The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1900-03-23
The DRAMATIC ART.
DR.. Talmage Gives His Views of
the Theater.
SAYS the Drama. Rightly Directed.
Ia a source of G~ood-Should lie
Purified, Not suppressed
Good and Bad Plays
copyright, 1900. by Louis klopsch.l
Washington.

corning the theater, and some plays
are being arrested by the police, and
Others are being patronized by Chris
tian people, this sermon of DR.. Tai
mage is of r1uch interest. The text
is | Corinthians vii, 81: They that
use this world as not abusing it,"
My eason for preaching this dis
course is that have been kindly invited
by two of the leading newspapers of
this country to inspect and report on
two of the popular plays of the day
to 60 some weeks ago to Chicago and
see the drama Quo Nadis' and criti-
feet and to go to New York and see
the drama "Ben-Hur" and write my
opinion of it for public use. Instead
of doing that | propose in a sermon
to discuss what we shall do with the
dramatic element which God has i'm
planted in many OF u natures, not
in 10 or 100 or 1000, but in the vast
majority of the human race. Some
people speak of the drama as though
it were something built up outside
of ourselves by the Congreves and the
Goldsmiths and the Shakespeares and
the Sheridans of literature and that
then we attune our tastes to CORE
spOnd with human inventions. Not
at all. The drama is al echo from the
feelior which God has implanted in
our immortal souls. 1t is seen first
in the domestic circle among the chill
dren three or four years of age play
ing with their dolls and their cradles
and their carts, seen ten years after
in the plnyhouSes of wood, ten years
after in the parlor charades, after
that in the elaborate representations
in the academies of music. Thespis
and Acschylus and Sophocles and Eu-
ripides merely dramatized what was
in the Greek heart. Terence and
plautuS and Seneca merely drama
tiaed what was in the Roman heart.
Congreye and Farquhar merely dram
atized what was in the English heart.
Racine, Corneille and Altieri only
dramatizcd what was in the French
and Italian heart. Shakespeare only
dramatized what was in the great
worlds heart. The dithyrambic and
classic drama, the sentimental drama,
the romantic drama, We're merely
echoes of the human soul.
| do not speak of the drama on
the poetic shelf, nor of the drama
in the playhouse, but | speak of the
dramatic element in your soul and
mine. We make men responsible for
it. They are not responsible. They
are responsible for the perversion of
il, but not for the original %implanta-
ton. God did that work, and | sup
pose 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 IN Easter
morning we see written in letters of
flowers the inscriptions He Is
Risen our emotions are stirred. Ev-
cry parent likes to go to the school
exhibition with its rccitations and its
dialogues and its droll costumes. The
torchlight procession of the political
campaign is merely the dramatiza-
ton Of principles involved. No intel
1igent man can look in any secular
or religious direction without finding
this dramatic element revealing, un-
rolling. demonstrating itself. What
shall we do with it?
Shall we suppress it? You can as
easily suppress its Creator. You may
direct it, you may educate il, you may
purify it, you may harness it to muNi-
potent usefulness, and that it is your
duty to do. Just as we cultivate the
taste for the beautiful and the sublime
by bird -haunted glen and FOSTERING
stream and ~cataracts let down in up
roar over the messed rocks, and the day
lifting its banner of victory in the east,
and then setting everything Oh fire as
It retreats through the gates of the
west. and the AusterlitZ and Waterloo
of an August thunderstorm blazing
their batteries into a sultry afternoon.
and the round. glittering tear of Il
world wet on the cheek of the night
rs in this wa we cultivate taste for
the beautiful and sublime, so in every
lawful way we are to cultivate the era
matte element in our nature, by every
s~taccato passage in literature, by an
tithesis and synthesis, by every tragic
passage in human life.
Now. / have to tell you not only that
God has implanted this dramatic Gle
ment 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
1t is in the book of Judges, the fir tree.
the vine. the olive tree, the bramble-
they all make speeches. Then at the
close of the scene there is a coronation,
and the brambie is proclaimed king.
That is a political drama. Here it is III
the book of job: Enter Eliphaz, Bill
dad, Zophar. Elihu and Job. The open
ing act of the drama, all darkness; the
closing act of the drama. all sunshine.
Magnificent drama is the book of Job.
Here it is in Solomon's Song: The
region. an oriental region-vineyards,
pomegranates, mountain of myrrh.
flock of sheep, garden of spices, a WOO
ing. a bride. a bridegroom, dialogue
intense. gorgeous. all suggestive drama
is the book of S%olonon's Song. Here it
is in the book cfLuke: Costly mansion
in the night! All the windows bright
with illumination. The floor a quake
with the dance. Returned son in costly
garments which do not very well fit
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