The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-02-03


church organ because the art has been
trampled under foot of the lascivious
dance Is it anything againt paiGting
and sculpture that in Corinth and Her
cuaneum they became administrative
vulgarity and turpitudeH The dreadful
Mus una of Pompei shall throw no dis
credit on Powers "Greek Slave" or
Church's "Cotopaxi," or Reuben's "De
scent from the Cross" or Angelo's Last
Judgment" Because the drama has
been dragged through so many sewers is
nothing against the drama, but only q
reason why we should snatch 1t up and
start it out on it's rightful mission.
The drama will never be helped into
its lawful sphere by those who cannot
understand that the drama is not the
theater. The drama is no more the
theater than a hymn.book is church.
|, am not to-day discussing the theater'
The drama is literature expressive OF q
divinely implanted feeling in most OF
our ma ures. Neither will the drama be
helped into it's proper sphere by whole
sale denunCation of all dramatiste, Who
ever dared to assail the nobility of Char
lette Cushman? You ask me, did you
| not on one occasion, denounCe all dra
matists as villains2 Never, That ser
mon you refer to, which was published
in secular paper, AMI copied in many
religious papers, was written by man
who had never seen me or seen the
BROOKLYN Tabernacle, and who, by in
uuiry Of reporter who had been pres
ent, found out what my text was then
wrote it out at his own desk, the whole
thing Intended as q CariCature, among
other things saying was opposed to all
| BIOLOGICAL Gardens and thought 1t a
great sin to 90 and look at an elephant
or a crocodilr. | do not wonder that
Mr.. Davenport came out on the follow
ing week at the Chestnut street Theater,
Phiadelp phia, af er the curtain had drop
ped, to condemn that sermon. He did
not condemn it half 80 violently as | did.
Nothing has ever been or will be ac-
complished for good by wholesale de-
nunCiation of great classes Of men. Out
yonder the theater and the church
sand on opposite sides of the street, and
| the church shouts over to the theater,
"You are all sCoundrels," and the thea
| JeT blUulb UdCht L Ju al q oil AJ pObAAbSSs
And trey both lie
Dropping all indisCriminate jeremaids
against dramatis.s, and realizing that
the drama is not necessarily connected
with this or that institution want to
show you this morning and next Sab
bath morning how it may be hitched
fast to the chariot of civilization and
Christianity. Next Sabbath morning |
shall present to you unique plan, by
which | lhink the dramatic element
may be, without any damage or with
positive profit on all sides, made admin
istrative to our amusements and recrea'
tiOns.
But this morning, in the lew remain
ing moments of my discourse, | all you
to force the dramatic element into the
service of oar holy religion. You Sab
bath school teachers want more of it in
your institutions. By skilful presenta-
tion of Scripture scene, by aneCdote, by
descriptive gesture and mpersonation,
move your classes to right action. Hun
dreds of thousands of children in Eng.
land, Ireland, Scotland and the United
States will this afternoon, by arrange
ment of the international series of les
sons, study the song of Mary. They who
can most graphically present that hero
inc and her surroundings, will have
the strongest grip upon thu attention of
the listeners. What we want in all our
Christian work in schools and asylums
and penitentiaries and churches is less
of the style didaCtlC and more of the
style dramatic. The whole temptation
is to drone religion, and whine religion,
and cant religion, and moan religion,
and Croak religion, and sepulCherize re-
ligion, when we should present it as far
as possible in animated rousing, spec.
tacular manner. AS there are many
theological Students in all my audiences,
and you are nov forming your plans to
preach the Gospel, let me tell you that
the men who have been the means of
the most conversions to God in the diff
fe'ent ages have been drametiC: Row.
land Hill, dramatic; Thomas Chalmers
dramatic; Thomas Guthrie, dramatic ;
George Whitfield, dramatic; Christmas
Evans, dramatic; John Knox, dramatic; 4;
Richard Hooker, dramatic; Chrysostom,
dramatic; Robert South, dramatic Ad-
olson Alexander, dramatic; John Ma.
son, dramatic; Eliphalet Mott, dramatic; !;
Massillon, dramatic; Bourdaloue, dra,
matte; Fenelon, dramatic; Bossuet dra
matte Hugh Latimer, dramatic. They
had hard time of it in their day, bu.
they have gone up into the armament
of the Christian church. OF course, if
after you get into the minist y, you un.
dertake the dramatic, you will meet
with mighty rebuffs, swift caricature
and ecclesiastical denunciatioD. And
your contemporaries will discuss you
and try to put you down, but the Lord
who sent you out will see you through,
and great will be the eternal rewards to
the assiduous and plucky. What we
want most as laymen and ministers, is
TO get our sermons and our prayers and
exhortations out of the old ruf. People
stay away from church and prayer meet
| ipg3 because they are not interested
The hackneyed theological phrases that
oome snoring down from age to age
through the churches do not arrest the
masses. We private Christians and
public teachers need to freshen up, put
less sham flowers from a milliner's shop
into our windows, and more japonicas
wet with the morning dew less of the
heavy bones of the extict megatherium,
and more and more living reindeer
caught last August at the edg, of Schroon
Lake. We want to drive the drowsy
and the prosaic, and the tedious and the
humdrum out of all styles of Christian
work, and let in the brightness, and the
vivaclty, and the holy sarcasm, and the
sancti6ed wit, and the epigrammic
power, and the blood.red earnestness
and we know of no way that we can do
80 soon do this as by the dramatic. In
stead of being shy Of this faculty, let us
call it out and bring it to the front. Yoke
it, bride it, hitch it to all religious en-.
terprise, and then lash it on to greater
speed and up grander Steep. There
needs be as much change from the old
modes of pulpit and Church work, as
from ox.team to Chicago lightning ex
press as from tallow candle to E1ison's
electric light, as from mailbags across
the horses back in the last century to