And in the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, for example, instead
of a sparse handful of persons disturbingly conscious of being in
a minority, as now, a magnificent and proud majority had
collected, deeply aware of its rightness and its correctness.
And the minister, backed by minor ministers, knelt and covered his
face in the superb mahogany rostrum; and behind him, in what was
then still called the 'orchestra' (though no musical instruments
except the grand organ had sounded in it for decades), the choir
knelt and covered their faces; and all around in the richly
painted gallery and on the ground-floor, multitudinous rows of
people, in easy circumstances of body and soul, knelt in high pews
and covered their faces. And there floated before them, in the
intense and prolonged silence, the clear vision of Jehovah on a
throne, a God of sixty or so with a moustache and a beard, and a
non-committal expression which declined to say whether or not he
would require more bloodshed; and this God, destitute of pinions,
was surrounded by white-winged creatures that wafted themselves to
and fro while chanting; and afar off was an obscene monstrosity,
with cloven hoofs and a tail very dangerous and rude and
interfering, who could exist comfortably in the middle of a coal-
fire, and who took a malignant and exhaustless pleasure in coaxing
you by false pretences into the same fire; but of course you had
too much sense to swallow his wicked absurdities.
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