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Download PDF - Free Methodist Church

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e erased from those minds. A simplecreed was formed, that all could acceptmthout being sectarian, and the " Prison<strong>Church</strong>, or Y. M. C. A., ofthe OhioPenitentiary," was organized. The"guards became touched with the samespirit, and the majority sought the SaviourThree himdred have joined thatchurch, shut in from the world by thoseten-foot walls, but not shut out fromChrist, .'-^even hundred men come outto the prayer-meeting.- Contractors now ask for Christianmen to work in their shops. They workmore faithfuUy, they avoid deceitfulmeasures that now and then a littleconversation may be held clandestinely,and they never intentionally spoil theirwork. The price of labor has risenfrom 73 cents to 81 per day. Theyhave made no efforts to escape from theprison. They beUeve their comingthere has been their salvation, Thereform has been so excellent that committeesfrom prisons East and Westhave visited and consulted the warden.—Advance.A SCBTJPULOlfS CONSCIENCE, 151God, he placed himself at ihe mercy of A SCRUPULOUS CONSCIENCE,over a score of convicts. The meetingwas held, and experiences given.BY J. A, BALDWIN, M. D.The Sundays came and went, andeach one recorded the sUent march to Conscience is sometimes called "thethe prison prayer-meeting, the fervent moral sense," or that faculty in man,prayers, the' new resolves, the encouragedand elevated minds, and the sUent actions or emotions, reminds him of hiswhich perceives the moral quality inmarch back again to gloomy cel^s,— duty, delinquencies and transgressions,Sunday came to be a blessed day of and of their results by way of personalrest, and thought, and speech. The recompense.quiet, earnest beginnings of Edward Webster defines thus : " Conscience,West began to bringforth results. One, internal or self-knowledge, or judgmentand another, and another, showed a of right and wrong: or the faculty,change in fiice and manner. They power, or principle within us, which decideson the lawfulness or unlawfulnessworked better, obeyed the rules apparentlyfrom principle, and sought, so far of our own actions or affections, and instantlyapproves or condemns them."as they had opportunit}', to bring othersinto tlie new way."Scrupulous. 1. Nice; doubtful;The requests to join the meetingshesitating to determine or to act; cautiousin decision, from a fear of offend­became numerous, and finaUy manying or doing wrong. 2. Given to makingasked to be united together as a church.objections; cautious. 3. Nice; doubtful.The impression made, when the first4. Careful; cautious; exact in regardingfacts. 5. Nice; exact"convict was baptized before a thousandmen, because he believed he had beenborn anew in Christ Jesus, will never"Scruple, to doubt; to hesitate tobeUeve; to question ; as, to scruple thetruth or accuracy of an accoimt or calculation."^According to these' definitions, it appearsto be a proper quality of conscience,to be scrupulous. A consciencewhich isiiot so, must either so accuratelydiscern the right, as to decide intuitively,without hesitation; or else be so searedas to serve no moral purpose. In theformer case, the possessor must be morethan a man; in the latter, he cannot bea good man. It is not easy to conceiveof an active conscience which is notmore or less scrupulous; since it appearsto be a sort of overseer of thesonl, whose business it is to watch overits interests, and, like a faithfiil sentinel,stop every vagrant stranger long enoughto learn his business and character,—point out to each the impassable line,and bring every offender to jnstice.A scrupulous conscience then, appearsto be a careful or watchful one,and is nearly or quite the same thing asa tender conscience. It is not the businessof conscience to cause men so tohesitate as not to act at all, but to re-

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