5855. CONSCIENCE. I have often perceived, and also heard, respecting those who are in the other life, that they are unaware what conscience is; thus, scarcely one in a thousand knew. The angels wondered whence such ignorance was; but the reason was disclosed - that the man of the Church makes good, and thence works, of no moment, and he who makes these things of no account, cannot by any means know what conscience is; for conscience is grief that one has acted contrary to the Divine Commandments, also that one has thought contrary to them. Hence is manifest the quality of the Christian world at this day, that it is almost destitute of religion; for, he who possesses religion, and loves Divine things, has conscience, for he experiences pain if he had thought, intended, and still more if he had done, anything opposed to the Divine. He who has not life for an end, never knows what conscience is, because he has for an end faith only: he inquires what conscience is, and nevertheless he does not comprehend; for his belief is, that a good work contributes nothing to salvation, when, yet, these things are of the life; and the knowledges of faith which are supposed to be believed, are, if not implanted in the life by willing and doing them, only in the memory.