The Southern herald., 1886-05-15
CREDIT AND BLAME.
A Paragrapher's Sermon on Most Im'
pOrtant Subject.


ne CREDIT AND BLAME.
A Photographers Sermon on q Most Inn.
pOrtant Subject.
My son, It Is a comforting doctrine,
and one that men often preach to each
other, that a man deserves all credit for
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 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-
cies 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 doc
trine too cowardly for young man
to accept. Ever since Adam, the
founder of society and the inventor
OF the first record ever made in this
world, a man without an "envi-
ronment" to his back, made bad
record, and then said: "The woman
thou gavest to be with me, she" did it
all, men have always plead the ire
sistiblc force of surroundings and cir
cumstanccs. 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 astray by influences and
examples which no man could control
or resist, he should not be held respon.
sible for his disobedience! And in her
turn 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 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 of it.
When you swear you do your own
swearing; you can't borrow another
mans tongue to damn beggar with.
When you get drunk, you get drunk.
The law doesn't fine the man who sells
the whisky; it fines the man who drinks
it. When you steal any thing, from
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 man always
excusing himself and citing some
dreadful, wicked JerOboam which made
him to sin. Not indeed, that we hold
the Jeroboams guiltless. at must
needs be that offenses come; but
woe to that man by whom the
ofense comethr' But because the
milestone and soft place in the sea is
the proper combination for the man
who helps you to stumble. you do not
60 free. l have no right to turn a
cross dog into the street; but if / do,
The will bite youifyou go fooling around
him. Wherefore ''cave 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 yourinstructor,
my son, some queer, unsightly splashes
here and there. Well, 1 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 I
have 1t renovated, am the only fellow
who can put them there. Now you
may go and play and have fun, and
don't let me ever again hear you say
that you would be the best boy in the
world If only all the other boys were
dead. -Bardette, in Brooklyn Eagle.
II