Conscience and sin E-Book

S. Baring Gould

• Herausgeber: S. Baring Gould
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

It is advisable that all should have a clear understanding as to the nature of Conscience, the dangers to which Conscience is liable, the Nature of Sin, and the Effects of Sin. Too many people go on easily from day to day making no spiritual advance, because they do not know what ails their Consciences, do not even suspect that their Consciences are ailing, and so make no effort to escape from their unsatisfactory condition. It is hoped that this little book of meditations may be of use to such.

Leseprobe

S. Baring-Gould

Conscience and sin

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Table of contents

Preface.

Ash Wednesday. —ON CONSCIENCE.

First Thursday in Lent. —THE NATURE OF CONSCIENCE.

First Friday in Lent. —THE NATURE OF CONSCIENCE.

First Saturday in Lent. —THE OBLIGATIONS OF CONSCIENCE.

First Sunday in Lent. —CAUSES OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONSCIENCE.

First Monday in Lent. —CAUSES OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONSCIENCE.

First Tuesday in Lent. —ON THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONSCIENCE.

Second Wednesday in Lent. —THE FALSE CONSCIENCE.

Second Thursday in Lent. —THE SCRUPULOUS CONSCIENCE.

Second Friday in Lent. —THE RELAXED CONSCIENCE.

Second Saturday in Lent. —THE DOUBTFUL CONSCIENCE.

Second Sunday in Lent. —ON PRUDENCE.

Second Monday in Lent. —ON FORTITUDE.

econd Tuesday in Lent. —ON SIN.

Third Wednesday in Lent. —THE NATURE OF SIN.

Third Thursday in Lent. —THE NATURE OF SIN.

Third Friday in Lent. —SOURCES OF SIN.

Third Saturday in Lent. —TEMPTATIONS TO SIN.

Third Sunday in Lent. —THE GENESIS OF SIN.

Third Monday in Lent. —ON ORIGINAL SIN.

Third Tuesday in Lent. —THE EVIDENCE FOR ORIGINAL SIN.

Fourth Wednesday in Lent. —ACTUAL SIN.

Fourth Thursday in Lent. —THE CONDITIONS OF SIN.

Fourth Friday in Lent. —CONDITIONS THAT DIMINISH GUILT.

Fourth Saturday in Lent. —CONDITIONS THAT AGGRAVATE GUILT.

Fourth Sunday in Lent. —ON FREE WILL.

Fourth Monday in Lent. —THE DETERMINATION OF THE WILL.

Fourth Tuesday in Lent. —PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS.

Fifth Wednesday in Lent. —THE GRAVITY OF SIN.

Fifth Thursday in Lent. —THE GRAVITY OF SIN.

Fifth Friday in Lent. —THE EFFECTS OF SIN.

Fifth Saturday in Lent. —THE EFFECTS OF SIN.

Fifth Sunday in Lent. —THE DEADLY VICES.

Fifth Monday in Lent. —IN WHAT THE VICES ARE ROOTED.

Fifth Tuesday in Lent. —PRIDE.

Sixth Wednesday in Lent. —AVARICE.

Sixth Thursday in Lent. —LUXURY.

Sixth Friday in Lent. —ENVY.

Sixth Saturday in Lent. —GLUTTONY.

Palm Sunday. —ANGER.

Monday in Holy Week. —SLOTH.

Tuesday in Holy Week. —THE SACRIFICE FOR SIN.

Wednesday in Holy Week. —THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.

Thursday in Holy Week. —THE EFFECTS OF CHRIST’S SACRIFICE.

Good Friday. —THE EFFECTS OF THE PASSION.

Easter Eve. —THE APPLICATION OF THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.

Preface.

It is advisable that all should have a clear understanding as to the nature of Conscience, the dangers to which Conscience is liable, the Nature of Sin, and the Effects of Sin. Too many people go on easily from day to day making no spiritual advance, because they do not know what ails their Consciences, do not even suspect that their Consciences are ailing, and so make no effort to escape from their unsatisfactory condition. It is hoped that this little book of meditations may be of use to such.

Ash Wednesday. —ON CONSCIENCE.

God has created man for a purpose, and that purpose is, that he should attain to everlasting blessedness.

God is good and loving unto all His works. He made the plants and the beasts, and set them ends to accomplish here on earth, but the ends for which man was made are not to be attained in this life.

Through the Fall man’s mind is darkened, his connexion with God is broken, his sight of the aim to which he should tend is obscured. God has given to him His law as the rule of his actions, that man, hearkening to the revealed Will of God, may be guided aright, and so accomplish that end for which he was made, and attain finally to everlasting blessedness.

Every act of man that is in conformity with the revealed law of God isgood.

Every act of man that is contrary to this revealed law of God isbad.

Every act that is in conformity with the law of God is not onlyactuallygood, but it is relatively good —that is to say, it tends to our individual advantage. It is not only good in the sight of God, but it is profitable to our own selves.

So also is the converse true, that every act done against the law of God isactuallyandrelativelybad; it is bad in the sight of God, and it does injury to our own selves.

Now, in order that we may be able to judge whether our acts are in conformity with the law of God, He has set in us a faculty which has the office of applying the law of God to our own circumstances; and this faculty tells us whether our acts are in conformity with or contrary to the external law of God. Thus we have the exterior law, and the interior faculty, which we may almost term a law, and this inner law is calledConscience.

II.The revealed law of God, considered in itself and in relation to God, its Author, is holy, inviolable, and inalterable. “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting (or restoring) the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing theheart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever; the judgments of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.... In them is Thy servant warned: and in keeping them there is great reward.” (Ps. xix. 7-11.)

But though the revealed law of God is fixed and immutable, yet when applied to the human Conscience it takes different forms, according to the state of the Conscience.

Hence it follows that the divine lawill-applied, so far frombeing a sure rule, may become perverted into a sanction whereby we evade the obligations laid on us, and authorize ourselves to commit that which is wrong.

We shall therefore have to consider:—

1. The nature of Conscience.

2. The obligation of obeying Conscience.

3. The different kinds of Conscience.

4. The rules of conduct relative to each sort of Conscience.

First Thursday in Lent. —THE NATURE OF CONSCIENCE.

1. Conscience, which is the gift of God bestowed on all men, Christian and heathen, is that practical judgment which points out to us what to avoid or what to do in any particular emergency that may arise. Just as we may know that there are certain laws of nature, and our ready commonsense tells us, when varying circumstances arise, how we are to act so that the laws of nature may be to our advantage instead of to our overthrow, so is Conscience the commonsense application of the indwelling consciousness of the distinction between right and wrong to emergencies, as they rise up and demand of us a choice between one course or another.

2. Conscience has a threefold exercise of its judgment.

(a)Before an actiontakes place, Conscience throws light on the action contemplated or proposed, tells us its moral value, and if the Conscience judges that it isgood, then it counsels and permits the act. If, however, the Conscience judges that it is bad, then it dissuades from, and forbids the act.

(b)During an actionConscience is active, and in spite of all the clouds of prejudice and of passion that may have risen up, it bears testimony to the true nature of our conduct, iteither encourages us to carry it through, not to be supine about it, not to abandon it before it is completed, and so leave it imperfectly accomplished, but to carry it through to the end, thoroughly and completely. Or else, Conscience does not cease from turning us aside from the prosecution of the act which it disapproves; it acts as a drag, a check, and unless resisted will completely arrest us in the prosecution of that which it esteems to be bad.

(c)After an action, Conscience recompenses us by the satisfaction we feel, the approval it accords to us for having either accomplished what it advised, or for having abandoned that conduct which it disapproved. So S. Paul speaks of people being “a law unto themselves,” shewing “the work of the law written in their hearts, their Conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing, one another.” (Rom. ii. 14, 15.) This is the “testimony of the Conscience,” “the answer of the good Conscience” to which both S. Paul and S. Peter appeal.

3. We have seen that Conscience instructs, judges, and rewards or punishes; but we must consider further, that Conscience does not control the will of man, it merely dictates to the will what is right, and warns it as to what is wrong. It uses no constraint. Man’s will is free; Conscience clears the eyes of the mind, and shews it what conduces to welfare, and what to destruction, but it neither impels man irresistibly into the former course, nor holds him back forcibly from taking the other. It shows man what is medicine and what is poison, but it does not compel him to take one and reject the other, for the will of man is absolutelyfree.

First Friday in Lent. —THE NATURE OF CONSCIENCE.