Page:The Education of the Conscience.djvu/12

8, just and true, before whom all creation bows, in whose service all creation is happy, in whom we "live and move and have our being ." The world is His world, we are His creatures; therefore it is right and happy to do right: therefore it is awful and disastrous to do wrong. Goodness is obedience to a good God.

So conscience gets its first reason from religion. But then it asks for more: and there is more to come. If there is such a Being, God, can we know Him more? And is there nothing better than obedience? Slaves obey; we are made for liberty. You can obey and fear; we are made to love. And even the child when he did right felt light and free in doing it, none the less that he had to put force upon himself: and in his heart loves doing right, even though pleasure or temper or indolence leads him to do wrong. May not this continue? May we possibly find in God one whom we can not only fear and obey but love, so that we may gladly do His will, and "run the way of His commandments ," and find His "service perfect freedom," even as it is always happy and free to please one whom we really love?

So the conscience is ready for the next lesson: and that lesson comes through Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ, first, God is made known. He is not merely a Mysterious and Awful Being, though He is that, though no one can see Him and live, though "His footsteps are not known ," though "the heaven is His throne, and the earth His footstool ," yet He can be known, for He has made Himself known: "He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father ." He "hath