Jem Kamran -Sublime

I don't think I understand the idea of Sublime. I understand that it is the something big, huge, terrible and makes one feel small, feeble, insignificant. I think the reason that I struggle with this idea is because I don't think I have experienced something like that before. However, as I was reading Schopenhauer description of the sublime it reminded of the old hymn it is well with my soul. Whenever we sing that hymn in church I always have this image of this violent sea, thrashing against rock similar to the imagery Schopenhauer uses to describe the sublime. I am referring to the verses that says "When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roar..." Here Horatio Spafford, the author of this hymn, is calling this sorrows the sublime in the second verse , in my opinion. He is saying that his sorrows are so overwhelming, and are so much bigger than him that he feels small, feeble and insignificant compared to them. He is so overwhelmed by them that he feels threaten by the power of it. He juxtaposes this verse with when peace like a river attendeth my way. In a way the peace is also subliminal for it strong like a river, which is overwhelming as well. He uses subliminal imagery helps create the feeling of humans as an insignificant being dependent on the mercy of greater powers beyond us. Only through experiencing the subliminal does he has the knowledge that Schopenhauer talks about. Spafford chorus is "it is well with my soul" to me this is an understanding that Schopenhauer talks about in this quote, "On the other hand, with the sublime, that state of pure knowing is obtained first of all by a conscious and violet tearing away from the relations of the same object to the will which are recognized as unfavourable, by a free exaltation, accompanied by consciousness, beyond the will and knowledge related to it."According this quote the refrain "it is well with my soul makes a lot of sense." for it reenforces the idea that the subliminal may lead to a greater knowledge or a realization.