is a concrete institution, to be judged as a totality. It is responsible
for what it tolerates and shelters. We, therefore, hold it responsible
for whatever of sensual impurity and whatever of irreligion, as well
as for whatever of occasional and sporadic benefit there may be bound
up in its organic life. Instead of helping Christ's kingdom, it hinders;
instead of saving souls, it corrupts and destroys." Dr. Buckley gives
this testimony: "Being aware of the fact that the drama, like every
thing else which caters to the taste, has its fashions--rising and falling
and undergoing various changes--now improving, and then degenerating,
I have thought it desirable to institute a careful inquiry into the plays
which have been performed in the principal theaters of New York during
the past three years. Accordingly, I procured the copies used by the
performers in preparing for their parts, and took pains to ascertain
wherein, in actual use, the actors diverged from the printed copies.
They number over sixty, and, with the exception of a few unprinted
plays, include all that have been produced in the prominent theaters
of New York during the three years now about closing..It is a singular
fact, that, with three or four exceptions, those dramatic compositions,
among the sixty or more under discussion, which are morally objectionable,
are of a comparatively low order of literary execution. But if language
and sentiments, which would not be tolerated among respectable people,
and would excite indignation if addressed to the most uncultivated and
coarse servant girl, not openly vicious, by an ordinary young man, and
profaneness which would brand him who uttered it as irreligious, are
improper amusements for the young and for Christians of every age, then
at least fifty of these plays are to be condemned."

In the first place the theater leads one into bad company. As a class,
the performers are licentious. How can one be in their company, be
moved to laughter and to tears and not be contaminated by them?