The Fairfield herald. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1849-1876, 1869-07-21

tissue of mistakes. He surrounds
himself with an atmosphere of delu.
sion, breathes In falsehoods with eve.
ry breath, then stamping his maligni-
ty with tho seal Of conscience,
breaths out threateniugs and slaugh-
ter" against the unotfending. Thus the
worst crimes, the most relentless per-
secutions, the most cruel and bloody
wars, receive the sanction Of per-
verted conscience. The BLACKLIST page
in a merican history is written with a
perverted conscience all other causes
combined, social, commercial, politi-
cal, could not have produced such
terrible results. Postulato pervert-
ed conscience, and the mystery of
iniquity is unriddled. We sec cause
adequate to the effect. We SEQ the
principle, operating in the perseou-
tions Of the inquisition, and the French
Revolution, cropping out it this Satan
ic strife, in its most awful, and hide.
Gus development. The history of the
conscience of the great masses of those
arrayed against us, is history of per-
versions and misrepresentation. In
sulated examples Of abuse have been
represented as characteristic Of an
institution they hated and sought to
destroy. 1t would be miracle, sur
passing all the "sigus and wonders"
of the past, If conscience, educated
through all the gradations of the nur-
scry, school, press, pulpit and lyce-
um, to regard this system as the "sum
of all villainies' and the "climax Of
wickedness," should do otherwise than
sanction the horrid outrages and bar
barous vandalism Of the federal ar
mics.
TO great extent many amongst us
have employed the same principles of
Misrepresentation and sophistioal rea-
soning, to justify ignorance md de-
graduation to degree quite inconsis-
tent with that justice and equity,
which the Gospel requires. The re-
sponsibility for these evil consequent
ces of an unenlightcned and perverted
conscience rests mainly with tho un-
educated, unrchccting masses, who arc
borne along passively and irresistibly
upon the rushing tide Of fanaticism.
Fanaticism ensues when the reasoning
and reflective powers, are overborne
by the tumult and excitement of tho
i'm magination, passions and feelings,
aroused by perverted conscience.
What a weight of grief must rest
upon ministers of the Gospel. Edi-
tors of the Press, orators of the Ly-
ceum, and demagogues of tho Stump,
North and South, seek to accomplish
their party schemes, or crafty their
malice and ambition, by arousing the
passions of the ignorant populace, un-
til the tide of fanaticism sweeps over
the land, like devastating food :?
There is no remedy for such fanati-
cism but an enlightened conscience.
The mighticst power for evil is a con-
science perverted by error. 1t is the
prime cause Of social anarchy, strife,
and bloodshed. Had the North and
South always understood each other,
had conscience on both sides been edu.
Gated under the tho influence of f,cts,
such war would have been impossi-
BILE. The people have perished for
lack of knowledge, and this knowl.
edge is not furnished wholly by the
light of nature or history. Conscience
is no safe guide, either in the sphere
Of morality or religion (if the de-
stinction is admisaible) until enlight-
ed in the Word of God and guided
by sanctifed season. The effect of
sin was not to destroy the human con-
science-to eradicate the principles of
right and wrong, innate in the moral
constitution, but to pervert and de-
range the functions of conscience, to
obscure and darkcn the moral judg
ments +; conscience still dimly reveals
the principles Of duty, but does not
secure their proper application. The
lamp which God gavo man, ut his
creation, burns dimly, by reason Of
the fuel--sin has deprived it, almost
entirely of its oil--tho element Of
Highland there remains only a thin
wick, emitting Pickering, uncertain
fsmo, affording just light enough to
show US 'Ohat We ought to do, without
showing ho,o to do It. Tho heather
feel that they ought to worship God,
but without tho Bible, they
"stumble on the dark mountains Of
sin" into every form of superstition
and idolatry. The lamp which sin
has emptied, must bc rcplonished at
the Fountain Of Eternal Truth. This
is tho provision God has made for our
moral wants. lie has endowed us
with faculties which when satisfed, !,
enlightened by his Word, are capable
Of acquiring that knowledge, in refer
ence to tho various occasions and cir.
cumstanoes in which we are placed,
requisite, to the performance Of all
private and social duties.
2. The necessity Of knowledge is
seen, again, in making us acquainted
with the nature of God, and our rela.
tions to him, as tho God of GRACE,