Startling into his troubled thoughts came the words of the leader:
“I am going to ask our new president, Mr. Allan Murray, to lead us in the opening prayer—”
XIX
Never in his life had Murray Van Rensselaer been asked to make a speech or do a stunt that he had been known to refuse or be inadequate to the occasion. It had been his boast that a fellow could always say something if he would just have his wits about him, but the time had come when wits would not serve him. He was suddenly confronted with the Lord God, and told to speak to Him before many witnesses! A great swelling horror arose around him like a cloud of enemies about to throttle him. His speech went from him, and his strength, also his self-confidence. A few weeks back he might have jumped to his feet and rattled off a pleasant little prayer, fitting in its petitions, correct in its address and setting, and felt smart about having arisen to the occasion. Not so now. He felt himself to be sitting confused and ashamed before the Lord, and he had nothing to say.
He was in sore straits. He realized fully that if he did not do what he was asked, his mask was off, and before all this assembled multitude he would be discovered and brought to shame. Yet he dared not say off a prayer that he did not mean. So much he had grown in the knowledge of the Holy One. He knew it would be blasphemy.
There was a dead silence in the room, a settling down of awe and waiting; half-bowed heads, trying to glimpse the new president before the petition began, yet reverently waiting for him to address the great high throne of God for them.
A panic came upon him. He dared not sit still. Old habit of responding to any challenge, no matter how daring, goaded him; fear got him to his unwilling feet, and there he stood.
The silence grew. The heads were bent reverently now. Such a young man to be such a great leader they thought. Such a deep spiritual look upon his face!
Murray stood there and faced God, his voice all gone!
Then the audience seemed to melt away behind a great misty cloud. A radiance was before his closed eyes, and his voice came back. Unwillingly it had to speak, to recognize the Presence in which he stood.