But it is most worthy of remark how little the Bible
says about them, not how much; how it keeps them, as it were, in the
background, instead of bringing them forward; while our forefathers
seem continually talking of them, continually bringing them forward--
I had almost said they thought of nothing else. If you compare the
Holy Bible with the works which were most popular among our
forefathers, especially among the lower class, till within the last
200 years, you will see at once what I mean,--how ghosts,
apparitions, demons, witchcraft, are perpetually spoken of in them;
how seldom they are spoken of in the Bible; lest, I suppose, men
should think of them rather than of God, as our forefathers seem to
have been but too much given to do.
And so with this Psalm. It takes for granted that men will have
terrors by night; that they will be at times afraid of what may come
to them in the darkness. But it tells them not to be afraid, for
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.
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