Satan's chapel!
We find that as matter of fact, the good
and the holy of all times have pronounced
the theater to be disgraceful.
We can trace the theater to a definite
beginning in the feasts of Bacchus,
five hundred years before CHRIST;
from which time, hand in hand with
the wine-god, its first lover and
life-long companion--
it has journeyed through the world,
spreading demoralization and desolation
on every hand. We consider it to be
the devil's most successful scheme
for destroying the morals of the culture.
The theater, the saloon, and the brothel
are the three confederate tempting devils
of civilization, seeking to despoil
the flower of humanity.
The theater insinuates lust, murder,
theft, hypocrisy, and profligacy upon
overworked and sensitive minds, under
the name of amusement and recreation.
It inoculates our fairest sons and daughters
with the most deadly poisons--
corrupting personal purity, destroying
domestic happiness, and dishonoring
the sanctuary of home--
under the guise of entertainment.
It has proven to be "a school of vice and
the home of debauchery" under the name
of recreation. It is . . .
black with the curses of the souls it has ruined,
infamous for the social impurities it has
nursed into life, and
abhorred by everyone who studies
its work of degradation and destruction.
We are now to examine the character
of this ancient institution, whose whitened
locks, as it stands before us clad in the robes
of its own history, might awaken our veneration
were it not for . . .
the blood-spots on its hands,
the demon leer in its eye, and
the foul odors from its filthy clothing
proclaiming it one of the vile monsters
that still lingers on the earth, because
mankind have not had virtue enough
to exterminate it!
From the days of Athens until now,
the wise and good have not ceased
to bewail the demoralizing effects
of the theater. Throughout history,
Christian people have always been
at war against "Satan's chapel"--the theater.
Plato says: "The diversions of the theater
are dangerous to the temper and sobriety
of mind. They rouse the feelings of passion
and sensual desire too much. Tragedy
is prone to render men unfeeling--
and comedy makes them buffoons.
Thus those passions are cherished
which ought to be checked, virtue loses
ground, and reason becomes uncertain."
Aristotle says: "The law ought to forbid
young people the seeing of comedies
until they are proof against debauchery."
Solon, the wisest of the Greeks, and their
lawgiver, forbade "theatrical exhibitions
as pernicious to the popular mind."
Cicero says: "The theater exists
on lewdness!"
Seneca, the great heathen moralist, says:
"Nothing is so injurious to good morals as
theaters, for then vice makes an insensible
approach and steals upon us in the disguise
of pleasure."
Mr. Wilberforce, known and honored
wherever freedom unfurls her banner,
affirms, "The debauchee, the sensualist,
the profane, have ever found in the theater,
their chosen resort for enjoyment."
He asks: "How can a virtuous mind seek
pleasure in such a place, amid such
companions, and from such persons as
the actors and actresses are generally
known to be?"
Pollok says: "The theater was from the very
first, the favorite haunt of sin; though honest
men maintained that it might be turned to
good account. And so, perhaps, it might--
but never was. From first to last it was
an evil place; and now such things are
acted there as make the demons blush!"
In 1778 Congress passed a law providing
for "the dismissal of any officer of the United
States who was found in attendance
upon a theater."
Soon after the declaration of independence,
the following resolution was adopted by
Congress: "Whereas, true religion and good
morals are the only solid foundation of public
liberty and happiness:
Resolved, That it be and is hereby earnestly
recommended to the several States to take
the most effective measures for the
suppression of theatrical entertainments,
horse-racing, gambling, and such other
diversions as are productive of idleness,
dissipation, and a general depravity
of principles and manners."
Augustine calls the theater, "a cage of
immorality and a public school of debauchery!"
Tillotson, speaking of the conduct of certain
parents, says, "They are such monsters,
I had almost said devils--
as not to know how to give their children
good things. Instead of bringing them
to GOD'S Church, they bring them
to the devil's chapels, playhouses,
places of debauchery, those schools
of lewdness and vice."
If we may accept the testimony of those
most to be trusted, the theater grows worse,
rather than better, as it grows older--
a strong indication that its character
is essentially bad.
To consent to look upon vice without
a protest against it, is the first step
to moral degeneracy.
Editor's note: I wonder what the author would
say about much of today's entertainment!
~ ~ ~ ~
GraceGems has published Samuel Milton Vernon's superb 50 page book,
"Amusements in the Light of Reason, History, and Revelation".
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