 The song was played only once and received minor treatments afterwards , with the addition of a cello part in the introduction and some editing , which included removing a verse to reduce the song 's length . Eno was outraged that U2 wanted to shorten the song , and he was adamant that the band not alter the original track too much , saying , " These fucking guys , they 're supposed to be so spiritual — they don 't spot a miracle when it hits them in the face . Nothing like that ever happened to me in the studio in my whole life . " The band 's original concept for No Line on the Horizon was to create an album of future hymns — songs that would be played forever . According to Eno and Lanois , " Moment of Surrender " is the closest the band came to reaching that concept . 
