Levi excused himself by citing his integrity and his need to live an intellectually honest life, but Nick, of course, agreed. Many of the faces in the church were the same faces he had left behind when he had joined, only now they were older, many of them sallow. There were very few new members, that is to say, young members. On his way in, Nick greeted the members of his old church family and politely smiled at the equivocal comments, noting just how much he had changed. The night before the service, Uncle Thomas had given Nick the choice between several passages which invariably called down curses upon God’s enemies and called for victory and vengeance for His people. No doubt the preacher’s intentions were good with Nick going to war and all, but the crusading Psalms he had cited always made Nick uncomfortable; and though he had always believed such violent musings somehow fit into the larger plan of divine justice, retribution, et cetera, Nick preferred to leave the reconciliation between law and gospel to the theologians—or better yet, to the Judge himself.
