Conscience

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 16, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 23.

THE following under the above caption is taken from the Western Watchman, of Nov. 26, 1908, a Catholic paper, which defends the Church of Rome in all her persecutions. If the editor teach truly, is it not a fearful cruelty to persecute the conscientious “heretic”?

“Whether a man be born in pagan darkness or in revealed religion, in any case he has within his breast a certain commanding dictate, not a mere sentiment, not a mere opinion or impression or view of things, but a law, an authoritative voice, bidding him to do certain things, and avoid others. It is more than a man’s self. The man himself has not the power over it, or only with extreme difficulty. He did not make it; he can not destroy it. He may silence it in particular cases or directions, he may distort its enunciations, but he can not—or it is quite the exception if he can—he can not emancipate himself from it. He can disobey it, he may refuse to use it, but it remains. To those who use what they have, more is given. At the same time the more a person tries to obey his conscience the more he gets alarmed at himself for obeying it so imperfectly. His sense of duty will become more keen, and his perception of transgression more delicate, and he will understand more and more how many things he has to be forgiven. And the voice of conscience has nothing gentle, nothing of mercy, in its tone. It is severe, and even stern.”

Now God has given conscience as a guide, a monitor; but man may harden it till it is “seared,” insensible, “evil;” but its correction does not lie with outside human forces. Only Jesus Christ can cleanse from “an evil conscience,” and make the conscience good. (See 1 Cor. 8:7; 1 Tim. 1:5, 19; 3:9; 4:2; Titus 1:15; Heb. 10:22; 1 Peter 3:16, 21.) The individual Christian through faith alone can keep his conscience “good,” by (1) comparing it with God’s word; (2) by educating it in perfect harmony with God’s law; (3) by following its admonitions; (4) by keeping it pure in walking by faith in Christ Jesus.