The Expositor's Bible: The Book of ProverbsHorton, Robert F. (Robert Forman)
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Proverbs
Horton, Robert F. (Robert Forman)
Bible. Proverbs -- Commentaries
so because it is accepted as necessary.
The Bandit life has here emerged in a new form. "Come, let us lay wait
for blood," says the Sweater or the Fogger, "let us lurk privily for
the innocent without cause; let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, and
whole as those that go down into the pit."[23] The Bandit is an
outcast from society, and his hand is turned against the rich. The
Sweater is an outcast from society, and his hand is turned against
the poor. By "laying wait" he is able to demand, from weak men, women,
and children, the long hours of the day for unceasing toil, and the
bitter hours of the night for hunger and cold, until the gaunt
creatures, worn with weariness and despair, find a solace in
debauchery or an unhallowed rest in death.
Now, though the temptation to become a sweater may not affect many or
any of us, I should like to ask, Are there not certain trades or
occupations, into which some of us are tempted to enter, perfectly
honeycombed with questionable practices? Under the pretext that it is
all "business," are not things done which can only be described as
preying upon the innocence or the stupidity of our neighbours? Sometimes
the promise is, "We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our
houses with spoil."[24] Sometimes the simple object is to escape
starvation. But there is the miserable temptation to sacrifice probity
and honour, to stifle compassion and thought, in order to bring into our
own coffers the coveted wealth. And is there not, I ask, a similar
temptation lurking in a thousand haunts more or less respectable--a
temptation which may be described as the spirit of _gambling_? The
essence of all gambling, whether it be called speculative business or
gaming, in stock and share markets or in betting clubs and turf rings,
is simply the attempt to trade on the supposed ignorance or misfortune
of others, and to use superior knowledge or fortune for the purpose, not
of helping, but of robbing them. It may be said that we do it in
self-defence, and that others would do the same by us; yes, just as the
bandit says to the young man, "We do not want to injure the traveller
yonder; we want his purse. He will try to shoot you; you only shoot him
in self-defence." It is the subtlety of all gambling that constitutes
its great danger. It seems to turn on the principle that we may do what
we like with our own; it forgets that its object is to get hold of what
belongs to others, not by honest work or service rendered, but simply by
cunning and deception.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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