The organ tones are the very light itself turned into sweet
sound. On one side of the nave you can see all the boys' heads, sleek
with water; on the other the little mothers to be, in grown-up dress
to-day for the first time, kerchief on head and hymn-book in hand, and
with careful faces. And now they all sing. The elder folks have taken
their places farther back to-day, but they join in, looking up now and
again from the book to those young heads in front, and wondering how
they will fare in life. And the young folk themselves are thinking as
they sing, "To-day is the beginning of new things. Play and frolic are
over and done with; from today we're grown-up." But the church and all
in it seemed to say: "If ever you are in heavy trouble, come hither to
me." Just look at that altar-piece there--the wood-carvings are a whole
Bible in themselves--but Moses with the Tables of the Law is gentle of
face to-day; you can see he means no harm after all. St. Peter, with the
keys, pointing upwards, looks like a kind old uncle, bringing something
good home from market. And then the angels on the walls, pictured or
carved in wood, have borrowed the voice of the organ and the tones of
the hymn, and they widen out the vaulted roof into the dome of heaven;
while light and song and worshippers melt together and soar upwards
toward the infinite spaces.
Peer was thinking all the time: I don't care if I'm rich as rich, I WILL
be a priest. And then perhaps with all my money I can build a church
that no one ever saw the like of.
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