The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-09-16
rHEPuLP1r AND THE DRAMA.

Among all the preachers they manage
to keep up pretty steady TRADE
against the stage and the drama. The
pious brethren seem to take turns at era
denunciatory business. Now ana in the
east will denounce the ef,eatre; next a
southern pulpiteer viii try his hand at
the business; then western pastor will
become solicitous for the souls of his
theatre-going flock. And SO it runs,
the theatre all the time coming in for
abuse in one part or another of the
country. The latest sermon On the SUBJ
ject to come to our notice is one
preached two Sundays since by Con-
gregational minister in Wsllingford
Conn. The gentleman was not as severe
in words as some preachers have been
but by implication he was behind none
OF his predecessors in warming against
patronizing the playhouse. He said
plays were bad, players were bad and il
was wrong for Christians to patroni re
them. Here is an extract from bis ser
mon:
| To say that all actors and actresses are i'm
moral, is q base calumny. To say that there
| is as much purity and integrity among the
| dramatic profession as among other calings
| is utter nonsense. However pure and noble
| some of them may be, yetthe fact is most
| glaring fact that there is an awful amount
ofimpurity among actors. The tendency oil
I<1f& 49,. g 60 1,,%
do not say it is necessarily so, only that it Is
actually So And this fact has another bear
ing upon you. You cannot go near impurity
| and escape, at least. the danger of contagion.
do not say that this is conclusive argu-
ment against the stage; do say it is an ar
gument which has great weight against the
stage as now existing.
Suppose that some actor were
to make use of the above language only
applying it to the ministerial instead of
the actors profession, would it not be
as true as it is now? ITO say that all
pre- achers are immoral is base calum-
ny. However pure and noble some of
them may be, yet the fact is most
glazing fact that there is an awful
amount of impurity among preachers"
The newspapers, day after day. tell of
the discovery and exposure of minis
tiers; you can take up scarcely any of
the big metropolitan journals which
does not contain accounts of the i'm
morality of preachers, who rob their
fock,, elope with young girls or other
mems wives, fee from the wrath Of out
ragged husbands and fathers. commit
bigamy, and so on. Does the conduc
of these wretches reflect on the minis
teriaI profession? Not at all. 1t does
not say that the tendency of the Iu'pitis
to immortality 70 matter how much
impurity there may be among preach
ers. There are impure actors and
actresses, but can this impurity be traced
to the tendency of the stage? A man
who is immoral at heart will be very
apt to be immoral in conduct whether
his profession is that of the preacher or
the actor; and a pure man can remain
pure on the stage as readily as in the
pulpit.
1t has frequently been demonstrated
that the instances of immortality among
play people which come before the pub
lie are less numerous, considering the
number of persons engaged in the pro-
fession, than are those among preachers.
But this is neither in favor of the stage
nor against the ministry. 1t simply
shows that there are impure people in
both walks of life, for which the profess
sions themselves ara not responsible, as
both teach purity, morality, honor,
and virtue.
The ministers would make themselves
less ridiculous, and do more good, if
they would instead of cru aiding against
the stage in general, denounee the ugly
and immoral in the drama, and COM
mend the virtuous and ennobling.