The star-independent. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1904-1917, 1915-01-27
EVANGELIST DISCUSSES
POPULAR ADJUSTMENTS
Mr.. Miller Talks to Record breaking
Crowd in Mechanicsburg Taber-
nacle Last Night on Card Playing,
the Theatre and Dancing

Mechanicsburg, Jan. 27.-Last even
ing a record breaking crowd filed the
tabernacle to hear Evangelist Miller
preach on Popular Amusements. y His
text was: He that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption,
Gal. 6.S. Just before Mr.. Miller
stepped to the pulpit, Miss Cree had
sung "Going to Judgment and has
few words of prayer preceding the ser
mon were that the subject might be
considered in the light of the Judgment,
People stood in solid ranks around three
sides of the tabernacle, and some sat
on the floor in the sawdust aisles and
listened with close attention to the
evangelist as, without sensatlonallSm,
but with no mincing of words, he talked
on the card table, the theatre and the
dance. He said in part:
eff it isn't wrong for you as a
Christian to play cards, then it wouldn t
be wrong for Jesus to play cards. Imag-
inc Jesus Christ at the fashionable
card party down Main street that some
Mechanicsburg church members were at
this afternoon. Imagine Jesus Christ
as your partner in the dance, or your
guest in box at the opera. Or, how
would you enjoy listening to a sermon
from your pastor on Present your
bodies living sacrifice, if you knew
he had been leading ball the night be-
fore. or witnessing a performance of
The Soul Kiss7' 1t is a sad thing that
card party was going on here in Ne
chanicsburg, during this revival, on
Tuesday afternoon, and some of the
leading church members there, while
Bible reading was going on in the tab
ernacle. -
Mr.. Miller told of a convict in the
New York State prison, serving a life
sentence for murder, whose mother sent
him her photograph with her love, but
who sent it back with curses, and the
wish never to see her face again, be-
cause she had taught him to play
cards, and he had killed a man in
fight over a card game. '1'he difference
between playing cards and author
cards, for instance, is not in the cards
themselves, but in what they lead to-,
said the evangelist. "Take one sheet
of cardboard, use half to print deck
of playing cards, and the other half to
print a deck of author cards. Follow
them from the printing shop. One leads
amusement; the other to the salOop,
the brothel, the gambling table. the
spirit of chance the desire to get
something for nothing. You have no
business to have the Bible and a deck
of cards both in the same home. If
You have them both on your parlor ta-
BILE, put one or the other in the fur
mace, Ninety-hve per cent. of all the
gambling that is done is done with the
euchre deck Of cards, the same cards
you have on your parlor table. -
He quoted noted gamblers who say
that most gamblers learn to play cards
in their homes as children. Speaking
of the theatre, he said: ~ do not con
demn the theatre in a wholesale way. If
1t were possible TO redeem the theatre,
to conduct it under the supervision of
a commission of Christian men and
women, ii could be made factor for
righteousness. But we can't take ideal
conditions. 1t is the actual fact that
You can I 20 into the average theatre
without being insulted and embarrassed
Every attempt to redeem the theatre
has proven an absolute failure. Edwin
Booth tried it and failed. Henry Irving
tried it and failed, The people who say
the theatre is needed to educate our
young people insult our young people
by implying that they need to have
their attention fixed upon infidelity,
adultery and murder to finish their
education. He quoted leading theatri-
cal managers who say that the leading
plays are based on anger, ambition
lust and the passions generally. "Jesus
Christ will never 90 with you to a the
atre, and if you are Christian you
can never 90 where Jesus Christ can
not go.
He described the dance as towering
above the other two evils as Mount
Hood above the Coast Range, and char
acterized it as the last lap this side
of perdition, the recruiting station for
the brothel, the handmade of the saloon
and the death knell of the sanctitv of
the home. IN not speaking now of the
stately old cotillion, or the Virginia reel
or square dances generally. But | in
diet the round dance, the modern dance.
because it has as its foundation the
call of passion. People are not all
alike and if you say, my sister, that
the dance doesn t hurt you, won t dis
pute it. But I will say no man can
follow the dance any length of time
and not be hurt. And when YOU know