nception of
life, which, even more than the Greek, was constitutive of, and
preparatory to, the Christian view. The word does not, indeed, occur
in the Old Testament, but the question of God to Adam, 'Where art
thou?' the story of Cain and the curse he was to suffer for the murder
of his brother; the history of Joseph's dealing with his brethren; the
account of David's sin and conviction, are by implication appeals to
conscience. Indeed, the whole history of Israel, from the time when
the promise was given to Abraham and the law through Moses until the
denunciations of wrong-doing and the predictions of doom of the later
prophets, is one long education of the moral sense. It is the problem
of conscience that imparts its chief interest to the book of Job; and
one reason why the Psalms in all ages have been so highly prized is
because they are the cries of a wounded conscience, and the confessions
of a convicted and contrite heart.

{71}

3. If we turn to the New Testament we find, as we might expect, a much
clearer testimony to the reality of the conscience. The word came into
the hands of the New Testament writers ready-made, but they gave to it
a richer meaning, so that it is to them we must go if we would
understand the nature and the supremacy of the conscience. The term
occurs thirty-one times in the New Testament, but it does not appear
once in the Gospels. It is, indeed, principally a Pauline expression,
and to the apostle of the Gentiles more than to any other writer is due
the clear conception and elucidation of the term. It would be a
mistake, however, to assume that the doctrine itself depends entirely
upon the use of the word. Our Lord never, indeed, employs the term,
but surely no teacher ever sounded the depths of the human heart as He
did. It was His mission to reveal men to themselves, to convict them
of sin, and show the need of that life of righteousness and purity
which He came to give. 'Why even of yourselves,' He said, 'judge ye
not what is right?' Christ, indeed, might be called the conscience of
man. To awaken, renew and enlighten the moral sense of individuals, to
make them know what they were and what they were capable of becoming
was the work of the Son of Man, and in contact with Him every one was
morally unveiled.

The word occurs twice in Acts, five times in Hebrews, three times in
the Epistles of Peter, and more than twenty times in the Pauline
Epistles. St. Paul's doctrine