This faithful recorder and deputy judge is with us through all the journey of life, and will accompany us with his register over the river Jordan, whether to Abraham’s bosom or the society of the rich men in hell. While conscience keeps a record on earth, Jehovah keeps a record in heaven; and when both books shall be opened in the final judgment, there shall be found a perfect correspondence. When temptations are presented, the understanding opposes them, but the carnal mind indulges them, and there is a contest between the judgment and the will, and we hesitate which to obey, till the warning bell of conscience rings through the soul, and gives distinct notice of his awful recognition; and when we turn away recklessly from his faithful admonitions, we hear low mutterings of wrath stealing along the avenues, and the quick sound of writing-pens in the recording office, causing every denizen of the mental palace to tremble.
There is a good conscience, and an evil conscience. The work of both, however, is the same; consisting in keeping a true record of the actions of men, and passing sentence upon them according to their deserts. Conscience is called good or evil only with reference to the character of its record and its sentence. If the record is one of virtues, and the sentence one of approval, the conscience is good; if the record is one of vices, and the sentence one of condemnation, the conscience is evil.
Some have a guilty conscience; that is, a conscience that holds up to their view a black catalogue of crimes, and rings in their ears the sentence of condemnation. If you have such a conscience, you are invited to Jesus, that you may find peace to your souls. He is ever in his office, receiving all who come, and blotting out with his own blood the handwriting which is against them.
But some have a despairing conscience. They think that their crimes are too great to be forgiven. The registry of guilt, and the decree of death, hide from their eyes the mercy of God, and the merit of Christ. Their sins rise like mountains between them and heaven. But let them look away to Calvary. If their sins are a thousand times more numerous than their tears, the blood of Jesus is ten thousand times more powerful than their sins. “He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
And others have a dark and hardened conscience. They are so deceived, that they “cry peace and safety, when destruction is at the door.” They are “past feeling, having the conscience seared as with a hot iron.” They have sold themselves to work evil; to eat sin like bread, and drink iniquity like water. They have bribed or gagged the recorder and accuser within them. They will betray the just cause of the righteous, and slay the messengers of salvation, and think that they are doing God service. John the Baptist is beheaded, that Herod may keep his oath of honor. A dead fish cannot swim against the stream; but if the king’s conscience had been alive and faithful, he would have said:—“Girl, I promised to give thee thy request, even to the half of my kingdom; but thou hast requested too much; for the head of Messiah’s herald is more valuable than my whole kingdom, and all the kingdoms of the world!” But he had not the fear of God before his eyes, and the proud fool sent and beheaded the prophet in his cell.
A good conscience is a faithful conscience, a lively conscience, a peaceful conscience, a conscience void of offence toward God and man, resting in the shadow of the cross, and assured of an interest in its infinite merit. It is the victory of faith unfeigned, working by love, and purifying the heart. It is always found in the neighborhood and society of its brethren; “a broken heart, and a contrite spirit;” an intense hatred of sin, and an ardent love of holiness; a spirit of fervent prayer and supplication, and a life of scrupulous integrity and charity; and above all, an humble confidence in the mercy of God, through the mediation of Christ. These constitute the brotherhood of Christianity; and wherever they abound, a good conscience is never lacking. They are its very element and life; its food, its sunshine, and its vital air.
Conscience was a faithful recorder and judge under the law; and notwithstanding the revolution which has taken place, introducing a new constitution, and a new administration, Conscience still retains his office; and when “purged from dead works to serve the living God,” is appropriately called a good conscience.
II. The means of this purification is “the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God.”
Could we take in, at a single view, all the bearings of “the blood of Christ,” as exhibited in the gospel, what an astonishing light would it cast upon the condition of man; the character of God; the nature and requirements of his law; the dreadful consequences of sin; the wondrous expiation of the cross; the reconciliation of Heaven and earth; the blessed union of the believer with God in Christ, as a just God and a Savior; and the whole scheme of our justification, sanctification, and redemption, through free, sovereign, infinite, and unspeakable grace!
There is no knowledge like the knowledge of Christ, for the excellency of which the apostle counted all things but loss. Christ is the Sun of Righteousness, in whose light we see the tops of the mountains of immortality, towering above the dense clouds which overhang the valley of death. All the wisdom which philosophers have learned from nature and providence, compared with that which is afforded by the Christian Revelation, is like the ignis fatuus compared with the sun. The knowledge of Plato, and Socrates, and all the renowned sages of antiquity, was nothing to the knowledge of the feeblest believer in “the blood of Christ.”