The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-04-17
{ AND BLAME.
A Paragrapher's Sermon on . Most I'm
portant Subject.

pOrtAnL SuUJcc~
My son, it is a comforting doctrine,
and one that men often preach to each
other, that a man deserves all creditor
every thing good that he does, and for
all the good that he is, but that some-
body else is to blame for all the evil in
him. Mr.. Cough has been criticised
for saying-and they were his last
words-''Young man, make your rec
ord clean The prophets who speak
comfortably say that the young man
can not make his record clean when
his father makes a bad record before
him; that society and the evil tenden-
eies of it, and something the scientists
call his "environment,' write the
young mans record bad in spite of
him. Oh! my dear boy, this is a doc
trine too eowardly for a young nan
to accept. Ever since Adam, the
founder of society and the inventor
OF the first record ever made in this
world, a mar without an "envi-
ronment' to his back, made a bad
record, and then said: ''The woman
thou gavest to be with me, She did it
all, mel have always plead the ire
sistible force of surroundings and cir
cumstances. The woman was younger
than Adam; she was weaker; many
wise men say she is Intellectually the
inferior of man; she was a newcomer
in the garden, and yet how glad your
old grandfather was to say that it was
all your grandmother's fault; and that,
being thus led astrsy by influences and
examples which no man could control
or resist, he should not be held respon-
sible for his disobedience! And in her
urn your grandmother laid it on to
the snake, just as to-day in Christian
homes all over this land, the evil deeds
of men and servants are laid to the cat.
But, for all this excuse. Adam was fired
out of the garden, and it served him
right. Now, my boy, the other man
may eat forbidden fruit until he found
ers, and not q bite that he swallows is
going to hurt you. A dose Of strych-
nine big enough to kill a cow won't
hurt you if you don't swallow any oft.
When you swear, you do your own
swearing; you can't borrow another
mans tongue to damn a beggar with.
When you get drunk, you get drunk.
The law doesn't fine the man who sells
the whisky; it fines the man whodrinks
it. When you steal any thing, from a
pin to the Broadway road, you do your
own stealing, and-in the case of the
pin at least--the law holds you re-
sponsible for it, not the man who
coaxed you to steal, nor yet the citizen
who, by owning valuable property
which you could not buy, thereby
tempted you to steal it. You are the
fellow who does all the wickedness that
is wrought by your hands and your
lips. 1t tires me to hear a man always
excusing himself, and citing some
dreadful, wicked Jeroboam which made
him to sin. Not, indeed, that we hold
the Jeroboams guiltless. ut must
needs be that otfenses come; but
woe to that man by whom the
offense cometh!" But because the
milestone and a soft place in the sea ia
the proper combination for the man
who helps you to stumble, you do not
60 free. | have 10 right to turn a
cross dog into the street; but If I do,
he will bite yoni II you 60 fooling around
him. Wherefore 'caye canem," which
by Interpretation is: "Don't monkey
with the dog" As the dog will not
beware of you, do you beware Of the
dog. You may have noticed on the
sacerdotal garments Of your instructor,
my son, some queer. unsightly splashes
here and there. Well, l put them
on myself. Without the assistance or
by the fault of any man l did it. And
If there are any more to 60 on before l
have 1t renovated, | am the only fellow
who can put them there. Now you
may 60 and play and have fun, and
don't let me ever again hear you say
that ynn would he the hest boy in the
world II only all the other boys were
dead.-Bwdette, in brooklyn Eagle.
&C. 0. d." which has become In.