Counsels on Stewardship

The Lure of Lotteries

Then there is some lottery business connected with it, and one young man that goes there, obtains a gold watch. What then? The watch may be genuine gold, it may be no fraud, but ah, there is a fraud back of that, and that is the snare. If he has gained this once, he will want to try it again. Oh, I would rather, if it had been a son of mine, have him lying in his coffin than sporting that gold watch. Then, here are other boys. He shows his watch to them, and then there is an itching with them to try their luck in just the same way, and so they will attempt this matter themselves. Then another will attempt it, and another; and so the influence extends from one to another; and the devil knows just how to play his game.—Manuscript 1, 1890. CS 241.1