"He rode upon the cherubims and did fly: he came flying upon the wings of the wind."
Then, without pause, the deeper voices of the men thundered out the sublime words:
"He made darkness his secret place his pavilion round about him with dark water and thick clouds to cover him."
No wonder, as the great volume of sound rang through the church, the heart of the unhappy man was filled with fear.
This terrible Deity who came forth in such appalling splendour was his enemy, this awful Jehovah of the Hebrews, in whose hand flashed the sword of vengeance, was his merciless judge, and kneeling there with tightly clenched hands he felt crushed to the earth by the fierce denunciations thundered forth by the choir. But then a change came over the terrible vehemence of the music, and sweet as a silver trumpet rang out the proclamation:
"The Lord liveth, and blessed be my strong helper and praised be the God of my salvation."
There was mercy then--this unknown Splendour whose terrors had been shadowed forth with such grandeur had pity as well as vengeance; a dull feeling of exhaustion stole over him as the psalm ended with the promise of mercy, and his dry lips moved mutely as though to join in the final "Glory be to the Father."
He did not rise from his knees, but still in a posture of abject supplication heard, as in a dream, the reading of the lessons and the sweet kindly music of the hymns. It was only when the vicar, tall and stately in his white surplice, mounted the pulpit and gave out the text, that he stirred. With a weary sigh he arose and sat down in the pew, utterly exhausted by the conflicting emotions roused within him by the music, but the words of the text given out by the resonant voice of Dr. Larcher seemed to convey some comfort to his despairing soul.
"Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he saveth them out of their distresses."
He listened to the sermon idly at first, but soon found, to his surprise, that he was following the words of the preacher with close attention. Dr. Larcher was no golden-mouthed Chrysostom by any manner of means, but he preached a plain, homely sermon, eminently adapted to the simple congregation of which he was pastor. Never for a moment did he lose himself amid abstruse theological arguments which they would not have understood, but told them practical truths in vigorous Saxon, the meaning of which no one could fail to grasp.