While Baptist newspapers of the Confederacy devote much space to war news throughout the conflict, they do not neglect Bible commentary, advice pieces, moral lessons, and warnings against sin. In this week’s Baptist press, one paper warns against the worst of amusements: drama.
All great amusements are dangerous for the Christian life; but among all those that the world has invented, there is none more feared than the drama. It is a representation of the passions, so delicate and so natural, that it rouses them in the heart; and the more innocent they are made to appear to innocent minds, the more they are capable of being moved by them.
Shakespeare might be on Southern Baptists’ prohibited list, but the war itself–no small drama–provides ample fodder for the lessons of life at large, one of which is offered this week:
There is a much more universal, religious and solemn draft, in progess among our readers, than that which seeks to create an army for the defence of the country.
Foregoing proclamations do not fix the date of this draft. It calls for both sexes alike. Every age answers, and must answer to the summons. Pleas of exemption are unknown. No substitutes can take our places. The separation from home, friends, business, pleasure, is not limited to a term of years, but endures until “the earth shall be no more.”
It is the draft of death.
Are you ready for the inexorable call to the dreadful rendezvous–the grave? Oh, if it should come to-day.
Sources: “The Drama” and “The Inexorable Draft,” Biblical Recorder, April 23, 1862 (link)
