Question as we may the usefulness of her pietistic books, the visions of her excessively exalted moods, and the passionate, almost erotic phraseology of her _Contemplations_, Madame Guyon has held the world's admiration for her martyr spirit, and even her love-flights of devotion in poetry and prose do not conceal the angel that walked in the flame. Today, when religious persecution is unknown, we can but dimly understand the perfect triumph of her superior soul under suffering and the transports of her utter absorption in God that could make the stones of her dungeon "look like jewels." When we emulate a faith like hers--with all the weight of absolute certainty in it--we can sing her hymn: My Lord, how full of sweet content I pass my years of banishment. Where'er I dwell, I dwell with Thee, In heaven or earth, or on the sea. To me remains nor place nor time: My country is in every clime; I can be calm and free from care On any shore, since God is there. And could a dearer _vade mecum_ enrich a Christian's outfit than these lines treasured in memory? While place we seek or place we shun, The soul finds happiness in none; But, with a God to guide our way, 'Tis equal joy to go or stay. Cowper, and also Dr. Thomas Upham, translated (from the French) the religious poems of Madame Guyon. This hymn is Cowper's translation. _THE TUNE._ A gentle and sympathetic melody entitled "Alsace" well represents the temper of the words--and in name links the nationalities of writer and composer. It is a choral arranged from a sonata of the great Ludwig von Beethoven, born in Bonn, Germany, 1770, and died in Vienna, Mar. 1827. Like the author of the hymn he felt the hand of affliction, becoming totally deaf soon after his fortieth year. But, in spite of the privation, he kept on writing sublime and exquisite strains that only his soul could hear. His fame rests upon his oratorio, "The Mount of Olives," the opera of "Fidelio" and his nine wonderful "Symphonies." "NO CHANGE IN TIME SHALL EVER SHOCK." Altered to common metre from the awkward long metre of Tate and Brady, the three or four stanzas found in earlier hymnals are part of their version (probably Tate's) of the 31st Psalm--and it is worth calling to mind here that there is no hymn treasury so rich in tuneful faith and reliance upon God in trouble as the Book of Psalms. This feeling of the Hebrew poet was never better expressed (we might say, translated) in English than by the writer of this single verse-- No change of time shall ever shock My trust, O Lord, in Thee, For Thou hast always been my Rock, A sure defense to me. _THE TUNE._