--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Olpin, A. Ray collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 27 number: 2 published: 1923-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'A. Ray Olpin, "The Great Drama of Life", *Improvement Era* 27, no. 2 (December 1923): 158.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2702unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2702unse start_page: 158 end_page: 158 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1923-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2702unse publication_year: 1923 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1923, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Great Drama of Life THE GREAT DRAMA OF LIFE By A. Ray Olpin, of the Brigham Young University It is often more convenient to learn of the original through study and analysis of a duplicate or imitation. Not everyone is blessed with the opportunity and means to visit the galleries of the world's masterpieces of art. So people learn of them by the study of copies. The comparative topography and general outlines of the nations of the world are better understood through the study of scale charts, maps and models. So also is the great Drama of Life, the masterpiece of God, more conveniently studied by means of the mere perspective, diminutive copy, the drama of the stage. All dramas should be patterned after the original plan made by God. The modern theatrical stage should be a miniature of the great design of the Creator, and the themes enacted thereon condensed forms of the great prototype — the Drama of Life. The earth, God's footstool, is the stage on which the actors per- form. Humanity plays the leading roles, aptly responding to the effi- cient coaching of the great Author. The Drama is divided into acts or dispensations, the purpose of which is the fulfilment of some definite aim leading up to the cul- mination of the purpose of the whole. These acts are interrelated and progressive, one introducing an- other. With the passing of each the plot develops and deepens. Each seems to involve a situation calling for solution. Much is left to be consummated in the final act. All former scenes lead up to it. Then the announcement is duly made and the curtain rises on the concluding scene. Action is intense and rapid. The happenings revert back to former acts, and the mysteries of the plot are unravelled in quick succession. Startling events and unlooked for results of pre- vious epochs characterize this period. This act, in the great Drama of Life, is the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. It is the beginning of the end. After its termina- tion the stage will be reset, the same characters will appear in differ- ent roles and a new performance will be ushered in. The renewed earth in its paradisaical glory will be the setting for the new production. Humanity, clothed in the robes of the resur- rected, will proceed to interpret a new, more advanced and perfected plot. Provo, Utah