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What Saith the Scripture?
http://www.WhatSaithTheScripture.com/
A Seared Conscience- No. 2
by Charles Grandison Finney
President of Oberlin College
from "The
Oberlin Evangelist" Publication of Oberlin College
Lecture XXXII
May 12, 1841
Public Domain Text
Reformatted by Katie Stewart
.
Text.--1 Tim. 4:2: "Having their conscience seared with a hot iron."
In continuing this subject I am to show:
VI. The consequences of a seared conscience.
REMARKS.
1. From this subject we see why many persons have no conscience on a great variety
of moral questions. Few things are more common, than to find even professors of religion,
when expostulated with about certain habits and practices, which are as manifestly
sinful, when viewed in the light of God's law, as any thing whatever, reply, that
they have no conscientious scruples, and indeed that they have no conscience upon
the subject. They can practice many forms of intemperance, trifle with their health,
squander their time and money, neglect to save, and do much to injure the world,
in many ways, and yet have no conscience about it.
2. Their having no conscience on such questions, is no proof that they are not guilty
in the sight of God, and that their practices are not contrary to the law of God.
Their consciences are seared, and, for the time being, maintain an indignant silence.
But does this prove, that what they are doing is not displeasing to God?
3. A silent or a seared conscience is a conclusive evidence that you are wrong. Conscience
is never silent with respect to what is right, and will always smile its approbation,
and fill the mind with peace, when you do right. When, therefore, you have no conscience
at all, upon a subject--when you are not impressed with a sense of doing either morally
right or wrong--when you are neither filled with peace nor stung with remorse, you
may rest assured that you are wrong, and that conscience is maintaining an indignant
silence.
4. A professor of religion with a seared conscience is more injurious to the cause
of religion than many infidels. Who professes to look to an infidel as an example
on moral subjects? But let a professor of religion have a seared conscience, and
make no scruple to practice any form of intemperance, trifle with the Sabbath, become
excited in party politics, transact business upon selfish principles, engage in novel
reading, squander his money upon his lusts, throw away his time, speak evil of his
neighbors, or indulge in any form of sin, and his example is a thrust at the very
vitals of religion. Why, he is a professor of religion! It is therefore taken for
granted, that almost any thing he may do is right, or that to say the least it is
not inconsistent with salvation. And thus multitudes are emboldened in sin.
5. You see that many persons mistake a seared for an approving conscience. They profess
to be conscientious in what they are doing, evidently meaning by this that they feel
no compunction in doing as they do, while it is manifest that they have not the peace
of God, the deep approbation of conscience in the course they are pursuing. Now the
absence of the approving smiles of conscience should teach them, that they are laboring
under a delusion in supposing themselves to act in accordance with the dictates of
conscience.
6. You see from this subject how it is that many professors of religion manage to
retain their hope, notwithstanding they are as manifestly in their selfishness and
sin, as they are in the world. The fact is, that their conscience has become seared
with a hot iron. And having very little sense of moral obligation, they pass along
securely with a lie in their right hand. To them the words of the prophet apply with
great emphasis: "A deceived heart hath turned them aside so that they cannot
deliver their soul, nor say, have I not a lie in my right hand?"
7. There are many persons whose consciences are seared on almost all moral subjects,
and seem to have been so for a long time. They seldom or never appear to be impressed
with the deep conviction that they deserve the damnation of hell. Others seem to
have a conscience measurably awake on some subjects, but profoundly asleep upon other
subjects, where they have for a long time resisted truth and indulged in sin.
8. It is easy to see why persons become Universalists, and reject the idea that sin
deserves eternal punishment. I doubt whether there was ever a case, since the world
began, in which a man became a Universalist until his conscience became seared. Nay,
I doubt whether it is naturally possible for a man, with a thoroughly developed and
active conscience, to doubt the justice of eternal punishment.
9. You see the importance of cultivating, especially in children, a quick, sound,
thorough conscience. Their reason should be developed as early as possible, so as
to give conscience, at the earliest possible hour, an influence over their will,
before their habits of indulging the flesh have become too much confirmed to render
it hardly possible for them to be converted.
10. You see why there is so much indulging the flesh among professors of religion,
without remorse, notwithstanding they are expressly commanded to "put on Christ,
and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." Yet, as
a general thing, I cannot perceive that they are not just as eager in their inquiries
and efforts to obtain those things that will gratify their appetites, as most of
the ungodly are. They are as great epicures, seem to take as much pains, and are
at as much expense to gratify their tastes, and seem to lay as much stress upon mere
gustatory enjoyment, as if to gratify their appetites is the end for which they live.
Many of them will manifest as much uneasiness, and even disgust and loathing, at
a plain, simple, wholesome diet, as ungodly sinners do. And yet, they appear to have
no conscience on the subject. And farther, they can, not only gratify their appetite
for food or drink, but their hearts seem set upon gratifying all their animal appetites
and passions; and instead of "keeping their bodies under, and bringing them
into subjection," they seem to have given up the rein to appetite. An Apostle
might say of them, "Their god is their belly, they glory in their shame, and
mind earthly things."
11. You see why so many can allow themselves to be ignorant on so many important
practical questions, without remorse. Why they never have examined many questions
of great moment that have often been pressed upon their attention, and when the means
of knowledge are within their reach, and yet have no conscience about them.
12. When the conscience becomes seared upon one subject, it will in all probability
become seared upon other subjects. And by a natural process, it will ultimately become
generally seared, and prepare the way for embracing Universalism and infidelity.
I might easily explain the philosophy of this, but have already said so much in this
discourse that, at present, I must defer the explanation.
13. You see the infinite importance of a quick and searching conscience. It is wholly
indispensable to growth in grace. There can be no such thing as a healthy piety without
it.
14. But especially is a quick and searching conscience important to a gospel minister.
If his conscience is seared, many sins will be practiced by himself, and suffered
to exist among his people, without his reproving or even seeing them.
15. This subject shows why so many forms of sin are suffered to exist in some churches;
so much selfishness, worldly-mindedness, pride, vanity, luxury, speculation, novel
reading, party going, evil speaking, and many forms of sin, are allowed to exist
from year to year, without rebuke, and without hardly appearing to be perceived by
the minister. Now who does not see, that such a minister is "a blind leader
of the blind?" His conscience is so seared, that he has very little moral sensibility.
If his conscience were awake, such a state of things would wring his heart with insupportable
anguish. He could not hold his peace. He would cry out in his pangs. His soul would
be in travail day and night. He would lift up his voice like a trumpet, and rebuke
those iniquities, come on him what would.
16. You can see the grand secret of the barrenness of many ministers. Having a seared
conscience they know not how to bring the Church under conviction for their sins.
They do not know how to develop the conscience, either of saints or sinners. They
know not how to enter into the secret workings of the human heart, and ferret out
the various forms of iniquity that are lurking there. They do not know how to carry
the light of the law of God into every department of human action, and so to develop
conscience as to send a thrill of agony along every fibre of the moral nature, while
indulging in any form of sin. The fact is, that if a man would get at the conscience
of others, he must have a conscience himself. And again, I say, a minister with a
seared conscience is "a blind leader of the blind."
17. Let this subject be a warning to young men who are in a course of preparation
for the gospel ministry. My dear brethren, I beseech you to remember, that your consciences
need to be cultivated as much as your intellect. And do remember, that a thorough
preparation for the ministry implies, the education of the whole man. And unless
your moral powers be developed, your conscience quickened, and kept in a state of
intense sensibility, however great your intellectual progress may be, you can never
make a useful minister.
18. We see from this subject, why so few young men do, as a matter of fact, make
thorough, efficient and successful ministers. Why, in how many forms of sin do they
habitually indulge, while in college, and indeed through all their course of education.
While they are disciplining their intellect and acquiring a knowledge of the sciences,
they are benumbing and searing their consciences. They are, as it were, putting out
the eyes of their minds, on moral subjects. In short, they are doing just what will
effectually disqualify them for, and render it impossible that they should ever make
successful ministers. My dear young brethren, if in your education, you indulge any
form of sin; if you do not as assiduously cultivate a tender conscience, as you pursue
any branch of education whatever, you not only entirely overlook what constitutes
a thorough course of preparation, but, on the contrary, are taking a course that
is a mere burlesque upon the idea of a thorough preparation for the ministry.
19. We see that it is utterly in vain to talk so loud and boastingly about a thorough
course of training for the ministry, while so much sin is allowed among the young
men in the course of training, and so little pains are taken to develop and quicken
their consciences and sanctify their hearts. As a matter of fact, the present courses
of education for the ministry are, to a great extent, a failure. It is in vain to
deny this. It is worse than in vain--it is arrant wickedness, to deny it. "Facts
are stubborn things." And the average rate of ministerial usefulness, throughout
the whole of Christendom, affords a demonstration of this truth, that ought to alarm
and agonize the Church, and cause those of us who are engaged in educating ministers
to tremble, and inquire upon our knees before the blessed God, what it is that makes
so great a majority of the young men who are trained under those influences so nearly
useless in the Church of God. Will this be called censoriousness? It is the solemn
truth. I say it with pain and agony; but say it I must, and say it I would, if I
knew it would cost me my life. Why, beloved brethren, unless there is more conscience
in the Christian ministry--a broader, deeper, more efficient, and practical knowledge
of the claims of the law of God--a deeper, quicker, more agonizing insight into the
depths of iniquity of the human heart--a greater abhorrence of every form of sin--a
more insupportable agony in view of its existence in every form and in every degree--the
world and the Church too, will sink down to hell, under our administration. I appeal
to you, my brethren, who are already in the ministry; I appeal to your churches;
I appeal to the lookers on; I appeal to angels and to God, and inquire, how many
forms of sin are allowed to exist in you, and in your churches, without any thing
like that pointed rebuke which the nature of the case demands? Why, my brethren,
do not many of you satisfy yourselves simply with preaching against sin, while you
are afraid so much as to name the different forms of sin that exist among those to
whom you are preaching? Do you not preach against sin in the abstract, with very
little or no descending to particulars? Do you arraign selfishness in all the various
forms that it exists among your people? Do you rebuke their pride, self-indulgence,
vanity, luxury, speculations, party spirit; and, indeed, my brethren, do you name
and bring the law and gospel of God fully to bear upon the various forms of iniquity,
in the detail, that exist among your people? Or are the consciences of some of you
so seared, as to render you almost blind to any thing like the details of sin as
they exist around you? Said a discerning man in my hearing, not long since, Our minister
preaches against sin; but he does not tell what sin is. He preaches against sin in
general; but never against any particular sin. He denounces it in the aggregate;
but never meddles with it in the detail, as it exists among his people. I do not
give the words, but the substance of his remarks. Now, my beloved brethren, of how
many of us could such a testimony as this be borne with truth? And how many such
ministers, think you, would it require to convert the world? Of what use is it, I
pray you, to preach against sin, or in favor of holiness, in the abstract, without
so far entering into the detail as to possess our people of the true idea of what
sin and holiness are?
20. You see the importance of praying continually for a quick, and tender, and powerful
conscience.
21. You see the importance of great watchfulness, lest we should abuse and seduce
our conscience, by indulgence in sin.
22. You see the great importance of faithful dealing with the consciences of all
around us, so as to keep our own and their consciences fully awake, and as quick
and sensitive as the apple of the eye.
23. You see the importance of self-examination, in regard to the real state of our
consciences, whether they are fully awake to the whole circle of moral duties and
obligations, or whether they are asleep and seared, on a great many questions that
come within the cognizance of the law of God.
24. You see one grand design of preaching the gospel. It is to develop and quicken
conscience, until it gains the ascendancy in the mind, and exercises that influence
over the will that belongs to it.
25. You see why converts backslide, so soon after a revival of religion. It is because
so little pains are taken, to quicken, develop, and keep their consciences awake
on every subject. If they are allowed to practice any iniquity; if they are not urged
up continually to a full and complete renunciation of every form of sin; if they
are not urged to aim at holiness, and expect to get away from all sin, they will
assuredly indulge in various forms of sin. Their consciences will become more and
more seared, until they can shamelessly backslide and disgrace the cause of Christ.
26. You can see what infinite evil has resulted to the Church, and is still resulting,
from the denial that men are expected to live without sin in this life. Why, this
denial is to my mind one of the most death-dealing errors that can be held up before
the eyes of sinners. What! are men to be generally taught that they are not to expect,
and even that it is a dangerous heresy to expect to live, even for a single day,
without going into rebellion against Almighty God? Are they thus to be taught to
expect to sin? Who does not see, that this must result in their indulging in sin,
with very little remorse or self-abhorrence?
27. You see how the doctrine of sanctification in this life appears to one who has
a quick and sensitive conscience. Only let a man's conscience become so thoroughly
awake as that the thought of sinning is to him as terrible as death, so that conscience
will roll a wave of unutterable pain across his mind, and weigh him down with agony,
at every step he takes in sin--let his conscience be in such a state as to agonize
his soul to a degree that will cause the perspiration to pour out from his body almost
in streams, as is sometimes the case, and then present to that soul the offer of
a full salvation. Tell him, if he will confess his sins, "Christ is faithful
and just to forgive his sins, and cleanse him from all unrighteousness"--announce
to him the fact, that the gospel has provided a salvation from sin in this life,
and he will perhaps answer you at first, "This is too good news to be true--O
that it were true!" But turn the subject over, and present the scripture promises,
and with what eagerness he will grasp at them. O, he will cry out, "this is
indeed a gospel suited to the circumstances and character of man. This is a salvation
worthy of the Son of God."
28. You see how this doctrine can be doubted by the church without absolute horror.
Why, beloved, suppose a man's conscience thoroughly awake, until sin should appear
to him in a great measure as it does to the inhabitants of heaven. Then announce
to that soul that he must expect to live in sin as long as life lasts--he must expect
to sin against God every day till he dies. Why, methinks, he would shriek, and scream,
and faint, and die with agony. "O horrible," he would exclaim, "with
such a conscience as this, inflicting on me the pangs of the second death every time
I sin, must I continue to sin as long as I live? Is there no hope that I shall escape?
Has the gospel made no provision for my entire sanctification in this life? Then
woe is me! I am undone. And if it is heresy to believe I shall escape from my sin
before I die, O that death would come upon me this moment." This has been the
actual feeling of many whose consciences have become thoroughly awake, and who were
taught that there was no such provision in the gospel as that they might reasonably
expect a present deliverance from all sin. Indeed, the denial of the attainability
of a state of entire sanctification in this life, to an individual whose conscience
is thoroughly quickened and full of power, would agonize him like the thrusting a
poisoned dagger to his heart. It seems to me that within the last two or three years,
I have sometimes felt as if I could not live if I did not believe the doctrine of
a full salvation from sin in this life.
29. We see what the spiritual state of those must be who manifest an unwillingness
to have this doctrine true. There are those who manifest the greatest want of candor
in weighing the evidences in its favor, and seem disposed to resort to any shift
to disprove it. It were easy to show that their writings and their sayings have every
mark of an utter unwillingness to have this doctrine true. Now I ask what must their
spiritual state be? What is the state of their conscience? How much do they sympathize
with the inhabitants of heaven in regard to the exceeding sinfulness of sin? Do they
feel horror-stricken at the idea of sinning against God? Do they know what it is
to have the perspiration flow like rain when they fall into the slightest sin? Are
they crying out in their prayers for a deliverance? No, but they are denouncing those
that do, and who are reaching after and expecting a full salvation, as heretics and
fanatics, and as explaining away the law of God!
30. You see that until the conscience of the church is quickened, but little can
be done for the salvation of the world. See that tobacco-chewing minister, see that
whiskey or cider drinking deacon. Why, how many forms of luxury and self-indulgence
are allowed in the Church without any conscience, while the world is going down to
hell. Even agents of tract, missionary and other societies for the spread of the
gospel, will go through the country, smoking and chewing tobacco, drinking tea and
coffee, and thus by their example encouraging the Church in the use of these pernicious
articles, and in spending more, and perhaps ten times as much, every year for these
pernicious luxuries, as they give for the spread of the blessed gospel.
31. It is amazing that tobacco-chewing ministers can (as they have in some instances,
as I have been informed,) find fault with others for letting down the claims of the
law. They seem at the same breath to find fault with others, for insisting upon physiological
and dietetic reform, and indeed, for pressing the subject of reform so extensively
as they do, and yet complain that their teaching is letting down the claims of the
law of God. One of the eastern papers, but a few months since, in reviewing one of
my sermons, protested in the most earnest manner against my extending the claims
of the law too far. The writer said the law of God was itself strict enough, and
that he must protest against its being extended beyond its real meaning. My beloved
brethren, what consistency is there in maintaining at the same time two such opposite
sentiments as are often maintained upon this subject? But let me say again that until
the conscience of the ministry and of the church of God is thoroughly quickened upon
the subject of universal reformation, the world can never be converted.
How is it possible that ministers can waste God's money, set such an example to the
church, and abuse their own bodies and souls by the habitual use of tobacco, one
of the most hurtful and disgusting practices that ever disgraced mankind, without
compunction of conscience, and yet complain of any body's letting down the claims
of the law of God, and even go so far as to write pastoral letters against the heresy
of letting down the law of God, while they have no conscience on the subject of such
practices. How can men be so engaged to defend the purity, the strictness, and the
honor of the law of God while in the very face of their churches and in the face
of heaven, they can indulge in such things as these. I would say this, with the utmost
kindness and yet faithfulness to them and to God, to the church, and to my own soul.
I must say it though with unutterable grief.
32. It is strange that so many churches who are living in the habitual indulgence
of so many forms of sin, can manifest so much alarm at the idea of letting down the
claims of the law of God. They hardly seem to have ever thought of practicing any
self-denial, keeping their bodies under, crucifying and mortifying the flesh. Almost
innumerable forms of sin are allowed to exist among them without their blushing or
being at all ashamed of them. And yet they manifest a great degree of alarm lest
the claims of the law should be let down, and some forms of sin allowed to escape
detection, and pass without rebuke. There are many things in the present day that
strongly remind one of the conduct of the scribes and Pharisees, whose fears were
greatly excited on the subject of our Lord Jesus Christ's letting down the law of
God. They accused him of violating the Sabbath, having a wicked spirit, and of even
being possessed of the devil, and seemed to be horrified with his loose notions of
the claims of the law of God. They were exceedingly zealous, and cried out with great
vehemence and bitterness against his want of principle and firm adherence to the
law of God. I would not on any account make any such allusions as this, or say one
word unnecessarily to wound the feelings of any one. But it seems to be important
at the present time to call the attention of the church to the great inconsistency
of exclaiming against this letting down the law of God, while they are indulging
with so little remorse in great multitudes of most manifest and even flagrant violations
of the law. And while we contend for universal reformation, and obedience to the
law of God, they are opposing us on the one hand for our strictness, and on the other
for our looseness. Nor can they contend that our strictness extends only to some
subjects of minor importance, for we do insist upon universal obedience to the law
of God, in heart and life.
33. It is impossible for me to understand how persons should really be in love with
the law of God, earnestly and honestly engaged in supporting it in all the length
and breadth of its claims, and yet indulge in so many forms of violating it with
so little compunction. Is there not, my beloved brethren, some delusion in the thing?
Can any man be deeply and thoroughly honest in defending the purity and strictness
of that law that says--"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," who can
hold slaves, use or vend alcohol as an article of common use, and encourage the church
in using tobacco and other worse than useless narcotics and filthy things, to the
great injury of their health, and to the robbing of the treasury of the Lord?
34. You see the mistake of supposing that conscience will always admonish us when
we do wrong. When it has become seared on any point we may continue in that form
of iniquity without experiencing the rebuke of conscience.
35. We see the danger of this belief. If you take it for granted that you are not
sinning, because you are not rebuked by your conscience, you will probably sleep
on until you are in the depths of hell.
36. There is no safety in stopping short of universal reformation in heart and life.
37. A generally seared conscience is a fearful evidence of a state of hopeless reprobation.
38. A mind with a seared conscience is like a tub without a bottom. Truth flows right
through it, and there is no such thing as influencing the will by truth. You may
as well expect to influence a mere brute by moral considerations as a man whose conscience
is asleep, or seared.
39. You see why so many can ridicule many important branches of reform, and even
scoff at them.
40. You see why many persons cry out upon many branches of reform as legal, as self-righteousness,
as something which overlooks the gospel. Here it is of the utmost importance to remember,
that to do any thing from a mere constrained compliance with the demands of conscience
without a love to what is right for its own sake, is by no means obedience to the
law of God. Conscience enforces moral obligation and love complies with it. Conscience
decrees oughtness, or that you ought to do thus and thus, and benevolence walks up,
joyfully and instantly, to meet the imposed responsibility. It should never be forgotten
or overlooked that love is the substance of all obedience to the law of God, and
that whenever the dictates of conscience are outwardly complied with for other than
disinterestedly benevolent reasons, this is in reality regarding neither the demand
of conscience nor of God; for conscience demands that right shall be done, and done
from love to God and love to right. Whatever is not of love is not obedience to God.
But again I must say, that love or benevolence, without a most strict regard to the
injunctions of conscience, is a downright absurdity. Benevolence, without universal
obedience, is absurd. If there is love, there will be a most punctilious wakefulness
to every affirmation of conscience. And I do not hesitate to say, that he who can
call this a legal, instead of a gospel righteousness, is an Antinomian. He is guilty
of a fundamental and soul-destroying error.
41. Conscience will not always remain silent. A man may in this life pervert and
silence his conscience, and even destroy his moral agency, by making himself a lunatic.
But let it be understood, that the time is coming when God will secure the fixed
attention of the mind to those great moral truths that will arouse and arm the conscience
with a thousand scorpions. When it awakes in eternity, its rebukes will be terrible
beyond all description and imagination. How often it awakes even here towards the
close of life, and inflicts the sharpest and most unutterable pangs upon subjects
where it has long been silent. Cases have occurred under my own observation in which
conscience has been so quickened upon some subjects, on which it had been nearly
entirely silent, as to pierce the soul with such agonies as were almost entirely
insupportable. Instances have occurred where persons have fallen like dead men, under
the rebukes of conscience. In some cases men who have been the most hardened, whose
consciences have been for years seared with a hot iron, have been made to wail out,
even in this life, like a soul in the prison of despair. O, sinner, O, professor
of religion, do not suppose that you can always, through time and eternity, stupefy
and benumb your conscience, and drown the clamors of your outraged moral nature.
It will, by and by, speak out with terror and in a voice of thunder. It will sit
and gnaw upon your soul, and prove itself to be "the worm that never dies."
It will transfix your soul as with the arrow of eternal death.
GLOSSARY
of easily misunderstood terms as defined by Mr. Finney himself.
Compiled by Katie Stewart
.
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