St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-09-08
GOING TO THEkTERS.
Rev. Sam Smith breaches on
the Question Of the
Right.
1t Resolves Itself Clearly Into
a Simple Case Of Con-
science.
The Unitapians Hold Services
in the New Grand OPP
era House,
And Rev. w. S. Vail breaches
Upon the Modern Re-
ligiOn.

''Shall We Go to the Theater?" was
the theme upon which Rev. Sam Smith
preached yesterday morning. He took
his text from Acts, xix, 20: And
they rushed with one accord into the
theater."
In every civilized country there have
been theaters to rush into. India and
China, as well as Greece and Rome, the
nations of antiquity as we'll as those of
modern times. bear witness to the dFa-
matte instincts of humanity. No ma
tional literature has been completed
without dramatic writings. No national
life has been full without actors and
play houses. The theater has deep
foundations, whether it be right or
wrong.
Paul was wont sometimes in writing
to say: II do not speak by command
ment; / give my opinIon;'' so there are
some questions upon which a public
teacher may feel called to preach, and
yet in respect of which he may not feel
surance, and the right. therefore, to
speak Dramatically. Such is the case
with me this morning.
The theater is a very distinctive feat
ure Of modern civilization. While no
great plays are being written at the
present time, the great plays produced
during the last 300 years have never
been so we'll set upon the stage and SO
enthusiastically received in the chief
cities of all the great nations. The
theaters are conSpicuously more
crowded than the churches. The church
has every way the advantage. except in
attractiyeness. 1t has its free build
ings, its religious sanctions, its appeal
to the highest interests of the race. The
churches ought to SurpaSS the theaterS
in interest. / shall not this morning
discuss at length the reasons for their
failure to do so. l only propose to dis
cuss the relation of the church to
the claims OF its robust rival. We
all know the attitude of evangelical
Christianity, and indeed of dominant
religious organizations generally toward
the theater. 1t is one of official OppOSi-
ton. The official opposition succeeds
to the extent of keeping the clergymen
at home, while the weil-to-de members
of their congregation, from the deaeonS
down to the worldly pewhoider, gener-
ally occupy choice seats at the best
plays.
The Clergyman DenOunces
what he has never seen to church men,
bers who have seen the plays before,
who manage to look serious under his
reproofs, and who straightway go to the
theater again when the next favorable
opportunity offers Thus the respecta-
billy of religion is kept up: the clergy
man feels that his mild reproof satisfies
his conscience; the church member feels
that all is we'll SO long as there is no in
reference to his private practice.
Under the frank method that has al
ways prevailed between me and my
people, and since we are hampered by
no ecclesiastical traditions, suppose we
! try and get at the facts. / know it is
difficult for people to rid themselves of
their prejudiceS. Some of you, by the
training of childhood and by the atti-
tude of years, cannot look upon the
theater with any degree OF allowance;
and there are others OF you who think
that going to the the alter is such nat
ural part Of life that the whole question
is out of the range of debate. / have
something to say to both classes.
The New Testament ignores the the
alter. 1t was not because there was no
theater in Jerusalem that Jesus was
silent upon this question. Antiochus,
200 years before, had built one, and
Herod the Great had erected magnifi-
cent structure in Ceseara. Although
| His auditors were in the habit of fire.
Quenting theaterS, Jesus never rebuked
and hypocrisy, and many sins of soul
and body, but He did not discuss the
subject we have in hand. Paul, with
out any doubt, knew all about theaterS,
and when he wrote the Corinthians he
went into many particulars of their per-
sonal life, but he had nothing to say
| upon this subject. There is no CUES
| ton that Paul must himself have at
tended Greek games. horse races and
1,px- irr taan fo,.~ ,f 1,i-
| striking sentences are illustrations
drawn from athletic sports. Yet if
modern clergyman should go to the cir
Gus and use its performances as Illus
trations for his next Sunday sermon,
he would, without doubt and perhaps
properly, be denounced by some of his
stricter brethren as being trifle sensa-
tional.
The fundamental reason for the life of
the theater is that dramatic art is funda-
mental TO the manifestation of the in
tellectual and spiritual life of the peo-
pie. The theater is sometimes COM
planned of in its moral quality, but at
| any rate it can never be worse than its
audience, for their shocked moral sensi-
bilities could quickly hiss an objection
able play off the stage. / say that the
dramatic is fundamental form of
nature. Not only is human life drama,
as our great Shakespeare teaches, but
there is not flower that grows which
does not pass through the same process.
1t, too, has its five acts-the introduce
tior, the growth, the climax, the dis
closure and the denouement. Every IA
tiol.'s history passes through the same
process of birth, growth, manifestation
and decay. Let me remind you
again that all art is essentially
religious in its origin. Archi-
lecture sprang out of a desire to
make a divine house better than the
dwellings of the common people: stat
nary passed from Egyptian realism to
Greek art by seeking an ideal beauty
for the gods. Music and poetry were
born out of an effort to elevate the
divine praise above the common talk of
the nome and of the street. The miracle
plays were possible only because of a
dramatic element in the Bible itself.
The Book of Job is drama in form, not
te be played indeed upon the stage, be-
cause. like Browning'S dramas. it is too
poetic and too psychological. The whole
structure of the Bible, with all of its
SubplOtS and side activities, has the
true dramatic unity which eliminates
in the Gospel of Christ. The life of
Christ is the most perfect dramatic
action ever known in human history or
possible for human representation.
Hence the dignity and grandeur of the
Passion Pay among the peasants of
Oberammergau.
Some Conclusions.
First-Never knowingly see play
that is not clean. Theatrical managers
may underestimate the taste of the pub
lie. 1t is said that when our executive,
| in q graceful SppQch the other Dirht