NO GROUND FOR CONSCIENCE.
By G.
IN the Sabbath Recorder we find this lucid statement of a well-known condition: "The average American citizen has but little conscience in the matter of Sabbath observance. He has accepted the popular 'rest-day' theory and holidayism. His idea of the Sabbath as sacred time is obliterated and the divine obligation in Sabbath observance is blotted out of his conscience. He claims that if brain or body needs rest or pleasure on Sunday, their demands should be acceded to. This takes all authority away from God and the Bible, and places it upon his own mental and physical conditions, leaving it with his own choices and caprices; and he alone is judge in the case. Thus he takes the Sabbath from its God-appointed place and degrades it to the low level of his own pleasure and convenience." The reason there is so "little conscience in the matter" is that the "average American" imbibes the common idea that Sunday is the Sabbath, and of course there is nothing in that to which conscience can safely anchor. Being a human institution, supported only by human law and common custom, conscience is not essential to its observance. Any human ordinance can be observed and its claims satisfied by mere formality. Human law and custom can not take cognizance of anything but outward act. It has no appeal to conscience, and has no right to dictate to it. Where conscience and action come together in a legitimate union, conscience is always the actuating power. Conscience is amenable to the law of God, and a "good conscience" is always "toward God;" therefore it is always toward His law. The difference between divine law and human law is, that divine law is not satisfied by outward act alone; it is spiritual, and must be obeyed in spirit; only conscientious observance can meet its requirement. But man may even despise the human ordinance, yet if he conform outwardly to its demands, he is free from its penalty. There is no conscience required in Sunday observance; a man may be compelled to observe the day according to law and custom. But he can not be compelled to keep the Sabbath of the Lord; being a part of the law of God, the motive power in its acceptable observance is the Spirit of God working upon the heart.