 At a time of gift-giving and sharing that makes all the world kin, the cavalcade of America brings you as its gifts the simple and moving story of the beliefs of a devout people. One of America's most beloved plays, The Green Pastures. We choose it because it's above the temporary madness that engrossed the green pastures unfold. We hope that it will help you find the peace within that the world without temporarily lacks. It's been 10 years since Mark Connolly found inspiration for The Green Pastures in Rourke Bradford's book Old Man Adam and His Children. On the stage and later on the screen this play and music has brought exaltation and joy to millions of men, women and children who found in it an expression of the overwhelming faith of the human spirit. At this holiday season DuPont presents on the cavalcade of America the first radio performance of The Green Pastures by Mark Connolly with the music of the Hall Johnson Choir. Sunday morning in a sleepy Louisiana town, a corner in the Negro church, 10 children and an elderly preacher. Here what the beverage lagged to me what it looked like. There was nobody in Noorlees on account there was no Noorlees. There wasn't nothing on the earth at all, case for the reason there wasn't nothing except him. Who was around then? Nothing but angels? Angels and cherubs. All day long they had techniques, fish fries and bile custard and 10 cents seagulls for the ages. Having been the Lord's pet place he picked it up nice. Yes sir, I bet that was a grand place all right. All in technique, fish fries. How to be kept, ain't there? We can't just say come on fish hot in the pot you must got in flooding. I want to come in and rub the fish fry and give out to the sons of school piars. Right over here by me. Ah, not in. Why are you here? Who's the big boss? Our dear Lord. That's right. Now here's your piars. Wait a minute. Gangway for the Lord God Jehovah. Is your bin baptized? Thank you Lord. Is your bin baptized? Thank you Lord. Is your bin baptized? Get the fish fry going. Those two shouters give us one damn whole time jump up. Anything you say Lord? So high. There's something about this custard. I can taste the eggs and the sugar but I know what it is. You need just a little bit more firmament. It's all the firmament we had Lord. There's another drop left in the jug. That's all right. I'll just ride back and pass a miracle. Quiet Angel. Let it be some firmament. And when I say let it be some firmament, I don't want just a little bitty dab. Let it be a whole mess of firmament. Well then we got to make a place to dream it off. And look at Leonata. She's wet to the skin. You angels keep quiet and I'll pass another miracle. That's always the trouble with miracles. When you pass one, you got to ride back and pass another. Let there be a place to dream off this firmament. Let there be mountains and valleys. And let there be rivers and bayous to dream it off in too. As a matter of fact, let there be the earth. Is he Lord? Yes Gable. Look my nice Lord. Yes. That'll make my nice warm in country. It's a good earth. You'd ought to have somebody to enjoy it. Gable. Yes Lord. I'm going down there. Yes Lord. You'll be my working boss here while I'm gone. You know that matter of them two stars? Yes Lord. Or get that fixed up. And that spell that fell a little while ago, tend to that too. Okay Lord. Now angels, I'm going to pass one more miracle. One of the most important miracles of all. Let there be man. Good morning son. Good morning Lord. What's your name son? Adam. Let me look at you. Adam used a nice job. But wait a minute. There's something missing. I know what is. You need a family. Yes sir. What is a family Lord? I'm going to show you. Eve. Yes Lord. Now use all right Eve. Eve you take care of this man. Adam you take care of this woman. You belong to each other. Drink the water from the little brooks. And eat the food that's hanging for you in the trees. That is, you know, but one tree. That one. There. Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Thank you Lord. I've got to be getting along now. I've got 100,000 things to do for you. Take your next breath. Just be the kind of children I want you to be. I guess that's about all the important business this morning Lord. Ain't there nothing new as to remind me of Gable? The prayers Lord. The prayers. For mankind. You know it down on earth. Oh yeah. The poor little earth. I ain't been down there since that rascal King killed his brother Abel. Maybe I ought to go down again. I need a little holiday. Might do you good Lord. I think I will. What time is it by the sun and the stars? Exactly half past, Lord. Well, take care of yourself. I'll be back Saturday. That's nice. Nice and quiet. That's the way I like Sunday to be. Now that ain't so good. Yes. Yes. Stop that. What's the matter with you country boy? Where is my... Don't you know that this is the Sabbath? No kind of song to sing on the Lord's day. Who cares about the Lord's day anymore? People just use Sunday night to get over Saturday. You's awful sassy little girl. I come from sassy people. We even speak mean of the day. Ain't nobody ever told you you're on the road to hell? Yo, that's what the preachers say. But I happen to know that at the present time, I'm on the road to the picnic grounds waiting for my sweet papa. Today is night. Hello, sugar. Who's your traveling man? What's your name, son? Some water country boy. What is your name, son? Okay, the sixth. Hmm. I was afraid so. Is dirty young men's all like you? Yeah, I don't think so. Come on, let's go, sugar. So long, hot pocket. Bad business. Bad. Hmm. The birds is going about their business all right. Yeah, that's fine. And how are your little flowers making out? Yes, and you look very pretty. Goodbye. It's only the human beings that makes me downhearted. Oh, Lord, I got to get them groceries. Please, please, please. Well, now, this is more like it. It's nice to see people under knees praying, even if it is outdoors. Oh, Lord, this smokehouse is empty. Oh, Lord, let me see that little six. Well, that's here, friends. Ah, gambling. Here, let me look at them. And with frozen dice. Get out of the way, old people. I'd rather have my earth people with a bunch of channeled catfish than a wood with mankind in his fin. I just can't stand sin. All right, brother. Can I walk along with you? Well, certainly. I declare you look like a good man. I try to be. I'm the preacher here. I don't think I've seen you at the meeting. Well, I just come to town a little while ago and I've been pretty busy. What's your name? My name's Nora, brother. My house right over yonder. That's my wife's stand on the porch. Mm-hmm. Good morning, sister. Morning, brother. You a preacher, too? I am, in a way. Then you got to stay for dinner. We'll be ready in about five minutes. How are you all now, honey? Well, I just go all back around the house and call Sam, Ham, and David. Won't take long. Days are fun. They live just across the way. You got a fine wife, Nora. And you is a good man. I wish there was more people like you. The town is top-heavy with sinners. The whole district's wide open. You know, that makes for loose living. Nora, what's the most rain you ever had around these parts? Well, last April, the water come down for six days steady and the river got so swell, it busked down the levee above Freeport. Mm-hmm. What would you say was it to rain for 40 days and 40 nights? I'd say that was a complete rain. Nora, you don't know who I is, do you? Your face looks easy, but I don't think I recall the name. Oh, Lord, I should have seen the gloss. Nora, I'm going to destroy this world, but not your family. Now, look here. I want you to build me a boat. I want it to look like this, and I want you to call it the ark. And when it's done, I want you to take two of every kind of animal and bird that's in the country. Take seeds and spouts. Put them on that ark. Let there be a deluge. We're going to start all over again. Let there be blood, Mr. D.C. Killing, the rain poured down for 40 days and 40 nights. Then mankind got a going again for a while. He was pretty good, but don't go on if you could stay good. It wasn't long before the Lord looked down, and there was mankind just as uppity as the ever was. And that made the Lord feel sad, and one day he got an idea. He was sitting in his office talking with James. Gabriel, I'm going to try a new scheme. Send in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Days on the way, Lord. You run along, Gabe. Wait a minute. You going near the big pit this morning? I could go. Just lean over the brink and tell Satan he's a plain fool if he think he can beat me. Okay, Lord, sit right in his eye. Come in, gentlemen. He's all excited. Good morning, Lord. Morning. Sit down. Make yourselves comfortable. Thank you, Lord. Boys, I've been going along on the principle that mankind was something like angels. You could give him something and then let him enjoy it. But he ain't built that way. You were up here in case you were good and kept busy. Now, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to give your descendants the best piece of property in the world, if they're willing to work for it. Now, who does you think is the best man to put in charge down there? The Holy It, Lord. I want the Holy It. My great, great, great, great, great grandson, Moses, is a good boy, Lord. I know he is. I had him in mind all along. Moses. Moses, can you hear me in your heart? I want you to lead your people out of bondage and into the land of Canaan. What's the matter, Moses? I don't know. Forty years leading you, and now I can't seem to walk no further. Joshua. Yes, Moses? What's the news from the scout? Good news. The River Jordan is right ahead, and Jericho is just on the other side. Moses, we are there. Joshua, you is going to get the fighting men together and take that city before sundown. It's a big city, Moses, with walls all around it. We ain't got enough men. Oh, the Lord will take charge, Joshua. Held a priest to march around the walls three times, and then go on their ram's hogs. What about you, Father Moses? I'm staying behind. Lord's got his plans for me. Goodbye, Aaron. Goodbye, brother. Goodbye. I guess my work's done. Moses, you've been a good man. I ain't going to do you out of what's coming to you. Come on. You and me is going up this hill. To your own promised land. Oh, but Lord, we can't be doing this. Coast weekend. But Joshua and the fighting men, I told them to march around the walls of Jericho, the priests, and the ram horns are blowing, and then the Lord would tell them what to do. That's all right. He's there. Listen, Moses, I'll show you how he's happened them. They're in the land. They're chaining. At last. But wait a minute. Isn't the Lord with them? Who is this year helping me up the hill? Your faith, your God. Oh, Lord, you is everywhere. Ain't you, Lord? Come on, old man. When the land that came in, the people went right to the dogs again. They built the wicked city of Babylon. And that was too much for the Lord to take. That was way too much. And one day he couldn't stand it no longer. And when Abriel came into his office, that the Lord was mad, powerful mad. But when the Lord was the God of wrath and vengeance, there was nobody. What's the matter, Lord? It's that old world down there. Sin, nothing but sin. Every time I've forgiven them, there's mock me. Now listen, you children of darkness. Your Lord is tired. Tired of the struggle to make you worthy of the breath I gave you. So I renounce you. Listen to the words of your Lord God Jehovah. For there's the last words you'll ever hear from me. I repents of these people I have made. And I'll deliver them no more. I hate to see you take on this way, Lord. You look so blue sitting there, you're dead. Gable, even being God ain't no better roses. Keep quiet now, keep quiet. I'm listening. Listening to what, Lord? To a man, a man down there on the earth. Who is he, Lord? He just wanted the soldiers fighting to defend the walls of Jerusalem. They call him Hezbo. But to me, he's Adam too. Well, why does he keep thinking I'm going to help him? Hey, he won't eat you, Lord. But I said no. Stop your talking to me, Hezbo. Do you hear? Keep your eye out for the enemy. Don't keep looking up to heaven that way. You's puzzling me. Don't you know you can't puzzle God? Hezbo, Hezbo, you want me to come down there very much? I'll tell you what I'll do. I ain't going to promise you nothing. I ain't going to do nothing to help you. I'm just feeling a little low. And I'm only coming down to make myself feel a little better. That's all. I'm going down to earth again, Gabe. I'm going to talk with him. I heard you boys was fighting to hold Jerusalem. I just wanted to see how it was going. Well, it ain't going so good. They got you scared, huh? Listen, preacher, we ain't scared. We's going to be killed, but we ain't scared. How is it that you're so brave? Yes, we got faith. That's why. But God say he abandoned everyone down here. Who say that? Who dare say that to the Lord God of Hosea? The God of Hosea? Who's he? How come you so puzzled? I don't know. Maybe I just don't hear things. You see, I live way back in the hills. Ain't the God of Hosea the same Jehovah that was the God of Moses? No, that old God of wrath and vengeance. We have the God that Hosea preached to us. He's the one God. Who's he? The God of Moses. Well, Hasbro, don't you think there must be the same God? I don't know. Maybe there is. Because the God of Moses made Hosea, and I suppose Hosea never would have found out what Moses was unless there's been a little in God too. Anyway, he ain't a fearsome God no more. Hosea showed us that. Well, how you suppose Hosea found that mercy? The only way he could find it. The only way anyone can find it. How's that? Through suffering. They can't lick you, can they? I know they can't. You better get out of here, preacher. If you want to carry the news to your people, it's almost daylight. You want me to take any message? Tell the people in the hills they ain't nobody like the God of Hosea. Thank you, Hasbro. For what? For telling me so much. If they kill you tomorrow, I'll bet that God of Hosea'll be waiting for you. I know He will. Yes. Goodbye. I guess I was gone so long. I was just way behind the time. No, let them sing. They all heavy-hearted, Lord, because you feel so bad. They think it must be something serious. It is serious, Gable. Quiet, Angel. Lord, is the time come for me to blow the trumpet? No, not yet. Not yet. I'm thinking about something Hasbro said. How he and Hosea found something. What, Lord? Mercy. Through suffering, he said. Yes, Lord. I'm trying to find it, too. It's awful important. Important to all the people on my earth. Did he mean that even God must suffer? Open to pearly gates. I want to look down on the earth again. Look at him. They couldn't make and carry that cross up that high hill. They're going to nail him to it. Oh, that's a terrible burden for one man to carry. Yes. Yes. That's what he had in mind. Extends warmest thanks to Mark Connolly, to Hall Johnson Choir, and to Juano Hernandez, who portrayed the role of de Lorde on our presentation of America's beloved spiritual fable, The Green Pastures. And to the great American family, the 76,000 members of the DuPont Company send their sincerest wishes of the season and ask you to join in counting the many blessings which belong to all of us, the blessing that there is such a time as Christmas, and the blessing of peace and goodwill in the hearts of our American people. And now an announcement about next week's program. Next week, The Cavalcade of America brings you an original radio presentation of the story of Will Rogers, written by his friend, biographer, and impersonator, Cal Tinney, who will be the star of our broadcast. Speaking for the DuPont Company, your announcer is Clayton Collier on The Cavalcade of America. This is the national broadcasting company.