The Jersey City news., 1904-10-03
CHURCH VS..
THEATRE.
Rev. ]. I. Scudder Outlines
His Views on the e<Drama
Apropos ofthe Peoples
Palace.
THEATRES PLACE IN CIY lLlzATIOH
Plays That Are Better Than
Sermons and Those That
Demoralizs = Quality
the Test.
THEATRES PLACE IN CIV lLlzATION

First CONGREGATIONAL Church last might
upon the Theatre and the Church. z
The theme was suggested by certain
criticisms upon the elaborate stage in the
Peoples Palace. recently erected for his
church by Mr.. Joseph Milbank. The the
| atre in this building rivals the regular
playhouses in equipment. Mr.. Scudder
is great believer in dramatic perform
ances, and in speaking of the theatre he
said in part
"Ihe attitude of the church to the
stage has undergone a great change dur
ing the past decade. 1t used to be
thought a sin by many pious people to
attend the theatre, but today clean and
proper plays are generally witnessed by
Christian people, and | have seen as
many as three hundred clergymen in a
theatre looking with approval upon some
semi-rehgious play, such as The Sign of
the Cross or sThe Volunteer Organist." :"
Any candid man must admit that there
are multitudes of innocent and excellent
plays, which it would do any one good to
see, while there are other plays which
are trashy or vulgar or both. To de-
nounce all plays because some are bad,
is sign of weak mind or religious
fanaticism. The stage can be abused; it
often has been maligned by people who
knew little about it. The drama has its
legitimate place in civilization. Its pur-
pose is to amuse and certainly in this
careworn workaday world people need
recreation of mind People never tire of
seeing life enacted upon the stage; and
the dramaic element in human nature
shows itself in the nursery, when the
baby boy bestrides cane and thinks it
a horse, or the girl plays with her doll
house 1t is not the Office of the theatre
to preach, or even in many cases TO in
struct. People attend the theatre to for
get their anxieties and sorrows, and if
they encourage those performances that
are laughable and morally wholesome, l
certainly cannot object.
During recent years variety of pop
ular plays have been given, which were
the most powerful kind of sermons. No
one can witness DIR. Jekyll and Mr..
Hyde without being carried into the 7th
Chapter of Romans, and being put on
his guard against the lower elements in
his own nature, while there are other
plays which no pure eyes should see and
stage, as elsewhere, you can find good
and bad. and our doctrine is to eschew
the evil and hold fast to the good. To
denounce the theatre as a whole because
some plays are immoral is puerile and
on a par with deneuncing the church be-
cause here and there you can find hypo-
crite within its walls. 1t is far better
and hundredfold more sensible for cler-
gymen to tell their people to go to only
such plays as their Lord would approve.
The character of the plays is determined
in the last analysis by the receipts at the
box Office. If all Christian people would
patronize only good plays and boycott
bad ones, the drama would wonderfully
| improve People should be taught from
the pulpit to discriminate. The people
get exactly what they order, as in res
taurant or tailor shop.
Il am glad that the church has large
| ly given over the habit of calling actors
and actresses bad names, and insinuating
! that every one who goes upon the stage
is immoral. The stage is not different
from any event Of life. 1t has wheat
and tares, sheep and goats. There are
multitudes Of pure women upon the
boards, and any man in the pulpit who
| attacks woman's character simply be.
cause she is an actress and without
knowing whereof he speaks, is simply d
pious, or rather an impious slanderer
ond ehnr1d ho "a ta,, dawn IN nuhlic q q