158 



CLEMENT C. J. WEBB^ ESQ., ON 



enlightened or an illiterate conscience. Conscience always voices 

 the right or wrong when the act is to be done, and we become 

 conscious in ourselves. With regard to the Synderesis, that is a 

 fundamental capacity which the lecturer ventures to assert may- 

 have existed before the Fall. To my mind, it is most questionable. 

 I cannot understand that, in a condition without wrong, a quality 

 could be determined upon something that does not exist ; and 

 therefore I consider that Conscience came in with the Fall, with the 

 consciousness of wrong and right, and not with the consciousness 

 of right only. It was the presence of right and wrong that deter- 

 mined the matter. 



AYith regard to the question of liberty of conscience our lecturer 

 ventures to assert that those who were passive resisters in days 

 gone by were often " sadly in need of logic," a most daring assertion 

 to make, because it is against the truth. The question of freedom 

 of conscience for passive resisters lay entirely along religious lines. 

 Whilst the State has a perfect right to control the bodies of men, 

 and even regulate their morals, the State has no right Avhatever to 

 interfere with a man's religion, for which he has to answer to God 

 himself. 



Mr. Sidney Collett : I am sure we must all be very grateful 

 for this learned discourse. At the same time, I feel that it 

 would have l)een much more helpful if the lecturer had dealt in 

 particular with the Scriptural aspect of the subject. For instance, 

 we read of evil conscience, vile conscience, and serene conscience. 

 Of the child of God we read : "good conscience," "pure conscience," 

 and " conscience void of offence." If I listen when the voice of 

 Conscience speaks within, then that voice will speak again. If I 

 refuse to listen to that voice, the probability is that I shall silence 

 it, and it will not speak again. But — and here I must somewhat 

 disagree with the previous speaker — an important thing to remember 

 is that man is a fallen creature, and therefore Conscience alone is 

 not a reliable guide. I wish to refer to two remarks, one at the 

 foot of page 142 : 



"The spark of conscience, which was not extinguished iu man bv 

 the Fall," 



and the other at the top of page 143 : 



" A fundamental capacity for perceiving moral values, unatfected 

 by tlie Fall." 



