With deep regret we have heard that some of our colored brethren and sisters in our great cities frequent the theatre. This is a sink of vice from which we earnestly beseech you to keep yourselves entirely separate. Let the language of every one amongst you be, "Oh my soul, come not thou into their secret, unto their assembly mine honor, be not thou united." Sometimes in these scenic representations, your "countrymen in chains" are held up to the scorn and derision of an unfeeling multitude; the poor slave is introduced to be the object of heartless mirth. Can any colored man or woman voluntarily witness these dreadful pictures of the degradation of their brethren, and does not your presence identify you with the oppressors, who thus wantonly hold up to public contempt those whom they have first debased, and then despised.
Permit us to offer you a few remarks on the subject of personal decoration--this is a snare which Satan still triumphantly lays, even for professing Christians who indulge in fashionable and extravagant apparel, forgetful of the apostolic injunction, "Let your adorning not be that outward adorning, of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." Our hearts have been comforted in our intercourse with you, by observing that there is little gaudy or superfluous dress to be seen, in such places of worship as we have visited; we regard it as one evidence of the purity of your morals, and your just sense of that decorum which ought to characterise every Christian assembly. A Christian legislator has said that the trappings of the vain world would clothe the naked, and we affectionately entreat you to cultivate such a sense of your accountability to God, and the allegiance you owe to Him, that your dress may be such as becomes men and women professing godliness. To you this branch of religious duty is of double importance. A large proportion of you are obliged to obtain a subsistence by your daily labor; some of you are filling the responsible office of teachers, and it is of great consequence that you expend in the most judicious and profitable manner what is thus hardly earned, and that you set an example of Christian moderation and simplicity to your companions and your pupils.