The Winslow mail., 1898-05-21
Religion and the Drama.
Written for the Winslow Mail.

Other things beside religion are good. /.
Dickens works are eternal arguments
against injustice, and in writing novels
he was as we'll employed as in preach
ing the gospel. Mendelsohn, by his
sublime compositions, did better serve
mankind than by going out as mission
ary to African hobos. And Shakespeare
served bis Maker and the world better
as dramatist than as bishop preach
ing sermons nobody wanted to hear.
God has implanted a dramatic ele-
ment in most of our natures; recog-
nized and cultivated it in the Bible. 1t
is not something built up outside our
selves by Thespis and Aeschylus, Soph-
ocles and Euripides, Terence and Plau-
tus, Seneca and Congreve, Farguar and
Corneille, Alfleri and Goldsmith. It
came from God. Man is not RESPONSE
BILE for the dramatic element in his soul,
but for the perversion of it.
If vacant seats are SO plenty in the
church, whose fault is it? The human
mind is the same in the pew as in the
pit A preacher asked Garrick, the
tragedian, "Why is it you are able-Tto
produce so much more effect with the
recital of your fiction, than we do by
the delivery of the most important
truths?" "My Lord" said Garrick,
"you speak truths as if they were fic-
tions; we speak fictions as if they were
truths"
The church has spent much time
peering into amusements to see what
evil they contained, and has kept dig
ging away at this, instead of putting
divine grace into them and let that reg
ulate and elevate. We have been ab-
sorbed in ferreting out and declaiming
against the evil, and forgotten that we
have corresponding duty to develop
the good. The church has failed to
regulate popular amusements; it has
withdrawn itself from them; and if the
devil has come in and taken full pos
session the church is to blame.
Let US bring the leaven of the gospel
into the amusement lump and teach
people how to use amusements without
abusing them. The world is growing
better. The church is growing wiser
We are in transition age.
The mind, kept On the continued
stretch of serious duty, will prema-
turely loose it's healthy action. OLD
and young alike must have their times
of relaxation; and it is not necessary
that we bring the hours of recreation
under too rigid scrutiny of reason
The scrutiny of CONSCIENCE must be
there However pleasant it may be tc
do wrong, it is never right to do it; and
sin committed in pursuit OF pleasure is
as sinful as if done for profit. With
this reservation the best and wisest oi
us can sometimes afford to lay aside
our dignity and become children.
That which may be commended as ar
: occasional recreation, if made the OBJ
ject of daily pursuit, is apt to breed
degeneracy. Our amusements may bt
prostituted to evil-so may horses
Yet shall we refuse to use them? JUS
as the home, the social circle, the church
the Sunday school. the companionshif
of good books, and, above all, the Bi
BILE, are to teach us the good and true
so are there other agencies, to arouse
the aesthetic, the appreciation of color
effect, and harmony, which God ha:
latent hid in every heart.
True, all actors are not moral Al
preachers are not moral. There are bad
men in all professions. There are mer
and women on the stage whose charac
ters are as spotless, and their lives as
beneficent as any in our churches.
The chief themes of Shakespeare are
the passions of men. So are the sub
iects for the chisel of Angelo, the brusf
of Guido, the pencil of Dore, the bur
den of the Sermon on the Mount. L
the exposure of sin is an indecency, tt
be consistent all the literature of the
world, sacred and profane, must bt
committed to the flames.
Clergy and laity devoured with avid
ity "The Little Minister" novel by j
M. Barrie. Three years after publica
ton, the book was dramatiZed. Plot
characters, theme, and style the same
interpreted by able histrionic talent
with all the adjuncts of scenery and
costume. Yet some of these self-same
self-styled saints who read and lauded
the book, would have wrenched theil
faces with hypocritical pious-ity had
they been invited to the play.
The pulpit's Interpretation of the
theatrical profession is unchristian.
The time has passed for offensive
dictation and inquisitorial condemna
tion-on the part of bigots. The time
has passed when, if you don't think a:
/ think, you're wrong.
IF, however, you have dollars ano
days for amusements, and minutes and
; mites for the church, you need recon
struction. Strive for consistency. Chill.
dren and idiots must have prescribed
boundaries. Thinking men and women
need not be hedged by barbed-wire
fences from innocent enjoyment, OF
dragged to Heaven by halter.
Mr.. Palmer. the London actor, drop