By James Stalker

      "But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD" (2 Sam. 11:27).

      This is a strange and solemn power which conscience wields. In your secret soul you commit a sin: it is a mere passing thought perhaps; no human eye has seen it, no tongue will ever speak of it; yet even in the dark it makes you blush; you are degraded in your own eyes; you feel guilty and wretched. And this guilty wretchedness does not pass away; it may at any time revive.

      Conscience comes to us in lonely hours; it wakens us in the night; it stands at the side of the bed and says, Come, wake up and listen to me! And there it holds us with its remorseless eye; and our buried sins rise out of the grave of the past; they march by in melancholy procession; and we lie in terror looking at them. Nobody knows but ourselves. Next morning we go forth to business with a smiling face; but conscience has had its revenge.