that as long as they say to God, 'Thou art my hope and my stronghold;
in thee will I trust,' so long they will not be afraid for any terror
by night.

It was because our forefathers did not say that, that they were
afraid, and the terror by night grew on them; till at times it made
them half mad with fear of ghosts, witches, demons, and such-like;
and with the madness of fear came the madness of cruelty; and they
committed, again and again, such atrocities as I will not speak of
here; crimes for which we must trust that God has forgiven them, for
they knew not what they did.

But, though we happily no longer believe in the terror by night which
comes from witches, demons, or ghosts, there is another kind of
terror by night in which we must believe, for it comes to us from
God, and should be listened to as the voice of God: even that terror
about our own sinfulness, folly, weakness which comes to us in dreams
or in sleepless nights. Some will say, 'These painful dreams, these
painful waking thoughts, are merely bodily, and can be explained by
bodily causes, known to physicians.' Whether they can or not,
matters very little to you and me. Things may be bodily, and yet
teach us spiritual lessons. A book--the very Bible itself--is a
bodily thing: bodily leaves of paper, printed with bodily ink; and
yet out of it we may learn lessons for our souls of the most awful
and eternal importance. And so with these night fancies and night
thoughts. We may learn from them. We are forced often to learn from
them, whether we will or not. They are often God's message to us,
calling us to repentance and amendment of life. They are often God's
book of judgment, wherein our sins are written, which God is setting
before us, and showing us the things which we have done.