neither expose your own selves to the corrupting influence of "evil communications;" nor by supporting and sanctioning "evil communications," will you become "corrupters" of others.

SERMON XIII.

66

ECCLESIASTES, xi., 9, 10.

Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from thine heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity."

THE Bible is an authoritative message from God to man. It comes to every rational and responsible being with demands upon his attention and obedience, with which he cannot refuse or neglect to comply, without involving himself in the deepest guilt and danger.

This revelation of the mind and will of God contains instruction appropriate to all classes, conditions, and circumstances. It addresses its admonitions and advice to all ages, and to either

sex.

It speaks to "aged men," and "aged women;" to "young men," and "young women.'

Now, the instruction contained in the particular portion of God's word, which I have brought for our consideration at this time, is specially intended for "young men ;" and it is to "young men" that I purpose more particularly to address myself on this occasion; because, I trust, it is almost, if not altogether unnecessary for me to admonish the female part of my audience of the sin and danger of frequenting the Amusements of the Stage.

If I am rightly informed, the attendance of respectable females at the Theatre of this town, and particularly of young respectable females, has gradually diminished; their visits to this place of dangerous dissipation have been, year by year, fewer and more seldom. And surely, in withdrawing themselves from these amusements, they have done that which is meet and right, even though they may not have been influenced by any higher motives than a becoming self-respect, and a just regard to the proprieties of the female character. The Theatre has indeed much to interest, and attract, and gratify every carnal and careless mind; but amidst all its gaiety and entertainment, it presents scenes and sentiments which cannot fail to offend and wound female delicacy. And for the truth of this observation, I might confidently appeal to the recollections of those females who may have formerly frequented the Theatre, whether the pleasure which they

experienced, on their first attendance, was not often mingled with an involuntary sense of shame, a secret and painful consciousness of impropriety and evil; while, at the same time, through the influence of example, and the force of custom ;— from want of due consideration, or sufficient firmness of mind;—and perhaps from never having had their attention specially and seriously called to the sinful nature and injurious tendency of such amusements;-they allowed themselves to be present at exhibitions which their consciences condemned; and to be spectators of scenes, and hearers of sentiments, against which the quick sensibilities of a modest and delicate mind so painfully revolted as to cover them with confusion; and which scenes and sentiments they would not, on any consideration, have either ventured to describe and repeat, or endured to hear described and repeated, in private company, or in the society of their personal friends.

But I am told, and, I trust with truth, that to a very considerable extent, the respectable females of this place have freed themselves from this painful inconsistency; and that they scrupulously avoid, or have resolutely renounced a class of amusements, which, however, sanctioned by fashion, and supported by numbers, cannot be frequented by a modest female, without painconfusion-sin, and serious risk of injury. O my

young female friends! suffer no inducement, no attraction, no persuasion, no sophistry, to prevail with you to depart from a determination which is creditable to your judgment and feelings; even though it may have been formed only on the inferior, but, as far as it goes, right ground of a due respect for what is generally considered to be seemly and suitable in the female character; and though you may not yet have risen to the true and scriptural rule of propriety, as laid down by the Apostle, that "which becometh women, professing godliness."

I shall, therefore, address my observations upon this subject, on the present occasion, to the other sex; and to young men in particular; because it is to the young that the Theatre is at once most attractive, and most dangerous. As life advances, generally speaking, the imagination is chastised ;-the mind is sobered; -the passions are quelled and subdued, by secular business and commercial pursuits, and by the every day anxieties and experience which these necessary occupations and serious concerns do not fail to bring : so that these amusements are, as a matter of course, less desired, and more rarely attended; but, to the youthful mind, the Theatre presents all its most powerful attractions; and the very class which is least able to resist the delusion, and to escape the danger, is the most eager after the perilous enjoyment.