Screenland (May–Oct 1927)

The ordinary man and woman in this jazz; age is quite as much a part of God, presumably, as the robed ascetic in his cliff'top monastery during the Middle Ages. Miracles can happen today as surely as they did two thousand years ago. At the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in the Hautes-Pyrenees of France where in 1858 the Virgin Mary was said to have appeared, there still are cool waters in the ancient Grotto where the diseased, crippled, and blind drag their weary bodies, and because of the depth of their faith, their convulsed limbs are straightened; sight is returned to eyes that were sightless, and they go back to their homes whole and rejoicing. The same is true of St. Anne de Beaupre, a town at the mouth of the St. Anne River at Quebec. Every year miracles take place there. Many hopelessly afflicted ones come there to touch the relics of St. Anne, kept in the church, and because they believe, they are restored to health and happiness. And so it is throughout the world. Some are cured by reading in the Bible the story of the Life of Christ. Some are cured through listening to the words of inspired teachers. "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask HirrT\ The art of printing was first used to give the messaged Bible to the world. The Motion Picture, as mighty an art as printing, in the film "The King of Kings" > has told again the story of Christ. No one denies the power that the printed word of the Bible has exerted throughout the ages. No one may doubt the uplifting force of the mighty oratorios of Handel. Michael Angelo's famous canvas of the Sistine Madonna has for centuries turned the thoughts of man toward beauty. Wherever and under whatever circumstances the artist has attempted to describe the glorious beauty of the Life of Christ with his art, he has given to the people another way to come closer to the Force which is the author of our being. And since the story of the Life of Christ awakens through these other arts a realize' tion of the power to cure the sick, there is no doubt but that this, motion picture of the Life of Christ also is one with the other arts. The word "photograph" is from the Greek. It means to "write light". "The King of Kings' , a moving photograph, may have the power to write light into the lives of those who watch its wonderful story unreel. To contemplate this thought is to be filled with amazement. Can it be possible that the lowly movie show may be the shrine which today will bestow peace upon the troubled, and health upon the sick? This is such an unusual thought that one's personal opinion upon a question affecting so many religious sects is of little value. I will tell you therefore what various wellknown people in our country think. Father Martin Scott, one of the most eminent Jesuits in the United States, sat in the parlor of the college of St. Francis Xavier at 30 West Sixteenth Street, New York. To look at him you realize instantly that his daily round is in reality an imitation of the life of Christ. Tall, slim, active, with the light of true asceticism in his keen, gray eyes, he spoke, and I listened to his quiet voice: "The King of Kings is the best film I ever saw. It will achieve more good than hundreds of sermons." From this cloistered spot, through the busy city I went, up to the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. I asked for Dr. S. Parkes Cadman, the President of this Council, but found he was in Europe. However, I learned that before he sailed, speaking over the radio one evening he said: "The King of Kings is the best motion picture in the world today . . . It is a picture no man, woman or child should miss seeing." (Com. on page 86) 39