TALMAGE ON GAMBLING.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3603, 29 January 1883, Page 4

TALMAGE ON GAMBLING.

The New York Times thus describes a sermon by Dr. Tahnage on the curse of gambling-:—"What the Rev. T. De Witt Tahnage knows about gambling , was fully and. freely told to a congregation which crowded the Brooklyn Tabernacle yesterday morning. The preacher was in his happiest mood. His countenance never writhed to better advantage, his voice never piped in shriller keys, his body, wrapped in black broadcloth, was never more elastic, nor his legs more inspiriugly nervous. New blai.-k----rimmed spectacles adorned the modest ministerial nose. He rushed directly to the fray. The gambling evil in our times, he eaid, has taken on imperial airs. It has attacked and outraged the people, and is Bending thousands of victims to financial and moral ruin. The time has come to put it down, and down it has got to go. The one absorbing question of to-day is the question of this monster's destruction and how to ensure it. The gambler's vile establishments are raised all round us, and the proprietors are insolent. They dictate to politicians and vaunt their power. Men trim to please them and profit themselves. In Long Island city tho coroner provides one gambling shop with accommodations. That coroner has an eye to business. ' I ■walked along tho streets of Cincinnati one day last week,' said Mr Tahnage, 'and the sounds of rattling dice rang loudly out from the saloons. I stopped in a country village, and in front of the little hotel gambling was publicly carried on. The evil is everywhere. It boasts of its Btrength. The time has como for its destruction. An iron hook has got to be plunged into its nose. Christianity has got to prove (hat it is stronger than crime. For every man, woman, and

child in this congregation the fight involves three worlds—earth, heaven, and hell." Tho preacher dwelt long - upon the extent of gambling and its grasp upon the public, and with his graphic ; rhetoric told all about sumptuous saloons with their rose-wood-roulette tables, gaudy paintings, liveried servants, free drinks, free lunches, marked cards, and loaded dice. He also described the pretty vernacular of the poolroom and policy shop, though again and again he intimated as he winked his loft eye towards the cushioned scats of the Tabernacle, that there were scores of his hearers who needed no instructions. Betting on three numbers, he said, was a 'gig,' and betting on four numbers a 'horse.' 'You know all about it,' ejaculated the preacher, as he swept his glance over the congregation, ' and there are men within the sound of my voice who on that gig and behind that horse are riding - swift to perdition.' He told how monej r was made by betting on the ace, and related pathetic stories of young men among his acquaintances who had missed the ace and lost. Mr Talmage seemed to have no respect for people who played cards and could not win. He reminded his friends of the Stock Exchange, and more earnest warnings against the sinful customs of Wall-street never fell even from the lips of Deacon Russell Sage. Mr Talmage explained that the region round about the Stock Exchange was filled with vile gambling saloons. The broker who gets xip a corner on stock, and ' so forces down prices,' exclaimed the erudite divine, ' must have other amusements and excitements when the bedlamitish gold-room closes its business for the day.' Mr Talmage concluded his discourse by arraigning gift enterprises of every sort, and unhesitatingly averred that ho had no respect for charity which thus lurked behind the vice of gambling."