A Discourse on the Evils of Gaming. the keen, bright sickle, or with the skilful and ready hand, or with active eye, or busy brain, live, and work, and reap your harvest. In such a course you shall never fail. In others, every step you take is fraught with evil. A great promise brightens upon the one-a fearful threatening shadows the other. Hear them, and heed them. "He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread; but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough. A faithful man shall abound with blessings; but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." Suffer me, in closing, to indulge in one other strain of remark. I would say that the motives which will effectually deter men from the vice of gaming, or reform those addicted to it, will spring from a religious view of the matter. When they reflect upon the true ends of life, upon the purpose of all its gifts and opportunities, upon the objects for which we should labor and live, — when they reflect, I say, upon these things, with a steadfast, solemn, searching earnestness, and act upon them, they will cast away the implements of their unlawful pursuit; they will shun the gaming-house as the pavilion of death, and act and aim for those things that lead to duty, and heaven, and God. But, my friends, should we pause here with the gamester, or with those tempted by the vice of gaming? Whatever may be our occupation, so long as we pursue courses that do not comprehend, as their result, the great end of life—that do not employ the gifts and opportunities of existence in a proper manner - that do not aim for duty, and heaven, and God- we need to be aroused, to change our course, and to act. If we are hazarding opportunities, and gifts, and faculties, for mere A Discourse on the Evils of Gaming. earthly and sensual gain, what are we but gamesters, all? If we are playing for wealth, or pleasure, or fame, instead of living for another life — instead of seeking that we may grow like Christ, and come to the perfect stature of men and women in him—it is time that we should labor for higher destinies. We may apply the text with a deeper significancy, if we will. "He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread his land. his possession-his soil; what nobler possession, what richer soil, than that of the human soul?—what bread more enduring than that " which cometh down from heaven"?—He that cultivateth his soul, then openeth it to the sunshine and the rains of grace - that letteth immortal seed drop therein, and anxiously toils and watches for the harvest-"shall have plenty of bread," of eternal fruit. "But he that followeth after vain persons," or vain things-how differ they?"shall have poverty enough;" shall have leanness, and barrenness, and deadness of moral and religious life. So, too, “a faithful man shall abound with blessings, —a faithful man - a man faithful to his duty, to all his duty; "but he that maketh haste to be rich". he that is eager in - that unlawful pursuits, or in the career of mere human pleasure, wealth, fame – "shall not be innocent; shall not be free from the accusations of conscience and the claims of duty- shall be found sinful and guilty. tillers of the land - let Thus, my friends, can the text have a meaning for us all. Let us heed it let us be us be faithful men and women. For" he that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread; but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough. A faithful man shall abound with blessings; but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." Conclusion. CONCLUSION. A few words more before I close this volume. Let no one lay the flattering unction to his soul, that the life of a gambler, under any circumstances, is a happy one. If it were, the Bible would not be true; for we are there told that "the way of transgressors is hard." This is true of evil-doers of every kind, but peculiarly so of gamblers. If the gambler is unsuccessful, his wickedness of mind, and feeling of self-degradation, are more than it is in the power of language to portray. And if, on the other hand, he is successful, his mental condition is scarcely, if any, better. Unless he has schooled himself into a state of brutal insensibility, he is, even in the midst of the most profuse luxury and gorgeous splendor, constantly tortured with those pangs of remorse, which must ever harrow up the bosoms of those who riot in the possession of ill-gotten gain. And, besides, there is no wealth that is so precarious and evanescent as that of the gambler. To-day his coffers are filled, and he is surrounded with multitudes of smirched, fawning flatterers, and he fondly blesses himself that "his mountain stands strong;" that Fortune will always smile propitiously upon him. To-morrow, his riches have, to his own and to every body's astonishment, taken to themselves wings and flown away; and now his accustomed crowd of flatterers have all disappeared like a scene of enchantment, and none are so poor as to do him reverence. But if any are disposed to question the instability of the gambler's wealth, and, at the same time, are believers in the inspiration of the Scriptures, I beg them to listen to their testimony: it is this" He that by usury and unjust gain Conclusion. increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor." This is the firm, the irrevocable decree of Heaven, and no power on earth can defeat or circumvent the execution of it. Sooner or later, in some form or other, it will be verified in every solitary instance, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. A distinguished writer has said, that "a day, an hour, of virtuous liberty is worth a whole eternity of bondage." For twelve years I was addicted to the vice of gambling; and few, perhaps, have had greater success than I had. For more than two years past I have been happily divorced from that vice, and have been humbly endeavoring to lead a new life; and most truly can I say, that I would not give one hour of such pleasure as I now experience, for all that I ever realized while enslaved by that odious and destructive vice. And to my former companions in folly, I would earnestly and most affectionately say, in conclusion, Escape for your lives from that gulf to which you are hastening. Return to the walks of virtue and usefulness; and certain I am that you will never, never repent of it, but will always cherish the remembrance of it as one of the happiest days of your existence. The generous-hearted and the good will every where welcome you with open arms; and if you persevere in your reformation, the dark passages in your former history will be buried in perpetual oblivion, -- - the past will be forgotten, and will be as though it had never been. The benevolence of society is becoming more and more assimilated to the benevolence of God himself. And what does God promise to the reclaimed, repentant wanderer from the path of virtue? It is, that he will remember his iniquities against him no more forAnd thus it is with enlightened Christian so ever. |