The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-03-17

Crystalline sea, pearly gate, opaline
river, amethystine capstone, showering
corOnets, one vial poured out incarnad-
ming the waters, eayalrymen of Heaven
galloping on white horses, nations in
doxologv, halleluiabs to the right of
them, halleluiahs to the left of them.
AS the Bible opens with the drama Of
the first Paradise, so it closes with the
drama of the second Paradise.
Mind you, when say drama do not
mean myth or fable, for my theologyis
of the oldest type-5oo years old, thou
sands of years old, as old as the Bible.
When speak of the drama at the be-
ginning and the close of the Bible, do
not mean an allegory, but I mean the
truth so stated that in grouping and in
startling effect it is a God-given, world
resounding, Heaven-echoing drama.
Now, if God imSlanted this dramatic
element in our natures, and If He has
cultivated and developed it in the Scrip
lures, I demand that you recognize it.
Because the drama has again and
again been degraded and employed for
destructive purposes is nothing against
the drama, any more than music ought
to be accursed because it has been
taken again ard again into the satur-
nalian wassails of 1000 years. Will you
refuse to enthrone music on the church
organ because the art has been
trampled again and again under the
feet of the lascivious dance?
Rev. DR.. Bellows, of New York, many
years ago, in very brilliant but much
criticised sermon, took the position
that the theater might be renovated
and made auxiliary to the church.
Many Christian people are of the same
opinion. | do not agree with them.
have no idea that success is in that di-
rection. What have said heretofore
on this subject, as far as I remember,
is my sentiment now. But to-day l
take step i'll advance of my former
theory. Christianity is going to take
full possession of this world and con-
troll it's maxims, it's laws, it's literature,
its science and it's amusements. Shut
out from the realm of Christianity any
thing, and you give it up to sin and
death.
If Christianity is mighty enough to
manage everything but the amuse-
ments of the world, then it is very de-
fective Christianity. Is it capable of
keeping account of the fears of the
world and incompetent to make record
of it's smiles? Is it good to follow the
funeral, but dumb at the worlds play ?
Can it control all the other elements of
our nature but the dramatic element
My idea of Christianity is that it can
and will conquer everything. In the
good time coming, which the world
calls the colder age and the poet the
elysian age and the Christian the
millennium, we have positive announce
ment that the anlusements of the
world are to be under Christian sway.
"Holiness shall be upon the bells of the
horses" says one prophet. So, you see,
it will control even the sleigh rides.
1.-THE city shall be full of boys and girls
playing in the streets thereof" says
another prophet. So, you see, it is to
control the hoop rolling and the kite
flying and the ball playing. Now, what
we want is to hasten that time. How
will it be done? BY the church going
over to the theater? 1t will not go. By
the theater coming to the church? 1t
will not come. What we want is re-
| formed amusement association in every
| CITY and town OF the United States.
Once announced and explained and il
| Illustrated, the Christian and philan-
thropic capitalist will come forward to
establish it, ard there will be public
spirited men everywhere who will do
this work for the dramatic element OF
our natures. We need a new institution
to meet and recognize and develop and
| defend the dramatic element of our
nature. 1t needs to be distinct from
everything that is or has been.
1 would have this reformed amuse-
ment association having in charge this
new institution of the spectacular take
possession of some hall or academy. 1t
| might take smaller building at the
| start, but it would soon need the larg-
est hall, and even that would not hold
the people; for he who opens before
the dramatic element in human nature
an opportunity of qualification with
out compromise and without danger
does the mightiest thing of this cen
| tury, and the tides of such an institu-
tom would rise as the Atlantic rises at
liverpool docks.
There are tens of thousands OF
| Christian homes where the sons and
| daughtersare held back from dramatic
entertainment for reasons which some
of you would say are good reasons and
others would say are poor reasons, but
| still held back. But on the establish
ment of such an institution they would
| feel the arrest of their anXieties and
would say on the establishment of this
new institution which have called the
spectacular: "Thank God, this is what
we have all been waiting for"
Now, as l believe that l make sug-
| gestion of an institution which wiser
men will develop, want to give some
characteristics of this new institution
this spectacular, if it is to be grand
social and moral success. In the first
place, it's entertainments must be COM
pressed within an hour and three-quar'
ters. What kills sermons, prayers ano
lectures and entertainments of all sorts
is prolixity. At reasonable hour
every night every curtain of public en-
tertainment ought to drop, every
church service ought to cease, the in
struments of orchestras ought to be
unstrung. What comes more than this
comes too late. l4.
On the platform of this new institu'