Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-04-04
THE FIELD OF BLOOD.
AN EFFECTIVE SERMON ON GAMBLING
BY DR. TALMAGE.

y.
The Church Not Guiltiess-The Getting
Habit-Modern Gift Enterprises.
copyright 1885, by American Press Asso-
ciation.l
WASHINGTON, April 3.-The spirit of
hazard in this sermon is arraigned by
DR. Taln,age, and the downward path
If the gamester is plainly pointed out !;
text, Acts j, 10, "Aceldama-that is to
say, the field of blood
The money that Judas gave for sur
rendering Christ was used to purchase
a graveyard. AS the money was blood
money the ground bought by it was
called in the Syriac tongue "Aceldama, -
meaning 1.-THE field of blood. Well,
there is one word 1 want to write today
over every race course where wagers
are staked, and every poolroom, and
every gambling saloon, and every table,
public or private, where men and wom-
en- bet for sums of money, large or
small, and that is word incarnadined
with the life of innumerable Victims
Aceldama.
The gambling spirit, which is at all
times stupendous evil, ever and anon
sweeps over the country like an cpl
demic, prostrating uncounted thou
sands There has never been worse
attack than that from which all the
villages, towns and cities are now suf-
fering.
While among my hearers and readers
are those who have passed on into the
afternoon of life, and the shadows are
lengthening, and the sky crimsons with
l. IL e %t0 low
number of them are in early life, and
the morning is coming down out Of the
clear sky upon them, and the bright air
is redolent with spring blossoms, and
the stream of life cleaning and glanc-
ing, rushes on between fowery banks
making music as it goes. Some of you
are engaged in mercantile concerns as
clerks and bookkeepers, and your whole
life is to be passed in the exciting
world of traffic. The sound of busy life
stirs you as the drum stirs the fiery
war horse. Others are in the mechanical
arts to hammer and chisel your way
through life and success awaits you.
Some are preparing for professional
life, and grand opportunities are before
you-nay, some of you already have
buckled on the armor. But, whatever
your age and calling, the subject of
gam bling about which speak today is
pertinent.
Some years ago, when an association
for the suppression of gambling was or
gained, an agent of the association
came to prominent citizen and asked
him to patronize the society. He said:
"No, / can have no interest III such an
organiz ation. ! am in nowise affected
by the evil. At that very time his son,
who was his partner in business, was
one of the heaviest players in a famous
gam bling establishment. Another re-
fused his patronage on the same ground,
not knowing that his first bookkeeper,
though receiving a salary Of only 81, OOC,
was losing from $50 to 500 per night.
The president of railroad company re-
fused to patronize the institution, say
ing, tThat society is good for the de-
tense of merchants, but we railroad pee
pie are not injured by this evil, - not
knowing that at that very time two of
his conductors were spending three
nights Of each week at faro tables III
New York. Directly or indirectly this
evil strikes at the whole world.
w nat Is Gam bling?
Gambling is the risking of something
more or less valuable in the hope of
winning more than you hazard. The
instruments of gaming may differ. but
the principle is the same. The shuffling
and dealing cards. however full of
temptation, is not gambling unless
stakes are put up; while, on the other
hand, gambling may be carried on
without cards or dice or billiards Or
tenpin alley. The man who bets on
horses or elections, on battles, the man
who deals in fancy" stocks or conducts
a business which hazards extra capital
or goes into transactions without foun-
dation, but dependent upon what men
call "luck,'' is gambler.
Whatever you expect to get from
your neighbor without offering an
equivalent in money or time or skill is
Lottery tickets and lottery policies come
into the same category. Bazaars for the
founding of hospitals, schools and
churches, conducted on the rafting sys-
TEN, come under the same denomina-
ton. Do not, therefore, associate gam
bling necessarily with any instrument
or game or time or place or think the
principle depends upon whether you
play for glass of wine or 100 shares of
railroad stock. Whether you patronize
"auction pools, - French mutuals'' or
bookmaking, whether you employ
faro or billiards, rondo and keno. cards
or bagatelle, the very idea of the thing
is dishonest; for it processes to bestow
upon you a good for which you give no
equivalent.
This crime is no newborn sprite, but
a haggard transgression that comes stag
gering down under u mantle Of curses
through many centuries. All nations,
harharnrs and CIVILIZED have been adj