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The Playhouse

(Letters of John Newton, 1767)
I am thoroughly convinced, that if there is any practice in this land which is sinful, attendance on the playhouse is eminently so! The theaters are fountains of vice, by which the god of this world blinds the eyes of multitudes! These haunts of Satan are to be shunned as pest-houses, and dangerous nuisances to precious souls!

The Gospel opens a source of purer, sweeter, and more substantial pleasures! We may well bid adieu to these perishing pleasures of sin! We may well pity those who can find pleasure in those amusements where God is shut out; where His name is only mentioned to be profaned; where His commandments are not only broken--but insulted; where sinners proclaim their shame as in Sodom, and attempt not to hide it; where, at best, wickedness is wrapped up in a disguise of entertainment, to make it more insinuating!
___________________________
I find very few preachers willing to talk like this anymore. Can anything in this letter be denied? And now, “the playhouse” has come into our homes and personal gadgets in the form of TV, computer games, and music/video players. I’m certainly not perfect, and I sometimes watch things that I ought not, but I think it’s time we all gave an ear to these powerful preachers of old, and listen to the timeless wisdom they present.
John Newton was an English priest and former slave-trading captain who wrote the famous hymn, “Amazing Grace.”
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