faithfulness
displeases
Him.
Oh
!
then
if
they
could
sink
into
dust,
they
would.
They
would
do
anything
to
repair
the
injury
done
to
God;
and
if,
by
any
slight
neglects,
which
appear
crimes
to
them,
they
have
offended
their
neighbour,
what
return
are
they
not
willing
to
make?
But
it
is
pitiful
to
see
the
state
of
that
one
who
has
driven
away
her
Beloved.
She
does
not
cease
to
run
after
Him,
but
the
faster
she
goes,
the
further
He
seems
to
leave
her
be-hind
;
and
if
He
stops,
it
is
only
for
a
moment,
that
she
may
recover
breatli.
She
feels
now
that
she
must
die
;
for
she
no
longer
finds
life
in
any-thing;
all
has
become
death
to
her;
prayer,
read-ing,
conversation
—
all
is
dead
:
she
loses
the
joy
of
service,
or
rather,
she
dies
to
it,
performing
it
with
so
much
pain
and
weariness,
that
it
is
as
death
to
her.
At
last,
after
having
fought
well,
but
use-lessly,
after
a
long
succession
of
conflicts
and
rest,
of
lives
and
deaths,
she
begins
to
see
how
she
has
abused
the
grace
of
God,
and
that
this
state
of
death
is
better
for
her
than
life
;
for
as
she
sees
her
Beloved
returning,
and
finds
that
she
possesses
Him
more
purely,
and
that
the
state
which
pre-
