New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-07-04
RRLJGIOHS THEATRICALS.

A remarkable story comes 10 us ancnt our
Presbyterian friends in Philadelphia. One
evening a week or two ago they had a sort .Of
mass celebration of the Sunday-schoOls. Now
Sunday schools ought to be in themselves
good things, and gathering two or three thou
sand children together for celebration is
not necessarily bad, if the motive Is
to give them few sweet simple
truths about thcir Elder Brother and
if they are sent home at tie proper
time for them to be in bed. But this cclebra-
ton. we are told, avoided all the old stale
forms" The feature Of the evening was
dramatic representation. The -Four Seasons, IN
appropriate costume, appeared under an arch
inscribed with the name of " Jesus IN blazing
gas-ets: snow fell, grass grew, flowers. corn,
grapes, and grain sprung up. forming fore
ground behind which appeared Faith and Hope,
who, in exquisite fancy dresses, recited their
parts: a little girl then appeared, who with 1Old-
ed hands detained 4 prayer. The lights OF the
church were then turned down, curtain rose
revealing en- t0bleOu mother and children
also llneeling in prayer. The sixteen Seasons
and Virtues assumed the attitude of worship
and the Holy Ghost represented by a white
dove, fluttered overhead. Red and blue fires
were then lighted, and Faith, Hope, knecling
supplicants, and the Holy Spirit disappeared
in blaze of glory.
Now il is but too evident that some of orr
PRESBYTERIAN brethren have been visiting the
Black Crook. But what are we to think Of
this practice against profession We boldly
recognize in the drama a powerful agent OF
civilization and morality; while our friends
denounce even plays which stir the profound
est and purest emotions, of the SOUL and
through which great artists. as authors and
actors. express to us the truths which life has
taught them. a. the work of the devil and
seductiOns from he'll. Yet they initiate their
children into weak and mawkish imitation
of the poorest class of the spectacular drama
for no purpose, apparently, but to crafty
their vanity and to tamper with holy things.
We would be willing to take our children to
any play where the meaning was clean and
healthy, and the acting not so bad as to cor
Tupt their taste. We would call it wholesome
amusement for them to laugh at Pantal0On
or wonder at Harlequin, or to be bewildered
by red and blue fires in a decent transfOrma-
ton scene; but to permit them to see the
hottest and most awful thoughts which their
innocent minds had yet conceived, their pray
ers and the answering Spirit of God, bur
lesqued in raree show, is sacrilege from
which any thoughtful man would shrink. 1t
would he impossible, indeed, to find such a
dramatzation in any theater. No respectable
manager would dare to present it upon his
boards.
Yet, candidly, we are sure our friends erred
more through ignorance than intention. The
whole affair appeared to them, doubtless,
deyout rather than blasphemous. There is
becoming common certain tampering with
sacred ideas and words. growing out of the
way in which Sunday schools are usually con-
Quoted, to which many religious people are so
accustomed as to be unconscious, but which is
to every finer taste of the devout mind
inexpressibly painful and Illuminating. How,
too, are the future men to be benefited by
ideas which when children reached them with
out the force of sOlemnity, awe, or any guise
of divine truth Sunday schools. we are told,
are the great proselytizing machinery of
Christianity But are they so' They were
established by Ralkes for noble purpose
the religious instruction of the young, who
would or could receive no religious instruction at
home They are crowded now in the cities
with the children of the rich. Now, no mother
able TO give to her child his first ideas of God
aud his Savior has the right to submit his
blank mind aud untaught soul TO tho careless