Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-02-28
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.
Subject, "The Gambling Evil"

Egypt, | saw the mummy or embalmed
body of Pharaoh, the oppressor of the an
Gent Israelites. Visible are the very teeth
that he CRASHED against the Israelitish
brickmakers, the sockets of the merciless
eres with which he looked upon the overbur-
dened people of God. the hair that fioated in
the breeze of 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 ware unrolled, old Pharaoh lifted
up his arm as if in importation, but his
skinny Zones cannot again clutch his shat
tered scepter 1T was to compel that tyrant
to let the oppressed go free that the memora-
Bile ten plaques were sent. Sailing the Nile
and walking amid the ruins of Egyptian
cities, saw 10 remains of those plaques
that snote the water or the air. None of
the frogs croake in the one, noue of the To-
Gusts sounded their rattle III the other, and
the cattle bore no sign OF the murrain, and
through the starry nights lowering about
the pyramids no de .troying angel swept his
wing. But there are ten plaques still sting
ing and befouling and cursing our cities, and
like angels of wrath shifting not only the
first 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 be followed hysother 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 en-
phatically 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 a
metropolis noted for dignity or proves.
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 compacency in regard to the
place of his residence; who gloried not i'll its
arts or arms or behavior; who looked with
no exultation upon it's evidences of pros
perity, its artistic embellishments and scien-
tific attachments.
have noticed that men never like a 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, l conclude that Homer be-
haved we'll 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 magni-
fcent scientific and educational institutions.
Let Philadelphia talk about its mint and III
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
do that you do not like your native citysn
New York is goodly city. and when | say
that mean the region between Spuyten
Duyvil Greek aud 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 giant, and he comes to the Hudson or
Connecticut River and passes il as easily as
we step across a figure i'll the carpet. The
blessing of God is an angel, and when it
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 buirushes 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 battle, and there
she found it, She took it in her arms, and
the child grew and waxed strong, and the
ships Of foreign lands brought gold and
spices to its feet and stretching itself up
into the proportions of q metropolis it has
looked up to the mountains and Off upon the
seattle mightiest of the energies of AmeTi-
can civilization. The character Of the
founder of city will be seen for many years
in its 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
heritance of integrity and fair dealing and
on any day 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
tboroughfare was ever smitten by pestilence,
when our physicians did not throw them
selves upon the sacrificed What distant land
has cried out in the agony of famine, and
our ships have not put out with breadstuffsl
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
of literature or science to which our scholars
have not contributed! l need not speak of
our public Schools where the children of the
cordwainer and milkman aud glassblower
stand by the side OF the Aattered 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; OF of
the Magdalen asylums, where the lost one
of the street comes to bathe the Saviour's
feet with her Gears, and wipe them with the
hairs of her head-confiding in the pardon of
Him who said: LET him who is without sin
cast the first stone at her" [ 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 senus streaming down from une reser-
! voirs the clear, bright, sparkling, God given
water that ruShes through our aqueducts,
| and dashes out of the hydrants and losses
up in our fountains, and Kisses in our steam
| engines, and showers out the conhagratjon,
and sprinkles from the baptisma font of our
churches; and with silver note, ana golden
| sparkle, and crystalline chime says to hun
| dreds of thousands of our population in the
authentic words of Him who said: 81 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 | am
deprecating the place of my residence
speak to you to-5ay concerning the plague
| of gambling. Every man and woman in
this house ought to be interested in this
| theme.
Some years ago, when an association for
| the suppression of gambling was organized,
an agent of the association came to a prom
inent citizen and asked him to patrouize the
-A-iet-'. Ee said. NO can have no inter-
est in such an organization. lam in no wise
affected by that evil - At that very time
bis son. who was his partner in business, was
one of the heaviest players in Hearne's fa-
nous gambling establishment. Another re-
| fused his patronage on the same ground not
! knowing that his first bookkeeper though re-
| ceiviug a salary OF only IA thousand dollars,
was losing from fifty to one hundred dollars
| Per night. The president OF a railroad com
| pany refused TO patronize the institution.
| saying, That society is good for the defense
nf 1op han - Int
| injured by this evil!' not knowing that, al
thatvery time, two of his conductors were
I Spending three nights of each week at faro
tables in New York, Directly or indirectly,
| this evil strikes at the whole world
! Gambling is the risking of something more
or less valuable IN the hope of winning more
than you hazarl Thu ins6rl aent Of gaming
may differ but the principle is the same. TIE
| shutfling and dealing cards. however .ull Of
temptation, is not gambling, unless stakes
are putup; while, on the other hand, gam.
bling may be carried on without cards or
| dice, or billiards or ten pin alley. The
man who bets on horses on elections on bat
! ties-the man who deals in fancy stocks.
| or conducts business which hazards extra
| capital, or goes into transactions without
foundation, but dependent upon what men
call 'Suck," lisa gambler. Whatever You ex-
pect to get from your neighbor without Of
! fering an equivalent in money or time 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 place or think the prin-
! ciple depends upon whether you play for a
| glass of wine or one hundred shares of rail-
road stock. Whether you patronize auction