The fears of conscience.
In pleading for her father's life before the first Napoleon, a poor girl said, "Sire, I do not ask for justice; I implore pardon." The inward sense of our sin will never permit us to make a claim for anything before God. His love of forgiving, and triumph over all hindrances in the way of forgiving, are our only pleas, and our only grounds of hope. The searching character of the Divine inspection is indicated in Psalms 139:1-24, and in Hebrews 4:12, Hebrews 4:13. Conscience freely admits that the Divine examination of the life cannot be endured. "If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" There need be no difficulty in understanding what conscience is. Some, indeed, regard it as a separate and independent power, which acts in a man as a sort of sentinel, giving notice of the approach or presence of evil. But it is altogether simpler to regard it as the ordinary faculty of judgment exercised by a man concerning the quality of his own actions. That self-judgment inevitably brings a man into fears.
I. CONSCIENCE TESTIFIES BOTH THE GOOD AND THE BAD. This is often missed from view. Usually conscience is thought of as concerned only with the evil; and so its power and witness are only dreaded. Conscience ought to be the cheer of life. A man knows when he has done right. Appraising his life, he can sometimes approve. "Conscience makes cowards of us all;" but it is equally true that "Conscience can make brave men of us all."
II. CONSCIENCE TESTIFIES TO THE BAD IN THE GOOD. And that is the real ground of our fear. Self-esteem may see only good; conscience never does. It finds the sinister mark everywhere, and always has to qualify its approval and praise. "Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee." A "bar sinister" on every escutcheon.
III. CONSCIENCE TESTIFIES TO THE GOOD IN THE BAD. And this keeps fear from becoming hopeless and despairing. The irretrievably bad is a conception that can only be associated with devils, not with man. And it is not a genuine conscience that judges in a blind, sectarian way, and makes a man accuse himself as hopelessly bad.
IV. CONSCIENCE PUTS BOTH BAD AND GOOD OUT OF THE SELF-LIGHT INTO THE DIVINE LIGHT. According to the sense a man has of God will be his conscience-judgment of his own conduct. Right sense of God will make conscience-estimates induce fear. The conscience of good will bring a reverent and humble fear; the conscience of evil will bring an humiliating and anxious fear. The self-estimate of iniquities is painful enough, but what shall we say of the Divine estimate of those same iniquities?—R.T.