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Love is Full of as Many Mysteries as the Winchester Mansion, it Can be Beautiful and Bizarre!

ImageHow far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty World. Why then the World is mine oyster, which I with sword will open. How beautiful it is to be in love; how interesting it is to know that one is in love. This, you see, is the difference. I can become furious at the thought that she disappeared before me the second time, and ye in a certain sense I am glad of it. The image I have of her hovers indefinitely somewhere between her actual and her ideal form. I now have this image before me, but precisely because either it is actuality or actuality is indeed the occasion, it had a singular magic. I feel no impatience, for she must live here in the city, and at this moment that is enough for me. This possibility is the condition for the proper appearance of her image—everything will enjoyed in slow drafts. And should I not be calm—I, who can regard myself as a favourite of the gods, I, whose lot was the rare good fortune of falling in love again. This is something that cannot be elicited by skill or study—I is a gift. However, if I have succeeded in stirring up an erotic love again, I do want to see how long it can be sustained. I coddle this love as I never did my first. The opportunity falls to one’s lot rarely enough—therefore the point is truly to utilize it if it does come along, for it is dismaying that it is no art to seduce a young lady but it is a stroke of good fortune to find one who is worth seducing. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

Image Love is full of as many mysteries as the Winchester mansion, it can be beautiful and bizarre, and this falling in love is also a mystery, even though a minor one. Most people rush ahead, become engaged or do other unwise things, and in a turn of hand everything is over, and they know neither what they have won nor what they have lost. Two times she has appeared before me and has disappeared; that means she will appear more often. When Joseph had interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, he added: But the fact that you dreamed twice means that it will be fulfilled soon. Yet, if one could discern somewhat ahead of time the forces whose emergence forms the content of life, it would be interesting. At present she is living in all her tranquil peace; she does not have even an inkling of my existence, even less of what is going on within me, to say nothing of the assurance with which I gaze into her future, for my soul is demanding more and more actuality, and it is becoming stronger and stronger. If at first sight a young lady does no make such a deep impression on a person that she awakens the ideal, then ordinarily the actuality is not especially desirable; but if she does, then no matter how experienced a person is he usually is rather overwhelmed. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

ImageI always advise the person who is not sure of one’s hand, his eye, and his victory to venture the attack in this first state, in which, precisely because he is overwhelmed, he has supranatural powers—for being overwhelmed is a curious mixture of sympathy and egotism. He will, however, miss out on an enjoyment, for he does not enjoy the situation since he himself is wrapped up in it, hidden in it. Which the more beautiful is difficult to decide—which is the more beautiful is difficult to decide—which is the more interesting is easy. It is, however, always best to come as close as possible to the line. This is the real enjoyment, and what others enjoy I do not know for sure. Mere possession is very little, and the means such lovers use are usually paltry enough; they do not even reject money, power, alien influence, sleeping positions, excreta. However, what pleasure is there in live if absolute is not intrinsic to it, that is, from the one side—but ordinarily that takes spirit, and such lovers generally do not have that. I am not alone in seeing such an actualizing tendency as the fundamental answer to the question of what makes an organism “tick.” This tendency involves a development toward the differentiation of organs and functions; it involves enhancement through reproduction. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

ImageSzent-Gyoergyi says that he cannot explain the mysteries of biological development without supposing an innate drive in living matter to perfect itself. The organism, in its normal state, moves toward its own fulfillment, toward self-regulation and an independence from external control. However, is this view confirmed by other evidence? Let me point to some of the work in biology that supports the concept of the actualizing tendency. One example, replicated with different species, is the work of Hans Driesch with the sea urchins many years ago. Driesch learned how to tease apart the two cells that are formed after the first division of the fertilized egg. Had they been left to develop normally, it is clear that each of these two cells would have grown into a portion of a sea urchin larva, the contributions of both being needed o form a whole creature. So it seems equally obvious that when two cells are skillfully separated, each, if it grows, will simply develop into some portion of a sea urchin. However, this assumption overlooks the directional growth. It is found that each cell, if it can be kept alive, now develops into a whole sea urchin larva—a bit smaller than usual, but normal and complete. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

ImageI have chosen this example because it seems so closely analogous to my experience in dealing with individuals one-to-one therapeutic relationships, in facilitating intensive groups, in providing freedom to learn for students in classes. In these situations, I am most impressed with the fact that each human being has a directional tendency toward wholes, toward actualization of one’s potentialities. I have not found psychotherapy or a group experience effective when I have tried to create in another individual something that is not already there; I have found, however, that if I can provide the conditions that allow growth to occur, then this positive directional tendency brings about constructive results. The scientist with the divided sea urchin egg was in the same situation. He could not cause the cell to develop in one way or another, but when he focused his skill on providing the conditions that permitted the cell to survive and grow, the tendency for growth and the direction of growth were evident, and came from within the organism. I cannot think of a better analogy for therapy or the group experience, where, if I can supply a psychological amniotic fluid, forward movement of a constructive sort will occur. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

ImageI would like to add one comment which may be clarifying. Sometimes this growth tendency is spoken of as though it involved the development of all the potentialities of the organism. This is clearly not true. As one of my colleagues pointed out, the organism does not tend toward developing its capacity for nausea, nor does it actualize it potentiality for self-destruction, nor its ability to bear pain. Only under unusual or perverse circumstances do these potentialities become actualized. It is clear that the actualizing tendency is selective and directional—a constructive tendency, if you will. Those who favour the view of an actualizing tendency does not need to be inhibited by the belief that it is in conflict with modern science or theories of knowledge. It is now theorized that the genetic code necessary to specify the characteristics of the mature organism. Instead, it contains a set of roles determining the interactions of the dividing cells. Much less information is needed to codify the rules than to guide every aspect of maturing development. Thus information can be generated within the organism system—information can grow. Hence, Driesch’s sea urchin cells are doubtless following the coded rules and, consequently, are able to develop in original, not previously or rigidly specified ways. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

ImageAll this goes deeply against the current (and possibly outdated) epistemology of the social sciences, which holds that a cause is followed in a one-way direction by an effect. In contrast, Murayama and others believe that there are mutual cause-effect interactions which amplify deviations and permit new information and new forms to develop. This morphogenetic epistemology appears to be basic to understanding of all living systems, including all growth processes in organisms. Murayama states that an understanding of biology “lies in the recognition that biological processes are reciprocal causal processes, not random processes.” On the other hand, as he points out elsewhere, an understanding of biology does not emerge from an epistemology based on one-way cause-effect systems. Thus, there is great need to rethink the stimulus-response, cause-effect basis on which most of social science rests. The work in the field of sensory deprivation shows how strong is the organismic tendency to amplify diversities and create new information and new forms. Certainly, tension reduction, or the absence of stimulation, is a far cry from being the desired state of the organism. Dr. Freud could not have been more wrong in his postulate that “The nervous system is an apparatus which would even, if this were feasible, maintain itself in an altogether unstimulated condition.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

ImageOn the contrary, when deprived of external stimuli, the human organism produces a flood of internal stimuli, sometimes of the most bizarre sort. Lilly was one of the first to tell of his experiences when suspended weightless in a soundproof tank of water. He speaks of trancelike states, mystical experiences, the sense of being tuned in on communication networks no available to ordinary consciousness, and ever experiences that can only be called hallucinatory. It is very clear that when a person is receiving an absolute minimum of external stimuli, one is opened to a flood of experiencing at a level far beyond that of everyday living. The individual most certainly does not lapse into homeostasis, into a passive equilibrium. This occurs only in diseased organisms. Thus, to me it is meaningful to say that the substratum of all motivation is the organismic tendency toward fulfillment. This tendency may express itself in the widest range of behaviours and in response to a wide variety of needs. To be sure, certain basic wants must be at least partially met before other needs become urgent. Consequently, the tendency of the organism to actualize itself may at one moment lead to the seeking of food or satisfaction in pleasures of the flesh, and yet, unless these needs are overpoweringly great, even these satisfactions will be sought in ways that enhance, rather than diminish, self-esteem. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

ImageAnd the organism will also seek other fulfillment in its transactions with the environment. The need for exploration of and producing change in the environment, the need for play and for self-exploration—all of these and many other behaviours are basically expressions of the actualizing tendency. In short, organisms are always seeking, always initiating always “up to something.” There is one central source of energy in the human organism. This source is a trustworthy function of the whole system rather than of some portion of it; it is most simply conceptualized as a tendency toward fulfillment, toward actualization, involving not only the maintenance but also the enhancement of the organism. There are many who criticize this point of view. They regard it as too optimistic, not dealing adequately with the negative element, the evil, the dark side in human beings. Consequently, I would like to put this directional tendency in a broader context. There appears to be a formative tendency at work in the Universe, which can be observed at every level. This tendency has received much less attention than it deserves. Physical scientists up to now have focused primarily on “entropy,” the tendency toward deterioration, or disorder. They know a great deal about this tendency. Studying closed systems, they can give it a clear mathematical description. They know that order tends to deteriorate into randomness, each stage les organized than the last. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

ImageWe are also very familiar with deterioration in organic life. The system—whether plant, animal, or human—eventually deteriorates into a lesser and lesser degree of functioning organization, or order, until decay reaches a stasis. In one sense, this is what one aspect of medicine is all about—a concern with the malfunctioning or deterioration of an organ or the organism as a whole. The complex process of death of the physical organism is increasingly well understood. So a great deal is known of the universal tendency of systems at all levels to deteriorate in the direction of less and less orderliness, more and more randomness. When this system operates, it is a one-way street: the World seems to be a great machine, running down and wearing out. However, there is far less recognition of, or emphasis on, the even more important formative tendency which can be equally well observed at every level of the Universe. After all, every form that we see or know emerged from a simpler, less complex form. This is a phenomenon which is at leas as significant as entropy. Examples could be given from every form of inorganic or organic being. Let me illustrate with just a few. In appears that every galaxy, every star, every planet, including our own, was formed from a less organized whirling storm of particles. Many of these stellar objects are themselves formative. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

ImageIn the atmosphere of our Sun, hydrogen nuclei collide to form molecules of helium, which are more complex in nature. It is hypothesized that in other stars, even heavier molecules are formed by such interactions. I understand that when the simple materials of the Earth’s atmosphere which were present before life began—hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, in the form of water and ammonia—are infused by electrical charges or by radiation, heavier molecules begin to form first, followed by the more complex amnio acids. We seem only a step away from the formation of viruses and the even more complex living organisms. A creative, not disintegrative process, is at work. Another fascinating example is the formation of crystals. In every case, from less ordered and less symmetrical fluid matter there emerges the startlingly unique, ordered symmetrical and often beautiful crystalline form. All of us have marveled at the perfection and complexity of the snowflake. Yet it emerged from formless vapour. When we consider the single living cell, we discover that it often forms more complex colonies, as in coral reefs. Even more order enters the picture as the cell emerges into an organism of many cells with specialized functions. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

ImageI do not need to portray the whole gradual process of organic evolution. We are all familiar with the steadily increasing complexity of organisms. They are not always successful in their ability to cope with the changing environment, but the trend toward complexity is always evident. Perhaps, for most of us, the process of organic evolution is best recognized as we consider the development of the single fertilized human ovum through the simplest stages of cell division, then the aquatic gill stage, and on to the vastly complex, highly organized human infant. There is a manifest and increasing order in evolution. Thus, without ignoring the tendency toward deterioration, we need to recognize fully what Szent-Gyoergyi terms “syntropy” and what Whyte calls the “morphic tendency,” the ever operating trend toward increase order and interrelated complexity evident at both the inorganic and the organic level. The Universe is always building and creating as well as deteriorating. This process is evident in the human being, too. The Nephite monetary system is set forth—Amulek contends with Zeezrom—Christ will not save people in their sins—only those who inherit the kingdom of Heaven are saved—all humans will rise in immortality—there is no death after the Resurrection. About 82 Before Christ. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

Image“Now it was in the law of Mosiah that every human who was a judge of the law, or those who were appointed to be judges, should receive wages according to the time which they laboured to judge those who were brought before them to be judged. Now, if a human owed another, and one would not pay that which one did owe, one was complained of to the judge; and the judge executed authority, and sent forth officers that the human should be brought before him; and he judged the man according to the law and the evidences which were brought against him, and thus the man was compelled to pay that which he owed, or be stripped, or be cast out from among the people as a thief and a robber. And the judges received from one’s wages according to one’s time—a senine of gold; and this is according to the law which was given. Now these are the names of the different pieces of their gold, and of their silver, according to their value. And the names are given by the Nephites, for they did not reckon after the manner of the Jews who were at Jerusalem; neither did they measure after the manner of the Jews; but they altered their reckoning and their measure, according to the minds and the circumstances of the people, in every generation, until the reign of the judges, they having been established by king Mosiah. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

Image“Now the reckoning is thus—a senine of gold, a seon of gold, a shum of gold, and a limnah of gold. A senum of silver, an amnor of silver, an ezrom of silver, and an onti of silver. A senum of silver was equal to a senine of gol, and either for a measure of barely, and also for a measure of every kind of grain. Now the amount of a seon of gold was twice the value of a senine. And a shum of gold was twice the value of a seon. And a limnah of gold was the value of them all. And an amnor of silver was as great as four senums. And an onti was as great as them al. Now this is the value of the lesser numbers of their reckoning—a shibion is half of a senum; therefore, a shiblon for half a measure of barely. And a shiblum is a half of a shiblon. And a leah is the half of a shiblum. Now this their number, according to their reckoning. Now an antion of gold is equal to three shiblons. Now, it was for the sole purpose to get gain, because they received their wages according to heir employ, therefore, they did stir up the people to riotings, ad all manner of disturbances and wickedness, that they might have more employ, that they might get money according to the suits which were brought before them; therefore they did stir up the people against Alma and Amulek. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

Image“And this Zeezrom began to question Amulek, saying: Will ye answer me a few questions which I shall ask you? Now Zeezrom was a man who was expert in the devices of the devil, that he might destroy that which was good; therefore, he said unto Amulek: Will ye answer the questions which I shall put unto you? And Amulek said unto him: Yea, if it be according to the Spirit of the Lord, which is in me; for I shall say nothing which is contrary to the Spirit of the Lord. And Zeezrom said unto him: Behold, here are six onties of silver, and all these I will give thee if thou wilt deny the existence of a Supreme Being. Now Amulek said: O thou child of hell, why tempt ye me? Knowest thou that the righteous yieldeth to no such temptations? Believest thou that there is no God? I say unto you, Nay, thou knowest that there is a God, but thou lovest that lucre more than him. And now thou hast lied before God unto me. Thou sadist unto me—Behold these six onties which are of great worth, I will give unto thee—when thou hadest it in thy heart to retain them from me; and it was only thy desire that I should deny the true and living God, that thou mightest have cause to destroy me. And now behold, for this great evil thou shalt have they reward. And Zeezrom said unto him: Thou sayest there is a true and living God? #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

Image“And Amulek said: Yea, there is a true and living God. Now Zeezrom said: Is there more than one God? And I answered, No. Now Zeezrom said unto him again: How knows thou these things? And he said: An angel hath made them known uno me. And Zeerom said again: Who is he that shall come? Is it the Son of God? And he said unto him, Yea. And Zeezrom said again: Shall he save his people in their sins? And Amulek answered and said unto him: I say unto you he shall not, for it is impossible for him to deny his word. Now Zeezrom said unto the people: See that ye remember these things; for he said there is but one God; yet he saith that the Son of God shall come, but he shall not save his people—as though he had authority to command God. Now Amulek saith again unto him: Behold thou hast lied, for thou sayest that I spake as though I had authority to command God because I said he shall not save his people in their sins. And I say unto you again that he cannot save them in their sins; for I cannot deny his word, and he hath said that no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of Heaven; therefore, how can ye be saved, except ye inherit the kingdom of Heaven? Therefore, ye cannot be saved in your sins. Now Zeezrom saith again unto him: Is the Son of God the very Eternal Father? #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

Image“And Amulek said unto him: Yea, he is the very Eternal Father of Heaven and of Earth, and all things which in them are; he is the beginning and the end, the first and the last; and he shall come into the World to redeem his people; and he shall take upon him the transgressions of those who believe on his name; and these are they that shall have eternal life, and salvation cometh to none else. Therefore the wicked remain as though there had been no redemption made, expect it be the loosing of the bands of death; for behold, the day cometh that all shall rise from the dead and stand before God, and be judged according to their works. Now, there is a death which is called a temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death. The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and join shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time; and we shall be brought to stand before God, knowing even as we know now, and have a bright recollection of all our guilt. Now, this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and even so much as a hair of their heads be lost. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

Image“However, every thing shall be restored to its perfect frame, as it is now, or in the body, and shall be brought and be arraigned before the bar of Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God, to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil. Now, behold, I have spoken unto you concerning the death of the mortal body, and also concerning the resurrection of the mortal body. I say unto you that this mortal body is raised to an immortal body, that is from death, even from the first death unto life, that they can die no more; their spirits uniting with their bodies, never to be divided; thus the whole becoming spiritual and immortal, that they can no more see corruption. Now, when Amulek had finished these words the people began again to be astonished, and also Zeezrom began to tremble. And thus ended the words of Amulek, or this is all that I have written,” reports Alma 11.1-46. Sovereign Lord, Thy will is supreme in Heaven and Earth, and all beings are creatures of Thy power. Thou art the Father of our spirits; Thy inspiration gives us understanding, Thy providence governs our lives. However, O God, we are sinners in Thy sight; thou hast judged us so, and if we deny it we make Thee a liar. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

ImageYet in Christ Thou art reconciled to Thy rebellious subjects; please give us the ear of faith to hear him, the eye of faith to see him, the hand of faith to receive him, the appetite of faith to feed upon him; that we might find him light, riches, honour, eternal life. Thou art the inviting one, may we hearken to Thee; the almighty instructor, teach us to live to Thee; the light-dweller, inaccessible to humans and angels, hiding Thyself behind the elements of creation, but known to us in Jesus; possess our minds with the grandeur of Thy perfections. Thy love to us in Jesus is firm and changeless, nothing can separate us from it, and in the enjoyment of it nothing can make us miserable. Preserve us from hypocrisy and formality in religion; enable us to remember what thou art and what we are, to recall Thy holiness and our unworthiness; help us to approach Thee clothed with humility, for vanity, forwardness, insensibility, disorderly affection, backwardness to duty, proneness to evil are in our hearts. Let us never forget Thy patience, wisdom, power, faithfulness, care, and never cease to respond to Thy invitations. O LORD GOD, there is no blessing we implore but Thou art able to give hast promised to give, hast given already to countless multitudes, all unworthy and guilty like ourselves; make us willing to receive the supply of our need from Thy bounty. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19Image

 

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Just because 2020 had other plans, does not mean you have to! Check out today’s blog post for socially distant outdoor activities to pass the time with this summer. ☀️ Link in bio. https://cresleigh.com/blog/

ImageFor your bounty, to this end, please convince us of sin, soften our hard hearts, to bewail our folly, ingratitude, pride, unbelief, rebellion, corruption. Through the law may we die to the law, then look with wonder, submission, delight, to the provision Thou hast made for the glory of Thy name in the salvation of sinners. Please give us a hope that makes us not ashamed, a love that excites to holy obedience, a joy in Thee that is our strength, a faith in Thy Son who loved us and died for us. May we preserve in duty when not fully conscious of Thee, wait upon Thee and keep Thy way, be humble and earnest suppliants at Thy feet, live continually as on the brink of eternity. #CresleighHomes

ImagePlease let us be at Thy disposal for the duties and evens of life, submit our preferences to Thy wisdom and will, resign our enjoyments if Thou shouldest require it as our absolute Proprietor and best Friend. In our unworthiness and provocations please make us grateful for the means of grace ad the ordinances of religion and please teach us to profit by them more than we have done. Please help us to be in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, to enter upon the sabbath mindful of its solemnities, duties, privileges, setting all things Worldly aside while we worship Thee. May we know the blessedness of humans whose strength is in Thee, and in whose hearts are the highway to Heaven.

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If there was More Rest for Souls in Our World, this Temple be as in the Hearts of the People for whom Saved the Union!

ImagePerhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind. In the case of the son, the projection-making factor is identical with the mother-imago, and this is consequently taken to be the real mother. The projection can only be dissolved when the son sees that in the realm of his psyche there is an imago not only of the mother but of the daughter, the sister, the beloved, the Heavenly goddess, and the chthonic Baubo. Every mother and every beloved is forced to become the carrier and embodiment of this omnipresent and ageless image, which corresponds to the deepest reality in a man. It belongs to him, this perilous image of Woman; she stands for the loyalty which is in the interests of life he must sometimes forgo; she is the much needed compensation for the risk, struggles, sacrifices that all end in disappointment; she is the solace for all the bitterness of life. And, at the same time, she is the great illusionist, the seductress, who draw him into life with her Maya—and not only into life’s reasonable and useful aspects, but into its frightful paradoxes and ambivalences where good and evil, success and ruin, hope and despair, counterbalance one another. Because she is his greatest danger she demands from a man his greatest, and if he has it in him she will receive it. #RandolphHarris 1 of 26

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This image is “My Lady Soul,” as Spitteler called her. I have suggested instead of the term “anima,” as indicating something specific, for which the expression “soul” is too general and too vague. The empirical reality summed up under the concept of the anima forms and extremely dramatic content of the unconscious. It is possible to describe this content in rational, scientific language, but in this way one entirely fails to express its living character. Therefore, in describing the living processes of the psyche, I deliberately and consciously give preference to a dramatic, mythological way of thinking and speaking, because this is not only more expressive but also more exact than an abstract scientific terminology, which is wont to toy with the notion that its theoretic formulations may one fine day be resolved into algebraic equations. The projection-making factor is the anima, or rather the unconscious as represented by the anima. Whenever she appears, in dreams, visions, and fantasies, she takes on personified form, thus demonstrating that the factor she embodies possesses all the outstanding characteristics of a feminine being. She is not an invention of the conscious, but a spontaneous product of the unconscious. Nor is she a substitute figure for the mother. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26

ImageOn the contrary, there is every likelihood that the numinous qualities which make the mother-image so dangerously powerful derive from the collective archetype of the anima, which is incarnated anew in every male child. Since the anima is an archetype that is found in men, it is reasonable to suppose that an equivalent archetype must be present in women; for just as the man is compensated by a feminine element, so woman is compensated by a masculine one. I do not, however, wish this argument to give the impression that these compensatory relationships were arrived a by deduction. On the contrary, long and varied experience was needed in order to grasp the nature of anima and animus empirically. Whatever we have to say about these archetypes, therefore, is either directly verifiable or at least rendered probable by the facts. At the same time, I am fully aware that we are discussing pioneer work which by its very nature can only be provisional. Just as the mother seems to be the first carrier of the projection-making factor for the son, so is the father for the daughter. Practical experience of these relationships is made up of many individual cases presenting all kinds of variations on the same basic theme. A concise description of them can, therefore, be no more than schematic. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26

ImageWoman is compensated by a masculine element and therefore her unconscious has, so to speak, a masculine imprint. This results in a considerable psychological difference between men and women, and accordingly I have called the projection-making factor in women the animus, which means mind or spirit. The animus corresponds to the paternal Logos just as the anima corresponds to the maternal Eros. However, I do not wish or intend to give these two intuitive concepts to specific a definition. I use Eros and Logos merely as conceptual assistants to describe the fact that women’s consciousness is characterized more by the connective quality of Eros than by the discrimination and cognition associates with Logos. In men, Eros, the function of relation, is usually less developed then Logos. In women, on the other hand, Eros is an expression of their true nature, while their Logos is often only a regrettable accident. It gives rise to misunderstandings and annoying interpretations in the family circle and among friends. This is because it consists of opinions instead of reflections, and by opinions I mean a priori assumptions that lay claim to absolute truth. Such assumptions, as everyone knows, can be extremely irritating. As the animus is partial to argument, one can best be seen a work in disputes were both parties know they are right. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26

ImageMen can argue in a very womanish way, too, when they are anima-possessed and have thus been transformed into the animus of their own anima. With them the question becomes one of personal vanity and touchiness (as if they were females); with women it is a question of power, whether of truth or justice or some other “ism”—for the dressmaker and hairdresser have already taken care of their vanity. The “Father” (id est, the sum of conventional opinions) always plays a great role in female argumentation. No matter how friendly and obliging a woman’s Eros may be, no logic on Earth can shake her if she is ridden by the animus. Often the man has the feeling—and he is not altogether wrong—that he cannot use legal means of persuasion. He is unaware that this highly dramatic situation would instantly come to a banal and unexciting end if he were to quit the field and let a second woman carry on the battle (his wife, for instance, if she herself is not they fiery war horse). This sounds idea seldom or never occurs to him, because no man can converse with an animus for five minutes without becoming the victim of one’s own anima. Anyone who still had enough sense of humour to listen objectively to the ensuing dialogue would be staggered by the vast number of commonplaces, misapplied truisms, clichés from newspapers and novels, shop-soiled platitudes of every description interspersed with vulgar abuse and brain-splitting lack of logic. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26

ImageIt is a dialogue which, irrespective of its participants, is repeated millions and millions of times in all the languages of the World and always remains essentially the same. This singular fact is due to the following circumstances: when animus and anima meet, the animus draws his sword of power and the anima ejects her poison of illusion and seduction. The outcome need not always be negative, since the two are equally likely to fall in love (a special instance of love at first sight). The language of love is of astonishing uniformity, using the well-worn formulas with the utmost devotion and fidelity, so that once again the two partners find themselves in a banal collective situation. Yet they live in the illusion that they are related to one another in a most individual way. In bot its positive and its negative aspects the anima/animus relationship is always full of “animosity,” id est, it is emotional, and hence collective. Affects lower the level of the relationship and bring it closer to the common instinctual basis, which no longer has anything individual about it. Very often the relationship runs its course heedless of its human performers, who afterwards do not know what happened to them. Whereas the clouds of “animosity” surround the man is composed chiefly of sentimentality and resentment, in woman it expresses itself in the form of opinionated views, interpretations, insinuation, and misconstructions, which all have purpose (sometimes attained) of severing the relations between two human beings. #RandolphHarris 6 of 26

ImageThe woman, like the man, becomes wrapped in a veil of illusions by her demon-familiar, and, as the daughter who alone understands her father (that is, is eternally right in everything), she is translated to the land of sheep, where she is put to graze by the shepherd of her soul, the animus. In talking of imagination when it presents its images in the present, we may consider what the imagination is doing in parabolic poetry. It was seen at work in the fable, similitude, and parable. In these manifestations of inventive activity, the imagination seems to function for the human being in the same way it functions for the divine spirit. It makes tangible that which is intangible. This kind of operation gives to parabolic poetry a higher character, and an appearance of something sacred and venerable. This sort of poetry is thus coloured because religion itself commonly uses its assistance as a means of communication between divinity and humanity. Here, then, with the case of divine communication before us, we find imagination manifested in poetry in two ways. First, one duty of poetry is to teach. This is could do only if imagination illustrates the work of reason. In olden times, particularly, the inventions and conclusions of human reason (even those that are now common and trite) being then new and strange, the minds of humans were hardly subtle enough to conceive them, unless they are brought nearer to the sense by this kind of resemblances and examples. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26

ImageAnd hence ancient times are full of all kinds of fables, parables, enigmas, and similitudes; as may appear by the numbers of Pythagoras the enigmas of the Sphinx, the fables of Plato, and the like. So parables are before arguments, and the force of them is still excellent because arguments cannot be made so perspicuous nor true examples so apt. So it is that the imagination translates the abstractions of understanding and reason into images. Not only does reason become palpable, but through the inventive activity of imagination it is made fitting for an audience. The second office of poetry was that of infoldment or all allusion, when the object is not to teach plainly but to teach darkly, when the secrets and mysteries of religion, policy, and philosophy are involved in fables or parables. Between 1605, the publication of The Advancement of Learning, and 1623, the appearance of De Augmentis Scientiarum, we acquired greater respect for mysteries than we had earlier. In 1609 we devoted great care to the explication of thirty-one fables of antiquity, and much later we greatly enlarged thee of them—Pan, Perseus, and Dionysius—which served us as illustrations of three of our major divisions of philosophy: natural philosophy, politics, and ethics. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26

ImageFables revealed the earliest of human mysteries, extending back in time far beyond their narrators—exempli gratia, Homer and Hesiod—and by implication they bodied forth the shadows of human’s primitive imagination. Indeed, in the parable here is invented the figure to shadow the meaning. Imagination also made absent things present at those times when it was allied with reason in a distinctly creative function. The unique cooperation with reason appears to have assigned only to the province of rhetoric as the practical art of communication via both speech and written word. It is true, as we have seen, that in poetry imagination joined with reason to produce inventions and that it gave substance to things abstract. However, in its poetic activity is could at times indulge in play; it could join and sever natural experience in unnatural ways, and escape the strictest rules of reason. In rhetoric, on the other hand, imagination worked with reason in strictly rational ways. It engaged in joint creation with reason yet it had to obey the dictates of reason. The duty and office of Rhetoric is to apply Reason to Imagination for the better moving of the Will. Rhetoric is one of the rational arts and imagination is to serve it. Rhetoric is subservient to the imagination, as Logic is to the understanding; and the duty and office of Rhetoric, if it be deeply looked into, is no other than to apply and recommend the dictates of reason to imagination, in order to excite the appetite and Will. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26

ImageAccordingly, the subject of Rhetoric, is none other than the Imaginative or Insinuative Reason. Reason and imagination together created a credible object or an argument, and the effect was insinuative. In what manner there was insinuation we shall see later on. In the cooperation of imagination with reason, imagination was under the control of reason, and reason was not at the back and called of imagination. Such mastership was essential to rational life if reason through imagination were to command the will and affections: if the affections themselves were brought to order, and pliant and obedient to reason, it is true there would be no great use of persuasions and insinuation to give access to the mind, but naked and simple propositions would be enough. However, the affections do on the contrary make such secessions and raise such mutinies and seditions…that reasons would become captive and servile, if eloquence of persuasions did not win the imagination from the affections’ part, and contract a confederacy between the reason and imagination against them. Not only should the will and conduct be under a person’s voluntary control but the decisions and products of reason acting alone are ethereal abstractions, difficult or impossible for the common mind to cope with. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26

ImageWhat is necessary, if reason is to prevail, is to transform the abstract into the concrete, the immaterial into the material, the nonsensory into the sensory: it is the business of rhetoric to make pictures of virtue and goodness, so that they may be seen. For since they cannot be showed to the sense in corporeal shape, the next degree is to show them to the imagination in as lively representations as possible, by ornament of words. The method of the Stoics, who thought to thrust virtue upon people by concise and sharp maxims and conclusions to shew Reason only in subtility of argument, which has little sympathy with the imagination and will of humans, has been justly ridiculed. In working creatively with reason, what was imagination supposed to do? Doubtless there is no way of describing what is going on when imagination is working with reason. One can only be sure of the result. The nature of the operation itself can only be hinted at. The religious law demands that one accepts ideas and strict and ridge doctrines, that are believed to be the doctrines of salvation and traditions, the acceptance of which is the condition of one’s salvation from anxiety, despair, and death. So we try to accept them, although they sometimes may become strange or doubtful to us. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26

ImageWe labour and toil under the religious demand to believe things we cannot believe. This sometimes results in us trying to escape the law of religion. We try to cast away the heavy yoke of the doctrinal law imposed on us by Church authorities, orthodox teachers, pious parents, and fixed traditions. We become critical and sceptical. We cast away the yoke; but none can live in the emptiness of mere scepticism, and so we return to the old yoke in a kind of self-torturing fanaticism and try to impose it on other people, on our children or pupils. We are driven by an unconscious desire for revenge, because of the burden we have taken upon ourselves. Many families are disrupted by painful tragedies and many minds are broken by this attitude of parents, teachers and priests. Others unable to stand the emptiness of scepticism, find new yokes outside the Church, new doctrinal laws under which they begin to labour: political ideologies which they propagate with religious fanaticism; scientific theories which they defend with strict religious doctrines and covenants; and utopian expectations they pronounce as the condition of salvation for the World, forcing whole nations under the yoke of their creeds which are religions, even while they pretend to destroy religion. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26

ImageWe are all labouring under the yoke of religion; we all, sometimes, try to throw away old or new doctrines or strict and rigid covenants, but after a little while we return, again enslaving ourselves and others in their servitude. The same is true of the practical laws of religion. They demand ritual activities, the participation in religious enterprises, and the study of religious traditions, prayer, sacraments, and meditations. They demand moral obedience, inhuman self-control and asceticism, devotion to humans and things beyond our possibilities, surrender to ideas and duties beyond our power, unlimited self-negation, and unlimited self-perfection: the religious law demands the perfect in all respects. And our conscience agrees with this demand. However, the split in our being is derived from just thus: that the perfect, although it is the truth, is beyond us, against us, judging and condemning us. So we try to throw away the ritual and moral demands. We neglect them, we hate them, we criticize them; some of us display a cynical indifference toward the religious and moral law. However, since mere cynicism is as impossible as mere scepticism, we return to old or new laws, becoming more fanatic than ever before, and take a yoke of the law upon us, which is more self-defying, more cruel against ourselves, and more willing to coerce other people under the same yoke in the name of the perfect. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26

ImageJesus Himself becomes for these perfectionists, puritans and moralists a teacher of the religious law putting upon us the heaviest of all burdens, the burden of His law. However, that is the greatest possible distortion of the mind of Jesus. This distortion can be found in the minds of those who crucified Him because He broke the religious law, not by fleeing from it like the cynical Sadducees, but by overcoming it. We are all permanently in danger of abusing Jesus by stating that e is the founder of a new religion, and bringer of another, more refined, and more enslaving law. And so we see in all Christian Churches the toiling and labouring of people who are called Christians, serious Christians, under innumerable laws which they cannot fulfill, from which they flee, to which they return, or which they replace by other laws. This is the yoke from which Jesus wants to liberate us. He is more than a priest or a prophet or a religious genius. These all subject us to religion. He frees us from religion. They all make new religious laws; He overcomes the religious law. “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me…for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” This does not indicate a quantitative difference—a little easier, a little lighter. It indicates a contradiction! #RandolphHarris 14 of 26

ImageThe yoke of Jesus is easy in itself, because it is above law, and replaces the toiling and labouring with rest in our souls. The yoke of religion and law presupposes all those splits and gaps in our souls which drive us to the attempt to overcome them. The yoke of Jesus is above those splits and gaps. It has overcome them whenever it appears and is received. It is not a new demand, a new doctrine or new power of transforming life. He calls it a yoke, He means that is comes from above and grasps us with saving force; if He calls it easy, He means that it is given before anything we can do. It is being, power, reality, conquering the anxiety and despair, the fear and the restlessness of our existence. It is here, amongst us, in the midst of our personal tragedy, and the tragedy of history. Suddenly, within the hardest struggle, it appears as a victory, not attained by ourselves, but present beyond expectation and struggle. Suddenly we are grasped by a peace which is above reason, that is, above our practical striving for the good. The true—namely, the truth of our life and of our existence—has grasped us. We know that now, in the moment, we are in the truth, in spite of all our ignorance about ourselves and our World. We have not become wiser and more understanding in any ordinary sense; we are still children in knowledge. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26

ImageHowever, the truth of life is in us, with an illuminating certainty, uniting us with ourselves, giving us great and restful happiness. And the good, the ultimate good, which is not good for something else, but good in itself, has grasped us. We know that now, in this moment, we are in the good, in spite of all our weakness an evil, in spite of the fragmentary and distorted character of our Self and the World. We have not become more moral or more saintly; we still belong to a World which is subject to evil and self-destruction. However, the good of life is in us, uniting us with the good of everything, giving us the blessed experience of universal love. If this should happen, and in such a measure, we should reach our eternity, the higher order and spiritual World to which we belong, and from which we are separated in our normal existence. We should be beyond ourselves. The new being would conquer us, although the old being would not disappear. Where can we feel his new reality? We cannot find it; but it can find us. It tries to find us during our whole life. It is in the World; it carries the World; and it is the cause of the fact that our Self and our World are not yet thrown into utter self-destruction. Although it is hidden under anxiety and despair, under finitude and tragedy, it is in everything, in souls and bodies, becomes everything derives life from it. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26

ImageThe new being means that the old being has not yet destroyed itself completely; that life is still possible; that our souls still gather force to go forward; and that the good and the true are not extinguished. It is present, and it will find us. Let us be found by it. It is stronger than the World, although it is quiet and meek and humble. That is the meaning of the call of Jesus, “Come unto Me.” For in Him this new being is present in such a way that it determines His life. That which is hidden in all things, that which appears to us sometimes in the great elevations of our soul, is the forming power of this life. It is the uniqueness and he mystery of His Being, the embodiment, the full appearance of the New Being. That is the reason that He can say words which no prophet or saint has ever said: that nobody knows God save Him and those who receive their knowledge through Him. These words certainly do not mean that He imposes a new theology or a new religious law upon us. They mean rather that He is the New Being in which everybody can participate, because it is universal and omnipresent. Why can He call Himself meek and lowly in heart after he has said words about His uniqueness, words that, in anyone else’s mouth, would be blasphemous arrogance? It is because the New Being that forms Him is not created by Him. He is created by it. It has found Him, as it must find us. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26

ImageAnd since His Being is not the result of His striving and labouring, and since it is not servitude to the religious law but rather victory over religion and law that makes His uniqueness, He does not impose religion and law, burdens and yokes, upon humans. If He called us o the Christian religion or to the Christian doctrines or to the Christian morals, we would turn down His call with hatred. If He gave us new commands for thinking and acting, we would not accept His claim to be meek and humble and to give rest to our souls. Jesus is not the creator of another religion, but the victor over religion; He is not the maker of another law, but the conqueror of law. We, the ministers and teachers of Christianity, do not call you to Christianity but rather to the New Being to which Christianity should be a witness and nothing else, not confusing itself with that New Being. Forget all Christian doctrines; forget your own certainties and your own doubts, when you hear the call of Jesus. Forget all Christian morals, your achievements and your failures, when you come to Him. Nothing is demanded of you—no idea of God, and no goodness in yourselves, not your being religious, not your being Christian, not your being wise, and not your being moral. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26

ImageHowever, what is demanded is only your being open and willing to accept what if given to you, the New Being, the being of love and justice and truth, as it is manifest in Him Whose yoke is easy and Whose burden is light. Let me close, as I began, with a personal word. Believe me, you who are religious and Christian. If it were for the sake of Christianity, it would be not worthwhile to teach Christianity. And believe me, when it comes, we interpret the call of Jesus for our time, you who are estranged from religion and far away from Christianity, it is not our purpose to make you religious and Christian. We call Jesus the Christ not because He brought a new religion, but because He is the end of religion, above religion and irreligion, above Christianity and non-Christianity. We spread His call because it is the call to every human in every period to receive the New Being, that hidden saving power in our existence, which takes from us labour and burden, and gives rest to our souls. Do not ask in this moment what we shall do or how action shall follow from the New Being, from the rest in our souls. Do not ask; for you do not ask how the good fruits follow from the goodness of a tree. They follow; action follows being, and new action, better action, stronger action, follows new being, better, truer, and more just, if there was more rest for our souls in our World. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26

ImageIf they grew out of a more profound level of our life, our actions would be more creative, more conquering, conquering the tragedy of our time. For our creative depth is the depth in which we are quiet. “Now these are the words which Amulek preached unto the people who were in the land of Ammonihah, saying: “I am Amulek; I am the son of Giddonah, who was the son of Ishmael, who was a descendant of Aminadi; and it was that same Aminadi who interpreted the writing which was upon the wall of the temple, which was written by the finger of God. An Aminadi was a descendant of Nephi, who was the son of Lehi, who came out of the land of Jerusalem, who was a descendent of Manasseh, who was the son of Joseph who was sold into Egypt by the hands of his brethren. And behold, I am also a man of no small reputation among all those who know me; yea, and behold, I have many kindreds and friends, and I have also acquired much richness by the hand of my industry. Nevertheless, after all this, I never have known much of the ways of the Lord, and his mysteries and marvelous power. I said I never had know much of thee things; but behold, I mistake, for I have seen much of his mysteries and his marvelous power; yea, even in the preservation of the lives of this people. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26

Image“Nevertheless, I did harden my heart, for I was called many times and I would not hear; therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know; therefore I went on rebelling against God, in the wickedness of my heart, even until the fourth day of this seventh month, which is in the tenth years of e reign of the judges. As I was journeying to see a very near kindred, behold an angel of the Lord appeared unto me and said: Amulek, return to thine own house for thou shalt feed a prophet of the Lord; yea, a holy man, who is a chosen man of God; for he has fasted many days because of the sins of this people, and he is an hungered, and thou shalt receive him into thy house and feed him, and he shall bless thee and thy house; and the blessing of the Lord shall rest upon thee and thy house. And it came to pass that I obeyed the voice of the angel, and returned towards my house. And as I was going thither I found the man whom the angel said uno me: Thou shalt receive into thy house—and behold it was this same man who has been speaking unto you concerning the things of God. And the angel said uno me he is a holy man because it was said by an angel of God. And again, I know that the things whereof he hath testified are true; for behold I say unto you, that as the Lord liveth, even so has he sent his angel to make these things manifest unto me; and this he has done whole this Alma hath dwelt at my house. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26

Image“For behold, he hath blessed mine house, he hath blessed me, and my women, and my children, and my father and my kinsfolk; yea, even all my kindred hath he blessed, and the blessing of the Lord hath rested upon us according to the words which he spake. And now, when Amulek had spoken these words the people began to be astonished, seeing there was more than one witness who testified of the things whereof they were accused, and also of the things which were to come, according to the spirit of prophecy which was in them. Nevertheless, there were some among them who thought to question them, that by their cunning devices they might catch them in their words, that they might find witness against them, that they might deliver them to their judges that they might be judged according to the law, and that they might be slain or cast into prison, according to the crime which they could make appear or witness against them. Now it was those men who sought to destroy them, who were lawyers, who were hired or appointed by the people to administer the law at their times of trials, or at the trials of the crimes of the people before the judges. Now these lawyers were learned in all the arts and cunning of the people; and this was to enable them that they might be skillful in their profession. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26

Image“And it came to pass that they began to question Amulek, that thereby they might make him cross his words, or contradict the words which he should speak. Now they knew not that Amulek could know of their designs. However, it came to pass as they began to question him, he perceived their thoughts, and he said unto them: O ye wicked and perverse generation, ye lawyers and hypocrites, for ye are laying the foundations of the devil; for ye are laying traps and snares to catch the holy ones of God. Ye are laying traps and snares to catch the holy ones of God. Ye are laying plans to pervert the ways of the righteous, and to bring down the wrath of God upon your heads, even to the utter destruction of this people. Yea, well did Mosiah say, who was our last king, when we was about to deliver up the kingdom, having no one to confer it upon, causing that this people should be governed by their own voices—yea, well did he say that is the time should come that the voice of this people should choose iniquity, that is, if the time should come that this people should fall into transgression, they would be ripe for destruction. And now I say unto you that well doth the Lord judge of your iniquities; well doth he cry unto this people, by the voice of his angels: Repent ye, repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26

Image“Yea, well doth he cry, by the voice of his angels that: I will come down among my people, with equity and justice in my hands. Yea, and I say unto you that if it were no for the prayers of the righteous, who are now in the land, that ye would even now be visited with utter destruction; yet it would not be by flood, as were the people in the days of Noah, but it would be by famine, and by pestilence and the sword. However, it is by the prayers of the righteous that ye are spared; now therefore, if ye will cast out the righteous from among you then will not the Lord stay his hand; but in his fierce anger he will come out against you; then ye shall be smitten by famine, and by pestilence, and by the sword; and the time is soon at hand expect ye repent. And now it came to pass that the people were more angry with Amulek, and they cried out, saying: This man doth revile against our laws which are just, and our wise lawyers whom we have selected. However, Amulek stretched forth his hand, and cried the mightier unto them, saying: O ye wicked and perverse generation, why at Satan got such great hold upon your hearts? Why will ye yield yourselves unto him that he may have power over you, to blind your eyes, that ye will not understand the words which are spoken, according to their truth? #RandolphHarris 24 of 26

Image“For behold, have I testified against your law? Ye do not understand: ye say that I have spoken against your law; but I have not, but I have spoken in favour of your law, to your condemnation. And now behold, I say unto you, that the foundation of the destruction of this people is beginning to be laid by the unrighteousness of your lawyers and judges. And now it came to pass that when Amulek had spoken these words the people cried out against him, saying: Now we know that his human is a child of the devil, for he hath lied unto us; for he hath spoken against our law. And now he says that he has not spoken against it. And again, he has reviled against our lawyers, and our judges. And it came to pass that the lawyers put it into their hearts that they should remember these things against him. And there was one among them whose nae was Zeezrom. Now he was the foremost to accuse Amulek and Alma, he being one of the most expert among them, having much business to do among the people. Now the object of these lawyers was to get gain; and they got gain according to their employ,” reports Alma 10.1-32. O God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we hope in Thy word. There we see Thee, not on a fearful throne of judgment, but on a throne of grace, waiting to be gracious, and exalted in mercy. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26

ImageThere we hear Thee saying, not “Depart ye cursed,” but “Look unto me and be ye saved, for I am God and there is none else.” They that know Thy name put their trust in Thee. How many now glorified in Heaven, and what numbers living on Earth, are Thy witnesses, O God, exemplifying in their recovery from the ruins of the Fall the freeness, riches and efficacy of Thy grace! All that were every saved were saved by Thee, and will through eternity, exclaim, “Not unto us, but uno Thy name give glory for Thy mercy and truth’s sake.” Thou hast chosen to transact all Thy concerns with us through a mediator in whom all fullness dwells and who is exalted to be prince and Saviour. To him we look, on him we depend, through him we are justified. May we derive relief from his sufferings without ceasing to abhour sin, or to long after holiness; feel the double efficacy of His blood, tranquillizing and cleansing out consciences; delight in His service as well as in His sacrifice; be constrained by His love to live not to ourselves but to Him; cherish a grateful and cheerful disposition, not murmuring and repining if our wishes are not indulged, or because some trials are blended with our enjoyments, but, sensible of our desert, and impressed with the number and greatness of Thy benefits, may we bless and praise Thee at all times. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26Image

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Lie to Me, I Promise I Will Believe, but Please Don’t Leave Even if this Results in the Destruction of the Human Heart!

ImageNeither a borrower nor a lender be; for a loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any human. Economic theories and ideologies are important perspectives on justice, especially since the eighteenth century in Europe, when revolutions and counter-revolutions eventually destroyed feudal economies and their monarchies. Capitalism and socialism emerged as central ideologies from the ashes of these profound social and cultural changes. These revolutions raised the question of the role of justice in society, whether to insure a certain level of economic parity between the social classes (what is called distributive justice) or to provide for the peace and security of all persons in society? What is the role of private property, and what should be the rules of its fair exchange? As early as 1690 John Locke argued that private property was a natural right, that al persons should be able to buy and sell whatever they had or could produce, and in his classic 1776 work, The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith argued that the system of free markets was superior for both producing the greatest prosperity in society as well as reducing he inequalities between the social classes. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

ImageA right is considered to be a universal claim which any of all individuals may legitimately makes upon society. These were important works in the development of utilitarianism, initially proposed by various British theorists, which held that justice was that which produced the greatest good for the greatest number (not necessarily all) persons in society. These early British and Scottish thinkers had a very important effect on the United State of America’s funding fathers who wrote the United States of America’s Declaration of Independence and the United States of America’s Constitution, which give legal force and standing to the ideal of liberty, private property, and the protection of some political rights, for some people. What we call “capitalism” is a political value or ideology which promotes the relative freedom of persons to do what they wish with their labour, as long as it does not bring hard to others, and to enjoy or invest in the “fruits of their labours.” If individuals are fortunate enough to produce a relative excess or “profit” from their labours, then they should be free to invest these “profits” in whatever manner they decide. If reinvested, these “profits” become “capital,” from which the capitalism is derived, and using profits in such a manner potentially grows and expands the overall economy. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

ImageAccording to many promoters of capitalism, this freedom or liberty to work as one will, and consume or reinvest the products of one’s labour, is not only consistent with ideal of liberty, but it additionally reduces the potential for conflict between the social classes, and this makes for a more harmonious or peaceful social order. Trust lays the cable and trust keeps it in place. Doubt serves the cable and mistrust destroys it altogether. Therefore it is prudent and proper for an individual to clear one’s doubts and answer one’s questions before choosing the lifestyle which one is to approach as one’s faith, and not after the choice has been made. It is essential for people to realize that in life it is the mental attitude, especially the faith and devotion—rather than outward association and physical contact—that is of true importance. Faith is not concerned with details of Christ’s existence, but with its meaning. The center of history is not central through accidental happenings, but through its essential purport. Under the conditions of existence, however, meaning is made obscure by it very medium itself. Existence is ambiguous. It is abyss and depth, negation and affirmation. The individual contradicts the universal. The concrete opposes the abstract. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

ImageThe message of the final revelation must be both concrete and universal; it must be set in an existential situation if it is to reach people who are caught in the snare of existence; and it must be universal, above existence, if it is to reach people outside of the small circle of the intimates of Jesus of Nazareth during his Earthly life. The criterion of the final revelation will therefore be given when its bearer negates oneself as a limited and limiting being to affirm the eternal. A revelation is final if it has the power of negating itself without losing itself. The same thought is beautifully expressed in an important passage which epitomizes this doctrine on the Christ as the medium of the final revelation: The question of the final revelation is the question of a medium of revelation which overcomes its own finite conditions by sacrificing them, and itself with them. One who is the bearer of the final revelation must surrender one’s finitude—not only one’s life but also one’s finite power and knowledge and perfection. In doing so, one affirms that one is the bearer of the final revelation (the “Son of God” in classical terms). One becomes completely transparent to the mystery one reveals. This gives us one characteristic of the medium of the final revelation: self-negation. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

ImageHowever, who can negate oneself so completely that only the eternal shines through one? One can give up only what one has mastered. Hence a second characteristic: the bearer of the final revelation must be perfect, that is, perfectly united to the power to be, in living communication with the ground of being, in constant communion with being-itself. However, in order to surrender oneself completely, one must possess oneself completely. And only one can possess—and therefore surrender—oneself completely who is united with the ground of one’s being and meaning without separation and disruption. This is precisely what we find in the Christ: complete surrender because of complete self-possession in the power of the ground of being. In the picture of Jesus as the Christ we have the picture of a man who possesses these qualities, a man who, therefore, can be called the medium of final revelation Nowhere is the picture clearer than in the symbol of the Cross, where Jesus sacrificed himself as Jesus to himself as the Christ, himself as finite to himself as he bearer of the New Being. The Christological affirmation may also be expressed in terms of Kairos. Christology claims to provide the ultimate meaning of history. Or, rather, it claims that in Jesus as the Christ the ultimate meaning of history was revealed. What is that mean? #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

ImageIn Jesus as the Christ a decision was made which decided the orientation of history. Jesus the Christ, accepting his self-effacement, affirmed ultimate being. He unveiled the ultimate truth. He pronounced an ultimate judgment on which the destiny of humankind and history depends. The Catholic Middle Ages developed an objective, “super-rational and static” conception of knowledge. In contrast, there is no Protestant conception of knowledge. This absence results from the difficulty of elaborating a conception of knowledge which is “irrational and dynamic.” Yet this is what knowledge is. The knowledge that is reached in the intense experience of Kairos, the knowledge that reveals the basic meaning of a historical period, is relative to a decision, namely to the “yes” which accepts the meaning of Kairos. If the even of Jesus as the Christ is truly the universal Kairos, the acceptable time in which the meaning of all history is achieved by the self-transcendence of the Christ, then the knowledge which derives from it must have a universal character. It must be a “knowledge of knowledge,” to which every other knowledge must be referred, the criterion of every judgment. There is precisely a judgement that underlies all others. It is the expression of the relation of knowledge to the Unconditional. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

ImageThe judgment that is removed from ambiguity, the judgment of absolute unequivocal truth, can be only the fundamental judgment about the relationship of the Unconditioned and the conditioned. This absolute standpoint, or absolute judgment, is the content of the message of the Christ; it judges every other judgment and is the criterion of every other knowledge. The content of this judgment is just this—that our subjective thinking never can reach the unconditioned truth, that it must always remain in the realm of ambiguity. This judgment is plainly the absolute judgment which is independent of all its forms of expression, even of the one by which it is expressed here. It is the judgment which constitutes truth as truth. In these somewhat abstract terms, the human condition never is the Unconditional; only self-negation, the knowledge of one’s ambiguities, does justice to the Ultimate. Jesus is the Christ only because he transcends himself. The Unconditional appears under the conditions of existence only by pointing out the vanity of existence. The supreme Kairos was precisely a moment of time when this absolute judgment on humans was pronounced. The Kairos, the fateful moment of knowledge, is absolute insofar as it places one at this moment before the absolute knowledge. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

ImageThe Cross has shown it as the self-transcendence of Christ, which he affirmed in the waste of an uncalculated self-surrender, in the most complete and the most holy waste. In all this we may recognize an old friend. In a word, the meaning of history, as manifested in the Cross of the Christ, is the Protestant principle. In the Cross we find a resolution of the tension between the conditioned and the Unconditional: the one shines through the other. If every religious word is an interpretation of the tension between the conditionally and the unconditionally real, between realism and self-transcendence, the word from the Cross is self-transcendent realism. The Christ exhibits no mark of estrangement between oneself and God, because He conquers estrangement; yet He displays the marks of finitude and he participates in the tragic element of existence. In spite of this, His permanent unity with God is evident. Into this unity he accepts the negatives of existence without removing them. This is done by transcending them in the power of this unity. This is the New Being as it appears in the biblical picture of Jesus as the Christ. The Protestant principle teaches that negativities must be accepted because they are already transcended in the power of God. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

ImageIt asserts that no created channel can convey the meaning of being-itself; yet precisely because it cannot and insofar as it cannot, it does. Being-itself is affirmed in the self-negation of created being. There is no other way of speaking of the ground of being than in the breakdown of our self-satisfied existence. No judgment is removed from ambiguity, expect the judgment is equivocal. All judging, questioning, answering indirectly posits an absolute judgment concerning the Unconditional: the Unconditional is, and is true, in spite of human’s conditioned attempt to reach it. Thus the absolute standpoint is a position which can never be taken. If it were ever taken by a human, it would be conditioned by that human’s estranged existence. Only the One who is unestranged from the power of being takes it: Jesus the Christ self-transcending oneself on the Cross. The Protestant principle also says—and this is another form of the negation of the finite—that every institution and event has demonic possibilities. That is, its power and meaning may be distorted from the ground of power and meaning. Yet the Christian confession contains the certainty that the demonic has been overcome. The overcoming of the demonic is another form of the Protestant principle: not even the ben and the distorted place ultimate hurdles in the path of grace. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

ImageIn contrast to the day-by-day experience of demonic domination, of estrangement, the Protestant principle affirms what has been experienced in the revelatory event of the Cross: There is only one certainty, that the demonic is overcome in eternity, that in eternity the demonic is depth of the divine and in unity with divine clarity. The ultimate meaning of history, as manifested in the Cross of the Christ and formulated in the Protestant principle, is therefore to accept estrangement as a contrasted participation in the divine unity: “to say ‘yes’ to one’s own life and life in general, in spite of the driving forces of fate, in spite of the insecurities of daily existence, in spite of the catastrophes of existence and the breakdown of meaning. Hopes may disappoint, dreams may fade away, what we thought ours may be taken from us, life may be threatened, what we had planned may fail; yet through our choices and decisions, whether right or wrong, through our doctrines and beliefs, whether true or false, there runs a unifying thread: Protestantism points to one who is the truth that liberates to being of one whose being is the truth. Once again, we reach the principle of justification by faith. We reach the meaning of the Cross, which stands at the heart of history. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

ImageThe cross is an instrument of death, of “losing your life.” The teaching here is exactly the same as in the statements about losing and finding our lives. It is one of comparative costs, as the verses that follow in Luke 14 show. “If you come to me, and do not prefer me over (do not ‘hate’) your own father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters—yes, and your very own life (soul)—you cannot be my apprentice,” reports Luke 14.26. And then he uses an absolutely shocking image—one all too familiar to his hearers, but rather hard for us fully to appreciate today. It was that of a man carrying on his back the lumber that would be used to kill him when he arrived at the place of execution. “Whoever does not come after me carrying his own cross cannot by my apprentice,” reports Luke 14.27. Those who are not genuinely convinced that the only real bargain in life is surrendering ourselves to Jesus and his cause, abandoning all that we love to him and for him, cannot learn the other lessons Jesus has to teach us. They cannot proceed to anything like total spiritual transformation. Not that he will not let us, but that we simply cannot succeed. If I tell you that you cannot drive an Ultimate Driving Machine unless you can see, I am not saying I will not let you, but that you cannot succeed even if I do. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

ImageStill, from within the life that remains “lost” to God, the teaching of the Cross and of abandoning all that is “first” in ordinary human life seems repulsive and impossible. And it has often been disastrously misinterpreted, resulting in the destruction, not the renovation, of the human heart and life. It remains a dangerous half-truth if left to sand on its own. It is a negation that in practice can only rest on affirmation. Thus in Jesus’s own ministry he came proclaiming access to the kingdom of God: to God’s present care and supervision, available to all through confidence in himself. “Repent, for life in the kingdom of the Heavens is now available to you,” was what he said. And his presence, actions, and teachings manifested and explained the kingdom. He made “disciples” by presenting them with the kingdom and introducing them into it by reaching their hearts, changing their vision of reality and their intentions for life. Consider one of his “parables of the kingdom”: “The kingdom of the Heavens is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a human found ad concealed it. He was ecstatic. He sold everything he had and bought the field” reports Matthew 13.44. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

Image Imagine that you discovered gold or oil in a certain property and no one else knew about it. Can you see yourself being sad and feeling deprived for having to gather all your resources and sacrifice them in order to buy that property? Hardly. Now you know what it is like to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus! Some pain is included, no doubt, because the old attachments are still there in our hearts and lives. They never all disappear at once. And we may experience some uncertainty from time to time especially at the start. However, the progress of spiritual formation will soon take care of that. The new vision becomes an attachment and takes on an ever greater reality as we progress; and that, in turn, pushes the old attachments toward the exits of our lives—which we then are not sad to see go. Indeed we are happy about it. We come to want to not want what we now want, and to want to not think of what now lives before our minds; and we come to want to be made willing for what we are not really willing. Chris will be born of Mary—He will loose the bands of death and bear the sins of His people—those who repent, are baptized, and keep the commandments will have eternal life—filthiness cannot inherit the kingdom of God—humility, faith, hope, and charity are required. About 83 Before Christ. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

ImageIt is not only needful to link up with the guide in a general way by a right attitude of faith and devotion towards one but also to link up in a special way by a daily meditation which seeks to put the disciple’s mind in rapport with the guides. “Behold my beloved brethren, seeing that I have been permitted to come unto you, therefore I attempt to address you in my language; yea, by my own mouth, seeing that it is the first time that I have spoken unto you by the words of my mouth, I having been wholly confined to the judgment-seat, having had much business that I could not come unto you. And even I could not have come now at this time were it not that the judgment-seat hat been given to another, to reign in my stead; and the Lord in much mercy hath granted that I should come unto you. And behold, I have come having great hopes and much desire that I should find that ye had humbled yourselves before God, and that ye had continued in the supplicating of his grace, that I should find that ye were blameless before him, that I should find that ye were not in the awful dilemma that our brethren were in Zarahemla. However, blessed be the name of God, that he hath given me to know, yea, hath given me to know, yea, hath given unto me the exceedingly great joy of knowing that they are established again in the way of his righteousness. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

Image And I trust, according to the Spirit of God which is in me, that I shall also have joy over you; nevertheless I do no desire that my joy over you should come by the cause of so much afflictions an sorrow which I have ad for the brethren at Zarahemla, for behold, my joy over you should come by the cause of so much afflictions and sorrow which I have had for the brethren at Zarahemla, for behold, my joy cometh over them after wading through much affliction and sorrow. However, behold, I trust that ye are not in a state of so much unbelief as were your brethren; I trust that ye are not lifted up in the pride of your hearts; yea, I trust that ye have not set your hearts upon riches and the vain things of the World; yea, I trust that you do not worship idols, but that ye do worship the true and the living God, and that ye look forward for the remission of your sins, with an everlasting faith, which is to come. For behold, I say unto you there be many things to come; and behold, there is one thing which is of more importance than they all—for behold, the time is not far distant the Redeemer liveth and cometh among his people. Behold, I do not say that he will come among us at the time of his dwelling in his mortal tabernacle; for behold, the Spirit hath not said unto me that this should be the case. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

Image“Now as to this thing I do not know; but this much I do know, that the Lord God hath power to do all things which are according to his word. However, behold, the Spirit hath said this much unto me, saying: Cry unto this people, saying—Repent ye, and prepare the way of the Lord, and walk in his paths, which are straight; for behold, the kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and the Son of God cometh upon the face of the Earth. And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God. And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and his that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sickness of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon hem their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

Image“Now I say unto you that ye must repent, and be born again: for the Spirit saith if ye are not born again ye cannot inherit the kingdom of Heaven; therefor come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye may be washed from your sins of the World, who is mighty to save and to cleanse from all unrighteousness. Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism. And whosoever doeth this, and keepth the commandments of God from thenceforth, the same will remember that I say unto him, yea, he will remember that I said unto him, he shall have eternal life, according to the testimony of the Holy Spirit, which testifieth in me. And now my beloved brethren, do you believe these things? Behold, I say unto you, yea, I know that ye believe them; and the way that I know that ye believe them is by the manifestation of the Spirit which is in me. And now because your faith is strong concerning that, yea, concerning the things which I have spoken, great is my joy. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

Image“For as I said unto you from the beginning, that I had much desire that ye were not in the state of dilemma like your brethren, even so I have found that my desires have been gratified. For I perceive that ye are in the paths of righteousness; I perceive that ye are in the path which leads to the kingdom of God; yea, I perceive that ye are making his paths straight. I perceive that it has been made known unto you, by the testimony of his word, that he cannot walk in crooked paths; neither doth he vary from that which he hath said; neither hath he s shadow of turning from the right to the left, or from that which is right to that which is wrong; therefore, his course is one eternal round. And he doth not dwell in unholy temples; neither can filthiness or anything which is unclean be received into the kingdom of God; therefore I say unto you the time shall come, yea, and it shall be at the last day, that one who is filthy shall remain in one’s filthiness. And now my beloved brethren, I have said these things unto you that I might awaken you to a sense of your duty to God, that ye may walk after the holy order of God, after which ye have been received. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

Image“And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive. And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works. And Lord bless you, and keep your garments spotless, that ye may at last be brought to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the holy prophets who have been ever since the World began, having your garments spotless, in the kingdom of Heaven to go no more out. And now my beloved brethren, I have spoken these words unto you according to the Spirit which testifieth in me; and my soul doth exceedingly rejoice, because of the exceeding diligence and heed which ye have given uno my word. And now, may the peace of God rest upon you, and upon your houses and lands, and upon your flocks and herds, and all that you possess, your women and your children, according to your faith and good works, from this time forth and forever. And thus I have spoken. Amen,” reports Alma 7.1-27. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

ImageCreator, Upholder and Proprietor of all things, we cannot escape from Thy presence and control, nor do we desire to do so. Our privilege is to be under the agency of Thy omnipotence, righteousness, wisdom, patience, mercy and grace; for Thou art Love with more than parental affection. We admire Thy goodness, stand in awe of Thy power, abase ourselves before Thy purity. It is the discovery of Thy goodness alone that can banish our fear alure us into Thy presence, please help us to bewail and confess our sins. We review our past guilt and are conscious of present unworthiness. We bless Thee that Thy steadfast love and attributes are essential to our happiness and hope; Thou hast witnessed to us Thy grace and mercy in the bounties of nature, in the fullness of Thy providence, in the revelations of Scripture, in the gift of Thy Son, in proclamation of the gospel. Please make sus willing to be saved in Thy own way, perceiving nothing in ourselves but all in Jesus. Please help us not only to receive Him, but to walk in Him, depend upon Him, commune with Him, follow Him, follow Him as dear children, imperfect, but still pressing forward, not complaining of labour, but valuing rest, not murmuring under trials, but thankful for our state. And by so doing please let us silence the ignorance of foolish humans. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

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BRIGHTON STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH

Rancho Cordova, CA |

Now Selling!

ImageAn extra-spacious Great Room, in this 2,427 square foot single story home, means an extra-long sectional to stretch out and settle in for a #Monday movie marathon. 🎥

ImageCheck out #BrightonStation Residence 2 on our website! Link in our bio to take a virtual tour. https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/residence-2/

ImageO God, please grant me your fondness and grace me with your goodness. Lord, you are the CHURCH’S ORIGIN, and one who does not at once stop the transgression  before the judges, may seek your pity, but has to repent as you have been waiting for; we ask that the guilt of our misery  is enough to cause us to do righteousness and polish us for to do the job worthy  of your name. The ministry of the altar is a major responsibility, and those who have taken upon the calling sometimes feel unworthy of your blessing. In our bewilderment, shall we become strong and may you place mercy and endurance in our hearts. I will be found among those who have been justified.

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War is an Invention of the Human Mind, but the Mind Can Also Invent Peace!

ImageThere is a silence which soothes and a silence which disturbs. With a genuine adept the first is felt, but with the other kinds, the second. It is only for the sensitive that one’s bland serenity and benevolent smile will hold a distinct attraction, for it is only they who will feel the subtle unusual emanation from one’s person. People come to the self-actualized with a head full of questions, but they find themselves struck with vocal dumbness in one’s presence. They come to one expectant of wonderful revelation, but hey find that one takes care to seem and speak like other human and to keep one’s fee solidly planted on the ground of common sense. They may draw near to the self-actualized and cross one’s orbit for only a few minutes in a whole lifetime but it proves enough to inspire and irradiate the rest of their day. They now have not only the feeling that this being knowns whereof one speaks but also the assurance that God is utterly real and that the quest of it is the most worthwhile of all enterprises. In one’s presence all that is best in a human receives stimulation and one comes closer to one’s true self. The significance of the meeting will emerge still more in after years. One will be so quiet in one’s daily bearing, so calm in one’s dealings with others, that they will begin to sense despite one’s unfailing modesty that here, in one’s presence, there is a living echo from a higher World of being. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24

ImageIn the self-actualizer’s presence the shadows of depression or fear vanish. For then the disciple can look out on life with clearer eyes, seeing the Perfect which already exists beyond its imperfections. Certain kinds of sensations, feelings, and thought are automatically repelled from the field of blessed consciousness in which the illumined human lives. All negative and destructive, egotistic and unruly ideas—certainly all those that the best conscience of the human race has stamped as “wicked” and generative of “evil-doing”—are not compatible with one’s purified state of mind and accordingly cannot enter in. If one lets them, many will come to one in search of guidance, help, comfort or healing. Some will place their problem before one humbly and candidly, but others will be too afraid, or too proud, to do so openly. Whether there is an actual transference of one’s power and light, or whether one’s actual presence and desire to help set up vibrations in the subconscious mind of the seeker, or whether one is merely a medium for higher forces, it is not easy to determine. The truth may well be a combination of all these three factors. Constant contact with such an exalted personage is likely to influence others, but it is not possible to say when this influence will rise up into the conscious mind. The time will always be different with different individuals. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24

ImageOne’s silences maybe exasperating to those who are insensitive and uncomprehending, but they will be exhilarating to those who have begun to learn how the Spirit operates. In the presence of such a human, one instinctively feels that there are tremendous reserves of knowledge, virtue, and power within one, that one has so much more to give than is apparent. One’s presence calls out the good, the true, and the beautiful in others. The sensitive will quickly become aware of the hidden strength that is in one, the strength which kindles assurance in one’s own heart and confidence in others’ hearts. As if borne on telepathic waves, benign influence diffuses itself from one and is felt by the sensitive.  Even when surrounded by dangers or beset by troubles, this peace which one seems to diffuse is really there, is a central characteristic that never leaves one. A meeting with such a being, by those who are sensitive enough to register more finely than the gross senses can register, is always a benediction; the remembrance of one is always an exaltation. By a principle of symbiosis, what one is, being now at the source of human power, spreads out and ripples its influence on the human group, which at the least keeps it from becoming worse than it is, and at the most lights up inspiration in certain individual minds and makes them benefactors of the race. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24

ImageOne’s goodness acts as a silent reproach to those who are unwilling to give up their badness: hence their discomfort. One’s presence is a silent rebuke to them; one stands there in all one’s integrity and spiritually—an embarrassment, for it makes such a contrast with their own Worldliness. In the presence of an illuminate, all criticism is charmed to antlike littleness. What can our broken thoughts do to injure or belittle one who is safely above all thought? And how dull seem these strict and rigid doctrines which we have brought into the neighbourhood of one who has liberated oneself from all strict and rigid doctrines! If “dead” illuminati can help the World as readily as those who are among us in the flesh, I would like to ask those who believe this is why Ramakrishna uttered the following pathetic plaint as he lay dying in Cosipore: “Had this body been allowed to last a little longer, many more people would have become spiritually awakened.” No, it is more rational to believe that a living illuminate is needed, that one who as flung off the physical body has no further concerns with the physical World, and that one whose consciousness is in the Real, uses the World (in the form of a body) to save those whose consciousness is in the World. In the personal aura of such an adept, the sensitive person gets a feeling first, of peace, second, of security, and safety. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24

ImageWhy do sensitive people feel protected and secure in one’s presence? It is because one knows and obeys the universal laws, invokes and attracts superhuman power. “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no human knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and one to whomsoever the Son will reveal one. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” reports Matthew 11.25-30. When I was the age to receive confirmation and full membership in the Church, I was told to choose a passage from the Bible as the expression of my personal approach to the Biblical message and to the Christian Church. Every confirmee was obliged to do so, and to recite the passage before the congregation. When I chose to words, “Come unto me all ye that labour and are Heavy laden,” I was asked with a kind of astonishment and even irony why I had chosen that particular passage. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24

ImageFor I was living under happy conditions, and, being only fifteen years old, was without any apparent labour or burdens, so I could not answer at that time to why that was my favourite bible passage. I felt a little embarrassed, but basically right. And I was right, indeed; every child is right in responding immediately to those words; every adult is right in responding to them in all periods of one’s life, and under all the conditions of one’s internal and external history. These words of Jesus are universal, and fit every human being and every human situation. They are simple; they grasp the heart of the primitive as well as that of the profound, disturbing the mind of the wise. Practically every word of Jesus had this character, sharing the difference between Him as the originator and the dependent interpreters, disciples and theologians, saints and preachers. Returning for the first time in my life to the passage of my early choice, I feel just as grasped by it as at that time, but infinitely more embarrassed by its majesty, profundity and inexhaustible meaning. Our task in the face of words like these is obvious: we must point to the ground of their power over our souls; we must explain why, in their emotional force, the force of an ultimate truth is involved; and we must attempt to view our human situation in their light. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24

ImageThree questions, aroused by the words of Jesus, shall be asked, and the answer implied in His words shall be asked, and the answers implied in His words shall be interpreted. What is the labour and burden from which we can find rest through Him? What is the easy yoke and the light burden which He will put upon us? Why is He and He alone able to give such rest to our souls? “All ye that labour and are heavy laden…”: his is addressed to all humans, although not all humans feel it in the same way. It is the general human situation to be heavy laden and to labour restlessly under a yoke too hard to be endured. What kind of burden is this? We may think first of the burdens and labours that daily life imposes upon us. However, this is not indicated in our text. Jesus does not tell us that He will ease the labours and burdens of life and work. How could He, even if He wanted to? Whether or not we come to Him, the threats of illness or unemployment are not lessened, the weigh of our work does not become easier, the fate of being refugee, driven from one country to another, is not changed; the horror of ruins, wounds, and death falling from Heaven is not stopped; and the sorrow over the passing of friends or parents or children is not overcome. Jesus cannot and does not promise more pleasure and less pain those whom He asks to come to Him. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24

ImageOn the contrary, sometimes Jesus promises them more pain, more persecution, more threat of death—the “cross,” as He calls it. All his is not the burden to which He points. Nor is it the burden of sin and guilt, as somebody educated in the traditional Christian interpretation of the work of Christ might assume. Nothing like that is indicated in the words of Jesus. Taking upon oneself His easy yoke does not means taking sin more easily or taking guilt less seriously. Jesus does not tell those who comes to Him that their sins are not so important as they seemed to be. He does not give them an easier conscience about their failures and trespasses. On the contrary, He sharpens their conscience to the highest possible degree in practically every one of His words. He condemns sins which the traditional theology of His time did no even consider as sins. This is not the burden to which Jesus points. The burden He wants to take from us is the burden of religion. It is the yoke of the law, imposed on the people of His time by the religious teachers, the wise and understanding, as He calls them in our words, the Scribes and Pharisees, as they are called usually. Those who labour and are heavy laden are those who are sighing under the yoke of the religious law. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24

ImageAnd Jesus will give them the power to overcome religion and law; the yoke He gives them is a “new being” above religion. The things they will learn from him is the victory over the law of the wise and the understanding, and the law of the Scribes and Pharisees. How does this concern us? Why does this concern all humans, in all situations? It concerns us because, with all human beings, we are sighing under the law, under a law which is religion and a religion which is the law. This is the depth of the word of Jesus; this is the truth, implied in the emotional power of His words. Humans labour and toil, because they are those beings which know about their finitude, about their transitoriness, about the danger of living, and about the tragic character of existence. Fear and anxiety are the heritage of all people, as Paul knew when he looked at the Jews and the Pagans. Restlessness drives humans during their whole life, as Augustine knew. A hidden element of despair is in every human’s soul, as the great Danish Protestant, Kierkegaard, discovered. There is no religious genius, no keen observer of the abyss of the human soul, nobody capable of listening to the sounds of one’s heart who would not witness to this insight into human nature and human existence. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24

ImageSplits and gaps are in every soul: for instance, we know that we are more than dust; and yet we know also that we are going to dust. We know that we belong to a higher order than of our animal needs and desires; and yet we know that we shall abuse the higher order in the service of our lower nature. We know that we are only small members of the spiritual World; and yet we know that we shall aspire to the whole, making ourselves the center of the World. This is human; and because this is human, there I a religion and laws The law of religion is the great attempt of humans to overcome one’s anxiety and restlessness and despair, to close the gap within oneself, and to reach immortality, spirituality and perfection. So one labours and toils under the religious law in thought and in act. The historical relevance of Christology may be expressed in terms of revelation. Revelation is the reception of an insight into the ground of being. These insights are many; many factors may occasion or convey them. The concept of revelation, then, is not a necessarily Christian concept. However, we are soon confronted with the exclusive claims of Christianity: Christianity claims to be based on the revelation of Jesus as the Christ as the final revelation. Final in this context is not tantamount to last. Revelatory situations are not exhausted by the coming of Christ. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

ImageWe do not assert that there can be no ecstasy and no faith after the Christ. On the contrary, the ground of being are constantly piercing the crust of existence and making itself experienced in the depths of our being. What is true of humankind is equally true of the Church: Christianity often has affirmed, and certainly should affirm, that there is continuous revelation in the history of the Church. The whole meaning of preaching the word of God consists in announcing a revelatory message. Yet if this is true of Christian preaching, it is equally true that the mission of the whole Church must be referred back to the event of the Christ. No preaching can be revelatory unless it is grasped by the power of Christ. No word of humans becomes word of God unless the Christ takes it, so to say, in charge. The final revelation in the Christ, therefore, does not mean simply “last.” Rather it means last genuine. There can be no revelation in the history of the Church whose point of reference is not Jesus as he Christ. Secondly, it means that we do not refer to the last genuine revelation as to a past event; we refer to it as to an even by whose power we are still grasped. Thus, the final revelation means the decisive, fulfilling, unsurpassable revelation, that which is the criterion of all others. #RandolphHarris 11 of  24

ImageA necessary mark of this final revelation is its universal contemporaneity. Revelation is revelation to me in my concrete situation, in my historical reality. Christianity does not ask anyone to make an impossible leap two thousand years back. Such a journey through historical documents may provide erudite knowledge of an obscure past event, but it can in no way reveal the power to be which was present in the Christ. To be present in Palestine when Jesus was here is impossible. And yet the Christ will not be revelatory to me unless I experience him. He is not an abstraction, but a revelatory person. He can be known only through a person-to-person relationship. Something, in the revelatory situation of Jesus as the Christ, must be permanently present and thus become contemporary o me and to all humans. One who is the Christ is contemporaneous, or one is not the Christ. To gain salvation, humans must repent and keep the commandments, be born again, cleanse their garments through the blood of Christ, be humble and strip themselves of pride and envy, and do the works of righteousness—the Good Shepherd calls His people—those who do evil works are children of the devil—Alma testifies of the truth of huis doctrine and commands humans to repent—the names of the righteous will be written in the book of life. About 83 Before Christ. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24

ImageIn the presence of such greatness, a feeling of humility comes into a sensitive heart. “Now it came to pass that Alma began to deliver the word of God unto the people, first in the land of Zarahemla, and from thence throughout all the land. And these are the words which he spake to the people in the church which was established in the city of Zarahemla, according to one’s own record, saying: I, Alma, having been consecrated by my father, Alma, to be a high priest over the church of God, he having power and authority from God to do these things, behold, I say uno you that he began to establish a church in the land which was in the borders of Nephi; yea, the land which was called the land of Mormon; yea, and he did baptize his brethren in the waters of Mormon. And behold I say unto you, they were delivered out of the hands of the people of king Noah, by the mercy and power of God. And behold, after that, they were brought into bondage by the hands of the Lamanites in the wilderness; yea, I say unto you, they were in captivity, and again the Lord did deliver them out of bondage by the power of his word; and we were brought into this land, and here we began to establish the church of God throughout this land also. And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, you that belong to this church, have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers? #RandolphHarris 13 of 24

Image“Yea, and have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his mercy and long-suffering towards them? And moreover, have ye sufficiently retained in remembrance the he has delivered their souls from hell? Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word; yea, they were encircled about by he bands of death, and the chains of hell and an everlasting destruction did await them. And now I ask of you, my brethren, were they destroyed? Behold, I say unto you, Nay, they were not. An again I ask, were the bands of death broken, and the chains of hell which encircled them about, were they loosed? I say unto you, Yea, they were loosed, and their souls did expand, and they did sing redeeming love. And I say unto you that they are saved. And now I ask of you on what conditions are they saved? Yea, what grounds had they to hope for salvation? What is the cause of their being loosed from the bands of death, yea, and also he chains of hell? Behold, I can tell you—did not my father Alma believe in the words which were delivered by the mouth of Abinadi? #RandolphHarris 14 of 24

Image“And was he not a holy prophet? Did he not speak the words of God, and my father Alma believe them? And according to his faith there was a mighty change wrought in his heart. Behold I say unto you that this is all true. And behold, he preached he word unto your fathers, and mighty change was also wrought in their hearts, and they humbled themselves and out their trust in the true and living God. And behold, they were faithful until the end; therefore they were saved. And now behold, I ask of you, y brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received His image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts? Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of Him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body? I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the Earth? Or do ye imagine yourselves that ye can lie unto the Lord in that day, and say—Lord, our works have been righteous works upon the face of the Earth—and that he will be save you? #RandolphHarris 15 of 24

ImageOr otherwise, can ye imagine yourselves brought before the tribunal of God with your souls filled with guilt and remorse, having remembrance of all your guilt, yea, a perfect remembrance of all your wickedness, yea, a remembrance that ye have set a defiance the commandments of God? I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances? I say unto you, can ye think of being saved when you have yielded yourselves to become subjects of the devil? I say unto you, ye will know at that day that ye cannot be saved; for there can no being be saved except one’s garments are washed white; yea, one’s garments must be purified until they are cleansed from all stain, through the blood of one whom it has been spoken by our fathers, who should come to redeem his people from their sins. And now I ask you, my brethren, how will any of you feel, if ye shall stand before the bar of God, having your garments stained with blood and all manner of filthiness? Behold, what will these things testify against you? Behold will they not testify that ye are murderers, yea, and also that ye are guilty of all manner of wickedness? #RandolphHarris 16 of 24

Image “Behold, my brethren, do ye suppose that which and one can have a place to sit down in the kingdom of God, with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, and also all the holy prophets, whose garment are cleansed and are spotless, pure and white? I say unto you, Nay; except ye make our Creator a liar from the beginning, or suppose that he is a lair from the beginning, ye cannot suppose that such can have place in the kingdom of Heaven; but they shall be cast out for they are the children of the kingdom of the devil. And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now? Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God? Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble? That your garments have been cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem His people from their sins? Behold, are ye stripped of pride? I say unto you, if ye are not ye are not prepared to meet God. Behold ye must prepare quickly; for the kingdom of Heaven is soon at hand, and such and one hath not eternal life. Behold, I say, is there one among you who is not stripped of pride? I say unto you, if ye are not ye are not prepared to meet God. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24

Image“Behold ye must prepare quickly; for the kingdom of Heaven is soon at hand, and such and one hath not eternal life. Behold, I say, is there one among you who is not stripped of envy? I say unto you that such an e is not prepared; and I would that one should prepare quickly, for the hour is close at hand, and one knoweth no when the time shall come; for such an one is not found guiltless. And again I say unto you, is there one among you that doth make a mock of one’s brother, or that heapeth upon one persecutions? Wo uno such an one, for one is not prepared, and the time is at hand that one must repent or one cannot be saved! Yea, even wo unto all ye workers of iniquity; repent, repent, for the Lord Good hath spoken it! Behold, He sendeth an invitation unto all humans, for the arms of mercy are extended toward them, and He saith: Repent, and I will receive you. Yea, He saith: Come unto me and ye shall partake of the fruit of the tree of life; yea, ye shall eat and drink of the bread and the waters of life freely. Yea, come unto me and bring forth works of righteousness, and ye shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire—for behold, the time is at hand that whosoever bringeth forth not good fruit, or whosoever doeth not the works of righteousness, the same have cause to wail and mourn. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24

Image“O ye workers of iniquity; ye that are puffed up in the vain things of the World, ye that have professed to have known the ways of righteousness nevertheless have gone astray, as sheep having no shepherd, notwithstanding a shepherd hath called after you and is still calling after you, but ye will no hearken unto His voice! Behold, I say unto you, that the good shepherd doth call you; yea, and in His own name He doth call you, which is the name of Christ; and if ye will not hearken unto the voice of the good shepherd, to the name by which ye are called, behold, ye are not the sheep of the good shepherd. And now if ye are not the sheep of the good shepherd, of what fold are ye? Behold I say unto you, that the devil is your shepherd, and ye are of his fold; and now, who can deny this? Behold, I say unto you, whosoever denieth this is a liar ad a child of the devil. For I say uno you that whatsoever is evil cometh from the devil. Therefore, if a human bringeth forth good works one hearkeneth unto His voice, and doth follow him. And whosoever doeth this must receive one’s wages from one; therefore, for one’s wages one recieveth death, as to things pertaining unto righteousness, being dead unto all good works. And now, my brethren, I would that ye should hear me, for I speak in the energy of my soul; for behold, I have spoken unto you plainly that ye cannot err, or have spoken according to the commandments of God. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24

Image“For I am called to speak after this manner, according to the holy order of God, which is in Christ Jesus; yea, I am commanded to sand and testify unto this people the things which have been spoken by our fathers concerning the things which are to come. And this is not all. Do ye not suppose that I know of these things myself? Behold, I testify unto you that I do know that these things whereof I have spoken are true. And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety? Behold, I say unto you they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by His Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me. And moreover, I say unto you that it has thus been revealed unto me, that the words which have been spoken by our fathers are true, even so according to the spirit of prophecy which is in me, which is also by the manifestation of God. I say unto you, that I know of myself that whatsoever I shall say unto you, concerning that which is to come, is true: and I say unto you, that I know that Jesus Christ shall come, yea, the Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace, and mercy, and truth. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24

Image“And behold, it is He that cometh to take away the sins of the World, yea, the sin of every human who steadfastly believeth on one’s name. And now I say unto you that this is the order after which I am called, yea, to preach unto my beloved brethren, yea, and every one that dwelleth in the land; yea, to preach unto all, both old and young, both bond and free; yea, I say unto you the aged, and also the middle aged, and the rising generation; yea, to cry unto them that they must repent and be born again. Yea, thus saith the Spirit: Repent, all ye ends of the Earth, for the kingdom of Heaven is soon at hand; yea, the Son of God cometh in His glory, in His might, majesty, power, and dominion. Yea, my beloved brethren, I say unto you, that the Spirit saith: Behold the glory of the King of all the Earth; and also the King of Heaven shall very soon shine forth among all the children of humans. And also the Spirit saith unto me, yea, crieth uno me with a mighty voice, saying: Go forth and say unto this people—Repent, for except ye repent ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of Heaven. And again I say unto you, the Spirit saith: Behold, the ax is laid at the root of the tree; therefore every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire, yea, a fire which cannot be consumed, even an unquenchable fire. Behold, and remember, the Holy One hath spoken it. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24

Image“And now my beloved brethren, I say unto you, can ye withstand these sayings; yea, can ye lay aside these things, and trample the Holy One under your feet; yea, can ye be puffed up in the pride of your hearts; yea, will ye still persist in he wearing of costly apparel and setting your hearts upon the vain things of the World, upon your riches? Yea, will ye persist in supposing that ye are better one than another; yea, will ye persist in the persecution of your brethren, who humble themselves and do walk after the holy order of God, wherewith they have been brought into church, having been sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and they do bring forth works which are meet for repentance—yea, and will your persist in turning your backs upon the poor, and the needy, and in withholding your substance from them? And finally, all ye that will persist in your wickedness, I say unto you that these are they who shall be hewn down and cast into the fire except they speedily repent. And now I say unto you, all you that are desirous to follow the voice of the good shepherd, come ye out from the wicked, and be ye separate, and touch not their unclean things; and behold, their names shall be blotted out, that the names of the wicked shall not be numbered among the names of the righteous, that the word of God may be fulfilled, which saith: The names of the wicked shall not be mingled with the names of my people. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24

Image“For the names of the righteous shall be written in the book of life, and unto them will I grant an inheritance at my right hand. And now, my brethren, what have ye to say against this? I say unto you, if ye speak against it, it matters not, for the word of God must be fulfilled. For what shepherd is there among you having many sheep doth no watch over them, that the wolves enter no and devour his flock? And behold, if a wolf enter his flock doth he not drive him out? Yea, and at the las, if he can, he will destroy him. And now I say unto you that the good shepherd doth call after you; and if you will hearken unto his voice he will bring you into his fold, and ye are his sheep; and he commandeth you that ye suffer no ravenous world to enter among you, that ye may not be destroyed. And now I, Alma, do command you in the language of him who hath commanded me, that ye observe to do the words which I have spoken unto you. I speak by way of command unto you that belong to the church; and unto those who do not belong to the church I speak by way of invitation, saying: Come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye also may be partakers of the fruit of the tree of life,” Alma 5.1-61. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24

ImageLORD of Heaven, Thy goodness is inexpressible and inconceivable. In the works of creation Thou art almighty, in the dispensations of providence all-wise, in the gospel of grace all love, and in Thy Son Thou hast provided for our deliverance from the effects of sin, the justification of our persons, the sanctification of our natures, the perseverance of our souls in the path of life. Though exposed to the terrors of Thy law, we have a refuge from the storm; though compelled to cry, “Unclean,” we have a fountain for sin; through creature-cells of emptiness we have a fullness accessible to all, and incapable of reduction. Grant us always to know that to walk with Jesus make other interests a shadow and a dream. Please keeps us from intermittent attention to eternal things; please save us from the delusion of those who fail to go far in religion, who are concerned but not converted, who have another heart but not a new one, who have light, zeal, confidence, but not Christ. Please let us judge our Christianity, not only by our dependence upon Jesus, but by our love to him, our conformity to him, our knowledge of him. Please give us a religion that is both real and progressive, that hold on its way and grows stronger, that lives and works in the Spirit, that profits by every correction, and is injured by no carnal indulgence. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24

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85Looking to make that green thumb… greener? 🌱 Check out today’s blog post for some simple hacks that will improve your garden game! Link in bio. https://cresleigh.com/blog/

ImageI pray to Thee, the Almighty, O God, please let me be more righteous than I have been and allow me  to be clothed, that I may rejoice in the joy of Thy Saints, Please may I be worthy; in so far as the filth of him to be cleansed of sins; and for sharing with all, of them that please thee, I acquire the company of priests; put off the things of Thy mercy from me and to all the defects, which are burdened by the guilt of one’s own conscience. Please make me, I beseech Thee, Almighty God, to be so arrayed in righteousness, that I may be enabled to rejoice in the gladness of Thy Saints; so that being cleansed from all filthiness of sin, I may attain the fellowship of the Priests who are pleasing unto Thee; and that I, who am burdened by the guilt of my own conscience, may be delivered by Thy mercy from all vices; through our Lord Jesus Christ. #CresleighHomes

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Winners Do Not Try to Know What they Feel or Try to Let themselves Feel!

ImageNow, my child, why do you no remain standing quite calmly in the doorway? There is absolutely nothing against a young lady’s entering a doorway during a shower. I do it myself when I have no umbrella, sometimes even when I have one, as now, for example. Moreover, I could mention several estimable ladies who have not hesitated to do it. Jus be calm, turn your back to the street; then the passersby cannot even tell whether you are just standing there or are about to enter the building. However, it is indiscreet to hide behind the door when it is standing half open, chiefly because of the consequences, for the more you are concealed, the more unpleasant it is to be surprised. However, if you have concealed yourself, then stand very still, commending yourself to your good guardian spirit and the care of all the Angels; especially avoid peeking out to see whether the rain is over. If you really want to be sure of it, take a firm step forward and look up gravely at the sky. However, if you stick your head out somewhat inquisitively, self-consciously, anxiously, uncertainly, quickly draw it back—then any child understands this movement; it is called playing hide-and-seek. And I, who always join in games, should I hold back, should I not answer when I asked? #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

ImageDo not think I am harbouring any disrespectful thoughts about you; you did not have the slightest ulterior motive in sticking your head out—it was the most innocent thing in the World.In return, you must not affront me in your thoughts; my good name and reputation will not tolerate it. Moreover, it was you who started this. I advise you never to speak to anyone about this incident; you are in the wrong. What do you propose to do other than what any gentleman would do—offer you my umbrella. –Where did she go? Splendid! She has hidden herself down in the porter’s doorway. What a darling young lady, cheerful, contented. –“Perhaps you could tell me about a young lady who this very moment stuck her head out of this door, obviously in need of an umbrella.” –You laugh. –Perhaps you will allow me to send my servant to fetch it tomorrow, do you recommend that I call an Ultimate Driving Machine? —Nothing to thank me for; it is only common courtesy. –That is one of the most delightful young ladies I have seen in a long time; her glance is so innocent and yet so saucy, he manner so lovely, so chaste, and yet she is inquisitive. –Go in peace, my child. If it were not for a green cloak, I might have wished to establish a closer acquaintance. –She walks down along Store Kjobmagergade. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

Image How innocent and full of confidence, not a trace of prudery. She how lightly she walks, how pertly she tosses her head—the green cloak requires self-denial. Estrangement from display, from feeling, and from what feelings can tell us is not simply the occupational hazard of a few. It has firmly established itself in the culture as permanently imaginable. All of us who know the commercialization of human feeling at one remove—as witness, consumer, or critic—have become adept at recognizing and discounting commercialized feelings: “Oh, they have to be friendly, that is their job.” This enables us to ferret out the remaining gestures of a private gift exchange: “Now that smile she really meant just for me.” We subtract the commercial motive and collect the personal remainders matter-of-factly, almost automatically, so ordinary has the commercialization of human feeling become. However, we have responded in another way, which is perhaps more significant: as a culture, we have begun to place an unprecedented value on spontaneous, “natural” feeling. People want to be their “authentic” selves. To pursue authenticity as an ideal, as something that must be achieved, is to be self-built into the structure of the World they live in. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

ImageThis World, they say, represses, alienated, divides, denies, destroys the self. To be oneself in such a World is not a tautology but a problem. Still, we are intrigued by the unmanaged heart and what it can tell us. The more our activities as individual emotion managers are managed by organization, the more we tend to celebrate the life of unmanaged feeling. This cultural response found its prophets in late eighteenth-century philosophers like Rousseau and its disciples in the Romantic movement of the nineteenth-century; but widespread acceptance of the view that spontaneous feeling is both precious and endangered has occurred only recently, in the mid-twentieth century. According to Lionel Trilling, in his classic work Sincerity and Authenticity, here have been two major turning points in the public evaluation of expressed feeling. The first was the rise (and subsequent fall) of the value that people put on sincerity. The second was a rise in the value placed on authenticity. In the first case, the value attached to sincerity rose as its corresponding flaw, insincerity or guile, became more common. In the second case, I think the same principle has been worked: the value placed on authentic or “natural” feeling has increased dramatically with the full emergence of its opposite—the managed heart. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

ImageBefore the sixteenth century, Trilling says, insincerity was neither a fault nor a virtue. “The sincerity of Achilles or Beowulf cannot be discussed; they neither have nor lack sincerity.” It simply had no relevance. Yet during he sixteenth century, sincerity came to be admired. Why? The answer is socioeconomic. At this period in history, there was an increasing rate of social mobility in England and France; more and more people found it possible, or conceivable, to leave the class into which they had been born. Guile became an important tool for class advancement. The art of acting, of making avowals not in accord with feeling, because a useful tool for taking advantage of new opportunities. As mobility became a fact of urban life, so did guile and people’s understanding that guile was a tool. Sincerity for its part came to be seen as an inhibition of the capacity to act before a multiplicity of audiences or as an absence of the psychic detachment necessary to acing. The sincere, “honest soul” came to denote a “simple person, unsophisticated, a bit on the dumb side.” It was considered “dumb” because the art of the surface acting was increasingly understood as a useful tool. When mobility became a fact of urban life, so did the art of guile, and the very interest in sincerity declined. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

Image If sincerity has lost its former status, if the word itself has for us a hollow sound and seems almost to negate its meaning, that is because it does not propose being true to one’s self as an end but only a means. Modern audiences, in contrast to nineteenth-century ones, became bored with duplicity as a literary theme. It has become too ordinary, too unsurprising: “The hypocrite-villain, the conscious dissembler, has become marginal, even alien, to the modern imagination of the moral life. The situation in which a person systematically misrepresents oneself in order to practice upon the good faith of another does not readily command our interest, scarcely our credence. The deception we best understand and most willingly give our attention to is that which a person works upon oneself.” The point of interest has moved inward. What fascinates us now is how we fool ourselves. What seems to have replaced our interest in sincerity is an interest in authenticity. In both the rise and the fall of sincerity as a virtue, the feeling of sincerity “underneath” was assumed to be something solid and permanent, whether one was true to it or betrayed it. Placing a value on guile amounted to placing a value on detachment from that solid something underneath. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

ImageThe present-day value on “authentic” or “natural” feeling may also be a cultural response to a social occurrence, but the occurrence is different. It is not the rise of individual mobility and the individual use of guile in pleasing a greater variety of people. It is the rise of the corporate use of guile and the organized training of feeling to sustain it. The more the heart is managed, the more we value the unmanaged heart. Rousseau’s Noble Savage was not guided by any feeling rules. He simply felt what he felt, spontaneously. One clue to the modern-day celebration of spontaneous feeling is the growing popularization of psychological therapies, especially those that stress “getting in touch with” spontaneous feeling. Consider them: Gestalt, bioenergetic, biofeedback, encounters, assertiveness training, transactional analysis, transcendental meditation, rational-emotive therapy, Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) therapy, feeling therapy, implosive therapy, Endoscopic Thoracic Sympathectomy (ETS), primal theory, conventional psychotherapy, and psychoanalysis. Therapy books, as the linguist Robin Lakoff has said, are to the modern times what etiquette books were to the nineteenth. This is because etiquette has itself gone deeper into emotional life. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

ImageThe introduction of new therapies and the extension of older ones have given a new introspective twist to the self-help movement that began in the last century. The significance of the growth of new therapies cannot be dismissed by the argument that they are simply a way of extending jobs in the service sector by creating new needs. The question remains, why these needs? Why the new need to do something about how you feel? The new therapies have also been criticized, as the one self-help movement was, for focusing on individual solutions to the exclusion of social ones and for legitimating the message “Look out for Number One. This critique is not wrong in itself, but it I partial and misleading. It is my own view that capacity is lost or injured, it is wise to restore it in whatever way one can. However, to attach the cure to a solipsistic or individualistic philosophy of life or to assume that one’s injury can only be self-imposed is to contribute to what I have called (with optimism) a “prepolitical” stance. To that twist is now added the value on unmanaged feelings. As practitioners of Gestalt therapy put it: “The childish feelings are important not as a past that must be undone but as some of the most beautiful powers of adult life that must be recovered: spontaneity, imagination.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

ImageAgain, in Born to Win, two popularizers of transactional analysis collapse a more general viewpoint into a simple homily: “Winners are not stopped by heir contradictions and ambivalences. Being authentic, they know when they are angry and can listen when others are angry with them.” Winners, the suggestion is, do not try to know what they feel or try to let themselves feel. They just know and they just feel, in a natural, unprocessed way. Ironically, people read a book like Born to Win in order to learn how to try to be a natural, authentic winner. Spontaneity is now cast as something to be recovered; the individual learns how to treat feeling as a recoverable object, with ego as the instrument of recovery. In the course of “getting in touch with our feelings,” we make feelings more subject to command and manipulation, more amenable to various forms of management. While the qualities of Rousseau’s Noble Savage are celebrated in modern pop therapy, he did not act in the way his modern admirers do. The Noble Savage did not “let” himself feel good about his garden. He did not “get in touch with” or “into” his resentment. He had no therapist working on his throat to open up a “voice block.” He did no go back and forth between hot and cold tubs while hyperventilating to get in touch with his feelings. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

ImageNo therapist said to him, “Okay, Noble Savage, let us try to really get in your sadness.” He did not imagine that he owed others any feeling or that they owed him any. In fact, the utter absence of calculation and will as they have become associated with feeling is what nowadays makes the Noble Savage seem so savage. However, it is also—and this is my point—what makes him so noble. Why do we place more value now on artless, unmanaged feeling? Why, hopelessly and romantically, do we imagine a natural preserve of feeling, a place to be kept “forever wild”? The answer must be that it is becoming scarce. In everyday life, we are all to some degree students of Stanislavski; we are only poorer or better at deep acting, closer or more remote from incentives to do it well. We have carried our ancient capacity for gift exchange over a great commercial divide where the gifts are becoming commodities and the exchange rates are set by corporations. Jean-Jacques Rousseau as a flight attendant for Delta Airlines might add to his eighteenth-century concern for the faceless soul beneath the mask a new concern for the market intrusion into the ways we define ourselves and for how, since his say, that intrusion has expanded and organized itself. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

ImageTo make my desires paramount is what Paul again described as having a “flesh mind” or “mind of the flesh,” which is a state of death (Romans 8.6). Such a mind “sows to one’s flesh”—invests only in one’s natural self—and “out of that flesh reaps corruption” (Galatians 6.8). “Corruption” or “coming apart” is the natural end of the flesh. “Flesh” can only be preserved by being caught up within the higher life of the kingdom of God and thus “losing” the life peculiar to it. In other words, when Jesus says that those who find their life or soul shall lose it, he is pointing out that those who think they are in control of their life—“I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul,” as the poet William Ernest Henley said—will find that they definitely are not in control: they are totally at the mercy of forces beyond them, and even within them. They are on a sure course to disintegration and powerlessness, of lostness both to themselves and to God. They must surrender. By contrast, if they give up the project of being the ultimate point of reference in their life—of doing only what they want, of “sowing to the flesh” or to the natural aims and abilities of a human being—there can be hope. If they in that sense lose their life in favour of God’s life, or for the sake of Jesus and what he is doing on Earth—remember the ongoing World revolution he is now conducting—then their soul (life) will be preserved and thus given back to them. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

ImageWhat does that mean? It means that they will then for the first time be able to do what they want to do. Of course they will be able to steal, lie and murder all they want—which will be none at all. However, they will also be able to be truthful and transparent and helpful and sacrificially loving, with joy—and they will want to be. Their life will be in this way caught up in God’s life. They will want the good and be able to do it, the only true human freedom. The mind set on the spiritual is in that sense “life and peace” (Romans 8.6), because it lives from God and, “sowing into the spirit, out of the spirit reaps the eternal kind of life,” (Galatians 6.8). So—and this is of utmost importance to those who would enter Christian spiritual formation—life as normally understood, where the object is securing myself, promoting myself, indulging myself, is to be set aside. “Can I still think about such things?” you may ask. Yes, you can. However, you increasingly will not. And when you do, as formation in Christlikeness progresses, they simply will not matter. In fact, they will seem ridiculous and uninteresting. Jesus’ words on not being anxious about what will happen to you and his admonitions to consider the flowers and the birds (Luke 12.13-34) will seem obviously sane and right, whereas they previously sounded obviously crazy and wrong, or “out of touch with reality.” #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

ImageThis principle is CUSTOM or HABIT. For wherever the repetition of any particular act or operation produces a propensity to renew the same act or operation, without being impelled by any reasoning or process the understanding; we always say, that this propensity is the effect of Custom. By employing that word, we pretend not to have given the ultimate reason of such a propensity. We only point out a principle of human nature, which is universally acknowledged, and which is well known by its effects. Perhaps, we can push our enquiries no father, or pretend to give the cause of this cause; but must rest contend with it as the ultimate principle, which we can assign, of all our conclusions from experience. It is sufficient satisfaction, that we can go so far; without repining at the narrowness of our faculties, because they will carry us no farther. And it is certain we here advance a very intelligible proposition at least, if not a true one, when we assert, that, after the constant conjunction of two objects, heat and flame, for instance, weight and solidity, we are determined by customer alone to expect the one from the other appearance of the other. This hypothesis seems even the only one, an inference, which we are not able o draw from one instance, that is, in no respect, different from them. Reason is incapable of any such variation. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

ImageThe conclusions, which it draws from considering one circle, are the same which it would form upon surveying all the circles in the Universe. However, no person, having seen only one body will move after a like impulse. All inferences from experience, therefore, are effects of custom, not of reasoning. Limitations and restraints of civil government, and a legal constitution may be defended, either from reason, which reflecting on the  great frailty and corruption of human nature, teaches, that no human can safely be trusted with unlimited authority; or from experience and history, which inform us of the enormous abuses, that ambition, in every age and country, have been found to make of so imprudent a confidence. The Christological affirmation is that Jesus as the Christ is the center of history. His manifestation was the Kairos in which the meaning of the whole of history was perceived. When Jesus says that the right hour has come, that the kingdom of God is at hand, he pronounces the victory over the law of vanity. This hour is not subject to the circle of life and death and all the other circles of vanity. In the life of Jesus, the hour of Calvary particularly emphasizes the breakthrough of the eternal. The event at Golgotha is one which concerns the Universe, including all nature and all history. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

ImageSince this moment the Universe is no longer what it was; nature has received another meaning; history is transformed and you and I are no more, and should not by any more, what we were before. The meaning of history has been revealed. From that tie on all thins are anew. When the apostles say that Jesus is the Christ, they mean that in him the new eon which cannot become old is present. Christianity lives through the faith that within it there is the new which is not just another new thing but rather the principle and representation of all really new in humans and history. History is Christology and Christology is history forms the sum and substance of our view of history. History is conditioned by the appearance of an unconditioned meaning not as a demand but as an existent, not as an idea but as the temporal and paradoxical anticipation of the ultimate perfection. The problem of history combines with the Christological problem. Christology, being the definition and description of this (central) point in rational terms, is at the same time the basis on which the interpretation of history really rests. This does not mean that history may demonstrate Christology. We should always remember that a revelatory situation is not subject to the scalpel of scientific analysis. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

ImageA historical record cannot classify he center of history along with other, more peripheral, events. One can perceive the center and discern the meaning of history only as one can receive a revelation, in ecstasy and faith. On the one hand, Christology may show the universal dimension implied in the event of the Christ. Christianity gives an abstract and universal meaning to the Christological idea; this abstract meaning must be justified. So is it if therewith the universal claim implied in the constitution of a center of history is expressed. Theologians must show that the Christological affirmation solves the dilemma of all humankind, that it provides a satisfactory answer to all he forms that the quest for the New Being has taken. The historical type of the expectation of the New Being embraces itself and the non-historical type, while the non-historical is unable to embrace the historical type. Christology unites the horizontal direction of the expectation of the New Being with the vertical one. This horizontal, or historical, direction characterizes Western thought, while the vertical, or mystical, direction marks Eastern thought. The Christian faith affirms the Christ, not only as the historical Messiah, but also as the Man on the Clouds of the prophet Daniel; it affirms him both as Saviour and divine Wisdom. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

ImageIn our Saviour with His divine Wisdom, were the Kairos, the dynamic advent of the eternal, and the logos, the universal transcosmic presence of the divine. Thanks to this, Christology does not appear as a strange insertion within the trend of ideas concerning the philosophy of history. On the other hand, it is not a matter of proof that Jesus as the Christ is effectively the center of history. Christology is a possible answer to the basic question implied in history, an answer, of course, which can never be proved by arguments, but is a matter of decision and fate. One who is confronted by the picture of the Christ in the Christian faith is caught up in a revelatory situation. Not only one’s own past, but the whole past of humankind helps to determine one’s answer: this is the element of fate implied in the situation. And the future is at stake, for is meaning or its meaninglessness depends on the answer: this is the element of decision. Being grasped by the center of history means being grasped without limitations and conditions, by an absolute power. The fate in which we are grasped by a center of history in such a way is named “predestination” in religious terminology; the decision in which we grasp that which grasps us, is named faith. Christ is indeed the center of history, but only for faith. Historical erudition cannot reach this in document.  #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

ImageTo know the ultimate meaning of history requires commitment, courage, and decision, the decision for the Christ. To one who has not been caught in this revelation, Christology is foolishness and scandal. To one who has been, Christ is final revelation. We already know that the center of history gives meaning to past, present, and future; it constitutes history as the meaning of time. The scope of the Christological affirmation should be explored further. “Now it came to pass in the sixth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi, there were no contentions nor wars in the land of Zarahemla; but the people were afflicted, yea, greatly afflicted for the loss of their brethren, and also for the loss of their flocks and herds, and also for the loss of their fields of grain, which were trodden under foot and destroyed by the Lamanites. And so great were their afflictions that every soul had cause to mourn; and they believed that it was the judgments of God sent upon them because of their wickedness and their abomination; therefore they were awakened to a remembrance of their duty. And they began to establish the church more fully; yea, and many were baptized in the waters of Sidon and were joined to the Church of God; yea, they were baptized by the hand of Alma, who had been consecrated the high priest over the people of the church, by the hand of his father Alma. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

Image“And it came to pass in the seventh year of the reign of the judges there were about three thousand five hundred souls that united themselves to the Church of God and were baptized. And thus ended the seventh year of the judges over the people of Nephi; and there was continual peace in all that time. And it came to pass in the eighth year of the reign of the judges, that the people of the church began to wax proud, because of their exceeding riches, and their fine silks, and their fine-twined linen, and because of their many flocks and herds, and their gold and their silver, and all manner of precious things, which hey had obtained by their industry; and in all these things were they lifted up in the pride of their eyes, for they began to wear very costly apparel. Now this was the cause of much affliction to Alma, yea, and to many of the people whom Alma had consecrated to be teachers, and priests and elders over thus church; yea, many of them were sorely grieved for the wickedness which they saw had begun to be among the people. For they saw and beheld with great sorrow that the people of the church began to be lifted up in the pride of their eyes, and to set their hearts upon riches and upon the vain things of the World, that they began to be scornful, one towards another, and they began to persecute those that did not believe according to their own will and pleasure. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

Image“And thus, in this either year of the reign of the judges, there began to be great contentions among the people of the church; yea, there were envying, and strife, and malice, and persecutions, and pride, even to exceed the pride of those who did not belong to the Church of God. And thus ended the eighth year f the reign of the judges; and the wickedness of the church was a great stumbling-block to those who did not belong to the church; and thus the church began to fail in its progress. And it came to pass in the commencement of the ninth year, Alma saw the wickedness of the church, and he saw also that the example of the church began to lead those who were unbelievers on from one piece of iniquity to another, thus bringing on the destruction of the people. Yea, he saw great inequality among the people, some lifting themselves up with their pride, despising others, turning their backs upon the needy and the naked and those who were hungry, and those who were athirst, and those who were sick and afflicted. Now this was a great cause for lamentations among the people, while others were abasing themselves, succoring those who stood in need of their succor, such as imparting their substance to the poor and the needy, feeding the hungry, and suffering all manner of afflictions for Christ’s sake, who should come according to the spirit of prophecy. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

Image“Looking forward to that day, thus retaining a remission of their sins; being filled with great joy because of the resurrection of the dead, according to the will and power of deliverance of Jesus Christ from the bands of death. And now it came to pass that Alma, having seen the afflictions of the humble followers of God, and the persecution which were heaped upon them by the remainder of his people, and seeing all their inequality, began to be very sorrowful; nevertheless he Spirit of the Lord did not fail him. And he selected a wise man who was among the elders of the church, and gave him power according to the voice of the people, that he might have power to enact laws according to the laws which had been given, and to put them in force according to the wickedness and the crimes of the people. Now this man’s nae was Nephihah, and he was appointed chief judge; and he sat in the judgment-seat to judge and to govern the people. Now Alma did not grant unto him the office of being high priest over the church, but he retained the office of high priest unto himself; but he delivered the judgment-seat unto Nephihah. And this he did that he himself might go forth among his people, or among the people of Nephi, that he might preach the word of God unto them, to stir them up in remembrance of their duty, and that he might pull down, by the word of God, all the pride and craftiness and all the contentions which were among his people, seeing no way that he might reclaim them save it were in bearing down in pure testimony against them. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

Image“And thus in the commencement of the ninth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi, Alma delivered up the judgment-seat to Nephihah, and confined himself wholly to the high priesthood of the holy order of God, to the testimony of the word, according to the spirit of revelation,” reports Alma 4.1-20. The words which Alma, the High Priest according to the holy order of God, delivered to the people in their cities and villages throughout the land. God of All Sovereignty, Thy greatness is unsearchable, Thy name most excellent, Thy glory above the Heavens; ten thousand minister to Thee, ten thousand times ten thousand stand before Thee; in Thy awful presence we are less than nothing. We do not approach Thee because we deserve Thy notice, for we are sinners; our necessities compel us, Thy promises encourage us, our broken hearts incite us, the Mediator draws us, Thy acceptance of others moves us. Look Thou upon us and be merciful unto us; please convince us of the penalty and pollution of sin; please give us faith to believe, and, believing, to have life in Jesus; may we enter into His sufferings; please let us see Thy hand in the instruments of our grief, rejoicing that they are from Thy over-ruling providence. Please let us see Thy hand in the instruments of our grief, rejoicing that they are from Thy over-ruling providence. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

ImagePlease let not our weeping hinder sowing; now sorrow, duty. While living in a World of change please let us seek the abiding city. Be with us to our journey’s end that we may glorify Thee in death as in life. We bless Thee for preservation, supplies, mercies, and to Thee, Keeper of souls, we commit all we are and have. May no evil befall us, no sickness come nigh us, no horror disturbs us! May our conscience be clear, our hearts pure, our sleep sweet! And with the innumerable company who neither slumber nor rest we join in ascribing blessing, honour, glory and power to the lamb upon the throne, for ever and ever. O Merciful and pitying Lord, Who supportest us by sparing us, and sanctifies us by forgiving; please vouchsafe pardon to our sins, and grant that those who attend on the Heavenly Sacraments may be free from all offence, through Jesus Christ our Lord. He is merciful, and full of compassion. O Lord, Who dost gladden us by sparing the powerless. Our Saviour loves us by pardoning the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Please grant pardon of our sins, and receive the sacraments of our celestial-service, to be free from every fault I have. Please grant this blessing. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23Image

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Home site 76 at #PlumasRanch features a large kitchen with spacious work island, open floor plan, butler’s pantry, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms—should we go on? In addition to the beautiful design, its premium location backs up to beautiful orchards. 🌳

ImageThis home in the Riverside community is available for move-in now! See our website for more details, or give us a call at 530-870-8748 to set up a viewing appointment. https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-riverside-at-plumas-ranch/move-in-ready-home-site-76/

ImageO God, Who providest for They people with tenderness, and rulest over them in love; please give the Spirit of wisdom to those to whom Thou hast given the authority of government; that from the well-being of the holy sheep may proceed the eternal joy of the pastors; through Jesus Christ our Lord. O God, Who, to your people, the indulgence of the consultation, and the love of dominion; please give the Spirit of wisdom, to whom you have given the government of the discipline; from the progress of the eternal joy of your children, we are forever grateful.  #CresleighHomes

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We are Just Illusion Makers and the Sun Will Always Shine and the Sky Will Always be Blue!

ImageSpring is here. Everything is burgeoning, the young women also. Their cloaks are laid aside; presumably my green one, too, has been hung up. This is the result of making a young lady’s acquaintance in the street, not in society, where on e is immediately told her name, her family, where she lives, whether she is engaged. The last is extremely important information for all sober and steady suitors, to whom it would never occur to fall in love with an engaged young lady. Such an ambler would then be in mortal distress if he were in my place; he would be utterly demolished if his efforts to obtain information were crowed with success and with the bonus that she was engaged. This, however, does not bother me very much. An engagement is nothing but a comic predicament. I fear neither comic nor tragic predicaments; they only ones I fear are the langweilige [boring] ones. So far, I have not come up with a single bit of information, although I certainly have left nothing untried and many times have felt the truth of the poet’s words: Nox et hiems longaque viae, saevique dolores mollibus his castris, et labour omnis inest [Night, storm, long journeys, cruel pains all kinds of pains are in his dainty camp]. Perhaps she does not live here in the city at all; perhaps she is from the country, perhaps, perhaps—I can fly into a rage over all these perhapses, and the angrier I become, the more the perhapses. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

ImageI always have money at hand in order to be able to set out upon a journey. In vain do I look for her at the theater, at concerts, at dances, on the promenades. In a certain sense, I am pleased; a young woman who participates in such amusements a great deal is usually not worth conquering; she most often lacks the originality that for me is and remains the conditio sine qua non [indispensable condition]. It is not as incomprehensible to find a Preciosa among the gypsies as in the market places where young women are offered for marriage—in all innocence—good Heavens, who says otherwise! However, it is not right for the would-be disciple to take the new relationship as an excuse for releasing oneself from all personal responsibilities, all personal decisions. One should not expect the teacher to take entire charge of one’s entire life for one. Nor is it right for a teacher to accept such a position, to play a role consisting of father and mother and God combined into a single person toward an individual who has reached adult life. It will not help a disciple to let one evade one’s responsibilities and shrink one’s decisions. If the atmosphere between them is surcharged with emotion alone without the restraining balances of reason and common sense, this is the kind of situation which is likely to be brought about. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

Image A wise teacher will try to meet disciples upon the proper ground between accepting such helpless dependence and rebuffing it brusquely altogether. Any other meeting would be unhealthy emotionally and unsound intellectually. Why insist on rash personal relations with your friend? Why go to one’s house, or know one’s mother and brothers and sisters? Why be visited by one at your own? Are these things material to our covenant? Leave this touching and clawing. Let one be to me a spirit. A message, a thought, a sincerity, a glance from one I want, but not news pottage. I can get politics and chat, neighbourly conveniences from cheaper companions. Should not the society of my friend be to me poetic, pure, universal and as great as nature itself? In a social system animated by competition for property, the human personality was metamorphosed into a form of capital. Here it was rational to invest oneself only in properties that would produce the highest return. Personal feeling was a limitation since it distracted the individual from calculating one’s best interest and might pull one along economically counterproductive path. Although human personality remains a medium of competition, the competition is no longer confined to individuals. Institutional purposes are now tied to the workers’ psychological arts. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

ImageIt is not simply individuals who manage their feelings in order to do a job; whole organizations have entered the game. The emotion management that sustains the smile in a real estate representative competes with the emotion management that upholds the smile on other home builders. What was once a private act of emotion management is sold now as labour in public-contact jobs. What was once a privately negotiated rule of feeling or display is not set by the company’s Standard Practice Division. Emotional exchanges that were once idiosyncratic and escapable are now standardized and unavoidable. Exchanges that were rare in private life become common in commercial life. Thus a customer assumes a right to vent unmanaged hostility against a real estate representative who has no corresponding right—because one is paid, in part, to relinquish it. All in all, a private emotional system has been subordinated to commercial logic, and it has been changed by it. It does not take capitalism to turn feeling into a commodity or to turn our capacity for managing feeling into an instrument. However, capitalism has found a use for emotion management, and so it has organized it more efficiently and pushed it further. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

ImageAnd perhaps it does take a capitalist sort of incentive system to connect emotional labour to competition and to go so far as to actually advertise a “sincere” smile, train workers to produce such a smile, supervise their production of it, and then forge a link between this activity and corporate profit. When people like you, they like the company you work for, too. It takes considerable sophistication for a company to make this into an ordinary, trivial thought for a worker to be urged to bear in mind. Massive people-processing—and the advanced engineering of emotional labour that makes it possible—is a remarkable achievement. It is also an important one, for a good part of modern life involves exchange between total strangers, who, in the absence of countermeasures and in the pursuit of short-term self-interest, might much of the time act out of suspicion and anger rather than trust and good will. The occasional lapses from the standard of civility that we take for granted remind us of the crucial steadying effect of emotional labour. However, like most great achievements, the advanced engineering of emotional labour leaves new dilemmas in its wake, new human costs, and I shall focus now on these. For without a clear understanding of these psychological costs, we can hardly begin to find ways of mitigating or removing them. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

ImageThese are three stances that workers seem to take toward work, each with its own sort of risk. In the first, the worker identifies too wholeheartedly with the job, and therefore risk burnout. In he second, the worker clearly distinguishes oneself from the job and is less likely to suffer burnout; but one may blame oneself for making this very distinction and denigrate oneself as “just an actor, no sincere.” In the third, the worker distinguishes oneself from one’s act, does not blame oneself for this, and sees the job as absolutely requiring the capacity to act; for this worker there is some risk of estrangement from acting altogether, and some cynicism about it—“We are just illusion makers.” The first stance is potentially more harmful than the other two, but the harm in all three could be reduced, I believe, if workers could feel a greater sense of control over the conditions of their work lives. The first kind of worker does not see one’s job as one of acting. One has little or no awareness of a “false self.” One is likely to offer warm, personal service, but one is also warm on behalf of the company—“when people like you, they like the company too.” One offers personalized service, but one one’s self become identified with the ized part of it. One is not so good at depersonalizing inappropriately personal behaviour toward one. For these reasons, one is more likely to suffer stress and be susceptible to burnout. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

ImageInstead of removing the idea of a “self” from the job either by will or by art, such a person often reacts passively: one stops caring and becomes remote and detached from the people one serves. Some real estate representatives who describe themselves as poor at depersonalizing reported periods of emotional deadness: “I was not feeling anything. It was like I was not really there. The guy was talking. I could hear him. However, all I heard was dead words.” This sense of emotional numbness reduces stress by reducing access to the feelings through which stress introduces itself. It provides an exit from overwhelming distress that allows a person to remain physically present on the job. Burnout spares the person in the short term, but it may have a serious long-term cost. The human faculty of feeling still “belongs” to the worker who suffers burnout, but the worker may grow accustomed to a dimming or numbing of inner signals. And when we lose access to feeling, we lose a central means of interpreting the World around us. As a precaution against burnout many experienced workers develop a “healthy” estrangement, a clear separation of self from role. They may sometimes feel “phony”—because at a given moment they feel that they should not be acting at all or that they are not acting well enough. However, by differentiating between an acting and a nonacting side of themselves, they make themselves less vulnerable to burnout. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

ImageNow when the company institutes a speed-up—when it maintains its call for emotional labour but sets up conditions that make it impossible to deliver—the worker may become estranged from the acting itself. One may refuse to act at all, thus withdrawing one’s emotional labour altogether. Since the job itself calls for good acing, one will be seen as doing the job poorly. One may respond to the constantly negative consequences of this by trying not to take any consequences at all, by trying not to be there. If in the first stance the worker is too much present in the role, in the third stance, one is not present enough. In all three, the essential problem is how to adjust one’s self to the role in a way that allows some flow of self into the role but minimizes the stress the role puts on the self. In all three cases, the problem of adjusting self to role is aggravated by the worker’s lack of control over the conditions of work. The more often “tips” about how o see, feel, and seem are issued from above and the more effectively the conditions of the “stage” are kept out of the hands of the actor, the les one can influence one’s entrances and exits and the nature of one’s acting in between. The less influence one has, the more likely it is that one of two things will occur. Either one will overextend oneself into the job and burn out, or one will remove oneself from the job and feel bad about it. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

ImageWorker control over the conditions of good acting boils down, in the end, to practical politics. The company wanted to take two real estate representatives off two of their sites, but the union was adamantly opposed, and they won. Now that is a multimillion-dollar decision. However, it is a good thing they won. They thought they could have some control over that decision. It was not just money they wanted. They wanted some say over their work lives so they could do the job like they wanted. However, even such actions by organized workers cannot solve the whole problem. For whenever people do acting for a living, even if they have some control over the stage, they inhabit their own stage faces with caution: behind the mask, they listen to their own feelings at low volume. Cheerfulness in the line of duty becomes something different from ordinary good cheer. This applies much more to the real estate representatives, who must try to be genuinely friendly to a line of strangers, than to the commissary worker, who can feel free to hate packing the three-hundredth vanilla Jell-O pudding cup onto a lunch tray. Yet, whoever entrusts oneself to a maser or one’s mind to a teaching, cannot escape one’s own personal responsibility for what one does. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

ImageThis is not to absolve either the self-actualized or the author of the teaching from one’s own responsibility, which they also have, but it is to make clear that the followers are it too. If history is seen as time between a beginning and an end, we can say that not beginning and end determine the center, as is the case in spatial measurements, but that he center of history determines its beginning and end from the meaning of an historical process. This means that history lasts as long as he revelatory power of its center is experienced, first by anticipation, then by participation. Before this here may be a pre-history, a meaningless time or, rather, a time whose meaning was unperceived. After it, one could conceive of a post-history, another stretch of time deprived of a center and which itself perhaps would be a pre-history before another center is expected. All this, however, is mere speculation; such a possibility is purely abstract. It helps us to see, nevertheless, that the important point of history is that which gives it meaning, its center. Everything else revolves around it. Properly speaking, the center of history is constitutive of it: the meaning of a period arises out of a revelatory situation. History is constituted by the fact that is center is constituted, or—since this is not an arbitrary act—by the fact that its center is constituted, or—since this is not an arbitrary act—by the fact that a center proves to be a center through creating history. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

ImageBy a series of well-timed steps, we have led the audience to the brink of the Christological affirmation. First, we have defined history as the meaning of time. Second, we have shown that his meaning comes to light in moments of intense experience of which one may say, “This is the acceptable time, the Kairos.” At that precise moment, the eternal invades he temporal. Third, we have shown that while each period of history may receive it only from a universal Kairos which will be its center. The fourth step, to which we are now coming, is that Jesus as the Christ is the center of history, the point where salvation manifests itself as the content of history. Before explaining this, I should mention an intriguing point. The center of history cannot be conceived of as future: It cannot be sought for in the future, for the meaning of the future is determined by it. We think that the future will be meaningful only on the basis of a principle which we already possess. However, this is not all: The center cannot lie in the present either. For the present has no historical meaning unless it explains the past too. It has such a meaning only if it is the point in which are joined the historical fate which is born in the past, and the historical decision which provides the future. This is to say that the present must itself refer to some meaningful point in the past, to a past Kairos in the light of which the present is meaningful. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

ImageNo present can be a historical center for itself. As a matter of fact, every center of history in any religion or culture has always been seen as a point of reference in the past. If we remember in our analysis of time, the present is, in a sense, both the past and the future, this remark on the past character of the center of history is not as striking as it may seem. At any moment when we are grasped by the power of Kairos, we are in contact with a super-historical reality, and experience the presence of the past in the present. The conclusion which this imposes on Christology does not affect our conscious of the center of history in Jesus as the Christ. However, it does affect our view of the self-consciousness of the Christ. For if the advent of the Christ in Jesus is the center of history for us, it cannot have been the center of history for Jesus. The implications of this will claim our attention later. In 1899 four reporters from Denver, Colorado, met by chance on a Saturday night in a Denver railroad station. Al Stevens, Jack Tournay, John Lewis, and Hal Wilshire worked for the four Denver papers: The Post, the Times, the Republican and the Rocky Mountain News. Each had the unenviable task of finding a scoop for the Sunday edition. They hoped to spot a visiting celebrity arriving that evening by train. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

ImageHowever, none showed up, so the reporters wondered what on Earth they would do. As they discussed options in a nearby saloon, Al suggested they make up a story. The other three laughed—at first. However, before long they were all agreed—they would come up with such a whopper that n one would question it and their respective editors would congratulate them on their find. A phony local story would be too obvious, so they decided to write about someplace far away. They agreed on China. “What if we say tha some American engineers, on their way to China, told us they are bidding on a major job: the Chinese government is planning to demolish the Great Wall?” Harold was not sure the story would be believable. Why would the Chinese ever tear down the Great Wall of China? “As a sign of international goodwill, to invite foreign trade.” By 11 P.M. the four reporters had worked out the details, and the next say all four Denver newspapers carried the story—on the front page. The Times headlines that Sunday read: “Great Chinese Wall Doomed! Peking Seeks World Trade!” Of course, the story was a ridiculous tall tale made up by four opportunistic newsmen in a hotel bar. However, amazingly their story was taken seriously and soon ran in newspapers in the Eastern United States of America and even abroad. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

ImageWhen the citizens of China heard that the Americas were sending a demolition crew to dismantle the Great Wall, most were indignant, even enraged. Particularly angry were members of a secret society made up of Chinese patriots already against any kind of foreign intervention. Moved to action by the news story, they attacked the foreign embassies in Peking and murdered hundreds of missionaries from abroad. In the next two month twelve thousand troops from six countries, working together, invaded China to protect their country people. The bloodshed of that time, born out of a journalistic hoax fabricated in a saloon in Denver, was the time of violence known ever since as the Boxer Rebellion. What power the written or spoken word has! The Great Wall is very precious to the people of China, it is a sacred monument, much like a church, and natives often get dressed up like they are going to church to visit the spiritual center. It is also a major tourist attraction. The Great Wall of China receives more than 10 million visitors per year. So it is never good to threaten World Wonders.  Nations have risen and nation have fallen to the tongue. Lives have been elevated and lives have been cast down by human speech. Goodness has flowed like a sweet river from out mouth, and so has the cesspool. The tiny tongue is a mighty force indeed. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

ImageWords have the power to hurt or to heal, to bring down, or to raise up. And the words we say to ourselves are quite possibly the most powerful words of all. We need to watch ourselves, and our thoughts, and our words, and our deeds, especially as followers of Christ. “And it came to pass that the Nephites who were not slain by the weapons of war, after having buried those who had been slain—now the number of the slain were not numbered, because of the greatness of their number—after they had finished burying their dead they all returned to their lands, and to their houses, and their wives, and their children. Many women and children had been lain with the sword, and also many of their flocks and their herds; and also many of their fields of grain were destroyed, for they were trodden down by the hosts of humans. And now as many of the Lamanites and the Amlicites who had been slain upon the bank of the river Sidon were cast into the waters of Sidon; and behold their bones are in the depths of the sea, and they are many. And the Amlicites were distinguished from the Nephites, for they had marked themselves with red in their foreheads after the manner of the Lamanites; nevertheless they had not shorn their heads like unto the Lamanites. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

Image“Now the heads of the Lamanites were shorn; and they were naked, save it were skin which was girded about their loins, and also their armour, which was girded about them, and their bows, and their arrows, and their stones, and their slings, and so forth. And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren, who consisted of Nephi, Jacob, and Joseph, and Sam, who were just and holy men. And their brethren sought to destroy them, therefore they were cursed; and the Lord God set a mark upon them, yea, upon Laman and Lemuel, and also the sons of Ishmael, and Ishmaelitish women. And this was done that their seed might be distinguished from the seed of their brethren, that thereby the Lord God might preserve his people, that they might not mix and believe in incorrect traditions which would prove their destruction. And it came to pass that whosoever did mingle his seed with that of the Lamanites did bring the same curse upon his seed. Therefore, whosoever suffered himself to be led away by the Lamanites was called under that head, and there was a mark set upon him. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

Image“And it came to pass that whosoever would not believe in the tradition of the Lamanites, but believed those records which were brought out of the land of Jerusalem, and also in the tradition of their fathers, which were correct, who believed in the commandments of God and kept them, were called the Nephites, or the people of Nephi, from that time forth—and it is they who have kept the records which are true of their people, and also of the people of the Lamanites. Now we will return again to the Amlicites, for they also had a mark set upon them; yea, they set the mark upon themselves, yea, even a mark of red upon their foreheads. Thus the word of God is fulfilled, for these are the words which he said to Nephi: Behold, the Lamanites have I cursed, and I will set a mark on them that they and their seed may be separated from thee and Thy seed, from this time henceforth and forever, except they repent of their wickedness and turn to me that I may have mercy upon them. And again: I will set a mark upon him that mingleth his seed with thy brethren, that they may be cursed also. And again: I will set a mark upon him that figheth against thee and thy seed. And again, I say he that depareth from thee shall no more be called thy seed; and I will bless thee, and whomsoever shall be called thy seed, henceforth and forever; and these were the promises of the Lord unto Nephi and to his seed. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

Image“Now the Amlicites knew not that they were fulfilling the words of God when they began to mark themselves in their foreheads; nevertheless they had come out in the open rebellion against God; therefore it was expedient that the curse should fall upon them. Now I would that ye should see that they brought upon themselves the curse; and even so doth every human that is cursed bring upon oneself one’s own condemnation. Now it came to pass that not many days after the battle which was fought in the land of Zarahemla, by the Lamanites and the Amlicites, that there was another army of the Lamanites came in upon the people of Nephi, in the same pace where the first army met the Amlicites. And it came to pass that there was an army sent to drive them out of their land. Now Alma himself being afflicted with a wound did not go up to battle at this time against the Lamanites; however, he sent up numerous army against them; and they went up and slew many of the Lamanites, and drove the remainder of them out of the borders of their land. And then they returned again and began to establish peace in the land, being troubled no more for a time with their enemies. Now all these things were done, yea, all these wars and contentions were commenced and ended in the fifth year of the reign of the judges. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

Image“And in one year were thousands and tens of thousands of souls sent to the eternal World, that hey might reap their rewards according to their works, whether they were good or whether they were bad, to reap eternal World, that they might reap eternal happiness or eternal misery, according to the spirit which they listed to obey, whether it be a good spirit or a bad one. For every human receiveth wages of one whom one listeth to obey, and this according to the words of the spirit of prophecy; therefore let it be according to the truth. And thus endeth the fifth years of the reign of the judges,” reports Alma 3.1-27. The disciple’s reverence for the Master can still hold room for sight of the latter’s failings and imperfections. If one gets enough inspiration from the Master to help one’s spiritual life, it would be a foolish decision to leave one because of those failings and imperfections. Graciously cast Thy light, O Lord, upon go on and prosper, and its pastors, by Thy governance, may become acceptable to Thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Most High God, the Universe with all its myriad creatures is Thine, made by Thy word, upheld by Thy power, governed by Thy will. However, Thou art also the Father of mercies, the God of all grace, the bestower of all comfort, the protector of the saved. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

ImageThou hast been mindful of us, hast visited us, preserved us, given us a goodly heritage—the Holy Scriptures, the joyful gospel, the Saviour of souls, we came to Thee in Jesus’ name, make mention of His righteousness only, plead His obedience and sufferings who magnified the law both in its precepts and penalty, may we be justified by His blood, saved by his life, joined to His Spirit. Let us take up His cross and follow Him. May the agency of Thy grace prepare us for Thy dispensations. Makes us willing that Thou shouldest choose our inheritance and determine what we shall retain or lose, suffer or enjoy; if blessed with prosperity may we be free from its snares, and use, not abuse, its advantages; may we patiently and cheerfully submit to those afflictions which are necessary. When we are tempted to wander, hedge up our way, excite in us abhorrence of sin, wean us from the present evil World, assure us that we shall at last enter Immanuel’s land where none is ever sick, and the Sun will always shine. Many have a lack of compassion.  Almighty please give service to our successful course and people like you are in your heart pleasing because Thou art holy. May the President that commands the nation keep society in their right mind. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

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Our homes in our latest community at #PlumasRanch took influence from modern design trends, like patterned tile and spacious center work islands. The end result is definitely drool-worthy. 🤤

ImageWe have TWO homes in the Riverside community that are move-in ready! Check them out on our website. Link in bio. 🙌 https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-riverside-at-plumas-ranch/move-in-ready-home-site-77/

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O merciful God and eternal King, please give a prosperous course to our service; and that we may become pleasing in Thy sight by means of the devotion of Thy people, do Thou preside over Thy holy flock; and guide Thou the wills of all into the observance of Thy commands. During your church, O Lord, thy goodness, shine; and the flocks are everywhere, and to Thy I guarantee my heart.  #CresleighHomes

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As the Stars Fade Before the Rising Sun, Thou Hast Eclipsed All these Benefits in the Wisdom and Grace of Redemption!

ImageCursed chance! Never have I cursed you because you made your appearance; I curse you because you do not make your appearance at all. Or is his perhaps supposed to be a new invention of yours, you incomprehensible being, barren mother of everything, the only remnant remaining from that time when necessity gave birth freedom, when freedom let itself be tricked back into the womb again? Cursed chance! You, my only confidant, the only being I deem worthy to be my ally and my enemy, always similar to yourself in dissimilarity; always incomprehensible, always an enigma! You whom I love with all the sympathy of my soul, in whose image I form myself, why do you no make your appearance? I do no beg, I do not humbly plead that you will make your appearance in this manner or that; such worship would indeed be idolatry, would not be pleasing to you. I challenge you to a fight—why do you not make your appearance? Or has the balance wheel in the World structure stopped, is your enigma solved, and so you, too, have plunged into the sea of eternity? Terrible thought—then the World will come to a halt out of boredom! Cursed chance, I am waiting for you! I do not want to vanquish you by means of principles or what foolish people call character—no, I shall be your poet! I do not want to be a poet for others; makes your appearance, and I shall be your poet. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

ImageI shall eat my own poem, and that will be my food. Or do you find me unworthy? Just as a temple dancer dances to the honor of the god [Guden], so I have consecrated myself to your service; light, thinly clad, limber, unarmed, I renounce everything. I own nothing; I desire to own nothing; I love nothing; I have nothing to lose—but have I not thereby become more worthy of you, you who long ago must have been tired of depriving people of what they love, tired of their craven pleading. Surprise me—I am ready. No stakes—let us fight for honour. Show her to me, show me a possibility that seems to be an impossibility; show her to me among the shades of the underworld, and I shall bring her back. Let her hate me, scorn me, be indifferent to me, love someone else—I do not fear; but stir up the water, break the silence. To starve me this way is mean of you, you who nevertheless fancy yourself strong than I. The average aspirant does not find the true teachers because one would not behave oneself correctly with them if one did. Sooner or later one would abuse the lofty character of the relation of discipleship and seek to force it to become a half-Worldly one. It is probably true to say that even imperfect teachers, who are all that the public is likely to know, often receive from their followers frantic appeals for this or that personal intervention or frenzied outpouring concerning this or that personal problem for which immediate help is demanded. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

ImageHowever, even when the aspirant has linked oneself up with an embodied master or invisible adept, a scriptural personage or one’s own high self (God), one may start to assume that the higher power (Jesus Christ) or person is henceforth going to settle all one’s personal troubles without one’s own exertions being called for. This is a piece of wishful thinking. If one were to be deprived of the opportunity of tackling one’s problems and troubles for oneself, they very purpose of evolution would be defeated. The purpose of independence is only so that one’s capacities can stretch out and one’s understanding enlarge itself. We may sympathize with the need of troubled disciples, but a wrong notion of what constitutes the teacher-disciple relation will not help them. It will lead to false hopes and the anguish of subsequent disappointment. For what is it that they are really trying to do. They are not merely using the teacher as a spiritual guide, which is quite correct, but also as a material guide, leaning-post, and father-mother, which is quite wrong. They want to shunt their own responsibilities and shift their personal burden onto back of a master or at least to share them with one. Such a conception of disciple is a wrong one. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

Image Also it is an unfair one. Instead of using the master as a source of principles and inspirations to be applied by themselves in practical life, they try to exploit one, to avoid he responsibility for making their own decisions by saddling it upon one’s shoulders. The master cannot solve all their personal problems or carry all their burdens. This task rests with disciples themselves. To seek to shift their responsibility for it onto the master’s shoulders is to demand the impossible, the unfair, and the unwise. If successful, I would defeat the very purpose of their incarnation. It would rob them of the benefit of the experience to which they have been led by God. Such excessive reliance on the guide makes them more and more incapable of independent thought and judgment. However, it should be the object of a competent guide to help them develop these very things and grow in spiritual strength, as it should be the aim of a sincere one not dictatorially to rule their conduct but suggestively to elevate it. If they are to advance to higher levels, disciples must learn to rely on their own endeavours. No masters can relieve them of his responsibility. It is no the work of a philosophic teacher to save students from having to make decisions for themselves. It is, on the contrary, one’s duty to encourage them to face up to rather than to flee from the responsibility and profit of working out their own solutions. The prudent master will leave them to work out for themselves how to apply philosophy to their personal situations. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

ImageFor one to manage their lives, settle their problems, and negotiate their difficulties might please their egos but would weaken their characters. Hence, one does not wish to interfere in their lives nor assume responsibility for forming decisions on those personal, domestic, family, employment, and business problems which they ought to arrive at for themselves. At best one can point out the general direction for travel, not supply a definite map; he can point out the general direction for travel, not suppl a definite map; one can lay down the general principles of action and it is for them to find out the best way of applying these principles. The agony of coming to a right judgement is part of the educative process in developing right intuitions. Each experience looked at in his way brings out their independent creative faculty, that is, makes them truly self-reliant. The principles of such solutions are partially in their hands; practical horse-sense must be harnessed to shrewd reason and guided by ethical ideals and intuitions. If the contact stimulates one before one is ready for it, then it will help one’s spiritual growth in some ways but hinder it in other ways. It may give one greater enthusiasm conviction and determination, but also will inflate rather than abnegate the ego. This is another reason why adepts are hard to approach. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

Image The passion for philosophy, like that for religion, seems liable to this inconvenience, that, though it aims at the correction of our manners, and extirpation of our vices, it may only serve, by imprudent management, to foster a predominant inclination, and push he mind, with more determined resolution, towards that side, which already draws too much, by the biass and propensity of the natural temper. It is certain, that, while we aspire to the magnanimous firmness of the philosophic self-actualized, and endeavour to confine our pleasures altogether within our own minds, we may, at last, render our philosophy like that of EPICTETUS, and other Stoics, only a more refined system of selfishness, and reason ourselves out of all virtue, as well as social enjoyment. Stoicism, the school of philosophy that spanned at least five centuries, from the third century Before Christ to the second century After Death, had as its main ethical tenet that a human must live in harmony with nature; nature is construed as inherently rational and humans must be rational as well. Epictetus (circa 50- circa 130 After Death), an illustrious later Stoic, maintained that living in harmony with nature is a matter of distinguishing those things within our power from those which are not, and seeking to control only the formers. This involves purging oneself of desires and strong feelings concerning the latter. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

ImageAs Epictetus noted, “Humans are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of things.” While we study with attention the vanity of human life, and turn all out thoughts towards the empty and transitory nature of riches and honours, we are, perhaps, all the while, flattering our natural indolence, which, hating the bustle of the World, and drudgery of business, seeks a pretence of reason, to give itself a full and uncontrolled indulgence. There is, however, one species of philosophy, which seems little liable to this inconvenience, and that because it strikes in with no disorderly passion of the human mind, nor can mingle itself with any natural affection or propensity; and that is the ACADEMIC or SCEPTICAL philosophy. Academical or skepical philosophy, the title of Section XII of the Enquiry, refers to the philosophy of the Greek Academy founded by Plato, more specifically, to the philosophy of the Academy in the second and third centuries Before Christ, in which a form of moderate skepticism was espoused. For instance, Carneades (circa 213-128 Before Christ), one of the leading members of the school, is said to have challenged Stoic doctrines concerning the infallibility of our perceptions and claimed that no perception is infallible or an object of knowledge. All we can be sure of is the nature of the “appearances.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

ImageSill, the academic skeptics, unlike the Phyrrhonians, formulated a theory of credible belied according to which some things are more probable than others, and did not advocate a suspension of judgment on all things. Hume is often taken to be advocating a theory of academic or moderate skepticism in the Enquiry. The academics always talk of doubt and suspense of judgment, of dander in hasty determinations, of confining to very narrow bounds the enquiries of the understanding, and of renouncing all speculations which lie not within the limits of common life and practice. Nothing, therefore, can be more contrary than such a philosophy to the supine indolence of the mind, its rash arrogance, its lofty pretensions, and its superstitious credulity. Every passion is mortified by it, except the love of truth; and that passion never is, nor can be carried to too high a degree. It is surprising, therefore, that this philosophy, which, in almost every instance, must be harmless and innocent, should be the subject of so much groundless reproach and obloquy. However, perhaps, the very circumstance, which renders it so innocent, is what chiefly exposes it to the public hatred and resentment. By flattering no irregular passion, it gains few partizans: By opposing so many vices and follies, it raises to itself abundance of enemies, who stigmatize it as libertine, profane, and irreligious. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

ImageNor need we fear, that this philosophy, while it endeavours to limit our enquires to common life, should ever undermine the reasonings of common life, and carry its doubts so far as to destroy all action, as well as speculation. Nature will always maintain her rights, and prevail in the end over any abstract reasoning whatsoever. Though we should conclude, for instance, as in the foregoing section, that in all reasonings from experience, there is a step taken by the mind, which is not supported by any argument or process of the understanding; there is no danger, that these reasonings, on which almost all knowledge depends, will ever be affected by such discovery. If the mind be not engaged by argument to make this step, it must be induced by some other principle of equal weight and authority; and that principle will preserve is influence as long as human nature remains the same. What that principle is, may well be worth the pains of enquiry. Supposed a person, though endowed with the strongest faculties of reason and reflection, to be brought on a sudden into this World; one would, indeed, immediately observe a continual succession of objects, and one event following another; but one would not be able to discover any thing farther. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

ImageOne would not, at first, by any reasoning, be able to reach the idea of cause and effect; since he particular powers, by which all natural operations are performed, never appear to the senses; nor is it reasonable to conclude, merely because one event, in one instance, precedes another, that therefore he one is the cause, the other the effect. Their conjunction may be arbitrary and casual. There may be no reason to infer the existence of one from the appearance of the other. And in a word, such a person, without more experience, could never employ one’s conjecture or reasoning concerning any matter of fact, or be assured of any thing beyond what was immediately present to one’s memory and senses. Suppose again, that one has acquired more experience, and has lived so long in the World as to have observed similar objects or events to be constantly conjoined together; what is the consequence of this experience? One immediately infers the existence of one object from the appearance of the other. Yet one has not, by all one’s experience, acquired any idea or knowledge of the secret power, by which the one object produces the other; nor is it, by any process of reasoning, one is engaged to draw this influence. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

ImageHowever, still one finds oneself determined to draw it: And though one should be convinced, that one’s understanding has no part in the operation, one would nevertheless continue in the same course of thinking. There is some other principle, which determines one to form such a conclusion. On the job, the acceptance of a division between the “real” self and the self in a company uniform is often a way to avoid stress, a wise realization, a saving grace. However, this solution also poses serious problems. For in dividing up our sense, in order to save the “real” self from unwelcome intrusions, we necessarily relinquish a healthy sense of wholeness. We come to accept as normal the tension we feel between our “real” and our “on-stage” selves. More women than men go into public-contact work in which status enhancement is the essential social-psychological task. Blood, sweat, tears, sleepless night, lengthy stares at blank sheets of paper, unproductive days when everything gets dumped into the trash, and periodic moments when inspiration and insight flow is the blessing of God’s compassion as it streams into one’s soul. In the Lord’s presence, the disciple with true affinity feels an infinite test. Others may avoid the self-actualized after the first meeting because they cannot endure the uneasy feeling of guilt which arise in one’s presence. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

ImageFor the self-actualized, their most secret sins and most hidden weaknesses are suddenly displayed into their mind’s eye by the mere fact of one’s propinquity. It is an involuntary and mysterious experience. Sometimes the interrogation in the eyes of an illuminate will prove fatal to the Worldly foolishness we bring into one’s presence. There is a silence which soothes and a silence which disturbs. With a genuine adept the first is felt, but with the other kind, the second. Like a looking-glass, one shines back the image of what their diviner self is silently pointing toward. Those who feel this deep peace in the atmosphere around and between them, do not feel any need of words. The soothing stillness is their best communication and indeed gives the latter a quality of sacred communion. Sometimes the more we write about the subject of personal holiness, the less holy we see in ourselves. Just keep this in mind on your path to God, “Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given to me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,” reports Ephesians 3.8. It may seem that we do no deserve to communicate God’s messages because they are such awesome subjects of holiness, but we are doing so by the grace of God—by His free, unmerited, unearned, and undeserved favour. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

ImagePaul never ceased to be amazed that God chose him, the foremost persecutor of the Church, to be the apostle to the Gentiles and to proclaim to them the unsearchable riches of Christ. “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God,” reports 1 Corinthians 15.9. Not only did Paul consider himself the least of the apostles, to the Ephesians he referred to oneself as “less than the least” is actually a “superlative comparative” coined by Paul to express the depth of his genuine amazement that God would call him to be an apostle. “And it came to pass in the commencement of the fifth year of their reign there began to be a contention among he people; for a certain man, being called Amlici, he being a very cunning man, yea, a wise man as to the wisdom of the World, he being after the order of the man that slew Gideon by the sword, who was executed according to the law—now this Amlici had, by his cunning, drawn away much people after him; even so much that they began to be very powerful; and they began to endeavour to establish Amlici to be a king over the people. Now this was alarming to the people of the church and also to all those who had not been drawn away after he persuasions of Amlici; for they knew that according to their law that such things must be established by the voice of the people. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

Image“Therefore, if it were possible that Amlici should gain the voice of the people, he, being a wicked man, would deprive them of their rights and privileges of the church; for it was his intent to destroy the church of God. And it came to pass that the people assembled themselves together throughout all the land, every human according to one’s mind, whether it were for or against Amlici, in separate bodies, having much dispute and wonderful contentions one with another. And thus they did assemble themselves together to cast in their voices concerning the matter; and they were laid before the judges. And it came to pass that the voice of the people came against Amlici, that he was not made king over the people. Now this did cause much joy in the hearts of those who were against him; but Amlici did stir up those who were in his favour to anger against those who were not in his favour. And it came to pass that they gathered themselves together, and did consecrate Amlici to be their king. Now when Amlici was made king over them he commanded them that they should take up arms against their brethren; and this he did that he might subject them to him. Now the people of Amlici were distinguished by he name of Amlici, being called Amlicites; and the remainder were called Nephites, or the people of God. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

Image“Therefore the people of the Nephites were aware of the intent of the Amlicites, and therefore they did prepare to meet them; yea, they did arm themselves with swords, and with cimeters, and with bows, and with arrows, and with stones, and with slings, and with all manner of weapons of war, of every kind. And thus they were prepared to meet the Amlicites a the time of coming. And there were appointed captains, and higher captains, and chief captains, according to their numbers. And it came to pass that Amlici did arm his men with all manner of weapons of war of every kind; and he also appointed rulers and leaders over his people, to lead them to war against their brethren. And it came to pass that the Amlicites came upon the hill of Amnihu, which was east of the river Sidon, which ran by the land of Zarahemla, and there they began to make war with the Nephites. Now Alma, being the chief judge and the governor the people of Nephi, therefore he went up with his people, yea, with his captains, and chief captains, yea, at the head of his armies, against Amlicites to battle. And they began to slay the Amlicites upon the hill of east of Sidon. And the Amlicites did contend with the Nephites with great strength, insomuch that many of the Nephites did fall before the Amlicites. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

Image“Nevertheless the Lord did strengthen the hand of the Nephites, that they slew the Amlicites with great slaughter, that they began to flee before them. And it came to pass that the Nephites did pursue the Amlicites all that day, and did slay them with much slaughter, insomuch that there were slain of the Amlicites twelve thousand five hundred thirty and two souls; and there were slain of the Nephites six thousand five hundred sixty and two souls. And it came to pass that when Alma could pursue the Amlicites no longer he caused that his people should pitch their tents in the valley of Gideon, the valley being called after that Gideon who was slain by the hand of Nehor with the sword; and in this valley the Nephites did pitch their tents for the night. And Alma sent spies to follow the remnant of the Amlicites, that he might know of their plans and their plots, whereby he might guard himself against them, that he might preserve his people from being destroyed. Now those whom he had sent out to watch the camp of the Amlicites. And it came to pass that on the morrow they returned into the camp of the Nephites in great haste, being greatly astonished, and struck with much fear, saying: Behold, we followed the camp of the Amlicites, and to our great astonishment, in the land of Zarahemla, in the course of the land of Nephi, we saw a numerous host of the Lamanites; and behold, the Amlicites have joined them. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

Image“And they are upon our brethren in that land; and they are feeling before them with flocks, and their wives, and their children, towards our city; and except we make haste they obtain possession of our city, and our fathers, and our wives, and our children be slain. And it came to pass that the people of Nephi took their tents, and departed out of the valley of Gideon towards their city, which was the city of Zarahemla. And behold, as they were crossing the river Sidon, the Lamanites and the Amlicites, being as numerous almost, as it were, as the sands of the sea, came upon them to destroy them. Nevertheless, the Nephites being strengthened by the hand of their enemies, therefore the Lord did hear their cries, and did strengthen them, and the Lamanites and the Amlicites did fall before them. And it came to pass that Alma fought with Amlici with the sword, face to face; and they did contend mightily, one with another. And it came to pass that Alma, being a man of God, being exercised with much faith, cried, saying: O Lord, have mercy and spare my life, that I may be an instrument in Thy hands to save and preserve this people. Now when Alma had said these words he contended again with Amlici; and he was strengthened, insomuch that he slew Amlici with the sword. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

Image“And he also contended with the kind of the Lamanites; but the king of the Lamanites; but the king of the Lamanites fled back from before Alma and sent his guards to contend with Alma. However, Alma, with his guards, contended with the guards of the king of the Lamanites until he slew and drove them back. And thus he cleared the ground, or rather the bank, which was on the west of the river of Sidon, throwing the bodies of the Lamanites who had been slain into the waters of Sidon, that thereby his people might have room to cross and contend with the Lamanites and the Amlicites on the west side of the river Sidon. And it came to pass that when they had all crossed the river Sidon that the Lamanites and the Amlicites began to flee before them, notwithstanding they were so numerous that they could not be numbered. And they fled before the Nephites towards the wilderness which was west and north, away beyond the borders of the land; and the Nephites did pursue them with their might, and did slay them. Yea, they were met on every hand and slain and driven, until they were scattered on the west, and on the north, until they reached the wilderness, which was called Hermounts; and it was that part of the wilderness which was infested by wild and ravenous beast. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

Image“And it came to pass ha may died in the wilderness of their wounds, and were devoured by those beasts and also the vultures of their air; and their bones have been found, and have been heaped up on the Earth,” reports Alma 2.1-38. Who can be worthy of this office, unless one is first fitted for it by Thy preventing grace and compassion? Since then it is of Thy gift, not of our merit, Thou must also interpose Thy guidance, that it may not prove the everlasting punishment of our negligence, but rather become in due order the cause of an eternal reward for our having discharged it. Thou great and only Potentate, Thou hast made Summer and Winter, day and night; each of these revolutions serves our welfare and is full of Thy care and kindness. Thy bounty is seen in the relations that train us, the law that defend us, the homes that shelter us, the food that builds us, the raiment that confronts us, the continuance of our healthy, members, senses, understanding, memory, affection, will. However, as stars fade before the rising Sun, Thou hast eclipsed all these benefits in the wisdom and grace that purposed redemption by Jesus Thy Son. Blessed be Thy mercy that laid help on one that is mighty and willing, one that is mighty and willing, one that is able to save to the uttermost. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

ImagePlease make us deeply sensible of our need of His saving grace, of the blood that cleanses, of the rest He has promised. And impute to us that righteousness which justifies the guilty, gives them a title to eternal life, and possession of the Spirit. May we love the freeness of salvation, and joy in its holiness; give us faith to grasp Thy promises, that are our hope, please provide for every exigency, and prevent every evil; please keep our hearts from straying after forbidden pleasures; may Thy will bind all our wishes; please let us live out of the World as to its spirit, maxim, manners, but live in it as the sphere of our action and usefulness; may we be alive to every call of duty, accepting without question Thy determination of our circumstances and our service. Sitting in the aura of greatness that exudes from the self-actualized, a sensitive person absorbs some vitalizing element which gives one the impetus to nurture the quality of greatness in oneself. The pretensions of the ego must collapse. In this person’s presence others feel inadequate, often become acutely aware of their own deficiencies. Why is this? It is because they abruptly find themselves measured against one’s breadth of soul and height of wisdom. They become ashamed of their own littleness when it is shown up by one’s greatness. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20Image

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When it comes into being, who is worthy of this office, except by the grace of Thy ministry and has been anticipated by the evenly formed? Therefore, of Thy gift, it is not as we are humans are of merit. Nonetheless, your government will take part in, so that its negligence maybe the penalty of perpetual light, and  may become the cause of eternal reward for those carrying out God’s will in a becoming manner. #CresleighHomes

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It is Easy to Tell a Lie, but Hard to Tell Only One!

ImageThe days go by; I am still making no headway. The young misses delight me more than ever, and yet I have no desire to enjoy. I look for her everywhere. Often it makes me unreasonable, befuddles my vision, enervates my enjoyment. That beautiful season will soon be here when one can buy up in the public streets and lanes the small claims that cost dearly enough during the social life in the Winter season, for a young lady can forget much, but not a situation. It is true that social life does put a person in touch with the fair maidens, but it is no good for beginning an affair. In social life, every young lady is armed; the situation is unsatisfactory and occurs again and again—she receives no sensuous jolt. In the street, she is on the open sea, and therefore everything affects her more, and likewise everything is more enigmatic. I would give a hundred rix-dollars for a smile from a young lady in a street situation, and not ten for a hand squeeze a at party—that is an entirely different kind of currency. When the affair has started, one looks for the person concerned at the parties. One has a secret communication with her that is tempting; it is the most energetic stimulation I know. She does no dare to talk about it, and yet she thinks about it; she does not know whether one has forgotten it or not; now one misleads her in this way, now another. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

ImageThis year my ingathering has been small; this young lady preoccupies me too much. In a certain sense, my profits are meager, but then I do indeed have the prospect of the grand prize. Integrity can cost you a relationship, reputation, promotion, job, even your life. However, integrity also has its benefits. There can be no doubt that integrity is its own reward, for it produces character, and notwithstanding divine intervention, character determines the course of one’s life here on Earth. Even more, it will glorify God for eternity by Hid grace. Closely aligned with this is the parallel benefit of a clear conscience. This is a prime benefit, because if you have a clear conscience you will be able to stand firmly in the storms that swirl around you. If your heart does not condemn you, but affirms you, you can be a tower of strength. “The human of integrity walks surely,” reports Proverbs 10.9. However, the benefits of integrity go even farther, because integrity of soul assures a deep intimacy with God. God desires truth in the inward parts (Psalm 51.6), and when it is there He rejoices in the fellowship with that heart. A transparent, honest soul is a haven for the Spirit of God. There are also outward benefits of integrity, for integrity elevates the lives of believers. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

Image Integrity encourages more integrity, ethical conduct spawns further ethical conduct, honesty leads to honesty, character produces character! “The righteous man leads a blameless life, says Solomon; “blessed are his children after him,” reports Proverbs 20.7. When we take note that Jesus Christ has made an ethical difference in our lives, there will be no doubt that our souls will turn to Christ as a result. Integrity and evangelism are a potent combination. We can hardly overstate the importance of integrity to a generation of believers which is so much like the World in its ethical conduct. The World is dying for us to have integrity! Its enviable benefits of character, a clear conscience, deep intimacy with God, the elevation of others, and the winning of the lost all powerfully argue its importance. And the stilled hearts of Ananias and Sapphira declare is urgency. Starting with the very general notion of a group of individuals who share some values and adhere to a set of social norms regarding conduct and regarding personal attributes, one can refer to any individual member who does not adhere to the norms as a deviator, and to one’s peculiarity as a deviation. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

Image I do not think all deviators have enough in common to warrant a special analysis; they differ in many more ways than they are similar, in part because of the thorough difference, due to size, of groups in which deviations can occur. One can, however, subdivide the area into smaller plots, some of which might be worth cultivating. It is known that a confirmed high position in some small close-knit groups can be associated with a license to deviate and hence to be a deviator. The relation of such a deviator and hence to be a deviator. The relation of such a deviator to the group, and the conception members have of one, are such as to withstand restructuring by virtue of the deviation. (When the group is large, however, the eminent may find they must fully conform in all visible ways.) The member who is defined as physically sick is in somewhat the same situation; if one properly handles one’s sick status one can deviate from performance standards without this being taken as a reflection on one or on one’s relation to the group. The eminent and the sick can be free, then, to be deviators precisely because their deviation can be fully discounted, leading to no re-identification; their special situation demonstrates they are anything but deviants—in the common understanding of that term. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

ImageIn many close-knit groups and communities there are instances of a member who deviates, whether in deed or in the attributes one possesses, or both, and in consequence comes to play a special role, becoming a symbol of the group and a performer of certain clownish functions, even while one is denied the respect accorded full-fledged members. Characteristically this individual ceases to play the social distance game, approaching and being approached at will. One is often the focus of attention that welds others into a participating circle around one, even while it strips one of some of the status of a participant. One serves as a mascot for the group although qualified in certain ways to be a normal member of it. The village idiot, the small-town drunk, and the platoon clown are traditional examples; the fraternity frat boy is another. One would expect to find only one of such persons to a group, since one is all that is needed, further instance merely adding to the burden of the community. One might be called an in-group deviant to remind one that one is deviant relative to a concrete group, not merely norms, and that one’s intensive if ambivalent inclusion in the group distinguishes one from another well-known type of deviator—the group isolate who is constantly in social situations with the group but is not one of their own. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

ImageWhen the in-group deviant is attacked by outsiders, the group may well rally in support; when the group isolate is attacked, one is more likely to have to do one’s own fighting. Note that all the types of deviators considered here are fixed within a circle in which extensive biographical information about them—a full personal identification—is widespread. It has been suggested that in smallish groups the in-group deviant can be distinguished from other deviators, for unlike these other one is in a skewed relation to the moral life that is sustained on the average by the members. Indeed, if one did want to consider other social roles along with the in-group deviant, it might be useful to turn to those roles whose performers are out of step with ordinary morality, although not known as deviators. As one shifts the “system of reference” from small family-like groups to ones which can support greater role specialization, two such roles become evident. One of these morally mis-aligning roles is that of minister or priest, the performer being obliged to symbolize the righteous life and life it more than is normal; the other is that of law officer, the performer having to make a daily routine out of other people’s appreciable infractions. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

ImageWhen the “system of reference” is further shifted from a face-to-face local community to the wider World of metropolitan settlements (and their affiliated areas, resort and residential), a corresponding shift is found in the variety and meaning of deviations. One such deviation is important here, the kind presented by individuals who are seen as declining voluntarily and openly to accept the social place accorded them, and who ac irregularly and somewhat rebelliously in connection with our basic institutions—the family, the age-grade system, the stereotyped role-division between the genders, legitimate full-time employment involving maintenance of a single governmentally ratified personal identity, and segregation by class and race. These are the “disaffiliates.” Those who take this stand on their own and by themselves might be called eccentrics or “characters.” Those whose activity is collective and focused within some building or place (and often upon a special activity) may be called cultists. Those who come together into a sub-community or milieu may be called social deviants, and their corporate life a deviant community. They constitute a special type, but only one type, of deviator. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

ImageThe term “deviant community” is not entirely satisfactory because it obscures two issues: whether or not the community is peculiar according to structural standards derived from an analysis of the make-up of ordinary communities; and whether or not the members of the community are social deviants. A one-gendered army pos in an unpopulated territory is a deviant community in the first sense, but necessarily a community of social deviants. If there is to be a field of inquiry called “deviance,” it is social deviants as here defined that would presumably constitute its core. Women and men of the evening, people hooked on stimulants and barbiturates, delinquents, criminals, full time gamblers, those addicted to liquor, and others who do not assimilate to the traditional culture, the unrepentant less affluent—these would be included. These are the folk who are considered to be engaged in some kind of collective denial of the social order. They are perceived as failing to use available opportunity for advancement in the various approved runways of society; they show open disrespect for their betters; they lack piety; they represent failures in the motivational schemes of society. Once the core of social deviancy is established, one can proceed to peripheral instances: community-based political radicals who not only vote in a divergent way but spend more time with those of their own kind than is politically necessary. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

ImageOther categories of peripheral instances to include are the raveling rich who are not geared into the executive’s work week, and spend their time drifting from one summering place to another; expatiates, employed or not, who are routinely wander at least a few steps from the index of the Prague Stock Exchange (PX) and the American Express; the ethnic assimilation backsliders who are reared in the wo Worlds of the parent society and the society of their parents, and resolutely turn away from the conventional routes of mobility open to them, overlaying their public school socialization with what many normals will sees as a grotesque consume of religious orthodoxy; the metropolitan unmarried and merely married who disavail themselves of an opportunity to raise a family, and instead support a vague society that is in rebellion, albeit mild and short-lived, against the family system. In almost all of these cases, some show of disaffiliation is made, as is also true of eccentrics and cultists, providing in this way a thin line that can be drawn between all of them and deviators on the other side, namely, the quietly disaffiliated—hobbyists who become so devoted to their avocation that only a husk remains for civil attachments, as in the cause of some ardent stamp collectors, club tennis players, and Ultimate Diving Machine buffs. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

ImageSocial deviants, as defined, flaunt their refusal to accept their place and are temporarily tolerated in this gestural rebellion, providing it is restricted within the ecological boundaries of their community. Like ethic and racial transient communities, these communities constitute a haven of self-defense and a place where the individual deviator can openly take the line that one is at least as good as anyone else. However, in addition, social deviants often feel that they are not merely equal to but better than normals, and that the life they lead is better than that lived by the persons hey would otherwise be. Social deviants also provide models of being for restless normals, obtaining not only sympathy but also recruits. (Cultists acquire converts too, of course, but the focus is on programs of action no styles of life.) The wise can become fellow-travelers. In theory, a deviant community could come to perform for society at large something of the same functions performed by an in-group deviant for one’s group, but while this is thinkable, no one yet seems to have demonstrated the case. The problem is that the large area from which recruits to a deviant community are drawn is not itself as clearly a system, an entity, with needs and functions, as is a small face-to-face group. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

ImageTwo kinds of deviators have been here considered: in-group deviants and social deviants. Two neighhbouring types of social category ought to be mentioned. First, ethnic and racial minority groups; individuals who have a common history and culture (and often a common national origin), wo transmit their membership along lineage lines, who are in a position to demand signs of loyalty from some of the members, and who are in a relatively disadvantaged position in society. Secondly, there are those members of the lower class who quite noticeably bear the mark of their statues in speech, appearance, and manner, and who, relative to the public institutions of our society, find they are second class citizens. Now it is apparent that in-group deviants, social deviants, minority members, and lower-class persons are all likely on occasion to find themselves functioning as stigmatized individuals, unsure of the reception awaiting them in face-to-face interaction and deeply involved in the various responses to this plight. This will be so if for no other reason than that almost all adults have to have some dealings with service organizations, both commercial and civil, where courteous, uniform treatment is supposed to prevail based on nothing more restrictive than citizenship, but where opportunity will arise for concern about invidious expressive valuations based on a virtual middle class ideal. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

ImageIt should be just as apparent, however, that a full consideration of any one of these four categories leads beyond, and away from, what it is necessary to consider in the analysis of stigma. For example, there are deviant communities whose members, especially when away from their milieu, are not particularly concerned about their social acceptance, and therefore can hardly be analyzed by reference to stigma management; an instance would be certain outdoor milieu on the warm beaches of America where can be found those aging young people who are not yet ready to become contaminated by work and who voluntarily devote themselves to various forms of riding the waves. Nor should it be forgotten that apart from the four categories mentioned, there are some disadvantaged persons who are not stigmatized at all, for example, someone married to a mean and selfish mate, or someone who is no well-off and must raise four children, or someone whose physical disability (for example, a mild hearing impairment) has interfered with one’s life, even through everyone, including one’s self, remains unaware that one has a physical disability. Stigmatized persons have enough of their situations in life in common to warrant classifying all these persons together for purposes of analysis. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

ImageAn extraction of stigmatized individuals has thus been made from the traditional fields of social problems, race and ethnic relations, social disorganization, criminology, social pathology, and deviancy—an extraction of something all these fields have in common. These commonalities can be organized on the basis of very few assumptions regarding human nature. What remains in each one of the traditional fields could then be re-examined for whatever is really special to it, thereby brining analytical coherence to what is now purely historic and fortuitous unity. Knowing what field like race relations, aging, and mental health share, one could then go on to see, analytically, how they differ. Perhaps in each case the choice would be to retain the old substantive areas, but at least it would be clear that each is merely an area to which one should apply several perspectives, and that the development of any one of these coherent analytic perspectives is not likely to come from those who restrict their interest exclusively to one substantive area.  The urgency and importance of integrity suggests one thing to the serious heart—the necessity of discipline. God wants us to be humans of principle. Morality, like art, consists in drawing the line somewhere. We must let God’s Word draw the line, not culture. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

ImageThe elevated ethics of Holy Scripture must be kept at all costs, even though culture thinks them quaint and impossible. And we must discipline ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit to maintain them. One of the most effective disciplines I know is not to do something that first time—for repetition will come far easier. Not doing something for the first time is a tremendous bulwark against not doing it later. It is easy to tell a lie but hard to tell only one. Discipline will help us avoid the guilt that we often experience by dabbling in things we should not. An important fruit of discipline is integrity. Few things are more important than whether one has a good reputation, a “good name.” Not all people are gregarious or outgoing. Not all people are sought after or loveable. However, everyone can have integrity. Integrity flows more out of a disciplined character than a daring personality. We must discipline ourselves to be truthful in all that we say. The Scriptures’ intent is not to rule out having fun with our friends, indulging in playful exaggeration, or even telling fanciful tales. However, God’s Word does call us to be honest through and through, to never lie or equivocate to save face or to stay in the good graces of others. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

ImageWe must never be careless about the truth. We must never measure our words. If we deceive we must immediately admit it, because deception can become a habit. Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state. We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke or virtue or vice leaves its ever so little scar. The drunken Rip Van Winkle, in Jefferson’s play, excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by saying “I will not count this time!” Well! He may not count it, but it is being counted nonetheless. Down among his nerve cells and fibers the molecules are counting it, registering and storing it up to be used against him when the next temptation comes. Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out. Of course, this has its good side as well as is bad one. We must discipline ourselves to tell the truth, for truth can become a habit—something we do without thinking. Habitual honesty—integrity—must be the goal in all our dealings. We must discipline ourselves not to succumb to the so-called “small things”: the occasional phone theft, or time stealing, or misappropriating the office supplies, or indulging ourselves in the largesse of an expense account, or estimating mileage to our favour, or twisting the truth ever so slightly. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

ImageIf this discipline becomes habitual, the “big things” will take care of themselves. Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny for yourself, your family, your church, your World. Nehor teaches false doctrines, establishes a church, introduces priestcraft, and slays Gideon-Nehor is executed for his crimes—Priestcrafts and persecutions spread among the people—the priests support themselves, the people care for the poor, and the Church prospers. About 91-88 Before Christ. “Now it came to pass that in the first year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi, from this time forward, king Mosiah having gone the way of all the Earth, having warred a good warfare, walking uprightly before God, leaving none to reign in hi stead; nevertheless he had established laws, and they were acknowledged by the people; therefore they were obliged to abide by the laws which he had made. And it came to pass that in the first year of the reign of Alma in the judgment-seat, there was a man brought before him to be judged, a man who was large, and was noted for his much strength. And he had gone about among the people, preaching to them that which he termed to be he word of God, bearing down against the church; declaring unto the people that every pries and teacher ought to become popular; and they ought not to labour with their hands, but that they ought to be supported by the people. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

Image“And he also testified unto the people that all humankind should be saved at the last day, and that they need not fear nor tremble, but that they might lift up their heads and rejoice; for the Lord had created all humans, and has also redeemed all humans; and, in the end, all humans should have eternal life. And it came to pass that he did teach these things so much that many did believe on his words, even so many that they began to support him and give him money. And he began o be lifted up in the pride of his heart, and to wear very costly apparel, yea, and even began to a church after he manner of his preaching. And it came to pass as he was going, to preach to those who believed on his word, he met a man who belonged to the church of God, yea, even one of their teachers; and he began to contend with him sharply, that he might lead away the people of the church; but the man withstood him, admonishing him with the words of God. Now the name of the man was Gideon withstood him with the words of God he was wroth with Gideon, and drew his sword and began to smite him. Now Gideon being stricken with many years, therefore he was not able to withstand his blows, therefore he was slain by the sword. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

Image“And the man who slew him was taken by the people of the church, and was brought before Alma, to be judged according to the crimes which he had committed. And it came to pass that he stood before Alma and pled for himself with much boldness. However, Alma said unto him: Behold, this is the first time that priestcraft has been introduced among this people. And behold, thou art not only guilty of priestcraft, but hast endeavoured to enforce it by the sword; and were priestcraft to be enforced among this people it would prove their entire destruction. And thou hast shed he blood of a righteous man, yea, a man who has done much good among this people; and were we to spare thee his blood would come upon us for vengeance. Therefore thou art condemned to die, according to he law which has been given us by Mosiah, our last king; and it has been acknowledged by this people; therefore this people must abide by the law. And it came to pass that they took him; and his name was Nehor; and they carried him upon the top of the hill Manti, and there he was caused, or rather did acknowledge, between the Heavens and the Earth, that what he had taught to he people was contrary to the word of God; and there he suffered an ignominious death. Nevertheless, this did not put and end to the spreading of priestcraft through the land; for there were many who loved vain things of the World, and they went forth preaching false doctrines; and this they did for the sake of riches and honour. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

ImageNevertheless, they durst not lie, if it were known, for fear of the law, for liars were punished; therefore they pretended to preach according to their belief; and now the law could have no power on any human for his belief. And they durst not steal, for such were punished; neither durst they rob, nor murder, for one that murdered was punished unto death. However, it came to pass that whosoever did not belong to the church of God began to persecute those that did belong to the church of God, and had taken upon them the name of Christ. Yea, they did no persecute them, and afflict them with all manner of words, and this because of their humility; because they were not proud in their own eyes, and because they did impart the word of God, one with another, without money and without price. Now there was a strict law among the people of the church, that there should no any human, belonging to the church, arise and persecute those that did no belong to the church, and that there should be no persecution among themselves. Nevertheless, there were many among them who began to be proud, and began to contend warmly with their adversaries, even unto blows; yea, they would smite one another with their fists.  Now this was in the second years of the reign of Alma, and it was a cause of much affliction to the church; yea, it was the cause of much trial with the church. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

Image“For the hearts of many were hardened, and their names were blotted out, that they were remembered no more among the people of God. And also many withdrew themselves from among them. Now this was a great trial to those that did stand fast in the faith; nevertheless, they were steadfast and immovable in keeping the commandments of God, and they bore with patience the persecution which was heaped upon them. And when the priests left their labour to impart the word of God unto the people, the people also left their labours to hear the word of God. And when the priest had imparted unto them the word of God they all returned again diligently unto their labours; and the priest, not esteeming himself above his hearers, for the preacher was no better than the hearer, neither was the teacher any better than the learner; and thus they were all equal, and they did all labour, every human according to one’s strength. And they did impart of their substance, every human according to that which one had, to the poor, and the needy, and the sick, and the afflicted; and they did not wear costly apparel, yet they were neat and comely. And thus they did establish the affairs of the church; and thus they began to have continual peace again, notwithstanding all their persecutions. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

Image“And now, because of the steadiness of the church they began to be exceedingly rich, having abundance of all things whatsoever they stood in need—an abundance of flocks and herds, and fatlings of every kind, and also abundance of grain, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious things, and abundance of silk and fine-twined linen, and all manner of good homely cloth. And thus, in their prosperous circumstances, they did no send away any who were naked, or that were hungry, or that were athirst, or that were sick, or that had not been nourished; and they did not set their hearts upon their riches; therefore they were liberal to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, whether out of the church or in the church, having no respect to persons as to those who stood in need. And thus they did prosper and become far more wealthy than those who did no belong. For those who did no belong to their church did indulge themselves in sorceries, and in babblings, and in envyings and strife; wearing costly apparel; being lifted up in the pride of their own eyes; persecuting, lying, thieving, robbing, committing whoredoms, and murdering, and all manner of wickedness; nevertheless, the law was put in force upon all those who did transgress it, inasmuch as it was possible. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

Image“And it came to pass that by thus exercising the law upon them, every human suffering according to that which one had done, they became more still, and durst not commit any wickedness if it were known; therefore, there was much peace among the people of Nephi until the fifth year of the reign of the judges,” reports Alma 1.1-33. God over all. O God All-Sufficient, Thou hast made and upholdest all things by the word of Thy power; darkness is Thy pavilion, Thou walkest on the wings of the wind; all nations are nothing before Thee; one generation succeeds another, and we hasten back to the dust; the Heavens we behold will vanish away like the clouds that cover them, the Earth we tread on will dissolve as a morning dream; but thou, unchangeable and incorruptible, art for ever and ever, God over all, blessed eternally. Infinitely great and glorious art thou. We are Thy offspring and Thy care. Thy hands have made and fashioned us. Thou hast watched over us with more than parental love, more than maternal tenderness. Thou hast holden our soul in life, and no suffered our feet to be moved. Thy divine power has given us all things necessary for life and Godliness.  It is a special relationship, one which is less dependent on physical conditions than any other human relationship. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

Image Let us bless Thee at all times and forget not how Thou hast forgiven our iniquities, healed our diseases, redeemed our lives from destruction, crowned us with lovingkindness and tender mercies, satisfied our mouths with good things, renewed our youth like the eagle’s wings. May Thy Holy Scriptures govern every part of our lives, and regulate the discharge of all our duties, so that we may adorn Thy doctrine in all things. O Holy Lord, Father Almighty, everlasting God, carry onward in us the gifts of Thy grace; and mercifully bestow Thy Spirit what human frailty cannot attain; that they who attend at the sacred altars may be both grounded in perfect faith, and conspicuous by the brightness of their souls; through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Master is always there, behind the disciple, always ready to give one stability, guidance, inspiration, peace, and strength. If the disciple does not find these things coming to one from the Master, the fault is in oneself, the blockage is self-created, is somewhere between the two, and only one alone can remove it. Take God into one’s life and worship Him deep in one’s heart as he Ideal to be faithfully imitated, so one will have an inner affiliation with the Master. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23Image

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There is no better place to soak up the sun in #Folsom than @HUBApts! 😍 This outdoor space perfectly captures what summer’s all about. 🌞

ImageHead to their website to learn about move-in specials and tour floor plans virtually. Link in bio! https://sites.google.com/fpimgt.com/hubvirtualtours/home

ImageO, Almighty Father, eternal God, please give us grace for those that do not have the possibility of human frailty, allow us to receive your Spirit of compassion to make the necessary payments; serving as a sacred shrine and the integrity of faith grounded and please give us the mental capacity  conspicuously.  #CresleighHomes

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Hatred Comes from the Heart; Contempt from the Head; and Neither Feeling is Quite Within Our Control!

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It ain’t what they call you, it is what you answer to. We all forget names. I have not met anyone who has not, at one time or another, been in the awkward situation of having to make an introduction when they were unable to remember one of the people’s names. So what do these folks do? Usually nothing. That is right: nada. Zip. No introduction. Let them introduce themselves, goes the thinking, and get me out of the pickle I am in. Well, that might work in the short run. However, I guarantee you that the people whom you failed to introduce will not appreciate you for making your problem into their problem. And I do not blame them one bit. Okay, so what should you do? Admit your problem and ask for help. Here is how it works. Let us say you have started the introduction. “Great Aunt Betty! How nice to see you.” (Kiss, kiss on the cheeks.) “Please, let me introduce…” At this point, you stop and turn to Cute-and interesting with an apologetic smile and say, “I am so embarrassed—I cannot remember your name.” Now, Cute-and-interesting could leave you hanging by not saying anything, but in all my forgetful years I have never seen this happen. Most likely, she will reach out her hand to Great Aunt Betty and say, “Hi, I am Tomi Lahren. It is nice to meet you.” You say to Tomi (with heartfelt gratitude), “Thank you, Tomi” (thus imprinting her name on your forgetful brain). Then you turn to Great Aunt Betty and continue, “Aunt Betty, Tomi and I were talking about how cold the weather is. You just came up from Florida. How was it there?” And off you go…. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

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We have all been there, and we all know how it feels. The important thing is you were able to make the introduction. Tomi and Aunt Betty are going to blow right past your small stumble because you did the important thing: You acknowledged them both and made it possible for them to start having and beneficial interaction—which is much more important than remembering Tomi’s name. On the other hand, if you hope to see her in the future, you had better make sure you imprint Tomi’s name permanently on your memory from now on. It would be in extremely poor taste to have your great-aunt Dorthy (yes, I had a great-aunt Dorthy, too—and a great-aunt Ethel) come over and have to ask Tomi her name once again. Some tips on remembering the names of people you meet: The first thing to do is focus. I know it can be hard, especially if she is gorgeous and you are trying hard not to do or say something incredibly stupid. However, no matter how difficult it may seem, you have got to forget her looks for one moment and focus instead on her face and on the words you are hearing. “Romeo, I would like to introduce Gorgeous to you,” your great-aunt Ethel says. What you do not do is mumble, “Nice to meet you.” Instead, say with a clear voice, “Gorgeous, what a pleasure it is to meet you!” And as she replies, you repeat to yourself, “Gorgeous, Gorgeous, Gorgeous.” Then make a point of saying her name out loud at various points during the conversation that follows. The goal is simple: Imprint that name. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

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Use Imagining—another time-honoured trick is to immediately picture some image or idea that you associate with the person’s name. For example, you might think to yourself, “Gorgeous—like in a Drop Dead Gorgeous, the movie.” This sort of association actually increases the amount of neural connections devoted to a particular memory, providing an automatic (and very effective) hint every time you find it necessary to recall your newfound friend’s name. It has happened to all of us: You approach a stranger at a dinner party, politely extend your hand, and say, “Hi, my name is Parker Gregory.” The stranger extends his hand in turn and says, “Nice to meet you.” And that is all. No name. This is one of the most vexing “meet and greet” problems I have come across. Parker is left hanging, thinking to himself, “Hey, stranger. Have you got a name? What is the deal here?” Meanwhile, the clueless stranger forgoes onward, repeating his transgression wherever he goes, assuming everybody knows his name. You could respond with something like, “I am sorry, I missed your name. You are…?” Bottom line: Do not be like the stranger—unless you want to leave a poor first impression. The real issue in the debate about using first names as opposed to a title like “Mr.,” “Mrs.,” or “Ms.” Is one of respect. For that reason, if you are with people who are older than you, or in a formal situation with people you do not know well, always start by using the more formal type of address. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

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If the other person then offers you the opportunity to address him or her differently, politely thank them and proceed. One must limit oneself—that is the primary condition for all enjoyment. It does not seem that I shall soon find out anything about the young lady who so fills my soul and mind that the lack is amplified. Now I am going to stay quite calm, for this state, this obscure and indefinite but nevertheless powerful emotion, also has its sweetness. I have always like to lie in a boat on a clear moonlit night out on one of our beautiful lakes. I haul in the sails, take in the oars, unship the rudder, lie down full length, and gaze up at the vault of Heaven. When the waves rock the boat on their breast, when the clouds swiftly drift before the wind, making the mon disappears for a moment and then reappear, I find rest in this restlessness. The motion of the waves lulls me; their slapping against the boat is a monotonous lullaby; the clouds’ hasty flight and the variation in lights and shadows intoxicates me so that I dream wide awake. I lie the same way now, haul in the sails, unship the rudder. Longing and impatient expectancy become quieter and quieter, more and more blissful: they coddle me like a child. Over me arches the Heaven of hope; her image drifts past me like the moon’s, indistinct, now blinding me with its light, now with its shadow. How enjoyable to ripple along on moving water this way—how enjoyable to be in motion within oneself. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

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History is not accounted for only in terms of development: There are many developments in history, but insofar as they are mere developments, they are not yet history. History is not made of everything that historians know about the past; it is made only of what they know as meaningful. And as there is no ultimate meaning except in relation to the eternal, history is made of what, in the development of human’s free decisions, is revelatory of the Unconditional. In a sense therefore one must say that only when viewed as history of salvation has history an absolute meaning. How then do we know history? Not through erudition without reflection; and not by reflection without erudition. If we wish to understand the meaning of past evens, we must first be acquainted with those evens. However, this is only preliminary. On the other hand, once we have perceived a meaning, it cannot be brought to the surface of historical reports. If it could, the meaning of history would become one of the many incidental factors of a historical situation. It would no longer explain them in their eternal relevance. It must remain background and depth. In other words, only one who participates in a meaning can grasp or be grasped by it. Only one who is committed to the ultimate meaning of history, to the eternal, can understand history. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

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Insofar as interpreting history involves the future, it requires creative will. This point of view is not detached, but directed and tense. Whoever would maintain the ideal of pure observation must content oneself with numbers and names, statistics and newspaper clippings. One might collect thousands of things which could be verified, but one would not for that reason be able to understand what is happening in the present. A truly historical judgment requires participation in the developing, creating and meaning-giving process: One is enabled to speak of that which is most vital in the present, of that which makes the present a generative force, only insofar as one immerses oneself in the creative process which brings the future forth out of the past. This holds true of this history of any foreign land or of any past event: We actually know history only as we stand active within it, and as we are able to transform every foreign history into our own history through our own decisions. The meaning of time which history discerns requires the creative power of experience. Where direct experience is impossible, it requires empathy, which it itself a form of experience. The conception of history as meaningful time, or what amounts to the same, as the perception of depth of events, is essentially religious. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

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We seek for an absolute judgment of the absolute meaning of time, for the eternal and so to say, eschatological dimension of past, present and future. Hence we are to be distinguished, not only from those who see history as erudition about the past, but also from those who separate the flow of time and its eternal depth. We are neither naturalists nor supra-naturalist. Naturalism, in this context, makes history a mere matter of facts, without transcendent meaning. Supra-naturalism adds religion, faith, revelation to history as something from above which is involved in the flow of time without truly redeeming it; the Church is viewed as a hieratic structure above time; faith is a God-given datum above the free and creative choice of humans; history and salvation are juxtaposed. History is always the history of salvation; nature as such is self-transcending; the meaning of events is that these events reveal a vista on the eternal, without ceasing to be the very stuff of this World. Though history discloses the revelatory dimension of events, not all events are equally revelatory. Not all are caught in a revelatory constellation. Not all have inspired the ecstasy of faith. At one time I experienced an enthusiasm for the Greek language. Kairos is a key to Christological understanding of history. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

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The Greeks distinguish between Chronos and Kairos. Both terms refer to time, but with different connotations. Chronos is simply the flow of time. It is Kairos which is meaningful. Let us remember that we are seeking for the Ultimate that must pierce through time, that must be pointed at by historical events. We are I search of an unconditional meaning of time. And to speak of an unconditioned meaning is to speak of that which transcends the process of mere becoming…it is to speak of that which supports the times but is not subject to them. The Unconditioned is only perceived through a free decision. Ecstasy is liberating because human’s fate is freely engaged in it. There is no perception or reception of the Ultimate unless that total personality is freely committed to it. The term Kairos designates the appeal of a historical event to human’s free decision. When there is an element of miracle in a given situation, in response to which the min will ecstatically reach the meaning of this moment of time, time is no longer merely Chronos, it is Kairos. Time is all-decisive, not empty time, pure expiration; not the mere duration either, but rather qualitatively fulfilled time, the moment that is creation and fate. We call this fulfilled moment, the moment of time approaching us a fate ad decision, Kairos. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

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A moment of time, an event, deserves the name of Kairos, fullness of time in the precise sense, if it can be regarded in its relation to the Unconditioned, if it speaks of the Uncontained. To look at a time thus is to look at it in its truth. It is conceivable that each moment of time ultimately possesses this dimension. Yet not each has inspired an unconditional acceptance of its eternal dimension. Just as a human’s life goes through a number of revelatory situation separated by periods of varying length, so does the life of humankind. Kairos reveals the religious dimension of an era. One should not consider it as arbitrary. Humans do not create the meaning of an era. They only perceive it, even though one does so as a result of one’s own commitment to that era and of one’s involvement in it. We want to avoid superficial interpretations. Historians should not see a period only in terms of its military victories and defeats. They should plunge into its depth. Kairos is the fate of the time, the point at which time is disturbed by eternity. The knowledge which is born of it has not grown out of accidental arbitrary events of a period but out of the period’s basic significance. Kairos is not a historical theory concerning the influence of a politician’s decisions at a given time. Kairos exists only because the eternal is taken up into the forms of time, it becomes an existential form, temporal and contemporary. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

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The Other, that in which every time transcends itself, becomes an individual event, a present time. That which is not time becomes time, that which is not an existential form becomes and existing form. Kairos is a moment of time pierced by the eternal. Then the eternal is perceived through temporal events, the Unconditional is discerned under the conditions of existence. Post-World War I was such a period of time; and in numerous and it has been the tragedy of our period that the breakthrough of the eternal was then better understood by the secular socialist movement than by the Churches. At this point those who trust the Churches more than socialism may have doubts about these conceptions of Kairos. For how do we know that Kairos is Kairos? How are we sure of the message of a time? How can we ascertain the ultimate meaning of a given historical event or era? The answer is of course that the question is unanswerable. We cannot say “how” any more than we can give a proof, acceptable in a court of law, that we have experienced the ecstasy of faith. And yet, we always know when we know the Unconditional. The certainty, though uncommunicable, is nevertheless certain. The message of Kairos is always an error; for it sees something immediately imminent which, considered in its ideal aspect, will never become a reality and which, considered in its real aspect, will be fulfilled only in long periods of time. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

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And yet the message of the Kairos is never an error; for where the Kairos is proclaimed as a prophetic message, it is already present; it is impossible for I to be proclaimed in power without its having grasped those who proclaim it. Since Kairos reveals the meaning of a period by showing the form then taken by the message of the eternal, the question may be asked if there is a Kairos powerful enough to revel the meaning of the whole of history, embracing past, present and future. Can we find such a Kairos as will reveal he universal scope of time? In Greek terms, what is the relation between Kairos, the eternal dimension of a given period, and logos, the timeless meaning of being? A preliminary answer may be given. The concept of a center of history is common to many cultures. And the center of history is precisely conceived as the identity of a given Kairos with the universal logos. The center of history is the place where the meaning-given principle of history is seen. The notion of a center of history is found in cultures that have sought the New Being in the weft and woof of the historical process itself. Thus the center of history for the Jews is the exodus from Egypt and its main event, the treaty with God on Mount Sinai; for the Persians, the appearance of Zarathustra; and the Moslems, Mohammed’s flight from Mecca to Media. All these are Western types of cultures. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

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On the others hand, Eastern cultures, like Brahmanism and Buddhism, have sought for the New Being above, rather than within, history. For them there is no center of history; and there is no history either, for time is then meaningless and history is the meaning of time. It is significant that cultures that have denied a meaning to time have also left undeveloped the notion of history and that of its center. Historical cultures have been open to the notion of a center of history in which the Unconditional would be perceived with existence, the eternal within time. If there is history, there is a point in which history reveals its meaning. Were there no such point, there would be no history. Time would be empty, meaningless. And this point, when it has been found, is the center of history. When God himself appears in a moment of time, when he himself subjects himself to the flux of time, the flux of time is conquered. And if this happens in one moment of time, then all moments of time receive another significance. Since God knows not only things actual but also things possible to Himself or to created things, and these must be infinite, it must me held that He knows infinite things. Although the knowledge of vision which has relation only to things that are, or will be, or were, is not of infinite things, as some say, for we do not say that the World is eternal, nor that generation and movement will go on forever, so that individuals be infinitely multiplied; yet, if we consider more attentively, we must hold that God knows infinite things even by the knowledge of vision. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

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For God knows even the thoughts and affections of hearts, which will be multiplied to infinity as rational creature. The reason for thus is to be found in the fact that the knowledge of every knower is measured by the mode of the form which is the principle of knowledge. For the sensible image in sense is the likeness of only one individual things, and can give the knowledge of only one individual. However, the intelligible species of our intellect is the likeness of things as regards its specific nature, which is participable by infinite particulars; hence our intellect by intelligible species of humans in a certain way knows infinite humans; not however as distinguished from each other, but as communicating in the nature of the species; and the reason is because the intelligible species of our intellect is the likeness of human not as to the individual principles, but as o the principles of the species. On the other hand, the divine essence, whereby the divine intellect understands, is a sufficing likeness of all things that are, or can be, not only as regards the universal principles, but also as regards the principles proper to each one, as shown above. Hence it follows that the knowledge of God extends to infinite things, even as distinct from each other. God does not know all the infinite or infinite things, as if He enumerated part after part; since He knows all things simultaneously; and not successively. Hence there is nothing to prevent Him from knowing infinite things. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

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It is essential that we understand that the Biblical idea of integrity has the root idea of completeness, that a person of integrity is whole. The derivation of our English word integrity from the Lati emphasizes the same quality because integritas means wholeness, entireness, completeness. Integrity characterizes the entire person, not just part of one. One is righteous and honest through and through. One is no only that inside, but also in outer action. Psalm 15 celebrated the completeness of the human of integrity: “Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who many live on your holy hill? One whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from one’s heart and has no slander on one’s tongue, who does one’s neighbour no wrong and casts no slur on one’s fellow human, who despises a vile person but honours those who fear the Lord, who keeps one’s oath even when it hurts, who lends one’s money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. One who does these things will be shaken.” Surveys indicate that usually people lie to cover up something they did wrong. Take, for example, the employee who has negligently jammed the copy machine, then slyly covers oneself by calling out, “OK, who jammed the machine?” The second most frequent reason for lying is to keep things pleasant emotionally. Have you avoided expressing the truth for the sake of peace? #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

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This does not mean we have license to tell everyone what we think no matter what—a spiritual mandate to always speak our minds. Rather, we are never to deceive others by omission, or by using unclear talk to save face of avoid offending another. We are to be “speaking the truth in love,” reports Ephesians 4.15. Integrity demands that all speech be intentionally true. Such speech give pleasures to God—“The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in humans who are truthful,” reports Proverbs 12.22. Next, a human of integrity never cheats nor defrauds another, never steals. Proverbs tells us: “Differing weights and differing measures—the Lord detests them both,” reports Proverbs 20.10. “The Lord abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weight are one’s delight,” reports Proverbs 11.1. “For grained by fraud tastes sweet to a human, but one ends up with a mouth full of gravel,” reports Proverbs 20.17. There are so many ways to casually steal which the consensus regards as justified: taking office supplies from work, long lunches, charging customers erroneous late fees than pocketing the money, extravagant meals, accepting gifts from customers, ignoring traffic laws, claiming improper deductions. However, the human of integrity avoids all such temptations, to God’s glory. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

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The human of God keeps one’s word. One never promises to do something one does not intend to do. And one follows through—one does not conveniently “forget” what one has promised. One is never “put on” by the human of integrity. Faithfulness, one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5.22), is one’s trademark. Even when one discovers that keeping one’s word is not to one’s benefit, one does so, for as the Psalmist says, the human of integrity “keeps one’s oath even when it hurts,” reports Psalmist 15.4. This human, the Scripture says, is unique: “Many a human claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful human who can find?” reports Proverbs 20.6. Integrity is a rare beauty. Last, a human of integrity is a human of principle. We must understand that being a human of principle means more than having principles. It means having the courage to stand up for your convictions when it costs you. At present my daughter ad son-in-law, Peter and Annie Post, and their three children have been looking for a sizable home for four months, largely because they want space so the kids can play in doors, the owners of housing developments in Midtown wanted them to sign a document which falsely states they are paying less for the house than they would really be paying. My daughter and her family are at this point victims of integrity—an enviable victimization. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

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However, Pete and Annie decided on lovely and affordable home in the Cresleigh Ranch community, of Plumas Lake, located in the Riverside subdivision. They felt this was an honourable builder and a family-oriented community, which came with the bonus of a large yard. “Now it came to pass that after the sons of Mosiah had done all these things, they took a small number with them and returned to their father, the king, and desired of him that he would grant unto them that they might, with these whom they had selected, go up to the land of Nephi that they might preach the things which they had heard, and that they might impart the word of God to their brethren, the Lamanites—that perhaps they might bring them of the iniquity of their fathers; and that perhaps they might cure them of their hatred towards the Nephites, that they might also be brought to rejoice in the Lord their God, that they might become friendly to one another, and that there should be no more contentions in all the land which the Lord their God had given them. Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

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“And thus did the Spirit of the Lord work upon them, for they were the very vilest of sinners. And the Lord saw of in his infinite mercy to spare them; nevertheless they suffered much anguish of soul because of their iniquities, suffering much and fearing that they should be cast off forever. And it came to pass that they did plead with their father many days that they might go up to the land of Nephi. And king Mosiah went and inquired of the Lord if he should let his sons go up among the Lamanites to preach the word. And the Lord said unto Mosiah: Let them go up, for many shall believe on their words, and they shall have eternal life; and I will deliver thy sons out of the hands of the Lamanites. And it came to pass that Mosiah granted that they might go and do according to their request. And they took their journey into the wilderness o go up to preach the word among the Lamanites; and I shall given an account of their proceedings hereafter. Now king Mosiah had no one to confer the kingdom upon, for there was not any of his sons who would accept of the kingdom. Therefore he took the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, and also the plates of Nephi, and all the things which he and kept and preserved according to the commandments of God, after having translated and caused to be written the records which were on the plates of gold which had been found by the people of Limhi, which were delivered to him by the hand of Limhi. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

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“And this he did because of the great anxiety of his people; for they were desirous beyond measure to know concerning those people who had been destroyed. And now he translated them by the means of those two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow. Now these things were prepared from the beginning, and were handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages; and they have been kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord, that he should discover to every creature who should possess the land the iniquities and abominations of his people; and whosoever has these things is called seer, after the manner of old times. Now after Mosiah had finished translating these records, behold, it gave an account of the people who were destroyed back to the building of the great tower, at the time of the Lord confounded the language of the people and they were scattered abroad upon the face of all the Earth, yea, and even from that time back until the creation of Adam. Now this account did cause the people of Mosiah to mourn exceedingly, yea, they were filled with sorrow; nevertheless it gave them much knowledge, in the which they did rejoice. And this account shall be written hereafter; for behold, it is expedient that all people should know the things which they did rejoice. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

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“And this account shall be written hereafter; for behold, it is expedient that all people should know the things which are written in this account. And now, as I said unto you, that after king Mosiah had done these things, he took the plates of brass, and all the things which he ad kept, and conferred them upon Alma, who was the son of Alma, yea, all he records, and also the interpreters, and conferred them upon him, and commanded him the he should keep and preserve them, and also keep a record of the people, handing them down from one generation to another, even as they had been handed down from the time that Lehi left Jerusalem,” reports Mosiah 29.1-20. It is truly a wonder to meet all your senses, Majesty. Please avert it by entreaty your fellow-servants ministrants be found in the time of the coming of the Lord ‘s competent; dedication and of the Son, thine own, to be ready to correct with, and necessary for, let us strive to love the cecum of censorship; and the service is reasonably assigned to performance, not guilty of neglecting the Lord faced with an increase, but the increase is due to inconsistency of our talents. Grant us, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that by the grace of Thy grace, may we be just as is worthy of you, by presenting Mary, with your example of the faithful, minister to correct conversation; the reward of Your eternal salvation may be granted of Thy people, and the priest’s blessings be bestowed upon us. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

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O LORD, we commune with Thee every day, but week days are Worldly days, and secular concerns reduce Heavenly impressions. We bless Thee therefore for the day sacred to our souls when we can wait upon Thee and be refreshed; we thank Thee for the institutions of religion by use of which we draw near to Thee and Thou to us; we rejoice in another Lord’s Day when we call off our minds from the cares of the World and attend upon Thee without distraction; let our retirement be devout, our conversation edifying, our reading pious, our hearing profitable, that our souls may be quickened and elevated. We are going to the house of prayer, pour upon us the spirit of grace and supplication; we are going to the house of instruction, please give testimony to the word preached, and glorify it in the hearts of all who hear; may in enlighten the ignorant, awaken the careless, reclaim the wandering, establish the weak, comfort the feeble-minded, make ready a people for their Lord. Be a sanctuary to all who cannot come, forget not those who never come, and do thou bestow upon us benevolence towards our dependents, forgiveness towards our enemies, peaceableness towards our neighbours, openness towards our fellow-Christians. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

CRESLEIGH MEADOWS AT PLUMAS RANCH

Plumas Lake, CA | from the mid $300’s

Now Selling!

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This single story home boats an ideal layout with 2,372 square feet, of thoughtfully designed living space, three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a three car garage.

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The kitchen comes fully equipped with a large island, stainless steel appliances, and quartz counters with a butler’s pantry to provide easy access to the dining room. The great room is spacious and its open floor plan allows all parts of the home to flow. The Owner’s suite nestled away from the secondary bedrooms allowing for maximum privacy, yet still accessible.

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Best of all, each Cresleigh home comes fully equipped with an All Ready connected home! This smart home package comes included with your home and features great tools including: video door bell and digital deadbolt for the front door, connect home hub so you can set scenes and routines to make life just a little easier. Two smart switches and USB outlets are also included, plus we’ll gift you a Google Home Hub and Google Mini to help connect everything together! https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-meadows-at-plumas-ranch/residence-2/

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Our new blog post is here! Learn 5 things you can do with your new Cresleigh #smarthome at the link in bio. 🙌 https://cresleigh.com/blog/

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It is meet for us to beseech Thy Majesty, that we may be found at our Lord’s coming ministering to our fellow-servants their portion of meat in due season; that in our dealings with Thy servants we may be careful to join affection with rebuke, and needful censure with love; and that wisely discharging the service committed to us, we may not incur the guilt of neglecting to increase our Lord’s deposit, but may receive profit from having multiplied God’s talents, whereof we have been the stewards. #CresleighHomes

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Only the Power of Divine Holiness, Having Touched Our Existence, Can Bring Us Near to God!

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I scarcely know myself. My mind roars like a turbulent sea in the storms of passion. If someone else could see my soul in this state, it would seem to one that it, like a skiff, plunged prow-first down into the ocean, as if in its dreadful momentum it would have to steer down into the depths of the abyss. One does not see that high on the mast a sailor is on the lookout. Roar away, you wild forces, roar away, you powers of passion; even if your waves hurl foam toward the clouds, you still are not able to pile yourselves up over my head—I am sitting a calmly as the king of the mountain. I am almost unable to find a foothold; like a water bird, I am seeking in vain to alight on the turbulent sea of my mind. And yet such turbulence is my element. I build upon it as the Alcedo ispida builds its nest upon the sea. Cockatiels ruffle their feathers when they see red. So it goes with me when I see green, every time I see a green cloak, and since my eyes often deceive me, all my expectations sometimes run aground on a porter from Frederik’s Hospital. “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each had six wings; with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: The whole Earth is so full of his glory. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

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“And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make heir ears heavy, and shut their eyes; least they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and convert, and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate. And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. However, yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: As a teil tree, and as an oak, Whose substance is them, when they cast their leaves: So the holy seed shall be the substance thereof,” reports Isaiah 6. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

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This is one of the greatest in the Old Testament (OT). It clearly reveals the essence of Biblical religion. The prophet describes the vision of his vocation in words and pictures which express at the same time his fundamental experience of God, his interpretation of human existence, and his conception of the prophet’s task. His experience of God is an experience of the holiness of God. He interprets human’s condition as one of uncleanness and inability to face God. The prophet’s task is paradoxically set against the natural meaning of prophecy. These three ideas belong together and comprise perhaps the highest expression ever given to the prophetic spirit. The prophet does not describe God Himself in any way. He speaks only of the train which filled the temple, of the Angels surrounding the Lord’s throne, of the shaking of the foundation, and of the smoke filling the house. In this manner he indicates that the revelation of God is at the same time the veiling of God. God can reveal Himself only by reaming veiled. However, even the veiled revelation makes Isaiah feel that he is perishing. If the Master had no patience with His disciples, He and they would soon part. If He had no belief in their eventual evolution, He and hey would never join in the Kingdom of Heaven. The facing of God, even if it be a mere approaching to His sphere, even if God Himself remain hidden, means the annihilation of humans. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

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The same feeling is expressed in the cry of the seraphim “Holy” has a double meaning, as he context clearly shows. It means the majesty of which the World is full; and it means purity as against human impurity. Glory without purity is the character of all pagan gods. And purity without glory is the character of all the humanistic ideas of God. Humanism has transformed the inaccessibility of God into the sublimity of His moral commands. Humanism has forgotten that God’s majesty, as experienced by the prophet, implies the shaking of the foundation wherever He appears, and the veil of smoke whenever He shows Himself. When God is identified with an element in human nature, as in humanism, the terrifying and annihilating encounter with majesty becomes an impossibility. However, “holy” means also moral perfection, purity, goodness, truth, and justice. God’s glory can fulfill all World, only because He is holy in this double sense. The glory of the gods who are not holy in this double sense can fulfill only one country, one family or tribe, one nation or state, or one sphere of human life. Consequently, they do no possess the truth and justice and purity of God Who is really God. They are demons aspiring to holiness, but excluded from it, because their glory is majesty without purity. Therefore, let us say, during this time particularly, “Thou only art holy!” #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

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The prophet confesses that he is a man of unclean lips, and that he lives in the midst of a people with unclean lips. He emphasized his lips, because his work is preaching; but the impurity of his lips symbolizes the impurity of his entire existence, and of the existence of individuals and society as a whole. Isaiah exhibits profound insight, when he identifies himself with his unclean people in the very moment that he is made worthy of his exceptional vision. The difference between mystical and prophetic religion lies in that insight. For even in the greatest ecstasy, a prophet does not forget the social group to which one belongs, and its unclean character which he cannot lose. Consequently, the prophetic ecstasy, as opposed to the mystical ecstasy, is never an end in itself, but rather he means of receiving the divine commands which are to be preached to the people. Isaiah’s vision reveals the two conditions for prophetic existence. The lips of the prophet must first be purified by fire. He can then hear the Voice of God, the condition of his being sent by God. Nobody can be the prophet of God through his own strength; and nobody can absolve oneself. Only the power of Divine Holiness, having touched our existence, can bring us near to God. Something of our existence, sin, iniquity, or uncleanness must be burned away, must be annihilated. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

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Only through such annihilation can God speak to us and through us. However, whether or when He speaks to us at all does not depend upon us in any way. Isaiah did not produce either the vision or the purification. He was overcome with terror and awe. And he had to ac. For God asks, “Who will go for us?” God waits for the answer. He does not compel. Isaiah’s decision to go must be free. Freedom of decision is the second condition for prophetic existence. A prophet must decide whether or not one will dedicate oneself to the task. With respect to our fate and vocation we are free; with respect to our relation to God we are powerless. The majesty of God is evident in either case. The prophet then describes the content of the divine command. “Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes.” Our natural mora feelings refuse to accept such a paradox. For if we speak, we wish to make ourselves heard; and when we preach, we wish to convert and to heal. However, the prophet accepts the divine command. And when one’s natural feeling impels one to ask, “How long?” one receives the answer, “Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate!” No hope or promise is expressed. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

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What is the meaning of that paradox? It means that the true prophets are in the actualization of His judgment against humankind. They are instruments in so far as the prophetic word always excites the opposition of humans with respect to both one’s vital existence and one’s moral and religious existence—indeed, particularly with respect to one’s religious existence. All people desire false prophets, who, through the glorification of their gods, glorify their followers and themselves. People long to be flattered in regard to their desires and virtues, their religious feeling and social activity, their will to power and utopian hopes, their knowledge and love, their family and race, their class and nation. And a false prophet can always be found to glorify the demon they worship. However, when the voice of the true prophet is raised, they shut their ears, they contradict one’s statements, and they ultimately persecute and kill one, because they are not able to receive one’s message. The order endures until the prophet’s words are fulfilled, and the cities are destroyed, and the land is made desolate. We are all eager for the prophetic spirit. We are anxious to lead the people to a new justice and to a better social order. We long to save the nations from the threatening doom. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

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However, does our word, if it be God’s word, have a better effect than that which Isaiah saw in his vision and experienced in his life? Are we more than he was? Are our people today less devoted to demons than his people were? If not, can we expect anything other than what he was told to expect through his vision? We must pray for the prophetic spirit which has been dead for so long in the Churches. And one who feels that one has been given the prophetic task must fulfill it as Isaiah did. One must preach the message of a new justice and of a new social order in the name of God and His honour. However, one must expect to be opposed and persecuted not only by his enemies, but also by his friends, party, class, and nation. One must expect to be persecuted to the degree to which one’s word is the word of that God Who alone is holy, that God Who alone is able to create a holy people out of the remnant of every nation. One great advantage of the path of personal discipleship is that it requires no intellectual capacity, no special gifts of any kind, to get its profits and makes progress along its course. What could be simpler than remembering the master’s name and face? What could be easier than mentally turning to one every day in faith, reverence, humility and devotion? #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

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The advantage of having a living master is immense. Humans are so sense-bound that it is easier for one to follow an embodies ideal than a disembodied one, easier to understand truth in action than truth in the abstract. Should anyone have the god fortune to be taken under the wing of God, one’s progress will go forward at a far quicker rate than would otherwise be possible. It is not a little thing that one had someone to turn one in the right direction or that one’s movement in this direction is guided by an experienced pioneer. Although the master cannot do the disciple’s work for one, one can put the disciple in command of the special knowledge derived from long experience which can help one do the work more efficiently and more successfully. The master will teach with love what the student must learn with reverence. As the Master brings the disciple to clarify one’s own thinking and knowledge and awareness, the latter turns one’s attention to what is that one really does believe. The zeal of the Master will by slow degrees permeate the heart of the disciple. Under the Sunshine of this encouragement, inspiration, and stimulation, the inner life expands. Only those who have themselves feel it can understand how one is able to exert such drawing power and arouse such fervid devotion in disciples. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

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The interpretation of history lies at the core of the modern situation. The interpretation of history is a philosophical, a political and a theological question. Coming out of the German philosophical tradition, we have been influenced by the historical thinking of the German idealist. In theology, the recurring question of the Church’s relation to culture and the modern emphasis on eschatology correspond to this primacy of history in modern thinking. If Christology implies an inquiry into the relation of Jesus the Christ to human thought and human life, then the Christological question is essentially historical: does the message of the New Being in Jesus as the Christ convey a reading of history which would be impossible without the Christ? To speak of history is to speak of past, present and future. However, nobody knows either past or present, present and future. Thus the present is the past; and it is equally true to say that the present is the future. The interrelationship of the past out of which the present is born, and the future of which the present is the matrix, constitutes the problem of time. This problem is further complicated by the fact that it is not enough to say, the present is also the past, and the present is the future. Besides a horizontal relation to past and future, the present as a vertical relation to the eternal: the present is eternity. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

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If it was deprived of an ultimate meaning, if it was but a moving, a flowing, a becoming and decaying, time would not be important. Thus the experience of the flow of time raises two distinct, yet connected, questions. To be on the mysterious boundary-line of the present, between the past which is no longer and the future which is not yet, raises the question of the meaning of time. The borderline is the truly propitious place for acquiring knowledge. Placed at the borderline which is the present, humans try to find the sense of the past and the direction of the future. They attempt to determine this sense in history. History is what gives meaning to time. So, it is important that we leave our monuments up, even if people do not understand them or are offended by them. In other words, history is essentially interpretative. It is not a collection of documents, a museum of facts, or a list of dates. This may be called erudition, but it is not history. Nor is history the past events themselves: it is their interpreted sense as we may discern it. As to the dimension of eternity in the present, it is religion, properly speaking. If it has an unconditional meaning, an unconditional depth, an unconditional reality, the flow of time is really. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

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As we have seen, the perception of the Unconditional is the work of faith. Faith perceives the eternal dimension of the present. No interpretation of history can be ultimately satisfactory, unless it grasps the meaning of past and future in the light of the present as eternity. In this sense an interpretation of history is always implicitly religious. It is clear, then, that the concept of history has far-reading implications. If history is the meaning of time, it must be creative. The seasonal cycle of nature is not history, for it needs no explanation: it is complete as being, without lack, without need for something new or something better or something perfect. Instead, history deals with time as past and future seen through the present. And the future, since it is not yet, will be new. Accordingly, there is no history without the choice of a future; and there is no choice without freedom. History gives meaning to time through the mediation of a free decision or choice. The new, which occurs wherever history occurs, is meaning. In creating meaning, being gains freedom from itself, from the necessity of its nature. History exists where meaning is realized by freedom. The new which is produced by history is really new because it is produced by freedom. Freedom is the leap in which history transgresses the realm of pure being and creates meaning. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

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To make my desires paramount is what Paul again descried as having a “flesh mine” or “mind of flesh,” which is a state of death, as reported in Romans 8.6. Such a mind “sows to one’s own flesh”—invests only in one’s natural self—and “out of that flesh reaps corruption,” reports Galatians 6.8. Corruption or coming apart is the natural end of the flesh. Flesh can only be preserved by being caught up within the higher life of the kingdom of God and this losing the life peculiar to it. In other words, when Jesus says that those who find their life or soul shall lose it, he is pointing out that those who think they are in control of their life—“I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul,” as the poet William Ernest Henley said—will find that they definitely are not in control: they are totally at the mercy of forces beyond them, and even within them. They are on a sure course to disintegration and powerlessness, of lostness both to themselves and to God. They must surrender. By contrast, if they give up the project of being the ultimate point of reference in their life—of doing only what they want, of sowing to the flesh or to the natural aims and abilities of a human being—there can be hope. If they in that sense lose their life in favour of God’s life, or for the sake of Jesus and what he is doing on Earth—remember the ongoing World revolution he is now conducting—then their soul (life) will be preserved and thus given back to them. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

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There is an intimacy in the fellowship between teacher and disciple which is unique. There is an impersonality in this most personal of human relationships which is equally unique. No other relationships, whether familial or friendly, can compare with this relationship in depth or beauty or value. Mosiah forbids persecution and enjoins equality—Alma the younger and the four sons of Mosiah seek to destroy the Church—an angel appears and commands them to cease their evil course—Alma is struck dumb—all humankind must be born again to gain salvation—Alma and the sons of Mosiah declare glad tidings. About 100-92 Before Christ. And now it came to pass that the persecutions which were inflicted on the church by the unbelievers became so great that the church began to murmur, and complain to their leaders concerning the matter; and they did complain to Alma. And Alma laid the case before their king, Mosiah. And Mosiah consulted with his priests. And it came to pass that king Mosiah sent a proclamation throughout the land round about that there should not any unbeliever persecute any of those who belonged to the church of God. And there was a strict command throughout all the churches that there should be no persecutions among them, that there should be an equality among all humans. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

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“That they should let no pride nor haughtiness disturb their peace; that every human should esteem one’s neighbour as oneself, labouring with their own hands for their support. Yea, and all their priests and teachers should labour with their own hands for their support, in all cases save it were in sickness, or in much want; and doing these things, they did abound in the grace of God. And there began to be much peace again in the land; and the people began to be very numerous, and began to scatter abroad upon the face of the Earth, yea, on the north and on the south, on the east and on the west, building large cities and villages in all quarters of the land. And the Lord did visit them and prosper them, and they became a large and wealthy people. Now the sons of Mosiah were numbered among the unbelievers; and also one of he sons of Alma was numbered among them, he being called Alma, after his father; nevertheless, he became a very wicked and an idolatrous man. And he was a man of many words, and did speak much flattery to the people; therefore he led many of the people to do after the manner of his iniquities. And he became a great hinderment to the prosperity of the church of God; stealing away the hearts of the people; causing much dissension among the people; giving a chance for the enemy of God to exercise his power over them. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

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“And now it came to pass that while he was going about to destroy the church of God, for he did go about secretly with the sons of Mosiah seeking to destroy the church, and to lead astray the people of the Lord, contrary to the commandment of God, or even the king—and as I said unto you, as they were going about rebelling against God, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto them; and he descended as it were in a cloud; and he spake as it were with a voice of thunder, which caused the Earth to shake upon which they stood; and so great was their astonishment, that they fell to the Earth, and understood not the words which he spake unto them. Nevertheless he cried again, saying: Alma, arise and stand forth, for why percecutest thou the church of God? For the Lord hath said: This is my church, and I will establish it; and nothing shall overthrow it, save it is the transgression of my people. And again, the angel said: Behold, the Lord hath heard they prayers of his servant, Alma, who is thy father; for he has prayed with much faith concerning thee that thou mightiest be brought to the knowledge of the truth; therefore, for this purpose have I come to conceive thee of the power and authority of God, that the prayers of his servants might be answered according to their faith. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

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“And now behold, can ye dispute the power of God? For behold, doth not my voice shake the Earth? And can ye not also behold me before you? And I am sent from God. Now I say unto thee: Go, and remember the captivity of thy fathers in the land of Helam, and in the land of Nephi; and remember how great things he has done for them; for they were in bondage, and he has delivered them. And now I say unto thee, Alma, go thy way, and seek to destroy the church no more, that their prayers may be answered, and this even if thou wilt of thyself be cast off. And now it came to pass that these were the last words which the angel spake unto Alma, and he departed. And now Alma and those that were with hum fell again to the Earth, for great was their astonishment; for with their own eyes they had beheld an angel of the Lord; and his voice was as thunder, which shook the earth; and they knew that there was nothing save the power of God that could shake the Earth and cause it to tremble as though it would part asunder. And now the astonishment of Alma was so great that he became dumb, that he could not open his mouth; yea, and he became weak, even that he could not move his hands; therefore he was taken by those that were with him, and carried helpless, even until he was laid before his father. And they rehearsed unto his father all that had happened unto them; and his father rejoiced, for he knew that it was the power of God. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

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“And he caused that a multitude should be gathered together that they might witness what the Lord had done for his son, and also for those that were with him. And he caused that the priests should assemble themselves together; and they began to fast, and to pray to the Lord their God that he would open the mouth of Alma, that he might speak, and also that his limbs might receive their strength—that the eyes of the people might be opened to see and know of the goodness and glory of God. And it came to pass after they had fasted and prayed for the space of two days and two night, the limbs of Alma received their strength, and he stood up and began to speak unto them, bidding them o be of good comfort: for, said he, I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit. And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all humankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters; and thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. I say unto you, unless this be the case, they must be cast off; and this I know, because I was like to be cast off. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

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“Nevertheless, after wading through much tribulation, repenting nigh unto death, the Lord in mercy hath seen fit to snatch me out of an everlasting burning, and I am born of God. My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was racked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more. I rejected my Redeemer, and denied that which had been spoken of by our fathers; but now that they may foresee that he will come, and ha he remembereth every creature of his creating, he will make himself manifest unto all. Yea, every knew shall bow, and every tongue confess before him. Yea, even at the last day, when all humans shall stand to be judged of him, then shall they confess that he is God; then shall they confess, who live without God in the World, that the judgment of an everlasting punishment is just upon them; and they shall quake, and tremble, and shrink beneath the glance of his all-searching eye. And now it came to pass that Alma began from this time forward to teach the people, and those who were with Alma at the time the angel appeared unto them, traveling round about through all the land, publishing to all the people things which they had heard and seen, and preaching the word of God in much tribulation, being greatly persecuted by those who were unbelievers, being smitten by many of them. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

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“However, notwithstanding all this, they did impart much consolation to the church, confirming their faith, and exhorting them with long-suffering and much travail to keep the commandments of God. And four of them were the sons of Mosiah; and their names were Ammon, and Aaron, and Omner, and Himni; these were the names of the sons of Mosiah. And they traveled throughout all the land of Zarahemla, and among all the people who were under the reign of king Mosiah, zealously striving to repair all the injuries which they had done to the church, confessing all their sins, and publishing all the things which they had seen, and explaining the prophecies and the scriptures to all who desired to hear them. And thus they were instruments in the hands of God in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of their Redeemer. And how blessed are they! For they did publish peace; they did publish good tidings of good; and they did declare unto the people that the Lord reigneth,” reports Mosiah 27.1-37. O LORD our God, Who by Thine own presence dost shed the abundance of Thy Holy Spirit on those who are set apart, by Thine inscrutable power, to become Ministers, and to serve Thy spotless Mysteries; keep Thy servant, whom Thou hast willed to be promoted to the ministry of a Deacon, that he may hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience, with all virtue. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

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Please vouchsafe him the grace given to Thy first Martyr Stephen, who was first called by Thee to the work of this ministry; and enable him to administer according to Thy goodness,–for they that minister rightly purchase to themselves a god degree;–and fill him, by the presence of Thy holy and life-giving Spirit, with all faith, and love, and power, and sanctification. For Thou art our God, and to Thee we render glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. O LORD, we commune with Thee every day, but week days are Worldly days, and secular concerns reduce Heavenly impressions. We bless Thee therefore for the day scared to our souls when we can wait upon Thee and be refreshed; we thank Thee for the institutions of religion by use of which we draw near to Thee and Thou to us; we rejoice in another Lord’s Day when we call off our minds from the cares of the World and attend upon Thee without distraction; please let our retirement be devout, our conversation edifying, our reading pious, our hearing profitable, that our souls may be quickened and elevated. We are doing to the house of prayer, pour upon us the spirit of grace and supplication; we are going to the house of praise, awaken in us every grateful and cheerful emotion; we are going to the house of instruction, give testimony to the word preached, and glorify it in the hearts of all who hear; may it enlighten the ignorant, awaken the careless, reclaim the wandering, establish the weak, comfort the feeble-minded, make ready a people for their Lord. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

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That 1,000 piece-puzzle does not stand a chance. 🧩 Residence Three at Mills Station boasts 2,394 square feet in this expansive two story home. There are three bedrooms, with the option for adding one more bedroom, two and a half bathrooms, and a two car garage plus workshop! The charming front courtyard welcomes you home and the high ceilings and thoughtfully designed floor plan let you know that you’ve made the right choice with Cresleigh. You can fully embrace the indoor/outdoor lifestyle so organic to Northern California with a covered patio located right off kitchen with sliding glass doors on all three sides.
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What would you get up to in a Great Room of this size? Daydream away with our video walkthrough and interactive floor plan of #BrightonStation Residence 3, available on our website. Link in bio. 👉 https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/residence-3/
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O God, great in power, unsearchable in understanding, wonderous in counsels towards the children of humans, do Thou fill with the gift of the Holy Spirit him whom Thou hast willed to undertake the degree of the Priesthood; that he may be worthy to stand before Thy holy Altar unblameably, to announce the Gospel of Thy kingdom, to administer the Word of Thy truth, to offer gifts and spiritual Sacrifices unto Thee, and to renew Thy people in the laver of Regeneration; that at the second coming of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, Thine Only-begotten, Son, he may go fort to meet Him and by the multitude of Thy mercies receive his reward: for Thy venerable and majestic Name is blessed and glorified. Please be a sanctuary to all who cannot come, forget not those who never come, and do thou bestow upon us benevolence towards our dependans, forgiveness towards our enemies, peaceableness toward our neighbours, openness towards our fellow-Christians. #CresleighHomes

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