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Conscience
Conscience
A
mother was helping her son with his spelling assignment and came to the words
‘conscious’ and ‘conscience’. When she asked him if he knew the difference
between the two
he responded
“Sure
Mom
‘conscious’ is when you are aware of
something and ‘conscience’ is when you wish you weren’t.”
Conscience
The
conscience is like a sharp square peg in our hearts. If we are confronted by a
questionable situation
that square begins to turn
and its corners cut into
our hearts
warning us withy an inward sensation against doing whatever
confronts us. If the conscience is ignored time after time
the corners of the
square are gradually worn down
and it virtually becomes a circle. When that
circle turns within our hearts
there is no inner sensation of warning
and we
are left without a conscience.
Conscience
Have
you recently flown on an airplane? Do you recall the ritual of walking through
the electronic device to detect concealed weapons? “A marvel of modern
technology
” you might think.
Interestingly enough
centuries ago
one of the palaces of Chang-an
the ancient capital of what is
now known as
A healthy conscience acts
in much the same way: it tugs at the concealed sins in our lives as though it
were God’s hidden hand.
Conscience
The
Internal Revenue Service received the following letter from a conscience
stricken taxpayer:
“Dear Sir: My conscience
bothered me. Here is $175.00
which I owe in back taxes.”
There was a P.S. at the
bottom that read: “If my conscience still bothers me
I’ll send in the rest.”
This taxpayer’s response
to a red warning light is not only humorous but also illustrates an important
truth: one’s conscience can become insensitive.
Conscience
When
Clare Boothe Luce
then seventy-five
was asked
“Do you have any regrets?” she
answered: “Yes
I should have been a better person. Kinder. More tolerant.
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night
and I remember a girlhood
friend of mine who had a brain tumor and called me three times to come and see
her. I was always too busy
and when she died
I was profoundly ashamed. I
still remember that after fifty-six years.”
Throughout
his administration
Abraham Lincoln was a president under fire
especially
during the scarring years of the Civil War. And though he knew he would make
errors of office
he resolved never to compromise his integrity. So strong was
this resolve that he once said
"I desire so to conduct the affairs of
this administration that if at the end
when I come to lay down the reins of
power
I have lost every other friend on earth
I shall at least have one
friend left
and that friend shall be down inside of me."── Today In The Word
August
1989
p.
21.
When
Sgt. Ray Baarz of the Midvale
Utah
police department opened his wallet
he
noticed his driver's license had expired. Embarrassed at having caught himself
red-handed
he had no alternative. He calmly and deliberately pulled out his
ticket book and wrote himself a citation. Then Baarz took the ticket to the
city judge who fined him five dollars. "How could I give a ticket to
anyone else for an expired license in the future if I didn't cite myself?"
Baarz asked.── Source Unknown.
Did
you know that ever since 1811 (when someone who had defrauded the government
anonymously sent $5 to Washington D.C.) the U.S. Treasury has operated a
Conscience Fund? Since that time almost $3.5 million has been received from
guilt-ridden citizens.── Swindoll
The Quest For Character
Multnomah
p. 70.
The
great attorney
orator
and statesman Daniel Webster was such an imposing
figure in court that he once stared a witness out of the courtroom. Apparently
Webster knew the man was there to deliver false testimony
so he fixed his
"dark
beetle-browed" eyes on the man and searched him . According to
the story
later in the trial "Webster looked around again to see if [the
witness] was ready for the inquisition. The witness felt for his hat and edged
toward the door. A third time Webster looked on him
and the witness could sit
no longer. He seized his chance and fled from the court and was nowhere to be
found." ── Today in the Word
Moody Bible Institute
January 1992
p.31.
A
man consulted a doctor
"I've been misbehaving
Doc
and my conscience is
troubling me
" he complained. "And you want something that will
strengthen your willpower?" asked the doctor. "Well
no
" said
the fellow. "I was thinking of something that would weaken my
conscience." ── Bits &
Pieces
May 27
1993
p. 21.
Conscience
tells us that we ought to do right
but it does not tell us what right is--that
we are taught by God's word. ── H.C. Trumbull.
Once
we assuage our conscience by calling something a "necessary evil
" it
begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil. ── Sidney
J. Harris.
As
someone else has said
"She won't listen to her conscience. She doesn't
want to take advice from a total stranger." ── Bob Goddard
St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
The
antagonism between life and conscience may be removed in two ways: By a change
of life or by a change of conscience.── Leo Tolstoy.
The
trouble with the advice
"Follow your conscience" is that most people
follow it like someone following a wheelbarrow--they direct it wherever they
want it to go
and then follow behind.── Traditional.
The
glory of a good person is the testimony of a good conscience. A good conscience
is able to bear very much and is very cheerful in adversities. An evil
conscience is always fearful and unquiet. Never rejoice except when you have
done well. You shall rest sweetly if your heart does not accuse you. Sinners
never have true joy or feel inward peace
because 'there is no peace for the
wicked
' says the Lord (Isaiah 57:21). The glory of the good is in their
consciences
and not in the tongues of others
The gladness of the just is of
God
and in God; and their joy is of the truth.
A
person will easily be content and pacified whose conscience is pure. If you
consider what you are within
you will not care what others say concerning you.
People consider the deeds
but God weighs the intentions. To be always doing
well and to esteem little of one's self is the sign of a humble soul. For not
he who commends himself is approved
but whom the Lord commends
'says Paul (2
Corinthians 10:18). To walk inwardly with God
and not to be kept abroad by any
outward affection
is the state of a spiritual person. Conscience is that
faculty in me which attaches itself to the highest that I know
and tells me
what the highest I know demands that I do. It is the eye of the soul which
looks out either toward God or toward what it regards as the highest authority.
If I am in the habit of steadily facing toward God
my conscience will always
introduce God's perfect law and indicate what I should do. The point is
will I
obey? I have to make an effort to keep my conscience so sensitive that I walk
without offense. I should be living in such perfect sympathy with God's Son
that in every circumstance the spirit of my mind is renewed. The one thing that
keeps the conscience sensitive to Him is the habit of being open to God on the
inside. When there is any debate
quit. There is no debate possible when
conscience speaks. ── C.F.H. Henry
Christian Personal Ethics
Eerdmans
1957
p. 509ff.
Myself
I
have to live with myself
and so
I want to be fit for myself to know
I want to be able
as days go by
Always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don't want to stand
with the setting sun
And hate myself for the things I've done.
I
don't want to keep on the closet shelf
A lot of secrets about myself
And fool myself
as I come and go
Into thinking that nobody else will know
The kind of a man I really am;
I don't want to dress up myself in sham.
I
want to go out with my head erect
I want to deserve all men's respect;
But here in the struggle for fame and pelf
I want to be able to like myself.
I don't want to look at myself and know
That I'm bluster and bluff and empty show.
I
can never hide myself from me;
I see what others may never see;
I know what others may never know
I never can fool myself
and so
Whatever happens
I want to be
Self-respecting and conscience free.
── This poem's origin is unknown. It
could be from: Courage - You Can Stand Strong in the Face of Fear
Jon
Johnston
1990
SP Publications
pp. 90-91.