To be near unto God - pagina 277

as fruit of their faith the^' unfold a much richer Christain life. The conveil from gross sins frequently counts all his life long with the weight of pounds alone, while the quiet convert weighs with the assay-balance.

This is not true of all. Alas, there are not a few who turn the fact itself that they remained free from great sins, into a cloak in which they make a fine appearance, and with their ordinary sins of pride and quiet selfishness go on to life's end, without ever putting up a serious fight against them. But if we take the redeemed in the narrower sense, the tenderness of conscience with respect to sin even goes so far, that they distrust their own examination of heart, and always end with the prayer that God will also

make known

to them their secret sins, and forFor when the heart does not condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows all things, even those that hide in the

give them.

innermost recesses of the soul. But in whatever way and measure the inner struggle against sin awakens, it always begins with a troubled conscience. And that which disturbs us in this is always the voice of God upbraiding us for sin. This is partly the case with people of the world whose conscience at first is never entirely extinguished. But with them the voice of God in the conscience is not recognized. They take it either as a troublesome resistance on the part of their spiritual nature against the the things which their carnal nature craves. So they sear the conscience in order to go freely on in sin. Or, they take it as an impulse of their 273

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