ause of His sinlessness, Jesus must also be
pronounced conscienceless. Hence the paradox attributed to
Machiavelli: 'He who is without conscience is either a Christ or a
devil.' But though it is true that the Son of Man had no actual
experience of sin, and could not, indeed, feel remorse or contrition,
yet in so far as He was man there was in Him {80} the possibility of
sin, and in the intimate relation which He bore to the human race He
had a most accurate and clear knowledge both of the meaning and
consequences of evil. So far from saying that Christ had no
conscience, it would be nearer the truth to say that He had a perfect
conscience, a personality and fullness of consciousness which was a
complete reflection of, and harmony with, the highest conceivable good.
The confusion of thought into which Professor Lemme seems to fall is
due, we cannot help thinking, to the too restricted and negative
signification he gives to conscience. Conscience is not merely the
faculty of reproving and approving one's own conduct when brought into
relation with actual sin. It is involved in every moral judgment. A
good conscience is not only the absence of an evil one. It has also a
positive sanctioning value. The 'ought' of life is constantly present.
It is the whole man ever conscious of, and confronted by, his ideal
self. The conscience participates in man's gradual progress and
enlightenment; so far from the individual growing towards a condition
in which self-judgment ceases, he is progressing rather in moral
discernment, and becoming more and more responsive to the will of Him
whose impress and image he bears upon his soul.

The tendency of modern physiological accounts of conscience has been to
undermine its authority and empty life of its responsibility, but no
theory of the origin of conscience must be permitted to invalidate its
judgments. If conscience has any moral worth it is that it contains
the promise and witness of God. The prime question is, What is the
nature of its testimony? According to the teaching of Scripture it
bears witness to the existence of a higher than man--to a divine Person
with whom he is spiritually akin and to whom he is accountable.

'God's most intimate presence in the soul.' As the revelation of God's
will grows clearer man's ideal becomes loftier. Hence a man's
conscience is the measure of his moral life. It reveals God, and in
the light of God reveals man to himself. We carry a