Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1891-02-28
HALMAGE'S SERMON.
DR.. Talmage Begins a Series OF
Sermons on Grear Evils.
THE CURSE or GAMBLING GRAPHIC
ALLY PORTRAYED.-TaE WIDE
EXTENT or THE EVIL.
Il 10 Running Hon Mentally, Mortaily.
and Financially.

Brooklyn, N. Y, February 2.-Dr
Tslmage this morning preached the
FIRST sermon in the series ON ''The Ter
Plaques Of these Three Cities" In this
sermon he attacks the curse Of gsmb'
ling.
His text was taken from Exodus, TX,
Is, II: LET my people 90 that they
may serve me; for will at this time
send all my plaques"
Last winter IN the museum at Cairo,
Egypt, l 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.
raAlitish brickmakers, the sockets OF
the merciless eyes with which he looked
upon the overburdened people OF God,
the hair that floated 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
werc unrolled, old Pharaoh lifted up
his arm as II in imploration, but his
skinny bones can not again clutch his
shattered scepter. It was to compel
that tyrant to let the oppressed 60 free
that the memorable ten plaques were
sent. Sailing the Nile and walking
amid the ruins of Egyptian cities, l
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
befouling and cursing our cities and
like angels Of wrath shifting not only the
first borne, but 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 60
by, become more emphatically true.
The average condition OF public
morals in this cluster OF cities is as good
II not better, than in any other part Of
the world. Pride Of city is natural to
men in all times, II they live or have
lived in metropolis noted for dignity
6r prowess. Cesar b0asted Of his
native Rome; Lycurgus OF Sparta;
Virgil Of Andes; Demosthenes Of
Athens Archimedes Of Syracuse; and
Paul Of Tarsus. should suspect q man
Aof 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,
It's artistic embellishments and lite
scientific attainments.
/ have noticed that men never like q
place where they have not behaved we'll
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 W against this pride
Of city. nor expect t0 build up ourselves
by pulling others down. Let Boston
have its commons, its Faneuil hall, and
it's 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 q gOodly
city, and when Isay that / mean the
region betV cen Spuyner Duyvil creek
and Jamaica in one direction and New
Wark fats in the other direction. That
which tends to elevate q part elevates
all. That which blasts part blasts all.
Sin is giant, and he comes 10 the
Hudson or the Connecticut river and
passes it as easily as We step across q
figure n the carpet. The blessing OF
God is an angel, and when 1t 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,
but the principle il the same. The
shufling 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 q
ten pin alley. The man who bets on
horses, on elections, On battles-the
man who deals in ''fancy" stocks orcon-
ducts business which hazards extra
capital or goes into transactions without
foundation, but dependent upon what
men call "luck 10 . gambler. What
ever you expect TO get from your neigh
Dor without Offering an equivalent in
money or time or akill, ls either the
product Of theft or gambling. Lottery
tickets and lottery policies come into
tie Same categOry. Fans Of the found
ing Of hospitals, schools. and churches,
conducted on the rafdine system, come
under the same denominations. Do not,
therefore, associate gambling neces-
saEily with any instrument or game or
time or place, or think The principle de-
nnnda upon Whoth9P Won NAV for 4 QlnD