THE THEATER | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, December 2, 1884

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 61, No. 48

THE THEATER.

WE commend the following to a careful reading by every young man:—

“Are there not many persons who find in the theater precisely that kind of recreation which is most useful for the discharge of their daily work?” was a question put by a recent visitor to Mr. Spurgeon. “It may be,” replied Mr. Spurgeon, “but I don't know any of them. You see, I live in a world apart from all these things, and so do my people. We argue in this way: Granting that it is perfectly safe and profitable for myself to go to the theater, if I go, a great number of others will go to whom it would do positive harm. I will not be responsible for alluring them by my example into a temptation which, but for my self-indulgence, they would entirely escape. I will give you an instance of how this works out.

“When I go to Monaco, although the grounds of the gambling hell there are the most beautiful in the world, I never go near them; and why? Not because I think there is any danger of my passing through the gardens to the gambling-tables. No; but a friend of mine once related the following incident to me: One day M. Blanc met me, and asked me how it was I never entered his grounds. ‘Well, you see,’ I said, ‘I never play, and as I make no return whatever to you I hardly feel justified in availing myself of the advantages of your grounds.’ ‘You make a great mistake,’ said M. Blanc; ‘if it were not for you and other respectable persons like yourself who come to my grounds I should lose very many of my customers who attend my gambling saloons. Do not imagine that because you do not play yourself you do not by your presence in the grounds contribute very materially to my revenue. Numbers of persons who would not have thought of entering my establishment feel themselves quite safe in following you into my garden, and from thence to my gaming-table the transition is very easy.’ After I heard that,” continued Mr. Spurgeon, “I never went near the gardens. And the same argument applies to the theater.”—Sel.