There was a sermon to prepare. There always was; and the one for this Sunday the minister was going to call, "On the Perils of Personal Vanity." A tricky topic, requiring discretion, as he was hoping with its teaching to head off a crisis that loomed on the ecclesiastical horizon regarding the purchase of a new organ.
The decision as to whether the church needed a new organ took on some significance; the organist, Doris Austin, was ready to view any opposition as an assault on her personal character - a stance irritating to those who had a natural hesitancy toward any change. Reverend Caskey was opposed to the organ, but said nothing publicly, only tried through his preaching to make people think.
Elizabeth Strout, from her novel Abide With Me
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