The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-02-10
miscellaneous.
REV, I. DEWITT TALMAGE.
THE OLD FIGHT BETWEEN THE
CHURCH AND THE THEATER.
The Ministers on One Side, the ActOrs ON the
Other-And to All Appearances Neither Is
Yet Much Damaged.
sUBJEcT-"THE DRAMATIC ELEMENT IN OUR
NATURRsm

NATUREsp"
Text Cor. 7:3l: "They that use this
world as not abusing It,"
That God has implanted dramatic
element in most of our natures, and rec
ognized and cultured it in the Scriptures
and that this element may be employed
in positive religious work. proved last
Sabbath to the satisfaction, hope, of
all who heard or read me. This morn.
ing want to show you that the dramatic
element may lawfully be taken into our
recreations. The old fight between the
church and the theater still goes on. The
guns of neither fort have yet been spiked
nor have either of the flags struck. The
ministers on one side and the play act
ors on the other, seem all unhurt. Nei-
ther has gained the compile victory over
the other; yet, according to what read
in the religious newspapers of the day
about the falling off Of the churches, and
what l read in the secular newspapers
of the large attendance and financial re-
Ceipts of the theaters, the latter seem so
far to have lost no ground. Into that
contest of centuries l do not enter to-
day, because l have something better to
offer.
All the men of church and theater
agree that the amusements Of this Coun-
try need reformation; that if you take all
the places of entertainment, of what
ever name in any city, and place them
side by side, you would find the majority
ofthem depraving;that through the gates
of many of them q multitude OF young
men 90 out to make desperate and final
plunges into dissoluteness. All thinking
people, Christian and un.Christian, ad-
NIT this. Many dramatists whom could
name believe the dramatic entertain
ments of the day are capable ofimprove'
ment, and are toiling for that purpose.
Many Christian people think the same.
Christianity is going to take full pos
session of this world, and control all it's
affairs. Shut out from the realm of
Christianity any thing, and you give it
up to sin and death. My idea Of Chris
tianity is that it can and will conquer
everything. In the good time coming
which the world calls the Golden Age,
and the poet the Blysian Age, and the
Christian the Millennium, We have posi-.
tive announcement that the world is to
be under Christian sway. How will it be
done? By the church going over to the
theatreP 1t will not 60, By the theater
coming to the church, II will not come.
What we want is Reform Amusement
Association in every city and town in
the United States. Once announced and
explained and illustrated, the Christian
and philarthropiC capitalist will come
forward to establish it. We need a new
Institution to meet and recognize and
develop and defend the dramatic ele.
ment of our nature. 1t needs to be dis
tinCt from every thing that has been and
is. In an age which has projected tel
ephone, an electric pen, bicycle and
the telegraph, surely we are not afraid
of a new institution. 1t would be deri-
ded at the start, as all great move nents
are, but it would revolutionize society
for good. Wiser men than we are would
name it. and only for the purposes of
this sermon l will call it, "The Specta.
Cular." l would officer it with the very
best and most intelligent men and wo.
men of each community. One half of
them would have professed and most
pronounced Christians, church MEM
berD. l would have this Reform Amuse.
ment Association, having in charge this
new institution, the Spectacular" take
possession of some hall or academy. 1t
might take a smaller building at the
start, but it would soon need a larger
hall; for he who opens before the dra-
matte element in human nature an op.
portunity Of qualification without com.
promise, without danger, does the great
eat thing Of this century, and the tides
Of such an institution would rise as the
Atlantic rises at Liverpool docks. The
tens Of thousands Of Christian homes in
this country, where parents are holding
back their sons and daughters from the
dramatic entertainments Of the day for
reasons some Of you would pronounce
good and others weak reasons, but new
ertheless holding them back, would see
in this new institution an arrest of all
their anxieties, and they would cry out
on the opening of the Spectacular"
"Thsnk God that is what we all want"
In full faith that l am suggesting this
morning an institution which wiser men
will develop, l 90 on to state the char
aCteristics of what this Spectacular"
must be, in order to make it grand So
Cial and moral success. It's entertain
ments ought not last more than an hour
and three. quarters. What kills players,
sermons, lectures, concerts and enter.
tainments, is their prolixity. At 9:45 ev.
cry night every curtain of public enter
tainment should drop, every church Eer-
vice close; what is more than that comes
to evil. There are ten thousand people
asleep in Greenwood because they would
not 60 to sleep at ten o'clock at night.
The reason there are drinking bars con.
nected with 80 many places Of amuse-
lnent, underneath or next door is be.
cause people are exhausted with the en-
tertainment, and 60 in and stimulate in
order to stand it. How are we going the
next day to sell our goods and do busi-
ness, if the night before you are up till
1lor u o'clock. The most sublime thing
outside Of heaven is the oratorio of THE
Meegiah.D or t1rha Craati0nD - Or 1Moaea