General Fisk on the Theatre.
A LADY friend of Mrs. Fisk called on them the other evening at their rooms in the St. Nicholas hotel, and requested them to go with her to the theatre, and hear Mr. Booth in Romeo and Juliet. "I cannot go," said the General, "I have an engagement." "Ah! but you can get excused from that engagement," she insisted. "What is it, if I may be so impertinent?" "It is the evening for my prayer meeting," he replied, "and I make it a point always to be present when possible." The lady seized his hand and tears filled her eyes as she exclaimed, "General! you have preached me the best sermon I have heard for many a month. I too, am a member of the church, and ought to be as punctual and faithful in my duties as you are; but I am not. But do you really think it is wrong to attend the theatre?" she added after a slight pause. "It would probably do me no harm", he replied. "But suppose I was to go for this reason, mindful only of my own pleasure or of its influences upon myself. I take my seat. Yonder is a young man who has been enticed to the place, not without some misgivings of conscience; he casts his eye up, and says to himself with satisfaction, 'Ah! there is General Fisk. He is a good Christian man. I heard him deliver an address to the Sabbath-school the other Sunday; surely I must be all right in Christian company.' No," said the noble Christian man, "I cannot lend my influence thus."