The Saint Paul globe., 1900-04-29
OberammergaN's Passion Play
Editor Stead Style Portays the Hold Play
dence and the Awe the Shifting Scenes Excite

This is the story that transformed the
world
This is the story that transformed the
world.
Yes and VIII yet transform it!
Yes thank Cod so the answer comes;
and viii yet transform it until the King
dom comes.
This Is the story that transformed the
world! I awoke shortly after midnight,
after seeing the Passion Play" at Ober-
amnergau. with these words floating
backward and forward in my head like
q peal Of bells from some distant spire.
Backward and forward they went and
came and came and went.
This IS the story that transformed the
world
This is the story that transformed the
world. And then in the midst Of the re-
iterated monotone of this insistent mes
sage came the glad response from
know not where-yes, and will yet trans
form it, And then the two met and min
gled strophe and ant!strophe, one ans
wering the other. This is the story that
has transformed the world. Yes, and will
yet transform the world"
I tried to sleep. but could not. It was
as if church bells were pealing their
sweet but imperious music within my
brain. So I got up and wrote
All IS silent save the ticking of the
watch by my bedside; silent as the stars
which CLEAN down from the blue sky
above the cross-crowned crag, which
stands like some giant sentinel keeping
watch over the village at its foot. Herod,
our host. sleeps soundIy, and Johannes.
wearied by his double service Of waiter
at the hotel and his role in the sacred
play. IS oblivious of all. The crowded
thousands who watched for hours yester-
day the unfolding Of the passion OF
Christ Jesus of Galilee have disappeared,
and l am alone.
But not alone. For as real and as vivid
as that same crowd Of yesterday seem to
me the thronging memories of other
days. of the centuries that rise between
the time when Jesus really lived on earth
and today. Nineteen hundred years, have
gone since all that we saw represented
yesterday was no mere mimic show, but
deadly tragic fact; 1900 years during
which the shaping power of the world
has been that story; the old, oId story,
never before so vividly realized in all It's
human significance and it's divine import
It's a human significance, for, thank
God, we have at last seen Jesus as a
man among men, a human being with no
background His brow, no radiance not Of
this world marking Him off apart from
the eest u Us, His fellow men, but sim
ply Jesus the Galilean, gibbeted on the
gallows of His time, side by side with the
scum of mankind
AIidNit Was this story that transformed
the world. .Thou hast conquered, o pale
GaliIean!2 y, over how many tribes and na-
tionssand kindreds Of men? On this very
spot, by the side Of the swift-iowing
Ammer, what strange rites were being
celebrated long centuries after the cry
Of victory over death burst from the lies
Of the crucifled, and yet here we stand
today.
Oh, the wonder Of it ALL the miracle of
miracles. surely is this-that this story
should have transformed the world. For
after ALL what was the passion? Look
ing at 1t as we looked at it yesterday
not from the standpoint of those who. see
the sacred story through the vista of
centuries that have risen in splender and
set in the glory of the cross, but from
the standpoint which the actors on the