Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/362

Rh 342 G U Y N prayer, she at last experienced the change of heart which filled her with joy and peace in the life of faith. The words in which she describes that crisis, if indeed they aro not coloured by later experiences, are interesting and important, as showing that thus early she had already reached all that was distinctive of her quietism. &quot; Nothing was more easy to me now than to practise prayer. Hours passed away like moments, while I could hardly do any thing else but pray. The fervency of my love allowed me no intermission. It was a prayer of rejoicing and of pos session, wherein the taste of God was so great, so pure, unblended, and uninterrupted, that it drew and absorbed the powers of the soul into a profound recollection, a state of confiding and affectionate rest in God, existing without intellectual effort. For I had now no sight but of Jesus Christ alone. All else was excluded in order to love with greater purity and energy, without any motives or reasons for loving which were of a selfish nature.&quot; In the months and years that followed she learned by much experience how difficult it is to keep even such heights as the soul has already gained ; but her aim, ever more clearly seen and more steadily followed, continued to be &quot; entire consecra tion,&quot; &quot; perfect faith and love.&quot; Amongst those who were | helpful to her during this period was Genevieve Granger, the prioress of a Benedictine community in Paris, under whose influence she, on July 22 (St Mary Magdalene s day), 1672, drew up a solemn act of consecration, sealed with her ring and signed with her blood, in which she surrendered herself to Christ as His spouse, accepting as a part of her marriage portion &quot; the temptations and sorrows, the crosses and the contempt, which fell to Him.&quot; In the beginning of 1674 she passed into a state of &quot;privation &quot; or &quot; desola tion,&quot; which she considers to have continued with but slight variations for somewhat more than six years ; during the whole of this period, however, she had the benefit of the spiritual direction of Bertot, a kindred spirit, whose mystical writings she afterwards edited. On the 21st of July 1676 shs was left a widow, with three surviving children, two sons and an infant daughter, and began to live a life of still deeper seclusion and isolation than before, interesting herself, however, in works of charity, and in the education of her family ; in connexion with the latter occupation she commenced and made some progress in the study of Latin. Her temptations and crosses continued nevertheless to multiply ; she began to lose hope, and to regard herself as wholly forsaken by God ; in her deep despondency she began to correspond with Francis de la Combe, superior of the Barnabites at Thonon, Savoy, with whom she had ten years before become acquainted, and in whom she had even then recognized a sympathizing spirit. On the 22d of July 1680 she tells us her soul was delivered from all its pains. . &quot; From the time of the first letter from Father La Combe, I began to recover a new life. I was then, indeed, only like a dead person raised up, who is in the beginning of his restoration, and is raised up to a life of hops rather than of actual possession ; but on this day I was restored, as it were, to perfect life and set wholly at liberty. I was no longer depressed, no longer borne down under the burden of sorrow. I had thought God lost, and lost for ever ; but I found Him again. And He returned to me with unspeakable magnificence and purity. In a wonderful manner, difficult to explain, all that which had been taken from me was not only restored, but restored with increase and with new advantages.&quot; In this changed state of feeling she began to revolve new plans for the disposal of the remainder of her earthly life. She for some time thought of winding up her worldly affairs and taking the veil ; but her duty towards her children, especially the two younger, seemed to prohibit that step. Several proposals of marriage were also received, but re jected. Gradually, in the course of 1681, she had almost, though with hesitation, reached the conclusion that she was called to active religious work, and the field to which inward intimations seemed to point was that part of France and Savoy which borders on Geneva, if not Geneva itself. The advice of D Aranthon, titular bishop of Geneva, was asked and obtained ; he approved of the proposal. After making some important arrangements with regard to her property, and entrusting her two sons to the care of suitable guardians, she accordingly secretly left Paris accompanied only by three female attendants and her daughter, then a child of five years of age. The party arrived at Annecy on the 21st of July ; on the following day, at the tomb of St Francis de Sales, Madame Guyon renewed her spiritual marriage with the Redeemer ; and finally she fixed her abode at Gex under the spiribual care of D Aranthon, by whom La Combe was assigned to her as her director in the place of Bertot, who had died some time before. Here she at once began her benevolent labours, tending the sick find poor, praying with them and giving them religious instruc tion ; yet still it seemed to her as if the &quot;seal of her mission was not yet broken. &quot; Something within her vhispered that she had not yet found the great and special work to which God had been calling her. Amongst other things the state of her director caused her much solicitude. She saw that he had much, but felt that he ought to have more. Her vocation at last was revealed to her, to become to him a spiritual mother, and her efforts towards the fulfil ment of that vocation were not in vain ; La Combe at last became possessed with the doctrine of present sanctification by faith in the Saviour, and began to preach accordingly. Opposition and persecution almost immediately began ; Bishop D Aranthon did not fail to take notice of the new doctrine, though on this occasion it escaped formal con demnation by the authorities at Rome; seeing, however, that Madame Guyon was the real author of the heresy, if heresy it was (and it certainly seemed to involve a theory of perfec tionism hardly compatible with Catholicism), he resolved that she should not continue her activities within his diocese unless she should consent to accept a sphere where the facilities for doctrinal propagandism would be less than those for the exercise of ordinary benevolence. He accord ingly proposed that she should give what property still remained within her control to a religious house at Gex, and that she should herself become prioress ; this proposal, how ever, she declined, chiefly on the general ground that it did not seem to be in accordance with the designs of God in regard to her. The alienation of the bishop now made her stay at Gex to be far from comfortable ; and accordingly, at the close of a residence of rather more than six months, she removed early in 1682 to Thonon, apparently in the expectation of being near her adviser La Combe, Here she remained for upwards of two years, engaged in religious work of various kinds, especially in spiritual conversation with the people of the neighbourhood, and in tending a small hospital which, at the suggestion of her director and with the assistance of some benevolent ladies of Thonon, she had formed. Meanwhile her doctrines of &quot; pure love &quot; and of that &quot;fixed state&quot; which consists in the complete identifi cation of the human will with the will of God were taking more definite shape ; and in 1683 they first found literary expression in Les Torrens, probably the best of her writings, and really in some respects a fine performance, which describes the progress of the soul from the commencement of its inward life to its union with God, by a reference to &quot;streams or torrents flowing from the mountain tops with greater or less rapidity and with greater or less directness, and mingling at last in the ocean.&quot; Although Madame Guyon was not herself conscious of any disharmony with the teaching and practice of the Catholic Church, her