The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-03-30

! Is my ScAllllicAL nO"- buI To-Day l.
take a step in a Of my former
theory. Christianity is going IL take
full possession of his world ard con-
| troll its maxims, its laws, its literature,
it's Science and its a~musements. Shut
! out from the realm OF Christianity. and
you give it up to sin and death.
If. Christianity is mighty enough TO
manage everything but the aInuse-
ments of the world, then il is g very
defective Christianity. Is it capable
of keeping account of the fears OF the
world and incompetent TO make re-
cord of its smiles? Is It good to follow
the funeral, but dumb at the worlds
play? Can it control all the other ele-
ments of our nature but the dramatic
element? Ny idea of Christiani-- IS
that it can and will conquer every
thing. In the good time coming, which
the world calls the golden age and the
poet the elysian g and the Christian
the millennium, we have positive an
nouncement that n amusements OF
the world are to be under Christian
sway. Holiness shall be upon the
bells OF III horses" says one prophet
So, YOU see, IL will control even the
sleigh rides The city shall be full
Of boys and girls playing in the streets
therefore," says another prophet. So.
you see, it is to control the hoop rolling
and the kite flying and the ball play
ing. Now, what we want is TO hasten
that time. How will il be done? BY
the church going over TO the theatre?
1t will not 60. BY the theatre coming
to the church? 1t will not come. What
we want is a reformed amusement as
ISOLATION in every city and town OF the
United States. Once announced and
explained and illustrated, the Christian
and philanthropic capitalist will come
forward to establish il, and there will
be public spirited men everywhere who
will do his work for the dramatic ele-
ment of our natures. We need a new
institution TO meet and ogn and
develop and defend the dramatic ele-
ment of our nature. 1t needs to be
distinct from everything that is or
has been.
L would have this reformed amuse-
ment association having in charge this
new institution of the spectacular a k
possession of some hall or academy.
It might take a 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 without
compromise and without danger does
the mightiest thing of this century,
and the tides of UGH an institution
would rise as the Atlantic rises at
Liverpool docks.
THE SPECTACULAR.
There are tens of thousands of Chris
tian homes where the sons and daugh-
tiers are held back from dramatic en-
tertainment 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 I have called
spectacular, '"Thank God, this is what
we have all been waiting for"
Now, as I believe that I make sug-
gestion of an institution which wiser
men will develop, I want to give some
characteristics of this new institution,
this spectacular, if it is to be a grand
social and moral success. In the first
place., it's entertainments must be COM
pressed within IN hour and three
quarters. What kills sermons prayers
and lectures and entertainments of all
sorts is proliXity. At a reasonable
hour every night every curtain of pub
lie entertainment 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.
On the platform of this new institu-
ton there will be a drama which be
fore rendering a. been read, xpur-
gated, abbreviated and passed upon by
a DOarQ OF trustees connected Win tnlS
reformed amusement association. If
there be in a drama a sentence sug-
costing evil, it will be stricken out. II
there be in a Sh~akespearean play :.
word with two meanings, a good mean
ing and a bad meaning. another word
will be substituted, an honest word
looking only one way. The caterers
to public taste will have to learn that
Shakespearean nastiness is no better
than Congrevean naStineSS. You say,
"Who will dare to change by eXpurga-
ton or abbreviation a Shakespearean
play?" 1 dare. The board of trustees
of this reformed amusement associa-
ton will dare. 1t is no depreciation OF
a drama, the a~bbreviation of it. I would
like to hear thirty or forty of Millions
Paradise Lost" read at one time, but
/ oul be very sorry to hear the
whole book read at one sitting. Abbre-
Walton is not depreciation.
PURIFICATION OF THE DRAMA.
On the platform of this new institu-
ton this spectacular, under the care of
the very best men and women in the
community there shall be nothing wit
messed that would be unfit for a par
lor. Any attitude any look, any word
that would offend you seated at your
own fireside in your family circle will
be prohibited from that platform. By
what law of common sense or of NOR
atty Toes IndC WHICH is not Ut 10 De
seen or heard by five people become fiji
to be seen or heard by 1,500 people? On
the platform of that spectacular all the
scene of the drama will be as chaSte
as was ever a lecture by Edward Ev-
erett or a sermon by F. w. Robertson,
On the platform shall come only such
men and women as you would welcome
to you homes. I do not make the re-
QUESTION that they be professors OF
religion. There are professors of reli-
gion that I would not want in my par
lor or kitchen or coal cellar. 1t is not
what we profess, but what we are
All who come on that platform of the
spectacular will be gentlemen and
ladies in the ordinary acceptation OF
those terms, persons whom you would
invite to sit at yOur table and whom
you would introduce to your children
and with whom you would not be com
promised if you were seen passing
down Pennsylvania avenue or Broad.
way with them.
On that platform there shall be nc
~carouser, no inebriate, no cyprian, nc
Foo .af -a@I a~a f0~os