e, that I thought no place could ever be strange
to me again."[156]

[156] H. Thoreau: Walden, Riverside edition, p. 206, abridged.

In the Christian consciousness this sense of the enveloping
friendliness becomes most personal and definite. "The compensation,"
writes a German author,--"for the loss of that sense of personal
independence which man so unwillingly gives up, is the disappearance of
all FEAR from one's life, the quite indescribable and inexplicable
feeling of an inner SECURITY, which one can only experience, but which,
once it has been experienced, one can never forget."[157]

[157] C. H. Hilty: Gluck, vol. i. p. 85.

I find an excellent description of this state of mind in a sermon by
Mr. Voysey:--

"It is the experience of myriads of trustful souls, that this sense of
God's unfailing presence with them in their going out and in their
coming in, and by night and day, is a source of absolute repose and
confident calmness. It drives away all fear of what may befall them.
That nearness of God is a constant security against terror and anxiety.
It is not that they are at all assured of physical safety, or deem
themselves protected by a love which is denied to others, but that they
are in a state of mind equally ready to be safe or to meet with injury.
If injury befall them, they will be content to bear it because the Lord
is their keeper, and nothing can befall them without his will. If it
be his will, then injury is for them a blessing and no calamity at all.
Thus and thus only is the trustful man protected and shielded from
harm. And I for one--by no means a thick-skinned or hard-nerved man-am
absolutely satisfied with this arrangement, and do not wish for any
other kind of immunity from danger and catastrophe. Quite as sensitive
to pain as the most highly strung organism, I yet feel that the worst
of it is conquered, and the sting taken out of it altogether, by the
thought that God is our loving and sleepless keeper, and that nothing
can hurt us without his will."[158]

[158] The Mystery of Pain and Death, London, 1892, p. 258.

More excited expressions of this condition are abundant in religious
literature. I could easily weary you with their monotony. Here is an
account from Mrs. Jonathan Edwards:--

"Last night," Mrs. Edwards writes, "was the sweetest night I ever had
in my life. I never before, for so long a time together, enjoyed so
much of the light and rest and sweetness