"DAMAGED GOODS"

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3000, 10 February 1917, Page 3

"DAMAGED GOODS"

A SERMON FROM THE STAGE

(Extracts from Sermon preached by the Rev. D. P. Macdonald, in the Mosman (Sydney) Presbyterian Church, on Sunday Evening, November 5, 1916.) The Church has her peculiar and sacred mission received by divine injunction, and if she deliberately departs from it she.ceases from being the mighty moving witness for God in the world, and degenerates into a mere organisation which, however worthy and powerful, has no divine distinctiveness, and finds a thousand counterparts in the sphere of secular and material progress. X give place to no man in ray reverence for tho House of God, and my great joy and pride is in thi) splendid history of the immortal associations and the lofty standards and dignity of our Presbyterian pulpit. We shall ever protest against the men of the Christian ministry assuming the role of mere censors of morals or literature. Mien the devout patriot Neheniiah was restoring tho walls of Jerusalem and enemies attempted to beguile him, he retorted: "I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down: why should tho work cease, whilst I leave it and come down to you?" And we believe that for the Church there is no greater apostasy than wanton neglect of her great spiritual mission in the world and undue attention to purely secular matters. At tho same time it was never intended that the Church should blindly and stupidly ignore the manifest forces and prevailing conditions which hedge and influence her peculiar domain. Her mission involves the spiritual education of humankind, and, in pursuit of this, she attempts to guide the moral senfee and inculcate the love of things true and pure and preach tho doctrines revealed in the Teachings and Life of her Divine Lord. Tho standards aimed at are' those involved in the perfect purity and unselfishness of Our Lord Jesus Christ. On every hand we have to deal with the grim fact of evil and the tragedies of sin and selfishness. Therefore, we must gratefully commend those who expose iniquity and 111 denouncing it preach a moral wisdom which recognises that selfishness is the supremest tragedy and the greatest deterrent factor in our human existence. _ And in the dramatic version of the piece of literature now under review, this is precisely what is being dono m the city of Sydney at the present day by the theatre. Many religious people violently condemn the theatre, aud, while holding do brief for the theatre and recognising that in the majority of cases they are of little educational advantage, I remember that* the theatre, like the Parliament, or the Press, is mainly a reflex of tho publio taste and desire, and naturally all these institutions represent tho public mind and will.. Unfortunatelf with many theatre is possessed of ? T>ad name." This shows how hard it is to live down a bad name, and how that, unfortunately, good people don't seem- to make it easier. Jn Shakespeare s century the theatres in England deservedly had a bnd name; according to an authority they were "veritable sinks Jf iniquity where tho public were catered for at a nenny a head, and witnessed gross and licentious exhibitions.". The personal character of many great actors and actresses and tho fine literature of the intervening centuries have done much to Redeem that early reputation, until now the theatre has adopted a new .temper, and by the artistic and accurato rendition of the facts of life and the themes of literature supplies a demand which will ever be made by social beings. , The author of this particular nlay, Damaged Goods," is a literateur of nigh merit; he is a member of that exclusive body—the French Academy. In his profession bo is a true artist, and has the faculty not only of recognising the essential facts and the pivotal circumstances of our social life, but also of interpreting and recording them in such a unique manner that whilst one may be distressed at the revelations lie .is impressed with the absolute sincerity -•and accuracy of-the interpretation.-When-I accepted the invitation of the company producing this play-to witness "its" per-' formance, I must confess that from my acquaintance with 11. Brietix's plays I did not think this one would lend itself to public dramatisation. I am now convinced that the producers and the .company comprising .the cast of characters are to be heartily commended for their courage and enterprise, and for the accuracy and artistic ability with which it was interpreted. One careless mistake or one touch of crudity would have been disastrous. The community is under a debt to those members of tho company who, more than others, were called upon to assume necessarily painful roles. "In one sense the whole play is physiological lecture, in another it is a mirror in which is reflected the moral, qi* immoral, state of any great city. It is,' as most Know by this time, a protest against the prevalence and spread of a significant disease which is far more common than tho average layman knows. In addition, it is a powerful indictment against ignorance. In my opinion it, as a whole represents the finest piece of propaganda work directed against social evils which has ytfc challenged public attention, and it suggests a way by which the medical iaculty of our university could decide and direct that the Legislature' of the country take stern and obviously necessary steps to effectively cope with this great problem. I recommend this play not to the curious, or those 'fashionably interested/ but to the seriously minded aI ?S th°so who need to be acquainted with the terrible fact and nature of' 'Jit 0 i? 0 !?' ev^s -. I particularly tuat all the men in our training camps and our splendid Australian soldiers could witness this play." We have conceded the great necessity of laying emphasis upon tile state of public morality as well as tho physical tacts and consequences of wrong-iloing, whether from ignorance or selfishness, but tliere is a far greater emphasis to be laid -upon facts thereby revealed with' \?*ii Christian Church is more vitally interested and directly challenged. They are the facts of tho blunting and perversion of the moral sense and tho non-prevalence of Christian ideals. Then there is the realisation which some complacent people fail to realise-the fact ttiat term such as "moral evil" and "sad SMial conditions" involve the fact of sin, and that grim fact cannot be disguised. And again there must bo a complete break away from terminology and generalities; there is the individual sinner to be considered in the light of our belief m the immortality of the sou . There is something more than tho healing of disease needed, there must be the apnhcation of the spiritual force which makes for psychic strength and education, (ho Divine plan through the ages is.the ultimate redemption of mankind from sin. The Divine Son of God is our Redeemer, and the Gospel we must constantly preach is that forgiveness of ' sin and eternal salvation is in and I through Jesus Christ alone. And so mav we work and fight, and rest with our I hope forever fixed in the Divine love.