Sermon Tone Analysis

*A   SHORT AND  VERY  EASY  *

*METHOD*

*OF *

!!! PRAYER;

!!!! WHICH  ALL  CAN  PRACTICE  WITH  THE   GREATEST  FACILITY, \\ \\ AND  ARRIVE  IN  A  SHORT  TIME,  BY  ITS  MEANS, \\ \\ AT  A  HIGH  DEGREE  OF  PERFECTION.

*BY  MADAME GUYON* \\ *(1648 - 1717)**

 

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"Walk before me and be thou perfect."

— Gen. xvii.1.

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!!

The Author's Preface.

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THIS little treatise, conceived in great simplicity, was not originally intended for publication.

It was written for a few individuals, who were desirous of loving God with all their heart.

Many, however, because of the profit they received in reading the manuscript, wished to obtain copies, and, on this account alone, it was committed to the press.

It still remains in its original simplicity.

It contains no censure on the various divine leadings of others; on the contrary, it enforces the received teachings.

The whole is submitted to the judgment of the learned and experienced; requesting them, however, not to stop at the surface, but to enter into the main design of the author, which is to /induce the whole world to love God, and to serve Him with comfort and success, /in a simple and easy manner, adapted to those /little ones /who are unqualified for learned and deep researches, but who earnestly /desire to be truly devoted to God./

An unprejudiced reader will find, hidden under the most common expressions, a secret unction, which will excite him to seek after that happiness which all should wish to enjoy.

In asserting that perfection is easily attained, the word /facility, /is used; because God is, indeed found with facility, /when we seek Him within ourselves.

/But some, perhaps, may urge that passage in St. John /"Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me," /(vii.

34); this apparent difficulty, however, is removed by another passage, where He, who cannot contradict himself, has said to all, /"Seek and ye shall find," /(Matt.

vii.

7).

It is true, indeed, that he who would seek God, and is yet unwilling to forsake his sins, shall not find him, because he seeks Him where He is not; and, therefore, it is added, /"Ye shall die in your sins."

/But he, who will take some trouble to seek God in his own heart, and sincerely forsake his sin, that he may draw near unto Him, shall infallibly find Him.

A life of /piety /appears so frightful to many, and /prayer/ of such difficult attainment, that they are discouraged from taking a single step towards it.

But as the apprehended difficulty of an undertaking often causes despair of succeeding and reluctance in commencing, so its desirableness, and the idea that it is easy to accomplish, induce us to enter upon its pursuit with pleasure, and to pursue it with vigor.

The advantages and /facility /of this way are therefore set forth in the following treatise.

O were we once persuaded of the goodness of God toward his poor creatures, and of his desire to communicate Himself to them, we should not create ideal monsters, nor so easily despair of obtaining that good which He is so earnest to bestow: /"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all; how shall He not, with him, also freely give us all things?"

/(Rom.

viii.

32).

It needs only a little courage and perseverance; we have enough of both in our temporal concerns, but none at all in the one thing needful, (Luke x. 42).

If any think that God is not easily to be found in this way, let them not on my testimony alter their minds, but let them try it, and their own experience will convince them, that the reality far exceeds all my representations of it.

Beloved reader, puruse this little tract with a sincere and candid spirit, in lowliness of mind, and not with an inclination to criticize, and you will not fail to reap profit from it.

It was written with a desire that you might /wholly devote yourself to God; /receive it then with a like desire: for it has no other design than to invite the simple and the child-like to approach their father, who delights in the humble confidence of his children, and is greatly grieved at their distrust.

With a sincere desire, therefore, for your salvation, seek nothing from the unpretending method here proposed, but the love of God, and you shall assuredly obtain it.

Without setting up our opinions above those of others, we mean only with sincerity to declare, from our own experience and the experience of others, the happy effects produced by thus simply following after the Lord.

As this treatise was intended only to instruct in prayer, nothing is said of many things which we esteem, because they do not immediately relate to our main subject.

It is, however, beyond a doubt, that nothing will be found herein to offend, provided it be read in the spirit with which it was written.

And it is still more certain, that those who in right earnest make trial of the way, will find we have written the truth.

It is Thou alone, O holy Jesus, who lovest simplicity and innocence, /"and whose delight is to dwell with the children of men," /(Prov.

viii.

31), with those who are, indeed, willing to become /"little children," /(Matt.

xviii.

3); it is Thou alone, who canst render this little work of any value, by imprinting it on the heart, and leading those who read it to seek Thee within themselves, where Thou reposest as in the manger, waiting to receive proofs of their love, and to give them testimony of thine.

They lose these advantages by their own fault.

But it belongeth unto thee, O child Almighty!

uncreated Love! silent and all-containing Word! to make thyself loved, enjoyed and understood.

Thou canst do it; and I know Thou wilt do it by this little work, which belongeth entirely to Thee, proceedeth wholly from Thee, and tendeth only to Thee!

!!! C H A P T E R   I.

!!!!! THE  PRAYER  OF  THE  HEART.

ALL are capable of prayer, and it is a dreadful misfortune that almost all the world have conceived the idea that they are not called to prayer.

We are all called to prayer, as we are all called to salvation.

PRAYER is nothing but the /application of the heart to God, /and the internal exercise of love.

St. Paul has enjoined us to /"pray without ceasing;"/ (1 Thess.

v.17) and our Lord bids us watch and pray, (Mark xiii.

33,37): all therefore may, and all ought to practise prayer.

I grant that meditation is attainable but by few, for few are capable of it; and therefore, my beloved brethren who are athirst for salvation, meditative prayer is not the prayer which God requires of you, nor which we would recommend.

2. Let all pray: you should live by prayer, as you should live by love.

/"I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that ye may be rich."

/(Rev.

iii.

18.)

This is very easily obtained, much more easily than you can conceive.

Come all ye that are athirst to the living waters, nor lose your precious moments in hewing out cisterns that will hold no water.

(John vii.

37; Jer.

ii.

13.)  Come ye famishing souls, who find nought to satisfy you; come, and ye shall be filled!

Come, ye poor afflicted ones, bending beneath your load of wretchedness and pain, and ye shall be consoled!

Come, ye sick, to your physician, and be not fearful of approaching him because ye are filled with diseases; show them, and they shall be healed!

Children, draw near to your Father, and he will embrace you in the arms of love!  Come ye poor, stray, wandering sheep, return to your Shepherd!

Come, sinners, to your Saviour!  Come ye dull, ignorant, and illiterate, ye who think yourselves the most incapable of prayer!

ye are more peculiarly called and adapted thereto.

Let all without exception come, for Jesus Christ hath called ALL.

Yet let not those come who are without a heart; they are excused; for there must be a heart before there can be love.

But who is without a heart?

O come, then, give this heart to God; and here learn how to make the donation.

3.

All who are desirous of prayer, may easily pray, enabled by those ordinary graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit which are common to all men.

PRAYER is the key to perfection, and the sovereign good; it is the means of delivering us from every vice, and obtaining us every virtue; for the one great means of becoming perfect, is to walk in the presence of God.

He himself hath said, /"Walk before me, and be thou perfect."

/(Gen.

xvii.

1.)

It is by prayer alone that we are brought into his presence, and maintained in it without interruption.

4.

You must, then, learn a species of prayer which may be exercised at all times; which does not obstruct outward employments; which may be equally practised by princes, kings, prelates, priests and magistrates, soldiers and children, tradesmen, laborers, women, and sick persons; it is not the prayer of the head, but OF THE HEART.

It is not a prayer of the understanding alone, for the mind of man is so limited in its operations that it can have but one object at a time; but it is the PRAYER OF THE HEART which is not interrupted by the exercises of reason.

Nothing can interrupt this prayer but disordered affections; and when once we have enjoyed God, and the sweetness of his love, we shall find it impossible to relish aught but himself.

5. Nothing is so easily obtained as the possession and enjoyment of God.

He is more present to us than we are to ourselves.

He is more desirous of giving Himself to us than we are to possess Him; we only need to know how to seek Him, and the way is easier and more natural to us than breathing.

Ah! ye who think yourselves so dull and fit for nothing, by prayer you may live on God himself with less difficulty or interruption than you live on the vital air.

Will it not then be highly sinful to neglect prayer?

But doubtless you will not, when you have learnt the method, which is the easiest in the world.

!!! C H A P T E R   II.

!!!!! THE  FIRST  DEGREE  OF  PRAYER:  MEDITATION.

THERE are two ways of introducing a soul into prayer, which should be pursued for some time; the one is meditation, the other is reading accompanied by meditation.

Meditative reading is the choosing some important practical or speculative truth, always preferring the practical, and proceeding thus: whatever truth you have chosen, read only a small portion of it, endeavoring to taste and digest it, to extract the essence and substance of it, and proceed no farther while any savor or relish remains in the passage: then take up your book again, and proceed as before, seldom reading more than half a page at a time.

It is not the quantity that is read, but the manner of reading, that yields us profit.

Those who read fast, reap no more advantage, than a bee would by only skimming over the surface of the flower, instead of waiting to penetrate into it, and extract its sweets.

Much reading is rather for scholastic subjects, than divine truths; to receive profit from spiritual books, we must read as I have described; and I am certain that if that method were pursued, we should become gradually habituated to prayer by our reading, and more fully disposed for its exercise.

2. Meditation, which is the other method, is to be practised at an appropriated season, and not in the time of reading.

I believe that the best manner of meditating is as follows:

When by an act of lively faith, you are placed in the presence of God, read some truth wherein there is substance; pause gently thereon, not to employ the reason, but merely to fix the mind; observing that the principal exercise should ever be the presence of God, and that the subject, therefore, should rather serve to stay the mind, than exercise it in reasoning.

Then let a /lively faith in God immediately present in our inmost souls, /produce an eager sinking into ourselves, restraining all our senses from wandering abroad: this serves to extricate us, in the first instance, from numerous distractions, to remove us far from external objects, and to bring us nigh to God, who is only to be found in our inmost centre, which is the /Holy of Holies /wherein he dwells.