This Month's Installment
As always, the italicized parts are what I'm unsure about.
It sounded like a cry out of deepest need, like a confession at the same time of confidence and of faith, the mountain moves and rising tides ebb. Now confidence and victory were also in his soul, enthusiastically and in high spirits as never before, he went to the pulpit, he read the text:"Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. There is a river---122---whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God will help her when morning dawns. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress."One had never before heard him speak as on this day. Usually, his sermon was full of intellect and deep thoughts, this time it was like a thriving fire of his words that, restrained only with effort, burned out of everyone and inflamed all who heard them. And there was not one in the large church who went away from this service not lifted and purified."That was the man whom we needed, especially for such a difficult time! I saw it straight away back then and have made the right choice," said Mayor Stoltzmann to his wife at the exit.Edith went silently between the two. The conversation again reminded her that she had not had Hans Warson in her home for a long time.After the service, the Lord's Supper was held in the church. Again a large congregation gathered at the high altar: men whom Hans knew only in their peacetime occupations, salesmen, civil servants, craftsmen, workers. Now all in uniform, prepared for marching off: officers, sergeants, corporals, privates. And beside them their wives. Then mothers and fathers to the side of their very young son who was going to war. The women wept softly, even the eyes of the men shimmered with a trace of tears. And yet everyone's composure was calm and strong. How filled and loaded by the force of the moment.---123---And he, who so many times had carried bitter lamenting in his despondent heart that humanity had broken away from God's gentle purpose, he distributed bread and wine and in this hour experienced what to him only a few days ago would have appeared impossible.But when he came home after uninterrupted work, he felt that he was at the end of his strength. The hasty trip with its unpleasant incident, the sleepless night with its rushing thoughts, but more than that: this morning with its great elevation and spiritual excitement had surely exhausted his delicate and soft-voiced organism. He was annoyed at himself, he did not want to let it arise. He spoke thoroughly and warmly with the people who waited for him in his study, he went into the church several times in order to hold war marriages and to baptize children whose fathers were going into the field. And there he never did anything superficially but did everything with his whole soul, so that this all touched his heart.When, around two o'clock in the afternoon, he went out of the church for the last time and into his apartment, he suddenly felt such an intense, black flickering before his eyes that he had to hold on to the banisters in order not to collapse. But he fought like a champion, took off his cassock, proceeded to the dining room, where Else already waited for him, showed a cheerful face, and forced himself to eat."You have had a desperately hard day," she said."But a great, a wonderful day! I have experienced what I longed for with the entire fervor of my soul, on whose fulfillment I already despaired; now I have seen it with my own eyes. This war has worked wonders in one day!"---124---
Commentary/Grammatical Minutiae
The reading ("Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way...") is from Psalm 46, although some verses are dropt out. The quoted text contains verses 3-5, 6b, and 8 in the German Psalter, where the versification is slightly different. This corresponds to verses 2-4, 5b, and 7 in English translations. Rather than do my own translation, I simply used the ESV translation. It's a fitting reading to come after "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," since this is the Psalm that Luther used as a basis for that hymn.
This is the end of chapter twenty-three and the beginning of chapter twenty-four.
