Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1889-11-09
Sensitive in Spots.

A conscience is very useful thing,
Its possession is beneficial not only
to him who has it, but to others who
may appeal through it to its owner.
AS watch registers time or a Their
mometer records the temperature, SO
does it mark and indicate the state
Of affairs in the spiritual world. AS
IN alarm notifies household of an
attempted entrance of burglar, so it
indicates the approach of evil; or as
the gong which is connected with
door-knob may be struck by the Wis
itor, so may a friend arouse the
household within, the soul and all
its powers, and appeal Ito it to be
heard. Ia.
The essential quality of all these
contrivances is that they be sensitive
to something, whether heat, or the
tension produced by weight, or the
force exerted from without, and able
to produce a sensation which the hui
man soul can cognize. So sensitive
ness and the power to produce cor
responding sensation are the requi-
sites of good working conscience.
We have no right to complain that a
mans conscience is sensitive. 1t cam
not be too sensitive, for it is to its
commentator that it can be called
sensitive. But, while sensitive, it
should be so to every and all appear
ance of evil, and not to some and
special ones alone. If this is the case,
if it is sensitive in spots only, then
surely it is as unreliable as a watch
that goes only in certain positions, or
which stops Unexpectedly at unfore>
seen times, or as a door-bell which
jingles only when some people ring
it and sticks at other times.
There are consciences of this very
sort, unfortunately, and they are great
annoyances to other people, if not to
their owners. They are certainly q
source of great injury to their owners,
even if these are unconscious of the
popularity of their attributes, or OBJ
stinate enough to insist, as indeed
they usually are, that they are right
and all the rest of the world wrong
When a man is so positive about his
watch being accurate, there is gener'
ally way to prove the matter. Ii
the case of conscience the only APP
peal is to revelation or common sense
but the diseased conscience looks a
the former through peculiarly cOlOreC
glasses, and, by the very fact of dis
ease, has very scanty portion of tn
latter available.
To be sensitive in spots means t,
have very large and profound notion
of the enormity of certain things
while the matters, usually supposed
by the majority to be of far create
consequence, are viewed with the nj
most indifference. 1t means to b
excessively jealous of what is Gale
"honor," and excessively careless i
paying just obligations; or to be YER
scrupulous about paying debts, bu
reckless of the truth; or to find
heinous sin in dancing, but none i
gambling in stocks; or to scent Re
manism in a ritual, but not Sadduc,
ism in church-rafiles and grabbing
and frightfully careless and loose i
the congregation or Sunday-schoo
and even to- be utterly outraged {
the mote in one another's eye, an
completely unconscious Of boart
yard of beams in ones own ey
There are just such people, and eve
bodies of such people.
The most ordinary characterize
of the sensitive~in-spOts conscience
its total facility of giving attentiC
to the affairs Of others, instead
minding its own business. 1t seen
to consider itself appointed as 50
of moral town-clock or regulate
entitled thereby to require every OF
to set his moral timepiece by Il
hands upon its dial. And so it go
on striking hours and halves al
quarters noisilyand intrusively,wh,
every townsman knows that the o
clock is unreliable, and has been Ii
kered ut by every travelling clOc
maker that has tramped the shire.