Dark Night of the Soul · 29 of 39

Book II, Chapter 15: The second stanza and its explanation

The second stanza and its explanation.

In darkness and in safety, By the secret ladder, disguised, O happy lot!

In darkness and concealment, My house being now at rest.

In this stanza the soul goes on singing still of certain properties of the darkness of this night, speaking again of the happy lot which befel it through them. It speaks of them in answering an implied objection, observing that no one is to think that because in this dark night it passed through so many storms of affliction, doubt, fear and horror, as I said before it had therefore run any risk of being lost; yea rather, it found safety in the darkness, because in the darkness it was free and skilfully escaped from its enemies who were ever hindering its departure.

2. In the darkness of the night it changed its garments, and disguised itself in three colours, of which I shall speak hereafter, f It sallied forth unknown to the whole of its household by a most secret ladder, which, as I shall show in the proper place, is a living faith — in such secrecy and silence, for the better execution of its purpose, that it could not possibly be in greater security; especially now, because in the purgative night, the desires, passions, and affections of the soul are asleep, mortified, and subdued; and these are they which, awake and active, would never have consented to that departure.