3. r y 16977 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM Swarthmore College Cornell University Library The original of tliis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031451895 RULES OF DISCIPLINE AND ADVICES OF THE YEARLY MEETING OF THE Religious Society of Friends V. HELD IN PHILADELPHIA. (Fifteenth and Race Streets.) PHILADELPHIA . PkINTED r,Y DIRECTION OF THE YEARLY MEETING. 1913- CONTENTS. Acknowledgments, 104 Overseers, 29 Appeals, 107 Parents and Children, - 51 Arbitration, - 59 Particular Advices, 71 Books, 6S Plainness, 38 Burials, 69 Procedure in Meetings Civil Government, 54 FOR Discipline, 92 Conduct and Conver- Queries, 76 sation, 48 Queries for Meetings Days and Times, 36 OF Ministers and Disownment, - 105 Elders, 27 Family Visits, 34 Records, no Gaming and Diversions, 46 Representative Com- Intoxicants and Nar- mittee, IS cotics, 44 Resignations, 103 Introduction, 7 Schools, - 63 Marriage, 81 Secret Societies, 47 Meeting Funds, 66 The Gospel Ministry, 35 Meetings for Discipline, 12 The Scriptures, S3 Meetings for Worship, - 10 Trade, 55 Membership, 31 Trusts and Titles to Members in Need, 68 Property, - 67 Memorials, 109 War, 40 Ministers and Elders, - 18 Wills, 62 Oaths, 42 Yearly Meeting, 9 RULES OF DISCIPLINE AND ADVICES. INTRODUCTION. It is held by the Religious Society of Friends that God endows every human being with a measure of His own Divine Spirit, by which he has revealed Himself to His children in all generations ; that this Spirit, which although in man, is not of man, is the manifestation in our human nature of the Eternal Word " which was in the beginning," and which was manifested without measure in the person of our Divine Master, Jesus Christ ; and that as we submit ourselves to the leadings of this Light of Christ in the soul, we are loosed from the bonds of self and sin, and enabled to live in con- formity with the will of our Heavenly Father. The Society early recognized that there were among its members different degrees of spiritual growth and religious experience, and that those whose lives had long been dedicated to the obedi- ent service of the Lord might nurture the growth of those younger in His service. In their engage- ment to meet together for the worship of God in spirit according to the direction of the Holy Law- giver, they were also exercised to have a tender care over each other, that all might be preserved in unity of faith and practice. ' To this end, therefore, and as an exterior hedge of preservation against the many temptations and dangers to which our situation in the world exposes us, advices have been issued and rules adopted from time to time by the Society. They found their inception in the impressions made upon concerned minds, and having been sub- mitted individually or through subordinate meet- ings to the judgment of the Yearly Meeting, they were adopted and issued by that body. Collections of these Rules and Advices, in manu- script, were formed by the Yearly Meeting as early as 1704, again in 17 19, and at different times later, notably in 1762; and in 1797 the compilation was issued in print. The book was added to and changed at various times. In 1 892 it was concluded to revise the whole, and the revision having been adopted by the Yearly Meeting in 1894, it, with alterations made in 1910 and 1913, now forms our Book of Discipline. [Note. — In the following pages, pronouns of the masculine gender include the feminine, and the singular number includes the plural in all consistent cases. The term Quarterly Meeting includes Half Year Meetings in consistent cases.] YEARLY MEETING. Our first Yearly Meeting was held at Bur- History oi lington, in New Jersey, the thirty-first day of the Sixth month, 1681, O. S., for the provinces of Pennsylvania and New Jersey ; in 1685 it was agreed that it should be held alternately at Burlington and Philadelphia; in 1755 the time of holding it was changed to the Ninth month ; in 1760 it was concluded that it should be held at the same time at Philadelphia only ; in 1 798 the time of hold- ing it was altered to the third Second-day in the Fourth month; in 1827 the time of Time of holding it was changed to the second Second- ^°^^"^s day of the Fourth month ; and in 1838 it was agreed that it should be held the Second- day following the second First-day in the Fifth month, as it now is. The Yearly Meeting of Ministers and Ministers Elders is held on the Seventh-day of thea"