Temperance.

Southern Cross, Volume 6, Issue 35, 10 December 1898, Page 2

Temperance.

(Published by arrangement ■with

the W.C.T.U.)

BETTING—THE FOE OF SOCIETY

By Prof. Marcus Dods, D.D. What, then, is the inherent vice of betting ? Recognising .the evils which it unquestionably produces, can we also lay our finger on that very quality in the act itself which makes it wrong and constitutes it a breach of moral law ? Obviously, it runs directly counter to the roost rudimentary ideas of what is due to society and to ourselves as members of society. For, fundamental to the idea of Society is the law that everyone who enjoys its advantages should contribute to its well-being. The man who wins money without producing the money’s worth, or in any way benefiting those from whom he derives it, transgresses this radical law, and becomes a mere parasite or abscess on the body of which he ought to be a helpful member, consuming the substance and contributing nothing to the strength. But, it is objected, there are many besides betting men who are in this condemnation; those who have inherited sufficient means and live a life of leisure ; those who, from any cause, are above the necessity of working. Of such the same law holds good. There are those who, by reason of old age or infirmity, are unable to benefit society by any active exertion ; but where there is no such obstacle every man, in whatever affluence born, is bound to toil for the good of the community. The mere consumer is a mean and worthless parasite. And this craving to acquire wealth ■without producing its equivalent acts disastrously on the man’s self. It turns life upside down. The sole enduring satisfaction in life, the one that above all else makes life worth living, is to forward a little the interests of our fellow r -raen, to do some little piece of the world’s work, to drive one firm bolt in the ship of the State, to lift someone to a happier standing, in one way or other to put strength into the common stock. But when gambling takes hold of a man and possesses him, as it does with such surprising rapidity and tenacity, he can no longer aim at anything but bis own gain. There are other reasons for thinking that betting must be condemned by every citizen who seeks the good of his country, and by every individual who is interested in character and morals. Judged by the law of Christ, which forbids our hastening to be rich, and assures us that it is giving and not getting which blesses human life, it can look only for doom. Let the counsel for the defence be called, and what can he plead P To set over against the deterioration of character, the desolation of homes, the suicides, the mean trickery and fraud, the obstruction, to healthy methods of business, the withdrawal of so many from honest and productive labour, the evoking of what is grasping and selfish in the individual—what has the advocate for betting to plead ? What are the gains it has brought to our social state P What healthy views of life and advance of civilisation bas it introduced F Where are the advantages which are to blind us to the calamitous results of the practice ? In point of fact, there is no one good thing which can be pointed to as produced by betting. It is the prolific mother of a brood without exception evil. —Good Words.