A good conscience is not only the absence of an evil one. It has also a positive sanctioning value. The 'ought' of life is constantly present. It is the whole man ever conscious of, and confronted by, his ideal self. The conscience participates in man's gradual progress and enlightenment; so far from the individual growing towards a condition in which self-judgment ceases, he is progressing rather in moral discernment, and becoming more and more responsive to the will of Him whose impress and image he bears upon his soul. The tendency of modern physiological accounts of conscience has been to undermine its authority and empty life of its responsibility, but no theory of the origin of conscience must be permitted to invalidate its judgments. If conscience has any moral worth it is that it contains the promise and witness of God. The prime question is, What is the nature of its testimony? According to the teaching of Scripture it bears witness to the existence of a higher than man--to a divine Person with whom he is spiritually akin and to whom he is accountable. 'God's most intimate presence in the soul.' As the revelation of God's will grows clearer man's ideal becomes loftier. Hence a man's conscience is the measure of his moral life. It reveals God, and in the light of God reveals man to himself. We carry a 'forever' within our bosom, {81} 'ein Gott in unserer Brust,'[14] as Goethe says, which reminds us that even while denizens of this earth we are citizens of heaven and the sharers of an eternal life. Like another John the Baptist, conscience points to one greater than itself. It emphasises the discord that exists between the various parts of man's nature, a discord which it condemns but cannot remove. It can judge, but it cannot compel. Hence it places man before Christ, and bids him yield to the sway of a new transforming power. As one has finely said, 'He who has implanted in every breast such irrefragible testimony to the right, and such unappeasable yearnings for its complete triumph, now comes in His own perfect way to reveal Himself as the Lord of conscience, the Guide of its perplexities, the Strength of its weakness and the Perfecter of its highest hopes.'[15] [1] Davidson, _The Christian Conscience_. [2] Cf. Symonds, _Studies of Greek Poets_, first series, p. 191. [3] _Antigone_, Plumptre's Trans., 455-9. [4] Cf. Bunsen, _God in History_, vol. ii. p. 224; also Campbell, _Religion in Greek Literature_. [5] Cf. Wundt, _Ethik_, vol. ii. p. 66. [6] _Data of Ethics_, p. 18. [7] _Proleg._, section 83. [8] Browning. [9] _Proleg._, section 321. [10] _Ethik_, vol. ii. p. 66. [11] _Idem_. [12] Cf. Wundt, _Ethik_, vol. ii. pp. 67-74. [13] Lemme, _Christliche Ethik_, vol. i. [14] _Tasso_, act iii. scene 2. [15] Davidson, _The Christian Conscience_, p. 113. {82} CHAPTER VI 'THE MIRACLE OF THE WILL'