Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-08-11
REV. DR., TALMAGE,
Se Eminent Dlvine's Sunday
Discourse.


Discourse.
IN Eloquent Dissertation the Sin q,
Gambling-An InsidiOus Vice Which
Numbers Its Victims by the Thou.
sands-May be Saved by Grace of God
TEXT: Woe unto them that sin, as it wer,
with cart rope.'-Isaiah ", 1S.
There are some iniquities that only nibble
at the heart. After a lifetime Of their work
the man still stands upright, respected anG
honored. These vermin have not strength
enough to gnaw through mans character
But there are other transSressions that lift
themselves up to gigantic proportions and
seize hold OF a man and bind him with
thongs forever. There are some iniquities
that have such great emphasis of evil that
he who commits them may be said to sin
as with cart rope. l suppose you know
how they make a great rope. The stuff out
OF which It Is fashioned Is nothing but tow
which you pull apart without any exertion
of your fingers. This is spun into threads
any of which you could easily snap, but
great many of these threads are inter.
wound-then you have rope strong
enough to bind an OK or hold a ship in
tempest.
Ispeak to you of the sin of gambling. A
cart rope in strength Is that sin, and yet ]
wish more especially to draw your atten.
tion to the small threads of influence on
This crime is on the advance, so that it IL
well not only that fathers and brothers and
sons be Interested In such a discussion, but
that wives and mothers and sisters and
daughters look out lest their present home
be sacrificed or their intended home be
blasted. No man, no woman, can stand
aloof from such subject as this and say,
1T has no practical bearing upon my life,
for there may be in a short time in your
history an experience in which you will
find that the discussion involved three
worlds-earth, heaven, hell. There
gambling establishments by the thousands.
There are about $500 professional gamb-
lers. Out of all the gambling establish
ments how many of them do you suppose
profess to be honest? Ten-these ten pro-
Tossing to be honest because they merely
the antechamher to those that are acknowl-
edged fraudulent. There are first class
Establishments. You step IA little way out of
Broadway, New York. You go up the mar
BILE stairs. You ring the bell. The liveried
servant Introduces you. The walls are Law
ender tinted. The mantels are of Vermont
marble. The pictures "Jephthahs
Daughter" and Dores Dante" and Virgils
"Frozen Region of He'll" most appro-
pirate selection, this last, for the place.
There is the roulette table, the finest cost
liest, most exquisite piece of furniture in
the United States. There is the banquet
ing room, where, free of charge to the
guests, you may find the plate and viands
and wines and cigars sumptuOus beyond
parallel. Then you come to the second
class gambling establishment. To 1t you
are introduced by a card through some
roper In" Having entered, you must
either, emble or fight. Sanded cards, dice
loaded with quicksilver, poor drinks mixed
with more poor drinks will soon help you
to get rid OF all your money to a tune in
short meter with Staccato passages. You
wanted to see You saw. The low villains
of that place watch you as you come in.
Does not the panther. squat In tho grass,
know caH when she sees it? Wrangle not
for your rights in that place, or your body
1 will be thrown bloody into the street or dead
into the river
You go along a little farther and find the
policy establishment. In that place you
bet on numbers. Betting on two numbers
is called a 'saddle:" betting on three num-
bers is called gig" betting on four
numbers is called horse" and there are
thousands of our young men leaping into
that saddle" and mounting that gig"
and behind that horse" riding to perdi-
ton: Thereis is always one kind of sign on
the door, Exchange" a most appropriate
title for the door, for there in that room a
nan exchanges health, peace and heaven
tor loss Of health, loss of home, loss of fam
ly, loss of immortal soul. Exchange sure
enough and infinite enough.
Now you acknowledge that is a cart
rope OF evil, but you want to know what
are the small threads out of which it IL
made. There is in many a disposition to
hazard. They, feel delight in walking
near u preci - because of the sense of
! danger. There are people who go upon
Jungfrau, not for the largeness of the pros
pect, but for the feeling that they have of
thinking, What would happen if 1 should
fall OFF, There are persons who have
their blood filliped and accelerated by
skating very near an airhole. There are
men who find a positive delight in driving
| within two inches of the edge of a bridge.
| 1t is this disposition to hazard that finds
development in gaming practices Here
are $500 l may stake them. Ii l stake
them, l may lose them, but l may win
! 5000. Whichever way it turns have the
excitement. shuffie the cads. LOST Heart
thumps Head dizzy. At 1t again-just
to crafty this desire for hazard.
Then there are others who go into this
sin through sheer desire for gain. 1t is es-
| pecially so with professional gamblers.
They always keep cool. They never drink
enough to unbalance their judgment. They
| do not see the dice so much as they see the
dollar beyond the dice, and for that they
watch as the spider in the web. looking as
young men in the hope Of gain go into
these practices. They say: "Well, my sal
sry Is not enough to allow this luxury.
don't get enough from my store, Office or
shop. I ought to have finer apartments.
ought to have better wines. I.ought to
|
| to be able to entertain my friends more ex-
pensively. / won't stand this any longer.
can with one brilliant stroke make IA for
tune Now, here goes, principle or no
principle, heaven or hell. who cares:
| When a young man makes up his mind to
| live beyond his income satan has bought
him out and out and it is only question
| Of time when the goods are to be delivered.
The thing is done. You may plant in the
| way all the batteries OF truth and right
= a
a man makes $1,000 n year and spends
| sI2OO when IA young man makes Sl5OO and
| spends 5I7OO all the harpies of darkness
cry out, Hat ha! we have himl'' And
they have How to get the extra $500 or
the extra 10000 is the question. He says:
| Here is INV friend who started out the
other day with but little money, and in one
| night so great was his luck, he rolled up
| hundreds and thousands of dollars. If he
got it, why not 1? 1t is such dull work,
this adding up of long lines of figures in
the counting house, this pulling down OF II
hundred yards of goods and selling a rem
nant, this always waiting upon somebody
else when | could put 800 on the ace and
pick up SlWO.'
| This sin works very insidiously. Other
aims sound the drum, and Haunt the flag,
and gather their recruits with wild huZZa,
but this marches its procession Of pale vie
tins in dead of night. in silence, and when
they drop into the grave there Ii not so
much sound as the click of dice. Oh, how
many have gone down under it! Look at
those men who were once highly pros
pered Now their forehead is licked by "A
tongue of flame that will never go out. In
their souls are plunged the beaks which
will never be lifted. Swing open the door OF
that mans heart and you see a coil Of ad-
ders wriggling their indeScribable horror
until You turn away and hide your face and
ask God to help YOU to forget it. The
most Of this evil is unadvertised. The
community does not hear of it. Men de
frauded in gambling establishment.
are not fools enough to tell of it
Once in awhile, however, there Is al
exposure, as when in Boston the police
swooped upon a gaming establishment an'
found in it the representatives OF all ciasse
~ citizens, from the first merchants ol
State street to the low Ann street gambler
! as when Bullock, the cashier Of the Centra
, Railroad of Georgia. was found to hav
, stolen s1Os, 900 for the purpose OF carrying
-l...V. IN