Front matter
Reading edition
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF
MADAME GUYON
IN TWO PARTS
MOODY PRESS CHICAGO
Printed in the United States of America
INTRODUCTION
In the history of the world few persons have attained that high degree of spirituality reached by Madame Guyon.
Born in a corrupt age, 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; groping as she did in spiritual desolation and ignorance, nevertheless, she arose to the highest pinnacle of pre-eminence in spirituality and Christian devotion.
She lived and died in the Catholic Church; yet was tormented and afflicted; was maltreated 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 offense was found in her supreme devotion and unmeasured attachment to Christ. When they demanded her money and estate, she gladly surrendered 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 forgiven.
She loved only to do good to 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 the ages that have followed.
Viewed from a human standpoint, it is a sublime spectacle, to see a solitary woman subvert all the machinations of kings and courtiers; laugh to scorn all the malignant enginery of the papal inquisition, and silence, and confound the pretensions 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 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.
We offer no word of apology for publishing in the Autobiography of Madame Guyon, those expressions of devotion to her church, that found vent in her writings. She was a true Catholic when protestantism was in its infancy.
There can be no doubt that God, by a special interposition 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. We have not a shadow of doubt that it is destined to accomplish tenfold more in the future than it has accomplished in the past. Indeed, the Christian world is only 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.
CONTENTS
PART ONE
Chapter 113
Chapter 219
Chapter 325
Chapter 430
Chapter 538
Chapter 649
Chapter 760
Chapter 868
Chapter 976
Chapter 1079
Chapter 1184
Chapter 1289
Chapter 13100
Chapter 14108
Chapter 15113
Chapter 16121
Chapter 17128
Chapter 18134
Chapter 19140
Chapter 20148
Chapter 21156
Chapter 22160
Chapter 23167
Chapter 24173
Chapter 25178
Chapter 26185
Chapter 27191
Chapter 28197
Chapter 29205
PART TWO
Chapter 1219
Chapter 2225
Chapter 3231
Chapter 4236
Chapter 5242
Chapter 6248
Chapter 7255
Chapter 8261
Chapter 9266
Chapter 10272
Chapter 11277
Chapter 12282
Chapter 13293
Chapter 14302
Chapter 15309
Chapter 16316
Chapter 17326
Chapter 18343
Chapter 19353
Chapter 20364
Chapter 21374