The soul, beginning to be conscious that she no longer perceives the Word, believes that He is only hidden for a night, or rather, that He is sleeping in His place of rest. She says to Him, O my Beloved, since I am under the same roof with Thee and Thou art so near me, turn a little towards me, that I may perceive Thee! Let me enjoy the delights of Thy society until the day break, and I may have further evidence of Thy presence; until the shadows of faith flee away and yield to the soft light of vision and unclouded enjoyment! Then, remembering the transitory union which she formerly experienced, she cries: Run quickly, if it seem good to Thee, like a roe or a young hart that bounds, but let it be upon the mountains; let me once more enjoy that central union, that was so sweet and profitable when it was granted me before.

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Footnotes:

[17] Those who are beginning to serve God, are commonly persecuted by the unregenerate, because their withdrawal is a public condemnation of the disorders which reign in the world; but the more they are proscribed by such, the more they are esteemed by people of probity. Not so, however, with those who devote themselves to the interior life; not only do they suffer persecution at the hands of a godless world and from people of regular lives, but far more severely from such pious and spiritual minded persons as are not interior. These latter do it as a matter of duty, not being able to recognize any other way as right but that in which they themselves are walking. But their most violent assaults come from pretended saints and false devotees, whose foul characters, wickedness and hypocrisies they detect as they are enlightened by the truth of God, and this gives rise to an opposition between such persons and those who are truly spiritual, like that between the angels and the devils.--Justifications, iii. 55.

[18] To comprehend this, let us remember, that between the last trials, which John of the Cross calls the night of the spirit, and the first purgation or night of the senses, God communicates Himself to the soul in a far more perfect manner than He had ever done before. The same thing is here indicated in the Canticles. The greater the purity and sublimity of this manifestation, the more terrible is the subsequent absence of the Bridegroom and the following purification; the measure of His revelation seems to be the measure of His hiding. These trials are rendered more agonizing, because, in addition to the absence of the Spouse, the soul is overwhelmed with a conviction of its own wretchedness, with frightful distress within and persecutions from men and devils without, so that no one can form an idea of its terrible tribulations except from actual experience. The hiding of the Spouse is well termed night and death, for it is He that is the light and life of the soul; and as the natural light renders frightful objects far more horrible and terrifying, so the darker night of the spirit and the less hope there is of beholding another dawn, the more distressing are the accompanying circumstances of the gloom.--Justifications, ii. 276.

[19] Note here, that before the soul can come forth and abandon self, she must first be led into her own centre; having tasted the enjoyment to be found there, it is difficult to induce her to quit it. But, if she will only be faithful, she shall see how infinitely unworthy is the rest in the created centre, when compared with that enjoyed in the bosom of the Eternal!--Justifications, iii. 90.