CHAPTER 9

The Sermon


Father Mapple rose, and in a mild voice of unassuming authority
ordered the scattered people to condense. "Star board gangway,
there! side away to larboard--larboard gangway to starboard!
Midships! midships!"

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

He 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 at the bottom of the sea.

This ended, in prolonged solemn tones, like the continual
tolling of a bell in a ship that is foundering at sea in a fog--
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 whale,
Arched over me a dismal gloom,