{"id":"01KJNXJQTPVKRV1N4SP1EYC8XZ","cid":"bafkreiccp32zjrfi4nyvxjjmdfv6rqa3ashnvtiwyfdvhojlgfxmemkffa","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":114960,"char_start":107026,"chunk_index":15,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1984,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"his tarpaulin hat ran down with melting sleet, and his great pilot\r\ncloth jacket seemed almost to drag him to the floor with the weight of\r\nthe water it had absorbed. However, hat and coat and overshoes were one\r\nby one removed, and hung up in a little space in an adjacent corner;\r\nwhen, arrayed in a decent suit, he quietly approached the pulpit.\r\n\r\nLike most old fashioned pulpits, it was a very lofty one, and since a\r\nregular stairs to such a height would, by its long angle with the\r\nfloor, seriously contract the already small area of the chapel, the\r\narchitect, it seemed, had acted upon the hint of Father Mapple, and\r\nfinished the pulpit without a stairs, substituting a perpendicular side\r\nladder, like those used in mounting a ship from a boat at sea. The wife\r\nof a whaling captain had provided the chapel with a handsome pair of\r\nred worsted man-ropes for this ladder, which, being itself nicely\r\nheaded, and stained with a mahogany colour, the whole contrivance,\r\nconsidering what manner of chapel it was, seemed by no means in bad\r\ntaste. Halting for an instant at the foot of the ladder, and with both\r\nhands grasping the ornamental knobs of the man-ropes, Father Mapple\r\ncast a look upwards, and then with a truly sailor-like but still\r\nreverential dexterity, hand over hand, mounted the steps as if\r\nascending the main-top of his vessel.\r\n\r\nThe perpendicular parts of this side ladder, as is usually the case\r\nwith swinging ones, were of cloth-covered rope, only the rounds were of\r\nwood, so that at every step there was a joint. At my first glimpse of\r\nthe pulpit, it had not escaped me that however convenient for a ship,\r\nthese joints in the present instance seemed unnecessary. For I was not\r\nprepared to see Father Mapple after gaining the height, slowly turn\r\nround, and stooping over the pulpit, deliberately drag up the ladder\r\nstep by step, till the whole was deposited within, leaving him\r\nimpregnable in his little Quebec.\r\n\r\nI pondered some time without fully comprehending the reason for this.\r\nFather Mapple enjoyed such a wide reputation for sincerity and\r\nsanctity, that I could not suspect him of courting notoriety by any\r\nmere tricks of the stage. No, thought I, there must be some sober\r\nreason for this thing; furthermore, it must symbolize something unseen.\r\nCan it be, then, that by that act of physical isolation, he signifies\r\nhis spiritual withdrawal for the time, from all outward worldly ties\r\nand connexions? Yes, for replenished with the meat and wine of the\r\nword, to the faithful man of God, this pulpit, I see, is a\r\nself-containing stronghold—a lofty Ehrenbreitstein, with a perennial\r\nwell of water within the walls.\r\n\r\nBut the side ladder was not the only strange feature of the place,\r\nborrowed from the chaplain’s former sea-farings. Between the marble\r\ncenotaphs on either hand of the pulpit, the wall which formed its back\r\nwas adorned with a large painting representing a gallant ship beating\r\nagainst a terrible storm off a lee coast of black rocks and snowy\r\nbreakers. But high above the flying scud and dark-rolling clouds, there\r\nfloated a little isle of sunlight, from which beamed forth an angel’s\r\nface; and this bright face shed a distinct spot of radiance upon the\r\nship’s tossed deck, something like that silver plate now inserted into\r\nthe Victory’s plank where Nelson fell. “Ah, noble ship,” the angel\r\nseemed to say, “beat on, beat on, thou noble ship, and bear a hardy\r\nhelm; for lo! the sun is breaking through; the clouds are rolling\r\noff—serenest azure is at hand.”\r\n\r\nNor was the pulpit itself without a trace of the same sea-taste that\r\nhad achieved the ladder and the picture. Its panelled front was in the\r\nlikeness of a ship’s bluff bows, and the Holy Bible rested on a\r\nprojecting piece of scroll work, fashioned after a ship’s fiddle-headed\r\nbeak.\r\n\r\nWhat could be more full of meaning?—for the pulpit is ever this earth’s\r\nforemost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the\r\nworld. From thence it is the storm of God’s quick wrath is first\r\ndescried, and the bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is\r\nthe God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favourable winds.\r\nYes, the world’s a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete;\r\nand the pulpit is its prow.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 9. The Sermon.\r\n\r\nFather Mapple rose, and in a mild voice of unassuming authority ordered\r\nthe scattered people to condense. “Starboard gangway, there! side away\r\nto larboard—larboard gangway to starboard! Midships! midships!”\r\n\r\nThere was a low rumbling of heavy sea-boots among the benches, and a\r\nstill slighter shuffling of women’s shoes, and all was quiet again, and\r\nevery eye on the preacher.\r\n\r\nHe paused a little; then kneeling in the pulpit’s bows, folded his\r\nlarge brown hands across his chest, uplifted his closed eyes, and\r\noffered a prayer so deeply devout that he seemed kneeling and praying\r\nat the bottom of the sea.\r\n\r\nThis ended, in prolonged solemn tones, like the continual tolling of a\r\nbell in a ship that is foundering at sea in a fog—in such tones he\r\ncommenced reading the following hymn; but changing his manner towards\r\nthe concluding stanzas, burst forth with a pealing exultation and joy—\r\n\r\n\r\n  “The ribs and terrors in the whale, Arched over me a dismal gloom,\r\n  While all God’s sun-lit waves rolled by, And lift me deepening down\r\n  to doom.\r\n\r\n  “I saw the opening maw of hell, With endless pains and sorrows there;\r\n  Which none but they that feel can tell— Oh, I was plunging to\r\n  despair.\r\n\r\n  “In black distress, I called my God, When I could scarce believe him\r\n  mine, He bowed his ear to my complaints— No more the whale did me\r\n  confine.\r\n\r\n  “With speed he flew to my relief, As on a radiant dolphin borne;\r\n  Awful, yet bright, as lightning shone The face of my Deliverer God.\r\n\r\n  “My song for ever shall record That terrible, that joyful hour; I\r\n  give the glory to my God, His all the mercy and the power.”\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNearly all joined in singing this hymn, which swelled high above the\r\nhowling of the storm. A brief pause ensued; the preacher slowly turned\r\nover the leaves of the Bible, and at last, folding his hand down upon\r\nthe proper page, said: “Beloved shipmates, clinch the last verse of the\r\nfirst chapter of Jonah—‘And God had prepared a great fish to swallow up\r\nJonah.’”\r\n\r\n“Shipmates, this book, containing only four chapters—four yarns—is one\r\nof the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures. Yet what\r\ndepths of the soul does Jonah’s deep sealine sound! what a pregnant\r\nlesson to us is this prophet! What a noble thing is that canticle in\r\nthe fish’s belly! How billow-like and boisterously grand! We feel the\r\nfloods surging over us; we sound with him to the kelpy bottom of the\r\nwaters; sea-weed and all the slime of the sea is about us! But _what_\r\nis this lesson that the book of Jonah teaches? Shipmates, it is a\r\ntwo-stranded lesson; a lesson to us all as sinful men, and a lesson to\r\nme as a pilot of the living God. As sinful men, it is a lesson to us\r\nall, because it is a story of the sin, hard-heartedness, suddenly\r\nawakened fears, the swift punishment, repentance, prayers, and finally\r\nthe deliverance and joy of Jonah. As with all sinners among men, the\r\nsin of this son of Amittai was in his wilful disobedience of the\r\ncommand of God—never mind now what that command was, or how\r\nconveyed—which he found a hard command. But all the things that God\r\nwould have us do are hard for us to do—remember that—and hence, he\r\noftener commands us than endeavors to persuade. And if we obey God, we\r\nmust disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein\r\nthe hardness of obeying God consists.\r\n\r\n“With this sin of disobedience in him, Jonah still further flouts at\r\nGod, by seeking to flee from Him. He thinks that a ship made by men\r\nwill carry him into countries where God does not reign, but only the\r\nCaptains of this earth."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.606Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.606Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KJ6WPT018SDDANE6N7Q8E428"}}