Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965, 1922-07-06

and he closed his eyes and slept
and slept, until in he'll he opened
his eyes wide awake forever. Oh,
brother, can you sleep that wayg
Oh, brother oh, how men sleep over
their immortal interestsl How men
sleep over the interest of their souls.
Dirt dobbers and screech owls and
bats are taking possession of our
country churches, and ritualisn and
Journalism our city churches. 1t is
time we stopped playing at religion
and began to live it. 1t is time for
we men to show people outside the
church that we mean business. We
have been leaders in everything that
hell can suggest and the devil con,
coct, and we have been trailers in
religion. T.. ousands have the build
ings, they have the order of service
songs, Sunday schools, all the relig-
ious, activities and everything that
should accompany salvation but vi
tai godliness is. absent. Brother,
want to ask you have you had an
interview with your Lord lately?
Have you the. same passon for souls
the same 10y, the same thrill, the
ecstacy, are you enthused about
these things like you were few
months or years ago? If you are
normal Christian you are a better
man than you were yesterday.
know Of no worse hell than to lose
Jesus Christ, and then to keep up
the cant and mockery OF q religious
paraphernalia.
Mary lost Jesus where people
generally 60 to find him. She lost
Him in the most unlikely place.
Where? Not at the theatre. You
could not have backed Mary in nor
headed her in, or pushed her in any
Of the DEVILS old soup houses. Pla-
to banished them from his common
wealth. Edwin Booth, one of the
greatest American actors said, ]
never permit my wife and daughter
to go to a theatre without first ex-
anime the play, Neither do | per
nit them to associate with the actors
and actresses. And that man spent
a fortune trying to reform the Amer
lean stage. Theodore Cuyler, good
Presbyterian said, Behind the cur
tain of the sage lies Sodom. Rabbi
Stephen S. Wise in his sermon be-
fore the Free Synagogue, New York,
declared that as a business the
theatre business is the dirtiest bust
ness in America today. DR.. Wise is
the rabbi of the largest Jewish con-
gregation of New York, and he is in
a position to know what he is talk
ing about when he speaks of the
modern theatre, because the theatre
trust is composed almost entirely of
a handful of Hebrews. DIR. Wise
says further that a great many of
the shows were nothing less than
the work of moral scavengers and
filth producers, the product of moral
leprosy. The stage was filled with
half dressed women, it was vulgar
incarnation of impurity spun about
a display of hosiery and underwear.
The modern theatre and movie show
have done more than any other force
to mar and destroy the holier things
of life today, especially have they
harmed the home life and the chill
dren of today.
My old friend and physician,
when ! was in the Moody Institute,
Chicago, Dr.. NJ. P. Boynton, of
Chicago, has recently denounced
this evil in the.most scathing terms.
His dehunciatioHs are none too
strong, he truly shows that the av-
erage shoWs both in the theatre and
movie house Iappeals to the grosser
lusts of tho flesh land strikes at
those very ideals which in the past
have made the home strong, and
young people respectful to their pa
rents. The modern show maker
thinks the public wants the wicked
side of life exposed, and so he makes
assaults upon the fundamentals OF
civilization, The crook is made a
joke. stealing is funny, swearing is
entertaining. The double meaning
is the end of wit. Infidelity and
illicit love are the real spice of life.
The silly smoking woman is the reg