294 THE KING’S' BUSINESS and a day have I been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perilsL from my countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in labor and travail, in watching often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.” We had fallen into the way of thinking that the day was past for this kind of suffering, but the events of the past few/ months have awakened us to the fact that if we are loyal to Christ we will find that the time for suffering for Christ is not past. There never was a day when men and women who are willing to be persecuted and lied about and hated and stoned for Christ’s sake, men and women who are willing to hunger and thirst and be wearied and sicken and die for Christ’s sake, were more needed than today. But this suffering has its abundant reward, “If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Tim. 2:12); “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). Paul called his afflictions, which were among the heaviest that any man ever bore for Christ;, “light afflictions,’’ and said further, “Our light -affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and, eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17). When, in the world to come, we see the glory that has come to us from the suffering that we have endured in this present life for and with Christ, we will not regret that we suffered so much, but that we suffered so little for him. has naturally stirred up the theatrical profession and they have objected to what they call the “loose employment of stich phrases.” Mr. H. B. Irving, the well known English actor, has especially attempted to take the Bishop to task for his utterances. He says that such plays as the Bishop describes “ do not pass the censor; and if a play in any way answering to that description has found its way upon the stage, it has been a very rare occurrence and has generally met with the fate it deserved.” It could be wished that Mr. Irving’s statement were true, but those who have studied the stage know very well that plays that well deserved the characterization that the Bishop of London gave them have had a large stlccess from a financial standpoint, and it is well known that there is an increasing tendency in this direction. It is true that the stage has not gone to the appalling extreme in this direction that the movies have, and the moral tone of the stage, as far as the plays are concerned, has been far higher than that of the movies, but there has been much produced on the stage that is altogether deplorable. Mr. Irving says, “In point of actual decency the English stage always has been, and is, the most decent in the world.” We are inclined to think that this statement of Mr. Irving’s is true, but that is not saying much. While the English stage may be “the most decent in the world” there has certainly been vast room for improvement. Mr. Irving 'goes on to ask church people to deal more kindly with the theatre and to recognize its necessary place in life and help to realize its highest ideal. This suggestion has nothing to it. For a generation, perhaps for many generations, The Bishop of London has shown his fearlessness time and time again. Recently he has done this in a cour- ageous attack upon the stage, speaking of the demoral izing influence of “lecherous and slimy plays.” This Morality of the Modem Theatre.
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