New-York tribune., 1870-01-29
RELIGIOUS GAMBLING.

We had occasion the other day to question
the expediency Of ministers OF the gospel lend
ing their authority to promote the sale of nos
trums or inventions, with the merits of which
they necessarily must be but slightly ac-
quainted. Sewing machines or quack medi-
cines had better be left to push their own way
in the market unheralded by any odor of sane
tity or devotional horn-blowing although, as
we before remarked, this clerical Endorsement
is most frequently given out of mere careless
good nature, or as the only practicable return
for personal gift.
But there are modes of mOney-getting less
legitimate than the vending of patents or pills
which it has become so common for clergy
men, both Protestant and Catholic, not only to
sanction, but begin, that they have grown
to be regarded by the public as an essential
part of church machinery. We mean the lot
teries and raffles, which are usually set like
spring-guns and pitfalls for the entrapment of
the unwary victim who stumbles into that
abyss of horrors, a church fair The matter
is ordinarily passed over with good-humored
joke. Nobody denies that in principle they are
a petty imitation of the lotteries repressed in
most of the States by law, against which, as
against any species of gambling, the pulpit
regularly Eliminates its denunciation. But
then the imitation is so very petty, and the
motive assigned so very good The church
debt must be paid, or the missionary sent or
the hospital kept up, 80 people only laugh
patiently at the impOrtunate ladies, especially
if they are pretty and young, with their weari-
some grab-bags and numbered tickets for
cakes and slippers.
Lately, however, the matter has grown more
serious, and has been thrust into unpleasant
prominence. One church advertises complete
scheme of graduated prizes from house to a
gold finger ring. Another religious society in
West Virginia has canyassed all the Eastern
cities with proposed lottery for the disposal
of o hundred acres of valuable land and at a
respectable church fair in the City of Brotherly
Love, the other day, the unbrotherly capa-
bllties of the crowd were developed by the
lottery to the extent of some broken heads
and a free fight which the voice of the Rev.
Mr. -, we are told. though raised to shout,
was totally unable to quell That of the police
man proved more efficacious, we presume, as
the whole party were marched of in his GUS
tody.
1t is with dfidence that the secular press
should touch upon any flaws in the manage
ment or executive functions of the churches.
Not that the individual members of religious
bodies are not human, and in need of sharp
and wholesome discipline. But, believing as
we do that the future health OF the nation
depends largely upon the religious element
contained in the different sects, We are eau
tious in even seeming to join in the now popu-
lar outcry against them, which would stigma
tie all orthodox Christians as bigots, aud every
clergyman as Cream Cheese or a Chadband
1t is only when an inconsistency iD church
management becomes 50 glarng as to be
known of all men as public evil, that We
feel justified in calling the attention of relig-
ious teachers to it. When the policeman is
called N, it is high time the pastor should be
wakened and set to his work.
The matter may seem trivial. Nothing is
trivial by which Christianity is brought into
disrepute We are aware that the introduc-
ton of gambling in greater or less degree into
the business transactions of q church does not
originate ordinarily with the clergymen, but
with the shrewd business men and women to
whose care its financial operations are in
trusted, and whose zeal will often induce them
to make use of means to gain money for the
sake of the Church which neither their honor
nor dignity would allow them TO use for their
own. When once the attention of clergymen
is called to this matter, they will we are con-
fdent, repress the short-sighted energy of
their flock. Religion is too vital matter
even to the political world for us willingly to
see her wounded in the house OF her friends.
Some members of the Ring have got hold OF