The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-04
CONSCIENCE OF MAN IS
A STILL VOICE WITHIN
DR.. Stansfeld Refutes Arguments
of Early Theologians Who Be-
lieved God a Tormentor.
PURPOSE IS TO REPROVE

DR.. Stansfeld. of the Meridian-street Meth
odist Episcopal Church, on 1.-The Divine An
tecedents in Life" Thou shalt hear a voice
behind thee saying. This is the way; walk We
in it," Isaiah xxx, ], 2, said in part:
Thou shalt hear a voice behind thee say
ing, This is the way; walk We in it, May 1
ness of this great truth of the forever near
ness of God and the persistence CT the di-
vine voice in human life, as seen in:
"F1rst-The voice of conscience.
What a voice that isl Conscience, which
doth make towards of us all-that is, when
men are tempted TO the unworthy or the
consequences. AS Hamlet well knew, con-
science is loud on the borderland of the
world beyond.
Conscience, which, as in the case of the
hardened vicious, chides and lacerates and
pains, as Richard III we'll knew. when he
said: My conscience had a thousand tongues,
and every tongue brings in a several tale,
and every tale condemns me for a viii
lain And yet with conscience as the voice
of God, We can i'll believe that the primary
or principal function of conscience is for
penalty and pain. Certainly, il is true that
often, and rightly, conscience hath torment.
but as the voice of God in the soul it's pur-
pose rather is TO warn, reprove, correct. re-
store; God speaks not that His voice NAV
reVerberate in everlasting pain and con-
tempt in man, but that He may thereby
bring man to himself. We have read in me-
hAcsCNdA dAlN ldltA biAcplOeS iuIlQ PRESCRIPTIONS
of the tOrmenting power of God in con-
science, which to our moral sense was posi-
lively revolving, and from what we have
learned of God by Jesus, His Son. we would
be slow to believe other than that, what
ever such suferings there may be they are
an incidental rather than the essential func-
ton of the divine voice in man. We do not
doubt for one moment that conscience is not
alone the divine voice in man, but is also
and often the condemning voice of the
higher self AS such Byron speaks of il
when he says: Nor ear can hear nor voice
can tell the fortunes Of that inward hell
And also Milton, when he says of the fallen
one: The hell within him. Indeed. most OF
the Miltonian conception as to conscience in
punishment is not for a moment TO be ac-
cepted of conscience as the voice OF God.
'COwper, we believe, gets the truer con-
ceptiOn of conscience as the divine voice
when he speaks of the still small voice i'm
man. So, indeed, it is. the one unfailing. un-
varying vote of the divine love and pres
ence correcting, Gliding. warning, calling
men to life. Thou shalt hear a voice behind
thee, saying, This is the way: walk We i'm il
'Second-The voice of God In memory
= Memory. That marvellous faculty OF the
soul which robs time or its ravages and
binds the past and present with large por-
tents of the future in one eternal now. Mem
DRY, which insures TO most men the re-
demptive force OF innocent childhood life;
childhOo which calls forth the best Of hu-
man instincts and love. and in and through
which Goo comes permanently near TO every
human soul. Divinest life Is here. Mother
hood and childhood, in and through which
Goo touched this earth of ours"