by Rev. John Colquhoun, Glendale
The conscience is the faculty of the soul which performs a critical or self-judging function, approving or disapproving of our thoughts, words and actions, as they are in accordance with, or contrary to the light of nature or the light of revelation. This faculty, having, like all other faculties of the soul, become polluted by the Fall of man, is unable to give a true verdict except in so far as it is illuminated by the Word of God, for, apart from this illumination, it is as dead and dark as all the other faculties of the soul. Thus, a man who would obey the dictates of his conscience ought to be sure that his conscience was properly enlightened. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to enlighten the conscience, and the instrument by which He enlightens it, is the Word of God. This is what takes place when a sinner is effectually called and justified, for through the Word, by faith, he sees the suitableness and sufficiency of Christ as a Saviour, and his enlightened conscience corroborates the testimony that God gives concerning His Son, and the conscience, which before was accusing, is now illuminated in God’s way of salvation, so that it is fully satisfied with the remedy which has been applied by the Holy Spirit. In all the thoughts, words and actions in after life, of the sinner thus wrought upon, the conscience plays a very important part, and in nothing will it play a more important part than in the individual joining in fellowship with the visible church.
In lands where the gospel has been for years the most of people who are connected with the Christian Church have been baptised in infancy, but where this has been the case it is also true that when the saving change takes place, the subject of it is anxious to know if he is a member of the purest denomination in the land, and in seeking to satisfy his conscience on that point, he examines the distinctive testimony of that denomination in the light of God’s Word, and compares it with the position of other denominations. The same thing should be true when an adult seeks to join himself to any particular denomination through the ordinance of baptism or that of the Lord’s Supper. He ought to take every means of enlightening his conscience as to the Scripturalness of the constitution of that denomination. When a man takes office in a denomination it is required of him to answer certain questions and sign a particular formula. This is known as taking ordination vows, which are of a like binding nature with the most solemn oaths. In taking these ordination vows a man is expected to make himself conversant with their real meaning, and in endeavouring to do so he must examine into the relation of these questions and formula to the Word of God and the practice of the church in which he takes office. It is always assumed that he has satisfied his conscience in these matters before he accepts office.
Sometimes an office-bearer begins to have “scruples and difficulties” about some matters in connection with which it was assumed by his church that, at the time of his ordination, he had satisfied his conscience. These “scruples and difficulties” may have arisen either from the office-bearer having carelessly performed the duty of satisfying his conscience or through imbibing other views and having, in connection with them, ulterior motives. He may have never properly examined the constitution or past history of his church, and then, suddenly, come across something in the practice of the church with which he feels his conscience cannot agree. Thus he falls a prey to an ill-informed conscience, for conscience may be ignorantly scrupulous, making a thing a matter of conscience where God in His Word makes none. This is a most dangerous position to be in, for it does not matter how well-meaning a person may be, he has placed himself at the mercy of a faculty which, according to its light, is exceedingly scrupulous in some things and very partial and lax in other things. A man has only to persuade himself that certain doctrines are wrong or that a certain line of action is right, present these things to his conscience in the light of his own preconceived notions, and he would go through fire and water to maintain them, his conscience meanwhile approving of his conduct because Scripture light is not suffered to reach it.
Again, an office-bearer may begin to harbour views contrary to those received in his denomination. He may, for instance, conceive that it is right and proper for it to unite with another denomination, and may cause many reasons to pass before his mind why this should take place, such as, to mention a few, the duty of Christians to dwell together as brethren, the presenting of a united front against that common enemy, Popery, and the greater influence which a large denomination would have in combating the forces of evil. These reasons are right and proper in themselves, but if this is the only information the conscience is to receive, it will approve of a union which is not accomplished on a Scriptural foundation, and when the individual, who is thus under the power of an uninformed conscience, will not get others persuaded to join with him, he invariably goes over to the other denomination, proclaiming loudly that he is doing so in obedience to the dictates of conscience. This, however, is to make conscience a Pope, and constitutes the worst form of idolatry.
A man who does not take care to inform his own conscience is very often at the mercy of others, who conceive of him as a fit tool to advance their projects. A favourite device is to present matters to him from a certain point of view, and alas! when such devices are on foot the truth is, as a rule, not scrupulously adhered to. The conduct of certain men is represented in the most unfavourable light, their motives are supposed to be the worst, and a one-sided version given of the matter under consideration so that wrong principles soon become rooted in the mind, and by these, to the exclusion of right principles, the conscience is being informed, so that at the dictates of conscience, a man may go to great extremes. Thus an office-bearer in the Church of Christ, while imagining that he is acting from the purest and most disinterested motives may, through an improperly informed conscience, act in such a way as to become guilty of a most serious breach of his ordination vows, and thus lay himself open to the heaviest censures of his church, rightly and Scripturally imposed upon him. In such a case his conscience would approve of his conduct for which he was censured, but never accuse him of the sin of breaking his ordination vows.
To avoid these dangers a man should seek to inform his conscience by the Word of God and refuse to be led where that Word did not lead him; he should refuse to accept of men what was contrary to that Word, and what was contrary to what was received by men who clearly defined the constitution of the Church and who walked close to the principles of God’s Word during the whole of their Christian course in this world. The duty of all is, by prayer and meditation on God’s Word, to seek to know more accurately the revealed will of God, and to walk according to that revelation. In minor matters, such as procedure in Church Courts, for which no particular details are given in the Bible, it is nothing short of the grossest form of schism, which is highly offensive to the Lord, for men to renounce the jurisdiction of those Church Courts, which they solemnly vowed to submit to, when no change has taken place except in the minds of the individuals who are guilty of such conduct.