The Modern Theater

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 29, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 44.

The Modern Theater.

The San Francisco Examiner in a recent issue has a cartoon and an editorial, entitled, “A Corrupt Stage Corrupts the People.” It declares that “a mass of immorality and general degradation” is “poured out before the public by the theater to-day. Crime, sensation, indecency are its features.” The closing sentence declares that “the public taste and the public conscience have been going down hill together—hence the present American stage.” We are told that “on the stage to-day, old age is made ridiculous, religion is made contemptible, virtue is thought humorous, and no part is thought worthy of a star actress unless it be that of a character utterly degraded.” And this is the testimony of a worldly paper, which panders to popularity,—testimony as to the character of an institution which reflects the worldly trend. The theater is of the world. It pleases the world. Only such things as described above “will pay.” And yet there are professed ministers of Jesus Christ who attend the theater, and it is becoming common practise among church members. Truly, the prophet spoke of this time when he said, “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” Jesus says, “And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold. But he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.”