Madame Guyon - Autobiography of Madame Guyon

More Classic books available from
Destiny Image Publishers

A Short and Easy Method of Prayer by Madame Guyon
Paradise Lost by John Milton
The Possibilities of Prayer by EM Bounds
Purpose in Prayer by Edward Bounds
The Essentials of Prayer by Edward Bounds
The Lords Table by Andrew Murray
All of Grace by Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross
Paradise Regained by John Milton
Power Through Prayer by EM Bounds
Prayer and Praying Men by EM Bounds
The Deeper Christian Life by Andrew Murray
The New Life by Andrew Murray
The Autobiography of Madame Guyon
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
by John Bunyan
The Necessity of Prayer by EM Bounds
The Practice of the Presence of God
by Brother Lawrence
The Reality of Prayer by EM Bounds
The Weapon of Prayer by EM Bounds

Additional copies of this book and other

book titles from DESTINY IMAGE are

available at your local bookstore.

call toll-free: 1-800-722-6774.

Send a request for a catalog to:

Destiny ImagePublishers, Inc.

P.O. Box 310

Shippensburg, PA 17257-0310

Speaking to the Purposes of God for This
Generation and for the Generations to Come

For a complete list of our titles,
visit us at www.destinyimage.com

Let us know what you thought of this book!

Click here to send us feedback ,

and receive a discount code

for 40% off the printed version.

Discover more great books like this one

on the Destiny Image web site:

http://www.destinyimage.com .

You can reach us a multitude of ways:

Phone: 717-532-3040

Fax: 717-532-9291

E-mail:

Web: http://www.destinyimage.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/destinyimage

Facebook

There were omissions of importance in the former narration of my life. I willingly comply with your desire, in giving you a more circumstantial relation; though the labor seems rather painful, as I cannot use much study or reflection. My earnest wish is to paint in true colors the goodness of God to me, and the depth of my own ingratitudebut it is impossible, as numberless little circumstances have escaped my memory. You are also unwilling I should give you a minute account of my sins. I shall, however, try to leave out as few faults as possible. I depend on you to destroy it, when your soul hath drawn those spiritual advantages which God intended, and for which purpose I am willing to sacrifice all things. I am fully persuaded of His designs toward you, as well for the sanctification of others, as for your own sanctification.

Let me assure you, this is not attained, save through pain, weariness and labor; and it will be reached by a path that will wonderfully disappoint your expectations. Nevertheless, if you are fully convinced that it is on the nothing in man that God establishes his greatest works,you will be in part guarded against disappointment or surprise. He destroys that he might build; for when He is about to rear His sacred temple in us, He first totally razes that vain and pompous edifice, which human art and power had erected, and from its horrible ruins a new structure is formed, by His power only.

Oh, that you could comprehend the depth of this mystery, and learn the secrets of the conduct of God, revealed to babes, but hid from the wise and great of this world, who think themselves the Lords counselors, and capable of investigating His procedures, and suppose they have attained that divine wisdom hidden from the eyes of all who live in self, and are enveloped in their own works. Who by a lively genius and elevated faculties mount up to Heaven, and think to comprehend the height and depth and length and breadth of God.

This divine wisdom is unknown, even to those who pass in the world for persons of extraordinary illumination and knowledge. To whom then is she known, and who can tell us any tidings concerning her? Destruction and death assure us, that they have heard with their ears of her fame and renown. It is, then, in dying to all things, and in being truly lost to them, passing forward into God, and existing only in Him, that we attain to some knowledge of the true wisdom. Oh, how little are her ways known, and her dealings with her most chosen servants. Scarce do we discover anything thereof, but surprised at the dissimilitude betwixt the truth we thus discover and our former ideas of it, we cry out with St. Paul, Oh, the depth of the knowledge and wisdom of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out. The Lord judgeth not of things as men do, who call good evil and evil good, and account that as righteousness which is abominable in His sight, and which according to the prophet He regards as filthy rags. He will enter into strict judgment with these self-righteous, and they shall, like the Pharisees, be rather subjects of His wrath, than objects of His love, or inheritors of His rewards. Doth not Christ Himself assure us, that except our righteousness exceed that of the scribes and pharisees we shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. And which of us even approaches them in righteousness; or, if we live in the practice of virtues, though much inferior to theirs, are we not tenfold more ostentatious? Who is not pleased to behold himself righteous in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others? or, who is it doubts that such righteousness is sufficient to please God? Yet, we see the indignation of our Lord manifested against such. He who was the perfect pattern of tenderness and meekness, such as flowed from the depth of the heart, and not that affected meekness, which under the form of a dove, hides the hawks heart. He appears severe only to these self-righteous people, and He publicly dishonored them. In what strange colors does He represent them, while He beholds the poor sinner with mercy, compassion and love, and declares that for them only He was come, that it was the sick who needed the physician; and that He came only to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

O thou Source of Love! Thou dost indeed seem so jealous of the salvation Thou hast purchased, that Thou dost prefer the sinner to the righteous! The poor sinner beholds himself vile and wretched, is in a manner constrained to detest himself; and finding his state so horrible, casts himself in his desperation into the arms of his Saviour, and plunges into the healing fountain, and comes forth white as wool. Then confounded at the review of his disordered state, and overflowing with love for Him, who having alone the power, had also the compassion to save himthe excess of his love is proportioned to the enormity of his crimes, and the fullness of his gratitude to the extent of the debt remitted. The self-righteous, relying on the many good works he imagines he has performed, seems to hold salvation in his own hand, and considers Heaven as a just reward of his merits. In the bitterness of his zeal he exclaims against all sinners, and represents the gates of mercy as barred against them, and Heaven as a place to which they have no claim. What need have such self-righteous persons of a Saviour? they are already burdened with the load of their own merits. Oh, how long they bear the flattering load, while sinners divested of everything, fly rapidly on the wings of faith and love into their Saviours arms, who freely bestows on them that which he has so freely promised!