_Mr. Falkland._--"If they are innocent! and if they are rational! But I maintain they are not innocent; and, if viewed as they ought to be, in connection with our eternal destiny, I maintain they are not rational. But to avoid anticipating arguments which may be afterwards adduced, I at once challenge you to bring forward proof from the Scriptures in favour of these corrupting amusements." _Mr. Talbot._--"I have no positive proof to adduce in favour of them, as the Scriptures are entirely silent on the subject; but is not that silence a strong presumptive evidence in their favour? Did any of the apostles ever condemn the theatrical exhibitions of the times in which they lived? but would they not have done it if they thought their tendency had been at variance with the spirit and design of that religion which they came to propagate amongst mankind?" _Mr. Falkland._--"Then, Sir, because they did not in their epistles, which were addressed to the converted pagans who had renounced their former evil customs, condemn the gladiatorial exhibitions of Rome and of Greece, you think that a fair argument arises in favour of them?" _Mr. Talbot._--"Why, if they had considered them unfavourable to the morals of the people, they most certainly would have condemned them." _Mr. Falkland._--"What if the persons to whom they wrote had previously renounced them?" _Mr. Talbot._--"But we have no proof that the early Christians did abstain from these sources of amusement." _Mr. Falkland._--"There, I think, you are mistaken. We have incontestable evidence to prove that the early Christians not only abstained from them, but condemned them in the most unqualified terms of reprobation; and I will now, with your leave, read a collection of testimonies on the subject, with which I was lately favoured by a friend:-- "'The Romans,' says Cæcilius, the heathen, in Minutius, 'govern and enjoy the world, while you Christians are careful and mopish, abstaining even from lawful pleasures. You visit not shows, nor are present at the pomps; you abhor the holy games--a melancholy ghastly people ye are.' "'True,' says Octavius, 'we Christians refrain from the play-house, because of its intolerable corruptions. We cannot be present at the plays without great sin and shame.'