The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1900-03-23
THE DRAMATIC ART.
Dr.. Talmage Gives His Views Of
the Theater.
says the Drama, Rightly Directed,
Is n Source of GOOd-ShOuId BE
Purified, Not Suppressed
Good and Bad Plays.


copyright, 1900 by Louis KlOpsch.l
Washington,
At a time when the whole country
is in controversy as never before con-
cerning the theater, and some plays
are being arrested by the police, and
others are being patronized by Chris
tian people, this sermon of DIR. Tai
mage is of much interest. The text
Is l Corinthians vii, 81: They that
use this world as not abusing it,"
My reason 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 go some weeks ago to Chicago and
see the drama Quo Nadis' and criti-
else it with respect to its moral ef-
feet and TO 90 10 New York and see
the drama "Ben-Hur'' and write my
opinion of it for public use. Instead
OF doing that 1 propose in a sermon
to discuss what we shall do with the
dramatic element which God has i'm
planted in many of our 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 corre-
spOnd with human inventions. Not
at all. The drama is an echo from the
feeling 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 playhouses of wood, ten years
after in the parlor charades, after
that in the elaborate impersOnatiOns
in the academies of music. Thespis
and Aeschylus and SOphocles and Eu-
ripideS merely dramatiZed what was
in the Greek heart. Terence and
Plautus and Seneca merely drama
tized what was in the Roman heart.
COngreve and Farguhar merely dram
atized what was in the English heart.
Racine, Corneille and Alfieri only
dramatized what was in the French
and Italian heart. Shakespeare only
worlds heart. 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 playhouse. but 1 speak of the
dramatic element in your soul and
mine. We make men responsible for
il. 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
10 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 10 the school
exhibition with its recitations and its
dialogues and its droll costumes. The
torchliCht procession of the political
campaign is merely the dramatiza-
tion of principles involved. No intel
ligent man can look in any secular
or religious direction without finding
this dramatic element revealing, un-
rolling. demonstrating itself. What
shall we do with il?
Shall we suppress it? You can as
easily suppress its Creator. You may
direct it, YOU may educate it. YOU may
purify it, you may harness il to multi
potent usefulness. and that il is your
duty to do. just as we cultivate the
taste for the beautiful and the sublime
by bird-haunted glen and roistering
stream and cataracts let down i'm up
roar over the moSSed rocks. and the day |
lifting its banner of victory in the east, |
and then setting everything on fire as
IL retreats through the gates of the |
west, and the Austerlitz and Waterloo |
of an August thunderstorm blazing |
their batteries into sultry afternoon. /
and the round. glittering tear of
world wet on the cheek of the night /
as in this way we cUltiSate our taste for |
the beautiful and sublime. so in every /
lawful way we are to cultivate the dra- |
matte element in our nature, by every /
staccato 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 ele- |
ment in our natures, but have TO tell |
you in the Scriptures He cultivates it. /
He appeals TO it. He develops it. 1 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 speeches. Then at the
close of the scene there is a coronation,
and the bramble is proclaimed king. |
That is political drama. Here it is in
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.
drama is the book of Job,
Here it is in SoIomon's Song: The
region, an oriental egion-vineyards.
mountain of myrrh.
flock of sheep. garden of spices, WOO
ing, bride, bridegroom, dialogue
intense, gorgeous. all suggestive drama
is the book of Solomon's Song. Here il
is il the book of Luke: Costly mansion !
in the night All the windows bright
with illumination. The floor q quake !