Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1857-05-21
Individual Responsibility.

The general duty involved in the idea of
Individual Responsibility is of personal i'm
portance and value. No man can say, it is
for my neighbor and not for me. 1t throws
every one back upon his own resources, as de-
rived from the Infinite. 1t resolves all this
vast and complicated mechanism Of Society
Government, Church, Community, Marriage
back into its original elements, and presents
ourselves to ourselves, and to each other, as
simple individuals before our Maker. And
the command is, Be true to yourself-be
faithful to your light ;---preserye your soul
pure. God never sent human being into
the world to be lost in the general mass, to
be only subsidiary to some other being, here.
He made none to be the jailers Of others
consciences. None to surrender their souls to
others keeping. He simply sent men here,
not in the gross, but in the detail, TO do their
duty, as the best use of all their powers, CEN
tering in the moral Consciousness under the
guidance of His Spirit, shall teach them
We are here simply for this-to do our duty
to be faithful to our own souls; all things
are only justifable, rightful, obligatory upon
us when they are in the line of duty and serve
to make us more and more perfect as individ-
ual children of God This view is liable to
the charge of Individual Sovereignty; but is
consistent with the most perfect Communion
even with that indicated by Jesus in his
prayer, that all might be one, as he and the
Father are one. It is the doctrine of per-
sonal obligation and responsibility, requiring
us to be true, not to others convictions, but
to our own; true to God as He reveals him
self to us, regardless of results or consequences
though all earths systems crack"
observe, again, that this idea under notice
does not SAVIOR of absolute independence or o
wilful selC-confdence. Nor does it apply il
any degree the rejection of others reason, in
tuitions and convictions. But it requires
rather, the studious and faithful use of ever,
means of wisdom and grace available to II
in heaven obove or in the earth beneath.
Furthermore this idea teaches us the wron
of overriding the moral sense Of our fellow
creatures, or of compelling them to overrid
it. To use any position, place, or power tia
we commend, for the purpose of making other
violate their highest convictions, is usurp'
ton Of the most fearful kind Better is
far to inAict violence upon the body than thu
to wound the soul 1t can be little less sinfi
for us to be the conscious and voluntary meal
of another's treachery to conscience than
be ourselves treacherous to our own. Howev,
it be done--by physical might, by terror, b
authority, by laughter, by ridicule or contemp
it is utterly reprehensille and wicked. VIII
we are careful not to sin ourselves against Il
Divine Spirit, we should be equally SO tn
we throw no obstacles in the way of our fello,
creatures being true to their moral natures
not to our their passions or selfish impulse
but to their moral natures. We should rath
use all the influence of which we are possess,
to induce them to respect conscience, and q
them in all possible ways to gain and be faithf
to their light. IF we can illume them, it
certainly our privilege, our right, and our du
to do so; but if we can not, our business
not to trampe their conscience under foot, b
to encourage them to be faithful to their vie
of duty, except it involves a manifest sin VIII
~ we are to permit them to 60 on, but up
their own responsibility .-Practical Chr
tian.