ey
conscience is to dull it, and finally to make it obdurate and
insensitive. The absence of conscientious objection to a particular
course of action may therefore be due either to our having neglected to
enlighten our conscience or to having refused to obey it. The duty of
an {86} individual to himself is not only to obey his conscience, but
also take pains to enlighten it. And the duty of the individual to
society is to make continual efforts to keep the corporate conscience
up to standard.

[1] 1 John iii. 4. The Greek phrase implies exactly that all sin is
lawlessness, and all lawlessness is sin.

[2] Rom. v. 13, 14.

[3] Cf. Wisd. xiii. 1-9: 'For verily all men by nature were but vain
who had no perception of God, and from the good things that are seen
they gained not power to know him that is, neither by giving heed to
the works did they recognize the artificer.... For from the greatness
of the beauty even of created things in like proportion does man form
the image of their first maker.... But again even they are not to be
excused. For if they had power to know so much ... how is it that they
did not sooner find the Sovereign Lord of these his works?' Apoc. Bar.
liv. 17, 18: 'From time to time ye have rejected the understanding of
the Most High. For his works have not taught you, nor has the skill of
his creation which is at all times persuaded you.'

[4] Isa. xliv. 18-20.

[5] Wisd. xi. 15; xiii, xiv, xv. St. Paul's debt to the Book of Wisdom
is apparent (1) in the kinds of idols he mentions; (2) in the way in
which the thought of idolatry leads on to that of uncleanness and
sexual immorality; and (3) in the idea of retribution by the natural
law of results.

[6] 1 Thess. ii. 16.

[7] Butler's _Analogy_, part i. ch. 2.

[8] _Pirqe Aboth_, iv. 2 (cited by S. and H.).

[9] S. and H. p. 49.

[10] He implies, as Dr. Farrar points out, 1 Cor. v. 9-10, that pure
society did not exist in Corinth.

[11] See my _Ephesians_, pp. 91, 92, 255.

[12] Rom. ii. 13-15.

[13] Rom. ii. 26.

[14] See also app. note E on physical science and the fall.

[15] Cf. F. B. Jevons, _Introd. to the Hist. of Religion_ (Methuen),
pp. 394, 395: 'Everywhere it is the many who lapse: the few who hold
right on. The progressive peoples of the earth are in a minority.'
'Though evolution is universal, progress is exceptional.'

[16] Cf. Huxley, _Evolution and Ethics_ (Romanes Lecture, 1893,
Macmillan), p. 36: