Conscience by William Dean

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 28, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 41.

Conscience.

By William Dean

I HAVE recently heard it stated that conscience is the standard of moral action, but have been accustomed to regard the Bible as the criterion of religious duty. It is reported that a pioneer of the Burman Mission wrote to the executive committee, "Don't send us men who are guided only by their own conscience. One conscientious wrong-headed man would ruin us." A pioneer in the mission to the Gentiles, was conscientious in indorsing the death of Stephen as were those who threw the stones to kill him, and he was as sincere in the persecution of the worshipers of the Nazarene as he afterward was in preaching the gospel. The Jews were conscientious in killing their Messiah, for they thought him a blasphemer, and according to their law he ought to die, and while they did not drive the nails that fastened him to the cross, nor thrust the spear that pierced his side, still they crucified him by prompting the deed and approving the act.

The heathen have a conscience which may either accuse or else excuse their deeds, but that conscience may not be a safe criterion of moral action. We read of a good conscience and an evil conscience, and when the heathen burn a living woman on the funeral pile of her deceased husband, or throw themselves under the car of Juggernaut, or sacrifice their children to Moloch to atone for their sins, we think in all their acts they are prompted by an evil conscience.—William Dean, D. D.