xtop

│>Next│

Excerpts from the booklet

WHAT IS CONSCIENCE?

BY J. R. GRAVES, LL.D.,

"We trust we have a good conscience."— Paul. "Baptism—the answer of a good conscience toward God."—Peter.

Have I a right to worship God according to the dictates of my own conscience?

This question is one of vast practical import, and should be clearly understood by every one, and by none more than the professed Christian. The Scriptures can not be understood, nor this question answered, without we obtain a correct answer to the underlying question —

This inquiry is scarcely second to any other in the whole domain of Ethics and Theology, since a false theory of conscience will inevitably work the destruction of the whole system of Christianity. The authors of our moral philosophies and lexicons have not agreed upon a definition of conscience. Three principal theories have been before the world for the past century, and each of these I propose to examine. Taking this for granted, that no theory whose practical workings make void the teachings of the Bible, and result in evil to nations and communities, can be the true theory of conscience, the first that I notice is —

1. That conscience is the verdict of our natural reason and judgment touching the moral quality of any act.

This I denominate the French theory, since it was so generally accepted by that nation prior to the Revolution. Let us decide as to the correctness of this definition by the results to which it led. The apostles of this theory taught that every proposition, whether appertaining to religion, morals or politics, should be indorsed by human reason. Consequently, every system and policy, every relation of life and distinction in human society, every theory of government, and even the teachings of the Bible and the acts of the All wise God were arrested and hailed, before the tribunal of human Reason, and acquitted or condemned, according to its, in their estimation, infallible decisions! And what were the very natural results? With respect to government, they claimed that Reason taught them that all men should be free. In a monarchy, they declared the king alone was free, and the people slaves, because restrained by his will; and the cry was raised for the overthrow of royalty, and the abolition of this slavery throughout the empire. Reason taught them that all men should be equal; and conscience called for the abrogation of all ranks and an equal division of the wealth of the kingdom among all classes; and that all men, irrespective of birth, color or condition, should be placed upon an equality of social position, and, with the harrow of universal agrarianism, reduced to the level of a common brotherhood, "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity," was the motto inscribed upon the banners of the Red Republicans of France; and so soon as they obtained the balance of power, the bitter and bloody fruits of the theory appeared. Following the dictates of their consciences, they murdered the king and subverted the throne, annulled the constitution and abolished the laws. They consigned the titled and the rich to the executioner and the block, and confiscated their property for no crime, except that they possessed titles and wealth by hereditary right, according to the law of the land. They sent to the guillotine or the dungeon all sexes who presumed to differ from them in opinion. Conscience, the voice of the understanding and reason, unguided by statute, human or divine, became the "higher law" of France, and France became a hell. Not only all laws affording any salutary restraint to crime or protection to virtue fell before this higher law, but the Bible itself was condemned, tied to the tail of an ass and driven from the city; while a. nude prostitute, representing the goddess Reason, was carried in triumphal procession through the city, and enthroned upon the high altar in the cathedral of Notre Dame. Then old Anarch triumphed, and universal murder and ruin followed, and unbridled passion and lust held high carnival I need not examine this theory of conscience further. A theory, that, when left free to develop itself, mounts above the Bible, Christianity, and even the throne of God, we must reject, as an emanation from the pit and the gospel of perdition.

2. There is another theory of conscience that has been taught us for the last fifty years in all our dictionaries and in all our schools, from the lowest to the highest, and from nearly all the pulpits of our country, viz: That conscience is an independent faculty, like the eye or the ear, and given to us to discover the moral quality of all our actions, and its decisions infallible, and the highest source of appeal!

I offer in proof the following authorities:

Webster's Dictionary:

"Conscience—Internal or self-knowledge or judgment of right or wrong; or, the faculty, power or principle within us which decides on the lawfulness or unlawfulness of our own actions or affections, and instantly approves or condemns them. Conscience is called by some writers the moral sense, and considered as an original faculty of our nature.

"Conscience is first occupied in ascertaining our duty, before we proceed to action, then in judging of our actions when performed.—J. M. Mason."

Worcester's Dictionary:

"CONSCIENCE — The faculty of judging one's own conduct with reference to some standard of right and wrong; THE MORAL SENSE; THE MORAL FACULTY."

"Whatever creed be taught or land be trod, Man's conscience is the oracle of God."—Byron.

Dr. Wayland:

"By conscience, or the moral sense, is meant that faculty by which we discern the moral quality of actions, and by which we are capable of certain affections in respect to this quality. . . . This notion is, in its nature, simple and ultimate and distinct from every other notion." " It is not merely a discriminating, but also an impulsive faculty. ... It is the most authoritative impulse of which we find ourselves susceptible. . . . Now, as our Creator has constituted us such as we are, and as by our very constitution we do thus consider conscience to be the most authoritative impulse of our natures, it must be the most authoritative impulse of our natures, it must be the most authoritative, unless we believe that he has deceived us, or, which is the same thing, that he has so formed us as to give credit to a lie."—Moral Science.

Dr. John Dick:

"It is that faculty which perceives right and wrong in actions, approves or disapproves of them, anticipates their consequences under the moral administration of God, and is thus the cause of peace or disquietude of mind."—Lectures on Theology.

I could multiply authorities, but these must suffice.

This I call the American theory of conscience. It teaches us that conscience is a distinct and independent moral faculty, and is to each of us a clearer light to guide than the light of nature, or the voice of God, speaking in his Word!—that no impulse of conscience can possibly be wrong, unless God deceives us! Here falls the supreme authority of God's Revealed Word, since each man, according to this, has a God or a Pope in his own bosom, — an infallible conscience, that tells him what actions are right in the sight of God, and what are wrong; and more, even impels him to the right. Here also falls the cardinal doctrine of universal and total depravity, which teaches that each man's moral sense as well as tastes and affections are wholly estranged from God:  "Having his understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." (Eph. iv. 18.) In place of this utter darkness of judgment and blindness of heart, we have conscience, like a sun, reflecting the noon-day light upon the character of every act; and its God-like voice teaching us with infallible certainty not only the right way but impelling us to walk in it. This is more than those teachers claim for the Word of God. That I do not misstate this theory that conscience is a distinct faculty or moral sense— whose province is to decide upon the moral quality of our actions, as the eye or the ear performs its distinct function, and that the decisions of conscience can not be either improved or changed by any amount or character of information, any more than can the eye or the ear or sense of taste; since, notwithstanding all the disquisitions of earth, to the eye black is still black, and to the sense of taste or smell, a spoiled egg is still as offensive—let us examine Dr. Wayland a little further, since his "Moral Science" has been almost exclusively the text-book of all our schools for the past half century. He says:

"The conscience is not improved by the reading of moral essays, nor by committing to memory moral precepts, nor by imagining moral vicissitudes; but by hearkening to its monitions and obeying its impulses."

What justly follows from this? Is it not that conscience is to each individual a higher source of appeal than the Bible?

"Before you resolve upon an action, or a course of action [does he advise us, as Christ does, to 'search the Scriptures' to learn whether God approves or disapproves? no, but put the question to your own conscience, the infallible divinity within our own breasts; hear him], let the first question always be, is this action right ?"

You are to put this question to your conscience, mark you, not to your Bible or God's law:

"For [says our author] this purpose God gave you this faculty [of conscience]. If you do not use it, you are false to yourself, and inexcusable before God. . . . Man is under obligation to obey the will of God in what manner soever signified. That it is signified in this manner [i.e., that the teachings of conscience is the voice of God to the soul], I think can not be a question, and for this knowledge he is justly held responsible."

We have, therefore, this advice given:

"Cultivate, on all occasions, in private or in public, in small or in great, in action or in thought, the habit [does he say of trying the act or thought by God's Word? not a syllable of it; but he says] of obeying the monitions of conscience, all other things to the contrary notwithstanding."

And he quotes from a poet corrupted by the same false teachings :

"Its slightest touches — instant pause,

Debar aside pretenses;

And resolutely keep its laws,

Uncaring consequences."

│>Next│

│Welcome│Contact Us│Calendar│Site Map│Copyright

xbottom