THE KING’S BUSINESS
485
The war over the drama between those who are attempting to expose it and^those who are'defending it» waxes hotter and hotter. A little while ago the Bishop of London was the object of violent attack on
Is the Prama Morally Corrupt and Corrupting?
■£, , ' the part of the defenders of the stage. Now it is bather Thomas Burke of the Roman Catholic Church. In the February num- ber of the Theatre Magazine, Father Burke said that there is hardly a play that is free from the atmosphere of sex. To use his own words, “not the legiti mate appeal or office that this strongest of human instincts has in the drama, but the appeal of lust, of the excitement of the merely animal passion.” For this and similar utterances Mr. George Broadhurst, the playwright, takes him severely to task. He says “I claim that not 5 per. cent, of them (that is the plays now running) have ‘the appeal of lust, of the excitement of the merely animal passion.’ ’ In defence of his position Mr. Broadhurst cites a number ot plays. Whatever may be true about the plays to which he refers, it is cer tain that, judging the theatre by the advertisements that they themselves insert in our daily papers and by the inspired press notices of the plays, a very large share of them are appealing for patronage to that which is most deplorable in men, especially young men. Any really moral man or woman can see that the plays are vile or at least the advertisements are intended to make people think that they are vile. Bad as the theatres are, the movies are immeasurably worse. in a word: we should conduct ourselves as Christians. A true Christian should be a Christian at all times. But what is Christian con duct? First of all, we should be calm, absolutely without fear or anxiety. There is no commandment in the word of God more specific or definite than the commandment “In nothing be anxious” (PhiL4:6)., A Christian has no to be anxious under any circumstances. Whatever may come is one of the all things, and we have God’s assurance for it that “all things work together for good to them that love God.” The present war is one of the “all things” m which God has His own purposes of love, and which He will make work together with other things for good to them that love Him. While the war in its ultimate source is undoubtedly of devilish origin, as all war is, nevertheless God has taken even the war into His plan and God is able to “keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed oh” Him, even in the most trying circum stances that can possibly arise in the prosecution pf the war. But a Christian should not only be calm in time of war, he should also be prayerful. Indeed the only way to keep calm is by being prayerful. It is the one who in “every thing by prayer and supplication” makes his requests known unto God who is free from all anxiety (Phil. 4:6). But we should not only be calm and prayer ful in days like these, we should'also be full of love. Love is the one Divine thing (1 John 4:8) and.if we would be like God we must be full of love not only in times of peace, but in times of war. We should love our country, but we should also love our enemies (Matt. 6 :44). One of the worst things about war, far worse than the slaughter or the waste of money and all the forms of ruin and desolation that it works is the hate that it engenders between people of different nationalities. However firmly convinced we may be 'that the Ger- At last America has been sucked into, the awful mael- strom of war. How ought we, as ‘Christians, to con- duct ourselves in time of war ? That can be answered F"~?*lan Conduct m Time of War. _ .
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