News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-12-02
THE SUNDAY PULPIT.
THE GAMBLING PRACTICE AS 1T AP-
PEARS TO DIR. TALMAGE.
Sweeping Over tho Land To-day In the
shape of an Epidemic-HDw the Evil
Finds its Way into Business Enterprises
and hHrches-Its Victims.

shape of an Epidemic-Hdw the Evil
Finds Its Way into Business Enterprises
and hurches Victims.
DR.. Talmage discoursed upon gamb
ling Sunday, not. as he explained, from
political but from preachers stand
point. A sketch of the preachers re-
marks Is appended:
''Aceldama, that is to say, the field of
blood. THE Acts, 1:19. The money
that judas got for surrendering Christ
was used to buy burying ground. The
money being blood money the ground
which was purchased was called in the
Syriac tongue Aceldama, The field of
blood. Well, l would like to write
over all the race courses where wagers
are staked, and over all pool rooms, and
over all gambling saloons, and over all
tables, public or private, where men
and women bet sums of money, large or
small, a word incarnadined with the
life of millions-Aceldama The gamb-
ling practice is a stupendous evil always
existing, but sometimes it sweeps over
the land in the shape of an epidemic,
and never has the world been worse
cursed with 1t than just now. In what
ever business trade or profession you are
engaged, or you are to be engaged, the
subject 1 present this morning is of per-
sonal importance There is not a man,
woman or child in the assemblage but
has been touched by this evil, or. Will be
tol ched by it, or will in one way be,
called to battle it. Gambling is the
Erisking of something more or less valu-
| able in hope of winning more than you
hazard. The implements may be differ
ent, but the principle is always the.
same. The dealing and shutting of
cards are not gambling unless stakes be
put up, while on the other hand without
dice, without cards. without billiards,
without ten pin alley you may practice
| gambling. a man who bets on horses,
bets on elections, bets on ball playing,
bets on anything-a man who deals in
what are called fancy stocks, a man who
goes into any transaction where there is
no zeal foundation but everything de-
dends upon what men call luck, sis
gambler Do. not associate gambling
with some game or with some time,
or with some place, or think it makes
any difference in the principle |
whether it is glass of wine or a hun
dred shares of railroad stock. Wheth- |
er you patronize auction pools or French |
mutuals, or bookmaking, or whether you |
employ faro, or billiards, or roulette, or |
cards, the very thing is dishonest be-
cause you propose to get o good for
which you give no equivalent All lot
teries, all lottery tickets come in the
same category. All fairs for the build
ing of schools, or hospitals, or churches,
conducted on the rafting system, come
under the same category. This sin
works evil, in the first place, in un-
healthy stimulation Excitement is
pleasureable. A thousand voices IN our
nature cry out for excitement The
Chinaman finds it in smoking opium
the PersIan-in chewing hash heesh, the
trapper IN buffalo hunt, the sailor in a
squall, the inebriate in the bottle, the
avariclous at the gaming table. While
excitement is pleasurable, and many
kinds of excitement are healthful and
righteous, look out for an agitation
which hurls you back into terrific reac-
ton and which like rough musician in
trying to bring out the tune breaks down
the instrument played on. God never
made man with veins or brain strong
enough to endure undamaged the ex4
element of a gamblers life. No won
der so often men at the close of play
where they have been unfortunate ha e
tried to shove imaginary gold off of the
table They sat down sharp in intellect,
they rose up maniacs. Generally, those
who own gambling establishments are
rOllicking and obese; but the gambler,
look at him-thin, pale nervous, eX-
hausted. lntemperance puts its stigma
upon the man, kicking him a slavering
fool into the ditch or sending him up the
street where his family live, with a drunk
ards hiccOugh. But gambling does not so
soon hang out its signal. You can only
see the habit of the man in the greed of
eve, in the hardness of feature, in the
nervous restlessness, in the threadbare
coat, in the squandered fortune. But
he is on the road to hell, and no preach
er's voice and no startling alarm and no
wife's entreaty will stop him in his
headlorg career The internal spell is
on him, giant is aroused within him,
and if you wind around him ship cable
it will part like a thread, and if you
wind around him chain seven times it
will snap like rusted wire, and if you
pi up in his pathway all Bibles, all
sermons, all commun on tables and put
on the top Of them the cross of the Son
of God, he will, like a roe over the
rocks, leap into perdition. Aceldama,
the field of blood. This sin also works
ruin in the fact that it is killing to all
industries. You never saw confirmed
gambler who was industrious. The time
not actually employed in gambling is
spent in idleness or dissipation, or in
cropping in" other vic inns. When a
man is accustomed to gathering scores
and hundreds of dollars in little while
he will not have much patience with
tame honest work "Why," said
merchant, why should l bother my
self here in such hard and tedious and
annoying way to make $50 when / can
make twice that down at Billy's?" All!
how this crime has dulled the carpen-
ters saw, and cut the bands of the fac
tory wheels. and broken the teeth of
the farmers harrow, and shattered with
a strange lightning the batteries of the
philosopher! What dull work blowing
corn when in one evening in the village
saloon the farmer makes and loses the
price of a harvest. What dull work in
the honest round of bust ess making
ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred dollars
when in the same time you could make
or lose the value of whole seasons
profits Gambling is a PRIV that is al
ready hrust under some of the CONNER
cial establishments of Brooklyn and
New York, and after a while down will
come the whole concern crushing repu-
tation, home and immortal souls. The
evil is stupendous, and what is more
sad about ii IS there are no consultations
for gambler when he suffers loss. If
q man in honest business fails, God
pities and society commiserates; but
will YOU tell me from what tree oozes
balm for the broken heart of gambler?
In the bottle where God keeps the
tears of his children are there any tears
of gamblers? All, no. There is no
habit on earth so mefciless as the gam
ing habit. t also works great ruin in
the fact that it is the source of dlshones-
ties. In most cases the game itself is a
cheat. How often it is there is mark
on the ba k of the card to indicate
what is on the other side of the card,
How often there are deceptiOns in the
shufiiing of the cards How often it is
with the dice that it is loaded with
platinum, and doublets come up every
time How often it is that some coad-
tutor winks to his cOmrade and decides
the game Sometimes the gambling
house will introduce dice or cards un.
seen to the players and that accounts
for the fact that ninety nine out of
hundred men who go into gambling,