Show II OHURCII AND THEATRE The fact that Rev Henry Ward C r Beecher was a prominent and interested inter-ested spectator at one of Mr Henry Irvings performances recently and the fact also that the eame Mr Beecher has just felt called upon to deny that he attended one of Mrs Xangtry3 entertainments which denial he based upon the circumstance circum-stance that he was asleep in Boston while the lady was playing in New I York have revived the discussion over the propriety of churchmen I countenancing by their presence the f 1 theatre as usual in these discussions t discus-sions reason is on the side 4t of the theatergoers and bigotry I on that of their opponents The I truly good people take delight Ii j in calling attention to the fact that a goqd many immoral and bad persons I III per-sons are found among actors and actresses they chuckle with delight i I de-light when they point to Sara Bern I hardt whose three or four children are like a good many other ctil dren unwise in that they do iot I know their own fathers it ia with i especial delight that they refer to i Mrs = Langtry and Bred Gebhardt they suggest that it is a clincher l when they oall attention to Ellen I Terry whose four living husbands i are scattered about the od country i These good people never teem to reflect that the idiosyncrasies mis hapa or vulgar immoralities if you I so please to term them have nothing J I whatever to do with the theatre or the drama If the heat e were to be condemned because some of the x Players havent as high regard for j I virtue as they might have society Itself in all its grades from the 1 I lowest walks of life up to the most x exalted and aristocratic church r IIi I 1 circles should also be condemned as Ii bad It is not an unusual thing for i I people high yin the church to do I wrong and it is not uncommon a uncom-mon for them to be exposed F ill and talked about Should the I I r Episcopal church be denounced and t its services be discontinued because 1S 1 r Ij the learned bishop ot Michigan a S r I I few years ago was shown to be an 7 immoral man Would jtb ere be any sense in advising people to stay away i from the Congregational church because be-cause the eminent Brooklyn divine I the ablest and most brilliant pastor I i in the church was the hero of an 4 1 i I wful scandal Because it has been I shown that the morals of some Boston Bos-ton priests were corrupt should that G justify the indictment of the Catho I lic ehurch The moral characters of the ministers have more a I 3 r or less influence upon the 7 t I I church and the morality of the t ° I players has something to do with I the respectibility of the stage but the ehurch > nd the drama must each t standupon its inherentmeritsand I not uponthe sins of ltho who inr i t terpret heor If pastor preiches J 1 false doctrine lie tuba condemned J 1 I I 1 ad people should refuse to listen to I a f him if PlaywrIght offer immoral IJ 3 dramas and actors play them tke U 1 f i public should stay away from the f MI 1 f j r theatre And this is just about the l t I i way society conducts Itself in reference a 4 ref-erence both to the church and the t J 11 11 theatre v I Heterodoxy leads none jJ 1 = astray who is not anxious to be led i t f 1 immoral plays entice nobody to the 1 1 i I theatre who is not willing to be en < j I I eiced As a matter of fact the stale and i I l I oftrepeated assertion that the j i tendency of the drama is towards d J immorality Is incorrect on the contrary i I con-trary it is in the opposite direction 1 being refining and educating virtue r ever being taught and applauded 1 I and vice frowned upon and punished z jl pun-ished Only in one way does the 1 t theatre hurt the church aiemler 1 k j and then only through a superstition I s I supersti-tion or false idea of life To enjoy t 4 i j f oneself to laugh and be merry to J 1 i be pleased in body or mind q I was wicked in the estimation 1l J of the last and previous H P1tJ t I generations to indulge in anything I 1 II fl 4 frivolous is sinful in the minds of j f i l the puritanical and for these the nay ia wicked and the theatre Ie WtLik j the house of Satan They should < not witness the drama nor ought they to listen t0 music other than that which is ground out on a doleful dole-ful organ on Sunday But people who have outgrown silly superstition supersti-tion and who do not believe the highest purpose of life is to dwarf and punish mind and body can go to the theatre and witness even the broadest of farces with good effect the pastime not only cheers and stimulates them but if they are blessed with normal natures it will improve them mentally and physically physi-cally quite as much as would the effort to keep awake in church during dur-ing the effort of the minister to spread a solitary and perhaps ancient an-cient idea through an hours discourse dis-course |