Philosophy and Religion

DEAR SIR--You will recollect that, about twenty years ago, there was a
great sound throughout all the West that a playhouse in Glasgow had been
converted into a tabernacle of religion. I remember it was glad tidings
to our ears in the parish of Garnock; and that Mr. Craig, who had just
been ta'en on for an elder that fall, was for having a thanksgiving-day
on the account thereof, holding it to be a signal manifestation of a new
birth in the of-old-godly town of Glasgow, which had become slack in the
way of well-doing, and the church therein lukewarm, like that of
Laodicea. It was then said, as I well remember, that when the Tabernacle
was opened, there had not been seen, since the Kaimslang wark, such a
congregation as was there assembled, which was a great proof that it's
the matter handled, and not the place, that maketh pure; so that when you
and the elders hear that I have been at the theatre of Drury Lane, in
London, you must not think that I was there to see a carnal stage play,
whether tragical or comical, or that I would so far demean myself and my
cloth, as to be a witness to the chambering and wantonness of
ne'er-du-weel play-actors. No, Mr. Micklewham, what I went to see was an
Oratorio, a most edifying exercise of psalmody and prayer, under the
management of a pious gentleman, of the name of Sir George Smart, who is,
as I am informed, at the greatest pains to instruct the exhibitioners,
they being, for the most part, before they get into his hands, poor
uncultivated creatures, from Italy, France, and Germany, and other
atheistical and popish countries.