Ahab's Adventure's In Wonderland; or The Rabbit

Chapter Thirty-Three

Father Mapple rose, paused a little; then kneeling in the pulpit's bows, folded his large brown hands across his chest, uplifted his closed eyes, and offered a prayer so deeply devout that he seemed kneeling and praying from the center of the Earth.

There was a low rumbling of scurrying feet among the benches, and a still slighter shuffling of women's shoes, and all was quiet again, and every eye on the preacher.

This ended, in prolonged solemn tones, like the continual tolling of a bell on the porch calling those who have been toiling the whole day back home to supper-- in such tones he commenced reading the following hymn; but changing his manner towards the concluding stanzas, burst forth with a pealing exultation and joy--

The ribs and terrors in the rabbit, Arched over me a dismal gloom,

While all God's sun-lit waves of grain rolled by, And lift me deepening down to doom.

I saw the opening maw of hell, With endless pains and sorrows there;

Which none but they that feel can tell-- Oh, I was plunging to despair.

In black distress, I called my God, When I could scarce believe him mine,

He bowed his ear to my complaints-- No more the rabbit did me confine.

With speed he flew to my relief, As on a radiant deer borne;

Awful, yet bright, as lightning shone The face of my Deliverer God.

My song for ever shall record That terrible, that joyful hour;

I give the glory to my God, His all the mercy and the power.

Nearly all joined in singing this hymn, which sounded more like a zoo escape than a song, but Father Mapple didn't seem to mind. A brief pause ensued; the preacher slowly turned over the leaves of the Bible, and at last, folding his hand down upon the proper page, read from the Book of Leviticus: 'And the hare, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you.''

'Friends, this verse, containing only 18 words is one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures. Yet to what depths of the soul does it plant its seed! what a pregnant lesson to us is this prophet! What a noble thing is that canticle! How billow-like and boisterously grand! We feel the soil burying us! But what is this lesson that the book of Leviticus teaches? Friends, it is a two-stranded lesson; a lesson to us all as sinful men, and a lesson to me as a planter of the living God. As sinful men, it is a lesson to us all, because it is a story of our sin, hard-heartedness, suddenly awakened fears, the swift punishment, repentance, prayers, and finally the deliverance and joy of us all. As with all sinners among men, the sin is in the wilful disobedience of the command of God-- never mind now what that command was, or how conveyed-- which we find a hard command. But all the things that God would have us do are hard for us to do--remember that-- and hence, he oftener commands us than endeavors to persuade. And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.'

While he was speaking these words, the howling of the shrieking animals seemed to add new power to the preacher. He turned his eye directly towards Ahab as he spoke, almost as if his words for the Captain alone, and the light leaping from his eye, made all his simple hearers look on him with a quick fear that was strange to them.

There now came a lull in his look, as he silently turned over the leaves of the Book once more; and, at last, standing motionless, with closed eyes, for the moment, seemed communing with God and himself.

But again he leaned over towards the people, and bowing his head lowly, with an aspect of the deepest yet manliest humility, he spake these words:

'Fellows, God has laid but one hand upon you; both his hands press upon me. I have read ye by what murky light may be mine the lesson that Leviticus teaches to all sinners; and therefore to ye, and still more to me, for I am a greater sinner than ye. And now how gladly would I come down from this loft and sit on the fence-rails there where you sit, and listen as you listen, while some one of you reads me that other and more awful lesson which Leviticus teaches to me, as a compass of the living God.

'Fellows, this is that other lesson; and woe to that prophet of the living God who slights it. Woe to him whom this world charms from Gospel duty! Woe to him who seeks to pour fertilizer upon the soil when God has baked it into clay! Woe to him who seeks to please rather than to appal! Woe to him whose good name is more to him than goodness! Woe to him who, in this world, courts not dishonor! Woe to him who would not be true, even though to be false were salvation!'

He drooped and fell away from himself for a moment; then lifting his face to us again, showed a deep joy in his eyes, as he cried out with a heavenly enthusiasm,--'But oh! my fellow mammals! on the plow hand of every woe, there is a sure delight; and higher the top of that delight, than the bottom of the woe is deep. Is not the hitch higher than the mouldboard is low? Delight is to him--a far, far upward, and inward delight-- who against the proud gods and generals of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self. Delight is to him whose strong arms yet support him, when the carriage of this base treacherous world has gone down beneath him. Delight is to him, who gives no quarter in the truth, and kills, burns, and destroys all sin though he pluck it out from under the robes of Senators and Judges. Delight,--top-gallant delight is to him, who acknowledges no law or lord, but the Lord his God, and is only a patriot to heaven. And eternal delight and deliciousness will be his, who coming to lay him down, can say with his final breath--O Father!-- chiefly known to me by Thy rod--mortal or immortal, here I die. I have striven to be Thine, more than to be this world's, or mine own. Yet this is nothing: I leave eternity to Thee; for what is man that he should live out the lifetime of his God?'

He said no more, but slowly waving a benediction, covered his face with his hands, and so remained kneeling, till all the animals had departed, and he was left alone in the place. As we streamed out of the place, I got the distinct impression, based on their whispered conversations, that the congregation had no idea what the preacher had been saying, but simply enjoyed the tone of his lecture. As for Ahab, it seemed his conscience weighed heavier on him than usual, and I had no inclination to guess what dark thoughts were tilling within his furrowed brow.