Chapter 1

Preface

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Book.

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AUTOBIOGRAPHY

MADAME GUYON

complete in two parts

CHICAGO

Christian Witness Co.

The Christian Witness Co.

DEC 31 1917

©CI.A481194

INTRODUCTION.

In the history of the world few persons have
attained to that high degree of spirituality reached by
Madame Guyon.

Bom in a corrupt age, and in a nation marked for
its degeneracy; nursed and reared in a Church, as
profligate as the world in which it was embedded;
persecuted at every step of her career; and groping as
she did in the midst of spiritual desolation and ignor¬
ance, nevertheless, she arose to the highest pinnacle of
pre-eminence in spirituality and Christian devotion.

She lived and died in the bosom of the Catholic
Church; yet was tormented and afflicted; was mal¬
treated and abused; and was imprisoned for years by
the highest authorities of that Church.

Her sole crime was that of loving God; the ground
of her offence was found in her supreme devotion, and
unmeasured attachment to Christ. When they
demanded her money and estate, she gladly surren¬
dered them, even to her impoverishment, but it availed
nothing. The crime of loving him in whom her whole
being was absorbed, never could be mitigated, or for¬
given.

INTRODUCTION.

She loved only to do good to the bodies and souls
of her fellow-creatures, and to such an extent was she
filled with the Holy Ghost, and with the power of God,
that she wrought wonders in her day, and has not
ceased to influence in a marked degree the ages that
have followed.

Viewed from a human standpoint, it is a sublime
spectacle, to see a solitary woman subvert all the mach¬
inations of kings and courtiers; laugh to scorn all the
malignant enginery of the Papal inquisition, and silence,
and confound the pretentions of the most learned
divines. She not only saw more clearly the sublimest
truths of our most holy Christianity, but she basked in
the clearest and most beautiful sunlight while they
groped in darkness. She grasped with ease the deepest
and sublimest truths of holy Writ, while they were lost
in the mazes of their own profound ignorance.

One distinguished divine was delighted to sit at her
feet. At first he heard her with distrust; then with
admiration. Finally he opened his heart to the truth,
and stretched forth his hand to be led by this eminent
saint of God into the holy of holies where she dwelt.
We allude to the distinguished Archbishop Fenelon,
whose sweet spirit and charming writings have been a
blessing to every generation following him; and who
was, perhaps, never esteemed more than he is at this
day.

We offer no word of apology for publishing in the

INTRODUCTION.

Autobiography of Madame Guyon, those expressions
of devotion to her Church, that found vent in her writ¬
ings. She was a true Catholic when Protestantism was
in its infancy.

There can be no doubt that God, by a special inter¬
position of his Providence, caused her to commit her
life so minutely to writing. The duty was enjoined
upon her by her spiritual director, whom the rules of
her Church made it obligatory upon her to obey. It
was written while she was incarcerated in the cell of a
lonely prison. The same all-wise Providence preserved
it from destruction, and we have not a shadow of doubt
that it is destined to accomplish ten-fold more in the
next century than it has ever accomplished in the past.
Indeed, the Christian world is only just beginning to
understand and appreciate it, and the hope and prayer
of the publisher is, that thousands may, through its
instrumentality, be brought into the same intimate
communion and fellowship with God, that was so
richly enjoyed by Madame Guyon. E. J.

Preface to 1917 Edition

This account was written in the simplicity
of nearly three centuries ago. In the minutest
detail, the author gives her biography, show¬
ing how each temptation, each persecution
and each struggle with her persecutors only
drew her nearer to the object of her love.

Being forbidden to pray only augmented
her love to God. She had estates and emolu¬
ments, but they did not satisfy her longing
soul. Neither will they satisfy your soul, dear
reader. Nothing but the blood of Christ can
satisfy. Centuries have past, the world has
changed, enlightened governments have freed
human souls from the bondage of tyrants and
priests who suborned the Spiritual Church to
their own greedy lusts. Woman is no longer
held in bondage to despotic family sur¬
roundings.

But the same powers of darkness, even more
subtle, hold sway over the soul today to draw
it from its Creator. And the same implicit
trust is able to keep the soul in perfect peace.
If the God of our fathers could keep a be¬
nighted soul, surrounded by a corrupt church,
a corrupt priesthood and corrupt practices,
surely He is abundantly able to keep us.

“Faith of our Fathers, holy faith, we will
be true to Thee, till death.”

Chicago, 1917.

E. L. K.

MADAME GUYON

PART ONE.