Season 4 Podcast 60 “The Stories of the New Testament, Matthew Ch 7: The Sermon on the Mount Pt IV “Judging Others.”

We offer a weekly podcast, Monday thru Friday. Each Friday we discuss the New Testament, King James’ Version. We are now on Matthew Chapter 7.  In last week’s podcast, Podcast 55, we analyzed the final concepts 4 – 12 of the Lord’s Prayer. In this podcast, Number 60, we shall continue with the Sermon on the Mount by discussing Chapter 7. 

1.     Judging Others

2.     Prayer

3.     The Golden Rule

4.     The Strait and Narrow Path

5.     False Prophets

In this podcast we shall discuss Concept One: Judging Others.

1.     Matthew 7: 1-5 

 1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.

2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

I think we may be prone to read verse one, “Judge not, that ye be not judged” and then quit. It is not humanly possible to never judge nor is it wise. We must keep in mind that it was Christ who gave the Sermon on the Mount, and it was that same Christ who revealed his word to all the Holy Prophets before him. Christ said to Satan in the wilderness that we must live by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God.  Therefore, for clarification, let’s do two things.  (1) Let’s look at the entire passage verses 1-5 and (2) let’s consider what Christ said about judgment to his holy prophets. It is not complete until we read all five verses. Let’s begin with verse two

2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

4 RON

We are going to be judged, not by making judgment, but by making false judgement. Remember the Ninth Commandment, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” The first verse could read, ‘Judge not unrighteously, that yet be not judged for your unrighteousness.’ In the final judgment God will measure us by how we measured others.  In Zechariah 7:9 Christ revealed to his prophet:

Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassion.

“Execute true judgment” sheds light upon Christ’s true meaning. In addition, if we want mercy and compassion in our judgment, we must show mercy and compassion in judging others. In the Sermon on the Mount Christ comes down hard on hypocrisy. That explains the next two verses.

3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

A beam would refer to any particle obstructing your vision, thus we have Christ’s harsh condemnation.

5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

That holds the key to what Christ is teaching us. To judge righteously we must first be righteous so that we can see clearly how to help our brother, in other words how we can exercise righteous judgment. 

Season 4 Podcast 59 Self-Reliance Concept 6 To Thine Own Self Be True

I have selected ten concepts from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Self-Reliance. Each concept expands the virtues and variations of Self-Reliance or warns of the vices of the ways we forfeit Self Reliance:

·      Concept 1: Blind Obedience

·      Concept 2: False Charity

·      Concept 3: Truth

·      Concept 4: Faith 

·      Concept 5:  Non-Conformist

·      Concept 6: To Thine Own Self Be True

·      Concept 7: Self-Reliance

·      Concept 8: Character

·      Concept 9: God

·      Concept 10: Solitude

In this podcast we shall explore Concept Number Six, To Thine Own Self Be True. 

Many are familiar with Shakespeare’s Hamlet when the garrulous old Polonius gives counsel to his son Laertes who is going off to college. 

There, my blessing with thee.
And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel,
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear ’t that th’ opposèd may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear but few thy voice.
Take each man’s censure but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy—rich, not gaudy,
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell. My blessing season this in thee.

How can anyone have true liberty without being true to oneself?  Emerson said in Self-Reliance:

A great man is coming to eat at my house. I do not wish to please him; I wish that he should wish to please me. I will stand here for humanity, and though I would make it kind, I would make it true. Let us affront and reprimand the smooth mediocrity and squalid contentment of the times, and hurl in the face of custom, and trade, and office, the fact which is the upshot of all history, that there is a great responsible Thinker and Actor working wherever a man works; that a true man belongs to no other time or place, but is the center of things. Where he is, there is nature. He measures you, and all men, and all events. Ordinarily, everybody in society reminds us of somewhat else, or of some other person. Character, reality, reminds you of nothing else; it takes place of the whole creation. The man must be so much, that he must make all circumstances indifferent. Every true man is a cause, a country, and an age; requires infinite spaces and numbers and time fully to accomplish his design;—and posterity seem to follow his steps as a train of clients.

Season 4 Podcast 58 Self-Reliance Concept 5 Non-Conformist

I have selected ten concepts from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Self-Reliance. Each concept expands the virtues and variations of Self-Reliance or warns of the vices of the ways we forfeit Self Reliance:

·      Concept 1: Blind Obedience

·      Concept 2: False Charity

·      Concept 3: Truth

·      Concept 4: Faith 

·      Concept 5:  Non-Conformist

·      Concept 6: To Thine Own Self Be True

·      Concept 7: Self-Reliance

·      Concept 8: Character

·      Concept 9: God

·      Concept 10: Solitude

In this Podcast, we shall discuss Concept Number Five: Non-Conformist. 

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. 

Satan’s greatest tool today is to call good evil and evil Good. In the words of Isaiah,

(Isa. 5:20.)

"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" 

Emerson cautions, “He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness.” Emerson asks us to put the integrity of our own mind above the philosophies of man. This is explored in Concept 3 Truth.

Conforming has both negative connotations and positive connotations. The negative would be subservient, obsequious, ingratiating, bowing, scraping, fawning, cowering, cringing, toadying, bootlicking. 

The positive would be to acknowledge, to respect, to concur, to harmonize, to accommodate. 

Emerson doesn’t ignore common sense, but he strongly advocates self-reliance. He cautions against accepting other people’s truths. He opposes subservience, servility, obsequiousness, acquiescence, capitulation, deference, submissiveness, docility, timidity, passiveness, or unassertiveness.

Emerson found refuge in truth rather than in institutionalized orthodoxy. 

A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition, as if everything were titular and ephemeral but he. I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions. Every decent and well-spoken individual affects and sways me more than is right. I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways.

He practiced what he preached. One can only imagine how Emerson would respond to the religiosity of the left as they impose their woke values on the nation. The left attempts to crush anyone who disagrees with their philosophy. Emerson would advise us all “to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways.” He continues his argument for non-conformity. 

My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady. I wish it to be sound and sweet, and not to need diet and bleeding. I ask primary evidence that you are a man, and refuse this appeal from the man to his actions. I know that for myself it makes no difference whether I do or forbear those actions which are reckoned excellent. I cannot consent to pay for a privilege where I have intrinsic right. Few and mean as my gifts may be, I actually am, and do not need for my own assurance or the assurance of my fellows any secondary testimony.

Season 4 Podcast 57 Self-Reliance Concept 4 Faith in Self

I have selected ten concepts from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Self-Reliance. Each concept expands the virtues and variations of Self-Reliance or warns of the vices of the ways we forfeit Self Reliance:

·      Concept 1: Blind Obedience

·      Concept 2: False Charity

·      Concept 3: Truth

·      Concept 4: Faith 

·      Concept 5:  Non-Conformist

·      Concept 6: To Thine Own Self Be True

·      Concept 7: Self-Reliance

·      Concept 8: Character

·      Concept 9: God

·      Concept 10: Solitude

Obviously there is overlap in the ten concepts. For example, Concept 7, Self-Reliance, subsumes all other concepts. It is also clear that faith in self is a primary component of Self-Reliance. Like synonyms each is both a repetition and a variation on the theme. In these ten podcasts, though I may repeat certain quotes from Emerson’s essay, Self-Reliance, for emphasis, I also wish to highlight the variation, thus expanding the theme and pointing out the nuance of each concept. 

In this Podcast, we shall focus on Concept Four: Faith in Self. 

“To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,—that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost,—and our first thought is rendered back to us by the  trumpets of the Last Judgment.”

Consider faith as a three-legged stool. For the stool to stand it must have all three legs. So it is with liberty. There are three levels of faith necessary to sustain liberty in our democratic republic. The loss of any level or leg will cause our liberty to fall.

1.     number one is Faith in God, which is addressed in Concept Nine..

2.     number two is Faith in Self.

3.     number three is Faith in Others. 

Self-reliance depends upon the perfect balance of all three levels of faith.  However, in this podcast we shall focus primarily on Faith in Self.

Faith in Self, otherwise referred to as self-reliance, is essential to a democratic republic or it will turn into a socialist state. People who seek power prey on those who seek guaranteed security. Democracy requires self-reliance, courage, faith, endurance, patience, preparation, hard work, accountability, and individual responsibility. As Emerson said, “It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.”

The possibility of failure is inherent in self-reliance. Only through opposition can growth occur.  It is a law of nature. When citizens start looking to government for entitlements, handouts, bailouts, parity, special privileges, and guaranteed equity, then it spells the end of democracy and the beginning of totalitarianism. The few rule the many. Democracy is built upon the idea so eloquently set forth by Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address: Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.   The right to succeed comes with the right to fail.

Faith in others makes a free market possible. We are all children of God and come to earth with special gifts. We may call them talents. In the eyes of God, we are all equal, it is the order of heaven; however, because we have freewill, freedom, liberty, and agency, we have enormous diversity. Diversity of gifts is also essential to a free market system: diversity in wealth, diversity in talent, diversity in skills, diversity in desires, diversity in professions, diversity in education. 

Season 4 Podcast 56 Milton’s Paradise Lost Bk XI, Pt XLI, “The Intercession, Pt V” 

In the prologue to Book XI, Milton writes.

The Son of God presents to his Father the prayers of our first parents now repenting, and intercedes for them: God accepts them, but declares that they must no longer abide in Paradise; sends Michael with a band of Cherubim to dispossess them; but first to reveal to Adam future things: Michael's coming down. Adam shows to Eve certain ominous signs; he discerns Michael's approach; goes out to meet him: the Angel denounces their departure. Eve's Lamentation. Adam pleads but submits: the Angel leads him up to a high hill; sets before him a vision what shall happen till the Flood.

Michael is showing Adam the future up until the flood of Noah.  We are told by Peter that only eight souls were saved on the Ark.

1 Peter 3:19 – 20

By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

Being the father and mother of the human race, through Milton’s eyes, the teachings of Christ and his atonement were taught by Adam and Eve to their posterity and handed down from generation to generation. From Milton’s point of view Adam and Eve were Christians and Christianity was first taught to the human race by our first parents.  It goes along with Milton’s theme to justify the ways of God to man. Mankind did not sin in ignorance. They willfully violated the laws. Michael teaches Adam.

These are the product
Of those ill-mated Marriages thou saw’st;
Where good with bad were matcht, who of themselves
Abhor to join; and by imprudence mixt,
Produce prodigious Births of body or mind.
Such were these Giants, men of high renown;
For in those days Might only shall be admir’d,
And Valor and Heroic Vertu called;
To overcome in Battel, and subdue
Nations, and bring home spoils with infinite
Man-slaughter, shall be held the highest pitch
Of human Glorie, and for Glorie done
Of triumph, to be styl’d great Conquerors,
Patrons of Mankind, Gods, and Sons of Gods,
Destroyers rightlier call’d and Plagues of men.
Thus Fame shall be achieved, renown on Earth,
And what most merits fame in silence hid.

Michael tells Adam of Noah, the only righteous man in an evil world. Michael points out that God rewards the good and punishes the evil.

But he the seventh from thee, whom thou beheldst
The only righteous in a World perverse,
And therefore hated, therefore so beset
With Foes for daring single to be just,
And utter odious Truth, that God would come
To judge them with his Saints: Him the most High
Rapt in a balmie Cloud with winged Steeds
Did, as thou sawst, receive, to walk with God
High in Salvation and the Climes of bliss,
Exempt from Death; to shew thee what reward
Awaits the good, the rest what punishment;

Michael directed Adam’s eyes as he looked into the future. Everything changed. The wars ceased but Adam’s posterity followed the natural man and began to indulge in adultery, fornication, rape, licentiousness, libertinism, debauchery, wantonness, and abandonment. 

He looked, & saw the face of things quite changed;
The brazen Throat of Warr had ceast to roar,
All now was turned to jollity and game,
To luxury and riot, feast and dance,
Marrying or prostituting, as befell,
Rape or Adultery, where passing faire
Allured them; thence from Cups to civil Broiles.

Season 4 Podcast 55 “The Stories of the New Testament, Matthew Ch 6: The Sermon on the Mount Pt III, The Lord’s Prayer B.”

We offer a weekly podcast, Monday thru Friday. Each Friday we discuss the New Testament, King James’ Version. We are now on Matthew Chapter 6.  In last week’s podcast, Podcast 50, we analyzed concepts 1 – 3 of the Lord’s Prayer. In this podcast, Number 55, we shall analyze concepts 4 - 12. If you have not listened to Podcast 50 may we invite you to do so now.

Concept number four: “Thy kingdom come.”

“Kingdom,’ of course, suggests another relationship we have with our Father. Christ acknowledges that God the Father is the head, the quintessential ruler of all things. That shows the relationship between the Father and the Son because the Son is also referred to by John the Revelator as king of kings:

REVELATION 17:14

“These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.”

Christ has many names, but the mystery is easily explained. Everything that the Father has he gives to his Son, In John 16: 15 we read.

“All things that the Father hath are mine.”

And even more exciting, everything Christ has he promises to give to us. That is the economy of heaven.

Revelation 21:7

 “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”

When Christ is referred to as lord of Lords it could refer to the fact the Father is the supreme Lord and he made Christ Lord, making him Lord who comes from the Lord God. And when Christ is referred to as King of Kings, it means that Christ is our King and he made us kings, making him King of Kings. 

What did Christ mean when he said, “Thy kingdom come.” We can best answer that if we add the next concept.

Concept number five: “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” 

There are two kingdoms of God. One refers to his church on earth and the other refers to his kingdom in heaven, referred to by John as the New Jerusalem, or Holy City, which of course leads to the Second Coming of Christ. We may go again to John the Revelator for an explanation. Speaking of the church, in Revelation 14 John records:

“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every enation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

And what is the purpose of the church or earthly kingdom? John tells us above: “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.”  In other words, the kingdom of God on earth is to prepare the saints for the kingdom of God in Heaven. That kingdom is described in Revelation 21 and 22. The purpose of the church or kingdom of God on earth is to prepare the saints for the Second Coming of Christ. Paul teaches us that same principle.  

EPHESIANS 4:11-13

“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:”

Season 4 Podcast 54 Self Reliance, Concept 3, Truth

I have selected ten concepts from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Self-Reliance. Each concept expands the virtues and variations of Self-Reliance or warns of the vices of the ways we forfeit Self Reliance:

·      Concept 1: Blind Obedience

·      Concept 2: False Charity

·      Concept 3: Truth

·      Concept 4: Faith 

·      Concept 5:  Non-Conformist

·      Concept 6: To Thine Own Self Be True

·      Concept 7: Self-Reliance

·      Concept 8: Character

·      Concept 9: God

·      Concept 10: Solitude

In this Podcast, we shall discuss Concept Number Three: Truth. 

For thousands of years truth has been considered one of the highest virtues. There are many synonyms for truth: reality, actuality, authentic, genuine, valid, factual. We speak of gospel truth, naked truth, and unvarnished truth. Those who are truthful are considered honest, veracious, righteous, honorable, ethical, moral, proper, principled, noble, high-minded, uncorrupt, precise, and genuine. 

In my lifetime, I have never seen such a disregard for truth among people in high government office, among the press, and among the people at large. We live in a collusion of lies where the ends justify the means and where language is not attached to reality. Even the laws of nature are being denied. How, for example, can people claim to believe in evolution and yet deny gender? Without gender there would be no evolution. There would be no life. Our nation was founded on the principle of absolute truth. Our Declaration of Independence states:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

A self-evident truth is an absolute truth that is its own witness. Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his Essay Self-Reliance, speaks of absolute truth:

“If you are true, but not in the same truth with me, cleave to your companions; I will seek my own. I do this not selfishly, but humbly and truly. It is alike your interest, and mine, and all men's however long we have dwelt in lies, to live in truth. Does this sound harsh to-day? You will soon love what is dictated by your nature as well as mine, and, if we follow the truth, it will bring us out safe at last. But so may you give these friends pain. Yes, but I cannot sell my liberty and my power, to save their sensibility. Besides, all persons have their moments of reason, when they look out into the region of absolute truth; then will they justify me, and do the same thing.”

We would all do well to follow the advice of Emerson when he said, “I cannot sell my liberty and my power, to save their sensibility.” Emerson would blush at our day for the democratic socialists are demanding that we sell our liberty to save their sensibility. We cannot even use personal pronouns anymore until someone declares their preference. America needs to stand tall against anyone who demands that we put their sensibilities above absolute truth. Sensibilities will not sustain us when our liberty falls, and it will fall if we do not stand for absolute truth. The highest truths are the laws of God.  If we deny the laws of nature, then all truth becomes relative.

“If we live truly, we shall see truly.  It is as easy for a strong man to be strong, as it is for a weak to be weak.  When we have new perception, we shall gladly disburden the memory of its hoarded treasures as old rubbish.  When a man lives with God, his voice shall be as sweet as the murmur of the brook and the rustle of the corn.”  

Season 4 Podcast 53 Self-Reliance Concept 2 False Charity

I have selected twelve concepts from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Self-Reliance. Each concept expands the virtues and variations of Self-Reliance or warns of the vices of the ways we forfeit Self Reliance:

·      Concept 1: Blind Obedience

·      Concept 2: False Charity

·      Concept 3: Truth

·      Concept 4: Faith 

·      Concept 5:  Non-Conformist

·      Concept 6: To Thine Own Self Be True

·      Concept 7: Self-Reliance

·      Concept 8: Character

·      Concept 9: God

·      Concept 10: Solitude

In this Podcast, we shall discuss Concept Number Two: False Charity. 

“Then, again, do not tell me, as a good man did to-day, of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong. There is a class of persons to whom by all spiritual affinity I am bought and sold; for them I will go to prison, if need be; but your miscellaneous popular charities; the education at college of fools; the building of meeting-houses to the vain end to which many now stand; alms to sots; and the thousand-fold Relief Societies;—though I confess with shame I sometimes succumb and give the dollar, it is a wicked dollar which by and by I shall have the manhood to withhold.”

Socialists, of course, today would be offended by Emerson, but Emerson’s point is profoundly American. We are being bullied by the left to support the poor without requiring anything in return. In fact, they have discovered that by using taxpayer money to bribe the poor they can win their votes, enslave their bodies, and secure for themselves longevity in office. It is for that reason that we are now over 30 trillion dollars in debt.

It is the left’s ideology of redistribution of wealth. Enforced charity destroys self-reliance. The left robs from the rich to give to the poor. The left operates on the principle that everyone’s vote is for sale to the highest bidder. Socialism is built into their agenda.

The following list is from the 2016 Socialist Democratic platform:

·         Raise Incomes and Restore Economic Security for the Middle Class.

·         Raising Workers’ Wages 

·         Protecting Workers’ Fundamental Rights

·         Supporting Working Families

·         Helping More Workers Share in Near-Record Corporate Profits 

 A cursory look at the democratic platform reveals its true intent. The only way they can “raise incomes and restore economic security to the middle class” is to do away with the free-market system and increase government regulations. The left wishes to control the economy through redistribution of wealth, thus increasing taxes on the middle class and the wealthy. 

To raise worker’s wages, they must dictate minimum wage, thus destroying small businesses and inflating prices. Notice how intrusive the democratic socialists have become.

They want to protect worker’s fundamental rights. The job of the federal government is to enforce the Bill of Rights equally for all its citizens. The left is dividing America into a class system and favoring one class over another. They claim to “support working families.” That clearly refers to redistribution of wealth for all families are working families. Their view of supporting working families is to equalize wealth through government control, not self-reliance.  

Season 4 Podcast 52 Self-Reliance Concept 1 Blind Obedience

At the heart of our democratic republic is the principle of self-reliance. If we do not require self-reliance from our citizens we soon lose our freedom and liberty. Any move toward a democratic republic produces an increase in self-reliance; any move toward totalitarianism produces a decrease in self-reliance. It has company. It is all in concomitant variation. Any movement away from democracy and toward socialism, communism, and totalitarianism is a movement toward 

·      Bigger government

·      Centralized power

·      Loss of liberty

·      Loss of freedom

·      Loss of self-reliance

Elected officials become puppets governed by the strings of those few in power. You do not need to ask how Congress will vote if you already know how the leader of their party will vote. 

You do not measure freedom by the number of rights or by free elections or by quarrelling parties. You measure freedom by the percentage of citizens who are self-reliant. If the number of those who are dependent upon big government is larger than the number of those who are self-reliant, then freedom is but a name used to hide the specter of socialism.

As power becomes more centralized, corruption increases by those holding high office. When elected officials become superfluous, many turn their thoughts away from their loss of power in politics and toward personal wealth, self-preservation, and retirement such is our government today. They exempt themselves from their own laws. The left has one vote, not many. There are no dissenters among democratic socialists. Their wealth increases as their power decreases because in wealth they find substitute power. Many enter office poor and leave rich. 

If we do not return to self-reliance our democratic republic is doomed. With over a 30 trillion-dollar debt perhaps we have already reached critical mass that will set off the chain reaction of economic collapse. 

In this podcast and the others that follow I wish to discuss Self-reliance as seen through the eyes of Ralph Waldo Emerson as discussed in his remarkable essay, Self-reliance.  It was written when this nation was in its youth. Emerson captured the spirit of our forefathers. For the full text please read Emerson’s entire discourse. By necessity in these podcasts, I must be selective. Hopefully, however, I can be true to Emerson’s philosophy and accurately define his perspective of self-reliance. I have selected twelve concepts related to Self-Reliance from Emerson’s Essay:

·      Concept 1: Blind Obedience

·      Concept 2: False Charity

·      Concept 3: Truth

·      Concept 4: Faith 

·      Concept 5:  Non-Conformist

·      Concept 6: To Thine Own Self Be True

·      Concept 7: Self-Reliance

·      Concept 8: Character

·      Concept 9: God

·      Concept 10: Solitude

In this Podcast, we shall discuss Concept Number One: Blind Obedience. 

“Well, most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion. This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars. Their every truth is not quite true. Their two is not the real two, their four not the real four; so that every word they say chagrins us, and we know not where to begin to set them right. Meantime nature is not slow to equip us in the prison-uniform of the party to which we adhere.

Season 4 Podcast 51 Milton’s Paradise Lost Bk XI, Pt XL, “The Intersession, Pt IV” 

In the prologue to Book XI, Milton writes.

The Son of God presents to his Father the prayers of our first parents now repenting, and intercedes for them: God accepts them, but declares that they must no longer abide in Paradise; sends Michael with a band of Cherubim to dispossess them; but first to reveal to Adam future things: Michael's coming down. Adam shows to Eve certain ominous signs; he discerns Michael's approach; goes out to meet him: the Angel denounces their departure. Eve's Lamentation. Adam pleads but submits: the Angel leads him up to a high hill; sets before him a vision what shall happen till the Flood.

Michael tells Adam that mankind was made in God’s image, but because man chose to serve the appetites of the natural man and used their bodies to serve evil they lost that godlike image. They violated the laws of nature, therefore becoming subject to disease.

Their Makers Image, answered Michael, then
Forsook them, when themselves they vilified
To serve ungoverned appetite, and took
His Image whom they served, a brutish vice,
Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve.
Therefore so abject is their punishment,
Disfiguring not Gods likeness, but their own,
Or if his likeness, by themselves defac’t
While they pervert pure Natures healthful rules
To loathsome sickness, worthily, since they
Gods Image did not reverence in themselves.

Adam agrees with Michael, saying God is just, but asks if there is another way out besides pain and misery to accompany death.

I yield it just, said Adam, and submit.
But is there yet no other way, besides
These painful passages, how we may come
To Death, and mix with our connatural dust?

Michael warns Adam against gluttony and tells him to use temperance in what he eats and drinks. That way they will have a longer life and easier death. Still they must grow old and suffer the natural effects of age

There is, said Michael, if thou well observe
The rule of not too much, by temperance taught
In what thou eatst and drinkst, seeking from thence
Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight,
Till many years over thy head return:
So maist thou live, till like ripe Fruit thou drop
Into thy Mothers lap, or be with ease
Gathered, not harshly pluckt, for death mature:
This is old age; but then thou must outlive
Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty, which will change
To withered weak & gray; thy Senses then
Obtuse, all taste of pleasure must forgoe,
To what thou hast, and for the Aire of youth
Hopeful and cheerful, in thy blood will reign
A melancholy damp of cold and dry
To weigh thy spirits down, and last consume
The Balm of Life..

Adam replies that he will not run from death, but he would study how the fairest and easiest way to meet the inevitable.

Henceforth I flee not Death, nor would prolong
Life much, bent rather how I may be quit
Fairest and easiest of this cumbrous charge,
Which I must keep till my appointed day
Of rendering up.  

Michael tells Adam that the best thing to do is to live well. 

Nor love thy Life, nor hate; but what thou livst
Live well, how long or short permit to Heav’n:

Then Michael cautions Adam to be prepared because he is going to show him the future. Adam sees a huge plain filled with tents and cattle. He heard beautiful music. He watched as they created tools from molten metal. He saw people who were just, who worshiped God and studied the words of God. They sought freedom and peace.