January 9

Having a good conscience.—1 Peter 3:16.

DO I prayerfully endeavor to have a conscience void of offence toward both God and man? Do I seek to enlighten my conscience by God's word, and then to keep it sensitive, tender, quick to perceive evil, and prompt to turn from it? Do I live as under the eye of God, studying in all that I say and do, to regulate my daily life according to his will?

A tender conscience is like the apple of the eye—the least dust that gathers into it, affects it. There is no surer or better way to know whether our consciences are dead and stupid, than to watch what impression small sins make upon them. A tender and faithful conscience will no more allow of small sins, than of great.—BISHOP HOPKINS.

A good conscience aims in all things to do right, both as to God and man. And to possess such a conscience, we must have it properly informed as to both truth and duty, quick to perceive the distinctions between good and evil, and prompt and faithful to do what is right. In sensitiveness it should be like the fabled ring, which pressed the finger at even the thought of wrong; and in authority, as the voice of God to the soul.

What conscience dictates to be done,

Or warns me not to do;

This, teach me more than hell to shun,

That, more than heaven pursue—POPE.