Newspapers / The Orphans’ Friend (Oxford, … / June 14, 1876, edition 1 / Page 1
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VOLUME II. OXEOEJ3, N. C., WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 1876. NUMBEE 24. A SBKMOi\ 0!« BOTTEKtES. Lotteries, tliougli forbidden by law, are so often advertised in popular papers and endorsed by influential names, that many sim ple persons are deluded with un founded hopes of drawing fanci ful fortunes. The Masonic lot tery of Norfolk was severely de nounced by the Grand Lodge of Virginia, and yet hundreds of good people invested their money therein. Gov. Bramlette, of Ken tucky, has received two hundred thousand dollars for the use of his name in connection with the Lou isville lottery. No wonder so many tickets drew blanks. Eev. B. 51. 5Iessiok, of Louisville, de voted a sermon to the subject. It i.s worthy of a careful perusal. Text, I Samuel, xv.: 22, “ Behold, to obe)^ is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams: “ The latest sensation of our city is “ The Public Library Drawing”—a profound arid far- reaching sensation — rendering Louisville the center of attraction, not only to the State, but to the nation. A public library is surely a great thing—greath^ to bo desir ed, appreciated, and enjoyed. The founders of public libraries deserve well of their fellows, and have ever been honored by them. The name and the fame of Ptole my Phiiadelphus, the founder of the ancient Alexandrian Library, are pei’petuated with deserved re nown : while the memory of the (hiliph Oiuar, the ruthless de- s'royer of that library, is justly execrated by jjosterity. Augus tus contemplated the best inter ests of his subjects in the public libraries founded by him, and merited tlie praises of the Komans. Sir Thomas Bodley, of the Bod leian Libraty, is one of the hon ored names of English history. John Jacob Astor, of the Astor Library, is no mean name in the history of our own country. The founders of public libraries are public benefactors who well de serve their crown. A public li brary—a great public blessing, disseminating knowledge, espec ially among the masses unable to buy books; educating, elevating the people—a fountain of living waters, a boon from Heaven. . The founders of a public libra ry in Louisville would merit the respect and gratitude of the pres ent, and of generations ymt un born. A public library—a noble institution, worthy the liberality of individuals, and the patronage of the State—a monument more enduring than marble to the pub lic spirit of the one, and the phil anthropy of the other. But a public lottery is a great curse, greatly to be deprecated, to be feared. The founders of public lotteries do not deserve well of their fellows, and have not al ways escaped deserved censure. Pirblic lotteries in Queen Anne’s t me were styled “ public nuisan- cr s,” and in the early history of our country the agents of lotteries were styled “ plunderers of the people.” A public lottery, a pub lic curse—cursing especially the poorer classes, who, from their circumstances, are more apt to re- so"t to it—cursing them thus : 1. With a poor purse; taking the money of the many, who need all they have, and giving it to the few—the agents of the enterprise and the lucky ones who draw the prizes. Eobbing the many to en rich the few. And how insatiate is the monster—drawing, draw ing, drawing, while there is a drop of life-blood in its deluded victim’s veins. Nonmissura cutcm, nisi plena cruoris Mrudo. 2. With poorer principles; teaching the false and pernicious doctrine that men are to get money without working for it. Labor—the great law of life and the condition of w ;alth, the fundamental principle of political economy and the cor ner-stone of society—this law an nulled, the foundations of social and civil life are shaken, and an- archy% with all its untold evils, reigns. Legalizing a public lot tery, the State demoralizes its cit izens, turning them aside from the peaceful walks of honest toil. The State forging its own fetters, its own follyy vulture-like, feeding on its vitals. 3. Witli the poor est prospects; tempting to a damning habit—gambling. 5Ion- ey a man must have, by work or by chance. Abandoning work, and committing himself to chance, he tries his luck again and again, till he is bound hand and foot by the fatal habit, and all is lost. And as men who enter the lists of f •r une demand another and an- oiher chance, so the people-loving 1 ittery, by its successive drawings, responds to the demand, and not only- teaches m m the first steps of g iwbling, but I ads them on in die deadly dance to the music of hundreds of thousands. The wheel of fortune thus becomes the iron wheel of fate, wdiose hapless victims, Ixion-like, forever pay their folly’s penalty. But there is a defense of lotte ries made by their friends—a de fense of no recent date. There is a natural propensity in men for games of chance, a propensity that will find gratification. Now, is it not better, by legalized lot teries, comparatively innocent, to gratify this native propensity' in men, than to let them resort to worse kinds of gambling ! Tak ing the less of two evils 1 This defense of lotteries reminds me of the argument for the use of wine as a common beverage among the people to save men from drunk enness. The logic being, make a nation of drinkers, to prevent a brigade of drunkards. Better that all men should be half drunk than that some should be dead drunk. Fill our reservoir with wine, or some men will drink whisky. Authorize all men to drink the wine of gambling, or some unfor tunates will drink its gall, and fill its dishonored graves. A recent defense of the lottery is the pleasure men enjoy in the anticipation of a jorize they' may never draw. 5Ien must have some pleasing object to which to look —the anticipation its own reward. But will the coin of unrealized anticipation pass current in the blank day of failure ? The fatal anticipation, siren-like, only rests upon the wrecking rooks of de spair and desperation. The mem ory of the day’s anticipation will light a b.illiant star in the long night of the soul’s repentance. TTiis summer-day dream will kin dle a cheering fire in the coming winter of discontent. The lottery- must plead guilty at the bar of reason; guilty' of high crimes against the best interests of men, and the welfare of the State. And would that the court of public opinion might consign it to a felon’s grave, to sleeo the sleep that knows no waking. Oil one side, we have a public library, a great public blessing; on the other, a public lottery, a great public cursi—one, a tree of life to the people ; the other, a tree of death, blighting all be neath its pestilential shadow— one, a Gerizim of blessings; the other, an Ebal of cursings. Is it a good investment to have a public library at the price of a public lottery f The library edu cates the mind, developing its God-like powers ; the lottery' cor rupts the heart and paralyzes the public arm. The intellectual and lower nature educated at the ex pense of the higher moral nature. Knowdedge is power, but for evil if not well conditioned. A knave is by no- means a fool. The devil is mighty in evil, arch-enemy of God and man, and his great knowledge is no small element of his damming power. “Tlie prince of the power of the aii-, the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience.” Knowd edge is the most formidable weapon in the giant hands of vice. The head equipped, the heart de praved, and the hand is skilled to desolate aid destroy. A Plato’s head, a Nero’s heart, and a Tamerlane’s hand, building its ghastly throne of human skulls. A public library, that blesses the mind of the rising g meration, is as the Tree of Knowledge in the uiidst of the paradise of God; but if its condition be a public lottery, that curses tlie heart and palsies the hand, it is as “the fruit of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste brought death into the world, and all our woe.” Louisville would be infinitely better off without a public lottery. How can the good and true spread an intellectual feast for the people, -with such a sword of Damocles suspended over the moral life of the people 1 But abating all the evils that may flow from a public lottery, and granting, without qualifica tion, all the inestimable blessings of a public library, is it right to have the library at the coast of the lottery-, the morality of which is a least questionable I Can the conscientious be parties to such a contract ? Now to the text and context. God commanded Saul to go up against the sinners, the Amale- kites, and utterly destroy them, with all they had. The king, in stead of des:roying to the letter the command of God, took Agag, the King of the Amalekites, alive, and his soldiers reserved the rich est of the spoils, the best of the sheep and of the oxen. The Lord sent Samuel the Prophet, to remonstrate with Saul. And at the interview betw-een the king and the prophet, Saul compla cently- said he had obeyed the word of the Lord; but the prophet answered, '‘What mean- eth, then, this bleating of the sheejr in mine ears, and the low- i.ig of the oxen that I liearf And Saul said that his peoj 1) had reserved the best of the sheep and oxen, not for their own use, but for a holy purpose, even to sacrifice unto the Lord God of Israel. True, they had not obeyed the very letter of the di vine command, but they had God’s glory in view, and would make ample amends—w-ould offer a splendid, Heaven-propitiating sacrifice in Gilgal. But Samuel replies, “Hath ttie Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in obey-ing the voice of the Lord ?” And then the prophet utters the noble senti ment of the text: “Behold, to obey is bettor than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” The end does not justify the means in the eye of God. Ee- sults, how-ever great and glorious, are vitiated if there be any wrong in the means by which they are attained. “A dead fly causeth the precious ointment to send firth a stinking savor.” A grain of evil discolors an ocean of good. Burnt-offerings and whole burnt- offerings are no acceptable sac rifice to the 5Iost High if there be spot or blemish in any victim. St. Peter’s may be the crowning glory of papal Eome, but the sale of indulgences traces upon it in letters of fire, “Ichabod”! The Public Library may be ever so grand a sacrifice to the Common wealth, but the bleating of the sheep ! The Public Library may be an arch of triumph to Louis ville, but the lowing of the oxen of the public lottery ! Saul saved the life of Agag, that as a captive he might swell his royal triumph, but Saul’s triumph cost him his crown. So the Agag of the pub lic lottery- robs Louisville of the crown of the Public Library. We turn now to the relation of the Church to this question. Can Christians have anything to do with this matter I Is it to the hon or of Jesus that his people should be either principals or accessor ies f Yes, if there bo communion between light and darkness, con cord between Christ and ■ Belial. Yet W0 understand that not a few Church-members have been be trayed into this thing—surely not withoutsome show of reason. And we pass in review their defense; (1) The specious plea of charity. You give to a worthy object, a noble charity. But it is poor charity that consults its own in- trrest, giving ten dollars, honing for a hundred thousand in return. Beautiful picture of Christian charity-—one hand casting in its mites, the other eagerly grasping after millions ; much like Saul’s mercy sparing the life of the king of the Amalekites, but slaying his people with the edge of the sword!—charity that “seeketh not its own,” “giving, hoping for nothing again !” The wrongs that are done in thy- sacred name, 0 charity- ! (2) The noble uses to which y o .i would put the pri zes you draw. Y^ou would give to the Church, to the ministrv, t > Missions, to widows and orphans scattering gifts witli generous hand ; build altars, and sacrifice unto the Lord, devoting f 11 to re ligious pu-poses—God’s name praised. But God requires obe dience, not sacrifice. He needs not your vain ob'atio; s. His, rivers of oil and the cattle upon a thousand hills. Your holo causts are an abomination unto him. “To what purpose is the m iltitude of your sacrifices unto me I” saith the Lord. T am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bul locks, or of lambs, or of ho goats.’ (3) You are poor, and feel that God would wink at y-our provi ding for y-our wife and children in this way-. Possibly- he will place his hand,upon the wheel • nlcast the golden lot into his needy servant’s lap. God, of old, gave his people Israel their in heritance by lot; may be he will give Christians the inheritance of other people in the same way. Poverty is no plea for wrong-do ing. You had better starve, and your children with y-ou, than sin against your God. ^ “5Ian shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” But God’s faithful people do not starve. “Daily- bread” is the etei-nal cov enant of God with his people. While the infinite resources of the everlasting God fail not while the inexhaustible treasures of earth and heaven honor his calls. Ids people shall be fed. ‘In the time of famine they- shall bo satisfied.’ Let the heavens be as brass, and the earth as iron, for them the wilderness shall rejoice, and the waste places bloom and blossom as the rose. Of his pil grim-people in the desert the mighty God hath spoken ; ‘Their water shall be sure, and their bread shall not fail.’ Trust not y-our wives and little ones to the fickle goddess. Chance : but trust all to your convenant-keeping God, whose are all things, and to whom be glory forever and ever. Strange that Christians would covet the prize of sin—an Achan’s wedge of gold—Judas’s silver— a millstone about the neck, sink ing into the depths of the sea. Far better a little of God’s bless ings, than all riches with his frown. “A little with righteous ness is better than great revenues with wrong.” David would have Uriah’s wife, even at the cost of Uriah’s life; but Uriah’s blood was upon David, and upon his house after him. Ahab coveted Naboth’s viney-ard, and Jezebel secured him the prize; but the dogs of destiny licked the blood of Ahab. 5Iammon, “the least erected spirit that fell from hea ven,” is a mighty- god, tempting even God’s people from their al legiance. ‘‘The wages of un- righteousness” is the fatal field whereon not only- the bones of Balaam lie bleaching, but whe.re many mighty- have fallen. “Ye cannot servo God and Ylammon.” Christians are the representatives of Jesus—his honor is committed to them. The eyes of the world are upon them, and their influ ence for good or ill is tremendous. By their example they light men on the way to God and heaven, or decoy tliem on to the rocks of death and hell. Even in things the morality- of which is doubtful, they must give the benefit of the doubt to Gi,id, not the world. In things different, things having, no C Continued m third paejc.J mam
The Orphans’ Friend (Oxford, N.C.)
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June 14, 1876, edition 1
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