"
Mary thought of the "groanings that can not be uttered." Perhaps
that is just what music is meant for--to say the things that have
no shape, therefore can have no words, yet are intensely alive--
the unembodied children of thought, the eternal child. Certainly
the musician can groan the better with the aid of his violin.
Surely this man's instrument was the gift of God to him. All
God's gifts are a giving of himself. The Spirit can better dwell
in a violin than in an ark or in the mightiest of temples.
But there was another side to the thing, and Mary felt bound to
present it.
"But, you know, Mr. Jasper," she said, "when many violins play
together, each taking a part in relation to all the rest, a much
grander music is the result than any single instrument could
produce."
"I've heard tell of such things, miss, but I've never heard
them." He had never been to concert or oratorio, any more than
the play.
"Then you shall hear them," said Mary, her heart filling with
delight at the thought. "--But what if there should be some way
in which the prayers of all souls may blend like many violins? We
are all brothers and sisters, you know--and what if the gathering
together in church be one way of making up a concert of souls?--
Imagine one mighty prayer, made up of all the desires of all the
hearts God ever made, breaking like a huge wave against the foot
of his throne!"
"There would be some force in a wave like that, miss!" said
Joseph.
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