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THE 
 
 EXPEDIENCY OF PREACHING 
 
 AGAINST THE 
 
 AMUSEMENTS OF THE WORLD, 
 
 CONSIDERED IN A 
 
 LETTER TO A CLERICAL FRIEND. 
 
 THE REV. HENRY WOODWARD, A.M. 
 
 « t 
 FORMERLY OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 RECTOR OF FETHARD, IN THE DIOCESS OF CASHEL. 
 
 LONDON: 
 DUNCAN AND MALCOLM, 
 
 37 PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 M.DCCC.XLI. 
 

 Thb Library 
 of Congress 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY MOVES AND BARCLAY, CASTLE STREET, 
 LEICESTER SQUARE. 
 
A LETTER, 
 
 Sfc. Sfc. 
 
 My Dear, — The subject on which we 
 
 conversed so much at , has engaged 
 
 no small share of my attention since ; and 
 so important does it appear to me, on 
 the fullest review, to draw the attention 
 of the more serious clergy to the point 
 in question, that I have resolved to bring 
 these lines, addressed to you, before the 
 public eye. The matter, then, for con- 
 sideration is, Whether it is, or is not, ex- 
 pedient to preach directly against what 
 are called the amusements of the world ? 
 In my judgment, however particular cases 
 may perhaps sometimes justify it, as a 
 general rule, it is not. 
 
 In the first place, it is, I conceive, the 
 
 B 
 
2 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 peculiar duty of the Christian pastor, 
 rather to influence the mind and incul- 
 cate principles, than to regulate the out- 
 ward conduct of those committed to his 
 care. The Roman Catholic priest is a 
 kind of spiritual, indeed I might say 
 secular, magistrate in his parish. And 
 this is in full keeping with a system, 
 whose Head claims authority over all 
 the civil polities and reigning potentates 
 of the earth. But far different are the 
 vocation and the mission of the reformed 
 pastor. His business is with the souls 
 of men. He acts as the delegate of One 
 whose kingdom was not of this world ; and 
 who said to him who called for his tem- 
 poral interference, "Man, who made me a 
 judge or a divider over you V 9 The grand 
 object of the Christian minister should 
 be, to point out to his people that name 
 by which alone they can be saved — to 
 lead his flock into the green pastures of 
 righteousness/peace, and joy in the Holy 
 Ghost — to guide their footsteps to the 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 6 
 
 fountain of living water, even to the 
 spiritual apprehension of the only true 
 God, whom to know is the dawn of ever- 
 lasting day. His ceaseless labour should 
 be, to write upon their hearts the first 
 and grand commandment, the love of 
 God, with all the powers and capacities 
 of their higher nature — to draw the 
 image of a Saviour upon those souls 
 which He has purchased with his own 
 blood — to raise them to a state of real, 
 not notional salvation, deliverance from 
 the misery of sin, and enfranchisement 
 from the slavery of vice — to take them 
 out of the horrible pit and out of the 
 miry clay, and let them breathe the open 
 air, and exult in the liberty of that open 
 daylight in which the pure in heart see 
 God. This is the errand on which the 
 Gospel messengers are sent. They are 
 not commissioned as " rulers of the dark- 
 ness of this world," to regulate the con- 
 duct, and direct the movements of those 
 who will not have Christ to reign over 
 
4< ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 them. They are to go into the high- 
 ways and hedges ; not to teach men how 
 to live a lawless life there, but to compel 
 them, by every gentle violence, to come 
 in and join the wedding guests. They 
 are sent after the lost sheep in the 
 wilderness, not to point out to them 
 some spots of verdure upon the weary 
 waste, but to invite them to return to 
 the true pasture, and to the Shepherd 
 and Bishop of their souls. 
 
 " Would I describe a preacher such as Paul, 
 Were he on earth, would hear, approve, and own, 
 Paul should himself direct me. I would trace 
 His master strokes, and draw from his design. " 
 
 Such is the language of the poet ; but 
 need we confine this subject to preach- 
 ing only ? Can we look, under Christ, 
 to a higher authority than this great 
 apostle, for the character of our whole 
 ministry ? " All things," then, says he, 
 " are of God, who hath reconciled us to 
 himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 5 
 
 to us the ministry of reconciliation ; to 
 wit, that God was in Christ reconciling 
 the world to himself, not imputing their 
 trespasses unto them ; and hath com- 
 mitted unto us the word of reconcilia- 
 tion. Now, then, we are ambassadors 
 for Christ, as though God did beseech 
 you by us : we pray you in Christ's 
 stead, be ye reconciled to God." Let 
 this point once be carried, and all the 
 details of conduct will fall into their 
 right place : the mind will be full of 
 light, and become a law to itself: and 
 that gracious promise will be as abun- 
 dantly fulfilled in moral guidance, as it 
 is in temporal provision, " Seek ye first 
 the kingdom of God, and his righteous- 
 ness, and all these things shall be added 
 unto you." 
 
 I do not mean to say, however, that 
 a clergyman is to decline all interference 
 with the actions of his parishioners, or 
 on. principle to keep himself altogether 
 aloof from their concerns in the conduct 
 
6 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS, 
 
 and government of their lives. There 
 may be many occasions on which it 
 would be theorizing away plain and 
 practical duty, to abstain from rebuking 
 the erring members of his flock " with 
 all authority ; " or from taking an active 
 interest in the external habits and con- 
 versation of those committed to his 
 charge. But this I will say, that the 
 more he addresses himself, in his pas- 
 toral visits, as well as public ministra- 
 tions, to the inculcation of the one grand 
 principle, that religion is the life of God 
 in the soul of man; and the less he 
 suffers himself to be drawn to lay down 
 rules and regulations for outward con- 
 duct, the more simple will be his task; 
 the more powerful will be his influence ; 
 the more calculated will be his ministry 
 to wear well, and to gain ground and im- 
 prove by time, in whatever field of duty 
 the Lord has thought fit to place him. 
 I am convinced that, even in the case of 
 those who are living in positive and 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 7 
 
 wilful sin, it is often better that the 
 minister should be ignorant of so melan- 
 choly a fact. The sinner will not then 
 be led to fly his presence ; nor will that 
 mutual restraint and awkwardness be 
 felt, which the one party's being informed 
 of the unhappy secret of the other must 
 necessarily occasion. The sense that 
 character is not lost will place the de- 
 linquent at his ease. He will feel as- 
 sured that no personal allusions can be 
 meant : all occasion of offence will then 
 be absent ; and thus his pastor's counsels 
 may be blessed to the aw r akening of his 
 conscience, and to the salvation of his 
 soul. It will generally be found that 
 a clergyman's taking upon him to regu- 
 late the outward conduct of his parish- 
 ioners will secularize his intercourse, and 
 involve him in endless intricacies. His 
 visits will be consumed in discussing 
 family concerns ; and he will be called 
 upon to hear how one member of the 
 household has acted towards another— 
 
8 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 both having perhaps contradictory state- 
 ments to make, and demanding, as a 
 matter of justice, that they should tell 
 their stories at full length. In all pro- 
 bability, pecuniary concerns will occupy 
 no small share of a minister's attention 
 who interposes in such details ; and thus, 
 as I have often known, all spiritual con- 
 siderations will be lost in the complex- 
 ities of worldly business ; and the pastor's 
 visits will be looked upon, not as a kind 
 of Sabbath hour, when the weary spirit 
 and burdened heart are for a while to 
 breathe a freer atmosphere and purer 
 air, but as an opportunity of opening 
 out the whole budget of earthly anxieties 
 and cares. 
 
 Many things in the course of life, in a 
 moral point of view, are such as a wise 
 authority would desire neither, on the 
 one hand, to sanction, nor on the other 
 hand to forbid. And may not this be 
 one reason, and that intelligible to us, 
 why God is withdrawn from, and in- 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 9 
 
 visible to, the agents or actors in the 
 present scene of things ? Much may 
 conduce to the working out the destined 
 product of this wondrous plan, to deve- 
 lop individual energies to their fullest 
 extent, and to impress upon society the 
 best character it is capable of receiving ; 
 which, nevertheless, God could not judi- 
 cially approve without compromising His 
 holiness, — nor authoritatively condemn 
 without an injurious restraint on human 
 liberty ; and thus He winks, as the 
 Apostle expresses it, at what His Pro- 
 vidence permits to take its course upon 
 this chequered field. The same is the 
 case with all wise and considerate pa- 
 rents. To have their children continu- 
 ally before them, and for ever under 
 their eye, would effectually check the 
 full expansion of their minds. Many a 
 freedom, which it would be harsh to 
 condemn as wrong, may nevertheless be 
 of such a character, that it would be 
 scarce consistent with the high standard 
 
 b 2 
 
10 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 of the Gospel to pronounce it right. 
 There may be, and I believe there are, 
 some young persons, early saints and 
 special gifts of heaven, to whom these 
 observations will not apply ; but sure I 
 am, that the far greater part, even of 
 hopeful children, could put forth no 
 healthful shoots, — could develop neither 
 energy of thought, nor depth of feeling, 
 nor force of character, if, during the 
 whole refining process, a parent stood 
 by, or a preceptor was at hand, to con- 
 demn or approve every early sally, — ■ 
 every excursive movement of the youth- 
 ful spirits. All that I have been saying 
 applies, in my opinion, with peculiar 
 force, to official interference on the part 
 of a parochial minister with the amuse- 
 ments of the world. In the first place, 
 it involves him in endless intricacies. If 
 not contented with the infusion of regu- 
 lating and corrective principles, he must 
 needs legislate in a matter thus of vari- 
 ous shades and infinite gradations, where 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 11 
 
 is he to begin, to end, or to draw the 
 line ? Down from the opera and the 
 masquerade to battle-door and shuttle- 
 cock, and whipping of a top ; down from 
 the independent individual who takes the 
 most active lead in fashionable frivolities, 
 to the member of a family who occasion- 
 ally and reluctantly complies, and taking 
 in all the possible combinations of cir- 
 cumstances that may arise to complicate 
 each case ; — a whole life might be spent 
 in drilling the ranks, and regulating the 
 movements of a large parish, thus thrown 
 for direction upon his shoulders. And 
 besides this, he must, as I have just now 
 anticipated, either at once lay his veto 
 upon a thousand things, without which 
 young persons, not seriously and affec- 
 tionately religious, will be discouraged, 
 become spiritless, and droop ; or give a 
 solemn sanction to many, at least, doubt- 
 ful trifles, which it would be far better 
 for a minister not to seem to notice than 
 authoritatively to approve. But my sub- 
 
12 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 ject leads me to speak more particularly 
 of pulpit ministrations ; and to consider 
 how far it is, or is not, judicious to 
 preach pointedly against the amusements 
 of the world. 
 
 I think, then, that publicly denouncing 
 these pursuits, and drawing all eyes on 
 those who partake of them, is calculated 
 to divide a congregation, as it were, into 
 two parties ; to identify the clergyman 
 with one, and to place him in an attitude 
 apparently adverse to the other, while 
 the line of demarcation by no means 
 secures a right or equitable division. I 
 know many individuals, particularly of 
 the middle classes, who oppose the 
 things in question, with an acrimony 
 which is far worse than the levities 
 they condemn ; and I am convinced, 
 that if such persons were acquainted 
 with their own hearts, they would per- 
 ceive that much of the sharpness arises 
 from a jealousy of the upper ranks, and 
 from being mortified at their own exclu- 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 13 
 
 sion from the envied brilliancies of higher 
 life. Besides, there are not a few who, 
 from mere circumstances, from the pre- 
 judice of education, or from being told 
 by some popular leader that amusements 
 are inconsistent with a strict profession, 
 abstain from such pursuits, and yet who 
 have no devotional taste, no enlightened 
 apprehension of the real evils they in- 
 volve. Such persons, it is true, renounce 
 the card-table, theatre, and ball-room — 
 but they supply their place with every 
 silly levity which is not in the list of the 
 proscribed diversions. Like those who 
 abstain from flesh, and then dress up 
 their fish with every stimulating accom- 
 paniment and piquant sauce, which may, 
 if possible, surpass the forbidden aliment 
 in richness and in flavour ; — these re- 
 nounces of amusements seem to put 
 invention on the rack to find out substi- 
 tutes; and eagerly catch at every frivolity 
 and every accommodation to the spirit of 
 the world which they do not find written 
 
14 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 in the Index Expurgatorius. It is dis- 
 tressing to the last degree to see the 
 strange inconsistencies of many who 
 seem to consider withdrawal from cer- 
 tain fashionable assemblies the one thing 
 needful, the differentia essentialis of the 
 Christian life. Amongst these are per- 
 sons who have no idea of putting a bridle 
 upon the tongue, but give full unfettered 
 swing to that unruly member, in both its 
 offices, — that of talking, and that of tast- 
 ing, — who never think of such a thing as 
 self-denial, self-government, self-know- 
 ledge, or self-possession; who set no bounds 
 to false accusations and censorious judg- 
 ments ; who are utterly reckless of do- 
 mestic duties, of the well -ordering of 
 their families, and of all the nameless 
 charities of home ; — such I do, from 
 positive knowledge and with real sorrow, 
 declare are not unfrequently amongst the 
 number of that interior circle whom the 
 pastor, by raising a fallacious standard 
 and drawing an erroneous line of separ- 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 15 
 
 ation, gathers round him, as his own 
 immediate adherents, and as the sounder 
 portion of his flock ; and this he does, 
 while their eccentricities and essential 
 levities actually frighten many a mother 
 who belongs to the other class, from 
 suffering her daughters to make a strict 
 profession, lest they should be infected 
 with the wildness, and extravagancies, 
 and improprieties of these religious 
 mountebanks ; — yes, I am persuaded, 
 that amongst those who, however mis- 
 takenly, think it a duty to their position 
 in society, not wholly to withdraw from 
 public amusements, (and who, I will add, 
 are confirmed in that opinion by the re- 
 volting exhibitions just now alluded to,) 
 are some who are not far from the king- 
 dom of God, — nay, (may we not dare to 
 hope ?) who are sons and daughters of 
 the Lord Almighty. 
 
 It is true, that a great change has of 
 late years taken place in the upper orders 
 of society ; and that conformity to the 
 
16 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 world in these particulars is not so gene- 
 ral as in former days ; and this certainly 
 places the Christian (if there be such), 
 who still frequents the theatre and the 
 ball-room, in a different position from 
 that in which his father stood. For now 
 the serious character who is present at 
 such scenes, doubtless goes against the 
 stream of the opinion, and current of the 
 practice, of the religious body ; — whereas, 
 in bygone years, he had both with him. In 
 times which I can well remember, it never 
 perhaps occurred to the strictest saints 
 — for many I am sure there were — who 
 appeared in the midst of scenes of levity, 
 that they were wrong in being there. They 
 felt it to be their cross, — a painful neces- 
 sity which they could not avoid, — a duty 
 to society and to their families, which it 
 would be a culpable self-indulgence to 
 decline, — in such a spirit many conformed 
 outwardly to the world ; — but, whatever 
 other trials sinful flesh and blood were in 
 their case, as is common to man, daily 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 17 
 
 subject to, the brilliancies of life were 
 any thing but attractive in their eyes. 
 Trials they were, but not of the seductive 
 kind ; they were trials of their patience ; 
 they put to proof how far their charity 
 could cover the multitude of sins ; they 
 tested and measured the degree to which 
 they had learned to deny themselves, 
 and to subordinate their own wills and 
 fondest inclinations to the will of God. In 
 a spirit of lesser martyrdom, many thus 
 mingled with the thoughtless crowd, — 
 and never did they cling more closely to 
 the cross of Christ than when He appeared 
 thus crucified afresh, and put to an open 
 shame. No man could doubt this truth, 
 whose memory can carry him back some 
 thirty or forty years, and who then occu- 
 pied a favourable post for observation. 
 But if any one, from want of such oppor- 
 tunity, will question the actual existence 
 of these facts, he cannot at least, from 
 the nature of the case, argue against the 
 
18 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 possibility of their occurrence. No man 
 who understands his position as a Christ- 
 ian soldier, can be thus ignorant of his 
 spiritual warfare. It is quite clear, that 
 if any person is once persuaded that his 
 duty requires of him to be present in 
 scenes, however vicious and abandoned, 
 that presence implies no participation in 
 the guilt, nor misprision of the treason. 
 But if it be said, " How can a Christian 
 conceive it to be his duty to mingle in 
 pursuits, and consort with persons, so 
 opposed to every sentiment of his heart T 
 I would ask in reply, Did not the All- 
 perfect pattern of purity and holiness eat 
 and drink with publicans and sinners ? 
 Did He not, in His great intercessory 
 prayer, thus supplicate His Eternal Father, 
 " I pray not that thou shouldest take 
 them out of the world, but that thou 
 shouldest keep them from the evil?" 
 Did He not say to those who would have 
 separated at once the precious from the 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 19 
 
 vile, " Nay, lest while ye gather up the 
 tares, ye root up also the wheat with 
 them?" 
 
 The fact is, that life is altogether, with 
 a few green spots and friendly resting- 
 places upon its surface, a field of hostility 
 to the Christian spirit. Duty and danger 
 are closely linked together. Those who 
 would reclaim the wretched outcast, and 
 bring him back in safety to his Father's 
 house, must venture into regions far from 
 God. Those who would pluck brands 
 out of the burning, must dare to plunge 
 into the midst of the fires themselves. But 
 not to speak of the higher achievements 
 of the Christian soldier, and of his assaults 
 upon the very citadel of the foe; his 
 daily life is the constant practice of out- 
 wardly conforming to habits, mingling by 
 his presence in scenes, and freely con- 
 versing with persons, whose contact, if 
 sympathetic, would be injurious. Such 
 is the field of battle on which it has been 
 the will of God to place us. And out of 
 
20 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS, 
 
 this scene of trial and of peril there is no 
 extrication of an outward kind. We 
 must live, and move, and have our being, 
 in this cloudy atmosphere and infectious 
 air. Nor is this arrangement, mysterious 
 and startling as it may appear to some, 
 without a plan and a purpose, which in- 
 telligibly and triumphantly vindicate the 
 ways of God to the divinely instructed 
 mind. It calls us to exercise the whole 
 family of Christian graces. It is the 
 food on which patience, fortitude, fidelity, 
 temperance, and watchfulness are fed. 
 It is the grand material and means by 
 which the soul works out its own salva- 
 tion. It makes provision, by its present 
 weight and pressure, for that still more 
 glorious expansion which the unfettered 
 spirit will one day feel. It shuts up 
 every avenue of escape from the pollu- 
 tions which encircle us, save that one 
 ascending channel by which the soul flies 
 up in prayer and supplication unto God. 
 It thus drives us to that inward separa- 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 21 
 
 tion from the things of earth, that spiritual 
 coming out from the world, renouncing 
 all her vanities, and forsaking all her 
 idols, which constitute us true and living 
 members of Christ's mystical body, child- 
 ren of the light and of the day, even of 
 that everlasting day whose morning star 
 has risen already upon the heart. In 
 this sense, " to the pure all things are 
 pure;" and where sin abounds, " grace 
 doth much more abound." On such 
 grounds, then, I rest my conviction, that 
 those who, in former times, frequented 
 public places, " not doing their own ways, 
 nor finding their own pleasure," but sub- 
 mitting to a painful and imperious neces- 
 sity, might have not only passed through 
 the flames unhurt, but come forth " even 
 as the silver, which from the earth is 
 tried, and purified seven times in the 
 fire." 
 
 I am well aware, as I have already 
 intimated, of the change of the times. I 
 know how powerful a stand has been 
 
22 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 made against systematized follies, which 
 were once considered as much out of the 
 reach of man's control as the motion of 
 the planets. Formerly there seemed to 
 be no alternative, no power of choosing. 
 There was but one system, and that took 
 in all. Fellow-soldiers of the cross, those 
 who were inwardly dead to temporal 
 vanities, met in the same scenes of public 
 dissipation, as they now do in the same 
 world that " lieth in wickedness ;" they 
 sighed and cried for all the abominations 
 that were done in the midst thereof; 
 they cheered one another with mutual 
 sympathy, and sanctioned by their pre- 
 sence such an unavoidable conformity to 
 universal custom. Now it may, at least, 
 be said, that many, nay the vast majority 
 of those possessing godliness, are absent 
 from these assemblies. And surely the 
 few stragglers from the fold, when they 
 look round upon the moral waste, cannot 
 but be struck with the significant fact, 
 that none of the flock, beside themselves, 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 23 
 
 have ventured there. This alibi must 
 form an awful blank to them. Can all 
 the revelry of the scene stifle the still 
 small voice which whispers in each breast, 
 " ' Where are the nine?' nay, where are 
 the ninety and nine ? Are they still 
 following their faithful Shepherd ? Is He 
 still feeding them, and leading them to 
 living fountains of water? And have I 
 alone, out of the hundred sheep, wan- 
 dered into this land of strangers ? " 
 
 Still, important as has been the revo- 
 lution in society, I should scruple to say 
 that none so far retain the impressions of 
 a former period as to frequent the ordi- 
 nary scenes of dissipation, on the prin- 
 ciple of conscientious obligation which 
 then prevailed. There are some few in- 
 dividuals of every generation who seem, 
 as it were, the representatives of a former 
 age. Like stones which are left pro- 
 jecting from the extremity of a range of 
 building, that they may serve to bind 
 the new and the old together, should 
 
24 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 any further additions be constructed ; — 
 so these specimens of past days seemed 
 formed of such unmalleable materials, 
 that they may preserve the continuity of 
 society ; that one century may run into 
 another, and the world go gradually on, 
 without such sudden breaks and abrupt 
 transitions as might convulse the whole 
 machine, or, at all events, be like putting 
 a piece of new cloth on an old garment, 
 or new wine into old bottles. That such 
 anomalies do, in some rare instances, 
 still exist, and appear in the gayest as- 
 semblies as if awoke from a sleep of 
 some fifty years, I believe, however 
 strange, to be the fact. And if so, these 
 persons act, in this particular, as they 
 do in many others, from a comical ri- 
 gidity, rather than from any laxity of 
 principle. 
 
 However this may be, persuaded I am 
 that the theatre and ball-room contain 
 numbers whom any thing but inclination 
 has led to mingle with the mass. — 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS* 25 
 
 Mothers, who cannot restrain, and who 
 consequently think it better to accom- 
 pary, their daughters, than to send them 
 adrift upon the world without their na- 
 tural protectors. And daughters who 
 are, to the shame and scandal of their 
 parents, driven like sheep to the slaughter 
 into scenes which they instinctively abhor. 
 That these latter are not culpable in 
 yielding to such abused authority, will, 
 on the whole, I believe, be the verdict of 
 every calm and sober judgment. On 
 this very point, I was lately told, a young 
 lady thus circumstanced asked counsel 
 of a clergyman of high character, and 
 one thoroughly opposed in principle (need 
 I say ?) to the amusements of the world. 
 His sentence was — that she should use 
 every means but flat disobedience, to 
 avoid exposure to such revolting contacts ; 
 but that if her parents laid their positive 
 commands upon her, her duty was to com- 
 ply.' Now, here is a most important admiss- 
 ion. Were these amusements to be classed 
 
 c 
 
26 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 with actual sins, no faithful minister, no 
 man of moral principle, could possibly 
 have given the advice alluded to. For 
 duty to parents can never countervail 
 our duty to God. On this point Scrip- 
 ture is express and clear. "We ought 
 to obey God rather than men/' say the 
 apostles, and " He that loveth father or 
 mother more than me, is not worthy of 
 me," says their Lord and Master. 
 
 Enough has, I trust, been urged upon 
 this topic, to shew that some who re- 
 nounce the amusements of the world, may 
 be far different characters from what a 
 Christian minister could approve ; while 
 not a few who do frequent them may 
 be hopeful members of his congregation ; 
 and that consequently, a line of preaching 
 which would give too much prominence 
 to this distinction, is calculated to throw 
 his influence disproportionately into one 
 scale, where it would be desirable that he 
 should keep a more even balance. In- 
 deed, if there were no other motives 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 27 
 
 to restrain a preacher from such direct 
 attacks, a consideration of the feelings of 
 those who, with pain and reluctance, and 
 from a sense of filial duty, are brought into 
 public places, might be sufficient to do 
 so. Many eyes, perhaps, are turned upon 
 those who stand in that trying position. 
 They have enough to bear without this 
 open shame. They cannot publicly vin- 
 dicate themselves, nor explain the reasons 
 of their conduct. Nay, respect to their 
 parents may close their lips in private. 
 They fly for consolation to the sanctuary, 
 and for comfort to the instructions of 
 their pastor. Let not, then, these stricken 
 deer be wounded afresh in the house of 
 their friends, and by the hand which 
 should be stretched forth to heal them. 
 Let them not be reproached before the 
 face of the church, for that which is their 
 cross, and not their choice ; for that to 
 which their necessity, and not their will, 
 consents. 
 
 But the case of these is not the only 
 
28 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 one in which such denunciations from the 
 pulpit are injurious, as well as harsh. 
 They are calculated either to affront or 
 to discourage no small portions of any 
 given religious assembly. While the 
 pastor applies himself to describe, or even 
 to condemn in the strongest terms, states 
 and habits of the mind ; to analyze with 
 the finest discrimination, and to lay open 
 with the most unsparing hand, the secret 
 springs of human actions; — those most 
 intimately concerned will hear and own 
 the strong appeal, and feel that their por- 
 trait is drawn to the very life ; while at 
 the same time no offence is taken, no re- 
 sentment at personality and exposure 
 rankles in the breast. But when, before 
 an assembled congregation, a man's no- 
 torious habits, his modes of life visible to 
 all, with which both he and his family are 
 known to his whole neighbourhood to be 
 identified, when these are made the sub- 
 ject of direct attack — when not his con- 
 science, but the preacher says, " Thou 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 29 
 
 art the man/' — he feels that an unfair ad- 
 vantage has been taken, and that he has 
 been individually assailed ; and thus, in 
 self-defence, he assumes an attitude of 
 hostility to his accuser. Such aggressive 
 methods of address present the wrong 
 pole of the moral magnet to a large pro- 
 portion of the hearers. They repel, and 
 do not attract ; they revolt, and do not 
 draw. One class they thus provoke to 
 enmity. Another, far more interesting 
 than those, they discourage and depress. 
 They bear too hard upon the timid spirit ; 
 they put strong meat before such as 
 should be fed with milk ; they often 
 break the bruised reed, and quench the 
 smoking flax. 
 
 It has sometimes been my lot to see a 
 young military man, newly arrived at quar- 
 ters in my parish, take his seat amongst 
 the members of my congregation. I have 
 been led to observe the strict decorum 
 of his behaviour ; and the respect he 
 seemed to shew to the solemn services of 
 
SO ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 the church. I have seen that respect 
 grow into an intenser interest which, from 
 Sabbath to Sabbath, strengthened and in- 
 creased. I have felt that the heart of this 
 young stranger went with me, while I en- 
 deavoured to display the riches of God's 
 goodness, in the Gospel of His Son, and 
 to describe the blessedness of true re- 
 ligion; — how it enlightens the under- 
 standing, ennobles the mind, sets the soul 
 at liberty, and purifies the heart ; and 
 how to be at peace with God gives a man 
 a centre, a resting-place, and a home, 
 amidst the boisterous elements, the 
 changes and ceaseless perturbations of 
 this troublesome world. I have w r atched 
 the process with unspeakable delight ; 
 and have, in some instances, I bless God, 
 learned, from more than bare conjecture, 
 that a solid and lasting impression had 
 been made. Thus have I parted with 
 more than one young soldier, with mutual 
 'wishes and prayers, that our intercourse, 
 in all probability brought to a close for 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 31 
 
 life, might be renewed in brighter scenes, 
 and in more durable habitations. Now, 
 it is my firm conviction, that if these in- 
 dividuals had heard me, in my first ad- 
 dresses, railing against the amusements 
 of the world, they would have been, if 
 not revolted, yet much disheartened; 
 that they would have thought religion a 
 rigid and impracticable thing ; that they 
 would have felt themselves bound at once 
 to decide, and that in the faint dawn of 
 spiritual life, whether they must alto- 
 gether reject religion, or enter upon a 
 sea of trials, troubles, and persecutions ; 
 and thus, before the Gospel had poured 
 its consolations into their hearts, or in- 
 fused its pow T er into their souls, that 
 they would have been entangled in a 
 labyrinth of doubts and scruples, and 
 perhaps lost the way that leadeth to 
 everlasting life. 
 
 Another evil which arises from thus 
 publicly stigmatizing the things in ques- 
 tion, is its perversion of that which the 
 
32 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 Psalmist so graphically describes, — " As 
 the eyes of servants look unto the hand 
 of their masters, and as the eyes of a 
 maiden to the hand of her mistress/' &c. 
 It directs their attention to the conduct 
 of their superiors, as well as that of chil- 
 dren to the habits of their parents, in 
 a way, as I conceive, much to be depre- 
 cated. To speak first of the latter. 
 Many who stand in the parental rela- 
 tion, though they may still conform in 
 some moderate degree to the accus- 
 tomed gaieties of society, are nevertheless 
 anxious that their sons and daughters 
 should be carefully and religiously brought 
 up. They are perhaps, in this respect, 
 far more attentive than stricter profes- 
 sors often are. They discourage the least 
 forwardness or affectation in their child- 
 ren. They endeavour to train them in 
 habits of simplicity. They take them 
 regularly to the house of God ; and see 
 well that their deportment there befits 
 the solemn services of the place. All 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 33 
 
 this they are conscientiously solicitous to 
 effect; and sometimes, too, with admir- 
 able success. For such are the myste- 
 rious ways of Providence, that parents 
 like these not unfrequently lay in their 
 children's minds the foundation of a far 
 stricter profession than they themselves 
 maintain ; while others who personally 
 " live after the straitest sect of our re- 
 ligion," by some strange mismanagement 
 contrive to impart such principles to their 
 offspring, as when they look to their do- 
 mestic vineyard for grapes, bring forth 
 wild grapes. If it be true then, that the 
 former often succeed in the work of edu- 
 cation ; and if it be true moreover, that 
 the great secret of this success is the 
 respect which these children are taught 
 to shew their parents, and the manner in 
 which the first commandment with pro- 
 mise is early impressed upon their minds; 
 — can it be desirable, or right, or fitting, 
 that such children should sit and hear 
 their father's and their mother's conduct 
 
 c2 
 
34 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 dragged forth to view, that it may be 
 marked for public reprobation ? Can 
 it but be calculated to set either the 
 child against the parent, or the lamb 
 against the shepherd of the flock ? And 
 can any thing be more deplorable than 
 the one or than the other ? It is idle 
 to say in answer, that if a parent does 
 wrong, it is the more necessary to warn 
 his child against it. This sounds well 
 — but it is mere vague and general truth, 
 and only beats the air. It does not 
 apply (and no man of common sense 
 will say it does) to the case before us. 
 Children at an early age come in no 
 contact with these habits of their parents. 
 They are put to bed before the ball or 
 the rout begins. And it is the anxious 
 desire of such persons as I have described, 
 to keep all vanity and every thing arti- 
 ficial from their children's minds. These 
 latter are aware, we will allow, that their 
 parents go occasionally, and from time 
 to time, to public assemblies — but of 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 35 
 
 these assemblies they know nothing but 
 the name. They are told moreover, 
 that their parents frequent them, be- 
 cause they think it right. And what 
 great harm can such vague impressions 
 do them? While, on the other hand, 
 what harm may it not do them, to hear 
 their parents, their natural guides and 
 providential instructors, denounced by 
 the minister of their religion, as hollow 
 professors, and " lovers of pleasures more 
 than lovers of God?" Can the effect of 
 this be salutary or good ? Can it be any 
 other, I repeat it, than that children 
 should consider that system which can 
 thus assail the character, and wound the 
 feelings of their parents, as tyrannical 
 and hateful ; — or that they should hence- 
 forth refuse an ear to that precept so full 
 of blessing — "My son, hear the instruc- 
 tion of thy father, and forsake not the 
 law of thy mother : for they shall be an 
 Ornament of grace unto thy head, and 
 chains about thy neck?" 
 
36 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 The same applies in all its force, to 
 the case of servants. Many a mistress 
 who, from inveterate custom, or from a 
 mistaken sense of duty, partakes, though 
 rarely perhaps, of the amusements of the 
 world, nevertheless " looketh well to the 
 ways of her household." She assembles 
 them daily to prayer,— she supplies them 
 with copies of the Scripture, — she dis- 
 courages all levities amongst her ser- 
 vants; and in every instance, the above 
 alone excepted, is a pattern to her family 
 of order, regularity, and decorum. Now, 
 suppose the domestics in such a family 
 are told, as they often are, that the large 
 and jolly meetings held in many instances 
 by servants, would be hurtful and dan- 
 gerous for them, but that the assemblies 
 of the higher orders are necessary ap- 
 pendages to their stations, and should 
 on that account be conformed to. Let 
 this be ever so fallacious, yet what harm 
 would it do a servant to believe it ? On 
 the other hand, what mischief might it 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 37 
 
 occasion to a young footman, to hear 
 such a mistress arraigned as a sinner 
 against her own soul, and a rebel to her 
 God! Is it well for him to perceive 
 that she and his minister are thus point- 
 edly at issue, and that if the latter be in 
 the right, all the advice he has received 
 at home has reached him through a pol- 
 luted channel; that " there is death in 
 the pot/' and all its contents are but 
 specious poison ? New light has reached 
 his mind ; and to all the counsels which 
 he had heard with reverence, he can 
 now say, " Thou that teachest another, 
 teachest thou not thyself?" Thus, the 
 only providential check, perhaps, to law- 
 less passion is removed : he has lost his 
 confidence in his former guide, and now 
 is ready to take whatever path lies open, 
 and seems most inviting to his unbridled 
 appetites. All this supposes him to side 
 in the controversy with the accusing 
 party. But if not, then loyalty to his 
 mistress will indispose his mind to pas- 
 
38 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 toral instruction, and stop his ears to 
 the charmer's advice, charm he never 
 so wisely. His minister's exhortations 
 will henceforth be thrown away on him. 
 In vain will the pastor " speak forth the 
 words of truth and soberness," — in vain 
 will he urge the mildest motives of the 
 Gospel, and press the invitations of a 
 Saviour's love ; they are all but empty 
 sounds to one who sees in the preacher 
 the accuser and the maligner of his kind 
 protector and his friend. 
 
 Strong as these terms may appear to 
 many, I am persuaded they do not ex- 
 ceed the fair probabilities of the case. 
 But let us imagine to ourselves a case 
 of a different kind — where the parties 
 are members indeed of the same family, 
 but on an equal footing with, and inde- 
 pendent of, each other. Let us suppose 
 a number of brothers and sisters, — some 
 of whom are in the highest form of the 
 school of Christ, dead to things below, 
 and separate from the vanities of earth, 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 39 
 
 — while others, though faithful to a 
 lower light, are still more or less in 
 bondage to the world, in captivity to 
 man, and frequenters of those scenes 
 which form the subject of this letter. 
 Let us then suppose this interesting 
 group to go together to a Sabbath's 
 service in the house of God. Let us 
 suppose the minister to be one highly 
 gifted for his office ; well qualified to 
 engage attention, and fitted to impress 
 the heart. Let us suppose him to ascend 
 the pulpit, and thence to deliver a dis- 
 course full of humility, of unaffected 
 earnestness, and genuine tenderness. No 
 asperity, no bitterness, nothing that could 
 be construed into harshness towards the 
 chief of sinners, disturbs the gentle 
 stream of love that flows from his heart, 
 and descends from his lips, like rain upon 
 the tender herb, and showers upon the 
 grass. The highest standard of pure and 
 undefiled religion is presented to the 
 view; — but it is lifted up, like the anti- 
 
40 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 typical serpent, to draw all men unto it. 
 Holiness and love are the themes on 
 which it is his delight to dwell. Holi- 
 ness, because it is identical with happi- 
 ness — with that happiness of which it is 
 his heart's desire that all should be par- 
 takers ; and love, because " love is of 
 God; and he that dwelleth in love 
 dwelleth in God and God in him." 
 
 From such a discourse, so calculated 
 to conciliate the affections, and to win 
 the heart, we may well conceive in what 
 state of mind this party would be likely 
 to withdraw. The man of God had 
 " preached peace to them which were 
 afar off/' as well as " to them that were 
 nigh." He had delivered his message 
 untainted with human mixtures. He 
 had spoken according to the mind of 
 that God who says, that " when a man's 
 ways please the Lord, he maketh even 
 his enemies to be at peace with him." 
 Could any moment then be more favour- 
 able for the stricter and holier portion of 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 41 
 
 this little circle to make impression upon 
 the hearts and consciences of the other ? 
 As the disciples at Emmaus " said one to 
 another, Did not our heart burn within 
 us, while he talked with us by the way, 
 and while he opened to us the Scrip- 
 tures ?" — so might these refer to the mild 
 and Christian instructions which they 
 had all been hearing. They might seize 
 the occasion to inquire, not triumphantly, 
 but as if all were equally concerned, 
 whether the world could thus sooth the 
 perturbations of the heart, tranquillise 
 the mind, satisfy the wants and fill the 
 capacities of the soul. They might ask, 
 in the same spirit, whether its boasted 
 enjoyments were like that well of water 
 which they had heard described, and 
 which springeth up into everlasting life ; 
 whether its pleasures were not, at their 
 highest pitch, but broken cisterns that 
 can hold no water. Such are the sweet 
 counsels which might easily and na- 
 turally be engrafted on the stock of a 
 
42 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 pastoral address, thus simple, affection- 
 ate, and heavenly. And surely, if any 
 means whatever could be competent to 
 draw up the hearts, which still hung 
 down to earth, into the finest sympathy 
 with those in whom no rival of the 
 blessed God could find a place — it would 
 be the repetition from Sabbath to Sabbath 
 of such a comment upon such a text. 
 
 But let us, on the other hand, conceive 
 this family group returning from a ser- 
 mon directly levelled against the amuse- 
 ments of the world. In what state of 
 mutual feeling would this discourse have 
 left them ? We will not speak of mere 
 possibilities. For God no doubt could 
 convert a soul, by detailed accounts of 
 ball-rooms, theatres, and games of cards. 
 But what are the fair probabilities of the 
 case ? Would any sweet counsels be 
 likely to ensue ? Would the party as- 
 sailed be, at such a moment, in the most 
 impressible and ductile frame of spirit? 
 Would these be the mollia tempora 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 43 
 
 fandi f No : the best that could ensue 
 would be the exercise of such mutual 
 delicacy and discretion, as would exclude 
 all reference to the sermon from the 
 evening's conversation. But it is not 
 merely of the operation of such pulpit 
 addresses upon private family circles, that 
 I complain ; it is of their public, gene- 
 ral, and collective effects upon a con- 
 gregation. That it does not suit the 
 taste, nor fit the temperament of the 
 truly humble, meek, and pious, is my firm 
 belief. That it offends and irritates the 
 worldly-minded, there can be no question : 
 and that the third and middle class be- 
 tween the two, who have some religious 
 light, mixed with much wildfire and party 
 feeling — that these derive no benefit from 
 such appeals, I am, if possible, still more 
 confidently persuaded. Nothing can be 
 less in accordance with the peace of God, 
 or with that blessing with which our 
 solemn assemblies are dismissed, than 
 the spirit thus aroused within them. 
 
44 ON PUBLIC AxMUSEMENTS. 
 
 They are filled with triumph, and stimu- 
 lated to a feverish height. They chuckle 
 at the thought, that their minister has 
 laid on the lash so well. Significant nods 
 are interchanged, and whispers freely cir- 
 culate how their gay neighbours had got 
 enough of it ; how one was afraid to 
 look up from the ground, and another 
 who determined to brave it, felt it the 
 most of all. 
 
 But whatever may be the effects upon 
 a congregation, the influence upon the 
 preacher's own mind is assuredly not a 
 happy one. When the charge is made 
 on those who live in actual sin, (though 
 even here we have high authority for 
 stating that a railing accusation should 
 not be brought,) the rebuke descends 
 with weight, and the accusation comes 
 with " all authority." If the vicious and 
 the profligate are present on so solemn 
 an occasion, they side in their own con- 
 sciences against themselves; they own 
 and feel that their condemnation is just. 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 45 
 
 Thus far the minister stands on firm and 
 undisputed ground ; and in so doing pre- 
 serves the balance of his mind, and calm- 
 ness of his spirit. But I would appeal 
 to the experience of those to whom I 
 respectfully submit these hints, whether, 
 when they have brought forward fashion- 
 able amusements as points of direct at- 
 tack, they have not insensibly assumed a 
 tone of ruffled and excited feeling, as if 
 such were in a measure inseparable from 
 the subject. I have often observed this 
 to be the case ; and I think it by no 
 means difficult to assign the reason. The 
 preacher now comes into collision with a 
 considerable moral force. A large number 
 of the respectable portion of his congre- 
 gation are against him. Many that he 
 meets at the sacrament, (and that he 
 knowingly admits there, though fully 
 aware of their opinions,) on system and 
 principle, disapprove and condemn his 
 allusion to these topics. He moves 
 against a current; and the resistance of 
 
46 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 that current is of such a kind, that it 
 agitates his mind, tries his temper, and 
 often chafes him into a warmth unsuited 
 to the position he is placed in. He may 
 fancy, nay honestly believe, that all this 
 is pure zeal for God, and bearing a manly 
 testimony against an ungodly world. But 
 "by their fruits ye shall know them," is 
 in this case our surest rule ; and these 
 ebullitions often leave the mind in that 
 state of exhaustion which seems to say, 
 that the fires were of its own kindling. 
 God does not own these forced attempts, 
 as he does the feeblest efforts of those 
 who come forth, with clear credentials, 
 in His name. The fact is, that the habits 
 which are now in question, require a far 
 gentler and more patient handling. And 
 he who would lead men on to those higher 
 influences, without which the renuncia- 
 tion of these habits has neither worth 
 nor meaning, must, by true and effectual 
 self-denial, rise above all such collisions 
 with them. He must cease from vain 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 47 
 
 anxieties to " be some great one," to 
 establish a reputation, or to make for 
 himself a name in the eyes of mortals. 
 With him it must be a very small thing 
 to be judged of man's judgment. He 
 must realize to his own mind that eter- 
 nity which he preaches ; and, while he 
 sows with all diligence here below, must 
 be satisfied to gather his fruit beyond the 
 grave, and to reap his harvest upon the 
 fields of heaven. It is true that if he 
 harbours, though unknown perhaps to 
 himself, a desire of being conspicuous — 
 if he wishes all to see how great an in- 
 fluence he can exercise in his parish — if, 
 for this purpose, his object is, to make a 
 party whom he can point to as the pro- 
 duct of his ministry, and the creation of 
 his power — there is no readier way of 
 effecting this, than by mere arbitrary 
 authority to put down or scare away the 
 amusements of the world. Where sin is 
 banished, the effects are not so palpable. 
 For sin in action seeks concealment ; and 
 
48 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 sin in principle dwells in the invisible 
 regions of the soul. And thus the minis- 
 try which saves most souls, may be com- 
 paratively unnoticed and unknown. " In 
 that day," many will arise and call him 
 blessed, whom more bustling spirits and 
 men of more public agencies had passed 
 by, as a loiterer in his work, or mere 
 cumberer of the ground. And, assuredly, 
 to feel well satisfied to take the lowest 
 room, to labour in the shade, and to 
 receive no recompense nor reward from 
 man's opinion, is no small proof that our 
 conversation is in heaven, and our affec- 
 tions set on things above. I remember 
 to have met the following pointed reflec- 
 tion in the writings of a pious clergyman. 
 I quote from memory, and do not pledge 
 myself for the words ; but the pregnant 
 meaning I hope I never shall forget. 
 " Alas ! " says he, " how angry do we 
 often feel with our people, for not en- 
 abling us to have the credit of converting 
 them !" Doubtless those who minister 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 49 
 
 in holy things, have much of this tempta- 
 tion to watch and pray against. Nor is 
 there any thing which tries more tho- 
 roughly what manner of spirit we are of, 
 than when the members of our congrega- 
 tion w 7 ho have the world in their hearts, 
 will, in spite of all our counsels, conform 
 to it in their lives. To every minister it 
 is, and ought to be, cause of sorrow, 
 should even one of his flock descend from 
 the high ground and upland pastures of 
 the Gospel, into the swamps and miry 
 levels of the world. But to him who 
 looks for a conspicuous ministry, it is 
 doubly mortifying when those whom he 
 would exhibit as his " epistles " declare 
 openly and by overt acts, that they are 
 independent of his control. And here 
 an additional argument presents itself 
 against the expediency of denouncing 
 public amusements from the pulpit, I 
 mean the danger to which a minister 
 thereby exposes the dignity of his office. 
 It is true that, in the way of duty, we 
 
 D 
 
50 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 should be ready to take up the cross of 
 contumely and reproach. But it is equally 
 true, that apostolical authority lays upon 
 us this weighty charge, " Let no man 
 despise thee." Now, if the line of preach- 
 ing which I call in question were our 
 duty, we should have only to perform it, 
 let what may ensue. But in balancing 
 whether it be thus binding on us or not, 
 I think the consideration of no small im- 
 portance, that it is often calculated to do 
 any thing rather than magnify our office. 
 If indeed the attempt to put down the 
 amusements of the world is crowned with 
 full success, it presents, no doubt, a strik- 
 ing exhibition of ministerial power. But 
 if it does not succeed, it makes an equal 
 display of weakness. And this latter, I 
 think it our wisdom, by every exercise of 
 fair discretion, to avoid. If a minister 
 bear his faithful testimony against sin, 
 and sinners nevertheless still abound, 
 there is nothing in this, deplorable as the 
 case is, which seems to shew him up as a 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 51 
 
 defeated man. Though he take up the 
 lamentation of his Master, saying, " I 
 have called, and ye refused; I have 
 stretched out my hand, and no man re- 
 garded ; but ye have set at nought all my 
 counsel, and would none of my reproof;"' 
 — he will still appear in the undiminished 
 dignity of his sacred character. All the 
 loss, the world itself being judge, will be 
 not on his side, but on that of those who 
 reject his calls and invitations. But when 
 a clergyman is worsted in his assaults 
 upon the amusements of the world, the 
 effect is very different. He has now 
 come forth upon a more doubtful arena. 
 The antagonist with which he enters the 
 lists is of another shape and nature. It 
 is not unmingled evil, nor has it the im- 
 potency of known and wilful sin. It does 
 not fly, but dares to meet its adversary. 
 The pursuits in question occupy a kind 
 of middle ground; and to that ground 
 must he descend, who comes into direct 
 and close collision with them. The true 
 
52 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 opponent of sin is holiness ; and u every 
 battle of the warrior" in the service of 
 the latter, is fought with spiritual instru- 
 ments and celestial arms. But between 
 these two extremes, the war is mutually- 
 waged with weapons in some degree of 
 kindred metal, and congenial temper. 
 And precisely in this half-and-half posi- 
 tion, and on this central ground, stand 
 the open attacker and the wilful follower 
 of the amusements of the world; wrong, 
 I grant, in very different degrees, but 
 neither of them strictly right. This then, 
 I fully believe, is the reason why victory 
 on either side assumes the palpable ap- 
 pearance of triumph. 
 
 But whether this be the true solution 
 of the fact, or no, the fact itself cannot 
 be doubted — that if a clergyman publicly 
 denounce the habits in question, and if 
 these habits, nevertheless, maintain their 
 ground in his locality or parish, he finds 
 himself in an awkward and distressing 
 attitude. Many of his flock, who gather 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 53 
 
 round him on the Sunday, have, during 
 the week, openly renounced his minis- 
 terial authority. Had these persons (a 
 thing hardly to be conceived) joined to- 
 gether in the commission of some flagrant 
 sin, none but Satan himself could claim 
 this as a victory. If all triumph were not 
 utterly excluded in so sad a case, it would 
 be the triumph of those alone who re- 
 joiced that sin was dragged from its con- 
 cealment, and put to an open shame. 
 But, in the former instance, the sense of 
 those who are implicated with neither 
 party is by no means so favourable to 
 the insulted minister. Even those who 
 think his opponents wrong, do not neces- 
 sarily admit that he was right. If they 
 condemn the follies of the one, they can- 
 not acquit the other at least of indiscre- 
 tion. The common feeling and general 
 sense are, that there has been frailty on 
 both sides. The clergyman, having failed 
 to gain his point, has gratuitously and 
 injudiciously tried his strength, and shewn 
 
54 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 his want of power. And thus, if his in- 
 fluence be lessened, he is considered, in 
 some sense, as the artificer of his own 
 fortune. 
 
 I am quite aware that, should any ball- 
 going clergyman, if such there be, or any 
 ball-loving gentleman or lady, peruse 
 these lines, they may be so far likely to 
 misconceive my meaning, as to claim my 
 humble advocacy for their cause. Nor 
 am I without some painful apprehensions, 
 that many faithful ministers may view 
 them with a jealous eye. As it respects 
 the latter, nevertheless, I trust that when 
 they consider what I have yet to urge, 
 they will so far correct their first impres- 
 sions, as to acquit me of the charge, 
 however unworthy I may be to uplift it, 
 of lowering the standard of religion. If 
 I question the expediency of direct attacks 
 upon amusements, they will not withhold 
 the right hand of fellowship from one 
 whose anxieties and prayers are in the 
 fullest harmony with theirs, that all who 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 55 
 
 name the name of Christ would rise above 
 them. Nor will they refuse kindly and 
 liberally to give me credit, when I declare 
 it as my conviction, that amongst those 
 whom, with becoming deference, I would 
 warn against an erroneous zeal, are to be 
 found some shining lights and ornaments 
 of the church. Men who, as a body, 
 present to the supporters of systematic 
 levities as bright a contrast as this world 
 of lights and shades can, in any chamber 
 of her imagery, display. I feel that my 
 suggestions are offered to some persons, 
 to whose important labours, all my poor 
 endeavours, now in the course of nature 
 drawing near their close, are but as a 
 drop of water to the ocean. Writing in 
 such a spirit, though they may dispute 
 my judgment, they w r ill not misconstrue 
 my intentions. Nor will the sequel of 
 this letter, it is my confident persuasion, 
 leave them room to suspect, that I mean 
 to bend the strictest line of Gospel holi- 
 ness ; to extenuate the richness of its 
 
56 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 gifts, the fulness of its grace, or the pleni- 
 tude of its blessings. 
 
 However the foregoing observations 
 may concern the Christian ministry at 
 large, they apply, with additional and 
 peculiar force, to the clergy of the Esta- 
 blished Church. The bearing of the 
 latter upon general society is wholly 
 different from that of dissenterism, of 
 whatever form. A sect is to the nation 
 in its corporate capacity, what a lopped- 
 offlimb is to the body. The establish- 
 ment is to the nation, what the soul is to 
 the body. The church and state form 
 one whole. The former is but the latter 
 in a different aspect, and so vice versa. 
 The one is the nation, politically consi- 
 dered ; the other is the nation, religiously 
 considered. Such is the theory of the 
 case : and, doubtless, if that theory were 
 carried into full effect, the church would 
 breathe into every department of society 
 the breath of life ; would so infuse herself 
 into the universal mass, that the whole 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 57 
 
 body would be full of light. For this 
 purpose it is that she is made to answer 
 to her grosser counterpart, as face to 
 face in a glass ; touching her at every 
 point of contact, and rising with her, as 
 she, by due steps, ascends from her foun- 
 dation to her summit. Such correspond- 
 ence to the secular world seems, on a 
 superficial view, to prove her secular too. 
 But the fact is, that in this very thing 
 consists her spirituality. Though the 
 separated limb may say, "I am not of 
 the body ; is it therefore not of the 
 body ?" It is removed, but it is not 
 thereby changed : it is, according to the 
 vulgar phrase, a chip of the old block. 
 Hence no sect, I speak not of individuals 
 but of systems, can be purely spiritual. 
 To outward appearance it is far less " of 
 the w r orld" than the national church is. 
 But this is all because its separation is 
 outward, circumstantial, and visible to 
 the eyes of man. It resembles a disso- 
 lution of partnership between two rivals 
 
 d2 
 
58 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 of conflicting tempers, and clashing in- 
 terests ; who trade upon the same 
 bottom, and have the same commodities 
 to barter, but cannot agree upon the 
 mode of management. What a sect 
 not unfrequently mistakes for extrication 
 is, not leaving, but running into a corner 
 of the world, like some affrighted animal, 
 which, while a ship is sinking, seeks an 
 imaginary safety in some hole or crevice 
 of the vessel. But the establishment 
 considered, not in its temporal provi- 
 sions, (for these may hitch in the politics, 
 and entangle in the machinery of the 
 world,) but in its religious aspect, may, 
 nay it is of the very essence of her in- 
 stitution that she should, fill the whole 
 circle of society. She may leaven the 
 whole system, and still interfere with 
 none of its arrangements. After the 
 similitude of that light of which she is 
 the dispenser, she may be present every- 
 where, and yet require that nothing 
 should be disturbed, nothing displaced, 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 59 
 
 that, like grosser substances, she may 
 clear a field of occupation for herself. 
 Such are the character of her agency 
 and the nature of her operations. She 
 exercises herself in the things that are 
 God's, and leaves to Cesar the things that 
 are Cesar's ; because between these two 
 there are none of those affinities on which 
 the claims of rivalship are founded. 
 
 It is self-evident that the functionaries 
 in such a scheme should exercise great 
 tact, and employ a scrupulous caution, in 
 interfering with the established forms and 
 conventional usages of society. As far 
 as the infusion of principle can control 
 the outward conduct ; as far as advancing 
 light is fitted by its own efficiency to 
 dispel the clouds which the world, with 
 all its wisdom, has thrown around the 
 paths of life ; so far the ministers of 
 our church may reform the habits, and 
 " change the customs" of mankind. Of 
 course I do not now speak of things 
 positively evil. However sin may mys- 
 
60 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 teriously mingle with the process, it is no 
 recognised part of the machinery of the 
 world. Human laws and temporal autho- 
 rities oppose it in every department to 
 which their jurisdiction can extend. Con- 
 sequently, if sin be assailed from the 
 pulpit, the denunciation is rather for, 
 than against, established rule and order. 
 But when the object of the attack is 
 closely interwoven with the whole texture 
 of society, so that to separate it from the 
 piece, w r ould cause a rent, which, though 
 easy to make, it would be hard, if pos- 
 sible, to mend; here one sees the utter 
 incongruity of such a disturbing agency 
 with the peculiar character of our func- 
 tion. Were an irregular teacher in point 
 blank English to maintain the unlawful- 
 ness of one man's going to Court, and of 
 another man's consenting to be called 
 your Lordship or your Grace ; or were he 
 to assert, as a truly devoted minister not 
 long since did, that no Christian should 
 reserve more for his own expenses, than 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 61 
 
 served for food and raiment, but give all 
 that was over and above in charity to the 
 poor ; however mistaken we might con- 
 ceive such doctrine, we could not charge 
 the propounder with inconsistency, till 
 we knew the principles of his sect. He 
 might belong to a party who thought the 
 present constitution of society an evil, 
 and that the whole fabric and framework 
 should come down. But if a clergyman 
 of the Established Church were to set 
 forth such principles, there would be a 
 glaring incongruity between his doctrine 
 and his office. All that heard him might 
 at once exclaim, " Thou that teachest 
 another, teachest thou not thyself? If 
 levelling and equality are the order of 
 the day, why do you still keep that place? 
 If you are honest, and believe the lessons 
 which you give, why not begin yourself 
 to put them into practice ? Why not re- 
 nounce at once your connexion with a 
 system, which owns, sanctions, and ex- 
 hibits that gradation of ranks rising to 
 
62 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 the very foot of the throne, of which you 
 now stand forth to say, ' Down with it, 
 down with it, even to the ground?" 
 
 I do not mean, however, to affirm that 
 the amusements of the world are a neces- 
 sary and indispensable part of the provi- 
 dential framework of society; neither 
 would I take upon me to say that they 
 are not. I am sure that, in the days of 
 millennial purity and blessedness, such 
 frivolous and vain pursuits will have no 
 place. But whether, in the present min- 
 gled scheme of things, the thirst for mere 
 pleasure could be so safely met ; whether 
 the vacuities of idleness could with so 
 little risk be filled ; whether the distinc- 
 tions of rank and splendours of courts 
 could be so well kept up by any other 
 means, as by these brilliances, — I confess 
 myself wholly incompetent to decide. 
 Certain it is, that the supreme Disposer 
 of the w r orld has, in all ages, and in all 
 nations, made provision for something of 
 the kind. And certain it no less is, that 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 63 
 
 if society, at its present moral level, were 
 deprived of these its accustomed stimu- 
 lants, it would seek for some substitutes 
 to supply their place. Would the change, 
 then, in all fair probability, be for the 
 better ? Would not rank, thus stripped 
 of all its drapery, be forced to clothe itself 
 in sullen haughtiness and tenfold pride ? 
 Would not the young and thoughtless, 
 shut out from all the scenes of lighter 
 gaiety, rush, in too many instances, as 
 their only resource, into the horrible pit 
 and miry clay of sensual and degrading 
 vices ? Could the Church regain her 
 plenitude of power, and dictate to the 
 state a code of laws, by which all theatres 
 were closed, balls and concerts made 
 penal, and every amusement banished 
 from the land, — who will say, that public 
 morals would be improved ? Nay, who 
 will deny, that the most fearful conse- 
 quences might ensue, and that human 
 passions might take a far worse direction 
 than they do at present, and sweep all 
 
64 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 decency before them? Surely, then, it 
 cannot be our line of duty to attempt, as 
 individuals, upon a lesser scale, what, if 
 carried into general effect, would be but 
 too likely to injure, not benefit, society 
 at large ? It cannot be desirable for a 
 minister, even if he could, by the mere 
 weight of his authority to chase away 
 from his locality or district every means 
 and opportunity of gratifying a taste for 
 lighter pleasures ; leaving the mind no 
 power of choosing, and forcing upon the 
 younger members of his flock more 
 serious habits, and more semblance of 
 religious strictness, than their hearts in- 
 clined to, or their consciences approved. 
 Surely such harshness is not well calcu- 
 lated to conciliate the affections, or to 
 win the soul to God. 
 
 Nor can I think it suitable, to a mi- 
 nister of the national church especially, 
 to raise a standard, and set up a principle, 
 which exhibit the powers that be, and 
 the authorities of the land, as almost to 
 
ON TUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 65 
 
 a man and ex officio, traitors to their God. 
 It could not have been good, in a public 
 point of view, to have held forth, in his 
 day, such a sovereign as George the 
 Third, as, like the men of Sodom, "a 
 sinner before the Lord exceedingly," be- 
 cause he sometimes followed the hounds, 
 went in state to the theatre, or was pre- 
 sent at a dance. God forbid that I should 
 speak in a spirit of levity about such 
 things, or treat any thing as a trifle, in 
 which religion is concerned. God forbid 
 that I should, with a presumptuous breath 
 blow even the feather which floats upon 
 the air, or wilfully forget that every spot 
 on which I set my foot is holy ground. 
 No ; I speak this language, because I feel 
 that we should act considerately, and on 
 well-weighed principle, in the things of 
 God. It is not consistent on the platform 
 to cry up the memory of George the 
 Third, as being a pattern to the world, 
 arid then to ascend the pulpit, and deal 
 forth doctrines w T hich would blacken that 
 
66 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 memory with the charge of open, wilful, 
 and unrepented sin, I wish rather to 
 shew, that men of a cheerful, charitable, 
 and vigorous piety, could have revered 
 that monarch as the father of his people, 
 and left it with his judgment rather than 
 their own, to settle with his Maker, the 
 grounds on which he acted, in matters of 
 doubtful balance. On the other hand I 
 admit, that sour, severe, and censorious 
 spirits might strain at these gnats, see 
 nothing in that exalted character but its 
 fancied blots, and thank God that they 
 were not such as he was, while he per- 
 haps was often upon his knees in suppli- 
 cation to his God, that He would guard 
 him amidst the fires of temptation through 
 which he passed, for the maintenance of 
 his crown, and for the benefit of his 
 people. 
 
 If I were asked how I would place the 
 amusements in question in the moral 
 scale, and to what class I would refer 
 them in this world of antagonist forces 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 67 
 
 and conflicting elements, my answer 
 would be this: I consider them, on the 
 one hand, as not being positive sins ; 
 neither, on the other hand, do I think 
 them so far removed from sin, as that a 
 mind enlightened from above, could be a 
 voluntary sharer in them, without " hurt 
 and much damage " to itself. Like the 
 digit which stands for a given number, or 
 for that number multiplied to an indefi- 
 nite extent, not by any change in itself, 
 but by the shifting of its position in the 
 line of figures ; — so may these pursuits 
 be lawful or unlawful, according to the 
 responsibility and the religious standing 
 of those who follow them. And thus, 
 what is one man's meat, is another man's 
 poison. Nobody will affirm, that it is 
 wrong in a child "to speak as a child, 
 to understand as a child, to think as a 
 child." But assuredly, if lie who ought 
 to put away childish things, were to re- 
 nounce his manhood, and to retrograde 
 to the pursuits of childish days, it would 
 
68 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 be an unwarrantable abuse of gifts for 
 which he must render an account to God. 
 Now the case before us, though consist- 
 ing, I confess, of far less pure and simple 
 elements, is somewhat parallel. The 
 great mass of society, even in Christian 
 lands, is far more removed from the light 
 and sanctity of true religion, than natural 
 childhood is from man's maturity. A 
 large portion of this mass is, I am per- 
 suaded, sunk so low, that to gain a taste 
 for the most trifling gaieties of life would 
 be an ascent and not a fall upon the gra- 
 duated scale of morals. It would be to 
 exchange the foul retreats of sensual 
 passion, for scenes of comparative inno- 
 cence ; to pass from the dark abodes of 
 strife and bloodshed, into an atmosphere 
 of courtesy and kindness. We do not 
 perhaps sufficiently calculate how low 
 corrective influences must descend, to 
 come into contact with the dense and 
 polluted population of which our large 
 towns and cities are composed. Let 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 69 
 
 every effort be made to bring the sound 
 of the Gospel and the message of salva- 
 tion to those who thus sit in the region 
 and shadow of death. Let this light 
 spring up in every soul, and assembly- 
 rooms and theatres would soon be closed. 
 Othello's occupation would be gone. But 
 to those who refuse at once to come into 
 marvellous light, all means of gradual 
 elevation should not be denied. If upon 
 this dangerous ocean, men will decline 
 deliverance offered, and still will trust to 
 their leaky vessel, let us not, if we could, 
 thrust them down into the hold ; let us 
 suffer them to come up on deck. There 
 they may at least see the danger they 
 are in. There they may behold the ark 
 riding in secure majesty above the waves, 
 and may, before it is too late, seek and 
 find a refuge in her. I am convinced 
 that the theatre has been to some a 
 school at least of heathen virtues ; and 
 surely heathen virtues are better than 
 heathen vices. It has raised the grovel- 
 
70 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 ling slave of avarice, selfishness, and 
 animal indulgence, to a more human 
 level. It has taught him that honour, 
 patriotism, disinterestedness, and friend- 
 ship are not mere empty names, — that 
 we do not live for ourselves alone, but 
 that man has claims upon the heart of 
 man. It has been said that the play of 
 George Barnwell exercised a most salu- 
 tary influence on the apprentices of Lon- 
 don. Now, did amusements imply any 
 positive breach of God's commandments, 
 it would be worse than vain to plead for 
 their continuance, on the ground that 
 they may act as sanative poison upon the 
 world's distempers. We are not to do 
 evil that good may come of it. " Thou 
 shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, 
 and not suffer sin upon him," is the posi- 
 tive command of Scripture. It has often 
 occurred that one sin has expelled another 
 from the mind ; and that human depra- 
 vity forcibly restrained, and denied a vent 
 in one direction, has only burst forth 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 71 
 
 with tenfold horrors in another. But 
 however these things may be in the per- 
 missive providence of God, the pulpit has 
 no discretionary powers, no dispensations 
 to grant where sin is the point in hand. 
 It must still proclaim " the wrath of God 
 revealed from heaven against all ungod- 
 liness and unrighteousness of men." It 
 must still " lift up its voice like a trumpet, 
 and shew the people their transgression, 
 and the house of Jacob their sin." 
 
 That the amusements of the world, 
 however, are not directly of this charac- 
 ter, needs no proof, at least to those who 
 agree with the minister before alluded to, 
 that a person was warranted in frequent- 
 ing them, in obedience to human au- 
 thority. I could not perhaps describe 
 my own idea of their true moral position 
 more clearly, than by supposing two 
 persons, of previous habits in the very 
 extreme of opposition, meeting together 
 at some gay assembly. Let us picture to 
 ourselves, on the one hand, a man de- 
 
72 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 graded to the lowest depth to which a 
 course of sin could sink him, — continuing 
 night after night till wine inflamed him, 
 and then setting forth primed and pre- 
 pared for every crime, to which a sen- 
 sualised heart and maddened brain could 
 prompt him. Let us imagine him at 
 length coming to himself, — not indeed, 
 like the prodigal in the Gospel, with that 
 godly sense of sin which brings him back 
 in penitence to his Heavenly Father's 
 bosom, but with that keen apprehension 
 of temporal misery, which compels him 
 to resolve upon a change of life, And 
 let it not be said that even this, dark 
 in its view, and low in its aim as it 
 doubtless is, may not be the first step 
 towards the restoration of a soul to 
 God. Well then, he determines that 
 he will be no longer an outcast from 
 all reputable society, and from the de- 
 cencies of life. He puts on fortitude ; 
 he dares to meet his former friends ; 
 and to seek reconciliation with his of- 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 73 
 
 fended family. They are all, we will 
 suppose, people of the world. They 
 receive him kindly. They invite him to 
 return to his former habits, and to ap- 
 pear again in the company of his equals. 
 He gratefully accepts their right hand of 
 fellowship. He hails their pleasures as a 
 refuge from his vile debaucheries. He 
 avails himself of their re-introduction to 
 scenes from which his vices had long 
 excluded him ; and in that frame of mind 
 is seen in the assembly, at which I have 
 supposed him present. There he meets, 
 let us imagine, with an individual cir- 
 cumstanced far differently from himself, 
 one who has come down from higher 
 ground, to stand upon that level to which 
 he has just ascended, one who had heard 
 and obeyed that voice which says, 
 " Come out from among them, and be ye 
 separate, and touch not the unclean 
 thing ; and I will receive you and will be 
 a father unto you, and ye shall be my 
 sons and daughters, saith the Lord 
 
 E 
 
74 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 Almighty ;" — one who had bade farewell 
 to the vanities of time ; who had turned 
 away his eyes from those artificial and 
 dazzling lights which blind the vision of 
 the soul ; and hailed the dawn of a 
 never-ending day ;— one who had taken 
 up his cross, and vowed fidelity to a 
 master who was crucified for his sins, 
 who loved him, and gave himself for 
 him. But let him that thinketh he 
 standeth, take heed lest he fall. I have 
 no desire on this occasion to entertain 
 the question whether those who have 
 once attained to the adoption of sons, 
 ever finally fall away. But this I will 
 confidently affirm, that many who were 
 once apparently near to God, leave their 
 father's house, and wander into a far 
 country, and find a mighty famine in 
 that land. Some, through sudden and 
 violent temptation, fall as lightning out 
 of heaven. Others slide down, by little 
 and little, from the bright eminence on 
 which they stood, and by slow degrees, 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 75 
 
 u after they have escaped the pollutions 
 of the world, through the knowledge of 
 the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, are 
 again entangled therein, and overcome." 
 They decline in vigilance, grow negligent 
 in prayer, and feel an aching void within 
 that bosom which religious consolations 
 once had filled. Thev do not now find 
 their happiness in God. They have 
 thrown away that present blessing which 
 it was the high office and privilege of 
 conscience to preserve inviolate. They 
 have lost the secret and infallible test by 
 which the Christian tries the lawfulness 
 of his pleasures, namely, whether they 
 are consistent with the faithful devotion 
 of the heart to God. And thus against 
 frivolous habits, once voluntarily re- 
 nounced, there remains no guard but the 
 feeling that we are pledged to that re- 
 nunciation, and shall be charged with 
 fickleness and inconsistency by our 
 stricter friends, if we venture to retrace 
 our steps. But these are but feeble w r ea- 
 
76 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 pons against the world, the flesh, and the 
 devil. In the hour of temptation these 
 succours fall away ; these secondary mo- 
 tives vanish into air. And in proportion 
 as we lose our hold upon the only arm 
 which can bear us up, we sink in the 
 moral scale, by a law as infallible as the 
 tendency of material bodies to the centre 
 of their attraction. 
 
 In such a downward progress, then, a 
 man may with much distrust, and almost 
 wondering at himself, have just ventured 
 back, for the first time after years of 
 separation, into the midst of the giddy 
 throng, in some scene of public gaiety. 
 There he meets, as we before supposed, 
 with one who is moving in an opposite 
 direction ; one who has come up from 
 still lower scenes of folly and debase- 
 ment. They are both, for the present, 
 engaged in the same pursuits, and are 
 sharers in the same festivities : they 
 both, in point of fact, occupy a common 
 ground, and meet upon the same level. 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 77 
 
 But, in moral consideration, is it the 
 same ground or level to each respect- 
 ively ? No. They are now passing one 
 another on the road of life. Let them 
 but continue to yield to the impulses 
 which sent them there ; and the one will 
 ascend from those low beginnings into 
 that light which the other has left behind 
 him in his downward progress to the 
 depths of ruin. But why should I de- 
 scribe the backslider who has thus re- 
 turned to the frivolities of his former 
 life, as in progress only, or as commencing 
 to unlearn the lessons of his discipleship 
 to Christ ? I much doubt whether the 
 once enlightened soul which takes to the 
 world in its more decent forms, does not 
 more thoroughly apostatize, than if it had 
 been cast by some sudden surprisal upon 
 the rocks of abandonment and open sin. 
 There are, in fact, two distinct species 
 of temptation : the one natural, and the 
 other, if I may so speak, artificial. The 
 former class address themselves to man's 
 
78 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 lower nature ; — to principles and pro- 
 pensities which, though conquered, still 
 live and will live in the best of men, as 
 long as they continue in these taber- 
 nacles of flesh and blood. Against the 
 irascible and sensual passions, the saint 
 has still to watch and pray ; and if for a 
 moment off his guard, may be conceived 
 to fall before these dangerous foes, — the 
 case of David may tell how low. But 
 the latter species of temptation, arising 
 from the conventional usages of the 
 world, and artificial in their very essence, 
 are in reality to the pious man no 
 temptations at all. They are utterly 
 opposed to the whole current of his 
 tastes, his inclinations, and if we can use 
 the word in so favourable a sense, his 
 prejudices. It is impossible therefore, 
 that they can take him by surprise. He 
 must be unmade; the whole texture of 
 his mind must be unravelled; he must 
 be changed into another man, before 
 they can have the least power to touch 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 79 
 
 him, or assail him. On these grounds, 
 then, I rest what will appear to some, I 
 know, a bold assertion; — namely, that 
 for a man who has once, on religious 
 principles, forsaken the commonplace 
 vanities of the world, to measure back 
 his steps and voluntarily to partake of 
 them, implies a more unequivocal aliena- 
 tion of the heart from God, than an un- 
 broken fall to the very bottom of the 
 moral precipice. I grant, and am ready 
 to repeat, that the ordinary amusements 
 of society are not in themselves to be 
 classed with sins. But they belong to 
 the category of artificial temptations ; 
 they are part and parcel of a system, out 
 of which it is the very essence of true 
 conversion to be delivered ; and, there- 
 fore, to be capable of yielding to that 
 attraction, demonstratively proves that 
 the mind has lost its spiritual tone, and 
 that the spark of the divine life has fled. 
 
 I will suppose a man, such as it has 
 been my privilege from time to time to 
 
80 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 meet, to whom all would point with full 
 consent, and say, — there is one who 
 bears, as far as frail mortality can reach, 
 the image and superscription of his 
 Saviour. Were I then, after long per- 
 sonal knowledge of so exalted a cha- 
 racter, to hear the melancholy tidings, 
 that in an ill-fated moment he had com- 
 mitted some desperate act of flagrant, 
 open sin ; — what would be the first im- 
 pression of my mind, on the announce- 
 ment of this sad intelligence ? I should 
 experience mingled astonishment and 
 pity. I should hasten to him, that I 
 might inquire the cause. In the mean- 
 time, sorrow, and not indignation, would 
 fill my mind. I should remember David. 
 I should sigh over the frailty of our 
 common nature. I should frame to my- 
 self some strange combination of irri- 
 tating and exciting circumstances, which 
 could alone have led to so dire a ca- 
 tastrophe. My imagination would be 
 filled with pictures of the wretchedness 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 81 
 
 in which the actor in these scenes was 
 plunged. I should not be even tempted 
 to give him up as lost : I should trust 
 that in his cup of misery hope was at the 
 bottom; — that, though degraded in the 
 eyes of men, he had already fled to the 
 atonement of the cross, and found mercy 
 in the sight of God; and that, before I 
 saw him, the good Samaritan would have 
 had compassion, and bound up his 
 wounds, and poured into them the balm 
 and consolations of His pardoning love. 
 But if a character of the same high 
 stamp were reported to me, as having, 
 with all sobriety and decorum, presented 
 himself at the theatre ; — I confess that, 
 in this case, my feelings would run in a 
 far different channel. I say feelings — 
 for I trust I should pass no deliberate 
 sentence, but leave it rather to God to 
 judge him. But assuredly, the spon- 
 taneous and instinctive tendency of my 
 mind would be, to consider him as a 
 mere cheat. I should be inclined to set 
 e 2 
 
82 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 down all his former pretensions " as 
 sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal;" 
 and all that he had appeared to be, as 
 mere semblance, and not worth. Or, if I 
 believed him to have been once sincere, I 
 should view him as an apostate, who had 
 deeply revolted from his God ; — as one 
 who had not been hurried out of himself 
 by impetuous passions, but had, with his 
 wits about him, declined from the better 
 way ; — as one who had not fallen by 
 sudden surprisal, but w r ho had, on cal- 
 culation, drawn back. And we know 7 
 who has said, " If any man draw back, 
 my soul shall have no pleasure in him." 
 
 It is certain that, in human attach- 
 ments, indifference is dreaded more than 
 even hostility and aversion. Hatred may 
 be converted into love ; but to apathy 
 and unconcern the principle of the old 
 philosophy applies,— ex nihilo nihil Jit. 
 The pulse may intermit, or fly as if all 
 nature w r ere in an uproar; and yet the 
 disease may yield to the remedies of the 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 83 
 
 healing art, and the constitution be re- 
 stored to perfect soundness, and to vi- 
 gorous health. But if the pulse has 
 ceased to beat, the case is hopeless. 
 Thus it is with those ties which bind us 
 to our fellows in special bonds of love. 
 And that the same rule still holds with 
 reference to our higher relations, we 
 learn from the declaration of Him who 
 came down from heaven to conciliate 
 our affections, and to win our hearts : 
 " I would thou wert cold or hot. So 
 then, because thou art lukewarm, and 
 neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out 
 of my mouth." 
 
 But to bring this letter towards a close. 
 If the amusements of the world, or at 
 least if a voluntary participation of them, 
 be inconsistent with that conformity to 
 the image of God's Son, to which the 
 Gospel calls its true disciples, should the 
 pulpit be altogether silent upon a subject 
 so vital and so important ? And though, 
 in the slow process of meliorating the 
 
84 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 general mass, such questionable pursuits 
 may be providentially overruled to bene- 
 ficial purposes, does not the Christian 
 pastor do, or rather suffer evil, that good 
 may come, by leaving them to take their 
 course, and bearing no public testimony 
 against them ? To this I answer that I 
 have in the foregoing observations by no 
 means gone the length of saying, that the 
 preachers of God's word should suffer the 
 torrent of dissipation to flow, and put 
 forth no hand to stem it. No ; what I 
 would respectfully warn my brethren 
 against is, the making direct attacks, not 
 upon the spirit of frivolity and levity, but 
 upon balls, and concerts, and suchlike 
 recreations. I would warn a clergyman, 
 if he be a man of leading intellect and 
 commanding influence, against speaking 
 of these things, as if in a business-like 
 manner to put them down, and thereby 
 to make, what some would think, a tyran- 
 nical use of his authority. I would warn 
 him against his so addressing himself on 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 85 
 
 these subjects to the mere opus operatum 
 of the matter, as would involve all who 
 frequented any given scene of dissipation 
 in his neighbourhood, whether willing or 
 unwilling, whether compelling others, or 
 compelled by others to attend, in one 
 sweeping charge of infamy and guilt. I 
 would warn the pastor against placing 
 himself in distressing and fruitless col- 
 lision with a large portion of his flock, so 
 that if a ball were given in his locality he 
 would stand the brunt of something like 
 a contested election, in which the strug- 
 gle was, whether he or the conductors of 
 the festivity would poll a majority of 
 voters. All this I am compelled to think 
 most unsuitable to the mild and effica- 
 cious exercise of a Christian ministry. 
 One hint I would just offer, which in a 
 practical shape embodies the spirit of 
 what I mean. Suppose a clergyman 
 were, contrary to my judgment, to think 
 it his duty to preach against what are 
 called amusements ; and that in his own 
 
86 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 parish, or near vicinity, an entertainment 
 of the kind were on the eve of taking 
 place. This, then, I conceive to be, of 
 all others the time, when he should ab- 
 stain from any allusion to such topics. 
 His doing so would at least shew that he 
 did not wish to declare open war, or to 
 bring matters to a pitched battle. Where- 
 as an opposite line of conduct would 
 perhaps compel a large, and by no means 
 necessarily the worst, portion of his pa- 
 rishioners, to hold him forth to public 
 view, as one whose ministry was slighted, 
 and whose authority was despised. I am 
 far however from the intention, God for- 
 bid I should entertain the thought, of 
 recommending a cowardly or compro- 
 mising prudence, which would flinch, on 
 this or any other occasion, from declaring 
 the whole counsel of God. I would not, 
 it is true, speak as if I would, had I the 
 power to do so, and as if those that are 
 in authority ought to, shut up every 
 theatre in the land ; nor would I use a 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 87 
 
 language which would point out the in- 
 dividual who had attended some public 
 entertainment, as a marked man in the 
 congregation. I would not mention balls, 
 and plays, and cards, by name, and seem 
 as if I classed them with murder, adul- 
 tery, and theft. This I should feel con- 
 vinced could do no good — could merely 
 irritate and give offence. I would, as far 
 as possible, use a language which, while 
 it left my hearers at liberty as to their 
 exterior habits, would clearly set before 
 them the claims and nature of those rival 
 objects which bid for ascendancy in their 
 hearts. I would not so stigmatize the 
 overt act, that those who wished to join 
 in scenes of gaiety would be ashamed of 
 the appearance of their doing so, or would 
 be frayed away by mere senseless scruple 
 from recreations which they loved ; but I 
 would so exhibit all vain pursuits and 
 glittering follies in the light of Scripture, 
 and so contrast them with the glorious 
 realities and living substances of religion, 
 
88 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 as, in the estimation of every capable un- 
 derstanding, to convert the pleasures of 
 the world into pains and penalties, and 
 its amusements into worse than weariness. 
 I would tell my hearers, on an authority 
 which none could gainsay, that those 
 " that live in pleasure are dead while 
 they live." I would declare to them, 
 that " all that is in the world, the lust of 
 the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and 
 the pride of life, is not of the Father, but 
 is of the world. And the world passeth 
 away, and the lust thereof; but he that 
 doeth the will of God abideth for ever." 
 I would, with the great Instructor, place 
 the fleeting joys of earth in juxta-position 
 with the durable felicities of eternity, and 
 leave it to the mind and heart to make 
 their option. " Whosoever drinketh of 
 this water shall thirst again : but whoso- 
 ever drinketh of the water that I shall 
 give him shall never thirst ; but the water 
 that I shall give him shall be in him a 
 well of water springing up into everlasting 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 89 
 
 life." In short, I would cease from that 
 petty fire, which only stimulates to resist- 
 ance and provokes return, and bring at 
 once to bear upon the congregation the 
 heavy artillery of those fundamental and 
 eternal truths which are revealed from 
 heaven. It is related of a great philoso- 
 pher, whose thoughts dwelt more 
 
 " In regions mild of calm and serene air," 
 
 than amidst 
 
 " the smoke and stir of this dim spot. 
 
 Which men call earth," 
 
 that being much addicted to pets, he 
 made in the door of the apartment allot- 
 ted to their use two holes of different 
 sizes, one for the larger, and the other 
 for the smaller animals. Now a more 
 practical man w r ould have had no diffi- 
 culty in seeing how amply the wider 
 space would have provided for the use of 
 all ; and consequently, how wholly un- 
 called for was the lesser aperture. No- 
 thing can, in my mind, exhibit in a more 
 
90 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 lively manner the mismanagement by 
 which some well-meaning preachers con- 
 trive to throw away their time, and lose 
 their golden opportunities. Their object 
 seems to be to cast a partial light upon 
 the private concerns of individuals, and 
 expose them to the view of the congrega- 
 tion ; while they withhold that universal 
 sunshine which reaches all consciences, 
 but sets a visible mark on no man's cha- 
 racter — which is as penetrative as it is 
 diffusive, piercing even to the " soul and 
 spirit," and to the secret chambers of the 
 heart. The constitution of the soul is 
 tuned in fine accordance with the con- 
 stitution of the body. The diseases also 
 which affect them, and the remedies to 
 which these diseases yield, are not less 
 strictly analogous ; they are, as it were, 
 the spiritual and material counterpart the 
 one of the other. He then is a bad prac- 
 titioner in either department, who de- 
 ceives his patients and himself, by partial 
 applications and topical cures ; who pal- 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 91 
 
 liates symptoms as they arise, while their 
 root and cause is left to prey upon the 
 vitals, and contaminate the blood. As 
 it respects the practical details of con- 
 duct, the great object of the pulpit should 
 be, to inculcate and reiterate those grand 
 and leading motives, which each indivi- 
 dual himself may use as a master key to 
 fit every lock within him, and as a test 
 by which he may try the lawfulness of 
 every step he takes in life. To one or 
 two of these I would now refer. 
 
 Let it then be distinctly and constantly 
 proclaimed, that no Christian, consistently 
 with his profession, can perform any 
 action, engage in any pursuit, or indulge 
 in any pleasure which he conscientiously 
 believes will be remembered with regret 
 at the hour of death, and in the day of 
 judgment. Let this truth be pressed with 
 an earnestness and solemnity as though 
 the preacher felt the nothingness of time, 
 and the awful reality of eternity. Let 
 him urge it upon his hearers, as one who 
 
92 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 pleads with them for their life. Let him 
 put it to their understandings, to the rea- 
 son that God has given them, to the 
 vicegerent which He has implanted in 
 their breasts, whether it is not more than 
 madness to set up any standard or cri- 
 terion of our actions, short of this simple 
 recognition, that there is another life, and 
 that that life will be everlasting weal or 
 woe. I have known the following sug- 
 gestion to have been submitted to a con- 
 gregation with no inconsiderable effect. 
 
 If you were told, on some infallible 
 authority, that you were to die this day 
 month or this day fortnight, do you think 
 that such an expectation would lead you 
 to resolve on living more " holily, and 
 justly, and unblameably," than you now 
 resolve on living ? If so— can your reli- 
 gion be sincere ; or can your hearts be 
 right in the sight of God ? Can that be 
 considered as a state of salvation, or, in 
 other w T ords, of true reconciliation with 
 God, in which the determination is, that 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 93 
 
 if He will bless us with length of days, 
 we will not serve Him and obey Him 
 with the same fidelity and zeal that we 
 would do, if we had the near prospect of 
 death before us ? If such be the use we 
 mean to make of life, would it not be 
 mercy, if the case could indeed admit of 
 any, to cut us down, and let us no longer 
 " cumber the ground ?" Assuredly, if no 
 remembrance of a Saviour's cross and 
 passion — if no consent of the heart to the 
 dictates of essential goodness, no sym- 
 pathy of the soul with the laws of ever- 
 lasting righteousness — if no breathings 
 after a participation of the Divine nature, 
 no love of God's perfections, no thirst for 
 the emanations of His glory — if none of 
 these tender and ennobling motives ac- 
 tuate our minds, what can obedience, 
 extorted by the fear of death, amount to, 
 but to that homage of the lips without 
 the heart, which God disclaims ; that 
 sacrifice of the wicked which God abhors ? 
 I do not mean to say, that in mere cir- 
 
94 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 cumstantials, our conduct should be pre- 
 cisely of its ordinary character, if such a 
 communication as I have supposed were 
 made to us. " To every thing," says the 
 wise man, " there is a season, and a time 
 to every purpose under heaven." Even 
 for appearance sake, and for fear of 
 offence to weaker consciences, the man 
 who contemplated his death with the 
 most familiar repose, and homefelt ease 
 of heart, might in such a case withdraw 
 from many accustomed scenes, and ab- 
 stain from many habitual pursuits. How- 
 ever innocent or lawful in themselves, he 
 might consider them as no longer suitable 
 to one who had so lately heard that 
 solemn voice, " Arise ye, and depart ; for 
 this is not your rest." But such a change, 
 I repeat it, could be only in circumstantial 
 matters. To suppose him now resolving 
 to abstain from allowed indulgences, be- 
 cause of their intrinsic incompatibility 
 with a pure conscience, would be, in 
 other words, to say, that up to the pre- 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 95 
 
 sent moment, he had lived in open sin, 
 and wilful rebellion against his God. But 
 though the individual who thinks that if 
 warned of approaching dissolution, he 
 would resolve to live more loyally towards 
 heaven than he can bring himself to 
 resolve at present ; — though such an one, 
 as all will grant, betray by that very 
 thought the want of true and genuine 
 loyalty of soul ; yet it may be supposed, 
 that even upon the purest mind the near 
 prospect of death would exercise a power- 
 ful moral influence. On a superficial 
 view, it appears as if it would come so 
 triumphantly in aid of every other motive, 
 as to render us invulnerable to tempta- 
 tions, and to quench all the fiery darts of 
 the wicked one. I confess my doubts, 
 however, that this would be, to any con- 
 siderable extent, the case. Much, I 
 grant, would depend on the habits, the 
 circumstances, the bodily and mental 
 constitution of the individual — on the 
 state of his worldly affairs — on the fact 
 
96 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 that more or less business were crowded 
 into the few days which now remained to 
 him — on the nature of the disease, which 
 was sent as the messenger to call him — 
 on the tempers and characters and state 
 of feeling of those who surrounded him 
 on so solemn an occasion. Many con- 
 siderations of this kind might be taken 
 into account, and go to form the special- 
 ties of the case. And these might render 
 such an interval of anticipated death, in 
 some instances more, in others less, fa- 
 vourable to the exercise of Christian 
 graces, than the ordinary average of life. 
 On the whole, I believe that the truly 
 religious man would find himself, as it 
 respected his power over besetting sins, 
 his superiority to habitual infirmities, his 
 liability to harassing temptations — much 
 in his usual state. He would, it is nr 
 firm persuasion, be as assailable by pro- 
 vocations to trifling impatience and petty 
 irritations, by the intrusion of forbidden 
 thoughts, by dulness in religious duties, 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 97 
 
 and wandering in his prayers, as though 
 he had fair reason to expect long years of 
 continuance here below. And why ? 
 Because sinner though he was, before the 
 summons of death arrived, (" for there is 
 no man that sinneth not/') yet all false 
 ways he utterly abhorred. His heart was 
 right with God. His seed remained in 
 him, and he could not sin presumptuously, 
 deliberately, and against the law of love, 
 because he was born of God. The law 
 of his God was in his heart. And if at 
 any time, through the infirmity of the 
 flesh, his steps had slided, it was pain 
 and grief to him, against the current of 
 every feeling which he most fondly 
 cherished. With such an one it is need- 
 less to say, that the fear of death could 
 not effect what the love of God had 
 idled to do. But I am perhaps entering 
 farther into this matter than my subject 
 calls for, and shall return to the point 
 from which I started. 
 
 Another topic which the Christian 
 
 F 
 
98 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 preacher should not cease to keep con- 
 tinually before the hearer's mind, is this : 
 that nothing can be lawfully undertaken 
 or enjoyed, with which we cannot com- 
 fortably associate the recollection, that 
 " all things are naked and opened unto 
 the eyes of Him with whom we have to 
 do." " Thou, God, seest me," should be 
 the language and the glad consent of 
 every faithful soul ; should be to it the 
 life of life, the spring of every consola- 
 tion, and the sunshine of its being. To 
 feel that to be for us, which mast be, whe- 
 ther for us or against us ; to recognise 
 and rejoice in that presence, from which 
 no depths can hide, no distance can 
 remove us ; to hail this as our security, 
 our refuge, our rallying point, as the 
 element in which we desire, and would 
 choose, even were the option left us, to 
 live and move and have our being; — 
 this is the very substance of that con- 
 formity of the will, and reconciliation of 
 the nature, to the real and unchangeable 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 99 
 
 constitution of things, in which it is 
 clear and evident that the well-being or 
 salvation of the soul must essentially 
 consist. On the other hand, to feel 
 instinctively, as we must do in all for- 
 bidden courses, that God's ubiquity, that 
 is, His existence, is against us : to seek 
 a delusive refuge from the painful sense 
 of encircling Deity, in a forgetfulness of 
 ourselves and of Him that made us — 
 w T hat is this but "to kick against the 
 pricks" — to struggle against the currents 
 of eternity and the tides of universal 
 nature, and, like the fool, to say in our 
 hearty however reason may disown the 
 blasphemy, "There is no God?" This 
 constant reference to the ever-watchful 
 eye of God, should be the informing 
 spirit of all we do, or say, or think. Nor 
 does this, as some may erroneously 
 imagine, imply a total absorption of the 
 mind, as if the one object could alone 
 employ it. Those who live habitually 
 in the sense that God is present, are not 
 
100 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 always making Him the direct object or 
 exclusive matter of their thoughts ; and 
 yet He is never so wholly absent from 
 their minds, as to cease from exercising 
 an insensible influence over them. It 
 is thus that, if we are travelling to any 
 given place, we do not repeat over and 
 over to ourselves, that we are to move in 
 that direction. Nevertheless, we never 
 so wholly lose sight of the point in view, 
 as to turn aside to the right hand or to 
 the left. So it is also with the expe- 
 rienced courtier ; he feels quite at home, 
 at ease, and in his element, while in 
 attendance on his royal master. He is 
 not, like the unpractised clown, so 
 shackled, and embarrassed, and haunted 
 by the thought that the prince is in the 
 room, that he cares not how he may 
 incommode, or push against, or trample 
 on the feet of all others with whom he 
 may come in contact ; and still there is, 
 under these circumstances, though per- 
 haps unadverted to, an instinctive and 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 101 
 
 practical impression upon the mind of 
 every well-bred man, which will as in- 
 fallibly secure a becoming and suitable 
 deportment as if a herald were contin- 
 ually proclaiming the presence of the 
 king. And thus it is with him who can 
 with the Psalmist say, " I have set the 
 Lord always before me : because he is 
 at my right hand I shall not be moved." 
 But there is a still more searching 
 test, to which every voluntary pursuit 
 and permitted pleasure should be put, 
 than even the sense of an ever-present 
 Deity ; namely, that at all times and 
 in all places, we stand before that Being 
 who was crucified for our sins. And if 
 He be thus continually before us, "is 
 there not a cause ?" Should the Christ- 
 ian ever be unmindful of a Saviour's 
 sufferings ? Should he be of one heart 
 and mind with the thoughtless and un- 
 feeling throng, to whom that Saviour 
 thus speaks, and speaks, alas! in vain, 
 "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass 
 
102 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 by? behold, and see if there be any 
 sorrow like unto my sorrow?" Should 
 not the language of the Psalmist ever 
 flow from the abundance of his heart, 
 "If I forget thee, let my right hand 
 forget her cunning. If I do not remem- 
 ber thee, let my tongue cleave to the 
 roof of my mouth?" What St Paul 
 resolved, as respected his ministry at 
 Corinth, he extends to the whole circle 
 of his conversation. He is " determined 
 not to know anything save Jesus Christ, 
 and him crucified." Whatsoever is not 
 of faith in Him he accounts as sin ; he 
 esteems as polluted and forbidden every 
 thing which has not some savour of His 
 name, or, at least, whatever is calculated 
 for a moment to shade off the cross 
 from the vision of the soul. '.' God 
 forbid that I should glory save in the 
 cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," is his 
 spontaneous answer to the wiles of the 
 tempter, and the allurements of the 
 world. His firm resolve and fervent 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 103 
 
 prayers are, that in his experience that 
 scene of sorrow may never be reacted, 
 when "the Lord looked upon Peter," 
 and when Peter, with bleeding heart and 
 wounded conscience, went forth from His 
 presence, and " wept bitterly." 
 
 Nor let it be supposed, that if we 
 "always remember the exceeding great 
 love of our master and only Saviour, 
 Jesus Christ, thus dying for us," such an 
 habitual tendency of the mind will in- 
 duce a life of gloom and melancholy. 
 Far from it. The assimilative power of 
 the cross, and the transformation of the 
 soul into the image of Him who died 
 thereon, is but our release from the 
 bondage, and enfranchisement from the 
 misery, of sin. It is to be buried by 
 baptism into the Redeemer's death, "that 
 like as Christ was raised up from the 
 dead by the glory of the Father, even so 
 we also should walk in newness of life ;" 
 in the true liberty of the soul, in com- 
 munion with God, and in the prospect 
 
104 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 of Heaven ; in ways of pleasantness and 
 in paths of peace. If indeed our blessed 
 master had not already passed through 
 the cloud of His atoning sufferings ; if, 
 like the three sorrowing Marys and the 
 beloved disciple, we now " stood by the 
 cross of Jesus," beheld the travail of His 
 soul, and heard the voice of His com- 
 plaint ; or if, as in the days of His flesh, 
 those pangs were still before Him, and 
 we saw the agonies that swelled His 
 bosom when He looked to some for pity, 
 and fled for sympathy to His disciples, 
 saying, "My soul is exceeding sorrow- 
 ful, even unto death;" — we might well 
 "gird ourselves with sackcloth, and wal- 
 low ourselves in ashes," and " go heavily 
 as one that mourneth for his mother.' 5 
 It was on this account, doubtless, a mer- 
 ciful provision, that in the days of our 
 Lord's humiliation, His disciples should 
 have been so dull of hearing, when He 
 forewarned them of His death and pas- 
 sion, in terms both clear and unequi- 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 105 
 
 vocal. " Behold we go up to Jerusalem, 
 and all things that are written by the 
 prophets concerning the Son of Man 
 shall be accomplished. For he shall be 
 delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be 
 mocked, and spitefully entreated, and 
 spitted on : and they shall scourge him, 
 and put him to death : and the third day 
 he shall rise again. And they under- 
 stood none of these things, and this 
 saying was hid from them ; neither knew 
 they the things which were spoken." 
 Had there not been some veil upon their 
 minds, some merciful shield to protect 
 their hearts, the prospect would have 
 been insupportable ; the trial would have 
 been "greater than they were able to 
 bear ;" they would have been " swallowed 
 up with over much sorrow," and unfitted 
 to maintain the arduous post assigned 
 them. But blessed be God, He who 
 endured the cross and despised the 
 shame, is now in full fruition of the joy 
 that was set before Him. The dark 
 f2 
 
106 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 cloud of His afflictions has passed away 
 for ever, and He is now seated in the 
 bright bosom of the felicity and glory 
 which He had with His Eternal Father 
 before the world was. It is thus that 
 the mind of the believer is kept in that 
 fine and equal balance which constitutes 
 the Gospel the power of God unto salva- 
 tion. While he rises with the risen 
 Saviour, rejoices in His joy, and is 
 victorious in His triumphs, still those 
 Scriptures w r hich detail a Saviour's suffer- 
 ings and sorrows, teach their lessons to 
 his heart. He counts the cost and 
 remembers the price at which he him- 
 self was bought; he is conformed to 
 that death by which his own everlasting 
 life was purchased, and exclaims in the 
 language of the apostle, u I am crucified 
 with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not 
 I, but Christ liveth in me : and the life 
 w 7 hich I now live in the flesh I live by 
 the faith of the Son of God, who loved 
 me, and gave himself for me." A faithful 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS, 107 
 
 setting forth of these affecting truths 
 will cast a light upon the scenes of what 
 are emphatically styled innocent amuse- 
 ments, which, upon those who have eyes 
 to see, will flash conviction of their utter 
 contrariety to the spirit of the Christian 
 life. 
 
 Another test of the consistency of our 
 pursuits with the nature of our holy 
 calling is this, — are they, or are they not, 
 calculated to vitiate those appetites of 
 the soul which are, in other words, its 
 capabilities of enjoying "the things 
 which God has prepared for them that 
 love him?" There are in man's original 
 constitution a deep thirst for pleasure, 
 and a lofty aspiration after glory ; and, 
 upon the right or wrong direction of 
 these potent tendencies his all depends. 
 No man can serve two masters ; his 
 affections cannot run with counter cur- 
 rents. He cannot set his heart on two 
 opposite and rival objects ; it must be 
 infallibly the case, that if he love the one 
 
108 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 he will hate the other ; or if he volun- 
 tarily cleave to the one he will despise 
 the other. Let it then be fairly put to 
 the understanding, and to the moral 
 sense of those who crowd our churches, 
 how far our seeking pleasure in the 
 artificial and tumultuous gaieties of the 
 world, can be accordant with that sim- 
 plicity of taste which finds its enjoyment 
 in the pure scenes of nature, and in the 
 anticipation of those still purer scenes, 
 of which nature itself is but the ruder 
 draft or copy? Amidst the stimulants of 
 the thronged assembly, do not even the 
 flowers that pine and fade in its heated 
 air and loaded atmosphere, often seem 
 to say, that purity and innocence cannot 
 find their congenial element there ? To 
 many who are turning night into day, 
 and day into night, can the thought but 
 sometimes present itself, that, however 
 vigilantly excluded, the morning light 
 has already begun to dawn ; that now 
 "man goeth forth unto his work and 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 109 
 
 to his labour ;" that the plants are now 
 opening to the sun ; that the birds are 
 now unconsciously celebrating their Cre- 
 ator's praise ; and that the saints are now 
 offering up the incense of their earliest 
 prayer to God? Surely these contrasts 
 cannot but suggest, that there is some- 
 thing in these hackneyed pleasures calcu- 
 lated to spoil the taste for simple scenes 
 and innocent delights. And if these 
 high-seasoned ingredients of man's world 
 jar against the purer elements of God's 
 world here below, how still more essen- 
 tially are they at variance with the 
 sanctity of God's world above, and w r ith 
 the pleasures which are at His right 
 hand for evermore ! Assuredly the per- 
 son who, in the crowded ball-room or 
 theatre, to which he has voluntarily and 
 for his own gratification resorted, can 
 with complacency call to mind that 
 solemn declaration, " Except ye be con- 
 verted, and become as little children, ye 
 shall in no case enter into the kingdom of 
 
110 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 heaven/' must be either strangely con- 
 structed, or the victim of a most fatal 
 self-deception. And if the entrance upon 
 the state of blessedness requires a mind 
 and moral taste wholly opposed to the 
 love of worldly pleasures, how propor- 
 tionately contrasted with them must be 
 the pursuits and enjoyments of the saints 
 in light! Can the whole compass of 
 creation, or the powers of imagination 
 present extremes more distant than the 
 carnal delights and maddening excite- 
 ments of fashionable dissipation, and the 
 sketches which the Scriptures give of 
 the rest that remaineth to the people of 
 God ; of scenes " so cool, so calm, so 
 bright," as are presented to the mind in 
 the following passages ? " To-day," says 
 the Great Shepherd to His returning 
 sheep, " shalt thou be with me in 
 paradise," — that is, in a garden of ever- 
 during fruits, and never-withering flowers, 
 the celestial counterpart of that retreat 
 to which the wise, and innocent, and 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. Ill 
 
 pure in heart betake themselves, as the 
 solace of their cares, and their refresh- 
 ment from all the toils of earth. *■* To 
 him that overcometh," declares the faith- 
 ful witness, "will I give to eat of the 
 tree of life, which is in the midst of the 
 paradise of God." Of those who " have 
 washed their robes, and made them 
 white in the blood of the Lamb," it is 
 moreover said, " They shall hunger no 
 more, neither thirst any more, neither 
 shall the sun light on them, nor any 
 heat ; for the Lamb which is in the 
 midst of the throne shall feed them, 
 and shall lead them unto living fountains 
 of waters : and God shall wipe away all 
 tears from their eyes." Let these bright 
 draughts of unalloyed enjoyment be 
 placed before the lovers of vain and 
 sensual indulgences, and let them make 
 the option for themselves. 
 
 But I said before, man is not athirst 
 for pleasure alone ; he is endowed with 
 an insatiable ambition and appetite for 
 
112 ON PUBLIC AxMUSEMENTS. 
 
 glory. To meet these aspirations, and 
 to arrest them in their progress to the 
 only fountain of the true sublime, the 
 tempter offers all the false and dazzling 
 brilliancies with which this present scene 
 of things abounds. To our Saviour he 
 promised all the kingdoms of the world, 
 and the glory of them, vainly endeavour- 
 ing to eclipse therewith the greater light 
 which rules the eternal day. And, in our 
 lower sphere, it is my deliberate convic- 
 tion, that part, nay, the chief part of the 
 danger of artificial gaieties is, that they 
 meet the instinctive calls for glory, 
 honour, and immortality, with mere ap- 
 pearances, which mock the appetite, 
 which vitiate the taste, and indispose it for 
 the enjoyment of its connatural food. 
 There is an almost magical effect pro- 
 duced by splendid dresses, high-sounding 
 titles, dazzling lights, brilliant airs; by 
 the 6clat of scenic exhibitions ; by all the 
 witcheries of the drama, and mysterious 
 fascinations of the stage ; which intoxi- 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 1 13 
 
 cates the mind, and deadens the principle 
 of spiritual life within it. They take the 
 soul out of the regions of reality and 
 truth, wrap it in a false elysium, inflate it 
 with a vain sense of glory, and present to 
 it an idol as the object of its worship. 
 That such is the dangerous delusion of 
 these pursuits, nature itself could testify. 
 Let us suppose at some long-protracted 
 festivity, that in all the magnificence of 
 its splendour and madness of its carou- 
 sals, the windows were at once thrown 
 open, and the morning sun were to ap- 
 pear, casting his bright beams of light 
 upon the clouds, and awakening the land- 
 scape into life. Could a hand-writing 
 upon the wall proclaim, in characters 
 more clear and legible, to all this pa- 
 geantry — "Thou art weighed in the 
 balances, and art found wanting ?" And 
 if, when God's material image arises, 
 " his enemies are scattered, and those 
 that hate him flee before him," what 
 must be the contrariety of those scenes 
 
114 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 which are " filled with shame for glory" 
 to Him before whom the sun itself is 
 darkness, and beside whom there is no 
 God ! But I shall enlarge upon this 
 point no more. It carries, indeed, its 
 own evidence with it. 
 
 I shall conclude this letter by saying, 
 that truths like these skilfully managed 
 and applied with tact and with a judicious 
 hand, would be competent to effect all 
 that the pulpit can, or ought to do, in 
 stemming the tide of vain and frivolous 
 amusements. These topics would, in my 
 opinion, have most influence when they 
 were so unfolded as to lead persons to 
 form for themselves those contrasts to 
 which I have just now adverted. They 
 should be urged in such a manner as to 
 direct the attention to things and not to 
 names. The principles should be so in- 
 fused, as to reach the part diseased, by 
 its alterative effect upon the general 
 habit, and not by topical applications or 
 partial remedies. In plain terms, I 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 115 
 
 would not talk of balls, or theatres, or 
 assemblies, however anxiously I might 
 desire really and effectually to raise all 
 hearts above them, and to call God's 
 people out of them. But if I were to 
 speak of these things by name, I would 
 take care so to do it, as to shew that my 
 charges were levelled against the love of 
 them, rather than against the mere fre- 
 quenting them. And still this distinction 
 should be guarded with much caution, lest 
 it might open a wide door to those who 
 could readily feign to themselves some 
 peculiar necessity, or convenient duty, 
 which would bring their case within the 
 limits of the preacher's license. In a 
 word, to exhibit to the mind those bright 
 scenes which the pen of inspiration draws ; 
 to display those overwhelming contrasts 
 to grovelling pleasures and empty vanities 
 which the Scripture paints ; its green 
 pastures ; its waters springing up into 
 everlasting life ; its royal diadems and 
 crowns of glory ; — these are the instru- 
 
116 ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 ments most potent in themselves, and 
 most likely to be blessed of God, by 
 which the pulpit will bear with power 
 upon the matter under consideration, 
 namely, the amusements of the world. 
 Such a mode of preaching will be the 
 most effectual means of extricating those, 
 who have ears to hear, from a conformity 
 to practices unsuitable to their general 
 habits, and injurious to the health and 
 well-being of their souls. By not attack- 
 ing in one indiscriminate mass all who 
 frequent the scenes of public gaiety, it 
 will not wound the feelings of those who 
 attend them by a forced compliance, 
 " nor make the heart of the righteous 
 sad, whom the Lord hath not made sad." 
 And, as it respects the world, and those 
 who are of the world, the preacher will 
 not in such addresses, as it were, "judge 
 them who are without ; * he will not aim 
 at controlling those whom it would be a 
 hopeless effort to control, or who, if 
 restrained by such motives as could 
 
ON PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 117 
 
 influence a worldly mind, would be 
 nothing bettered by a partial, unsuitable, 
 and unnatural restraint. He will not, 
 finally, attempt, even were it possible to 
 succeed, by banishing the lighter amuse- 
 ments to create a void in society at large, 
 or in the hearts of those individuals who 
 generally compose it, which, in all likeli- 
 hood, nothing but the grosser elements 
 of sin would occupy. 
 
 I am, &c. &c. 
 
 H. W. 
 
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