The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-05-15

there Is such a thing. there Is only ong |
chance out Of a whole hundred which vii. /
become a certainty. well" YOU say, "a /
Is a good chance Nos, that Is good |
chance. AS chanee is good thenT
Yes, but B's chance Is poor In other |
words, one mans chance neutrali-cs am.
other; therefore, there are no hundred |
chances. If YOU have bought one good
chance, then niuety-nine have paid for o
poor chance. What equality Is there in
thati Thus, even on your own ground
there u no such thing as chance. And
from the high standard of science and act
ual fact, there is no such thing in this
world, In the entire universe as chance
Ninety-nino have bought nothing, aud YOU
have taken their money, and IL YOU don't
feel mean IN taking it you are mcaner than
] thought YOU we're What moral right,
then, is left 70 gambling: No moral right
at all No justice whatever. IL is clear,
clean, absolute, unequivocal wrong, Moth.
ing is left but the excitement and the ~.
certainty az who is the certainty and the
crazy hope of getting rich without paying
for il and whoever entertaius it is run.
ming against the everlasting laws, and you
can dig his grave
Now. finally, / want TO remind you where
this mental jugglery ends II ends rs a
poison ends 1t is a poison of the mind, an
intellectual poison. just as poison enters
the tissues OF the body and acts upon the
system. 30 . acts upon the intellect. At
FIRST it cxcites, then follows reaction. Then
more of the poison is taken. with similar
reacti'n, and again more Is taken and more
reaction. So. there constant play and
int, rpiay between taxing more and more
and more Of the intellectual poison with
the, reaction. God help the man, for the
undertow has cot him!
Ny dear friends. there is something to
me absolutely appalling about getting I'M
der the power without knowing Il Of that
kind of intellectual poison. / speak ear
nestly because | have known and loved
gifted men who have 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 man can hardly himself stop. You
| know men never stop doing thing unless
a motive comes 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 goodbye! Boys begin
] by betting on marbles or putting up stakes
at cards Gust to make the game more in
! teresting" It makes the game more inter
esting to the devil. Then comes the race
track The more refined the man 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 man who
confessed to him that he had crept uU-
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 Dawned them for rum-the demon
curse Now. with gambling the frightful
monomana is still worse. II 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 man! You are a lost boy!
Quick Get out of ii now! 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 fpnd of gambling. AM
too ucgent? Forgetting the dignity Of the
pulpit? Let the dignity of the pulpit 60.
Go home, mothers, and look on your own
boys face and thank God that your boy
is safe. Then prav for another whose bow
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.
BY your kind indulgence | want to refer
10 just one more point. 1t is sometimes
said that gambling is the product Of busi-
meas speculation. ] do not believe it. Spec
ulation. as its Latin origin implies, is es-
sentialy foresight It is an endPavor to
look ahead and determine values 1t is not
an apneal to chance. We see the same root
to the word inspection, or the word re-
spectacle or the noun specuar, which is
the same Latin word. Some forms of bust
ness speculation are. of course. unfair, but
in 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 bust
ne7s opportunity But in dead countries,
such az SDain 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 Anue's time, minis
tiers, everybody gambled. but there was not
? much business speculation. No. my friends
1t Is idleness craving for excitement, illu.
SON. bad company corrupting morals
These are the forces that lead men into
. gambling. All gambling, oven the least, un
der all circumstances, is like seduction and
slavery eternally unjust and eternally
! wrong. It is taking something for nothing
1t makes every nan his neighbours foe. II
! corrupts society and undermines the fab
: ric of the American state It is unpatriotiC
i and against the eternal Sinai. 1t divorce:
: contract and its equivalent. Is there one
. here this morning, I wonder, who wants
hi1 dearest friend. his Young brother, tc
| stop gambling If so, in Gods name, lei
9 him stop himself