324 



PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



on another, following certain actions we have done, 

 respectively. 



Whence does it arise ? 



As long as we are compelled to obey man-made laws 

 for fear of punishment, conscience is for the most part a 

 very feeble affair if it exist at all. The Greek could only 

 say, " I know nothing against myself," ^ if he had done 

 the prescribed duties of the state ; just as the young 

 man said to Christ, " All these have I kept from my 

 youth up ". Similarly, schoolboys are, as a rule, obedient 

 to the master's orders, through fear of punishment ; but 

 if they can find a quiet corner where they can light a 

 cigar, they do not hesitate to break the rule, and think 

 none the worse of themselves for so doing. 



Again, many people, even in Christian England (to 

 say nothing of Orientals), "see no harm" in cheating the 

 Government, by evading taxes in part, in smuggling, or 

 a railway company, by trying to pass a child over age, 

 as if he were under, etc. Though the same persons 

 would hesitate before doing a "dirty trick" to their 

 neicjhbours. 



A fully developed conscience is only in correlation 

 with the belief of a Holy God. 



A dog will sneak away ashamed of itself, ii found out 

 in having done something for which it has been beaten. 

 So, too, to be discovered is in the eyes of a non-consci- 

 entious person the real " crime," not the act itself. 

 Shame only follows on discovery, if it come at all. 



But with a "conscience towards God," as soon as 

 reflection follows the act, shame is felt, whether one's 

 fellow-men know of it or not. 



Herein is seen the keen insight into human nature 



' The verb (svv^i'^ivo.i. 



