The Theater and Moral Force
This is from the Catholic Mirror on the theater:— “But if only good plays were presented, what an enormous moral force the theater would be! Nothing else could equal it, for nothing else goes so directly to the heart of the masses. There is the fascinating interest of the story, the charm of the acting, the lights, the music, the crowd; as Charles Lamb said, it is enchanted land.” The Italics are ours. But think of it. Such an expression could never come from one who knew the mystery of godliness,—Christ within, Christ’s life working from within outward. But the Roman Catholic religion is a religion of sense, of outward form. Its appeals, its influence, are from without; in fact, it is similar to the theater. There is no moral force in anything which has not moral force within itself. But this man has not apart from God, nor has any institution of man. Christ dwelling in the heart by faith is the only truly moral force which will reform men.