THE TREATMENT OF CONSCIENCE.

"And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men." — Acts xxiv. 16.

"Holding... a good conscience." — I Tim. i. 19.

"The light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! " — Matt. vi. 22, 23.

"Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?" — Luke xii. 57.

In an arresting picture, entitled "The Dweller in the Innermost," George Frederick Watts represents conscience as an ethereal womanly figure, sitting retired in a shrine of mystery, listening — listening intently — and rapt in thought. On her head is a crown, gemmed in front with a gleaming star. In her hand she holds a trumpet ready; while a number of sharp-pointed darts are laid across her knees. She is waiting to hear a higher voice, prepared to sound forth the message when it comes, and to hurl the darts if the message be not obeyed.

That picture is a striking symbolic representation of the function which conscience is meant to fulfil in the life of man. Conscience is the witness for God in the inner depths of our nature. It is the organ or faculty through which the Divine Spirit speaks, sometimes with a note that is loud, and even startling, but often in softer tones, gentle, appealing, yet marvellously penetrating and not to be heedlessly ignored. As Byron says, —

"Yet still there whispers the small voice within,

Heard through Gain's silence, and o'er Glory's din.

Whatever creed be taught, or land be trod,

Man's conscience is the oracle of God."

It is one of the lessons forced on us as we move forward in life, that character and wellbeing largely depend on the treatment of conscience; and the treatment of conscience is a point to which both Jesus and Paul specially refer. For conscience is given as a means of guidance for conduct; and although it exists in all, it may be so dealt with by different persons as to be far more of a blessing and help to some than it is to others. Experience perpetually teaches that a sound, vigorous condition of the conscience is absolutely essential to real worth and happiness. And if this high faculty is to serve the gracious purpose for which it was designed, it becomes imperative on us to "exercise" ourselves, like the Apostle, in securing for it its due place and power in our life.

1. It must be Alert.

The first point to be aimed at is to keep the conscience alert. There is such a thing as a torpid conscience. It may fall into a state of sluggish dulness, incapable of giving a quick or clear decision on a question of right and wrong. This may be brought about by a continued process of easy-going indifference, or by fevered engrossment in superficial vanities, sordid aims, selfish expediences and gratifications. These things may so act upon a person’s conscience that it grows benumbed; he loses his susceptibility to the voice and call of duty. The inner witness is reduced to a condition of semi-torpor, and the man goes blundering on, tampering with the eternal laws of truth and right, not realising the moral and spiritual harm he is working for himself and for others. Endless is the mischief caused in the world by a dull and blunted conscience.

It is of untold moment, therefore, that a steady effort be made to fight clear of every practice or form of self-indulgence which may have a deadening effect, and to keep carefully within the range of sacred influences, — that the conscience may be stirred to sensitiveness, and set on the alert. To constrain the mind to dwell in the pure atmosphere of Christ’s spirit and Christ’s ideas is to gain a quickened conscience, a keener power to distinguish the high and noble in thought or action from the low and the mean. And thereby a person acquires some dear assurance that the way he is prompted to take is the way directed by the Lord.

2. It must be Enlightened.

A second point is to get the conscience enlightened. The conscience may be educated, just as any of the bodily organs may be. The eye may be educated to discern greater niceties of colour and of form; the ear may be educated to appreciate subtler harmonies or discords in sounds; and the sense of touch may be educated to an extraordinary degree of delicacy and correctness of feeling.

And so, also, this organ of spiritual sense, Conscience, needs educating to bring it to its most reliable point of efficiency. It is well known how the standard of right has differed at different stages of the world’s history, — how, in fact, it has gradually risen as the centuries rolled by. Good men in the past tolerated certain features in their lives which are now held to be unworthy, without feeling them to be unworthy, — as, for example, passionate cruelty to enemies, the fondness for revenge, the holding of slaves, or sharing in the gains of slavery, the persecution of those who professed unrecognised religious opinions. It was due mainly to the want of enlightenment. The conscience was not sufficiently educated to see the evil that may lie in forms of action which have been long sanctioned by habit and usage. And in the same way still, well-meaning people may do things that are really wrong, without' being aware that they are wrong; or they may neglect obligations of duty without perceiving them to be obligations. They act according to conscience, so far, but their conscience needs enlightenment, — needs to be brought right into the presence of a higher ideal, — that its conceptions of truth and goodness may be enlarged, made more delicate and refined.

This is what happens when the conscience is drawn under the influence of Jesus Christ. In His presence conscience recognises its sovereign Lord and King. There begins to dawn then a new delicacy of moral and spiritual perception. The moment we turn our minds seriously to the life and words of the Master, our ideas of duty become clearer, sharper, more vivid, and we discover a right and a wrong in things which before had appeared indifferent Now and again, indeed, as we reflect on the pure elevation of Jesus, we become aware of some fault or other in our disposition or ways of acting which had never previously struck us, and we say to ourselves with a start, "I never thought of it before; 1 never saw it in that light, else I would have been ashamed of it long ago."

Here we find one of the special benefits to be derived from earnest and frequent attendance on Christian teaching. It illumines the conscience by bringing it close into contact with the highest standard of feeling and conduct. It stimulates the moral sense by setting before it the vision of a peerless goodness. And nothing is better fitted to educate the conscience and make it a sure guide in matters of right and duty, than to keep the Lord Jesus ever in view, endeavouring to see things in the light which His life and truth reveal. In all questions of responsibility, when we are uncertain or perplexed, it is always salutary and helpful to place ourselves in imagination by His side, and try to conceive what, in our circumstances, Jesus would be likely to do. That would develop our power of moral discernment. It would vivify our better feelings. It would heighten our ideas as to what life and character should be. And it would deliver us from the blinding errors of moral judgment which so often lead us astray and spoil our peace.

3. It must be True.

A third point to be aimed at is to preserve the conscience true. We sometimes hear of a ship being wrecked through the deflection of the compass. It was a good ship, with a compass in sufficiently good order and quite well fitted to serve its use when it left the maker’s hands. But there was some part of the cargo taken on board of that ship which acted injuriously on the movements of the compass — some kind of metal, perhaps, which by its subtle influence drew the needle aside, so that it could not keep its point steadily directed towards the magnetic pole — with the result that the ship was diverted from its course, and struck on hidden rocks that were supposed to be far away. Well, conscience is the moral compass for the voyage of life, and it likewise may be deflected, warped. Many launch forth on the great world-ocean, like a fine vessel, finely equipped for ploughing a sure way amid winds and waves. They are full of promise and hope; their conscience is in a fairly good condition, awake and alert, enlightened and educated also to a favourable degree. But at one port of call or another in the great life-voyage, they take into their heart some particular taste, some inclination or ambition, which contains in it an element of risk. It may be an anxious greed of gain to which they give place and room, or an eager passion for praise, position, or showy display, or a secret craving for some form of self-indulgent pleasure. And any one of these feelings may put the conscience in danger by the subtle influence it begins to exert.

It is easy for people to persuade themselves that all is well, and to make-believe that what they are doing is right, because it happens to fall in with the self-gratifying inclinations they are cherishing. The compass of their life, their moral sense, seems to correspond with their personal likings and wishes. Yes; but what if that compass has been deflected, and the moral sense swayed aside from its true direction by those very likings and wishes? What if conscience has been twisted to suit the demands of selfish expediency? Then, unless care be taken in time, life’s voyage may end on a barren shore of dreary disappointment, if not in spiritual wreck and disaster.

It is of the highest importance, therefore, that we should, from time to time, endeavour to do what every competent ship-captain is careful to do — test our compass. The captain brings out his sextant, and, holding it up to the sun at mid-day, takes his bearings, and finds out whether the needle is pointing true to the pole; and if it is not, he re-arranges his cargo accordingly. So it is our part also, now and again, to bring out our New Testament, or what we know of its teaching, and, holding that up in the light of serious thought, take our bearings likewise, and find out whether our conscience is still pointing true to Christ, its proper direction and aim. That is one of the uses to which we can apply our Sabbath leisure, and our occasional hours of private meditation and devotion. That is testing our compass. And if at any time we discover that our sense of duty or right is being warped from the straight line of fidelity to Christ, our first obligation is to put those inclinations or interests which are tending to warp it into a subordinate place in our hearts, thrusting them away where it will be less possible for them to exert their baleful power.

4. It must be Trusted.

Another point is, that the conscience be trusted. What I mean is this: in so far as we feel our conscience to be awake, enlightened, and, tested in the light of Christ, to be true, we should fling ourselves honestly on its guidance. We should believe in our conscience when it speaks clearly within us. There is a sort of instinct which tells us when it is speaking clearly. And were we only to accept and follow its dictates when that instinct assures us of their truth, we should be armed with an amazing confidence and strength., That person who trusts his conscience, and throws his will out to act on its promptings, is lifted to a height of feeling which is one of the most precious experiences in life. Nothing yields a purer, richer satisfaction. To have a conscience kept enlightened by the life and teaching of the Lord Jesus, and to trust its leading loyally, with that same Lord ever in view — that may cost many a struggle with earthly inclination and selfish desire; yet it is an infallible secret of that inward peace for which all so passionately yearn. It renders the haunting horrors of guilty memories impossible. It lays the spectres of terror and fear. It stirs the upholding sense of being in the sure path to all that is best and most worth possessing at last.

If, then, we have any genuine reverence for the redeeming Christ, and would gain the real good of life, we are bound to commit our way to the bidding of that mysterious "Dweller in the Innermost," the witness for the Divine within our breast, and "exercise" ourselves ** always to have a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men." That will open the soul to the sunshine of heaven, and to the brightening sweetness of the Father’s smile. And as for the future — "a good conscience" before God can meet that with unshrinking trust.