While the soul is thus receiving the sweet caresses of the Bridegroom, she thinks they will last forever; but if they are the pledges of His love, they are also the tokens of His departure. Scarcely has she begun to taste the pleasantness of union before He is wholly gone, [18] and she compares His rapid disappearance to the movements of a roe or a young hart. While she is fondly lamenting his strange abandonment of her and when she thought Him far distant, she suddenly perceives Him close at hand. He had only hid Himself to try her faith and confidence in Him; but he never removes His look from her, protecting her more carefully than ever, being more closely united to her than ever before by the new union that has just taken place. But although He always beholds her, she does not always see Him. She only perceives Him occasionally, that she may not be ignorant of his watchfulness, and that she may one day teach it to others. It is to be observed, that He standeth, since it is now no time to rest, nor even to be seated, but to run; He therefore stands, as if ready to depart.