conviction as to the degenerate character of that entertainment may speedily operate in your case, my dear sir, as once in my own, to prevent your ever going to it again."

"I accept most willingly your explanation," exclaimed the magistrate; " and, waving all notion of personality, I must repeat, that one or two of your propositions are not merely plausible, but just. At the same time, you must not suppose that in making this confession I agree with you in toto. I quite coincide with you in believing, that the practice of continuing the performances at the theatre till one or two o'clock on Sunday morning, or for a moment, indeed, beyond the hour of twelve, is to be reprobated, as contra bonos mores. I am also of opinion, that there is something more than assertion in your observations on the third commandment;-in your denunciations against the mockery of pretended prayer, and the too frequent use of the sacred name of the Deity. I am inclined to think, likewise, that if the petticoats of the female dancers in the ballet were somewhat longer; or, as you might more pointedly express it, if they had any petticoats at all, it would be so much the better.

“But while I allow to this extent," continued our host, “I must repudiate altogether the relevancy of the sixth commandment to the subject we have in hand. True it is, and awful it is, that there is such a thing as spiritual murder, but I must declare that I am not yet superstitious enough to imagine that it is, in any degree, connected with theatrical representations."

"We are told, however, and by infallible authority," resumed the clergyman, "that the soul that sinneth it shall die.'* If we wilfully, therefore, and presumptuously, frequent those places where words are spoken, sacred things trifled with, and deeds enacted, contrary to the Divine injunctions, we * Ezek. xviii. 4.

commit sin, and if it be unrepented of, that soul, according to my scriptural quotation, shall die.'”

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What, then, is this," said Mr. Davies emphatically," but spiritual murder?-murder of self? Here is a sinful man; sinning against knowledge-against the light of his own conscience-against the irreversible laws of his Maker-and dying the death! What is this but the worst and most fearful breach of the seventh commandment of the Decalogue?"

"I give you full credit, my dear sir," replied the magistrate, "for the sincerity with which you entertain your opinions; but sincerity, excellent as the quality is, does not exempt from error of judgment; and it appears to me that you press the argument farther than the letter will justify. You remind me of the gentlemen of the bar, who, in the ardour of their advocacy for their clients, strain the law very greatly-I won't say dishonestly-beyond the sound interpretation of it. I maintain my ground, except as to the admis sions I have already made, and can proceed no farther with you in the views you propound.

"Observe," he continued, " to what your doctrine leads,to a condemnation, forsooth, of the very highest, as well as the lowest in the land, who frequent these amusements. Of course you include in the same category the crowned head, as well as the unwashed artificer."

"Doubtless," said his antagonist; "such is the legitimate inference. With God is no respect of persons,' except that the more highly educated classes, who ought to shine as moral lights amid the darkness that deepens around them, have the heavier responsibility to bear. Knowledge ought ever to be the handmaid of virtue, and the instructor of ignorance, and when it fails to set the required example, by the exhibition of a purer morality, the greater is the sin incurred. But what, let me ask, is the conceivable authority of

such a fallen, short-sighted, and rebellious creature as man, when put in competition with the word of God? What says the Lord our Redeemer ?— In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”*

"Were you to limit your views to one or two branches of the subject in discussion," said the host, "namely, to the viola tion of the sanctity of the sabbath, by keeping the Opera House open beyond the hour of twelve on Saturday evenings, I should be half inclined to support you. Were you also to address your strictures, on this question, to the members of the government, or to the Bishop of London, in whose diocese the obnoxious building is situated, you might, I think, effect the desired reformation. I certainly remember that a former dignitary of the see of London had the moral courage, in the fulfilment of his responsible duties, to make such a representation to the sovereign himself; and, to his credit be it said, his majesty listened respectfully to the recommendation, and ordered the observance to be strictly complied with.

"Although I disagree with you, therefore," he continued, "respecting some of your objections, yet I can sincerely counsel you to endeavour to reform our lax morals in this particular. What has been accomplished within my own recollection may be accomplished again. And as a former Bishop of London considered it his bounden duty to raise his voice against this desecration of the sabbath, and succeeded in his holy purpose, so will his present successor, if animated by an equal zeal for the honour of God, and the salvation of immortal souls.

"As regards the simple fact of frequenting theatres as places of amusement, I must again repeat, that what is sanctioned by the highest station, talent, and virtue in the kingdom, and by the great majority of mankind, cannot be very wrong."

*Matt. xv. 9.

"Which means to say," observed Mr. Davies, not' wrong, at all."

"Now it is that very circumstance," remarked the minister, “of the great majority of mankind' running so ardently in pursuit of an object, that, irrespective of a full knowledge of the merits of the question, should make a reflecting man doubt of its propriety. What sort of a majority,' may I ask, was that recorded in the Old Testament, and which, in the days of Noah, comprehended an entire world, with the exception of eight persons? Did it conceive and practise that which was right, according to your argument, because it was a majority ?' Let the tremendous destruction of the universal deluge return the answer! Let the sacred volume declare:-" And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth.'* But if a majority must be right," said the pastor, "I presume a whole world must be still more so. And yet what was the issue of these right ways?-what was the approval of them by the allseeing and omniscient Jehovah ? 'And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. . . . . And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, and every man: all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.'t

* Gen. vi. 5, 6.

+ Gen. vi. and vii.

"In ethical philosophy, and that sublimest part of it, religion, the world at large, I regret to say, are comparative novices. Their theory is scanty; too often occasioned by wilful ignorance in shutting their eyes against the truth; and as to their practice, it very rarely justifies even the little knowledge they possess. To follow, therefore, the multitude, isto do evil.' Recollect, my dear sir, what is so solemnly declared in the gospel of St. Luke' That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.'

But were we still in any doubt on the subject," proceeded the reverend advocate of truth, "the word of God furnishes us

with unequivocal testimony to solve all our scruples on this momentous point. What does the blessed Saviour Himself say, in one of the most awful passages of Scripture ? · Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. †

"Alas!" exclaimed Mr. Davies, "if the countless multitudes forming the world-if your great majority of mankind,' my dear Mr. Stately, were pursuing those things which make for their everlasting peace, would it be declared of them, in such astounding language, and by an omniscient Being, that 'few there be' that 'find eternal life?'

Then, as regards your argument, drawn from the consideration of illustrious rank-of the wisdom of this world-its talents, its grandeur, and its power;-what do they all amount to when weighed in the balance against so awful a declaration as the following:-'Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound † Matt. vii. 13, 14.

* Luke xvi. 15.