AMATEUR ENTERTAINMENTS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 93, 21 April 1871, Page 2

AMATEUR ENTERTAINMENTS.

\ To Tips Editor of THE.NEtspN- Evbmi^g Mail. SirJ— ln your ' issue of yesterday a , letter appears under the , heading of " Araataar Entertainments," and bears the signature'of " Hope. iJ Your correspondent says he was surprised at the amount of profane language used on the occasion of the Artizana' : entertainment, I have no doubt he was .j'jiahied. also,: and his, agony o£ mind, I think, must have, produced his valuable literary production— it savors of a dis- : j.turbed brain. la. the opening scene of- the last Farce 1 profane, language was used, I admit. '!■ allude to the first words spoken, viz.: — Oh! what damned moments tells he o'er, Who doats, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves. This, as all well informed people are aware, is a . quotation from Shakespeare, ; whioh fact : the. 1 .speaker intimated in the continuation, of his /part, , viz.,, "; Shakes:peare understood the feelings of an injured husband, &c." "Hope,". in his second sentence insinuates that the Com'paiiy desfeen l^ ed ! to a language 'l&wier tlian i thait qrdin^rily'jjused .by. '^obiiefy flf, on the stage, rjwkh.. the exception of the, third word in* the above quotation, nothing !dpproachiog profanity transpired. And that

third word. How often have I heard the imaginary punishments drummed into ray system in the forcible language, that profanity admits of from the pulpit. < ! " Agaiu, I ask, if "Hope" understood the meaning of the word slander, when he insinuated any want of respect on the part of the members towards the Deity ? Agaiu, calling the members attention to the commaudmeuts. If a mau takes upon himself the task of calling upon his fellow man to respect his Creator, let him not come forward with foolish school-boy phraseology, and " beg to draw their attention, &c," that is but an insipid way of calling a fellow-creature's attention to the most solemn subject of the Deity. If he were conviuced that an'putra^e had been committed in taking the R> rae of our Creator in vain, would hQ^obg to call attention were he an earnest disciple ? Nay ! he would go " boldly forward in the cause of truth and right, bearing this in mind that when the case is proved and the hour has come that justice delayed is justice denied !" ; V In conclusion there are ten commandments, one of which runs as folio ws : — " Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." And lastly, the Apostle Paul in his Epistle, from which your correspondent takes his cognomen, mentions three Christian virtues, "Faith, Hope, and Charity, but the greatest of these is n Charity."