T. Why?
C. Because I would do as I pleased.
T. If you pleased to obey, and did as you pleased, you would obey.
C. But I would not so please to do.
T. Would you do as you would not please to do?
C. I would not.
T. Then, you would obey; because when pleased to do a thing, if you did not do it, you would be displeased and dissatisfied. When wisdom cultivates the mind, it makes it productive of good fruits. They come up, and grow spontaneously. The soil, being wisely prepared, yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness. So, when your mind drinks of the fountain of a higher wisdom, it satisfies the thirst, and gives it strength to bear fruit. It is free from the fears of ignorance and superstition, and needs no lash to extort the required good. It does what it pleases without fear, because it pleases to do right, and not wrong. But the mind driven, is like a slave—a servant that serves only because the eye of his master is upon him, and the lash of his wrath is uplifted to extort an unwilling service. The slave works, but he works as he is worked by the master. So, with those who serve in your condition. It is not you, but your master who works you, that is entitled to the reward. He employs you as a mechanic would his tools; and yet, who would say, the tool should receive a reward for its use?
C. This is a new doctrine. I see you sap the foundation of all fear.
T. I would sap the foundation of all ignorance, because ignorance is the cause of all fear. Remove ignorance, and all fear ceases. It never was a virtue. Minds have operated to make minds fear. They have sought to make them fear what they did not fear themselves. They have represented God, and even spirits, as objects of fear. And they have lashed their superstitious victims into a servitude as degrading as it was destructive, as humiliating as it was ruinous to the welfare of mind. When ignorance is superseded by wisdom, freedom will permit minds to share in the work of their hands; but, so long as mind is in bondage through fear, and works only as it is worked, the reward, whatever it may be, should be given to him who controls. The master, and not the servant, does the work, and does it as he chooses, and by the tools at his command.
C. I would ask, if mind ought not to fear God?