C. But some one must make the sacrifice, or there will be no deliverance.
T. Sacrifices and burnt offerings, which do no good, are inconsistent with justice. There is a time, when mind may aid minds, and there is a time, when it can not. The time to aid is when good can be done, and the time not to aid is when aid will be refused. Let no mind offer aid without good, or withhold it when needed. The need must be realized, or it will be rejected. I have heard minds refuse, because they scorned to be a debtor to any one. They would boast of their independence, when their independence was subservience to educational wrongs. I have heard them decry against slavery, when they were slaves to the most tyrannical of all masters—the ignorance of their conceited ambition to occupy the highest seat in the kingdom of heaven, without the requisite modesty to admit their superiors to an equal condition. I have seen the land of freedom, the home of the free; but I never knew wisdom to rule where disorder and wrong overcame the harmony of goodness and peace.
C. Verily, you make wrangling the worst of all vices.
T. What is greater?
C. The wrong of injustice.
T. The wrong of wrangling is the wrong of injustice. The mind that wrangles, abuses itself, and degrades its associates. The mind is known by the circle it sustains. My mission is to destroy the wrangling; but you know, that many minds love what is disagreeable to others. They love strife. They hate peace. They love happiness, but their folly disappoints them. This is the condition of your circle. They wrangle not about what they know, but concerning what they do not know. And yet I would not wrangle with them, concerning what I know, because it is wrong, and what is wrong can not do good.
C. I will wrangle no more. I see a light advancing. Who comes with the stream of radiant glory beaming on his brow?
T. It is my friend William. He has a message for you. You may answer him when he speaks, and as he speaks.
W. Thy friend will wrangle no more. Let him come with us, and we will do him good. Art thou ready, friend?
C. I am ready.