The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-25

nounces the national evil of gambling,
 which has spread to all classes and con-
 ditions of men. He utters a wholes -ne and timely protest against those forms of the mania which are corruptlng our so- cial and business life. The text is Gen esis iii 19, Tn the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.9
 Some years ago I was walking in beau- tiful Fairmount park, Philadelphia, with my father He suddenly turned and said
 to me: Frank, next week I am going to
 write a sermon upon the question. Is
 life worth living?' I am going to show that the solution of that question is con ditonal. Whether life is or is not worth living depends upon how you live it. If a man lives In this world with the idea that he is only to receive and not to give. if he is cursed with the enervating conviction that he must be carried around on a litter, and if he does not want to be
 a worker, a laborer. door for mankind, then life is not worth living The sooner
 that man Is dead the better But if a man goes through this world realizing the glorious opportunities of Christian usefulness and if he is willing to spend and be spent for others, then life is worth living. Then the longer we live on earth the happier we shall be and the more we shall make others happy"
 But though at the Edenie expulsion the divine command was given: By the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" yet from time immemorial there have been thousands upon thousands of men and women who have tried to shirk the obligations of labor which God has placed at every hearthstone. They have been seeking a means whereby through the opened door of the Roman temple erected to Fortuna, the goddess of chance. they could possess a fortune without working for it or without con
 tributing anything to the world in re- turn for it. They would be wreckers pure
 and simple. They would become vam- pires upon the social organism. sucking out the lifes blood of others, as the Australian bats fasten themselves upon the backs of the horses cattle and sheep until they have drunk their fill or as the European cuckoo lays her ggs in the nests of other birds. or like parasitical plant. which absorbs the nourishment of other plants. They would drink yet never themselves become fountains of water at whose sparkling springs others might quench their parching thirst.
 Worshipers of Blind Goddess.
 In every age there have been thousands upon thousands of devotees at Fortu- mas shrine. They are blind worshpers of a blind goddess. The ancient Romans showed their wisdom in pieturing her with eyes shut and large wings on her feet. She sees nothing of the sacrifices of her worshipers, and she cares nothing for the heartbreak of those who have given her their all. She cares not whose fortune she snatches away. When she gathers up the gold in her arms those wings on her feet can make her and her treasured burden disappear as quickly as a roulette wheel can whirl, as quickly as a mans deed for his house can change hands at the turning of card, as quick ly as race horse can travel about the track of a derby. The goddess of chance can fly away so quickly than in an in stant a man can be ruined for time and eternity.
 My theme is defiant gambling. Defiant yea! The gambler defies God and in ut ter recklessness stakes his fortune in this world and his hopes of the next. This accursed evil is a violation of Gods laws as well as mans. Defiant because when the winnings and 1osings of a gamblers lifetime are balanced it will inevitably be found that the demon Fortuna has robbed her victim both of his soul and his pocketbook The smile of this evil genius is more to be dreaded than her frown. The smile allures, but 1t hides the scowl which might warn ..ie devotee of the ruthlessness with which she in- tends con .)letely and eternally to destroy him. The hangmans suavities do not make the ropes grip less fatal; neither , did the politeness and difference with which the Parisian executioner welcomed Louis XVI. to the guillotine blunt the l keen edge of the descending knife.
 Gambling Is Robbery.
 Gambling is robbery It takes wealth | and gives nothing in return. It puts not one copper into the worlds treasury It plants no seed. 1t digs no gold from the mine. 1t grows no wool upon the sheeps back. It builds no steamship lines. It manufactures no goods, and it retails no finished products It does nothing for national or social development. It had no more to do with the marvellous de- velopment of the twentieth century than the vast riches of the piratical bucca- neers of old had to do with creating the wealth of the fourteenth and fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries. It's mission is always ruinous. Ever does 1t raise black flag of death and never the white flag which should always be carried by the "heroes of peace."
 Gambling cannot even lay claim to the indirect advantages which a legitimate business provides for the community. Every legitimate business is benefit to mankind. When a man like old Commo- dore Vanderbilt started out to make success in this world not even his most intimate friends could charge him with being an intentional philanthropist Any one who had any financial dealings with old Cornelius always knew that he was looking out first and last for himself, and for himself alone. But when Cornelius Vanderbilt in the legitimate role of rail- road developer served himself he was also serving mankind His railroads gave employment to thousands and tens of of men and supported those mems families. His iron roads developed whole regions in the west which would never have been opened by any other pi- oneer than the Cyclopean eye of the To- comotive's headlight. When old Corne- lius Vanderbilt made millions of dollars for himself he also made millions for his employees and hundreds of millions for his But what increase of capital did the world receive when in 1861, man of the name of Garcia at the Homburg gambling resort won in one night 1,750,- GOO francs or when, about the same time in Wiesbaden two Freedmen lost 100000 francs, or when, few years ago, Khalil Bey lost at the gambling table g., GOO, 900 which he had inherited from his father or when the niece of Cardinal Mazarin won in single sitting from the Duchess of Portsmouth $4O,000 or Lady Castle maine of Charles IFS court lost in one night over $125,0O0? Did all these trans actions increase the worlds wealth by the value of one five cent loaf of bread? Did they help in one instance to feed the