Article January 25, 1975 Issue

A Matter of Conscience

ELIZABETH BICE LUERSSEN

A secretary alone in an office puts in a full day's work. A customer given incorrect change returns the overpayment to the cashier. A teen-ager out on a date takes a stand for morality. In each case, a matter of conscience. Always a guide in deciding between right and wrong, conscience demands self-discipline and individual responsibility.

Christian Science gives our concept of conscience greater depth. Conscience becomes a matter of spiritual decision—choosing the spiritual, the good, the true. It shows us how to follow spiritual convictions, divine impulsion, and to obey the divine will—God's will—as Christ Jesus did. Christian Science leads us to realize that we can settle for nothing less than the Christly standard.

Of course, everyone has a conscience to guide him. Mary Baker Eddy, the author of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the Christian Science textbook, makes this statement: "God has endowed man with inalienable rights, among which are self-government, reason, and conscience."^{Science and Health, p. 106;}