I am opposed to having cotillions or theatrical performances in this Tabernacle. I am opposed to making this a fun hall, I do not mean for wickedness, I mean for the {375} recuperation of our spirits and bodies. I am not willing that they should convert the house that has been set apart for religious meetings into a dancing hall. 9:195. [IMAGE: THE OLD TABERNACLE, SALT LAKE CITY] [IMAGE: THE PRESENT TABERNACLE, SALT LAKE CITY] Those who cannot serve God with a pure heart in the dance should not dance. 6:148. If you want to dance, run a foot race, pitch quoits, or play at ball, do it, and exercise your bodies, and let your minds rest. 6:149. If you wish to dance, dance; and you are just as much prepared for a prayer meeting after dancing as ever you were, if you are Saints. If you desire to ask God for anything, you are as well prepared to do so in the dance as in any other place, if you are Saints. Are your eyes open to know that everything in the earth, in hell, or in heaven, is ordained for the use of intelligent beings? 6:148. _The Theater_--Is there evil in the theater; in the ball room; in the place of worship; in the dwelling; in the world? Yes, when men are inclined to do evil in any of these places. There is evil in persons meeting simply for a chit chat, if they will allow themselves to commit evil while thus engaged. 9:243. I built that theater to attract the young of our community and to provide amusement for the boys and girls, rather than have them running all over creation for recreation. Long before that was built I said to the Bishops, "Get up your parties and pleasure grounds to amuse the people." 12:312-313. Upon the stage of a theater can be represented in character, evil and its consequences, good and its happy results and rewards; the weakness and the follies of man, the magnanimity of virtue and the greatness of truth. The stage can be made to aid the pulpit in impressing upon the minds {376} of a community an enlightened sense of a virtuous life, also a proper horror of the enormity of sin and a just dread of its consequences. The path of sin with its thorns and pitfalls, its gins and snares can be revealed, and how to shun it. 9:243. Tragedy is favored by the outside world; I am not in favor of it. I do not wish murder and all its horrors and the villainy leading to it portrayed before our women and children; I do not want the child to carry home with it the fear of the fagot, the sword, the pistol, or the dagger, and suffer in the night from frightful dreams. I want such plays performed as will make the spectators feel well; and I wish those who perform to select a class of plays that will improve the public mind, and exalt the literary taste of the community. 9:245. _Excursions_--If the people should conclude to take short excursions with their families, except the smallest children, it would be much to their comfort, and would cheer them up. 2:283.