The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-01-26

play cardS! is Unere any narm IN
game of whist or euchrea Well, know
good men who play whist, and euchre,
and other styles of games without any
wagers. l had friend who played
cards with his wife and children, and
then at the close said: Come, now,
let us have prayers" will not judge
other mems consciences. but tell you
that cards are in my mind so associated
with the temporal and spiritual ruin
OF splendid young men, that | would
as soon say to my family: Come, let
us have game of cards. as | would
go into menagerie and say: "Come,
let us have a game of rattlesnakes,"
or into cemetery, and sitting down by
marble slab, say to the gravediggers:
Come, let us have game at skulls"
Conscientious young ladies are silently
saying: 'Do you think card-playing
will do us any harm?" Perhaps not,
but how will you feel if in the great
day of eternity, when we are asked to
give an account of our influence, some
man should say: Il was introduced
to games OF chance in the year 1898, at
your house, and l went on from that
sport to something more exciting, and
went on down until lost my business,
and lost my morals, and lost my soul,
and these chains that you see on my
wrists and feet are the chains of
gamester's doom, and am on my way
to gamblers hell" Honey at the
start, eternal catastrophe at the last.
Stock gambling comes into the same
catalogue. 1t must be very exhilarat-
ing to go into the stock market and,
depositing small sum of money, run
the chance of taking out fortune.
Many men are doing an honest and safe
business in the stock market, and you
are an ignoramus if you do not know
that it is just as legitimate to deal in
stocks as it is to deal in coffe, or sugar,
or flour. But nearly all the outsiders
who go there on financial excursion
lose all. The old spiders eat up the
unsuspecting flies. l had friend who
put his hand on his hip pocket and said
in substance: II have there the value
Of, $250,000." His home is to-day
penniless. What was the matterP
Stock gambling. Of the vast ma
jority who are victimized you
hear not one word. One great stock
firm goes down, and whole columns Of
newspapers discuss theirfraud or their
disaster, and we are presented with
their features and their biography. But
| yhar 90 AL
unknown men sink with them. The
great steamer goes down, and all the
little boats are swallowed in the same
engulfment. Gambling is gambling,
whether in stocks or breadstuffs, or
dice, or raee-horse betting. Exhilara-
tion at the start, but raving brain,
and shattered nervous system, and
sacrificed property, and destroyed
soul at the last. Young men, buy no
lottery tickets, purchase no prize pack
ages, bet on no baseball games, or
yacht racing, have no faith in luck,
answer no mysterious circulars propos-
ing great income for small investment,
drive away the buzzards that hover
around our hotels trying to entrap
strangers. Go out and make an honest
living. Have God on your side, and be
candidate for Heaven.
The best honey is not like that which
Jonathan took on the end of the rod
and brought to his lips, but that which
God puts on the banqueting table of
mercy, at which we are all invited to
sit. was reading of boy among the
mountains of Switzerland ascending
dangerous place with his father and the
guides. The boy stopped on the edge
of the cliff and said: "There is flower
mean to get" ''Come away from
there" said the father ''you will fall
Off" "No," said he, II must get that
beautiful flower" And the guides
rushed toward him to pull him back,
when, just as they heard him say: Il
almost have it," he fell 1000 feet. Birds.
of prey were seen few days after, cir
cling through the air and lowering
gradually to the place where the corpse
lay. Why seek flowers off the edge Of
a precipice when you can walk knee
deep amid the full blooms of the very
paradise of God? When a man may
sit at the Kings banquet, why will he
go down the steps and contend for the
refuse and bones of hounds kennel?
"Sweeter than honey and the honey
comb" says David, lis the truth Of
God" with honey out of the rock
would | have satisfied thee" says God
to the recreant. Here is honey gath
cred from the blossoms of trees of life,
and with rod made out of the wood
of the cross dip it up for all your souls.
Tie poet Hesiod tells of an ambrosia
and nectar, the drinking of which
would make men live forever and one
sip of the honey from the Eternal
Rock will give you eternal life with
God. Come off the malarial levels of
sinful life. Come and live on the up
lands of grace, where the vineyards
sun themselves. 'Oh, taste and see
that the Lord is graciousr Be happy
now and happy forever For those
who take different course the honey
will turn to gall. For many things
l have admired Percy Shelley. the
English poet, but deplore the
fact that it seemed great sweet
ness to him to dishonor God. The poem
"Queen Nab" has it in the mahgning
of the deity. Shelley was impious
enough to ask for Rowland Hilrs Sur
rey chapel that he might denounce the
Christian religion. He was. in great
/ rlea arainst God and tha tr.nth R,it