The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1903-06-26
1.-THE ETHICS
OF GAMBLING. u
Or. 7. A. Wharton Delivers a Master.
full Arrangement Of the
Betting Evil.

= mon by DR.. T. A. Wharton, at til
5 First Presbyterian church Sunda
morning on The Ethics of Gambling.
The sermon was masterful arraign
ment OF evil. 1t was not sensational
: talk, filed with abuse and excited state
ments, but it was p cool, dispassionate
: dignitied and convincing presentmen
against one of the greatest evils in thi
country. Every argument used was al
irrefutable one, and the sermon haC
; such an effect that DR.. Wharton has al
ready been beseiged by many to repeal
the discourse, which he will probably
do. He should repeat it by all means
and when he does every man and boy il
the city should hear him.
DR.. Wharton took for his text the
commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Steal. y
He said that it was seldom that he sin
gled out particular evil as subject
for sermon; that it had rather been his
method ever to take a general passage
of scripture for discussion that had in il
something for all. But he was aware
that exigencies will arise when it be-
comes every PASTORS duty to single out
certain things for discussion. AS every
one knew who read the daily papers,
gambling had become craze through
out the nation. One cannot pick up a
daily paper, he said, that he does not
read of some suicide or murder caused
| by the gambling evil. He referred to
the case of prominent citizen of Fay
etteville, in an adjoining county, who
killed himself the other day because Of
financial disaster due to gambling. He
read newspaper clipping on the con-
ditions in Fayetteville. And the church
going people of Columbia, said he, do
not have any idea of the extent that
gambling is practiced right here is this
city. He was informed on the most re
liable authority that many young men
Of the town, who belonged to our best
families, and who have hitherto borne
irreproachable characters, have become
infected with the spirit of gambling.
He hoped it was not true. He could not
understand how any self-respecting man
could be guilty of gambling. 1t is dis
honorable. There is nothing but dis
honor in taking from a man money
which one has never earned. He ex-
planned the reason he took the text,
Thou shalt not steal" He did not
mean to charge that man who gam
bles will steal To say that, is an infa-
nous falsehood. He had known high
minded men who we're gentlemen that
gambled. He explained that gambling
was often the hasty act of an impetuous
brain; it was often the act of very par
tisan nature. He took the text he said,
because it involved the law on the
subject. He had no desire to be
hasty, vehement or inconsiderate.
He repeated, therefore, that gamb-
IN
very closely resembles it, he said.
results OF the two; so far as results
and Issues are concerned they are the
same. In the first place, there Is no
work performed in the second place,
there is no service rendered; in the
third place, there is no expenditure OF
moral or physical power. There is
no difference In the results. The only
difference ia that one Is the act of one
individual and the other is the act OF
co -consplrators. When man takes
another mans money he steals it:
when he wins it by gambling 1t is the
act of CO cOnspiratOrs. 1t is the, law |
of every transaction that where an ,
of property occurs there must
be an equivalent of value exchanged.
But, says the gam bier, the man who
loses gives his consent; he is willing
o lose; is that SOY Does man con
sent to an Illegltimate transaction
make 1t legitimate2 II man consents
mat l STAY him, said the speaker, 1t
Is not murder, because he's given me |
his consent! No, here's the point the
man who loses had no right to give his
No man has right to give
his consent to violation of the law.
The gambler money Is therefore es-
,entially dishonest because it is made
BY violating the law. DR.. Wharton
quoted from passage from Tacitus on
he evil of gambling. That old pagan,
he said, living at the very rottenest
)eriod of Roman history, himself a
,ery rake, could not keep from ex-
PRESSING his cOntemp. for the evil. He
Ilso quoted Phillip Brooks advice to
young men on gam bling. There is a
moral blindness over men s eyes which
prevents them from seeing the awful
lideousness and vileness of taxing
from a man which doesn' {
'elong to you, and that Is the ciaiLl
hat every man has an ''eQual chance.
here is no such thing. The very fas-
inatlon OF 1t is that you have not an
quail chance and the whole secret is
hat you hope to get back more than
on put in. IL it was true that every
nan had an equal chance gambling
you'd stop in Columbia before the sun
vent down, ne said. For then every !.
IAN would get only what was his, !,
nd that is not what he is after; He's ,
tier not only what Is his, but what !
elongs TO the other man; the rafting
pscies of gambling was referred to- 7
lie said that ninety. nine men out OF /,
undred in rafting contest were !,
ound to lose what they put in. Only =
ne man could win. And that's why !.
ley go into it; it's the uncertainty of
10 transaction-the taking from a
ling more than you put into it. :,
oney that does not belong to you,
hich you have never earned, and for
mich you do not give an equivalent
! value.
The gambling habit, he said, vio- S
tes the commandment. Love thy
sighbor as myself IL arrays one Ell
an against another, and neither can N
in except at the others loss. Where q
, you 20 to see the most groyeling T
Id d,shonorable types of men In the v