Adventure in Modem Life

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6815, 19 January 1929, Page 4

Adventure in Modem Life

DVENTURE in modern life, where shall we find it? The question is propounded and answered —by Sir Francis Younghusband, great soldier and famous explorer. I sought and found it in great deserts and high mountains, in forbidden lands and amo»g strange peoples. But these very adventures themselves excited in my mind a desire for higher adventures still. These were not adventurous enough. They were pedestrian. They were of the earth. And they were of discovery only. I looked for adventures of creation —and creation in the realm of spirit, not of matter. And it was into that realm that I ventured even when exploring in the Himalaya. I was then in a holy region of whitest purity, high above and far away from the ordinary haunts of men. But I had reached it by my own physical ■exertions, and so in a sense had won that vision which was now mine—a vision of a spiritual world of like purity and holiness which men would not merely discover but create —and create by theh- own spiritual exertions. And this I saw was the highest adventure upon which any man could engage, either in the present modern life or in the most advanced age to come.

Two Examples

Now. for such an adventure no one need leave his own country for remote regions of the world. He need not go outside his own native village.

Soldier-Traveller as a Guide

I will give two examples of adventures of the kind made in England. In a tiny village in Lincolnshire, with only 20 houses and not even a post office and only a quarter-time vicar, two sisters—one the widow of an officer killed in tire war—have transformed the people into a choir. They have through music made the church services a joy to attend. And on Armistice Days they have been able to get up services so attractive that people come from miles round to them. Still more remarkable is what is being done in a little Devonshire village of only 200 inhabitants. Simply out of the farmers and labourers and their wives and children ha 3 been formed a dramatic society which performs a repertory of religious plays in a barn. The plays are founded on the Bible, because the people know ihe stories and prefer them. The players act their parts with deep reverence. And the audiences are profoundly impressed. In both the Lincolnshire and the Devonshire village a great venture is being made. Out of the simplest material —out of material which can be found anywhere—a few devout souls are building up little cities of God. A Creative Effort In the one case music, in the other case drama, is the instrument employed in the building. But in both cases the effect has been to bring together persons of different classes of both sexes, and the young as well as the old. in a common effort —and that an effort to create something of the holiest beauty. ,

And when these things are actually being done, we have not to look far for an example of where adventure may be found in modern life. Nor are motor-cars or airplanes or any great sums of money needed for it. Ail that is wanted is that spirit which is beyond all price, but which no amount of money could buy —the spirit of faith and courage and wisdom. And, fortunately, in England— especially since the war—there has been a marked revival of those two activities in which we used so greatly to excel. England was once more famed for music than any other country in Europe. And the country which could

produce Shakespeare must evidently have had a genius for drama. Onco more is our inherent love of music and of drama springing up, and with lovely spontaneity. Amateur musical societies and dramatic societies are being formed in hundreds. The little grain of mustard seed sown in a tiny Devonshire village has alone grown Into a Village Drama Society of 150 affiliated village societies. This is what is actuallv going on around us to-day.

An Awakening

And who has not the vision to see the kingdom of God which is arising from these little villages? Who cannot see the dramatist which the need of these villages will call forth, and who, taking the great Bible stories, will, in the crucible of his genius, fashion from them dramas which will fire the souls of great and humble alike ?

Who cannot hear England bursting into song of a sweetness only England can produce Who cannot see the crowds in every village flocking to the ancient parish church, or barn, or hall to join in the song or witness the drama? And who is so blind that he cannot see the multitude surging from every land to English villages, as they gather to Ober-Ammergau, to refresh their souls at clear spiritual fountains?

to awaken the soul of England to the beauty of the holiness that is in it, and to build Jerusalem in England’s green aud pleasant land —what higher adventure could the most modern of Englishmen desire?