should dissemble and lie, or deal falsely both with God and man. 'Who knows but this may be a trick of the enemy,' and presently there appeared a part in me which was seemingly pleased with this whis- "This kept me out of the water, but one of per, and said, It is very likely it may be so. the chief of them came to me one day to ask me Thus old self sought to save himself. Then why I came not to be dipped? and I told him as I remembered that the priests of those days above: he said to me, 'Many do come, that I behad preached down all such things, as not to believe are more unfit than you are.' I said, that looked for in these days, but said, visions, revela- was nothing to me; I durst not. tions and miracles were all ceased, and that it was presumption for any man to look for the Spirit of God to be given him now as formerly. So I threw off all again, as a dangerous thing, and would take no further notice of it. I even desired, and was ready to say in my heart, Oh! that the Lord would please, in these perilous times, to speak audibly to some man, as he did to Moses, that we might assuredly know his mind; seeing one cries, Lo, here! and another, Lo, there! But Christ, the power of God is in none of them. So great blindness and darkness seized upon me, and woful ignorance, when I had rejected the Lord's counsel, and trampled such an extraordinary visitation under my feet, and turned my back on it, as the work of the enemy. "I have great cause to admire the Lord's mercies towards me, that I was not wholly forsaken by him, for his eye was still over me, though for a time I was in deep darkness and distress, and my concern was very great. In which time I conferred with many men of several opinions, but I found none that could help me in this matter, because I came not to Him that is mighty, on whom help is laid. Thus was I like a bird alone in the wood, without a mate, joined to none." Changing the place of his residence, he fell among the Anabaptists, of whom he says, "I conferred much with them, and took a liking to them, which brought me acquainted not only with their principles, but also with their practices in worship, which, when I saw, I could say little against them, but thought they came nearest the Scriptures of any I had yet tried; upon which I went to their meetings, and was almost persuaded, that I ought to be dipped into the water, for unless I was I must have no admittance into their church. Seeing no further, I could gladly have been so, it being a far more easy way to the flesh than to obey the gift of God in me. But I could not get to water baptism in faith; for finding them preach that water baptism is a sign of death, burial and resurrection, and that a man ought to be dead before he be buried; for said they, 'It is monstrous in nature to bury a man before he is dead;' and then finding the Holy Scripture saith, That he that is dead is freed from sin; and how can you that are dead to sin live any longer therein?' I examined myself, and found I was not free from sin, so I was not dead, therefore I was not fit to be buried, and before I was dead and buried, I could not know a rising unto holiness and righteousness: and if I should go and be buried under water as though I were dead, I "After this I went to see my sister dipped in a river called the Wye; and after that two young men; and when they came up out of the water I spent some time with them, and observed them, who were passed from death to life, as they signified; but I saw no appearance of the Spirit, or newness of life, or power, or that they thereby received the Holy Ghost; their baptism being only with water, which can only wash away the filth of the flesh. But such as are baptized into Christ, must be baptized into his death, by dying unto sin, and be buried by his baptism into death, that being made free from sin, they may come to have a part in Christ, the resurrection and the life, by whom they are made alive unto God; for in Christ life is manifest, and we have seen it, and have tasted and handled of the good Word of life, that hath been as a fire, and as a hammer to break our rocky hearts asunder, and water hath gushed out, and we have felt our hearts made new, and our consciences clean, being washed with pure water, and to answer the pure requirings of the Lord. Our souls being baptized into Christ, and he being put on, in him we have a safe habitation, and come to see, that as none were saved by the ark of Noah but a few that were in it, so none can know salvation but those that are in Christ, the ark of the everlasting covenant; for he is given to be a covenant to the people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, to open their blind eyes, and to be God's salvation to the ends of the earth: and there is no other name under heaven, by which any can be saved but by Jesus Christ: to him be all glory given for ever." (To be continued.) M. DE LA MOTHE GUYON. BY THOMAS C. UPHAM. On the 29th of 1st month, 1688, M. Guyon was imprisoned by the order of Louis XIV., in the convent of St. Marie in the suburb of St. Antoine, on the charge of heresy, or of holding doctrines tending to subvert some of the received ideas and practices of the Catholic church. Her place of confinement is thus described. It was a small room in an upper story of the building, which was entered by a single door that opened on the outside, and was secured by being locked and by a bar across it. It had an opening to the light and air only on one side, and this was so situated that the sun shone in upon it nearly the whole day, and rendered it exceedingly uncomfortable in the season of summer. she was enclosed in solitary imprisonment for eight months." Here One result of her imprisonment was that her family was again broken up. Amid the varied trials and labours she passed through, she had one consolation which she valued much; it was the society of her little daughter, now in the 12th year of her age, and her constant companion. Wherever she had travelled, and wherever she had taken up her abode, on the Seine, and on the Leman Lake, at Gex, at Thonon, and at Grenoble, she had listened to her young voice, and found a mother's hopes and joys some compensation for the sorrows she was not permitted to escape. The child's affections were bound to herself, and she knew a palace would be far less acceptable to her and far less dear than her mother's prison. "I thought," she says, "it would be consistent with the objects of my imprisonment to permit my daughter to be left with me, but in this I was disappointed. My daughter was most at my heart, having cost me much care in her education. I had endeavoured, with divine assistance, to eradicate her faults and to dispose her to have no will of her own, which is the best disposition for a child. And I naturally desired that the results of these labours might not be lost by a too early and unrestricted exposure to the world. But they would not let her remain. My heart was deeply affected when they took her from me. She was taken away I knew not where, nor would they allow any person to bring any news of her, so that I was obliged to give her up and to sacrifice her, as it were, as if she were mine no longer." Her feelings towards those who had injured her are worthy of notice. "I had not any feeling of resentment," she says, "against my persecutors. I was not insensible to the sorrows which they occasioned me, nor ignorant, as I think, of the spirit by which they were actuated, but I had no other feelings towards them, so far as I can judge, than those of forbearance and kindness. The reflection that they did only what God permitted them to do, which enabled me always to keep God in sight, supported me much. Jesus Christ and holy men in various ages of the church, have not only suffered, but have known well the evil dispositions of those who persecuted them; but they knew also that those men had 'no power except what was given them from above,' John xix. 11. When we suffer we should always remember that God inflicts the blow. Wicked men it is true are not unfrequently his instruments, and the fact of their instrumentality does not diminish, but simply developes their wickedness. But when we are so mentally disposed that we love the strokes we suffer, regarding them as coming from God, and as expressions of what he sees best for us, we are then in the proper state to look forgivingly and kindly upon the subordinate instrument which he permits to smite us." Secondary incidents and instrumentalities, whether for good or for evil, passed easily from her mind. She seems to have forgot both herself and others, in her views of that mysterious wisdom and goodness which preside over all things, however afflicting. And hence we know more of the placid resignation of the prisoner than we do of the attributes of the prison. She herself has told it in one of her own sweet sonnets, which is striking by its simplicity, as well as its piety, and which we venture to give to the reader in a nearly literal translation. A LITTLE BIRD I AM. A little bird I am, Shut from the fields of air; And in my cage I sit and sing To Him who placed me there; Well pleased a prisoner to be, Because, my God, it pleases thee. Naught have I else to do; I sing the whole day long; He caught and bound my wandering wing, Thou hast an ear to hear; A heart to love and bless ; But though my wing is closely bound, Oh! it is good to soar, These bolts and bars above, She speaks in her autobiography of her state of mind when she first received notice that she was to be shut up. No sorrow or misgiving entered her heart-on the contrary, God was pleased to give her, not only entire resignation, but a triumphant and joyful peace; so much so that it shone upon her countenance and attracted the notice of the person who brought the King's order, and also of her friends who were with her. The same delightful peace continued after her imprisonment. The doctrines of sanctification, to which she was so much attached, involve principles which are peculiarly adapted to such a situation. They strike at the root of all earthly desire as they do of all earthly support. They annihilate times and places, prosperities and adversities, friendships and enmities, by making them all equal in the will of God. They take away the differences of things which are external, whatever they may be, making the crooked straight and the rough plain, by a power flowing from the unity and perma nency within-so that to Joseph the prison and, yourself and die, in your inward experience, to the throne are the same; to Daniel the lion's den every thing which is remarkable and showy. and the monarch's palace are the same; because Learn the great lesson of becoming a little one, they have that in their believing and sanctified of becoming nothing." hearts, which subjects the outward to the inward, and because the inward has become incorporated by faith in that eternal will in which all things have their origin and their end. It was in accordance with the wishes of those who had been the instruments of her imprisonment, that her captivity should be very strict, but still it appears that persons were allowed to see her from time to time. And what is worthy of notice, but few persons visited her without being religiously impressed by her appearance and conversation. Many of her poems were written during her confinement in this prison. And if we recollect, that she still kept up a written correspondence with her religious friends, and others, and add also the force of her example in thus willingly and triumphantly suffering for Christ's cause, I think we have reason for saying that probably no period of her life was really more useful than this. Efforts were made during her imprisonment by her enemies to draw from her some retraction of her opinions, and some acknowledgment of wrong doing. She says, "neither their threats or their promises had the influence which they desired. I answered that I was content to suffer whatever it should please God to order or permit, and that I would sooner not only be imprisoned, but would rather die upon the scaffold, than utter the falsehoods they proposed." Her biographer, Upham, says, "She makes some remarks in connection with these transactions which I think worthy of quoting, because they involve a distinction in religious things which is not often made." "During the period,' she says, "of the Old Testament dispensations, there were several of the Lord's martyrs who suffered for asserting the existence of the one true God, and for trusting in Him. The doctrine of the one true God, in distinction from the Among those with whom she had become ac-heathen doctrine of a multiplicity of gods, was quainted since her return from Paris, and for whose religious good she had begun to labour previous to her imprisonment, were a number of ladies, and a few persons of the other sex, who held a distinguished position in society. The following are extracts from a letter addressed to one of these ladies. "When you are reading on religious subjects during any part of the day, you would do well to stop now and then a few moments, and betake yourself to meditation and prayer in silence; especially when any portion of what you read touches and affects you. The object of this is to let the reading have its appropriate effect. Such reading will be very likely to edify and nourish the soul. The soul needs nourishment, as well as the body. Its religious state, without some thing which is appropriate to its support, withers and decays." "Do not resort to austerities or self inflicted mortifications. But there is another mortification which I most earnestly recommend. Mortify whatever remains of your corrupt affections and your disorderly will. Mortify your peculiar tastes, your propensities, your inclinations. Among other things learn to suffer with patience and resignation those frequent and severe pains which God sees fit to impose upon you. Learn also from the motive of love to God to suffer all that may happen of contradiction, ill manners, or negligence in those who serve you. In a word, mortify yourself by bearing, at all times, in a christian temper, whatever thwarts the natural life, whatever is displeasing and troublesome to the natural sensibilities; and thus place yourself in union and fellowship with the sufferings of Christ. By taking these bitter remedies you will honour the cross. And especially if you mortify the test by which conflicting opinions were tried; and in supporting which there were some who were martyrs to this important truth. At a later period another truth was proclaimed, that of Jesus Christ crucified for sinners. This was a truth so much at variance, either in the principle or the facts of its announcement, with men's preconceived opinions and feelings, that it naturally arrested their attention and provoked their hostility; and accordingly in the primitive times of the Christian Church, there were those who suffered and who shed their blood for this truth." " At the present time there are those who are martyrs of the Holy Ghost. In other words, there are those who suffer for proclaiming the great truth, that the reign of the Holy Ghost in the souls of men has come, and especially for proclaiming their personal and entire dependance on his divine presence and influence. It is the doctrine of pure love, the doctrine of sanctification and of the Holy Ghost within us, as the life of our own life, which is to be the test of spiritual perception and fidelity in the present and future times. The spirit of God, in the language of the prophet Joel, is to be poured out upon all flesh." "On these views," says Upham, "which indicate the intellectual insight, as well as the deep inward experience of this remarkable woman, I think it may be proper to add one or two remarks. At the time of its first announcement, no doctrine could be more important than that of the divine unity, considered in distinction from that of Polytheism. Like many other great truths, it was at first contested; it had its advocates and its martyrs; but it prevailed. recognition of God, as one God, gave rise to the enquiry, How does this one God, who in being one, combines in himself all that is good and The true,-how must he, from his very nature, regard all sin; and on what principle does he forgive it? The question is solved in the announcement of the other doctrine to which she refers, namely, that of Christ crucified. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.' Where there is sin there must be suffering, and suffering flowing from sin, and in consequence of sin, is something more than suffering it is punishment. But in the mystery of the mission, person, and sufferings of his Son, (a mystery which even the angels unavailingly desire to look into,) God has so taken this suffering upon himself, that without any violation of the claims of unchangeable rectitude, he can now extend forgiveness to his rebellious creatures, take them once more to his bosom, and bid them live forever. This great doctrine also has had its martyrs, and though the contest has not entirely ended, it may be said, I think, to have had its day of triumph. "But there is another great truth of which it may at length be said that its hour has come, namely, that of God in the person of the inward teacher and comforter, dwelling in the hearts of his people, and changing them by his divine operation into the holy and beautiful image of him who shed his blood for them. Christ received by faith came into the world to save men from the penalty of sin, but it has not been so fully understood, or at least not so fully recognized, that he came also to save them from sin itself. The time in which this latter work shall develope itself is sometimes spoken of as the period of the reign of the Holy Ghost. It is now some time since the voice has gone forth, an utterance from the eternal mind not as yet generally received, but which will never cease to be repeated:-Put away all sin-Be like Christ-Be ye holy. "In announcing the coming of the dispensation of the Holy Ghost, in proclaiming the doctrine of entire sanctification, some have already suffered, and others may perhaps suffer in time to come. Until the secret history of dungeons is written, it will not be known how many in France, in Spain, in Italy, have suffered as martyrs of the Holy Ghost.' But that probably will never be done. And there is a reason for it which does not exist in other cases. The martyrs of the Holy Ghost, themselves the subjects of the inward power which they advocate, suffer and even die in silence. They make no cry; they know that what they suffer, whatever may be the guilt of the instruments of it, is one of the incidents in the developement of that eternal will which will never fail to be accomplished, and can never cease to be loved. And hence, they would not have it to be otherwise than it is; and without lifting up their voice, except in prayer for their enemies, they die as Christ died. "The kingdom of the holy ghost has come. Its beginnings are feeble it is true. We see but here and there a single gleam of that glorious day which shall shine upon the world, and make 'all nations into one.' But the signs of its full approach are too marked, too evident, to be mistaken. There will be opposition from its enemies, and mistakes made by its friends. Happy will it be, if its friends shall remember that it is a kingdom which comes without observation. The kingdom of the Holy Ghost may be described as the kingdom of peace; of peace inward and outward, of peace individual and social. It is those in whom this divine kingdom is set up, whom Christ describes as the 'little ones;' men who move humbly and quietly in the sphere in which providence has placed them; the meek ones of the earth. Their light which shines in their example illuminates without attracting attention; like that of the sun which scarcely receives our notice, while meteors are gazed at with astonishment. They are men who resist not evil'-men that cast all their care upon Him who 'careth for them '-men who hold communion with God in that divine silence of the mind which results from sins forgiven, from passions subdued, and from faith victorious. Behold here the dominion of the Holy Ghost, the triumph of the true millenium, the reign of holy love." [To be continued.] ON THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST FOR OUR Consisting chiefly of selections from the writings of unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." 1 PETER iii. 18. At the first, Sin, as the breach of God's command, separated man from God, and ever since, the soul remains naturally remote from Him. It is under a sentence of exile, pronounced by the justice of God-banishment from Him who is the light and the life of the soul, as the soul itself is. of the body. But Mercy's voice is heard-"Return, repent, and live." The Apostle says, "Ye who were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." But it is impossible for the soul led captive by sin, to break its chains and return by itself. Nothing but the power of Christ can effect this-can bring home a heart to God. Common mercies are little thought of-the judgments of God, without the power of Christ, spoken of, will not do it. Neither the works, nor the word sounding daily in his ear, Return, return! cause the soul to see the hand of God lifted up. Isaiah xxvi. 11. How many are there who in their own particular, or in their families, have been sharply lashed by divers scourges, and yet are never a whit the nearer God for it all-their hearts have proved as earthly and vain as ever! Only a divine virtue going forth from Christ, "lifted up, draws men" unto Him-and being come unto him, he brings them unto the Father. His whole life is a steady aiming at conformity with Christ; so that there can be no argument so apposite and persuasive as this example, and no exercise of obedience either active or passive, so difficult, but the view and contemplation of that example, will powerfully sweeten it, for "Christ also suffered." Before he ascended up on high, he promised to, wherein all our happiness and welfare lie, here send the Holy Spirit, the comforter, to convince and hereafter. Your hearts are cleaving to folly of sin, and guide unto all truth. It is His bless--you are not delighting yourselves in the Lord, ed work to humble and contrite the soul before not refreshed with this nearness to him; your the Lord, in a deep feeling of its sinful and alien- thoughts are not often on it, nor is it your study ated condition; and in proportion to the depth of to walk conformably to it. Oh, endeavour that this conviction, will be its estimate of the value it may be thus with you! The true life of a Chrisof that redemption, which Christ has purchased tian is to eye Christ in every step of his life; both for us, and the gratitude with which, in faith, it as his rule and as his strength; looking to him as will accept the offers of his love and mercy. his pattern, both in doing and suffering, and "For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the drawing power from him for going through both. just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." But this message of pardoning love, entirely free and unmerited as it is, and so precious to the broken-hearted believer, who feels he has no other refuge, is not calculated to quiet the sinner in his sins. The spirit that quickens in the beginning, is the same that carries on the heart-cleansing work. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new." You who declare yourselves to be strangers to God, by living far off from Him, do not continue to abuse yourselves so grossly. Can you think any consolation yours that arises from the sufferings of Christ, while it is evident their end is not accomplished, they have not brought you to God? Hath he purchased you a liberty to sin; or is it not deliverance from sin, which alone is true liberty? the thing he aimed at, and agreed for, and laid down his life for? Shall any man offer to bear the name of Chris-keep its good will, and the friendship of God too? tian, who places himself in the way of sin, and can delight and sport himself in it, when he considers this, that "Christ suffered for sin"-You who still account that sweet, which he found so bitter, and account that light which was heavy to him, and made his soul exceeding sorrowful even unto death, you are yet far from Him. If you were in him, and one with Him, there would be some harmony of your hearts with His, and some sympathy with those sufferings endured by your Lord for you. This makes the real Christian an avowed enemy to sin. He may be surprised by it, but there is no possibility of reconcilement between them. "No temptation has befallen you, but what is common to men.' If we trace the lives of the most eminent saints, shall we not find every notable step that is recorded, marked with a new cross, one trouble following on another, as the waves of the sea do? Is not this manifest in the life of Abraham, and Jacob, and others? Why, then, dream of exemption? Would any one have a new, untrodden way cut for him, free of thorns, and strewed with flowers all along? Does he expect to meet with no contradictions, nor hard measure from the world, or imagine that there may be such a dexterity necessary as to This will not be; all that will "live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Tim. iii. 12. This is the path to the kingdom, that which all the sons of God, the heirs of it, have gone in, even Christ; according to that well known word, "One son without sin, but not one without suffering"-" Christ also suffered." Then let us learn to consider more deeply, and esteem more highly, Christ and his sufferings, to silence our grumbling at our petty, light crosses; for so they are, in comparison of His. Art thou mean in thy birth and life, despised, misjudged, or reviled, on all hands? Look how it was with Him, who had more right than thou Christ hath, by his blood, opened up our way hast, to better entertainment in the world. Thou to God, and yet we refuse to make use of it. Oh, wilt not deny it was His own; it was made by how few come in! Those who are brought unto Him, and He was in it, and it knew Him not. God, and received into friendship with him, Are thy friends harsh to thee? He came unto entertain that friendship,-delight to draw near his own, and His own received him not. Hast to him-love to be much with him. Is it so thou a mean cottage, or hast thou no dwelling, with us? By being so near, they become more and art thou every way poor, and ill accomlike unto Him, know his will better every day, modated? He was as poor as thou canst be, and and grow more conformable to it. had not where to lay his head, worse provided Some of those who have felt the drawing in-than the birds and foxes. But then, consider to fluence of His Spirit, who was lifted up for their sakes, and been brought nigh unto God, may be neglecting so sweet a privilege. They can comply, and be too friendly with a vain world-can pass many days without a lively communion with God, not aspiring to an increase of that as the thing our Lord hath purchased for us, and that what a height his sufferings rose in the end; that most remarkable part of them meant by His once suffering for sins. Scourged, buffeted, and spit upon,-He endured all. He gave his back to the smiters; and then, as the same prophet hath it, He was numbered among the transgressors. While hanging between two thieves, they that |