Editorial July 8, 1916 Issue

"Of a good conscience"

Archibald McLellan

Many persons use the word "conscience" in a way which indicates that they believe it to be the name for a moral code as definitely expressed as is the Decalogue and upon which all men agree. Webster's definition of this word is: "Sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one's own conduct, intentions, or character, together with a feeling of obligation to do or be that which is recognized as good . . . Hence, a faculty, power, or principle, conceived to decide as to the moral quality of one's own thoughts or acts, enjoining what is good." One of the rules adopted by Washington when but a lad was, "Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire,—conscience." All this is good as far as it goes, yet to understand conscience to be in itself a defined moral code, is of course largely to misunderstand it. If all mankind were to act upon this misunderstanding there could but ensue the greatest possible confusion, because human opinion, while agreed upon the wrong of what might be called the principal or outstanding sins, is largely at variance as to the right or wrong of many other things which are done or left undone by those who believe themselves to be entirely conscientious and thoroughly awake to every moral requirement.

In Mrs. Eddy's writings the word "conscience" appears many times, but in no instance does she posit conscience as the final arbiter of right and wrong. She does, however, hold that it must be the guide to our actions when once we arrive at a decision as to what is right and what is wrong. For instance, on page 147 of "Miscellaneous Writings" she says, "The man of integrity is one who makes it his constant rule to follow the road of duty, according as Truth and the voice of his conscience point it out to him."In other words, conscience is the watchful monitor, reminding us, if we will but heed its warning, to follow the dictates of Truth.

From the study of Christian Science we may infer, therefore, that the monitions of conscience are not in themselves a sufficient guide to action, unless they are what Mrs. Eddy has termed "the dictates of enlightened conscience" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 168). An enlightened conscience in its truest and infinite sense must be the absolute reflection of God. To Christian Scientists, right is that mental and moral condition which absolutely reflects God, divine Mind, Principle, and wrong is the outcome of erroneous beliefs which do not reflect Him, and therefore have no Principle and no reality or permanency. Wrong is simply a negative condition, the absence of right, just as darkness is merely the absence of light. If this definition is true, then it is not conscience, as it is commonly understood, which finally decrees what is right. It is God who does this, and to know right from wrong we must first understand who and what God is.

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