John, and of his two sisters, when again I thought of
Christina's long years of hope deferred that maketh the heart sick,
before she was married, of the life she must have led at Crampsford,
and of the surroundings in the midst of which she and her husband both
lived at Battersby, I felt as though the wonder was that misfortunes
so persistent had not been followed by even graver retribution.
Poor people! They had tried to keep their ignorance of the world
from themselves by calling it the pursuit of heavenly things, and then
shutting their eyes to anything that might give them trouble. A son
having been born to them they had shut his eyes also as far as was
practicable. Who could blame them? They had chapter and verse for
everything they had either done or left undone; there is no better
thumbed precedent than that for being a clergyman's wife. In what
respect had they differed from their neighbours? How did their
household differ from that of any other clergyman of the better sort
from one end of England to the other? Why then should it have been
upon them, of all people in the world, that this tower of Siloam had
fallen?
Surely it was the tower of Siloam that was naught rather than
those who stood under it; it was the system rather than the people
that was at fault.
Pages:
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470