It is often said that men know better than they do. But this is true only in a very general and theoretical sense. The fact is that our knowing what is right depends largely upon our doing what we know to be right, and nothing will blind the moral judgment so certainly as to run a few times slantwise against the light. Somehow, to run squarely against it has not the same blinding effect. But to argue with one's conscience--"to beat about the bush," as we say--soon leaves the man unable to decide what is right. To the man who tells half lies the boundary line between truth and falsehood becomes indefinite and fades away until he confuses the two entirely, and he can argue on either side of a question with equal sincerity, as circumstances may require. The man who on pretense deals unfairly and dishonestly with his fellow will soon be unable to treat him just right, for he no longer knows what is right and thinks that for this or that little technical point justice is on his side, even when he is flagrantly in the wrong. The man who, for convenience or excuse, likes to forget his promises or agreements, becomes so that he can not help forgetting them, which is bad business; and nobody will trust him or make contracts with him unless it be all down in black and white, signed and sealed and stamped, for it is tacitly understood that the man can not be depended on. And so forth--a man can become so hardened and deceived and blinded by his own obliquity that all distinction between right and wrong becomes obscured, and he can honestly fancy himself justified in almost any kind of sin or crime he commits. But to have a clear spiritual eye, to know in any given exigency just what is morally right and pleasing to God--this is a priceless faculty which belongs only to thoroughly true and obedient hearts, and which when once lost can [154] never be restored, except by the sincerest repentance and whole-hearted committal to do God's will.

[TAG 154-155]