Show ON ever since the time when the early mystery plays gave place to the elizabethan drama that roust live forever with our language the whole tendency of public and players alike has been to deprecate that which might be called the scriptural drama that la to eay the sort of drama that introduced upon the stage cither biblical stories or characters V one than the rest has proposed to tell upon the stage one or other of the scriptural stories that are eo full of tragedy and of the lespona of life as it Is lived throughout the ages but either censorship or the weight ot public or private opinion generally tha latter in full forc ehas been thrown into tho balance and actual presentments of the eternal biblical stories have been aban boned or suppressed true that all dramatists have given us these stories in the abstract these stories in their and essentials but with characters and surroundings that could in no sense recall those so familiar in holy writ and yet many a thoughtful man has advanced the argument that as the stage when put 0 o ita proper uses la undoubtedly a teacher of the utmost value there could not be any ot incongruity or irreverence in at t BC orla of drama tb wool world ba aen a en how mere party ot Bv arlan pewits have in tho Patt loo fifty exacted at held generations of visitors intellectual tel obea in the maln well bound by their presentment of personalities jact sacred in the worl di history amt to alm parloa play thae one fawn yn orally of aba religion the ta la la pur hi the st of the crow by wll lawit at UK inception UK brt few lt advised to desist it would never be tolerated he asis told A success in i one town did not change hs critics opinion they prophesied failure in the next town when the play was successful in america they prophesied failure la england dut the sign of the cross was a brilliant success so la another religious play ben hur many have flocked to these plays who would otherwise never have entered a theater they have drawn stage and church closer together and have all but burled the old antagonism between them it Is plain therefore that the religious drama has come to stay that it will do good no one can doubt it is in tact to be hoped that not only will it benefit the public who hear religions plays but that it will benefit the stage as a whole crowding out the degenerate sex problem play of the present hour and forming a standard for a higher form of popular drama |