the power to compel the occurrence of effects and always took for granted that the power or efficacy of a cause never extends to things past or that causes occur after their effects. This priority of a cause to its effect was, moreover, considered to be a metaphysical necessity and not a mere convention of speech. It is generally assumed that nothing past is within the power of anything. Things past are unalterable; they are and must forever remain whatever they have been. Things present, on the other hand, are sometimes alterable. They can be changed in numerous ways, depending upon what causes act upon them. We all face challenges, but it is not the size of the problem that is important, it is our perception of that problem; it is how big or small we make it in our minds. Do not be intimidated. Those for you are greater than those against you. Put your shoulders back and hold your head up high. You are not weak, defeated, or powerless; you are a child of the Most High God. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5
The totality of all beings forms an absolute unity. It is a dynamic ideal unity that make the moral World one as nature is one; it makes history one, all human generations one being, the process progressing according to one rational—moral law, which directs human events through the belief in God. History is this the history of ideas, incomprehensible without God revealed in history. The goal of history is the kingdom of God, incarnate on Earth. The basic stuff of reality is not the individual or the individual intellect, but a God-given ocean of ideas to which we are united metaphysically and historically. Egoism is original sin and leads to both moral and logical error, and only by overcoming it can we find truth and salvation. Thus altruism acquires a logical ground. The capacity for salvation and for the furtherance of history and its predestined end lies in the nature of humans as a social being. Sympathy, love, compassion are our spiritual characteristics. Society awakens our spiritual powers and preserves and transmits them well. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5
Providential reason guides history, but humans are free and responsible in that, as essentially a moral being, and they can and should submit to universal moral reason. The characteristics of evil ways into which many have fallen as a result of egoism will contribute nothing to the kingdom of Heaven; they will become like illegitimate children having no inheritance. They will become restless, more homeless than nomads; having no past, they will be unable to see a future or to find any meaning in their individual and spiritual lives. You do not have to focus exclusively on the painful parts of your relational legacy. One must also learn to honor the strengths one gained from early experiences. If you have witnessed a lot of dysfunctional behavior, it may have helped you learn how to avoid potentially harmful situations and people. Having the reality of God’s presence is not dependent on our being in a particular circumstance or place, but is only dependent on our determination to keep the Lord before us continually. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5
Our problems arise when we refuse to place our trust in the reality of God’s presence. If everyday decisions are not according to His will, God will press through them, bringing restraint to our spirit. Then we must be quiet and wait for the direction of His presence. If you remain true, you will get the sign that God is with you. When you become so worried, confused, or annoyed that you do not know what to do next and feel inclined to panic—do not! Stand true to God, and He will bring you out His truth in a way that will make your life an expression of worship. Put into practice what you learned. Make a determination to trust in God. A peaceful resting in God, which means a total oneness with Him, will make us not only blameless in His sight, but also a profound joy to Him. Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it matters most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5
The Authority of Truth—Draw Near to God and He Will Draw Near to you!
In the coming days, God will bring opportunities for you to increase your influence in amazing ways. Forgiveness does not merely mean that I am saved from Hell and have been made ready for Heaven (no one would accept forgiveness on that level). Forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a newly created relationship which identifies me with God in Christ. Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace. The miracle of redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One. He does this by putting into me a new, nature, the nature of Jesus Christ. The cost to God was the Cross of Christ. The cross of Jesus Christ is central to the Christian faith. The cross reveals to us the character of God: His love for lost humans and His perfect justice meet at the cross. If we want to grow in our love for God, which is the first and greatest commandment, then we must be growing to understand and appreciate the cross, which shows us His great love. If we want to grow in understanding the significance of the cross, which confronts the most prevalent and insidious of all sins, namely, pride. The only way we can be forgiven is by being brought back to God through the atonement of the Cross. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
Do not shrink back in fear. Do not be intimidated. You are well able. You are equipped. We know in order to act. The aim of all intellectual endeavor is to change the face of the Earth for the good of mankind: both nature and society must be transformed by human-invented techniques. We are all workers, here to supply something useful to humankind. All of our problems stem from sin—from our own sin or from the sin of others against us (and our sinful reaction to it) or from the fallen World in which we live. Satan hates the cross because it sealed his doom and he is relentless in his attacks to undermine and thwart the cross. Every cult or false teaching in some way diminishes the work of God. The doctrine which Satan is currently working to enforce in the World is the doctrine of sin. He wants people to believe that this is the Devil’s World and that we must accept sin and the bad things that happen because this is a sign of the times, which means Satan will reign over the Earth so we should welcome him and just allow bad things to happen and encourage them because that is the Devil’s way. However, God’s forgiveness is possible only in the supernatural realm. Once you realize all that is cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vise, constrained by the love of God. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
The death of Jesus Christ is the fulfillment in history of the very mind and intent of God. There is no place for seeing Jesus Christ as a martyr. His death was not something that happened to Him—something that might have been prevented. His death was the very reason He came. God forgives sin only because of the death of Christ. God could forgive people in no other way than by the death of His Son, and Jesus is exalted as Savior because of His death. Thought is social action, and it me be studied in the various human activities. There is no essence of thought to be reached directly. To become acquainted with one’s own nature, humans must not recede into oneself but rather go out into the World to collect information. A complete science of thought amounts to knowledge of al that humankind has produced. Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound. We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
That I did always love, I bring thee proof: that till I loved, I did not love enough. Beware of posing as a profound person—God became a baby. Dare to take those steps of faith. By humankind it means empirical humans in their finite World. What appears to us is what there is—all the reality we can or must cope with—and we cannot reach it outside the social development of humankind. This must be constructed methodologically and this the psychology of associated mind. The solitude of the new-born in front of things is a philosophical myth. Even sensation is from the beginnings a social fact, and whatever idea one comes to conceive is never the operation of a solitary mind but rather of several associated minds. To help us understand the varieties of human history, a social psychology supported by scientific method must replace individual psychology as connected with that lobby of theology which is the solitude of consciousness. Son of God, Son of man, His life poured out for all. See Christ’s hands, see His scars, His love cannot be denied. Our God is high and lifted up. It is the Cross my only plea, the blood He shed delivers me, our Saviors arms are open wide, a love so great the Cross of Christ. Every debt, all we owe, Christ bears it as His own. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
What you have seen God do in the past will pale in comparison to what God is about to do. Brought to life, we are free to live in Christ alone. Our God is high and lifted up. See the Lamb (innocence) of God, see the Fathers love, all to Jesus Christ we owe, He paid it all. A cause has traditionally been thought of as that which produces something an in term of which that which is produced, it effect, can be explained. That which is caused might be either some new substance or simply a change in something that already exists. This appears to be only a relative distinction, however, for outside Christian theology philosophers have usually taken for granted that no new substance can be produced out of nothing by a cause. A statue, for example, results from imposing changes on something that already exists. The most general idea of a cause, then, is that which produces, and thus accounts for, some change. If the change is sufficiently striking to warrant applying a new name to what results, then it is natural to speak of the cause as producing a new substance. A moth, for instance, is simply the result of the change in a pre-existing caterpillar, but the change is so striking that the thing is now called a moth rather than a caterpillar. This is what Aristotle called generation. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
In order to mold His children, God sometimes has to melt them down. A leaf, on the other hand, which turns from green to red is called a leaf. This is what Aristotle called, simply, qualitative motion, wherein no new substance results. This distinction is plainly a relative one. Aristotle drawing upon the traditions of his predecessors, distinguished four quite different kinds of causes or explanatory principles. These are called the efficient cause (causa quod), or that by which some change is wrought; the final cause (causa ut), or end or purpose for which a change is produced; the material cause, or that in which a change is wrought; and the formal cause, or that into which something is changed. Thus, for example, a statue is produced by a sculptor (its efficient cause) by his or her imposing changes upon a piece of marble (its material cause) for the purpose of possessing a beautiful object (its final cause), the marble thereby acquiring the form, or distinctive properties, of a statue (its formal cause). We should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously concerted every day of our lives. If we trust in our own abilities instead of God’s, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
When God through His sovereignty brings us into new situations, we should immediately make sure that our natural life submits to the spiritual, obeying the orders of the Spirit of God and he will transform us from marble into a beautiful statue, but we have to have faith that God is within us. The early Milesians, for example, were concerned too much with material causes, believing they could explain the World by discovering some basic matter—water, air, or the like—which all things are composed of. The concept of an efficient cause of change emerged with Empedocles, who postulated two motive forces, poetically called “Love” and “Strife,” to account for the evolutionary changes in the World. Plato, on the other hand, often spoke as if the explanation of all things would be achieved simply by discovering their forms, or formal causes, a procedure which Aristotle considered highly one-sided. It is essential that you give the opportunity to act on the truth of God. The responsibility must be left with the individual—you cannot act for him or her. It must be his or her own deliberate act, but the evangelical message should always lead one to action. Get ready for God’s favor and blessing. You are uncontainable. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
Refusing to act leaves a person paralyzed, exactly where he or she was previously. However, once an individual acts, he or she is never the same. The moments I truly live are the moments when I act with my entire will. Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The Scripture says if we are to share in Christ’s glory, we must be willing to share his sufferings. The suffering the Scripture refers to occurs when we have to say no to our flesh, when we remain calm after we do not get our way, and when we stay in faith even when life seems unfair. Our character is being developed in this way. Our marble is being chiseled into a magnificent statue. Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. However, rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. I shall love always. I offer the that love is life, and life hath immortality. God, you have given me the grace to be here, and I am embracing the place where I am. I thank You that You are changing my life little by little, from glory to glory. I believe that my present sufferings are nothing compared to the glory that is coming. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
Did You Not Know That I Must be About My Father’s Business?
All things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. However, the call of God can never be understood absolutely or explained externally; it is a call that can only be perceived and understood internally by our true inner nature. His call is simply to be His friend to accomplish His own purposes. Our real test is in truly believing that God knows what He desires. The things that happen do not happen by chance they happen entirely by the decree of God. God’s friendship is with the people who know their poverty. He can accomplish nothing with the person who thinks he or she is of use to God. As Christians, we are not here for our own purpose at all—we are here for the purpose of God, and the two are not the same. We do not know what God’s compelling purpose is, but whatever happens, we must maintain our relationship with him. We must do what we think it right, but the work we do is of no account when compared with the compelling purpose of God. It is simply the scaffolding surrounding his work and His plan. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
God takes us aside all the time. We have not yet understood all there is to know of the compelling purpose of God. It is the nature of an anonymous correspondence to be attended with very disadvantageous circumstances: surprise and suspicion. Whatever philosophy and experience many pretend on such subjects, it is certain that one is disposed to be superstitious in respect to the secret influences that guide one’s fortunes, in the dark passage of the World. Be a human’s intellectual superiority what it will, it can never assume the practical, available supremacy over others, without the assistance of some sort of eternal arts and entrenchments, always, in themselves, more or less paltry and base. Humankind are not so depraved to hate anyone for being possessed of superior qualities, but when they find them worn with an assuming air. What can be true or can be done varies with the meaning of “can.” As far as philosophy is concerned, the important sense of the word (“could,” past indicative) fall into five major groups. For convenience, these groups, may be singled out as the “can” of ability, of right, of inclination or probability, of opportunity, and of possibility. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
People of poor capacities are apt to be deluded by vulgar prejudices. You shall see people fly from place to place in the air; you shall be able (without moving or travailing of any creature) to send messages in an instant many miles off and receive answer again immediately; you shall be able to declare your mind presently unto your friend, being in some private and remote place of a populous city. You shall have notice of a New World, of many most rare and incredible secrets of nature, that all the philosophers of former ages could never so much as dream of. The “can” of ability has at least three subsenses: to have the skill—“He can speak five languages or paint lifelike portraits”; to have the requisite mental or physical power—“He can solve difficult problems, invent remarkable machines, or foretell the future,” or “He can swim a mile or do one hundred push-ups”; to have the requisite strength of character—“He can resist anything but pleasure, pass up a free drink, or bear criticism of his books.” The first years of man must make provision for the last. There is a higher sort of bravery, the bravery of self-control. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
It is more important to detect corruption than fiction. Evermore be sure of being in the right, when thou presumes to sit down correct thy master. The “can” of right, which is often used interchangeably with “may,” has at least four subsenses: logically or axiologically can—“Equivalent formulas can be interchanged, salva veritate, in any extensional context” or “From this we can reasonable infer,” can in virtue of custom, agreement, law, and so on-“One can be prosecuted for saying that” or “An ambulance can disregard traffic lights”; permission-giving “can”—“You can borrow my car is you would like”; be permitted by conscience or feeling—“I can condone no willful act of destruction” or I can accept electrocution but not hanging. “Can” is also used as inclination or probability. Examples of the “can” of inclination or probability are “I was so angry that I could have killed him” and “That car could have made the trip across the country.” “Can” of opportunity. “He could have played chess had he know how,” “Come in here where we can talk,” and “The traffic in downtown Sacramento was so heavy that I could not cross” illustrate can of opportunity. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
“Can” of possibility. The can” of possibility has at least first subsenses: consistency with knowledge—“For all that I know, Jones could have been the one;, whether it is possible for someone (compare with the “can” of opportunity)—“Can you get away for lunch?” the “can” of physical possibility—“If such-and-such has to happen, then it cannot fail to happen” or “A man, properly equipped, can survive indefinitely in outer space”; the “can” of logical possibility (compare with the logical or axiological use of the “can” of right)—“Nothing can be red all over and green all over at the same time”; conditional possibility (logical or physical)—“if the conclusion of a valid argument is false, not all of the premises can be true” or “In a deterministic system everything that can occur is necessitated by something else.” Many view aggression not as innate, but as a disposition fueled and governed by personal and cultural conditioning. According to social learning theory, aggression is a self-serving learned behavior: we assume we need or deserve something, and we find that we can get it—and sometimes even more—through being aggressive, whether directly or indirectly (as when we manipulate another into acting out our aggression). #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Some philosophers believe that humans are not much more than savages lurking beneath a flimsy veneer of socially acceptable behavior, whose inborn aggression threatened civilized society with violence, war, and disintegration. And to make matter worse, the instinct for aggression was unavoidably intertwined with the sexual instinct. If you had this time again, would you do it all the same, I wonder? If I could call you for a day, just to hear the words you would say, I would. Of those promises we made, is there anything you would change? Will not let these inhibitions stand in my way and these fears of plenty building up. I will not hold back these tears, I let them fall because everyone I have cried for you from feelings so natural so let us steel these lights from the stars and never let it burn out. I know we can make it. Meet me tonight here, I know we are going to run away, looking for a new place. I can feel a storm near and the dream will not go away. And though it all, I am on your side now. We will build a fortress to keep them out. And in a World gone silent I will be your sound and if they try to hurt you, I will tear them down. I am always with you now. And I am continually in touch with the reality of God. I must learn to live every moment of my life in my Father’s house. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
WELCOME TO MILLS STATION
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Our community at Mills Station is just another reason why you should call the Sacramento county home! https://cresleigh.com/welcome-to-mills-station/
Divine Governor of Human Life—the Very Voice of God
Real love can only arise where there is either a void in the heart, occasioned by the falsehood or indifference of a once favorite object, or where love before has never been admitted. The crime of loving is, when that love leads us to the injury of others. God is essentially rational. To be a good Christian is to share in God’s rationality, as distinct from blindly obeying an omnipotent will. God, being rational, will ordain what is good, but what he ordains is good in its own nature, not because he ordains it. To go against Reason is to go against God; it is the self-same thing, to do that which the Reason of the case doth require; and that which God Himself doth appoint: Reason is the Divine Governor of Human’s Life; it is the very Voice of God. Reason hath too much given to it. It is not the least evil attendant upon the frequent exhibition of this last dread punishment, of Death, that it hardens the minds of those who deal it out, and makes them, though they be amiable people in other respects, indifferent to, or unconscious of, their great responsibility.
The relationship between God and morality is a doctrine as a binding creed. Some cry out against sin even as the mother cries out against her child in her lap, when she calleth it slut and naught girl, and then falls to hugging and kissing it. Whispering and change of thoughts proves that sin is in the World. How can we argue about God’s power in the other stars from the laws which he has given for our rule in this one? As poisonous adders luck beneath the cover of the most delightful shrubberies, so falsity and deceit are concealed under alluring language. Some are drawn by love, others are driven by terrors, to their Divine refuge. There is no genuine and proper effect of religion where the mind of the human is not composed, sedate, and calm. The distrust of enthusiasm can scarcely be more succinctly formulated. Platonists stand for the idea of a single church to which everybody can belong to who was neither an atheist nor a papist; this church is conceived as a broad Christian society within which humans can seek salvation in their own way rather than as a sect with an inflexible creed.
Christianity, in the eyes of the Platonists, is a way of life; rituals and creeds can be assistance to godliness but nothing more. The nickname latitudinarian which their enemies fastened upon them is an admirable description of their religious attitude. Some believe that there is a distinction between reason and faith; and that religion is a matter of faith, not of reason. What has not reason in it, or for it is human’s superstition: it is not religion of God’s making. Nevertheless, both reason and faith are intertwined for they are both made morality dependent upon the will, even if in one case it was the will of the sovereign and in the other the will of God. And furthermore, experience and knowledge also are involved with both faith and reason. By carrying mechanical explanation too far—into the realm of the living as distinct from the inanimate—some threaten they spiritual interpretation of the Universe. The belief in witchcraft, which has been revived and strengthened in the twenty first century, leads several to believe that to deny witches and apparitions will lead straight to atheism.
At times, many people display a degree of credulity which is somewhat startling even by seventeenth-century standards. Careful reasoning, exact argumentation, and liberality of spirit are joined with uncritical speculation, unscholarly interpretation, and fanciful legends to a degree which bewilders and confuses the modern reader. These characteristics are interesting and important though many of their ideas are, difficult and often very tedious. To ignore these ideas, however, is to run the risk of misunderstanding and grossly oversimplifying the history of British speculative ideas and moral attitudes, which are too often take to be wholly dominated by empiricist and utilitarian concepts. Undoubtedly, too, for all the vagaries, the general effect is to increase human’s confidence in rationality and their willingness to tolerate beliefs with which they disagreed. Stop listening to the tyranny of your individual natural life and win freedom into the spiritual life. The Savior has set us free from sin, but this is the freedom that comes from being set free from myself by the Son. We tend to rely on our own energy instead of being energized by the power that comes from identification with Christ.
In movies and television shows, the specificity of the language that is used in rehearsal extents to the actors’ offstage speech. Their talk is riddled with the expressions from films and that sometimes if you are confusing your emotional experiences with your judgments, your work becomes vague. If you ask an actor, “How did that feel?” they will immediately say: “It felt good” or “That felt bad.” Both of those are judgements. So, we never say, “How did that feel?” at the end of a scene, because it invites them to go to the judgment part of their brain. Instead, when Ryan Phillippe directs a production he asks, “Did you notice any specific feelings that came up for you doing that scene?” That way they learn to name emotional experiences: “I felt angry when he said that.” “I felt scared when he looked at me and my heart started to hurt.” Becoming embodied helps actors realize that they have many different emotions. The more they notice, the more curious they get. They have to learn to speak so that can be heard. Their final performance means facing the community. Actors step out into the World, and experience another level of vulnerability, danger, or safety, and they find out how much they can trust themselves. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 6
Gradually the eagerness to succeed, to show that they can do it, takes over. There comes a point when an actor sense their intrinsic value of the experience of their jobs and as members in the community. Therapy and acting are intuition at work. They are different forms of research, where one strives to step outside of one’s own personal experience, even outside of their own bodies to test the objective validity of assumptions. What makes therapy effective is deep, subjective resonance and that deep sense of truth and veracity that lives in the body. Actors are able to combine the rigor of scientific methods, religion, and research with the power of embodied intuition to make their performances seem more real than your daily lives. We are on the verge of becoming a trauma-conscious society. Almost every day one of my colleagues published another report on how trauma disrupts the workings of mind, brain, and body. When it comes to healing ourselves, it is beneficial to be cautious. We become aware of all the guilt-mongers in our life and their deleterious influences. The true test of a saint’s life is not successfulness but faithfulness on the human level of life. We tend to set up success in Christian work as our purpose, but our purpose should be to display the glory of God.
The Winchester Mystery House
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A Good Conscientia is the Best of All Narcotics Written Upon the Heart of All!
All that virtue can afford is quietness of conscience and a steady prospect of a happier state; this may enable us to endure calamity with patience, but remember that endurance must suppose pain. Conscience (conscientia), as a subjective mode of revelation, is closely related to the sense of divinity. Conscience too, is part of the native endowment of all humans, written upon the heart of all. It is sort of knowledge whose object is God’s will; or, equivalently, the difference between good and evil, the law of God, or the law of nature. Inward law written, even engraved, upon the hearts of all, in a sense asserts the very same things that are to be learned from the [Decalogue]. Decalogue is the Ten Commandments, the list of ethical principles in Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:4-21 in the Holy Bible. It is a basic set of rules carrying binding authority. The Decalogue requires perfect love of God and of our neighbor. Of all liars and false accusers, a sick conscience is the most inventive and indefatigable. However, no evil is insupportable (unable to be endured; intolerable), but that which is accompanied with consciousness of wrong.
The subjective awareness of divinity and of its will can be supplemented by reflecting on the structure of the external World and the pattern of history. [God has] not only sowed in human’s minds that seed of religion of which we have spoken but revealed himself and daily discloses himself in the whole work-human-ship of the Universe. As a consequence, humans cannot open their eyes without being compelled to see God. The Universe is a large book, a mirror, and a theater for the display of God’s attributes—preeminently for the display of his goodness to us but also of his glory, wisdom, power, and justice. God can be known through his works, but not by speculation concerning his essence. It is by nourishing God’s sense of divinity and his conscience, with the contemplation of God’s works, that humans can in principle arrive at a knowledge of God. We know that God is everywhere; but certainly, we feel his presence when his works are on the grandest scale spread before us; and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where his Worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest his infinitude, his omnipotence, his omnipresence.
When you would conceive of the great Being truly and fully, you must be able to realize the duration of eternity, obliterate the little periods of time and chronology, which require a starting and resting-place in our human minds—soar out of the reach of the sickly atmospheres which surround these little planets, and stand straight in the broad and fathomless light of God’s own atmosphere. Nothing, but vast wisdom and unlimited power should dare to sweep off humans in multitudes; for it is only the one that can know the necessity of the judgment; and what is there, short of the other, that can replace the creatures of the Lord? Human folly is not needed to fill up the great design of God. There is no stature, no beauty, no proportions, nor any colours in which humans themselves can well be fashioned, that is not already done to their hands. Humans only reap the harvest they have sown in the World. Even in this life, God is just. Long may it remain in this mixed World a point not easy of decision, which is the more beautiful of the Almighty’s goodness—the delicate fingers that are formed for sensitiveness and sympathy of touch, and made to minister to pain and grief, or the rough hard hand, that the heart teaches, guides, and softens in a moment
Sin is a resistance to God’s demands. Thus, sin is not primarily ignorance about God; although such ignorance, or blindness will always be a consequence. Sin is an active willful opposition to God, as a positive refusal to acknowledge his demands of worship and obedience and as a deliberate alienation from him. Its prime characteristic is perversity, and its root is ordinarily pride and self-love. A person who does not know God because he or she refuses to worship and obey him can still know or believe a variety of propositions about God that happen to be true. I hold with Christ that afflictions are not sent by God in wrath as penalties for sin. Human’s natural ability to know God is the greatest genius. Certainly, I do not deny that one can read competent and apt statements about here and there in the philosophers. However, knowing or believing competent and apt proposition about is not sufficient for knowing God; human’s proud refusal to worship and obey God led them to resist acknowledging the truth about God. Sin, although primarily a matter of the will, infects human’s reason as well.
Perversity leads to blindness and distortion, and these people infected by sin always show a giddy imagination. Their seeing does not direct them to the truth, much less enable them to attaint it. Thus, human’s willful alienation from God is not merely that one does not know God, but also that one’s views about God are not so incomplete and distorted that nothing at all can be built on them. People who do not know God are always infuriated and ignorant because the effects of sin are far more pervasive then have been indicated. Not only does sin disrupt human’s relation to God; it thereby spreads corruption throughout the whole of human, animal, and plant life. Of course, sin does not impair the human’s natural faculties as such, not immediately, anyway. Reason and will are humanities chief faculties, and human beings in sin may be as intelligent and as capable of making decisions as the individual who knows God. The corruption is to be found, rather, in the use we make of our native capacities. The greatest spirits, when overwhelmed by their afflictions, are subject to the greatest dejections.
Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted for too long a series of generations in the same worn-out soil. If we are to state accurately what sin does to human’s use of their native talents, we must distinguish between human’s supernatural gifts, their abilities concerning Heavenly things, and their natural gifts, and their abilities concerning Earthly things. The supernatural gifts comprise human’s ability to know God, to worship him properly, and to obey him inwardly as well as outwardly. However, we have been stripped of these gifts. The natural gifts pertain to matters of the present life, such as government, household management, all mechanical skills, and the liberal arts. Concerning these, our abilities have certainly not been destroyed. Not only are ancient law, medicine, and natural philosophy worthy of the highest admiration, but humans, even in their estrangement from God, retains some sense of the laws that must be obeyed if human society is to be preserved. Humans, through natural instinct, are supposed to foster and preserve society.
Consequently, we observe that there exist in all human’s minds Universal impressions of a certain civic fair dealing and order…And this is ample proof in the arrangement of this life no human is without the light of reason. However, although the human’s abilities concerning Earthly things have not been destroyed, they have been profoundly corrupted. Both reason and will have been gravely wounded; the mind is both weak and plunged into deep darkness. And depravity of the will is all too well known. If human’s natural gifts are to be restored, their sin must be overcome; they must come to know God. We have already seen that for this purpose human’s conscience, their sense of divinity, and their awareness of God’s revelation in the objective World are all inadequate. How can you remove God from a World he created, and expect people to behave? Because they are not God’s people. They worship meaningless paper, and will burn the flesh and spill blood for paper, because that is their deity. However, God’s people know, no matter what people put you through, all this pain and suffering is better than burning in Hell for eternity.
Thus, if human life is to be renewed, it is necessary that God should choose some special means. This he in did by revealing himself with special clarity to the World, culminating in the life and words of the Holy Bible. When God leads people to respond to this revelation with faith, then humans again knows God. Indeed, faith, consisting as it does in clear knowledge about God coupled with proper worship and true obedience, is a certain sort of knowledge of God—that sort which focuses on Christ as interpreted in the Scriptures. Thus, there is never a contrast between faith in God and knowledge of God; rather, given human’s prior perversity, faith is the only kind of knowledge of God availed to humans. Also, faith is never understood in scholastic fashion as an assent to divinely revealed propositions. Rather, the object of faith is God as revealed in Christ. The death side—in the process of sanctification, the Spirit of God will strip me down until there is nothing left but myself, and that is the place of death. Lord, show me what sanctification means for me. He will show me. It means being made one with Jesus. Sanctification is not something Jesus puts in me—it is Himself in me!
Everything is More Mysterious than We Can Imagine
Ultimately, everything is more mysterious than we can imagine. The need for philosophy arises from the apparently irreconcilable opposition between different elements in our spiritual life—between subject and object, religion and science, freedom and determination, reason and desire. Unless we reconcile these antagonisms in a higher unity, we cannot achieve the spiritual harmony without the highest achievements of humankind are possible. While none of us can escape our limited mental maps of the World, we can sample from other cultures and subcultures and discover new ways of looking at things. To teach the material of knowledge, one is given a sense of perception and the mind then goes to work on it, ordering by concept supplied by itself. There are no objects until thought has done its work. Thought enters into the very constitution of experience. And further, the process of knowing is dominated by an idea of Reason, which drives the mind to seek a form of experience in which all differences are seen as elements in a single system. We can, in a sense, begin to triangulate the truth. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Activity confines us to appearances and bars us from things-in-themselves. Our knowledge of objects will be imperfect insofar as we fail to recognize that they are only partial aspects of the ideal whole toward which reason points. We can refine our necessarily aggressive preconceptions (as what we learn morphs into habit), but until we are part of eternal life, we will not learn everything. Until then there remain vast areas of knowledge—of ideas, people, and places—where our mental models are not fully informed. Yet we can be bighearted and acknowledge these gaps. We can work, persistently, to seek out the contradictions our minds naturally work to eliminate. When we can establish the power of human beings to determine their conduct by reference to the self, as a permanent center, as distinct from its relatively isolated and transient desires, we become inspired and eradicate contradictions. Healing beings in a wound, an imperfection—a wound inherent in the nature of life itself—and is an attempt either to learn to live with the wound or to heal it. A self-conscience being seeks self-satisfaction, not just the satisfaction of this or that desire. And in this power of determining conduct by reference to the self lies human freedom. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
Many people have been in situations that they have tried to help another person, but that other person never does anything in return, never gives back to the relationship, but constantly needs you. And no matter how many times you forgive him or her, you are reminded of what they did to hurt you and how much of it was intentional and you get upset. Although you may love an individual, life is about self-preservation and if someone is not helping you in return, you have to save yourself. No one wants to live in a state of conflict habitual. Studies have shown that a high need for closure hurts healing. Cultivating ambiguity helps us keep an open mind and empathize with different viewpoints. When we assemble, we can take the uncertainties in our lives and create something out of them. The most obvious and visible effect of letting go of negative feelings is a resumption of emotional and psychological growth and the solving of problems, which often have been long-standing. There is pleasure and satisfaction as we begin to experience the powerful effects of eliminating the blocks to achievement and satisfaction in life. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
We soon discover that the limiting thoughts and negative beliefs, which we have naively held to be true, were all merely the result of accumulated negative feelings. When the feelings are let go, them the thought pattern changes from feeling constricted to feeling a sense of freedom and being happy. Entire areas of life can open up. What used to be awkward or unexpressed can become effortless and joyously alive. Surrender at great depth is complete when a person has let go of needing or wanting a physical healing to occur. A state of peace about the situation is reached when all three aspects of illness—physical, mental, and spiritual—have been addressed and the final outcome or wished-for recovery has been surrendered. Peace comes with total inner surrender to what is clearly the known method or program that is usually followed. Repressed and suppressed feelings require counter energy to keep them submerged. It takes energy to hold down our feelings. As these feelings are relinquished, the negativity is now freed for constructive use. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
Because we let go, there is an increase in available energy for creativity, growth, work and interpersonal relationships. The quality and enjoyment of these new activities increases. Most people are too exhausted to bring a really high quality into their experiences unless the negative programs opposing them have been resolved. Take a guess as to how much you have changed over the last ten years on a scale from 1 to 10. Now, on the same scale, estimate how much you will change over the next decades. How do your two ratings compare? Do you assess your past changes differently from how you predict your future ones? Most people do. Vulnerability can be a risk, especially emotionally, but not doing what we can to access it is a bigger risk. Turning toward our pain is an enormously important step in our personal evolution. It does not matter how small the step is, so long as we take it, and keep taking it. Because we are conditioned to turn away from or avoid our pain, turning toward it may feel counterintuitive, at least at first. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
About 50 percent of all patients hospitalized for heart disease show moderate to severe depression, with the most severe depression usually accompanying the more serious disease. It has been estimated that up to 33 percent of all patients who have had a heart attack fail to return to work not because of physical problems but because of psychological problems. This failure to return to work will itself often lead to increased social isolation, loneliness, and depression—all of which are quite certain to affect the heart adversely. The problems cause by this new type of loneliness may ultimately be lethal. Love and affection are major influences on the human heart. To end your suffering, enter your pain. This means getting to know it and its roots, exploring it deeply, moving through it slowly but surely. You cannot emerge from your pain unless you enter it, and this begins with turning toward it. For me, my pain came from being alone, but I realized maybe being alone was the best thing for me because being there for someone who only uses one and is never there, is basically a painful form of being alone. Each of our emotions is worth getting to know very, very well—its nature, its purpose, its expression, its containment, its value, one’s history with it, one’s use and misuse of it. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Two Versions of Evolution
There is a temper of mind which borrows a degree of virtue even from self-love. All freedom can do is to illuminate the possibilities that can be opened to us and toward which we can steer ourselves by making our choices real. To regard God as merely a spirit is tantamount to atheism. The grand design of the cosmos points to the existence of some vaster Person who looms out behind our God, and who stands in the same relation to him as he to us. And yet another, and another, and another. This pyramiding of deities is one of many items with enlivening the Victorian scene. All things on Earth have their price; and for truth we pay the dearest. We barter it for love and sympathy. The road to honor is paved with thorns; but the path to truth, at every step you set your foot down on your own heart. It is the first policy in a time of difficulty or danger always to know the worst—never to hide the truth from yourself—never to persuade yourself that the evil is unreal, and that things are better than they are. There is nothing so dangerous as a question which comes by surprise on a person whose business it is to conceal truth or to defend falsehood. It is impossible to study the human frame without a little studying the human mind. As we have seen, those aspects of the mind that were programmed by the evolution for purposes of survival are especially ripe for exploitation by the various forms and mechanisms of unreality that we have identified. For instance, the TV takes advantage of the brain’s special attentiveness to recent events and particularly those which filter the visual span of the viewer with speed or heightened color. We are programmed by evolution to unreality’s special fondness for hyper activeness. However, the brain’s receptiveness to fast moving stimuli is not sufficient in itself to account for America’s special preoccupation with unreality. More than the workings of the brain alone are needed to account for the intensity with which Americans pursue unreality with a fever that approaches a national crusade. And indeed, to inveigh the phrase national crusade already implies that another part of the answer is to be found in American culture.
Hyperactivity is not only a deeply ingrained feature of American culture by virtue of the special fortitude of those who journeyed to the new land in order to settle it—it was a dire necessity for survival—but, as a result, it has become linked with other fundamental American values and beliefs. Americans have always believed deeply in material progress. The two words material and progress are virtually inseparable. Each implies the other in the context of the American experience. The major foundation of the belief in progress: the idea that nations (like individuals) can never stand still. They must always be growing, changing, improving their material lot: life is a race to be won by the swiftest. Like the progressive faith, itself, this notion is often left implicit. Yet its impact has been incalculable. It accounts for the relentless dynamism at the heart of capitalist development, spreading an obsessive need for change throughout modern culture. And for most educated and affluent Americans, change means progress. The old nations of the Earth creep on at a snail’s pace, and many want it to thunder past with the rush express. There is a belief that those who are rich and successful are the highest types thus far produced in the evolutionary process. Poor people are considered biological misfits; hence, the sooner they disappear and leave room for those better able to take care of themselves, the better. This Erewhon philosophy holds true that is a person has made a fortune of over $2 million, they are exempt from all taxation, and are considered a work of art and too precious to be meddled with. Society is no so much a guide for making something—it is a design or pattern that can be followed to create a place in which the government, laws, and social conditions are perfect. Thus, in Erewhon bodily illness is considered a punishable crime, whereas moral failings deserve sympathy and are given therapeutic treatment. Such progress we have learned was bought at a considerable price. To the uprooting and mass migration from farms and small country hamlets into the cities with their slums and social problems on the scales not experienced before, Americans reacted against what they experienced as the unreality of the new social order.
Removed from nature with its natural sounds, sights, and rhythms, Americans felt a sense of uneasiness. They found the new factories with their vast management hierarchies and impersonal rules the very epitome of everything that was unnatural, unreal, stultifying, and suffocating. People felt that they were in danger of becoming the very machines with which they worked and were charged with controlling. Instead of fostering machinery, the Erewhonians, after a long struggle, destroyed it when they realized the machines, like organisms, were evolving and would soon acquire a mastery over humans. The recoil from the artificial, overcivilized qualities of modern existence has sparked a wide variety of quests for more intense experience, ranging from the fascist fascination with violence and death, to the cults of emotional spontaneity of avant-grade artists to popular therapies stressing instinctual liberation. Antimodern impulses, too, were rooted in longings to recapture an elusive real life in culture evaporating into unreality. The darkest and most contemptible ignorance is that of not knowing oneself. The history of race relations in the United States of America has so sensitized us all that the initial phase of any interracial relationship between strangers is likely to be characterized by cautious attempts by each party to discern dominant or subtle indications of the racial attitudes of the other. Some violence is created by mental and emotional disorders, for which successful treatment is sometimes available. However, society needs to create an improved climate of acceptance for these programs of help and therapy that are available. In reaction to the growing sense of unreality brought on by the difficult adjustments to the new realities of modern life, Americans of all social classes will eventually retreat and engage in a frenzy-like search for authentic experiences. Elaborate home workshops where handicraft projects will be pursed with a vengeance. They will begin to look at family, friends, and true love as something desirably and that they need throughout an individual’s lifetime. They will never forget how each day can be described by the possibilities it contains and how tomorrow shall be well. One day, after a long life, we will find each other again.
The Way of the Flesh Verses the Doorway to the Kingdom of a Future Life
Our own hearts are our best prayer-rooms, and the chaplains who can most help us are ourselves. Nature is a product of providential design; by studying nature, one will find confirmation there for the revealed doctrines of Christianity. That light is the ray of rays, the Sun of Suns, the Moon of Moons, the Star of Stars. It is the light of Terewth. If, next to mistrusting Providence, there be aught that humans should pray against, it is against mistrusting their fellow humans. There is nothing miraculous or mysterious about the things we can explain. We control what we are able to explain; consequently, it is only natural to seek an explanation for everything. If one rules another by saying, “You must do this,” and “You will do that,” he or she breaks the human spirit, making it unfit for God. A person is simply a slave for obeying, unless behind his obedience is the recognition of a holy God. Our Lord never insists on having authority over us. No, God leaves us perfectly free to choose—so free, in fact, that we can spit in His face or we can put Him to death, as others have done; and yet He will never say a word. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Truth, the most powerful of all things, is the strongest friend of innocence. Once God’s life has been created in me through His redemption, I instantly recognize His right to absolute authority over me. It is a complete and effective domination. Having the reality of God’s presence is not dependent on our being in a particular circumstance or place, but is only dependent on our determination to keep the Lord before us continually. Our problems arise when we refuse to place our trust in the reality of His presence. If our everyday decisions are not according to His will, God will press through them, bringing restraint to our spirit. Then we must be quiet and wait for the direction of God’s presence. The known constitution and course of things is what is said to be the moral system of nature. A very sublime and grand thing is Truth, in its way, through like other sublime and grand things, such as thunderstorms and that, we are not always over and above glad to see it. The acknowledged dispensations of Providence is the (natural) government which we find ourselves under. Religion teaches us to believe and expect. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
If we begin by assuming that the existence of nature implies an operating agent, then the good and bad consequences of our actions occur by His appointment. Any foresight we have of the consequences of our actions is a warning given by him on how we are to act. The satisfaction we feel at certain consequences, and the pain we suffer at others, are ordained by God and are signs that we are already under his government. Thus, a consideration of nature alone shows that we must acknowledge the place of God in our lives. Hence, if Christian doctrines really are revealed truths, our discoveries in nature have already prepared us to accept the main claims of revelation about God as a creator and judge. We must treat the detail with patience and respect. From the assumption that nature implies an operating agent, it seems clear that these arguments are not intended to appeal to religious skeptics. At best, we hope to convince deists, who already acknowledged the existence of a god, that their convictions might reasonably lead them to accept Christianity. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
At the very least, the goal we expect to make is for deists acknowledge Christianity’s right to be treated as a subject worthy of serious discussion. In the Bible, clouds are always associated with God. Clouds are the sorrows, sufferings, or providential circumstances, within or without our personal lives, which actually seem to contradict the sovereignty of God. Yet, it is through these very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow, bereavement, and suffering are actually the clouds that come along with God! If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. God is not working toward a particular finish—His purpose is the process itself. It is the process, not the outcome, that is glorifying to God. There is a clear distinction between demonstrative reasoning and probable reasoning by pointing out the probability admits of degrees, while demonstration does not. A slight presumption in favor of a thing does not make it probably true. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
However, the slightest possible presumption is, nonetheless, of the nature of probability, for such low presumption, often repeated, will amount even to moral certainty. Thus, a human having observed the ebb and flow of the tide today, affords some sort of presumption, though the lowest imaginable, that it may happen again tomorrow: but the observation of this even for so many days, and months and ages together, as it has been observed by human kind, gives us a full assurance that it will. While an infinite intelligence must see everything as certainly true or certainly false, for us, with our limited capacities, probability is the very guide of life. In the consideration of the acquisition and practice of moral virtues, knowledge and habit are of the greatest interest. Perceptions come into our minds readily and of course, by means of there having been there before; and this reappearance of perceptions seems a thing of the same sort as readiness in any particular kind of action, proceeding from being accustomed to it. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
One of our habits of perception is our constant and even involuntary readiness in correcting the impressions of our sight concerning magnitude and distances, so as to substitute judgment in the room of sensation imperceptibly to ourselves. It seems as if all other associations of ideas not naturally connected might be called passive habits. (A natural connection of ideas would be, for example, flame and fire.) In this discussion of a future life, there is probability that the mind may be separable from the body. Hence, death may have no effect on the mind because the soul comes enriched with knowledge. What is worship? —to do the will of God—that is worship. And what is the will of God?—to do to my fellow humans what I would have my fellow humans do to me—that is the will of God. Do not overlook what we are really interested in: not an identity of acts of consciousness, but an identity of the object of which we are conscious—ourselves. Of this identity, we can be as certain as we are of the identity of any other thing. Anyone who asks for a greater certainty of personal identity than this wishes for something which the subject will not admit. Nothing in the newspapers is ever true and that is why they are so popular; the taste of the age being so decidedly for fiction. The way of all flesh. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
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Inevitable March of the World Spirit
I hope there are not many in this World to whom the thought of honor being tied to money ever appears possible. It was not merely that works of art and culture provide the historian with the most fertile material for the interpretation of previous phases of human experience; history itself is (or should be) a form of art. The mechanical piling up of the results of specialized research, dear to scientific historians, is not enough; there must also be intuition, an imaginative ability to re-create the vision of life underlying the relics left by former times. To see the past in these terms is to see it as the expression of the inexhaustible creative power of the human mind—great individuals, great artistic achievements, great moments of civilization, all exemplified in different ways its potentialities. Scholarship, painstaking investigation, were indeed essential, but they must be properly used and directed. Only thus could a particular source or authority throw light on the character of a person, the significance of a style, the pervasive atmosphere of a period. Ultimately, the subject of historical study is humans themselves, not the hypostatized abstractions of the philosophers of history. The historical process follows a fixed and predetermined course, betrayed a fundamental blindness to its most striking feature, the revelation of individual originality and creativity. Likewise, their astrological impatience to set the limits to its future by talk of the World plans and metaphysical goals are not only unwarranted, it failed to respect the very conditions of uncertainty and suspense that make human achievement possible. From this point of view, and insofar as the development of humankind is concerned, a future known in advance is an absurdity. The tide of historical speculation is starting to recede. Philosophers, rather than continuing to offer sweeping interpretations of the human past, have turned their attention toward examining the distinctive characteristics of historical thought and inquiry, with prophetic insights displaying in their analysis of contemporary trends the many subtle and individual observations.
When they depict the Universe, they draw a serpent devouring its own tail, marked with variegated scales. By the scales, they suggest the stars in Heavens. This beast is the heaviest of the animals, as the Earth is heaviest [of elements]. It is the smoothest, like water. And each year it sheds its skin, it [represents old age]. However, the fact that it uses its own body for food signifies that whatever things are generated in the World by Divine Providence are received back into it by [a gradual process of] diminution. Names are a special form of complex signs. A demon’s name is sometimes meaningful in a simple sense, that sometimes names of spirits are taken from those things over which they are set, being as it were borrowed from the stars, or humans, or places, or times, or such like things, the divine name. For example, Zedekiel is one name of the spirit of Jupiter, from the Hebrew name of Jupiter zedek, or if we call them [these demons] from the Latin words…Joviel. Names have a singular referent—a demonic names refer only to a single demon. At the same time, written names are aggregates, combinations of basic written forms to make up complex, representative structures. Moreover, names were impressed upon objects by Adam, and hence have an arbitrary symbolic character not dependent on the characters or elements of which they are constituted. Adam’s function as nomothete is well known, but it is crucial to recognize the relationship between Adam’s naming and the Divine nominative function. As the great operator doth produce divers species, and particular things by the influences of the Heavens, and by the elements, together with the virtues of planets; so according to the properties of the influences proper names result to things, and are put upon them by hum who numbers the multitude of the stars, calling them by their names, of which names Christ in another place speaks, saying, Your names are written in Heaven.
Adam therefore that gave the first names to things, gave them all names influences of the Heavens, and propertites of all things, gave them names according to their natures, as it is written in Genesis, where God brought all things that he had created before Adam, that he should name them, and as he named anything, so the name of it was, which names indeed contain in them wonderful powers of things signified. Every voice therefore that is significant, first of all signifies by the influence of the celestial harmony; secondly, by the imposition of humans…However when both significations meet in any voice or name, which are put upon them by the said harmony or human, then that name is with a double virtue, viz. natural, and arbitrary, made most efficacious to act, as oft as it shall be uttered in due place, and time, and seriously with an intention exercised upon the matter rightly disposed, and that can naturally be acted upon by it. Therefore, names like signs in general, can be doubly powerful if they combine natural and arbitrary modes of signification. For Ancient Egyptians, the divine nature of the Universe was manifested in a multitude of ways. The process of syncretism, by which two or more deities were combined to form a single cult, was also central to religion in Ancient Egypt. Two of the most important deities, Amun and Ra, for example, were fused to create Amun-Ra, the god of creation. Amun-Ra means hidden light. He is the ultimate god of the entire Ancient Egypt; man of the Egyptians considered him as the God of Kings and King of Gods! He is the oldest and the most worshiped ruler of ancient Egypt. In the Ptolemaic Period (332-30 BC), Greek gods Zeus and Helios with Osiris and Apis, perhaps in a move towards political and cultural unity.
The Ancient Egyptians worshiped a number of gods and goddesses, each of whom had different roles or functions, as well as a variety of creations myths. In keeping with the complex and varied nature of their religion, the Ancient Egyptians had several theories of the creation of the Universe. These creation myths evolved in the country’s major cult centres and usually concentrated on the role played by local gods. Ancient Egyptian theology rarely engages with the notion of the end of existence. Where it is mentioned, it is imagined as an apocalyptic destruction followed by a return to the state of the Universe before time began, in which only the gods Atum and Osiris survive. Along with the Sun god, Ra, Osiris, the primary god of the dead, was one of the most important deities in the pantheon. In Ancient Egyptian mythology, Osiris was killed by his evil brother Seth, and his dismembered body was mummified and resurrected by his wife, the Goddess Isis. During the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BC), the deceased pharaoh was identified with Osiris and was believed to experience rebirth in the same way that the murdered god did. During the First Intermediate period (2181-2055 BC), however, it seems that it became possible for commoners to be resurrected in the manner of Osiris, as a sort of ‘democratization of the afterlife’ took place. Mummification was designed to make the deceased resemble Osiris as much as possible, in the hope that this would ensure eternal life in the underworld. Osiris presided over the weighing of the Heart ceremony in the afterlife. In this ritual, the deceased made the negative confession, swearing that they had not committed any of a list of offences, then their heart was weighed against the feather of Maat, symbol of truth and harmony. Osiris judged the results of the ritual and was responsible for deciding whether the deceased was worthy of resurrection.
The Winchester Mystery House
Meet talkative ghosts at The Winchester Mystery House and learn the heartwarming story of a child ghost who lingers with today’s patrons. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Randolph Harris II International Institute 