Religious Gambling and Church Fairs.
Every sort of device is employed these days to delude people with the hope that they may obtain that for which they give no adequate equivalent. Lotteries, gift books, gift concerts, art unions, and a host of other “gift enterprises,” hold out their seductive inducements on every side. Every kind of benevolent undertaking, with some honorable exceptions, must have its raffle to dispose of some article to somebody, for a hundredth part of its value, for the benefit of something or somebody. And, provided only that the object be a good one, it is no matter if a taste for gambling be implanted in the minds of fifty young men who shall afterward turn harpies and make mankind their prey. There are a few old-fashion people in the world who are sorry to see the church degrade herself to receive the spoils of this sort of gain. How often have the hearts of the pious been pained at the account of a large sum of money raised at a church fair by means of a raffle. And how many good people are kept aloof from all these expedients to raise money because the gambling leprosy has tainted them. How is it possible for a rector of a church to stand up on the Lord’s day and rebuke sin, when he receives for his hire the wages of sin, or some ornament or decoration of his church, in full view of his congregation, is purchased with the reward of unrighteousness? Is it not the most natural thing in the world for young men to go away from the pious gambling at a church fair, and take part in the impious gambling in one of the “hells?” And is it any wonder that his moral sense becomes befogged in endeavoring to draw the distinction between an innocent raffle for a ladies’ patched quilt, and standing up square at a faro table and “fighting the tiger?” The Legislatures of nearly every State in the Union have exhausted their wisdom in devising laws to check this evil, whilst the churches have been devising schemes to evade the law, and foster it, so that we have the strange spectacle of the civil legislation of the country arrayed on one side of a great evil to check it, and the churches, many of them, arrayed on the other to promote it. This may be thought strong language, but it can scarcely be thought untrue. We consider it time that something be done to call the serious attention of Christians to this important subject. And as, in order to prescribe a proper remedy, it is always necessary to make a diagnosis first, so in this case we would look for the cause with a view to seeking a cure. The cause of this, we apprehend, springs from wrong views of Christian duty as to giving. Giving is a religious duty, and should be performed as an act of solemn worship to Almighty God—the worshiper laying on God’s altar according as God hath prospered him. Did any one ever hear of a church where the people gave according to their ability, that had to resort to church fairs? The fairs are all wrong, even when conducted on honorable principles, for the reason that they discredit giving as a religious duty. They are also unwise as a financial measure. Nothing is surer than that in the long run, less money is raised in this way than by direct giving. For, in the first place, the habit of giving is destroyed; in the second, the religious obligation to give is weakened; and in the third place, men will say—when money is wanted for any purpose—Oh, let the ladies get up a fair, and they will get it out of the community in general, without any body in particular giving very much. So that in point of worldly wisdom, even, without considering religious duty at all, it is plain to be seen that it is unwise and an evil. The remedy we would propose is this: Never use for religious purposes, money obtained by any one of these countless devices. Let the plain, Bible duty of giving be insisted on. Let it be proclaimed from the pulpit, insisted on by church officers, inculcated by heads of families. Under the darkness of the Mosaic dispensation, one-tenth of income was solemnly set apart for religious purposes. Surely, under the greater light of the gospel, a joyful obedience would not stop at the bare boundary of a legal demand. Duty demands one-tenth. Christian love and liberality know no bound but inability. But it may be replied to this, we are already giving all that we are able, and yet we must have more. In reply to this we have to say, we don’t believe it, and neither do you; but even if it were true, it does not follow that you ought to resort to any of these make-shifts. No, having given all that an enlightened conscience and a glowing heart prompt, trust God for the remainder, and if you ought to have it, it will come. The just shall live by faith.