The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-12-26
SCORES PULPIT THEATRICALs.
A Philadelphia Rabbi Delivers n
Timely Talk on the Subject.

1.-The Stage as a Pulpit was the subject
of Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf's lecture Sun
day morning, which he delivered at the
Keneseth Israel temple before large and
attentive audience, says The Philadelphia
Times There are goings-On today in
many churches" he said, (which seem
very much like the doings Of the priests Of
Aaron with their strange fires. Preachers
are turning to actors. the pulpit is becom-
ing a stage. DeacOns are changing into
play managers.
1.-The perpetual light Is being changed
to foolights. choirs are changed into
chOruses, services are becoming shows, and
the same methods that are used to attract
the people in the theater are being used to
entiCe them into the church, and, which
seems the strangesl of all, the churches
most opposed to the theaters are frequent
~ the most faithful copiers of the acts
and tricks Of the playhouse, and the
preachers who most bitterly prosecute the
actor frequently initiate his methods 50
closely that one needs a most powerful
magnifying glass To detect a difference
between the two.
Il am not an opponent Of the stage.
on the contrary l regard the moral of the
legitimate drama equal TO the most legitl-
mate pulpit and l would have both
equally rewarded if both are equally de-
serving. In saying that both have similar
missions, / do not mean that the vocation
of both are interchangeable; that a
preacher may turn at VIII his pulpit into
a stage or an actor mis- stage into pulpit.
Though they have a similar object. their
sphere of labor is and must remain sep
arate and distinct. The preaching actor
bores the acting preacher disgusts. There
are times when our hearts cravesfor enter
tainment, for pastime, for diversion, and
we have the theater for the qualification
Of such craving.
There are times when our soul yearns
for spiritual light, fer religious comfort,
for mental elevation, and we have the
church.
Il cannot speak too scathingly of the
farcical or better, tragic, ordinations OF
the church. There never has been as
strong tendency in that direction as at
the present time, and in our land, and
there has never been an age more Danger
Gus fer such a tendency than the present.
OF all irreverent people we Americans are
probably the most irreverent. OH We
vandals leave us the little reverence that
yet fingers within the church l have al
ways admired the catholic denomination
for her marvellous skill in shedding the
most inspiring awe over her churches by
means Of magnificent art and architecture
music and vestments, and ye- more so by
a rigid exclusion Of everything profane.
ut must not be supposed that in oppos-
ing the seculariZation of religion / would
favor the expulsion of all light and
warmth and cheer from the church and
their replacement by Calvinistic gloom
and Puri.anic crabbedness. The church
was never designed to be a cemetery and
the preacher was never intended TO be an
undertaken. / believe in the religion of
smiles, not the religion Of groans. A good
sermon is by no means marred by a
timely anecdote or jest, if introduced to
point the moral better or 10 make the ser
mon the longer remembered. The church
will suffer no wrong from a live, cheerful
and reverential pulpit. II is in the eX-
IRENE of both where the danger lies"