anything about this society, but surely there is nothing out of harmony
with Christianity in these professions, and I am glad to find here an
alliance between the two greatest factors in the development of Western
thought and culture--the church and the theater. The newspaper article
to which I have referred was describing the "old morality play,
Everyman" which had been performed in the church. The visitor who was
somewhat critical, and apparently unused to seeing the theater in a
church, wrote of the performance thus: "Both the music and the dressing
of the play were perfect, and from the moment that Death entered clad
in blue stuff with immense blue wings upon his shoulders, and the trump
in his hand, and stopped Everyman, a gorgeous figure in crimson robes
and jewelled turban, with the question, 'Who goes so gaily by?' the
play was performed with an impressiveness that never faltered.

"The heaviest burden, of course, falls on Everyman, and the artist who
played this part seemed to me, though I am no dramatic critic, to have
caught the atmosphere and the spirit of the play. His performance,
indeed, was very wonderful from the moment when he offers Death a
thousand boons if only the dread summons may be delayed, to that final
tense scene, when, stripped of his outer robe, he says his closing
prayers, hesitates for a moment to turn back, though the dread angel is
there by his side, and then follows the beckoning hand of Good Deeds, a
figure splendidly robed in flowing draperies of crimson and with a
wonderfully expressive mobile face.

"At the conclusion of the play Dr. Stanton Colt addressed a few words
to the enthusiastic audience, 'Forsake thy pride, for it will profit
thee nothing,' he quoted, 'If we could but remember this more carefully
and also the fact that nothing save our good deeds shall ever go with
us into that other World, surely it would help us to a holier and
better life. Earthly things have their place and should have a due
regard paid to them, but we must not forget the jewel of our souls.'"

I have, of course, heard of the "Passion Play" at Oberammergau in
Germany where the life of Jesus Christ is periodically represented on
the stage, but I say nothing about this, for, so far as I know, it is
not performed in America, and I have not seen it; but I may note in
passing that in China theaters are generally associated with the gods
in the temples, and that the moral the play is meant to teach is