ent there was one of the shortest days in my memory. Sermons
not an hour long have sometimes seemed longer than this entire day. A
strange silence was everywhere. There was no gaiety such as one sees at
a theater. There was no applause, no laughter. Criticise it if you will,
condemn it if you like, yet the fact remains that it is the greatest
object lesson of the ages. It would be hard for any man to see it and
not come away with a more tender heart and a better appreciation of the
world's Redeemer. The late William T. Stead truly called this play "The
Story That Has Transformed the World."

No other story so fills and thrills the soul. I saw non-Christian men
sit trembling with emotion and great tears rolling down their faces.
Sometimes one's indignation was so aroused that it was hard to sit
still. At other times the fountains of the great deep were broken up and
one's heart would nearly burst. On this particular day every one of the
four thousand seats were taken and five hundred people stood up from
morning until evening. It is as impossible to describe the Passion Play
as it is to describe a song. It is real life before your eyes. I have
never yet seen pictures of it that did not make me heart-sick, for it is
impossible to give a true picture of it on the screen.

On years when the play is given it generally begins about the middle of
May and closes the last of September. They give it regularly on Sunday
and Wednesday of each week during this time. During the busy season it
is often repeated for the overflow on Monday and Thursday and
occasionally on Friday. Tickets for the regular play are generally sold
out beforehand but as usual a great many reach the place without tickets
and have to be accommodated in this way.

All the years the highest ambition of the boys and girls in the village
is to so live that they will be chosen for some prominent part in the
play. No one can be chosen unless born in the village and this confines
it to the village. No one is chosen for a prominent part if there is
anything against his character and that places a premium on right
living. Hence one can easily see their reason for hating war with all
their power. While narrow in their peculiar religious ideas, no doubt,
yet a more consecrated and devoted class of people are perhaps not found
in another village on earth.

All told there are nearly a thousand people who are connected in some
way with the play and as the population of t