Editorial January 8, 1903 Issue

Conscience not the Ultimate

A Seeming obstacle in the pathway of humanity's spiritual advancement has ever been the belief that individual conscience is and must be man's sure guide on every occasion, his highest tribunal for the settlement of all moral questions, his unfailing monitor when doubt and perplexity best him.

Christians, however, cannot appeal to conscience as the final arbiter of right and wrong, of truth and error. To do so would blind them to the general interpretation of conscience as a shifting standard of human opinion, varying with the environment of the individual and largely defined by his mental and moral training. Its tendency to leave God out of the equation and to exalt the law of Moses above the Gospel of Christ Jesus, discloses its inadequacy for the ideal of spiritual growth. While obedience to the Mosaic Decalogue is a requisite of Christian character, and "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled," the genuine and permanent fulfilling of the law comes through following Christ. In other words, a man may measure up to the human standard of the moral law without being a Christian, but he cannot be a Christian without fulfilling the moral law in every particular.

In the spiritual progress of humanity mortal mind's selfjustification through conscience will cease and give place to true righteousness and spirituality. In the transition from the belief of life and intelligence in matter to the understanding of infinite Love, man will forsake his varying standards of finite good and cleave to the true standard of infinite Good. He will grow out of his uncertain concept of justice and mercy into the true concept of infinite Life. M.

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