CRIME IN THE CHURCH

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 16, 1879

CRIME IN THE CHURCH.

The Boston Herald of Dec. 16, 1878, publishes a discourse by one of Boston’s ministers, Henry Morgan, giving an exposure of the terrible iniquity of Boston in the line of gambling. Five acres of gambling hells, it seems, are spreading their ruin and devouring their victims in that city. In graphic language he pictures the victims of the gaming table driven to delirium, theft, murder, suicide; breaking the hearts and blasting the prospects of parents, companions, children and friends; and turning happy homes into haunts of darkness and despair. Then in scathing language he charges upon the professed church the sin of abetting and fostering this terrible iniquity. “It is sad,” he says, “to see men throwing dice for the garments of the Son of God, but not sadder than to see under the altars of Christ’s sanctuary church lotteries and raffling. Is money wanted for a church? Fancy articles are set up for shares, raffles, risks, and lotteries, from a bed-quilt to a minister’s surplice and slippers. To sell them, interesting damsels, book in hand, greet you at every step: ‘Take a share, sir? Good cause, sir; for the church, orphan children, and the sewing circle.’ Like ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ the beast is caught by the beauty.”

He adds: “Let the church be pure. Let gambling be done away with.”

This sin on the part of the church has in Wisconsin been taken in hand by the law of the State, and has been denounced from the platform and by both the religious and the secular press. But what has been the effect? When was there ever more of this thing than to-day? And what must be the condition of a church which, under these circumstances, will not renounce and restrain a practice over which so many are stumbling to ruin. Verily, those prophecies which shadow forth a great religious declension in the last days are only too accurately fulfilled.