[1] The marginal reading, "they which call thee happy" (Mal.
iii. 12, 15), represents vividly the method adopted by the
false prophets; who, instead of warning the people against
the dangers of prosperity, were ever felicitating them upon
it, saying, "Peace, peace, when there was no peace." But
the textual rendering appears to be the preferable
one.--_Kay._
[2] Men know where they are going when they follow a principle;
because principles are rays of light. If you trace a ray of
light in all its reflections, you will find that it runs
back to the central sun; and every great line of honesty,
every great line of honour, runs back towards the centre of
God. And the man that follows these things knows that he is
steering right Godward. But the man that follows policies,
and worldly maxims, does not know where he is steering,
except that in general he is steering toward the
devil.--_Beecher._
[3] Reason is God's candle in men. But, as a candle must first
be lighted, ere it will enlighten, so reason must be
illuminated by Divine grace, ere it can savingly discern
spiritual things.--_Toplady,_ 1740-1778.
Conscience, as an expression of the law or will and mind of
God, is not now to be implicitly depended on. It is not
infallible. What was true of its office in Eden, has been
deranged and shattered by the fall; and now lies, as I have
seen a sun-dial in the neglected garden of an old, desolate
ruin, thrown down from its pedestal, prostrate on the
ground, and covered by tall, rank weeds. So far from being
since that fatal event an infallible directory of duty,
conscience has often lent its sanction to the grossest
errors, and prompted to the greatest crimes. Did not Saul
of Tarsus, for instance, hale men and women to prison;
compel them to blaspheme; and imbrue his hands in saintly
blood, while conscience approved the deed--he judging the
while that he did God service? What wild and profane
imaginations has it accepted as the oracles of God? and as
if fiends had taken possession of a God-deserted shrine,
have not the foulest crimes, as well as the most shocking
cruelties, been perpetrated in its name? Read the Book of
Martyrs, read the sufferings of our forefathers; and, under
the cowl of a shaven monk, or the trappings of a haughty
Churchman, you shall see conscience persecuting the saints
of God, and dragging even tender women and children to the
bloody scaffold or the burning stake. With eyes swimming in
tears, or flashing fire, we close the painful record, to
apply to Conscience the words addressed to Liberty by the
French heroine, when, passing its statue, she rose in the
cart that bore her to the guillotine, and throwing up her
arms, exclaimed, "O Liberty, what crimes have been done in
thy name!" And what crimes in thine, O Conscience! deeds
from which even humanity shrinks; against which religion
lifts her loudest protest; and which furnish the best
explanation of these awful words, "If the light that is in
you be darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matt.
vi. 23).
So far as doctrines and duties are concerned, not
conscience, but the revealed Word of God, is our one, only
sure and safe directory.--_Guthrie._