The Yale expositor., 1898-01-28

and moral giants, men and women
us power went glorious oliver Gold
smith, and Gibbon, the famous histo-
rian, and Charles Fox, the renowned
statesman, and in olden times, senators
or the United States, who used to be
as regularly at the gambling house all
night as they were in the halls OF leg
islation by day. Oh, the tragedies OF
the faro table! ! know persons who
began with a slight stake in ladies
parlor, and ended with the suicides pis-
tol at Monte Carlo. They played with
the square pieces of bone with black
marks on them, not knowing that Sa-
tan was playing for their bones at the
same time, and was sure to sweep all
the stakes off on his side Of the table.
State legislatures have again and
again sanctioned the mighty evil by
passing laws in defense of race tracks,
and many young men have lost all
their wages at such so-called meet
ings." Every man who voted Tor
such Infamous bills has on his hands
and forehead the blood of these SOULS
But in this connection some young
converts say to me: us it right TO
play cards? Is there any harm IN
game of whist or euchre? Well, l
know good men who play whist ana
euchre, and other styles of games with
out any wagers. ] 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 to my mind so
as>1ciated with the temporal and spir-
,tual ruin Of splendid young men, that
| would as soon say to my family,
Come, let us have game of cards,
as l would go into a menagerie and
say, Come, let us have game of rat
tlesnake," or into cemetery, and sit
ting 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,
II 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 a gamester's doom. and l am
on the way to gamblers hell" Honey
at the start, eternal catastrophe at the
last.
Stock gambling comes into the same
catalogue It must be very exhilarat-
ing to go into the stock market, and,
depositing a small sum of money, run
the chance of taking out a fortune.
Many men are doing an honest and safe
business in the stock market, and You
are an ignoramus IL you do not know
that it is just as legitimate to deal in
stocks as it is to deal in coiIev, - OIL
gar or -four. But nearly all the out
siders who go there on a financial ex-
cursion lose all. The old spiders eat
up the unsuspecting flies. l had a
friend who put his hand on his hip
pocket and said in substance, Il have
there the value of two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars His home is
today penniless. What was the mat
ter? Stock gambling. OF the vast
majority who are victimized you hear
not one word. One great stock firm
goes down, and while columns of
newspapers discuss their fraud or their
disaster, and we are presented with
their features and their biography. But
where one such famous firm sinks, five
hundred 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 bread
stuffs, or dice, or race horse Setting.
Exhilaration at the start, but raving
brain. and a shattered nervous system,
and a sacrificed property, and de-
stroyed soul at the last. Young men,
buy no lottery tickets, purchase no
prize packages, bet on no base ball
game or yacht racing, have no faith in
luck, answer no mysterious circulars
proposing great income for small in
vestment, drive away the buzzards that
hover around our hotels trying to en-
trap strangers. Go out and make an
honest living Have God on your side,
and be a candidate for heaven. Re-
member all the paths of sin are banked
with flowers at the start, and there are
plenty of helpful hands to fetch the
gay charger to your door and hold the
stirrup while you mount. But further
on the horse plunges to the bit in a
slough inextricable.
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 ia
BILE of mercy, at which we are all in
vited to sit. l was reading of boy
among the mountains of Switzerland
ascending a dangerous place with his
father and the guides. The boy stopped
on the edge of the cliff and said,