The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-08-18
Pastor Ha11eron ReneWs
His Narrow Onslaught
on the Stage.
ACTORS MORALS AGAIN.
ludicrous Views on Esthetic Edu-
cation---The "Base Nuptials
of Church and Theatre.

corresponding SOON aIbefWdFQ. Line p8SUOr
pondered over the letter for awhile be-
cause of its having no signature. before
he concluded to answer it from the pull
pit. He finally concluded to do this last
night. and large congregation was pres
ent to hear him. After informing them
OF the contents of the anonymous criti-
cism he said;-
II am compelled to generalize in order
to meet succinctly the points presented by
my adversary. and, first, the writer says,
If the former or ecclesiastical use
of the drama was justif1able,
certainly it's latter use IS
with the facts of history. The rise of the
modern drama is traceable in those coun-
tries that never lost the Roman culture
which Roman civilization fostered The
writer knows that while in Britain and
in Gaul the ingress of the Roman army
was most strenousIy resisted. in the
course of time these came to be regarded
as their truest friends. Again l find here
( the statement that drama was intro
duced into the early church and
by the Christian fathers. This is
also a mistake. What we call the
early church and the fathers are confined
from the First to the Fifth centuries; and
from the Sixth to the Fifteenth century
are what is termed the Medieval Church
or the dark age of Christianity Now we
do not find from the First to the Fifth
century any theatricals of any kind pre-
sented to the people by the church
fathers, but they were most sternly de-
nounced as vicious and heathenish, and
Nany member attending them was per-
emptorily excommunicated. The first
mention made of the drama among the
Saxons was in 111o at Danstable, Eng
-, i, 10 e
Catherine. Then came the mysteries or
the three stages, Heaven, Earth and He'll
in full but rude dramatic effect.
The drama was introduced there when
the church was passing through her
darkest phase, when RIGHTEOUSNESS
yapped the foundation of society, when
debauchery every where prevailed, when
priest and bishop and Rope sought pre-
ferment for their bastard sons and yield
ed to the many schemes of their many
mistresses. Then it was the drama was
introduced, and in lieu of an open Bible
the priests gave the famlshed souls of
men the dry husks of a senseess theatri-
cal show. Surely the writer Of this paper
could not have been aware OF SO evil an
origin or of so unholy an alliance, else he
would not have adventured this informa-
tion.
sNow then if the drama was introduced
ut that time and by the licentious priests
of Rome. what claim, ask, can it have
upon the respect of any moral man or
woman at this day? Therefore the former
use of the drama was not justifiable, and
consequently it's latter use is not legiti-
mate.
THE EDUCATIONAL ASPECT
sMy correspondent says the drama
teaches art by art as the Kindergarten
This is the strongest point the theatre
makes and by it it claims right to live.
We are sensitive upon this question of
education, and it is one that is ranging
the various classes in this county into
their true position. The church teaches,
the common school teaches, the theatre
teaches-the church in the deport-
ment of ethics, the school in
the secular and the theatre in the
aesthetic, each distinct but necessary to
true culture. You perceive the force of
the reasoning. If you abolish one you
abolish the other. When you strike at
the theatre you strike the church and
our common schools. Certainly the
reasoning is specious Let us examine
the claims of the theatre as an educator.
''All education has twofold purpose
the personal good conferred-to obtain a
livelihood, to bestow pleasure, and to ele-
vate the tastes, the Sympathies and the
ambitions of the man. Second. to render
my relations to my fellow man and my
country beneficial, to guide the
ments. The theatre relegates to
itself the culture of the beautiful. 1t
claims to do SO by picture, by attitude, by
expression, by music. Now we ask what
is the education of the aesthetic for? We
deem its purpose is to stimulate to noble
doing, to beget in the soul desire after the
pure and the true, to despise all mean
ness, to implant in the mind lofty and
pure ambition, to awaken in the heart
love for the exalted in character, to fling
over the impure mantle of spotless white
while we walk backward, to weaken to
paralysis, limp and shivering, the tall
vices tnat walk out to do havoc among
our race and that detie blasphemously
the Holy and the eternal. If your vines
trailing around your walls, your pictures
speaking from their position, your statu
ary in lawn or parlor, your harps and
pianos, tend not to elevate nor refine.
trample them down and out, light your
fires with your diyinest pictures and scat
ter your flowers to the winds.
ALAS, THE WICKED ACTOR.
"Are actors the purest members of So
ciety? No man is sure of the chastity of
any female, from the lowest classes that
hangs around the larger houses to the
princess who occupies a palace in Rome.
In Paris, the great seat Of the fascinating
drama, every third birth was illegitimate
in 1876 Is this the educator we want to
introduce into this land? now deny
tha5 the theatre aims to educate the peo-
writer says If you would peryert the taste
go to the theatre: il you would imbbe
false views, go to the theatre; ii you would
efface as speedily as possible all qualities
Of conscience, go to the theatre; il you
would put yourself elfirreconcilably against
the spirit of virtue and religion, go to the
thentre; if you would be infected with
each particular vice in the catalogue of
depravity, go to the theatre
r-"Will the writer assert that the theatre
Is productive of greater good than evil?
He cannot None of its greatest admirers
will assert it. Suppress the theatre and \
will we have any more prisons and aims
houses2 Suppress the theatre and Will
we have any more lager hou. IS, any more
crime and profanity? Win we have any
less pare literature? Suppress the pulpit
and will we have any less holy mens
SHAKESPEARE AND THE BIBLE.
ssThe writer speaks of a professor who
said he would give 500 to hear Booth
play Hamlet. / know. and that professor
knows that the theatre and the drama
antagonize directly the teachings of the
Christian pulpit. My correspondent al
lrdes to both Shakespeare and the
B4ole being both condemned by the ex-
pressive prudery of the day. have adj
lnitted the grandeur of many of the
dramatist's productions, but there is no
justification for much that aboundg in
his writings. Why must upholders OF the
theatre have fling at the Bible? They
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