Reflections on
the Life of
Madame Jeanne de la Mothe Guyon.
General remarks on her experience during the year 1671. (1)
During the year 1671, the hand of the Lord, considered in comparison with its former dealings, seems to have been staid. God had found her faithful; and her soul without having entered into the state of permanent rest and union, experienced, amid all her trials, a high degree of inward consolation and peace. She was patient and faithful in the discharge of domestic duties, regular and watchful in her seasons of private devotion, and prompt in performing the duties of kindness and benevolence to others. In intimating that her trials were diminished, as compared with those of the preceding year, we do not mean to say that she was without trials; but, whatever they were, she was greatly supported under them. And I think it may be added, that, both by the griefs she suffered, and by the duties she discharged, and by the supports and consolations which were afforded her, the process of inward crucifixion was continually going on.
There were some things, however, even in her course at this time, which she was afterwards led to regard as faults. One thing she mentions, in particular. I give in this instance, however, as well as in others, her meaning, rather than her precise form of expression. It, was this: She was more attached to the retirement, the exercises, and the pleasures of devotion, than she was to the efforts, mingled as they sometimes were with temptations and trials, of present and practical duty. As God had not fully taken up his abode in her heart, — which is the only appropriate and adequate corrective of dangers from this source, — she found him, as Christians in that imperfect stage of Christian experience generally do find him, in particular seasons and places. And the consequence was, that she not only loved such seasons and places, and sought them very much, which was very proper, but she gives us to understand that she sometimes loved them, and sought them in such a way and to such a degree, as to interfere with the wants and happiness of others. It is thus that self-will, the last inward enemy which is subdued, may find a place even in our most sacred things, but never without injury.
The principle which she adopted, at a subsequent and more enlightened period of her Christian experience, was, that the true place of God, when we speak of God's place any where out of the heart, is in his Providences. It is true, indeed, that God's kingdom is in the heart. "The kingdom of God," says the Saviour, "is within you" But it is true also, that he holds his kingdom there, and that he reigns there, in connection with his providences.
And as these remarks are made in connection with special times or seasons of devotion, it may properly be added, that, the providences of God include both time and place, in the widest sense. So far from excluding times and places, such as are set apart for devotion or for other purposes, they recognize and establish them; but, what is very important, they hold them also in strict subordination. These divine providences are in themselves, and emphatically so, the time of times and the place of places. And all other times and places, which are approved of God, exist by appointment under them.
— from The Life of Madame Guyon (1877), Volume 1, Chapter 11.
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