Appendix 8
Youth Instructor
October
9, 1902
Education
is but a preparation of the physical, intellectual, and spiritual powers for
the best performance of all the duties of life. The powers of endurance, and
the strength and activity of the brain, are lessened or increased by the way
in which they are employed. The mind should be so disciplined that all its
powers will be symmetrically developed.
Many
youth are eager for books [and dramas]. They desire to read [view] everything
that they can obtain. Let them take heed what they read [view] as well
as what they hear. I have been instructed that they are in the greatest danger
of being corrupted by improper reading [viewing]. Satan has a thousand
ways of unsettling the minds of youth. They can not safely be off guard for a
moment. They must set a watch upon their minds, that they may not be allured
by the enemy's temptations.
Satan
knows that to a great degree the mind is affected by that upon which it feeds.
He is seeking to lead both the youth and those of mature age to read [view]
story‑books, tales, and other literature [movies, movies, movies].
The readers [viewers] of such literature [drama] become unfitted
for the duties lying before them. They live an unreal life, and have no desire
to search the Scriptures, to feed upon the heavenly manna. The mind that needs
strengthening is enfeebled, and loses its power to study the great truths that
relate to the mission and work of Christ, —truths that would fortify the
mind, awaken the imagination, and kindle a strong, earnest desire to overcome
as Christ overcame.
Could
a large share of the books [drama] published [produced] be
consumed, a plague would be stayed that is doing a fearful work upon mind and
heart. Love stories, frivolous and exciting tales, and even that class of
books [movies] called religious novels [movies], —books
[movies] in which the author [producer] attaches to his story [movie]
a moral lesson, —are a curse to the readers. Religious sentiments may be
woven all through a storybook [movie], but, in most cases, Satan is but
clothed in angel‑robes, the more effectively to deceive and allure. None
are so confirmed in right principles, none so secure from temptation, that
they are safe in reading [viewing] these stories [movies].
The
readers [viewers] of fiction [drama] are indulging an evil that
destroys spirituality, eclipsing the beauty of the sacred page. It creates an
unhealthy excitement fevers the imagination, unfits the mind for usefulness,
weans the soul from prayer, and disqualifies it for any spiritual exercise.
God has endowed many of our youth with superior capabilities; but too often
they have enervated their powers, confused and enfeebled their minds, so that
for years they have made no growth in grace or in a knowledge of the reasons
of our faith, because of their unwise choice of reading. Those who are looking
for the Lord soon to come, looking for that wondrous change, when "this
corruptible shall put on incorruption," should in this probationary time
be standing upon a higher plane of action.
My
dear young friends, question your own experience as to the influence of
exciting stories [movies]. Can you, after such reading [viewing],
open the Bible and read with interest the words of life? Do you not find the
Book of God uninteresting? The charm of that love story [movie] is upon
the mind, destroying its healthy tone, and making it impossible for you to fix
the attention upon the important, solemn truths that concern your eternal
welfare.
The
nature of one's religious experience is revealed by the character of the books [movies]
he chooses to read [view] in his leisure moments. In order to have a
healthy tone of mind and sound religious principles, the youth must live in
communion with God through his word. Pointing out the way of salvation through
Christ, the Bible is our guide to a higher, better life. It contains the most
interesting and the most instructive history and biography that were ever
written. Those whose imagination has not become perverted by the reading of
fiction will find the Bible the most interesting of books.
Resolutely
discard all trashy reading [movie viewing]. It will not strengthen your
spirituality, but will introduce into the mind sentiments that pervert the
imagination, causing you to think less of Jesus and to dwell less upon his
precious lessons. Keep the mind free from everything that would lead it in a
wrong direction. Do not encumber it with trashy stories [movies], which
impart no strength to the mental powers. The thoughts are of the same character
as the food provided for the mind.
The
Bible is the book of books. If you love the word of God, searching it as you
have opportunity, that you may come into possession of its rich treasures, and
be thoroughly furnished unto all good works, then you may be assured that Jesus
is drawing you to himself. But to read the Scripture in a casual way, without
seeking to comprehend Christ's lesson that you may comply with his requirements,
is not enough. There are treasures in the word of God that can be discovered
only by sinking the shaft deep into the mine of truth.
The
carnal mind rejects the truth; but the soul that is converted undergoes a
marvelous change. The book that before was unattractive because it revealed
truths which testified against the sinner, now becomes the food of the soul, the
joy and consolation of the life. The Sun of righteousness illuminates the sacred
pages, and the Holy Spirit speaks through them to the soul. To those who love
Christ the Bible is as the garden of God. Its promises are as grateful to the
heart as the fragrance of flowers is to the senses.
Let
all who have cultivated a love for light reading [movie viewing], now
turn their attention to the sure word of prophecy. Take your Bibles, and begin
to study with fresh interest the sacred records of the Old and New Testaments.
The oftener and more diligently you study the Bible, the more beautiful will it
appear, and the less relish you will have for light reading [movie viewing].
Bind this precious volume to your hearts. It will be to you a friend and guide.
—Mrs. E. G. White.
(Emphasis supplied.)
Appendix 9
Moral
and Spiritual Standards — No. 5
A
Warning Against Moving-Picture and Other Theaters
by
F. M. Wilcox
(Review
and Herald, February 11, 1926)
By
every means in his power, Satan is endeavoring to turn the inhabitants of
earth away from God. His wiles are varied, his snares are manifold. He cares
not what means he employs so long as it accomplishes his deadly purpose. The
strife for supremacy, the love of social life and position, the lure of gold,
the struggle for competence, the ambition for education, the appeal of
pleasure,—these and many other means are employed by the great deceiver to
lead men to forget God, and permit their time and energy to become so
engrossed and enthralled as to lead to their final destruction at last.
Against
some of these great evils the Autumn Council, held recently in Des Moines,
Iowa, sounded definite warning to our brethren and sisters. The following
resolution was passed regarding moving pictures and commercialized amusements:
Recognizing
the need of lifting up a standard against every influence that threatens the
life and well-being of the church; and,
Whereas,
The moving-picture or other theaters are becoming more and more a menace to
morality and destructive of spirituality, in many cases leading to a false and
lowered standard of life; therefore,
Resolved,
That this Council declares its emphatic disapproval of attending
moving-picture theaters and other questionable places of amusement, and calls
upon our workers, church officers, and lay members, young and old, to refrain
from this evil practice.
Realizing
that we are living in the last days, when men are “lovers of pleasures more
than lovers of God,”
Resolved,
That we warn our people against the spirit of this pleasure-loving age, and
the commercialized amusements so prevalent.
We
call the attention of our readers to the report of a sermon by Elder M. E.
Kern in this number of the Review.
This sermon was delivered before the students of the Washington Missionary
College and the nurses of the Washington Sanitarium at a recent Sabbath
morning service.
Brother
Kern deals specifically with the character of the moving-picture theater, and
the great influence which this form of amusement exerts in the world. It is
not necessary to reiterate his statements in this article. We are in hearty
accord with his conclusions, and we commend the reading of his sermon to old
and young.
Sad
it is that there needs to be sounded in the columns of our church paper a
warning against these great evils. And yet we must believe, from the letters
which come to us from different parts of the field, that there are a number of
our dear brethren and sisters who are succumbing to these unholy influences.
Unfortunately, those thus affected do not belong alone to the younger class of
our church membership. Some of our older brethren and sisters have so lost out
of their hearts the true spirit of this message, have so lost out of their
lives the consciousness of Christ’s presence, that they have become
frequenters of these questionable places of amusement. And still more sad is
it to learn that occasionally there is found a Seventh-day Adventist preacher
who belongs to the class who frequent the movies.
Upon
the leadership of this denomination is thrown a great responsibility, whether
that leadership is represented in the work of the minister, of the teachers in
our schools, of the physicians in our sanitariums, of the managers in our
publishing houses, or of the local officers of the church. Heaven holds us
responsible as leaders of the people for what we do, not only for its effect
upon our own lives, but for the influence it exerts upon others. Those who stand
in the place of leaders must watch for souls as they who must give account in
the day of final judgment. There is danger that we as leaders in the church of
Christ will fail to distinguish between the holy and the profane. There is
danger that the lowering standards of the world around us will becloud our
vision, so that we shall not see clearly, and we shall be led to judge questions
of vital importance after the standard of the world and not after the standard
of God.
We
were impressed with this some time ago by a question raised by one of our
workers. He inquired if we felt today that we should hold the same standards
regarding social life, amusements, etc., that were recognized before the War, or
twenty-five or thirty years ago. He expressed the opinion that in his judgment
standards had changed, that we were living in a new world, and that we must
relate ourselves differently to those questions than did our fathers, that the
Seventh-day Adventist Church, the same as some of the great churches of the
world, must place a more liberal construction upon these questions.
This
is the line of reasoning in which thousands of the great Christian world have
indulged, and we know the demoralizing fruit which such reasoning has borne.
Little by little the great churches of the world have been drawn away from their
old-time standards of simplicity, of Christian belief, and of Christian living.
We
said to this brother, God has not changed. Moral principles have not changed;
and in all questions of social life, in our relations to the pleasures of the
world in which moral principle is involved, in which the formation of character
is the product, we must recognize the same standards today that we did ten years
ago or fifty years ago. By the same principles of truth and purity and
righteousness by which our fathers were judged, we shall be judged.
God
has one standard for every age. If the friendship of the world was enmity with
God in the days of the apostle Paul, that same friendship is at enmity with God
today. If to be the friend of the world was to be the enemy of God ten years
ago, or one hundred years ago, or two thousand years ago, to be the friend of
the world is to be the enemy of God today.
Too
many of the leaders of this church have ignored the honey-combing process which
has been going on, and the influence which the pleasures of the world have been
exerting upon the church members. It is time for us to lift our voices in
protest. It is time for us to call the members of the Seventh-day Adventist
Church, young and old, to a higher standard in Christ Jesus. It is time for
every Seventh-day Adventist minister, for every teacher in our schools, for
every leader in our institutions, to take his stand firmly but kindly against
these influences which would draw away those under his care from the principles
of truth and righteousness.
Much
might be said on this question, but we refrain from further discussion at this
time. We again call attention to the principles set forth in the published
sermon of Professor Kern. A little later, in an early issue, we will give the
report of a sermon by Elder Meade MacGuire, entitled, “Christ and the
Heart,” in which he deals with some of the great principles underlying this
question of amusements. The instruction he gives is complementary to that given
by Brother Kern, and the two sermons should be studied together. May God bless
their perusal to the edification of every reader.
Appendix 10
The
Joy of the Lord Versus Worldly Amusements
by M. E. Kern
(Review
and Herald, February 11, 1926)
The Theater
One
of the most prevalent forms of commercialized amusement today is the theater.
Through the invention of the moving-picture projection, theatrical
performances have been made available to all the little towns as well as the
large cities. The promoters of the silent drama boast of its being the fourth
industry in America, and that nearly one fifth of all the people witness these
performances every day. Well may educators and religious and welfare workers
look with concern upon an institution which is wielding so wide an influence,
especially when we think of what a large proportion of the patrons are
children and youth.
What
are the tests which a Christian must apply to any form of entertainment which
challenges his patronage?
In
the first place, it is a safe thing, always, for a Christian, never to engage
in any form of amusement which links him with an evil institution. Take, for
instance, the card table. It is a world-wide evil institution. I have seen it
on the great highways of travel in “Christian” Europe, in the far-away
island of Borneo, and in central China. It is the same everywhere. It is the
gambler’s instrument. It has the background of dishonesty, has been stained
by many murderous brawls, and has left a trail of wrecked characters
everywhere. A pack of cards is suggestive of a foul institution which has
cursed mankind. Likewise the dance has become a worldwide institution of evil.
The public dance hall is recognized by all proponents of race betterment as a
degrading institution.
What
of the theater? For over twenty-four centuries it has been in existence. What
is its record? The testimony of history is that the theater has always been a
menace to morals. “The great classic writers, Plato, and Aristotle, and
Ovid, and Juvenal, and Tacitus, and others, wrote strongly against it,—not
merely against its incidental evils and abuses, but against its influence and
tendency as an institution.” Solon, the great lawmaker of Greece, denounced
the profession as “tending by its simulation of false character, and by its
expression of sentiment not genuine or sincere, to corrupt the integrity of
human dealings.” The historian Schaff says that the Roman theater became the
“nursery of vice,” and Macaulay tells us that from the time the theaters
were opened in England they became “seminaries of vice.”
There
may be some moral plays and some moral actors, but there isn’t a moral
theater in the world. Edwin Booth tried to establish a moral theater before
whose footlights there should be no spectacular obscenity. It went into
bankruptcy, paying only five cents on the dollar. Henry Irving tried the same
thing, but the managers had to change its program to keep it from financial
failure.
The
movie is the modern theater for the masses, and it has all the faults of its
predecessors, and more. A writer quoted in the Literary Digest of May
14, 1921, in an article on “The Nation-Wide Battle Over Movie
Purification,” said:
We
do not know that the morals of the movies are any worse than the morals of the
stage. But mischievous movies do more harm, for they reach more people, and
especially more children who are impressionable and imitative.
In
the second place, the theater presents extreme and false ideas of life. Human
life is presented in its very worst aspects, its most degrading experiences.
The chief themes of the theater now, as ever, are the baser passions of
men,—anger leading to madness, ambition, jealousy; hatred leading to murder;
and lust leading to adultery and broken lives.
Such
improper presentations of life cannot but have their baleful effect on the
spectators. While an effort is sometimes made to show the retribution that
comes from an evil course, it is more often that “a life of license is
pictured as a life of liberty and joy.” Looseness in morals is made to seem
“not so bad,” even permissible, “under certain conditions.” The awful
remorse and lifelong suffering that comes to the individual and to others as a
result of transgression, is usually hidden from view. The sacred truths about
life, truths that noble men and women have died to maintain, are slyly
slandered; and the people, especially young people, become confused in their
thinking.
Mrs.
Ellen O’Grady, formerly New York City deputy police commissioner, told the
New York legislators in a hearing on a proposed motion-picture regulation law:
I
know from my own experience that the greater part of juvenile delinquency is
due to the evil influence of motion pictures. I could cite you case after case
of boys and girls gone wrong because of films.
As
another says:
By
sly hints and cunning innuendoes the imagination is inflamed and evil thoughts
are awakened. There is scarcely an incident, however debasing, that may not be
learned at the theater, making it a university of vice and immorality for the
youthful mind.
The
universal appeal of the movie is the amorous relations of men and women. The
actors realize the effectiveness of this appeal, and have taken pains to have
the sex thrill prominent in their productions. This appeal is an impulse that
needs no stimulation, an impulse, sad to say, which in many is not under the
control of reason. The mind is inflamed by these vividly suggestive pictures,
and an immoral life is often the result.
During
the World War there was a young woman from a neighboring State who roomed at
our home, having patriotically come to Washington to do her bit. She thought,
of course, that she should visit some of the theaters of the nation’s
capital while here. But she expressed her disgust to my wife that practically
every play she had witnessed, had bedroom scenes. She had not seemed to
realize before the low standards of this popular form of entertainment. Some
time ago a Jewish rabbi and a Christian preacher cried out against the
“products of moral leprosy” being exhibited on the stages of New York,
against plays which were “the vulgar incarnation of impurity, spun about a
display of hosiery and underwear.” A defender of the theater who took up the
challenge, said:
We
have no great sympathy with the cry for a clean stage. For our part we would
rather see a little more dirt and grime and sweat in our palsy of today. If a
choice must be made between license in the theater and Puritan repression, we
say bring on the beds in battalions.
Let
me ask you, dear Christian friends, is it ever right to laugh at sin? Is it
right to go to a place dedicated to folly, and sit and be amused at the
portrayal of that evil principle which turned this world into the valley and
shadow of death, brought the Son of God from the skies, and sent Him to
Gethsemane and the cross? Did you ever go to the movies and not laugh at sin?
But
I hear some one saying, “There are good movies.” Are you sure? There may
be some good mixed with the bad. It is the devil’s plan to mix some good
with the evil to catch the unwary feet of those to whom the impulse for good
still has an appeal. But my investigations lead me to agree with Dr. Hall,
that in every moving-picture performance there is some ignoble suggestion. I
have asked many who go if this is true, and have never received a negative
answer.
The
Sunday School Times told of a minister who was deeply troubled about
the low spiritual condition of his church. He suspected the theater as one
cause. One stormy night (a night which would have spelt disaster to a prayer
meeting) he ventured out to investigate. He went to a theater where
“Salome” was being shown,— “a gruesome, degenerate, ghastly, obscene
portrayal of the Bible story of Herod and John the Baptist.” He found the
house crowded, and two hundred of his most prominent people there. He stayed
through the entire horrible presentation of that travesty of the Bible story.
When he went out at midnight, he met many of his members in the gorgeous
lobby, who looked astounded to see their pastor there. He had found one
difficulty. As he paced his study the remainder of the night, it was borne in
upon him that so long as professed Christians supported by their money and
their presence such presentations as “Salome,” the Holy Spirit could not
reach the hearts and lives of a people who stultified all their finer
feelings, and deadened their spiritual nerves by beholding such things. Was he
right?
But
I have had Seventh-day Adventists tell me that “The Ten Commandments” is a
fine play, and that I ought to see it. And yet they admitted that the scene of
revelry around the golden calf was depicted in all its vivid reality. God
called upon His people to execute the perpetrators of that horrible orgy, yet
we pay men and women to re-enact it for our pleasure.
In
Psalm 5:4 we read: “Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness:
evil shall not sojourn with Thee.” In Proverbs 14:9 we read that “fools
make a mock at sin;” and in Ecclesiastes 5:4 it says that God “hath no
pleasure in fools.” Then those who go to the theater, enjoy that in which
God takes no pleasure. In the 33rd chapter of Isaiah the question is asked,
Who shall be saved? The answer in verse 15 is: He that “stoppeth his ears
from hearing of blood.” That eliminates the spoken drama, for tragedy is the
common theme. Also, he that “shutteth his eyes from looking upon evil.”
That eliminates the silent drama, does it not? When you go to the movie house,
do you shut your eyes from looking upon evil?
It
seems to me, dear friends, that our only safe course is to “enter not into
the path of the wicked, and walk not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass
not by it; turn from it, and pass on.” Prov. 4:14, 15. And we should pray,
“Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity.” Ps. 119:37.
Last
of all, allow me to call your attention to the fact that the actor’s
profession is unnatural and radically wrong. It is an unworthy profession.
Solon’s condemnation was right:
The
very terms “hypocrisy” and “playing a part on the stage” are identical
in their earlier significance. “Hypocrite” is, in both its Greek and Latin
forms, a designation of an actor in the theater.
There
is something about this whole business of the presentation of the unreal that
leads to wrong.
While
there are, perhaps, exceptions to all rules, it is a well-known fact that
theatrical actors as a class are unworthy characters. It cannot be otherwise.
As a theatrical critic of the London Press said several years ago:
Stage
life, according to my experience, has a tendency to deaden the finer feelings,
to crush the inner nature of men and women, and to substitute artificiality
and hollowness for sincerity and truth; and, mind you, I speak from an
intimate experience of the stage, extending over thirty-seven years.
Dr.
Charles Blanchard, president of Wheaton College, asks these pertinent
questions:
Is
it possible for a man to play, for five years in twenty-five dramas, that he
is the husband of twenty-five or thirty different women, without suffering
spiritual harm? Is it possible for a woman to play that she has been seduced
and become an outcast, without being morally injured? Is it possible for a
woman who is married to play that she is married to other persons than her
husband, and to act the situation as vividly as possible, so as to awaken the
interest and applause of the audience, without harm? Is it possible for a man
to play that he is a murderer or a thief, without being injured in character?
And is it possible for people to look on while men and women are playing these
things, without themselves being injured?
Any
one who knows human nature can answer these questions but one way, “It is
not possible.” A man who followed the theatrical business for several years
before he became an Adventist, told me that it is next to impossible for one
who follows this profession to keep himself pure. The theatrical business
seems to degrade its promoters; and remember that “what cannot be done
without a tendency to moral harm, cannot be seen without a tendency to
moral harm.
Exhortation
My
sympathy goes out to any, especially the young, who have become infatuated
with the movies. I know too, that in many cases it will be impossible to break
the habit without divine aid. But you, dear friend, stop and think! You were
drawn into the movies without thinking, perhaps. But now, think the thing
through in the light of the facts given and the principles laid down.
Intellectual vagueness is one of the chief dangers in any form of temptation.
When
you return from the movie, do you feel like having a time of sweet communion
with God? A little boy, returning home from his first show, was not so far
wrong when he told his mother that if she would go to one show, she would
never want to go to another prayer meeting. Has attendance at the theater made
you more or less zealous in missionary endeavor? Would you care to be found in
a theater when Jesus comes?
There
was a theater in Jerusalem in the days of Jesus. Do you think Jesus or His
disciples attended it? When Herod introduced this theater, it was denounced by
Josephus, a Jewish writer, as a corrupter of morals. You cannot imagine Jesus
patronizing it, can you? Can you imagine Him attending movies if He were on
earth today? If Jesus would not, should you? Let me call your attention to
that wonderful statement of the union with Christ which is possible, found in
“The Desire of Ages,” page 668:
If
we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend
our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we
shall be but carrying out our own impulses.
Surely
the chief pleasures of people of the advent movement will be in contemplation
of their eternal home, in association together for the advancement of His
work, and in soul-winning activities. The Sunday School Times was right
when it said:
Let
this be remembered: the more wholly yielded to the mastery of the Lord Jesus
Christ the members of any church are, and the more they find in prayer their
chief method, and in evangelism their chief mission, the less they will need
to provide or even think about “entertainments.” This has been proved over
and over again, among young people as well as among older.
In
regard to the theater, my conclusion, in the words of the spirit of prophecy, is
this:
Among
the most dangerous resorts for pleasure is the theater. Instead of being a
school for morality and virtue, as is so often claimed, it is the very hotbed of
immorality. Vicious habits and sinful propensities are strengthened and
confirmed by these entertainments. Low songs, lewd gestures, expressions, and
attitudes, deprave the imagination and debase the morals. Every youth who
habitually attends such exhibitions will be corrupted in principle. There is no
influence in our land more powerful to poison the imagination, to destroy
religious impressions, and to blunt the relish for the tranquil pleasures and
sober realities of life, than theatrical amusements. The love for these scenes
increases with every indulgence, as the desires for intoxicating drink
strengthens with its use. The only safe course is to shun the theater, the
circus, and every other questionable place of amusement. —Counsels to
Teachers, pp. 334, 335.
I
close as I began, with this thought,—that the joy of the Lord is the true
antidote for all worldly amusements. We read in the old myths that there were
sirens who sang men to death, but died themselves if they failed. It is said
that when the Argonauts passed them, Jason ordered Orpheus to strike his lyre.
The enchantment of his singing and music was superior to theirs, and the
Argonauts sailed safely by. Then the sirens cast themselves into the sea, and
were transformed into rocks.
We
cannot make the sirens of worldly pleasure fail, unless we carry with us a charm
greater than theirs. Joy must conquer joy, and music must conquer music. The
child of God must have a music in his own soul far sweeter than any siren song
of this delusive world.
Appendix 11
The
Dangers of the Religious Drama
by
J. E. Fulton
(Review
and Herald, December 6, 1928)
On
the Oakland camp ground recently, after the presentation of the dangers to
young and old of attendance at moving picture shows, including Bible
characters pictured on the screen, a young woman told me a story I wish every
Seventh-day Adventist could hear. I was a stranger to this sister, but she was
impressed by the sermon, and came to me to assure me that I was right in the
stand I had taken. She said, as nearly as I can remember:
As
a child I tried to follow the Lord, but was induced by older friends to attend
a moving picture which seemed to be right, as it was of a highly religious
character. But the wonderful attractiveness of the theater and the lure of the
institution swept me off my feet, and I lost my love for God. Then for ten
years I gave myself up to the business of the moving picture theater. Now I
have found my way back, and I want to say that what you said is all too true,
and there certainly should be warnings sent out to the young and old to keep
away from all movies, including the religious drama.
There
is much in theatrical plays and especially in religious dramas, which appears
to be harmless and even good. But is it not deception under the garb of an
angel of light? The origin of evil in this world is recorded in Genesis 3. The
woman, when she saw the forbidden fruit, and found it pleasant to the eyes and
good for food, and a thing desired to make men wise, yielded. The first sin
ministered to fleshly appetites and selfish pleasure and selfish ambition.
Today men and women are seeking just what Eve was allured into seeking.
Self-improvement is the world’s doctrine, and it sounds very sane and wise.
Many ministers and religious educators are telling the young that what leads
along the path of self-improvement is right and laudable. But it is the
doctrine of devils; for to our first parents the enemy said, “Ye shall be as
gods, knowing good and evil.” As another writer has truthfully said, “The
gospel of self, and particularly of self-improvement, is vigorously
promulgated, not only by the leaders of world movements who make no religious
profession, but even eminent divines!” Improve yourself, strive ever upward
and onward, make something of yourself, rise to your highest possibilities,
get knowledge, “be as gods”!
But
the contradistinction is the gospel of Jesus, which teaches us to “deny
self,” and not to be as gods, but to “become as little children,” and
instead of loving pleasure and the world, to love God and the things of God.
Today so-called disciples of the Master are selling Jesus for pleasure and for
money. The devil is as closely connected with this business as the serpent
with Eve, and for the same purpose,—to win, to seduce, to allure, through
the attractive screen of what is “pleasant to the eyes,” and to lead men
along the lines of culture, but not to Christ.
In
much of the religious drama it is the old tempter at work today; not now in
the garb of a serpent, but dressed as an angel of light. It would seem that he
is now come down with great power to picture Christ. It will not be long till
he will personate Him, claiming that he himself is the Christ, and this will
be the masterpiece of dramatic productions on the life of Christ.
Satan’s Archdrama
Never
can the work of Christ be fully set forth in drama unless miracles are
performed as He wrought them, and the sick are healed. This is a plan of the
archenemy in a future great drama.
Satan
himself is converted, after the modern order of things. He will appear in the
character of an angel of light. Through the agency of Spiritualism, miracles
will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and many undeniable wonders will be
performed. —The Great Controversy, page 599.
As
the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will personate
Christ.¼
In different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself among men as a
majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the description of the Son
of God given by John in the Revelation. —Ibid., p. 624.
A
play on the life of Christ only makes it all the more deceptive. How can we
see men of the world, artists, actors, and often profligate men and women,
personate Christ and Bible scenes, and we consent by our presence and with our
money? It will not exalt Christ, but man, and Christ is crucified afresh by
His professed followers who attend and put Him to an open shame.
But
have not our children and some of our older folk been prepared for attendance
at theatrical plays by the introduction into our churches and Sabbath schools
of plays that are dramatic in character? Let us keep all semblance of this out
of our assemblies. All exhibitions of display of a worldly nature, such as
drama or theatrical performances, should be kept out of all our religious
exercises.
It
was by association with idolaters and joining in their festivities that the
Hebrews were led to transgress God’s law, and bring His judgments upon the
nation. So now it is by leading the followers of Christ to associate with the
ungodly and unite in their amusements, that Satan is most successful in
alluring them into sin. —Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 458.
Such
warnings as these are striking and timely. Let us be instructed. Satan is
playing his game. Shall we who are warned be led astray? We fear there is
danger, and we suggest that church and institutional leaders, and our workers
everywhere, be fully awake to what appears to the writer to be one of the
greatest evils and dangers the church has ever known. Shall any of us stand
idly by while these agencies of the enemy go forward unrebuked, when we know
this form of pleasure is the abetter of pride, the defiler of the soul, the
avenue of lust, and the curse of true religion?
The
Breath of Hell
A
breath of hell’s miasma floats up amid the perfumes of the fashionably
dressed and careless theater goers, and death and destruction is the end. What
will become of these who work all day and play all night? Those who have given
up their midnights to pleasures of sight and late feastings and automobile
rides, are certainly not in the narrow way, but are rushing along the broad
way to death.
The
theater has incurred the disapproval and even the condemnation of the good and
wise of all ages. At its first appearance 500 years before Christ, it received
the censure of God’s people, and also of leaders in the pagan world.
Historians tell us that one cause of the decadence in Greece and Rome was the
madness of the world for shows. The early Christians pledged themselves to
uphold their rulers by any proper service, but they signified their emphatic
disapproval of the popular shows. If at a time when there was far more
simplicity in the world, it was thought so necessary to separate from the
world in its pleasures, what shall be our attitude today? And not only did
Jewish, pagan, and Christian leaders condemn the theater, but even men of the
stage themselves. Macready, a man known throughout the world in theatrical
circles, said as he retired from the stage, “None of my children, with my
consent, under any pretense, shall even enter the theater, nor shall they have
any visiting connection with play actors or actresses.”
An
authority outside our own church ranks speaks as follows:
Never
has there been a generation so much in revolt against their elders. In my
judgment this psychic revolt springs chiefly from the motion films, with some
aid from the automobile. We have a generation sex-excited, self-assertive,
self-confident, and parental-critical. There can be no doubt that the arrival of
overmastering sex desire in the boy’s life has been antedated by at least two
or three years, through stimulation from the films. —Quoted by William
Sheafe Chase, D. D., Superintendent, International Reform Federation.
The Illustration of the Ship
The
Christian, while in the world, is not to be “of the world,” and so the
particular joys of the world are not to be his, for he is to separate from the
world, and to love God and make heavenly things his delight. The writer often
illustrates separation from the world by the ship in the water. A ship is made
to float upon the water. But it is a disastrous thing when water gets into the
ship. It is right enough for the Christian to be in the world, but he will be
sure to make shipwreck when the world gets into him. “They are not of the
world, even as I am not of the world.” John 17:16.
The
movies are the worldly plan and device for the satisfaction and pleasure of
worldly people. It is not a place for the Christian. “Blessed is the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” This scripture forbids the Christian
to seek such associations as are found in the theater. As another has written:
We
doubt not there are many moral and Christian people that attend the theater for
one reason and another, but the larger percent, by far, are loose in morals.
There you find the man who has lost all love for his home, the careless, the
profane, the spendthrift, the drunkard, and the lowest prostitute of the street.
They are found in all parts of the house; they crowd the gallery, and together
shout aloud in the applause greeting that which caricatures religion, sneers at
virtue, or hints at indecency.
That
is the reason we are asked by the Lord not to “stand in the way of sinners”
nor to “sit in the seat of the scornful.” One of the chief avenues through
which sin enters the soul is the eye, and against “the lust of the eyes”
John warns. 1 John 2:16. Thousands are losing their love for God through the
lust of the eyes, and many have thereby lost that priceless jewel, modesty.
In
regard to the lawfulness of going to questionable places of amusement, Dr.
Guthrie gives the following excellent advice:
We
may confidentially say that whatever is found to unfit you for religious duties,
or to interfere with the performance of them, whatever dissipates your mind or
cools the fervor of your devotions, whatever indisposes you to read your Bibles
or to engage in prayer, wherever the thought of a bleeding Saviour or a holy
God, of the hour of death, or of the day of judgment, falls like a cold shadow
on your enjoyment, the pleasures which you cannot thank God for, on which you
cannot ask His blessing, whose recollections will haunt a dying bed, and plant
sharp thorns in its uneasy pillow,—these are not for you. These eschew; in
these be not conformed to the world, but transformed by the renewing of your
minds — “Touch not, taste not, handle not.” Never go where you cannot ask
God to go with you; never be found where you would not like death to find you;
never indulge in any pleasure which will not bear the morning’s reflection.
Keep yourselves unspotted from the world; not from its spots only, but even from
its suspicions.
