SUNDAY BEADING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 267, 1 April 1911, Page 10

SUNDAY BEADING.

THE POWER OF CONSCIENCE. (By Rev. ffhomas D. Kelly, D.D.) "This i,s John the Baptist; lie is risen from the dead."—Matt. xiv.-2. Palestine was cm-sad with four rulers who bore the unenviable name of "Herod." Herod the ({reals wa* noted for craft and cruelty. Tt was he to-whom the wise men came, and it was he who under the guise of worshipping Jesus sought the young child's life, and in order to make sure of it slaughtered the young babes of Jerusalem. Herod the Tctrarch, mentioned in this text, murdered John the Baptist, and his grandson Herod Agrippa was king when Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus, and is said to have died in Rome about the close of the first century. As Dr. Wadsworth aptly says, this text i.s no part or revelation". It is the record of an awful blunder or falsehood, and inspiration is concerned with it only in guiding the pen of the historian and giving assurance that the unbelieving Herod used exactly these words. But as an infidel utterance it is very suggestive, and should profoundly impress the unbelieving and sceptical. I learn' from the text that "a guilty conscience cannot be silenced by wealth or social position," Heroa had wealth, courtly associates and everything to minister to his happiness. He had hosts of friends and servants who vied with each other to minister to hit, wants and troops of soldiers who delighted to do his bidding. But though surrounded with every protection and means of enjoyment, Herod was ill at ease and unhappy, because when under the flush of wine and the fascinating spell of the beauty of Salome he had made her a promise which caused him to murder John the Baptist. And although he tried to justify the act to himself, yet conscience thundered condemnation upon him for his wicked deed.

In order perhaps to forget the past Herod made a, feast for his lords, high captains and chief estates of Galilee, and many wonderful things were being told during the feast of a mysterious person who had recently made his appearance, working signs and wonders among the people, healing the sick, casting out d«viis and even raising the dead. With profound interest and growing feelings of alarm, Herod stared and listened te> the royal guests as they talked about this strangely-gifted being and the eonflicting views of the people as to his character and identity until, no longer able to contain his emotions, with blanched face, he muttered, "This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead." Perhaps over a year had elapsed since John was beheaded, bnt memory was still busy with the bloody deed. He was alarmed and concluded that John was risen and was clothed with power to deal out unmitigated vengeance upon his murderer. Men imagine they can commit iniquity and then have a private funeral and succeed in burying their sins; but memory has a trumpet voice and resurrection power that will summon the awful things from their graves. Memory will hold its torchlight over the past, and our buried sins will start into life even though for the time no one can see them but ourselves. T learn from the text also that "a guilty conscience afflicts its possessor with imaginary as well as real troubles."

"The wicked dec when no man purMieth." How imaginary and groundless wore Herod's torturing musings about the risen John, k little investigation would have convinced him that this wonderful Jesus of Nazareth was not John the Baptist, but he was so guilty in the matter of John's death that he either hesitated to enquire lest his interest in the matter should indicate his state of mind to the, people, or perhaps cause John the more speedily to wreak vengeance upon him. Wickedness is self-love in a mistake. How unsafe and wretched it makes its votaries! How unsafe that man must be whose reputation is poised on the still tongue, of a woman or some accomplice in guilt. Many a person moving in good society is kept there by a still, tongue. Let no person jeopardise his or her reputation by placing it at the mercy of somebody's tongue. T learn also here that "a guilty con science will torment a man in spite of his sceptical notions.

Herod was a Sadducee. The Saducces were the Jewish sceptics. They did not believe in Heaven or Hell, angels or spirits or the resurrection. But. listen to this old sceptic and behold in him a picture of modem ones. He boldly comes out as a champion of his sect, and stoutly denies the existence of angels, spirits or the resurrection. And yet we see him here startled out of his apparent confidence and practically confessing the insincerity of his creed while with blanched face lie cxlaims, "This is John tlip Baptist; he is risen from the dead!" He denied the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body nnd the doctrine of retribution because they were a ace to his wicked ways. But all the time there was no conviction of the truth of his creed, and ever and anon conscience was whispering a remonstrance and awaiting a crisis to assert its power and wring from the murderer a confession of his crime and a denial of his creed. Thus it is that the prophesies of a guilty conscience often belie the creed of the sceptic. Many an infidel has trembled among the very tombstones on which he was chiselling "Death is an eternal sleep," and many a professed atheist has quailed at the destructive tornado or blood-curd-ling electrical storm as the exhibitions of jthe power of that Clod whose existence he denied. But I must not be understood as teaching that conscience is all there is in the punishment of the sinner. The text does not lead me to deal with the subject of future punishment,, but with the subjective punishment of the sinner by hi.s own conscience.

The subject of retribution is'veqp pertinent just now, for it is a matter the world is very widely considering. The unreligious world laughs to scorn the idea of a personal devil, but the bad place to which the old fellow belongs and the. Christian world is renewing its old faitli and logic as if fearful lest divine benevolence might be impeached by the doctrine. Of course T am not thinking of entering on the general argument. But the solemn Assertions of God on the subject are so awful and explicit that even to doubt the matter of eternal punishment would lie to treat the inspiration of the Scriptures as an unsettled question. But the text puts a new aspect of retribution before, us that seems to place it beyond the reach of infidel objections, for while unbelievers may ridicule the idea of a place of torment called hell, still conscientious and intelligent men are not accustomed to deny or ignore the laws of their own intellectual or moral nature this strange power or conscience to make a man miserable in spile of himself and his surroundings.