Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1893-05-03
THE DRAMA OF TODAY
Flssr IN A SERIES OF SERMONS ON
MODERN CITY SHADOWS.


ern Prostitution of Medium
For Good.
New YORK, April 23-This morning
was the day fixed for the first sermon of
the series of 10 sermons on the .Shad-
ows Of the Modern City, to be preached
BY Rev. Thomas Dixon, Jr., in Associa-
ton hallfrom today to June %. The sub
ject of the sermon this morning was the
Low Theater; or, the Degradation of
Our Amusements. The text chosen was:
And when the daughter of Herodias herself
came in and danced she pleased Herod and
them that sat at meat with him, and the king
said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever
thou wilt and | viii give II thee. And he
sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of
nc, will give it 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, he would not re-
jeot her. And straightway the king sent forth
soldier of his guard and commanded to bring
his head, and he went and beheaded him in the
prison and brought his head in a charger and
gave it TO the damsel. and the damsel gave 1t
70 her mother.-Mark vi, 222S
desire to say in the very beginning of
this series word to my traditional enc
mics in New York, who for four years
have been vilifying and abusing me as a
seeker of notoriety. would suggest to
my friends, the little quill drivers of the
blackguard press, the ACCESSIBILITY of
changing this tune at least once in four
years. 1t is getting 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 be the
use? | do not make the suggestion that
Imay escape misrepresentation and false
hood. | simply suggest that they may
vary the lie by inventing a 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 pio-
neer performance, which has reached its
highest development in the nineteenth
century This performance was model
on which 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
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
are 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
few years ago most adequately by dis
tinguished Presbyterian minister in Chi
cago. This is his Indictment and detini-
ton of the theater:
II charge that the theater is often a
murderous assault upon all that the fam
lily circle holds most holy and sacred.
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
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 'mhich has uithin IL the seeds
Of corruption and schich e.rists only I'M
der a loio of degeneracy;' that the refor-
nation of the theater is out of the ques-
tion. and the ideal stage is simply an i'm
posslDlilty.
That is to say the theater is of the
devil, was born in evil, is in itself sin
and has no right to exist under any con-
iditions. 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 tine theatre current I
is admirably expressed by Henry Irving /
IN a 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 !
rs 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
nOthingneSs and never fails 70 find new