The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-04-01
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
GAMBLING"

There 1. Ma Such Thing as chanee-Ah
Tha, There 10. 10 . Subjective Uncer
taipty Science Has CHASED Chsnee
Out of the Universe.
New YORK CIrY.-At the South Con-
arepational Church, Brooklyn, the pastor,
the Rev. Albert }. Lyman, ID. d., preached
a sermon on Common Ethical Illusions
! Concerning the Practice OF Gambling he
selected one Of the Ten Commandment
for his text: Exodus Xxx: Is: Thou sna''
not steal
every day morality is exposed to one very
obvious embarrassment. 1t is this: Many
persons EEL. and with ! great deal OF rea'
son, that a sunday sermon, and especially
in the morning Of the Lords Day, should
/ be a broad setting forth OF religious truth
in general terms, clothed IN form sum
GENTLY elaborate and sufficiently artistic
to be intellectually attractive aside from
illustration, perhaps, Of such s sermon
devoted to the exposition OF one great
phase OF religious truth and Of the divine
| character was that delivered, as l gather,
from his 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 a dead Set. as 1t might
which we are almost all entirely against.
Ny feeling is that there is q deep proprlety
in this sentiment. Preaching, ike prayer,
should be for all. On the other hand, q
| Christian minister q Christian pastor
, who is pastor more thar he is preachers
q watcher for souls, not in the mass, put
for individual souls. He stands as the
.-A. koanhar naafOr WATCH
er f,r individual human lives. st. Paul At
Ephesus said he had warned every one
night and day with ~tears-every one.
I need make no apology for continuing
in the strain Of ethical appeal taken up
two weeks ago, for / have been asked and
urged to do so by some OF our young men.
Within the last fortnight various echoes
, have reached me of the address which this
pulpit ventured to make in favor OF q
high morality and especially, moral free.
dom. which makes all-round preaching;
the freedom to hold as well us the freedom
TO give way. Among those echoes there
have been some references to the practice
of gambling. Young men have said to me
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 Tor hign
stakes in the gaming house. On the other
hand, others have said they did not see
wber. the real wrong came in by buying
chances, on the races. for example. ana
stakes at card. All had an equal chance.
In the same spirit, therefore, as that IN
which l 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:
corning gambling. / am most anxious OF
all that whatever ! say shall be said fairly
and not from a prejudiced or blgoted point
Of view. ! do not wish to confuse things
which in themse.vea differ or produce upon
any young friend an impression OF mere
;ntolerant antipathy. 1t may occasion sur.
nrise that so severe a text has been chosen,
for you will say: Gambling is not steal:
ing" ard vet I cannot help t~hinking-and
the more I think abou. it the more con-
vinced ! am-that the text does tit the sub
ject. There are some differences between
gambling and stealing. and they ought to
be admitted. hut, at the heart the two are
very much the same. very alike. Shall we
them look ut this matter. not in the way OF
s-:ited and vehement denunciation, but IN
the sober. brotherly 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 CT a
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
Il is taking something for which no return
is givsn-no return at all. In legitimate
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.nin, men sell out to the hundredth
man and get nothing for what they sell. l
| have sometimes fancicd that q moral paraii-
| lei NAV be nun between gambling and duel.
ing. Gambling. like dueling, Is n moral
hybrid. That is, a cross between q clear
wrong and what may be right. For ex'
ample. murder is wrong; war may be right;
Gambling is I cross between murder and
war. SO stealing is a clear wrong and spec
ulation may be right Gambling is 4 cross
between stealing md speculation. But
both gambling and dueling DWELL in a mora!
twilight and are absolutely rs IMMORAL and
dangerous to $ ,ciety as the very h.ackness
OF midnight itself. Now, you will notice
that in both gambling and dueling a third
factor il supposed to enter. which neutral
ICES the moral wrong. In gambling the eIc'
ment il chance; in dueling it is honor. II
however. we look ut the matter we shall. l
think. find out that chance in the one case
and honor in the other is not q reality but
a chimera-but an illusion. That Is what
I mean hy the illusion Of gambling. There
is no such thing as chance. really, and that
is where the illusion comes IN. Let US
look ut this. =,
There is all amount Of mental juggling. a
haze over mems eyes, a witch's maze. IN
which the idea is that chance is an objec.
tive fact. Now there is no such thing. All
that there il, is q subjective uncertainty,
no objective chance 1T all. There Is no
such thing as chance. Once travelling
along the Connecticut River Valley / asked
q Germaa who was with me to tell me
something aboJt German metaphysics. He
pointed 70 sore holes in the banks Of the
river. in which the ground swallows had
bank" Yes" You zee those holes in
which are the swallows nests" Yes"
said /. Now" said he. take away the
bank and leave nothing but the holes and
you will have an exact definition Of Ger
man metaphysics" And so it is with thus
idea Of chance; there is no such thing OBJ
jectively as chance. One hundred men each
have 4 chance. No such thing. The act
ual fact is that just one man is certain "a
get n prize-if he is c~ertain-and the 9th
ers a-e certain not to get it. Therefore
they have no chance. One nan has n GER
taiaty and the others have no chance,
They all have simply uncertainty a. to
which man has 4 certainty. Suppose that
some Judge who is distributing the prizes
had sufficient foresight to know exactly
which way the ball would roll. He know
that and the corresponding number in
every mans hand. Science has chased
chance out Of the universe. To the eyes
OF the intelligent chance has ceased to be
There is no such thing in all this world
There is what we call a law. but there is
no chr nee in the case; j. is all law. ,
RasiIc faEinu vour 0wn ground. even III