From Marilynne Robinson's Home:

She did remember once, when Ames was at dinner years earlier, his mentioning to her father that a local man, unchurched, noted for bursts of rage and for a particular hostility toward children, his own included, had come to the parsonage at midnight to consider his soul. Ames had said, "It's like a bad tooth--it acts up when everybody else is sleeping, and it's not the kind of problem you want to deal with yourself."