Acts 24:16 And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void to offense toward God, and toward men. Take an illustration. You are rich. Your wealth is imperilled. Hitherto your whole life has been honourable. You have preserved your conscience cloudless. Now you see you can by an act of dishonour which none can ever detect, which no earthly mind can ever know of — in that act you can save your wealth. Now conscience is the court of appeal. You alone deliver judgment. The solicitations to dishonour are subtle and siren-tongued. Nay, they are mighty, they are there. On the other hand, the moral instinct points to the grandeur of right, the horror of wrong. Conscience, with the blessedness of eternal duration in its mission, says, "No. You ought. You owe it to your character and your God not to do this great wrong." Fellow men, in such a case you know that it is you, it is I, apart from all She forces of temptation, that determine which it is that we will yield to. It is you, it is I, that issue the mandate "I will" or "I will not." The will is free for practical purposes, or moral judgment is impossible. It is when two incompatible impulses appear in our souls and contest the field that the strength and patience or the weakness and depravity of our manhood appear; for we are made aware of their difference, and are driven to judge between them. And the sensibility of the mind to the graduations of contrast between good and evil is what we mean by conscience. Conscience is a critical moral organ, and blessed is he that has trained his conscience under the companionship of the Cross of Christ, and who, with a brave heart like the great apostle, strives to keep it before God and before man, void of offence. (W. H. Dallinger.) Parallel Verses KJV: And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.WEB: Herein I also practice always having a conscience void of offense toward God and men. |
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