The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-10-07
HOT SHOT FOR Gamblers
Games Of Chance and GamesterS Dis.
cussed In DR.. McLeOd's Lecture.
DEVILS DEVICE IN GAMBLING
Lecture Was Severe Scoring for knights
Of the Green Cloth and Contained
Food for Persons Who
Hazard Their Souls.

gambling and for persons who depend
on luck for the safety of their souls
| His text was from John, xix, "a. ''They
parted my raiment among them. and
| for my vesture they did cast lots. These
things the soldiers did" He said:
| What a CHASTITY picture! The Savior in
agony and dying on the cross-while -four
soldiers who nailed Him to the tree art
| dividing His garments among them, and
| are gambling for His vesture! What q
| spectacle! The son of God quivering or
| the cross, atoning for human guilt, pour
ing out His hearts blood to save a lost
world-a scene which attracted the hosts
| of heaven and filled them with admiring
| wonder-while within a few feet of the
| dying Christ four gamblers are lounging
| and, needless of their surroundings. are
| chatting and laughing and amusing them
| selves after their bloody work!
Those gamblers sit unmoved while the
worlds most awful and most heart-renl-
ing tragedy is being enacted! The piteous
scene does not move their eyes to tears
| nor does 1t excite in their hearts the faint
est sympathy, and. SO they throw the
dice and gamble for the Saviors tunic
and laugh at the fun. and by and by the
winning gambler carries home his prize
What a time and place for gamblers Ia
play their guilty game! What a picture
FOR gamblers to study!
Conduct More ReprehensibIc.
But there were gamblers before anu
since that time whose conduct is even
| more reprehensible. These soldiers did
| not know the meaning of the Savior's ai-
vent. They did not know that they had
just nailed the Son of God to the cross
duct nor call them blameless: but. surely
they are not SO blameworthy as are those
who, with more knowledge and with
clearer light, continue to indulge their un-
holy passions and to play their devilish
games.
l suppose gambling In some form OF
other has been practiced all along The
ages, and l suppose it is just as rife and
Just as wrong today as, it ever was. Noe
these two points about it.
!. What gambling is.
2. What gambling does.
Let us not confound all games with
gambling. The two words are not syn
onymous. One may play a great many
games without being a gambler. There
are games OF chance even, which one may
| play without, in any way. laying himself
| are many persons who play games OF
chance without the remotest thought OF
winning or losing any money or any
property by the game. They may, occa-
sionally, lose their temper, and that is
| wrong; but they never play for money
nor for prze-they detest that-and
| they are right. They never won or lost 4
cent on any game Of chance they eySl
They only play for amusement or iol
| recreation or for some other Innocent
| reason-this Is not gambling
What Is Gambling?
What, then, is gambling? It has been
| said that gambling is an amusement, oil
we might properly call it a vice, which
| has always existed, but more particlarly
| among the rich ana those who have nc
| regular occupation. This last sentence il
| significant. Webster says that a gam
or other stake" Gambling might be de-
| fined as the winning or losing of none Y
| or of property by risking or hazarding il,
without giving or receiving for II an
| honest equivalent. Hence all betting is
gambling. because in betting there is the
absence of an honest equivalent. Herbert
Spencer is far from being an orthodox
Christian, but his definition of gambling
ought to commend itself both to gamblers
| and their critics. He says: Gambling
is kind of action by which pleasure Is
obtained at the cost of pain to another.
| 1t affords no equivalent to the general
the misery of the loser" If this definition
or description of gambling be true, then
gambling is utterly wrong and utterly in
defensible
we must give an account of our steward
| ship. AS the Christian looks at IL his
money or his property is Gods gift TO
him, and 1t is to be used in Gods way.
And If it is to be used in Gods way ii
will be used honestly ard economically
and generously for Christ's sake and with
| devout thankfulness to God who gave it.
The man who regards himself as stew
| ard of God-and every man should so re-
gard himsef-will not throw away his
money In reckless speculation nor by bet
ting on a horse race or a boat race, nor by
betting upon the result of a game of base
ball or of foot ball, nor by betting on
the result of some political nomination or
election. He will not throw away his
money at the card table, nor at the rou-
lette table. Neither Hamburg nor Baden,
nor Monte Carlo nor any other gambling
"hell," has any attraction for him. tIe
remembers those words of Christ "If
ye have not been faithful in the un-
righteous Mammon. who will commit to
your trust the true riches?"
Device of the Devil.
Gambling is a device of the devil by
means of which vast numbers have been
ruined. BY yielding to this passion, rich
men have been made beggars; young men,
who had occupied positions of honor and
trust, have become thieves; wives and
children who were reared in luxury haze
been reduced to direst poverty; many a
gay and reckless gambler has ended his
days In the poorhouse. or In prison, and
hundreds of gamblers. having risked and
lost all their property, have been driven
to desperation, and being too cowardly TO
meet their old companions, and being un-
able to provide for the wives and chill
dren whom they had so cruelty wronged,
they have used the dagger or the pis-
their miserable earthly existence.
The devices which the devil and his
agents have invented for gambling pur-
poses are numerous. Their name is Le-
down, from the boy on his knees on the
dirty sidewalk playing marbles "for
keeps" to the card table, to the lottery. TO
the wheel OF fortune, to the race course,
and at last, away down to the gilded gam
bling "hell," where many millionaire
has been made beggar.
The lottery has been for ages n popular
| gambling device. Our own country has
| suffered from It, Our national govern
ment not only protected but encouraged 1t,
for a time. and 1t required good deal Of
force to uproot 1t. The Louisiana lottery
| swindle Is dead, but it took a long time
| and hard pounding to kill It,
1t seems strange now, but 1t Is neverthe-
less true. that schools and colleges yes.
and churches, too, have been built out of
| the proceeds of lotteries. Indeed so Sc
ductive and so insinuating is this lottery
devil that II requires tact and persuasion
even at this late day to keep some
churches from resorting to this sort of
| gambling In order to fill the Lords treas
ury.
Why 1t Should BE Avoided.
There are many good reasons why gam
| bling, In all Its forms, ought to be froWned
| upon and avoided
Gambling is dishonoring to God. 1t ig-
| nores the Divine government. The God
| and Father OF our Lord Jesus Christ is not
the God Of the gambler. The gambler
w0rships Fate. His god Is Chance The
| true God wants His servants to earn and
| to spend their money honestly, but no
gambler ever yet earned an honest dollar
! by gambling.
Gambling leads to dishonesty. I do not
! now refer to loading the dice" nor to
other ways Of cheating, familiar to gam
bers. I refer, rather, to downright dis
honesty. In the form of stealing money
with which to pay gambling debts I re-
wickedly and dishonesty ruined many n
home. Our jails and prisons and peni-
tentiaries, yes. and our poor houses, too,
could furnish abundant evidence on this
point.
Gambling is destructive of home ties