The Dark Night of the Soul

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ...griefstricken soul feels most of all, is the thought that God has most certainly forsaken her, and that in His loathing of her, He has cast her into the abyss of darkness, which is, for her, a grievous and pitiable suffering to believe that God has forsaken her. The which, also, David, in a like case, feeling deeply, says: Sicut 1/ulnerati dormienze.' in sepulc/zris, quorum non es memor amplius: et z'psi de manu tua repulsi sunt: jlosuerunt me in 1oco inferiori, in te/zebrosis, at in umbra mortis: super me confirmatus est furor tuus: et omnes fluctus tuos ina'uxisti super me? Like as wounded men lie 2 Psalm lxxxvii. 6. 1 Psalm xvii. 5, 6, 7. lead in sepulchres, from whom Thou hast lifted Thy hand, and of whom Thou hast no more memory: so placed they me in the deep and nethermost lake, in the darkness and shadow of death, and, therefore, Thy anger is confirmed upon me, and all Thy waves Thou lettedst loose upon me. For, truly, when this purgative contemplation constrains, the soul feels the shadow of death and the groans g and tortures of Hell, as if she saw them bodily before her, for Hell to her consists in feeling herself forsaken of God, and chastised and flung aside, and that He is outraged and wrathful, for all this she suffers now; and furthermore, she is overcome by a direful terror that it is for ever. And she is haunted by this same sense of being forsaken and despised of all created people and things, particularly of her friends. For this reason it is that David goes on to say: Longe feciste notos meos a' me: posuerunt me abominationem _;i&i_1 Thou didst turn away my friends and acquaintances from me, they held me for an abomination. To all which, as one who had likewise experienced it bodily and spiritually, Jonas...