CHAPTER ITL

As soon as it was known in France that I was gone,
there was a general outcry. Those who attacked me
with the most violence were the human spiritualists.
Father de la Mothe wrote to me, that all persons of
learning and of piety united in censuring me. To
alarm me still more, he informed me that my mother-
in-law, with whom I had entrusted my younger son
and my children’s substance, was fallen into a state of
childhood. This, however, was very false.

I answered all these fearful letters as the Spirit dic¬
tated. My answers were thought very just, and were
well relished, whereby those violent exclamations
were soon changed into applauses. Father La Mothe
appeared to change his censures into esteem; but it
did not last long. Self interest threw him back again;
being disappointed in his hopes of a pension, which he
expected I would have settled on him. Also Sister
Gamier, whatever was her reason, changed and de¬
clared against me.

Here I both eat and slept little. The food which
was given us was putrid and full of worms, by reaso
of the great heat of the weather, and being kept to
long; insomuch, that what I should have formerl
beheld with the greatest abhorrence, now became my
only nourishment; and yet everything was rendere
easy to me. In God I found, without increase, every¬
thing which I had lost for him. That spirit, which I

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once thought I had lost in a strange stupidity, was
restored to me with inconceivable advantages. I was
astonished at myself. I found there was nothing which
I was not fit for, or in which I did not succeed. Those
who observed this, said, “ I had a prodigious capacity.’’
I well knew that I had but meagre capabilities, but
that in God my spirit had received a quality which it
had never had before. I thought I experienced some¬
thing of the state which the apostles were in, after they
had received the Holy Ghost. I knew, I compre¬
hended, I understood, I was enabled to do everything
requisite. I had every sort of good thing, and no want
of anything. I remembered that fine passage of wis¬
dom, “All good things came to me with her.” (Wisdom
of Sol. vii. 2.) When Jesus Christ, the eternal wisdom,
is formed in the soul, after the death of the first Adam,
it finds in him all good things cemmunicated to it.

Sometime after my arrival at Gex, the Bishop of
Geneva came to see us. He was so clearly convinced,
and so much affected, that he could not forbear express¬
ing it. He opened his heart to me on what God had
required of him. He confessed to me his own devia¬
tions and infidelities. Every time, when I spoke to
him, he entered into what I said, and acknowledged it
to be the truth; as indeed it was the Spirit of truth
which inspired me to speak to him, without which I
should be only a mere simpleton. And yet as soon as
persons spoke to him, who sought for pre-eminence,
and who could not suffer any good but what came
from themselves, he was so weak as to let himself be
imposed on with impressions against the truth. This
weakness has hindered him from doing all the good
which otheiwise he might have done in his diocese.

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TKB LIFE OF MADAME GUYON.

After I had spoken to him, he said, “ he had it in
his mind to give me Father La Combe for director; for
that he was a man illuminated of God, who well under¬
stood the inward path, and had a singular gift of paci¬
fying souls.” These were his own words. Greatly was
I rejoiced when the Bishop appointed him, seeing
thereby his authority united with the grace which
already seemed to have given him to me, by a union
and effusion of supernatural life and love. The fatigues
I had, and watchings with my daughter, threw me into
a violent sickness, attended with exquisite pain. The
physicians judged me in danger, and yet the sisters of
the house quite neglected me; especially the stewardess.
She was so penurious, that she did not give me what
was necessary to sustain life. I had not a penny to
help myself with, as I had reserved nothing to myself.
And beside, they at that time received all the money
which was remitted to me from France, which was
very considerable. Thus I practiced poverty, and was
in necessity even among those to whom I had given all.
They wrote to Father La Combe, desiring him to come
to me, as I was so extremely ill. On hearing of my
condition, he was so touched with compassion, as to
walk on foot all night, it being eight great leagues; but
he travelled no otherwise, endeavoring in that, as in
everything else, to imitate our Lord Jesus Christ.

As soon as he entered the house, my pains abated;
and when he had prayed and blessed me, laying his
hand on my head, I was perfectly cured, to the great
astonishment of my physicians; who were not willing
to acknowledge the miracle; being not well pleased, as
they knew that we were come on a religious motive,
and their sentiments and profession was so opposite to

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oum These sisters advised me to return to my daugh¬
ter. Father La Combe returned with me. A violent
storm arose on the lake, which made me very sick, and
seemed likely to overset the boat But the hand of
Providence remarkably appeared in our favor; so much
so, that it was taken notice of by the mariners and pas¬
sengers, who looked upon Father La Combe as a saint.
Thus we arrived at Tonon, where I found myself so
perfectly recovered, that, instead of making and using
the remedies I had proposed, I went into a retreat, and
stayed there twelve days. Here I made vows of per¬
petual chastity, poverty and obedience, covenanting to
obey whatever I should believe to be the will of God,
also to obey the Church, and to honor Jesus Christ in
such a manner as he pleased.

At this time I found that I had the perfect chastity
of love to the Lord, it being without any reserve,
division, or view of interest; — perfect poverty, by the
total privation of everything that was mine, both
inwardly and outwardly; — perfect obedience to the will
of the Lord, submission to the Church, and honor to
Jesus Christ in loving himself only; the effect of which
soon appeared. When by the loss of ourselves we are
passed into the Lord, our will is made one and the
same with that of the Lord, according to the prayer of
Christ, “ As thou Father art in me, and I in thee, grant
that they also may be one in us.” John xvii. 21. Oh,
but it is then that the will is rendered marvellous, both
because it is made the will of the Lord, which is the
greatest of miracles; and because it works wonders in
him. For as it is the Lord who wills in the soul, that
will has its effect. Scarcely has it willed but the thing
is done.

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THE LIFE OF MADAME GUYON.

But some may say, Why then so many oppressions
endured ? Why do not these souls, if they have such a
power, set themselves free from them? We answer
that if they had any will to do anything of that sort,
against divine providence, that would be the will of the
flesh, or the will of man, and not the will of God. —
John i. 13.

I rose generally at midnight, waking at the proper
time; but if I wound up my alarm-watch, then I used
not to awake in time. I saw that the Lord had the
care of a father and a spouse over me. When I had
any indisposition, and my body wanted rest, he did not
awake me; but at such times I felt even in my sleep a
singular possession of him. Some years have passed
wherein I have had only a kind of half-sleep; but my
soul waked the more for the Lord, as sleep seemed to
steal from it every other attention. The Lord made it
known also to many persons, that he designed me for
a mother of great people, but a people simple and
child-like. They took these intelligences in a literal
sense, and thought it related to some institution or
congregation. But it appeared to me that the persons
whom it would please the Lord that I should win over
to him, and to whom I should be as a mother, through
his goodness, should have the same union of affection
for me as children have for a parent, but a union much
deeper and stronger; and giving me all that was neces¬
sary for them, to bring them to walk in the way by
which he would lead them, as I shall show in the
sequeL

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