The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-06-30
For the Central Presbyterian.
Why We Play.

/
nest Christian towards Plays, l propose
to furnish for your study somewhat par
ticular inquiry into the matter as it pre-
sents itself to my mind Of course, when
it is considered that the spiritual life,
like the natural, is one of gradual pro-
gress in its capacities and occupations, it
will be seen that the relation of the
Christian to these things is changing
one from the feeble spiritual apprehen-
slons, resources, and necessities of child
hood to the higher planes of spiritual life
and experience.
The demand for Play has its origin
deep down in the Utmost recesses of human
nature. 1t is our natural effort to substi-
tute sense of pleasure for the sense of
indefnable vacuity and unrest arising
from the contact of the soul with sin and
death. We all begin life as children,
and as children of Adam, and therefore
in the "way of Cain" We try to find
rest and pleasure in our own way and
by our own inventions" We know of
no other way. It is by process of train
ing and experience we are brought
wholly into the way of Christ. Sin is
not only an evil; it is felt evil Every
living creature feels it, whether it can
reason out the source of the feeling or
not. Tears are the first results of human
experience. 1t is no light matter to be-
gin life with death upon us. A wave of
suffering, of sadness, of indefnable dread
has swept across the young spirit in its
first dim, Pickering consciousness. We
have all experienced more than we now
remember. We begin life under cloud.
We do not know the impressions of
wonder and fear which may sometimes
disturb the gentle atmosphere of the new
born soul like the reverberating thdh-
ders of some distant storm But the
cheerful light, and kindly faces, and nur-
ture and encouraging sounds lead to a
sense of its surroundings, and awaken the
powers of invention in the little mind.
In the very nature of things the child is
self-seeker from the very first. 1t
must try to find pleasure somehow. And
it is elated at the smallest success.
In all Play the fascination seems to
consist in the excitement attending the
exhibition of power. Now, why does
this give pleasure. Why do we pray?
Let US unravel it little.
To be powerful is to be god-like
The exhibition of power, therefore, of
any kind, elevates man he instinctively
feels. In every one there is the natural
desire to rise above, to excel, to be god
like. We think this is the way to be
happy, to exalt ourselves for our own
glory. So thought our first parents.
We simply inherit their disposition.
God created man with the purpose that
he should rise upward and gave him that
desire. But man abandoned God and
sought to glorify himself alone. He be-
gan t. live for himself. He vainly i'm
agined he could attain his object by an
invention Of his own. In the fall he lost
the idea of what God is. But the taste
of power hitherto unknown is fascina-
ting for the moment. And he forthwith
fancies himself like God in some sense.
1t is a kind Of mimicry, as is all play, as
is all earthly greatness, feigning of fact
There is nothing god like in it. Rather
tration, one amogines he is expressing
through motions, gestures, and sympa-
thetic chords all his thoughts and mean
ing of love and beauty. The ability to
appreciate thus in light and spirit-like
movements the mysterious language OF
music exhibits, one instinctively feels a
power truly divine. Deep calleth unto
deep: and only deep can answer. One
feels possessed of beauty and of creative
power. He is creating the harmonies
himself, or he joins himself to them to
show that his form is as symmetrical and
therefore as beautiful as they. There is
infinite scope to the Imagination Like
all true ornamentation, the music and its
Interpretation in the dance has no par
ticular meaning every one gives his own.
1t is all ideal and all know it. This self
flattery, like castle-building, is false but
it is pleasant. The dance is the poetry
of play; the worship of the human form
divine"
In the drama the scene is lower, the
fight not so high. 1t is fiction based on
history on the known. Instead of the
pleasant conceit of rising above our
dead selves" to the divine, by graceful
curves aud mystic paths of love and con-
cord, and oscillating there, there is the
feeling Of being grandly human in the
conscious possession of great emotions
and parts and powers. So also in the
sensational novel the reader occupies a
far more important place than the hero
of the tale, just as the author does The