so that those who wished to destroy her influence— amongst whom we find the names of Nicole, Bossuet, Boileau, and Gaillard, found their prejudices dissipated when in conversation with her. The great preacher Bossuet was so delighted when he first examined her writings, that he declared that, as a result, he realized for three days the divine presence in a most extraordinary manner. Subsequently, he learned to forget his first impressions, and to persecute the woman to whom he owed so much. His experience is not singular. The world is full of hatreds where there should only be loves. This is to say that there is sin where there should only be righteousness.

The opportunity for change of conduct was presented to Bossuet by the representations of Godet des Marais, Bishop of Chartres, who is reported to have been disgusting in person and in manners, and of course opposed to any thing or person that tended to destroy his influence. He was a director, with Fénélon, at St. Cyr, where he made it his first business to alarm Madame Maintenon on the subject of the doctrines taught by Madame Guyon, and then to secure the more powerful pen and voice of Bossuet in the same direction. Fénélon defended Madame Guyon against this powerful association. Subsequently, when the controversy became general over France, the Pope, influenced by Bossuet and Godet, banished Fénélon to his diocese, and Madame Guyon was incarcerated in the prison of Vincennes. Here she wrote, "I passed my time in

great peace, content to spend the remainder of my life there, if such should be the will of God. I employed part of my time in writing religious songs. I and my maid, La Gautière, who was with me in prison, committed them to heart as fast as I made them. Together we sung praises to thee, O our God. It sometimes seemed to me as if I were a little bird, whom the Lord had placed in a cage, and that I had nothing to do but to sing. The joy of my heart gave a brightness to the objects around me. The stones of my prison looked in my eyes like rubies. I esteemed them more than all the gaudy brilliancies of a vain world. My heart was full of that joy which Thou givest to them that love Thee in the midst of their greatest crosses.

In 1698 this much-persecuted woman was removed to the dungeons of the Bastille, where for four years she lingered in one of its strongest cells, previously occupied by the most notorious criminals. The visits of her friends and all correspondence with the outer world were denied her. She was shut up as in a tomb. At the same time that she was enduring the horrors of the Bastille, the "Man in the Iron Mask," so famous in the history of the place, had been a prisoner for thirtyseven years! During the Revolution, however, Frenchmen, as if desirous of freeing their country from the odium of its existence, properly razed it to the ground. Madame Guyon, in 1702, was removed from it and banished to Blois, one hundred miles from Paris. Her

constitution, by her long and repeated imprisonments, was by this time completely destroyed. She was, at the period of her release, only fifty-four years old, but in appearance she was a very old woman. As she had previously manifested patience and resolution, so in her new circumstances she deported herself as became a Christian. Her time was now employed in completing her Autobiography, in corresponding with inquiring persons in various parts of the world, and in those interviews, which strangers eagerly desired with one who had occupied so prominent a position in the public mind. Thus labouring to the last, on the 9th of June, 1717, she fell asleep in Jesus-resigned to her condition, at peace with God, and at peace with the world.

How petty, in comparison, are the vexations and crosses of our daily lives, when contrasted with the sufferings of Madame Guyon. The privileges and opportunities, which we in the order of providence enjoy, would have been considered by her the highest conditions for the enjoyment of felicity; and our trials, severe as we may conceive them, would by her have been neither remembered nor mentioned. She would have endured them, as we may learn to endure them, with the utmost calmness and serenity, having put on the strength given by God to all who trust in Him for succour and support. Her life of trial and of suffering yet lives to be an example and incentive to vigorous action and exertion. It yet lives to show to

the weakest how they may be strong; that though circumstances may be the most adverse and untoward, yet in the might of the arm of God, purposes may be completed, and a life may be lived that shall shed its light and influence upon ages yet unborn. And although this may never be, our position being cast in a lower and a humbler condition, yet that strength will equally suffice to arm us against the battles which we must fight against our lowest natures, which so war against our truest and best condition, and which, by the influence of the Evil One, stand ever ready to peril our peace here and our happiness hereafter. That is the lesson of the life and teaching of Madame Guyon.

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is not very wonderful, but certainly true, that all great men and women have had, with few exceptions, good, if not distinguished, parents. Their children have not become eminent on account of their goodness or greatness, because human perfections are not inherited; if they were, there would be no credit in possessing them, any more than there is credit to be attached to the man who by inheritance owns an estate. That to which credit properly belongs is the acquired possession of anything-especially when that possession involved continuous toil, determined perseverance, and life-long hope, at times surrounded with vexations and disappointments that have threatened to make a wreck of the intended purpose. That, therefore, which any parent can do for his child is to show it, by his example, how to live, but the living must be its own separate and individual act. He can point out the desirable direction of its studies, and may furnish incentives and encouragements, but the study and acquirement must be the act of the child, quite independent of any paternal or friendly influence. It may be supplied with every needful material for the attainment of knowledge, but it must put forth its own will, otherwise books, leisure, and