The Republican journal., 1875-04-22
The Education of Conscience.
a SERMON DELIVERED AT THE UNITARIA,
CHURCH, BELFAST, BY REV. JAMES 7
BINBY, PASTOR.

CHURCH, BELFAST, BY REV. JAMES II
BINBY, PASTOR.
My conscience also bearing me witness in the oily
Ghost. Romans, 9:2.
Among the attributes which elevate man
above the rest of creution-most noticeable OF
all, perhaps-is the possession of a remarkable
faculty by which he can perceive in actions
quality unknown by other creatures - the
| quality of right or wrong. And having dis
cerned this Distinction this same faculty goes
on to pronounce that the right must be done
| and the wrong avoided. When its behest is
obeyed, it pronounces its approval; when dis
oGeyed, it declares condemnation. This ap-
| proyal and this condemnation are to the heart
as summer and winter. as sunshine and storm,
as heaven and hell. The one Is AS Oil which
makes a calm spot round the voyager in the
most troubled sea; the other is as Il rocky
ledge across a river, keeping its flow still
| agltated and uneasy, though every wind be
| hushed. The one can give peace even in the
| hour OF disgrace or death--a shield not to be
dashed down even by the king OF terrors; the
other puts thorn into all its ill-got pleasures
Amd scenes of pleasure, it prlcks the heart
| with sudden sting. 1t writes on the wall of
the mind-as the fiery finger Of old wrote on
the walls Of Babylon's palace-its awful pro-
| phesy of punishment. When no man yet ac-
cuses, the guilty ear hears a voice, like the
moaning wind, calling out to the world his
/ crime. Bravos, who would stand before thous-
ands without trembling, it overwhclms with
dSmay. 1t pierces the braZen armor of self
| sutficiency, and beneath the mask which the
| hypocrte wears it gnaws at his covered heart.
This IS the power that we commonly call
conscience; the moral sense or the inward
| monitor. Religion has presented it as Il very
| voice OF God within us; as a working of the
Divine Spirit within a mans soul, enlightening
his path and guiding him in the way Of right
eousness Philosophy formerly has looked
| upon il in essentially the same light. 1t has
taught that there is an original moral instinct
| born with man, impelling him toward the Just,
| and that there is supreme and necessary law
of rectitude, the same for all free agents in the
universe, and known to man by means of in
| tuitiOnS or inborn tastes, previous to and above
all experience. But in recent times school
| of thinkers md spectators have arisen who
| have sought to anal we conscience into more
common clements. They have tried to show
| that it was merely a more refined and long
| headed form Of selt-love. The original threads
| from which il has been spun are nothing but
certain experiences of utility and certain social
| instincts. BY education, sympathy, fear of
penalties, and desire of the appreciation Of our
| fellows, most of all by the power of the asso-
citation of ideas, acting on the youthful mind,
these have been woven into the apparently
seamless web of the adult conscience. Such is
the doctrine advanced by James Mill and Ben
than in the last generation, and elaborated by
John Stuart Mill, and Balm in our own gener-
alton. And within the last few years it has
Darwin and Mr.. Spencer, by the help of the
doctrines of development and hereditary trans
missions. Mr.. Spencer has pointed out how
certain powers of sense, habits of action, and
mental capacities, may be transmitted, accu-
muated, and Developed till they become in
nate. exhibiting themselves before any eXpe
rience. He believes that in this way expert
ences of utility, organized and consolidated
throughout all past generations of the human
race, and cOrresrondingly modified, have be-
e inf,
certain emotions responding to right and wrong
conduct, which have no apparent basis in the
individual experiences of utility. Mr.. Darwin
endeavorS to show that our moral sense is but
a development OF those social instincts that
cause man, like every other gregarious animal,
to take pleasure in the society of his fellows,
and to feel a certain sympathy with them. 1t
involves for its production no higher agency
than that Of the play of common human life,
and has for its seat no higher nature than the
further developed intelligence OF any gregarlous
brute. Repentance is but the reaction of re-
grettul feeling when the permanent social in
stinct regains Its sway, after having been tenn
porarily pushed aside by some other desire.
The laws which conscience proclaim are the
product of our circumstances, and would have
been different il those circumstances had been
different. They answer to no external or dur
able, not to say universal or eternal reality.
The chief argument in support of this earth
born origin, and provisional, utllitarian nature
judgments, in different nations. periods, and
Al origiinna,o Of Ile If ths hsrMEe Maf1 Of 5f The human
constitution, We ought, 1t is said, to hnd the
same things everywhere approved, and the
same things everywhere condemned, in all
quarters of the globe. But III fact it is the re-
verse of this which is true. What striking con-
| trasts does the history OF morals include! The
| first Christians would not resist evil or bare
arms tor any cause; medieval bishops donned
| helmet and lance aud led their retalners to the
| foray with saints name for a battle cry and
paternosers On their lips. Assassination we
| reckon among the blacke>t of crimes. Among
| the Indian Thugs it was Il religious duty. We
| regard pliVateerin9, even i'll time OF war, as
| unlawful; but among our ancestors, the bold
| Northmrn, il was reckoned the pride and the
| glory of their race. Suicide used to be in Eng
land felony, among the Romans it was heroism.
What one mans conscience enlons, another's
| condemns. A SerNetuS conscience requires
| him to proclaim what the church reckons her
| esy; and a Calvin's conscience requires that
| he be burnt alive for such sin. The conscience
of Johu Brown sends him to Virginia to rouse
| the slaves to Instruction; the conscience of
| Nirgina's Governor requires him to hang him
| for treason. With Us it Is the most sacred Of
duties to care with especial tenderness for the
babe and the aged; in Sparta it was the right
of board of elders in Rome of the father, to
put any detormed or sichly infant to death.
| With the Chinese still infanticde Is a proper
and common custom. With the Feejee Is
| lander the strangling Of his aged parent is Il
| solemn obligation. ''We see scarcely ANYTHING,
lust or unjust" says Pascal, " that does not
! change quality in changing latitude. These
| degrees of higher latitude oVerturn all jtlris-
prudence. A meridian decides the truth.
Fundamental laws change in Il few years
| Right has its epochs. Theft, intanticide, par
ricide-a have had their places among virtu-
Gus actions" And Montaigne responds, .What
sort Of truth is that which mountains limit
! ;.L tJair -, ,Crnl ls a 10
Now these diversites, it must be admitted
are very great and not to be disproyed. But
thev do not, as is supposed, make the existence
of an original, GOd-glVen, moral sense lmpos
sible. If they did, we might disprove in the
| same way the existence OF every native lnstlnc
of human nature
The custom of nfanticide, to which we have
| alluded as prevailing among whole nations, i
it dsproves the intuitiye nature of conscience
dsproyes equally the existence of the parenta
instincts. Again, no one denies that we have
an original instinct, born of no custom or asso
citation or experience, leading us to take tht
food necessary for sustaining life. Yet wha
differences in the opinions called tastes whicl
it forms. What errors and irregularities il
the actions it leads to, both in the quantity an,
quality of the food that we take.
With all the alterations of the parental in
stinct, it is vet essentially the same. With al
the minor varieties of the food instinct in man
there is nevertheless predominating the com
|
In spite of its manifold eccentricities, there i
underneath them the unchanglng foundations
The diverslties of moral Judgment have seeme'
3 so great because their very eXceptionalnes
has caused them to be dwelt upon as curios
tiles. While on the other hand, the genera
uniformity of moral principles all over tn
world has been left unremarked, as a fact no
needing to have notice drawn to it, or ben
considered a topic of interest.
If we trace down the line of history throuS
the centuries, if we sweep our glance over tn
= different quarters of the globe, we shall tin
the same general catalogue OF virtues and vices
The law-givers of the world from Lyeurgu
and Manu- down, have had essentially the sam
moral code more or less developed. In til
Analects of Confucius and the Positive PhiloS
ophy of Compile, in the Koran of Mohammed
and the Conduct of Life of Emerson we fin
the same maxms. Murder, stealing, perjury
violation of the marriage vow-these are pre-
hibited in every table of laws, alike in the com
mandments of Moses, the Institutes of Justinar
and the Code Napoleon. Gratitude for bene
fits, hospitality to strangers, succor to tn
needy, kindness to relatives and friends, dom
to others as we would have them do to US
| ,,,;