The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-23
TALK ON . MORAL SENSE
REV. ALBERT: HURLSTONE's SER
MON AT ROBERTS PARK.
The Third of aa Interesting Series of
Discourses ''n "The Making OF
Manhood

from Acts xiv. i: And herein do l exer-
else myself, to have always a conscience
void of offense toward God. and toward
men," This wa the third in a series of
sermons on Tho Making of Manhood"
The preacher sgd: lit may be profitable
for us to consider the subject of conscience
as it is treated IL literature, taught in the
Bible and confirsled in experience. Liter
ature bears witJiess TO the universal fact
of conscience. "a the power or faculty in
man by which ahe distinguishes between
right and wrongtin conduct and character.
and which imperstively commands and OBJ
ligates him to 90 the right and abstain
| from doing the .wrong. 1t is the mortal
nature, the morsl faculty or moral sense.
We have a SUPREME illustration of this
when Luther wts asked to recant at the
Diet of Worms, In reply he said: Here
stand; can do mo other; God assist me!
Thomas Carlyle calls that the greatest
moment in the Isodern history of men, 1t
was a triumph q conscience. English Puri-
| tanism, Englapsl and its Parliaments
America, and vssSt work of two centuries;
| French revolutigns, Europe and Its work
| everywhere at Iaesent, the germ or IT all
| lay there Had L.,ther not been true TO con-
science it had been otherwise. william
Shakespeare, a piince in literature, Is pre-
| em1nently the DOtI OF conscience III
| let it is the play wherein he would eaten
| the conscience ~ the king. The dread or
something after death puzzles the Will.
| thus conscience does make towards of US
ali. In Henry rI' we are taught: What
/ stronger breastlsate than q heart untalht-
| ed? Thrice is he armed that hath his quar-
| rel just, and hes but naked, though locked
| up in steel, whcse conscience is corrupted.
| Throughout the. teaching or the great
| dramatist the faculty of conscience is en-
| phasized. a pesce above all earthly dig
| nit cfil nj
makes the murdsrer say OF conscience: IL
| is a dangerous tsling. man cannot steal,
but it accuseth aim: he cannot swear; put
| spirit that mutilies in a mans bosom; IL
| fills one full of obstacles; ii made me once
| restore a purse ;of gold that L found; IL
| bergars any man that keeps it; it is turned
| out Of all towns and cities for dangerous
| thing 'Conscieilce is a thousand SWORDS.
| The color of tbs King doth come and go
betwixt his purpose and his conscience.
/ The worm of conscience still begnaw tiny
| SOUL Macbeth is one of Shakespeare
greatest creations. Here conscience Is war
] ring and retribu:ive The covetous and un-
godly ambition 20 wear the crown has ne, led
to the murder hf Duncan the Meek. The
night was storms when the horrid deed was vas;
| planned the husband hesitated, but Lady
| Macbeth urged him on, until by one stroke
of the dagger, ne had slain his monarch.
The ana Faithfully by
| the great dramstist Then follows the tor
ture of the misd resulting from an out
RACED consciencs the wret Tin m anG tee
| wife exclaims: ssHere's the smell or Dlood
still; all the Perfumes of arabia VIII r not
sweeten this little hand Here is a str dR-
| science may become scared as with a hot
| iron In Macbeth witness the effects of
a conscience deshroned. In Victor Hugo 5
| study of Jean Vatican note the results OF
| conscience as king. Conscience is aroused.
a tempest rages within. The literature OF
the world giveS no more thrilllng picture
49, tl.1S
| to assume the tconvict's garb when the
| soldiers found tae two letters burned upon
his right shoulder, and in the hollow OF
| his left arm a date made in blue letters
| with burnt gunsowder' they knew that the
mayor was indeed Jean Vatican, and the
Judge and the people felt great light
| shining in the room ana were udzzieu III
| their hearts.
oBEDIENsr TO CONSCIENCE.
"Obedient to conscience this man was
transformed from a convict to savior.
| Concerning this moral sense Byron gives
his testimony: Yet still there whispers the
| small voice within. heard through GOD
silence and DER glory's din; whatever creed
be taught, or .land be trod. mans con-
science is the Voice of God Tennyson rep
resents the Knixhts of the Round Table as
laying their hands in King Arthur's while
they swear TO revenge their conscience as
their king And he teaches the function
of the moral sense when he says: To ever
bear about a silent court of justice In him.
self. himself the judge and jury, ana MIN
self the prisoner at the bar ever condemned,
that drags down his life.' Conscience Is
demonstration of authority 1t Is
proof of higher law, of a moral government
embracing every man. 1t gives unmistak-
able evidence TO each man of the existence
of .., God. os.ors ~ modern fiction have
borne their witness to the trustworthiness
of moral instincts. Robert Louis Steven
son shows, in the study of DR.. Jekyl and
Mr.. Hyde. how the conscience may be stu
fed its warnings unheeded until evil in
dulged in mastsrs the good with dreadful
certainty Coincidence has a voice, but no
hands If it hal strength, as it has right,
had it power, ar it has manifest authority,
it would absolutely rule the world. George
Eliot gives us the picture OF Dinah inter-
ceding with Hetty Sorrel in the prison cell.
through the niGnt watches, till she Is soft
ened humanized, saved. There is, at first.
no sense of sin IN the soul of the condemned
woman, until. after prayer, there comes
the contrite cohesion, and the confession
is followed by "a second prayer, In which
the God of mercy is asked to still the re-
morseful cry Ia the conscience. 1T is also
the business of Hawthorne to teach us
that there is no rest for the human spirit
but in the highest duty and the hottest
love. Hawthornes greatest books are
studies in copscience. He revels in de-
plotting it at ats fever heat, tumultuous
with CONFUSION, remorse, delrium. The
faculties Of tic soul are personihed and
ceptions which blaze through Hawthorne S
writings like SO many red beacons warning
| against inward well as outward sin.
| In The Scarlat Letter We see how con-
science lashes the guilty soul. and the
| much-needed lesson that there can be no
healing for the conscience which does not
begin in absolute sincerity OF life. No sal
walton without moral honesty. Fools mock
| at sim but thes masters of literature depict
the awful wo Kings of the guilty con-
science and teach the reality of sin and
the terrible need of deliverance from its
guilt and dominion.
This leads Us to view conscience in the
light of the Birle. Its power is seen in the
story of the first murderer. In Saul the
God-deserted ran who became conscience
stricken after the death of Samuel and
requested the witch of Endor to call him
up from the dead. In David, the guilty
king, as he ;quails before Nathan, the
| prophet who syas sent to tell him OF his
| guilt Ahab TEMPLES before Elijah when
| told that he and his fathers sins have
troubled the nation and called forth the
| Judgment OF God. The king OF Babylon
reads the hand writing on the wall and his
| guilty conscience causes his face TO become
| pale and his knees TO tremble as Gods
prophet says To him: Thou art weighed in
the balance and found wanting In the
life OF Jesus the scribes and Pharisees
bring to him woman charged with crime
| He says TO them, He that is without sin
her. And they that heard II went out
one by one, being convicted by their own
conscience. Paul speaks of the condition
of the heather. When the gentiles who
| have not the law do by nature the
things of the law, these having no law