ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2206, 23 November 1920, Page 2

ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH.

RACING, BETTING, GAMBEING

The vicar of All Saints’ Chiirch, on Sunday evening, took for his text; “S r eek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and all those tilings shall be added unto you.” He pointed out that pleasure Avas an absolute necessity in these days of mental and physical strain. The difficulty was to guide and direct our recreation. The secret lay in the text. Let, us seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and all things shall he added unto us—even mir pleasures. The subjects to be dealt with that evening, the vicar said, were Racing, Betting and Gambling. It urns a sad fuel; that this country was permeated with the spirit of gambling. Our noblest sports were defiled Avilh it. In defence it had often been argued that, life itself was a gamble, but (hat was a great mistake. Life, as

Inr as we wore eoueerued. was an uncertainty. but mil a gamble. To .-ay so was a direct insult (o God, who, in Divine Love, directed all our ways. He had been asked to detino gambling, lie could no! do better than i|iiole definitions’by two prominent and highly intellectual men —the one a great minister of the church, the Dean of Poehesier, the other a great 'moralist, Herbert Spencer. The Dean interpreted gambling to be a seeking of personal gain through another's loss, even with their consent, without adequate return; whilst Herbert Spencer said it is a kind of action by which plca.-ure and profit; is obtained at the cost of pain and loss to another. These definitions both stamp gambling with the same truth, namely, a direct opposition to the true leaching of Christ, in so far as brotherly love and brotherly service were completely tossed aside, to be replaced by a horrible and selfish greed and desire for persona! gain, no matter what it cost, another.

Pacing was a noble sport. He could not imagine a more enjoyable Vght than seeing magnificent creatures like horses pitting their fleet strength against one another. Me had often longed to go to a race meeting to enjoy this great sight, but because of the defilement east over it by the spirit of gambling he had persistently turned his back on the desire. Fnfortunately, the same evil was creeping into other manly and desirable sports. The football, cricket, ami baseball liekls were all being converted into areas in which to exercise this wretched evil. How, then can the church help to clean these sports and the community? First she must emphatically refrain from using those methods of raising money which appeal to this inordinate desire —raffling, guessing competitions. etc,, must he eliminated from every financial, scheme, and then by each one of us walking closely in the path laid open by Jesus Christ, *by seeking first and 4 before all things the happiness and well being of those around us, and by turning resolutely from such a base desire as self-onrielnnent at the cost of personal, and often painful, loss by another.