That Out of the Children of the Night and of the Darkness, Children of the Light and of the Day are Made.

Chapter XIV.—That Out of the Children of the Night and of the Darkness, Children of the Light and of the Day are Made.

15. And so say I too, O my God, where art Thou? Behold where Thou art! In Thee I breathe a little, when I pour out my soul by myself in the voice of joy and praise, the sound of him that keeps holy-day.¹²⁴¹ And yet it is “cast down,” because it relapses and becomes a deep, or rather it feels that it is still a deep. Unto it doth my faith speak which Thou hast kindled to enlighten my feet in the night, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God;”¹²⁴² His “word is a lamp unto my feet.”¹²⁴³ Hope and endure until the night,—the mother of the wicked,—until the anger of the Lord be overpast,¹²⁴⁴ whereof we also were once children who were sometimes darkness,¹²⁴⁵ the remains whereof we carry about us in our body, dead on account of sin,¹²⁴⁶ “until the day break and the shadows flee away.”¹²⁴⁷ “Hope thou in the Lord.” In the morning I shall stand in Thy presence, and contemplate Thee;¹²⁴⁸ I shall for ever confess unto Thee.¹²⁴⁹ In the morning I shall stand in Thy presence, and shall see “the health of my countenance,”¹²⁵⁰ my God, who also shall quicken our mortal bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in us,¹²⁵¹ because in mercy He was borne over our inner darksome and floating deep. Whence we have in this pilgrimage received “an earnest”¹²⁵² that we should now be light, whilst as yet we “are saved by hope,”¹²⁵³ and are the children of light, and the children of the day,—not the children of the night nor of the darkness,¹²⁵⁴ which yet we have been.¹²⁵⁵ Betwixt whom and us, in this as yet uncertain state of human knowledge, Thou only dividest, who provest our hearts¹²⁵⁶ and callest the light day, and the darkness night.¹²⁵⁷ For who discerneth us but Thou? But what have we that we have not received of Thee?¹²⁵⁸ Out of the same lump vessels unto honour, of which others also are made to dishonour.¹²⁵⁹