Woe to the person who should then dare to
interrupt his devotions! If Jean, who had no foresight or anticipation
of consequences, should, urged by some supposed necessity of the case,
call to him through the door bolted against Time and its concerns, the
saint who had been kneeling before God in utter abasement,
self-contempt, and wretchedness, would suddenly wrench it open, a
wrathful, indignant man, boiling brimful of angry words and unkind
objurgations, through all which would be manifest, notwithstanding, a
certain unhappy restraint. Having driven the enemy away in confusion,
he would bolt his door again, and return to his prayers in two-fold
misery, conscious of guilt increased by unrighteous anger, and so of
yet another wall of separation raised between him and his God.
Now this weakness all but disappeared during the worst of his illness,
to return for a season with increased force when his recovery had
advanced so far as to admit of his getting out of bed. Children are
almost always cross when recovering from an illness, however patient
they may have been during its severest moments; and the phenomenon is
not by any means confined to children.
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