Notice also the effect of this crime upon domestic happiness. It hath
sent its ruthless ploughshare through hundreds of families, until the
wife sat in rags, and the daughters were disgraced, and the sons grew
up to the same infamous practices, or took a short cut to destruction
across the murderer's scaffold. Home has lost all charms for the
gambler. How tame are the children's caresses and a wife's devotion to
the gambler! How drearily the fire burns on the domestic hearth! There
must be louder laughter, and something to win and something to lose;
an excitement to drive the heart faster and fillip the blood and fire
the imagination. No home, however bright, can keep back the gamester.
The sweet call of love bounds back from his iron soul, and all
endearments are consumed in the flame of his passion. The family Bible
will go after all other treasures are lost, and if his everlasting
crown in heaven were put into his hand he would cry: "Here goes, one
more game, my boys! On this one throw I stake my crown of heaven.
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