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Do you Believe you have a Soul?
Humans are beings of love through and through. Why? Because human beings are Earth beings. The Earth is the cosmos of love, meaning that wisdom, and the soul of the World, is destined to become consciousness and this takes place through wisdom transformed into love. While the constant flux of human relationships creates enormous variance that is problematical and troublesome from a scientific point of view, it also provides us with the best hope of understanding what it is about human companionship that prevents premature death. Who are we? Are we parasites living on Earth? Imagine someone incapable of developing the force of love. Without love we would actually perish, physically die. There are literally thousands of exceptions to the general statistical rule that unmarried men and women die prematurely. One cannot be blind to the fact that there are many happy and healthy 80- and 90-year-old unmarried individuals, and many people who live active, productive, and happy lives for decades after they have lost a husband or wife. Their physical and psychological adjustment must be carefully studied, for their lives clearly point out that being unmarried need not be a physical state itself that leads to disease and death, but rather one’s social adjustment to it. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
The future of love concerns the full development of individuality, which is responsible for the creation of a new, conscious unity of the World, brought forth out of the freedom of love. It is amazing that some people love one so much that even though they see an individual trying to build a career, when they see that person is being used as a slave, they will remove them from that situation, which totally makes sense. If you want animals to stop attacking your house, you remove their food source. The forms of love from the past have been severely damaged as a result of the kind of consciousness responsible for nuclear weapons. None of these forms has the strength to hold together relationships without being renewed through the development of individual love. Individual love, on the other hand, cannot develop in isolation from the World because individual love is at the same time World oriented. One of the best things you can do when you are hurting is go out and help someone else who is in pain. Get your mind off your problems and pain by helping someone else in need. When you help others in your time of need, you are creating a separate, but equal reactions (Newton’s III Law of Physics) and God can use this to change your situation. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
There is much talk these days about the living Earth. When you walk on the Earth, imagine that this is the skin of a living being. Imagine the flow of the waters in the streams, ocean, and rivers as the blood of this being, and the air you breathe is the breath of the Earth. This simple act of caring will bring an uncanny experience that will help you love other living beings. What is it about human contact that makes it so important to our health? Why should marriage be statically so beneficial to the health of the heart? Why is loneliness so physically destructive? Why do people die of broken hearts? Human beings are a manifestation of consciousness. They are the quality of warmth, of feeling. The quality of warmth of consciousness, the feeling of this warm creates a dream like state and gives beings the motivation to keep on living. Money can only buy so much happiness and if you are poor it is the love of your family that gives you the drive to keep striving, the love of God the forces you to open your eyes and breath. When the source of love is not there, it is as if the dream is over, and one has difficulty in trying to consciously make the dream reappear or stay clear. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
When the attraction of love between people exists, the quality of love tends to be more permanent. We know that we cannot buy love, we cannot force people to love us, and even when we do kind things for others out of love, they may use us and expect our help and give nothing back in return, but pain. All human beings are bound by identical obligations, although these are performed in different ways according to particular circumstances. No human being, whoever he or she may be, under whatever circumstances, can escape them without being guilty of crime. It is eternal and unconditional, the World has an elementary sense of justice, the ability to see things as others do, a sense of transcendental responsibility, archetypical wisdom, good taste, courage, compassion, and faith in the importance of particular measures that do not aspire to be a universal key to salvation. Soul, individual spirituality, firsthand personal insight into things; the courage to be oneself and go the way of one’s conscience points, humility in the face of the mysterious order of being, confidence in its natural direction and, above all, trust in one’s own subjectivity as one’s principal link with the subjectivity of the World—these are qualities that people of the future should have? #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
All of the living makes the mistake of drawing too sharp distinctions. Angels (it is said) would be often unable to tell whether they moved among the living or dead. Our impoverished state is marked by our awareness that we are not very reliably at home in the interpreted World. Hence, in order to regain for ourselves something that would equal spiritual and existential fervor that characterized the ages of faith, we must take upon ourselves the task of endowing the World (the World of things of the intimate personal relations) with the inwardness of feeling that other ages directed toward a divinity. Joy, love, and above all suffering and pain should not diffuse sensations accompanying an unending series of vague hopes and regrets; they must become the objects of a total commitment. Thus, since we are not yet strong enough to give ourselves totally in love, we have better follow the example of the lover and draw our strength from an unrequited, uninterrupted feeling, or indeed of Narcissus, who used the natural World as a magnifying mirror of his feelings. In a World in which all actions are liable to remain uncompleted, I know my redeemer lives. God will pay you back double what you have loss and the rest of your life will be the best of your life. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
God will always have another plan in store for you. The truth is you need prayer more than a friend. Arise from the depression in which the circumstances have kept you. Rise to a new life. Notice, if you want a new life, there is something you have to do. You cannot sit back and focus on negativity. You have a full life ahead of you. God will bind up your broken heart, and help you proclaim freedom as you are released from darkness. We must pray for the grace to endure problems as our spiritual will is perfected. This is not a social phenomenon, but a pageant of situations and persons in whom the ideal of completion and strength of feeling is realized, just as the contemporary World is a series of images that portray our deprivations and stunted responses. To make something of one’s fate, of one’s experiences, is to give them the permanence (essentially poetic) of a moment of intensity. Similarly, the supreme task, set by the imminence of death, is to repair the adventitiousness of death by drawing into my life, by making of it my own death. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
The immensity of the task of creating a new spirituality is betrayed by the complex, and quite conscious, ambiguities of transcendence, chief of which is the image of the Angel. He is a messenger (angelos) from another sphere; hence, there must be one who spent him. However, the Angel comes upon us with a terrible majesty and strength which, to us who are weak, is all his own. The Angel is pure and necessary contradiction and he sees the foundation of our being: only living in total commitment to the Earth, the here and now, can we transform it into the heart’s inner space, and thus wrest some eventual transition into a soundless Beyond. This is the creative act, stills all strife by transforming it into a song, eternalizes the moment by making of it a monument of inwardness, and transfixes suffering into the eternally valid image of God. In a World of yearning for the security of faith and finding it in ideology, there is a new purpose for living, as all concerted action is an escape from defective selfhood. God has a specific plan by which great blessing will come out of difficulty. Arise and wipe away your tears and press on. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
God Wants to Heal your Broken Heart and Love your Soul
There is a widespread belief in our modern culture that love is a word which has no meaning. A whole generation of detached, independent, self-sufficient, noncommitted individuals agree. However, human relationships do matter. Yet, people think you can be intimate with someone and then leave then, and nothing bad will happen. As a matter of fact, that is not true because human relationships are desperately important to both our mental and our physical well-being. The fact is that social isolation, the lack of human compansionship, death or absence of parents in early childhood, sudden loss of a love, and chronic human loneliness are significant contributors to premature death. My hope is that the powerful impact of human companionship on our general physical and mental well-being will come into clearer focus. Ouite literally, we must learn to live together or face the possibility of prematurely dying alone. When you face situations that seem impossible, I dare you to pray. When you pray, God releases favor and the angels go to work, and you will see the greatness of God’s power. God has promised to give us the desires of our hearts. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11
The true greatness wears an invisible cloak, under cover of which it goes in and out among people without being suspected; if its cloak does not conceal it from itself always, and from all others for many years, its greatness will erelong shrink to very ordinary dimensions. What, then is the good of being great? You may understand greatness better in others, whether alive or dead, and choose better company from these and enjoy and understand that company better when you have chosen it—also that you may be able to give pleasure to the best people and live in the lives of those who are yet unborn. Great minds must trust to great truths and great talents for their rise, and nothing else. An affection towards self-good may be a good affection or a bad one. If this private affection is too strong (as when excessive love of life unfits a creature for any generous act) then it is undoubtedly vicious; in which case the creature who is moved by it is viciously moved, and will always be somewhat vicious when moved by that affection. A person is only truly great when one acts from the passions; never irresistible but when one appeals to the imagination. #RandolphHarris 2 of 11
There are so many things wrong and difficult in the World, that no person can be great—one can hardly keep themselves from wickedness—unless one gives up thinking much about pleasure or rewards, and gets strength to endure what is hard and painful. If some creature’s earnest and passionate love of life leads one accidentally to do some good, one is not a good creature because of this good deed one does, any more than a person is made honest or good for pleading a just cause or fighting in a good cause merely for the sake of a fee. Great people think they must do right things in the common way. If an action motivated purely by an affection towards self-good happens to be advantageous to the species, that implies goodness in the creature only to the extent that the affection itself is good. However, much good one does by one particular at, if it came solely from that selfish affection then one is in oneself still vicious. And the same holds for any creature whose passion towards self-good, however moderate it is, is one’s real motive in doing something that one ought to have been led to by a natural affection for one’s kind. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11
And whatever external helps a badly disposed creature may find to push one on towards performing a good action, none of this will make one good until one’s temperament changes and one is led directly towards good and against bad—led by some immediate affection, not accidentally. For instance: when a species is thought to be by nature tame, gentle, and favourable to humankind, and a member of it is fierce and savage contrary to one’s natural constitution, i.e. the constitution that is natural to one’s species, we instantly notice the breach of temperament and agree that the creature is unnatural and corrupt. If later one the same creature comes—through good fortune or proper management—to lose one’s fierceness, becoming tame, gentle, and treatable like the rest of one’s species, we will agree that the creature thus restored becomes good and natural. However, if one’s tame and gentle conduct comes only from one’s fear of one’s keeper, and would instantly change if that fear were lost, then one’s gentleness is not one’s real temperament, and one is still as bad as ever. #RandolphHarris 4 of 11
People need hardheaded everyday good sense. Confronted with the grandiose ornamentation and willful obscurity of both the antiscientific armchair pseudoscience and the vaguely rhapsodical metaphysics that are carried on in the name of philosophy and news, we can only regard them as some elaborate but pointless intellectual rituals. To continue to philosophize and generate fake news to make it look like you are working and collect a pay check in this new tradition is worse than a waste of time. It can only too easily confuse and mislead the unwary into mistaking long words for great ideas and into reposing in the comfort of a wholly illusory intellectual self-satisfaction. Because know of the truth is necessary for human salvation, God has supernaturally made them known. Revelation is the communication of some truth by God to a rational creature through means which are beyond the ordinary course of nature. A particular conception of the nature of revelation involves a precise conception of nature of faith, as a human being’s response to revelation. When revelation is conceived as the divine disclosure of religious truths, faith is necessarily understood as the obedient believing of these truths. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11
Faith is a supernatural virtue whereby with the inspiration and help of God’s grace, we believe that what he has revealed is true, not because its intrinsic truth is seen with the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God who reveals it. Scriptures have been called the Word of God and have been virtually identified with revelation. The Bible, as we have revealed in the recent past, is accordingly thought of as being ultimately of divine authorship; it has been written by human beings, but in the writings of it, their minds were directed by the Holy Spirit. Because the scriptures were written as a result of the prompting of the Holy Spirit, they have God for their author. It is no uncommon event, in the experience of us all, to see the possessors of exalted ability occasionally humbled to the level of the most poorly-gifted people about them. Because every effect somehow bears the trademark of the first cause, God’s existence can be proved from the World of nature. We must start a good war. It is better to fight against falsehood and malice with a certain amount of discord, then, by dissimulating, to give way to malice and falsehood for the sake of harmony. #RandolphHarris 6 of 11
A good creature is one who is through one’s natural temperament or the slant of one’s affections carried primarily and immediately, and not secondarily and accidentally, to good and against bad. A bad creature is one who lacks the right affections of the force needed to carry one directly towards good and against bad; or who is carried by other affections directly towards bad and against good. The mind, which is spectator or auditor of others minds, must have its eyes and ears, so as to discern proportions, distinguish sound, and scan each sentiment or thought that comes before it. It cannot let anything escape its judgment. It feels the soft and harsh, the agreeable and disagreeable, in the affections; and it finds a fair and foul, a harmonious and dissonant, as really and truly here as in any piece of music or in the external shapes and appearances of sensible things. And it cannot withhold its admiration and ecstasy, its aversions and scorn, anymore in what relates to one than in what relates to the other of these subjects. There is a common and natural sense of what is sublime and beautiful in things; and someone who denies this would not be taken seriously by anyone who has attended properly to the facts. #RandolphHarris 7 of 11
We need something timeless in order to extract an objective sense from the temporal course of history, so we formed an anti-death clause. While this periodization cannot be verified empirically, it is an example of the critical approach to the question of the unity of historical development. Although it is purely theoretical, it nonetheless gives an axiological grounding to the results of empirical research. How are we to measure the utility of goods that are acquired not for consumption but to be exchanged for other commodities? These goods acquire their utility from the consumption goods for which they are finally exchanged. The utility of such goods is called acquired utility. What we know as the principle of diminishing marginal utility, stats that as the consumption of a good increases, its marginal utility decreases. Consumers will maximize their total utility by purchasing so that the last unit of money spent for any one good gives the same marginal utility as the last unit spent for any other. It is possible to compare the utility one person receives from consuming another glass of beer with the utility another person would receive from consuming another pair of shoes or another beer. Great minds cannot avoid doing extraordinary things. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11
Like a pyramid, a great person stands on a broad base. It is only the prattle porcelain pagoda that tottles on a toe. It is fitting that we should hold the young in awe. How do we know that the generations to come will not be the equal of the present? Only when an individual reaches the age of forty or fifty without distinguishing oneself in any way can one say, I suppose, that one does not deserve to be held in awe. One cannot but give assent to exemplary words, but what is important is that one should rectify oneself. One cannot but be pleased with tactful words, but what is important is that one should reform oneself. I can do nothing with an individual who gives assent but does not rectify oneself or the individual who is pleased but does not reform oneself. Make it your guiding principle to do your best for others and to be trustworthy in what you say. Do not accept as friend anyone who is not as good as you. When you make a mistake do not be afraid of mending your ways. The Three Armies can be deprived of their commanding officer, but even a common person cannot be deprived of one’s purpose. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11
Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but for a little while—yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but Worldly sorrow bring death. See what this Godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. So even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong or of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are. By all this we are encouraged. I arise today through the strength of Heaven; light of the Sun, splendor of fire, speed of lightning, swiftness of the wind, depth of the sea, stability of the Earth, firmness of the rock. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11
I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me; God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me. God’s eyes to look before me, God’s ears to hear me, God’s word to speak for me, God’s hands to guard me, God’s way to rest before me, God’s shield to protect me, God’s hosts to save me afar and anear alone or in multitude. I arise today through the mighty strength of the Lord of creation. And I know that the rest of my days will be the best of my days. Revelation, understood in this way, presupposes faith as its correlate. That God is at work in a certain situation, seeking to draw people into a new life in relation to God. God has revealed himself to a special group. Divine revelation embodies in its life which God has opened a new and better life to humankind. The form of apologetic appropriate to this view is one that defends the right of the believer, as a rational being, given the distinctly religious experience out of which one’s faith has arisen, to trust that experience and to proceed to live upon the basis of it. And in the naked light I saw ten thousand people, maybe more. People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening, people writing songs that voices never shared, no one dared disturb the sounds of silence. #RandolphHarris 11 of 11
In Loving Memory of Todd Harris and Adam West.
The Morning Star is the Evening Star
Life and the World around us is a painted veil, an illusion though which we penetrate to the reality behind. Religion and virtue seem in many respect to be so nearly related that they are generally presumed to be inseparable companions. We are so willing to think well of their union that we hardly allow it to be permissible to speak or even think of them separately. However, it may by questioned whether this attitude can be theoretically justified. We certainly do sometimes encounter cases that seem to go against this general supposition. We have known people who have the appearance of great zeal in religion, but have lacked even the common affections of humanity, and shown themselves extremely degenerate and corrupt. Others who have paid little regard to religion and been considered as mere atheists have been seen to practice the rules of morality and in many cases to act with such good meaning and affection towards humankind that one seems forced to admit that they are virtuous. In our everyday lives, our wiliness to have dealings with someone may depend on one’s answer to “What are his or her morals?” A person who is aware of the superior pleasures to be found in virtuous action will naturally prefer virtue to mere self-interest. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Our notions of God are projections of our own humor, as we are, so shall we think God to be. God must necessarily be good humored. However, we can never understand this quality unless we possess it ourselves. Hence, the necessity for permitting good humor in the discussion of religion. I give a lot of credence to the grace of God because much of what we do, in fact, more of what we do than we do not do has to do with our fortune and misfortune. And I think there are people who the miseducation has taken a greater toll on than me. And you know, but for the grace of God, I would have been confused about my identity. We cannot understand qualities of mind and character which we do not possess ourselves. The best foundation for rendering a just account of human nature is thorough knowledge of oneself. No one who knows oneself can possibly believe that all human action stem from selfish motives. God is a good-tempered, benevolent being who orders the World. Sincere the affection for virtue is natural, religion is unnecessary to its presence in us. However, theistic opinions about a benevolent God may reinforce the affection. Yet, so many the good example of others and rewards and punishment. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
When religion and morality are separated, a selfish interest in one’s own welfare is not all that is left to provide a foundation for morality. There is more than accounting for the possibility of morality than a simple choice of religion. It is the function of both poetry and religion to provide people with a coherent view of the World that will help them understand both themselves and their fellow human beings, and to provide it in a form that will kindle the imagination as well as the intellect. The ultimate solution is a community small enough for each member to know the other members as individuals. Such intimate person knowledge will bring understanding and sympathy, so that people will be prepared to cooperate for the common good, without the coercion of law. People will indeed value their neighbors’ opinions, but they will not take their neighbors’ opinion on trust. To do so would be useless, because even a true opinion is of little value unless one understands the grounds for holding it. It is only when people see things as they are, in all their intricate interconnections, that they will feel the right emotions and thus lead happy and virtuous lives. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
People see life as if through a veil—the veil of their own prejudices, which are imposed by social institutions. We must transcend their prejudices in order to understand and love our fellow humans. If we are to fear the wrath of God, then there must be some principle by which we regulate our fears. If we are to fear God’s blame, we must already know what is blame worthy. Nothing is blameworthy simply because it displeases God. God and human beings must share a sense of deformity which enables them to identify the morally odious. There is no divine monopoly here. Morality may arise independently of religion. Virtue is natural because human nature provides a foundation for virtue. Why should selfishness or self-interest be the only natural passion? Social feeling or sense of partnership with humankind may be natural. The social feeling must be natural, for how could there be society if this feeling did not exist first? If society is a set of conventional arrangements, then the existence of society implies the pre-existence of a disposition among people to make conventions. Thus, the selfish picture of human nature cannot be the whole story, for if selfishness were the only natural feeling, there would be no society. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
What is more, since the existence of a social feeling is sufficient to account for the origin of society, appeals to the religious sanctions for society are necessarily subsequent to the actual foundation of society and therefore of secondary importance. Virtue is the pursuit of the public interest. There is no real love of virtue without the knowledge of public good. We are disposed to act virtuously by our affection for virtue. This affection for virtue is called the moral sense. This sense is like a harmony in music and a sense of proportion in architecture and art. In a creature capable of forming general notions of things, not only the outward beings which offer themselves to the sense are objects of the affection, but the very actions themselves and the affections of pity, kindness, gratitude, and their contraries, being brought into the minds by reflection become objects. So that by means of this reflected sense, there arise another kind of affection towards those very affections themselves, which have been already felt, and are now become the subject of a new liking or dislike. One way we evaluate ourselves is to compare ourselves to others and to our own ideal self-image. If an ideal image cannot be met, it may have to be discarded or revised, but this is not easy to do. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Once we remove the veil of unreality, the World will be seen as a unity—both in the sense in which science may be said to be a unity (the truth about one field of study cohering with and illuminating the truth about another), and in the sense that a true understanding of our fellow humans will give rise to virtuous behavior. This is the indestructible order that it is the business of poetry to reveal. We live surrounded by an infinite multitude of mysteries. For God, all things are possible, even what one may considered a logical absurdity, that is, causing what has in fact happened not to have happened. The fundamental property of life is daring; all life is creative daring and this an eternal mystery, irreducible to anything finished or intelligible. In human’s very existence, thought has discovered something improper, a defect, a sickness, or sin, and has demanded that this be overcome at its foundation by a renunciation of existence. Disclosure by talking seriously and honestly together on an equal level is the necessary condition for reducing the mystery that one person is for another. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
We need to take better care of ourselves mentally, physically, and spiritually. Because the times that are coming up are going to be challenging times. Progress come both in the realization of the need for re-education and further in the re-education process itself. A good beginning to understanding and appreciating life fully is knowing that at some point it will end. Games prevent honest, intimate, and open relationships between the players. Yet people play them because they fill up time, provoke attention, reinforce early opinions about self and others, and fulfill a sense of destiny. We have to learn to make the time period between life’s only two certainties, birth and death meaningful and significant. Human beings place far too much stress upon defining the purpose in and of our lives. Our only purpose in life if purpose is needed, is to be what we are fully, vitally and in context of other people having the same right. We each need to find a purpose or goal in our existence but we should not dwell on it. People are known and respected for their commitment and dedication to the uplift of people. Each of us must know that others may try to push us down or disqualify us, but we will be able to fulfill our destinies. The rest of your life will be the best of your life. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Is the Sun of Blue Heaven Guilty of the Shadow it Casts?
The beauty and loveliness of friendship is too strong for dim eyes. The soul is form giving being to humans, and it assists in operation of the body and mind as a sailor presides over the operation of an already formed ship. It is important to control the mind, and for an individual to have a rapport with nature. God is identified with the regularity governing the World, and must be thought of as the essence or embodiment of regularity in general; as the totality of logical regularity, of natural laws, and of the laws of mental and spiritual life. All moral values disappear if God does not exist. Therefore, it is important for people to believe in God. Christ and his disciples through the ages have experienced the divine presence of God the loving Father and with it a sense of moral repentance and an inner energy of the spirit. As with all personal experience, no symbolic structure can act as substitute. Such structures are, in every field, merely hypothetical attempts to grasps experience. God lives in human’s consciousness. Before a new direction is sought, it is necessary to discern the error of the old and awaken a desire to transcend that error. This requires courage and fearless honesty. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
The recovery from many serious and incurable, potentially fatal disorders is based on the willingness and capacity to face the truth and choose a different pathway. To break down denial and admit the truth takes one above the lower levels of humanity. Spiritual awakening is fostered by a desire for salvation and peace. The Human need for and experience of God’s presence proves his existence. Science and philosophy are masters of their own proper domain. Thus, God is the final reason of everything, but not necessarily the scientific explanation of anything. The idea of God is so embedded in the consciousness of human beings that we find some version of it in most legends. One knows but little of human nature who has not discovered that, to all who rise one step above the brutes, it is far pleasanter to starve and freeze after their own fashion than to be fed and clothes and worked upon compulsion. Friendship is a mighty pretty invention, and, next to love, gives of all things the greatest spirit to society. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
We lie in nature very close to God; and though, further on, the stream may be corrupted by the banks it flows through; yet at the fountain’s rim, where humankind stand, there the stream infallibly bespeaks the fountain. Whatever the number of a person’s friends, there will be times in one’s life when one has too few; but if one has only one enemy, one is lucky indeed if one has not one too many. In life, however, it is sometimes difficult to say who does you the most mischief, enemies with the worst intentions, or friends with the best. Friendship is a passion. It entrances the being; it tears the soul. All loves of after life can never bring its rapture, or its wretchedness; no bliss so absorbing, no pangs of jealousy or despair so crushing and so keen! Our consciousness rarely registers the beginning of a growth within us any more than without us: there have been many circulations of the sap before we detect the smallest sign of the bud. What we say is important for in most cases the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Equality is the soul of friendship. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
When I do entertain, in the Summer, which is rare, I receive my guest on the front porch, set up wicker trays found at Draper James, and serve ice cold sweet tea, cucumber finger sandwiches, and miniature chess pies. The ice tea is so delicious that it can stand alone as a refreshment, but we like to embellish things a bit. There are different reasons for receiving guest. Visits of congratulations are paid after the birth of an infant; when it is also customary to send tasteful and elegant baskets or bouquets of flowers. Also, upon friends who have received an appointment to any office or dignity in the community, state, or government. If a friend has published a book, you call to congratulation him or her upon its success; or if one has delivered a lecture, sermon, or oration, which has elicited your applause, you express your high estimation of the discourse. A good orator is pointed and impassioned, and they get their subjects into the heart of the audience. It is also a good idea to pay visits of congratulation when you hear that your friends are intending to marry, and take upon themselves new responsibilities. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
There are times when people must act as though life were equally sweet in any company. In this World, sometimes we experience sickness, sorrow, and bereavement, visits of condolence must occasionally be made; and, if possible, they should be paid within a week after death has entered the family circle. If your acquaintance is ceremonious, it is the custom, however, to wait until the family has appeared at church. One should send up your card, and ask if your friends will receive you; and it is in good taste for ladies to be attired in quiet apparel, rather than in bright, beautiful colours. And you do not necessarily have to wear black. In formal visiting, a card can be left in lieu of a call. In many places, it is customary to send invitations to friends to attend a funeral, and only those receiving cards are expected to attend. Notes are also usually sent to those who are requested to serve as pall-bearers. One should always leave it to those who are in affliction to make the first allusions to their bereavement. Grief is an experience common after the passing of a loved one. There is a crying for someone to help because we cannot do anything about it. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation. That is the best. When calling upon friends at hotels, or boarding houses, always send up by an assistance, a request to see them; and never enter a room until you have received an invitation to do so. When a gentleman calls upon a lady, and finds a lady friend also visiting her, he should rise when she takes her leave, and accompany her to the hall door; and is she has a carriage, should hand her into it. Also, when arriving at someone’s house, do not blow the horn of the carriage, nor holler and scream like you lost your mind for them to open the door. Get out of the carriage, and ring the doorbell like a well-bred person with sanity. People generally want to keep their communities as quiet and peaceful as possible. Gentlemen should always carry their hats in their hands when paying morning or evening calls, but should not place them on the chairs or parlor table. Every well-bred man knows that a hat can be made a very graceful part of his attire, especially if he knows how to hold it. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
In our country, we are allowed considerable freedom in receiving and paying visits, and can appear, in the daytime, in all public places. It is actually becoming proper for ladies and gentlemen to have brothers, husbands, or friends of either gender attend meetings with them for safety reasons. It was a common practice for women, in the Victorian ages, but people are now always preying on men. I had a friend who went to meet up with people I thought he knew well, and he came back with a missing tooth. I did not expect he would actually keep company with someone he was unfamiliar with, and thought it was some kind of skit. Nonetheless, it was not my business to advise him. People used to be able to attend public exhibitions, libraries, etc., and appear on the promenades alone, but this may no longer be the case. If you attempt such proceedings in a World class city, or even a small rural town, you may expose yourself to indignities which would annoy you sadly. In the United States of America, women and men, who behave with discretion, can go wherever they please without molestation; but an escort is always desirable, especially in the evening. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
There is no light without its shade, no good without its inconvenience. It is not considered comme il faut for the lady of the house to accompany ceremonial visitors to the door; she merely rises from her seat, bows, or shakes hands, according to her intimacy when the persons, and if her ménage supplies a parlor assistance, she rings the bell to summon him to open the outer door. With intimate friends, one can do as they please, either accompanying them to the door, or leaving them to find their way out of the house alone, or calling an assistant to escort them. However, in these modern times, with people changing like the seasons and acting all brand new when you least expect it, it is best to be safe and see your guest find them way out. In almost everything, we act on probabilities. Good sense will shew you the power of self-conquest, and point out its means. It should be the desire of us all to be well-bred, but it is not a veneering that can be applied, or laid aside at pleasure. Keeping witty company sharpens the apprehension. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
More light a candle and fewer to curse the darkness. We should carry our good manners everywhere; and unless we cultivate them constantly, and exercise them upon all occasions, and towards all persons, they can never become a part of ourselves; and when we try to assume them, they will often fail us at our greatest need. If you are impolite to your washerwoman, or to your maid, you are in great danger of being so to those whose good opinion your desire to possess. Life is full of the saddest and the strongest contrasts. The charm which true politeness sheds over its possessors, is not easily described; yet, it is felt by everyone, and invariably responded to by the best feelings of their nature. It is the secret sympathy, the silver link, like the silken tie, which heart to hearts, and mind to mind, in body and in soul can bind. A companionable man or woman will put up with many inconveniences for the sake of enjoying agreeable society. The wine cannot be bad where the company is agreeable. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
Glorious Father in Heaven, filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of our troubles, we cast ourselves at your feet and humbly beg you to take the present affair which we recommend to you under your special protection and make the rest of our lives the best of our lives. When we realize God’s favor is upon you, you will accomplish your dreams faster than you ever thought possible. telling yourself the wall is too big, the dream is too great, or the obstacles are too high. It will not happen in your own strength. It will not happen in your own powers. It will happen because Almighty God favors you. Try claiming God’s blessing instead of longing for them. The humblest painter of real life, if he could have his desire, would select a picturesque background for his figures; but events have an inexorable fashion of choosing their own landscape. Success if for everyone and your life becomes better the moment you become better. There is no success without sacrifice. You will be as small as your controlling desire, as great as your dominant aspiration. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
A Vital Doctrine—God Manifest in the Flesh
Never in a human head was contemplation more separated from desire. The Architects and advocates of the modern English translations of the Holy Scriptures unequivocally declare that Christ was God manifest in the flesh. He appeared in body. Two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one Person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and human beings. The Westminster Divines evidently regarded this verse as one of the essential proofs of the Trinitarian doctrine of the Bible, that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. The first Reason, why the then Greatness of the Roman Empire was a fit Circumstance of Time for the Mission, of Christ, is that he might better manifest his Divine Authority and Commission to the civil Powers of the World. Hell, Satan, and the devils are in reality sates of the mind. However, some events can never be explained. When we limit the mental to the realm of conscious events (the actual), it is called psychology without a soul. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13
Faithfulness to fact is raised to the level of genius. Behavior at the house is one of the best touchstones of good manners; for many persons will appear well abroad, and yet cannot exhibit any degree of ease at their own fireside table. However, to entertain company without embarrassment or excitement, is an art which it requires some usage to perfect. Company, various company, is the only school of this knowledge. Nothing forms a young person so much as being used to keep respectable and superior company, where a constant regard and attention is necessary. It is true, this is at first a disagreeable state of restraint; but it soon grows habitual, and consequently easy; and you are amply paid for it by the improvement you make, and the credit it gives you. Hospitality is also a Christian duty, and all homemakers should exercise it to some extent. We were not designed to live alone, to shut ourselves up in our houses, and enjoy the blessings up in our houses, and enjoy the blessings which have been given us in a spirit of exclusiveness. The idea is therefore essentially the divine nature and formally the ratio according to which God intelligizes creatures. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13
These ideas make up the creative mind of God. In a parallel fashion the universal (on human level) is its singular. The singular participates in its universal, which is by nature a projection of an idea in the mind of God. As a creation of God’s mind, the singular is incapable of annihilation. For God to allow a singular to be annihilated would be to permit the annihilation of a part of himself—an obvious impossibility. Nature teaches us a lesson in this direction. She keeps open house for innumerable winged and creeping insects, and their banquets are always spread among the beautiful, fragrant flowers, whose hospitable abodes are every filled with guests, from the bees and the butterflies to the tiniest winged fairy. Elegant hospitality can be exercised at a moderate expense; and those of us who cannot afford to give costly dinner or evening parties, can surely entertain a few friends at tea or coffee, or of an evening, and this promote a social feeling among neighbors and acquaintances. It is not well for young persons to entertain too much company when they first commence housekeeping, but neither is it well to pay no heed to hospitality. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13
God’s intellection, his knowledge, his will, the Trinity, his ideas and his power to create outside himself is the grand design. Young people should live frugally and you will live happily; shut not your doors or hearts against those who have a claim upon your hospitality;–but remember, that if they really esteem and love you, they will come not to look at your table or your furniture, but to enjoy your society. Psychology is the common basis for all scientific and cultural knowledge and the bond uniting all the individual sciences, and therefore as the science directly preparatory to philosophy. Certain knowledge is possible for humans of one realm but not of the other, where only opinion is possible, although God may be able to have the knowledge of both. The chief art of pleasing is to make everyone feel at home; that is, at one’s ease. And if anything has occurred in your ménage to ruffle your temper, do not annoy your guest by telling your grievances. Of course, they cannot be interested in such petty details; and the relation may tend to mar their pleasure. We can improve our understanding, but this will always fall short of knowledge. #RandolphHarris 4 of 13
The most perfect being must owe one’s exemption from vice to the absence of temptation. We never quite understand why another dislikes what we like. There are those who are born with the faculty of rendering everyone happy who comes in contact with them, and they seem endowed with great discernment of character, and can encourage the timid, repress the encroaching, and call forth the peculiar talents and perfections of all. Such persons can always make themselves agreeable; while there are others who, strive as they can, can never attain to the same position. Yet, a desire to please—a desire to entertain one’s guest, will usually prove successful; and if you are cheerful, animated and pleasant yourself, you cannot fail to shed a halo of pleasure upon those around you. People of an enormously strong moral character have an unselfishness and self-control. It is important to be ambitious generals and politicians to acquire knowledge, and draw analogies to show that all skills must be learned. The significance of your knowledge can be usefully increased by deeper understanding of the purposes of your various crafts. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13
If your friends become your guests for awhile, it is well to give them some insight into your mode of life. Then they will readily comprehend your duties, and will often think it advisable not to encroach too much upon your morning hours, which may be required for some domestic occupations. After luncheon, or early dinner, your time, however, should be given up to them; either to drive out, walk, shop, or in some entertainment in the house. Of course, you will always attend to the arrangement of their sleeping-rooms, and provide everything that is essential for their comfort before they arrive, unless you are blessed with a most superior housekeeper. It is merciless to invite friends to visit you in cold weather, without providing a fire in their bedroom or dressing-room (heat). Neither is it courteous to wait until they arrive, and then inquire—“Would you like a fire?” Therefore, if you cannot afford to make your friends comfortable, do not invite them; at least in the wintry season. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13
There are temptations which it is not in the power of human nature to resist. Let your guest see, by your manner, that their presence is a decided pleasure to you; and make it also an incentive to recreations and amusements which do not belong to the common routine of your life. One should try to make their visits as agreeable as possible, but without any apparent effort; so that they many not think that you are putting yourself out of the way to afford them pleasures in which you do not often indulge. It is your duty to endeavor to make the time pass pleasantly, but if your visitors perceive that you are altering the daily tenor of your life on their account, it will detract greatly from their happiness. Mental training is paramount; serenity, sincerity, magnanimity, introspection, and self-restraint are the virtues to be cultivated. An ethical formula of devotion within, righteousness without is a virtue to be cultivated. Learning is knowing and practice. Therefore, we must rely on intelligence rather than strength. Intelligence is a great asset in the struggle for existence. #RandolphHarris 7 of 13
We do not injure others, nor harm ourselves in the pursuit of fame, wealth, and rank. These are to be avoided as temptations external to one’s nature. On the other hand, there is inherent in human beings a craving for the pleasures of this World. To seek the gratification of one’s desires for such things as fine food and beautiful objects is to yield to one’s original nature and in this way to work for its completion. We must seek happiness to our heart’s content, as well as longevity and immortality. One should not unnecessarily shorten one’s life. It is a good plan, when inviting guests to visit you, to state a given period for their visit. Mention the day when you would be happy to receive them, and the length of time of their visit. Perhaps a young lady is invited to make a visit in the country, or in the city, and no mention is made of days, weeks, or months, for its limit, and, therefore, she is utterly at a loss to know what amount of clothing to bring. It is impossible to study the human frame without a little studying the human mind. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13
The imprudence of our thoughts recoils upon our heads. When your guests intimate their intention of leaving you, if you really desire them to remain longer, say so frankly, and urge them to prolong the visit; but if you do not care for their society any longer, do not be so insincere as to urge it; or, on the other hand, if they cannot prolong their visit, do not worry them by your pertinacity in urging them to do so—but, while you invite them to renew their visit at their earliest convenience, facilitate their departure by every means in your power, and give them all needful information as to routes, times tables, etc. Of course, no guest will leave a friend’s house without some expression of regret and good-will. A good warm heart will, however, dictate the forms of speech requisite upon such occasions. And when you are at the house, be sure and inform your friends of your safe arrival, and express the gratification you have received from your visit, and gracefully allude to different members of the family, while you thank them for their kindly hospitality. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13
The transcendental knowledge attained involves a vivid awareness of the nature of the soul and its essential distinctness from the psychophysical organism. This bring liberation. No well-bred person will ever fail to acknowledge your hospitality and charming family; and a failure to do so, is a decided mark of ignorance of both etiquette and politeness. Guests will never take the part of either host or hostess in any trifling disagreement or opinion. As visitors, they can express their ideas upon various matters, of course; but shun any partisanship. And they will also scrupulously respect the rights of their entertainers, and never criticize their surroundings and manners to other persons. A house guest never speaks ill of those whose food one has tasted; and well-bred persons will never repeat what Mrs. Hearst said, nor tell what Mr. Hearst. did, when they were visiting. There has been some investigation of the physiology, and there seems little doubt that a kind of hibernation can be achieved and that the control over lungs, heartbeat, and the viscera organs is, by ordinary standards remarkable. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13
Some of the ore spectacular physical claims, however (such as levitation), are unconfirmed, and some of them are mythological in style. The ascription of magical powers to the host or hostess is part of the traditional tendency in India to think that with austerity and mental discipline can create a force which can even threaten the gods. This in turn both reflects and generates the view that mystical experience is the supreme religious goal, transcending the cult of supernatural beings. Such discrepancies of good manners are perfectly unendurable, and no respectable person will excuse them. Visitors should always give the housekeepers who waited upon them some little presents, either in money or its equivalent. They have had extra work in waiting upon them, and, therefore, deserve extra compensation. The chain which binds society together is composed of innumerable links, and it should be the part of hosts and guest to keep them uniformly bright; and to let neither moth nor rust corrupt them. There is nothing so difficult as to manage the public mind. The rest of your life will be the best of your life, which is socially engaged, but still retains its intellectual independence and freedom of social criticism. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13
Seeing may be contrasted both with hearing and with feeling by touching. One way in which seeing differs from hearing follows from the truth of our language that we hear an object if and only if we hear a sound which is made by the object. There is no comparable linguistic practice in the case of seeing. This may lead us to think of sight as presenting objects to us directly, hearing only indirectly. One way in which seeing differs from feeling by touching is that if we feel something by touching it, our experience is of feeling it with a particular part of the body. Our visual experience, however, is not of seeing with our eyes. We can imagine a disembodied mind having visual experiences but not having tactile ones. Sight does not require our being part of the material World in the way in which feeling by touching does. One way in which seeing differs from both hearing and feeling by touching is in respect to time. It takes time to hear a tune or to feel the shape of a statue, but one seems to be able to see a landscape instantaneously. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13
Sweet pliability of a human’s spirit, that can at once surrender itself to illusions, which cheat expectations and sorrow of their weary moments! Thus, the directness of seeing when contrasted with hearing, its noninvolvement with its object when contrasted with feeling by touching, and its apparent temporal immediacy when contrasted with both hearing and feeling by touching are features that may partly explain the belief that sight is the most excellent of the senses; this envied in the use by ancient and modern philosophers of predominantly visual metaphors to describe intellectual apprehension. Pray that we may finally receive the consolations and the succor of Heaven in all our necessities, tribulations and sufferings, particularly in Sacramento, and that we may bless God with the Elect through eternity. As mere human knowledge can split a ray of light and analyze the manner of its composition, so sublime intelligence may read in the feeble shining of this Earth of ours, every thought and act, every vice and virtue, of every responsible creature on it. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13
There is No Secret of Success—Success is for Everyone
No advice on success works unless you do. Your life becomes better only when you become better. Beware of the barrenness of an overcrowded life. The secret of the heart is its pressing love of self. The purpose of history—what happens at any time is not simply or wholly the effect of what has already happened; and event is dependent upon its past as the material upon which activity may be expended, but it is also a new and fresh expenditure of activity upon that material. What occurs is reconstruction, transformation, remaking. What was is thus pushed back into the past, and what becomes takes the place of what was. Time does not move from past through present to future; rather, it moves from the possible to the actual, that is, from one of the potentialities of what formerly was to a single actuality which is brought into existence by an action (whether that action be unconscious chance or conscious choice) upon what was. What comes to us from the past offers us opportunities and often imposes cruel limitations, but it does not make our choices for us. Rather, it allows us to realize our ends insofar as we have understanding of the potentialities it contains. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
History has no one end; it includes many processes with their many, often incompatible, ends. And human choices, insofar as they are intelligent, may well be effective to some degree. A naturalistic theory of nature thus issues in a humanistic theory of man. Habitual inattention is sometimes attributed to great genius, but we cannot endorse that idea. Such a peculiarity of manner is subversive of all politeness, and tends to shut a person within oneself, and make one of little importance in life. There are some young persons, however, who delight to pass for geniuses or originals, and they think it very interesting to appear as if in a “brown study” while in the company of others. They like to seem entirely absorbed, and are delighted if anyone observes their eccentricities. Such manners are entirely at variance with good-breeding. If a person speak to you ever so foolishly or frivolously, it is the height of ill manners not to heed what he or she says; and if he or she every forces conversation upon you, it is unkind, to say the least, to assume a perfectly indifferent demeanor. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
Besides, you cannot offer anyone more flattering attention than by that pleasing deference which, though it may involve somewhat of a sacrifice yet, is worth making. It is a good rule to endeavor to please everyone as far as is possible for us to do without too great a breach of sincerity. In this country, free and easy manners are too prevalent; but space would fail us to particularize all the little trifles in which even well-bred persons sometimes fall short. We will, however, briefly remark, that nothing can be more adverse to good manners than the habit of sitting with the hat on in the house—be it in the parlor, dining-room, kitchen, store, or office; or then yawning and whispering in company, lounging upon the chairs, by tipping them back upon two legs; taking the best seat in the room, and keeping them when your elders enter; or standing with the back to an open fire, when other persons are near it; and last, but not least, spitting into the fire, etc. These practices are deemed almost peculiar to our country, and have been severely animadverted upon by European travelers in our midst. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
Not only that, but during police investigations, when people are suspected of crimes and refuse to give a DNA sample (in order to match the blood or body fluid to a crime scene) investigators will be undercover, watching you and waiting for you to spit on the ground or drop a cigarette so that they can collect your DNA and tie you to the crime. They will photograph or video tape you so they can prove that they legally obtained the same from you, even without you knowing. The evidence can be disputed. However, if you do not know the victim, then your DNA has no business being at the crime scene. And if you know the victim, you better hope you have a good reason for living your DNA behind. So be care when you spit or liter, and realize there is usually a witness to everything that happens. A man or woman may have virtue, capacity, and good habits, and yet his or her lack of good-breeding may made him or her unendurable to those who are well-bred. There are three classes of people; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. If a person neglects education, one walks lame to the end of one’s life. The style and manner which we neglect as too trifling for us to heed, are often the things by which the World judges us. There are many little matters of personal bearing and conduct which must be attended to, if we desire to be agreeable to society. It is useless to say that such a man or woman, whose attire is neglected, whose whole appearance bespeaks the sloven, is a good and able man or woman and therefore must be agreeable and pleasing. His or her ability and goodness are, doubtless, desirable qualities, but the personal juxtaposition of the individual is insupportable to those who are accustomed to cleanliness and refinement. Not that it is essential that every person should be externally elegant, or an adept in the rules which constitute good-breeding; but no one can hope to be admired and sought after, who is addicted to conspicuous uncleanliness, the special tendency of which is to inspire painful feelings in those around him or her. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Never by monkeyish or clownish—attempting to introduce the manners of the circus into the house. Some rude boys and girls seem to ride themselves upon their exhibitions of low, vulgar tricks, antic gestures, foolish jests, and odd, slangy expression. This is an example of the contrast between the brilliant skill, ingenuity, and care bestowed upon observation and experiment in biology, and the almost complete neglect of caution in regard to the definition and use of etiquette and good breeding. The effect of this has been to arrest the development of the life sciences. They cause chronic controversies and antitheses of biology, such as those between mechanism and vitalism, preformation and epigenesist, teleology and causation, structure and function, organism and environment, and body and mind. Such low, shameful vulgarity may excite the laughter of foolish persons, for the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness; but no one possessing common sense can see such behavior without disgust and abhorrence. And every person that acts like the buffoon puts oneself on the level with a clown, and lowers oneself in the estimation of the good and the wise. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue. Be polite, respectful and modest to all, and especially to your elders and superiors. There is nothing more disgusting than a youth who assumes an air of disrespect and self-importance towards one’s superiors, equals, or inferiors. Never stare people in the face. It is exceedingly impolite, and a certain mark of ill-breeding to stare idly at strangers or anyone, as though you were entirely unused to seeing visitors. In conversing with anyone, however, it is right to look him or her in the face, with cheerful, dignified and respectful assurance. Never jerk, twitch or slam doors or window blinds; but endeavor to be cautious and gentle in all your motions. No well-bred child will ever slam a door in anger, or even give it a strong twitch. Never enter a house or parlor with your boots all mud and slush, or sit down with your hat or cap on. Never go up and down stairs, or about the house, with the speed or a trotting horse and the tread of an elephant; step lightly, quickly, and orderly. Never be rude and boisterous with your young friends. You can share in all kinds of sports, and yet never lose the command of yourself so as to become hoydenish and bold. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. Avoid loud screaming and rude merriment. Remember what Lear says of Aaliyah: “Her voice was ever sweet, gentle and low; and excellent thing in a woman. If we will study to introduce home etiquette into our families; to learn to be always courteous—always conciliatory—always well-bred—we should find that we had gained an immeasurable amount of happiness and the rest of our lives will be the best of our lives. Negligence and carelessness with regard to the little amenities of life, are the fruitful source of much domestic unhappiness. Good manners are to the family, what good morals are to society, their cement and their security. We think not that we daily see about our hearts—angels that are to be, or may be if they will, and we prepare their souls and ours to meet in happy air—a child, a friend, a wife whose soft heart sings in unison with ours, breeding its future wings. We should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
Almighty God, who, when the hearts of your people have grown cold, send your Holy Spirit to relight the flame of your love in their hearts, and raise up faithful ministers to recall your people to their former devotion and service. Mercifuly grant that we, following the teachings and example of Teresa of Avila, may be filled with your Holy Spirit, may be aflame with zeal for your glory and love for your goodness and hunger for your love, and that our feet may be set upon the path that leads to true holiness. We ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Bless it be. You may be discouraged because your plans did have not worked out, but those closed doors were not an accident. That was God directing your steps. The reason God closed them because he has something better in store. Will you trust God? Gods ways are not our ways, they are better than our ways. There will be times when you do not get what you want, and you cannot understand why not. You may be experiencing that right now. Will you stay in faith while you wait to see what God is up to? #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
Our first scrape generally leads to our first travel. Disappointment requires change of air; desperation change of scene. God is wonderful in his design and excellent in his process and projects and houses. Believer, God overrules all things for your good. Your course is mapped out by your Lord. Nothing will take God by surprise. There will be no novelties to God. Real satisfaction comes not in understanding God’s motives, but in understanding his character, in trusting in his promises, and in leaning on him and resting in God as the Sovereign who knows what he is doing and does all things well. Perhaps there is a pattern set up in the Heavens for one who desires to see it, and having seen it, to find one in oneself. Time—I see it not, I feel it not: it is but a shadowy name—a succession of breathings measured forth by night by the clank of a bell, by day by a shadow crossings along a dialstone. Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements. Protect your dreams. Feed them. Nurture them. Encourage them to grow, Care for them. For someday, they may take care of you. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
Chicken, Chicken! why did you Not have Beef or Moose Meat Stew?
Living bodies are machines, but machines directed toward the fulfillment of God’s purposes. My father was a business man and I am a business man, too! I want this philosophical work to be businesslike, to settle things. Sometimes, lighthearted moments become somber, when one is dismayed by the insincerity, vanity, and coldness of the human heart. Two people can be friends only if both of them are pure, so that they can be completely open with one another without causing offense. A relationship founded on hypocrisy, censorious, suspicion, and demands is intolerable. Human kindness and human concern are more important attributes in a person than intellectual power or cultivated taste. Many people have an acute need for friendship, and it is striking when one can meet a friend who displays generosity. Children and assistants are greatly influenced by the demeanor of masters and mistress of the house; and the husband who addresses his wife, in their presence, in a derogatory manner, does both himself and her a decided injury. While the wife, on her part, is equally bound to show all due respect to her husband. #RandolphHarris 1 of 15
Every human being possesses an innate perception of what is right. Children and servants are not exceptions to this general rule; and those of us who indulge in unkind expressions towards each other, lower ourselves more than we can, perhaps, understand in the opinions of those about us. Empirical psychology studies the powers of the soul as they are discovered by inner senses. There are two general fields of the soul—the cognitive powers and the will (which includes the feelings of pleasure and pain). The cognitive powers begin with the inferior faculty, or sensibility, because knowledge comes only from sensation. There is a pre-established harmony of soul and body. The soul is an immaterial substance possessing the power of representing the Universe and free will. Rationally, the soul is simple and immortal. The structure of the World and the objects in it are aimed at the fulfillment of God’s wise ends and the study of this method is a good method of studying nature. Good is what increases our perfection and evil is what diminishes it, and perfection is an objective metaphysical concept. #RandolphHarris 2 of 15
Therefore, moral and juridical laws do not depend on God’s will, but on the structure of being. They can be discovered by natural reason independent of Christian revelation. In many cases, a feeling of dislike is engendered, which no after circumstances can obliterate—a feeling near akin to contempt, also; for who can cherish respect for individuals who cannot govern themselves? Human beings are moved to acts by the rational representation of perfection and obligations or duties independent of rewards and punishment for carrying them out. Sin arises when sensibility prevails over reason; but sensibility is ruled by free will. A generous-minded boy will never forget the unkind and taunting words which he has heard an irritable and ill-governed father address to his dearly loved mother; nor will either girls or boys forget similar breaches of politeness and good-breeding exhibited by their mother towards the father. Truly, we have need of patience! and in the family circle it is one of the brightest virtues. #RandolphHarris 3 of 15
Ethics are based on an empirical psychology that describes the virtues, passions, and practical customs. Theology and ethics entirely are the foundation of natural reason. By reason, we mean scientific thought rather than common sense. The human intellect must be extended beyond the limits traditionally set for it by the German philosophical schools. “Cannot you both have patience?” murmured a little gentle boy once in our hearing, while his parent were indulging in unseemly bickerings, and there was a whole volume of reproof in that one sentence. William Wirt Winchester, a pattern of good-breeding, tells his son that—“The most familiar and intimate habitudes, connections and friendships, require a degree of good-breeding both to preserve and cement them. The best of us have our bad sides; and it is an imprudent as it is ill-bred to exhibit them. I shall not use ceremony with you, it would be misplaced between us; but I shall certainly observe that degree of good-breeding which, I am sure, is absolutely necessary to make us like one another’s company long.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 15
This is the best advice which can be given to husbands and wives, parents and children, and also to relatives and friends. The foundation of religion consists in moral distinctions among the acts of humans, whether they be good, evil, or indifferent, is an intelligent and free agent. Truth is the expression of things as they are, and vice constitutes a rejection of the truth; to deny things as they are is virtually to deny the existence of God. To follow nature is to follow God. This does not mean, however, that one should follow exclusively the inclinations of one’s individual nature. Since no one is purely rational, each individual must consider the nature of others. The great law of religion is for each person not to contradict truth, but to treat everything as it really is. Happiness is based on the pleasure—pain thesis, pain being a real evil, pleasure a real good. Ultimate happiness is the excess of pleasure over pain, and it is the duty of everyone to make oneself as happy as possible consonant with the happiness of others. #RandolphHarris 5 of 15
The habit of bantering, which is so often adopted by married people before children and assistances, is very undesirable, and frequently leads to serious consequences. How does a man know what is true? The husband will give a ridiculous appellation to the wife, which will raise a laugh at her expense; but in the end, it may lower him far more than the mother in the opinion of the children; and in their turn, they will often feel more respect and affection for the mother than for the father. Nothing can be more injurious, or inconsistent with true politeness and good-breeding, than the constant habit of fault-finding concerning little petty trifles, when indulged in by either husband or wife, in the presence of others or by themselves. There are men who never come to the table but they will find fault with the dishes served upon it. If roast beef is the chief dish, they will say:–“Chicken, Chicken! why did you not have beef or moose meat stew? I am tired of this everlasting chicken!” #RandolphHarris 6 of 15
Or vice versa. No matter what the wife may have provided, such a man will always evince a desire for something else. We reason about particulars, or from them; but not by them. Action according to right reason and action according to truth are identical. This is the general law laid down by the author of nature, and this constitutes the religion of nature. The senses are inferior to reason but are to be followed, nevertheless, when not contrary to reason. In instances where certainty concerning the truth is unobtainable, one may act on probability but always under the guide of reason. The necessity of education by the cultivation of reason is thus demonstrated. Man’s desires, his passions, must be submitted to reason. Since man is individual and the principles of reason are universal, the laws of nature forbid the individual to transgress the rights of others. All injustice is wrong and evil, and compassion is one of the highest virtues. Man is to be regarded not only as an individual, but also as a social creature, and the purpose of society is common welfare of all the people. #RandolphHarris 7 of 15
Human-made laws are not infallible, but may require alteration from time to time, and no human-made law should contradict a law of nature. Since mutual defense is one of the great ends of society, war against aggression is legitimate and necessary. Now, were the gentleman accused of fault-finding, he would indignantly deny it; and he may be a kind and good and true husband and father, and only have inadvertently fallen into this habit of not being satisfied with what has been provided. A good way to cure him, would be for the wife to hand him a pencil and a card every morning as he leaves the house, and request him to put down what he desires for dinner; so that the daily fault-finding can be, in measure, averted. This would convince him of his practice of picking flaws in the menage; and go far towards effecting a reformation in it. Half of us find fault from habit; but some of us, we fear, do so from an inborn ugliness of disposition. #RandolphHarris 8 of 15
Of the latter class we have little hopes; but the former can cure themselves—and it pleases them. Bad habits are very easily acquired; therefore, young persons must take special pains to avoid them. We are always disgusted with sons and daughters who do not show a marked respect to their parents, elders, and superiors; and who do not scruple to contradict them, and set up their own opinions, with the utmost pertinacity, against those of their parents. And why should our young men put aside the honored name of “Father,” and substitute for it the objectionable words “Governor” or “Old Man?” Some persons may reply, “What signifies a name?” A great deal; and Father is a holy name, given to us directly from God, the Father of all humankind; and he who attains to that rank and stands as a father of the family, occupies a high position, and his children should recognize his sacred office and give him the name assigned to it. #RandolphHarris 9 of 15
No one thinks of calling his mother “Governess” or “Mrs. Governor.” If a daughter should attempt it, it would be esteemed highly irreverent and ridiculous; yet it is not in reality any more absurd a practice. Young persons often fall into erroneous habits from want of thought; therefore, it is needful to remind out young friends of certain little discrepancies regarding good-breeding, which they should carefully endeavor to avoid. Good manners are taught in the house, by line upon line and precept upon precept. Undoubtedly, a well-bred father and mother will not have so much difficulty in rearing polite and well-mannered children as those who are the reverse—not because they ae born so, perhaps; but because, as we have said before, good manners are learned by imitation more readily than by precept and rule. It follows from God’s perfect justice that humans are immortal and that the iniquities and evils of this World will be corrected; a particular providence and a future state necessarily exist. #RandolphHarris 10 of 15
And the God of nature, who is the God of reason and the God of justice, is to be worshipped. Let brothers and sisters be taught to respect each other’s rights; be as thoughtful to please, and as watchful to avoid anything which will perplex and annoy each other, as they would be to a young guest whom they desired to honor; and they will then learn a due observance of home etiquette and politeness. Rude and rough boys are often allowed to treat their sisters in a very disagreeable, overbearing manner, and annoy them on every occasion, by breaking up their baby houses, cutting their hair off their dolls, and destroying their playthings, and speaking very slightingly of “the girls.” We consider such behavior as exceedingly reprehensible, and entirely at variance with all rules of good-breeding. Such boys will also make unkind and rude husbands; for by being permitted to exhibit and indulge such traits of character in their youth, they will be likely to indulge in them in their manhood, and pursue the same pleasing pastimes in their own families. #RandolphHarris 11 of 15
A sister is the best judge of a brother’s abilities in playing the role of a good husband. And a brother can estimate very fairly the position which a sister would hold in a husband’ home. We delight in the freedom of childhood; in its merry—quips and cranks and wanton wiles; and in the cheerfulness of youth, and its many delights and pleasures; but still more charming is the gentlemanly demeanor of brothers toward their sisters. Boastful persons, and such as disregard truth in their statements, are usually to be avoided; these sins, in the lowest point of view, are decidedly against the etiquette of god society. No woman can either resect or love a man who is in the habit of deceiving her; nor can a man esteem or love a woman whose statements do not possess the virtue of truth. Life and mind are products that develop, here and there, in the course of the manifold developments in the natural World. Mind, life, consciousness, and soul are activities of certain types of bodies; they never appear apart from those bodies, although mind, once is has emerged in Nature, may come to guide and thus to master some of the occurrences in the World about it. #RandolphHarris 12 of 15
Men will sometimes conceal from women the realities of their lives on the plea that they are too narrow minded, weak, or simple to understand them; while women, in their turn, conceal the details of their daily life on the score that they do not wish to e interfered with; or for fear lest their hidden pleasures be denied them. Hence arises the theory that wives must be kept in the dark concerning their husbands’ pursuits; and that men must be managed so that they shall not forbid this, that or the other desired pleasure. And this is styled diplomacy in the house circle. Of course, this state of affairs is very uncertain and slippery; and an expose will be threatened daily. Consciousness, far from being the source of the objective World, presupposes it existence. In all this realistic position, both husband and wife feel that they are deceived, yet cannot tell exactly how, when or where; cannot place their hand on the very spot—cannot prove what they suspect. Nature indicates a norm of perfection which the historical processes in this World seldom bring to fulfillment. It is contrasted with an allegedly superior spirit or supernature. #RandolphHarris 13 of 15
Men always know that they are managed even when they cannot see the way; women understand they are deceived;–are sure that excuses given for uncalled-for absences are not the right one—even though they cannot discover the truth. Such things go in the air, and consciousness is evolved even in the senses reveal naught. Such houses, however, are but the stepping-stones to a deeper abyss of woe. A love of truth, a high sense of honor, delicacy of manner, and strict adherence to correct principles, are the chief essentials of home etiquette. Be careful to avoid the habit of sauntering into a room without attending to anything that passes there;–thinking, it may be, of a trifling affair that need not occupy the attention, or very likely not thinking at all. In this way some persons trespass upon the rules of politeness which enjoin that each one should do one’s part in society. Let Nature be, as I love to put it, Heaven and Earth, the Sea, and all that is in them is, and I do not see how one can here complain of ambiguity. Make it a rule wherever you are, to take an interest in all that passes, observe the characteristics of the persons you meet, and listen to and take part in the subjects of their conversations. #RandolphHarris 14 of 15
Nature is what we find around us, whether we are looking on a top closet shelf, or through telescopic instruments at stellar Universes that are distant in both time and space, or at the evidences for ancient cities that long ago disappeared from view. Daily life, technical science, and history alike presuppose. Nature; that is, all these kinds of quests for knowledge presuppose simply that there is much to investigate. As we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, he will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect. God has a bank vault of blessings stored up for you. Something new and good is going to happen and the rest of your life will be the best of your life. God has extraordinary miracles coming your way. Angel of God, my Guardian, to whom his lobe commits me here, ever this day and night, be at my side to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen. #RandolphHarris 15 of 15
Randolph Harris II International Institute 