Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1886-04-22
CREDIT AND BLAME.
A Paragrapher's Sermon on a Mos I
Important Subj ect. ~, Il

Important Subject. ~.
Fag 81 ~ T--iB ~ edi booIs
My son. it isl com forting doctrines
and one that men often pfeath to
each other, that a man deserves tllI
credit for every thing good that he
does, and tor all the good that he is,
but that somebody else 10 to blame foe
oil the evil in him. Mr.. Cough has
been criticised for saying Young
man, make your record clean. The
prophets who speak comfortably say
that the young man cannot make his
record clean when his father makes q
bad record before him that society
and the evil tendencies, of it,and some
thing the scientists call bis !enyiron-
ment,' write the young MANS record
bad in spite of him. Oh my dear
boy, this is doctrine too cowardly for
a 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 EN-
vironment' to bis back, made q bad
record end then said: The woman
thou gayest to be with me-, she did it
all,'men have always pleaded the ire
sistible force of surroundings and cir
cumstances, The woman was young
er than Adam; she, was weaker !;
many wise men say she In intellectual
ly the inferior of man she was q
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 responsible for his cdisobedi-
ence ! And in her turn your grand
mother 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. t But, for
all this excuse, Adam was fred out of
the garden, and it served him right.
Now, my boy, the other man may eat
forbidden fruit until he founders. and
not bite that he swallows 10 going
to hurt you. A dose strychnine big
enough to kill cow won't hurt you
if you don't swallow any of it. When
you swear, you do your own sTeer-
ing you can It 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 whiskey it fines the man who
drinks it. When you steal anything,
from pin to the Broadway road, you
do your own stealing, and--in the
case of the pin at least-the law holds
you responsible for it, not the man
who coaxed you to steal, nor yet the
citizen who, by owning valuable prop
erty 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 q man
always excusing himself, and citing
some dreadful, wicked Jeroboam
which made him to sin. Not, indeed,
that we hold the Jeroboams guiltless.
1T must needs be that offenses come
but woe to that man by whom the
offense cometh + 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
go free. I have no right to turn a
cross dog into the street but if do,
he will bite you if you go fooling a.
round him Wherefore cave canem,'
which by Interpretation is: Don't
monkey with the dog AS the dog
will not beware of you, do you be.
ware of the dog. You may have no.
ticed ON the sacredotal garments of
your instructor, my son, some queer,
unsightly splashes here and there.
Well, 1 put them on myself With
out the assistance or by the fault of
any man did it. And if there are
any more to go on before l haye it
renovated, I am the only fellow who
can put them there. Now you may
go and play and have fun, and do
not let me ever again hear you say
that you would be the best boy in the
world if only all the other boys were
dood