Conscience and Sin: Daily Meditations for Lent, Including Week-days and SundaysBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Conscience and Sin: Daily Meditations for Lent, Including Week-days and Sundays
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Conscience; Lent -- Prayers and devotions; Sin
2. As Conscience is that interior judgment which God has planted in us
to dictate to us what to do, and what to avoid, on special occasions,
then, to disobey the voice of Conscience is to disobey the Voice of
God. Not only so, but, as Conscience points out to us that a certain
course is one to which duty calls us, and we refuse to follow the
indication of Conscience, this is a revolt of the will against God,
and when the will, knowing what is right, deliberately chooses what is
wrong, it commits mortal sin. It was so with Adam and Eve. They knew
the Commandment of God, and wilfully went against His Commandment,
consequently they had turned away from their proper end, and turned
themselves into the camp of rebels against God.
3. When S. Paul says, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin," he is
speaking of the eating of meats offered to idols; and he shows how
that Conscience is the rule as to whether a thing is sinful or not.
Idols are naught, so that the things offered to idols are not actually
polluted by the oblation; nevertheless, if the Conscience refuses to
admit this, and argues that, as a meat has been offered to an idol, the
partaking of it is participation in idolatry, then to eat of the meat
that has been offered brings guilt on the soul. "He that doubteth is
damned if he eat." (Rom. xiv. 23.)
4. From this we may draw a practical conclusion that it is always
well to follow Conscience, even when Conscience, ill-instructed, may
be in error; that if Conscience disapprove of a course of conduct,
and yet may not understand clearly on what grounds it utters its
disapprobation, it is safest, indeed it is right, to obey Conscience,
and not take advantage of its hesitation.
That a Conscience may be ill-taught, and therefore in error, that
a Conscience may be perverted, we shall see presently; but what
appears to be abundantly clear is that it is advisable always to obey
Conscience in all things; but then we must be careful to have the
Conscience well-instructed, clearly illuminated, so that it may not be
hesitating, confused, and liable to direct us wrongly.
5. When Conscience hesitates, and is doubtful between two courses, it
is right to seek advice from such as are experienced in the direction
of Conscience.
Moreover, the Holy Spirit must be invoked to open the eyes of the
understanding, and guide into truth. When hesitation and doubt still
remain, then the safest course to adopt is that line of conduct which
is likely to entail most trouble, likely to cost us most, least likely
to attract notice from others; also, generally, if not always, the
simplest and most natural line is the right one; but self-interest, or
a disturbed moral sense, may incline one to take another line that is
not absolutely wrong in itself, but is less right because less natural,
and simple, and direct, and common-place than the other.
[Illustration]
First Sunday in Lent.
_CAUSES OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONSCIENCE._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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