THE CONSCIENCE. 



159 



As to the first statement, I entirely agree ; it was not altogether 

 extinguished by the Fall. With the latter I disagree ; it was, I 

 believe, affected by the Fall. Witness, for example, the case of 

 Saul of Tarsus. Saul tells us : " I verily thought within myself 

 I ought to do many things contrary to Jesus of Nazareth." He 

 was acting according to his conscience when fighting against 

 God, and probably it was the same thing in the case of the 

 murderers of Christ, and hence the last prayer : " Father, forgive 

 them, for they know not what they do." Peter referred to the 

 same thing when, preaching to the same murderers, he said : 

 " Brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it." So, when 

 all is said, I believe Conscience is only an infallible guide when 

 it is guided by the Word of God, and enlightened by the Holy 

 Spirit of God. It may be that that is referred to in the last 

 line but one of the paper, " Conscience informed with know- 

 ledge." 



Mr. E. Walter Maunder, F.R.A.S. : I have read the paper with 

 exceeding interest. It deals with a difficult subject in a very courage- 

 ous but careful manner, and I felt some fear that in the short time iu 

 which we had to study it, some of us might miss the precision with 

 which Mr. Webb has developed the various stages of his argument. 

 Mr. Webb has been careful throughout his paper to define each point 

 in succession as he raised it. May I take, as an example, 

 Miss Hodgkin's protest on the part of the Quakers 1 I believe that 

 we all had a personal sympathy with her in her apologia for the 

 Quaker position. But I do not think Mr. Webb intended to attack it. 

 If I turn back to the foot of page 148 I find that Mr. Webb says in 

 effect that the Quaker cannot claim from the State that form of pro- 

 tection which his own conscience leads him to denounce as sinful. 



"Be may be a martyr for righteousness, but a victim of tyranny 

 he is not." 



There is a great distinction between the two. Perhaps an illustra- 

 tion will serve as a definition better than a good deal of argument. 

 If we turn to the Acts of the Apostles we find that very soon after 

 the day of Pentecost the Apostles were taken before the Sanhedrim 

 and forbidden to preach, and then scourged. They did not complain 

 about the scourging; they accepted that with joy because they were 

 accounted worthy to suffer shame for Christ. They suffered for His 



