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

July 21, 2020 12:49 am

The 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

This 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

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

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

In 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

When 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

When 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

The 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

Other 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

Social 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

Two 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

It 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

An 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

The 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

We 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

If 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

“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

“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

Nevertheless, 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

“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

“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

“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

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 23

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

July 17, 2020 1:07 am

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

“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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

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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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

Ignorance of the Law Excuses No Human–Looked Like a Baby-River that was Laying Half Alseep!

July 16, 2020 1:03 am

Surplus of wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in one’s lifetime for the good of the community. Stigma management is a general feature of society, a process occurring wherever there are identity norms. The same features are involved whether a major differentness is at question, of the kind traditionally defined as stigmatic, or a picayune differentness, of which the shamed person is to be ashamed to be ashamed. One can therefore suspect that the role of normal and the role of stigmatized are parts of the same complex, cuts from the same standard cloth. Of course, psychiatrically oriented students have often pointed out the pathological consequences of self-derogation, just as they have argued that prejudice against a stigmatized group can be a form of a sickness. These extremes, however, have not concerned us, for the patterns of response and adaptation considered in this ese seem totally understandable within the framework of normal psychology. One can assume first that persons with different stigmas are in an appreciably similar situation and respond in an appreciably similar way. The neighbourly druggist might talk to the neighbourhood, therefore the neighbourhod drugstores have been avoided by persons seeking al manner of equipment and medication—persons wonderfully diverse who share nothing but a need to control information. #RandolphHarris 1 of 26

And secondly, one can assume that the stigmatized and the normal have the same mental make-up, and that this necessarily is the standard one in our society; one who can play one of these roles, then, has exactly the required equipment for playing out the other, and in fact in regard to one stigma or another is likely to have developed some experience in doing so. Most important of all, the very notion of shameful differences assumes a similarity in regard to crucial beliefs, those regarding identity. Even where an individual has quite abnormal feelings and beliefs, one is likely to have quite normal concerns and employ quite normal strategies in attempting to conceal these abnormalities from others, as the situation of former mental patients suggests: One of the difficulties centers around the meaning of “reasonable employment.” The patients are sometimes unable, but more often unwilling, to explain why a particular job is “unreasonable” or impossible for them. One middle-aged man could not bring himself to explain that he was so terrified of the dark he insisted on sharing his bedroom with his brother, and that he could no possibly work where it meant coming home alone in the dark in Winter. He tries to overcome his fear, but is reduced to a state of physical collapse if left alone at night. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26

In such an instance—and there were many others—the former patient’s fears of ridicule, contempt or harshness make it difficult for him to explain the real reason for refusing or not holding the jobs offered to him. He may then easily be labelled as work-shy or unemployable, which is likely to be financially disastrous. Similarly, when an aging person finds one cannot remember some of the names of one’s immediate friends, one may shy away from going to the meeting places where one is likely to encounter them, thus illustrating an embarrassment and a plan which entail human capacities that have nothing to do with aging. If, then, the stigmatizes person is to be called a deviant, one might better be called a normal deviant, at least to the extent that one’s situation is analyzed within the framework presented here. There is a direct evidence regarding this self-other, normal-stigmatized unity. For example, it seems that persons who suddenly find themselves relieved of a stigma, as in successful plastic surgery, may quickly be seen, by themselves and others, to have altered their personality, an alteration in the direction of acceptable, just as those who have suddenly acquired a defect may relatively quickly experience a change in apparent personality. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26

These perceived changes seem to be a result of the individual’s being placed in a new relationship to the contingencies of acceptance in face-to-face interaction, with consequent employment of new strategies of adaptation. Important additional evidence comes from social experiments, wherein subjects knowingly take on a defect (temporarily, of course), such as partial deafness, and find themselves spontaneously manifesting the reactions and employing the devices that are found among the actually disabled. A further fact should be mentioned. Because a change from stigmatized status to normal status is presumably in a desired direction, it is understandable that the change, when it comes, can be sustained psychologically by the individual. However, it is very difficult to understand how individuals who sustain a sudden transformation of their life from that of a normal to that of a stigmatized person can survive the change psychologically; yet very often they do. That both types of transformation can be sustained—but especially the latter type—suggest that standard capacities and training equip us to handle both possibilities. And once these possibilities are learned, the rest, alas, comes easily. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26

For the individual to learn that one is beyond the pale, or not beyond the pale after having been beyond, is not, then, a complicated thing, merely a new alignment within an old frame of reference, and taking to oneself in detail what one had known about before as residing in other. The painfulness, then, of sudden stigmatization can come not from the individual’s confusion about one’s identity, but from one’s knowing too well what one has become. Taken through time, then, the individual is able to play both parts in the normal-deviant drama. However, one must see that even boxed within a brief social moment, the individual may be able to perform both shows, exhibiting not only a general capacity to sustain both roles, but also the detailed learning and command necessary for currently executing the required role behaviour. His is facilitated, of course, by the fact that the roles of stigmatized and normal are not merely complementary; they also exhibit some striking parallels and similarities. Performers of each role may withdraw from contact with the other as a means of adjustment; each male feel that one is not fully accepted by the other; each may feel that one’s own conduct is being watched too closely—and be correct in this feeling. Each may stay with one’s “own” merely to forgo having to face the problem. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26

Further, the asymmetries or differences between that do exist are often kept within such limits as will further the common and crucial task of maintaining the social situation that is in progress. Aliveness to the role of the other must be sufficient so that when certain adaptive tactics are not employed by one of the normal-stigmatized pair, the other will know how to step in and take on the role. For example, should the stigmatized person fail to present his failing in a matter of fact way, the normal may assume the task. And when normals try tactfully to help the stigmatized person with one’s difficulties, one may grit one’s teeth and accept help gracefully, out of regard for the good will of the effort. Evidence of two-headed role playing is widely available. For example, whether for fun or seriously, people pass, and they do so in both directions, into or out of the stigmatized category. Another source of evidence is psychodrama. This “therapy” assumes that mental patients and others beyond the pale can on stage switch parts and play out the role of normal to someone who is now playing their role to them; and in fact they can perform this theater without much prompting and with reasonable competency. A third source of evidence that the individual can simultaneously sustain command over both the normal and stigmatized role comes to us from behind-scenes joshing. #RandolphHarris 6 of 26

Normals, when among themselves, “take off” on a stigmatized type. More to the point, the stigmatized in similar circumstances takes off on the normal as well as oneself. One jokingly enacts scenes of degradation with one of one’s kind playing the role of the crudest of normals while one affects the complementary role for a moment, only to break into vicarious rebelliousness. As part of this sad pleasure there will be the unserious use of stigma terms of address that are usually tabooed in “mixed” society. It should be restated here that this kind of joking by the stigmatized does not so much demonstrate some kind of chronic distance the individual has from oneself as it demonstrates the more important fac that a stigmatized person is first of all like anyone else, trained first of all in others’ views of persons like oneself, and differing from them first of all in having a special reason to resist stigma derogation when in their presence and the special license to give voice to it when in their absence. A special case of the light use of self-abusing language and style is provided by professional representatives of the group. When representing their group to normals, they may embody in an exemplary way the ideals of the normals, being partly chosen for being able to do so. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26

However, when attending social affairs among their own, they may feel a special obligation to show that they have not forgotten about the ways of the group or their own place, and so on sage may employ native dialect, gestures, and expression in humorous caricature of their identity. (The audience can then dissociate themselves from what they still have a little of, and identify with what they have not yet fully become.) These performances, however, often have a cultivated trim aspect; something has been clearly placed in brackets and raised to an art. In any case, one regularly finds in the same representative the capacity to be more “normal” in manner than are most of the members of one’s category who orient themselves in this direction, while at the same time one can command more of the native idiom than those of one’s category who are oriented in this direction. And where a representative does not have this capacity to manage two faces, one will find oneself under some pressure to develop it. I have often pondered the reasons why, in seminars, the reactions are more strongly negative, and eventually more strongly beneficial. I believe it is due in part to the fact that they were so eager to learn from the “master,” the “guru,” that they were loath to accept my authority. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26

Perhaps another reason is that they were all graduate students, most of them already employed professionally, or like Dr. Tenenbaum, taking the course as a postdoctoral seminar. Such students are, I believe, even more dependent upon authority than are elementary school children. I took up most of the first meeting of the seminar (about twenty-five students) by introducing myself and my purpose and asking if others wished to do the same. After some awkward silences, the students told what brought them to the seminar. I told the group about the many resources I had brought with me—reprints, mimeographed material, books, a list of recommended reading (no requirements), tapes of therapeutic interviews, and films. I asked for volunteers to organize and lend out these materials, to run the tapes, and to find a movie projector. All of this was easily handled, and the session ended. As Dr. Tenenbaum takes up the story: Thereafter followed four hard, frustrating sessions. During this period, the class did not seem to get anywhere. Students spoke at random, saying whatever came into their heads. It all seemed chaotic, aimless, a waste of time. A student would bring up some aspect of Rogers’ philosophy; and the next student, completely disregarding the first, would take the group away in another direction; and a third, completely disregarding the first two, would start something else altogether. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26

At time there were some faint efforts at a cohesive discussion, but for the most part the classroom proceedings seemed to lack continuity and direction. The instructor received every contribution with attention and regard. He did not find any student’s contribution in order or out of order. The class was not prepared for such a totally unstructured approach. They did not know how to proceed. In their perplexity and frustration, they demanded that the teacher play the role assigned to him by custom and tradition; that he set forth for us in authoritative language what was right and wrong, what was good and bad. Had they not come from far distances to learn from the oracle himself? Were they not fortunate? Were they not about to be initiated in the right rituals and practices by the great man himself, the founder of the movement that bears his name? The notebooks were poised for the climactic moment when the oracle would give forth, but mostly they remained untouched. Queerly enough, from the outset, even in their anger, the members of the group felt joined together, and outside the classroom, there was an excitement and a ferment, for even in their frustration, they had communicated as never before in any classroom, and probably never before in quite the way they had. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26

In the Rogers class, they had spoken their minds; the words did not come from a book, nor were they the reflection of the instructor’s thinking, nor that of any other authority. The ideas, emotions, and feelings came from themselves; and this was he releasing and the exciting process. In this atmosphere of freedom, something for which they had not bargained and for which they were not prepared, the students spoke up as students seldom do. During this period, the instructor took many blows; and it seemed to me that many times he appeared to be shaken; and although he was the source of our irritation, we had, strange as it may seem, a great affection for him, for it did not seem right to be angry with a man who was so sympathetic, so sensitive to the feelings and ideas of others. We all felt that what was involved was some slight misunderstanding which once understood and remedied would make everything right again. However, our instructor, gentle enough on the surface, had a “whim of steel.” He did not seem to understand; and if he did, he was obstinate and obdurate; he refused to come around. Thus did this tug-of-war continue. We all looked to Rogers and Rogers looked to us. One student, amid general approbation, observed: “We are Rogers-centered, not student-centered. We have come to learn from Rogers.” #RandolphHarris 11 of 26

After more of this, individual students attempted to take leadership and organize the seminar around certain topics or ways of planning, but these attempts at structure were largely disregarded. Gradually the group became insistent that I lecture. I told them that I was just completing a paper, and would be willing to give that as a lecture, but I also informed them that I was quite willing to have it duplicated so that each could read it. They insisted that I give it as a talk, and I agreed. It was a topic I was much involved in, and I believe I delivered it as well as I was able, taking somewhat more than an hour. Tenenbaum reports the results. After the vivid and acrimonious exchanges to which we had been accustomed, this was certainly a letdown, dull and soporific to the extreme. This experience squelched all further demands for lecturing. By the fifth session, something definite had happened; there was no mistaking that. Students spoke to one another; they by-assed Rogers. Students asked to be heard and wanted to be heard, and what before was a halting, stammering, self-conscious group became an interacting group, a brand-new cohesive unit, carrying on in a unique way; and from them came discussion and thinking such as no other group but this could repeat or duplicate. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26

The instructor also joined in, but his role, more important than any in the group was important, the center, the base of the operation, not the instructor. What caused it? I can only conjecture as to the reason. I believe that what happened was this: For four sessions students refused to believe that the instructor would refuse to play the traditional role. They stilled believed that he would set the tasks; that he would be the center of whatever happened and that he would manipulate the group. It took the class four sessions to realize that they were wrong; that he came to them with nothing outside of himself, outside of his own person; that if they really wanted something to happen, it was they who had to provide the content—an uncomfortable, challenging situation indeed. It was they who had to speak up, with all the risks that that entailed. As part of the process, they shared, they took exception, they agreed, they disagreed. At any rate, their persons, their deepest selves were involved; and from this situation, this special, unique group, this new creation was born. After the fourth session, and progressively thereafter, this group, haphazardly thrown together, became close to one another and their true selves appeared. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26

As they interacted, there were moments of insight and revelation and understanding that were almost awesome in nature; they were what, I believe, Rogers would describe as “moments of therapy,” those pregnant moments when you see a human soul revealed before you, in all its breathless wonder; and then a silence, almost like reverence, would overtake the class. And each member of the class become enveloped with a w warmth and a loveliness that border on the mystic. I for one, and I am quite sure the other also, never had an experience quite like this. It was learning and therapy; and by therapy I do not mean illness, but what might be characterized by a healthy change in the person, an increase in one’s flexibility, one’s openness, one’s willingness to listen. In the process, we all felt elevated, freer, more accepting of ourselves, and others, more open to new ideas, trying hard to understand and accept. This is not a perfect World, and there was evidence of hostility as members differed. Somehow in this setting every blow was softened, as if the sharp edges had been removed; if undeserved, students would go off to something else; and the blow was somehow lost. In my own case, even those students who originally irritated me, with further acquaintance I began to accept and respect. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26

It also occurred to me that I tried to understand what was happening: Once you come close to a person, perceive one’s thoughts, one’s emotions, one’s feelings, one becomes not only understandable but good and desirable. In the course of this process, I saw hard, inflexible, strict and rigid persons, in the brief period of several weeks, change in front of my eyes and become sympathetic, understanding and to a marked degree nonjudgmental. I saw neurotic, compulsive persons ease up and become more accepting of themselves and others. In one instance, a student who particularly impressed me by his change, told me when I mentioned this: “It is true. I feel less rigid, more open to the World. And I like myself better for it. I do not believe I ever learned so much anywhere.” I saw shy persons become less shy and aggressive persons more sensitive and moderate. One might say this appears to be essentially an emotional process. However that, I believe, would be altogether inaccurate in describing it. There was a great deal of intellectual content, but the intellectual content was meaningful and crucial to the person. In fact, one student brought up this very question. “Should we be concerned,” he asked, “only with the emotions? Had the intellect no play?” It was my turn to ask, “Is there any student who has read as much or thought as much for any other course?” #RandolphHarris 15 of 26

The answer was obvious. We had spent hours and hours reading; the room reserved for us had occupants until ten o’clock at night, and then many left only because the university guards wanted to close the building. Students listened to recordings; they saw motion pictures; but best of all, they talked and talked and talked. The starting of a cult to gain a personal following would be abhorrent to the spirit of any truly selfless spiritual guide, but the creation of a school for a spiritual development and philosophical learning one might consider helpful to may earnest but bewildered students life. The true master is to work for the few. There are several agencies who will spread their activities thinly on a wide surface but one’s will penetrate to a deeper level. Theirs will be more showy but one’s more effective. The Rogers method was free and flowing and open and permissive. A student would start an interesting discussion; it would be taken up by a second; but a third student might take us away in another direction, bringing up a personal matter of no interest to the class; and we would all feel frustrated. However, this was like life, flowing on like a river, seemingly futile, with never the same water there, flowing on, with no one knowing what would happen the next moment. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26

However, in this there was an expectancy, an alertness, an aliveness; it seemed to me as near a smear of life as one could get in a classroom. For the authoritarian person, who puts one’s faith in neatly piled up facts, this method I believed can be threatening, for here one gets no reassurance, only an openness, a flowing, no closure. I have nowhere found such a vivid account of the initially chaotic, gradually more fluid way in which the group, as it fearfully takes responsibility for itself, becomes a constructive organism, listening and responding sensitively to its own needs. It is the outwardly confused, inwardly organized, politics of an ever-changing group purpose, as the class moves to meet its intellectual, personal, and emotional needs. Does a person-centered education bring results? We have a definitive answer from research. For ten years Dr. David Aspy has led research studies aimed at finding out whether human, person-centered attitudes in the classroom have any measurable effects and if so what these effects are. He collected 3,700 recorded classroom hours from 550 elementary and high school teachers and used rigorous scientific methods to analyze the results. He and his colleague, Dr. Flora Roebuck, have found that students of more person-centered teachers contrast sharply with students of teachers who are less person-centered. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26

The students showed greater gains in learning conventional subjects. They were more adept at using their higher cognitive processes such as problem solving. They had a more optimistic self-concept than was found in the other groups. They initiated more behaviour in the classroom. They exhibited fewer discipline problems. They had a lower rate of absence from school. They even showed an increase in I.Q. among their students. Teacher can improve their facilitative, person-centered attitudes with as little as fifteen hours of intensive training. Of significance for all of education is he finding that teachers improve in these attitudes only when their trainers exhibit a high level of these facilitative conditions. In ordinary terms this means that such attitudes are “caught,” experientially, from another. They are not simply intellectual learnings. These teachers have a more beneficial self-concept than less person-centered teachers. They are more self-disclosing to their students. They respond more to students’ feelings. They give more praise. They are more responsive to students ideas. They lecture less often. Geographical location of the classes, racial composition, or race of the teachers have not altered these feelings. Whether we are speaking of Black or White or Chicano teachers, Black or White, or Chicano students, classes in the North, the South, the Virgin Islands, England, Canada, or Israel, the findings are essentially the same. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26

To be someone’s disciple is to go farther in relationship than to be one’s student. Some disciples become lay disciples, who limit themselves to intellectual sharing only. The second is to become full disciples, who go all the way with one into the philosophical discipline and life. Dr. Aspy’s findings are confirmed in practical experience in medical education. The Medical School of McMaster University has taken a person-centered facilitative approach to the training of physicians. Though these young men and women have never had the conventional medical courses, they have learned intensively for three years the medical knowledge they need to deal with patients. They show up very well on the tough Canadian licensing exam, and in addition are more creative and humane. As another example, nine hundred of the top-ranking medical educators in the United States of America, concerned about the dehumanizing effects of medical training, have enlisted in the program, Human Dimensions in Medical education. In intensive four and ten-day conferences they have learned to listen, to be more person-centered in their teachings, to be more communicative in their personal relationships. The changes in some of the medical schools are already striking. Whether at the elementary, high school, college or graduate level, person-centered attitudes pay off, changing the politics of education in the process. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26

We must not make ourselves and our “survival” the ultimate point of reference in our World—must not, in effect, treat ourselves as God should be treated, or treat ourselves as God. Thus Paul shockingly said, “Covetousness is idolatry,” reports Colossians 3.5. Is not that somewhat exaggerated? No. Covetousness is self-idolatry, for it makes my desires paramount. It means I would take what I want if I could. To defeat covetousness, we learn to rejoice that others enjoy the benefits they do. Many members of the Church are led into sin by unbelievers—Alma is promised eternal life—those who repent ad are baptized gain forgiveness—Church members in sin who repent and confess to Alma and to the Lord will be forgiven; otherwise, they will not be numbered among the people of the Church. About 120-100 Before Christ. “Now it came to pass that there were many of the rising generation that could not understand the words of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did not believe the tradition of their fathers. They did not believe what had been said concerning the resurrection of the dead, neither did they believe concerning the coming of Christ. And now because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God; and their hearts were hardened. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26

“And they would not be baptized neither would they join the church. And they were a separate people as to their faith, and remained so ever after, even in their carnal, and sinful state; for they would not call upon the Lord their God. And now in the reign of Mosiah they were not half so numerous as the people of God; but because of the dissension among the brethren they became more numerous. For it came to pass that they did deceive many with their flattering words, who were in the church, and did cause them to commit many sins; therefore it came expedient that those who committed sin, that were in the church, should be admonished by the church. And it came to pass that they were brought before the priests, and delivered up unto the priests brought them before Alma, who was the high priest. Now king Mosiah had given Alma the authority over the church. And it came to pass that Alma did not know concerning them; but there were many witnesses against them; yea, the people stood and testified of their iniquity in abundance. Now there had not any such thing happened before in the church; therefore Alma was troubled in his spirit, and he caused that they should be brought before the king. And he said unto the king: Behold, here are many whom we have brought before thee, who are accused of their brethren; yea, and they have been taken in divers iniquities. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26

“And they do not repent of their iniquities; therefore we have brought them before thee, that thou mayest judge them according to their crimes. However, king Mosiah said unto Alma: Behold, I judge them not; therefore I deliver them into thy hands to be judged. And now the spirit of Alma was again troubled; and he went and inquired of the Lord what he should do wrong in the sight of God. And it came to pass that after he had poured out his whole soul to God, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying: Blessed art thou, Alma, and blessed are they who were baptized in the waters of Mormon. Thou art blessed because of thy exceeding faith in the words alone of my servant Abinadi. And blessed art thou, Alma, and blessed are they who were baptized in the waters of Mormon. Thou art blessed because of thy exceeding faith in the words spoken unto them. And blessed art thou because thou hast established a church among this people; and they shall be established, and they shall be my people. Yes, blessed is this people who are willing to bear my name; for in my name shall they be called and they are mine. And because thou hast inquired of me concerning the transgressor, thou art blessed. Thou art my servant; and I covenant with thee that thou shalt have eternal life; and thou shalt serve me and go forth in my name, and shalt gather together my sheep. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26

“And one that will hear my voice shall be my sheep; and one shall ye receive into the church, and one will I also receive. For behold, this is my church; whosoever is baptized shall be baptized unto repentance. And whosoever ye receive shall believe in my name; and one will I freely forgive. For it is I that taketh upon me the sins of the World; for it is I that hath created them; and it is I that granteth unto one that believeth unto the end a place at my right hand. For behold, in my name are they called; and if they know me they shall come forth, and shall have a place eternally at my right hand. And it shall come to pass that when the second trump shall sound then shall they that never knew me come forth and shall stand before me. And then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, that I am their Redeemer; but they would not be redeemed. And then I will confess unto them that I never knew them; and they shall depart into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Therefore I say unto you, that one will not hear my voice, the same shall ye not receive into my church, for one I will not receive at the last day. Therefore I say unto you, Go; and whosoever transgreseth against me, one shall ye judge according to the sins which one has committed; and if one confess one’s sins before thee and me, and repenteth in the sincerity of one’s heart, one shall ye forgive, and I will forgive one also. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26

“Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me. And ye shall also forgive one another your trespasses; for verily I say unto you, one that forgiveth not one’s neighbour’s trespasses when one says that one repents, the same hat brought oneself under condemnation. Now I say unto you, Go; and whosoever will not repent of one’s sins the same shall not be numbered among my people; and this shall be observed from this time forward. And it came to pass when Alma had heard these words one wrote them down that one might have them, and that one might judge the people of that church according to the commandments of God. And it came to pass that Alma went and judged those that had been taken in iniquity, according to the word of the Lord. And whosoever repented of their sins and did confess them, them one did number among the people of the church; and those that would not confess their sins and repent of their iniquity, the same were not numbered among the people of the church, and their names were blotted out. And it came to pass that Alma did regulate all the affairs of the church; and they began again to have peace and to prosper exceedingly in the affairs of the church, walking circumspectly before God, receiving many, and baptizing many. #RandolphHarris 24 of 26

“And now all these things did Alma and his fellow labourers do who were over the church, walking in all diligence, teaching the word of God in all things, suffering all manner of afflictions, being persecuted by all those who did not belong to the church of God. And they did admonish their brethren, and they were also admonished, every one by the word of God, according to one’s sins, or to the sins which one had committed, being commanded of God to pray without ceasing, and to give thanks in all things,” reports Mosiah 26.1-39. Supreme Ruler of the Visible and Invisible Worlds, my heart is drawn out to Thee for Thy amazing grace and condescension. Thou hast kept my conversion fresh before me, that season of my first spiritual comfort when I passed through the Red Sea by a way I did no expect. I rejoiced then for that unthought-of passage, that delivered me from the fear and lively in my mind. My soul melts when I think of Thy says of old with me, when a poor worthless creature without wisdom to direct or strength to help myself was laid under the happy necessity of living upon Thee and finding Thy consolations large. Thou art my divine treasury in whom all fullness dwells, my life, hope, joy, peace, glory, end; may I be daily more and more conformed to Thee, with the meekness and calmness of the Lamb in my soul. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26

My I also feel a sense of the felicity of Heaven, where I long to join angels free from imperfections, where in me the image of my adored Saviour will be completely restored, so that I may be fit for his enjoyments and employments. I am not afraid to look the king of terrors in the face, for I know I shall be drawn, no driven, out of the World. Until then let me continually glow and burn out for Thee, and when the last great change shall come let me awake in Thy likeness, leaving behind me an example that will glorify Thee while my spirit rejoices in Heaven, and my memory is blessed upon Earth, with those who follow me praising Thee for my life. O God, Who visitest the humble, and consolest us by the affection of our brethren; please extend Thy grace to our fellowship, that by means of those in whom Thou dwellest, we may feel that Thou art come to visit us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. O God, Who makest manifest to us in Thy servants the signs of Thine own Presence, send forth upon us the Spirit of love; that by coming of our brethren and fellow-servants, Thy bountiful grace may be increased in ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Bless, O Lord, Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty. May Thy gifts, O Lord, be our refreshment, and Thy grace our consolation; through our Lord. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26

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We have been satisfied, O Lord, with Thy gifts and bounties. Please fill us with Thy mercy, Who art blessed, Who with the Father will always lift the veil and allow us to come into sympathetic and receptive contact with the Kingdom of Heaven and your Divine Will. #CresleighHomes

We Mortal Cross the Ocean of this World Each in One’s Average Cabin of a Life

July 14, 2020 12:01 am

If you get simple beauty and nought else, you get about the best thing God invents. There is a very interesting consequence of repression. If we make people conscious of the real motives behind their actions, they react with resistance. They reject the information. Even information offered them in their own interests and with the best of will is violently rejected. They refuse to see this reality in themselves. They do not respond to this information the way the driver of an automobile would, for example, if someone else tells one his door is not shut tight or his headlights are not working. The driver is grateful for that information. Not so the people whom we make aware of their repressed motives. They respond with resistance. In all the cases of repression we have discussed in the recent past, if we were to explains to the individuals involved what was really going on inside them, if we told them what their inner reality was as opposed to the fiction they have built up about themselves, we would expect that they would put up resistance. How do people showing resistance behave? A typical reaction is anger, rage, aggression. When people hear what they do not want to hear, they become angry. They want, as it were, to wipe out the witness to their crimes. They cannot very well end the life of him or her—that is a bit too risky—so they dispose of one in a symbolic way. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

Aggressors blow up and say, “You are speaking out of jealousy, out of some base motive. You hate me. You get pleasure out of saying nasty things about me.” And so on. Sometimes they become so angry that they can become absolutely dangerous. To what extent they show their anger will depend on the circumstances. If it is not politic to sow anger (as in the case of subordinate and one’s chief), then the individual will probably prefer to say nothing and will wait until one goes home, where one may then vent one’s wife or husband. However, when there are no such constraints, as, for example, when the offended individual is the boss oneself, then one can respond to the criticism of a subordinate (and we are always speaking here of criticism that is correct and hits the mark) in as high-handed a manner as one likes. The boss can rub in the subordinate’s inferiority, or one can simply fire the subordinate. And of course the chief does for fire him or her with any awareness that the subordinate has wounded the boss—how, after all, could such a mere underling ever harm the boss? The boss fires one instead with the rationalization that this little person is a slanderer, a mean-spirited person. Another and simpler method a person can use to put up resistance is to ignore what one does not want to hear. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

People ignore what they do not want to hear because unwelcome information will often be either misunderstood or completely ignored, particularly if it comes in the form of a brief remark that can be pushed aside or if the speaker delivering it does not insist on being heard. It is not always possible to turn a deaf ear, but doing so still remains the simplest and most common form of resistance. Another form is exhaustion or depression. That is the route many marriage partners take with each other. When one partner says something that reveals the true motives behind the other’s actions, the accused partner sinks into gloom and resignation of one’s own: “Just look what you have done. Now I am depressed again because of that remark you made.” Whether the remark is true or not is of no importance. However, whichever partner made the remark will soon learn to refrain from unearthing the other’s unconscious motives again. One knows that one will pay dearly if one does. Another form resistance can take is running away. This often happens in marriages when we feel that our partner has discovered something we would rather keep hidden. We may not even be aware that a game of hide-and-seek is going on, but then one of us feels that the other is seeing more than we are. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

We can put up with the game; we do not want to grant the other’s insight any validity, because we do not want to change. We want to stay the way we are, so the only solution is to go away. The same thing happens frequently in psychoanalysis. If the analyst says something they do not want to hear, patients will often break off treatment. And then the patient is likely to say: “I quit treatment because the analyst is crazy himself. He said things about me that prove he is crazy. How could anyone but a madman have said things like that?” Everyone else will see that the analyst was quite correct (assuming they are not being paid to be fictitious), but the person directly affected, who is terrified of working any changes in one’s self, can respond only with violence (and all the modes of resistance we have discussed here are forms of violence): “Get out of my sight. I do not want to hear that ever again.” When a person is ready for change, the picture is entirely different. When is read to understand oneself, when one is read to know the real truth about oneself so that one can begin to change, then one will tend to react not with anger or by running away. One will be grateful that someone will tell one what one needs to know for the sake of one’s own growth. One will be as grateful as one would be to a physician who diagnoses an illness for one. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

However, most people are not intent on changing. All they want is proof that it is not they but everyone else who should change. Now we come to the concept of transference. Dr. Freud describes transference as the tendency of a patient to perceive the analyst as a personage from one’s early childhood, as one’s father or mother. The patient’s reaction to the analyst is therefore not appropriate to the person who is actually siting across from one or behind one. The patient sees that analyst as someone else (father or mother or possibly a grandparent) and ascribes to the analyst the role that personage played in one’s childhood. Let me cite an example that vividly illustrates this point. An analyst once told me about a female patient who had been coming to see one for three weeks. As she was about to leave his office one day, she looked at him closely and said, “What You do not have a beard?” The analyst had never worn a beard. For three weeks she had thought he had a beard, because her father had worn a beard. The analyst was a cipher for her. Not even visually had se perceived him as a real human being. As far as she was concerned, he was her father, and therefore he had a beard. But the concept of transference has significance far beyond its application in psychoanalytical therapy. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

Transference is probably one of the most common reasons for human error and conflict in sizing up reality. It makes us see the World through the glasses of our own wishes and fears and consequently makes us confuse illusion with reality. We do not see other people as they really are but the way we want then to be or fear that they are. Those illusions about other people take the place of reality. We do not perceive others as they are but as they appear to us to be, and when we react to them, we are reacting not to real human beings in their own right but to products of our imagination. Now let us look at a few examples. Take two people who fall in love. This happens less frequently than it used to, because there are simpler means for achieving the same ends these days, but I do not want to get sidetracked on that issue. So let us assume that two people fall genuinely in love. They are totally overwhelmed by the beauty, the virtues, the noble qualities of the other and are hugely attracted to each other. All this may lead to marriage, but then, six months later, both partners discover that they are not married to the person they fell in love with. This is somebody else altogether. They had both fallen in love with phantoms, with transference objects. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

They saw in the other only what they wanted to see in these phantoms with transference objects qualities they may not really be there. Such as goodness, cleverness, honesty perhaps, or perhaps qualities their mothers or fathers had had. And they had not noticed that they were dealing with an illusion. Then what often happens is that both partners wind up hating each other, because they feel their partner has disappointed them. However, what they have both really done is deceive themselves; they saw only illusion and not reality. However, things do not have to happen that way; they should not happen that way. And in fact, if people would only learn to understand transference, they would not happen that way. The same phenomenon can be observed in the realm of politics. Consider for a moment the kind of wild enthusiasm that millions upon millions of people can develop for political leaders (it has happened not only in Germany but in other countries as well). Sometimes those leaders have been bad; sometimes they have been good. That, however, is not the key question here, important though that question may be. More significant for our discussion is the fact that most people—and perhaps we should say “Thank God” here, although the tendency is also extremely dangerous—have a deep longing for someone who will come alone and save the World, someone who will speak the truth, who will make us safe, who will lead, who means well by us. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

And when someone comes along who knows how to play the part of this well-meaning leader, then people transfer their expectations into one and are convinced that one is their saviour, their redeemer, even when one is in fact a destroyer who will bring catastrophe down on them and their country. Even minor leaders often exploit people’s expectations. Many politicians make deliberate and conscious use of the people’s tendency for transference and achieve great successes by ding so. They manage to impress the voters because they have a good TV presence, because they tell people what they want to hear, because they kiss babies, and because they reinforce the illusion that they mean well. After all, if they adore children, they cannot be all bad. If people understood more about transference, if they took the trouble to notice when their own expectations colour what they see and when they perceive things impartially, if they would finally try to be a bit critical, none of this would happen. Sometimes small, seemingly insignificant actions are more revealing than a person’s major speeches or what one chooses to emphasize about oneself. If all of us could learn to see through the illusions born of transference, our loves, our marriages, and our political lives could be essentially freed of a great curse. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

By seeing through the illusion born of transference, people could also be freed of the confusion between reality and fictitious images. It is not easy to distinguish between those two things. It requires study; it requires daily practice. Our everyday lives offer us an ample field for such practice. Also, along with many disadvantages it has, television offers us one great advantage: It is very revealing of human character, because it allows us to observer faces, gestures, and expressions at close range. We can learn a great deal about a political leader by watching one and hearing one speak on the television. However, we will not learn much about one unless we have developed our powers of observation. From everything I have been saying here we can see how important an understanding of transference could be in improving the quality of our personal and political lives. During the recent protests following a few highly contested uses of force by law enforcement, a bystander said on a TV interview how surprised she was the people were acting like animals. What was unclear was why this should surprise anyone, given that we are taught in public school that this is exactly what we are—evolved animals. That idea may be why people act like wild animals and not civilized human beings. However, “I, God, created man in mine own image, in the image of mine Only Begotten created I him; male and female created I them,” reports Moses 2.27. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

Our bodies are sacred. They were created in the image of God. They are marvelous, the crowing creation of Deity. No camera has ever matched the wonder of the human eye. No pump was ever built that could run so long and carry such heavy duty as the human heart. The ear and the brain constitute a miracle. These, with others of our parts and organs, represent the divine, omnipotent genius of God. God our Father has ears with which to hear our prayers. He has eyes with which to see our actions. He has a mouth with which to speak to us. He has a heart with which to feel compassion and love. He is real. He is living. We are his children made in his image. We look like him and he looks like us. There are many who think their bodies are their own and that they can do with them what they will but Paul makes it plain that they are not their own, for they are bought with a price, and that “If any human defile the temple of God, one shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are,” reports 1 Corinthians 3.17. So, while some aspects of the theory of evolution are true, it is false that we are evolved animals and should never want to compare ourselves to them. Portions of the theory of evolution are in place to remove God from our lives and make us forget that we have divine parents and must behave with respect and dignity. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

You notice people in the royal family are not out in the streets shouting and screaming like they lost their minds, nor manipulating people, nor harassing them, and that is because they have a legacy to maintain, and are children of God, we all do. “We should come to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent,” reports Joh 17.3. To know God is to think what he thinks, to feel what he feels, to have the power he possesses, to comprehend the truths he understands, and to do what he does. Those who know God become like him, and have his kind of life, which is eternal life. Did your mother and father ever remind you to remember that you are a child of God and must act accordingly? Missionaries wear a badge as a constant reminder to dress modestly and comely, to treat people with politeness, and to strive to have Christ’s image in their countenances. By covenant, we too have all taken up ourselves Christ’s name. His name should be engraven inwardly upon our hearts. Likewise, we are expected to act as worthy children of Heavenly Father, who, at least figuratively, has sent us to Earth with admonition, “Remember who are!” Our judgements about right and wrong, virtue ad vice, and appropriate or inappropriate lifestyles depend largely upon what we take a human being to be. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

More personally, an individual’s sense of well-being is in good measure a function of one’s self-concept. Thus, a proper grasp of what we are and how we function is foundational to a well-ordered society and a life well lived. The Bible has a rich, deep anthropology expressed in terms like soul, spirit, heart, and mind. Properly understood, they convey important insights about what we are and how we function. Terms in a language have a wide field of meaning. The term “red” can mean a colour, being embarrassed, or being a communist. Caution should be exercised in grasping just exactly how the term is used in a specific context. For example, “my book is red” is not saying that my book is embarrassed or communist, even though these are correct meanings for “red” in other contexts. “Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity. The modern champions of communism have selected this as the time, and ladies and gentlemen, the chips are down—they are truly down. High treason, and betray of a scared trust, the blasphemy is so great that it awakened the dormant indignation of the American people has lighted the spark which is resulting in a moral uprising and will end only when the whole sorry mess of twisted and warped thinkers are swept from the national ugly so ugly that we may have a new birth of national honesty and decency in government,” Senator Joseph McCarthy. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

The method of a philosophic teacher is not to make the decisions of the pupil for one, but rather to lead one to make them for oneself. The teacher will outline the process of arriving at the correct conclusion, but one will not deprive the pupil of the responsibility of trusting that process and accepting its outcome. The teacher may even make available information which will be helpful to the student in arriving at a decision, but beyond that one cannot go if the student is to arrive at independence and maturity. The relationship which we find in mystical or Old-World circles, which leaves the pupil completely or continuously dependent upon one’s guide and causes one to come constantly running hither and tither for advice as to what one should do next, will only increase the helplessness of the pupil. The philosophic way is to help one develop one’s own ability to dispose of problems and confront situations effectively. The philosophic method is to lead the pupil to the point where one requires no teacher. The mystical method is to lead one to the point where one cannot do without a teacher. The teacher who demands blind obedience from one’s pupil belongs to a vanishing age. The teacher who strives to make one’s pupil’s own mind understand each step of the way one travels belongs to the coming age. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

The first often ends by enslaving one’s followers, whereas the second ends by liberating them. The first is a dictator, the second a companion. The first creates nonentities, the second, humans. A wise teacher will not lecture to one’s students, will not try the superficial way of telling them every detail of truth. However, by discussion questions and encouragement one will help them to elicit it for themselves and thus enable them to make it deeply and lastingly their own. The right way to teach people is to propose truth, not impose it. Self-denial must never be confused with self-rejection; or is it to be thought of as a painful and strenuous act, perhaps repeated from time to time against great internal resistance. It is, rather, an overall, settled condition of life in the kingdom of God, better described as muting of self. In this and in this alone lies the keys to the soul’s restoration. Christian spiritual formation rests on this indispensable foundation of muting of the self an cannot proceed except insofar as that foundation is being firmly laid and sustained. However, what is his self-denial or muting of the self, which goes hand in hand with restoration of the soul and eventually that whole person? At first it sounds like some dreadfully negative thing that aims to annihilate us. And frankly, from the point of view of the ruined soul, self-denial is and will always be every bit as brutal as it seems to most people on first approach. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

The ruined life is not to be enhanced but replaced. We must simply lose our life—that ruined life about which most people complain so much anyway. “Those who have found their life (soul) shall lose it,” Jesus said, “while those who have lost their life (soul) for my sake shall find it,” reports Matthew 10.39. And again, “Whatever aims to save their life shall lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake shall find it. For what have you gained by possessing the entire World if in the process you forfeit your life (soul)—lose yourself. What would you trade for your very soul? We must always remember, in hearing these words of Jesus about the worth of the soul, that the art of the great teacher is to put things in ways you will remember even if you do not yet understand them. In that way you can keep working on them (and they on you) until you do understand them. Jesus is the master teacher of the human race, and he teaches accordingly. And we have, I think, an intuitive sense that he is right about the worth of the soul. A German soldier fighting in the trenches along France’s Marne river in World War I, where one million soldiers died on the Western front in 1914, wrote home: “What is the good of escaping all the bullets and shells if my soul is injured.” Some losses are so great that nothing on Earth can make recompense for them. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

You shall not press down upon the brow of labour this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify humankind upon a cross of gold. “And it came to pass that Amulon did gain favour in the eyes of the king of the Lamanites; therefore, the king of the Lamanites granted unto him and his brethren that they should be appointed teachers over his people, yea, even over the people who were in the land of Shemlon, and in the land of Shemlon, and in the land of Shilom, and in the land of Amulon. For the Lamanites had taken possession of all these lands; therefore, the king of the Lamanites had appointed kings over all these lands. And now the name of the king of the Lamanites was Laman, being called after the name of his father; and therefore he was called king Laman. And he was king over a numerous people. And he appointed teachers of the brethren of Amulon in every land which was possessed by his people; and thus the language of Nephi began to be taught among all the people of the Lamanites. And they were a people friendly one with another; nevertheless they knew not God; neither did the brethren of Amulon teach them anything concerning the Lord their God, neither the law of Moses; nor did they teach them the words of Abinadi. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

“However, they taught them that they should keep their record, and that they might write one to another. And thus the Lamanites began to increase in riches, and began to trade one with another and wax great, and began to be a cunning and a wise people, as to the wisdom of the World, yea, a very cunning people, delighting in all manner of wickedness and plunder, except it were among their own brethren. And not it came to pass that Amulon began to exercise authority over Alma and his brethren, and began to persecute him, and cause that his children should persecute their children. For Amulon knew Alma, that he had been one of the king’s of priests and that it was he that believed the words of Abinadi and was driven out before the king, and therefore he was worth with him; for he was subject to king Laman, yet he exercised authority over them, and put tasks upon them, and put taskmasters over them. And it came to pass that so great were their afflictions that they began to cry mightily to God. And Amulon commanded them that they should stop their cries; and he put guards over them to watch them, that whosever should be found calling upon God should not be put to death. And Alma and his people did not raise their voices to the Lord their God, but did pour out their hearts to him; and he did know the thoughts of their hearts. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

“And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage. And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this I will do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions. And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord. And it came to pass that so great was their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again, saying: Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage. Now it came to pass that Alma and his people in the night-time gathered their flocks together, and also of their grain; yea, even all the night-time were they gathered their flocks together. And in the morning the Lord caused a deep sleep to come upon the Lamanites, yes, and all their task-masters were in a profound sleep. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

“And Alma and his people departed into the wilderness; and when they had traveled all day they pitched their tents in a valley, and they called the valley Alma, because he led their way in the wilderness. Yea, and in the valley of Alma they poured out their thanks to God because he had been merciful unto them, and eased their burdens, and had delivered them out of bondage; for they were in bondage, and none could deliver them except it were the Lord their God. And they gave thanks to God, yes, all their men and all their women and all their children that could speak lifted their voices in the praises of their God. And now the Lord said unto Alma: Haste thee and get thou and this people out of this land, for the Lamanites have awakened and do pursue thee; therefore get thee out of this land, and I will stop the Lamanites in this valley that they come no further in pursuit of this people. And it came to pass that they departed out of the valley, and took their journey into the wilderness. And after they had been in the wilderness twelve days they arrived in the land of Zarahemla; and king Mosiah did also receive them with joy,” Mosiah 24.1-25. A philosophic teacher often prefers to let the student make one’s own discoveries on the basis of clues provided rather than lead one into rigid imprisoning doctrines and covenants. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

O LORD of exceeding goodness, Maker of the Universe, Whose mercy is immeasurable, Whose benignity is incomprehensible, Who didst take away all our iniquities and nail them to Thy Cross, that Thou, the sinless One, mightiest sanctify us; before Thee we venture to fall down in supplication, O forbearing Lord, and looking upon the great deep of Thine ineffable and immeasurable benignity, to cry unto Thee, our Lord, Who are easy to be reconciled, “Save us.” Not in the spirit of the Pharisee, but in the spirit of the Publican, do we offer Thee our worship; nor d we imitate that heartless robber, but like that other good-hearted and grateful one, we cry to Thee with the Prayer, “Remember.” Remember us, O Lord, in mercy and compassions; send down to us the holy guardian Angel to whom Thou hast entrusted our life, that he may rescue us from this terrible raging death, and this unexpected sword; that through this deliverance and release, we may glorify Thee. O LORD, I live here as a fish in a vessel of water, only enough to keep me alive, but in Heaven I shall swim in the ocean. Here I have a little air in me to keep me breathing, but there I shall have sweet and fresh gales; here I have a bream of Sun to lighten my darkness, a warm ray to keep me from freezing; yonder I shall live in light and warmth forever. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

My natural desires are corrupt and misguided, and it is Thy mercy to destroy them; my spiritual longings are Thy planting, and Thou wilt water and increase them; quicken my hunger and thirst after the ream above. Here I can have the World, there I shall have Thee in Christ; here is a life of longing and prayer, there is assurance without suspicion, asking without refusal; here are gross comforts, more burden than benefit, there is joy without sorrow, comfort without suffering, love without inconstancy, rest without weariness. Please give to me the eye affects the heart, and the continual viewing of Thy beauty keeps the soul in continual transports of delight. Please give me to know that Heaven is all peace, where error, pride, rebellion, passion raise no head. Please give to me to know that Heaven is all joy, the end of believing, fasting, praying, mourning, humbling, watching, fearing, repining; and lead me to it soon, please. We render thanks to Thee, O Lord, Who relievest us from the pressure of temporal affliction, that Thou mayest set us forward on the way to everlasting joys; through Jesus Christ our Lord. We intreat Thy mercy with our whole heart, that as Thou defendest us against things adverse to the body, so Thou wilt set us free from the enemies of the soul; and as Thou grantest us to rejoice in outward tranquility, so vouchsafe to us Thine inward peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

MILLS STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH

Rancho Cordova, CA |

Now Selling!

Residence Two at Mills Station is a two story home that has all the conveniences of a single story! At 2,317 square feet, this home features the Owner’s suite on the first floor with two secondary bedrooms on the “pop top” second story. Take advantage of the vaulted ceilings offered in this plan! The open floor plan includes three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, Home Hub, Loft and more! Walk into the great room and feel the height of the ceilings and all the light brought in from the high windows.

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Almighty and everlasting God, Who healest us by chastening, and preservest us by pardoning; grant unto Thy suppliants, that we may both rejoice in the comfort of the tranquility which we desired, and also use the gift of Thy peace for the effectual amendment of our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Soldiers, Consider that from the Summit of these Pyramids, Forty Centuries Look Down Upon You!

July 13, 2020 2:15 am

Humans are indeed controlled by their own environment, but we must remember, for the most part, it is an environment largely of their own making. The evolution of a culture is a gigantic exercise in itself of control. Justice is a complete virtue in the fullest sense, because it is the active exercise of complete virtue; and it is complete because its possessor can exercise it in relation to another person, and not only by oneself. Many communities have created restorative justice programs, yet these programs are often reactionary. They typically focus on trying to heal the offender, victim, and the community only after a criminal act has occurred. While these alternative justice programs are important components in restoring justice within communities, they are hampered by Western-imposed structures and Eurocentric concepts of crime and punishment. In the United States of American today, the American criminal justice system holds approximately 2.3 million people in 1,833 state prisons, 110 federal prisons, 1,772 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,134 local jails, 218 immigration detention facilities, and 80 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories. Every year, 600,000 people enter prison gates, but people go to jail 10.6 million times each year. #RandolphHarris 1 of 26

Jail churn is particularly high because most people in jails have not been convicted. Some have just been arrested and will make bail within hours or days, while many others are too poor to make bail and remain behind bars until their trial. Only a small number (about 160,000 on any given day) have been convicted, and are generally serving misdemeanor under a year; at least 25 percent of people who go to jail will be arrested again within that same year—often those dealing with poverty, mental illness, and substance abuse disorders, whose problems only worsen with incarceration. It is thought that the use of judgement and punishment actually works against the healing process. An already unbalanced person is moved further out of balance. What the threat of incarceration does do is generally keep people from coming forward and taking responsibility for the hurt they are causing. It reinforces the silence, and therefore promotes, rather than breaks, the cycle of violence that exists. In reality, rather than making the community a safer place, the threat of jail places the community at more risk. If people committed crimes by accident and were truly sorry, that argument would be true. However, many people commit crimes because they want to and believer they will not be caught. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26

When a person knows what they are doing is wrong, but keeps doing it, they do not need therapy nor rehabilitation, they need punishment to serve as an inhibitor to breaking the law. Yet, it true that some people do break the law by accident or necessity and rehabilitation may help those individuals, much like it does first time offenders. That is why in some branches of the law judges rely on standards rather than strict rules and precedents, enjoying, in effect, wide discretion, or the law authorizes administrators to decide cases on their merits in the light of very general cans of policy, subject only to procedural safeguards of impartiality. The dominant American justice paradigm is not an extension of the slavery catch and release program and some officers are extremely lenient with suspects, but in many cases it is perceived as a further imbalance and disrespect, for justice does not always seek to restore or heal the offender, the immediate family, friends who are also victims, or the entire community that is forced out of balance by the transgression. Today, it is mostly without social structures, practices, and teachings that could help prevent injustice. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26

Although there is much cultural diversity among North American Indian nations, traditional practices emphasize civil rather than criminal sanctions. The goal of indigenous justice is to promote peace, heal the network of relationships, and eradicate political, spiritual, and emotional injustices. And that model may be a blue print that people consider using, but then it may lead to imprisoning people for not paying debts, or it would allow the wealthy to commit crimes without ever being held accountable. The Great Circle of Justice consists of interrelated socialization structures and practices that provide a multidimensional system of checks and balances that work in unison to retain diversity and harmony within communities and society. The preventative mechanisms are found within the traditional teachings—for examples, in ceremonies, songs, dance, television programs, movies, news, stories, novels, history, kinship relations, education and religion. Society should plant in the minds of people, in order to keep harmony, the concepts of compassion, cooperation, love, unity, equity, coexistence, power, respect, generosity, reciprocity, friendliness, unselfishness, peacefulness, and all other beneficial values which create an intense, diffuse, and enduring solidarity. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26

Peace should be maintained to heal the body and mind, and to establish diversity and harmony, which will prevent injustices to the natural World and protect future generations. The keepers of knowledge can help identify and provide invaluable insights into the traditional teachings found within ceremony, prayer, and foundational narratives and stories. Narratives and stories are not extrinsic niceties, but are basic life forces needed to establish and to preserve communities and develop a common culture of shared understandings, and deeper, more vital ethics. Narratives are relevant because they serve as more than just entertainment. Narratives preserve cultural teachings and history; they transmit knowledge of the community’s norms and values. Teachings can show people how they are to live with each other and the natural World and so them what happens to people who violate the law. The duties and responsibilities of each person in the society are given and reaffirmed every time the people come together for ceremonies and social activities. This is a holistic way to strengthen the prevention of injustice, and restore balance when a transgression occurs. Church helps people, it is a system of checks and balances that depends not only on people not wanting to commit a transgression, but also know that is they commit a violent act that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,” report Romans 6.23. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26

Many American Indian nations’ wedding preparation involve young couples being instructed in the importance of marriage to the nation as well as in acceptable behaviour, which includes not abusing each other. Traditional Haudenosaunee marriages, which still occur today, are more than the combining of two people, for they bring together clans and extended family. All present the joining of the couple are reminded of these acceptable norms and their duty in making sure that they are not broken. Such indigenous justice is multidimensional, and a balancing process that contains and is dependent on numerous practices and social structures that function as preventative and restorative mechanisms in the maintenance of justice. For centuries, North American indigenous socialization practices worked to maintain balance within societies. Colonization and imposed Western structures, values, and beliefs, however, have displaced major indigenous political and spiritual structures. The displacement of these traditional structures, practices, values, and beliefs as created disharmony within many communities. Mandatory boarding schools, laws to prevent spiritual practices, and imposed political structures have been implemented to strip North American Indians of their cultural identity, languages, ceremonies, and other cultural values and practices needed to maintain healthy societies. #RandolphHarris 6 of 26

With displacement of traditional indigenous practices has come fractionalization and an increase in the criminal activity, arrest, and incarceration of American Indians. The Bureau of Justice and Statistics has concluded that additional external controls in the form of stricter laws, additional law enforcement officers, and funding are needed to decrease crime. Stricter laws and forms of enforcement, however, are not the answer to the prevention of crimes, and neither will they heal and protect the character of diverse communities, which is why the United States of America’s Supreme Court ruled that 3 million acres of eastern Oklahoma—including most of Tulsa—remains American Indian reservation land. This should help restore the Great Circle of Justice, by identifying, understanding and, where possible, recreating cultural social practices and structures to maintain social balance, diversity, and harmony with their societies. Imposed forms of government and laws via colonization, the loss of lands, and policies to assimilate the North American Indian have caused many of the traditional indigenous justice mechanism to become lost or damaged. Today there are numerous tribal courts that only replicate the Western-imposed beliefs and practices of an adversarial system of justice, instead of using traditional indigenous justice methods and values. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26

Such tribal courts and forms of governance may be a form of internalized colonialism. These types of court continue assimilation and cause disharmony within the community as they do not preserve cultural traditions, and neither do they heal the community. This replication of imposed laws, practices, and ideas had seeped into many aspects of North American Indian governments. Many tribal codes, for example, are now merely restatements of federal and state law and devoid of indigenous knowledge, values, and norms. The Great Circle of Justice needs to be restored within American Indian restoration practices. Peacemaking and tribal courts are often transformed gradually into bureaucratic reactive models unless care is paid to the traditional codes. An important part of traditional codes is their grounding in tradition and their connection with nature. If we follow the traditional codes, then the indigenous “justice-as-healing” paradigm will replace the case-processing, primarily reactive dominant justice paradigm and its adversarial foundation. For the system to work properly, for there to be a needs-meeting justice, communities must assert their power by redefining and redesigning imposed structures. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26

The traditional teachings, socialization practices, and structures that once worked to prevent social injustices can be replanted. As realists, we recognize that there are practices that probably cannot be replicated, such as living in a long house with one’s entire matrilineal, extended family. We suggest, however, that some of the traditional indigenous teachings contain the seeds of how people can once again live in Skennen (peace) or Hozho (balance and Harmony). Prior to colonization, “law” was relatively direct and accessible to indigenous North Americans since it was based on concrete notions of the individual and collective good rather than on a modern abstraction imposed by the nation-state as the ideal (largely for political purposes) to which people must conform (or be punished) in order ostensibly to have security and private property. For most North American Indians, law was accessible: the oral tradition allowed it to be carried around as part of them, rather than confined to legal institutions and inaccessible experts who largely control the language as well as the cost of using the law. Social diversity, the recognition that humans are part of nature (not separate from it), and harmony are essential to justice are what is really meant by the right to equal consideration—to be treated alike unless relevant differences have been proved. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26

Communal restorative justice is essential. It can reduce social and economic injustice and it can continue to limit the impact of imprisonment, especially imprisonment that is directly related to unemployment, debt, suicide, and innumerable diseases. We need to achieve a rational understanding of human emotions, particularly the irrational ones. It is important to understand what the cases or breeding grounds are for hate, love, submissiveness, destructiveness, envy, jealousy—for all the emotions that the greater writers (take Shakespeare or Balzac or Dostoevski, for example) have treated so incisively in their plays and novels. We want to make all those emotions the subject of scientific inquiry. What are the human emotions and how can we understand them? All the psychiatrists want to know is how people can be cured of symptoms that either cause them pain or interfere with their adjustment to society and with their own success in life. However, there is also a moral purpose. We want human beings to be able to understand themselves, to discover their unconscious, so that they can achieve independence. The goal is a rule of reason, the destruction of illusion. We want to see people become free and mature. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26

Our moral goals are those of the Enlightenment, or rationalism. However, these goals go beyond what other psychologists set as their own goals or understand the goals of their field to be. The only goal those psychologists set themselves was to help people function better. The human model we envision as our goal coincides in many respects with that projected by the great philosophers of the Enlightenment. An important concept is unconscious or of repression. This concept is usually forgotten today. When people think of psychoanalysis, the first thing that come to their minds are the ego, the superego, and the id; the Oedipus complex; and the theory of libido. So let us begin with repression. We often act on motives of which we are completely unconscious. A little example will show what I mean. Not so long ago I received a visit from a colleague who I know does not particularly like me. Indeed, I was rather amazed that he wanted to come see me at all. He rand the doorbell; I opened the door; he held out his hand cheerfully: “Goodbye.” Translation: His unconscious mind was already wishing he could be gone. He had not been looking forward to this visit, and he revealed that by saying “goodbye” instead of “hello.” What could either of us do? Nothing at all. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26

Being a psychoanalyst himself, he realized that he had given himself away. He could not apologize by saying: “That is not what I meant to say.” That would have been hopelessly naïve, for we both knew that what a psychoanalyst does with a slip of the tongue is see what it really reveals, not try to make it mean something else after the fact. The situation could be nothing but embarrassing, and we both said nothing. That is just one example of the kind of thing that happens hundreds of times. Or take another example: a sadistic father who beats his son. I think it occurs less often today than it did one hundred years ago, but let us take this example: a sadistic father, a man who takes pleasure in causing others pain or in exercising strict control over them. If you should ask hum why he does what he does (and ordinarily you will not have to bother asking, because such people are usually quite willing to volunteer the information), he will say, “I have to do it so that my son will become (or remain) a decent person. I do it out of love for him.” Do you believe that? Maybe, and then maybe not. However, just look at his face. Notice his expression when he gives his son a whipping. You will see strong emotion in his eyes. What you will see in the face of a man who is full of hate and at the same time fully of joy at being able to beat another human being. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26

The same quality of hate and joy at hurting others turns un in a police officer (not, of course, all of them), in nurses, in prison guards, and in any number of private relationships. Such people will hide is quality more or less, depending on how much self-interest demands that they hide it. However, let us go back to our example of the sadistic father. If we see him in action, we know that his motive is not what he claims it is. It is not his son’s well being that interests him. That is a “rationalization.” His real motive is his sadistic impulse, but he is totally unaware of that. Or take an example of much greater historical importance: Adolph Hitler. In his conscious mind Hitler always assumed he wanted only what was best for Germany: Germany’s greatness, Germany’s vitality, Germany’s position of power in the World, and who know what all. Although he issued the cruelest of orders, he never clearly felt—as far as we can tell—that he acted out of cruelty. He always felt he was acting out of a desire to help Germany. He was acting to make manifest the laws of history; he was acting in the name of fate, in the name of race, in the name of Providence. He was not aware that he had become a man who enjoyed destruction. He could not bear the sight of dead soldiers or destroyed buildings. That is why Hitler never visited the front during World War II. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26

The explanation is not personal cowardice on Hitler’s part but rather a reluctance to see the concrete consequences of one’s own lust to destroy. We observe a similar phenomenon in people who wash compulsively. Their conscience desire is to be clean all the time. However, when we analyze such individuals, we find that they know, in their unconscious minds, that they have blood or filth on their hands. They want to free themselves from what they are consciously carrying about with them: a crime, perhaps only a potential one, a criminal intent they have to be constantly washing away. Therefore, the manifestation of COVID-19, and the need to keep social distancing and washing of the hands could be symbolic that Jesus did not die in vain and the fact that human beings are paying the consequences for continuing in sin and inequity, after all “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Chris Jesus or Lord,” reports Romans 6.23. Hitler himself had an obsessive-compulsive disorder. He was not a compulsive washer, but many observers noticed that he was fastidious beyond the limits of normal cleanliness. There is a parallel between Hitler and the sadistic father. Hitler did not want to own up to the reality of his destructive impulses, but perhaps that is because there was more to his motive than just simple destructiveness. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26

Nonetheless, Hitler repressed his destructive impulses and admitted only his good intentions. Hitler was getting revenge because he felt the Jewish people had taken over Germany and were ruining it economically and also because a Jewish doctor had killed his mother. So he believed that he was a Messiah and was protecting the German race. Much like sadistic fathers have a reason from projecting their hatred on to their sons. It usually has to do with something they suffered in childhood that they want to inflict on their own child as an act or revenge or because they truly believe that their sadistic behaviour will save their son from suffering something they had to endure. In general, however, sadists have a pure lust for destruction. It is usually always present, but remains repressed and rationalized until, one day, there is no keeping I secret any longer. Examples like this—dramatic ones and undramatic ones—can be found everywhere every day. People remain unaware of their real motives because, for any number of reasons, they cannot bear to know things about themselves that either go against their own consciences or against public opinion. If they became aware of their real motives, they would find themselves in a very uncomfortable situation. And so they prefer to remain unconscious of those things and not to come into conflict with what they regard as their “better selves” or what most “respectable people” think. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26

During a family time one evening, my two-year-old daughter, Annie, complained that if she only could see God, say, sitting in a chair, then prayer would be much easier. I pointed out that not only has she never seen God, neither had she ever seen me. She could see my body, but she could not see my I, myself, my ego, nor could she see my thoughts, feelings, and so forth. Persons, I told her, are invisible objects and, since God is too big to have a body, He is not perceivable in the same way a chair or a person’s body is. That evening, I expressed to Annie the Christian understanding of human persons. Historically and biblically, Christianity has held to a dualistic notion of human being. A human being is a unity of two distinct realities—body and soul. More specifically, I am my soul and I have a body. The soul, while not by nature immortal, is nevertheless capable of entering an intermediate disembodied state upon death and, eventually, being reunited with a resurrected body. The forma; name for this position is “substance dualism.” The soul (which is the same thing as the self or the I) is that immaterial, invisible thing that makes me a conscious, living human being. The soul is what I am aware of when I engage in various acts of introspection in which I am aware of what is going on “inside” me. I go where my soul goes. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26

If God took my soul and put it into your body and placed your soul into my body, we would have different bodies. If my soul leaves my body, I leave my body because I am my soul. All reasoning may be divided into two kinds, namely demonstrative reasoning, or that concerning relations of ideas, and moral reasoning, or that concerning matter of fact and existence. That there are no demonstrative arguments in the case, seems evident; since it implies no contradiction, that the course of nature may change, and that an object, seemingly like those which we have experienced, may be attended with different or contrary efforts. May I not clearly and distinctively conceive, that a body falling from the clouds, and which, in all other respects, resembles snow, has yet the taste of salt or feeling of fire? Is there any more intelligible proposition than to affirm, that all the trees will flourish in December and January, and decay in May and Just? Now whatever is intelligible, and can be distinctly conceived, implies no contradiction, and can never be proved false by any demonstrative argument or abstract reasoning a priori. If we be, therefore, engaged by arguments to put trust in past experience, and make it the standard of our future judgment, these arguments must be probable only, or such as regard matter of fact and real existence, according to the division above mentioned. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26

However, that there is no argument of this kind, must appear, if our explication of that species of reasoning be admitted as solid and satisfactory. We have said, that all arguments concerning existence are founded on the relation of cause and effect; that our knowledge of that relation is derived entirely from experience; and that all our experimental conclusions proceed upon the supposition, that the future will be conformable to past. To endeavour, therefore, the proof of this past supposition by probably arguments, or arguments regarding existence, must be evidently going in a circle, and taking that for granted, which is the very point in question. In divine knowledge there is no discursion; the proof of what is as follows. In our knowledge there is a twofold discursion: one is according to succession only, as when we have actually understood anything, we turn ourselves to understand something else; while the other mode of discursion is according to causality, as when through principles we arrive at the knowledge of conclusions. The first kind of discursion cannot belong to God. For many things, which we understand in succession if each is considered in itself, we understand simultaneously if we see them in some one thing; if, for instance, we understand the parts in the whole, or see different things in a mirror. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26

Now, God sees all things in one (thing) which is Himself. Therefore God sees all things together, and not successively. Likewise the second mode of discursion cannot be applied to God. First, because this second mode of discursion presupposed the first mode; for whosoever proceeds from principles to conclusions does not consider both at once; secondly, because to discourse thus is to proceed from the known to the unknown. Hence it is manifest that when the first is known, the second is still unknown; and thus the second is known not in the first, but from the first. Now the term discursive reasoning is attained when the second is seen in the first, by resolving the effects into their causes; and then the discursion ceases. Hence as God sees His effects in Himself as their cause, His knowledge is not discursive. Although there is only one act of understanding in itself, nevertheless many things may be understood in one (medium), as shown above. God does not know by their causes, known as it were previously, effects unknow; be He knows the effects in the cause; and hence His knowledge is not discursive, as was shown above. God sees the effect created causes in the causes themselves, much better than we can; but still not in such a manner that the knowledge of the effects is caused by him by the Knowledge of the created causes, as is the case with us; hence His knowledge is not discursive. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26

“And now Alma, having been warned of the Lord that the armies of king Noah would come upon them, and having made it known to his people, therefore they gathered together their flocks, and took of their grain, and departed into the wilderness before the armies of king Noah could not overtake them to destroy them. And they fled eight days’ journey into the wilderness. And they came to a land, yea, even a very beautiful and pleasant land, a land of pure water and they pitched their tents, and began to till the ground, and began to build buildings; yea, they were industrious, and did labour exceedingly. And the people were desirous that Alma should be their king, for he was beloved by his people. However, he said unto them: Behold, it is not expedient that we should have a king; for thus saith the Lord: Ye shall not esteem one flesh above another, or one humans shall not think oneself above another; therefore I say unto you it is not experience that yet should have a king. Nevertheless, if it were possible that ye could always have just humans to be your king it would be well for you to have a king. However, remember the iniquity of king Noah and his priests; and I myself was caught in a snare, and did many things which were abominable in the sight of the Lord, which caused me sore repentance. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26

“Nevertheless, after much tribulation, the Lord did hear my cries, and did answer my prayers, and has made me an instrument in his has in bringing so many of you to a knowledge of his truth. Nevertheless, in this I do not glory of myself. And now I say unto you ye have been oppressed by king Noah, and have been in bondage to him and his priests, and have been brought into iniquity by them; therefore ye were bound with the bands of iniquity. And now as ye have been delivered by the power of God out of these bonds; yea, even out of the hands of king Noah and his people, and also from the bonds of iniquity, even so I desire that ye should stand fast in this liberty wherewith ye have been made free, and that ye trust no human to be a king over you. And also trust no one to be your teacher nor your minister, expect one be a human of God, walking in God’s ways and keeping God’s commandments. Thus did Alma teach his people, that every human should love one’s neighbour as oneself, that there should be no contention among them. And now, Alma was their high priest, he being the founder of their church. And it came to pass that none received authority to preach or to teach expect it were by one from God. Therefore God consecrated all their priests and all their teachers; and none were consecrated except they were just humans. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26

Therefore they did watch over their people, and did nourish them with things pertaining to righteousness. And it came to pass that they began to prosper exceedingly in the land; and they called the land Helam. And it came to pass that they did multiply and prosper exceedingly in the land of Helman; and they built a city of Helam. Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith. Nevertheless—whosever puteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day. Yea, and thus is was with this people. For behold, I will show unto you that they were brought into bondage, and none could deliver them but the Lord their God, yea, even that God of Abraham and Isaac and of Jacob. And it came to pass that he did deliver them, and he did show forth his mighty power unto them, and great were their rejoicings. For behold, it came to pass that while they were in the land of Helam, yes, in the city of Helam, while tilling the land round about, behold an army of the Lamanites was in the borders of the land. Now it came to pass that the brethren of Alma fled from their fields, and gathered themselves together in the city of Helam; and they were much frightened because of the appearance of the Lamanites. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26

“However, Alma went forth and stood among them, and exhorted them that they should not be frightened but that they should remember the Lord their God and he would deliver them. Therefore they hushed their fears, and began to cry unto the Lord that he would soften the hearts of the Lamanites, that they would spare them, and their wives, and their children. And it came to pass that the Lord did soften the hearts of the Lamanites. And Alma and his brethren went forth and delivered themselves up into their hands; and the Lamanites took possession of the land of Helam. Now the armies of the Lamanites, which had followed after the people of king Limhi, had been lost in the wilderness for many days. And behold, they had found those priests of king Noah, in a place which they called Amulon; and the had begun to possess the land of Amulon and had begun to till the ground. Now the name of the leader or those priests was Amulon. And it came to pass that Amulon did plead with the Lamanites; and he also sent forth their wives, who were there daughters of the Lamanites to plead with their brethren, that they should not destroy their husbands. And the Lamanites had compassion on Amulon and his brethren and did not destroy them, because of their wives. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26

“And Amulon and his brethren did join the Lamanites, and they were traveling in the wilderness in search of the land of Nephi when they discovered the land of Helam, which was possessed by Alma and his brethren. And it came to pass that the Lamanites promised unto Alma and his brethren, that if they show them the way which led to the land of Nephi that they would grant unto them their lives and their liberty. However, after Alma had shown them the way that led to the land of Nephi the Lamanites would not keep their promise; but they set guards round about the land of Helam, over Alma and his brethren. And the remainder of them wen to the land of Nephi; and a part of them returned to the land of Helman, and also brought with them wives and the children of the guards who had been left in the land. And the king of the Lamanites had granted unto Amulon that he should be a kind and a ruler over his people, who were in the land of Helman; nevertheless he should have no power to do anything contrary to the will of the king of the Lamanites,” reports Mosiah 23.1-39. Please spare and forgive us, O benignant Master; please stay the scourge which is deservedly coming down upon us. Please let the multitude of Thy compassions overcome the hateful mass of our sins; please let the great deep of Thine infinite goodness cover the bitter sea of our wickedness. #RandolphHarris 24 of 26

We have eminent examples of Thy benignity in robbers, and harlots, and publicans, and the prodigal son; like them we also make our confession unto Thee, and fall down before Thee; please receive us, O Master, and although we fall short of their conversion and their sincere repentance, let Thine infinite goodness make up for the defect, yea, make up for everything, for in everything we utterly fall short. Every scourage and plague, and every form of destruction, which is bearing down upon us, is slight and small in comparison of our innumerable transgressions. Wherefore on account of the multitude of our sins we have no ground of confidence, O Lord the righteous Judge, whereon to supplicate of Thy goodness a relief from this terrible menace,–but the exceeding greatness of Thy tenderness and the abyss of Thy compassions, O Master full of pity, please compel us boldly to entreat what is beyond our desverings. For this cause, O God of exceeding goodness, O Lord of mercy, we beseech Thee, of Thy gentleness, to stay this sharp sword of untimely death. Please accept, O benignant Lord, the common contrition and heart-felt sorrow of us all, as Thou didst accept the tears of Hezekiah in the affliction of his heart, and didst rescue him from death. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26

Please remember, O benignant One, Thy Cross and Death voluntary Passion, which Thou didst endure for us the condemned. From Thee alone do we beg assistance and relief from these horrors; for with Thee alone are possible things which are impossible with humans. Blessed art Thou forever. Lord Jesus, true God, everlasting Life, redeemer of sinners, I give my body, soul, intellect, will affection to Thee. I call the day, Sun, Earth, trees, stones, wind, rain, frost, snow, my home, bed, table, food, books, drink, clothes, to witness that I come to Thee for rest of soul from the thunders of guilt and dread of eternity. Please grant me a circumcised heart that I may love Thee, a right spirit that I may seek Thy glory, a principle within which Thou wilt own, an interest in the blood that cleanses, the righteousness that justifies, the redemption that delivers, that I may not be found a hypocrite on Judgement Day. For the sake of Thy cruel death take my time, strength, gifts, talents, usefulness, piety, which in full purpose of heart I consecrate to Thee. Let not sin find a place in my heart to becloud my vision, and may no foolish act wither my gift. Please preserve me from the falls by which others stumble, that Thy name may not be blasphemed or wounded, that Thy people may not be grieved, the Thine enemies may not be hardened, that my peace may not be injured. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26

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Please give me a heart full of love to Thyself and to others. Please let me discover in this life what I am before Thee, that I may not find myself another character hereafter. Prepare me for death, that I may not die after long affliction or suddenly, but after sort illness, with no confusion nor disorder, and a quiet discharge in peace, with adieu to brethren. Please let not my days end like rubbish, but give me a silent removing from the World to another. Inscribe these petitions in Thy book, present them to Thy Father, Set Thine Amen to them, as I do on my part of the covenant. We do not keep silence, O Lord, from praising Thee; because by releasing us from the evils which we deserved, Thou enablest us to celebrate Thy good gifts with gladness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #CresleighHomes

It is Not Found in the Solid Earth or Twinkling Stars, but When the Skies Grow Dark, the Stars Begin to Shine!

July 9, 2020 2:01 am

In the United States of America there is more space where nobody is then where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is. As we know, there is no human experience, nor would experience be possible at all, without the intervention of a subjective aptitude. What is this subjective aptitude? Ultimately it consists in an innate psychic structure which allows humans to have experiences of this kind. Thus the whole nature of humans presupposes woman, both physically and spiritually. The human system is tuned in to woman from the start, just as it is prepared for a quite definite World where there is water, light, air, slat, carbohydrates, excreta. The form of the Word into which humans are born is already inborn in them as a virtual image. Likewise parents, wife, children, birth, and death are inborn in humans as virtual images, as psychic aptitudes. These a priori categories have by nature a collective character; they are images of parents, wife, and children in general, and are not individual predestinations. We must therefore think of these images as lacking in solid content, hence as unconscious. They only acquire solidity, influence, and eventual consciousness in the encounter with empirical facts, which touch the unconscious aptitude and quicken it to life. They are in a sense the deposits of all our ancestral experience, but they are not the experiences themselves. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22

So at least it seems to us, in the present limited state of our knowledge. (I must confess that I have never yet found infallible evidence for the inheritance of memory images, but I do not regard it as positively precluded that in addition to these collective deposits which contain nothing specifically individual, there may also be inherited memories that are individually determined.) An inherited collective image of woman exists in a man’s unconscious, with the help of which he apprehends the nature of woman. This inherited image is the third important source for the femininity of the soul. Now, everything that is true of the persona and of all autonomous complexes in general also holds true of the anima. She likewise is a personality, and this is why she is so easily projected upon a woman. So long as the anima is unconscious she is always projected, for everything unconscious is projected. The first bearer of the soul-image is always the mother; later it is borne by those women who arouse the man’s feelings, whether in a positive or a negative sense. Because the mother is the first bearer of the soul-image, separation from her is a delicate and important matter of the greatest educational significance. Accordingly among primitives we find a large number of rites designed to organize this separation. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22

The mere fact of becoming adult, and of outward separation, is not enough; impressive initiation into the “men’s house” and ceremonies of rebirth are still needed in order to make the separation from mother (and hence from childhood) entirely effective. Just as the father acts as a protection against the dangers of the external World and thus serves his son as a model persona, so the mother protects him against the dangers that threaten from the darkness of his psyche. In the puberty rites, therefore, the initiate receives instruction about these things of “the other side,” so that he is put in a position to dispense with his mother’s protection. The modern civilized man has to forgo this primitive but nonetheless admirable system of education. The consequence is that the anima, in the form of the mother-imago, is transferred to the wife; and the man, so soon as he marries, becomes childish, sentimental, dependent, and subservient or else truculent, tyrannical, hypersensitive, always thinking about the prestige of his superior masculinity. The last is of course merely the reverse of the first. The safeguard against the unconscious, which what his mother meant to him, is not replaced by anything in the modern man’s education; unconsciously, therefore, his ideal of marriage is so arranged that his wife has to take over the magical role of the mother. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22

Under the cloak of the ideally exclusive marriage he is really seeking his mother’s protection, and thus he plays into the hands of his wife’s possessive instincts. His fear of the dark incalculable power of the unconscious gives his wife an illegitimate authority over him, and forges such a dangerously close union that the marriage is permanently on the brink of explosion for internal tension—or else, out of protest, he files to the other extreme, with the same results. That little episode opens up a whole train of thought about inner Worlds and separate realities. What do we make of the vision or dream that Johnny Owen has at the age of three? He saw a large mysterious underground cavern, with all the light focused on a great pillar of flesh with something like a head on top, enthroned on a royal chair. Twenty years passed before he fully understood this experience, when he rediscovered this same vision in the phallic rituals of some primitive tribes. How had that vision come to him at the age of three? In what real World does this phenomenon belong? Read the story of Robert Monroe (1971), a hardheaded businessman and engineer, who, after some puzzling experiences, found himself one night floating up to the ceiling of his room, looking down on his own body and that of his wife. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22

His account of these experiences, in which he tells of his initial fright, then his increasing willingness to take journeys out of his body, is startling indeed, and often very convincing. One cannot help but ponder the question: What reality can encompass such experiences, as well as the real experiences I know? How about Don Juan, the ageless Yaqui Indian, who opened whole new Worlds to the stubbornly skeptical anthropologist, Carlos Castaneda? Worlds of magical events, of flights through the air, of a nonordinary reality where death is not different from life, where the man of knowledge has a spirit ally, where the impossible is experienced. Rubbish, you say? His own experiences were enough to force Castaneda to recognize that there exist separate realities completely alien to the thinking of the modern scientific mind. I think of John Lilly, a scientist trained at the California Institute Technology, who went on to study neuroanatomy, medicine, and psychiatry, and who is perhaps best known for his twelve years of work with dolphins, trying to communicate with these animals, who he believes are at least as intelligent as human beings. To trace his path from his beginnings as a scientist who believed only in mechanical models of reality, to his present view that there are various levels of altered consciousness (which he had achieved and helped others to achieve), is mind-boggling. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22

Along the way, he came convinced that the dolphins could read his thoughts. Lilly’s experiences in a sensory deprivation tank, where he floated in warm water with absolutely minimal input of sight, sound, touch, or taste—were fascinating. He discovered that the inner World, without any external stimuli, was incredibly rich, sometimes frightening, often bizarre. In trying to understand this inner World, he experimented with Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD), with both illuminating and terrifying results. This led to meditation, unbidden thought transmission, and higher and higher state of consciousness in which he—like many before him, who were called mystics—experienced the Universe as a unity, a unity based on love. Quite a distance from this Caltech training! These and other accounts cannot simply be dismissed with contempt or ridicule. The witnesses are too honest, their experiences too real. All these accounts indicate that vast and mysterious Universe—perhaps an inner reality, or perhaps a spirit World of which we are all unknowingly a part—seems to exist. Such a Universe delivers a final crushing blow to our comfortable belief that we all know what the real World is. Where have my thoughts led me in relation to an objective World of reality? It clearly does not exist in the objects we can see and feel and hold. It does not exist in the technology we admire so greatly. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22

It is not found in the solid Earth or the twinkling stars. It does not lie in a solid knowledge of those around us. It is not found in the organizations or customs or rituals of any one culture. It is not even in our own known personal Worlds. It must take into account mysterious and currently unfathomable separate realities, incredibly different from an objective World. I, and many others, have come to a new realization. It is this: The only reality I can possibly know is the World as I perceive and experience it at this moment. The only reality you can possibly know is the World as you perceive and experience it at this moment. And the only certainty is that those perceived realities are different. There are as many real Worlds as there are people! This creates a most burdensome dilemma, one never before experienced in history. From time immemorial, the tribe or the community or the nation or the culture as agreed upon what constitutes the real World. To be sure, different tribes or different cultures might have held sharply different World views, but at least there was a large, relatively unified group which felt assured in its knowledge of the World and the Universe, and knew that this perception was true. So the community frowned upon, condemned, persecuted, even killed those who did not agree, who perceived reality differently. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22

Copernicus, even though he kept his findings secret for many years, was eventually declared a heretic. Galileo established proof of Copernicus’s views, but in his seventies, he was forced to recant this teaching. Giordano Brun was burned at the stake in 1600 for teaching that there were many Worlds in the Universe. Executioners set the stake up in line with the scaffold, then the trunk and the rest were covered with logs and faggots, and the fire was put to the straw mixed with this wood, and they stunk a match and watched him go up in flames are he screamed, “My God, have pity on me! Jesus, Help me!” Individuals who deviated in their perceptions of religious reality were tortured and killed. In the mid-1800s, Ignaz Semmelweis, an intense young Hungarian physician-scientist, was driven insane by his persecutors because he made the then absurd claim that childbed fever, that dread scourge of the maternity room, was carried from one woman to another by invisible germs on the hands and instruments of the doctors. Obvious nonsense, in terms of the reality of his day. In our own American Colonies, those who were even suspected of having psychic powers were considered witches and were hanged or crushed under great sones. History offers a continuing series of examples of the awful price paid by those who perceived a reality different from the agreed-upon real World. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22

Although society has often come around eventually to agree with its dissidents, as in the instances I have mentioned, there is doubt that this insistence upon a known and certain Universe has been par of the cement that holds a culture together. Today we face a different situation. The ease and rapidity of Worldwide communication means that everyone of us is aware of dozens realities; even though we may thin some of them absurd (like reincarnation) or dangerous (like communism which is becoming a staple in California’s democratic party), we cannot help but be aware of them. No longer can we exist in a secure cocoon, knowing that we all see the World in the same way. Because of this change, I want to raise a very serious questions: Can we today afford the luxury of having “a” reality? Can we still preserve the belief that there is a “real World” upon whose definition we all agree? I am convinced that this is a luxury we cannot afford, a myth we dare no maintain. Only once in recent history has his been fully and successfully achieved. Millions of people were in complete agreement as to the nature of social and cultural reality—an agreement brought about by the mesmerizing influence of Adolph Hitler. This agreement about reality marked the destruction of Western culture. I do not see it as something to be emulated. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22

In Western culture during this century—especially in the United States of America—there has also been an agreed-upon reality of values. This gospel can be stated very briefly: “More is better, bigger is better, faster is better, and modern technology will achieve all three of these eminently desirable goals.” However, now that credo is a crumbling disaster in which few believe. It is dissolving in the smog of pollution, the famine of overpopulation, the Damocles’ sword of the nuclear bomb. We have so successfully achieved the goal of a “bigger bang for a buck” that we are in danger of destroying all life on this planet. Our attempt, then, to live in the “real World” which all perceive in the same way have, in my opinion, led us to the brink of annihilation as a species. I will be so bold as to suggest alternative. It appears to me that they way of the future must be to base our lives and our education on the assumption that there are as many realities as there are persons, and that our highest priority is to accept that hypothesis and proceed from there. Proceed where? Proceed, each of us, to explore open-mindedly the many, many perceptions of reality that exist. We would, I believe, enrich our own lives in the process. We would also become more able to cope with the reality in which each one of us exist, because we would be aware of many more options. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22

A World with the possibility of countless realities might well be a life full of perplexity and difficult choices, demanding greater maturity, but it would be an exciting and adventurous life. The question may well be raised, however, whether we could have a community or a society based on this hypothesis of multiple realities. Might not such a society be a completely individualistic anarchy? That is not my opinion. Suppose my grudging tolerance of your separate World view became a fully acceptance of you and your right to have such a view. Supposed that instead of shutting out the realities of others as absurd or dangerous or heretical or stupid, I was willing to explore and learn about those realities? Suppose you were willing to do the same. What would be the social result? I thin that our society would be based not on a blind commitment to a cause or creed or view of reality, but on a common commitment to each other as rightfully separate persons, with separate realities. The natural human tendency to care for another would no longer be, “I care for you because you are the same as I,” but, instead, “I prize and treasure you because you are different from me.” Idealistic, you say? It surely is. How can I be so utterly naïve and “unrealistic” as to have any hope that such a drastic change could conceivably come about? #RandolphHarris 11 of 22

I base my hope partly on the view of World history so aptly stated by Charles Beard: “When the skies grow dark, the stars begin to shine.” So we may see the emergence of leaders who are moving in this new direction. I base my hope, even more solidly, on the view enunciated by Lancelot Whyte, the historian of idea, in his final book before his death. It is his theory, in which he is not alone, that great steps in human history are anticipated, and probably brought about, by changes in the unconscious thinking of thousands and millions of individuals during the period preceding the change. Then, in a relatively short space of time, a new idea, a new perspective, seems to burst upon the World scene, and change occurs. He gives the example that before 1914, patriotism and nationalism were unquestioned virtues. Then began the faint unconscious questioning which built an unconscious tradition reversing a whole pattern of thought. This new perspective burst into open between 1950 and 1970. “My country, right or wrong” is no longer a belief to live by. Nationalistic wars are out of date and out of favour, and even though they continue, World opinion is deeply opposed. Whyte (1974) points out that “at any moment the unconscious levels are ahead of the conscious in the task of unifying emotion, thought and action!” (p.107) #RandolphHarris 12 of 22

For me, this line of thought is entirely congenial. I have stated that we are wiser than our intellects, that our organisms as a whole have a wisdom and purposiveness which goes well beyond our conscious thought. I believe that this idea applies to the concept I have been presenting thus far. I think that men and women, individually and collectively, are inwardly and organismically rejecting the view of one single, culture-approved reality. I believe they are moving inevitably toward the acceptance of millions of separate, challenging, exciting, informative, individual perceptions of reality. I regard it as possible that this view—like the sudden and separate discovery of the principles of quantum mechanics by scientists in different countries—may begin to come into effective existence in many parts of the World at once. If so, we will be living in a totally new Universe, different from any in history. Is it conceivable that such a change can come about? Here lies the challenge to educators—probably the most insecure and frightened among any of the professions—battered by public pressures, limited by legislative restrictions, essentially conservative in their reactions. Can they possibly espouse such a new of multiple realities as I have been describing? Can they begin to bring into being the changes in attitudes, behaviours, and values that such a World view would demand? #RandolphHarris 13 of 22

Certainly, by themselves they cannot. However, with the underlying change in what Whyte calls “the unconscious tradition,” and with the assistance of the new person whom I and many others see emerging in our culture, it is just conceivable that they might succeed. If nations follow their past ways, then, because of the speed of World communication of separate views, each society will have to exert more and more coercion to bring about a forced agreement as to what constitutes the real World and its values. Those coerced agreements will differ from nation to nation, from culture to culture. The coercion will destroy individual freedom. We will bring about our own destruction through the clashes caused by differing World views. However, I have suggested an alternative. If we accept as a basic fact of all human life that we live in separate realities; if we can see those differing realities as the most promising resource for learning in all the history of the World; if we can live together in order to learn from one another without fear; if we can do all this, then a new age could be dawning. And perhaps—just perhaps—humankind’s deep organic sensing are paving the way for just a change. “And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God,” reports 1 Corinthians 6.11. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22

One of the amazing things about the human being is that it is capable of restoration, and indeed of a restoration that makes it somehow more magnificent because it has been ruined. This is a hopeful but strange thought. How it is so should become clear as we proceed. However, for now we want to see clearly what goes on within the person who is “unruined,” as we might say. In particular, we must see what is the basic shift (given regeneration and forgiveness) that can lead to the reordering of the six universal dimensions of the human self in subordination to God. The key to understanding the overall reordering is provided by what we learned about the human ruin in the past. For as the surest source of destruction to humans is to obey themselves, so the only haven for safety is to have no other will, no other wisdom, than to follow the Lord wherever he leads. Let thus, then, be the first step, to abandon ourselves, and devote the whole energy of our mind to the service of God. With theses words, we simply restate the basic point of view of Christ’s people through the ages. By service, I mean not only that which consists in verbal obedience, but that by which the mind, diverted of its own carnal feelings, implicitly obeys the call of the Spirit of God. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22

It is part of the task of a spiritual director to point out tactfully but firmly the faults and deficiencies of one’s disciples, to make them more aware of what is needed in their moral self-correction. The spiritual directors who is over-severe in one’s correction of the aspirant’s faults, needs correcting oneself. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this World, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve that God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will,” reports Romans 12.2. The spiritual leader who is always soft and sentimental may help some of one’s pupils but one would help them more if, at the same time, one were also hard and firm. The first attitude will attract more to one, but without the second to balance it neither one nor they will get the proper view of life. A true teacher must warn one’s followers against false expectations and irredeemable promises, “And to be renewed in the sprit of your minds,” reports Ephesians 4.23. It is not enough to one has the penetration to perceive the truth; one must also have the courage to tell it to one’s disciples, even though one knows it will shock them. There is a need for people to have caution, discernment, and even secrecy in this matter. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,” reports Galatians 2.20. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22

Disciples often go to a spiritual leader for their emotional comfort, they do not come for their ego’s emotional quietus. They want to remain enclosed in its little circle, not to be taken completely out of it. “Now there was a place in Shemlon where the daughters of the Lamanites did gather themselves together to sing, and to dance, and to make themselves merry. And it came to pass that there was one day a small number of them gathered together to sing and to dance. And now the priests of king Noah being ashamed to return to the city of Nephi, yea, and also fearing that the people would slay them, therefore they durst not return to their wives and their children. And having tarried in the wilderness, and having discovered the daughters of the Lamanites, they laid and watched them; and when there were but few of them gathered together to dance, they came forth out of their secret places and took them and carried them into the wilderness; yea, twenty and four of the daughters of the Lamanites they carried into the wilderness. And it came to pass that when the Lamanites found that their daughters had been missing, they were angry with the people of Limhi, for they thought it was the people of Limhi. Therefore they sent their armies forth; yea, even the king himself went before his people; and they went up to the land of Nephi to destroy the people of Limhi. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22

“And now Limhi had discovered them from the tower, even all their preparation for war did he discover; therefore he gathered his people together, and laid wait for them in the fields and in the forests. And it came to pass that when the Lamanites had come up, that the people of Limhi began to fall upon them from their waiting places, and began to slay them. And it came to pass that the battle became exceedingly sore, for they fought like lions for their prey. And it came to pass that the people of Limhi began to drive the Lamanites before them; yet they were not half so numerous as the Lamanites. However, they fought for their lives, and for their wives, and for their children; therefore they exerted themselves and like dragons did they fight. And it came to pass that they found the king of the Lamanites among the number of their dead; yet he was not dead, having been wounded and left upon the ground, so speedy was the flight of his people. And they took him and bound up his wounds, and brought him before Limhi, and said: Behold, here is the king of the Lamanites; he having received a wound has fallen dead, and they have left him; and behold, we have brought him before you; and now let us slay him. However, Limhi said unto them: Ye shall not slay him, but bring him hither that I may see him. And they brought him. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22

“And Limhi said unto him: What cause have ye to come up to war against my people? Behold, my people have not broken the oath that I made unto you; therefore, why should ye break the oath which ye made unto my people? And now the kind said: I have broken the oath because thy people did carry away the daughters of my people did carry away the daughters of my people; therefore, in my anger did I cause my people to come up to war against thy people. And now Limhi had heard nothing concerning this matter; therefore he said: I will search among my people and whosoever has done this thing shall perish. Therefore he caused a search to be made among his people. Now when Gideon had heard these things, he being the king’s captain, he went forth and said unto the king: I pray three forbear, and do not search this people, and lay not this thing to their charge. For do ye not remember the priests of thy father, whom this people sought to destroy? And are they not in the wilderness? And are not they the ones who have stolen the daughters of the Lamanites? And now, behold, and tell the king of these things, that he may tell his people that they may be pacified towards us; for behold they are already preparing to come against us; and behold also there are but few of us. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22

“And behold, they come with their numerous hosts; and expect the king doth pacify them towards us we must perish. For are not the words of Abinadi fulfilled, which he prophesied against us—and all this because we would not hearken unto the words of the Lord, and turn from our iniquities? And now let us pacify the king, and fulfill the oath which we have made unto him; for it is better than we should lose our lives; therefore, let us put a stop to the shedding of so much blood. And now Limhi told the kind all the things concerning his father, and the priests that had fled into the wilderness, and attributed the carrying away of their daughters to them. And it came to pass that the king was pacified towards his people; and he said unto them: Let us go forth to meet my people, without arms; and I swear unto you with an oath that my people shall not play thy people. And it came to pass that they followed the king, and went forth without arms to meet the Lamanites. And it came to pass that they did meet the Lamanites; and they king of the Lamanites did bow himself down before them, and did plead in behalf of the people of Limhi. And when the Lamanites saw the people of Limhi, that they were without arms, they had compassion on them and were pacified towards them, and returned with their king in peace to their own land,” reports Mosiah 20.1-26. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22

God of all Good, I bless Thee for the means of grace; please teach me to see in them Thy loving purposes and the joy and strength of my soul. Thou hast prepared for me a feast; and though I am unworthy to sit down as guest, I wholly rest on the merits of Jesus, and hide myself beneath his righteousness; when I hear his tender invitation and see his wonderous grace, I cannot hesitate, but must come to Thee in love. By Thy Spirit enliven my faith rightly to discern and spiritually to apprehend the Saviour. While I gaze upon the emblems of my Saviour’s death, may I ponder why he died, and hear him say, ‘I gave my life to purchase yours, presented myself an offering to expiate your sin, shed my blood to blot out your guilt, opened my side to make you clean, endure your curses to set you free, bore your condemnation to satisfy divine justice.’ O May I rightly grasp the breadth and length of this design, draw near, obey, extend the hand, take the bread, receive the cup, eat and drink, testify before all humans that I do for myself, gladly, in faith, reverence and love, receive my Lord, to be my life, strength, nourishment, joy, delight. In the supper I remember his eternal love, boundless grace, infinite compassion, agony, cross, redemption, and receive assurance of pardon, adoption, life, glory. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22

As the outward elements nourish my body, so may Thy indwelling Spirit invigorate my soul, until that day when I hunger and thirst no more, and sit with Jesus at his Heavenly feast. O God, Who desirest not the death, but the repentance of sinners, we beseech Thee, in Thy loving-kindness, to turn Thy people to Thyself; that when they devote themselves to Thee, Thou mayest remove the scourges of Thine anger; through Jesus Christ our Lord. We beseech Thee, O Lord, mercifully to drive away from Thy faithful, together with their own errors, the destructive fury of diseases; that as Thou deservedly scourgest them when they go astray, Thou mayest cherish them with Thy pity when they are brought back; through Jesus Christ our Lord. The kind of master needed and sought after by those who are on the religio-mystic-occult path is one who will take a keen interest in their personal life as well as spiritual welfare, one who is willing to help them with any and every problem, one who by virtue of residence or correspondence is always and quickly available to them. The philosophic master is not like this but of a different kind. One is not a missionary telling others that they must follow the Quest but an educator telling them that they may follow it if they so choose. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22

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We beseech Thee, O Lord, give effect to our devout supplication, and mercifully turn away the famine (or the pestilence); that the hearts of humans may know that these scourges both proceed from Thine indignation, and cease by Thy compassion; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #CresleighHomes

Ours is the Only Country Deliberately Founded on a Good Idea!

July 8, 2020 12:43 am

The American continents are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any other powers. We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to the amicable relations existing between the United States of America and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any external power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. However, with the governments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any external power, in any other lights than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United Sates of America. Still, Manifest Destiny is a religious scripture, which has declared that the United States of America is ordained—by God, to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire World through globalization, free trade, and legal immigration. Yet, each solution still gives rise to a new question as difficult as the foregoing, and leads us on to father enquires. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24

When it is asked, What is the nature of our reasonings concerning matter of fact? the proper answer seems to be, that they are founded on the relation of cause and effect. “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth,” reports 3 John 2-4. Manifest Destiny is not simply a cloak for American imperialism and justification for America’s territorial ambitions. It is biblical and firmly anchored in a long standing and deep sense of a special and unique American Destiny, the belief that in the words of historian Conrad Cherry, “America is a nation called to a special destiny by God.” The notion that there was some providential purpose to the European discovery and eventual conquest of the land masses “discovered” by Christopher Columbus was present from the beginning. Legend actually explains that spirit called him to America to spread Christianity, and there is evidence of Vikings and Africans in American prior to Columbus. Thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into Covenant with God for this work, we have taken out a commission, and America seems to be a land with some special spiritual powers that God wants to harness and magnify. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24

If the Lord shall please to hear us and bring us in peace to the place we desire, America is supposed to be a spiritual beacon of light and prosperity, and hath God ratified this Covenant and sealed our Commission and will expect a strict performance of the Articles contained in it. Follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one being, we must entertain each other in humanly affection, we must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities for the supply of others necessities. If we are faithful to our mission, we shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when tens of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when God shall makes us a praise and a glory, that humans shall say of succeeding plantations: the Lord make it like New England, for we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people upon us. The Great Awakening is now and it is a time that is extraordinary in the out pouring of God’s saving grace. God has chosen America for a special destiny and it is resurrected in a new form. The latter-day glory, in the new Millennium, the end times will bring the second coming of Jesus Christ to Earth and spread the King of God across the World, and this begins in America. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24

When again it is asked, What is the foundation of all our reasonings and conclusions concerning that relation? it may be replied in one word, EXPERIENCE. However, if we still carry on our sifting humour, and ask, What is the foundation of all conclusions from experience? All providential development since, and all the existing signs of the times, lend corroboration to it. However, if it is by the march of revolution and civil liberty, that the way of the Lord is to be prepared, where shall the central energy be found, ad from what nation shall the renovating power go forth? This nation is, in the providence of God destined to lead the way in the moral and political emancipation of the World. The relation between God and the United States of America is a fusion between God’s will and the nation’s democratic character gives divine sanction to the United States of America’s bonded arrangements of liberty and democracy. At the same time, it makes the nation, itself, an instrument in the new millennium. In the Holy City of wilderness, this has been declared the gathering place for the Saints from which they will radiate influences that will turn the entire World, through the American continent acting as a conduit, into the World of God’s Kingdom. Understanding and accepting this divine right is the best and most expedient way to prevent confusion. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24

Manifest Destiny will even help us be modest in our pretensions; and even assist us in discovering the difficulty ourselves before it is objected to us. By this means, we may a kind of merit of our very enlightened state. It must certainly be allowed, that nature has kept us at a great distance from all her secrets, and has afforded us only the knowledge of a few superficial qualities of objects; while she conceals from us those powers and principles, on which the influence of these objects entirely depends. Our senses inform us of the colour, weigh, and consistence of bread; bit neither sense nor reason can ever inform us of those qualities, which fit it for the nourishment and support of a human body. Sight or feeling conveys an idea of the actual motion of bodies; but as to that wonderful force or power, which would carry on a moving body for ever in a continued change of place, and which bodies never lose but by communicating it to others; of this we cannot form the most distant conception. However, notwithstanding this ignorance of natural powers and principles, we always presume, when we see like sensible qualities, that they have like secret powers, and expect, that effects, similar to those which we have experiences, will follow from them. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24

If a body of like colour and consistence with that bread, which we have formerly ear, be presented to us, we make no scruple of repeating the experiment, and foresee, with certainty, like nourishment and support. Now this is a process of the mind or thought, of which I would willingly know the foundation. It is allowed on all hands, that there is no known connexion between the sensible qualities and the secret powers; and consequently, that the mind is not led to form such a conclusion concerning their constant and regular conjunction, by anything which it knows of their nature. As to past Experience, it can be allowed to give direct and certain information of those precise objects only, and that precise period of time, which fell under its cognizance: However, why this experience should be extended to future times, and to other objects, which for aught we know, may be only in appearance similar; this is the main question on which I would insist. The bread, which I formerly eat, nourished me; that is, a body of such sensible qualities, was, at that time, endued with such secret powers: However, does it follow, that other bread must also nourish me at another time, and that like sensible qualities must always be attended with like secret powers? The consequence seems nowise necessary. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24

At least, it must be acknowledged, that there is here a consequence drawn by the mind; that there is a certain step taken; a process of thought, and an inference, which wants to be explained. These two propositions are far from being the same, I have found that such an object has always been attended with such an effect, and I foresee, that other objects, which are, in appearance, similar will be attended with similar effects. Our analysis of the main symbols of Christianity has prescinded from the question of the historical character of the Christian faith. One could treat Christianity as a set of religious symbols with no historical content. The notion of symbols may have been actually realized in the historical situations of human beings, or again they may not. The Cross could be a suggestive symbol of self-transcendence even if Jesus the Christ had not died on a cross. A historical problem is thus raised by Christology: was the Christ a historical figure whose life is historically documented? The historical elements of Christology may also be seen from another viewpoint. Even if we avoided the questions of the historical existence of Jesus, we cannot bypass the patent fact of the World-historical importance of Christology. To define the true scope of this importance is a second problem and the Christological problem of today. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24

The Christological problem of today has for us the same importance as the problem of the two natures of Christ in the fifth century. We are no more able to continue the old discussions concerning the unity of two natures or two wills in Christ, expect in transforming them into the problem of our present situation, that is the problem of interpretation of history. The question of the two natures in Christ must now be posited as concerning the human and the divine in history. Insofar as the picture of the Christ dominates history, this remains a Christological problem. The Church as a living reality must permanently mediate its eternal foundation with the demands of this historical situation. The doctrine of the Christ should not be announced in the abstract, as though formulas expressing it were understandable in all times and all places. The presentation of the message should, on the contrary, be partly moulded on the sort of questions which arises from each historical situation. Christianity is historical in the sense that its timeless good tidings are announced in time; if the content of the message does not change, the form does according to circumstances of time and place. Thus there exists a new historical problem: the influence of history on the forms of the Christian doctrine. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24

The historical power of Christology changes the usual perspective of theologians. Few include an interpretation of history in their Christological treaties. They commonly restrict the historical problem of Christ to be a study of the documents of early Christianity and their reliability as historical sources. This—the first problem we have mentioned is not based on an empirical or scientific study of document. Supposing the documents were discarded, the picture of Jesus as the Christ would remain in the Christian conscience and it would still be true that this picture has dominated history for twenty-one centuries. The second is therefore the basic historical problem. To recognize this one thing; to deem it as important for our times as the question of the two natures of Christ in the patristic era is another. The universal quest for the Christ shapes the cultures of the various historical periods in different patterns. Many factors, among which fate and freedom are constantly interplaying, have influences successive cultures. Always linked, these cultures have nevertheless evolved. Like the surface of the ocean, culture is always the same and always changing. Always the same, it formulates the quest for the Christ, the longing for the eternal the search for the New Being. Always changing, it alters the stress, colour or intensity of this continuous seeking. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24

Every spiritual phenomenon of a period expresses its eternal content and one of the most important characteristics of a time has been defined when we have discovered which of the various aspects of culture is most expressive of its real meaning. The main aspect of modern-day culture is that it is caught in a flux. At the end of the period of autonomy, it hesitates between a return to heteronomy and a search for theonomy. Secular culture has reached the end of its tether in the professed atheism of many modern movements. Many 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 burdens onto the bac of a master or at least to share them with one. Such a concept of discipleships is a wrong one. 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 the 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 the disciples themselves. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

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, it would defeat the very purpose of their incarnation. It would rob hem of the benefit of the experience to which they have been led by their own God. Such excessive reliance on the guide makes one 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 ai 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 master can relieve them of this responsibility. It is not 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. For one to manage their lives, settle their problems, and negotiate their difficulties might please their egos but would weaken their characters. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24

Hence, one does not wish to interfere in their lives nor assume responsibility from 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; 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 judgment is part of the educative process in developing right intuitions. Each experience looked at in this way brings out their independent creative faculty, that is, makes the 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. 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 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 shirk one’s decisions. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24

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. A wise teacher will try to meet disciples upon the proper ground between accepting such helpless dependence and rebuffing it brusquely together. 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 nor pottage. I can get politics and shat, neighbourly convenience from less expensive companions. Should not the society of my friend be to me poetic, pure, universal and as great as nature itself?—There words are just as applicable to the disciple. Whoever entrusts oneself to a master or one’s mind to a teaching, cannot escape one’s own personal responsibility for what one does. This is not to absolve either the guru or the author of the teaching from their own responsibility, which they also have, but it is to make clear that the followers share it too. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24

When people know the appropriate manners for a given situation and use them, everything is great, and we all move on. When they do not, that is when confusion and hurt feelings can arise. There are four simple steps that help to make people think highly of you from the moment you first greet them: Here they are: Stand up. This is always the start of a good greeting, whether you are a man or a woman. By standing up, you engage the person you are greeting on an equal level—eye to eye. Remaining seated, on the other hand, sends the signal that you think you are more important than the other person and do not need to stand—not the message you want to convey at the start of an interaction, to say the least. If you are seated in a place where getting up is awkward, make a clear attempt to rise and apologize briefly as you greet the other person: “It is a pleasure to meet you, Davey Fisher. Please excuse me—it is a little cramped in here.” If you are meeting someone who is in a wheelchair, bend down as you shake hands to get your eyes to a more even level with his or hers. Smile and make eye contact. A smile indicates warmth, openness, and a genuine interest in the person you are greeting. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24

Making eye contact is also critical. Looking into a person’s eyes shows that you are focused on and interested in that person. Doing the opposite, on the other hand—looking away as you greet someone—will make you appear aloof, disinterested, or rude. State your name and repeat the other person’s name. If you are the person who is initiating the greeting, your opening should be along these lines: “Hello, my nae is Dylan O’Brien.” If you are on the receiving end of the greeting, your response should be something like: “Hi Dylan, I am Parker Gregory. I am pleased to meet you.” If there are others in your group, you might add, “This is Paris Hilton and John Lowe. Please join us. We were just talking about Manifest Destiny and Destiny’s Child.” The key is to offer or acknowledge the spoken greeting, then invite the person joining the group into the conversation. Shake hands. The handshake is symbolic of an agreement not to harm a person. It is a seminal moment in a greeting. The right handshake makes everything flow smoothly. The wrong handshake turns the focus to the error. There are three types of handshakes—only one of which is acceptable: Wrong is the bone crusher handshake. Handshaking should not be a macho contest or a means of showing superiority, and it should never leave the other person in pain or discomfort. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24

Wrong handshake is the limp-wrist handshake for this handshake makes you feel like the person is a sly and devious and untrustworthy. It conveys neither warmth nor interest. The right handshake is the firm handshake. Grip firmly and warmly, without squeezing hard. Two or three pumps are all that is needed—so do not prolong the event by holding on longer than is necessary. When it is obvious that someone has an injured right arm or is missing a right arm or hand, it is perfectly okay to extend your left hand for a shake. Overly friendly handshakes should be reserved for very good friends. Shaking hands is one of them most time-honoured traditions we have. Not shaking clearly puts all the focus on why you chose not to shake rather than on building a relationship. One of the few times not shaking is not only appropriate but really important is when you have a cold or other communicable disease. If you say something like, “Nicky, please excuse me for not shaking, but I have a cold and do not want to give it to you. It is so nice to meet you,” people will appreciate your honesty and sincerity. Or you might have just sneezed into your hand and not had a chance to get to a washroom. Historically, men were not expected to shake hands with women. Today, as part of meeting and greeting, everyone is expected to shake hands with everybody, and remember to take your gloves off to shake a woman’s hand. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24

Making introductions—there you are talking with someone cute and interesting you have just met at debutante ball, when suddenly your great-aunt Mrs. Betty approaches. Instant panic: You want to make the introduction correctly, but several problems immediately occur: Who do you introduce to whom, how do you do it, and what exactly was Cute-and-interesting’s name, again? The fist bump is very unamerican. High fives, complicated handshake rituals, and hug/shake combinations—these are alternate means of greeting. When you are with friends and people you know who appreciate these forms of greeting, they are acceptable alternatives to the traditional handshake. However, if you do not know the person well, it is a business situation, or you simply are not sure, default to the traditional handshake. Traditionally, American men do not greet each other with a hug, at least not compared to many of their international counterparts. However, that is changing. I see young men enjoying a friendly handshake-hug combo when they meet. As long as both of you are comfortable with the hug, it is okay. Go for it. However, if you sense any hesitancy, do the other guy a favour and back off. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24

Who Do You Introduce to Whom: Okay—let us take a deep breath and start at the beginning: Just talk to the more important person first. CORRECT: “Mr. President, I would like to introduce my boss Laurent.” INCORRECT: “Laurent, I would like to introduce the President to you.” When Aunt Betty approaches, first make the decision that she is the more important person in this encounter and say, “Aunt Betty, how nice to see you!” (Kiss, kiss on the cheeks.) “Please, let me introduce cute-and-interesting FOX News Contributor Tomi Lahren to you.” Next, turn to (Cute-and-interesting) Tomi Lahren and say, “Cute-and-interesting,” this is Mrs. Witherspoon, my great-aunt Betty. I am so pleased to introduce you.” Then turn back to Aunt Betty and continue, “Aunt Betty, we were talking about Manifest Destiny and whether Destiny’s Child was a reminder of the prophecy? You just came from Church. What are your thoughts on the subject?” And that is a great opening to start a conversation. God usually exerts that power in connection wit certain prior conditions of the human mind, and it should be ours to create, so far as we can, with the help of God, those favourable conditions for the reception of the gospel. False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24

We may preach with all the fervour of a reformer and yet succeed only in winning a straggler here and there, if we permit the whole collective thought of the nation or of the World to be controlled by ideas which, by the resistless force of logic, prevent Christianity from being regarded as anything more than a harmless delusion. Learning to value, develop, deepen, and use your intellect in the overall process of spiritual transformation is a lot like being an auto science engineer. We have examined the serious problems in society due to an emergence of anti-intellectualism in the body of Christ. We also learned that there are solid biblical grounds for nurturing and developing our intellectual lives. However, if this were all we had, we would be like a person tied to a step-by-step set of instructions. What we need is an understanding of what the mind is and how it fits into the process of human transformation and spiritual growth. The mind is the crucial component in the spiritual journey cannot be accurately denied. One of the first duties of a spiritual guide is to correct the beginner, show where one has mistaken one’s way, and expose all one’s fallacies of thought, feeling, and conduct. A competent guide will be quick to perceive and fearless to point out these matters however unpleasant a duty it be and however unpalatable to the pupil. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24

It is part of the task of a spiritual director to point out tactfully but firmly the faults and deficiencies of one’s disciples, to make them more away of what is needed in their moral self-correction. “And it came to pass that the army of the king returned, having searched in vain for the people of the Lord. And now behold, the forces of the kind were small, having been reduced, and there began to be a division among the remainder of the people. And the lesser part began to breathe out threatenings against the king, and there began to be a great contention among them. And now there was a man among them whose name was Gideon, and he being a strong man and an enemy to the king, therefore he drew his sword, and swore in his wrath that he would slay the king. And it came to pass that he fought with the king; and when the king saw that he was about to overpower him, he fled and ran and got upon the tower which was near the temple. And Gideon pursued after him and was about to get upon the tower to slay the king, and the king cast his eyes round about towards the land of Shemlon, and behold, the army of the Lamanites were within the borders of the land. And now the king cried out in the anguish of his soul, saying: Gideon, spare me, from the Lamanites are upon us, and they will destroy us: yea, they will destroy my people. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24

“And now the king was not so much concerned about his people as he was about his own life; nevertheless Gideon did spare his life. And the king commanded the people that they should flee before the Lamanites, and he himself did go before them, and they did flee into the wilderness, with their women and their children. And it came to pass that the Lamanites did pursue them, and did overtake them, and began to slay them. Now it came to pass that the king commanded them that all the men should leave their wives and their children, and flee before the Lamanites. Now there were many that would not leave them, but had rather stay and perish with them. And the rest left their wives and their children and fled. And it came to pass that those who tarried with their wives and their children caused that their fair daughters should stand forth and plead with the Lamanites that they would not slay them. And it came to pass that the Lamanites had compassion on them, for they were charmed with the beauty of their women. Therefore the Lamanites did spare their lives, and took them captive and carried them back to the land of Nephi, and granted unto them that they might possess the land, under the conditions that they would deliver up king Noah into the hands of the Lamanites, and deliver up their property, even one half of all they possessed, one half of their gold, and their sliver, and all their precious things, and thus they should pay tribute to the king of the Lamanites from year to years. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24

“And now there was one of the sons of the king among those that were taken captive, whose name was Limhi. And now Limhi was desirous that his father should not be destroyed; nevertheless, Limhi was not ignorant of the iniquities of his father, he himself being a just man. And it came to pass that Gideon sent humans into the wilderness secretly, to search for the king and those that were with him. And it came to pass that they met the people in the wilderness, all save the king and his priests. Now they had sworn in their hearts that they would return to the land of Nephi, and if heir wives and their children were slain, and also those that had tarried with them, that they would seek revenge, and also perish with them. And the king commanded them that they should not return; and they were angry with the king, and caused that he should suffer, even unto death by fire. And there were about to take the priests also and put them to death, and they fled before them. And it came to pass that they were about to return to the land of Nephi, and they met the men of Gideon. And the men of Gideon told them of all that had happened to their wives and their children; and that the Lamanites had granted unto them that they might possess the land by paying a tribute to the Lamanites of one half of all they possessed. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24

“And the people told the men of Gideon that they had slain the king, and his priests had fled from them farther into the wilderness. And it came to pass that after they had ended the ceremony, that they returned to the land of Nephi, rejoicing, because their wives and their children were not slain; and they told Gideon what they had done to the king. And it came to pass that the king of the Lamanites made an oath unto them, that his people should not slay them. And also Limhi, being the son of the king, having the kingdom conferred upon him by the people, made oath unto the king of the Lamanites that his people should pay tribute unto him, even one half of all they possessed. And it came to pass that Limhi began to establish the kingdom and to establish peace among his people. And the king of the Lamanites set guards round about the land, that he might keep the people of Limhi in the land, that they might not depart into the wilderness; and he did support his guards out of the tribute which he did receive from the Nephites. And now king Limhi did have continual peace in his kingdom for the space of two years, that the Lamanites did not molest them nor seek to destroy them,” reports Mosiah 19.1-29. The illusions that times that were are better than those that are, has probably pervaded all ages. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24

Glorious God, it is the flame of my life to worship Thee, the crown and glory of my soul to adore Thee, Heavenly pleasure to approach Thee. Give me power by Thy Spirit to help me worship now, that I a forget the World, be brought into fullness of life, be refreshed, comforted, blessed. Please give me knowledge of Thy goodness that I might not be over-awed by Thy greatness; please give me Jesus, Son of Man, Son of God, that I might not be terrified, but be drawn near with filial love, with holy boldness; He is my mediator, brother, interpreter, branch, daysman, lamb; Him I glorify, in him I am set on high. Crowns to give I have none, but what Thou hast given I return, content to feel that everything is mine when it is thine, and the more full mine when I have yielded it to Thee. Please let me live wholly to my Saviour, free from distractions, from carking care, from hindrances to the pursuit of the narrow way. I am pardoned through the blood of Jesus—give me a new sense of it, continue to pardon me by it, may I come every day to the fountain, and every day be washed anew, that I may worship Thee always in spirit and truth. O God, Who desirest not the death, but the repentance of sinners, we beseech Thee, in Thy loving-kindness, to turn Thy people to Thyself; that when they devote themselves to Thee, Thou mayest remove the scourges of Thine anger; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24

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We beseech Thee, O Lord, mercifully to drive away from Thy faithful, together with their own errors, the destructive fury of disease; that as Thou deservedly scourgest them when they go astray, Thou mayest cherish them with Thy pity when they are brought back; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #CresleighHomes

The Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number is the Foundation of Morals and Legislation!

July 7, 2020 1:50 am

It is indisputable that the being whose capacities of enjoyment are low, has the greatest chance of having them fully satisfied; and a highly endowed being will always feel that any happiness which one can look for, as the World is constituted, is imperfect. However, one can learn to bear its imperfections, if they are at all bearable; and they will not make one envy the being who is indeed unconscious of the imperfections, but only because one feels not at all the good which those imperfections qualify. It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Sokrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, is of a different opinion, it is only because they only know their own side of the question. The principle of utility is the foundation of the present work; it will be proper therefore at the outset to give an explicit and determinate account of what is meant by it. By the principle of utility is meant that which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question: or, what is the same thing in other words, to promote or to oppose that happiness. I say of every action whatsoever; and therefore not only of every action of a private individual, but of every measure of government. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24

By utility is meant that property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness, (all this in the present case comes to the same thing) or (what comes again to the same thing) to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered: if that party be the community in general, then the happiness of the community: if a particular individual, then the happiness of that individual. The interest of the community is one of the most general expressions that can occur in the phraseology of morals: no wonder that the meaning of it is often lost. When it has a meaning, it is this. The community is a fictitious body, composed of the individual persons who are considered as constituting as it were its members. The interest of the community then is, what?—the some of the interests of the several members who compose it. It is in vain to talk of the interest of the community, without understanding what is the interest of the individual. A thing is said to promote the interest, or to be for the interest, of an individual, when it tends to add to the sum total of one’s pleasures: or, what comes to the same thing, to diminish the sum total of one’s pains. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24

An action then may be said to be conformable to the principle of utility, or, for shortness sake, to utility, (meaning with respect to the community at large) when the tendency it had to augment the happiness of the community is greater than any it has to diminish it. A measure of government (which is but a particular kind of action, performed by a particular person or persons) may be said to be conformable to or dietated by the principle of utility, or, for shortness sake, to utility, (meaning with respect to the community at large) when the tendency it has to augment the happiness of the community is greater than any it has to diminish it. A measure of government (which is but a particular kind of action, performed by a particular person or persons) may be said to be conformable to or dietated by the principle of utility, when in like manner the tendency which it has to augment the happiness of the community is greater than any which it has to diminish it. When an action, or in particular a measure of government, is suppose by a human to be conformable to the principle of utility, it may be convenient, for purposes of discourse, to imagine a kind of law or dictate, called a law or dictate of utility: and to speak of the action in question, as being conformable to such law or dictate. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24

A human may be said to be a partisan of the principle of utility, when the approbation or disapprobation one annexes to any action, or to any measure, is determined by and proportioned to the tendency which one conceives it to have to augment or to diminish the happiness of the community: or in other words, to its conformity or unconformable to the laws or dictates of utility. Of an action that is conformable to the principle of utility one may always say either that it is one that ought to be done, or at least that it is not one that ought not to be done. One may say also, that it is right it should be done; at least that it is not wrong it should be done: that it is a right action; at least that it is not a wrong action. When thus interpreted, the words ought, and right and wrong, and others of that stamp, have a meaning: when otherwise, they have none. Cases Unmeet for Punishment: The general object which all laws have, or ought to have, in common, is to augment the total happiness of the community; and therefore, in the first place, to exclude, as far as may be, every thing that tends to subtract from that happiness: in other words, to exclude mischief. However, all punishment is mischief: all punishment in itself is evil. Upon the principle of utility, if it ought at all to be admitted, it ought only to be admitted in as far as it promises to exclude some greater evil. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24

It is plain, therefore, that in the following cases punishment ought not to be inflicted. Where it is groundless: where there is no mischief for it to prevent; that act not being mischievous upon the whole. Where it must be inefficacious: where it cannot act so as to prevent the mischief. Where it is unprofitable, or too expensive: where the mischief it would produce would be greater than what it prevented. Where it is needless: where the mischief may be prevented, or cease of itself, without it: that is, at a cheaper rate. Cases in which punishment is groundless: There are, where there has never been any mischief: where no mischief has been produced to any body by the act in question. Of this number are those in which the act was such as might, on some occasions, be mischievous or disagreeable, but the person whose interest it concerns gave one’s consent to the performance of it. This consent, provided it be free, and fairly obtained, is the best proof that can be produced, that, to the person who gives it, no mischief, at least no immediate mischief, upon the whole, is done. For no human can be so good a judge as the human oneself, what it is gives one pleasure or displeasure. Where the mischief was outweighed: although a mischief was produced by that act, yet the same act was necessary to the production of a benefit which was of greater value than the mischief. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24

This many be the case with any thing that is done in the way of precaution against instant calamity, as also with any thing that is done in the exercise of the way of precaution against instant calamity, as also with any thing that is doe in the exercise of the several sorts of powers necessary to be established in every community, to wit, domestic, judicial, military, and supreme. Where there is a certainty of an adequate compensation: and that in all cases where the offence can be committed. This suppose two things: First of all, that the offence is such as admis of an adequate compensation: Secondly, that such a compensation is sure to be forthcoming. Of these suppositions, the latter will be found to be a merely ideal one: a supposition that cannot, in the universality here given to it, be verified by fact. It cannot, therefore, in practice be numbered amongst the grounds of absolute impunity. It may, however, be admitted as a ground for an abatement of that punishment, which other considerations, standing by themselves, would seem to dictate. Cases in which punishment must be inefficacious: There are, where the penal provision is not established until after the act is done. Such are the cases, of an ex-post-facto law; where the legislator oneself appoints not a punishment till after the act is done. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24

The second case is of a sentence beyond the law; where the judge, of one’s own authority, appoints a punishment which the legislator had not appointed. Where the penal provision, though established, is not conveyed to the notice of the person on whom it seems intended that it should operate. Such is the cause where the law has omitted to employ any of the expedient which are necessary, to make sure that every person whatsoever, who is within the reach of law, be apprized of all the cases whatsoever, in which (being in the station of life one is in) one can be subject to the penalties of the law. Where the penal provision, though it were conveyed to a human’s notice, could produce no effect on one, with respect to the preventing one from engaging in any act of the sort in question. Such is the case, in extreme infancy; where a person has not yet attained that state or disposition of mind in which the prospects of evils so distant as those which are held forth by the law, has the effect of influencing one’s conduct. In insanity; where the person, if one has attained to that disposition, has since been deprived of it through the influence of some permanent though unseen cause. In intoxication; where one has been deprived of it by the transient influence of a visible cause: such as the use of wine, or opium, or other drugs, that in this manner or on the nervous system: which condition is indeed neither more nor less than a temporary insanity produced by an assignable cause. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24

Where the pen provision (although, being conveyed to the party’s notice, it might very well prevent one’s engaging in acts of the sort in question, provided one knew that it related to those acts) could not have this effect, with regard to the individual act one is about to engage in: to wit, because one know not that it is of the number of those which the penal provision related. This may happen: In the cause of unintentionality; where one intends not to engage, and thereby knows not that one is about to engage, in the act in which eventually one is about to engage. In the case of unconsciousness; where, although one may know that one is about to engage in the act itself, yet, from not knowing all the material circumstances attending it, one knows not of the tendency it had to produce that mischief, in contemplation of which it has been made penal in most instances. In the case of missupposal; where, although one may know of the tendency the act has to produce that degree of mischief, one supposes it, though mistakenly, to be attended with some circumstance, or set of circumstances, which, if it had been attended with, it would either not have been productive of that mischief, or have been productive of such a greater degree of good, as had determined the legislator in such a case not to make it penal. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24

Where, though the penal clause might exercise a full and prevailing influence, were it to act alone, yet by the predominant influence of some opposite cause upon the will, it must necessarily be ineffectual; because the evil which one sets oneself about to undergo, in the case of one’s not engaging in the act, is so great, that the evil denounced by the penal clause, in case of one’s engaging in it, cannot appear greater. This may happen: In the case of physical danger; where the evil is such as appears likely to be brought about by the unassisted powers of nature. In the case of a threatened mischief; where it is such as appears likely to be brought about through the intentional and conscious agency of humans. Where (though the penal clause may exert a full and prevailing influence over the will of the party) yet one’s physical faculties (owing to the predominant influence of some physical cause) are not in a condition to follow the determination of the will: insomuch that the act is absolutely involuntary. Such is the case of physical compulsion or restraint, by whatever means brought about; where the human’s hand, for instance, is pushed against some object which one’s will disposes one not to touch; or tied down from touching some object which one’s will disposes one to touch. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24

Cases where punishment is unprofitable: These are, where, on the one hand, the nature of the offence, on the other hand, that of the punishment, are, in the ordinary state of things, such, that when compared together, the evil of the latter will turn our to be greater than that of the former. Now the evil of punishment divides itself into four branches, by which so many different sets of persons are affected. First of all, the evil of coercion or restraint: or the pain which it gives a human not to be able to do the act, whatever it be, which by the apprehension of the punishment one is deterred from doing. This is felt by those by whom the law is observed. Secondly, the evil of apprehension: or the pain which a human, who has exposed oneself to punishment, feels at the thoughts of undergoing it. This is felt by those by whom the law has been broken, and who feel themselves in danger of its being executed upon them. Third, the evil of sufferance: or the pain which a person feels, in virtue of the punishment itself, from the time when one begins to undergo it. This is felt by those by whom the law is broken, and upon who it actually to be executed. Forth, the pain of sympathy, and other derivative evils resulting to the persons who are in connection with the several classes of original sufferers just mentioned. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

Now of these four lots of evil, the first will be greater or less, according to the nature of the act from which the party is restrained: the second and third according to the nature of the punishment which stands annexed to that offence. On the other hand, as to the evil of the offence, this will also, of course, be greater or less, according to the nature of each offence. The proportion between the one evil and the other will therefore be different in the case of each particular offense. The cases, therefore, where punishment is unprofitable on this ground, can by n other means be discovered, than by an examination of each particular offence; which is what will be the business of the body of the work. Where, although in the ordinary state of things, the evil resulting from the punishment is not greater than the benefit which is likely to result from the force with which it operates, during the same space of time, towards the excluding the evil of the offences, yet it may have been rendered so by the influence of some occasional circumstances. In the number of these circumstance may be: For one, the multitude of delinquents at a particular juncture; being such as would increase, beyond the ordinary measure, the quantum of the second and third lots, and thereby also of a part of the fourth lot, in the evil of punishment. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24

Secondly, the extraordinary value of the services of some one delinquent; in the case where the effect of the punishment would be to deprive the community of the benefit of those services. The displeasure of the people; that is, of an indefinite number of the members of the same community, in cases where (owing to the influence of some occasional incident) they happen to conceive, that the offence or the offender ought not to be punished at all, or at least ought not to be punished in the way in question. Forth, the displeasure of foreign powers; that is, of the governing body, or a considerable number of the members of some foreign community or communities, with which the community in question is connected. Cases where punishment in needless: These are, where the purpose of putting an end to the practice my be attained as effectually at a cheaper rate: by instruction, for instance, as well as by terror: by informing the understanding, as well as by exercising an immediate influence on the will. This seems to be the case with respect to all those offences which consist in the disseminating pernicious principles in matters of duty; of whatever kind the duty be; whether political, or moral, or religious. And this, whether such principles be disseminated under, or even without, a sincere persuasion of the being beneficial. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24

I say, even without: for though in such a case it is not instruction that can prevent the writer from endeavouring to inculcate one’s principles, yet it may the readers from adopting them: without which, one’s endeavouring to inculcate them will do not harm. In such a cause, the sovereign will commonly have little need to take an active part: if it be the interest of one individual to inculcate principles that are pernicious, it will as surely be the interest of others individuals to expose them. However, if the sovereign must needs take a part in the controversy, the pen is the proper weapon to combat error with, not the sword. Of the Proportion Between Punishments and Offences: We have seen that the general object of all laws is to prevent mischief; that is to say, when it is worthwhile; but that, where there are no other means of doing this than punishment, there are four cases which it is not worthwhile. Wen it is worthwhile, there are four subordinate designs or objects, which, in the curse of one’s endeavours to compass, as far as may be, that one general object, a legislator, whose views are governed by the principle of utility, comes naturally to propose to oneself. One’s first, most extensive, and most eligible object, is to prevent, in as far as it is possible, and worthwhile, all sorts of offences whatsoever: in other words, so to manage, that no offence whatsoever may be committed. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24

However, if a human must needs commit an offence of some kind or other, the next object is to induce one to commit an offence less mischievous, rather, than one more mischievous: in other words, to choose always the least mischievous, of two offences that will either of them suit one’s purpose. When a person has resolved upon a particular offence, the next object is to dispose one to do no more mischief than is necessary to one’s purpose: in other words, to do as little mischief as is consistent with the benefit one as in view. The last object is, whatever the mischief be, which it is proposed to prevent, to prevent it at as cheap a rate as possible. Subservient to these four objects, or purposes, must be the rules or canons by which the proportion of punishments to offences is to be governed. Also, keep in mind that as we are discussing the law now and, in the future, that these are just theories and actual application in your country, state, city or jurisdiction may be different. When speaking of law, many people like to look towards God for his grace. Paul was not the first of the biblical writers to tell of the sufficiency of God’s grace. Jeremiah, a prophet of God who endured much hardship and affliction could say, “I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24

“I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness,” reports Lamentations 3.19-23. Even Job, in the midst of suffering and despair, when he acknowledged he could not find God anywhere, could still say, “Bu if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch n glimpse of him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold,” reports Job 23.8-10. Perhaps the most frequent and dramatic utterances of the sufficiency of God’s grace in the midst of human frailty and affliction occurs in the psalms. Consider, for example, David’s testimony in Psalms 13: How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. However, I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24

In this psalm, David recounted his experience of passing from the depths of despair to the heights of rejoicing. What enabled him to make such a dramatic transition? Although God’s grace is not explicitly mentioned, we may be sure it was indeed the grace of God at work in him. Asaph, another of the psalmists, experienced a different kind of thorn. He compared his experience as a Godly man with that of the wicked and became discouraged. He said, “For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. This is what the wicked are like—always carefree, they increase in wealth. Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence,” reports Psalm 73.3,12-13. However, then he discovered the grace of God and could say, “Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever,” reports Psalm 73.23 and 26. The testimonies of God’s power made perfect in human weakness do not end with the completion of the canon of Scripture Down through the centuries men and women of God have experienced and borne witness to the sufficiency of His grace. When the burdens grow greater, God gives more grace. When the labours increase, God sends more grace. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24

To added afflictions God adds his mercy, to multiplied trails, His peace. When we have exhausted our store of endurance, when our strength has failed ere the day is half done; when we reach the end of our hoarded resources, our Father’s full giving is only begun. God’s love has no limits, His grace has no measure, His power has no boundary known unto humans; for out of God’s infinite riches in Jesus, He gives, and gives, and gives again. I urge you to contemplate these words slowly, reflectively, and prayerfully. Apply its message to your own burdens, afflictions, and trials. Ask God to make its truth real to you in your particular situations. “And now it came to pass that Alma, who had fled from the servants of king Noah, repented of his sins and iniquities, and went about privately among the people, and began to teach the words of Abinadi—yea, concerning that which was to come, and also concerning the resurrection of the dead, and the redemption of the people, which was to be brought to pass through the power, and sufferings, and death of Christ, and his resurrection and ascension into Heaven. And as many as would hear his word he did teach. And he taught them privately, that it might not come to the knowledge of the king. And many did believe his words. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24

“And it came to pass that as many as did believe him did go forth to a place which was called Mormon, having received its name from the king, being in the borders of the land having been infested, by times or at seasons, by wild beasts. Now, there was in Mormon a fountain of pure water, and Alma resorted thither, there being near the water a thicket of small trees, where he did hide himself in the daytime from the searches of the kind. And it came to pass that as many as believed him went thither to hear his words. And it came to pass after many days there were a goodly number gathered together at the place of Mormon, to hear the words of Alma. Yea, all were gathered together at that believed on his word, to hear him. And he did teach them, and did preach unto them repentance, and redemption, and faith on Lord. And it came to pass that he aid unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens that they may be light; yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times, and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection that ye may have eternal life. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24

“Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you? And now it came pass that Alma took Helam, he being one of the firs, and went and stood forth in the water, and cried, saying: O Lord, pour out thy Spirit upon thy servant, that he may do this work with holiness of heart. And when he had said these words, the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, and he said: Helam, I baptize thee, having authority from the Almighty God, as a testimony that ye have entered into a covenant to serve him until you are dead as to the mortal body; and may the Spirit of the Lord be poured out upon you; and may he grant unto you eternal life, through redemption of Christ, whom one has prepared from the foundation of the World. And after Alma had said these words, both Alma and Helam were buried in the water; and they arose and came forth out of the water rejoicing, being filled with the Spirit. And again, Alma took another, and went forth a second time into the water, and baptized him according to first, only he did not bury himself again in the water. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24

“And after this manner he did baptize every one that went forth to the place of Mormon; and they were in number about two hundred and four souls; yea, and they were baptized in the waters of Mormon, and were filled with the grace of God. And they were called the church of God, or the church of Christ, from that time forward. And it came to pass that whosoever was baptized by the power and authority from God, ordained priests; even one priest to every fifty of their number did he ordain to preach unto them, and to teach them concerning the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And he commanded them that they should teach nothing save it were the things which he had taught, and which had been spoken by the mouth of the holy prophets. Yea, even he commanded them that they should preach nothing save it were repentance and faith on the Lord, who had redeemed his people. And he commanded them there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another. And thus he commanded them to preach. And thus they became the children of God. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24

“And he commanded them that they should observe the sabbath day, and keep it holy, and also everyday they should give thanks to the Lord their God. And he also commanded them that the priests whom he had ordained should labour with their own hands for their support. And there was one day in every week that was set apart that they should gather themselves together to teach the people and to worship the Lord their God, and also, as often as it was in their power, to assemble themselves together. And the priests were not to depend upon the people for their support. And there was one day in every week that was set apart that they should gather themselves together to teach the people for their support; bot for their labour they were to receive the grace of God, that they might wax strong in the Spirit, having the knowledge of God, that, they might teach with the power of authority from God. And again Alma commanded that the people of the church should impart of their substance, everyone according to that which one had; if one have more abundantly one should impart more abundantly; and of one that had but little, but little should be required; and to one that had not should be given. And thus they should impart of their substance of their own free will and good desires towards God, and to those priests that stood in need, yea, and to every needy naked soul. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24

“And this he said unto them, having been commanded of God; and they did walk uprightly before God, imparting to one another both temporally and spiritually according to their needs and their wants. And now it came to pass that all this was done in Mormon, yea, by the waters of Mormon, in the forest of Mormon, how beautiful are they to the eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their Redeemer; yea, and how blessed are they, for they shall sing to his praise forever. And these things were done in the borders of the land, that they might not come to the knowledge of the king. However, behold, it came to pass that the king, having discovered a movement among the people, sent his servants to watch them. Therefore on that day that they were assembling themselves together to hear the word of the Lord they were discovered unto the king. And now the king said that Alma was stirring up the people, sent his servants to watch them. Therefore on the day that they were assembling themselves together to hear the word of the Lord they were discovered unto the king. And now the king said that Alma was stirring up the people to rebellion against him; therefore he sent his army to destroy them. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24

“And it came to pass that Alma and the people of the Lord were apprised of the coming of the king’s army; therefore they took their tents and their families and departed into the wilderness. And they were in number about four hundred and fifty souls” reports Mosiah 18.1-35. O Maker and Upholder of all things, day and night are thine; they are also mine from Thee—the night to rid me of the cares of the day, to refresh my weary body, to renew my natural strength; the day to summon me to new activities, to give me opportunity to glorify Thee, to serve my generation, to acquire knowledge, holiness, eternal life. However, one day above all days is made especially for Thy honour and my improvement; the sabbath reminds me of Thy rest from creation, of the resurrection of my Saviour, of one’s entering into repose. Thy house is mine, but I am unworthy to meet Thee there, and am unfit for spiritual service. When I enter it I come before Thee as a sinner, condemned by conscience and Thy word, for I am still in the body and in the wilderness, ignorant, weak, in danger, and in need of Thine assistance. However, encouraged by Thy all-sufficient grace let me go to Thy house with a lively hope of meeting thee, knowing that there Thou wilt come to me and give me peace. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24

My soul is drawn out to Thee in longing desires for Thy presence in the sanctuary, at the table, where all are entertained on a feast of good things; please let before the broken elements, emblems of Thy dying love, cry to Thee with broken heart for grace and forgiveness. I long for that blissful communion of Thy people in Thy eternal house in the perfect kingdom; these are they that follow the Lamb; may I be of their company! We beseech Thee, O Lord, please be gracious to our times; that both national quietness and Christian devotion may be duly maintained by Thy bounty; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Almighty and everlasting God, we pray Thee to crush the force of our enemies; that we may be able to celebrate Thy holy service with undisturbed minds; through Jesus Christ our Lord. We beseech Thee, O Lord, let the invincible defence of Thy power be the bulwark of Thy faithful people; that they, being ever devoted to Thee with pious affection, may both be freed from the assault of enemies, and continually preserve in Thy grace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. O God, the Maker of the Universe, by Whose command the course of the World proceeds; be present, in Thy goodness, to our prayers, and please vouchsafe in our times the tranquility of peace; that we may with unceasing exultation rejoice in giving praise to Thy mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24

Cresleigh Homes

This #PlumasRanch private master suite includes plenty of light and sitting room with a spectacular bath. The kitchen overlooks a breakfast area with sliding glass doors that open to a large rear porch. There are also 3-4 bedroom and a game room provide plenty of living space for a large family. There is also a two car garage.

Plumas #Riverside has homes ready for move-in! Check out floor plans and more on our website. Link in bio. https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-riverside-at-plumas-ranch/

Look mercifully, O Lord, we beseech Thee, on the affliction of Thy people; and let not our sins prevail to destroy us, but rather Thine abundant mercy to save us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. #CresleighHomes

Remember that Time is Money—You Cannot Fight Against the Future for Time is on Our Side!

July 4, 2020 1:04 am

The only war I ever approved of was the Trojan war; it was fought over a woman and the men knew what they were fighting for. If one person is inadequate or poorly equipped in responding in a mature and authentic love relationship, the other person many find that one cannot continue giving. Mutuality, the giving-taking circle, replenishes and nourishes and assists the growth of each person in a relationship. Another aspect of a love relationship is respect. Not fear or awesome deference, but appreciation of the uniqueness and selfhood of another. In true respect there is no need to do anything to diminish or hurt the other person, to ridicule or damage another’s integrity. There is acceptance in the active, beneficial sense: “There you are. I see, take in, readily acknowledge you and what you are. I really dig you!” Respect also implies active concern. It means that if I respect you, I want the best for you: I want you to grow and become all that you are, and I do not want you to become anything for me! If you became what I wanted you to, then you would not be you; you would be come kind of me-shaped or me-coloured reflection. Then, I would not be acknowledging you as you. I would be saying I can only love the me I see in you. And this is narcissism, an exploitive form of conceit far removed from real other-love. In the Old World, people used to steam letters open to obtain tidbits of juicy information, but in the New World, we have new concerns. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

E-mail can sometimes feel intimate in the same way a private conversation does, but the reality is that email is anything, but private. In fact, e-mails are one of the most easily intercepted and duplicated forms of communication, especially if they are unencrypted. The absolute bottom line: if you cannot post it on a bulletin board, then do not send it. Hackers are not the only threat to e-mail privacy in the workplace; employers, law enforcement officials and even internet service providers all have the ability to monitor and review e-mail communications. For businesses and organizations, this can easily become an issue, not least of all because it has the potential to violate key e-mail privacy laws, and regulations. The E-mail Privacy Act: This update to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 prevents electronic and remote communication service providers from voluntarily disclosing the contents of e-mails, requires the government to obtain a warrant to compel the disclosure of email contents and revises the process for obtaining a delayed notification order. General Data Protection Rule (GDPR): stipulates that all personal data, including personal data contained in e-mail, must be processed lawfully and in a transparent manner, must be kept up to date and must be kept in a form which permits identification of data subject for no longer than is necessary. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

All reasonings concerning matter of fact seem to be founded on the relation of Cause and Effect. By means of that relation alone we can go beyond the evidence of our memory and senses. If you were to ask a man, why he believers any matter of fact, which is absent; for instance, that his friend is in the country, or in CANADA; he would give you a reason; and this reason would be some other fact; as a letter received from hu, or the knowledge of his former resolutions and promises. A man, finding a watch or any other machines in a desert island, would conclude, that there had once been humans on in that island. All our reasonings concerning fact are of the same nature. And here it is constantly supposed, that there is a connexion between the present fact and that which is inferred from it. Were there nothing to bind them together, the inference would be entirely precarious. The hearing of an articulate voice and rational discourse in the dark assures us the presence of some person: Why? because these are the effects of the human make and fabric, and closely connected with it. If we anatomize all the other reasonings of this nature, we shall find, that they are founded on the relation of cause and effect, and that this relation is either near or remote, direct or collateral. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

Heat and light are collateral effect of fire, and one effect may justly be inferred from the other. If we would satisfy ourselves, therefore, concerning the nature of that evidence, which assures us of matters of fact, we must enquire how we arrive at the knowledge of cause and effect. I shall venture to affirm, as a general proposition, which admits of no exception, that the knowledge of this relation is not, in any instance, attained by reasonings a priori; but arises entirely from experience, when we find, that any particular objects are constantly conjoined with each other. Let an object be presented to a person of ever so strong natural reason and abilities; if that object be entirely new to one, one will not be able, by the most accurate examination of its sensible qualities, to discover any of its cases. ADAM, though his rational faculties be supposed, at the very first, entirely perfect could not have inferred from the fluidity, and transparency of water, that it would suffocate him, or from the light and warmth of fire, that it would consume him. No object ever discovers, by the qualities which appear to the senses, either the causes which produce it, or the effects which will arise from it; nor can our reason, unassisted by experience, ever draw any inference concerning real existence and matter of fact. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

This proposition, that causes and effects are discoverable, not by reason, but by experience, will readily be admitted with regard to such objects, as we remember to have once been altogether unknown to us; since we must be conscious of the utter inability, which we then lay under, of foretelling, what would arise from them. Present two smooth pieces of marble to a human, who had no tincture of natural philosophy; one will never discover, that they will adhere together, in such a manner as to require great force to separate them in a direct line, while they make so small a resistance to a lateral pressure. Such events, as bear little analogy to the common course of nature, are also readily confessed to be known only by experience; nor does any human imagine that explosion of gunpowder, or the attraction of a loadstone, could ever be discovered by arguments a priori. In like manner, when an effect is supposed to depend upon an intricate machinery or secret structure of part, we make no difficulty in attributing all our knowledge of it to experience. Who will assert, that one can give the ultimate reason, why milk or bread is proper nourishment for a human, not for a lion or a tiger, bird or dog? #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

However, the same truth may not appear, at first sight, to have the same evidence with regard to events, which have become familiar to us from our first appearance in the World, which bear a close analogy to the whole course of nature, and which are supposed to depend on the simple qualities of objects, without any secret structures of parts. We are apt to imagine, that we could discover these effects by the mere operation of our reason, without experience. We fancy, that were we brought, on a sudden, into this World, we could at first have inferred, that one Billiard-ball would communicate motion to another upon impulse; and that we needed not to have waited for the event, in order to pronounce with certainty concerning it. Such is the influence of custom, that, where it is strongest, it not only covers our natural ignorance, but even conceals itself, and seems not to take place, merely because it is found in the highest degree. However, to convince us, that all the laws of nature, and all the operations of bodies without exception, are known only by experience, the following reflections may, perhaps, suffice. Were any object presented to us, and were we required to pronounce concerning the effect, which will result from it, without consulting past observation; after what manner, I beseech you, mist the mind proceed in this operation? #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

It must invent or imagine some event, which it ascribes to the object as its effect; and it is plain that this invention must be entirely arbitrary. The mind can never possibly find the effect in the supposed cause, by the most accurate scrutiny and examination. For the effect is totally different from the cause, and consequently can never be discovered in it. Motion in the second Billiard-ball is a quite distinct event from motion in the first; nor is there any thing in the one to suggest the smallest hint of the other. A stone or piece of metal raised into the air, and left without any support, immediately falls: However, to consider the mater a priori, is there anything we discover in this situation, which can beget the idea of a downward, rather than an upward, or any other motion, in the stone or metal? And as the imagination or invention of a particular effect, in all natural operations, is arbitrary, where we consult not experience; so must we also esteem the supposed bond or connexion between the cause and effect, which binds them together, and renders it impossible, that any other defect could result from the operation of that cause. When I see, for instance, a Billiard-ball moving in a straight line towards another; even supposed motion in the second ball should by accident be suggested to me, as the result of their contact or impulse; may I not conceive, that a hundred different events might as well follow from that cause? #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

May not both these balls remain at absolute rest? May not the first ball return in a straight line, or leap off from the second in any line or direction? All these suppositions are consistent and conceivable. Why then should we give the preference to me, which is no more consistent or conceivable than the rest? All our reasonings a priori will never be able to show us any foundation for this preference. In a word, then, every effect is a distinct event from its cause. It could not, therefore, be discovered in the cause, and the first invention or conception of it, a priori, must be entirely arbitrary. And even after it is suggested, the conjunction of it with the cause must appear equally arbitrary; since there are always many other effects, which, to reason, must seem fully as consistent and natural. In vain, therefore, should we pretend to determine any single even, or infer any cause or effect, without the assistance of observation and experience. Hence we may discover the reason, why no philosopher, who is rational and modest, has ever pretended to assign the ultimate cause of any natural operation, or to show distinctly the action of that power, which produces any single effect in the Universe. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

It is confessed, that the utmost effort of human reason is, to reduce the principles, productive of natural phenomena, to a greater simplicity, and to resolve the many particular effects into a few general causes, by means of reasonings from analogy, experience, and observation. However, as to the causes of these general causes, we should in vain attempt their discovery; nor shall we ever be able to satisfy ourselves, by any particular explication of them. These ultimate springs and principles are totally shut up from human curiosity and enquiry. Elasticity, gravity, cohesion of parts, communication of motion by impulse; these are probably the ultimate causes and principles which we shall ever discover in nature; and we may esteem ourselves sufficiently happy, if, by accurate enquiry and reasoning, we can trace up the particular phenomena to, nor near to, these general principles. The most perfect philosophy of the natural kind only staves off our ignorance a little longer: As perhaps the post perfect philosophy of the moral or metaphysical kind serves only to discover larger portions of it. Thus the observation of human blindness and weakness is the result of all philosophy, and meets us, at every turn, in spite of our endeavours to elude or avoid it. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

Nor is geometry, when take into the assistance of natural philosophy, ever able to remedy this effect, or lead us into the knowledge of ultimate causes, by all that accuracy of reasoning, for which it is so justly celebrated. Every part of mixed mathematics (equivalent to what would today be called “applied mathematics,” or the application of mathematics or mathematical principles to the physical World and experience, as, for instance, in astronomy, surveying, or the calculation of empirical probabilities) proceeds upon the position, that certain laws are established by nature in her operations; and abstract reasonings are employed, either to assist experience in the discovery of these laws, or to determine their influence in particular instances, where it depends upon any precise degree of distance and quantity. Thus, it is a law of motion, discovered by experience, that the moment of force of any body in motion is in the compound ratio or proportion of its solid contents and its velocity; and consequently, that a small force may remove the greatest obstacle or raise the greatest weight, if, by any contrivance or machinery, we can increase the velocity of that force, so as to make it an overmatch for its antagonist. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

Geometry assists us in the application of this law, by giving us the just dimensions of all the parts and figures, which can enter into any species of machine; but still the discovery of the law itself is owing merely to experience, and all the abstract reasonings in the World could never lead us one step towards the knowledge of it. When we reason a priori and consider merely any object or cause, as it appears to the mind, independent of all observation, it never could suggest to us the notion of any distinct object, such as its effect; much less, show us the inseparable and inviolable connection between them. A human must be very sagacious, who could discover by reasoning, that crystal is the effect of heat, and ice of cold, without being previously acquainted with the operation of these qualities. Among all possible spirits the spirits of the parents are in practice the most important; hence the universal incidence of the ancestor cult. In its original form it served to conciliate the revenants, but on a high level of culture it became an essentially moral and educational institution, as in China. For the child, the parents are one’s closet and most influential relations. In dealing with psychoanalysis, the imago is an unconscious idealized mental image of someone, especially a parent, which influences a person’s behaviour. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

As one grows older this influence is split off; consequently the parental imagos become increasingly shut away from consciousness, and on account of the restrictive influence they sometimes continue to exert, they easily acquire a negative aspect. In this way the parental imagos remain as alien elements somewhere “outside” the psyche. In place of the parents, woman now takes up her position as the most immediate environmental influence in the life of the adult man. She becomes his companion, she belongs to him in so far as she shares his life and is more or less of the same age. She is not of a superior order, either by virtue of age, or authority, or physical strength. She is, however, a very influence factor and, like the parents, she produces an imago of a relatively autonomous nature—not an imago to be split off like that of the parents, but one that has to be kept associated with consciousness. Woman, with her very dissimilar psychology, is and always has been a source of information about things for which a man has no eyes. She can be his inspiration; her intuitive capacity, often superior to man’s, can give him timely warning, and her feeling, always directed towards the personal, can show him ways which is own less personally accepted feeling would never be discovered. Here, without a doubt, is one of the main sources for the feminine quality of the soul. However, it does not seem to be the only source. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

No man is so entirely masculine that he has nothing feminine in him. The fact is, rather, that very masculine men have—carefully guarded and hidden—a very soft emotion life, often incorrectly described as “feminine.” A man counts it’s a virtue to repress his feminine traits as much as possible, just as a woman, at least until recently, considered it unbecoming to be “mannish.” The repression of feminine traits and inclinations naturally causes these constresexual demand to accumulate in the unconscious. No less naturally, the imago of woman (the soul-image) becomes a receptacle for these demands, which is why a man, in his love-choice, is strongly tempted to win the woman who best corresponds to his own unconscious femininity—a woman, in short, who can unhesitatingly receive the projection of his soul. Although such a choice is often regarded and felt as altogether ideal, it may turn out that the man has manifestly married his own worse weakness. This would explain some highly remarkable conjunctions. It seems to me, therefore, that a part from the influence of woman there is also the man’s own femininity to explain the feminine nature of the soul complex. There is no question here of any linguistic “accident,” of the kind that makes the Sun feminine in German and masculine in other languages. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

Once more we are caught in the snare of ontology. If we do not grasp the glory of the cross, life is wasted. Cherish it for the treasure that it is, and cleave to it as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain. What was once imprudence to us—a crucified God-must become our wisdom and our power and our only boast in this World. We have ontologized the symbol of the Cross. The term sacrifice now means sacrifice of the individual Jesus to the ground of being in him. It is not the Father of the New Testament story that receives the sacrifice, but the power of being inside everyone of us. The God of the Old Testament is the God of Theism, a God of love and condescension who guides his people because he loves them. The God of Jesus, his Father, is likewise the God of a religion, to whom we have a relationship of reverence, adoration and even of friendship, but this is not the God of the Cross some think of. The symbol of the Cross reaches above the God for theism. For the Crucified…cried to God who remained his God after the God of confidence had left him in the darkness of doubt and meaninglessness. Taking its cut from this, the Church under the Cross, as now interpreted, raises itself in its message and its devotion to the God above the God of theism without sacrificing its concrete symbols. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

The Church stand for the power of being-itself or for the God who transcends the God of all religions. In this view, the God of theism, the God who has been adored in all religions and who, as it was hitherto believed by Christians, revealed himself in Jesus the Christ, is only a convenient source of concrete symbols for a philosophical theory concerning the power to be. It itself is a symbol of the power to be, the fathomless abyss and ground of being on the surface of which our consciousness floats. The living God is not the God of the philosophers, but the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. However, they could not be more mistaken. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the prophets, the God of Jesus, the God of the Christian tradition, is a concrete but inadequate symbol for the God of the philosophers. That is probably because some of them were born prior to Christ and before the prophecies of him coming to be. The myth of the Cross is a convenient image for the death of the God of theism and his replacement by the power to be. Faith is simply a more or less confused awareness of being-itself, beneath all the concrete experiences of human’s existence. The Christ represents this ground of being when it is known in an intense intuition and feeling of regeneration. The Christ is thus the New Being, the New Creation. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

The Christ is also the Word of God; for the New Being is identical with being-itself, the Ultimate, for which the word “God” provides a traditional symbol. He is the Word because he represents the ground of being in its second aspect, its life-containing capacity. He is crucified because the Cross is an adequate symbol of self-transcendence through self-sacrifice, of the subservience of conscious being to being-itself. The Christ is therefore not merely the God of Christianity; he is the Universal God for whom all have been seeking and whom all have obscurely perceived even in their ignorance and doubt. There are those who claim that truth may be held in error, light in blindness and knowledge in ignorance. While people have faith in the ground of being of philosophers above the concrete being of the Christian God we may say with them: “But it is a mockery to attribute the name of faith to pure obliviousness.” Some may take that view because they are objecting to the concept of implicit faith found in Roman Catholic theology. How much more to the point this protest is as we face the even more remotely implicit faith of some believers with their ontological transcendence of concrete symbols! Whoever knows a thing perfectly, must know all that can bad accidental to it. Now there are some good things to which corruption by evil may be accidental. Hence God would not know good things perfectly, unless He also knows evil things. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

Now a thing is knowable in the degree in which it is; hence since this is the essence of evil that is the privation of good, by the fact that God knows good things, He knows evil things also; as by light is known darkness. God through Himself receives the vision of darkness, not otherwise seeing darkness expect through light. God redeems humans from their lost and fallen state—Those who are carnal remain as though there were no redemption—Christ brings to pass a resurrection to endless life or to endless damnation. About 148 Before Christ. “And now, it came to pass that after Abinadi had spoken these words he stretched forth his hand and said: The time shall come when all shall see the salvation of the Lord; when every nation, kindred, tongue, and people shall see eye to eye and shall confess before God that his judgments are just. And then shall the wicked be cast out, and they shall have cause to howl, and weep, and wail, and gnash their teeth; and this because they would not hearken unto the voice of the Lord; therefore the Lord redeemeth them not. For they are carnal and devilish, and the devil has power over them; yea, even that old serpent that did beguile our first parents, which was the cause of their fall; which was he cause of all humankind becoming carnal, sensual, devilish, knowing evil from good, subjecting themselves to the devil. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

“Thus all humankind were lost; and behold, they would have been endlessly lost were it not that God redeemed his people from their lost and fallen state. However, remember that one tat persists in one’s own carnal nature, and goes on in the ways of sin and rebellion against God, remaineth in their fallen state and the devil hath all power over them. Therefore one is as though there was no redemption made, being an enemy to God; and also is the devil an enemy to God. And now if Christ had not come into the World, speaking of things to come as though they had already come, there could have been no redemption. And if Christ had not come into the World, speaking of tings to come as though they had already come, there could have been no redemption. And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection. However, there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ. He is the light of life of the World; yea, a light that is endless that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

“Even this mortal shall put on immorality, and this corruption shall be put on incorruption, and shall be brought to stand before the car of God, to be judged of one according to their works whether they be good or whether they be evil—if they be god, to the resurrection of endless life and happiness; and if they be evil, to the resurrection of endless damnation, being delivered up to the devil, who hath subjected them, which is damnation—having gone according to their own carnal wills and desires; having never called upon the Lord while the arms of mercy were extended towards them; for the arms of mercy were extended towards them, and they would not; they being warned of their iniquities and yet they would not depart from them; and they were commanded to repent and yet they would not repent. And now, ought ye not to tremble and repent of your sins, and remember that only in and through Christ ye can be saved? Therefore, if ye teach the law of Moses, also teach that it is a shadow of those things which are to come—teach them that redemption cometh through Christ the Lord, who is the very Eternal Father. Amen,” reports Mosiah 16.1-15. God of the passing hour, another week has gone and I have been preserved in my going out, in my coming in. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

Thine has been the vigilance that has turned threatened evils aside; thine the supplies that have nourished me; thine comforts that have indulged me; thine the relations and friends that have delighted me; thine the means of grace which have edified me; thine the Book, which, amidst all my enjoyments has told me that his is not my rest, that in all success one thing alone is needful, to love my Saviour. Nothing can equal the number of Thy mercies but my imperfections and sins. These, O God, I will neither conceal nor palliate, but confess with a broken heart. In what condition would secret reviews of my life leave me were it not for the assurance that with Thee there is plenteous redemption, that Thou art a forgiving God, that Thou be feared! While I hope for pardon through the blood of the cross, I pray to be clothed with humility, to be quickened in Thy way, to be more devoted to Thee, to keep the end of my life in view, to be cured of the folly of delay and indecision, to know how frail I am, to number my days and apply my heart unto wisdom. Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to our prayers, that all we who enter this temple, (the dedication of which we celebrate on this anniversary,) may please Thee with full and perfect devotion of soul and body; that while we now render to Thee our prayers, we may by Thy help be enabled to attain Thine eternal rewards; through our Lord Jesus Christ. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

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She Bowed Like a Madonna, but She is Not Lost in Contemplation of the One!

July 3, 2020 1:40 am

I live on good soup, not on fine words. An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war. The ideas that humans have about themselves both limit the and set them free. An individual can call oneself disabled and that is just what one will limits oneself to being. Or, a human can say one is a free thinker and adventurer and one can get to Neptune and beyond. Adepts not only seek the few who seek them but they also seek the fewer still who are qualified for them. The teacher does not lift the veil of Aaliayh for everyone one meets in the street but one will always lift it for those who ask aright. One cannot help all the millions of humankind. One can help only those who come into sympathetic and receptive contact with one or with one’s work. All the objects of human reason or enquiry may naturally be divided into two kinds, to wit, Relations of Ideas, and Matters of Fact. Of the first kind are the sciences of Trigonometry, Geometry, Algebra, and Arithmetic; and in short, every affirmation, which either intuitively or demonstratively certain. That the square of the hypothenuse is equal to the square of the two sides, is a proposition, which expresses a relation between these figures. That three times five is equal to the half of thirty, expresses a relation between these numbers. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

Propositions of this kind are discoverable by the mere operation of thought, without dependence on what is any where existent in the Universe. Though there never were a circle or triangle in nature, the truths, demonstrated by EUCLID, would forever retain their certainty and evidence. Matters of fact, which are the second objects of human reason, are not ascertained in the same manner; nor is our evidence of their truth, however great, of a like nature with the foregoing. The contrary of every matter of fact is still possible; because it can never imply a contradiction, and is conceived by the mind with the same facility and distinctness, as if ever so conformable to reality. That the Sun will not rise to-morrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction, than the affirmation, that it will rise. We should in vain, therefore, attempt to demonstrate its falsehood. Were in demonstratively false, it would imply a contradiction, and could never be distinctly conceived by the mind. It may, therefore, be a subject worthy of curiosity, to enquire what is the nature of that evidence, which assures us of any real existence and matter of fact, beyond the present testimony of our senses, or the records of our memory. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

This part of philosophy, it is observable, has been little cultivated, either by the ancients or moderns; and therefore our doubts and errors, in the prosecution of so important an enquiry, may be the more excusable; while we march through such difficult paths, without any guide or direction. They may even prove useful, by exciting curiosity, and destroying that implicit faith and security, which is the bane of all reasoning and free enquiry. The discovery of defects in the common philosophy, if any such there be, will not, I presume, be a discouragement, but rather an incitement, as is usual, to attempt something more full and satisfactory, than has yet been proposed to the public. The ultimate materials of imagination must consist of the primary parts of individuals, that is, of sense images, and at least some of their components and qualities. Imaginative activity is anchored in experience and restrained by experience. Further insight into the activity of imagination maybe obtained by examining our treatment of poetry. In its style—the rhythms, cadences, and tones of its language—poetry is restrained, but in all other ways is extremely free and licensed. In all things pertaining to its subject matter, it is dependent upon the imagination, which may at pleasure make unlawful matches and divorces of things. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

In its poetical garb, imagination brings forth feigned history, which is but an imitation of history at pleasure, nevertheless, imagination work within those rational boundaries within which humans believe nature may be enlarged and corrected. Humans want a more perfect nature than pure reason, operating alone, can discover. In perfecting nature, poetry may even take the mind close to something divine: as the sensible World is inferior in dignity to the rational soul, we bestow upon human nature those things which history denies to it; and to satisfy the mind with the shadows of things when the substance cannot be obtained. For if the matter be attentively considered, a sound argument may be drawn to show that there is agreeable to the human soul [animae humanae as “the spirit of human.”] a more ample greatness, a more perfect order, and a more beautiful variety than it can anywhere (since the Fall) find in nature. And therefore, since the acts and events which are the subjects of real history are not of sufficient grandeur to satisfy the human mind, we are at hand to feign acts more heroical; since the successes and issues of actions as related in true history are far from being agreeable to the merits of virtue and vice, we correct it, exhibiting events and fortunes as according to merit and the law of providence; since true history wearies the mind with satiety of ordinary events, like another, we refresh it, by reciting tings unexpected and various and full of vicissitudes. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

So that this we conduce not only to delight but also to magnanimity and morality. Whence it may be fairly thought to partake somewhat of a divine nature; because it raises the mind and carries it aloft, accommodating the shows of things to the desires of the mind, not (like reason and history) buckling and bowing down the mind to the nature of things. When the imagination thus acts, it creates narrative or heroical poetry. This species of verse makes its images such as might pass for real, yet it commonly exaggerates things beyond probability. The imagination sometimes goes quite beyond reason in dreams and visions. Perhaps it is acting irrationally also when it creates images like those of centaur, unicorn, mermaid, satyr, and Pan. These species of literature represents actions as if they were present. There may also be the implied observation that the imagination of a human in an audience is more easily stimulated or responds more intensely than is the case when one is alone. And certainly it is most true, and one of the great secrets of nature, that the minds of humans are more open to impressions and affections when many are gathered together than when they are alone. Hence the stage play can be a powerful instrument in moving humans to virtue. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

Whenever you send a written communication, whether by regular mail or email, your writing style will be on full view. If you make any mistakes, they will reflect on you, so make a point of carefully reviewing everything you write, even informal notes. Want to impress someone? Send them a note, in the mail, handwritten, on nice stationary. They will be impressed. They will remember you. And they will think, “What a nice human being.” People often ask me, “Why should I write a note? Why not send an e-mail?” The answer is easy. If it is a choice between writing an e-mail or doing nothing, write the e-mail. However, if the choice is whether to send a handwritten note or an e-mail, then the handwritten note may just be the best idea. Think of it this way: With an e-mail, you type it, press Send, hope the e-mail makes it through any spam blockers, and then hope the recipient is interested enough by the subject line to actually read it. Once read, one closes it and hits the Delete button. With the handwritten note, after it is written, you place it in an envelope, address, place the correct and official postage stamp on it, and mail it. When the note arrives, the recipient invariably opens it. (Have you ever received a personal letter and not opened it?) Once read, it is placed on a tabletop, desk, or counter, or posted on a bulletin board or on your refrigerator with a magnet. It is seen again and again and each time it is seen, the recipient thinks of you. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

When you receive and open a gift without the giver being present, please send a hand written thank-you note. In fact, even if the giver is present and you thank the individual, send a note anyway. The human will be really impressed. When you stay at someone’s house overnight, send a thank-you note. When you go to someone’s house for dinner, send a thank-you note. Other things to consider. Send a note saying congratulations for graduating or on a promotion or new job, or when a new addition to the family had arrived or a special anniversary or birthday is being celebrated. Nonetheless, one of the hardest notes to send and one of the most appreciated notes to receive is the bereavement note. We all experience the loss of a loved one or close friend and when we do it is devastating. The notes of sympathy and remembrance are a catalyst to helping get through the pain of the loss. It seems like such a small thing from the perspective of the sender. However, for the recipient those notes are a powerful comfort to help deal with the loss. Take some time to think about something short and heartfelt to say and maybe get a friend to review it to make sure it is received well. Now, what to say in a thank-you note. It is easy. When writing a thank-you note, keep it short and sweet. Just three to five sentences is all you need. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

To highlight how to write a nice thank-you note:

Dear Tori, and Jill,

What a great weekend! The dinner party Saturday night could not have been better, and I enjoyed meeting all your new friends in Tofino, British Columbia. Hope we can get together soon, and I really enjoyed the shepherd’s pie. Hope we can get together again soon.

Thanks for making my visit such a pleasure.

Randolph

(Maximum time to write: ten minutes. Maximum benefit to you: incalculable.)

#RandolphHarris 8 of 20

To be someone’s disciple is to go farther in relationship than to be one’s student. What is the number of the house? What do I see? A public display of fancy articles. My beautiful stranger, it may be shocking on my part, but I am following the bright path. She has forgotten what happened—ah, yes, when one is seventeen years old, when one goes shopping in this happy age, when every single large or little object picked up gives unspeakable delight, then one really forgets. As yet she has not seen me: I am standing at the other end of the counter, far off by myself. There is a mirror on the opposite wall; she is not contemplating it, but the mirror is contemplating her. How faithfully it has caught her image, like a humble slave who shows his devotion by his faithfulness, a slave for whom she certainly has significance but who has no significance for her, who indeed dares to capture her but not to hold her. Unhappy mirror, which assuredly can grasp her image but not her; unhappy mirror, which cannot secretly hide her image in itself, hide it from the whole World, but can only disclose it to others as it now does to me. What torture if a human being were fashioned that way. And yet are there not many people who are like that, who possess nothing except at the moment when they are showing it to others, who merely grasp the surface, not the essence, lose everything when this is going to show itself, just as the mirror would lose her image if she were to disclose her heart to it by a single breathe. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

And if a person were unable to possess an image in recollection at the very moment of presence, one must ever wish to be at a distance from beauty, not so close that the mortal eyes cannot see the beauty of that which one holds in one’s embrace and which the external eyes have lost, which he, to be sure, can regain for the external vision by distancing himself from it, but which one can, in fact, have before the eye of his soul when he cannot see the object because it is to close to him, when lips are clinging to lips. How beautiful she is! Poor mirror, it must be tormenting—it is good that you do not know jealousy. The master will teach with love what the student must learn with reverence. 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 felt it can understand how one is able to exert such drawing power and arouse such fervid devotion in disciples. There is intimacy in the fellowship between teacher and disciple which is unique. There is an impersonality in this most personal human relationship which equally unique. No other relationship, whether familial or friendly, can compare with this relationship in depth or beauty or value. There is no bound so strong, no attraction so deep as that between Master and pupil. Consequently it persists through incarnation after incarnation. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

It is a special kind of relationship, one which is less dependent on physical conditions than any other human relationship. If they never meet again, never see each other again, it remains unchangeably the same to the end. One must be eloquent when one unveils the symbolism of the Cross. One can only admire one’s reverence for the mystery which is revealed and the depth which one sees in it. And one can hardly resist quoting one at length again and again. Yet one feels a certain embarrassment. One can sense the impression of having discovered the fullness of the symbol of the Cross. One praises the Fathers who composed the Apostles’ creed for the fact that one of its great features is that in all-embracing second article it has enumerated symbols of subjection along with symbols of victory. Credit should therefore be given to them for reading the symbolism of the Cross and confessing its relevance to Christian faith. However, I see their confession only an anticipation: they anticipated the basic structure in which the universal significance of Jesus the Christ as the bearer of the New Being must be seen. Who fulfilled the anticipation, one is left to imagine. One thing is certain. The anticipation is not fulfilled by Christianity. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

Christianity may be great. Whenever the hardness and the crust are broken through and the substance becomes visible, it exercises a peculiar fascination; then we see what we have now lost, and a deep yearning awakens in us for the departed youth of our culture. However, Christianity is consistently heteronomous. Refusing to place itself under the judgment, it implicitly rejects the Cross. It has abandoned the prophetic spirit which says “no” together with “yes” and “yes” together with “no.” Ecclesiastically limited Christianity, petrified and mechanized in its forms, is unable to place itself on the Cross and, through repentance and self-condemnation, to give itself a new life. Just as Jesus could not have been the Christ without sacrificing himself as Jesus to himself as the Christ, so must a Church sacrifice itself. The criterion of the truth of faith is that it implies an element of self-negation. Christianity professes no such element. Driven by this criterion, Protestantism has criticized the Roman Church. This Church has been led into forms of idolatry because she did not take seriously enough the Cross of the Christ. Only in Protestantism has the Cross been given its due place. Protestantism is not only a protest, it is also—and above all—Christianity. It is also and above all the bearer and mediator of the New Being manifest in Jesus Christ. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

Protestantism is thus found wherever—even outside of Protestant denominations, even outside of professedly Christian groups—the boundary-situation is proclaimed to be the very situation of salvation; wherever the meaning of the Cross is announced; wherever the Christian substance is preached under the shadow of the Cross. The fact that this criterion is identical with the Protestant principle and has become reality in the Cross of the Christ constitutes the superiority of Protestant Christianity. Yet not all Protestantism is thus saved. The end of the Protestant era means precisely that institutional Protestantism is no longer the standard-bearer of the Protestant principle. It is merely on the defensive. If the protest against itself on the basis of an experience of God’s majesty constitutes the Protestant principle, it is evident that the Churches are not engaged in protesting against themselves. The basic problem of Protestant institutions is to elaborate beneficial forms of life while constantly denying their sufficiency. This is so difficult that my objection to institutionalism may be turned against me. If to institutionalize salvation often entails a withdrawal of the element of self-negation, an undermining of the meaning of the Cross, is not me myself transcending self-negation when I proclaim the superiority of Protestant Christianity? #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

This pride in superiority is as arrogant as the sacramental authority of bishops and priests has ever been. If a claim to superiority is clearly justified, a moderate pride in it may be forgiven. Yet how Protestant is Protestantism? The institutional Churches being partly discarded, what remains? There remain those who are, Protestant unawares. Where are the Protestants? They are wherever Protestantism appears as the prophetic spirit which lists where it will, without ecclesiastical conditions, organizations and tradition. Thus it will operate through Christianity as well as through orthodoxy, through freedom as well as through capitalism. The question is, Are the Reformers themselves among these disciples of the ground of being? It is by fidelity to the Cross that the God of Protestantism has no sacraments which can be divorced from the prophetic message and therefore no priesthood and no genuine cult. Two comments are pertinent. In the first place, how can Christian faith involve a true relation to God if it does not inspire adoration? And adoration means cults. In the second place, it has always been the Christian understanding of the Cross that the Cross was an expression, a symbol, of worship. This is why the Church Fathers saw in it the unique sacrifice of the Son of God. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

Christianity has embodied this in its theology of the Eucharist, which is a re-presentation of the unique sacrifice of the Cross, of the cult offered by Jesus the Christ of the Father. The Reformers strenuously maintained that, in the words of the Confession of Augsburg, “The Passion of Christ was an oblation and a satisfaction.” That is, it was an act of divine cult. How Christ is both the Father and the Son—He will make intercessions and bear the transgressions of His people—they and all the holy prophets are His seed—He brings to pass the Resurrection—little children have eternal life. About 148 Before Christ. “And now Abinadi said unto them: I would that ye should understand that God Himself shall come down among the children of humans, and shall redeem His people. And because He dwelleth in flesh He shall be called the Son of God, and having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father, being the Father and the Son—the Father, because He was conceived by the power of God; and the Son, because of the flesh; this becoming the Father and Son—and they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of Heaven and of Earth. And thus the flesh becoming subject to the Spirit, or the Son to the Father, being one God, suffereth temptation, and yieldth not to the temptation, but suffereth oneself to be mocked, and scourged, and cast out, and disowned by His people. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

“And after all this, after working many mighty miracles among the children of humans, He shall be led, yea, even as Isaiah said, as a sheep before the shearer is dumb, so one opened not one’s mouth. Yea, even so one shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father. And thus God breaketh the bands of death, having gained the victory over death; giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of humans—having ascended into Heaven, having the bowels of mercy; being filled with compassion towards the children of humans; standing betwixt them and justice; having broke the bands of death, taken upon Himself their iniquity and their transgressions, having redeemed them, and satisfied the demands of justice. And now I say unto you, who shall declare one’s generation? Behold, I say unto you, that when one’s soul has been made an offering for sin one shall see one’s seed. And now what say ye? And who shall be his seed? Behold I say unto you, that whosoever has heard the words of the prophets, yea, all the holy prophets who have prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord—I say unto you, that all those who have hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem His people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are His seed, or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

“For these are they whose sins He has borne; these are they for whom He has died, to redeem them from their transgressions. And now are they not his seed? Yea, and are not the prophets, every one that has opened one’s mouth to prophesy, that has no fallen into transgression, I mean all the holy prophets ever since the World began? I say unto you that they are his seed. And these are they who have published peace, who have brought good tidings of good, who have published salvation; and said unto Zion: Thy God reigneth! And O how beautiful upon the mountains were their feet! And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that are still publishing peace! And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who shall hereafter publish peace, yea, from this time henceforth and forever! And behold, I say unto you, this is not all. For O how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of one that bringeth good tidings, that is the founder of peace, yea, His people; yea, Him who has granted salvation unto His people. For were it not for the redemption which He hath made for His people, which was prepared from the foundation of the World, I say unto you, were it not for this, all humankind must have perished. However, behold, the bands of death shall be broken, and the Son reigneth, and hath power over the dead; therefore, He bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

“And there cometh a resurrection, even a first resurrection; yea, even a resurrection of those that have been, and who are, and who shall be, even until the resurrection of Christ—for so shall he be called. And now, the resurrection of all the prophets, and all those that have believed in their words, or all those that have kept the commandments of God, shall come forth in first resurrection; therefore, they are the first resurrection. They are raised to dwell with God who has redeemed them; thus they have eternal life through Christ, who has broken the bands of death. And these are those who have part in the first resurrection; and these are they that have died before Christ came, in their ignorance, not having salvation declared unto them. And thus the Lord bringeth about the restoration of these; and they have a part in the first resurrection, or have eternal life, being redeemed by the Lord. And little children also have eternal life. However, behold, and fear, and tremble before God, for ye ought to tremble; for the Lord redeemeth none such that rebel against him and die in their sins; yea, even all those that have perished in their sins ever since the World began, that have willfully rebelled against God, that have known the commandments of God, and would not keep them; these are they that have no part in the first resurrection. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

“Therefore ought ye not to tremble? For salvation cometh to none such; for the Lord hath redeemed none such; yea, neither can the Lord redeem such; for He cannot deny Himself; for He cannot deny justice when it has its claim. And now I say unto you that the time shall come that the salvation of the Lord shall be declared to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. Yea, Lord, Thy watch-people shall lift up their voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted His people, He hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the Earth shall see the salvation of our God,” reports Mosiah 15.1-31. O God of Love, I approach Thee with encouragement derived from Thy character, for I am not left to feel after Thee in the darkness of my nature, nor to worship Thee as the unknown God. I cannot find out Thy perfections, but I know Thou art good, ready to forgive, plenteous in mercy. Thou hast displayed Thy wisdom, power, and goodness in all Thy works, and hast revealed thy will in the Scripture of truth. Thou hast caused it to be preserved, translated, published, multiplied, so that all humans may possess it and find thee in it. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

Here I see Thy greatness and Thy grace, Thy pity and Thy rectitude, Thy mercy and Thy truth, Thy being and human’s hearts; through it Thou hast magnified Thy name, and favoured humankind with the gospel. Please have mercy on me, for I have ungratefully received Thy benefits, little improved my privileges, made light of spiritual things, disregarded Thy messages, contended with examples of the god, rebukes of conscience, admonitions of friends, leadings of providence. I deserve that Thy kingdom be taken away from me. Lord, I confess my sin with feeling, lamentation, a broken heart, a contrite spirit, self-abhorrence, self-condemnation, self-despair. Please give me relief by Jesus my hope, faith in His name of Saviour, forgiveness by His blood, strength by His presence, holiness by His Spirit: And please let me love Thee with all my heart. O God, Who although Thou art wholly present everywhere, and containest all thing with Thine own Majesty, yet hast willed that places suitable for Thy Mysteries should be consecrated unto Thee, that the house of Prayer should themselves stir up the minds of Thy suppliants to call upon this place, and show to all who hope in Thee the gift of Thine assistance; that here they may obtain both the virtue of Thy Sacraments, and the effect of their own prayers; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

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O God, Who art the Author of all gifts which are to be consecrated unto Thee, be pleased in Thy goodness to be present for the sanctification of this place; that they who have built it in honour of Thy Name may be enabled to have Thee for their Protector in all things; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #CresleighHomes

Randolph Harris II International Institute

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