SECULAR CONTEST BETWEEN CONSCIENCE AND POWER. 139 



against the Crimean War, " What would Mr. Bright be on a 

 war of which he approved? It would be a war terrible to the 

 enemies of England." 



If these fragmentary remarks put together amid the stress 

 of a busy life succeed in interesting any of my hearers in the 

 history of true religion, to me a subject of commanding attraction, 

 I shall feel amply repaid for the preparation of this paper. 



Discussion. 



This communication from Dr. A. T. Schofield was read: — May I 

 be permitted to suggest an alternative to the lecturer's view of con- 

 science. He appears to regard it somewhat as a power placed within 

 us, that has the infrinstic faculty of distinguishing right from 

 wrong. Is such really the case ? His paper is a carefully written 

 and interesting record of seven instances when conscience so acted, 

 and which he has selected as being of special import in the history 

 of the world. I would submit to this institute the suggestion that 

 the reason why the action of conscience in these seven cases so clearly 

 distinguished right from wrong and good from evil was not due, 

 as this author appears to suggest, primarily to conscience at all. 

 It may be that one reason why I write now is because, as a physician, 

 I have had endless trouble with all sorts of consciences which have 

 been a perfect plague to their owners, being morbid, crochety, and 

 the like. It may be objected that such consciences are more or less 

 diseased. In a sense this is true, but it is not the reason I assign 

 for their perplexing and disastrous effects. I consider, indeed, that 

 even in its normal and natural condition conscience has not the 

 intrinsic knowledge which the author describes on p. 124 : "By con- 

 science accordingly, I understand that intuition or voice within us, 

 which judges our actions and thoughts as morally good or morally 

 bad." The whole paper proceeds to show that the word " judges" 

 here certainly means "rightly" or "intuitively judges." Such 

 I fear is not the case ; for to me it seems there is no intrinsic 

 knowledge of right, or even intuition about conscience at all, and 

 to prove this I need not go outside Scripture, although it is illus- 

 trated every day. 



May I use an illustration to make my meaning clear ? 



A sundial owes all its value to light ; without light it is the 

 most useless structure that exists. But even light is of no value 

 to make it of use, unless it be one special sort of light — sunlight. 

 Only in this light does it give the correct response to the questions 

 with which it is concerned. In this case not those of right or 

 wrong, but concerning time. These answers, however, are not in- 

 tuition by any means, but very much the contrary. They are in- 

 deed wholly dependent for their value not on the dial at all, but on 

 the sunlight. 



