140 



THEODORE ROBERTS, ESQ,, ON 



Let the dial be illumined with any other light — by the moon, by 

 a camp or candle, and the sundial will as surely record the opposite 

 to the truth ; and thus if, instead of time, the issues had been 

 moral, would call good evil and evil good. 



God alone really knows these issues of good and evil, and if only 

 the view of conscience taken in the paper be held, there seems some 

 danger of regarding it as an expression of the voice of an immanent 

 God, and especially if its voice be said to be intuitive, which surely 

 it is not. 



There seems no possible reasons to doubt that when Paul, on the 

 steps of the fortress of Antonia, declared (Acts xxiii. 1) that he 

 had ** lived before God in all good conscience until this day," and 

 further in 2 Timothy i. 3, when he said, " God, whom I serve from 

 my forefathers in a pure conscience" that he referred to his whole 

 life when he "verily (i.e., conscientiously) thought with himself 

 that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus 

 of Nazareth (Acts xxvi. 9). Few can doubt that S. Paul's con- 

 science was as "good" when he called " evil " "good" and good, evil, 

 as subsequently when after the true Light shone on his conscience 

 on the way to Damascus, and at last his conscience recognised the 

 good, as good and evil as evil. 



It is even credible that the inquisition perpetrated their atrocities 

 with a good conscience, but under a wrong light. Indeed when the 

 conscience is not under God's light there is no limit to the evil it 

 can do. The fact is the conscience per se is the most unreliable 

 guide imaginable, as its registers are absolutely dependant on the 

 light that shines on it at the time, and not on any intuition at all. 



The seven instances given by Mr. Roberts are undoubtedly true 

 registers of good, simply because the true Light of God's Word was 

 shining on the sundial of the conscience in every case. With most, 

 alas, it is not so ; and so long as the conscience is illumined by any 

 false light, so long will its result be unreliable, and often the direct 

 opposite of truth. 



(1). Mr. W. E. Leslie said : Man has the power of directly or 

 intuitively perceiving three fundamental values — the Good, the 

 True, and the Beautiful. The area of the True and of the Good 

 which can be directly or intuitively perceived is very limited, the 

 bulk of our knowledge is indirect or inferred, and is therefore sus- 

 ceptible of error. In addition to this there is in the case of the 

 Good a sense of obligation to perform acts which are either per- 

 ceived or inferred to be Good. If "conscience" could be limited 

 to the immediate perception or intuition, and the obligation ex- 

 perienced to perform acts believed to be good it might properly be 

 said to be infallible. But in the paper, as in common usage, it 

 includes indirect or inferred elements, and must therefore be said 

 to be fallible. 



