Norwich bulletin., 1916-05-29

tNSAss sSe lts floNtSg 1s 9ss 4noOaS8 a-
 nous PIaywriter as Theme of Ser
 mon.
 At Park Congregational church on Sunday morning Rev. Samuel H. Howe. ID. D., pastor, preached on Shakespeare in connection with. the Ter Centenary of the great playwriter. pr. Hcwe's sermon was most eloquent and held the close attention Of all the congregation. Ills text was taken frcm John I, 6: There was man sent from God ana in part Dr. Howe spoke as fellows.
 Cariyla has said: When God sends a greet man into the world. we do WseiI to talko heed" and we'll we may, for he Siil change tho future of the world.
 Shakespeare has stamped his influ- ence upon the thinking and conduct of mankind. Gods greatest gift is a v1sloned man who with divining rod makes for us a new world, holds fhe mirror up to nature, and reflects the real world which unvisioned men do not see.
 Shakespeare's mind was the room Jest, vastest. the most nearly sugges- tive Of indnitade of all the inteuects of ] the world.
 The myriad minded man he was. The whole world was photographed in lis soul. All human emotions, all types of men, all classes move across ais pages.
 1. The first characteristic was uni versality. The wfdesr cosmopolitanisn, all human emotions. all types of char acter, all periods, classic, madeival, modern. He has won his constituency ] of readers from all grades of intellect uaI endowment. The patrician, the plebtan, the intellectual Tftans of the race the cultured, the uncultured He spoke the language of the wise and the rude dialect of the boor, saw life throuetl the eyes of the virtuous and the vicious.
 His works are the revelations of his personality He wrought himself into the characters he delineates. His refinement tIfs sense of justice, his virtues, his versatility, 1 his love of the beautiful, his bubbling merriment, his inexhaustable geniality are written out in the characters he 1 creates and sends to the footlights We thus know more about the personality i of Shakespeare than of any other ad- l thor in history. We do not miss the 1 raw material for tie biographer. We have the full length portrait in the l great dramas.
 3. His originality: Not that he cre- { ated new thought world. Not that he originated every seed plot of his l plays. Not that he adheres to the strict historical chronology. Not that | he did not use other mems thinking, but how he made the old new; he re- f1eshed the old skeletons till they stood up great army. He saw tragedy and comedy where other eyes saw nothing l The whole street breaks into a mas querade when Shakespeare passes by He made dead things live and also things new.
 4. His intensity: Perhaps Dante ir this surpasses tIfm. but his words | md .<T-~ Si, written page and into the brain and i heart of the reader. His engrayer's i tool makes ineraseable indentures. His pictures are unfading. Some people find nothing to admire. Voltaire an6 1 Darwin, a present day university pres ldent resent his spell, but a Goethe 1 tells us how in reading him he felt ht 1 was looking into the book of fate witt the hurricane tossing its leaves to ana l fro"
 5. His lofty moral teachings: Not since JIyeEal among Pagan writers and St. Paul among Christian thinkers has evil been so depicted, challenged and condemned as in Shakespeare'I dramas. He shows us all the InfernoS He never lets evil men escape HII
 detectives of the moral order like | Sleuth hounds never lose the scent til
 his villains are caught and caged. N base man ever gets into the earthl! paradise for long and into the heaveni1 O1l0 uOI elL all. 1T you lOS0 your e5t Paul's and your John CaIvin's doctrinI of depravity, Shakespeare's MasbethI and Richards mad lagos will restore 1t If you doubt the historical figures wh. in your Bible masquerade in the hol of evil, the stormy careers of Shakes pears disciples of the devil will teacl \ you the old, old lesson that the wage
 of sin is death. Evil men in Shakes
 peare as in the Bible and in societ. come to grief. He repeats the rougi speeches and reports the riotous be
 haviour of fools and knaves, but h
 fills their mouths with dust before tn curtain of the fifth act is rung down
 He never gflds vice, never makes i palatable. He always causes it's gilt
 ter to fade. No man ever rose iron
 the reading of a play to do a base O
 Gishonorable deed. We say when tn curtain drops that life is a serioui business" and we cannot afford to talk,
 our ventures.
 If he satirizes human follies h.
 never sneers at human fraiIty H never strikes at the things men ven
 crate. He does not depict the saint
 There are no saints in t1is dramas Shakespeare was too reyerent towart God and toward Christ who Hsuffere, for our salvation on the cruel tree' Il
 put them there, but his spirit wa
 reverent, as he worked out the prob