REMORSE OF CONSCIENCE

Remorse of conscience is that sadness of heart which all suffer who act contrary to the dictates of their conscience. It is a self-reproach and condemnation for having done wrong. When man seeks his happiness in the honors, riches, or pleasures of life, his conscience becomes his first accuser. In proportion to the magnitude and number of his sins will his conscience torment him by day and by night, reminding him of his offense and of the punishment it deserves.

During life man may smother the voice of conscience by plunging still deeper into vice and dissipation. At the hour of death, how- ever, his remorse will be intensified by contemplating the emptiness of his life and the terrors of the approaching judgment.

This remorse of conscience will be the greatest torment of the reprobate in hell. The Savior calls it ''their worm that dieth not" (Mark ix. 43). Like a worm gnawing at their heart, it will continually remind them (1) that it was so easy for them to save their souls; (2) that they lost the ''reward exceeding great" through their own fault; (3) that they did this for the vanities of this fleeting life. Thus their outraged consciences will obtain justice by tormenting them for ever and ever.