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AN ADDRESS,

&c.

THE excitement produced, every where throughout our country, by the recent calamity which befel the capital of the state of Virginia, is in many instances accompanied with a solemn inquiry into the moral tendency of the Theatre--the unhappy occasion of that calamity. The friends of religion, generally, in this city, while they weep over the woes of Richmond, appear anxious to improve the painful dispensation for the moral good of the present and the rising generation. We accordingly embrace the opportunity, offered by the present state of public sensibility, to address you on the subject of the Stage, and to direct your inquiries into the character of an institution, which is, always, by us, esteemed pernicious to society, and which, at the present period, will be examined by you, with more than ord nary interest. You will not do us the injust ce to allege, that we, in this effort, ignobly take the advantage of an afflictive casualty for the purpose of gratifying any illiberal prejudice of our own, or promoting personal and sinister views. You will, on

the contrary, we trust, acknowledge, that in improving the proper season for uttering an affectionate warning, we discharge a duty which we owe, to our own character, to you, whose usefulness and welfare we desire to promote, and to that God, before whom, you and we are both acting our part in life, and before whom we must all appear hereafter to render a full and accurate account. In this hope,

Dear Christian Brethren,

We now address you, and recommend it to you, in the name of the Great God our Saviour, whose Disciples you are, to WITHHOLD ALL SUPPORT FROM THE PLAY-HOUSE.

In this recommendation, we are confident, that we are urging upon your attention a plain christian duty. It is inconsistent with your holy calling to countenance the Theatre, because, in its origin and history it has been a public nuisance in society, in its present constitution it is criminal, under every form it is useless, and it must necessarily tend to demoralize any people who give it their support.

1. The Theatre owes its origin to the revelry which accompanied the celebration of the feast of Bacchus, the God of wine, in the licentious ages of heathen idolatry. Dramatic representations

formed a part of that worship which the Athenians offered to this false God; and were perfectly in character with the worshippers themselves and the object of their adoration. The actors imitated whatever the poets thought proper to feign of their idol. Men and women in masquerade, appeared night and day before the public, practising the most gross immoralities, and indulging in every species of debauchery. The Goat, which is said to be injurious to the vine, and the name of which in Greek is Tragos, is the animal sacrificed on this occasion to Bacchus; and hence the revelry itself was called tragedy, and the actors tragedians.* The feasts were celebrated during the vintage. So gratifying however did those shows prove to the public taste in Athens, that they were demanded more frequently than the season, to which they origi nally belonged, recurred. Thespis, accordingly, about five hundred and thirty-six years before the christian æra, embodied a company of actors, and carried them about with him on his cart to perform tragedies wherever an audience could be assembled. And afterwards under the direction of Eschylus, a public Theatre was erected and

* Тредодавно Триусобод-Трез собье

appropriated to dramatic representations. Comedy,* which was, at first, a mimicry and abuse of living and well known characters, for the amusement and gratification of the idle and the profligate, soon followed tragedy, on the public Theatre. From Greece these exhibitions passed over to Rome. But, in neither place, did the immoral tendency of the stage escape the observation of the more sober Heathen. Their wisest and best men, their philosophers and magistrates deprecated the licentious tendency of this schoolof scandal, and gave warning of its danger to every society in which the evil was tolerated. Both in Athens and in Rome, the stage was not unfrequently suppressed by positive statute. The evil was popular, however, and the remedy was ineffectual. The Theatre fell, only under the power of the Gospel.

Kous was the God of revelry among the Greeks; and seems to be the same with CHEMOSH, the abomination of the Moabites. It is but another name for Bacchus. From the name of the Idol, both the sacred and profane writers employ, to designate that obscene festivity which was accompanied with drunkenness and music. This word is translated "rioting," Rom. 13 13. and "revellings," Gal 5. 21. & 1 Pet 4. 3. In these texts of scripture, the wanton amusements of the Theatre are expressly prohibi ted. The word Comedy is not, however, derived from the Idol Comus; but is compounded from, a town or vil lage, and, a song. The abusive and scurrilous songs of strolling companies through the streets gave rise to Comedy.

The primitive church could not be supposed to abet a system of licentiousness of which the sensible Pagans were themselves ashamed. Christians were then as well as now exposed to seduction, from the common vices of society: but they resisted temptation with characteristic firmness. The Theatre was given up, as well as the other abominations of the heathen. Its representations were not congenial to a taste formed upon evangelical principles: nor could a correct morality hold communion with those unfruitful works of darkness. It required however on the part of the christian individual great circumspection and resolution to abstain from the criminal pleasures in which all around him were accustomed to indulge. Circumstances gave strength to the temptation. It was often recommended by the solicitations and example of a neighbour, an intimate companion of early life, a partner in business, a superior in talents and influence, and perhaps too by a wife, a brother, and a parent. The revelation of the will of God was the christian's support against the seductive influence, of affection, of frowns, and of injuries. Could he rise up, from the word of inspiration, and go to the obscene entertainment of the Play-House? That word says, Whether, therefore, ye eat, or

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