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Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 1
Is Conscience Changing your Life?—You may have a con-
science and that conscience may bring conviction to you, but the
question is, Is that conviction a working agent? Does that conviction
reach your heart and the doings of the inner man? Is there a purification
of the soul temple of its defilement? That is what we want, because
it is a time such as it was in the days of the children of Israel; and if
there are any sins upon you, do not stop till they are corrected and put
away.—
Manuscript 13, 1894.
Influence of Truth on the Conscience and on the Heart—The
psalmist says, “The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth un-
derstanding unto the simple” (
Psalm 119:130
). When truth is working
only upon the conscience, it creates much uneasiness; but when truth is
invited into the heart, the whole being is brought into captivity to Jesus
Christ. Even the thoughts are captured, for the mind of Christ works
where the will is submitted to the will of God. “Let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (
Philippians 2:5
). He whom the
Lord makes free is free indeed, and he cannot be brought into servile
bondage to sin.—
Manuscript 67, 1894.
Truth Held Only by Conscience Will Agitate the Mind—By
his conscience every honest Jew was convinced that Jesus Christ was
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the Son of God, but the heart in its pride and ambition would not
surrender. An opposition was maintained against the light of truth,
which they had decided to resist and deny. When the truth is held
as truth only by the conscience, when the heart is not stimulated and
made receptive, the truth only agitates the mind. But when the truth is
received as truth by the heart, it has passed through the conscience and
captivated the soul by its pure principles. It is placed in the heart by
the Holy Spirit, who molds its beauty to the mind that its transforming
power may be seen in the character.—
Manuscript 130, 1897.
God Does Not Force the Conscience—God never forces the will
or the conscience, but Satan’s constant resort—to gain control of those
whom he cannot otherwise seduce—is compulsion by cruelty. Through
fear or force he endeavors to rule the conscience and to secure homage
to himself.—
The Great Controversy, 591
(1888).
When Conscience Is a Sure Guide—He whose conscience is a
sure guide will not stop to reason when light shines upon him out of
God’s Word. He will not be guided by human counsel. He will not
allow worldly business to stand in the way of obedience. He will lay