Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1903-03-26
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
'""CAMBLlNC."
There is Ne Such Thing as Chance-An
That There is, is Subjective Uncer-
tafnty - Sci ence Has Chased Chance
Out of the Universe.

t1inty - Scie Has Chased Chance !
Out of the Universe.
NEW YORK CITY.-At the South Con- |
gregational Church, Brooklyn, the pastor, !
the Rev. Albert j. Lyman, d. D., preached |
= sermon on Common Ethical Illusions |
selected one of the Ten Commandments |
for his text: Exodus Xxx: Is: ''Thou shalt
not steal"
A direct pulpit address upon practical
every day morality is exposed to one very
obvious embarrassment. 1t is this: Many
persons feel, and with great deal of rea-
SON., that e Sunday sermon, and especially
in the morning of the Lords Day. should
be broad setting forth of religious truth
in general terms, clothed in form suffi
GENTLY elaborate and sufficiently artistic
to be intellectually attractive aside from
any particular application. A most striking
illustration, perhaps, Of such sermon
phase of religious truth and Of the divine
character was that delivered, as | gather,
from this pulpit last Sunday morning, by
our honored friend, DR.. Herrick, of Bos-
ton. We come to church. one might say,
to worship and to hear the Scripture ex-
planned, and we do not care to hear our
minister made dead set, as 1t might
which we are almost all entirely against.
My feeling is that there is deep propriety
in this sentiment Preaching, like prayer,
should be for ALL On the other hand,
Christian minister Christian pastor
who is pastor more than he is preacher-is
a. watcher for souls, not in the mass, but
for individual souls He stands as the
trinity of watchers-teacher, pastor, watch
er for individual human lives. st. Paul at
Ephesus said he had warned every one
night and day with tears-every one.
1 need make no apology for continuing
in the strain Of ethical appeal taken up
two weeks ago, for ] have been asked and
Within the last fortnight various echoes
have reached me of the address which this
pulpit ventured to make in favor OF a
high morality and especially moral free
dom, which makes all-round preaching;
the freedom to hold as well as the freedom
to give way. Among those echoes there
have been some references to the practice
of gambling. Young men have sai 81 to lie
that most people have no idea of the ex-
tent to which certain forms OF gambling
are prevalent in this great city, extend
ing all the way from the boyish practice Of
matching pennies up to playing for high
stakes in the gaming house. On the other
hand, others have said they did not see
where the real wrong came in by buying
chances. on the races, for example, and
stakes at card All had an equal chance.
In the same spirit, therefore, as that IN
which tried to speak two weeks ago, trust
| ing to your sympathy in my effort to reach
our young people, / wish to say a word or
| two this morning on ethical illusions con.
/; cerning gambling. I am most anxious OF
all that whatever [ say shall be said fairly
and not from prejudiced or bigoted point
| Of view. ] do not wish to confuse things
which in themselves differ or produce upon
any young friend an impression OF mere
| intolerant antipathy. 1t may occasion sur
| hot fovf hos
| for you will say: Gambling is not steal.
! ing" and yet l cannot help thinking-and
| the more [ think about it the more con-
vinced [ am-that the text does fit the sub
ject There are some differences between
| gambling and stealing, and they ought to
be admitted. but, at the heart the two are
| very much the same, very alike. Shall we
| then look at this matter, not IN the way OF
| excited and vehement denunclatlon, but III
! the sober, brotheriy fashion as though we
were talking at home?
! First, then. the difference between gam.
bling and stealing. Stealing is without the
knowledge of the person stolen from; gam
bling is with the knowledge OF both per
sons Gambling invokes the presence OF a
J third party namely, chance, whose pres
! ence is supposed TO change the moral ma
ture of the transaction. On the other
hand, gambling resembles stealing because
| it is taking something for which no return
|
/ speculation the seller receives something
which at the time he believes to be the
equivalent of what he sells. Otherwise the
| transaction is unjust But in gambling
ninety-nne men sell out to the hundredtI
man and get nothing for what they sell. J
have sometimes fancied that a moral paral
lei may be run between gambling and duel
ing Gambling, like dueling, is mora
hybrid. That is, a cross between cleal
wrong and what may be right. For ex
ample. murder is wrong; war may be right
Gambling is q cross between murder ane
war. So stealing is a clear wrong and spec
ulation may be right. Gambling is eros
both gambling and dueling dwell iii mora
twilight and are absolutely as immoral ant
dangerous to society as the very blacknes
of midnight itself Now, you will notlc
that in both gambling and dueling thir,
factor is supposed to enter, which neutral
ICES the moral wrong. In gambling the ele
ment is chance; in dueling it is honor Ii
however, we look at the matter we shall,
think, find out that chance in the one cas-
and honor In the other is not a reality bu
chimera-but an illusion. That is wha
I mean by the illusion of gambling. Their
is no such thing as chance, really, and tina
is where the illusion comes in. Let u
look at this.
There is an amount OF mental juggling.
haze over mems eyes, a witchs maze. 1
which the idea is that chance is an objet
tive fact. Now there is no such thing A
that there is, is subjective uncertainty
no objective chance at all. There is n
such thing as chance. Once travehn
along the Connecticut River Valley aske
a German who was with me to tell m
something about German metaphysics. b
| pointed to sorae holes in the banks of ,th
, river, in which the ground swallows ha
built their nests, and said: You see thf
bank?s" eyes" "You see those holes
which are the swallows nests% Yes,
said l. Now said he, take away tl
bank and leave nothing but the holes an
you will have an exact definition OF Ge
man metaphysics" And so it is with tn
idea of chance; there is no such thing ol
! iectively as chance One hundred men eac
have a chance. No such thing. The ac
ual fact is that just one man IS certain
get a prize-if he is certain-and the OF
ers are certain not to get it. Therefor
| they have no chance One man has ce
: taiaty and the others have no chanc
They all have simply uncertainty
which man has certainty. Suppose tn;
some Judge who is distributing the priz
, had sufficient foresight to know exact
which way the ball would roll. He know
that and the corresponding number
: everv mans hand. Science has chase
9 ! chance out of the universe. To the ey
/ of the intelligent chance has ceased to b
rrhere 10 M such thing IN all this WOrl