The Fourth Watch of the Night

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In 1875 fierce winds sank a vessel off the English coast and sent 78 souls to their deaths. This disaster stirred Gerard Manley Hopkins to write a poem in which he agonizes that the ship and its human cargo seem beyond God's pity. Hopkins' poem has inspired Carter Gregory to study Scripture and the human psyche for signs that we are not beyond God's pity, that we will be raised up by God's spirit moving over the waters. Jesus rescued his disciples when high winds threatened them at sea. But few readers realize that it was Jesus himself who placed them in danger, then came to them like a ghost walking upon the water. Strange rendezvous! This paradox-Jesus the cause of their distress, Jesus their savior-leads Mr. Gregory to explore Scripture for signs and symbols that reveal the human spirit in its highest elevation, where we behold the cause and the cure of our terrors. He explores Mark's Gospel for its numerological exposition of God's plan; he offers new insight into Luke's parable of the Good Samaritan; and he examines the mystical signs and numbers that both beset and delivered a young victim of demonic possession whose story was made into the 1975 film The Exorcist.