The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-03-18
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Gambling Evil"

TEXT: "Let My people 90 that they may
serre Me; for aciH at this time send all NY
plaques. s."-Ex. tx, 13, IA.
Last winter, in the museum at Cairo,
Egypt, saw the mummy or embalmed
body Of Pharaoh, the oppressor of the an
cient Israelites. Visible are the very teeth
that he gnashed against the 1sraclitish
bricknakers, the sockets of the mercllsss
ewes with which he looked upon the overbur-
| dened people of God the hair that foated in
the breeze off the Red Sea, the very lips with
which he commanded them to make bricks
without 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 cannot again clutch his shat
tered scepter. 1t was TO compel that tyrant
| to let the oppressed 60 free that the memora-
| bic 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 croaked in the one, mono OF the To-
| Gusts sounded their rattle IN the other, and
! the cattle bore no sign Of the murrain, and
| through tho starry nights lowering about
: the pyramids no destroying angel swept his
! wing. But there are ten plaques still sting,
| Ing and befouling and cursing our cities, ana
! irst born 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 bs 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 EN-.
phatically true. The average condition or
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 base
heartedness 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 or behavior; who looked with
no exultation upon its evidences of pros
| peritv, its artlstic embellishments and Scien-
tiac attainments.
have noticed that men never like place
where they have not behaved well. Men
who have free rides in prison vans never
likes the city that furnishes the vehicle
When see in history Argos, Rhodes, Smyr-
ma, Chios, Colophon and several other cities
claiming Homer, conclude that Homer be-
| pride of city, nor expect to build up ourselves
by pulling others down. Let Boston have
| its commons, its Faneuil Hall and its magni-
| ficent scientific and educational institutions
Let Philadelphia talk about its mint, and In
dependence Hall, and Girard College, and its
old families, as virtuous as venerable. When
find man living in one OF those places who
has nothing to say in favor OF them, feel
like asking him, "What mean thing did you
L. %La& 10 Nk Gl-a
New York is goodly city, and when I say
that mean the region between SpuyteE
Duyvil Creek and Jamaica in one direction
and Newark flats in the other direction.
That which tends to elevate part elevates
all. That which blasts part blasts all. Sin
is a giant, and he comes to the Hudson or
Connecticut River and passes it as easily as
we step across figure in the carpet, The
blessing Of God is ON angel, and when 1t
stretches out its two wings one of them
hovers over that and the other over this.
In infancy the great metropolis was laid
down by the banks of the Hudson. Its in
fancy was as feeble as that Of Moses Sleep
ing in the bulrushes by the Nile; and, like
Miriam, there our fathers stood and watched
it. The royal spirit Of American commerce
came down to the water to bathe, and there
she found it. She took it in her arms, and
tie child grew and waIsd strong, and the
spices to its feet, and stretching itself up
into the proportions of a metropolis. it has
locked up to the mountains and off upon the
sea-the mightest of the energies of Ameri-
can civilization. The character Of the
founder OF city will be seen for many years
in it's inhabitants. Romulus impressed his
life upon Rome. The Pilgrims relaxed not
their hold upon the cities of New England.
William Penn has left Philadelphia an in.
heritauce of integrity and fair dealing. and
on any Gay in that city you may see in the
manners customs and principles of its people
his tastes, his coat, his hat, his wife's bonnet
and his plain meeting house. The Holland
ers still WELD an influence over New York.
Grand old New York. What southern
thorouehfare was ever smitten by pestilence
when our physicians did not throw them
selves upon the sacrifice! What distant land
has cried out in the agony of famine, and
our ships have not put out with breadstutfs!
What street Of Damascus or Beyrout or
Madras that has not heard the step of our
missionaries! What struggle for national
life in which our citizens have not poured
their blood into the trenches! What gallery
of exquisite art in which our painters have
not hung their pictures! What department
ofliterature or science to which our scholars
have not contributedl l need not speak Oh
our public schools, where the children OF the
cordwainer and milkman and glassblower
stand by the side Of the fattered sons OF
merchant princes; or Of the insane asylums
on all these islands where they who went
cutting themselves, among the tombs, now
sit clothed and in their right minds; or OF
the Magdalen asyiums, where the lost one
of the street comes to bathe the Saviour's
feet with her tears, and wipe them with the
hairs of her head-confding in the pardon Of
Him who said: "Let him who is without sin
cast the first stone at her." l need not
speak Of the institutions for the blind, the
lame, the deaf and the dumb, for the incur
ables, the widow, the orphan, and the out
cast; or Of the thousand armed machinery
that sends streaming down from the resar-
voirs the clear, bright, sparkling, God given
water that rushes through our aqueducts,
and dashes out Of the hydrants, aud toSseS
up in our fouhtains, and Kisses in our steam
engines, and showers out the conhagratlon,
and sprinkles from the baptismal font of our
churches; and with silver note, and golden
sparkle, and crystalline chime, says to hum
dreds Of thousands Of our population in the
authentic words OF Him who said: - WILL
be thou clean"
All this promise in opening this course OF
sermons on the ten plaques Of these three
cities, lest some stupid man might say l am
deprecatiDg the place OF my residence.
speak to you to-day concerning the plague
Of gambling. Every man ana woman III
this house ought to bs interested. in this
theme
Some years ago, when an association for
the suppression Of gambling was organized,
an agent Of the association came to- q prom
inent citizen and asked him to patronize the
society," He said, mo- can have no inter-
est in such an organization. Tam in no wise
affected by that evil" At that very time
his son, who was his partner in business, was
one of the heaviest players in, Hsarnes ia
nous gambling establishment Another re-