Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.
And we recall a similar sentiment expressed in the film "A Bronx Tale." If to be feared is preferable to being loved, to what end or purpose would one wish to be feared? To create and rule over a world ruled by fear? But if fear rules over love, love by definition must be its servant or slave. Yet what kind of love is that which must, when all is said and done, cower and tremble before fear? And surely a king of dread can't be much of a lover. Think for example historically of the masters of terror. Do you ever think of them also as great lovers? And yet what value is left in all this material universe if love is absent or becomes merely a means to serve the one who rules by fear? I'm stumped.
>*----*
["The Jackson 5 - Rockin' Robin 1972 RARE" -- live tv appearance] and ["The Love You Save" -- Jackson 5 tv appearance with very young Michael]
There's a quite good video of this from a live B&W TV appearance from back in the 80's on YT, but unfortunately the audio is atrocious. (Hopefully, someone can or will fix that?)
["Psychedelic Furs, sister europe" -- standard music video]
For scripture or poetry to have real meaning they must be transmuted, filtered, and reflected by and through your heart, conscience, and inner spirit first. Otherwise they have little more substance, impact, and meaning than a memo written by a supervisor at work or school. For this reason, true scripture and true poetry (can) affect you because, as a matter of proof, they are you.
As we've said, we don't blame all spirit people for what's wrong, only the damnable ones. How then does one tell that spirit people of the damnable sort are involved or present? Well, we could come up with a more complete list, but here are some dead give aways.
* Serial killing.
* The use of brain torture radios.
* A billion dollars to make movies and cartoons.
* Financial domination of tv and the internet.
* People justifying themselves on the basis of religion but not right reason.
* Poor treatment of children and or animals (as in e.g., "You've had enough to eat. I fed you a couple days ago, didn't I?")
Can one have love that is sincere much or for very long without honest truth? Yet you can see how actually rare a thing sincere love is given how destitute the world is of honest truth. But then that is why it is "the world."
["Frank Sinatra-Something" -- tv appearance with Nelson Riddle arrangement of "Something"]
["Hummingbird - George Winston"]
In a word, if the masses of people can be persuaded to abandon right reason and intellectual intelligence, then criminal spirit people will rule the world. And, needless to add, this is exactly what we see going on.
Now some historically will have found fault with religion and argued that it is to blame for people's rejection of the intellect. But right religion reflects emotional intelligence and wisdom; something which is to a large and significant degree outside the province of intellectual intelligence. So that rejection of religion, far from enhancing people's appreciation of reason, on the contrary only renders them more stupid. What is needed then is to separate the importance of spirit people, the great corrupters of religion, from religion proper; so that the authority of reason can be maintained without sacrificing traditional moral and spiritual authority.
"We'll be back with you shortly..."
["Ray Conniff "In The Cool Cool Cool Of The Evening" (1963)"]
I'll admit that Abba never interested me musically. They are very good performers with angelic voices, but the songs themselves are usually too 70's light fluff to have made much, if any, impression. And yet they are another one of those bands that people love so much (some of whom I've know personally) that I feel guilty just ignoring them. I therefore went searching on YouTube for a song of theirs that for me would do the trick, and this is one such.
["Abba My Love My Life ( Widescreen )"]
Excerpts from Augustine's epistles continued.
You speak the truth when you say that the soul, having its abode in a corruptible body, is restrained by this measure of contact with the earth, and is somehow so bent and crushed by this burden that its desires and thoughts go more easily downwards to many things than upwards to one. For Holy Scripture says the same: “The corruptible body presses down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weighs down the mind that muses upon many things.” [Wisdom 9:15] But our Saviour, who by His healing word raised up the woman in the gospel that had been eighteen years bowed down [Luke 13:11-13] (whose case was, perchance, a figure of spiritual infirmity), came for this purpose, that Christians might not hear in vain the call, “Lift up your hearts,” and might truly reply, “We lift them up to the Lord.” Looking to this, you do well to regard the evils of this world as easy to bear because of the hope of the world to come. For thus, by being rightly used, these evils become a blessing, because, while they do not increase our desires for this world, they exercise our patience; as to which the apostle says, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God:” [Romans 8:28] all things, he says— not only, therefore, those which are desired because pleasant, but also those which are shunned because painful; since we receive the former without being carried away by them, and bear the latter without being crushed by them, and in all give thanks, according to the divine command, to Him of whom we say, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth,” and, “It is good for me that You have humbled me, that I might learn Your statutes.” The truth is, most noble lady, that if the calm of this treacherous prosperity were always smiling upon us, the soul of man would never make for the haven of true and certain safety...
~ Letter 131
[ch. 3] 12...Moreover, by the fact of His incarnation, He taught this above all other things for our benefit—that whereas men longing after the Divine Being supposed, from pride rather than piety, that they must approach Him not directly, but through heavenly powers which they regarded as gods, and through various forbidden rites which were holy but profane—in which worship devils succeed, through the bond which pride forms between mankind and them in taking the place of holy angels—now men might understand that the God whom they were regarding as far removed, and whom they approached not directly but through mediating powers, is actually so very near to the pious longings of men after Him, that He has condescended to take a human soul and body into such union with Himself that this complete man is joined to Him in the same way as the body is joined to the soul in man, excepting that whereas both body and soul have a common progressive development, He does not participate in this growth, because it implies mutability, a property which God cannot assume. Again, in this Christ the help necessary to salvation was brought to men, for without the grace of that faith which is from Him, no one can either subdue vicious desires, or be cleansed by pardon from the guilt of any power of sinful desire which he may not have wholly vanquished. As to the effects produced by His instruction, is there now even an imbecile, however weak, or a silly woman, however low, that does not believe in the immortality of the soul and the reality of a life after death? Yet these are truths which, when Pherecydes the Assyrian for the first time maintained them in discussion among the Greeks of old, moved Pythagoras of Samos so deeply by their novelty, as to make him turn from the exercises of the athlete to the studies of the philosopher. But now what Virgil said we all behold: “The balsam of Assyria grows everywhere.” And as to the help given through the grace of Christ, in Him truly are the words of the same poet fulfilled: “With You as our leader, the obliteration of all the traces of our sin which remain shall deliver the earth from perpetual alarm.”
[ch. 4] 16...Few in number at first, they become scattered like seed throughout the world; they convert nations with wondrous facility; they grow in number in the midst of enemies; they become increased by persecutions; and, under the severity of hardships, instead of being straitened, they extend their influence to the utmost boundaries of the earth. From being very ignorant, despised, and few, they become enlightened, distinguished, and numerous, men of illustrious talents and of polished eloquence; they also bring under the yoke of Christ, and attract to the work of preaching the way of holiness and salvation, the marvellous attainments of men remarkable for genius, eloquence, and erudition. Amid alternations of adversity and prosperity, they watchfully practise patience and self-control; and when the world's day is drawing near its close, and the approaching consummation is heralded by the calamities which exhaust its energies, they, seeing in this the fulfilment of prophecy, only expect with increased confidence the everlasting blessedness of the heavenly city. Moreover, amidst all these changes, the unbelief of the heathen nations continues to rage against the Church of Christ; she gains the victory by patient endurance, and by the maintenance of unshaken faith in the face of the cruelties of her adversaries...
[ch. 5] 17. What discourses or writings of philosophers, what laws of any commonwealth in any land or age, are worthy for a moment to be compared with the two commandments on which Christ says that all the law and the prophets hang: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbour as yourself”? [Matthew 22:37-39] All philosophy is here—physics, ethics, logic: the first, because in God the Creator are all the causes of all existences in nature; the second, because a good and honest life is not produced in any other way than by loving, in the manner in which they should be loved, the proper objects of our love, namely, God and our neighbour; and the third, because God alone is the Truth and the Light of the rational soul. Here also is security for the welfare and renown of a commonwealth; for no state is perfectly established and preserved otherwise than on the foundation and by the bond of faith and of firm concord, when the highest and truest common good, namely, God, is loved by all, and men love each other in Him without dissimulation, because they love one another for His sake from whom they cannot disguise the real character of their love.
~ Letter 137
