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Show j Bishop Scan lan on .! Rule of Conscience s h An Analysis of Conscience in Its Relation to Reason, Illustrated by Examples What Conscience Should j Be An Article in Salt Lake Tribune. 4 J "11 that is not faith is sin." Rom. ;iv., i Whit t!ip great apostle manifestly ! wans l y 1 his text is, that whatever ; do''.-; n"t 'pnveed from an honest con- f.i.-nn or the firm conviction that we ; ..re jit ht is sinful. The word conscience iF derived from two Latin words -.n" t"f:ether) and "scientia" (knowl-1 (knowl-1 cape), ami hence means the sum of vhai man knows and should know in the moral order about the right or ; wpin.c of an" particular act he is go- inp 10 perform. Reason should not be ! cnnfouivied with conscience, no more j than a judge with his decision. Con-1 Con-1 j.,-jpnc- is the voice the mature and deliberate judgment of reason, which I cimi'ly declares and publishes the law j of pnuM'ience. and at the same time de-5 de-5 rlHres that his law is anterior to her and above her, and she herself must obey ii if she would have light and life." Neither is conscience a mere feeling or sentiment, or even a spontaneous 1 dictate of the mind, but an act of re-: re-: fleciive reason a real logical conclu-I conclu-I sion which pure, unbiased reason comes i in after it has fully weighed all the evi-I evi-I di tiee, taking into account, at the same j time, the end, motive and circum-j circum-j stances connected with any particular f ; ait to be performed. Now, if reason can accuse itself of having omitted or j overlooked anything necessary to en-i en-i tble it to periorm this act honestly I :id impartially, then it is what is siinwn as an erroneous or false con-? con-? icience. ' To illustrate this, let us suppose that ! 4 judpe has culpably neglected to in-I in-I struct himself and to acquire the ! in.)? ledge necessary for the proper dis-i dis-i charge of the duties of his important I effi'-e; that instead of employing his i leisure time -in -trying to acquire this f reePssary knowledge he spends It in j : idleness and frivolity. Or, suppose him nnt puiity of this neglect, or rather duty, but! on the contrary, that he did I his honest best to fit himself for his ; office. yvt. while hearing a given case, ; he paid little or no attention to it, al-s al-s lowed himself to be so distracted and i absent-minded that he did not take in I the full weight of the evidence pre-i pre-i s-nted. Or. once more, let us suppose j that he had adequately qualified him-; him-; self for his office and paid due atten- tion to the trial and sufficiently comprehended com-prehended the evidence, but allowed j Krsonal feeling, interest or prejudice ! to influence him in his decision. In all ; those cases it is very likely, if not certain, cer-tain, that such a judge's decision is er-:, er-:, rim.'ous, either because it is not the I conscience, that is, the sum of all the I knowledge he shouid have, or because ; it is not an honest conscience from the tj premises or evidence presented to him. il And if his decision is false and unjust, ' l-.e is personally, morally bound to, re- pair any injury he may have thereby j done to his neighbor or society. This principle holds good, not only in the 1 3 case df a judge on the bench, but of any one about to place an act that may I affect the rights of others, for they I have a ,j,;ht that no injury should ; cmiH. to them through our culpable f r.epk-ct, iiriiorance, passion or prejudice, i In like manner, if we neglect the I m ans necessary to enlighten our con- s ieii. es, .r if "we allow our feelings, passions and prejudices to influence us, "f consciences are erroneous, and we ) lave mm moral right or liberty to follow them. Kcason herself, in such cases, knows that sh is wrong, and has been tampered with, and, consequently, in 1t rfe!i-( mood repudiates such a so-i ;-!;,.,; ( oiisf ience and appeals to the . hitherthe real court of conscience. Thus. w.. sometimes find persons hav-;! hav-;! ins tw.i hi more consciences, varying ', J",,,,-, t S(df-interest and cifcum-f'.a-i es. n is surprising, the tender j r.;is. j. r, , K s,,mo people have about ! iisch;:rk-:i:a certain obligations, the jus- 'i-' :' wiiich is evident to all except themselves, and which must be evident i to themselves in the higher court of their own consciences. Conscience, then, being the sum and I judgment of reason's knowledge, should ' be, as far as possible, in conformity with the divine reason and the real order or-der of things. Such a conscience is called true, for it judges according to reality; what it declares right is in reality right, and what it declares wrong is really wrong. This conscience is clearly the voice of God, represents him, and has all his rights and authority author-ity in the moral order. To oppose, coerce co-erce or stifle such a conscience is simply sim-ply to oppose eternal truth, right and justice and, therefore, God himself. It is needless to add that it is and should be free, and that no human authority has any right to interfere with it, at least subjectively, since itself is the last and highest court of morals. This is the conscience that every reasonable rea-sonable being should try to have, and is bound to have, if possible. But man, in his present fallen state, cannot i always have such a conscience. He j cannot be always and everywhere certain cer-tain that his thoughts, words and actions ac-tions are in conformity with the true and the real,' but he must do his best, make use of every means and light within his reach that-such may be the case. However, if his reason does not accuse him of any culpability, and that his judgment has been in no manner or sense influenced by ignorance, self-interest, passion or prejudice, then, although al-though his conscience may not be true, that is. objectively according to truth and reality, yet, it is a right and safe one because he' has done his reasonable reason-able best to have it true, and honestly believes it,. to. be so. Now, whether what such a conscience thus honestly formed declares to be right or wrong is so'in reatttjoc;riPt;"ij: isr nevertheless,. neverthe-less,. as sacred, binding and inviolable as a true conscience, and should be followed, fol-lowed, although what it dictates be materially ma-terially wrong. In order to understand why we must, follow this conscience, and are not free to act against it. we must bear in mind that no action in itself, that is, considered apart from the agent that performs it, and from its e.id and circumstance, is morally wrong. Hence, the killing of a man, whether by a wild beast, a madman, or accidentally by any of the elements, has no moral quality, because not performed per-formed by a moral agent having reason and free will.- These morally irresponsible irrespon-sible agents, like the wind and earthquake, earth-quake, may cause great material injury and human suffering, but they are nevertheless good in themselves. The killing of man is prohibited and morally moral-ly wrong, when it is done by a -free, intelligent in-telligent being, and as such, without sufficient cause." There are. however, some things which are bad in themselves, them-selves, such as hatred of God and willful will-ful opposition to any of his attributes, which even God himself cannot permit a free, rational being to do, because they are directly opposed to his divine nature. If a parrot had learned to curse f'.od, the person who taught him would be guilty of, blasphemy, but not the parrot, because incapable of moral action. ac-tion. God can, however, permit, for grave reasons, things not bad in themselves them-selves to become lawful, such as the taking of human life in self-defense, or for the welfare of society, or the taking tak-ing of our neighbor's goods to save us from starving or perishing. Whatever conscience.' then, we may have, whether true or certain as already al-ready explained, it must have one essential es-sential characteristic, that is, it must be honest. Dishonesty and conscience are contradictory terms. The only safe conscience that we can and should follow fol-low is the one that we have reasonably and honestly done our best to form, and which we firmly and honestly believe and hope is the true or the right one. This is the conscience to which the apostle referred in the text "All that is not faith is sin." Tj. SCANLAN. |