The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-05-15
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
GAMBLING"
There Il No Such Thing as Chauce-hn
That There L.. IL . subjective Uncer
talniy - Science Has Chased Chance
Out OF the Universe

New York CITY.-At tue South Con.
gregatlonal Church, Brooklyn, the pastor,
the Rev. Albert j Lyman, ID. d., preached
sermon on Common Ethical Illusions
Concerning the Practice of Gambling 40
selected one of the Zen Commandments
tor his text. Exodus "A: -: Thou shalt
LOt steal"
A direct pulpit address upon practical
every day morality is exposed 10 one very
obvious embarrassment. II Is this: Many
persons ieel, and with a great deal OF red.
son, that a sunday sermon, ana especially
IN the morning of the Lords Day, should
be a broad setting forth OF religious truth
in general terms, clothed in form suth-
cleutly elaborate and sufficiently artistic
to be Intellectually attractive aside from
any particular application. A most striking
Illustration, perhaps, OF such a sermon
devoted 30 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 DIR. 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 10 hear our
minister made dead set, as it might
be called, upon a certain tolble or vice
which we are almost all entirely against.
My feeling is that there is a deep propriety
in this sentiment. Preaching, ike prayer,
should be for all. On the other hand, a
Christian minister Christian pastor
who is pastor more than be is preachers
a watcher for souls, not in the mass, but
for individual souls. He stands as the
trinity of watchers-teacheT, pastor, watch
er fDr individual human lives. st. Paul at
Ephesus said he had warned every one
night and day with tesrs-eyery one.
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 ii favor OF q
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 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 for high
takes 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 word or
two this morning on ethical illusions con-
corning gambling. l am most anxious OF
all that whatever | say shall be said fairly
and not from preiudiced or bigoted point
Of view. / do not wish to confuse things
which in themselves differ OF produce upon
! fr1oy,I m ir,vrapeinn Of ma
intoerant antpathy. 1t may occasion sur
prise that so severe a text has been chosen
for you viii say: Gambling is not steal
, ing" and yet / cannot help thinking-and
the more / think about it the more con
WINGED | am-that the text does fit the sub
iect. There are some differences between
gambling and stealing, and they ought t.
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 o.
excited and vehement denunciation, but ir
the sober, brotherly fashion as though VIZ
were talking at home?
First, then. the difference between gam
bling and stealing. Stealing is without thu
knowledge of the person stolen from; gam
bling is with the knowledge of both per
sons. Gambling invokes the presence of {
third party, namely, chance, whose pres
ence is supposed to change the moral ma
ture of the transaction. On the othe
hand, gambling resembles stealing because
it is taking something for which no return
is given--no return at all. In Legitimate
speculation the seller receives something
which at the time he believes to be tn
equivalent of what he sells. Otherwise tn
transaction is unjust. But in gambling
ninety-nino men sell out to the hundredtl
man aud get nothing for what they SELL
have sometimes fancied that a moral paral
lei may be run between gambling and duel
ing. Gambling, like dueling, is a mora
hybrid. That is, o cross between a clea
wrong and what may be right. For ey
ample, murder is wrong; war may be right
Gambling is q cross between murder an,
war. So stealing is a clear wrong and spec
ulation may be right Gambling is a eros
between stealing and speculation. Blu
both gambling and dueling dwell in a mora
twilight and are absolutely MS immoral an
dangerous to society as the very blacknes
Of midnight itself Now, you will motto
that in both gambling and dueling a thir
factor is supposed to enter, which neutra
ICES the moral wrong, In gambling the elk
ment is chance; in dueling it is honor. L
however, we look at the matter we shall,
think, find out that chance in the one cas-
and honor in the other is not reality bu
a chimera-but an illusion. That is who
| mean by the illusion Of gambling. Their
is no such thing as chance, really, and tina
is where the illusion comes in. Let L
look at this.
There is an amount of mental juggling,
! haze over mems eyes, a wltchs maze,
, which the idea is that chance is an obje
tive fact. Now there is no such thing A
that there is, is a subjective uncertaint,
l no objective chance at all There is Il
such thing as chance. Once traveliu
along the Connecticut River Valley as1e
a German who was with me to tell II
| something about German metaphysics. i
I pointed to sorle holes in the banks of Il
river, in which the ground swallows la
. built their nests, and said "You see tn;
S bank" eyes" you see those holes
said l. Now" said he, take away ii
. bank and leave nothing but the holes ar
! you will have an exact definition of &c
j man metaphysics" And so it is with th
idea of chance; there is no such thing o
"a IL a L. l.. I