It is advisable that all should have a clear understanding as to the nature of Conscience, the dangers to which Conscience is liable, the Nature of Sin, and the Effects of Sin. Too many people go on easily from day to day making no spiritual advance, because they do not know what ails their Consciences, do not even suspect that their Consciences are ailing, and so make no effort to escape from their unsatisfactory condition. It is hoped that this little book of meditations may be of use to such.
ON CONSCIENCE.
God has created man for a purpose, and that purpose is, that he should attain to everlasting blessedness.
God is good and loving unto all His works. He made the plants and the beasts, and set them ends to accomplish here on earth, but the ends for which man was made are not to be attained in this life.
Through the Fall man’s mind is darkened, his connexion with God is broken, his sight of the aim to which he should tend is obscured. God has given to him His law as the rule of his actions, that man, hearkening to the revealed Will of God, may be guided aright, and so accomplish that end for which he was made, and attain finally to everlasting blessedness.
Every act of man that is in conformity with the revealed law of God is good.
Every act of man that is contrary to this revealed law of God is bad.
Every act that is in conformity with the law of God is not only actually good, but it is relatively good—that is to say, it tends to our individual advantage. It is not only good in the sight of God, but it is profitable to our own selves.
So also is the converse true, that every act done against the law of God is actually and relatively bad; it is bad in the sight of God, and it does injury to our own selves.
Now, in order that we may be able to judge whether our acts are in conformity with the law of God, He has set in us a faculty which has the office of applying the law of God to our own circumstances; and this faculty tells us whether our acts are in conformity with or contrary to the external law of God. Thus we have the exterior law, and the interior faculty, which we may almost term a law, and this inner law is called Conscience.
II. The revealed law of God, considered in itself and in relation to God, its Author, is holy, inviolable, and inalterable. “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting (or restoring) the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever; the judgments of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. … In them is Thy servant warned: and in keeping them there is great reward.” (Ps. xix. 7–11.)
But though the revealed law of God is fixed and immutable, yet when applied to the human Conscience it takes different forms, according to the state of the Conscience.
Hence it follows that the divine law ill-applied, so far from being a sure rule, may become perverted into a sanction whereby we evade the obligations laid on us, and authorize ourselves to commit that which is wrong.
We shall therefore have to consider:—
1. The nature of Conscience.
2. The obligation of obeying Conscience.
3. The different kinds of Conscience.
4. The rules of conduct relative to each sort of Conscience.
THE NATURE OF CONSCIENCE.
1. Conscience, which is the gift of God bestowed on all men, Christian and heathen, is that practical judgment which points out to us what to avoid or what to do in any particular emergency that may arise. Just as we may know that there are certain laws of nature, and our ready commonsense tells us, when varying circumstances arise, how we are to act so that the laws of nature may be to our advantage instead of to our overthrow, so is Conscience the commonsense application of the indwelling consciousness of the distinction between right and wrong to emergencies, as they rise up and demand of us a choice between one course or another.
2. Conscience has a threefold exercise of its judgment.
(a) Before an action takes place, Conscience throws light on the action contemplated or proposed, tells us its moral value, and if the Conscience judges that it is good, then it counsels and permits the act. If, however, the Conscience judges that it is bad, then it dissuades from, and forbids the act.
(b) During an action Conscience is active, and in spite of all the clouds of prejudice and of passion that may have risen up, it bears testimony to the true nature of our conduct, it either encourages us to carry it through, not to be supine about it, not to abandon it before it is completed, and so leave it imperfectly accomplished, but to carry it through to the end, thoroughly and completely. Or else, Conscience does not cease from turning us aside from the prosecution of the act which it disapproves; it acts as a drag, a check, and unless resisted will completely arrest us in the prosecution of that which it esteems to be bad.
(c) After an action, Conscience recompenses us by the satisfaction we feel, the approval it accords to us for having either accomplished what it advised, or for having abandoned that conduct which it disapproved. So S. Paul speaks of people being “a law unto themselves,” shewing “the work of the law written in their hearts, their Conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing, one another.” (Rom. ii. 14, 15.) This is the “testimony of the Conscience,” “the answer of the good Conscience” to which both S. Paul and S. Peter appeal.
3. We have seen that Conscience instructs, judges, and rewards or punishes; but we must consider further, that Conscience does not control the will of man, it merely dictates to the will what is right, and warns it as to what is wrong. It uses no constraint. Man’s will is free; Conscience clears the eyes of the mind, and shews it what conduces to welfare, and what to destruction, but it neither impels man irresistibly into the former course, nor holds him back forcibly from taking the other. It shows man what is medicine and what is poison, but it does not compel him to take one and reject the other, for the will of man is absolutely free.
THE NATURE OF CONSCIENCE.
(Continued.)
1. Conscience, in the order of religious life, is that which the Court of Justice is in the order of public life, a court that has been instituted by the legislature to keep discipline and well-being in the State, to protect the individual in his person, his property, and his repute.
Thus Conscience takes the general laws of God and explains them in their bearings on our own conduct, and applies them to our several cases. Also, Conscience sees to the execution of the law—that it shall be obeyed as well as acknowledged. Also, Conscience punishes every infraction of the law.
In other words, Conscience is the interpreter of the law of God, it is the judge sitting in judgment on us for our observance or non-observance of the law, and it is the executioner carrying out the sentence against us. As interpreter, Conscience enlightens us as to the requirements of God, explains to us what is obscure, and smooths the way so that our wills, enlightened and ready to act without impediment, may take a direction one way or other.
An act does not become just or sinful till the will has consented to the advice of the Conscience as interpreter, or has turned against it and deliberately gone contrary to what it has laid down. Every wilful sin is therefore a determinate revolt against God.
2. But Conscience is more than interpreter, judge and executioner; it is also our accuser and the witness against us.
As accuser, it pursues the guilty everywhere, into the innermost recesses of the thoughts.
It sees clearly, it knows all the circumstances, it declares with unhesitating voice both what is the nature of the sin, and what is the condition of the sinner. Thus to the office of accuser it unites that of witness, presenting itself ever before the accused, with unshaken testimony. It has seen all; it has seen all as it is; and it has forgotten none of the circumstances.
As judge, it is enlightened with Divine illumination that pierces through all the mists of prejudice and clouds of passion, and nothing escapes from its vigilance.
As judge it is also severe, not easy and indifferent, for it has not its own law or humour to obey, but the divine law, which it interprets and administers.
It is just, for it stands in that position that it is between God, the Lawgiver, on one side, and man, who breaks that law, on the other. If it be inclined to over-leniency, if it be unjust, then Conscience is itself corrupted. But we are not now speaking of Conscience degraded, cajoled, bribed, and dishonest, but of the true Conscience as divinely illumined and divinely directed to judge aright. And as just and enlightened Conscience passes its judgment, and then takes up the office of executioner. “If,” says S. Paul, “we would judge ourselves we should not be judged.” That is to say, if we suffer our Consciences to perform their proper function here in the time of life, to pass sentence upon us justly, and execute the sentences passed, then there would be no second judgment for us at the last. That judgment is needed only because so many people refuse to permit Conscience to perform its divinely-ordained work here in this life.
Then consider Conscience as the executioner. It punishes man here, to work out his amendment. But if Conscience be not suffered to perform its divinely allotted task here, then it will do it in eternity when the time for amendment is over. That is the worm that dies not, that the fire that is never extinguished. Conscience is given to us as our executioner here in order to improve us, not to torture us unprofitably. It punishes us to work in us repentance. These are the two operations of Conscience as executioner.
THE OBLIGATIONS OF CONSCIENCE.
1. As Conscience is a gift of God we are responsible to Him for the use we make of it. Conscience is the moral faculty; as the eyes are organs of the faculty of sight, the ears of the faculty of hearing, so has Conscience the faculty of seeing and knowing and distinguishing right from wrong. As God has given us sight and hearing we exercise these faculties, and, what is more, cultivate them. So, as God has given us the moral faculty, we exercise it, and cultivate it, if we desire to fulfil the ends for which God has created us. God gives us eyes to see our way, and not strike against walls, and fall into pits. So God has given us Conscience to see our moral way, and not run into temptations, and to avoid moral dangers.
2. As Conscience is that interior judgment which God has planted in us to dictate to us what to do, and what to avoid, on special occasions, then, to disobey the voice of Conscience is to disobey the Voice of God. Not only so, but, as Conscience points out to us that a certain course is one to which duty calls us, and we refuse to follow the indication of Conscience, this is a revolt of the will against God, and when the will, knowing what is right, deliberately chooses what is wrong, it commits mortal sin. It was so with Adam and Eve. They knew the Commandment of God, and wilfully went against His Commandment, consequently they had turned away from their proper end, and turned themselves into the camp of rebels against God.
3. When S. Paul says, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin,” he is speaking of the eating of meats offered to idols; and he shows how that Conscience is the rule as to whether a thing is sinful or not. Idols are naught, so that the things offered to idols are not actually polluted by the oblation; nevertheless, if the Conscience refuses to admit this, and argues that, as a meat has been offered to an idol, the partaking of it is participation in idolatry, then to eat of the meat that has been offered brings guilt on the soul. “He that doubteth is damned if he eat.” (Rom. xiv. 23.)
4. From this we may draw a practical conclusion that it is always well to follow Conscience, even when Conscience, ill-instructed, may be in error; that if Conscience disapprove of a course of conduct, and yet may not understand clearly on what grounds it utters its disapprobation, it is safest, indeed it is right, to obey Conscience, and not take advantage of its hesitation.
That a Conscience may be ill-taught, and therefore in error, that a Conscience may be perverted, we shall see presently; but what appears to be abundantly clear is that it is advisable always to obey Conscience in all things; but then we must be careful to have the Conscience well-instructed, clearly illuminated, so that it may not be hesitating, confused, and liable to direct us wrongly.
5. When Conscience hesitates, and is doubtful between two courses, it is right to seek advice from such as are experienced in the direction of Conscience.
Moreover, the Holy Spirit must be invoked to open the eyes of the understanding, and guide into truth. When hesitation and doubt still remain, then the safest course to adopt is that line of conduct which is likely to entail most trouble, likely to cost us most, least likely to attract notice from others; also, generally, if not always, the simplest and most natural line is the right one; but self-interest, or a disturbed moral sense, may incline one to take another line that is not absolutely wrong in itself, but is less right because less natural, and simple, and direct, and common-place than the other.
CAUSES OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONSCIENCE.
1. Conscience as given by God to man is sound, vigorous, and direct. It sees clearly what the truth is, and distinguishes at once good from evil.
Whatever God gives is good, and God gives this faculty of distinguishing between good and evil to man for a purpose, essential to man, that he may follow his course, and attain to that end for which God made him. Therefore, God certainly gave to man, originally, a sound, sturdy, and clear-seeing Conscience, to be the pilot of his vessel, the driver of his chariot, the legislator of his state. That we may—indeed, that we must acknowledge. God Himself set man in the world to accomplish a certain work, and He furnished him adequately for the fulfilment of the task allotted to him.
2. But