The Progress., 1893-04-29


ern Babylon-Prostitutio of "A Medium
For Good.
New YORK. April @3.-Ths morning
was the day fixed for the first sermon Of
the series Of 10 sermons on the "Shad-
ows of the Modern city to bc preached
by Rov Thomas Dixon. .Ir.. in AssOcIa-
tion hall from today TO June p. The sub
jeCt of the sermon this morning was the
"Low Theater: or, the Degradation of
Our Amuscments" The text chosen Wa
And wien the daughter of lIcrodias herself
came in and danced she pleased Ilcrud and
them that sat at meat with him, and the king
said unto the damscl. Ask of me " whatsocvcr
thou wilt. and ! will give it thee. And he
swarc unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask ~:
me. will give IL thee, unto the half of my
kingdom. And she went out and said unto her
mother What shall | ask And she said, The
head Of John the Baptist. And the king was
exceeding sorry, but for the sake of his oaths.
and of them that sat AT meat, ne would not re
jcct her. And straightway the king sent forth
"A soldier of his guard and commanded to bring
his head. and he went and behCaded him in the
prison and brought his head in II charger and
gave IL 10 the damscl. and the damscl gave II
to her mother.-MGrk Vi, - y.
desire to say i'll the very beginning OF
this series "a word To my traditional enc
mics in New York. who for four years
have been vilifying and abusing me rs n
seeker of noturiety. | would suggest 70
my friends, the little quill drivers of the
blackguard press, the advisability of
changing this tune at least once in four
years. 1t is getting a little stale now,
and there are very few people in New
York who do not know that this hall is
already crowded beyond its capacity and
people turned away. There is no reason
why the pastor should seek notoriety.
There has been no possible reason during
the past two years. No more people can
get in the house. SO what would bc the
use? do not make the suggestion that
lmav escape Misrepresentation and false
hood. | simply suggest that they may
vary the lie by inventing new one, as
this one now is certainly old enough to
be stale.
The scene described in our text gives
us an account of one of the first theatric-
nj performances of which we have rec
ord This dance before Herod was n pio-
neer performance. which has reached its
highest development in the nineteenth
century. This performance was n model
on which n thousand modern theaters are
run today. The result of the performance
was the surrender OF Herod to uncon-
trollablc passion. the yielding of his king
dom to the performer and the murder Of
an innocent man.
TWO VIEWS OF THE DRAMA.
There are two views of the modern
theater that today claim the larger share
of the attention of the student of sociol-
ogy and religion. do not propose to
enter the field of this discussion with
any purpose to settle it one way or the
other or to outline the possible develop
ment of the theater of the future. My
purpose is rather to report facts as they
arc for the present. And yet it is in
cumbent upon me TO say in the begin
ming which of these two views seems TO
me true. The antagonistic view held by
a certain school of modern evangelical
Christianity and held to by the vast
majority of the Protestant church in its
active working force was expressed a
few years ago most adequately by dis
tinguished Presbyterian minister in Chi
cago This IS his indictment and defni-
ton of the theater.
81 charge that the theater is often
murderous assault upon all that the fam
ily circle holds most holy and sacred.
charge that it strips young women of
hai nr1ir Mt
TO the public gaze so clad that to the eye
of tho audience they seem and are meant
to seem almost naked. You need not he
told why that is done. Icharge that the
shafts of wit flung across the stage are
often feathered from every obscene fowl.
charge that the theater is the channel
through which the filth and pollution of
lewd and lascivious playwriters is poured
into the minds of young men and young
women, thus poisoning the very springs
of our social life. The theater is an in
stitution 'uhich has cithin IL The seeds
Of corruption and ichich e.rists only I'M
der a ldC Of degenerdcy;' that the refor-
nation of the theater is out of the ques-
ton, and the ideal stage is simply an inn
possibility"
That is to say, the theater is of the
devil, was born in evil, is in itself a sin
and has no right to exist under any con-
ditions. And therefore no Christian can
in any possible way countenance its exis-
tence or discuss it as a reasonable force
in civic life.
The other view of the theatre current
is admirably expressed by Henry Irving
in recent lecture before the Philosoph-
ical institute of Edinburgh. Iquote his
exact words:
The drama is the heart of human ma
ture in picturesque or characteristic ac-
ton. The immortal part of the stage is
it's nobler part. Ignoble accidents and
interludes come and go, but this lasts
on forever. 1t lives like the human soul
in the body of humanity, associated with
much that is inferior and hampered by
many hindrances. but it never sinks into
l.. f,,l 90 g.