e
silence of a soul absorbed in God. "Why are not simple folks so taught?"
she said. "Shepherds keeping their flocks would have the spirit of the
old anchorites; and laborers, whilst driving the plough, would talk
happily with God: all vice would be banished in a little while, and the
kingdom of God would be realized on earth."

It was a far cry from the sanguinary struggle against sin and the armed
Christianity of the Jansenists; the sublime and specious visions of
Madame Guy on fascinated lofty and gentle souls: the Duchess of Charost,
daughter of Fouquet, Mesdames de Beauvilliers, de Chevreuse, de
Mortemart, daughters of Colbert, and their pious husbands, were the first
to be chained to her feet. Fenelon, at that time, preceptor to the
children of France (royal family), saw her, admired her, and became
imbued with her doctrines. She was for a while admitted to the intimacy
of Madame de Maintenon. It was for this little nucleus of faithful
friends that she wrote her book of _Torrents_. The human soul is a
torrent which returns to its source, in God, who lives in perfect repose,
and who would fain give it to those who are His. The Christian soul has
nothing more that is its, neither will nor desire. It has God for soul;
He is its principle of life." In this way there is nothing
extraordinary. No visions, no ecstasies, no entrancements. The way is
simple, pure, and plain; there the soul sees nothing but in God, as God
sees Himself and with His eyes." With less vagueness, and quite as
mystically, Fenelon defined the sublime love taught by Madame Guyon in
the following maxim, afterwards condemned at Rome: "There is an habitual
state of love of God which is pure charity, without any taint of the
motive of self-interest. Neither fear of punishment nor desire of reward
have any longer part in this love; God is loved not for the merit, or the
perfection, or the happiness to be found in loving Him." What singular
seductiveness in those theories of pure love which were taught at the
court of Louis XIV., by his grandchildren's preceptor, at a woman's
instigation, and zealously preached fifty years afterwards by President
(of New Jersey College) Jonathan Edwards, in the cold and austere
atmosphere of New England!

Led away by the generous enthusiasm of his soul, Fenelon had not probed
the dangers of his new doctrine. The gospel and church of Christ, whilst
preaching the love of God, had strongly maintained the fac