"In thy presence is
fulness of joy." Such a sense of absolute helplessness overwhelmed
Arctura that she felt awake in her an endless claim upon the
protection of her original, the source of her being. And what sooner
would any father have of his children than action on such claim! God
is always calling us as his children, and when we call him as our
father, then, and not till then, does he begin to be satisfied. And
with that there fell upon Arctura a kind of sleep, which yet was not
sleep; it was a repose such as perhaps is the sleep of a spirit.
Again the external began to intrude. She pictured to herself what
the darkness was hiding. Her feelings when first she came down into
the place returned on her memory. The tide of terror began again to
rise. It rose and rose, and threatened to become monstrous. She
reasoned with herself: had she not been brought in safety through
its first and most dangerous inroad?--but reason could not outface
terror. It was fear, the most terrible of all terrors, that she
feared. Then again woke her faith: if the night hideth not from him,
neither does the darkness of fear!
It began to thunder, first with a low distant muttering roll, then
with a loud and near bellowing. Was it God coming to her? Some are
strangely terrified at thunder; Arctura had the child's feeling that
it was God that thundered: it comforted her as with the assurance
that God was near.
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