ably or painfully) affected by it. Only tbe latter part oftliis definition is accurate; lor the apprehension of the agreement or contrariety between the given subjects of thought (the act, purpose, etc.) is a purely intellect- ual exercise of the judgment, comparing the thing con- templated or reviewed with some previously acquired or adopted standard or principle of right. Hence the importance of a correct and true rule by which to try all moral questions ; and hence, too, the exceeding diver- sity and even opposition of views on moral points be- tween persons of ilifferent religions and associations. The tendency of the passions, moreover, to warp the judg- ment is proverbial ; and as human nature is constitu- tionally corrupt, the unaided and untrained conscience cannot be relied upon to give a just verdict. It is cliitriy at this point that a divine revelation becomes necessary in order to furnish a perfect norm to tlie err- ing judgment, as well as to reinforce tbe sanction of the conscience in its conflict with tbe depraved inclina- tions. On the other hand, the emotional function of conscience, which is benumbed by nature as well as by habitual sin, needs quickening, so that it may become a clearer and more emphatic monitor in advance, as well as a more effectual penalty or reward after the per- formance of a praiseworthy or the commission of a guilty act, and thus stimulate — by its twofold action — to virtue in the future. It is revelation, again, that funiishes this aid, not only by the motives which the light that it sheds upon the rewards and punishments of a future state supplies, but likewise by the supernat- ural influences of the Holy Spirit promised to all who humbly seek and encourage them. As this double cult- ure of the natural conscience — its habitual exercise in accordance with a heavenly standard of duty, and its alliance with Almighty power — ensures its sound devel- ojjment and steady action, so, on the contrarj', the re- peated violation of its behests, and the incorrigible re- jection of the proffered assistance from above, must eventually lead — as we find to be actually the case with many hardened wretches — to an apparent obliteration of the faculty itself, or at least a total suppression of its admonitions and awards. The latter state is one of hope- less impenitence [see JtTDiciAL Busdness], and the former that of assured salvation. Yet even in an unfall- en condition man's conscience was not of itself adequate for his moral guidance, and hence an objective law — the prohibition of the single tree as a prescriptive sam- ple only — was given to supplement and direct its ener- gy; and still Eve's judgment seems to have been in- j competent, under that non-redemptive economy, despite her moral perfection, to detect the mortal error that lurked in the tempter's suggestions : the actual " knowl- edge of good and evil" by bitter experience alone was effectual to awaken the full power of this faculty. So, on the other hand, in the world of perdition we are wont to imagine that the seared and blunted conscience will rouse itself to chastise the soul with retributive agony. But the pangs of guilt, at least in this proba- tionary existence, are not strictly the measure or crite- rion of wrong-doing: for then the self-complacent I'har- isec would Ix' acciuitted, and the tender iienitent would be condemned. The most atrocious crimes have been committed under the plea of conscience, and that not liypocritically, but in self-delusion (Acts xxvi, 9) ; while the first steps in transgression are visited by a degree of remorse which gradually lessens as the offender pro- ' grosses in his downward career. This leads us back once more to the main proposition of this discussion, namely, the insufiiciency of conscience as a moral light. Nothing is right simply because our conscience approves it. The appeal must be to a higher authority than man's nature affords. He is not an al)sohile ''law unto liimself." It is liis Creator who retains supreme juris- diction over him, and who has reserved the prerogative of prescribing what he may innocently do, and what he is morally bound to do. See Moual Law. Yet when au individual has availed himself of the best means
within his reach for ascertaining bis ^laker's ^vill, and has scrupulously followed that light, he is not culpable for any error of faith or practice into which he may fall by reason of his fallible judgment, or for anj- other con- sequence of liis naturally defective or even depraved condition. He must and he ought to obey his reason and conscience, however imperfect ; but if sincere and docile, he will not long remain in serious misapprehen- sion of moral truth ; and in any case his responsibility is exactly proportioned to the measure of light he en- joys or might have attained (Luke xii, 47, 48). While therefore a mistake, be it ever so grievous or closely re- lated to moral subjects, is not in itself a sin, yet every man's conduct should be tried— both by himself and others, as it certainly is and finally will be by the un- erring Judge— according to that standard of rectitude which the divine law as vouchsafed to him enjoins. To the heathen, walking by the dim light that tradition reflects upon his path from the primeval revelations, supplemented only by the uncertain fliekerings of the lamp of experience, or perchance by a few rays that oc- casionally break through the embrasure of his shrouded pilgrimage from the radiance of more favored dispensa- tions, the office of conscience is all-important in aiding him to grope his way out of the thraldom of nature to a sense of the divine acceptance; and we may charita- bly hold that in rare examples he has thus been enabled to reach the day of moral purity, and emerge at last into the serene glory of the heavenly abode; but the melancholy facts of past history and present observation seem only to justify the fear that the mass of paganism, even in the cultured instances of Greece and Kome, of India or China, have but grovelled in the mire of sen- suality, and quenched their higher aspirations and bet- ter convictions in the absurdities of a beastly idolatrj'. Even Islamism, setting out with much of borrowed truth to reform a polytheistic faith, rapidly degenerated into puerile fanaticism, and aims no higher than a licen- tious Paradise; while Judaism, disciplined by a direct contact with the supernatural to the sternest regimen that the race has ever known, has generally resulted in heartless Piiarisaism and puerile formalism. Under the lledemptive scheme a simpler and profounder maxim — that of universal benevolence — has supervened for the resuscitation and tuition of the believer's conscience, stunned and bewildered by the burdensome technical- ities of previous systems; yet we find, alas! a large share of Christendom either reverting to the oljsolete methods of salvation by asceticism and ritualism and ecclesiasticism, or abusing tbe liberty of the (iospel by fanaticism and humanitarianism and rationalism. Yet, amid these vagaries and inconsistencies, the one cardi- nal principle of " faith that works by love and puri- fies the heart" must be recognised by the candid and thoughtful of all times and all climes as the sole test of genuine piety and philanthropy. Selfishness is the bane of all morality, and in jiroportion as the carnal self is crucifietl the sjiiritual self is resurrected out of the ruins of the fall, until at length the ideal man— God's own image— becomes transligurcd in its permanent beauty; for ''God is love" (comi). 1 John iv).