Iris Murdoch - The Book And The Brotherhood

`We praise thee, 0 God, we acknowledge thee to be the Lord, all the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting to thee all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein, to thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry Holy, Holy, Holy…'

Rose and her party, on country Sundays, usually occupied the second pew which was left vacant by the villagers if it was known that Rose 'had company'. Today they were installed in the following order: Gerard, then Rose, then Annushka, then Tamar, then Jenkin, who had arrived first. The church was for a country church situated outside the village, reasonably attended; that is, there were, including Rose's contingent, some twenty people present. For evensong in the summer, when it made a pleasant walk, there were usually more. A wavery harmonium accompanied the hymns. There was no choir. The church, thirteenth-century, not distinguished for anything in particular, was comparatively unspoilt, except by the removal of the clerestory and of some unspecified 'monuments' some hundred years ago. The big 'decorated' east window, through which the snow-and-sun light was now streaming, had plain glass, the other windows had leaded panes with green and pink glass, the crenellated tower, windowless, containing the six bells, occupied the west end. The interior, without transepts, porches, pillars or side chapels, resembled a big high decrepit untidy whitewashed room. It was also now, although there were three big paraffin heaters, very cold. There were some exceedingly pretty eighteenth century memorial tablets, a plain sturdy Norman font, and a low-standing stone pulpit, meanly narrowed and crushed against the wall as if some devil had half succeeded in wafting it out of the church altogether. The front pews were seventeenth century, with handsome 'poppy-heads' carved into various kinds of foliage. These pews also possessed, which the Edwardian pews behind, now rarely occupied, lacked, delightful kneelers, embroidered by village ladies of the older veneration. Rose wondered why these very nice objects were not stolen, since the church, in accordance with Father McAlister's ideas, was never locked. Perhaps people depraved enough to steal from a church lacked a relevant sense of beauty. Two stone angels appeared from the wall in the chancel, perhaps part of a rescue party sent to prevent the devil from removing the pulpit. These had been, originally, painted, and had been repainted in controversial colours by Father McAlister's predecessor. There had been a wallpainting in the nave, but only the vaguest shadow remained, perhaps a resurrection with people climbing out of tombs. Beside this, more clearly traced though equally ancient, was the message: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. Matthew 7 .7 .This too had been smartened up by the presumptuous paint of the previous parson, to the indignation ofthe locals including Rose who thought that these things should be allowed to moulder in peace.

Father McAlister had climbed the two steps into the little pulpit, and standing with his back against the wall, had turned toward his small congregation who had politely turned toward him, shuffling their frozen feet and depositing lumps of snow upon the stone floor. Father McAlister was tall, but was now, because of the cold, hunched up inside his robes, his hands invisible, his head descending between his shoulders. It was quite a striking head, large, with wiry grey-brown hair which stood up in a commanding wave from his broad brow, a fiercely curving mouth and dark authoritative eyes which were fixed now upon the group in Rose's pew. Gerard, who had been thinking about Jenkin and not listening, began, as Father McAlister's emphatic tones battered his ears, to pay attention. 'Him that hash a high look and a proud heart will I not suffer! So speaks the Lord our God. And what also does God say? Oh listen. He says that He is nigh unto them that are of broken heart, and saveth such as be of contrite spirit, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit – a broken and contrite heart, 0 God, wilt Thou not despise. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted, blessed are the meek fill they shall inherit the earth. The grace of God, 0 my friends, is poured forth upon the humble ones, upon the afflicted and ashamed, but upon the proud God's curse falls and shall bring them low. God hateth pride and curseth it – the pride of thin age of cruel power, the power of machines, the power of material possessions, the power of the oppressors who are everywhere with us – the pride of those who possess riches, the pride of those who think that education and intellect have set them up on a high hill. How woefully deluded are they and how great shall be their fall! The Lord is not with them, the Lord is with the poor, the broken ones whose contrite tears acknowledge that they are nothing. Oh yes, sin demands punishment, sin itself is punishment, but in our fear and our shame is the very working of grace. Before the countenance of God our souls shrivel like moths in a flame, but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the consciousness of' sin, and that alone, 0 my dear friends, can open our blinded eyes and make clean our blackened hearts. Sin befouleth the fair image of God, so that the sinner may feel that he knows not God, even that there is no God. But stay with your sin, bide steadfastly beside it in knowledge and in truth and in faith, and call upon the Spirit, crying "Come Lord, Come Lord' Surely He will come. And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, we ascribe as is most justly due all might, majesty, dominion and power, now and forever more. Amen.'

‘Do you think he was getting at us?' Rose said afterwards, outside.

`Yes!' said Jenkin.

`His assumptions, even if correct, were impertinent,' said Gerard.

'Is he unpopular?' Jenkin asked.

'No, rather popular! Last summer people walked over from the next parish just to hear him!'

'Masochism has always been one of the charms of Christianity,' said Gerard.

'He doesn't seem to be a learned man,' said Rose, 'but he's very eloquent and sincere. I thought at first he was just a ranter. He's certainly a change from Mr Amhurst!'

I enjoyed it!' said Jenkin. 'Did you, Tamar?'

They had sung 'For those in peril on the sea' which always brought tears to Rose's eyes, and afterwards Rose had talked to Miss Margoly, and Julia Scropton who played the harmonium, and Annushka's niece Mavis who was engaged to be married, and Mr Sheppey who was to come up on Monday and look at a drain. The parson had not reappeared.

The exterior of the church was as unpretentious as its interior, adorned only by some corbels carved as grotesque heads, but the situation was attractive, upon a small eminence with fine beech trees, and with a graveyard of handsomely lettered gravestones, dating from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries with little change in style. The vicarage had been pulled down and Father McAlister lived in a little modern house in the village.

It had been agreed that the churchgoers, who had come directly to the church by a footpath, should return the longer way via the village so as to join Gull and Lily at the Pike and even have some drinks there as lunch was to be cold and as late as they pleased. The congregation, all known to Rose, were straggling along toward the village, but Rose's party lingered a moment to enjoy the view of the older village houses, a section of the Roman Road, the roofs of Boyars visible over garden trees and further off and higher up the wood decked with snow. Coats, prudfently removed in church, had been hastily put on again, together with gloves and scarves and (except for Gerard) headgear. Tamar had put on a little close-fitting felt hat. She did not answer Jenkin's question, perhaps had not heard it. The sun was still shining and their footsteps, crunching through the frozen surface of the snow, made a pleasant brittle sound as they now walked along, Rose first arm in arm with Annushka, Gerard and Jenkin behind with Tamar between them.