The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-04-27
THE DRAMA OF TODAY
FIRST IN \ SERIES or SERMONS ON
MODERN CITY SHADOWS.

sn- Low NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Of Oar
| Anmsem~nts-The Gates Of Hell La Mod
| err NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Of Medium
Fer Good.
| NEW YORK, April 23.-This morning
..yas the day fixed for the first sermon u
me series Of 10 sermons on the ''Shad-
,ws of the Modern City" 10 be preached
hy Rev. Thomas Dixon. Jr-. in Associa-
lion hall from today 10 June -. The sub
let of the sermon this morning was the
Low Theater: or, the Degradation OF
bur Amusements." The text chosen was:
And when the daughter Of Herodias herself
lame In and danced she pleased Herod and
them that sat at meat with him. and the king
laid INTO the damsel. AK Of he whatsoever
il.ou wilt, and | viii give II thee. And he
tware unto her. Whatsoever thou smart ask OF
tne will give Ii thee, unto the hair OF my
,tion. And she went out and said unto Lcr
mother, What shall Ask And she said, Tho
eaA Of John the Baptist. And the king was
/ xceeding sorry. but for the sake Of his oaths,
nd of them that sat at meat. lie would not re-
Feet her And straigLtwaS the king sent forth
/ soldier of his guard and commanded 10 pr2nS
| /. head. and he went al bCheaied him in tho
irison and brought his head In a charger and
10 her mothcr.-Mark vi .e!22o.
desire to say in the very beginning OF
his series a word to my traditional enc
inies IN New York, who for four years
have been vilifying and abusing me as a
seeker of notoriety. | would suggest to
tnv friends, the little quill drivers of the
slackguard press, the ACCESSIBILITY of
Hanging this tune at least once in four
years. 1t is getting a little stale now,
hnd there are very few people in New
Eork who do not know that this hall Is
already crowded beyond its capacity and
seople 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 be the
use? | do not make the suggestion that
may escape misrepresentation and false
hood. l 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-
al performances of which we have rec
ord This dance before Herod was apio-
neer performance, which has reached its
highest development in the nineteenth
fentury. This performance was model
bn which a thousand modern theaters are
run today. The result of the performance
was the surrender of Herod to uncon-
trollable 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-
osy 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
are for the present. And yet it is in
eumbent upon me to say in the begin
hing which of these two views seems to
me true. The antagonistic view held by
b certain school of modern evangelical
Christianity and held to by the vast
majority of the Protestant church in its
hctive working force was expressed .
few years ago most adequately by dis
Einguished Presbyterian minister in Chi
cago. This is his indictment and defini-
lion of the theater:
81 charge that the theater is often o
murderous assault upon all that the FAM
lily circle holds most holy and sacred. I
charge that it strips young women Of
their ordinary attire and exhibits them
TO the public gaze so clad that to the eye
of the audience they seem and are meant
TO seem almost naked. You need not be
fold why that is done. Icharge that tho
shafts Of wit flung across the stage are
often feathered from every obscene fowl.
i 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 'aU1iich has acithin it the seeds
of corruption and ,chich EXISTS only I'm
der lasv Of degeneracy;' that the refor-
mation Of the theater is out of the cues
tion, and the ideal stage is simply an I'M
possibility"
That is to say, the theater is Of the
devil, was born in evil, is in itself Ein
bnd 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 reasonable force
in civic life.
The other view of the theatre current
is admirably expressed by Henry Irving
in recent lecture before the Philosoph-
tcal institute of Edinburgh. quote his
exact words:
''The drama is the heart Of human ma
ture in picturesque or characteristic 90
tion. The immortal part of the stage Is
fts nobler part. Ignoble accidents and
hnterludes come and go, but this Lasts
pn forever. 1t lives like the human soul
in the body of humanity, associated with
much that Is inferior and hanpered by
laany hindrances, but it never sinks into
'lothingness and never fails to find new
:and noble work in creations of permanent
hnd memorable excellence. The stage
has no lights or shadows that are not
lights of life and shadows of the heart. -
| After studying the worth of the thea
ter as a stimulus to the higher faculties
of the intellect, he continues, describing
its influence upon the unimaginative
mu1titudes:
''They are not inaccessible to passion
and poetry and refinement, but their
minds do not go forth, as it were. to
seek these joys. And even if they read
works of poetic and dramatic fancy.
which they rarely do, they would miss
them on the printed page To them,
Therefore (meaning the masses>. with the
exception Of few startling incidents OF
real life, the theater is the only channel
Through which are ever poured the greai
sympathies Of the world of thought be.
yond their immediate ken. Tt also fol.
lows from all this that the stage Is 1utea-
lectually and morally to al who have
recourse to 1t a source of some of the
finest and best influences of which thew
are respectively susceptible.
ITO the thoughtful and reading man Il
ffa III fo