The age-herald., 1900-03-19
DIR. ]. p. M'FERRIN
 ATTACKS THEATRE
In His Sunday Sermon Declares
 it an immoral Agency
APPEALS TO THE SENSUOUS
The Stage Addresses Itself to the Sem abilities Through the Avenue of g the Eye-His Text Taken
 from Roman S-6

In his sermon at the First Methodist church yesterday morning pr. J. P Me- Perrin, the pastor. criticized the theater as an immoral agency. He said it duled the sensibilities and created desires of carnal nature.
 His text was firm Romans. VIII,'6 For to the carnally minded is death, but to the spiritually minded is life and peace" He ssaid:
 'sThese words give Us an insight into the constitution of man. He has body; he is a spirit; he combines the great clements, matter and spirit and is to be studied in connection with his body. The superficial view of the subject shows that he has things in common with the animal but he has that which is higher and finer-he thinks, feels. reasons. lives, has aspirations and longings that do not arise out of mate rial conditions and which nothing material can satisfy. He is separated by an infinite distance from the brute creation by virtue of his spirit His body, however. is needfu as God would have made him without it. There is conflict between the body and the spirit, and for this reason some have regarded the body as hindrance and the source of all evil. The conflict arises from the lack of knowledge of relation between the body and the spirit. The development of life in the human body will no doubt. be far grander than any development in a purely spiritual condition. Whatever may be the achievements of spirit in purely spiritual realm we cannot know, but this we know, that here in connection with the body man must fight and conquer.
 Flesh and Spirit
 ''Flesh and spirit are welded together and it is in the union of the two that the -4srob1em of life Is to be solved and man is to reach his highest estate here and hereafter. The body and the soul are not equal-tane soul is superior to the body and should be dominant Who, then, is the carnally minded? The apostle seems to personify the flesh because its desires, appetites and inclinations seeking gratifi-
  who thinks about and pursues what the flesh desires and whose moral nature is determined by the needs of the body is carnally y-minded. He walks according to the dictates of the body and is under the domination of the flesh. In other words, the carnal man is he whose higher nature is in suojectfon to the lower
 ''This we recognize and accept as true and our minds instinctively turn to the most abandoned of our race, the drunkards, the adulterers, murderers, thieves and such like. There Is no doubt that these are carnally minded and some of us are ready to congratulate ourselves that because we have not fallen so far we are not to be classed among the carnally minded, but let remind you that there is refined sensualism that seems compati- ble with good breeding, high aims and cultivated taste but is none the less dangerous.
 "It is possible for one to wear the garb of responsibility and maintain high posi-
 
 to give the flesh the mastery. There are thousands and thousands all over this land who are living in just this way. They are. given to wordliness and the church to them is but little more than a society or a club of respectable people. They live for ease and seek for things that please and delight
 Over-Indulgence Many people are wrecked by going in seeming right ways and begin by an indul- gence of appetites that are right and prop- CT. What is more natural than hunger or thirst, or desire to see and hear? And vet hunger and thirst and seeing and hearing have proven the course and ruin of many. It is right to eat, but man is not to live by bread alone. It is pleasant ito see and to hear but life does not consist of brilliant sights melodious sounds.
 ''Mere enjoyment of ones self in pleas ures that are purely physical, eating and sleeping, seeing and hearing, occupy the time of many, and all such are carnally minded and are to be classed among the
 
 spiritually dead. for they seek their gratf- fication in things that perish.
 Under the same condemnation come |theaters and all spectacular exhibitions. do not make a wholesale condemnation of the stage. nor say tbat some plays are less hurtful than others, but do say that the trend of the stage in every age has been to the damage of the souls of men and that all who attend it's performances, though at long intervals, are treading on dangerous ground.
 Danger in Realism "Wherein is the danger of the stage? -ItS appeals to the sensuous which, like every thing else. grows by that on which 1t feeds. Whether high or low it aims at scenic ef- feots and addresses itself to the eye, which