Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-08-08
MORE CONSCIENCE.

puVNE NONE'SAANCAe
God did not create man and leave
him under the dominion of sense and
the impulses of nature as He did the
beasts that perish. He did not form
him to yield implicitly or without re-
Election to the onward flow of incllna-
tions that come from within or without
and so remain ignorant how he goes
and whittier he is going. He has en-
dowel him with the powers of personal
being and spiritual life and so exalted
him above the beasts of the field and
the birds of the air. The clearesS rec
ord known on earth informs us that
man was created in the image and like
ness of God. As God has the faculty
and rule of Judgment in Himself and is
not dependent upon any creature, or
anything beside Himself for knowledge
of what is right and wrong in action, so
He has communicated this most mys-
FERROUS faculty and power to His Great
ure. He has made him like Himself.
Man, too, has the law within and as q
part of his constitution. He is a law
unto himself. He shows the work of
the law written in his heart, his con-
science also bearing witness, and his
thoughts accusing or else eXcusing.
The law written on the heart is a uni
versal law. 1t is one and the same for
all men. Is He the God of the Jews
only? Is He not of the Gentiles, also?
The law of God is a universal law. The
truth of God is the same and without
contradiction. The law is holy and the
commandment holy, just and good. To
this constitution, complete and perfect,
u Lord appeals when addressing the
hypocrites of His time He asks: ''Whv
even of your own selves Judge ye not
what is right?"
Being SO constituted it is a matter of
vital consequence to teach our fellow
men to stand in awe of themselves and
take heed to the law which is within,
for this law, in its scope, is witness,
judge and excutioner as well. BY some
possibility we may fail to come to the
knowledge of the law that is without
us-the law of commandments, and
escape the Judgment of men, but how
can we flee away from ourselves or
escape the Judgment of the Judge that
sits at the very center of our being and
takes cognizance of what we think and
feel and do. Here then is the faculty
of most vital interest to man. BY virtue
of it we ourselves know right and
wrong, good and evil.
Conscience in man, not as a faculty
merely, but conscience in the clearness
and strength OF all it's functions, or in
the %entireness and integrity of faculty,
is for every age and condition, the
ground of all clearness of sight, cor
rectness of judgment, strength of CON
viction, force of character and heroic,
sturdy, steady earnestness in life, Yet
this very conscience, so central and
necessary, by long disuse or continued
disregard of its dictates becomes hard
ened and dull, scared and dead. The
very light within us becomes darkness,
and then how great is this darkness.
That this light has been quenched-
that another law than the one written
on the heart has been substituted, that
another word of God which %interprets
and informs the conscience, and anoth-
er help than the Spirit of God which
quickens the dead in trespasses and sins,
has peer sought unto of late and for a
generation past by many in our coun-
try, is now clearly seen and painfully
teltlf not penitently confessed. In this
departure from our truest self and God
who rules within us, devout men and
men OF keenest sight and ~clearest judg-
ment find, in great part, the examina-
ton Of the weakness and arrangement
that startles us and threatens to destroy
us quite at no distant day, unless we
turn and repent, and do works meet for
repentance. A return to ourselves and
the clear cultivation of conscience is the
demand of the times. Here reform
needs to begin and 90 forward. To
live apart from conscience and its law.
the Word of God, is itself sinful and
evil. 1t blots out the law of God and
puts out the light of life. To do and
be that which the law commands us is
absolutely right and good. 10 do what
1t torblds b Internationally wrong and
evil, sinful and destructive N Y. o.
server.