t no familiar face met her gaze.
Then she settled back, and gave herself up to delight in the service.
The organ was playing softly, low, tender music. She learned afterward
that the music was Handel's "Largo." She did not know that the organ was
one of the finest in the city, nor that the organist was one of the most
skilful to be had; she knew only that the music seemed to take her soul
and lift it up above the earth so that heaven was all around her, and the
very clouds seemed singing to her. Then came the processional, with the
wonderful voices of the choir-boys sounding far off, and then nearer. It
would be impossible for any one who had been accustomed all his life to
these things to know how it affected Elizabeth.
It seemed as though the Lord Himself was leading the girl in a very
special way. At scarcely any other church in a fashionable quarter of the
great city would Elizabeth have heard preaching so exactly suited to her
needs. The minister was one of those rare men who lived with God, and
talked with Him daily. He had one peculiarity which marked him from all
other preachers, Elizabeth heard afterward. He would turn and talk with
God in a gentle, sweet, conversational tone right in the midst of his
sermon. It made the Lord seem very real and very near.
If he had not been the great and brilliant preacher of an old established
church, and revered by all denominations as well as his own, the minister
would have been called eccentric and have been asked to resign, because
his religion was so very personal that it became embarrassing to some.
However, his rare gifts, and his remarkable consecration and independence
in doing what he thought right, had produced a most unusual church for a
fashionable neighborhood.
Most of his church-members were in sympathy with him, and a wonderful work
was going forward right in the heart of Sodom, unhampered by fashion or
form or class distinctions. It is true there were some who, like Madam
Bailey sat calmly in their seats, and let the minister attend to the
preaching end of the service without ever bothering their thoughts as to
what he was saying. It was all one to them whether he prayed three times
or once, so the service got done at the usual hour. But the majority were
being led to see that there is such a thing as a close and intimate walk
with God upon this earth.
Into this church came Elizabeth, the sweet heathen, eager to learn all
that could be learned about
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