AN ACTRESS-EVANGELIST.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2035, 21 March 1907, Page 4

AN ACTRESS-EVANGELIST.

Till) union of Glniroh mid stage, of Which so much has boon written at different' times, finds no advocate in Miss Ada Word, tho ox-actress who is to oi)on nil evangelistic mission in Molbourno shortly. Miss Ward will no doubt ho remembered by many plny-goors in Now Zealand, who may also recollect that some sovon years ago she relinquished tho singe and became an evangelist. From what she told a Molbourno interviewer a few days ago, this radical cluingo was tho result of a casual visit to a Salvation Army meeting at Portsmouth. On her return to tho thoatro slio announced to lior company that sho was going to leave the’ stago and the world for over. “I played out my season of twelve nights,” sho said. “Then I distributed all my drosses and all my jewels, and wont away to preach the gospel.” No ridicule can ho cast upon an action that involved tho sacrifice of a prosperous career for the scanty financial rewards of the work sho had chosen. But Miss Ward’s spiritual revulsion against tho stago loads her, wo aro afraid, to paint its dangers almost too darkly. She still loves the stago and tho people on it. “They are noble-hearted, quick-brained, and generous people,” sho declared. “But after my conversion I could not remain on the stage because of its worldliness. Tho temptations of tho world aro greater on the stage than anywhere else—l know because I lmvo faced thorn nil.” An actress, sho holds, may tie a good woman, hot she cannot he a Chrsitian, an assertion which reminds ono of Mr. William Archer’s notorious attack on tho morals of the stago, and his speedy and ample apology. One cannot help wondering whether Miss Ward, holding these views, would not have found a better field for evangelistic work on the stage, to which so far as we know few evangelists have specially addressed themselves, than in tho outside world to which is devoted practically all of Christian enterprise engaged in mission work. Her knowledge of tho little world of tho stage would have enabled her to talk to its residents better than any outsider could. Ono thing is certain the stage is not' to bo reformed by calling it hard names; and the example of a Christian actress, even if she was the only one of her class to whom the term could be applied, would surely have been more effective for reform than all her efforts after she had cut herself • away from the theatre. Ono can sympathise heartily with Miss Ward in her special dislike to the so-called “religious play.” “Oh, tho misery and wrong which have boon caused by ‘Tho Sign of tho Cross!’” she said. Sho declared sho could give statistics showing its evil effect. “Girls and boys were tempted by their clergymen to leave tho Sunday school to see this play—and they never wont back again.” If she meant that they never wont back to see that play again, wo could thoroughly sympathise with them. The “religious” play is a 'delusion. As a play it is generally fustian, and it's religion is usually tawdry sentimentalism. As Miss Ward remarked, “A religious appeal P I have been Inside those plays and I know better.”—Christchurch Press.