With that sentiment gushing from my soul , might I not leave all the rest to him ? Hark ! the hymn ! This , at least , is a portion of the service which I can enjoy better than if I sat within the walls , where the full choir and the massive melody of the organ would fall with a weight upon me . At this distance it thrills through my frame and plays upon my heart-strings with a pleasure both of the sense and spirit . Heaven be praised ! I know nothing of music as a science , and the most elaborate harmonies , if they please me , please as simply as a nurse 's lullaby . The strain has ceased , but prolongs itself in my mind with fanciful echoes till I start from my reverie and find that the sermon has commenced . It is my misfortune seldom to fructify in a regular way by any but printed sermons . The first strong idea which the preacher utters gives birth to a train of thought and leads me onward step by step quite out of hearing of the good man 's voice unless he be indeed a son of thunder . At my open window , catching now and then a sentence of the `` parson 's saw , '' I am as well situated as at the foot of the pulpit stairs . The broken and scattered fragments of this one discourse will be the texts of many sermons preached by those colleague pastors -- colleagues , but often disputants -- my Mind and Heart . The former pretends to be a scholar and perplexes me with doctrinal points ; the latter takes me on the score of feeling ; and both , like several other preachers , spend their strength to very little purpose . I , their sole auditor , can not always understand them . Suppose that a few hours have passed , and behold me still behind my curtain just before the close of the afternoon service . The hour-hand on the dial has passed beyond four o'clock . The declining sun is hidden behind the steeple and throws its shadow straight across the street ; so that my chamber is darkened as with a cloud . Around the church door all is solitude , and an impenetrable obscurity beyond the threshold . A commotion is heard . The seats are slammed down and the pew doors thrown back ; a multitude of feet are trampling along the unseen aisles , and the congregation bursts suddenly through the portal .
Foremost scampers a rabble of boys , behind whom moves a dense and dark phalanx XXXXX grown men , and lastly a crowd of females with young children and a few scattered husbands .
Around With along at behind by from like of on