may begin the process of corruption; then let him, with words and descriptions fitted to his purpose, awaken feelings averse to all that is good and pure; let him lead the way into the haunts of vice and dens of shame, and how will such a sinner destroy much good? how will such a tempter prevail over the young, and the unstable, and the ardent? how will one such associate spread the plague of lust through a score of hearts, until he has infected all that gay company, armed conscience with red hot arrows, cast down their innocency to the earth, stripped them of conscious rectitude, filled their imaginations with unhallowed ideas, and rendered it impossible for them to mingle in virtuous society, without a constant sense of their own debasement, and a constant suspicion of the reality of virtue in those with whom they associate. Young men are social and full of sympathy, and easily give their confidence to any one who wears their livery; and when a corrupt soul, abandoned to virtue and ensnared by vice, enters their circle, he will oftentimes carry the outworks of good resolutions, and at length triumph over the mind and heart in their richest possessions. Shun, I beseech you, such tempters. Let your associates be men of principle and virtue. Regard these beastly sensualists, whose very presence is corruption, whose breath is pollution, as your worst enemies; as the foes who would destroy not only your outward prospects for this life, but that peace and purity of mind which to you is worth all the world beside. Count that man a robber and murderer who, by pandering to the basest passions, seeks to rob you of the jewel chastity, and murder peace and virtue in your heart. Such fallen and unprincipled men abound in all large cities. They watch for the young and the unsuspecting; they lay their plans warily and out of sight of the bird. Their exterior is often plausible, and gentlemanly; but the poison of asps is under their tongues, the passions and craft of the damned are in their hearts. A father's agony and a mother's tears are music in their ears. Lost to the fine and nobler feelings, filled with suspicion, uneasy in conscience, and agitated with unquiet passions, they know no joy so great as that of triumphing over another's virtue, and sinking others down to their miserable state. The ancients tell us of a bay along the Mediterranean, where, from the winding of the shore, the wind and the waves created such ravishing melody as to attract the passing sailor, and lead him to enter. But, as enchanted with the wondrous music, he forsook his helm, his vessel would strike upon the sunken rocks, and be dashed to pieces. The bones of the dead and the wrecks of vessels whitened all the shore. A fable this, most instructive to all who will give heed to it. For thus, young men, as you sail along in quiet waters, will your ears be addressed by the enrapturing strains of pleasure, soliciting your approach to her fatal shore. But along that shore the eternal God has placed a concealed rocky barrier which you cannot cross, and on which your excellent ship must be dashed to pieces. Listen to that seductive music and yield to its influence, and forsake the path of virtue, and the whitened bones of drowned mariners now bleaching on the shore, declare your end. There is a chastity of the soul which allies the heart to angels; there is a purity that, like the sun, gilds and adorns, and blesses all who come within its influence. A thousand agencies are ever at work in secret and in public to defile such a soul, and snatch from it the crown of virgin flowers; a thousand paths of sin open on every side, conducting the unwary straight to the chambers of death; tempters come to us daily and plead with almost angel eloquence for admittance to the heart. Treasure this jewel. Let it be with you a daily prayer, "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” There is a power divine which you can enlist to aid you in this high work. Seek first the love of Jesus; let repentance for sin humble your heart in the dust, and faith in the great Mediator lift you up to a companionship with the holy. Religion alone will guard you most effectually against the assaults of this adversary. If on your heart there are the spots of this pollution, yet if you will flee to Jesus he will remove them. It is said that no water will wash out the stains of human blood; but the blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin, and robed in his righteousness you shall stand forth spotless as the angels. Be vigilant to guard thy heart against the foes that hourly surround it; let Christ be your strength, and you shall triumph over all sin and live to reign forever in a world of light. They who would have a calm and peaceful bosom in life, and who in death would find a victory that this world cannot give, must tread in the footsteps of apostles and confessors, and holy men, and through watchfulness and many conflicts with flesh, and much resistance of the evil one, attain unto life everlasting. "Mortals that would follow me, Heaven itself would stoop to her." THE PLAY-HOUSE. ACTS xiii, 8, 9, 10. But Elymas the Sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation), withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul (who also is called Paul), filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, and said: O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? ELYMAS was a professor of light-work, of profligate cunning, and the art of magic. His business was deception and amusement-to amuse by deceiving, and deceive by amusing. He belonged to that fraternity whose great aim it is to live by playing upon the credulity or the love of excitement and the desire for amusement of the people. He was not at all scrupulous in the choice of means to accomplish his object; it mattered not to him what high and sacred work he opposed, provided his coffers were filled; he did not hesitate to oppose and vilify an apostle of Jesus Christ, nor would he have hesitated to ridicule and denounce the Savior himself, had he been present. He seemed to know, as it were, instinctively, that the triumph of true religion would be the ruin of his profession; that as the light of the Gospel illumined the soul, it would rise above the arts and deceptions with which he sought to gain a livelihood. Now, although this man was not technically a player, yet he was, in one sense, an actor; his spirit and life, and, to a great extent, his aims, were just those which belong to the theater. And as then the Apostle addressed him in words of the most scathing rebuke, so now, were he present and knew the character and influence of a modern play-house, I am perfectly assured he would speak of it, and those concerned in it, in similar language. My object, to-night, is to justify the assurance here expressed, that the theater, as it is now and ever has been, is one of the most efficient auxiliaries of Satan in debauching the minds of young men and swelling the stream of profligacy, on the bosom of which thousands are borne afar from all the benedictions of the Gospel and the hope of heaven. Regarding it as one of the most pernicious and corrupting institutions of society, full of all subtilty and mischief, a child of the devil, an enemy of all righteousnesss, and the means of perverting the right ways of the Lord in thousands of souls, I wish to state, as fully as time will permit, and as fairly as if I were arguing an indifferent subject, the reasons for such an opinion. And here let me congratulate you, that, in discussing this subject, we have something definite — something known. We understand ourselves precisely when we speak of the theater: for it is no novelty; it is no product of yesterday; it is an institution of centuries; it has now, as it always had from its very origin, a marked, a decided character. It is something that stands out by itself, openly, and fully revealed to the view of all who choose to scrutinize its constitution, and relations, and influence. I am not about, in this sacred place, to attack an imagination, to discuss a may-be, to discourse about an abstraction. We have all too little time in this world, and too many interests, precious as eternity, are depending on our action, to permit us to waste our lives in the pursuit of a merely possible good or the avoidance |