The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1854-04-11
H!igrRllatlrulls.
The Power of Conscience.

w nat COQSClcUC0 Is, duN Po"Si, wv OLA
know by experience. though not SO fully as
we all shall know hereafter.
/. If we do wrong no further than to seek
tpr inferior and worldly good, to the neglect
OF the eternal and heavenly, the secret monI.
tof perpetually condemns US Of folly and wrong.
In 'ahe intoxication of pleasure, or IN the whlrl
of business, its voice may not be heard; but
whenever there comes pause, whether we
are ialone in the forest, or in our secret cham
bers, or whether we wake upon our beds at
midaight-whenever reflection comes, then
comics also the voice of conscience, before
which all our pride and worldly aspirations
sta,id rebuked, and we feel that when we are
living merely for unworthy and worldly ends,
we are SHINING against our own souls and fall
ing in the duties for which we are made. Then
conscience asserts its prerogative as lord of
the soul as though it weres not of ourselves,
but stern vicegerent of Jehovah enttfoned
within US, without whose approval nor pleasure
can give us enjoyment, and at whose rebuke
all comfort and peace must die. But when
we are wise, when we aim at the ends which
reason and God approve, then, how sweet the
Joy of an approving conscience a JOY which
no earthly applause or honors can ever awaken
and which the gold of the universe cannot buy.
'This is our rejoicing, the testimony of good
conscience"
g. five have done wrong, then we have
awakened an avenger from which we cannot
hee If we retire into the sotudes it is there.
If we hide ourselves in secret places it is there.
If we ascend into heaven it is there; if we
make our bed in He'll, it is there. If one has
Oh I'll croirAc tho St
out of the wall and the beam out of the timber
shall answer it TO his soul. If he has commit.
ted some crime-though the fear OF human laws
commonly fills him with perpetual apprehet-
sion, and though he suspects that every eye ne
meets looks into his heart, and reads there the
story of his guilt-yet from human laws he
may sometimes hope to. escape. But to what
prof. while the avenser ia within I! Men come
times become hardened in villainy. Their con-
sciences may become obtuse, scared as with
hot iron Yet could we enter into their secret
thoughts, could we see all the secret workings
of conscience within them when they are alone
before God, we should doubtless see that con-
science does not always sleep though they ap-
pear so insensble. Often It'll but appearance.
A man has gained somewhat by dishonesty
His soul is troubled. He tries to forget it.
He hopes that time will wear out the remem'
brance. Year after year rolls away, but the
wound in the spirit is not healed. lie finds no
peace till humbled and conquered !; unable to
live in such tormex, he conlesses his guilt and
makes restitution.
The murderer has perhaps eluded all human
observation. No trace of the crime points
him as the perpetra,or. sThe minions of JUS
tice are completely baffled. He thinks he has
escaped. Escaped There is no escape
There is no eluding the stngs of an avengIng
conscience What is wealth, what are honors,
what are pleasures to him z The ranking
wound is in his very soul; it is bound up in
his very being He roams to foreign lands,
but his tormentor is there. He fees to the
solitudes of the ocean, he removes to the lone
desert, he hopes to hide amid the icebergs OF
the north, but his tormentor is there! lie
cannot live He cannot live. He returns and
confesses his crime, in hope ofappeasing con
science, and gaining relief, though by iclon's
DEATH His soul "chooseth strangling and
death, rather than life" DR.. E. Hail.