The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1886-11-11
"ACELDAMA."
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON AT THE
BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.

BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.
The Great Preacher Denounces Gam
bling in All It's Forns-Church Rafies
Come Under the Same Denomination.
The Great Extent of the Evil.
BROOKLYN, Nov. THE Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage, D. D., preached in the Brooklyn
Tabernacle this morning on tho subject
GAceldana- The opening hymn was:
My SOUL be on thy guard
Ten thousand foes arise.
After expounding the Epistle of James con-
corning the nature of temptation, DR.. Tai
mage announced the text, Acts i, 10: "Acel-
DANA, that is to say, the field Of blood" Fol
lowing is the sermon in full:
The money that Judas gave for surrender
ing Christ used to purchase graveyard.
As the money was blood money, the ground
bought by it was called in the Syriac tongue
Aceldama, meaning the field of blood"
Well, there is one word 1 want to write to
day over every racecourse where wagers are
staked, and every poolroom, and every
gambling saloon, and every table, public or
private, where men and women bet for sums
of money, large or small, and that is a word
incarnadinod with the life of innumerable
victims-Aceldama. The gambling 81, irit,
which is at all times a stupendous evil, ever
and anon sweeps over the country like an cpl
demic, Frustrating uncounted thousands.
There has never been worse attack than
that from which all the villages, towns and
cities are now suffering. The farces recently
enacted in our Brooklyn courtroom, by
which it was proved that in the City of
Churches there is not enough moral force to
put into the penitentiary the gambling
jockeys who belong there, is only a specimen
of the power gained by this abomination,
which is brazen. sanguinary, transcontinental
and hemisphere.
While among my hearers those who
have passed on into the afternoon of life, and
the shadows are lengthening, end the sky
cri1nsons with the glow of ths setting sun,
large number of them are in early life, and
the morning is coming down out of the clear
sky upon them, and the brighG air is redolent
with spring blossoms, and the stream of life,
cleaning and glancing, rushes on between
fowery banks, making music it goes.
Some of you engaged in mercantile con-
Germs, as clerks and bookkeepers, and your
whole life is to be passed in the exciting world
of traffic. The sound of busy life stirs you as
the drum stirs the fiery warhorse. Others
are in the mechanical arts, to hammer and
chisel your way through life, and success
awaits you. Some are preparing for profes
sional life, and grand opportunities be
fore you; nay, some of you already have
buckled ON the armor.
But whatever your age or calling, the sub
ject Of gambling, about which 1 speak to-day,
Is pertinent. Some years ago, when an asso-
citation for the suppression OF gambling was
organized, an agent of the association came
to a prominent citizen and asked him to pa
tronize the society. He said: mo. I can have
40 interest in such an organization. I am in
nowise affected by that evil" AT that very
time his son, who was his partner in business,
was one Of the heaviest players in Hernss ia
NOUS gambling establishment. Another re-
fused his patronage the Same ground, not
moving that his first bookkeepsr, though 70
eeiving salary OF only 81 900, was losing
from $50 to 800 per night. The president OF
Q railroad company refused to patronizs the
Institution, saying: THAT society Is good for
The defense Of merchants, but We railroad
people are not injured BY this syil;;1 not
knowing that at that very time two Of his
conductors were spending three nights Of each
week at faro tables in New York. Directly
or indirectly this evil strikes At tho whole
world
Gambling Is the riskins Of something more
or less valuable in the hope Of winning moro
than you hazard. Tho Instruments Of gam
ing may differ, but the principle is the Same.
The shutting and dealing OF cards, however
full of temptation, is not gambling unless
stakes are put up; while. on the other hand,
gambling may be carried on without cards,
Or dice, or billiards, or . tenpin alley. The
man who bots ON horses, on election on bat
tles-the man who deals in ''fancyr stocks,
or conducts q business which hazards extra
capital. or goes into transactions without
foundation but dependent upon what men
call "luck," Is gambler.
It is estimated that one fourth Of tho bust
ness in London l. done dishonesty What
=,
without offering an equivalent In money, or
time, or skill, is either the product Of theft
or gaming. Lottery tickets and lottery pol
icies come into the same category Fairs for
the founding Of hospitals, schools and
churches, conducted on the ran1in9 system,
come under the same denomination. Do not,
therefore, associate gambling necessarily
with any instrument, or game, or time, or
place, or think the principle depends upon
whether you play for glass OF wine or 100
shares Of railroad stock. Whether you pat
ronize 'sauction pools, y s'French mutuals" or
'bookmaking," whether you employ faro or
billiards, rondo and keno cards or bagatelle,
the very idea Of the thing IS dishonest, for 1t
processes to bestow upon you . good for
which you give no equivalent
This crime Is no newborn sprite, but q
haggard transgression that comes staggering
down under a mantle Of curses through many
centuries. All nations, barbarous and civil
lied, have been addicted to it. Before 1888
the French government received revenue
from gaming houses. In 1867 England. for
che Improvement of her harbors, instituted .
lottery to be held at the front door Of St.
PauIs cathedral Four hundred thousand
tickets were sold at ten shillings each. The
British museum and Westminster bridge
were partially built by similar procedures.
The ancient Germans would sometimes put
up themselves and families as prizes, and
suffer themselves to be bound, though
stronger than the persons who won them.
But now the laws of the whole civilized
world denounce the system. Enactments
shave been passed, but only partially enforced,
and at times not enforced at all. The men
interested in gaming houses and in jockey
clubs WELD such influence by their numbers
and aff1uence that the judge, the jury and