The Penn's Grove record., 1903-03-20

reaction. So, there is a constant play and
interplay between taking more and more
and more of the intellectual poison with
the reaction. God help the man, for the
undertow has got himi
Ny dear friends, there is something to
me absolutely appalling about getting I'M
der the power without knowing it of that
kind of Intellectual poison. / speak ear
nestly because [ have known and loved
gifted men who nave yielded to it and gone
down. The mental unreason that is in
vol ed in gambling unhinges mems brains.
INDUCING IN gambling becomes something
that a man can hardly himself stop. You
know men never stop doing a thing unless
a motive which is stronger than the
motive that leads them to do it. The man
goes on and goes on until the impulse and
motive to do the thing becomes stronger
than the motive that comes in to stop it.
just the moment the impulse becomes
stronger than the constraining motive then
it is goodbye, it is good-byei Boys begin
by betting on marbles or putting up stakes
at cards Gust to make the game more in
teresting." 1t makes the game more inter-
esting to the devil. Then comes the race
track. The more refined the mar and the
finer the intellect the more surely the dis
ease. Nothing is so CHASTITY as the craving
for gambling which gets hold of a fine
6bered man. A few days ago a young man,
a church worker, told me of a man who
confessed to him that he had crept up-
stairs in the dead Of winter to his little
sleeping girl and taken away the clothing
that covered her and the shoes which she
wore, put them under his coat and skunk
off and pawned them for rum-the demon
curse. Now. with gambling the frightfui
monomania is still worse. If there is any
young man here this morning who has any
suspicion that the serpent is getting that
coil around him, then quick, quick, or you
are a lost mani You are a lost boyi
Quicki Get out of it nowl You had bet
ter lock yourself in your room and live on
bread and water. You had better hold
your hands in the fire until the veins burst
than go on with the fend of gambling. Am
l too urgent? Forgetting the dignity of the
pulpit? Let the dignity of the pulpit CO.
Go home, mothers, and look on your own
boys face and thank God that your boy
is safe. Then prav for another whose boy
is gone, or whom she thinks is gone. Gods
grace is great and she has come to her pas
tor and spoken of this matter.
Bv your kind indulgence / want to refer
to just one more point. 1t is sometimes
said that gambling is the product Of BUSH
ness speculation. / do not believe it. Spec
%ulation. as its Latin origin implies, is es-
s~entia,ly a foresight. 1t is an endeavor to
look ahead and determine values. It is not
an aDpeal to chance. We see the same root
to the word inspection, or the word re-
spectacle or the noun specular, which is
the same Latin word. Some forms of bust
ness speculation are, of course. unfair. but
in a large business sense speculation is not
guessing in advance, but looking in advance
and / do not believe the two go together.
In new. strong countries speculation Is al
most ALWAYS the ACCOMPANIMENT Of busi-
ness opportunity. But in dead countries,
such as Spain was fifteen years ago, I have
poticed that while business speculation is
almost dead, gambling is far more preva-
lent even than here. See the higher Eng
lish society in Queen Anne's time. minis
tiers. everybody gamhled. but there was not
much business speculation. No. my friends,
it IS idleness craving for excitement, illu-
sion, bad company, corrupting morals.
These are the forces that lead men into
gambling. All gambling. even the least, I'M
der all circumstances, is like seduction and
slavery eternally unjust and eternallS
wrong. 1t is taking something for nothing.
1t makes every man his neighbours foe. Tt
c~orrupts society and undermines the fab
ric of the American state. 1t is unpatriotic
and against the eternal Sinai. 1t divorces
contract and its equivalent. Is there one
here this morning, [ wonder, who wants
his dearest friend. his young brother, to
stop gambling If so, in Gods name, let
him stop himself.