Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-01-24
THE DRAMA.
ITS ELEMENTS EXIST IN EVERY HU-
MAN NATURE.
You Can No More Suppress Il Than You
Can Suppress Its Creator God Has
Administered 10 the Dramatic
faculty-lt Win ReyOlu-
iionlZe the Church.
SERMON BY REWT.JE wlTTTAlaAGs
OUR LIFEA DRAMA.

Il
/ Special Dispatch to the Register.
A large congregation assembled yes
terday morning at the Brooklyn Taber'
nacle. Services were opened by sing
ing the hymn:
Joy TO the world, the Lord hascOme,
| Let earth receive her King
The subject OF DIR. Talmage's sermon
was: "What Shall We DO with the
Dramatic Element in Our Naturesl"
The tcxt.-Exodus k. 10: Thou shalt not
bear false witness against tiny ne.ghOOr.'
The Sermon.
This thuuderbolt OF Mount Sinai, like
the gig gag lightning You have often
witnessed on a summer sky, strikes this
way and that and in many directions
He sins against the text who ISLANDERS
man or woman, or family, or newspa-
per, or institution. propose to preach
a most radical sermon on subject about
which have never spoken and about
which have never read or heard any,
thing, vet a theme involving vast inter
ests and perhaps the eternal destiny OF
mulutudes; namely, what are We TO do
with the dramatic element which God
has implanted IN many OF us; not IN
one or ten, or thousand people, but in
! a majority of the human race.
Why To Discuss the Subject
at this particular time? Because the
subject of the drama is more prominent
ly before the people than for a long time
and because It has been represented
from one end OF the country To the other
that have asSailed the reputation of a
foreign actress now in tins country,
when all those who have attended this
church Sabbath after sabbath will unan-
imOusly testify that have said nothing
of the Kind, nor come within ten thous-
aud miles of making the slightest allu-
sion 10 her either IN prayer Oseermon.
| had two good reasons for saying moth
ing adversely. First, | knew nothing
on the subject; have no proc! for or
against her; | have purp0sely refrain.
ed reading on that subject and know
less of her than of almost any public
parsonage; for all know she may be
among the best or worst; | have cul-
tured ignorance in regard to her; my ig-
norance in regard to her is 50 rank that
the stalks Of it has grown ten feet high
with leaves two feet broad. There is no
bound TO my ignorance on that subject.
The other reason OF INV abstinence
from discussion Of that subject was that
| Wished powerful and memorial illns-
tratiOn of the misrepresentation con-
stantly going on about me and my
church. My friends may wonder why
| notice this particular instance. Now
they will see why. 1t was a most con-
spicuous instance, by which could H.
lustrate what is perpetually goirg on in
the misrepresentation Of myself and this
tabernacle. | am not making complaint;
| would not turn my hand over 10 have
il stopped, for eventuallyit works well.
But l must pass on from
Personalities TO Principles
and am going to preach three or four
sabbath morning sermons on the right
kind of amusements ami kindred
themes. There can be no mcr, import
ant question Just now than the one !
have already propOunded. What shall
we do with the dramatic element God
has implanted in most oi our natures?
People speak ol the drama as something
entirely outside Of ourselves, something
built up 10y the Sheridan's, and the
Congreves. and the Shakesptare's OF
literature. And then men are supposed
to attune their tastes II correspond with
this human invention.
so far from that the drama is a mere
echo OF the dramatic element in most OF
us, and first beheld in the domestic
scene enacted by children three years
old with dolls and cradles and carts; and
ten wears after in the moss houses in
the woods; and ten years after that in
the parlor chara,le, and after that in the
elaborate representations nj the Acdde-
nv of Music TnespiS, AeSChylus, Soph-
Ocles, Euripides, only drama'iGed what
was in the Greek heart, Terence,
Plantus ami Seneca only dramatized
what was i'm the Roman heart, Con-
yreve and Earqnar what was IN the Eng
lish heart. Schiller and Goethe what was
in the German heart, COrneille and
Racine, and Alieri dramatic ii what
VAS in the French and Italian hearts,
Shakespeare what was in the worlds
heart. The dithyrsmbic drama, the
classic drama, the romantic
drama, the sentimental drama
echoed from the soul OF man
While there may be only comparative
few who can dramatize, neatly all are
moved by the dramatic as may be seen
in church on u warm summer day, when
after forty minutes OF
Soothing Didtctic Discourse
under which the people sleep in the
valley like grasshopperS for multitude, ~
ualil suddenly the minister strikes an
illustration and changes the pulpit tone
10 A natural cNuYr rsation ia which two
or three persons are represented as talk
ing 10 each other, and instantly all the
neople are wide awake.
| am not now speaking OF the drama
on the library shell or the drama in the
play-hOus-, but oi the dramatic element
i'm your soul and mine. No neei OF talk
ing against il as though IL were some
thing for which man Was responsible.
lie Is responsible for any perversiOn OF
il. but is not responsible for its original
implantatiOu. That is Coils work and
4 suppose he knew what he was about
when he made US Weare all or nearly
all affected by the spectacular. We
!
find our emotion OF gratitude to
God more deeply stirred when on
Thanksgiving day We have before our
ewes in the decoration OF the church, the
cotton, and rice. and wheat, and corn,
and apples. We are moved 10 fearful
tenderness when, on Easter morning
! in church, We read in letters OF flowers,
The Lord is Risen" All parents like
the school exhibition, with its recita-
tions, and Dialogues, aud costumes.
The torchlight procession OF a political
campaign is a mere dramatizatiou OF the
principles involved. You cannot irtel.
| iigently look into any secular or relis-
! lous direction without seeing this pow
erIul element in human nature, reveal.
ing and unrolling and demonstrating
| itself You can no more suppress il
than YOU can suppress its creator. You
may direct it, YOU NAV educate it, YOU
NAV purify it, you may harness it for
multipotent usefulness, and that is your
/ duty. Just as the
Taste for the Beautiful and the Sublime
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