When man walks alone with God by Jack london

When man walks alone with God
Excerpt from"the white silence"
by Jack london

Nature has many tricks wherewith she convinces man of his finity--
the ceaseless flow of the tides, the fury of the storm, the shock
of the earthquake, the long roll of heaven's artillery--but
the most tremendous, the most stupefying of all, is the passive
phase of the White Silence. All movement ceases, the sky clears,
the heavens are as brass; the slightest whisper seems sacrilege,
and man becomes timid, affrighted at the sound of his own voice.

Sole speck of life journeying across the ghostly wastes of
a dead world, he trembles at his audacity, realizes that his
is a maggot's life, nothing more. Strange thoughts arise
unsummoned, and the mystery of all things strives for utterance.

And the fear of death, of God, of the universe comes over him--
the hope of the Resurrection and the Life, the yearning for
immortality, the vain striving of the imprisoned essence--
it is then, if ever, man walks alone with God.