was all at once so changed as
not to be recognisable either to myself or to others. I found neither
the blemishes nor the dislikes (which had troubled me): all appeared to
me consumed like a straw in a great fire." [1]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., ch. viii., 8.]

These extracts from her autobiography are important as giving a key to
her subsequent life. We see here the intensity of her affections and
emotions, the excitability of her temperament, the tendency to wander
into regions of spiritual imagination, the liking for strong dramatic
expression, which, though not in themselves blamable, yet gave to the
outside world, and even to those about her who were open to adverse
prepossessions, false impressions as to the depth and reality of her
religion. They, close at hand, could not make the allowance which we can
easily make for the extravagances of a soul which had just emerged from
the prison gloom of depression and distrust into this realisation of the
Divine love and favour. When her enthusiastic spirit led her to subject
herself to the severest penances, she joyed in their infliction and
could not make them severe enough. And here at once comes out
prominently a primary error of judgment in this good woman at the very
outset of her Christian life. She gives us details of a specially
disgusting penance which she inflicted on herself. In this, as in the
rest of her self-imposed tortures and degradations, the impulse
manifestly came not from above, but from the mistaken imaginings of an
over-wrought mind encased in a frail and delicate frame; and these
morbid fancies were based on her intense passion for self-abasement. We
must remember that at this critical time, when she most needed counsel,
she had really no one to guide her--no one, that is, who possessed
spiritual wisdom and common sense.

Though Madame Guyon was much absorbed in a mystical ecstasy, which she
describes as prayer without words or even thoughts, she was no mere
visionary. Her love to God, her intense devotion to her Saviour, led her
to earnest endeavours to do good to those around her. The poor and the
sick, young girls exposed to temptation, all who needed temporal or
spiritual help, were the special objects of her care and benevolence. In
leading others to Christ she was remarkably successful. She had indeed
exceptional qualifications for this missionary work. Just over twenty
years of age, her youthful beauty and grace, the tender, yearning love
whi