As Christians we hold that God is the source of all good, and that His commandments are good because He is good.  We confidently ask with Abraham: ‘Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?’^[1]  This is a religious conviction, and the moral sense obliges us to be loyal to it.  It also means that the moral judgement itself may not always contain the reason for accepting the commandment, although generally the commandments make a moral appeal and ,evoke a similar response: ‘the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good’.^[2]  The important thing is to see that the commandments are received and acted upon because we believe, either on religious authority or moral sanction, that they are right.  And it is not different with regard to conduct which is not formally enjoined.  Everyone would not agree that for progress in the spiritual life celibacy is superior to the married state; but whoever thinks it is, is morally bound to adopt it.  Conscience commits us to honour the best we know; it is our duty, something we owe to ourselves as well as to God.  On whatever ground a course of action is decided to be right, there is no escape from moral obligation to pursue it.  It matters not at all whether it is prescribed by a code or chosen freely; its moral worth is the same.  Since this is so, special merit can never attach to ‘voluntary works’; there is strictly no such thing as a work of supererogation.  As moral agents we stand under an uncompromising obligation to follow the best we know.  This moral sense, with its supreme claim upon us, is the law of our being; to obey its direction is the way to the full free life; to violate it leads to decline and death.  To think of merit and reward for observing the law of our being is out of place; it is our primary duty to do so.  Even when the moral requirement takes the form of a religious commandment, conformity does not earn merit: ‘When ye have done all, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which it was our duty to do’.^[3]  Throughout Scripture all men are regarded as sinners; there is no overplus of merit.  Before God ‘shall no man living be justified';^[4] ‘there is none that doeth good’;^[5] ‘in many things we all stumble;^[6] ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’^[7]