The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1900-03-21

pays are DcluS arrested Dy the pune,
and others are being patronized by Chris
tian people, this sermon of DR.. Talmage
is Of much interest The text is |. Corin-
thians vii, 81, They that use this world
as not abusing it,
My reason for preaching this discourse
is that / have been kindly invited by two
of the leading newspapers Of this country
to inspect and report OH TWO OF the popu-
lar plays of the day-to go some weeks
ago to Chicago and see the drama quo
Fadis" and criticise it with respect TO It's
moral effect and to go to New York and
see the drama ''BenHur" and write my
opinion of it for public use. Instead OF
doing that | propose III sermon to DIS
cuss what we shall do with the dramatic
clement which God has implanted in
many Of our natures, not i'll 10 or lOO or
1000, but in the vast majority of the hui
man race. Some people speak Of the dra-
ma as though it were something built up
outside of ourselves by the Congreves
and the Goldsnliths and the Shakspeares
and the SheridanS of literature and that
then we attune our tastes to correspond
with human inventions. Not at all. The
drama is an echo from the feeling which
God has implanted in our immortal souls.
It is seen first in the domestic circle
among the children 3 or years of age
playing with their dolls and their cradles
and their carts, seen ten years after in
the playhouses of wood, ten years after
in the parlor charade, after that in the
elaborate representations in the acade
mics of music. The dithyrambic and
classic DRAMA the sentimental drama, the
romantic drama, were merely echoes OF
the human soul.
| do not speak Of the drama on the
poetic Shelf nor of the drama in the play
house. but / speak of the dramatic elc-
ment in your soul and mine. We make
men responsible for it.. They are not re-
sponsible. They are responsible for the
peryersion of it, but not for the original
implantation God did that work, and |
suppose he knew what he was about
when he made us. We are nearly all
moved by the spectacular. When on
Thanksgiving day we decorate our
churches with the cotton and the rice and
the apples and the wheat and the rye and
the oats, our gratitude to God is stirred.
When ON Easter morning we see written
in letters Of flowers the inscription, He
Is Risen,' our emotions are stirred. Ev
cry parent likes to go to the school exhi-
bition with its recitations and its dia
logues and its dfoll costumes. The torch
light procession Of the political campaign
is merely the dramatiZation of principles
involved. No intelligent man can look in
any secular or religious direction without
finding this dramatic element revealing,
unrolling, demonstrating itself. What
shall we do with it?
Correct, Do Not Suppress.
Shall we suppress it? You can as cas-
lily suppress its Creator. You may direct
it, you may educate it, you may purify
it, you may harness it to multipotent use
fulness, and that it is your duty to do.
just as we cultivate the taste for the
beautiful and the sublime by bird haunt
ed glen and FOSTERING stream and cata-
racts let down in uproar over the messed
rocks, and the day lifting it's banner of
victory in the east, and then setting ev
erything on fire as it retreats through
the gates of the west, and the Austerlitz
and Waterloo Of an August thunder
storm blazing their batteries into a sui
try afternoon, and the round, glittering
tear of a world wet on the cheek Of the
night-as in this way we cultivate our
taste for the beautiful and sublime, so in
every lawful way we are to cultivate the
dramatic element in our nature, by every
staccato passage in literature, by antith-
esis and synthesis, by every tragic pas
sage in human life.
Now, l have to tell you not only that
God has implanted this dramatic element
in our natures, but / have to tell you in
the Scriptures he cultivates it, he appeals
to it, he develops it. do not care where
you open the Bible, your eye will fall
upon a drama. Here it is in the book Of
Judges, the fir tree, the vine, the olive
tree, the bramble-they all make speech
es Then at the close of the scene there
is a coronation, and the brambe is pro-
claimed king. That is political drama.
Here it is in the book of job: Enter Eli
phaz, Bildad ZOphar, Elihu and Job.
The opening act of the drama, all dark
ness; the closing act of the drama, all
sunshine. Magnificent drama is the
book Of Job
Here 1t IS Iii Solomon's Song: The re-
gion, an oriental region-vneyards. pom
egranates, mountain of myrrh, flock Of
sheep, garden Of spices, a wooing,
bride, bridegroom, dialogue after dia-
logue--intense, gorgeous, all suggestive
drama is the book of Soomon's Song
Here it is in the book of Luke: Costly
mansion in the night. All the windows
bright with illumination! The floor
a-quake with the dance. Returned son
i'll costly garments which do not very
well fit him perhaps, for they were not
made for him, but he must swiftly leave
off his old garb and prepare for this ex-
temporized leyee! Pouting son at the
back door, too mad to go in, because they
are making such a fuss! Tears Of SYM
pathy running down the old mans cheek
at the story of his sons wandering and
suffering and tears Of JOY at his return.
When you heard Murdoch recite THE
Prodigal Son" in one of his readings, you
did not know whether to sob or shout.
Reyivals Of religion have started just UNI
der the reading of that soul revolutioniz-
ing drama of ''The Prodigal Son."
Here it is in the book OF Revelation:
Crystalline sea, pearly gate, opaline river,
amethystine capstone, showering coro-
nets, one vial poured out incarnadining
the waters, cavalrymen Of heaven gallop-
ing on white horses, nations in doxology,
I Il. n. IL