HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY. By the Eev. G. BLENCOWE, 

 of Wakkerstroom, Transvaal, South Africa. 



JOHNSON defines responsibility as " accountability, or 

 liability to answer/' Hence, wherever there is responsi- 

 bility, there is subordination and inferiority. A supreme or 

 a perfectly independent being is responsible to no one ; but 

 in the measure in which our being and possessions are de- 

 rived from another, and in which they are sustained by his 

 continued operation, we are plainly liable to answer to him. 

 The mechanic, who receives the material for his work from 

 his employer, is answerable to him for the appropriate use 

 of it. The farmer, who commits his stock to the care of his 

 bailiff, requires from him full tale of all delivered, and of 

 all the increase. The primary question, therefore, with 

 respect to man is, Are we self-originated, are we independent ? 

 How came I into being ? There was a time when I was 

 not, another time when the first cell of my complex body 

 began to collect or protrude other cells, and to weave, by 

 occult and mysterious skill, the wonderful structure which I 

 now possess, and by which I am joined to and form part of 

 the visible universe. There was also a time when I was first 

 conscious of myself, and of objects around me, not myself, from 

 which moment my consciousness and my thought have con- 

 tinued until now, increasing my knowledge of myself and 

 nature and thus opening new sources of enjoyment and power. 



