The Penn's Grove record., 1903-03-20
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
Gambling"
There Is No Such Thing as Chance-Au
That There ia, Is q Subjective Uncer
tainty - Science Has Chased Chance
Out of the Universe.

the Rev. Albert j. Lyman, d. D., preached
a sermon on Common Ethical Illusions
Concerning the Practice of Gambling He
selected one of the Ten Commandments
for his text: Exodus Xxx 10: 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 a 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 sufi-
GENTLY elaborate and sufficiently artistic
to be intellectually attractive aside from
any particular application. A most striking
illustration, perhaps, of such a sermon
devoted to the exposition of one great
phase of religious truth and of the divine
character was that delivered, as | 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 *
planned, and we do not care to hear our
minister made a "dead set" as it might
be called, upon a certain foible or vice
which we are almost all entirely against.
My feeling is that there is a deep propriety
in this sentiment. Preaching, like prayer,
should be for all. On the other hand, a
Christian minister a Christian pastor
who is pastor more than he is preachers
a watcher for souls, not in the mass, but
for individual souls. He stands as the
trinity of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., pastor, watch
er for individual human lives. st. Paul at
Ephesus said he had warned every one
night and day with tears-every one.
/ need make no apology for continuing
in the strain of ethical appeal taken up
two weeks ago, for I 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 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 said to me
that most people have nc 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-
corning gambling. / am most anxious of
all that whatever / say shall be said fairly
and not from a preludiced 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
prise that SO severe a text has been chosen,
for you will say: Gambling is not steal.
ing" and yet I cannot help thinking-and
the more I think about it the more con-
WINGED / 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 W are
very much the same, very alike. Shall we
then look at this matter, not in the way Of
excited 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 of q
third party, namely, chance, whose pres
ence is supposed to change the moral ma
ture of the transaction. On the othel
hand, gambling resembles stealing because
it is taking something for which no return
Is RiSCu-IO ICtuIu a AL Ii ALSitihoS<
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-nine men sell out to the hundredtf
man and 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, a cross between a cleal
wrong and what may be right. For ex
ample, murder is wrong; war may be right
Gambling is a cross between murder ant
war. So stealing is a clear wrong and spec
ulation may be right. Gambling is a crost
between stealing and speculation. Blu
both gambling and dueling dwell in a mora
twilight and are absolutely as immoral ant
dangerous to society as the very blacknes
of midnight itself. Now, you viii notic'
that in both gambling and dueling a thlr.
| factor is supposed to enter, which neutral
ICES the moral wrong. In gambling the ele
ment is chance: in dueling it is honor. If
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
a 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 witch's maze. Il
which the idea is that chance is an oblef
| tive fact. Now there is no such thing. Al
that there is, is a subjective uncertainty
no objective chance at all. There Is n
such thing as chance. Once t~raveln
along the Connecticut River Valley / aske'
a German who was with me to tell m
something about German metaphysics. ID
pointed to sorle holes in the banks OF tn
river, in which the ground swallows ha'
built their nests, and said: You see tina
bankg" Eyes" "You see those holes i
which are the swallows n~ests?" Eyes,
bank and leave nothing but the holes an
you will have an exact definition OF GeI
man metaphysics" And so it is with thi
idea of chance; there is no such thing oh
i~ectively as chance. One hundred men eacI
have a chance. No such thing. The act
ual fact is that just n man IS certain t
get a prize-if he is certain-and the 9th
ers are certain not to get 1T. Therefor
they have no chance. One man has a Gel
taiaty and the others have no chance
They all have simply uncertainty as t
which man has q certainty. Suppose tina
some Judge who is distributing the prize
had sufficient foresight to know exactl
which way the ball would roll He know
that and the corresponding number j
every mans hand. Science has chase
chance out of the universe. To the eye
of the intelligent chance has ceased to b.
There is no such thing in all this worlo
There is what we call a law, but there
no chance in the case; it is all law.
Beside, taking your W ground, even
there is such q thing, there is only on
chance out of a whole hundred which vi
become a certainty. "Well,"' you say, !
IS q good chance. Yes, that is a goo
chance. CAS- chance is good, then?
Yes, but BIS chance is poor. In othe
words, one mans chance neutralizes al
other; therefore, there are no hundre
/ chances. If you have bought one goo
chance, then ninety-nine have paid Tor
poor chance. What equality is there !
thata Thus. even on your own groun
there rs no such thing as chance. AM
from he high standard of science and &C
ual fact, there is no such thing in tn
world in the entire universe, as chanc'
Nmetv-pina have bought nothing. and 70
havs taken their money, and if you don
feel mean in taking it you are meaner tina
I thousht you were. What moral righI
then. is left to gambling No moral rlgf
at all No justice whatever. 1t is ciea,
clean, absolute, unequivocal wrong. Mott
ing is left but the excitement n the VI
certainty as who is the certainty and tn
crazy hone Of getting rich without payin
for il and whoever entertains it is rul
ming against the everlasting laws, and 20
Now. finally, / want to remind you whel
this mental j~ugglery ends. 1t ends as
poison ends. It is a poison of the mind, a
Intellectual poison. just as poison entel
the tissues OF the body and acts upon II