It is evident, and easy to see, that conscience reveals nothing. It simply declares the character of whatever is presented, and that according to the light it has. As the eye is the light, only as it is the inlet of light, to the body, so the conscience is simply the inlet of whatever light morally there may be for the spirit. And just as disease may, to any extent, affect the bodily eye, so may it affect also the spiritual. Alas! the solemn consideration is, that sin has thus affected, to a greater or less degree, the consciences of all men. Yet in none, perhaps, is it altogether darkened, and its power will manifest itself often in the most unexpected and striking way in those who, notwithstanding, resist to the last its convictions.

The scribes and Pharisees, plotting to entrap the Lord by the case of the adulteress condemned by Moses' law, are thus driven out of His presence by the simple yet penetrating words, " He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her " (Jno. 8:7, 9).Conscience in Herod sees in Christ the murdered Baptist risen from the dead (Mark 6:16).Stephen's adversaries, on the other hand, rush into murder, cut to the heart by the conviction that they have resisted the Holy Ghost (Acts 7:54). Thus, in the midst of the most frantic opposition to the truth-nay, by this, the power of the truth over the conscience is clearly shown.

Scripture declares it in doctrine as well as example.-" This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world; and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God" (Jno. 3:19-21).Here is the principle of which the example last given is the illustration. The evil-doer is aware of the light when he shuns it; would quench it, if possible, because he is aware of it. In it he is not, because he flees, not welcomes it; yet in fleeing, carries the unmistakable witness of it in his heart.

Again, in the parable of the sower the Lord declares the same thing in another form. Of the seed sown by the wayside He says, " When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and under-standeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside." (Matt. 13:19.) Now this is one apparently quite unconvinced; he does not understand; the seed lies merely upon the surface of the ground, inviting the fowls of the air to catch it away. The heart of this man, hard as the roadside with the traffic of other things, if you could say of any that it was untouched by the Word, you could say it here; yet the Lord expressly says, "Taketh away that which was sown in his heart." Even here, the Word has not only touched, but penetrated. The heart, unchanged by it, has rejected it:true, but it has had to reject it. Satan is allowed to remove the Word, and it is taken away; but its rejected witness will come up in terrible memory at another day.

And this exactly agrees with the words of the apostle:'"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are perishing; in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." (2 Cor. 4:3, 4.) Here again the unbelief which refuses the gospel shuts the unbeliever up into the enemy's hand. The blinding of the mind by the god of this world, like the removal of the seed- by the fowls of the air, is the direct result of this first rejection of unwelcome testimony.
How immensely important, then, to the soul the treatment it accords to whatever it has to own as truth, little or much as it may seem to be! For God is the God of truth; and, where souls are themselves true, the possession of any portion of it is the possession of a clue-line which leads surely into His presence; the giving it up is the deliberate choice of darkness as one's portion. And this applies in measure to every one, sinner and saint alike, and to every truth of revelation. Every truth really bowed to in the soul leads on to more; every error received requires, to be consistent with it, the reception of more. It is darkness; and darkness is a kingdom, as the light is,-part of an organized revolt against God. As the truth leads to and keeps us in His presence, so error is, in its essence, departure from Him.

Of course, the truth may be received intellectually merely, not believingly; and if trifled with, it is no wonder if it result in terrible hardening of the heart. The more orthodox Pharisees were worse persecutors of the Lord than the infidel Sadducees. And the Jews every where led the heathen in their early attacks on Christianity. But in these cases it was still rejected truth that stirred up their opposition. But the truth is really and decisively rejected where its claim over the heart and life is allowed in word, and in word only. He who to his father's claim of service said openly, "I will not," yet afterward repented and went; while he who respectfully answered, " I go, sir," never went.

And this is the character of truth, that stirs up opposition. It speaks, prophet-like, for God, affirming His authority over the soul, and abasing the glory of man in His presence. Unbelief says, as Ahab of Micaiah, "I hate it, for it does not prophesy good of me, but evil." And even in the believer, it runs counter to all that is not faith within him; and alas! how much within us is not faith! Thus, among Christians themselves, the truth in any fullness stumbles so many, and at every fresh unfolding of it some who had followed thus far are left behind:it is even well if they do not become active opponents of it. Thus He who in the angel's announcement brings " peace on earth," brings in fact, nevertheless, because of man's condition, "not peace, but a sword." The fellowship of saints is disturbed and broken up; the thousands drop to hundreds in the very presence of the enemy. Romanism boasts, with a certain reason, of her unity at least in outward organization; while Protestantism proclaims the sanctity of conscience, and divides into a hundred sects.

Yet if conscience be in any respect given up, all is. For its principle is obedience to God, and to God only; and this is a first necessity for a walk with God. Conscience is, above all things, therefore, individual. It refuses to see with other eyes than its own; and refuses, too, subjection or guidance without seeing. It will easily incur in this way the reproach of obstinacy, contumacy, pride, self-will; while on the other hand there is constant danger of mistaking these for it. It is thus a thing which all ecclesiastical systems find it difficult to recognize or deal with, and which makes large demands for wisdom, patience, and forbearance with one another. " We see in part; we prophesy in part:" and what we see may seem in ill accord with what is really truth seen by others, just for want of knowledge of a larger truth embracing both. But even if we see not, and but think we see, still conscience, because it touches our practical relationship with God, is a solemn thing" to deal with:he who meddles with it interferes with God's rights over the soul, and usurps a vicegerency which He commits to no one.

Yet the voice of God, let us carefully remember, conscience is not. It is an ear to hear it only, and which may be dull and deaf, and hear with little clearness after all. God's voice is that which utters itself by the Spirit through the Word. But this voice speaks to the individual, to him that hath an ear to hear. None can, but at his peril, resign his responsibility in this to another; and none can, but at his peril, require this to be done, Yet, alas! how often, in various ways, consciously and unconsciously, is this required and yielded to!

3.-PURGED AND PURE.

"To serve the living, God," the conscience must first of all be " purified from dead works." (Heb. 9:14.) A soul alarmed on account of sin is driven by conscience into effort to escape from the wrath which it foresees as the necessity of divine holiness. In an unawakened condition, not so much con-science drives from God as the heart, estranged, refuses One in whom it finds no pleasure. Its pleasure is in banishing Him, if possible, from the thought; aye, terrible as it is to realize, sin as sin, as offense to Him whom it counts an enemy, is a real pleasure. Many, it is true, are quite ignorant of this, and would resent the imputation of it; for the heart is deceitful above all things, as it is desperately wicked, and who can know it? But when we wake up to realize our condition, we shall assuredly begin to realize it to be so, and none who has been truly brought to God but will own with the apostle, the remarkable example of it, that "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son."

When awakened, the holiness of God is seen as necessary wrath against sin; and then effort begins to secure shelter from it. And naturally this takes the shape of an attempt to keep those commandments of God hitherto despised and broken. Ignorant of how complete the ruin sin has caused,- ignorant of the unbending requirements of God's holiness,-ignorant of the grace which has provided complete atonement, the soul persists (often for how long!) in trying to bring to God some fruit that He can accept, and which will secure, or help to secure, the one who brings it. But this is only " dead work." It is neither "work of faith" nor " labor of love." It is self-justification, the fruit of fear and unbelief:hence truly "dead work," the mere outside of holiness at the best, with no life- no inward spirit in it to make it acceptable to the "living God." It is rather itself an offense, and thus a necessary defilement of the soul.

The blood of Christ therefore it is that purifies the conscience from dead works. Justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Brought to God, and to God known in Him, there is "no more conscience of sins" in the rejoicing worshiper. Free from the load of guilt, he is able to welcome the light fully and without reserve-yea, with eager desire. The yoke of Christ is rest and freedom. Thus the apprehension of grace delivers from a morbid self-occupation to enable one for real holiness. The conscience is purified so as faithfully to receive, without partiality or distortion, the communications of the Father's will. " The fruit of the light as we should read Ephesians 5:9,] is in all goodness and righteousness and truth."

And if that were all, how blessed-how wholly blessed would be this condition! "Light is good" indeed, " and a pleasant thing it is to behold the sun." If in this all nature rejoices, how the new nature in that which is the " light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Thus the fruit of the light is found in this eternal day and summer of the soul.

From the side of God there is no need of change or variation more. His grace is perfect; His gifts and calling are without repentance. Here, in the enjoyment of its own things, the soul is called to abide; here all its own interests summon it to abide. What might be expected then but continual growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Alas! that this rightful expectation should be so little fulfilled; but in whom is it perfectly fulfilled? in how many do we see almost the opposite of it, retrogression instead of progress! and how many are there who remain apparently almost stationary, although in reality of course with loss of zeal and fervor, year after year! What is the cause of all this, which we find acknowledged in apostolic times as in the present? For the Galatians were no solitary ex-ample of those who "did run well," being hindered from steadfast obedience to the truth. At Rome, those whose faith had once been" spoken of throughout the whole world," we find testified of by the same witness as all seeking their own, and not the things of Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:8; Phil. 2:21). And later he says of them, " At my first answer no man stood with me, but all forsook me" (2 Tim. 4:16). Corinth went into worldliness and immorality. Ephesus lost its first love. Of some of these it may be pleaded that it is assemblies that are spoken of, not individuals, but the two ordinarily go together, and the magnitude of the departure shows that the plea can hardly avail. The general fact is as plain as it is intensely solemn.

But the decay of the fruits of faith means the decay of faith itself. And this decay of faith, whence does it proceed but from failure to maintain the purity of conscience? In the case of some, (who had, no doubt, got far away,) the apostle argues this:" Holding faith and a good conscience, which [1:e., the latter,] some having put away, concerning faith have made shipwreck" (i Tim. 1:19). It is easy to show how heresies and false doctrines, and the reception of these by others, spring from a conscience defiled:but this is not now my point. For simplicity of faith itself, a good conscience must be maintained. As another apostle says, " If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things; beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God" (i Jno. 3:20, 21). And so the Lord, in view of Peter's grievous fall, and the natural result of it, assures him, " I have prayed for thee, that thy, faith fail not" (Luke 22:32). How vital, then, to the whole spiritual condition is the maintenance of a pure conscience!

But again, this pure conscience can only be maintained by exercise. " Herein do I exercise myself," says, once more, the apostle of the Gentiles, "to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men " (Acts 24:16). How many mistake-how easy, therefore, is it to mistake-a conscience dulled by neglect, for one that is really "good"! How many persuade themselves all is well with them, while they are simply not near enough to God to detect the evil!

" As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord," we are admonished, " walk ye in Him " (Col. ii 6). This alone is the Christian " rule " (Gal. 6:16); and that is alone a good conscience which keeps to the measure of this. Yet how easy to have the theory, nay, in certain respects, the faith of where we are, without this becoming the real measure for conscience of practical walk!

In the sanctuary, with God alone, we find the light in which things take their true shape and character. In Israel's sanctuary of old, the light of common day was jealously excluded. The light of the golden candlestick guided the priests alone in their daily service. For us, the light of the holiest is that of the glory of God in the. face of Jesus Christ. And in this, things look very differently indeed from the mere common light in which the natural conscience views them. Yet many Christians are able to be at peace with themselves merely because they are judging themselves by a standard little beyond the common one. They even ignorantly bring in the grace of God to quiet the stirring of self-accusation, which they suppose legality, and go on in a careless dream as far as possible removed from the peace of communion,-the "peace of Christ." But the apostle was not legal when he said, " Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be acceptable to Him " (2 Cor. 5:9, Gr.), nor in his exercise to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. (To be continued, D. V.)