The Beginnings of Graft

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 10, 1910

The Beginnings of Graft

CHILDHOOD, and even infancy, oftentimes afford the seed-time of a wicked career in after-life. As in the world of nature, that which is sown is surely reaped, so it is in life's experience. The boy or the girl who practises deceit, who plays with truth and honesty, unless transformed by the grace of God, will reach the plane of greater crimes later on. In an address to the students of Cornell University, a few days ago, President Schurman said:—

“We have heard much about graft of late, and I regret to say some of our greatest and most corrupt bosses are college men. Are the seeds and the beginning of grafting here? Let a student neglect his work and cheat in an examination, let him deceive himself, his professors, and his fellow students, and he is practising the same thing that great political parties find in the grafter and boodler. Let us tolerate nothing in this university community which will cultivate grafting.”

There is need that parents and teachers recognize the value of early training. The Scriptures of truth declare that if a child is brought up in the way he should go, he will not depart from that way when he is old. The early principles instilled into the minds of the young determine, in a very large measure, the after-life. Let us not practise the principles of graft or dishonesty either on a large or a small scale.