Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-02-27
THE GAMBLING PLAGUE.
DR. TALMAGE STARTS A NEW
SERIES OF SERMONS.
His Subject "The Ten Plaques of
Modern Gotham. ~ he Gambling
Evil the First TO Receive Attention.


Brooklyn today. by DIR. Talmnge's an
nouncement of series of sermons which
he proposes TO preach on 1.-The Ten
Plaques OF These Three Cities" In this
sermon, which is the first OF the series, he
pays his attention to the prevalent curse of
gambling. He preached it in the Academy
of Music in Brooklyn, in the morning, and
again this evening in this city. His text
was taken from Exodus Q. 1914: LET my
people go that they may serve me; for |
will at this time send all my plaques"
Last winter in tie Museum at Cairo.
Egypt, ! saw the mummy or embalmed
body of Pharaoh, the oppressor of the
ancient Israelites. Visible are the very
tee, h that he CRASHED against the Israelit-
ish brickmakers, the sockets of the merci-
less eyes with which he looked upon the
overwhelmed people of God, the hair that
Roated in the breeze off the Red Sea, the
very lips with which he commanded them
to make bricks without straw. Thousands
of years otter, when the wrappings OF the
mummy were unrolled. old Pharaoh lifted
up his arm as if in imporation, but his
skinny bones cannot again clutch his shat
tered sccptre. 1t was to compel that
tyrant to let the oppressed go free that the
memorable Ten Plaques were sent. Sailing
the Nile and walking amid the ruins of
Egyptian cities, saw no remains of those
plaques that smote the water or the air.
None OF the frogs croakcd in the one, none
Of the locusts sounded their rattle in the
other, and the cattle bore no sign of the
murrain, and through the starry nights
lowering about the pyram ids no destroying
angel swept his wing. Bat there are ten
plaques still singing ana befoulhg and
cursing our cities, AMI. like angels of wrath,
shifting not only the first born but the last
born.
Brooklyn, New York and Jersey City,
though called three, arc 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, be-
come more emphatically true. The aver
age 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 20 men at all times
If they live, or have lived, in a 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. l should suspect man
Of base-heartedness who carried about with
him no feeling Of complacency in regard to
the place of his residence; who glorled not
in its arts, or arms, or behavior; who
looked with no exultatiou upon its evil
dences of prosperity, its artistic embellish-
ments, and its scientific attainments.
All this premise in opening this course
of sermons on the Ten Plaques of these
Three Cities. lest some stupid man might
say am depreciating the place of my resi-
dence. i speak TO you today concerning
the Plague of Gambling. Every man and
woman in this house ought 10 be interested
in this theme.
Gambling is the risking of something
more or less valuable in the hope of win
ming more than you hazard. The instru-
ments of gaming may differ but the princi-
pie is the same. The suf1iing 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 a
ten-pin alley. The man who bets on horses.
on elections, on battleS-the man who deals
in fancy" stocks, or conducts business
which hazards extra capital, or goes into
transactions without foundation, but de-
pendent upon what men call "luck," is a
gambler. Whatever you expect to get
from your neighbeIs without Offering an
equivalent in time or money or skill. is
either the product of theft or gaming.
Lottery tickets and lottery policies come
into the same category. Fairs for the
founding Of hospitals, schools and churches.
conducted on the rafting system, come
under the same denomination. Do not.
therefore, associate gambling necessarily
with. any instrument or game, or time or
pla ., Or think the principle depends upon
whether you play for a glass of wine or
ono hundred shares Of railroad stock
Whether you patronize auction pools, "
French mutuals," or "book- making"
whether you employ faro or billiards,
rondo and keno, cards or bagatelle, the very
idea of the thing is dishonest; for it pro-
fesses TO bestow upon you q good for which
you give no equivalent.
1t is estimated that every day in Christen-
dom eighty million dollars pass from hand
TO hand through gambling practices, and
every year in Christendom one hundred
and twenty-threo billion one hundred mil
lion dollars change hands in that way.
There are in this cluster of cities about
eight hundred confessed gambling estab-
lishments. There are about three thousand
five hundred professional gamblers. Out
of the eight hundred gambling establish
ments, how many do you suppose proft IS
to be honest? Ten. These ten protesting
to be honest because they are merely the
ante-chamber to the seven hundred and
ninety that are acknowledged fraudulent.
These arc frst-class gambling establish
ments. You go up the marble stairs. You
ring the bell. The liveried servant intro
duces you. The walls are lavender-ti tinted.
The nantes are of Vermont marble. The
pictures are "Jephthah's Daughter" and
Dore's Dante's and Virgils Frozen Region
of He'll" most appropriate selection, this
last, for the place. There is the rc-letts
table, the finest, the costliest, the most ex.
quisite piece Of furniture in the United
States. There is the banqueting-room,
where, free Of charge TO the guests, you
may find the plate, and viands, and wines
and cigars, sumptuous beyond parallel.
Then you como TO the second-clas:
gambling establishment. To it you are in
troduced by 4 card through some roper.
in" Having entered, you must either
gamble or fight. Sanded cards, dice loaded
with quicksilver, poor drinks. will soor
help you to get rid OF all your money TO &
tune in short metre with staccato passages.
You wanted TO sec. You saw. The low