St. Tammany farmer., 1901-07-27

ready for his speech against "The
Petition of the Clergy" by spending
% hours at the gambling table. Irv-
ing's life of Oliver Goldsmith says
that the great poet lost E 80, all his
earnings. in short tour to see the
world. Gibbon, the author of "The
Decline and Fall of the Roman En-
pire," came to his own decline and
fall through gaming practices and
in a letter in 1916 said: II have un-
done myself, and it is to no purpose
to conceal from you my abominable
madness and folly. I have never lost
SO much in five days as have to-
night, and am in debt to the house
for the whole
But while you are hotly indignant
against the crime, how do you feel
about those who were fleeced and
slain? They did not know. that their
small boat was so near the maelstrom.
Some of them were born with tend
ency to recklessness and experiment
and hazard. They inherited a DISPOSE
ton to tempt chance. Do not heap
on them additional discouragements;
do not deride their losses. Help them
to start again. Show them that there
are more fortunes yet to be gained
than have yet been gathered and that
with God for their friend they will be
provided for her and through the Sa-
viour's mercy they may reign forever
in the land where there are no losses
and infinite gains. While You may red
den in the face at the fact that gam
bling is the disgraceful mother of
multitudinous crimes, of envies, jeal-
ousies, revenge, quarrels, cruelties,
falsehoods, forgeries, suicides, mur-
ders and despair, be careful what you
say of the victim of the vice and what
you do. He needs more sympathy than
the man who came up from inebriety
and debauch and assassination, for
many such repent and are saved, but
confirmed gamblers hardly ever re-
form.
During the course ola prolonged min
istry I have seen thousands redeemed,
many of them who were clear gone in
sin, by Almighty grace rescued. In
all parts of this land and in some parts
of other lands I have seen those who
were given up as incorrigible and lost
recovered for God and Heaven, but
how many confirmed gamblers have
seen converted from their evil ways?
A thousand? No. Five hundred? No.
Fifty? No. Two? No. One? No.
I read in book of one such rescued.
I have no doubt there have been other
cases, but no evil does its work so
thoroughly and eternally as gambling.
Such almost hopeless of reformation
ought to call forth from you deeper
sympathy than you feel for any other
unfortunate. Pity by all means. for
those who, shipwrecked and bruised
among the timbers, have nevertheless
climbed up to the fisherman's cabin
and found warmth and shelter, but
more pity for those who never reach
shore, but are dashed to death in the
breakers. Be angry at the sin. but
sympathize with its victims.
One act Of fraud told of in big head
lines in the morning papers rightfully
arouses the nations wrath. It is the
interest Of every good man and good
woman who reads Of the crime to have
it exposed and punished. Let it go un-
scathed, and you put premium on
fraud, you depress public morals, you
induce those who are on the fence be-
tween right and wrong to get down on
the wrong side, and you put the busi-
ness of the world on a down grade.
The constabulary and penitentiary
must do their work. But while the
merciless and the goddess cry: "Good
for him!" II am glad he is within the
prison doors!" be it your work to find
out If that man is worth saving and
what were the causes of his moral
overthrow. Perhaps he started in
business life under tricky firm, who
gave him wrong notions of business
integrity; perhaps there was combi-
nation of circumstances almost un-
paralleled for temptations; perhaps
there were alleviations; perhaps he
was born wrong and never got over it;
perhaps he did not realize what he was
doing, and if you are a merciful man
you will think of other perhapses
which, though they may not excuse,
will extenuate. Perhaps he has al
ready repented and is washed in the
blood of the Lamb, and is as sure Of
Heaven as you are. What an opportu-
nifty you have for obeying my text.
You were angry At the misdemanor.
but you are hopeful for the recovery
of the recalcitrant. Blessed all prison
reformers! Blessed are those gov
ernors and presidents who are glad
when they have chance to pardon!
Blessed the forgiving father who wei
comes home the prodigal! Blessed
the dying thief whom the Lord took
with Him to glory, saying: ''This day
shalt thou be with Ne in Paradise!"
There is another evil that we ought
to abhor, while we try to help the
victim, and that is infidelity. 1t
snatches the life preserver from the
man afoat and affords not so much
as spar or plank as substitute. It
would extinguish the only light that
has ever been kindled for the troubled
and the lost. Let the spirit Of inf
deity take hold Of neighborhood,
and in that town the marriage rela-