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A Short Method of Prayer

Jeanne Guyon · tr. A. W. Marston · 1685 (tr. 1875) · 15,657 words

Madame Guyon’s little book of inward prayer: the simple turning of the heart within, abandonment to God and the silent rest of the soul in His presence.

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Opening

Author’s Preface

I did not write this little work with the thought of its being given to the public. It was prepared for the help of a few Christians who were desirous of loving God with the whole heart. But so many have requested copies of it, because of the benefit they have derived from its perusal, that I have been asked to publish it.

I have left it in its natural simplicity. I do not condemn the opinions of any: on the contrary, I esteem those which are held by others, and submit all that I have written to the censure of persons of experience and learning. I only ask of all that they will not be content with examining the outside, but that they will penetrate the design of the writer, which is only to lead others to LOVE God, and to serve Him with greater happiness and success, by enabling them to do it in a simple and easy way, fit for the little ones who are not capable of extraordinary things, but who truly desire to give themselves to God.

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Contents

  1. Preface to the English Protestant Edition
  2. Author’s Preface
  3. Chapter I: All Are Commanded to Pray—Prayer the Great Means of Salvation, and Possible at All Times by the Most Simple
  4. Chapter II: First Degree of Prayer—Meditation and Meditative Reading—The Lord’s Prayer—Passage from the First Degree to the Second
  5. Chapter III: Second Degree of Prayer, Called Here “the Prayer of Simplicity.”
  6. Chapter IV: On Spiritual Dryness
  7. Chapter V: Abandonment to God—Its Fruit and its Irrevocability—In What It Consists—God Exhorts Us to It
  8. Chapter VI: Of Suffering Which Must Be Accepted as from God—Its Fruits
  9. Chapter VII: On Mysteries—God Gives Them Here in Reality
  10. Chapter VIII: On Virtue—All Virtues Given with God in This Degree of the Prayer of the Heart
  11. Chapter IX: Of Perfect Conversion, Which Is an Effect of This Method of Prayer—Two of its Aids, the Attraction of God, and the Central Inclination of the Soul
  12. Chapter X: Higher Degree of Prayer, Which Is That of the Simple Presence of God, or Active Contemplation
  13. Chapter XI: Of Rest in the Presence of God—Its Fruits—Inward Silence—God Commands It—Outward Silence
  14. Chapter XII: Self-Examination and Confession
  15. Chapter XIII: On Reading—Vocal Prayer—Requests
  16. Chapter XIV: The Faults Committed in This Degree—Distractions, Temptations—The Course to Be Pursued Respecting Them
  17. Chapter XV: Prayer and Sacrifice Explained by the Similitude of a Perfume—Our Annihilation in This Sacrifice—Solidity and Fruitfulness of This Prayer as Set Forth in the Gospel
  18. Chapter XVI: This State of Prayer Not One of Idleness, but of Noble Action, Wrought by the Spirit of God, and in Dependence upon Him—The Communication of his Life and Union
  19. Chapter XVII: Distinction Between Exterior and Interior Actions—Those of the Soul in This Condition Are Interior, but Habitual, Continued, Direct, Profound, Simple, and Imperceptible—Being a Continual Sinking in the Ocean of Divinity—Similitude of a Vessel—How to Act in the Absence of Sensible Supports
  20. Chapter XVIII: The Dryness of Preachers, and the Various Evils Which Arise from their Failing to Teach Heart-Prayer—Exhortation to Pastors to Lead People Towards This Form of Prayer, Without Amusing Them with Studied and Methodical Devotion

About this edition

Source: Project Gutenberg #24989

Public domain: First published 1685 (tr. 1875); public domain in the United States.

What’s included: The preface to the English edition, the author’s preface and the Short Method complete. Spiritual Torrents, bound with it in print, is not part of this Gutenberg text.

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