That is the grace of Christ; that is the grace of life; that is what
makes life worth having: ay, makes it a foretaste of heaven upon earth;
when man and wife are heirs together of the grace of life, of all those
tempers which make life graceful and pleasant, giving way to each other
in everything which is not wrong; studying each other's comfort, taking
each other's advice, shutting their eyes to each other's little failings,
and correcting each other's great failings, not by harsh words, but
silently and kindly, by example. And if the man will do that, there is
little fear but that the woman will do it also. And so, their prayers
are not hindered.
Married people cannot pray, they have no heart to pray, while they are
discontented with each other. They feel themselves wrong, and because
they are parted from each other, they feel parted from God too; and their
selfishness or anger rises as a black wall, not merely between them, but
between each of them and God. And so the grace of life is indeed gone
away from them, and the whole world looks dark and ugly to them, because
it is not bright and cheerful in the light of Christ's grace, which makes
all the world full of sunshine and joy.
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