ISO 



The Review of Reviews. 



vbiting tlie sins of the father ufon the child. The 

 j'^arenls of GitHpus were warned by the priests and 

 seers who trod Apollo's temple that their son would 

 slay his father and marry his mother. Therefore 

 they decided to circumvent the Deity by exposing 

 their son to what they believed was a sure and linger- 

 ing death on the mountain top, to which they pinned 

 him by a sharp blade thrust through both his fjet. 

 They believed they had cheated the Deity. But, as 

 the .American poet says, " You've got to git up airly, 

 \'J you want to take in (jod." For a time all went 

 well. The guilty pair not merely believed they had 

 rendered the prophecy impossible of fultilment, but 

 Jocasta at least exulted in her sin. " Behold the 

 fruits of projjhecy '. " she cried, after narrating the 

 baffling of the seers' prediction. 



Jocasta was a thoroughgoing agnostic. When 

 Oi'Jipus tells her he is filled with fear lest the 

 prophecy should be fulfilled about his mother, Jocasta 

 :eplied : — 



What sliouki man do with fear, who halh but Ch.ince 

 .Above hull and no siyhl nor governance 

 Of thini^s to be ? To live as life may run : 

 No fear, no fret, were wisest 'neath the sun. 

 .■\nd thou fear not tliy mother. Prophets deem 

 A deed wrought tiiat is ^'rought but in a dream ; 

 And he to whom these things are nothing, best 

 Will bear his burden. 



i\cioding to the ethics of the gods, such senti- 

 flcnss ought not to be cherished with impunity. 

 I'rom this point of view the punishment of Qidipus was 



but the natural and necessary corollary of his mother's 

 guilt. As the children of Achan were consumed in 

 the fire which burnt the man who disobeyed the word 

 of Jehovah so Gidipus sufiered for his parents' trans- 

 gression. The fathers have eaten sour grapes and 

 their children's teeth are set on edge. It may not be 

 the justice of man, but it is not i-n unnatural deduc- 

 tion from the law of nature. 



" But a new law came when Christ came," and ii> 

 "The Miracle " we see the recoil carried to its furthest 

 limit. The touching story of the Prodigal Son is 

 outdone by this story of the prodigal daughter, 

 and in the rejoicing of the human heart over the 

 discovery that God is a God of love we see the Virgiri 

 making herself accessory to and an accomplice in the 

 violation of the most sacred law. So we may regard 

 the two plays "Gidipus" and "The Miracle" as the 

 dramatic expression of the extremest form of the two 

 dominant ideas — of the ancient pagan creed deduced 

 from an observation of the law of nature, and of 

 the Christian doctrine of the infinite compassion of 

 the God of love revealed in Christ Jesus. Said 

 ■' Qildipus '' : — 



.-\m I not charged with death. 

 Most charged and filled to the brim 

 With curses? And wltal man sailh, 

 God liath so hated him ? 



But the message of " The Miracle " is that by 

 Christ Cometh the forgiveness of sin — for God so loved 

 the world ! 



j'/io/fj^r.t/'i /yj 



A Great Scene in " CEdipus Rex." 



{///HS/rii//iVts Btndtti 



