The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-02-27
TALMAGES SERMON.
DR.. Talmage Begins a Series of
Sermons on Great Evils.
THE CURSE OF GAMBLING GRAPHIC
ALLY PORTRAYED-THE WIDE
EXTENT OF THE EVIL
1t Is Running Men Mentally, Mortaliy,
and Financially.

hrSt sermon In the series on L ne len
Plaques Of these Three Cities" In this
sermon he attacks the curse of gamb-
ling.
His text was taken from Exodus. tx,
I3, IA: "Let my people go that they
NAV serve me; for will at tn is time
send all my plaques"
Last winter in the museum at Cairo.
Egypt, saw the mummy or embalmed
body of Pharaoh. the Oppressor of the
ancient Israelites. Visible are the very
teeth that he CRASHED against the Is
raelitish brickmakers, the sockets of
the merciless eyes with which he looked
upon the Overburdened people of God,
the hair that fioated in the breeze off the
Red Sea, the very lips with which he
commanded them to make bricks with
out straw. Thousands of years after,
when the wrappings of the mummy
were unrOlled. old Pharaoh lifted up
his arm as if in implOratiOn, but his
skinny bones can not again clutch his
shattered scepter. 1t was to compel
that tyrant to let the oppressed 90 free
that the memorable ten plaques were
sent. Sailing the Nile and walking
saw no remains of those plaques that
smote the water or the air. None of
the frogs crOaked in the one. none of
the lOcusts sounded their rattle in the
other. and the cattle bore no sign of tie
murrian. and through the starry nights
lowering about the pyramids no des-
trOying angel swept his wing. But
there are ten plaques still singing and
at
like angels of wrath shifting not only the
first borne, bat the last born.
Brooklyn. New York and Jersey City.
though called three, are practically one.
The bridge already fastening two of
them together will be followed by other
bridges and by tunnels from both New
Jersey and Long Island shores, until
what is true now will, as the years go
by, become more emphatically true.
The average condition of public
morals in this cluster of cities is as good
if not better, than in any other part of
the world. Pride of city is natural to
men in all times, if they live or have
lived in metropolis noted for dignity
or prowess. Caesar boosted of his
native Rome; Lycurgus of Sparta:
Virgil of Andes: Demosthenes of
Athens; Archimedes of Syracuse; and
Paul of Tarsus. should suspect man
of baseheartedneSs who carried about
with him no feeling of complacency in
regard to the place of his residence:
who gloried not in its arts or arms of
behavior; who looked with no eXulta-
ton upon its evidences of prosperity,
its artistic embellishments and its
scientific attachments.
have noticed that men never like a
place where they have not behaved well.
Men who have free rides in prison
vans never like the city that furnishes
the vehicle. When | see in history
Argos, Rhodes, Smyrna, Cinos, Colo
phon and several other cities claiming
Homer, | conclude that Homer behaved
well. Let us not war against this pride
of city, nor expect to build up ourselves
by pulling others down. Let Boston
have its commons, its Faneuil hall, and
its magnificent scientific and education
al institutions. Let Philadelphia talk
about mint and Independence hall and
Girard college and its old families. as
virtues as venerable. When find a
man living in of one those places who has
nothing to say in favor of them | feel
like asking him, what mean thing
did you do that you do not like your
native city, New York is a goOdly
city. and when say that | mean the
region betw cen Spuyner Duyvil creek
and Jamaica in one direction and New
wark flats in the other direction. That
which tends to elevate a part elevates
all. That which blasts part blasts all.
Sin is giant, and he comes to the
Hudson or the Connecticut river and
passes it as easily as We step across a
figure ~ the carpet. The blessing of
God is an angel, and when it stretches
out its two wings one of them hOvers
that and the other over this.
Gambling is the risking of something
more or less valuable in the hope of
winning more than you hazard. The
instruments of gambling may differ,
hut the principle is the same. The
shutting and dealing cards, however
full of temptation, is not gambling I'M
less stakes are put up; while on the
other hand. gambling may be carried on
without cards or dice, or billiards or a
ten pin alley. The man who bets on
horses. on elections, on battles-the
man who deals in fancy stocks or con-
ducts a business which hazards extra
capital or goes into transactions without
foundation, but dependent upon what
men call luck. " is a gambler. What
ever you expect to get from your neigh
Dor without offering an equivalent in
money or time or skill. Is either the
product of theft or gambling. Lottery
tickets and lottery policies come into
the same category. Fairs of the found
ing of hospitals, schools, and churches,
conducted on the rafting system. come
under the same denominations. Do not,
therefore, associate gambling neces-
Sarily with any instrument, or game or
time or place, or think tbs principle de-
ponds upon whether you play for a glass
of wine, or 100 shares of railroad stock
Whether you patronize auction pools"
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 it processes to bestow upon yop a
good for which you give no equivalent
1t is estimated that every day in
Christendom SS0,000,000 passes from
hand TO hand through gambling prac-
ticeS, and every year in Christendom,
Sl23, 10000 change hands in that way
There are in this cluster of cities about
800 confessed gambling establishments.
There are about 3, 800 professional gam
blerS. Out of the 800 gambling estab-
lishmentS, how many OF them do you
suppose profess to be honest? Ten.
These ten protesting to be honest, be-
cause they are merely the ante
chamber to the $50 that are acknowled-
ged fraudulent.
They are first class gambling estab-
lishments: They 60 up the marble
stairs. You ring the bell. The
liveried servant introduces YOU. The
walls are Lavender tinted. The man1els