The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-11-25
pR. TALMAG Els SERMON.
Reported for the Press.
Text; "Aceldama, that is to say, the FIELD
Of blood. Acts, l., 10.

Text; "Aceldama, that is to say, tho fleld
Of blood Acts, l., 10.
Tho money that Judas got for surrendering
Christ was used to buy a burying ground
The money being blood money, the ground
that was pure hased was called in the Syriac
tongue Aceldama, the field OF blood. Well,
would like to write over al tie race courses
where wagers are staked, and over all pool
rooms, and over all gambling saloons, and
over oil tables public or private,
money large or small, word incarnadned
with the life OF millions The
gambling practice is u stupendous evil al
ways existing, but sometimes it sweeps over
the land IN tue shape of an epidemic, and
never has the world been worse cursed with
IL than just now; all the neighborhoods, and
towns, AMI villages and cities. 1t Is au eyi i
bra en-, sanguinary, trans ont'nenta, hsmi-
spheil'. Some of you have passed into
the afternoon of life, and the shadows begin
to lengthen and the sky close with ihe
glory OF the setting sun. Hut others
OF you are in the early period of life, and the
morning comes down cut of clear sky, and
the bright air is redolent with spring bios
SONS, and tie stream of lie rolling tetween
iull banks CLEANS and giistens and makes
music as it goes Soae Of YOU are in COM
mercial establishments, and your Ii will
be passed amid the excitements of traffic.
some OF You are in me ,hanical arts
70 To- hammer and chisel your way through
NE, and great opportunities are open before
yon. Others OF you are putting on profes.
sionai llfe-the armor is already bucked on
But IN whatever business, trade or profes-
sion you are engaged, or you are to be en-
gagged in, the subject l present this morn
ing is OF personal Importance There
Is IS not man, woman nor child
/ hut h,, hoo, to,,z
by this evil, or wi be touched by it, or will
IN some way he called to battle it. Gambling
is the risk ng of something more or less valu-
abie IN nope OF winning more than you haz.
ara Inc implements may to different, but
!he principle is always the same The deaf
ing anu shuffiing of cards are rot gambling
unless stakes be put up, while on the other
hand, without dee, without cards with.
out billiards, without ten pin alley, you
may practice gambling. man who lets
on horses, bets on elections bets on
pau Playing, bets on auything-a man
VINO deals IN what are called fancy stocks, a
man who goes into any TRANSACTION where
there Is no real foundation, but everything
depends upon what men call luck, is a gam
bier. An English writersay that cne.fourth Of
tne business OF London is a dishonesty, and
suppost that is true OF all our cities Anything
| you propose to get without giving an eluiya-
ieht, IN money, time, or skill, you get either
Dy fraud or by gaming, by theft or by gam
ing. DO not associate gambling with some
| game, or with some time, or with some place
nr think it MAKES any difference in the prin-
clpie whether it is glass of wine or o hun
ured shares Of railroad stock. Whether yoa
patronlze auction pools or French Mutuals,
or orbook-naking, or whether you employ faro
OF Diiilard, or roulette or cards, the very thing
Is dlshonest because you propose to get good
Tor which you give no equivalent. All lot
| terleS, all lottery ficLatc Gonna in, nor,a
category. Ali fairs for the building of
schools, or hospitals, or churches, conducted
on the raifo system come under the same
category. This is not new sprite that has
appeared in the world. 1t is haggard trans
grtsslonth that. wrapped in curses, comes stag
gerlng down through the centuries. Before
icoo the french Government received large
amounts OF money every year from gaming
taDes. England to improve her harb,rs nj
one time instituted a lottery at the door of
St Paul's Cathedral. The British Museum.
sne W Westminister bridge, were partially paid
| Tor by such procedure. The ancient Germans
sometimes actually put themselves ND. and
their families, as prizes. and having lost the
game they were bound by those weaker than
themselves. On Derby Day the House of
commons ad iourns, and most OF them 20 ont
TO bet and gamble. There are parts Of this
country thatreek with this evil A traveller
at the West said th2t in thousand miles Of
s'o' SiihS III " cStelu States, Iner1 was If n
waxing moment in whi h he was not in the
presence of gambling. Y on can find something
lust suited to your taste and your capacity;
not mercy in the Underground oyster
cellar, or on q table covered with
greasy cards behind curtain. or
IN the smoking cabin of the steamer where
men with rings in their ears instead of their
noses WINK IN unsuSrecting travellers free
drinks all around; but in splendid parlor. in
gorgeous club room, amid artistic and arch
itectured glory this evil goes on, and wherever
it reigns, Acedama, the field of blood
THIS sin works evil in the first rlace in un-
healthy stimulation, Excitement is pleas,lra-
ple thousand VOC es in our nature cry out for
excitement. The Chinaman finds il in smoI-
ing opium; the Persian in chewing hash
heesh;. the trap3er in a buffalo hunt; the
sailor In squall: the ineb late in the bottle;
tne aVaflcious at the gaming table While
excitement is pleasurabe AMI many kinds of
excitement are healthful aud ri2 hteous, look
out Tor an agitation which hurls you bacl,
into tefrinc reaction, and which, like a
rapt musician, in irving to bring out
the tune, breaks down the in ,trumens playel
on. God never ma le a man with nerves or
braln strong enough to endure un lamared
the eTcltementof gamblers life. No wonder
30 Often men at the closs of play where
they have been unfortunate haze triel to
shove Imaginary gold o 7 o. the table. They
sat down sharp IN intellect, thev rose IN
manla"s. Generally those who own
gambling establishments are rollicking
md obese; but the eambler-look at
hn-thin, Tale, nervous, exhau.ted In,
temperance puts its st gma upon the man.
kicking lin slavering fool into the ditch,
or sending him up the street whero his fam
ily hive With drunkards hiccough. But
gamoiIng does not so soon hang out its sig
nal You can only see the habit of the man
In the greed OF eye, in the hardness of fea-
tuie, IN tie nervous re,tlessness in the
threadhare coat, in the s1uandereI
fortune. But lie is On the road to
hell, and no prea hers voce and
no startling alarm and no wife's entreafy
will stop him in his heallong career. The
infernakspell is on him, a giant is aroused
within HIM, and if you wind around him
ship cable it will rart like threat. aud if
you wind around him chain Sc zen times it
VIII snap like rusted wire, and if you pile up
in his pathway all Bible7, all sermons, all
communion tab,es, and put on the top of
them the cross of the Son of God, he viii like
a rec over the rocks leap into pardition.
Aceldama, the fed of bloal.
ms Sin ais works ruin in the fact that it
is killing to al industries. You never saw a
confirmed gambler who was industrious.
The time not actually employed in gaming is
spent in idlenesS or in disSil alton, or in
roping in' other victims. Whsn man is
accustomed to gathering scores and hundreds
of dollars in a lttlA wnile he will not have
much ratience with tame, honest work.
why, said a merchant, "why should |
bother myself here in su hard, tedious
ard annoying way to make $50 when can
max. twice that in one night down at Bill
he'ss' Ali how this crime has dulled the
carpenters saw, and cut the bands of the
factory wheel, and broken the teeth Of the
flrmer's harrow, and shattered with
strange lighting the batteries of the philoso
pher. What dull work plowing corn when
in one evening in the village saloon the
fa'mer makes and loses the price of harvest.
What dull work in the honest round OF
business making ten, twenty fifty, one
hundre1 dollars, when in tho same
time you could make and lose the value
OF whole seasons profits. Oh, how
killing it il t, all industry. John Bro9K
was sent out from Bremen as an agent to
England and the United States. Afier a
while, his employers found ont that there
must be something wrong. Investigation was
nate 1t was found out that ho was a dc
fauter for SS5,0l0. lie hid lost S25 .010 IN |
Lombard street, London. He had lest 800 o |
III Fulton street. He had lost 5000 in New |
Or.eins. Then he was arr sted. Thel h |
was lmi risoned. Then he escaped. Then he |