I added a cello line to the introduction, contemplating two possibilities. The first has quarter notes to contrast with the choral half notes. Two difficulties with it are the break in stepwise upward motion in measure two and the discordance in beat three of the second measure. The second and third beats could be considered changing tones, but beat three is a bit too strong to be part of that. Altering beat three to an F minor or A-flat chord would muck up the voice leading for the soprano and the introductory chord progression would no longer be the same as the keys of the first six numbers. Changing the third beat from an A-flat to a D (repeating second beat) would be one way to resolve the problem. The quarter notes in the cello do add some impetus to the introduction.
The second possibility is half notes in the cello, which means it does not stand out at all until the quarters in the third bar as the choir finishes. The upward impetus of the first possibility is perhaps too subtle. The first possibility’s upward movement highlights the moral nature of the text.
So I’ll go with the first possibility:
Scored for a string quartet, the introduction and first number look like this so far(click the image to embiggen):
and sounds like this:
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