Winifred resumed her question. Why had she come? Was it to meet that
One, to gaze in spirit upon His pierced hands and side, as the minister
was saying, and to rejoice in Him as the risen Lord? She did not quite
know what he meant. She went back over the morning's experience,
beginning with her dressing-room, when before her mirror she donned her
new and very pretty silk dress and arranged all her faultless toilet,
adjusting the modish hat that became so well her own type of beauty,
fitted on the fresh, dainty gloves that should clasp her beloved music
when she should open her throat and sing like a glad bird, delighting
in its song, however plaintive. And then she had gone. Had she
thought of Him in all this? Winifred's honest soul said, No. But
church? She had thought of "church," with all that it stood for of
building, and congregation, and set order of things, and there had been
a sort of subconscious satisfaction in the fact that going to church
was a religious thing to do, and that to sing in the choir (especially
for no pay, as she did) was very meritorious. But was it so?
The minister was saying:
"If worship is not sincere, it becomes, spiritually, an abomination.
If, for instance, our singing, instead of being a true sacrifice of
praise to God degenerates into the sensuous enjoyment of a 'concourse
of sweet sounds,' it is no longer worship, and it is not even an
innocent employment. However fine it may be as a musical
entertainment, if offered as a _substitute for worship_ it may be
likened to the offering of 'strange fire,' which met such instant
judgment in the time of Moses."
Winifred winced under the clear, bold words. There was a little
well-bred stir in the congregation. Doctor Schoolman's disciplined
countenance betrayed a startled moment and then relapsed into an
expression of bland, but non-committal interest. Winifred glanced
about to see how her neighbors were taking it. She looked first at
George Frothingham, for he and she were unusually good friends. His
handsome face showed only abstraction, and she knew he had not heard a
word that was said. She glanced warily back toward the organ and saw
the player in his chair, but he was indulging in a few winks of sleep.
His duties at the theater the night before had illy prepared him for
very wakeful attention to the sermon, and other influences were telling
upon him, too, for the man of music knew the taste of wines. The
leader of the choir was listening. His penetrating eyes were fixed
upon the calm-faced man in the pulpit, and an unconscious scowl bent
his dark brows. Yet it was not an angry frown, but simply intent. He
looked half defensive, half convicted.
The minister went on:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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