Representatives of the secular and religious press!
I thank you, in the name of Christianity and civilization,
for the enlightenment of ignorance, the overthrow
of iniquity, and the words you have uttered in the
cause of God and your country. But I charge you
in the name of God, before whom you must account for
the tremendous influence you hold in this country,
to consecrate yourselves to higher endeavors.
You are the men to fight back this invasion of corrupt
literature. Lift up your right hand and swear
new allegiance to the cause of philanthropy and religion.
And when, at last, standing on the plains of judgment,
you look out upon the unnumbered throngs over whom
you have had influence, may it be found that you were
among the mightiest energies that lifted men upon
the exalted pathway that leads to the renown of heaven.
Better than to have sat in editorial chair, from which,
with the finger of type, you decided the destinies
of empires, but decided them wrong, that you had been
some dungeoned exile, who, by the light of window
iron-grated, on scraps of a New Testament leaf, picked
up from the hearth, spelled out the story of Him who
taketh away the sins of the world.
IN ETERNITY, DIVES IS THE BEGGAR!
THE FATAL TEN-STRIKE.
While among my readers are those who have passed on
into the afternoon of life, and the shadows are lengthening,
and the sky crimsons with the glow of the setting
sun, a large number of them are in early life, and
the morning is coming down out of the clear sky upon
them, and the bright air is redolent with spring blossoms,
and the stream of life, gleaming and glancing, rushes
on between flowery banks, making music as it goes.
Some of you are engaged in mercantile establishments,
as clerks and book-keepers; and your whole life is
to be passed in the exciting world of traffic.
The sound of busy life stirs you as the drum stirs
the fiery war-horse. Others are in the mechanical
arts, to hammer and chisel your way through life;
and success awaits you. Some are preparing for
professional life, and grand opportunities are before
you; nay, some of you already have buckled on the armor.
But, whatever your age or calling, the subject of
gambling, about which I speak in this chapter, is
pertinent.
Some years ago, when an association for the suppression
of gambling was organized, an agent of the association
came to a prominent citizen and asked him to patronize
the society. He said, “No, I can have no
interest in such an organization. I am in no wise
affected by that evil.”
At that very time his son, who was his partner in
business, was one of the heaviest players in “Herne’s”
famous gaming establishment. Another refused
his patronage on the same ground, not knowing that
his first book-keeper, though receiving a salary of
only a thousand dollars, was losing from fifty to
one hundred dollars per night. The president of
a railroad company refused to patronize the institution,
saying—“That society is good for
the defence of merchants, but we railroad people are
not injured by this evil;” not knowing that,
at that very time, two of his conductors were spending
three nights of each week at faro tables in New York.
Directly or indirectly, this evil strikes at the whole
world.
