“Adonai, thou God very, Thou hear us when to Thee we call, As Thou art He that best may, Thou art most succour and help of all,”
gives a complete résumé of the Bible history before the days of Abraham, with the purpose of showing that all things are in the hands of God, and that complete obedience is due to Him by all creatures whom He has made.
The same teaching as to the entire dependence of the Christian for all things upon God’s Providence appears in the address of the soul to its Maker in the “morality” of Mary Magdalene, printed by Mr. Sharpe from the Digby Manuscript collection of religious plays:--
‘Sovereign Lord, I am bound to Thee; When I was nought, Thou made me thus glorious; When I perished through sin, Thou saved me; When I was in great peril, Thou kept me, Christus; When I erred, Thou reduced me, Jesus; When I was ignorant, Thou taught me truth; When I sinned, Thou corrected me thus; When I was heavy, Thou comforted me by truth (_i.e._ Thy mercy); When I stand in grace, Thou holdest me that tide; When I fall, Thou raisest me mightily; When I go well, Thou art my guide; When I come, Thou receivest me most lovingly; Thou hast anointed me with the oil of mercy; Thy benefits, Lord, be innumerable: Wherefore laud endless to Thee I cry; Recommending me to Thy endless power endurable.’”
The more these old plays which delighted our forefathers are examined, the more clear it becomes that, although undoubtedly unlearned and unread, the people in pre-Reformation days, with instruction such as is conveyed in these pious dramas, must have had a deeper insight into the Gospel narrative, and a more thorough knowledge of Bible history generally, not to speak of a comprehension of the great truths of religion, than the majority of men possess now in these days of boasted enlightenment. Some of the plays, as for example that representing St. Peter’s fall, exhibit a depth of genuine feeling, of humble sorrow, for instance, on the part of St. Peter, and of loving-kindness on the part of our Lord, which must have come home to the hearts as well as to the minds of the beholders. At the same time, the lesson deduced by our Saviour from the apostle’s fall, namely, the need of all learning by their own shortcomings to be merciful to the trespasses of others, must have impressed itself upon them with a force which would not easily have been forgotten.