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_CONSCIENCE AND SIN._




  Conscience and Sin.


  DAILY MEDITATIONS FOR LENT,

  INCLUDING WEEK-DAYS AND SUNDAYS.


  BY THE REV.

  _S. BARING-GOULD, M.A._,

  AUTHOR OF "THE MYSTERY OF SUFFERING,"
  "THE VILLAGE PULPIT," ETC.


  London:

  SKEFFINGTON & SON, 163, PICCADILLY, W.

  1890.




Preface.


It is advisable that all should have a clear understanding as to the
nature of Conscience, the dangers to which Conscience is liable, the
Nature of Sin, and the Effects of Sin. Too many people go on easily
from day to day making no spiritual advance, because they do not know
what ails their Consciences, do not even suspect that their Consciences
are ailing, and so make no effort to escape from their unsatisfactory
condition. It is hoped that this little book of meditations may be of
use to such.




    Contents.


                                                                    PAGE
  Ash Wednesday--
      ON CONSCIENCE                                                    1

  First Thursday in Lent--
      THE NATURE OF CONSCIENCE                                         4

  First Friday in Lent--
      THE NATURE OF CONSCIENCE--_continued_                            6

  First Saturday in Lent--
      THE OBLIGATIONS OF CONSCIENCE                                    9

  First Sunday in Lent--
      CAUSES OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONSCIENCE                         12

  First Monday in Lent--
      CAUSES OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONSCIENCE--_continued_            15

  First Tuesday in Lent--
      ON THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONSCIENCE--_The
          Direct Conscience_                                          18

  Second Wednesday in Lent--
      THE FALSE CONSCIENCE                                            21

  Second Thursday in Lent--
      THE SCRUPULOUS CONSCIENCE                                       24

  Second Friday in Lent--
      THE RELAXED CONSCIENCE                                          27

  Second Saturday in Lent--
      THE DOUBTFUL CONSCIENCE                                         30

  Second Sunday in Lent--
      ON PRUDENCE                                                     33

  Second Monday in Lent--
      ON FORTITUDE                                                    36

  Second Tuesday in Lent--
      ON SIN--_The Nature of Sin_                                     39

  Third Wednesday in Lent--
      THE NATURE OF SIN--_continued_                                  42

  Third Thursday in Lent--
      THE NATURE OF SIN--_continued_                                  45

  Third Friday in Lent--
      SOURCES OF SIN                                                  48

  Third Saturday in Lent--
      TEMPTATIONS TO SIN                                              51

  Third Sunday in Lent--
      THE GENESIS OF SIN                                              54

  Third Monday in Lent--
      ON ORIGINAL SIN                                                 57

  Third Tuesday in Lent--
      THE EVIDENCE FOR ORIGINAL SIN                                   60

  Fourth Wednesday in Lent--
      ACTUAL SIN                                                      63

  Fourth Thursday in Lent--
      THE CONDITIONS OF SIN                                           66

  Fourth Friday in Lent--
      CONDITIONS THAT DIMINISH GUILT                                  69

  Fourth Saturday in Lent--
      CONDITIONS THAT AGGRAVATE GUILT                                 72

  Fourth Sunday in Lent--
      ON FREE WILL                                                    75

  Fourth Monday in Lent--
      THE DETERMINATION OF THE WILL                                   78

  Fourth Tuesday in Lent--
      PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS                                           81

  Fifth Wednesday in Lent--
      THE GRAVITY OF SIN                                              83

  Fifth Thursday in Lent--
      THE GRAVITY OF SIN--_continued_                                 86

  Fifth Friday in Lent--
      THE EFFECTS OF SIN                                              89

  Fifth Saturday in Lent--
      THE EFFECTS OF SIN--_continued_                                 92

  Fifth Sunday in Lent--
      THE DEADLY VICES                                                95

  Fifth Monday in Lent--
      IN WHAT THE VICES ARE ROOTED                                    98

  Fifth Tuesday in Lent--
      PRIDE                                                          101

  Sixth Wednesday in Lent--
      AVARICE                                                        104

  Sixth Thursday in Lent--
      LUXURY                                                         107

  Sixth Friday in Lent--
      ENVY                                                           110

  Sixth Saturday in Lent--
      GLUTTONY                                                       113

  Palm Sunday--
      ANGER                                                          115

  Monday in Holy Week--
      SLOTH                                                          117

  Tuesday in Holy Week--
      THE SACRIFICE FOR SIN                                          120

  Wednesday in Holy Week--
      THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST                                        123

  Thursday in Holy Week--
      THE EFFECTS OF CHRIST'S SACRIFICE                              125

  Good Friday--
      THE EFFECTS OF THE PASSION--_continued_                        128

  Easter Eve--
      THE APPLICATION OF THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST                     131




Conscience and Sin.




Ash Wednesday.

_ON CONSCIENCE._


God has created man for a purpose, and that purpose is, that he should
attain to everlasting blessedness.

God is good and loving unto all His works. He made the plants and the
beasts, and set them ends to accomplish here on earth, but the ends for
which man was made are not to be attained in this life.

Through the Fall man's mind is darkened, his connexion with God is
broken, his sight of the aim to which he should tend is obscured.
God has given to him His law as the rule of his actions, that man,
hearkening to the revealed Will of God, may be guided aright, and
so accomplish that end for which he was made, and attain finally to
everlasting blessedness.

Every act of man that is in conformity with the revealed law of God is
_good_.

Every act of man that is contrary to this revealed law of God is _bad_.

Every act that is in conformity with the law of God is not only
_actually_ good, but it is _relatively_ good--that is to say, it tends
to our individual advantage. It is not only good in the sight of God,
but it is profitable to our own selves.

So also is the converse true, that every act done against the law of
God is _actually_ and _relatively_ bad; it is bad in the sight of God,
and it does injury to our own selves.

Now, in order that we may be able to judge whether our acts are in
conformity with the law of God, He has set in us a faculty which has
the office of applying the law of God to our own circumstances; and
this faculty tells us whether our acts are in conformity with or
contrary to the external law of God. Thus we have the exterior law, and
the interior faculty, which we may almost term a law, and this inner
law is called _Conscience_.

II. The revealed law of God, considered in itself and in relation to
God, its Author, is holy, inviolable, and inalterable. "The law of the
Lord is perfect, converting (_or_ restoring) the soul; the testimony
of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord
are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for
ever; the judgments of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether....
In them is Thy servant warned: and in keeping them there is great
reward." (Ps. xix. 7-11.)

But though the revealed law of God is fixed and immutable, yet when
applied to the human Conscience it takes different forms, according to
the state of the Conscience.

Hence it follows that the divine law _ill-applied_, so far from being
a sure rule, may become perverted into a sanction whereby we evade the
obligations laid on us, and authorize ourselves to commit that which is
wrong.

We shall therefore have to consider:--

1. The nature of Conscience.

2. The obligation of obeying Conscience.

3. The different kinds of Conscience.

4. The rules of conduct relative to each sort of Conscience.

[Illustration]




First Thursday in Lent.

_THE NATURE OF CONSCIENCE._


1. Conscience, which is the gift of God bestowed on all men, Christian
and heathen, is that practical judgment which points out to us what to
avoid or what to do in any particular emergency that may arise. Just
as we may know that there are certain laws of nature, and our ready
commonsense tells us, when varying circumstances arise, how we are to
act so that the laws of nature may be to our advantage instead of to
our overthrow, so is Conscience the commonsense application of the
indwelling consciousness of the distinction between right and wrong
to emergencies, as they rise up and demand of us a choice between one
course or another.

2. Conscience has a threefold exercise of its judgment.

(_a_) _Before an action_ takes place, Conscience throws light on the
action contemplated or proposed, tells us its moral value, and if the
Conscience judges that it is _good_, then it counsels and permits
the act. If, however, the Conscience judges that it is bad, then it
dissuades from, and forbids the act.

(_b_) _During an action_ Conscience is active, and in spite of all the
clouds of prejudice and of passion that may have risen up, it bears
testimony to the true nature of our conduct, it either encourages
us to carry it through, not to be supine about it, not to abandon it
before it is completed, and so leave it imperfectly accomplished, but
to carry it through to the end, thoroughly and completely. Or else,
Conscience does not cease from turning us aside from the prosecution of
the act which it disapproves; it acts as a drag, a check, and unless
resisted will completely arrest us in the prosecution of that which it
esteems to be bad.

(_c_) _After an action_, Conscience recompenses us by the satisfaction
we feel, the approval it accords to us for having either accomplished
what it advised, or for having abandoned that conduct which it
disapproved. So S. Paul speaks of people being "a law unto themselves,"
shewing "the work of the law written in their hearts, their Conscience
bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else
excusing, one another." (Rom. ii. 14, 15.) This is the "testimony of
the Conscience," "the answer of the good Conscience" to which both S.
Paul and S. Peter appeal.

3. We have seen