Facts and Fictions of the Theater
By W. P. Pearce
The nature of theatrical performances, the essential demands of the stage, the character of the plays, and the constitution of human nature, make it impossible that the theater should exist save under a law of degeneracy. Its trend is downward; its centuries of history tell just this one story. The actual stage of to-day—the stage as it now exists—is a moral abomination. It is defiling our youth. It is making crowds familiar with the play of criminal passions. It is exhibiting woman with such approaches to nakedness as can have no other design than to breed lust behind the on-looking eyes. It is furnishing candidates for the brothel. It is getting us used to scenes that rival the voluptuous and licentious ages of the past.—Dr. Herrick Johnson. Do I Believe in the Theater?
When Achilles Daunt, late dean of Cork, was a student at Trinity College, Dublin, he was passionately fond of the drama, and used to go often to the theater. One evening, after returning home, and taking up his Bible for his usual evening reading, his eye rested on our Lord’s words: “He that is not with me is against me.” Matt. 12:30. The passage seemed to seize him with an iron grip. He then and there settled the matter with his own heart, and did not rise from his knees till he had resolved to dedicate himself to the Lord, to take his stand boldly as the Lord’s servant, and never again to enter a theater. Why?—Because what he had seen and heard during the evening was antagonistic to what his Bible taught, and those who associated with the former were separated from the latter. I do not believe in the theater because of the— Plato said, “Plays raise the passions and pervert the use of them; and of consequence are dangerous to morality.” Ovid, writing to Augustus, the Roman emperor, advised the suppression of theatrical amusements, as a great source of corruption. Rousseau, the French infidel, said, “The theater is in all classes a school of vice;” and many others there are who declare it to be the same, or the offspring of such. We had better heed the Bible counsel, “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not” (Prov. 1:10); for blessed is he “that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” Ps. 1:1, 2. I do not believe in the theater because of— In general, actors and actresses are not of the best moral character. Far from it! Since the days of Aristotle to Parkhurst, moralists have not hesitated to render this verdict. To see such with gaudy robes, painted faces, and playing smiles is to be deceived; for many— “Know little of affections crushed within,
And wrongs which frenzy there.” There are more scandals and divorces among actors than among any other class. The stage groans beneath its load of sensuality. Colley Cibber, after forty years’ experience upon it, said to one who reminded him of these facts, “I grant it.” Macready, knowing such to be the case, refused to allow his children to attend the plays, or even to have any visiting connection with actors and actresses. Still many go to the theater; they like to go, and are determined to go. By their presence and favor, they countenance the theater, enjoying “company with the workers of iniquity” (Job 34:8), of whom David said, “All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.” Ps. 92:9. I do not believe in the theater because of the— Speech of These Performers
Speech being an index of the mind, it bewrayeth those on the stage, as it did Peter at the trial of Christ. Matt. 26:73. The words “vain words” (Eph. 5:6), “idle words” (Matt. 12:36), “devouring words” (Ps. 52:4), “words of iniquities” (Ps. 65:3), words that “blaspheme that worthy name” (James 2:7), are enough to chill the blood of any one who “remembers the words of the Lord Jesus.” Acts 20:35. Dr. Buckley, of New York, after examining more than sixty plays, declared, “If language and sentiments which would not be tolerated among respectable people in private intercourse are improper, then fifty of the sixty plays referred to must be condemned.” During one of the Shakespearian plays in Chicago, a gentleman—not a strong opponent—spoke to his friend, the manager, regarding the smutty expressions of the actors, and was told, “This cannot be helped; no play will run unless it has some spice in it.” Indeed! Is “corrupt communication” (Eph. 4:29) spice? Is taking God’s name in vain, spice? If it is, then such “communications corrupt good manners” (1 Cor. 15:33), and by such expressions Jesus has declared they “shall be condemned.” Matt. 12:37. I do not believe in the theater because of much— Self-respect shows itself in the character of one’s apparel. “It has,” says Barrington, “a moral effect upon the conduct of mankind.” Not that all stage players are unbecoming in their manner of dress, but many of the fairer sex, by “preposterous fashions and fantastical draperies,” sacrifice “those mild, amiable, and modest virtues by which the female character is so pleasingly adorned;” besides creating vanity, unholy thoughts, and inciting the baser desires of the masculine auditors. The good Book says that women should “adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety” (1 Tim. 2:9); but the stage, and not infrequently the “boxes,” reveal immodest, bold-faced, pleasure intoxication, and the vain vie with one another with jealous eye, and the evil “heart deviseth wicked imaginations.” Prov. 6:18. I do not believe in the theater because of so— Can it be possible for an impure fountain to send forth pure water? “Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs?” James 3:12. How can people be made better by advertising vice? Can those who live immoral lives indoctrinate others in morality? Pertinent questions, are they not? Yet the vast majority of plays are demoralizing. In Cromwell’s day this was so notable that he ordered all theaters closed. Dumas, writing to Camille, said, “You do not take your daughter to see my play. You are right.” Edwin Booth, stirred by the corrupt plays, tried to reform the stage in New York, but was compelled to suspend the attempt after a loss of money. Somehow many people seem to enjoy these bawdy performances, and if they do not, they countenance and uphold them by their presence at these places of amusement. Lewdness and crime, jealousy and infidelity, elopements and murder, make up many of the plays. Speaking of this, the Chicago Standard says, “Reform is needed, but salacious performances pay best, while human virtue sits abashed in the shade.” Plays are one, if not the one, worldly, demoralizing amusement that shows the extent of many people’s religion. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” 1 John 2:15, 16. I do not believe in the theater because of the— Auditors Who Are Delighted with Such Plays
No devout Christian is ever seen at a theater. There may be loud professing, but not the possessing, ones. Many church members go, but scores of such know nothing of intimacy with Jesus. There is a fish which resembles sea grass. It hides itself in the midst of marine vegetation. Below is the head, looking like the bulb of the plant, and above is the body and the tail, looking like the blade of sea grass. The ocean currents sway the fish and the grass alike, and thus the former escapes being devoured by its enemies. It swims along, and one can hardly perceive where the fish leaves off and the grass begins, so perfect is the disguise. Such is true with theater goers. Some are low and vile, others moral and aristocratic, and some are church members, who, by their worldly inclinations, are a travesty on Christ and his religion. They are the “sea-grass fish.” They have a name to live, but they are dead. Rev. 3:1. Professing10godliness, “but denying the power thereof: from such,” Paul said, “turn away.” 2 Tim. 3:5. I do not believe in the theater because it is — arrayed against Christianity, the necessary good. One is diametrically opposed to the other in morals, health, and destination. As to morals, Christianity teaches and endeavors to preserve the purity of them; but the theater, to use Dr. Theodore Cuyler’s words, “instead of helping Christ’s kingdom, hinders; instead of saving souls, it corrupts and destroys.” It is, to put it mildly, “a gilded nastiness” by which persons of corrupt minds resist the truth. 2 Tim. 3:8. As to health, Christianity is conducive to its welfare. It pushes back the blinds, lifts the shades, and lets sunshine into the soul. But the theater, with its sensational, exciting dramas, its foul air, its late hours, is productive of distempers, both of mind and of body. “As righteousness tendeth to life,” said Solomon, “so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death.” Prov. 11:19. As to destination, Christianity leads heavenward. It creates an inspiration to be good, and imparts an aspiration to do good. But the theater leads “into the pit of destruction.” Ps. 55:23. It naturally fosters falsity, does “damage to both the intellectual and moral elements in man” by its exaggerated plays, benumbs and deadens the finer feelings, and not infrequently leads to moral and spiritual ruin. “Why did you relinquish your employment at the theater?” was asked of a musician. “Because,” said he, “I could not look to heaven for a blessing upon it.” “Madam Goldsmith, how came you to abandon the stage at the very height of your success?” asked a friend, who found her sitting on the sands of the shore with a Bible on her knee while she watched a sunset over the waters. “When every day,” she answered, “made me think of this” (laying her finger on the Bible), “and nothing at all of that” (pointing to the beautiful sunset). “Hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures,” says the Word (Isa. 47:8), “the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all . . . that forget God.” Ps. 9:17. And if there is one place where God is easily forgotten, it is the theater. I do not believe in the theater, for if it is — Not Good Enough to Die In
It is not good enough to while away one’s hours. Two professors of religion were standing at the door of a theater, when one of them proposed to go in and see the play, desiring his friend to accompany him. The other declined the invitation; and after being repeatedly solicited to enter, gave this excellent reason for his refusal: “If I should go in, and while there be stricken with death, and when I appear before God at the judgment, he should ask where I had come from, I should be ashamed to answer.” “I am so tired, so tired,” sighed Hannah May Ingham, the pretty leading lady of the Murray Hill Theater, New York. “If I could only have fifteen minutes’ rest!” she whispered. She settled down and closed her eyes. Her friends thought she was asleep. So she was, but it was the sleep of death. Her wish had been granted; but what a thought—going into eternity by the way of the theater! How true the lines,—
“Broad is the road that leads to death,
And thousands walk together there;
But wisdom shows a narrow path,
With here and there a traveler.
“The fearful soul that tires and faints,
And walks the ways of God no more,
Is but esteemed almost a saint,
And makes his own destruction sure.” “Don’t go — Because the atmosphere is essentially materialistic and sensuous, and indisposes for prayer and faith. “Don’t go — Because you will contract a habit that will lead you to slide by almost insensible degrees from the purer plays with which you begin, to the grosser ones toward which every theater tends. “Don’t go — Because the majority of theater goers are not Christians, and it cannot be expected that those finer shades of morality will be observed with which Christ familiarized us; to sit as a silent spectator is to acquiesce in the standard of morals presented on the stage. It is one thing to be obliged to meet such things in daily life; quite another to go to see them as a pastime, and to pay for their performance. “Don’t go — Because you have no right to support a system which is inimical to the virtue of the actors. Not that every actor is necessarily immoral, but that the almost universal confession of those actors and actresses who have become Christians is that life on the stage is not friendly to virtue, but strongly the reverse. You have no right to help put stumbling-blocks on other people’s paths by contributing your money to support such a system. “Don’t go — Because, even if you do not suffer moral taint, your influence and example may lead others to follow in your steps who will not be able to resist the evil influences of the average theater goer’s life, but will drift into the love of the sensational and sensuous to the ruin of the nobler qualities of the soul.”—F. B. Meyer.