The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1904-04-21

which very naturally fell under the
ban of the Puritan conscience. One
of the shortest cuts to hell was sup
posed to be through the pit OF the
playhouse. But all this is passing
away Life is not penal institution.
a man may be reverent without being
nournful The highest rectitude does
not consist in notifying the flesh by
arbitrary and artificial rules. The
Son of Man came eating and drinking
No conduct is wrong or unholy or ir-
religious which does not destroy ones
own powers or invade the sanctity OF
another life. No Joy is blamewortny
which is not wrung from the sorrow
or shame of another. Vice is high
treason against the law of human
brotherhood. Sanity in religion is
sood thing Men should not be asked
to shun as wicked what is no sin.
Thus the feeling grows that lis
eliminate theatre-going may be, not
only innocent, but helpful. Plays like
"The Bells" contribute much to this
end. What preacher could hope to
depict, in single sermon, the pitt.
less vengeance of an accusing con-
science as graphically as Irving does
in the play that made him famous?
man committed murder. 1t was
on a winter night and the sleigh bells
were ringing. He hid all trace of his
crime and with his ill-gotten gain he
bought his way to honor and influ-
p,1f hot h o1y
in his heart He never forgot. How
his soul would start at the sound OF
those bells! "A man with guilty
conscience is the most abject slave in
the world. Finally he had dream.
1t was on the night of the marriage of
his daughter. He had tried to say TO
himself that now he had triumphed
| and that his conscience was at rest.
In his dream he thought that the hid
eous secret was out, that the law had
him in its tolls and that the death
sentence had been pronounced.
in the morning they found him dy-
| ing and in his death agony grasping
| convulsively at the imaginary ROPE
about his neck. The mans conscience
had become his hang-man. The story
suggests how real may be the suffer-
| ing of the unpublished criminal. One
| thinks how mild is the gibbet COM
pared with this reign of terror within
the soul. This drama is portrayal CT
that august fact of human nature
the fact that man is unable to shake
| off the presentment that the deeds
done in the body are frought with
eternal consequences and that his life
is spent in the presence of the ALI
| Seeing.
| But think of the time when tue
conscience of man shall be sufficiently
educated to recoil at the thought of
war as men now recoil at the thought
of single-handed murder. Today our
statesmen talk of policies which in
volve wholesale murder as complac-
emily as they discuss the digging OF a
| ditch. They have not yet learned the
enormity of doing through the agency
of the government, deeds for which IL
dividuals would be hung. The blood
that Is split by the soldier Is upon
each mans hand. The moral law
| cannot be repealed by act OF con-
gress III II Is murder for one man TO
take life. Ii Is thousand times
more murderous for thousand men
TO take It. We shall begin To be civil
lied when our conscience tells us
these things.
In the great drama Of human life.
the eyes Of man open wider and Wild
er. conscience grows more and more
sensitive TO wrong; the glory OF one
age becomes the shame of the next
and each succeeding century Ia a
rung In the ladder that leads from
earth TO heaven.