Randolph Harris II International Institute

Reality is not fundamentally material but mental, or the substance of consciousness; thus everything is ultimately a thought, and every thought is somehow real. And since even the distinction between anything and my thinking of it is also mental, not bodily, the process of knowing is practically identical with whatever is known. The universal consciousness is independent of any mind knowing it and human consciousness, therefore, is a separate reality moving from one thought to another with the existing totality. This doctrine of universal consciousness—reality existing apart from any single mind is the greatest possible identity or measure of that which is actual or true—beyond our culture or environment. It is God, and everything unseen that generates from God—as opposed to the physical World in which we live. Eternal reality, includes all that comes from and is defined by God, and is the supreme invisible ramification of everything spiritual, psychological and emotional. There is only one true Reality; it is the One, beyond all possible description because it is the most fundamental through conceivable (like consciousness itself). The One already contains the whole Universe, absolutely unified, within itself, leaving its oneness uninfected with plurality. Consequently, all other things, considered by themselves as if independent of the One, cannot be truly real but only more or less apparently real or less real. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13

The eternal One seemingly declines into increasing plurality until it reaches our daily consciousness, the endless succession of only vaguely meaningful experiences, and, conversely, to explain how our ordinary consciousness can increasingly succeed in grasping the ultimate meaning of everything. The inconsistency is this: although the One is the only Reality, it is described as apparent decline into plurality with highly detailed attention, thereby turning the focus away from the One to the neatly arranged successive states of lesser realities (increasing appearances), which are then carefully analyzed as if independent entities. This therefore is a doctrine of emanation according to which the single Reality radiates from itself innumerable lesser yet independent realities. The doctrine stems from the objective—idealistic approach which, although it treats the substance of the Universe as consciousness, regards the Universe as existing apart from any knowing mind. All things are in all proper manner. Accordingly, every reality or consciousness is mirrored in and therefore appropriately colored by every other consciousness. For example, the One is known by the human mind but in a human manner, whereas the human appearance exists within the One Reality in its one real nature. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13

The One becomes treated as disintegrating gradually, flowing into its many appearances, and the Universe becomes a single organization of consciousness, an eternal movement of thought from higher to lower and back again. We have an organically interacting Universe of consciousness. The One reality and the many appearances of daily consciousness are chosen by two standards: first, deduction from ontological principles and second, the voice of Platonic tradition. The Church comes across as a good cause, which is in danger of collapsing for a lack of support in its efforts to act as the gateway to eternal reality. The kingdom of God is challenged by popular culture and the establishment of norms of these days. We are called to be the vanguard of the Kingdom of God—an eternal realm and rule that is breaking into this World with a different view of what it is to be human, and what it is to be eternal. The depth and validity of our identity is demonstrated by our commitment to God. We cannot let Western society become an increasingly unchurched culture. In the south people get dressed on go to church on their day of worship and it is one of the main social gatherings of the town. A correct understanding of our Heavenly heritage is essential to exaltation. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13

We are not simple people who believe in happiness; nor weaklings who crumple to the ground in distress at the first reverse; nor skeptics observing the bloody effort of marching humanity from the lofty heights of a mocking, sterile wit. Believing in the fight, though we entertain no illusions about it, we are armed against every disappointment.  Every reality has its own power, meaning primarily the authority to imply or cause that which is derived from it (for example, the eternal concept of Identity, implying all particular cases of identity in the World, has the power to indicate or produce them), and meaning also the power to be implied by, or the Effect of, that from which it is itself derived and, metaphorically, the power to return to this cause (for example, any two identical terms have the power to be identical, and by expressing identity, they point or return to the eternal Identity as their source). “We believe in God, the Eternal Father,” reports Articles of Faith 1.1. We understand that God the Father is the Supreme President of the Universe, the Power that gave us spiritual being, and the Author of the plan that gives us hope and potential. He is our Heavenly Father, and we lived in the Lord’s presence as part of his family in the premortal life. There we learned lesson and prepared for mortality. We came from our Heavenly Father, and our goal is to return to him. #RandolphHarris 4 of 13

Our most fundamental doctrine includes the knowledge that we are children of a living God. That is why one of the Lord’s most sacred names is Father—Heavenly Father. In reality this doctrine is among the most extraordinary knowledge we can obtain. It is foundational to comprehending the glorious plan of salvation and to nurturing faith. Further, it provides continual motivation for us to make and keep our indispensable eternal covenants. Between every reality and the one(s) derived from it there is a third, connecting reality called the activity of the first, or the process by which the first implies the second, and this activity has its own power. For example, the eternal Identity uses its power to make all particular cases of identity possible, and this possibility, in turn, has the power to make them actual. It is called the cause’s activity. The complete series becomes the first reality, or cause; its power to imply the second; it activity, the process of implication, or the possibility of the second; the power of this process actually to result in the second; the second reality, or effect; and, less important, the power of the second reality to be the effect on the first. Here on Earth, we identify ourselves in many different ways, including our place of birth, our nationality, and our language. Some even identify themselves by their occupation or their hobby. These Earthly identities are not wrong unless they supersede or interfere with our eternal identity—that of being a son or a daughter of God. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13

In answering the problem of how something can be something else—that is, how it can possess a characteristic or quality outside itself—every characteristic first exists in a perfect form, a reality prior to and the cause of all the many imperfect instances or examples of that characteristic, and each of these individual, imperfect characteristics is in turn prior to and the cause of whatever thing happens to possess it. For example, the Perfect Unity produces the class of all the imperfect unities possessed by things, although the unity possessed by, say, a person is regarded as being his of her direct cause. Only imperfect characteristics are possessed by things; the original perfect form is not possessed by anything and is called the unpossessed. Since the One is the cause of all everything else, it should have the supremacy to imply all its effects; but if the One were a reality having a power, it would acquire a particular description, whereas it must be absolutely universal and beyond all descriptions. The One’s reality is distinct from the One itself and, its power. These concepts are respectively called definiteness and infinity. Among all doctrines, beliefs, and principles revealed to the Lord’s children, the truths are related to God’s being and nature should stand as the preeminent focus. We acknowledge God’s existence and true nature in order to join with ancient believers and prophets in true worship. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13

As the First Cause, the One has its own activity, the process by which it implies everything else and within which the rest of the Universe is already potentially contained. And the power of this activity. The One’s first effect is the vast class of the oneness or unities. The purpose of all that the Father has revealed, commanded, and initiated for the inhabitants of Earth is to help us come to know the Lord, emulate the Lord, and become like the Lord so we can return to God’s holy presence. Eternal life is to know the Father and the Savior. Here the One is considered the unpossessed, perfect form of unity, the most fundamental characteristic conceivable (like the possibility of being conscious), which must therefore be possessed by everything in the Universe, so that all possessed, imperfect instances of unity are collectively the One’s first effect. Each unity, in turn, is a cause having its own power, activity, and the power of this activity; the unity’s own effect is that individual thing which possessed it. Hence, the Universe, or the class of all things possessing the characteristic of unity, including the World’s appearances, is the One’s final effect. Central to knowing the Father is understanding the revealed pattern of family. The family is the most important unity in time and in eternity, and is ordained by God. #RandolphHarris 7 of 13

Living in loving family relationships not only brings us great happiness, but is also helps us learn correct principles and prepares us for eternal life. In addition, family relationships help us know, love, and understand the Father. This is why we have always emphasized the importance of marriage and family both in the Church and in society. God’s plan provides a way for family relationships to extend beyond the grave. We can return to the presence of God, eternally united with our families. There are five levels of reality. There is a realm of Ideas; each Idea is the one eternal, perfect from all examples of any one kind, but each Idea coexists with all the many other Ideas in one realm, a logical bridge between the absolute One and the infinitely varied, fleeting appearances of daily consciousness. Between these Ideas and the appearances, there is a bridging concept—a World Soul, or energy moving through the World, copying the Ideas in the material of appearances, thus transforming an unchanging, perfect Idea into its many changing, imperfect examples. With clarity and quiet, look upon the World and say: All that I see hear, taste, smell, and touch are the creations of my mind. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13

The five levels of reality in the Universe are highly integrated with one another because they are parts of a single cause-and-effect system. They are called: Being, the cause; Power, the power of this cause; Mind, the activity of the cause, in which all the effects are potentially contained and part of which is identified with the realm of Ideas; Soul and/or Nature, the power of this activity, one function of which is identified with the World Soul; and Becoming, or the World of appearances, which are the effects. The great variety of fleeting appearances descend into a series of increasingly weaker, more dependent but therefore simpler and eternal concepts (such as quantity, negation, and so on), which mirror in reverse the ascending series of stronger, clearer, and thus also simpler, eternal realities. The absolutely lowest concept of reality is matter, which is merely the power of everything to be caused by the One. Our Heavenly Father has chosen not to reveal many details of our premortal life we had when we lived with him to us. Perhaps this is because we can learn many things simply by observing the pattern for righteous families he established on the Earth. Carefully observing and conscientiously living in accordance with righteous family patterns on Earth is at the core of our quest to know the Father. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13

Because of these two hierarchies, the premortal World and the material World, ascending and descending, the World picture becomes diamond shaped: the highest eternal causes and the lowest yet also eternal effects are few in number, whereas the greatest variety occurs in the World of appearances. Thus, there is a previously unsuspected close relationship between the so-called highest and lowest realities. Heavenly Father and family are inseparably connected. Sometimes I stop in think, is Earth really all that bad, and how much better could Heaven be? Maybe it is all a state of mind. After all, my grandfather once said this is Heaven. Although somethings bother me, I actually like it. For instance, the ability to buy a car and drive it, and the dream of owning a physical mansion with the steeply pitched roof, with so many halls and rooms that it seems like walking through a maze. Metaphysical language constantly alternates with a religious, theological vocabulary. When we understand the many dimensions of this connection, we can begin to comprehend more completely how personal and individual are Heavenly Father’s love for and relationship to each of us. The basis of this correlation between philosophy and theology is that the One is God or the Godhead. Understanding how he feels about us gives us the power to love the Lord more purely and fully. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13

 Thus, all the eternal unities produced by the One become gods, and all other eternal realities, which must possess these characteristics of unity, become equated with particular divine beings of the Greek pantheon, their relationships being described in terms borrowed from Greek mythology, including the Orphic Pythagorean tradition, or even the myths in Plato’s dialogues. In using religious language, our intentions are basically sincere. It has been the rule rather than the exception for idealists to identify the ultimate Reality with God, the object of worshipful and spirit-exalting attitudes. I said to the almond tree: “Speak to me of God,” and the almond tree blossomed. Personally feeling the reality, love, and power of that relationship is the source of the deepest and sweetest emotions and desires that can come to a man or women in mortality. These deep emotions of love can motivate us and give us power in times of difficulty and trail to draw closer to our Father. Every human being and everything on Earth is a begotten spirit or atom of our Heavenly Father. Begotten is an adjectival form of the verb beget and means brought into being. Beget is the expression used in the scriptures to describe the process of giving life. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13

For some, religious performing involves daily devotions to the Sun and Moon and celebrating not only the Greek but also the Egyptian and other Near Eastern religious holidays. And divine beings are simply names associated with the existing concepts of their metaphysics and are described by means of these concepts. Ethics are founded upon the statement that the One is also the Good—that is, the final goal of life’s efforts. This means not only that we should consciously strive to reach the One but also that essentially we are always seeking it, even if subconsciously and, thus, randomly. For everything that is the effect of some cause is said automatically to return to that cause. Consequently, for some philosophers, ethics is almost nothing but their metaphysics in reverse—a retracing from the lowest human level to the highest Reality of the stages through which the highest originally declined into that lowest. Thus, we are urged to renounce the appearances of the body, meaning unnecessary physical desires, social relationships, and political interest—indeed, all the misleading appearances of the senses, imaginations, and mere opinions. Conversely, we are urged to concentrate on rational knowledge, which prepares the individual mind for intuitive knowing, or the ability to grasp such eternal Ideal realities as Mind, Power, Being. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13

However, how can human consciousness rise from particular realities, which are still objects of knowledge separate from the knower, to the One Reality itself, which is an all-inclusive unity? Between this unity and human consciousness the most direct links are the many unities, since each consciousness has its own unity; and that internal method by which each consciousness perceives its own unity or divinity called faith. We use the traditional term, but define it as a higher kind of intuition for which certain persons have an innate predisposition and which in others can be stimulated, but are not actually taught. Perceiving its own unity, consciousness can mystically jump, in a fit of divine madness, into the unity of all things (the One), making contact with it, then approaching it, then uniting with it—the absolutely final goal of all life’s previous efforts. Without the great Plan of Eternal God, humanity would unavoidably perish. “The Spirit of revelation must be in each and every individual, to know the plan of salvation and keep in the path that leads us to the presence of God,” reports Journal of Discourses 9.279. So vital is this framework that is one strays or strays outside it, one risks provinciality and misery. In fact, most human misery represents ignorance of or noncompliance with the plan. A cessation of such mortal suffering will not come without compliance to it. Hence, the Lord, who has freely shared this vital knowledge with us, has urged us to teach the fundamentals of this plan freely. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13

July 19, 2018 11:56 pm

We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life. We cannot know the Universe as we can know its individual parts; only God can do this. Rather, the ultimate harmony may justifiably be spoken of as an object of faith—something which we are constrained to believe, even though we do not fully see it as of yet. The individual is merged in the universal, and the uniqueness of the individual person is an important kaleidoscopic of religious, moral, intellectual and social demands of the contemporary soul. It is only as knower that the self is a unifying principle. If individuality has no play, society does not advance; if individuality breaks out of all bounds, society perishes. As real beings, each of us must find some way not only of meeting our own personal needs, but also of helping to meet the larger (though not necessarily more important) needs of other people. It is sometimes tricky to find solutions that accomplish all this. Most of us run into issues every day: our needs versus their needs, or those of the family, club, career, or nation. Few problems occupy a more central spot in our scale of human values. In many ways, it is the job of our personalities to figure out answers to this dilemma—to mediate between society’s push and pull and the insistent demands of the self. We can be separate and distinct, impervious to other selves. We all have a center of our own—a will of our own—a center which we maintain even in our dealings with God. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

 A person is worthwhile just because he or she is human. One does not have to earn that worth. We feel this to be so; it neither needs to nor can be established by argument. However, God too is a Person; we cannot deny him self-consciousness, because this is the highest source of worth in ourselves. The individual within the individual—those memories, thoughts, and feelings which make each of us a separate soul is part of our nature. Our physiological needs are very powerful because survival depends on their satisfaction. Religion and poetry are rich parts of our heritage and they go as far and deep as philosophy. The experiences these tools provide all communicate something and we can only begin to speculate as to the hidden depths, heights, and reaches of the mind. However, we know that these vocations are often times spiritual in nature and teach people intelligence and concern and respect for humanity, as they summon all our humanistic skills to prevent us from becoming a society of oppression, and control, without individual rights. As our World was never meant to resemble a gigantic Skinner box (an operant conditioning chamber used as a laboratory apparatus to study behavior), in which we all functions like well-conditioned pigeons. Each of us has a definite stake in ensuring that freedom of individual and social existence will spread and become the norm everywhere. However, that will not happen automatically. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

We can encourage the existence of freedom, individual dignity, and many other cherished human values to become more real and more universal. If this is to be the pattern of the future, we need to ensure that humanistic persons are among those selected to set society’s goals, to establish the norms, to program the activities, and to produce the learning. To believe in the human condition might be regarded as the attitude of a fool, but to despair of it is the act of a coward. We cannot give up our human responsibilities nor forget the essential lessons of the word ecology: that we are all part of each other, and what affects one of us affect us all. There is no way in which we can overemphasize this idea. It represents to us the ultimate striving of the species we call the Human Being. “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give us a spirit of unity,” reports Romans 15.4-5. Our knowledge of the Absolute starts from experience—our experience of the concrete Worlds of morality, of beauty, of love or the passion of the intellectual life. It is, however, a postulate of reason that the World is a cosmos, not a chaos, which we can gradually explore, but never grasp in its entirety. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

There are also other miracles, which we only have debate to guide us in trying to understand our place in the cosmos. Because of our large idealism, as human beings, we reconcile the dictates of morality and religion with the findings of science, with the purpose being to surpass our finite limits in the search of the supreme category—the infinite. Through history, humans have never been content with the limits imposed on us, and through sheer determination have done things which seemed impossible at some point. Modern marvels like invention of cars, airplanes, the Internet, skyscrapers, and space travel are truly miracles. It is through the exercise of the powers of the soul that human progress is achieved. The soul can discover the realities of things, comprehend the peculiarities of beings, and penetrate the mysteries of existence. All sciences, knowledge, arts, wonders, institutions, discoveries and enterprises come from the exercised intelligence of the rational soul. There was a time when such realities were unknown, preserved mysteries and hidden secrets; the rational soul gradually discovered them and brought them out from the plane of the invisible and the hidden into the realm of the visible. The nature of the soul is such that it is reasonable to entertain the hypothesis of its survival, and since human spirits must be values for God they were surely not made to be constantly destroyed and replaced by others. Yet, if there is personal immortality, it is not the inherent possession of every human soul, but must be won by the continuous effort needed to develop a coherent self. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

 Mortality does not depend on personal immortality, nor need immortality be the central article of philosophy or religion. Yet, as much as we are open to philosophical debate, our personal mystery of the soul is ultimately determined by our own unquantifiable choice (belief). In the apprehension of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness—eternal realities—some believe that humans have already tasted eternal life and so should not be much concerned about personal survival.  The soul is the energetic nature of our being. It allows for the notion of reincarnation, and also the controlling beliefs of Heaven and Hell to try to impose some form of control on the human will. “Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of that age, one should become a fool so that one may become wise. For the wisdom of this World is foolishness in God’s sight,” reports 1 Corinthians 3.16-19. Our soul is a continuum which connects, records, and informs us eternally. It is the life of the Universe. “God catches the wise in their craftiness. The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile,” reports 1 Corinthians 3.19-20. The soul is interpreted as God, the power, the creator. It is the “demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that our faith might not rest on human’s wisdom, but on God’s power,” reports 1 Corinthians 2.5. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

When we have the required age and maturity through the exercise of our faith, it is important to never do anything that would make us unworthy of it. If we have lost the vision of eternal life, we have to rekindle it. If our dreams require patience, we must give it. Never become overanxious. We have to do the best we can. We cannot say whether that blessing will be obtained on this side of the veil or beyond it, but the Lord will keep his promises. In God’s infinite wisdom, the Lord will make possible for all of us to qualify in worthiness to receive eternal life. Do not be discouraged. Living a pattern of life as close as possible to the ideal will provide much happiness, great satisfaction, and impressive growth while here on Earth regardless of our current life circumstances. The great wicked one and his hosts will do all in their power to keep us from obtaining the ordinances required for the ideal family. They will attempt to distract us from centering our mind and heart on raising a strong family, but by nurturing our kinship as the Lord requires, we still are electives for eternal life. Are there so many fascinating, exciting things to or so many challenges pressing down upon us that it is hard to keep focused on that which is essential? When things of the in crowd, all too often the wrong things take priority, then it is easy to forget the fundamental purpose of life. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

The adversary has a powerful tool to use against good people. It is a distraction. He or she would have good people fill life with good things so there is no room for essential one. Have some of us unconsciously been caught in that trap? “People are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto humans. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all people, or to choose captivity and death, for the wicked adversary seeks that all people might be miserable like unto himself,” reports 2 Nephi 2.27. Why has our moral agency been given to us? Only to live a pleasurable life and to make choices to do the things we want to do? Or is there a more fundamental reason—to be able to make choices that will lead us to fully implement our purpose for being here on Earth and to establish priorities in our lives that will assure the development and happiness the Lord wants us to receive. We must try with every capacity to embrace the truth. We are led by the Spirit to understand our purpose for being on Earth, which is to achieve eternal life, and how to accomplish it. We must pray that the Lord will help us choose the right priorities. Otherwise, we will fail in life’s purpose. Some of our parents have taught us from infancy to unwaveringly life the commandments of God. By example and precept, they nurtured us in truth. They encouraged the development of discipline and sacrifice to obtain worthy goals. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

Over the years, the consistent pattern of righteous living—woven from hundreds of correct decisions, some in the face of great challenge—will develop a character of strength and capacity. Sometimes we see people become successful and they stray from the teachings of God, and it is noticeable that they become increasingly more wicked. When you talk to them, they even start to sound evil. As we watch them sinking from the Lord, like the Titanic, all we can do is pray for them. However, some successful people stay in the Lord and live righteously, and those are the type of people we want to be around. It is never too late for a person to turn their life around and do the right thing. While wholesome pleasure results from much of what we do that is good, it is not our prime purpose for being on Earth. We must seek to know and do the will of the Lord, not just what is convenient or what makes life easy. We have God’s plan of eternal life and happiness. We know what to do, or can find out through study and prayer. We should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of our free will, and bring to pass much righteousness. For the power is in us, wherein we are agents unto ourselves. And inasmuch as we do good, we shall in no way lose our reward. The goal of ephemeral life is immortality!  #RandolphHarris 8 of 8

July 18, 2018 8:19 pm

True strength resides in the soul of someone who faces adversity and does not run away. Life can be hard and requires courage of wise people. Courage is a mental quality. We all have it, even if it is not obvious at first. Psychological courage can set the foundation for the rest of our lives. God gives us the ability to possess an uncommonly potent soul and gain highly formidable abilities as a result of the soul’s power. Prayer gives of the equivalent to the power of many souls which comes in handy in situations that test one’s spiritual fortitude and grants spiritual abilities. When we place our faith in God, our soul is unable to be bound by anything and lives free without being held by back another force on Earth. When we increase our faith it God, this strengthens our soul and gives us the power to possess massive levels of life energy. Growth allows us to become stronger and also allows us to become more aware of our abilities, wisdom, and intuition. When we become more aware of our beneficial characteristics, we create mentally strong habits that allow us to view life with more optimism, grace, and thoughtfulness. Our greatness resides within our ability to recover. Now the strong soul, having adjusted itself in these hours of patience, may use its meticulously garnered power to build assets, which include a healthier body and mind, more accomplishments to our names, self-reliance, and more credibility. There will be reward given by God for our efforts of enduring and being faithful. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7

Those who never give up on God and keep in mind God will never gave up  on them, the Lord will help them in their time of need. Spiritual substances and material things can interact because God represents both and connects them. Human perceptions are an effect of God’s real vision. Spiritual and material things are both real because God represents them; material things are real in a further sense, as phaenomena substantiata, insofar as God represents them as real. This divine representation is the cause of the real existence.  The soul knows more than the person knows, and is wiser than the individual. Becoming truly self-aware and conscious is dependent upon our ability to listen and to gain the intelligent wisdom of our own body, mind, and soul. They will help to inform us about our true nature, so that we can consistently improve our internal coherence and strengthen our moral character. One may elect to be a useful soul, a strong soul, a good soul, a beautiful one, a truthful soul. To occupy all the chambers is to be well balanced and fitted to love. Authentic spirituality empowers us to bring the light of the Spirit into darkness and retain direction and truth in the face of confusion. “Let the light so shine that they see good works and God your father,” reports 3 Nephi 12.16. Spiritual power emerges from embracing our soul and taking ownership of its power. However, we live at a time when people do not know, let alone nurture, their spiritual life and nature, but also remain unaware of their soul or deny its existence entirely. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7

Many people who do not know their spirit, may attend and be absorbed by their intellectual purists, their emotional life, or basic survival drives. They may not recognize the blessings  God has in store for them. Our spirit enables us to acquire inner peace, genuine love, and real meaning—as well the gifts of the spirit. Spirituality transforms us by allowing us to participate in that which is sacred—that which is holy. We are designed to experience the divine. “Course of the Lord is one eternal round,” reports 1 Nephi 10.19. All of humanities powers are derived directly from God. We are not incurably maimed by sin. Our nature is perfected, not taken away by the grace of God (gratia non tollit naturam, sed perfecit). When we connect to God, the growth of our soul leads us to fulfillment through awareness and conviction. In holiness we participate in the good, the truth, the absolute; we take part in the awesome mystery of God’s force. Holiness is distinct from simple good feelings and virtues; in holiness, as a contract with God, we are transformed by participation in the Lord’s presence. “And it is requisite with the justice of God that people should be judged according to their works; and if their works were good in this life, and the desires of their hearts were good, they should also, at the last day, be restored unto that which is good,” reports Alma 31.3. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7

The cause of fear is a lack of knowledge. Therefore, knowledge is the antidote to fear. God is the direct source of all knowledge. The stars, the cosmos, our solar system and all the planets, nature, the human soul, all come from the divine. In 2015, a study was published that found 58 percent of patients reported significant interest in discussion spirituality with their clinicians. Such discussion can be medically useful, as they help patients to engage more in the treatment process. Further, in another reports, belief in God was associated with a significant reduction in depressive symptoms during treatment. Sometimes stresses and life bring us closer to God because it seems that no one can help. When we focus on God, daily, our stresses slowly decline, and with more of a focus, we may manifest God in our lives and be delivered from the situations that we consider unpleasant. Sometimes it seems some people do not have support and ask for help, and do not get it or it is very slow coming, so they turn to God to give them the patience to endure the situation and look forward to it being resolved. Many people think that society is so open and that people are so willing to help, but that is not always true. That is why religion teaches us that we need to depend on God, and not people. The idea with manifestation is that we attract what we focus on, so if we focus on God everyday and do our best to be righteous, our situations should totally improve. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7

Patience may be exercised as a virtue, and is then the result of will, and not an emotion. As such it is an ornament of the Christian, and assumes the character of an entire resignation of our own will in misfortune, and a readiness to leave all with God; or it is the resignation we feel, when we must suffer wrong, and cannot obtain justice; we then prefer suffer to doing wrong. A different species of resignation, not in any way a virtue, is sometimes manifested by warriors, who seeing themselves surrounded by a host of enemies, throw away their weapons, speak not, move not, ask for no favor, but suffer themselves to be hewn down, or take captive. “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose,” reports Romans 8.28. Such resignation is an expression of pride, a Godly fortitude. This is an emotion, that arises either from our relation to the supernatural or to the natural. “If we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts know the mind of Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will,” reports Romans 8.25-27. If we are faithful, the same sociality which we enjoy here in this life will be forever with us in the World to come, in eternal glory. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7

When we believe that God is just and holy, that nothing sinful can endure his presence, the feeling connected with this belief will be a religious awe; when we are convinced that the divine will is sacred and inviolable and that all duties are impose upon us by it, the feeling will be a moral one. To set before human’s eyes the mutual relation between protection and obedience, of which the condition of human nature, and the laws of the divine require an inviolable observation. This relation requires the absolute submission of each individual to the dictates of an arbitrary sovereign, of that great Leviathan, or rather (to speak more reverently) of that Immortal God, to which we owe our peace and defense. “And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8.30-31).” The soul enters the World in a state of involution, and its destiny is to unfold and manifest what it contains. Whenever one great manifestation has been made we learn good works, and to be meek and gentle in heart; for this allows us to find rest in our souls. We are given to understand that there will be no disobedience in the celestial kingdom. It is therefore vitally important that we keep the commandments with exactness and not just almost. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7

Being led by the Spirit is vitally important because this is the Lord’s World and he runs it. We must have the Spirit of the Lord or we will not know how to perform. Therefore, faith in a real sense is power—power to act and perform without actual knowledge. The Lord’s formula for receiving the Spirit, then, is to get on our knees and communicate with him. Tell the Lord what we are going to do—make commitments with him—outline our program—and then get up off our knees and go and do precisely what we have told God we would do. In the doing, the Spirit comes. Surely, in action, the Spirit comes as the Lord has promised. The Lord knows we will make mistakes. That is why Savior suffered for our sins. The Lord wants us to get back on our feet and strive to do better. There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner who repents. To all who inhabit this beautiful Earth, God lives. The ordinances which are in the scriptures posses the blessings of the sealing power’s reach into the spirit World. It is the sealing power and our knowledge of it which changes and transforms our family life here and our expectations for the joy of family life in the World to come. The thought and the hope that we can have eternal relationships carries us through the trials of separation and the loneliness which are part of mortal existence. That assurance changes forever and for the better of all our associations in families. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7

July 16, 2018 9:13 pm

God formed the World, the intelligible World, subsisting in the Divine Mind, and love serves as a pattern for the production of the material World. The pulse of God courses through everything and everyone and the Holy Spirit is the Lord’s animating power. The Lord and the Holy Spirit dwelling is us, suffusing us with grace and love. God loves us, and he intends for us to become like him. The heart is the love center. Love is the World’s greatest attractive power. The heart of human beings must be aglow with God’s love, and then it becomes a magnet drawing all good from every direction. The laws of nature are not invented in the minds of people; on the contrary, external factors force us to recognize them. Some of these laws, such as the principle of least action exhibit a rational World order and thereby reveal an omnipotent reason which rules over nature. There is no contradiction between religion and natural science; rather, they supplement and condition each other. When we think about the love of God drawing to us substance necessary for support and supply, that substance begins to accumulate all around us, and as we abide in the consciousness of it, it begins to manifest itself in all our affairs. There is a tide to be taken now in the affairs of the Earth which will lift us up and carry us forward as never before. Let us keep our faith beautifully simple. The Lord will lead us along, and he will be in our midst and not forsake us. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6

Keeping the natural law, with its commands that are written by God in every human heart, and being ready to obey him, live honorably and uprightly, can, with the power of Divine light and grace helping them, attain eternal life. For God, who clearly sees, searches out, and knows the minds, hearts, thoughts, and dispositions of all, in his great goodness and mercy does not by any means suffer a person to be punished with eternal torments, who is not guilt of voluntary faults. That clearly allows for everyone to be saved. The experience of God’s love is a force of revolutionary power. By loosing the strictures of guilt, fear, and self-centeredness, it enables the disciples to love our neighbors to a degree of which we have never before been capable. This brings us to the creeds, for these are attempts of early Christian mind to understand conceptually the happening which has produced this change in their lives. The impact of Christ on our lives led simultaneously in two directions. Overtly it leads to acts of loving kindness toward our fellow human beings; intellectually it leads to the creeds. God called us to watch over and help people in all their struggles for physical and spiritual well-being. God called us to help by the Spirit. He called us to teach by the Spirit. God also called us to love what we teach, and he called us to bear testimony and he called us to love them. God did not make it hard just to test us. He gave us so high a calling because he loves us. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6

God wants us home again, and to get there we have to become like him. So, God gives us a calling that can only be done with persistence and endurance. Affirmative prayer is the highest form of creative thought. It includes the release of counterproductive, negative thoughts as well as holding in mind statements of spiritual Truth. Through prayer and meditation, we experience the presence of God, as our awareness is heightening, and thereby transforming our lives. Centered in God, assured by faith and prospered by Divine Love, we boldly move forward to serve humanity by building unity. We affirm that the Universe is in Divine Order and we give thanks. We are hear to fulfill our ultimate goal, that is to know and experience God. Coming from this is to know and experience God. Coming from this place of Spirit, we manifest all of the good that God has for our family according to the Divine Order. We need to have this spirit of repentance continually; we need to pray to God to show us our conduct every day. Every night before we retire to rest we should review the thoughts, words, and acts of the day and then repent of everything we have done that is wrong or that has grieved the Holy Spirit. Live this way every day and endeavor to progress every day. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6

Choosing to do what the Lord has defined as right will, in the long run, always lead to the best outcomes. God did not leave us along. He provided a guide—a spiritual road map—to help us achieve success in our journey. To reach our objective of eternal life, we need to follow teachings in the standard works and other revelations received from prophets of God. Let us pray both for forgiveness and to get answers about what to do for the family. It would help, if when we go, we tell them the Holy Ghost can guide them; it has already guided us to do something for them. If we pray and then feel that prompting and act on it, what we do may be more important than anything we say. Maybe our finding out how to help them will lead them to find out what more they can do for others they love. God’s presence guards and protects us, as he sustains and inspires our lives with his wisdom. We are created in the image of God and likeness of God. We joyously express life, love and intelligence of Spirit and develop perfectly in all ways. In our journey through life, we meet many obstacles and make some mistakes. Scriptural guidance helps us to recognize error and make the necessary correction. We stop going in the wrong direction. We carefully study the scriptural road map. Then we proceed with repentance and restitution required to get on the strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6

Spiritual change, accompanied by better decisions, does often lead to better circumstance financially. Courage is the inner resolution to move forward in spite of all obstacles and frightening situations. Indeed, for we have no been given the spirit of fears, but of power, love, and faith. “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give us the same attitude of mind toward each other that the Savior had, so that with one mind and once voice we may glorify God and the Father of our Savior. We must accept one another, then, the Savior will accept us. In order to bring praise to God,” reports Romans 15.5-7. The enemy is waiting to destroy, but our job is to stay close to the Lord and to let him direct our path and direction. We must keep our eyes on God, and watch his evolution of love overflow in any through us. We must be blessed in the name of the Lord, and we cannot et anything separate us from the Love of God, not death, principality, wickedness, envy, strife, nothing. We must try to live peaceably with all people. God loves us and he will never allow more to be put on us than we can bear. We must become equipped and ready to do the Lord’s will in our life. God is not unrighteous to forget our work, labor, and love, which we have showed toward his name. We must show the same diligence to the full assurance of hop unto the end; that we be not slothful, but followers of God through faith and patience and inherit the promises. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6

God shows justice for those who love him and endure until the end. Do not be weary, and do not faith, but just hold on to God’s unchanging hand; the Lord will grant us wisdom and peace. People feel and fear that you have more than what we actually need. Everybody is not happy for us, but we must stay the course and wait diligently on the Lord. God will give us the strength and show grace and mercy toward us. Do not worry about what people say and do, just put on the armor of righteousness and the shield of faith. We must let noting separate us from the love of God. Always keep the faith and stay on the course and see God reveal himself through us. Pray, pray, pray! We will see God come in and overshadow the enemy. Keep the faith, believe, and receive that which is already before us. Blessed is one who enters through the gate of righteousness than one who sits and leans toward others. Forgiveness is an inevitable part of life. People struggle with this area daily because they are constantly fighting in the flesh about why someone wronged them. Forgive people who owe you a debt; allow them to repay. When someone owes us, rather see to it that God guards our heart and gives us a heart of forgiveness. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control,” reports Galatians 5.22-24. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6

July 15, 2018 12:31 am

Life’s troubles can train us to give up, but with God’s hep we can find the motivation to overcome, learn perseverance, and enjoy the pay off that comes as a result. Perseverance means more than endurance—more than simply holding on until the end. A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a baton is in the hands of a conductor as one interprets the score created by a composer in a manner which is reflective of the specific indications within that score, set the tempo, ensure correct entries by various members of the ensemble, and shapes the phrasing where appropriate. To convey their ideas and interpretation, conductors communicate with their musicians primarily through hand gestures, baton, and eye contact with relevant performers. A conductor’s directions will almost invariably be supplemented or reinforced by verbal instructions or suggestions to their musicians in rehearsal prior to performance. This is similar to how God uses the scriptures, church leaders, and people who are will to follow the commandments to prepare of for eternal life, as we are here on Earth rehearsing, shaping, and molding our behavior to become more like God and make life as easy as possible. God is trying to fine tune us until his purpose is insight. We must entrust ourselves to God’s score. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11

To endure to the end, we need to be eager to please God and worship him with fervor. Faith is not some weak and pitiful emotions, but is strong and vigorous confidence built on the fact that God is holy love. Our ability to stand firm and true and follow the Savior despite the vicissitudes of life is greatly strengthened by righteous families and God centered unit in our homes and churches.  Our personal journey through life provides us with many special experiences that become building blocks of faith and testimony. Faith is the supreme effort of our lives—allow ourselves to have total confidence upon God. However, there may be areas in our lives where faith is still building and has not be completely reformed by the life of God. These experiences come to us in vastly different ways and at unpredictable times. they Can be powerful spiritual events or small enlightening moments. Some experiences will come as serious challenged and heavy trials that test our ability to come with them. No matter what the experience may be, each gives us a chance for personal growth, greater wisdom, and in many cases, service to others with more empathy and love. “All these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good,” reports Doctrines and Covenants 122.7. If we take this view, life will become one great romance—a glorious opportunity of seeing wonderful things all the time. #RandolphHarris 2 of 11

God is disciplining us to get us into this central place of power. Character is a choice. It transcends education, training, and position. It is built rather than bestowed. People of good character are admired because they consistently do the right things for the right reasons. They do well in life. Character is synonymous with integrity, maturity, and moral wholeness. Those who have already placed their faith in the Lord and who understand the workings of the Lord’s grace, as experiences accumulate in our lives, they add strength and support. Just as the building blocks of our homes support the rest of the structure, so too do our personal life experiences become building blocks for our testimonies and add to our faith in the Lord. “And we rejoice in the hope and glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us,” reports Romans 5.2-5. God is not telling us to be happy because we may be having a hard time at work. Instead, the Lord is telling us to rejoice in the assurance of his grace and provision in the midst of out trials and tribulations. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11

Exalting God in the heat of our trials will produce perseverance which is the opposite of coping or resignation. Perseverance is engagement with the expectation of victory. We can master our next trail, persevere rather than quit, triumph rather than fail. It is our God-trusting perseverance that will ultimately build our character. God guarantees it. The Heavenly Father knows and loves us personally. As we contemplate such special experiences, they give us a sense of gratitude and resolve to go forward with renewed faith and determination. The development of character will be they by-product of facing our trails in the spirit of God. Character develops during our trials and not before. Just as victory requires fighting a battle, the development of our character requires persevering through the battle just like the Americans did in the Revolutionary war. Even at the end of the way, the difficulties of sustaining American liberty was evident. And the experience of the next half decade added to them. Whether struggling to survive in a hostile Atlantic environment or trying to cope with economic distress and political turmoil at home, Americans continued to argue about their experiment in republicanism, above all about how democratic it could safely be, and to wonder whether it would actually work at all. #RandolphHarris 4 of 11

At the same time, the American people retained an immense reservoir of optimism about the future. Had we won the mighty war? Was not their revolution destined to change the course of history and preserve liberty for all humankind? Did not America’s wonderfully rich interior contain a limitless promise of economic and social opportunity for all? Most Americans, still filled with enthusiasm of their new beginning answered “Yes,” and persevered. They allowed their character and faith in God lead them because much depended, of course, on their relationship with God and their new Constitution and the government soon to be created under it. As the ratification debate subsided and Congress prepared for the transition, the American people looked eagerly and anxiously ahead. “Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed,” reports Romans 4.16. God is the author of our character and the object of our hope and the Lord does not disappoint. We must use our trials as opportunities to build our character. Persevere with the expectations of victory. From the late 1790s until the late 1830s, a wave of religious revivals that matched the Great Awakening in the 1730s and 1740s swept through the United States. Prominent Rochester, New York USA citizens invited Charles Finney to come to town in 1830 to deliver some sermons. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11

During the Second Great Awakening, one could not go upon the streets and hear any conversation, except religion. Charles Finney preached nearly every night and three times on Sundays, converting the first city’s business elite, often through their wives, and then many workers. For six months, Rochester went through a citywide prayer meeting in which one conversation led to another. The Rochester revival was part of the wave of religious enthusiasm in America that contributed to the tremendous growth of the Methodists, the Baptists, and other evangelical denominations in the first half of the nineteenth century. By 1844, for example, the Methodist church had become the largest denomination in America, with over a million members. To bring large masses of people to accept God and the Savior, revivalist preachers deemphasized doctrine in favor of emotion, softening strict Calvinist tenets such as predestination, original sin, and limited atonement. As a preacher, Charles Finney understood that the human agency of the minister was crucial in causing a revival. Few could match Minister Finney’s powerful preaching style. The hypnotic effect of his eyes and voice carried such power that he could dissolve an audience into tears. When he threw an imaginary brick at the wicked adversary, people ducked. #RandolphHarris 6 of 11

When Minister Finney’s finger pointed the descent of a sinner into hell, people in the back row stood up to see the final disappearance. A former lawyer, Minister Finney used logic as well as emotion to bring about conversations. However, conversation and salvation were not the end of religious experience but the beginning. Minister Finney believed that humans were not passive objects of God’s predestined plan, but moral free agents who could choose good over evil, convince others to do the same; and thereby eradicate sin from the World. Minister Finney idea of the utility of benevolence meant not only individual reformation, but also the commitment to do one’s sacred duty in reforming one’s society. Americans were urged to look inward and to nature for self-knowledge, self-reliance, and the park of divinity burning within all people. To acquaint people with themselves, would inspire reverence for self and others, which would lead outward to social reform. What person is born free, but to be a Reformer? This brought up some troublesome question about the quality of American life. They questioned not only slavery, an obvious evil, but also the obsessive competitive pace of economic life, the overriding concerns for materialism, and the restrictive conformity of social life. This helped to end slavery because we cannot love God and abuse people. #RandolphHarris 7 of 11

Americans started to focus more on the romantic spirit, celebrating good emotions over reason, nature over civilization, and virtue over self-interest. The truth of the human life portrays more authentic than the calculating minds and schemes of the ungodly. Nathaniel Hawthorne influenced the generation of reformist American intellectuals coming of age in the mid-century and helped inspire artists, writers, and the community. He was one of the Transcendentalists because of his belief that truth was found beyond experience in intuition. In his greatest novel, The scarlet Letter (1850), Mr. Hawthorne sympathetically told the story of a courageous Puritan woman’s adultery and her eventual loving triumph over the narrowness of both cold intellect and intolerant social conformity. “God had the power to do what he had promised. This is why it was credited to the Lord as righteousness,” reports Romans 4.21. Because Mr. Hawthorne was such a wonderful person, telling powerful stories, Herman Melville dedicated his epic novel Moby Dick (1851) to Mr. Hawthorne. At one level, a rousing story of whaling on the high seas in purist of the great white whale, Moby Dick was actually an immense allegory of good and evil, bravery and weakness, innocence and experience. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11

In Mr. Melville’s other novels, he continued this sea voyage setting for making a powerful statement on behalf of the lowly seaman’s claims for freedom and just social relations against the tyranny of the ship captain. Like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville mirrored the tensions of the age as they explored issues of freedom and control. On 4 July 1845, Mr. Emerson’s friend Henry David Thoreau went to live in a small hut by Walden Pond, near Concord. There he planned to confront the essential facts of life—to discover who he was and how to live well. When Mr. Thoreau left Walden two years later, he protested against social injustice and the Mexican War by refusing to pay his taxes. He went to jail briefly and wrote an essay, “On Civil Disobedience,” (1849), and a book, Walden (1854), which are still considered statements of what one person can do to protest unjust laws and wars and life a life of principle. “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of a sinful person is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by sinful nature cannot please God,” reports Romans 8.5. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11

In the decades before 1860, many emigrants heading for the West stopped to rest and buy supplies in Salt Lake City, Utah USA, the heart of the Mormon state of Deseret. There they encountered a society that seemed familiar and orderly, yet foreign and shocking. Visitors admired the attractively laid out town with its irrigation ditches, gardens, and tidy houses. However, as they noted the decorous nature of everyday life, they exchanged sleezy gossip about polygamy and searched for signs of rebellion in the faces of Mormon women. Emigrants compared the position of the Mormon wife with that of the African salve. They were amazed that so few Mormon women seemed interested in escaping from the bonds of plural marriage. Violent events had driven the Mormons to the arid Great Basin area. Joseph Smith’s murder in 1844 marked no end to the persecution of his followers. By the Autumn of 1846, angry mobs had chased the last of the Saints out of Nauvoo, Illinois. As they struggled to join their advance groups at temporary camps in Iowa, Mr. Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, realized that flight from the United States of American represented the best hope for survival. The Saints must create the kingdom of God anew, somewhere in the West, far removed from the United States because it had become that Babylon of corruption and injustice. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11

Starving and sick Mormons strung out along the trail between Missouri and Iowa and helped finance the impending great migration. Mr. Young selected the Great Basin area, technically part of Mexico, as the best site for God’s future kingdom. Years of persecution had nourished a strong sense of group identity and acceptance of Church leadership. Organized by the Church leaders, who made the essential decisions, farming became a collective enterprise. All farmers were allotted land. All had irrigation rights, for water did not belong to individuals but to the community. During Sunday services, the local bishop might give farming instructions to his congregation along with his sermon. As Mr. Young explained, “I have looked upon the community of Latter-day Saints in a vision and beheld the organized as the great family of Heaven, each person performing his or her several duties in one’s line of industry, working for the good of the whole more than for individual aggrandizement. In this vast communal effort, every Mormon was expected to work for success, men and women alike. “We do not believe in having any drones in the hive,” one woman said tartly. Promised land shall be a land of liberty reports 2 Nephi 1.7. #RandolphHarris 11 of 11

July 13, 2018 9:56 pm

We know that material things and physical things are not the source and substance of safety, strength, and freedom of our beloved county. God is a projection and objectification of the human spirit, reflecting the categorial structure of the human mind and its conceptual tools. Physiological anthropology studies the humans natural limitations; pragmatic anthropology deals with the human’s potentialities, with what one is, as a free agent, makes of oneself, or is about and ought to make of oneself. Thus, philosophical anthropology studies both human beings as a creature and human beings as the creator of cultural values—human beings as observer and human beings as interpreted by oneself. Many occasions have arisen in which respect and love have been shown to our great country, and the precious principles of freedom and dignity which we accord the individual have been honored. We admire and love America. Never forget, America, that yours is a spiritual country. We know that you are practical people. Many people marvel at your factories, skyscrapers, houses, parks, cars, educational and health care system and the safety that is held to be so valuable in the communities. However, underlying everything else is that fact that America began as a God-loving, God-fearing, God-worshiping people, knowing that there is a spark of the divine in each of us. It is this respect for the dignity of the human spirit which makes America invincible. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7

People who visit America often report that they met people with stirring, inspiring, testimonies, and this generated an experience of great expectations. Our visitors never forget how magnificently they were uplifted and spiritually fed and how wonderfully their culture was accepted and how welcome they felt. There is a spirit of generosity and good humor, and a sense of humbleness. Our guests were not surprised to discover that the books which head the best seller list were books on peace, happiness, and family. People are able to discover several interesting places in the community such as antique shops, small museums, amazing restaurants with many different and delicious cultural cuisines located all in one square. Even the chain stores like Dominos have exquisite pizza and very friendly employees. While traveling, people make it a point to go into these places on certain days and they have found that it gives them the confidence to talk to people and make friends. Many love the fact that the stores and restaurants are so friendly and recognize them because it makes it easier for travelers to feel at home. This allows individuals to expand their horizons and start to enjoy the country, some even call America their home away from home. Sixty-six percent of people moving to America feel at home within year, making it the most welcoming place in the World. It is easy to settle because it is so much more accommodating tham people realize. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7

Choosing to do what the Lord has defined as right will, in the long run, always lead to the best outcomes. Here it is made clear that life, at its best and most vigorous, is spiritual and, as such, is the sincere expression of the soul to God. The spiritual self of each of us is that part of us that will never grow old, or ill, or die, but it must be nurtured and invigorated! We have also learned throughout life that strength comes to an ordinary soul when given an extraordinary calling. Faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, kindness, Godliness, charity, humility, and diligence are the attributes the Lord deserves from his disciples because each of us is to be an example of the believers. We should be enthusiastic about the future. Life is beautiful when we make an effort to find beauty in it. Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore, if we have faith we hope for things which are not seen, which are true. Faith is the most personal reflection of adoration for—and devoted to—our Heavenly Father. Call upon God in faith, and if thou wilt thou shall have the desires of thine heart. Faith in its full and pure form requires an unshakable assurance and absolute confidence that God will hear our pleas and grant our petitions in the Lord’s own due time. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7

We are always able to see farther looking back than we can in the crush of the moment. Sometimes those blessing in our lives that we have yet to receive are beyond the scope of mortal eyes. Faith allows us to see far off with spiritual vision all that God intends for his children. The Lord has restored his gospel in these times, and a testimony of that gospel is burned in our hearts, as faith lights our way in life.  It matters not where we live or what our individual circumstances may be. Each day our righteous living can demonstrate a faith in God that sees beyond mortal heartaches, disappointments, and unfulfilled promises. It is a glorious thing to possess a faith that enables us to look forward to that day when all that was promised the Saints will be given. When you are not being loved, do not lose touch with your love, and do so without collapsing or skinning into exaggerated tolerance. At times this may mean opening our hearts to our own close-heartedness. Opening our heart does not always mean we will look loving, but the very intention to this open is a potent context shifter. And keep in mind that there are people who believe, often passionately, in God, even if they are not willing to express their love of God to others. Each person has a personal relationship with the Lord and we have to respect that. Keep in mind, researchers have studied those who have strong political opinions and found they often literally do not know what they are talking about. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7

Many people who take positions on cap and trade, for instance, have no idea what cap and trade is, but they will nearly get into a knock down, drag out fight over their stance. So just because someone is not going around trying to proselytize others does not make them less of a believer. Since we are on the subject of emissions trading, cap and trade is a government, market-based approach to controlling pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants. Those who cannot meet the standards are taxed at a higher rate for the excess emission they produce. Our Universe is awakening and it requires not only a new understanding of religion, but also a new way of understanding religion’s relation to science. It is through our own subjectivity—mental, moral, aesthetic and religious—that the Universe now carries on its long anticipatory adventure toward fuller being. Some people see cap and trade as a scheme, and religion teaches us to make sure we honestly believe what we stand for is right and to be able to defend our position on the choices we make in life within our own conscience. By debating on a topics we know nothing about, it could be considered a scheme or even lying. God wants us to be as honest as we possibly can. The cosmic story is hardly over and it look patiently and expectantly ahead for a possible meaning to it all. We must read the cosmic story both scientifically and religiously, from outside and inside simultaneously. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7

If we are to think of our faith to our contemporary World, we need to think in terms compatible with what we know of the World through empirical science. Both religion and science are founded on faith, namely, on belief in the existence of something outside the Universe, like an unexplained God or an unexplained set of physical laws, maybe even a huge ensemble of unseen Universes, too. All science proceeds on the assumption that nature is ordered in a rational and intelligible way. And to create such a Universe, we know that we have an intelligent God. To be a scientist, one has to have faith that the Universe is governed by dependable, immutable, absolute, Universal, mathematical laws of an unspecified origin. One has to believe that these laws will not fail, that we will not wake up tomorrow to find heat flowing from cold to hot, or the speed of light changing by the hour. If God’s laws and the laws of physics were just any old ragbag of rules, life would almost certainly not exist. Belief in the existence of something outside the Universe, like an unexplained God or an unexplained set of physical laws, maybe even a huge ensemble of unseen Universes, are two principles founded on faith. Christians envisage God as upholding the natural order from beyond the Universe, while physicists think of their laws as inhabiting an abstract transcendent realm of perfect mathematical relationships. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7

When faith is properly understood and used, it has dramatically far-reaching effects. Such faith can transform an individual’s life from maudlin, common everyday activities to a symphony of joy and happiness. The exercise of faith is vital to Father in Heaven’s plan of happiness. Just as people who believe in God claim that the World depends utterly on God for its existence, physicists declare a similar asymmetry: the Universe is governed by eternal laws (or meta-laws). Faith in the capacity to discover hidden characteristics and traits that can transform life are the foundation building block of creation. We exercise our faith in true principles and that builds character. Fortified character expands our capacity to exercise more faith. As a result, our capacity and confidence to conquer the trials of life is enhanced. The more our character is fortified, the more enabled we are to benefit from exercising the power of faith. We will discover how faith and character interact to strengthen one another. Character is woven patiently from threads of applied principle, doctrine, and obedience. Wherever in life great spiritual values awaits a person’s appropriation, only faith can appropriate them. We cannot live without faith, and until science comes up with a testable theory of the laws of the Universe, its claim to be free of faith is manifestly bogus. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7

July 11, 2018 7:23 pm

Bursts of florid rhetoric accompanied territorial growth, and Americans used the slogan Manifest Destiny to justify and account for its belief that we dwell with God, or be cast out.  The phrase, coined in 1845 by John L. O’Sullivan, editor of the Democratic Review, referred to the conviction that the country’s superior institution and culture have Americans a God-given right, even an obligation, to spread their civilization across the entire continent. Lewis Cass, Henry Judah, the Gibsons, Lansford Hastings, and most other Americans agreed. This sense of uniqueness and mission was a legacy of early Puritan utopianism and the republicanism of the revolutionary era. By the 1840s, however, an argument for territorial expansion merged with the belief that the United States possessed a unique civilization. The successful absorption of the Louisiana Territory, rapid population growth, and advances in transportation, communication, and industry bolstered the idea of national superiority and the notion that the United States could successfully absorb new territories. Publicists of Manifest Destiny proclaimed that the nation must. Manifest Destiny justified the expansion but did not cause it. “We can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness does bless and prosper those who put their trust in him. Yea, and we may see at the very time when he does prosper his people, yea, in their increase of their fields, their flocks and their heards, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies,” reports Helaman 12.1-2. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6

The temperance crusade reveals the many practical motivations for Americans to join reform societies. It provided an opportunity for the Protestant middle classes to exert some control over laborers, immigrants, and Catholics. For perfectionists, abstinence was a way of practicing self-control and reaching moral perfect. For many women, the temperance effort was a respectable way to control the behavior of their husbands. For many young men, the temperance society provided entertainment, fellowship, and contacts to help their careers. In temperance societies as in political parties, Americans found jobs, purpose, support, spouses, and relief from the loneliness and uncertainty of a changing World. Reformers were quick to attack excessive eating, use of stimulants of any kind, and, above all, the evils of too much sexual activity. Many endorsed a variety of special diets and exercise programs for maintaining good health. Some promoted panaceas for all ailments. One of these was hydropathy: clients sojourned at one of 70 special resorts for bathing and water purges of the body. Other panaceas included hypnotism, and various spiritualist seances, sought to cure worries of the mind. “In that day, the Lord shall manifest himself unto them in word, and also in power, in very deed, unto the taking away of their stumbling blocks—and harden not their hearts,” reports 1 Nephi 14.1-2. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6

Another movement concerned sexual purity. In 1834, Sylvester Graham, a promoter of proper diet and hygiene, delivered a series of lectures on chastity, later published as a manual of advice. To those troubled by sexual desire, the inventor of the Graham cracker recommended taking more exercise in open air and using the cold bath under proper circumstances. Women especially not as passionless as the Victorian stereotype suggested, were advised to remain pure and to have intercourse only for procreation. Although females learned to control sexuality for their own purposes, as we shall see, male sexual purity advocates urged sexual restraint to protect various male interests. The authors of antebellum health manuals advocated abstinence from sexual activity as vehemently as they recommended abstinence from alcohol. “The Lord delights in chastity,” reports Jacob 2.28. The body, they argued, was a closed energy system in which each organ had particular and limited functions to perform. Semen was to be saved for reproductive purposes and should not be used for pleasure in either masturbation or intercourse. Some argued further than the expenditure of sperm meant a loss of needed energy from the economy. To drain energy away from business to see was both wasteful and contributory to Jacksonian social disorder. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6

In their efforts to restore order to American society, some reformers preferred to work not for private influence over individuals, but toward public changes in institutions. They wanted to transform such social institutions as asylums, almshouses, prisons, schools, and even factories. In many ways, Horace Mann, who led the struggle for common schools in Massachusetts was a typical antebellum reformer. He blended dedicated idealism with a canny, practical sense of how to institutionalize educational improvements in one state: teacher training, schools, higher teachers’ salaries, and compulsory attendance laws. In the colonial era, the family of the local community cared for orphans, paupers, those with special needs, and even those who did not understand how to comply with the laws. Beginning early in the nineteenth century, various states built asylums, houses of refuge, reform schools, jails, and other institutions to uplift and house social victims. In 1843, Dorothea Dix, a delicate New Englander, believed that people could be reformed. However, she was also convinced that bad institutions corrupted basically good human beings. The proper way to help people is through effective education and self-help. Dorothea Dix, Charles Loring Brace, Samuel Gridely How and Thomas Gallaudet started a Children’s Aid Society in New York City that achieved remarkable results. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6

Some reformers believed the best way to correct behavior and bring hardened lost souls back to virtue was to place them in a star-shaped system, where each individual was in solitary confinement, though in a fairly modern room. It was assumed that is people were put into isolated rooms to study the Bible and reflect on their incorrect behavior, they would eventually decide to become good citizens. For working-class Americans, the social institution most needed of transformation was the factory. Workers, many of whom were involved in others issues such as temperance, peace, and abolitionism, took it on themselves to improve their own lives. These improvements took form as shorter work hours, wages that would keep pace with rising prices, and ways (such as the closed shop) of warding off the competitive threat currency manipulation, and cheap labor. However, identifying with the “Blood of our Fathers” shed on the battlefields of the American Revolution, Boston tradesmen stuck in 1835 for a ten-hour work day. Eventually, ten hour work days become popular again. When we believe, God will see to it that it is take care of. When we believe, we have the Creator of the Universe fighting our battles, arranging things in our favor, going before us, moving the wrong people out of the way. We could not have made it happen in our own strength, but because we are believers, the surpassing greatness of God’s power is at work in our lives. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6

The 1872 painting by John Gast with its large goddesslike figure tailing telegraph lines, its parade of settlers, it depiction of technological progress captures the confidence of Americas that the acquisition of the West was beneficial and inevitable event. It also presents the conventional picture of the settlement of the frontier as a process generated by the movement of people from east to west. In fact, the West was also settled by emigrants moving from Mexico northward and by Indian tribes moving south. “And as they looked to behold they cast their eyes towards Heaven, and they saw the Heavens open, and they saw Angels descending out of the Heavens as it were in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones about, and they were encircled with fire; and Angels did minister unto them. And the multitude did see and hear and bear record; and they know that their record is true for they all of them did see and hear, every person for oneself; and they were in number about two thousand and five hundred souls; and they did consist of men, women, and children,” reports 3 Nephi 17.24-25. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6

July 11, 2018 4:52 am