PS 635 .Z9 C486 Copy 1 A Masque The Church Victorious Through Love by Alice H. Clark Rockwell S. Brank -^ WOMAN'S BOARD OF HOME MISSIONS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE U. S. A. 156 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK Copyright, August 1921, by Woman's Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. ^ IC1.D 5 8749 SEP 29 IB2I TiHP92-008838 A> * / PLACE : The House of God. TIME: Nozv. CHARACTERS THE CHURCH AN ANGEL LOVE FAITH KNOWLEDGE WAR Chorus of women and girls from many lands MUSIC OPPORTUNITY WEALTH SELF-SACRIFICE FAMINE DEATH The curtain rises on the Church sitting on a slightly raised dais with the Angel standing at the door. The time required for development is just one hour. A Masque The Church Victorious Through Love THE CHURCH As some gray pilgrim of the Middle Age I face each risen day, or bright or dull, Tempestuous or calm, and pray my soul Long leagues upon the way that souls must take Before they reach that far and happy land Whose shadow-bounded reaches we divine. But in our longing for immortal life, Mid dust of earth, in heat and cold and rain, O'er far-horizoned heights, through narrow vales, Accompanied of glowing svin, or cloud. Of one clear star, or of the circling host. The Church must journey on through aging time. But not to find an empty, open tomb As one who sought the garden sepulchre. I see the Kingdom of the Risen One Within. Long, long and toilsome is the way. Unceasing must the struggle onward be, But there's no other way the Church may win The glorious victory. THE ANGEL 'Jliere is no other way. But thou hast friends ; Hast thou not Faith and Hope and Charity And Love, who serves thee and through thee, the Lord ? CHURCH Good Angel, what thou sayest to me is true But there are those who call me cold and formal And unresponsive to the great world's need. It is not true and yet I know I fail, With sorrow I confess I often fail To win the friend.ship of the hostile world. She hates me tho I give to her my best. Good Angel, tell mc what can I do more? OPPORTUNITY CRiisIu-s in interruptinp) Great Church, behold me, Opportunity, Eternal, ever-present, here and now. I saw just now the world, O mighty Church, Like some poor hunted beast upon the plain Flying like mad before grim-visaged War, His bloody sword unsheathed to strike her down. Behind them shrieked gaunt Famine like a ghost. And after her Disease and Death flew fast To catch the flying creature. This they did, And beat her down, and stripped her to the bone. There lies she faint and bleeding on the plain, Dying for succor and relief. O Church, Rush all thy servants to the wounded world Ere it shall be too late. CHURCH Oh, not such haste ! Thou art forever rushing in, my friend. To break my peaceful prayers and meditations. Thou are too eager. Opportunity. Hast thou no reverence, no discreet respect For this my hallowed house and deep repose ? Thine ardent cry disturbs the quiet here. Am I an ambulance with clamorous gong To be forever tearing up and down At thine alarms? Nay, Opportunity, Leave me my peace, my 'dim religious light,' My rapt devotions and my quiet ways. OPPORTUNITY What, wilt thou leave the world to die out there Upon the plain alone and in the night ? It shall not be. If thou dost tarry long I go to Industry or Charity, To anyone, to any place, where I Can find the help and willingness to serve In this emergency. Farewell, I go ! CHURCH Stay, eager and impulsive one. I send To answer thy behest again for this My ever-needy neighbor. Who goes for me ? Whom shall I send ? Who best can service give To help this stricken traveller on the plain? OPPORTUNITY O Church! Send Knowledge, Wealth, thy Eloquence, Faith, Charity, and blest Self-Sacrifice. Send all thy servants, now, just now, I beg, For all are needed. Bid them hurry on To find and save the dying world. CHURCH Go, Opportunity, and call my servants. Exit Opportunity ANGEL Surely, O Mother Church, thou wilt send Love? \Vith her sweet Gospel and her tender hands? CHURCH It is no time for such a gentle soul. This is a day for power and for force. Love cannot light with cruel War and Death. She hath no war-like weapons in her hands, Hath never learned to use the means of force. Her gentle Gospel fails to meet such need. Let these more wise and potent servants go And you shall see that they will save the world. Enter Opportunity with Knowledge, Wealth, Eloquence, Faith and Self -Sacrifice, CHURCH Welcome, my train of servants true and splendid, Long have ye served me and my neighbor world. But now I have the greatest task for you. The world lies yonder beaten down and bruised. Her many wounds are voices crying out For vengeance and for healing. Go you now And rescue her and bring her broken body Here to this home and haven of true peace. KNOWLEDGE I bring my gift of learning unto thee. Use it as thou seest best. I know the world. With all the means that Science can invent I've studied her great ways and needs and manners, And for her hurt I have the sovereign cure. CHURCH I gladly take thy gift, for without Knowledge I am blind. WEALTH I come to thee, O Church, and at thy feet Lay all my treasure for thy many tasks In faithful service of humanity. Who better knows than thou, that kindness costs? The Church's work is such an enterprise As calls for cofTers deep and large and many. I'll carry with me all my bags of gold To buy the world some healing and some joy. CHURCH Thy generous gift indeed is gladly welcomed, Thy Gold can send my messengers afar To every land and people. ELOQUENCE And I shall say such words of eloquence, That she shall heed my fervent exhortations, Lift up her downcast eyes to see the stars Effulgent in her blackest hour of woe. The glowing dawn will bring back hope to her And joy will fill her heart with radiant noon! CHURCH I truly need thy gift, O Eloquence, That honor may be given unto me To tell to all the mysteries of the Gospel. FAITH I go to war with War and Death and Famine ! My conquering sword I here unsheath again ! How bright and sharp it is! What victories God hath given me with this great brand. His arm shall help me win another fight. Once more with Him I'll break the mountains down! CHURCH Faith, to be well-pleasing unto God. Without thee is impossible. SELF-SACRIFICE 1 too, shall go for thee, O Mother Church, And all I have is at thy service here. To tliee I bring the gift of Sacrifice. And, thus, fulfill the prayer that Christ may build His blessed Kingdom here. CHURCH A broken heart, a contrite spirit to God Are sacrifices. CHURCH Go, my dear servants ! God speed ye every one I Go strike these enemies down and bring the world Here to my quiet place of peace and rest That she may find the healing for her hurt. (All go out but Faith.) ANGEL Mother Church, send Love also with them ! CHURCH 1 tell you, nay. It is no time for Love. The devil must be fought with his own fires. Bright Angel, you shall see my servants fight And quickly come triumphant over sin Bringing the sad world here for remedy. THE SPIRIT OF MUSIC (Chanting behind the scene) "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge ; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing." CHURCH What song is this I hear? What spirit singing? And what this most unworldly theme of love? 'Nothing without love'? A strange ideal. But hark, it sings again ! MUSIC "Love sulfereth long, and is kind ; love envieth not ; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil(: rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never f aileth ! Love never faileth ! Love never faileth !" CHURCH Love never faileth ? No. It is not true ! Have I not loved the world long centuries And failed to heal her hurt and save her soul? " While she has mocked and hated me; has slain My saints and prophets; burned, and stoned, and sawn Asunder my evangelists? Love fails! And now again I send my servants forth To aid my ever-needy, scornful neighbor. But they are long in coming. They are late. Why do they tarry? Why are they not here? MUSIC "Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away ; whether there be tongues, they shall cease ; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. For we know in part; but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child : now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three ; and the greatest of these is love. Follow after love !" CHURCH O, can it be that I have failed to love. Have all my faith and works and charities And martyrdoms and sacrifices failed? I sadly g^rant that oftentimes I fail. O, can it be that I have failed to love? FAITH O, Mother Church, I long to serve thee truly, But cold thy heart and formal all thy ways Until our sister Love ccfliies near to thee. She serves her Lord with gladness And comes into His presence with a song. ANGEL We never bless, O Church, until we bleed! Remember how thy Lord hath said to thee; "Except a grain of wheat fall to the earth And die; alone and by itself abideth; But if it die it bringeth forth much fruit. He that his own life loves, shall lose it all ; He that his own life hates, shall keep it ever. The man that serveth Me must follow Me ; And where I am, there shall my servant be. And I, if I be lifted up from earth Will draw all men unto myself." O Church, All thy strong servants will return again Defeated and without the wounded world. Thou must thyself go out from these rapt halls. Thou must forget thyself, and take thy cross, DofT garments rich, and don the pilgrim's dress. With book and staff in hand, and having shod Thy feet with preparation of the gospel, Go out, with Love, to save the broken world. Thou shalt not save until beneath thy cross Thou breakest ! (Shouts and sound of fighting without. Knowledge, Wealth, Elo- quence, and Self-Sacrifice, come in dishevelled and pursued by War, Disease, Famine and Death.) CHURCH (Rising from her seat) What means this riot in my sacred house? This is not field for strife and sound of arms! My servants, where is now the wounded world? Have vou not rescued her, and brought her here? WAR Nay, weakling queen. These warriors of thine, Are children in my hard and skillful hands. I scorn thee to thy face, Thou petty Queen. What though thou mayest sing of Christian Soldiers And chant "the sons of God go forth to war," They never shall the victim snatch from me. Through hoary years I've mowed humanity down And will again when it shall please my whim. I flaunt you and your nursery squadrons ! FAMINE, DISEASE AND DEATH (In chorus) After War we follow fast. What she leaves we catch at last. How we hate all living men ! Over lonely moor and fen In the darkness, in the night, Ever in unwearied flight. Bringing hunger, pain and woe Everywhere we choose to go. Little children are our prey, How we frighten them from play ! We can break a woman's heart. And make the tears to eyelids start ! Sorrow, woe and grief we bring. And we hate all souls who sing ! For thee, O Church, we've only scorn Now, and 'til the Doomsday morn ! OPPORTUNITY (Rushes in interrupting and crying) O Mother Church, out there upon the plain The world lies swiftly dying in her woe. Wilt thou not haste to heal and save her life? why art thou so slow to come? ANGEL Go thyself, O Church, and go with Love, Stay not another moment from this task ! CHURCH 1 will. I go in my dear Master's power And with His love in duty to His word. 'Go' is His word. And I obey at last. Call Love. Angel exit. MUSIC "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal." Enter Angel with Love, who is clothed in white. She bears on her shoulder a heavy cross. CHURCH O Love, I go with thee to save the world ! LOVE "I am pressed on every side, yet not straitened ; perplexed, yet not unto despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed ; always bearing about in my body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in my body. For I who live am always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in my mortal flesh. So then death worketh in me, but life in you." Yes, I will go, as I am always going. Take up this cross, O Church, and follow me. Nor shall we two go out. but all together. We must not go alone. Thy whole train comes. Wealth. Knowledge, Eloquence, and Charity, Self-Sacrifice and Faith. O every one Is needed in Christ's service to the Avorld ! There's not a hand or heart in all the land But has its place with us, O Church, in work To save the world, and glorify our Lord Who bore His cross and died that we might live. We go together, not alone. And each Her helpful office shall fulfill with me. Church takes up the cross from Love. Love leading, they begin to march. War, Famine, Disease, and Death slink and cower backwards to the exits. All go out except the Angel. As they go Music chants. MUSIC (Chanting) "Love never faileth. Love never faileth. Follow after Love." ANGEL Now I see far down the way a company comes singing. And they are out of every land and every tongue and people. They march beneath the banner of the Lord, and they sing the love of Jesus Christ. Women and children dressed in the costumes of many lands, march singing up through the audience, and on to the stage. As they go they sing, "The Church's One Foundation." The Church and Love lead the procession back to the stage. Knowledge, Wealth, Eloquence, Faith and Self-Sacrifice, follow Church and Love. Capital and Labor, come hand in hand. Immigrant and American. Bolshevist and Government. All the world. When all are on the stage. CHURCH Now know I that Love never faileth And that all service without Love is vain. Sing, sisters, sing. With sweet melodious clamor fill the land From east to west, from north and south, now let The joyful summons ring and ring again, And thanks be ofifered up To God most High, and to His Christ For His eternal Love. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 016 102 649 9 * ALL SING "O Love that will not let me go." MARGARET 8, 8, 8, 8, 6 A. L. Peace, 1SS5 ^m- -cK- ^^ pf- r ' r r r t f '" 1. O LoYK that wilt not let me go. J 4. J- i i I I -tir ^ ^ '^m -jS2 (U- I rest mj J 4: ^ £ :t ^^ S. «_ ?=f^ • X • (- -^^-^ I I wea - ry soul in Thee; r^ -f — &i rn^r -f^ — g- 3^ (SL give Thee back the life I owe, ^ ^ ^ i ^ f.^"^ J J-. i i i U i i^EE jgg ^ ?^ P ^BE ft^ ;5): rr^-r a — ^ I r r rf r I That in Thine o-cean depths its flow May rich - er, foil - er ^^ be. ^m 2i -i^4-,i J J J ,4^.1 J -i — • — » — 1 — r H^i- r 2 O Light that followest all my way, I yield my flickering torch to Thee ; My heart restores its borrowed ray, That in Thy sunshine's blaze its day May brighter, fairer be. ^ rrl^ -^2. .,5>. A - men. lr> Ti l- 3 O Joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to Thee ; I trace the rainbow through the rain, And feel the promise is not vain Tliat morn shall tearless be. 4 Cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from Thee ; I lay in dust life's glory dead, And from the ground there blossoms red Life that shall endless be, CURTAIN PALMiii A et.ivt«, lao., Niw rcmt HBRftRY OF CONGRESS 016 102 649 9 HoUinger Corp.