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THE MESSAGE OF QUAKERISM ,T0 
 THE PRESENT DAY. 
 
B Cornell University 
 9 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book 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/cu31924083812440 
 
THE 
 
 MESSAGE OF QUAKERISM 
 
 TO THE 
 
 PRESENT DAY. 
 
 BY 
 
 EVELYN M. NOBLE. 
 "Let youp lives preach."- George Fox. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 EDWARD HICKS, Jr. 
 
 14, BISHOPSGATE WITHOtTT, 
 
 AND 
 
 2, AMEN CORNER. 
 1893. 
 
OLlkl 
 
 mi 
 
 A/? 
 
 TV. 1). LUKE, 
 'nREMNEn" OFFICES, ST. AUSTELL. 
 
TO 
 
 RICHARD AND CAROLINE J. WESTLAKE, 
 
 IN MEMORY OF A 
 
 Most Helpful Friendship, 
 
 AND 
 
 In Thanksgiving for Much Spiritual Light, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Introduction — Inspiration . . . . . . , 5. 
 
 I. George Fox — The Seeker .. .. 17. 
 
 II. George Fox — ThE' Preacher .. 31. 
 
 III. Friends' Book of Discipline . . '. . 47. 
 
 IV. Five Witnesses fr~om Without . . 69. 
 V. The Message To-Dav, . ..' .. 93. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 INSPIRATION. 
 
 " Let each of us sit still, and keep watch for awhile in the silent 
 house of his spirit. . . As near as is the light to one sleeping 
 in the light, so near is Christ, the Awakener, to every Eternal man, 
 deeply as he may be asleep within his outer man.'' 
 
 John Pulsford. 
 
 IF we consult a dictionary, we shall find two meanings 
 given to explain the word Inspiration; "a drawing in 
 of the breath ; — an infusing into or stirring up in the 
 mind, something above the natural ability of man, by the 
 influence of the Holy Spirit of God ; " these, or some 
 similar explanations, will be given of Inspiration. But' if 
 laying aside the dictionary, we consult an inspired soul, he 
 will tell us it is the Breath of God, which is the true life 
 of man. A man, for instance, like John Pulsford, with 
 whom the thought-transference between God and his own 
 spirit has become the most blessed reality of daily life, 
 will explain to us that inspiration is not something 
 transcending the natural ability of our minds ; not some- 
 thing given once to certain Jews, and afterwards withheld ; 
 but is the true and ever present atmosphere of healthy 
 spiritual life. In the. beautiful words quoted above, "as 
 near as is the light to one sleeping in the Ught." 
 
 " God is as clearly calling Christians," he will say, "as, 
 in a former age he called Jews, out of their old limits into 
 broader places. . . , Whoever, therefore, abides by his 
 own, or his forefathers' stereotyped conceptions, may be a 
 worshipper of Christ's tomb, but he has parted company 
 with the living Christ." 
 
 Those, therefore, to whom Inspiration means only some- 
 thing pressed between the covers of their Bibles, know 
 little of its reality. To them, Christ's promise that He 
 
 B 
 
would be with the faithful until the end of the world, 
 means nothing : for they practically assert that instead of 
 revealing all truth, — if He is present at all, — He is silent ! 
 B/y such people the light of Christ in the soul, which is 
 the most blessed fact of existence, is altogether ignored, 
 and His divine voice " in the silent house of the spirit," 
 teaching, leading, guiding, warning, enlightening, is 
 unheard or regarded as a mere hallucination of the stirred 
 senses ! 
 
 To them, His perpetual presence, which, to the awakened 
 soul, is as certain and undoubted as any physical fact, — 
 ' as the love between husband and wife, mother and child, 
 or between two friends whose tuned spirits echo the music 
 of life in unison — as much a physical fact as hunger, or 
 thirst, pain, or pleasure — is mere imagination ! . . Such 
 people are indeed asleep in the Light, awaiting, through 
 half their natures, the touch of the Awakener ! 
 
 Yet we must remember that all faculties are gifts of 
 God : — talents committed to our charge to be developed 
 and inci'eased. We dishonour our Father in Heaven just 
 as much in discrediting Reason as , in ignoring Spirit. 
 Truth grasped by the intellect is just as binding, as truth 
 realized in the soul. And if we dare to deny truth in 
 any way, whether with i;egard to natural phenomena, or 
 , spiritual experience ,: — whether in its relation to scientific 
 facts, or to the discoveries of modern enquiry in any 
 department of knowledge, We blaspheme the Holy Spirit just 
 as much a,s though we denied the divinity of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 " Know ye not," says Pulsford again, " that the Living 
 Truth of to-day is the Christ. Say not that ' the Truth ' 
 is one of His names ; Christ is one of His names, but the 
 truth is what He was, and what He m, and what He will le 
 for ever." 
 
 The Holy Spirit cannot lie, but the purest light, seen 
 through a blurred or refracted medium, is broken up, 
 and changed ; and we can only reveal according to the 
 depth of our natures ; — we can only give out what we 
 
Introduction. 7 
 
 receive, and we can only receive what our spirits aye pure 
 enough to assimilate. 
 
 If this is true now, it was just as true when the Bible 
 was written : the treasure is indeed there, the priceless 
 treasure of revealed truth, but it is given in earthen vessels, 
 and we must gfuard against confusing the wine of God with 
 the human vessel containing it. 
 
 Once recognise this, and a new light flashes from the 
 pages of the Bible, illuminating all old meanings with fresh 
 clearness, and causing new and more beautiful meanings 
 to spring forth, irradiating life and casting bright flashes 
 of light into the opening doors of eternity. 
 
 The more we read other books, — ^the more we learn of 
 the working and seeking and finding of great minds and 
 loving hearts, — the more precious does the Bible beconie 
 to us ; for we recognise that the Scripture writers were 
 inspired fronj the Source of all wisdom, all knowledge, 
 and greater still, — because embracing and including these 
 — all Love ; that crown- name of God, that supreme 
 irresistible force of the creation, without which there can 
 be no justice, nor aspiration, nor any upward climbing for 
 the Race. 
 
 We yield to none in veneration for and admiration of the 
 Bible ; but it is the Icernel that we reverence, not the husk ; 
 the truth of the Divine Word rather than the text of the 
 letter or the name of the writer. It matters little whether 
 John or Paul wrote the books bearing their names — what 
 portions are attributable to Moses, or Isaiah — or whether 
 the truths written were handed down traditionally, or 
 inscribed at the time of occurrence. 
 
 Probably those pens of God, the prophets, and poets, 
 and seers, and apostles, scarcely understood the far- 
 reaching universal nature of some of the messages they 
 delivered ; as seers and poets write for the future now, and 
 each reader translates according to the depth and clearness 
 of his or her nature, finding God's meaning beneath the 
 human language. Exact dates and correct authorship, 
 
8 Intro^tion. 
 
 inasmuch as their discovery represents approximately 
 truth of detail, are valuable and interesting ; but with 
 regard to the inspiration of the marvellous Book itself, 
 they matter not one jot ! That is attested by the Living 
 Witness within, by that Light of Christ in us, which must 
 be to each, individual soul the ultimate judge of Truth. 
 He was the source and subject of the written word- from 
 Genesis to Revelation. To Him it bears witness — to 
 Him afar off by the prophets, before He had taken 
 flesh ;— to His presence in the world, by the apostles, who 
 wrote what they saw, and as much as they comprehended 
 of their revealed God, until the perfect seamless vesture 
 of the Word's coming in a human form lies there record- 
 ed. But His Holy Spirit is with us now, as from the 
 beginning, leading those whose ears are open to His 
 pleading into deeper Truth,, fuller comprehension, more 
 perfect Inspiration, infusing into man's soul yet clearer 
 conceptions of God through all manifestations. 
 
 These ideas of God must come to each one of us as an 
 immediate inspiration, a direct breath, before we can say 
 they are true : without this direct breath we may indeed 
 hold them as intellectual opinions, or sentiments, or 
 desires, but never as beliefs on which to establish our lives 
 — never as absolute truths. The one foundation of a real 
 faith is a personal revelation of Jesus to the spirit of His 
 disciple. We see this necessity of personal influence in 
 all earthly love and. service. We may reason about the 
 perfection of a person, or a cause, all our lives ; we may 
 measure their worthiness and guage their values, yet, 
 unless we first feel the love for them, before we reason 
 about it, we never reach the heights of self-sacrificing 
 service. Love comes first ; the flash of light, the over- 
 powering attraction, the strange drawing near of spirit to 
 spirit, on which all true religion, all worthy service for 
 God andjman is founded ; reason and logic follow after- 
 wards, to approve or condemn. It is when in some 
 responsive moment Jesus draws near to us, revealing His 
 
9 
 
 inexpressible beauty and divine love, and like a sudden 
 sunrise wakes the hidden buds of tender feeling and 
 gracious thought in our souls, that we become, in that 
 time-flash, our true selves, born into a new life to be His 
 servants and worshippers for ever. 
 
 If once our spirit's eyes have looked upon the Lord, no 
 lesser image can seem fair or desirable. In that moment 
 of inspired joy we understand that to each of the many 
 writers of the Bible came this same blessed vision, until, 
 to them, as to us, all olden things grew new, all common 
 things beautiful, and truth stood revealed in its perfect 
 loveliness. And so, as far as the union of the divine Spirit 
 with the human medium was pure and perfect, they were 
 enabled to write the thoughts of God for all ages. 
 
 But just as in human learning it requires a knowledge of 
 any particular science to rightly understand its facts, and 
 guage the value of its deductions, so with inspired truth it 
 needs a soul to whom Christ has drawn near, to com- 
 prehend the meaning of these divine thoughts in their 
 human translation. The nearer the Holy Spirit has been 
 able to draw to the believer, the clearer will be his com- 
 prehension, the more certain his faith. 
 
 Each must for himself or herself see Christ ; once seen 
 the vision can never be forgotten. Received into the 
 innermost sanctuary of the willing spirit. He will mould 
 that spirit, by its reception of Himself, into the gfeatest 
 beauty and harmony it is capable of reaching. , But in 
 these moulded spirits we need not expect any narrow con- 
 formity to one special type, only a unity of love and peace. 
 Lives developing from within by the power of the Christ- 
 spirit, will be remarkable for the diversity of their beautiful 
 flowers of thought, and fruit of deeds ; their only similar- 
 ity will be their fragrance and sweetness, and the refreshing , 
 power of their presence amongst us. 
 
 Thus we see that Inspiration is the reception into a 
 more or less perfectly opened human channel of the Breath 
 and Spirit of God, and we can trace its influence in all 
 
10 Introduction. 
 
 noble and true work, whether of brain or hand. Recog- 
 nising it not only in the Bible, (its highest manifestation,) 
 but also in the discoveries of science and the beautiful 
 creations of art. 
 
 We can watch this Christ-spirit transmuting the material' 
 into the spiritual through all possible developments^ 
 leavening the soulless mass of Nature with His fiery 
 breath, until the divine hidden germ becomes a mighiy 
 presence, and the inspired impulse an irresistible power. 
 
 The Christ-spirit draws the grandeur of patience from 
 the apathetic calm of Egypt : the beauty of holiness from 
 the mere physical loveliness of Greece ; the power to bear 
 and suffer for another from the perfect strength and cour- 
 age of Scandinavia ; the steadfast choice of renunciance 
 from the instinctive grasping at personal joy and domin- 
 ion of Rome ; and the sacrfedness and hallowed sweetness 
 of each small daily action from the quaint charm and 
 tender fancy of Japan. 
 
 This blessed Christ-spirit, the Spirit of Love and 
 guidance, has been with us from the beginning of the 
 world, raising, purifying, ennobling humanity, until now, 
 countless souls, impelled by its inspiration, are spreading, ' 
 in ever-widening circles, a knowledge of the dawning 
 glory of the Saviour's kingdom. 
 
 Such a book as Morgenrothe could never have been 
 written without direct and immediate inspiration — ^without 
 that constant communion of John Pulsford's spirit with 
 Christ, of which each page tells in words of radiant joy, and 
 the fulness of peace. As we read on, entranced, our spirits 
 seem standing on the outermost verge of our world, in the 
 glory of sunrise, hearing far-off a faint celestial music, as 
 tho^gh " the morning stars sang together." And seeing, 
 dim indeed and shadowy, yet ever drawing nearer, the 
 dream-like beauty of the City of God, the angel-heralded 
 kingdom of Christ ! 
 
 Even to those who have been hitherto unable to accept 
 the historical Christ, as tee do with the deepest love of our 
 
Introduction. 11 
 
 hearts, and most intense and undoubting faith of our souls, 
 even unto them He continues to come, for never again can 
 anyone, whether he call himself Christian or not, think or 
 act uninfluenced by the life and Spirit of Christ. 
 
 This life as portrayed in the Gospels may be to them 
 a mere allegory, a beautiful symbol of pure and. perfect 
 existence, in the sense that a flower's life typifies a human 
 one. Jesus apparently laid little stress on the recognition 
 of Himself personally. He was the Light in a darkened 
 world to show men the way to fulfil His Father's will ; and 
 He seems rather to have encouraged His disciples to walk 
 in this light, and open all the channels of their natures to 
 its influence, than to reason about it, or try to define the 
 mode of its action. Not by brave words but true- deeds; 
 not by acknowledging Me as Lord, but by doing My 
 Father's will as I do. He taught, will you become con^ 
 sciously His children. Natural kinship is little until raised 
 into that spiritual kinship wherein the whole being Uvea 
 the prayer, " Thy will be done ! " 
 
 • When this state has been reached, then indeed the new 
 creature has been born, the true kinship has been found, 
 and the union with God, which opens ^ all the purified 
 chailnels of life for the reception of His Breath (Inspira- 
 tion) has been attained ! Then, and, not until then, do we 
 understand the true meaning of the word, as personally 
 applicable to ourselves. Then, and not until then, do we , 
 rightly comprehend the Bible, and all other revelation, 
 and recognise that whatever mars or detracts from the 
 perfeot Ideal of Love, whether in the Bible or elsewhere, 
 is due to the refracted or impure medium, never to the 
 Inspiring source. 
 
 1 hat perfect Ideal of Love — a faint shadow of which 
 haunted the Hebrew' prophets and poets — could only be 
 revealed by God Himself, and manifested in Jesus. But 
 since the vision came into our world, the servants of 
 divine beauty and truth : — art, music, literature and science, 
 have been always striving to re-produce, in their various 
 
12 Jntroduetton, 
 
 ways, its lineaments ; and each is noble and precious, just 
 so far as it shows forth with power and sweetness the all- 
 pervading Spirit of Christ the Regenerator. 
 
 Wagner's music, brimful of Inspiration, and suggesting 
 , always the unheard melodies behind it, is great and true, 
 because of its Christ-spirit, its expression of love and 
 self-sacrifice, an^ tenderness, and pity, and truth, and 
 courage, and heroic life, and death. Parsifal is perhaps 
 the most beautiful presentment of pity and love since the 
 Saviour lived His divine life under the human veil. 
 Elizabeth aiid Senta are inspired types of tenderness and 
 self-sacrifice. Lohengrin, Siegfried, and many others, all 
 show forth this over-shadowing Christ-spirit in different 
 aspects, and witness to the communion of the musician's 
 spirit with the Father of Spirits. 
 
 The Christ-spirit is the Inspiration for all the noblest 
 types in Browning's portrait gallery, as in Wagner's. 
 Pompilia and Caponsacchi, the simple girl, the worldly 
 priest, kindled into heroism by the impulse of a God-given 
 opportunity — the pure presence of Pippa, passing like a 
 flower-laden breeze across corrupt lives, and recalling them 
 to purity and newness of endeavour, as she flits through 
 the poem bearing her name, a breath of music on her in- 
 nocent lips, 
 
 "God's in His heaven — 
 All's right with the world." 
 
 Childe Roland pressing on to the dark tower,, heedless 
 of all obstacles, careless of the pain awaiting him at the 
 end, careful only to follow the ray of light cast on his 
 darkened path. — Not one of these noble and beautiful 
 creations would have been possible without the Inspiration 
 of the Christ in the soul of the poet ; and the more 
 perfectly and entirely the soul is yielded up to receive this 
 Inspiration the better the work, the greater the joy of 
 creation, the truer the message delivered. 
 
 Holman Hunt's pictures cause new and sublime thoughts 
 to spring up in the minds of all who see them, becwse, 
 
Introduction. 13 
 
 through their glorious symbolism and radiancy of pure and 
 tender colour, they show forth the Christ. Who, that has 
 ever looked on his presentment of " The Light of the 
 World," the tender patiente and quenchless love in that 
 divine face, in every line of that gracious figure, standing 
 alone at the closed door, amid all the beauty of the moon- 
 litten world, can ever doubt that the Master Himself was 
 present in the soul of the artist, before he could show 
 forth the very Spirit of His life in the glory of colour, 
 •with such mighty force and truth, that instinctively the 
 gazer feels in the veritable presence of the Light-Bringer ? 
 
 No merely human skill, again, could have laden the 
 Scapegoat with its world's-weight of pathos :-^the innocent 
 amazement, yet steadfast uncomplaining strength in the 
 creature's face, as it stands against the marvellous back- 
 ground of empurpled mountains, amid the utmost desola- 
 tion of unlovely earth, treeless and flowerless, utterly 
 alone, bearing the sins of others, that by its pain and 
 miserable death they, the guilty ones, may be won back and 
 healed, could never have been portrayed until the man, 
 Holman Hunt, yielded himself up to the divine inspiration, 
 and realized under this type, the agony of Jesus, and 
 showed forth with all the might of his art and genius, the 
 bitter bareness of earth to the Saviour, and the glory and 
 radiance of the heights He left behind Him, to bear the 
 sins of a world which, instead of worshipping, crucified 
 Him ! No one can look at this picture, understanding it, 
 without "tears from the depths of some divine despair" 
 filling his eyes and heart, until he realizes, as perhaps never 
 before, that the crown of thorns set on the patient brow 
 at last, was but the outward sign of the thorn-strewn life 
 lived for his sake. 
 
 All men and women cannot of course show forth their 
 inmost rapture of communion in concrete form, but the 
 fruits of Inspiration are given to all who ask, and who 
 open the doors and windows of their natures for the 
 entrance of the Christ. 
 
14 Introduction. 
 
 We often find that the simplest action prompted by love, 
 the mere repression of a bitter word or thought, may lift 
 up the heavy gate of self, may unbar the closed door of 
 sin's dungeon and let the King of Glory come in, bringing 
 with Him the boundless hope of a new-birth, and 'the 
 cleansing Breath of immediate Inspiration. " As near as 
 is the light to one sleeping in the light, so near is Christ 
 
 the awakener, " this is, the witness borne by an 
 
 awakened soul, and what he has experienced, all may ex- 
 perience in a greater or lesser degree. But we must 
 remember the apostle's warning : " Therefore we ought to 
 give the more, earnest heed to the things that were heard, 
 lest haply we drift away from them." 
 
 That is the great danger, ^-a " drifting s.viacy," not an 
 absolute denial, not an actual fighting against, but an 
 insensible receding, a gradual )delding to the promptings 
 of the material, and consequent hardening to the low 
 breathings of the spiritual, in our natures. If we allow 
 the world, and the things of the world, to fill our hearts 
 and thoughts ; if we cease for a moment to be channels of 
 grace, to receive and pass on the Inspiration breathed into 
 our beings, the power will drift away, the receptivity will 
 wane, and the light into' which we might have awakened 
 will fade into the sunset of death. 
 
 The choice is our own. The desire for guidance, the 
 readiness to receive Inspiration, brings the guide, prepares 
 the medium ; while the self-will which strives to guide 
 itself, drifts rudderless to destiiiction,' and the close-barred 
 nature dwindles into the lifeless desert of unbelief and 
 loveless ruin. 
 
 We cannot choose both Inspiration and human happi- 
 ness, yet they are not antagonistic. And frequently the 
 earthly joy follows the heavenly rapture ; but it must 
 follow, never lead. It must come as a free gift from the 
 Father of Spirits, never as the fruit of personal grasping. 
 '' Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." 
 
 Oh ! let us not hesitate in our choice, but lift up the 
 
.15 
 
 gates of our minds, and throw open the doors of our 
 spirits, that the King of Glory may come in (as He is 
 waiting and longing to do) and "dwell with us, and give ns 
 the bliss of perfect communion with Himself, and breathe 
 into us the perpetual Breath of Inspiration for the atmos- 
 phere of our new-born spirit's home ! 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 GEORGE FOX— THE SEEKER. 
 
 THE many books lately pfublished on Friends' views 
 and history, the various articles in magazines, papers, 
 etc., and the constant references to Quaker aims, 
 modes of thought and worship, by men and women out- 
 side the Society, all seem to indicate a revival of essential 
 Quakerism ; and we think it will be interesting briefly to 
 examine the Ideal which the Society of Friends has 
 always, with more or less clearness, set before its members, 
 and to see whether Quakerism bears any message for the 
 20th century, as it undoubtedly bore one for the 17th, 
 and if so, in what this message consists. 
 
 It was a strange distracted world into which George 
 Fox, the founder of Quakerism, entered in the summer of 
 1624. And as the thoughtful, large-eyed . boy grew to- 
 ward manhood, and his intensely religious nature sought 
 in vain for spiritual nourishment in the churches and 
 amongst the professors around him. Only receiving in 
 return for his impassioned questioning such answers as 
 " take tobacco," " get married," etc., it must often have 
 seemed to him in the bitterness of his disappointment 
 that the earth itself, 
 
 " Bound by gold chains about the feet of God," 
 had been swept into some poisonous atmospheric current, 
 which made every possible and impossible opinion, every 
 hallucination, however wild and terrible, seem natural and 
 reasonable to the mind of man, until madness had slain 
 sanity in the strongest brains, and fear and fanaticism had 
 strangled pity in the tenderest hearts. 
 
 To perceive the truth of this statement we have only to 
 note the meaning of the word " toleration " amongst the 
 various Reformed Churches. With a very few honourable 
 exceptions, notably one of the early Baptist Churches, the 
 
18 The 'Message of Quakerism to the Present Day. 
 
 followers of, the saintly Schwenkfeld, and the Society of 
 Friends, "toleration" meant, freedom for the speaker's 
 opinion, persecution for all others. 
 
 Luther fiercely attacked those who differed from him as 
 " inspired by the devil " Zwingle permitted Anabaptists 
 to be persecuted and drowned without protest, and Calvin 
 delivered men over to fearful punishments for confuting 
 his peculiar opinions. The Presbyterians and Indepen- 
 de;nts when in power, turned out the Episcopalians from 
 their benefices, and forbade the use of the Book of 
 Common Prayer, even in domestic circles, under pain of 
 heavy penalties ; while the Episcopalians, at the turn of 
 Fortune's Wheel, ejected 2,0,00 ministers, made attendance 
 at Parish Churches compulsory under like penalties, and 
 even fined those who could not conscientiously partake 
 of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper ! 1 
 
 The Synod of Divines at Sion College in 1645, spoke of 
 toleration " as a root of gall and bitterness, both in 
 present and future ages." The Lancashire ministers said 
 it was " the taking away of all conscience," and " the 
 appointing a cjty of refuge in men's consciences for the 
 devil to fly to ! " Edwards, the author of Gangrcena, says, 
 " a toleration is the grand design of the devil — it is against 
 the whole stream and current of Seriptvre, loth in the Old and 
 New Testament." We marvel how he could explain the 
 two commandments of Jesus, the love to God and the 
 neighbour, and the constant iteration all through the 
 Gospels and Epistles of that key note of Christ's teach- 
 ing, " Love is the fulfilment of the law." He goes on, 
 " the devil for some thousandsl'of years has not found out 
 this engine, nor made use of it to support his kingdom." 
 
 Milton and others tell us that the Assembly of Puritan 
 Divines who had cried down the Bishbps, plurality of 
 livings, etc., were only too eager to step into the displaced 
 clergymen's places, and were scandalously greedy in 
 grasping two or more of the best of these livings, besides 
 lectureships, etc. ' 
 
The Me88<tge of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 19 
 
 The Church of England in 1610 contemplated forming 
 a colony in Virginia, and amongst the Laws and Articles 
 proposed for it we find the following : to " speak malici- 
 ously" against "the holy and blessed Trinity", or the 
 " Articles of the Christian Faith," the penalty of death. 
 For " blasphemy " or " unlawful oaths," first offence, the 
 punishment to be "severe;" for second offence, "a 
 bodkin thrust through the tongue ; " for third offence, 
 " death." If anyone " unworthily demeaned himself unto 
 any preacher or minister " he was to be openly (uihipt three 
 times, and to ask " public forgiveness " in church on 
 Sunday. For Sabbath breaking, the second offence to be 
 punished by whipping, while the third was to be punished 
 by, death. When the bell tolled on wording days every man 
 and woman was to go to the church ,to hear divine service, 
 or lose the day's allowance for first offence, while for 
 the second offence they were to be whipped, and for third 
 sentenced to six months at the galleys. No man or 
 woman arriving at the Colony was to omit going to the 
 minister and giving an account of their faith and religion : 
 if told to go again for further instruction, and omitting to 
 do so, they were to be whipped for first offence, whipped 
 twice for secon^ offence, and ' for third offence they were 
 to be whipped every, day until professing sorrow in the ehuroh, 
 and repairing to the minister ! 
 
 Even as late as 1721, we find in the Parliamentary 
 debate on altering the afiSrmation for Quakers, the Earl of 
 Iley, in reply to Bishop Atterbury, who had said that 
 Quakers were "hardly Christians," remarking that they 
 were " Christians by act of Parliament ! " 
 
 It is quite evident that toleration, as we understand it, 
 was as entirely unknown in most of the Reformed Churches 
 as in the Unreformed ones ; and that ' they nearly all 
 taught, with greater or less distinctness, the doctrine that 
 it was lawful for the State in the best interests of its sub- 
 jects to suppress heresy, and keep men in the right path 
 for heaven, with scant attention to the needs of individual 
 
20 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Day. 
 
 consciences. Bumet, Bishop of Salisbury under William 
 III, was an honourable exception : a truly tolerant man in 
 an age of intolerance, and amongst a persecuting class. 
 " Toleration," he said, " is a right due to all nien, their 
 thoughts are not in their own power. They must think of 
 things as they appear to them ; their consciences are 
 God's, He only knows them, and He only can change 
 them." But the great Bishop stood almost alone in his 
 enlightened views, and was exposed to much misunder- 
 standing and reproach on account of them. 
 
 The Reformation had apparently set men's spirits free 
 from the bondage of Rome only to subject them to the 
 myriad bondages of the new sects ; for these unhappy 
 spirits, cramped, tortured, and deformed by their long 
 imprisonment, sprang up wildly, and plunged into a perfect 
 saturnalia of strange, grotesque, and in many cases, 
 grossly material creeds, revolting and hideous enough 
 almost to justify the Catholic Church's stern suppression 
 of heresy ; until, the leading ' Reformers themselves, 
 aghast at the flood of blasphemy which threatened to 
 overwhelm their new doctrines, began in their turn to 
 persecute each other, and all who dared to differ from their 
 definitions of truth. 
 
 Many of the sects which came to light after Luther's 
 great upheaval had been long in existence, but silently and 
 secretly practising their rites, and diffusing their doctrines, 
 with as little noise as possible ; living in retired spots, 
 lonely hill villages, and mountainous tracts, in different 
 parts of Europe, for the most part unmolested, because 
 unnoticed. To these were now added the leading sects of 
 the Reformation : Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Indepen- 
 dents, Baptists, Lutherans, Calvinists, the followers of 
 Zwingle, Huss, and innumerable others, while almost 
 every day saw some new sect spring up, some fresh growth 
 of doctrine, or some strange error crystallize into a creed. 
 
 In studying this period we feel indeed as though passing 
 through a lunatic asylum, wherein each madman and woman 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 21 
 
 strives to silence all the. others, or fotce them to conform 
 to his or her personal hallucination ; and wherein, amid a 
 deafenings din of clamourous voices, persecutors and per- 
 secuted are swiftly changing places, but all retain the 
 same intolerant nature and the same incapacity to grasp the 
 essence of Christianity, though professing to live by its 
 teaching, and calling themselves by its name ! 
 
 Edwards, in his " Gangroena," enumerates over two hun- 
 dred heresies, and erroneous opinions., Many people 
 declared themselves to be God, and Christ, the Lamb's 
 wife, etc. One man said he had healed a leper, and 
 restored defective sight. Another prophesied the return of 
 the king before Cromwell, and said he was a prophet. 
 Some declared it dangerous to read Scripture before a 
 mixed congregation. Some said,- to sing David's Psalms 
 was blasphemy, and telling lies ; that all set times, whether 
 for public or private prayer, were unlawful and superstitious, 
 and that it is lawful to take up arms to restore the kingdom 
 of Christ. That human learning is fleSh, and Universities 
 are of the devil. Edwards preached against mechanic 
 preachers, and one stamped with his foot and said, " this 
 rascally rogue deserves to be pulled out of the pulpit 1 " 
 and half a dozen men answered, " let us go and pull him 
 out!!" 
 
 Ludovick Muggleton and John Reeve proclaimed them- 
 selves the two witnesses of the Spirit, of Revelations XI, 
 said they were the forerunners of Christ's last coming, and 
 were commissioned to foretell eternal life or death to 
 individuals. They countenanced no forms, but met in a 
 festive manner, and said, when God, Who was in the form 
 of a man from the beginning, came to earth, Moses and 
 Elias represented Him bodily in Heaven. They said also, 
 that until the Resurrection the souls of men were as mortal 
 as their bodies. The Ranters sang, whistled and danced : 
 appeared in sackcloth and ashes ; took tobacco and drank 
 ale at their meetings ; some of them said sin was no sin 
 to them, since they were manifestations of the Godhead. 
 
 c 
 
22 !l%e Message of Quakerism to the Present Day. 
 
 Some thought it sinful to wear a garment at all ; and all, 
 and each, calumniated and persecuted every other sect 
 than their own. 
 
 Even such saintly men as Baxter and Bunyan seemed to 
 have no glimmer of the sacred right of individual con- 
 science. The former said, he had some hope, of the 
 ultimate salvation of Baptists, but doomed all Quakers 
 without, reserve to utter damnation ; while the latter, who 
 afterwards owed his release from jail to George Whitehead, 
 had been one of their most vehement denunciators. 
 
 The clergy are described by contemporary witnesses as 
 pluralists, non-residents, busy-bodies, newsmongers, fre- 
 quenters of ale-houses, often intemperate, and of weak 
 and small understanding ; very illiterate, and unable 
 frequently to answer the simplest questions, from ignor- 
 ance, even of their Bibles. In Sedgwick's words, "honest 
 industry is quite discouraged, being almost useless ; most 
 men that have estates are betrayed by one side or another, 
 plundered and sequestered. Trading, (the life and subsis- 
 tence of thousands,) decaying, eaten up with taxes ; your 
 poor quite ready to famish, or to rise to pull relief from rich 
 men's hands by violence. Squeezed by taxes, wracked 
 with war : the anvil indeed of misery, upon which all the 
 strokes of vengence fall." Baxter says, " the pulpit instead 
 of being made a means of preaching the gospel to ignor- 
 ant miserable people, they rather disputed with them of 
 formalities and niceties, when the question presented to 
 be determined is whether they are to live in heaven or 
 hell." While the description given of the seven divines 
 who were sent to Oxford to reconcile the University to 
 Presbyterianism, and who held councils to answer questions 
 and remove doubts, and received from the students the 
 name of the " Scruple Shop," sounds like nothing but a 
 scene from one of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas I 
 
 It is a dark and terrible picture that rises before us, as 
 it rose before George Fox's earnest eyes, and yet even 
 here amid the crowd of idol-worshippers, each striving to 
 
The Menage of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 23 
 
 set his own particular fetish on the altar of the Eternal, 
 each shouting with brazen tongue his own particular shib- 
 boleth, there are gleams of the pure Light of Heaven ; 
 for scattered throughout the length and- breadth of the 
 land, like sheep that have no shepherd, but are hunted 
 by wolves from their deserted fold, dwelt many thousands 
 of calm-browed, earnest-faced, quiet men and women, 
 their yearning eyes turned heavenward, a great silence on 
 their lips, a great longing, yet an unspeakable peace in 
 their hearts. Gathered from all sects, yet of no sect them- 
 selves I worshipping at no material shrine, yet drawn from 
 all shrines. Earnest seekers, such as have existed in every 
 age, not finding reality in the crystallized traditions of the 
 churches, not satisfied to say one thing and do another, 
 not content to see Christ, as an earnest disciple has said 
 with brutal frankness, a " homeless tramp," and themselves 
 in well-fed, well-clad luxury, listening to His .Words, had 
 gathered themselves apart, sometimes by twos and threes, 
 sometimes more, and sometimes, as we see in all the 
 autobiographies of the saints and martyrs, quite alone, 
 save for the overshadowing Presence they dimly felt urging, 
 restraining, guiding them. Called out of the churches, as 
 the children of God have always been called : called out 
 of the world to lonely places, to wild woods, to hollow 
 trees ; urged by the loneliness of their aching souls to any 
 spot, where, alone with the Father of Spirits, they could 
 face the problems of life and death, and finding, if per- 
 adventure it might be found, the truth, walk ever after- 
 wards in a clear path, in the light of a consecrated 
 life. 
 
 Persecuted by all the loud-voiced throngs around them, 
 they steadfastly persevered, seeking, fasting and hungry- 
 souled, the Bread of Heaven, the Wine of God, and 
 waited for the Light. They sought, it was said, an apostle 
 or angel, able in the spirit to give some visible demonstra- 
 tion of his mission ; and at last these Seekers, exiles of all 
 the sects, grew to be regarded as almost a sect themselves ; 
 
24 The Message of Quakerism to tJie Present Day. 
 
 but still, they fonnulated no creed, founded no church, but 
 watched and waited in patient silence for the Light and 
 Guide they felt wanting iii the much-professing, little-per- 
 forming churches around them. . 
 
 It is inexpressibly refreshing, in reading the history of 
 the 17th century, to find, amongst the jangling, warring, 
 persecuting churches, and parties, crying "Lord! Lord!" 
 while by their unloving, unlovely lives, they crucify Jesus 
 afresh, these simple Christlike Christians, springing up 
 everywhere, like unblown daisies amid the grass, waiting 
 for the Sunrise to open their spirit-eyes, and unfold the 
 petals of a new faith, peaceable and pure. It is like being 
 carried to the summit of , a snow rnountain, above the 
 crowds, the clamours, and the cares of a great city, where- 
 in we have been wandering ; there only we find a free' 
 atmosphere which we can breathe after the dense vapours 
 which choked us below ! 
 
 George Fox, as he unfolds himself in his autobiography, 
 seems to have been a typical Seeker. .. .His first great 
 awakening, came to him at a Fair, when asked to drink a 
 jug of beer with his cousin and a friend, both "professors," 
 ,as in the quaint language of the day, the outwardly 
 religious were called. After quenching their thirst, his 
 companions called for more, to drink healths with, gjrowing 
 apparently somewhat excited and boisterous ; and we can 
 well imagine the direct, sorrbwful look of the large- eyed 
 dreamy youth, seeing so much more than merely drinlang 
 when not thirsty, in this health-pledging custom, and 
 recognizing that here was the first step toward a life of in- 
 dulgence and dissipj-tion, which must necessarily involve 
 denial of the Lord, and the true life of His followers. . . 
 Taking some money from his pocket he laid it on the 
 table and left the house. . . 
 
 We suppose most people who know anjrthing of re-gen- 
 eration, of that new birth which Jesus said was a necessity 
 before seeing God, will call to mind some similar incident 
 in their own lives, when, out of an apparently trivial 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 26 
 
 circumstance was bom the new creature, the sudden sight 
 of truth. We suppose most of us can say with the blind 
 man in the Gospels, "Whereas I was blind, now I see ! " 
 We cannot afterwards tell exactly what happened, we 
 cannot explain in hard words the change of view ; we 
 only know it has changed, we have had our moment of 
 choice given to us, and have seen on one side the Lord, 
 and recognized in a time-flash the Eternal Light in His 
 blessed face. And in that vivid moment we have also 
 seen the adversary in his true hideousness, and our spirits 
 have shrunk back appalled ! It is not often that souls are 
 touched a,nd awakened like Paul's by the materially visi- 
 ble Light and audible voice from heaven, or confirmed in 
 their faith like John the Baptist by the materially visible 
 dove, yet to every soul comes the vision in one form or 
 another, when there passes before the eyes of their spirit 
 the Holy City, and. the God Who is the Light thereof, and 
 also the darkness which is the shadow of unrepentant 
 sin ! . . 
 
 " I passed the night," says George Fox, " walking up 
 and down, I could not sleep, but prayed and cried to the 
 Lord in deep distress." And many following days and 
 nights did he pass in the same state, sitting alone in 
 hollow trees, open fields, woods and other lonely places, 
 the Bible in his hands, while he waited for the light of the 
 Holy Spirit on its pages, without which he could not com- 
 prehend its blessed teaching. 
 
 To many, perhaps to most of us, the awakening touch 
 of the Master, which makes faith the living breath of our 
 souls, not the mere hereditary garment of our minds, 
 comes to us in our homes, setting all old things in a new 
 light indeed, and calling into being innumerable possibili- 
 ties of fresh service in trodden paths, casting a fairer halo 
 of afi"ection round beloved brows, and of holiness round 
 daily duties ; but to some few the call comes, " Take up 
 your crosses and follow Me ! " And to this sorrowful 
 youth the summons came in this wise, and without hesita- 
 
26 J^ Message of Quakerism to the Present Bwy. 
 
 tion he left his home and his own people, and wandered 
 through the land, seeking everywhere in all the churches- 
 for someone " who could speak to his condition." 
 
 Priest after priest, minister after minister, he consulted 
 in vain — his own people advised marriage — but the boy, 
 with the premonition of divine love in his heart, with a 
 dim sense that ea:rthly love is only desirable, when in the 
 union of two a third is included, even the God who dwelt 
 between the cherubim, turned away sadly, murmuring, he 
 " must get the wisdom," (the feminine counterpart of the 
 masculine love.) His beautiful letters to Margaret Fell, 
 affer she became his wife, show the strength, beauty and 
 purity of the love he was capable of feeling when he found 
 the ideal woman, who could be not only the companion of 
 his life, and the comrade he needed for his work, but the 
 complement and fulfilment of his own nature. Then 
 
 one priest advised him to drink beer do we not hear an 
 
 echo of the old cry " let us eat and drink for to-morrow 
 we die ? " But still the boy, for he was barely twenty, 
 went by them sighing, pausing not in his weary pilgrim- 
 age from shrine to shrine of human idolatry, growing each 
 day sadder and more weary, yet with the unslakeable thirst 
 in his soul, which could never be satisfied without the 
 living water Christ alone gives. And satisfied he was at 
 last, for like a sudden sunrise, or as Dante, who well knew 
 this weary pilgrimage of spirit, says : 
 
 E senza cura aver d'aloun reposo 
 Sallmmo su, ei primo, ed io seoondo, — 
 Tanto oh'io vidi delle cose belle, 
 Che porta il ciel per un pertugio rondo ; 
 E quindi uscinmio a riveder le stelle. 
 
 The voice of God came to him : he had found at, last, 
 " Someone who could speak to his condition," even the 
 Lord Jesus, Who reveals Himself sooner or later to every 
 faithful Seeker. . . But the Seeker must be absolutely 
 true, must not only be ready to seek Him through " prayer 
 and fasting," i.e. renunciance of personal joy for the good 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 27 
 
 of others, but by shutting all worldly doors, and opening 
 aU spiritual windows in his nature. By stopping his ears 
 to the world's warring vpices, and. opening them to the 
 angelic whispers ; by leaving all earthly delights, to spend 
 time, money, and any other gift or grace he possesses, in 
 helping the poor, the sick, and the sorrowful. 
 
 George Fox was not only read/y to do this but had done 
 it at the first summons, when, instead of laughing at the 
 health-pledging in the tavern, he . had sorrowfully listened 
 to the silent voice in his soul, and left his lively com- 
 panions, to seek the Light which had now dawned upon 
 his spirit. Showing him, (as it must always show the world's 
 saints and martyrs) the stony path to Calvary, which each 
 must tread, bearing the heavy cross of the world's sin, and 
 with bruised and bleeding feet, yet with a great joy and 
 peace in his heart and a heavenly radiance filling his soul, 
 brimful of love, until every human tear grows to the 
 disciple's" rapt sight a flower springing up before the feet 
 of God. 
 
 In those dark days, before the Light came to him, wan- 
 dering through a distracted world, standing alone on the 
 grave of his boyhood's life, an ' empty heaven above and 
 clanging voices around him, whose words seemed mere 
 husks of sound with no fruitful kernel of sense beneath 
 their scorn, George Fox learned to look within, and led 
 thereto by the inspired Book in his hands, whose pages 
 slowly grew luminous as he gazed, found the Light of the 
 World imprisoned in his own soul, the Eternal Word 
 nearer to him than mother or father, sister or brother, 
 a_portion_^fJhimselfj^life of his life, and yet the Christ,' 
 'tHeSaviourTT)ut bound, and bruised, and fainting beneath 
 the cross of sin and self-indulgent carnal affections. 
 
 Helearned many lessons duringhis pilgrimage. He learned 
 that it is by no means enough to avoid great sins, as the 
 world counts them great, and to live a decorous respected 
 life< That "covetousness " is indeed as Paul said "idolatry/' 
 and that " covetousness " is a large, wide-spreading word, 
 
28 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Banf. 
 
 with its roots in all merely selfish pleasure, in oM purely 
 personal;living. He learned that a man must be as truly bom 
 again spiritually, as though practically he had just entered 
 the world naked and helpless, and that sin must be as 
 really loathsome to this new creature as leprosy is to the 
 fleshly one. He learned, too, that there is no such thing 
 as heresy, but that the Father of Spirits communicates 
 with the spirits of His faithful ones, after a truly spiritual 
 fashion, and reveals truth to them according to their 
 several necessities, so that " by their fruits ye shall know 
 them " is the only true test, and " he who is not against us 
 is on our part " the only real judgment ; and that con- 
 sequently aU religious persecution is blasphemy against 
 His Spirit. He learned that it was to " the ' Light that 
 lighteth every man that cometh into the world," the holy 
 seed sown in every soul, that he must appeal ;. that Light 
 which had grown dim, and been almost forgotten amid the 
 artificial blaze of human candles, and priestly lamps and 
 professing tapers ; that seed which had been, choked and 
 overgrown by the tares of a worldly life and a lust for 
 carnal things, for power and wealth in themsekes. And as 
 he strove faithfully to follow the guidance of this Light, the 
 growth of this holy seed in his own spirit, slowly the Ideal 
 to which' he devoted his life, and to whigh Penn, and 
 Barclay, and Caton, and Crisp, and Pamell, and innumer- 
 able other brave and earnest men devoted their lives, when 
 he had led them to it, grew clear to his mind, until the eyes 
 of his soul beheld the gospel preached at last to all 
 nations ! 
 
 We hear sometimes that the gospel has been preached 
 now to nearly the whole world, but we shall do well to 
 pause over this statement and ask ourselves, what Gospel } 
 Not the Gospel of Jesus, the meek and lowly. Not the 
 Gospel of the Teacher Who had not where to lay His, 
 head. Not the Gospel of untiring love to enemy and per- 
 secutor, to thief and murderer, that so,' somehow and some- 
 where, they may be brought to repentence and God. Not the 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Dwy, 29 
 
 Gospel which says " love is the fulfilment of the law," " by 
 , this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have 
 love one to another." . . If we remember that Christi- 
 anity means a life, not merely a doctrine; that Christ 
 expressly says He is the Wuy not only the JFbrd, we 
 cannot say truly that this Gospel has been preached, while 
 nations stand armed, watching each other with hand on 
 sword. While patriotism is translated into murder and 
 dynamite, into aggression and fraud. While the self-styled 
 representatives of the Saviour, who was God Incarnate, 
 yet chose the lowest human life to crown it with divinity — 
 those who call themselves by His name and bear His 
 words on their lips, go clad in purple and fine linen, take 
 gold for betraying Hinj, by teaching the traditions of men, 
 as surely as Judas took silver, and regardless of His 
 teaching, are willing to grow rich and win titles and 
 estates, and high positions in the State, while their weaker 
 brethren grovel in want and degradation. While those 
 " little ones " about whom the Maister uttered one of the 
 most terrible denunciations on record, are bruised, and 
 wounded and slain. . . While drink and opium murder 
 not only their bodies but their souls. . . While gambling 
 and falsehood sap their moral faculties, and injustice sets 
 a brand of shame on the weaker sister and lets the strong 
 brother go free, though both have equally sinned. . . 
 
 What gospel has been preached we must sorrowfully ask, 
 as George Fox asked .'' Happy for us and the world if we 
 find an answer as he found it, and are ready to go forth, as 
 he went, God's torchbearer to all seekers, rejoicing to the 
 end of his life, whether beaten, or stoned, or imprisoned, 
 heedless of threats, careless of persecution and punish- 
 ment. Ready, with meekness and fear, to give a reason 
 for the faith that was in him to Protector, or judge, or 
 magistrate ; to plead, protest and rebuke in the name of 
 His Master, and to die at last with the blessed certainty 
 that he had been the means of bringing thousands of 
 captive-souled men and women out of the dungeons of a 
 
30 The 2tessage of Qmktrism to the Present Day. 
 
 dead creed, where chained to the corpse of what had once 
 been a living faith, their spirits were dying or hopelessly 
 paralysed, into the glorious liberty of the children of 
 God ! 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 GEORGE FOX— THE PREACHER. 
 
 THE first members of our Society were called " Chil- 
 dren of the Light," afterwards they called themselves 
 " Friends of Truth," signifying by their name, and 
 entirely creedless union, that they sought no partial Light, 
 worshipped no narrow facet of truth. George Fox, sur- 
 rounded on all sides as he was by churches, each claiming 
 sole possession of truth, and divine power to brand all 
 faiths outside their own doors as heresy, had no idea of 
 founding another sect or sectarian church : he would have 
 shrunk back in horror from thcs thought. He had a 
 message from God to deliver to all who would listen, in 
 this land and in all other lands, and looking round with 
 his earnest awakened eyes upon the world and life 
 we have endeavoured to sketch', and seeing it, not as we 
 do to-day, softened and mellowed by distance, but empha- 
 sized by nearness in all its distracted misery, he turned his 
 face steadfastly from the peaceful country life of his youth,< 
 and sunimoned all men in the name of the Light he had 
 found, and whose witness was in each soul, to follow — not 
 him, not the fallible symbol on the road to heaven — but 
 the God-given Light in their own spirits, which would . 
 render the symbol recognizable. 
 
 Hisdeeply-loved, much-studied Bible had guided him 
 to the open secret of the Lord, and lo ! he found the 
 presence of the risen Saviour everywhere. " I am with 
 you alway," came to him with a new sweet meaning, as 
 slowly and falteringly at first, yet with ever-groAying strength 
 and certainty, he followed the brightening Light and found 
 its rays cast on the footprints of the Lord Jesus, the 
 .source of all Love and Light, Who is perpetually absorb- 
 ing all hatred and darkness into Himself, and transmuting 
 them into goodness and radiance. 
 
32 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 
 
 And this open secret which the Bible revealed to him 
 was nothing less than Christ's own words, " the Kingdom 
 of God is within you ; " and he realized that religion 
 means the new life in each one's soul, changing, renewing, 
 purifying, until where the corpse of sin had lain, the sweet 
 new Bower-life of holiness blossomed. Nature, fallen 
 though she be, better interprets the Lord's Spirit than 
 man created in His own image, for everywhere she chaiiges 
 corruption into beauty, ugliness into grace, defilement into 
 purity; transforming the world's > dust-heaps into grassy 
 hills, the world's graves into the sweet coolness of moss- 
 grown homes for the growth of bright-eyed daisies, and 
 the despised, but none the less lovely, golden stars of the 
 dandelion. 
 
 It is one thing to peep and botanize upon a grave, but 
 quite another to notice the wonderful love and care which 
 covers the bare mound, visible symbol of earth's greatest 
 bitterness and despair, with tender flowers of hope and 
 promise, bearing up the sorrowing soul to its Father in 
 Heaven. And this Nature had been George Fox's teacher 
 as he wandered through the fields and woods. Nature 
 and the Bible. Nature always striving to reach her first 
 estate, the Bible showing the true way through the Cross 
 of Christ. 
 
 The Breath of God was thus breathed into his spirit 
 slowly, gradually, and he realized, as every seeker must 
 realize, from the awakening of Paul, to the awakening of 
 the humblest disciple to-day, that the sole object of a true 
 life is to be an open channel for this Breath of God to pass 
 through from him to the neighbour. And that to become 
 this open channel we must escape from sin, our natures 
 must be cleansed and purified, that, " be ye perfect," is no 
 empty formula but a divine commandment to be obeyed. 
 It may be objected that this was no new teaching, but had 
 always been the inmost doctrine of all churches ; but at 
 that time, whatever may be the inmost doctrine now, few, 
 if any, apart ' from Friends and Seekers, realized the 
 
The Message of Quaherism to the Present Day. 33 
 
 possibility of that sinlessness here on earth which Paul and 
 John knew as such a blessed certainty. It was by no 
 means the necessity of escape from hell they taught, and 
 George Fox taught, but escape through fire, and torture, 
 and imprisonment, yea, if it must be so, through death 
 itself, from the loathsomeness of sin. . . This is the 
 burden of all the early Friends' teaching. It is a yearning 
 to escape from sin's darkness into the daily following of 
 " the Light of Christ," in which the " new creature " 
 could grow and cast out the old body of sin and death ; 
 and. it was easier for a Friend, in the glow of that new and 
 wonderful revelation, to be dragged to prison and kept 
 there till death released him, than to deny what he 
 believed to be his divine Master's commands, even by the 
 simple doffing of a hat or using an empty title ! 
 
 The early history of every church is full of martyr-pain 
 and martyr-triumph ; but probably, in comparison with 
 numbers, no church can show so many martyrs as the 
 Society of Friends. The history of the Meeting for 
 Sufferings (a suggestive and most appropriate name) forms 
 a grim and terrible record of cruelty and persecution, and 
 a significant commentary on the toleration of the Reformed 
 Churches. Barclay tells us in his " Inner Life of the 
 Religious Sects of the Commonwealth," that between 
 the years 1661 and 1697 no less than thirteen thousand five 
 ■hundred and sixty-two Friends suffered imprisonment. 
 One hundred and, ninety-eight were transported over sea, 
 and three hundred and thirty-eight died of their wounds, 
 or in prison. Their property was confiscated, their goods 
 spoiled and seized for tithes and church rates. They were 
 dragged from their meetings to prison by brutal soldiery, 
 the women insulted, the men stoned and beaten. In some 
 places nearly all adult members of meetings were in 
 prison at one time ; and we are told, at Bristol and 
 Reading, th^ meetings were Icept up hy the children, whose 
 age exempted them from imprisonment, but who were 
 confined in the stocks and heaten unmeretfully with twisted 
 
34 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Day, 
 
 whalebone stieks. George Fox's autobiography is a typical 
 history of a Quaker's life in those days. Nearly every 
 page of it relates how he was beaten, or stoned, or 
 attacked with naked swords, or abused, or imprisoned, and 
 yet it is brimful of love and peace, and spiritual . light 
 and joy. 
 
 At first sight we may wonder why every man's hand 
 seemed raised against these peaceable, inoffensive " children 
 of the Light." Why saintly men like Baxter and Bunyan 
 united with violent Ranters, Muggletonians and Fifth Mon- 
 archy men ; with Episcopalians, Bishops, Presbyterian 
 Divines, Independent Ministers and others, to revile and 
 persecute them. But this wonder fades away when we 
 consider that they protested against what they called " a 
 man-made ministry," owned no outward sacraments, forms, 
 rites, or ceremonies ; paid no more apparent respect to a 
 king than a beggar, though always scrupulously careful to 
 render due service to each ; taught that the , Light that 
 lighteth every man was the only true guide, both to the 
 Scriptures and to life ; and, though always ready to be 
 judged by the general sense and spirit of the Bible, and 
 yielding to none, either in knowledge of, or love and 
 reverence for, the Holy Scriptures, apart from isolated 
 texts, paying no more worship to the idof Book than the 
 idol church ! " We are always ready," they said, " to be 
 jddged by the Bible, for we believe it to have been written 
 by the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and He cannot con- 
 tradict Himself, either as revealed in the Written Word or 
 in the Spirit of Man. But the holy record must be 
 spiritually interpreted,- for 'the letter killeth,' and no 
 exercise of the merely human reason alone can compre- 
 hend truth from partial statements or texts quoted 
 irrespective of their context and bearing, on the whole 
 spirit of the Book. Reason must indeed be used, proof 
 must be required ; spirits must be proved and judged by 
 results, ' by their fruits ye shall know them,' the Master 
 said. And what are these fruits ? Are they not love, joy, 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Day. 85 
 
 peace, and human reason illuminated by divine light ? " 
 On these lines the early Friends tested the teaching of 
 the churches around them, and found scattered rays of 
 light, dim previsions, and passing apprehensions of the 
 purely spiritual nature of the Gospel of Jesus here and 
 there, amid much darkness and corruption. Menno 
 Simons, for instance, denied that his followers were a 
 sect ; held that no Christian could bear arms, or swear, or 
 wage war, or execute revenge in any way, and that magis- 
 trates should be obeyed in all things not contrary to the 
 Word of God ; he used adult baptism, and administered 
 the Lord's Supper twice or thrice a year ; he allowed no 
 merchant among his followers to arm his ship, or make 
 any appeal to a Court of Law; The Mennonites excom- 
 municated all who married unregenerate persons, and 
 allowed no unnecessary ornament in dress. They began 
 their worship by singing, and then all engaged in silent 
 prayer ; they also made a long silent pause of thanks- 
 giving before meals. John Smyth, a separatist pastor, at 
 the end of the i6th and beginning of the 17th centuries, 
 says, that " to bind a regenerate man to a book, in 
 prayer, preaching, or singing, is to set the Holy Ghost to 
 school ! " He held that the New Testament is spiritual, 
 and that reading out of a book (though a lawful ecclesi- 
 astical action) is no part of spiritual worship. Barrow, 
 who was hung in the time of Elizabeth for his separatist 
 opinions, objects to heathenish names for the days and 
 months, to wearing mourning, etc. These are a few 
 instances, but Barclay (Inner Life, etc.) gives countless 
 examples to show that the doctrines preached by George 
 Fox were flitting about in a more or less shadowy 
 fashion, waiting for his valiant spirit and strong loving 
 heart to set them forth, illuminated by that Light within 
 on which he so strongly insisted, and whose pure fire fused 
 these scattered fragments of truth into the beautiful 
 whole of a faith, which delivered men from the bon- 
 dage of sin and fear, and made a holy, harmless, peace- 
 
36 The Message. of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 
 
 able life the prelude to a joyful and triumphant death. 
 
 The Seekers, as we have seen, declared that they were 
 waiting for an angel or apostle, able in the spirit to give 
 visible demonstration of his mission ; and George Fox, 
 who, while a Seeker amongst the churches, had often 
 joined the two or three gathered together in Christ's name, 
 and been given words of comfort and hope to deliver to 
 them, now came openly forward and pointed to the Light 
 within their souls as the witness from God to his teaching, 
 and a great number of these earnest men and women 
 recognized the truth and joined him, carrying the good 
 news, in their turn, to other Seekers throughout the length 
 and breadth of the land. 
 
 The ground and foundation of George Fox's teaching 
 was the entirely spiritual nature of Christianity ; " God is 
 a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in 
 spirit and in truth," and the necessity of a personal 
 revelation of Christ to each individual. He taught 
 that God had lighted in each soul a divine lamp, 
 whose radiance was sufficient to manifest truth, and if 
 faithfully followed and kept burning, to lead men to 
 Himself. He taught the absolute necessity of, regfenera- 
 tion, the new birth, which is " Christ in us." The new 
 life, which grafting the human twig on to the divine stem, 
 makes Christ the Vine, and all His followers the branches; 
 so that one vital current pulses through all, absorbing and 
 making pure every sinful and. hurtful property, until from 
 the wild acrid berries of the earthly fruitage are developed 
 the wonderful grapes of God. 
 
 But this must needs be a slow and gradual process. The 
 awakening, indeed, is usually sudden. The springing into 
 visible flame, the life coming into the lifeless substance, 
 are the swiftest actions of which we have any know'ledge ; 
 but the gradual growth into a steady illumination, and the 
 slow development of the living germ — of the seed into the 
 tree — are processes as gradual as they are certain ; and so 
 George Fox lays great stress on waiting for guidance, on 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 37 
 
 watcMng prm/erfuUy the growth of the Light and Seed which 
 are Christ's, and making room in the soul for their de- 
 velopment by casting away the worldly spirit, and the 
 carnal desire. " Stand still in the Light, and submit to it, 
 and the other will be hushed and gone ; and then content 
 comes. And when temptations and trouble appear, sink 
 down in that which is pure, and all will be hushed, and fly 
 away. Your strength is to stand still, after ye see your- 
 selves ... and earthly reason will tell you what ye 
 shall lose : hearken not to that but stand still in the Light, 
 and then strength comes from the Lord, and help contrary 
 to your expectation ; then ye grow up in peace, and no 
 trouble shall move you." "Walkout of the world's vain 
 customs, ordinances and commands, and stand a witness 
 against them all, in the testimony of Jesus ; and witness 
 Him, the substance of all, waiting in the Light of God, 
 and walking in it: then will ye have unity one with another, 
 and the blood" (which we must remember is expressly said 
 to be the Ufe) " of Jesus Christ will clea/nse you from all sin ; 
 for through it and by it we do overcome. . . O wait all in 
 that which is pure, to be fed alone of God with the eternal, 
 living food!" "And dwell in that which is pure of God 
 in you, lest your thoughts get forth, and then evil thoughts 
 get up, and surmising one against another, which arise out 
 of the veiled mind. But as ye dwell in that which is of 
 God, it guides you up out of the elementary life^ and out 
 of the mortal into the immortal (which is hid from all the 
 fleshly ones) where is peace and joy eternal to all that can 
 ■witness the new birth. Babes in Christ, born again of the 
 immortal Seed, in it wait." "Whatever ye are addicted to, 
 the tempter will come in that thing. . - " " Take heed 
 to your spirits, that which is hasty discerns not the good 
 Seed. Take heed of being corrupted by flatteries. . . 
 All mind your gift, mind your measure, mind your calling 
 and your work. . . Beware of discouraging any in the 
 work of God." "To all you who have tasted of the 
 immediate working power of the Lord, and do find an 
 
38 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 
 
 alteration in your minds . . wait upon God in that 
 whic^ is pure. Though you see little, and know little, 
 and have little, and see your emptiness, and see your 
 nakedness, and barrenness, and unfrujtfulness, and see the 
 hardness of your hearts and your own unworthiness, it is 
 the Light that discovers all this, and the love of God to 
 you. - . So, wait upon God in that which is pure in 
 your measure, and stand still in it every one, to see your 
 Saviour, to make you free from that which the Light doth 
 discover to you to be evil. . . Mind that Light in you, 
 that shows you sin and e.vil, which checks you when you 
 speak an evil word, and tells you that ye should not be 
 proud, nor wanton, nor fashion yourselves like unto the 
 world, for the fashion of this world passeth away. If ye 
 hearken to the Light in you, it will not suffer you to con- 
 form to the evil ways, customs, fashions, delights, and 
 ' vanities of the world ; it will lead you to purity, to 
 .holiness, to uprightness, even to the Lord. Dear hearts, 
 hearken to it, to be guided by it : for %f ye lone the Light, 
 ye love Christ ; if ye hate that, ye hate Christ." 
 
 This waiting — standing still in the Light — is the 
 necessary preparation ; but he never lets us forget that it 
 is only the preparation — the knight's vigil before the fight. 
 Nor does he ever fall into the snare of teaching that this 
 Light is any natural one, any illumination attainable by the 
 mind or intellect; It is Christ in us ; it is the personal 
 revelation of the ' Father of Spirits to the spiritual germ 
 in the merely human, and by its aid alone do we become 
 capable of that spiritual communion which is the end and 
 aim of all noble life and action. 
 
 Having found this faint glimmer of eternal Light, we 
 are to wait in it until it has slowly strengthened and, like 
 a sunbeam, as we watch the Sunrise, make a gleaming 
 pathway between our spirits and the Sun of Righteousness. 
 When once the communication is established, down this 
 radiant ladder the angelS pass and repass : the angels of 
 love, joy, peace, self-sacrifice, noble thoughts, and pure 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 39 
 
 heroic actions, and each opens a fast-barred door or 
 darkened window of the earthly nature, and with a winged 
 desire cleanses more and more the human channel through 
 which the Breath of God must pass, until at last all things 
 are new, and the King of Glory can come in and abide 
 with the regenerate spirit of His worshipper. Then, 
 amid an unspeakable joy, a mighty peace, the Lord 
 descends, and bears the yearning, purified soul company, 
 and never afterwards can that soul bow before any lesser 
 image. Jesus has revealed Himself to the disciple again' 
 as of old, and again the answer breaks forth, " Thou art 
 the Christ ! the Desire of our spirits, the Light of our 
 spiritual eyes ; though we should die with Thee, yet we 
 will not deny Thee ! " And, although the flesh is weak, 
 and the truest human love sometimes sleeps at the time of 
 greatest need, and denies its deepest faith, yet, always the 
 bitterness of remorse and repentance follows swiftly, and 
 the discrowned love grows stronger and nobler for the 
 pain, if it has once recognized Thou ai t the Christ. Peter's 
 bitter weeping washed away the last traces of the earthly 
 seeking for a kingdom, in which the Master he loved 
 should be King, but in which he should also hold high 
 office ; and he went forward, pardoned and humbled, 
 towards that torturing death-hour, wherein he should not 
 deny but glorify the crucified Lord before a scornful 
 world. 
 
 Having thus found the Light, we are to let it " shine 
 lefore men, that they may see your good works, and glorify 
 your Father which is in Heaven." George Fox's teaching 
 being so purely spiritual, is also intensely practical. It is 
 no use finding the Light, and sinking into a mystical 
 dream of delight as we watch it, it must shine lefore men. — 
 It must reveal all the dark corners and hidden sins in life 
 and the world. It must strive to make the earth a new 
 creature, as well as the individual. To make the world a 
 fit dwelling for Christ, as well as the spirit of man. 
 " Improve your talents," he says, " labouring in the vine- 
 
40 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 
 
 yard, dressing in the Lord's vineyard, that ye may be found 
 faithful servants, and all walking in love to God, and one to 
 another." "And so walk in the righteousness that your feet 
 may be kept in the way of peace ; and keep both your 
 tongues, and hands, and bodies, and lips, and minds, and 
 words, out of all that which would defile and corrupt 
 you. . . Let ;iot things visible draw your minds away 
 from the Lord." 
 
 " It is no sin to be tempted, but to enter into the tempt- 
 ation that is sin. . . Beware ye enter not into the 
 temptation to lust after the ereature, and give not way to a 
 la%^, dreaming mind, for it enters into temptations." 
 "Take heed of judging the measures of others, but every 
 one mind your own. . . And though the way seems to 
 thee diverse, yet judge not the way, lest thou judge the Lord ; 
 and knowest not that several ways (seeming so to reason) 
 hath God to bring His people out by, yet are all but one in 
 the endi . . Therefore, silence all flesh, and see that 
 your own ways he clean. . . Judge not one another, 
 neither lay open one another's weakness behind one 
 another's back. And let there be no backbiting amongst 
 you . . see yourselves, that self may be judged out with 
 the Light in every one. I warn and charge you all, that 
 there be no keeping of old things in store in the mind or 
 memory, heart-rising one against another, or backbiting 
 among you, or speaking evil one of another, but judge 
 that out by the Light of Christ. Every one of you abide 
 in your calling, waiting upon God where He hath called 
 you, . . and there walk in newness of life. Take heed 
 of forward minds, and of running out before your 
 guide ; . . be not hasty or rash, but see the way He 
 made clear ; and as the Lord doth move you, so do, and 
 return with speed. . . Be diligent every one in your 
 places where the Lord hath set you." "Take heed of 
 vain words, and tattling idle words, but everywhere stop 
 such ; . . beware of a brittle, peevish, hasty, fretful 
 mind. . . And all Friends everywhere, take heed of 
 
The Message of QvMkerism to the Present Bwy, 41 
 
 wronging the world or anyone in bargains, or over- reaching 
 them." 
 
 Most lovingly and continually he warns Friends against 
 the snare of too great eagerness in money-making. Plead- 
 ing with them that their minds may "go over" worldly 
 things, and not rest in them. . . He constantly warns 
 them, also, never to rest contented with setting forth the 
 truth until they have reached the witness of God in each 
 soul. " Tread over the dead," he says, " and that which 
 works in that nature, and reach to the witness in all, so 
 will ye stand for God." 
 
 Nor does he confine this advice to any creed or nation- 
 ality, but earnestly exhorts those who possess slaves to 
 bring them into the truth, treat them kindly, as brethren 
 and members of Christ's body, and set them free. 
 Indeed, George Fox seems to have been the first who 
 recognized the iniquity of the traffic in slaves. He speaks 
 in the same way abouj: the Indians ; pleading that truth 
 may be declared to them, and that in all things they may 
 be treated with justice and mercy. " God hath made all 
 nations of one llood," he says, " and he conimands to love 
 all men, for Christ so loved all that He died for sinners, 
 and so ye are to have the mind of Christ, and to be 
 merciful, as your Heavenly Father is merciful." 
 
 He is as anxious as the most ardent modern missionary 
 that " Truth may be spread abroad," and exhorts all 
 Friends, who have friends or relations beyond sea, to send 
 them books and papers, to get books translated into all 
 languages, and whenever possible, to study these languages 
 for themselves, that they may preach to all nations, and 
 carry the Light to all peoples. His own travels were very 
 extensive ; and We have only to read his account in the 
 Autobiography to see how unsparing he was of his own 
 life, time, and means. England he traversed from North 
 to South many times, only pausing when imprisoned. 
 Wales, Ireland, Barbadoes, Jamaica, North America, 
 Maryland, Carolina and Virginia, Holland, Germany — in 
 
42 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Lay. 
 
 all these countries he travelled, preaching and holding, 
 meetings, exhorting, reproving, encouraging friends, com- 
 forting slaves and Indians, settling the affairs of the grow- 
 ing church, establishing Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly 
 Meetings, and carrying the Light of his spiritual faith and 
 holy life into all the darkened corners of the world him- 
 self, as well as entreating others to do the like. And 
 travelling in those days was very different to what it is now. 
 In America, frequently for many days and nights, he did not 
 enter a house or lie upon a bed. A fire was lighted in the 
 woods, anxl the wet and weary travellers laid themselves 
 down, and rested as best they could. But Fox never 
 quailed, never murmured. William Penn, who travelled 
 much with him, says, " He was an incessant labourer. 
 The care he took of the aifairs of the church in general 
 was very great, and as he was unmarried, so he was un- 
 daunted in his service for God and His people : he was no 
 more to be moved to fear than to wrath. And truly, 
 I must say, that though God had visibly clothed him with 
 a divine preference and authority, and indeed his very 
 presence expressed a religious majesty, yet he never abused 
 it, but he held his place in the Church of God with great 
 meekness, and a most engaging humility and moderation. 
 For upon all occasions, like his blessed Master, he was a 
 servant to all, holding and exercising his eldership in the 
 invisible power that had gathered them, with reverence to 
 the Head and care over the body, and was received only 
 in that spirit and power of Christ as the first and chief 
 elder in this age, who as he was therefore worthy of 
 double honour, so for the same reason it was given by the 
 faithful of this day ; because his authority was inward and 
 not outward, and that he got it and kept it by the love of 
 God and power of an endless life. I write my knowledge 
 arid not report, and my witness is true, having been with 
 him for weeks and months together on divers occasions, 
 and those of the nearest and most exercising nature, and 
 that by night and by day, by sea and by land, in this and 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 43 
 
 in foreign countries, arid I can say I never saw him out of 
 his place, or not a match for every service or occasion. 
 For in all things he acquitted himself like a man. Yea, 
 a strong man, a new and heavenly-minded man. A divine 
 and a naturalist, and all of God Almighty's making. I 
 have been surprised at his questions and answers in natural 
 things ; that while he was ignorant of useless and sophis- 
 tical science, he had in him the foundation of useful and 
 commendable knowledge, and cherished it everywhere. 
 Civil beyond all forms of breeding in his behaviour, he 
 was very temperate, eating little, and sleeping less." 
 
 The whole of William Penn's testimony should be read, 
 and the testimonies of all the other Friends who were 
 brought into close contact with George Fox, in order to 
 gain an idea of the mingled strength and love, power and 
 meekness, of the great founder of Quakerism. There 
 seems to have been no narrowness of any sort in his mind. 
 He was as Spinosa has been called with far less justice, 
 a " God-intoxicated man." " Do rightly," he says, " that 
 is the word of the Lord God to you all, whether ye be 
 
 ■ tradesmen, of what calling or profession, or sort soever, 
 or husbandmen ; do rightly, justly, truly, holily, equally, 
 to All people in all things ; and that is according to that 
 of God in every man, and the witness of God, and the 
 wisdom of God, and the life of God in yourselves . . . 
 and all merchants whatsoever, seamen and traffickers by 
 sea or land . . . do jvtsthj, speak truly to all people 
 
 ■ whatsoever. . . Wrong no man, over-reach no man, (if 
 it may be never so much to your advantage,) but be plain, 
 righteous and holy. . . Loathe deceit, hardheartedness, 
 wronging, cozening, cheating, or unjust dealing . . . 
 doing truth to all without respect to persons, to high or 
 low, rich or poor, young or old ; and so here yowf live,s and 
 words will preach wherever ye eome. Speak truth, act truth. . 
 This goes over the unjust, untrue, unholy, and unrighteous 
 in the worid, and reacheth to the good and true principle of 
 God in all people, which tells them when they do not do 
 
44 The Message of Quaierism to the Present Dai/. 
 
 equally, justly, righteously, and holily. Zet yowr Uvea 
 preaoh. Owe no man anything but love." 
 
 Let yowr lives preach, that is the true keynote of all 
 religious teathing ! And just ^s George Fox laid stress on 
 the waiting in the Light until the personal revelation of 
 Christ appeared to the disciple and the new creature was 
 bom, so afterwards under all forms of preaching and 
 living, he insisted on the Silent but mighty voice of the 
 life. Guard your tongues, but before all things guard your 
 thoughts, for " out of the abundance of the heart the 
 mouth speaketh," and the flesh acteth ! And we have 
 only to consider a few of the practical reforms advocated 
 by him to see how wide a sphere of influence is filled by 
 each individual life when faithful to the Light within. 
 
 We have already touched on his missionary work, and his 
 efforts to ameliorate the condition of slaves and Indians. 
 What is now called the Temperance Movement had also a 
 firm and enlightened supporter in him. He advocated the 
 strict regulation of all diram shops, also that their numbers 
 should be confined to what were absolutely necessary for 
 bona fide travellers, and that those who kept them should 
 be trustworthy, honest men, who would not allow people 
 to take more than was good for them. He proposed to 
 establish a labourj bureau under government, in order to 
 bring employers and employed conveniently together. He 
 instituted fixed prices for all. buying and selling ; (some of 
 the early Baptist Churches in Holland followed this custom 
 it is said, but Friends were the first to make it the rule of 
 trade). He protested against the support of a particular 
 church by the State, and against all man-made ministers- 
 He strongly advocated prison reform, and the bringing of 
 prisoners to speedy justice, and never ceased to bring this 
 subject before magistrates, judges, and the government, 
 together with the amelioration of the criminal code, and 
 the proper treatment, and reformation of female prisoners. ■ 
 He was one of the first, if not the first advocates of the 
 equality of the sexes, and established the women's meet- 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 45 
 
 ings to correspond with the men's amongst Friends, in 
 the face of great opposition. In his Epistles on " The 
 station of women in the church," he triumphantly vindi- 
 cates the equal position of women with men, whether in 
 worship, preaching, or daily practical life, and gives a 
 wonderful list of women from the Bible who took an equal 
 part with men in all things. In many of his other epistles 
 he goes over the same ground, adducing fresh arguments, 
 and advocating perfect equality between men and women ; 
 and indeed the early women Friends justified this by their 
 earnestness, and steadfastness ; by the unflinching bravery 
 with which they bore punishment, and imprisonment, in- 
 sult, and the spoiling of their goods ; and the equal share 
 they took in the work of the early Church, whether in 
 preaching or organizing. . . 
 
 Equally remarkable, in those times, is the uncompro- 
 mising way in which he advocates universal toleration — a 
 reaching to the Holy Seed and Light in all souls. — " They 
 know not of what spirit they are of that persecute," he 
 says, " and would have men's lives destroyed about their 
 church, worship, and religion; for Christ said, " He came 
 not to Aesl/roy menh lives, but to save them. These that would 
 destroy riien's lives are not the ministers of Christ, the 
 Saviour." " See the sects," he says again, " how they are- 
 like tradesmen, plucking from one church to another, and 
 getting customers, and drawing people from one another's 
 church to their own ways ; and tearing one another to 
 pieces, to get people from one another's church to them- 
 selves. . . Christ said lam the Way; and He is over all 
 the fallen ways. . ." 
 
 He protested strongly, on every occasion, against the 
 enormity of the death penalty ; and preached to judges, 
 magistrates, constables, soldiers, tavern-keepers, merchants, 
 shop-keepers, and all classes and conditions of men to do 
 justice, and live holily and righteously, and in harmony 
 with his favourite phrase : " let your lives preach." He 
 organized with wonderful skill, foresight and wisdom, the 
 
46 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Day. 
 
 government of the Churcli he had founded ; arranged for 
 a scrupulously accurate record of births, deaths, and mar- 
 riages, to ,be kept at all the meetings ; for the care and 
 education of the poor, and widows, and. the religious 
 tra.ining of the children ; for the due observance of the 
 purely spiritual worship he , taught, and in fact for every- 
 thing in the life of a citizen wishing to serve God, and the 
 neighbour, in the Light of Christ revealed " in Spirit and 
 in truth." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 FRIENDS' BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. * 
 
 WE have thus seen George Fox as, the Seeker, and 
 the Preacher; we have now to consider him as 
 the Organizer of a form of church government 
 which has lasted, with no alterations, save those of natural 
 growth and development, since he first established it more 
 than two hundred years ago. 
 
 In considering this part of our subject it will not be 
 necessary to describe the machinery for the application 
 of the discipline which has been so admirably done by 
 Caroline E. Stephen in her most interesting and valuable 
 book,* Qmker StronghMs, but rather the discipline itself, 
 regarded as producing the life that preaches (George Fox's 
 key note) in all professing truth. The Friends' "Book of 
 Discipline," which has grown gradually, from Yearly Meet- 
 ing to Yearly Meeting since their permanent establishment 
 in London, in 1672, presents probably the highest ideal of 
 the Christian life, both from its spiritual and its practical 
 side, of any book or church in the world. 
 
 It affords a deeply interesting subject for study, not only 
 to the Members of the Society for whom it has been 
 written, and compiled, but for everyone, whatever his or 
 her religious, or anti-religious opinions may be ; inasmuch 
 as it offers an ideal of noble life, which may be followed 
 by all, quite apart from any individual views of God. For 
 althoug;h, when separated from the spiritual light which 
 hallows and glorifies it, it is shorn of its beauty, and true 
 proportions, yet as a model of practical usefulness, both 
 
 * "Book of Christian Discipline of the Religious Society of 
 Friends." Price 2s. 6d. * "Quaker Strongholds." Price Is. 
 Published by Edward Hicks, Jun., 14, Bishopsgate Without, and 
 2, Amen Comer, Paternoster Row, London. 
 
48 lie Message of Quakerism to the Present Day. 
 
 for the nation and the individual, it has never been sur- 
 passed — we believe never equalled. 
 
 , The first edition of this book appeared under the title of 
 "Extracts from the minutes and advices of the Yearly 
 Meeting of Friends, held in London from its first institu- 
 tion," in 1783. This was followed by an Appendix in 1792 ; 
 a revised edition in 1802 ; a supplement in 1822 ; a revised 
 edition in 1834, under the title " Rules of Discipline of the 
 Religious Society of Friends, with advices, being extracts 
 from the minutes and epistles of their Yearly Meeting, 
 held in London from its first institution " '; a supplement 
 in 1849 ; a revised edition in i85i, under the title "Extracts 
 from the minutes and epistles of the Yearly Meeting of 
 the Religious Society of Friends, held in London from its 
 first institution to the present time, relating to Christian 
 Doctrine, Practice, and Discipline." And another, and at 
 present final edition, under the title " Christian Discipline 
 of the ' Religious Society of Friends in Great Britain," in 
 1883. The preface to the first edition thus explains its 
 origin : " The Yearly Meeting having been apprehensive 
 that in some Quarterly and Monthly Meetings due care 
 hath not been taken to preserve and enter regularly in the 
 books kept fgr that purpose those minutes and advices 
 which from its first institution have occasionally been com- 
 municated to them, for establishing and conducting the 
 discipline of the church, hath seen fit to direct that those 
 minutes and advices should be carefully extracted and 
 properly arranged under suitable heads, and be comprised 
 in one volume, for the general service of the Society." 
 Then after describing how carefully the present book was 
 compared with ancient documents, and ordering it to be 
 printed and given to every Quarterly and Monthly Meet- 
 ing, so that all the churches might be in unity both in 
 doctrine and discipline, the young people instructed, and 
 the disorderly and unfaithful reproved and reclaimed, or 
 at the last, after every effort had failed, disunited with, 
 the preface adds, evidently in the fear Friends have always 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 49 
 
 felt, of acting from mere creaturely activity. "We are 
 not, however, without a clear sense that this publication 
 will prove insufficient to produce the desired effect, unless 
 we are very careful to move and act under the immediate 
 influence of the Spirit of Christ in the pure love of the 
 Gospel, a close adherence to which would render a multi- 
 plicity of rules unnecessary. And whilst we are earnestly 
 recommending this work to the notice and regard of 
 Friends, we cannot omit to press upon them a diligent 
 reading of the Holy Scriptures, as superior to all the other 
 writings, for instruction." The preface concludes with -a 
 note of hope, for, after lamenting " the torrent of vice and 
 irreligion," and saying, that notwithstanding this torrent, 
 many are still faithful, it finishes with, "many of them (i.e. 
 the faithful) doubtless, are at times secretly mourning over 
 the great desolations Avhich infidelity and immorality have 
 made in the Christian world. Nevertheless, they are com- 
 forted at seasons in the hope of better times, and helped to 
 look forward with an eye of faith and with unshaken con- 
 fidence to the gradual increase of that day when darkness 
 shall no longer cover the earth, nor gross darkness the 
 hearts of the people ; when the spiritual kingdom of 
 Christ shall be exalted over all, and that glorious ancient 
 prophesy fulfilled ; ' wh^n He shall have the heathen for 
 His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for 
 His possession ; when nation shall not lift up sword against 
 nation, neither shall they learn war any more ; and when 
 the saving knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as 
 the waters cover the sea ! ' " 
 
 From George Fox onwards, the true Friend has always 
 been a diligent student of the Bible, and has found, by 
 close reading and earnest ppndering over that Holy 
 Volume, that gradually a clearer comprehension and more 
 undimmed vision of its inner meaning has dawned upon 
 him. The words, " I have yet many things to say unto 
 you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, 
 the Spirit of Truth, is come. He shall guide you into all 
 
50 The Message of Quakerism to ike Present Day. 
 
 the truth. . ," uttered by Christ, have been trae, since 
 man's creation, and will be true until the end of time. 
 But the spirit developes very slowly, very gradually, and if 
 the wine of God's wisdoni is poured in too full measure, 
 into the shallow vessel, it overbrims and is spilled. Even 
 then it is not altogether lost, it must fertilize every spot, 
 however barren and rocky, on which it falls, but it can 
 only be assimilated by the renewed human nature, and by 
 strengthening and purifying that, fulfil its true office. And 
 the Light of Christ must gradually grow brighter in the 
 spirit of man before he comprehends the truths of the 
 Bible in their due prder and proportion. Slowly, as he 
 watches and waits in this dawning light, he is guided into 
 the knowledge of divine things, and realizes the certainty 
 of spiritual companionship and the continual operation of 
 beneficent forces in and around him, despite persecution, 
 sickness, imprisonment, death. The knowledge that his 
 risen Lord has become a part of himself, .the veritable . 
 Light of life in the lantern of the body, transforming the 
 physical into the psychical, and that again into the spiritual, 
 and introducing not in some distant heaven, but here and 
 now, purity,' holiness, blessedness, the ever-present per- 
 petual Paradise of Christ's presence, is what the true 
 Friend sought in the 1 7th century, and in some measure 
 found : it is what he will still seek in the 20th century, and 
 find in fuller measure and deeper blessedness. 
 
 And what Friends found in the Bible, interpreted by the 
 Holy Spirit, they endeavoured to embody in their Books 
 of Extracts and Discipline (the authoratative statements of 
 their views and aims) for the guidance of all " professing 
 the truth. . . " It is a curious and significant sign of the 
 falling oif in faith and enthusiasm, which marked the 
 middle period of Quakerism,, that, until the issue of the 
 " Rules of DiscipUne," etc., in 1834, Friends were always 
 spoken of as " persons professing the truth," and Friends' 
 teaching as "the principles of truth ;" but at that time 
 and afterwards, Friends were merely called " members of 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 51 
 
 our religious Society," and their teaching " our religious 
 principles." This is a sad descent from George Fox's 
 ideas. He constantly, in all his epistles and other writings, 
 says, " there is no sect nor schism in the Gospel, but an ever- 
 lasting fellowship, the truth of . God certified to by the 
 witness He hath set in all men's souls." And it is to this 
 witness in men, this Inner Light, that he appeals, and all 
 the early Friends appealed, whether addressing slaves or 
 Indians, their own countrymen or foreigners, priests or 
 Ranters, or the Turks and slave- owners of Barbary and 
 Algiers. It was not the principles of any religious Society, 
 but the Gospel, the life of Christ, which they preached to 
 all nations. Alas ! how has the universal-saving divine- 
 Light been lessened and dimmed when reduced to the 
 mere earthly candle of a separate creed ! How have we 
 sold our birthright, when, instead of being children of the 
 Light and friends of truth, drawn together by the spiritual 
 bond of a universal brotherhood, " One is your Master or 
 ' Teacher, even Christ, and all ye are brethren," we band 
 ourselves into the narrow limits of a Society with a birth- 
 right membership, not. depending on the birth of that 
 " new creature" which is '" Christ in us,'' but on the merely 
 physical birth of nature! Forgetful that, " a little leaven 
 leaveneth the whole," we have endeavoured to keep the 
 leaven apart, and behold it has wasted away ! 
 
 We shall return to this subject again,, but will now 
 review briefly the " Boole of Biscipline,'" and note as we do 
 so its entirely universal and unsectarian teaiching, founded 
 on the Bible as a whole, with no seeking out of favourite 
 texts, or passages selected to uphold the traditions of 
 men, but the Bible read in the light and under the guidance 
 of the Holy Spirit, and interpreted in a purely spiritual 
 sense. 
 
 As mentioned before, there have been five editions of 
 the "Book of Discipline " issued, with several supplements, 
 since 1783, when the first edition appeared, compiled from 
 documents dating many of them from the beginning of 
 
52 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 
 
 Friends' ministry. Having carefully compared these various 
 volumes, we find that, although in some matters such as 
 marriage outside the Society or with first cousins, the 
 enjoyment of music, payment of tithes, uniformity of 
 dress and language, etc., the tendency has been gradually 
 to allow freer play to individual taste and judgment, yet in 
 all things that constitute the Ideal held up by George Fox 
 and the noble men who gathered round him, there has 
 been no change. There is the same clearness and insis- 
 tency in the later minutes and advices as in the older ones, 
 with regard to simplicity of life and spirituality of worship, 
 and the duty of peaceableness in conduct and speech, 
 united With the perpetual strife to set the crooked straight 
 by unwearied love and untiring service — by the life that is 
 first "pure," and then "peaceable" — the life that shows 
 forth the Light of Christ by making sunshine in the 
 world's shady places ; while on many subjects the later 
 portions of the book speak with even greater distinctness 
 and urgency. As for instance on such subjects as the dis- 
 use of intoxicating liquors ; the entire abolition of slavery 
 all over the world ; the substitution in all cases, of arbitra- 
 tion for war ; the necessity for absolute purity in thought 
 and life, both for men and women ; the rising standard of 
 education, which, after the first blossoming of Quakerism 
 had fallen into transient neglect through the great difiiculty 
 of obtaining cultured teachers in an age of severe perse- 
 cution ;■ the revival of missionary enterprise (both home 
 and foreign) ; and the adult school movement, which, 
 with its connected Savings', Bank, is having such a wonder- 
 ful influence for good on the artizan class. 
 
 The book begins with quotations from George Fox's 
 epistles, from various Yearly Meeting epistles, and other 
 documents, laying stress on Jesus Christ having "tasted 
 death for every man" and being "the propitiation for the 
 sins of the whole world," and the " true light which en- 
 lightens every man coming into the world; Mid that, 
 therefore, men are to believe in the light, that they may 
 
Hie Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 53 
 
 become the children of the light.'' It proceeds to declare 
 its belief in the Inspiration of Scripture, and with the 
 caution Friends have always used where truths are not 
 absolutely clear, it continues, ' ' what Holy Scripture plainly 
 declares and testifies we have always been ready to 
 embrace," but where it is "silent or vague, we do not 
 enquire too curiously." Friends have hitherto, whatever 
 errors they may have fallen into, avoided that usual one in 
 the churches of attempting to define the undefinable, and 
 reduce the spiritual intuition to the physical manifestation ! 
 "We desire that, as the mere, profession of sound Christ- 
 ian doctrine will not avail to the salvation of the soul, all 
 may attain to a living, efficacious faith, which through the 
 power of the Holy Ghost bringeth forth fruit unto holi- 
 ness ; the end whereof is everlasting life through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord." "Christ's righteous precepts were 
 illustrated and confirmed by His own holy example. He 
 went about doing good ; for us He endured sorrow, hun- 
 ger, thirst, weariness, pain, unutterable anguish of body 
 and of soul, even unto death. . . Thus humbling Himself 
 that we might be exalted, He emphatically recognized the 
 duties and the sufferings of hunianity as among the means 
 whereby, through the obedience of faith, we are to be 
 disciplined for heaven ; sanctifying them to us, by Himself 
 performing and enduring them ; and as ' the Forerunner,' 
 at once plainly marking out and consecrating for His 
 followers the path in which they mUst tread." " The Gos- 
 pel is a message of glad tidings to man as he is, in order 
 that he may become what he is not. It deals hot with 
 speculation but with fact." "Without conversion they 
 who have but a birthright amongst us may, notwithstand- 
 ing all their advantages of training and education, grow 
 old, still enquiring, like Nicodemus, ' How can these 
 things be } ' To every member of each successive gener- 
 ation the answer of the Lord is alike applicable : ' Ye must 
 be born again.' " 
 
 " The worship of God under the Gospel consists not in 
 
54 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay, 
 
 ceremonies or in external observances. It is a simple 
 spiritual service." " No worship ought now to be made 
 dependent upon the presence of any one man, or order of 
 men ; no service, or stated vocal utterance in the congre- 
 gation, ought to be allowed to interfere with the operations 
 of the Lord's free Spirit." " It is the prerogative of Christ to 
 call and qualify by the Holy Spirit His servants to minister 
 in -yirord and doctrine. . . and we believe He continues 
 to call, from the young and from the old, from the un- 
 learned, and from the wise, from the poor and ' from the 
 rich, from women as well as from men,' thdse whom He 
 commissions to declare unto others the way of salvation. , ; 
 We consider the gift of the ministry of so pure and sacred , 
 a nature, that no payment should be made for its exercise, 
 and that it ought never to be undertaken for pecuniary 
 remuneration. . . The worship which Christ appointed 
 is a worship for which He provided no ritual. It may be 
 without words,' as well as with them ; but, whether in 
 silence or in utterance, it must be ' in spirit and in 
 truth.' . . It continues to be our settled conviction • 
 that, in establishing this ' New Covenant,' the Lord Jesus' 
 Christ did not design that there should be any rite or out- 
 ward observance of permanent obligation in His church. 
 His Reaching, as in His parables, or kk in the command to 
 wash one another's feet, was often in symbols; but it 
 ought ever to be received in the light of His own em- 
 ■ phatic declaration, ' the words that I speak unto you, they 
 are spirit, and they are life.' His baptism is the baptism 
 with ' the Holy Ghost and with fire.' He is Himself ' the 
 bread of life.' The eating of His body and the drinking 
 of His blood is not an outward act. They truly partake 
 of them who habitually rest upon the sufferings and death 
 of their Lord as their only hope, and to whom the indwell- 
 ing Spirit gives of the fulness which is in Christ. It is 
 this inward and spiritual partaking which is, as we believe, 
 the true supper of the Lord. The new commandment .... 
 is, according to His own teaching, that of Zove, — a love 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Dwy. 55 
 
 like His own, — love, grounded on the ' peace ' given by 
 Him, and sustained and made fruitful by a continual par- 
 ticipation in His life. His presence with His church is 
 not to be by symbol or by representation, but in the real 
 communication of His own Spirit. . . In the withdrawal 
 of His bodily presence, this blessed Comforter remains to 
 the church the pledge of the power and continued care of 
 its exalted King. He convinces of sin, He testifies of 
 Jesus ; He takes of the things of Christ, communicating 
 to the believer and to the church in a gracious abiding 
 manifestation, the ReoH Presence of the Lord." " Union 
 with Him is life ; separation from Him is death. . . His 
 union with His people upon earth must, of necessity, be a 
 spiritual union, and it is our privilege to believe that this 
 union is to be enjoyed through the immediate presence 
 of His own Spirit." 
 
 We have quoted briefly thus far from the "doctrine," 
 we now proceed to examine this doctrine developed into 
 " practite," and it is here that the wisdom and love with 
 which Friends have always striven to reach their ideal of 
 the Christ-life in the human spirit, becomes apparent. 
 Worship, public and private, naturally comes first. " We 
 recognize the value of silence not as an end, but as a 
 means towards the attainment of the end ; a silence not of 
 listlessness or of vacant musing, but of holy expectation 
 before the Lord." 
 
 Friends have always found, as George Fox found, that 
 it is by silent waiting in the light He gives, that we 
 gradually attain to that "perfect day" wherein communion 
 with the Father of Spirits is a blessed fact and constant 
 experience of daily life, enfolding our spirits with divine 
 breaths of freshness, and encircling us, like a summer 
 sunrise, with a warni radiance which sets all things 
 in heaven and earth in a new and fairer atmosphere, 
 until, in that pure lumen material objects and earthly 
 desires assume their true proportions, and the life on 
 earth is seen to be but the shadow of the eternal one, 
 
56 2%e Message of Quakerism to (he Present Day, 
 
 as the painted picture is but the shadow of the real 
 person. 
 
 " Let every one be watchful against an earthly spirit. . . . 
 the aim and design of every true gospel minister is to 
 direct the minds of all to the divine teaching of the Holy 
 Spirit, and to wait upon and have their whole trust and 
 expectation on the Lord alone. . . I^ure worship under 
 the gospel stands neither in forms nor in the formal dis- 
 use of forms : it may be without words as well as with 
 them, but it must be ' in spirit and in truth.' It is not the 
 mere outward gathering together, but the inward gathering 
 of our hearts unto the Lord, that makes a true Meeting 
 for worship. . . Where two or three are gathered in 
 the name of Christ, there is a church, and Christ, the 
 living Head, in the midst of them. . . While not un- 
 mindful of our own great needs, we should nevertheless 
 allow our hearts to be drawn into sympathy with the wants 
 of the assembled congregation ; especially recognizing it 
 as a duty on these occasions to be exercised before the 
 Lord on behalf of our brethren and sisters, that their 
 needs may be supplied, that the Holy Spirit may work in 
 their hearts, that the word in season may be spoken, and 
 that if that word be given to ourselves, we may be 
 strengthened to utter it, without waiting for^large openings 
 in ministry, but standing ready to hand out the portion 
 given us to distribute by the Great Master of our assem- 
 blies. . . That which is to be sought after is not silence 
 merely, but worship — even the worship of the Father ' in 
 spirit and in truth. . . ' Guard against an expenditure 
 of time and strength upon the things of earth, which 
 leaves little to be devoted to the interests of the soiil. . . 
 Far from thinking that we must absent ourselves because 
 when the hour for meeting comes round our minds are full 
 of family, professional, or business cares, from which we 
 seem powerless to part, let us persevere in our attendance, 
 and take all the burden to our Heavenly Father. Help 
 comes in the very endeavour to forget our own needs, and 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present BoAf. 57 
 
 to seek in prayer the welfare of our fellow-worshippers, 
 with whose difficulties we are thus enabled more fully to 
 sympathize." And then comes the practical touch which is 
 never wanting amid the highest spirituality of Friends' 
 teaching : " A punctual attendance at the hour appointed 
 for public worship is a matter of no small importance. If we 
 hurry away from our outward occupations to the Meeting- 
 house, thinking that by the delay of a few minutes we shall 
 not be long behind our brethren, we are in great danger of 
 having our thoughts employed on that in which we have 
 been engaged, and of interrupting that holy silence 
 which, it is believed, would often prevail if all the 
 members of a Meeting were assembled not only in one 
 place, but at one time, with one and the same great 
 object in view." 
 
 Everyone must acknowledge that this is a sublime con- 
 ception of public worship, and the true gospel definition 
 of a church : — the gathering together of faithful seekers 
 after, the things of God, waiting in watchful and yearning 
 silence for the Lord's promised Presence, and listening, 
 within the house of the spirit, for the faintest knock which 
 shall herald His arrival, for the lowest whisper which shall 
 come from His lips seeking utterance through the mouths 
 of His children. 
 
 But public worship is the smaller portion of the religious 
 life. If we are fmthful in the gathering of ourselves 
 together, Christ gives us indeed mighty gifts, both for 
 ourselves and others, but the larger portion of worship is 
 included in private devotions. In the Ireathing out of the 
 spirit, alone with its Beloved, all its longing and joy ; all 
 its pain and anguish; its strivings toward purity and 
 holiness ; its apprehensions of unspeakable things ; its 
 yearning for clearer light, closer communion, truer ser- 
 vice, — and the Ireathing in that voiceless comfort, strength, 
 peace and consolation, — that love-message, which we call 
 Inspiration, — that light and power which hallow; the 
 humblest duty, the lowest service, and make the lonely 
 
58 The Message ef Quakcrisu to the Fresent Dmf, 
 
 earth-life realize with a certainty as far above any logical 
 proof as the star-strewn sky is above the earth, that lover 
 and Beloved are indeed one ! 
 
 " I have heard 
 By mine own heart this joyous truth averred, — 
 The spirit of the worm beneath the sod, 
 In love and worship, blends itself with God." 
 
 And that the spirit of the lowliest worshipper not only 
 Uends itself with God through love, but is itself a portion 
 and child of the Eternal Father of Spirits, bound to its 
 Source by the resistless la\¥S of spiritual kinshipi Sep- 
 arated, indeed, from its home for a season, but journeying 
 nearer each day of its pilgrimage, and with each breath of 
 yearning aspiration laying up for itself a new rapture in 
 the everlasting re-union which is drawing near with ever- 
 quickening footsteps. . . This blessed communion is, 
 thank God, a reality beyond any words to many of us ; 
 indeed, what words can express it ? 
 
 ; " Woe is me ! 
 
 The winged words on which my soul would pierce 
 Into the height of Love's rare universe 
 Are chains of lead around its flight of ^e." — 
 
 To those who live and breathe in the atmosphere of the 
 divine Presence;, words only dim the Light, mock' the 
 beauty, mar the joy ; while to those unhappy ones outside 
 the gate they will be but " sound and fury signif3T[ng 
 nothing ! " 
 
 Let us listen to our book on private prayer : " Frequent 
 waiting in the stillness on the Lord for the renewal of 
 strength keeps the mind at home in its proper place and 
 duty, and out of all unprofitable association and con- 
 verse . . much hurt may accrue to the religious mind 
 by long and frequent conversation on temporal matters, 
 especidly by interesting ourselves too much in them ; for 
 there is a leaven therein, which, being suffered to prevail, 
 indisposes and benumbs the soul, and prevents its frequent 
 ascendings in living aspiration towards the Fountain of 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 59 
 
 eternal life. . . Prayer being, in the Divine appoint- 
 ment, essential to our spiritual health, we would earnestly 
 press upon all to seek for opportunities, in the course of 
 each day, for private retirement and waiting upon the 
 Lord ; and tenderly to cherish those precious, but often 
 gentle and easily-resisted motions of the Lord's Spirit, 
 which would contrite and humble our hearts, and draw 
 them forth in fervent petitions for that spiritual food 
 which alone can supply our daily, our continual need. . . 
 The practice of frequent retirement, and of seeking 
 counsel and blessing from the Lord in humble dependence 
 upon His guidance, is one of unspeakable value." "Little 
 prayer implies little faith : and with little faith there can 
 be but little love. . . Prayer is the duty and privilege 
 of all, of eveiy age and of every class. Life presses on 
 with its inevitable engagements. He who is a stranger to 
 prayer enters upon them in his own strength, and finds to 
 his unspeakable loss that a life without prayer is a life 
 practically without God." "Be not afraid, .dear frieiids, 
 to open your hearts wide that you may receive of this 
 blessing (the gift of the Spirit of Grace.) Let your ears 
 be awakened to hear the gentlest whispers of His love. 
 As retirement and waiting upon God in prayer and praise 
 become habitual, they will lead to a sense of their precious- 
 ness in the family and social circle." 
 
 And again in the paragraphs on reading the Scriptures : 
 " Let not the period of silent waiting, on these occasions, 
 be so short as to exclude Or interrupt inward retirement 
 and prayer. . . " " Wait and pray for that divine im- 
 mediate teaching, which can alone effectually illuminate 
 its pages, and unfold their contents to the eye of the soul. 
 As this is our humble endeavour, the various features 
 of Divine truth will be gradually unfolded to the seekihg 
 mind. We beseech you, dear Friends, carefully to avoid 
 all partial and exclusive views of religion, for these have 
 ever been found to be the nurse of error. The Comforter 
 alone can open the understanding to ' the truth as it is in 
 
60 The Messaffe of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 
 
 Jesus,' and to a right sense of its harmony and just pro- 
 portions. And there are experiences of the inner life 
 which, though in perfect unison with Scripture, may not 
 be there literally described. They can only be understood 
 as they are unfolded to the soul, waiting in simple depen- 
 dence upon that Spirit Who 'searcheth all things, yea, 
 the deep things of God ! ' The Inspiration of the Scriptures 
 will become not a matter of opinion merely but of 
 experience, as the great Inspirer of all Scripture opens 
 and applies the precious truths which are there revealed. 
 Such an experience as this is still the true antidote to that 
 speculative unbelief which pervades so much of the 
 pbpular reading of the present day. For the Truth there 
 is nothing to fear : it is safe in the keeping of God. But 
 to the sincere enquirer we would say, Awell not with thy ' 
 donlts, but with thy cowoictions. Prove the Truth for thyself. 
 Put it to the test not so much by a/rguing as by acting upon 
 it. Where Christ presides, idle speculation is hushed ; 
 His doctrine is learned in the doing of His will, and all 
 knowledge ripens into a deeper and richer experience of 
 His love." 
 
 We think this advice to put the truth to the test, not so 
 much by arguing, as by acting upon it, is the only answer of 
 any value we can give the sceptic to-day. No amount of 
 logic, no strength of argument, or width of Tinowledge, 
 can ever reach the sphere of experience. No amount of 
 outside proof as to the date or authorship of the Bible 
 can vouch for its internal Inspiration, nor can any criticism 
 disprove that Inspiration, by destroying its present form 
 or arrangement. ,2%e letter is a passing manifestation only, 
 the spirit is eternal. And this spirit is only recognized by 
 the witness of truth in the soul of the student. As he 
 acts according to the commands of the Divine Volume, 
 so he gradually realizes its truth and harmony with his own 
 highest possibilities of life and work. In order to be 
 guided one must seek guidance; not scornfully turn away 
 thinking, if the guide is Divine, He will guide me whether 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Day, 61 
 
 I seek Him or no ! That is not God's way : He says, 
 " ash and ye shall receive, hnoch and it shall be opened 
 to you." And the proof is ready to the hand of each. 
 Let him seek to love his neighbour, in the sense of helping 
 him, being just and merciful, and entirely truthful to him, 
 and in this very strife he will find the Hand of God ;' he 
 will realize a helpful Presence which, when his nature 
 prompts, as it is sure to do, ease to self, urges in the 
 opposite direction, suggests various kind words and deeds 
 for the neighbour, and lo I he finds himself following in 
 the footsteps ot Christ, treading the path marked out by 
 the Son of God, which must lead sooner or later to the 
 Father in Heaven. 
 
 This feeling, that the life is the one test of the doctrine, 
 has always been at the root of Friends' teaching. They 
 have always clearly recognized that God being Zo»e Itself, 
 no simplest act or thought springing from Love, but must 
 lead back to its Source. Therefore all individual views of 
 doctrine, compatible with purity and holiness, have been 
 permitted, and the glorious liberty of the Gospel, which 
 allowed free scope for the peculiar development of their 
 natures to Jews, and Gentiles, Greeks, Romans, and Barba- 
 rians, bond and free, has always been upheld by true Friends, 
 and this strong feeling has probably greatly influenced 
 their views on the ministry, the equal service of men and 
 women, and the peculiar sacredness of marriage. No 
 human preparation, no earthly learning, no self-imposed 
 discipline, can prepare a man not anointed by the Spirit 
 for acceptable service in the ministry. Our "Book of 
 Discipline " says, " All true ministry of the Gospel is from 
 the appointment of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is He 
 Who, by His Spirit, prepares and qualifies for the work. . . 
 Gifts, precious as they may be, must not be mistaken for 
 grace. . . It is the prerogative of Christ Jesus our 
 Lord to choose and put forth His own ministers. . . 
 We thankfully believe that, from the early rise of our 
 Society, the Lord has been pleased to bestow this gift 
 
62 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 
 
 upon servants and upon hand-maidens without respect of 
 persons. As a holy care prevails to move only under the 
 leadings of the Spirit of Truth, unexcited by the activity 
 and affection of the natural man, it will contribute to 
 the edification of the body in love. . . Be cautious not 
 to move in acts of devotion in your own will : set not self 
 to work, but patiently attend and wait for the gift and 
 enlivening power of the Divine Spirit. . . Let self be 
 laid low, and your will be given up to the Lord. Move 
 only as He calls you, and be very watchful to know both 
 the outflowing and the staying of the anointing oil. . ." 
 Faithfulness to the measure of light given is the only 
 preparation needful, and " whether it be in the family or 
 in the shop, in the market, the bank, or the board-room, — 
 in those things which belong to your- private or to your 
 public duties, let the'Ught of ^ the Gospel shine through all. 
 The parent, the master, the man of business, the citizen, 
 the servant, each has a testimony to bear for Christ. . . 
 And may none, whatever their position, overlook the 
 lesser openings of duty. A word of counsel, of reproof, , 
 or of encouragement, spoken in season, in ever so 
 broken a manner, whether in the family and social 
 circle, or more publicly, how good it is ! Each may be 
 called to manifest his interest, by word or deed, on behalf 
 of a brother or a sister, and thus to follow in the foot- 
 steps of our Divine Master, Whose whole life was 
 marked by sympathy for the sorrows and infirmities of 
 man. . . In all your pursuits and engagements keep 
 within the restraints of a tender and enlightened con- 
 science." 
 
 All this wise and tender counsel is addressed equally to 
 men and women in the ministry. The perfect equality of 
 the sexes having been made the subject of several of 
 George Fox's epistles, and everywhere strongly insisted 
 upon by him and the early Friends, owes nothing of its 
 present recognition in the Society to the modern agitation 
 for Women's Rights, and this realization of the claim of 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Day. 63 
 
 women to equality in divine service and daily life, which 
 was so novel an opinion in the 17th century, gave, in 
 great measure, that peculiar sense of sacredness to 
 marriage which Friends have always professed. " We 
 marry none but are witnesses of it . . marriage is God's 
 joining not man's." George Fox in his Canons,, and in 
 organizing the various meetings for conducting the business 
 of the Society, is most careful to lay down strict rules for 
 the utmost gravity, care, and publicity being given, as to 
 the clearness from other engagements of the person seek- 
 ing marriage, that due and ample notice had been given 
 beforehand, numerous witnesses collected, and all things 
 accurately entered in the Books of the Meeting kept for 
 that purpose. He denounces in the strongest way any 
 kind of courtship which does not sincerely intend marriage, 
 either men or women who " draw out the affections of one 
 another, and after awhile leave one another," and any 
 copduct which tends to lower that ideal of marriage 
 wherein the man and woman walking through life hand- 
 in-hand are true help-meets : she inspiring him in all 
 holiness and purity, he strengthening her in all service, 
 until, like the Cherubim whose faces were turned to each 
 other, yearning across the Mercy-seat for that full union 
 their outspread wings typified, thdy realize that the eternal 
 marriage, the full fruition, of their nature, is only attained 
 through Him Who dwells between the Cherubim, and 
 Who in the beginning created one perfect creature in His 
 own likeness. 
 
 "Marriage," says the "Book of Discipline," implies 
 union and concurrence as well in spiritual as in temporal 
 concerns. Whilst the parties differ in religious views, 
 they stand disunited on the main point : even that which 
 should increase and confirm their mutual happiness, and 
 render them helps and blessings to each other. . . . 
 Marriage is not a mere civil contract, but a religious act ; 
 it is God's ordinance and not man's. . . This Meeting 
 is impressed with a sense of the vast influence, either for 
 
64 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 
 
 good or evil, which marriage exercises on both the tem- 
 poral and spiritual condition of man, and earnestly desires 
 that, in the choice of a companion for life, all may seek 
 unto the Lord for His guidance. . ." " Be kind and 
 tender-hearted one to another, and earnestly labour for 
 universal love, union, and peace. From love to Christ 
 arises that stream of love to the brotherhood which, if - 
 suffered to flow in our hearts with unobstructed course, 
 would bear away all malice and guile, and cause all com- 
 plaints of tale-bearing and detraction to cease in our 
 borders. . ." '' Ye are called to love. O that the 
 smallest germ of enmity might be eradicated from our 
 enclosure ! And verily there is a soil in which it cannot 
 live, but naturally withers and dies. This soil is Christian 
 humility. To be ' made perfect in love ' is a high state of 
 Christian excellence, and not attainable but by the sacri- 
 fice of selfish passions. Let Friends be prompt in under- 
 taking, and prudent in executing the blessed office of 
 peacemaker. . . Put the best construction upon the 
 conduct and opinions, one of another which circumstances 
 will warrant. . . He who yields to a suspicious and 
 unforgiving spirit is led 'on to imagine things against his 
 brother that are exaggerated, or even false. . . The 
 deepest experience in the things of God is that which 
 brings into and preserves in the deepest humility and the 
 most fervent love. . . There is hardly anything more 
 inimical to the growth of vital religion than indulgence in 
 the spirit of religious controversy. . . Under the abid- 
 ing presence of His Spirit, individual subjection to Christ 
 becomes the highest joy; and in this subjection His 
 disciples are clothed with humility, forbearing one another 
 in love. It is here alone that the true liberty is to be 
 found ; a liberty not to please ourselves, but in all things 
 to please Him." 
 
 We have quoted so largely from these paragraphs on 
 "Worship," and "Ministry," that we can only briefly 
 notice the remaining counsels, which deserve a chapter to 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Day. 65 
 
 themselves. " Beloved youth, guard in an especial manner 
 against the Jwrst sacrifice of duty to inclination." " Con- 
 sult not how far you may safely indulge yourselves, or how 
 nearly you may approximate to the ways and habits of the 
 world. . ' . In the service of Christ you will find abun- 
 dant scope for the right employment of every talent." 
 " Keep within the restraints of God's Spirit in your out- 
 ward engagements, and even in pursuing the higher 
 gratifications of intellect or taste. Seek not how nearly 
 you can approach the world ; how much of its care, its 
 business, or its enjoyments you can partake of, without the 
 loss of heaven; but rather how closely you can follow 
 Christ in the obedience of faith." 
 
 The counsels on simplicity and moderation in " language, 
 habit, deportment, and behaviour ; " the warnings against 
 luxury, display, and self-indulgence in any form ; against 
 the use of intoxicating liquors, indulgence in gambling, 
 racing, theatres, balls, what is falsely called " sport," etc., 
 etc., deserve quoting in full. These counsels /orJ»<? nothing, 
 but appeal to Friends' higher natures to examine whether 
 they are doing everything in their power to follow Christ, 
 and to deny themselves for the sake of their weaker 
 brethren. They are thus calculated to nourish that in- 
 dependent freedom of character which is obedient to the 
 lightest touch of the , hand of God on the spirit, and 
 submissive to the laws of man in all things relating 
 to the body, but which, once having seen the light 
 on any subject, prefers ruin in earthly matters, or even 
 death, to disobedience to the prompting of the inward 
 guide. 
 
 Strict honesty and integrity in all business transactions 
 have always distinguished Friends, and the strongest 
 counsels are given against " trading beyond their ability," 
 and "stretching beyond their compass." Against using 
 many words in their dealings, and not keeping scrupulously 
 to their word once it is given. They are specially required 
 to pay their debts without delay, and to avoid contracting 
 
66 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Day. 
 
 extravagant ones. They are warned against too great 
 eagerness to grow rich by engaging in speculation, and 
 above all things to be upon the watch to know the right 
 time for retiring from business, and to allow themselves 
 " no indulgence, whether in your habits or pursuits, in 
 your readings, companionships or recreations, that shall 
 grieve the Holy Spirit, or upon which you cannot ask your 
 Heavenly Father's blessing." One paragraph we must 
 quote, because it expresses in concrete form the whole 
 abstract idea of duty held on all subjects by the Society. 
 It is a counsel addressed to Insolvents : "If any^fall short 
 of paying their just debts, and a composition be made 
 with their creditors to accept of a part instead of the 
 whole, that, notwithstanding the parties may he legally dis- 
 charged of any obligation to pay - t/ie remainder, yet ■ the 
 principle of universal righteousness enjoins full satisfaction 
 to be niade, if ever the debtors are of ability. And in 
 order that such may the better retrieve their circumstances, 
 we exhort them to submit to a manner of living in every 
 respect the most conducive to this purpose." It is this 
 "principle of universal righteousness" in all things, this 
 spiritual standard applied to practical details, which the 
 "Book of Discipline" teaches from beginning to end. 
 Whether in treating of worship, prayer, marriage, business 
 or the maldng of wills and undertaking of trusts. . . 
 Friends are " weightily recomniended " to make their 
 wills in time of health, since, as the advice on this subject 
 quaintly says, " Making wills in due time can shorten no 
 man's days, but the omission or delay thereof has proved 
 very injurious to many." The advice to emigrants is 
 another weighty comment on obeying the " principle of 
 righteousness." Friends are implored to make their lives 
 teach their religion to the defenceless natives, that none, 
 however weak or barbarous, may suffer through their 
 presence, and that strict justice, tempered by love and 
 mercy, may guide them in all their transactions with 
 savage races. 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 67 
 
 The Quaker testimonies against war, and slavery, are so 
 universally known that we need not pause to quote the 
 advices on these subjects, and their protests against 
 mourning habits, the superstitious observance of days, the 
 erection of monuments over graves, etc., are more the 
 natural outcome of their purely spiritual view of Christ's 
 teaching, and their strong desire to be absolutely true in 
 deed and appearance, as well as in word and thought, than 
 of any insuperable objection to these things in themselves. 
 The more important subjects of " liberty of conscience," 
 and "Christian life in relatidn to civil government," we 
 shall touch upon in our final chapter, but we think that 
 anyone who has followed our quotations (necessarily much 
 abridged) from the " Book of Discipline," and will refer to 
 that volume for themselves, will recognize that if, not a 
 few thousands of earnest men and women only, but all our 
 English millions followed th6 "principle of righteous- 
 ness " in all things, as it is found inculcated there^ — drew 
 themselves apart in the dawning light which " KgJiteth every 
 man" until it; shone on each one's divinely appointed 
 path, and then steadfastly strove to follow that path, 
 devout persons of every church would need no longer to 
 pray " Thy Kingdom come," for it would be shining in 
 our midst, and undevout persons would dare no longer to 
 scoff,' " the churches have killed their Christ," for He 
 would be the Light and Joy thereof, the risen Saviour 
 crowned with everlasting life, reigning before their 
 astonished eyes ! 
 
 Nor would those Seekers of to-day — the socialists, 
 scientists^, democrats, poets, etc., who neither pray nor 
 scoff, but yearn and hunger for some " divine word ; " 
 and wait for some angel or apostle able to give a sign of 
 his mission, that they may hearken and act, striving 
 faithfully meanwhile to win comfort, and healing, and sal- 
 vation for the ills of humanity, by earnest toil and self- 
 sacrifice — need any longer to build imaginary cities of 
 refuge for wounded souls : for the " Principle of righteous- 
 
68 Ths Message of Quakerism to the Present Day. 
 
 ness," the " Inner Light," which our " Book of Disciplin 
 , sets forth above all ' spiritual heights, and beyond 
 material depths,^ — the " Christ in us," needs only to 
 followed individually, to reign universally, and to sh 
 forth the eternal truth, "the kingdom of God is witl 
 you ! " 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FIVE WITNESSES FROM WITHOUT. 
 
 WE have all probably, at some period of hope or fear 
 in our lives, watched the dawn of a summer sun- 
 rise, an unspoken prayer upon our lips, a voiceless 
 yearning toward the gleaming peaks of heaven, and the God 
 Who is the Light of Paradise, in our souls. The dimness 
 of the star-strewn night around us, the fragrance of the 
 glimmering flowers, and softly luminous grasses at our 
 feet, and the silence of the shadow-time ready, like an 
 ^olian harp, to break into singing at the faintest touch, 
 filling us with a breathless wonder, a stretching out into 
 that spiritual life we apprehend clearly in that moment of 
 mystery, beyond the golden gates of the sunrise, beyond 
 the cpol blue-grey circle of the sky, beyond the reach of 
 the seeking senses, and yet a veritable reality. 
 
 We stand waiting in breathless awe at such moments. 
 The Father of Spirits overshadowing us, and breathing 
 into us His mighty Inspiration, and then, like a farewell 
 note of music, like a bodiless messenger bidding us follow 
 the guidance of that divin'e Breath, comes the first des- 
 ultory breeze of a new day, and the pearl-like grey of the 
 sky bursts aflower with the roses and golden lilies of 
 morning. The slender golden heralds of dawn flit and fly, 
 opening the gates of dimness and shadow, and lo ! before 
 our dreaming eyes blossoms the garden of God, and the 
 silence grows swiftly lyrical, with the thrill and twitter of 
 the awakened birds ! 
 
 And it is with a feeling akin' to this, that, looking back- 
 wards through the centuries, we watch the gradual dawn 
 of the Christian sunrise through the star-strewn dimness 
 of Greek and Hebrew foreshadowings. The gradual wax- 
 ing of the Light of Christ, and the awakening of those 
 
70 The Metsage of Quakerism to the Present Day. 
 
 singing birds, the poets and seers of the new day, the 
 wonderful day of God! We watch its birth, and slow 
 growth, while the chorus of singers grows ever clearer, 
 and more triumphant, but who shall see its close, when 
 through the flaming bars of the last sunset, the holy city, 
 white, and pure, and still, suffused with the Light of the 
 Lord, sails into sight before our yearning eyes, and 
 through the bitter sea of human tears mankind has reached 
 the haven where he would be,, and is satisfied to awaken 
 with the divine likeness restored to him. 
 
 Plato and .^sc'hylus are perhaps the most typical Greek 
 heralds of Christ, representing as they do the Greek mind 
 in its highest and most earnest strife to solve the problems 
 of life nobly and righteously. To harmonise faith in the 
 unseen with perfect enjoyment and appreciation of the 
 seen, and to teach men so to live herfi in the sunlight; that 
 they can face the darkness beyond the gates of death 
 with a sweet serenity, and if with no actual hope, yet with 
 no tragic fear. 
 
 " Platonism," says Pater, " is in one sense an emphatic 
 witness to the unseen, the transcendental, the not-experi- 
 enced — ^the beauty, for instance, which is not for the 
 bodily eye." " Plato was a lover of the invisible." 
 
 What a phrase that is, when we remember the invisible 
 God, Who should manifest Himself in Jesus ! Plato 
 looked at everything, at truth, at knowledge, at beauty, as 
 at a person ; and just because he was " a lover of the in- 
 visible," all fair forms, arid lovely sounds, and noble 
 thought, appealed the more intensely to his nature as 
 manifesting the perfection of a person beyond their own 
 visible charm. He Was always the lover, and touched 
 everything, as we instinctively feel, with the reverence of 
 love. He realized, with that Greek brightness and sanity 
 of spirit wanting in the Jew, the lesson Peter had to be 
 taught, that nothit^ is common or unclean unless made so 
 by unclean uses, and that to the pure-hearted, who alone 
 can see God, all things are pure. 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Day, 71 
 
 When we remember that the highest revelation of God 
 to John was that He is Love, we perceive more clearly 
 what a true herald the Greek Philosopher was to the 
 universal Deity, and we recognize that the ladder of love, 
 so beautifully described in the Symposium, was one Plato 
 had himself climbed — was one God had let down from 
 heaven to the Greek, as to the Hebrew, and was but the 
 rendering in the language of poetry and philosophy of 
 John's query, " He that loveth not his brother whom he 
 ,hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not 
 seen ? " 
 
 Westcott says the myths of Plato foreshadow the revel- 
 ation of John, and the Divine Word, for which he longed, 
 was realized in the Divine Word Incarnate in Jesus. They 
 are " venturous essays after truth, embodiments of definite 
 instincts, sensible representations of universal human 
 thoughts, confessions of weakness, it may be, but no less 
 bold claims to an inherent communion with a divine and 
 supersensuous world. " And we shall find this passage fully 
 borne out if we for a moment glance at one "or two . of 
 these myths, bearing in mind that their author was always 
 "a Idver of the invisible," and recognized the spiritual 
 nature of all truth behind every material manifestation. 
 
 His account of the soul in its chariot, always Striving to 
 follow the gods to the plain of truth, whereon grows the 
 precious herb' which nourishes its wings, and without 
 which they cannot grow strong enough to bear it above 
 the earth. And the account of the judgment after death, 
 when the soul, despoiled of all its earthly trappings — no 
 longer a king, philosopher or poet, but simply a naked 
 shivering soul, wounded, leprous and loathsome, or fair, 
 pure and holy, according to the life it has led in the 
 flesh — is judged worthy of the Islands of the Blest, or the 
 tortures of Tartarus ; or worse fate still, is sentenced to 
 be hung up in the dungeons as a terrible and eternal 
 example, having entirely lost its wings, and being, there- 
 fore, incapable of healing and salvation either in this or 
 
72 The Message of Qmkerism to the Preset Day. 
 
 any other world, are indeed " venturous essays after 
 truth," and the myths about the homes of the blessed 
 dead, and the soul's choice of a lot in life are "bold 
 claims to an inherent communion with a divine and super- 
 sensuous world." 
 
 The teaching of Plato must always appeal very strongly 
 to Friends, as uniting with the Greek sense of the dignily 
 of the body, and the beauty of wise restraint for noble 
 uses, the Hebrew apprehension of the essentially spiritual 
 nature of all life and material manifestations. While, when 
 we turn to the earlier Greek herald, .(Eschylus, we find in 
 the poet, even more strongly than in the philosopher, the 
 sense that rightness of conduct is the only way of pleasing 
 the gods. That by right use of the material we can 
 apprehend the spiritual, and live calmly and grandly in its 
 light, even although this light of the sun (Apollo) which the 
 Greeks so revelled in, may not carry one beyond the 
 grave. The Greek fully realized and understood the 
 beauty and brightness of a righteous life, guided by 
 Apollo and Athene, (inspiration and wisdom) balanced and 
 restrained to all noble uses by the supreme Zeus ; but it 
 was left to the Christicin to realize the peace and joy on 
 the other side of death, as well as on this earth, and to 
 comprehend the comfort of that Divine Word, on which, 
 not as on a " raft," but, as borne on the wings of the soul 
 he flies through the portals of the grave to the Paradise 
 beyond, wherein Zeus, Athene, and Apollo, manifest at last 
 in one God, Christ the All-in-AU, waits to give them 
 eternal life. 
 
 The character of Prometheus is the one by which 
 iEschylus is most universally known, and Shelley has 
 glorified the rebel as a martyr and saviour, although as 
 Westcott points out "We forget " considering him in 
 this aspect " That his suiferings were the consequence of 
 an act of faithless distrust in Zeus, and of disobedience to 
 his counsels. . . .For the time he appears as a martyr ; but 
 he was first a refiel, and afterwards a pardoned subject," 
 
Ths Menage of Quaktrism to the Present Day. 73 
 
 Prometheus seems a marvellous foreshadowing of the 
 adversary, of Lucifer who was the nloming star and glory 
 of heaven, yet rebelled against the supreme God ; who 
 brought forbidden fruit of knowledge to men, and 
 treacherously strove to mar the design of his Lord, by 
 making His creatures equal to God's through sinful means 
 ... .who was cast out of heaven and stripped of his glory 
 
 and joy We stand on the edge of the Infinite here 
 
 Prometheus was punished, purified, pardoned — ^the Greek 
 ventured where the Christian scarcely dares to follow, and, 
 yet our God cannot be All-in-All while one spirit remains 
 unpardoned, one speck of darkness dims the Eternal 
 Light ! 
 
 iEschylus gives us always, and everywhere, a noble por- 
 trait of Zeus, the supreme God, the Bivine Will, who wilh 
 salvation to all, even in the end to the rebel Prometheus ; 
 while Apollo ,the Light-Bringer, and Pallas the feminine 
 manifestation of Wisdom and Tenderness, are depicted as 
 showing the action of Zeus in the world, the wise and 
 tender life enlightened by inspiration, which will reach 
 communion with his spirit. Can we not recognize here 
 one of the stars heralding the sunrise of Christ's birth, 
 an intuition of the dual nature revealed in the Saviour ? 
 
 Much has been written and spoken of late years about 
 the plural nature of God, wrongly translated in the singular 
 in Genesis, and the dual nature of Jesus, whereby the New 
 Adam, uniting in Himself man and woman, exerts an 
 equal attraction on each, draws an irresistible love from 
 each, and shows forth the first fruits of the restored divine 
 creation, transformed once again into the likeness of God, 
 wherein the blessedness of union between divine and 
 human is made manifest. 
 
 The Roman Catholic Church has always recognized the 
 necessity and claim of womanhood to form part of God, 
 and has striven in her material fashion to realize this 
 claim in the Virgin Maiy, and the innumerable saints,_who 
 form various facets, as it were, of the perfect nature of the 
 
74 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Day. 
 
 Deity. Her doctrine of the real presence, too, is another 
 dim and materialized apprehension of a divine fact,, and 
 Friends must always feel more sympathy with this groping 
 after some of the deepest truths it has been their mission 
 to teach, than with the scornful denial of these truths by 
 the Protestant sister churches. 
 
 What she saw and strove materially to make apparent it 
 has been their part to manifest spiritually. Bhe sought 
 communion with God by leaving the world and sacrificing 
 its pleasures and advantages to a drowsy performance of 
 self-set penances, they by conquering the worldly spirit in 
 their own hearts, and making every duty of daily life an 
 unspoken prayer. She set saints as examples, and guides, 
 and helpers, round each of her children. They followed 
 the Light of Christ as their guide, and believed with 
 Beaumont and Fletcher : 
 
 " Our acts our angels are, or, good or ill, 
 Out fatal shadows that walk by us still." 
 She saw truth through a Bagan veil of the many, they 
 found it m the Eternal Two-in-One of Christ. . . 
 
 Our Greek heralds have led us far, let us hear what 
 Ruskin and Browning, who may perhaps be considered, 
 the two greatest spiritual teachers of our own day, in art 
 and poetry, have to say to us, and then finally we will 
 , listen to the voice of one greater in some senses than 
 either of them, inasmuch as he is a more perfect channel 
 for the Breath of God, and does not speak tentatively as a 
 teacher under correction, but directly as delivering his 
 Lord's message. These three modern witnesses, like the 
 Greek ones, will show the Essential harmony of Friends' 
 teaching with the deepest truth evolved by the artist, the 
 poet, and the seer, each in his different fashion, from the 
 Gospel of Christ, and will testify to the universal character 
 of our principles from the mouths of those outside our 
 apparent borders. 
 
 "My endeavour," says Ruskin, "has been uniformly to 
 make them trust it (the Bible) more deeply than they do ; 
 
The Menage of Qmherism to the Present Day, 75 
 
 trust it, not in their favourite verses only, but in the sum 
 of all ; trust it, not as a fetish, or talisman, which they are 
 to be saved by daily Vepetition of; but as a Captain's 
 order, to be heard and obeyed at their peril. . . ." " There 
 is not one person in a million who knows what a 'million' 
 means ; and that is one reason the nation is always ready 
 to let its ministers spend a million or two in cannon, if 
 they can show they have saved twopence halfpenny in 
 tape..,." "The practical fact which will remain for the 
 contemplation of the future, is that we have lost the art of 
 painting on glass, and invented gun cotton and nitro- 
 glycerine. . ." '• Our great English games, hunting and 
 shooting, are costly altogether ; and how much we are fined 
 for them annually in land, horses, gamekeepers, and game 
 laws, and the resultant demoralization of ourselves, our 
 children, and our retainers, I will not endeavour to count 
 now ; but note only that, except for exercise, this is not 
 merely a useless game, but a deadly one to all engaged in 
 it. For through horse-racing you get every form of what 
 the higher classes everywhere call 'Play,' in distinction 
 from all other plays : that is gambling ; and through game- 
 preserving you get also some curious laying out of ground: 
 that beautiful arrangement of dwelling-house for man and 
 beast, by which we have grouse and blackcock — so many 
 brace to the acre, and men and women— rso many brace to 
 the garret. I often wonder what the angelic builders and 
 surveyors — the angelic builders who build the "-many man- 
 sions ' iip above there; and the angelic surveyors who 
 measured that four-square city with their measuring reeds 
 — I wonder what they think, or are supposed to think, of 
 the laying out of ground by this nation. . . ." "If you 
 choose to obey your Bibles, you will never care who attacks 
 them. It is just because you never fulfill a downright 
 precept of the Book, that you are so careful for its credit ; 
 and just because you don't care to obey its whole words, 
 that you are so particular about the letters of them. The 
 Bible tells you to dress plainly, — and you are mad for 
 
76 The Message of Quakerism to tJie Present Bay. 
 
 finery ; the Bible tells you to have pity on the poor, — 
 and you crush them under your carriage-wheels ; the Bible 
 tells you to do judgment and justice, — and you do not 
 know, nor care to know, so much as what the Bible Word 
 ' justice ' means. Dp but learn so much of God's truth 
 as that comes to ; know what He, means when He tells 
 you to be jiist ; and teach your sons that their bravery is 
 but a fool's boast, and their deeds but a firebrand tossing, 
 unless they are indeed Just men, and Perfect in the Fear 
 of God : — And, you will soon have no more wa/r. . ." " This 
 idol (riches) forbidden to us, first of all idols by our own 
 Master and faith ; forbidden to us also by every human lip 
 that has ever, in any age or people, been accounted of 
 as able to speak according to the purposes of God. 
 Continue to make that forbidden deity your principal one, 
 and soon no more art, no .more science, no more pleasurfe 
 will be possible. Catastrophe will come, or worse than 
 catastrophe, slow mouldering and withering into Hades. 
 But if you can fix some conception of a true human state 
 of life to be striven for — life, good for all men, as for our- 
 selves ; if you can .determine some honest and simple 
 order of existence ; following those trodden ways of 
 wisdom, which are pleasantness, and seeking her quiet and 
 withdrawn paths, which are peace ; — thus, and so sanctifying 
 wealth into ' commonwealth,^ all your art, your literature, your 
 daily labours, your domestic affection, and citizen's duty, 
 will join and increase into one magnificent harmony. . ." 
 " There is no true potency, remember, but that of help ; 
 nor true ambition but ambition to save. . . " " Make 
 your national conscience clean and your national eyes will 
 soon be clear. . . " ^' It was the selling of absolution 
 that ended the mediaeval faith ; — it is the selling of 
 absolution which, to the end of time, will mark false 
 Christianity. Pure Christianity gives her remission of sins 
 only by endAng them, but false Christianity gets her re- 
 mission of sins by compoimMng for them. , . " " You 
 have all got into the. habit of calling the church 'the 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 77 
 
 house of God.' I have seen over the doors of many 
 churches this legend actually carved, 'This is the house of 
 God and this is the gate of heaven.' . . " Ruskin then, 
 in a passage too long for quotation, describes the place 
 where these words were first spoken, and continues : " This 
 place, observe, not this church, not this city, not this stone 
 even, which he puts up for a memorial. . . But this 
 place ; . . this any place where God lets dbwn the 
 ladder. And how are you to know where that will be ? 
 or how are you to determine where it may be, but by being 
 ready for it always. . . You can guide the lightning, but 
 you cannot' guide the going forth of the Spirit, which is as 
 the lightning when it shines from the east and the west. . . 
 Unless we perform Divine service in every willing act of 
 life, we never perform it at all. . . " " Sight is an abso- 
 lutely spiritual phenomenon ; . . and the ' Let there be 
 Light,' is as much when you understand it the ordering 
 of intelligence as the ordering of vision. . . What we 
 are to pray for is the Light of the world ; nay, the Light 
 that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. To the 
 Persian, the Greek, and the Christian, the sense of the 
 power of the God of Light has been one and the same. . . 
 That power is not merely in teaching or protecting, but in 
 the enforcement of purity of body and of equity or justice 
 in the heart. And this observe, not heavenly purity nor 
 final justice, but now, and here, actual purity in the midst 
 of the world's foulness ; practical justice in the midst of 
 the world's iniquity. ' I believe in the Holy Ghost, the 
 Lord and Giver of Life ! ' you say in your creed. . . let 
 me very strongly recommend you not to seek your amuse- 
 ments in the destruction of animals, nor your national 
 safety in the destruction of men. . . " " Have you 
 ever thought seriously of the meaning of that blessing 
 given to the peacemakers ? People are always expecting 
 to get peace in heaven, but you know whatever peace they 
 get there will be ready-made. Whatever making of peace 
 they can be blessed for must be on the earth here : not the 
 
78 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Dwy. 
 
 taking of arms against, but the building of. nests amidst 
 its ' sea of troubles.' " 
 
 We have quoted almost at random from the two first 
 books of Ruskin's we took up, but anyone who cares to go 
 further in the study of his writings, or anyone who has 
 already studied him (and who has not ? ) will be able to 
 find, or recall, hundreds of other passages equally true, 
 equally beautiful, equally full of the essential ^teaching of 
 Quakerism. With one final quotation on the duty of 
 literature, a passage worthy to rank with Milton's celebrated 
 utterance on the same subject, we will leave our artist and 
 turn to our poet. " Literature does its duty," says Ruskin, 
 "not in wa:sting our hours in' political discussioq, or in idle 
 fiction ; but in raising our fancy to the height of what 
 may be noble, honest, and felicitous in actual life ; — in 
 giving us, though we may ourselves be poor and unknown, 
 the companionship of the wisest fellow-spirits of every 
 age and country, and in aiding the communication of clear 
 thoughts and ' faithful purposes among distant nations, 
 which will at last breathe calm upon the sea of lawless 
 passion, and change into such halcyon days the winter of 
 the world, that the birds of the air may have their nests in 
 peace, and the Son- of Man where to lay His head." 
 
 There are two distinct lines of thought in Browning's 
 poetry. The perpetual questioning " What will God say ?" 
 and the equally constant assertion that earth educates for 
 heaven, and that we are ourselves building up our own 
 future condition, either in listening to what God says to us 
 by His voice in our spirits, and thus co-operating with 
 Him in blessed communion, or in disregarding the Light, 
 in choking the holy seed, and in his own words : 
 
 " The sin I impute to each frustrate ghost 
 Is the unlit lamp and the ungirtlotn.'' 
 
 Life is a ladder, he teaches, and every deed nobly done, 
 every work sincerely toiled at, every duty fulfilled honestly^ 
 with all our strength and energy, lifts us a step higher, 
 
The Menage of Qmhevwrn to the Present Bay. 79 
 
 brings us nearer that perfection of loving service which 
 is his idea of heaven. " No work begun shall ever pause 
 for death." 
 
 " Life, with all it yields of joy and woe, 
 And hope and fear, — 
 
 Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love, 
 How love might be, hath been indeed, and is." 
 
 " What I aspired to be. 
 And was not, comforts me : 
 
 Here, work enough to watch 
 The Master work, and catch 
 Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play. 
 
 But Sill; the world's. coarse thumb 
 
 And £nger failed to plumb, 
 So passed in making up the main account ; 
 
 AH instincts immature. 
 
 All purposes unsure. 
 That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's account. 
 
 Thoughts hardly to be packed 
 
 Into a narrow act. 
 Fancies that broke through language and escaped ; 
 
 All I could never be. 
 
 All men ignored in me, 
 This, I was worth to God. 
 
 . . All that is, at all, 
 
 Lasts ever, past recall ; 
 Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure : 
 
 What entered into thee, 
 
 Tliat was, is, and shall be : 
 Time's wheel runs back or stops : Potter and clay endure." 
 
 The forsaken lover, noble in his sorrow, as Browning's 
 lovers always are, says : 
 
 Yes, might I judge you, herei were my heart. 
 And a hundred its like to treat as you pleased ! 
 
 I choose to be yours, for my proper part. 
 Yours, leave me or take, or mar or make ; 
 
80 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Day. 
 
 If I acquiesce, why should you be teased 
 With the conscience-prick and the memory-smart ? 
 
 But what will God my t Oh ! my Sweet, 
 Think, and be sorry you did this thing ! 
 
 He recognizes that her broken faith offends the faithful- 
 ness of God more than it wounds the lover, but the latter's 
 bitterness breaks out at last at the treason which has slain 
 love even in the truest human heart, yet never in the 
 divine heart of the Saviour : 
 
 " I knew you once, but in* Paradise, 
 If we meet, I will pass nor turn my face.'' 
 
 It is Browning's intense recognition of the inevitableness 
 of earthly action that in " Porphyria' s Lover " leads the 
 man to kill the woman he loves, while he knows she is 
 perfectly pure and true, rather than see her fall into sin, 
 and his feeling that he was right, is shown in the hurt 
 astonishment of the last line, 
 
 " And yet God has not said a word ! " 
 Browning's constant iteration of the query, " Is there no 
 forcing earth to teach heaven's employ ? " reminds us of 
 George Fox's iteration, " Let your lives preach." And his 
 recognition that Love is the true teacher, the image of 
 God, is shown in almost every poem he has ever written. 
 The marvellous scene in the " Ring and the Book," where 
 Guido, at the very last moment, sees in a time-ilash 
 Pompilia's true nature, and despairing of every other 
 power, divine or human, calls on her, 
 
 " Pompilia, will you let them murder me ? " 
 
 recognizing that love alone " never faileth," is perhaps the 
 most striking example of this, but we might quote at 
 random from almost any page of his writings : 
 
 " For aU love greatens and glorifies. 
 Till God's aglow, to the loving eyes. 
 In what was mere earth before. 
 
 I end with. Love is aU, and death is nought, quoth she ! 
 
■?%« Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 81 
 
 Truth is the strong thing. Let man's life be true. 
 And love's the truth of mine. 
 
 I count life just a stuff 
 To try the soul's strength on, educe the man. 
 
 Things learned on earth we shall practise in heaven. 
 The gain of earth must he heaven's gain too. 
 
 God above 
 Is great to grant, as mighty to make. 
 And creates the love to reward the love : 
 I claim you still for my own love's sake ! " 
 
 But ill dwelling on this love, we must remember it is the 
 love Plato teaches as leading through the visible object to 
 the invisible deity. The love jEschylus teaches as guiding 
 to the home of the gods. And the love Paul teaches as 
 greater than aught else in the world, because purer and 
 more Christlike. The Greeks did well to distinguish 
 between the two Aphrodites, the one who was the holy 
 light of the home, and guide to the temples of the gods, 
 the other who led men into the swamps of unholy desires 
 and base passions, and left them a prey to the Erinnyes or 
 guilt-avengers. 
 
 Why, Where's the need of Temple, when the walls 
 O' the world are that? What use of swells and falls 
 From Levite's choir, Priest's cries, and trumpet calls f 
 That one face, fax from vanish, rather grows. 
 Or decomposes but to recompose. 
 Become my universe that feels and knows ! 
 
 Our quotations are necessarily fragmentary and imper- 
 fect, but even from these fragments we can perceive the 
 harmony of this great poet's view of life and the world, 
 with that always put forward by Friends, i.e. that light is 
 given to every man sufficient for his safe guidance through 
 the duties and temptations of life, if faithfully followed, and 
 that this light grows clearer and brighter with every step, 
 and leads us by the immediate inspiration of the Holy 
 Spirit into purity and peace, here and now, until the new 
 
82 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Day. 
 
 creature, Christ in us, lives in very truth in a new earth and 
 realizes a new heaven. — That the great and only needful 
 question for us to ask is, " But what will God say ? " heed- 
 less of the opinions or traditions of men ; and the one 
 and only cause for doubt and despair is, " And yet God 
 has not said a word ! " That the whole world is a temple 
 wherein we worship the Father of Spirits, and that the 
 truest prayers and worthiest praises are deeds of love, and 
 mercy, and help, to all in need, or sorrow, or sin. — That . 
 death is merely an open door for us to enter joyfully, and 
 find higher service, purer love, clearer inspiration in the 
 greater nearness to God the life beyond will allow. 
 
 In turning to our last witness, let us pause one moment 
 to let Browning speak his own character and epitaph. 
 
 " One who never turned Ma back but marchqd breast forward. 
 
 Never doubted clouds would break. 
 Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, 
 
 Held we fall to rise, are bafled to fight better. 
 Sleep to wake.'' 
 
 Noble lines for a poet's farewell to the world, but not 
 nobler than the life which made it possible for him to 
 write them, and for us to recognize their absolute truth as 
 applied to himself. 
 
 Alas that they are his epitaph ! But there still stands in 
 our midst John Pulsford, the poet-seer, who seems to us 
 to be the most Christ-like teacher, the most open channel 
 for inspiration, that our century has known. We say 
 Christ-lihe advisedly, for his teaching is on no sectarian 
 lines, no narrow national or personal bias can ever be 
 detected in it. It is like His Master's, universal as the 
 ether, which surrounds and penetrates so softly and gently, 
 we are unaware of its presence, and only recognize its pure 
 beneficence by the fruits it produces. Pulsford, like 
 Ruskin and Browning, after being ignored and scorned by 
 the many, is gradually growing to be recognized for what 
 he is. His crown-time is swiftly drawing near. But 
 although in the hearts of all those heralds of the dawn 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 83 
 
 who are scattered abroad throughout all lands to-day, his 
 name and his teaching are enshrined, yet he is still so im- 
 perfectly known to those who still 
 
 Cull simples, 
 With a broad clown's back turned broadly to the glory of the stars. 
 
 that we wish to quote at some length from his latest book, 
 Loyalty to Christ. 
 
 , He says in the preface to this book, speaking of Christ's 
 teaching : " The pulse of the Divine Law, Living Univer- 
 sal Law, throbs in His sayings, and appeals directly to the 
 intuitions of the soul." And he is such a perfect trans- 
 mitter of this divine message, that these words 'may fitly 
 be applied also to his own teaching. " The Christ of Qod , 
 is in the air that men breathe, and in stillness and silence. 
 He will prevail over the uproar of His enemies. To kill 
 Him, as a visible Presence, will only increase tenfold His 
 actual Presence. . . " " Forget not, that the midnight 
 of human experience is the hour of the new birth. . . " 
 " Making a Highway /or God in man is clearly the making 
 of the man. . . " This is the groundwork of Pulsfprd's 
 teaching, — ^to awaken men and women, to open every win- 
 dow and door of their sleeping natures, until they realize 
 the perpetual presence of Christ, the Light of the World, 
 and His breath has made a highway for the divine to pass 
 into the human. Is not this our old lesson, " I charge you 
 all in the presence of the living God to dwell in the Light, 
 that ye may be made manifest to the Light in all con- 
 sciences, to the measure of God, which is pure, which is 
 given to everyone." — The first lesson George Fox taught to 
 his followers rnore than two hundred years ago, yet palpi- 
 tating with the spirit and life of the coming century } 
 
 "The aim of every genuine teacher is to enable his dis- 
 ciples to do without him. Whoever desires to exercise 
 priestly authority over men and women, or to hold them in 
 subjection to himself or to his church, is a usurper and a 
 stumbling block in the way of their, progress. . -" 
 
84 The Message of Qualcerism to the Present Bay. 
 
 " We must never suppose that our Father's Love can be 
 shut up in any terms with which we are acquainted, nor in 
 any Scriptures that we have received, nor in any creed 
 which we may hold. . . " " Let our religion be a life 
 of, daily Love : let it be Humanity's Love to humanity, 
 not Love -with qualifications and under certain limitations, 
 but Love without limits, — Love not to good men and 
 women only, but Love to the worst possible men and 
 women. . ." " Christianity includes every human good, 
 both for the individual and the whole world. It is anti- 
 war, anti-taxation, anti-oppression, anti-selfishness. It is 
 good-will between man and man all the world over. . ." 
 " Let us learn that God's love to us always involves 
 judgment on our old nature and our old ways. . . " 
 " Nothing so vitalizes and, uplifts the inner man as work- 
 ing for Gpd, and with God, in blessing others. . . " 
 "The spirit of love and sincerity, with whatever forms it 
 may be clothed, reaches God. . . " " What men call 
 vices are not the' only sins, nor the worst sins. Coldness 
 of heart towards God, and coldness of heart towards men 
 are the two great sins. Nothing short of the Spiri,t of 
 Love is Righteousness before God. Every man owes God 
 love, and he owes the same to his fellow-man. Love is 
 God's Life ; and it is our life. . . " " Nothing could ^W 
 the human soul but Love, and the Joy of Love. . . 
 There is no rest like Love's rest in doing good. Love's 
 satisfaction is God's peace, and His children's peace. He 
 and they have but one desire, namely, to fill the world 
 with peace, by leading the Spirit of Love into every 
 human breast. , . Love does no evil to anyone : there- 
 fore Love is the fulfilling of the universal Law which 
 binds God to all men, and men to one another. Give out, 
 uncalculatingly, the Spirit of Love, hoping for nothing 
 again, and whatever of worldly substance you lose, you 
 shall be the children of the Highest. . . Human law can 
 never make it right to do what perfect Love would not, 
 and could not do. . " 
 
The Message of Quaherism to the Present Bay. 85 
 
 The sweet iteration of "Love" and "Love's way," 
 sings through everything Pulsford has written, like a little 
 river through a flowerfiil land, and recalls George Fox's 
 constant prayer through all his epistles, " do everything in 
 love." We would fain linger, and continue to quote the 
 beautiful variations on the one supreme theme, which read 
 like a fourth of John's Epistles in the language of to-day, 
 but we must pass to Pulsford's utterances on the practical 
 testimonies of Friends, or rather the passages in which he 
 has expressed his deepest thoughts and convictions with 
 regard to absolute truth, and which having no intentional 
 bearing on our views, are therefore the stronger evidence 
 in our favour. 
 
 We have always insisted, as mentioned before, on the 
 spiritual and general interpretation of the Bible as opposed 
 to selected texts, and verbal inspiration. Pulsford says 
 "There is a wise jealousy of texts, which is highly favour- 
 able and essential to a knowledge of the Truth. Texts 
 are partial statements, which often lead the unwary to 
 contradict other texts. You must Strike the balance of all 
 texts if you want to get at the Truth. But even that is 
 not enough. Jesus made no mention of texts when He 
 promised His disciples that they should' know the Truth. 
 Nothing short of the vital action of God's Spirit within 
 the soul leads to the discovery of Truth. . . " " We 
 should labour, therefore, to extricate our inner humanity 
 from the oppressions, exactions, and temptations of the 
 world's corrupt civilization, and hold it in clear relief as our 
 true identity, capable of endless progress, and of being 
 ultimately crowned with the perfectness of God. . . " 
 " Better to do one year's work in the Spirit of God than 
 sixty years' work as a monotonous tongue of tradition. . ." 
 " If metaphysical minds are in. danger of sacrificing the 
 historical Christ in favour of the Divine Element, which is 
 in all humanity, on the other hand Christian Believers 
 are equally in danger of servility to the limits of old 
 revelations, and to the letter of Scripture. Their incapacity 
 G 
 
86 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. . 
 
 of receiving the instruction which all history supplies is 
 very strange. . . The New Testament writers bid us 
 look for richer and riper discoveries of Truth. Prior to 
 leaving the world Christ declared that He had not revealed 
 the full glory and unity of the Truth. . •. The orthodox 
 plan of salvation makes its 'appeal to self-love, and while 
 stimulating the profoundest form of .selfishness in its 
 believers, flatters them that they are the special favourites 
 of God. . . It is" notorious that carnal men, whose 
 souls are full of this world's ambitions, can very warmly 
 contend for the orthodox belief. But when do we find 
 such men pleading for the interior new creation of the soul, 
 which is the process of Christ? How can persons, 
 whose thoughts are undey bondage to the literal meaning 
 of words, ever find ' the Word of God ' in the Scriptures ? 
 Never. . . The letter of Scripture is no more the 
 ' Word of God ' than the flesh of man is the man, — no 
 more than the chaff which wraps up the wheat is the 
 wheat. . . Not words, but souls, find God. . . True 
 religion never was, and never can be, anjfthing else than 
 the life of God in the Soul of man. . . True religion 
 is a life of freedom and simplicity, arising from the love of 
 God in the heart, and manifested by doing good. By 
 whomsoever the most good is done, by them the most 
 Truth of God is lived. . . Here is a religion, which is 
 not only a pure simplicity, but is absolutely above criticism. 
 Nothing here depends on historical research, and nothing 
 on the dates, nor on the authorship of certain books. 
 Here is an infinitiely-perfect, all-blessed affection, and this 
 affection is God : ' God is Love.' And the same affection 
 living and reigning in men and women makes them His 
 children for ever. . ." "The Christianity of the 
 chiirches has been, dying for centuries because it stereo- 
 typed itself, and ceased to be led of the Spirit. Jesus said, 
 'The Spirit shall lead you into all Truth;' but believers 
 in ' the oldness of the letter ' said. No : we prefer a fixed 
 sepulchral institution, honoured and supported by mammon, 
 
The Message of Qm^erism to the Present Bay. 87 
 
 learning, and dry statements. . . " " The only possible 
 entrance to Divine illumination is through the strait gate 
 of the new-birth. . . " " How we should pity men and 
 women who are stranded on the shallow shoal of an 
 inherited belief, and immovable ! and who have given up 
 God's Infinite Truth for their traditions ! " 
 
 " We turn from the antiquated fabrications of men and 
 set our face steadfastly towards another temple, not an 
 artificial structure nor measurable, — broader than the earth, 
 higher than the heavens, and Woing through God's influent 
 Life. Christianity is declared to be ' the dispensation of 
 the Spirit.' And that gives us authority enough for repu- 
 diating the claims of the "letter, the killing letter, with 
 which zealots would fetter our souls. . . The everlast- 
 ing Word, the exponent of the infinite Mind of God, 
 is a new prophet, and has a new message, and a fuller 
 statement for every new age. Christ calls us to vital 
 present-day work, not to build the tombs and reiterate the 
 words of men of other centuries. The past is ever a 
 house of bondage, out of which the Spirit brings the 
 children of every new age. Let us lean on present day 
 inspiration .... no Scriptures of the past, no tenets of your 
 church will enable you to dispense with the inbreathing of 
 God's fresh Life into your souls. . . Our duty and our 
 privilege are to enquire what the Spirit meant, not what 
 the man meant. . . The Inspiration of God is revealing 
 to us more of what He means than ever was or ever could 
 be revealed before. For it has taken all the past to 
 liberate us, and educate us,, sufiiciently to be capable of 
 the larger, sweeter, and more God-honouring thoughts 
 which we are now receiving. . . " 
 
 We now pass to a few of his thoughts on democracy, 
 the keeping of days, the, ministry, war, sport, and direct 
 guidance, and we shall see that if Friends have always felt 
 and spoken strongly on these points, 'Pulsford speaks, if 
 possible, more strongly than any Friend could do. He 
 says : 
 
88 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 
 
 I . Democracy. — " In nothing does Jesus resemble either 
 the rulers in the church or in the state. . . He uniformly 
 noticed and loved, helped and comforted those who 
 receive no attention from the great personages of the 
 world. . . For the cure of the wrongs, the suspicions, 
 jealousies, and envyings of the nations, we must not look 
 to emperors, kings, presidents, and governments. 
 Our aim must be the unity of the race, the open and 
 untrammelled intercourse of all nations, the peace and 
 prosperity of all nations. With this purpose and end in 
 view we should inaugurate centres of international brother- 
 hood in every nation. . ." Is not this precisely what 
 George Fox and the early Friends strove to do, with their 
 much travelling and constant correspondence all over the 
 world ? 
 
 " ' I have compassion on the multitude,' must be trans- 
 lated in our day : My soul is moved towards the masses, 
 the socialists, nihilists, communists and atheists, who see 
 no government which they can respect, nor any order of 
 society which they can believe to be well-pleasing to a God 
 of love and goodness. . . We may regret their head- 
 strong measures, and condemn them when they resort to 
 violence ; but it is by no means certain that if they and 
 their nilers changed places that the latter would be less 
 irritated, or less impatient. . . The same Lord of 
 EJwmanity .... is now conteniAng in all nations throughout the 
 world for the rights of the poor. . . He lives and reigns 
 for the ' common people,' and will reign for them until 
 they see the salvation of God. . . Class after class' 
 excuses itself from uniting in the effort and labour of 
 bringing about Divine order in the earth. Every move- 
 ment that looks or leads in that direction is called 
 democratic and revolutionary. Neither landowners nor 
 professional men are prepared to enter into homely and 
 familiar relationships with ploughmen, joiners, bricklayers, 
 blacksmiths, etc. . . What liberty of soul, what geniality 
 of friendship, and what openness of speech with each 
 
The Menage of ^malkerimn, to the Present Day. 89 
 
 other we shall enjoy when the individual man is warmly 
 related to God, and all classes are interwedded in the 
 bonds of one common humanity ! When there are neither 
 political cliques nor religious cliques, but under all the 
 distinctions of genius and service men mutually love and 
 honour one another.' . . " This ideal ought not to be 
 difficult for Friends to reach, when we remember that 
 their constitution, both religious and social, has always 
 been based on purely democratic principles. 
 
 2. On keeping of days. "Is not the Divine Life in the 
 soul the true Sabbath ? What need has the Divine Life 
 of any other temple than the human body } Pity the 
 condition of men and women, so long as they need the 
 periodical administration of external sacraments and 
 solemnities. For days, times, written laws, and scriptures, 
 as compared with the soul's nature, are mechanical and 
 comparatively dead. To encourage either the last day of 
 the week or the first day, to lord it over man, is an. offence 
 both to God and to humanity. . . Our great Teacher 
 delivers us from days, and from every species of ritual, by 
 breathing into our souls the Spirit of His Love, making us 
 good men and women, neighbourly, and ready to render 
 service to one another. His free Spirit is our Sabbath. 
 Oh ! if 'men and women, instead of being Sabbath-Phar- 
 isees, would only ray out the Love of God towards each 
 other, they would be much more beautiful before Heaven, 
 and make their fellow-creatures happier. Love would cure 
 all the ills in the world. My Father is growing grass for 
 the cattle, and ripening grain and fruits for the service of 
 man, all the Sabbath-day. His tides flow, His winds 
 blow, and the benign influences of His Spirit never 
 suspend their operation. . . " 
 
 3. The Ministry. Salvation by a birth of Christ in the 
 soul instead of salvation by a cr^ed is God's method. . . 
 True ministers of Christ are uplifters of the souls, and 
 healers of the bodies of men, and not mere talkers. 
 ' Preach I and heal ! ' says the Master, to the men whom 
 
90 ThfC Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 
 
 He sends forth. But with us, teachers and healers make 
 two very distinct professions ; and on that very account 
 both are weak, and insufSciently related to the whole 
 nature of man. . . Pharisees are a religious caste, and 
 believe in ostentatious solemnities : Christ belongs to no 
 caste, religious or other. He is Man ! And by quietly and 
 invisibly moving among men He impregnates them, until 
 they aspire to a purer, nobler life ; and before they are 
 aware they are in the way which leadeth unto Life. . . 
 No one shoilld receive this hidden Life, this potential 
 glory, and hold it unconfessed. If a man is not con- 
 strained to confess, and to bear his testimony concerning 
 it, he is unworthy of it. If he has not power and life 
 enough from Christ to constrain his tongue, he should have 
 a timely fear that he has not enough to glorify and save 
 him. . ." 
 
 The many quotations inculcating love to all nations, to 
 all classes, and the utter inability of love to make war, or 
 so to act that war becomes possible among the followers 
 of the Prince of Peace, renders further dwelling on this 
 point, or the kindred one of sport, unnecessary : with one 
 plain thought on "sport" we will pass to dMreet guidcmee. 
 " The crown of the merciful is, that there are no men nor 
 women, whatever may be their sins or errors, who have 
 any charge to make against them. Nor have the beasts, 
 nor the birds, nor the insects any cruelties to plead against 
 them. Some men have a fearful account to settle : for the 
 pains and cries of the beasts are stored up in the spirit- 
 world, and will confront them by-and-by in very unex- 
 pected forms of judgment." 
 
 4. Direct Guidance. "What light is to the eye the 
 'Spirit of Truth' is to the soul. . . It is the Christ- 
 Life in man, that opens Heaven, first of all in him, and 
 afterwards to him. . . His desire to lead His Spirit 
 into the inmost chamber and sanctuary of our being waits 
 upon our desire for His Indwelling. . . The immanency 
 of the Father-Spirit is the essential law and distinction of 
 
I%e Message of Quakerism to the Present Day, 91 
 
 man's personality. No man can deny that at times he is 
 secretly reproved, made ashamed of himself, within the 
 deep privacy of his breast. . . Clearly some Spirit 
 wiser and better than himself is reasoning with him, and 
 seeking to draw him out of his corrupt selfhood, that a 
 nobler selfhood may be formed in him. . . Sometimes 
 in the silence of the night, sometimes in pain, or following 
 an accident, a man is compelled to recognize that the 
 Divine Love is pleading with him, and -drawing him. . . . 
 If we move under Divine Influence it is towards our true 
 Home and its blessed friendships. . . When the life of 
 men is strictly the Life of God in them, their daily 
 thoughts and affections reach into Heaven and operate 
 there. . . How niay a man know whether he is inspired 
 and led by Christ or by subtle spirits ? Here is an 
 infallible rule: the Presence of Christ in his soul will 
 make his own nature, with its passions and propensities, a 
 serious cross to him. . . " " Ethiopians, Hindoos, 
 Mahoraedans, Jews, and Christians will be judged without 
 partiality. The Heathen who have obeyed a less light will 
 rank with Jesus, before Christians who have resisted their 
 clearer light. Africans will rise up in the judgment and 
 condemn Englishmen ; for many of them no sooner hear 
 of God's Love in Christ than they become contrite and 
 walk in newness of life, while many, many Englishmen 
 who have long and often heard the same message, have 
 hardened themselves in their selfhood. . . In thinking 
 of 'the Kingdom of God' we should remember that there 
 is no such thing as a Jewish God, nor a British God, nor 
 an European God, nor a Popish God, nor a Protestant 
 God, nor even a clerical God. There is one omnipresent 
 and impartial Spirit, who is ' the Father of Spirits,' that is, 
 the Father of the immortal humanity of the univeirse. . ." 
 We have thus seen by a brief examination of the 
 thoughts of two ancient, and three modern, representative 
 ethical teachers, the confirmation of the claim Friends have 
 always advanced, that their message is no national or 
 
92 Th& Message of Quakerism to the Present Day. 
 
 sectarian one, but rather addressed to all nations. — That 
 it is entirely spiritual, and yet intensely practical ; insisting 
 as it does on the necessity of truth being received by each 
 individual, as a purely personal revelation to his or her 
 spirit, not passed on from one to another as an intellectual 
 opinion ; and at the same time that Christianity is a Ufe 
 and not merely a Aoctrvm ; that Christ is the Way as well 
 as the Divine Word; and that consequently the reign of 
 peace and jnstice, for which all earnest men and women 
 are striving under their various banners and watchwords, 
 can only be attained by the ' new birth ' in each individual, 
 which developes the hidden family likeness to God. 
 
 We have seen also, that there is nothing in essential 
 Quakerism which the Seekers of to-day — the Scientists, 
 Sopialists, and Agnostics, cannot receive, inasmuch as its 
 teaching' has never been petrified into a creed, but has 
 always insisted that the one thing needful is to follow the 
 little light that we have faithfully, until more is given ; 
 that the Eternal Truth reveals Himself in divers ways, and 
 that the illuminated spirit and the enlightened mind g'o 
 hand-in-hand. That to pin faith to the letter (apart from 
 the Spirit) of a revelation, coming through a human, and 
 therefore faulty medium, is "to set the Holy Ghost to 
 school," and that the true "child of the Light," and 
 " Friend of Truth," is he whose body, mind, and spirit are 
 developed harmoniously and equally in a pure life, an 
 active intellect, and an illuminated soul ! 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 THE MESSAGE TO-DAY. 
 
 IT is a significant fact that George Fox and William 
 Penn are the only two Protestant Reformers placed 
 by Comte in his Positivist Calendar of Great Men. 
 The founder of the religion of humanity evidently recog- 
 nized that the Society of Friends, however insignificant in 
 numbers as compared with the other churches, contained 
 a portion of that " leaven which leaveneth the whole," and 
 delivered a message to the human race quite apart from 
 any sect or nation. — That this message having a scope as 
 universal as the Spirit of Truth Itself, has exerted a world- 
 wide influence on humanity, and that, consequently, those 
 men by whom it was first delivered deserve a distinct place 
 amongst the saints and benefactors of mankind. 
 
 Quakerism has always claimed to represent the life and 
 mind of Christ in each individual, and to teach what Jesus 
 Himself taught, in the simplicity of the Gospel record, as 
 distinguished from the traditions of men or the testimonies 
 of the ' so-called "Fathers," whose teaching fairly inter- 
 preted, however, inculcates a very different Christianity 
 from the Christianity of the churches in the i yth century, 
 or even the 19th. 
 
 Its message, bearing the twofold character of intense 
 spirituality in faith and worship, with an entirely practical 
 basis of condugt and life, is therefore, as true for the 29th 
 century as it was for the 17th, although the details of its 
 testimonies vary with the rise and fall of special wrongs 
 and abuses. 
 
 For instance, that plainness and simplicity, springing 
 from devotion to absolute truth in all things, which Friends 
 have always inculcated, is shown to-day, not so much in 
 protests against tithes, and titles, and bowing and hat- 
 
94 The Message of Qmherism to the Present Bay. 
 
 lifting, as against drinking and gambling ; against impurity 
 of thought, as well as life and literature ; against servility' 
 to position and wealth in our own borders ; against the 
 earthly spirit in all its modern developments ; against 
 commercial immorality, whether seen in bogus companies, 
 false advertisements, or misleading reports; against for- 
 mality, even the formality of our own formlessness ; 
 against the letter of our discipline, as well as the letter of 
 Scripture ; arid against pandering to the democrat as well 
 as pandering to the aristocrat. The spiritual side of the 
 message we shall consider presently; meantime it is 
 observable that Quakers are often attacked from the two 
 opposite icamps of revelation and reason. "You exalt the 
 natural light of reason," say the bondmen of the letter, 
 "above the revealed Word of God!" " You exalt mere 
 eriiotional sentiment," say the prisoners of logic and 
 positivism, " above the guiding light of reason given to 
 men to preserve them from the lying visions of a dis- 
 ordered imagination, and the marvel-loving greediness of 
 an imperfectly developed nature." 
 
 The " Friend of Truth " calmly smiles, the Bible in his 
 hand, the Light of Christ in his soul, but the lantern of 
 reason ever-present in his mind, to examine the fruits of his 
 faith, ».e. the pure, true, honest, unselfish Hie here, making a 
 constantly widening circle of peace and blessedness around 
 him, and at the end the certain hope of a joyful hereaftet' 
 in that " great love which is also a great peace " 
 
 This is the Quaker's Ideal : to dwell in the Light of 
 Christ and follow in all things ' its guidance and leading, 
 wherever and through whatever it may guide or lead. 
 He sees always the rays from the Sun of Righteousness 
 illuminating his own spirit, and gently revealing, step by 
 step, the footprints of Christ across the world, in which 
 he can tread, and by treading leave brighter and 
 clearer for following feet ; and beyond these footprints' 
 he sees shining far off and shadowy the holy city of God. 
 This we say is the Quaker's Ideal, and although the' real 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 95 
 
 often falls short of it, seeing it afar off, but coming not 
 nigh, since we are human and not divine ; yet what a man 
 believes, not merely accepts, but believes, in the sense of 
 being ready to give up all earthly things, even hfe itself, 
 rather than deny, shows, the character of the type 
 generated. And thus we maintain that no other teaching 
 is so calculated to influence the Seekers of to-day as the 
 simple faith of the children of the Light, with its appeal 
 to every side of human nature, its universal tolerance, and 
 openness to the reception of new light, from whatever 
 source it may proceed, with its absolute insistense on the 
 Divine Fatherhood, and human brotherhood, and the 
 necessity of the personal communion of each individual 
 spirit with the Father of Spirits. And above all with its 
 demonstration of this communion in a perfectly pure, true, 
 and peaceable life ; in the education and care of the 
 poorer brethren, and the loving help each Friend is 
 expected to administer to all in need, not only in things 
 spiritual, but also in things temporal, which often seems a 
 far more difficult matter. 
 
 There are vast multitudes of Seekers to-day, as we all 
 know only too well, hungering for a revelation of God — 
 yearning for a guiding faith — " pushed mightily from 
 within to know for themselves what ails human nature." 
 Theosophists, sceptics, materialists, agnostics, positivists-^ 
 waifs and strays drifted from all the churches because they 
 have been given earthly stones when they asked for the 
 Bread of Heaven. 
 
 These Seekers are waiting, like their namesakes in 
 George Fox's days, for some angel or apostle able to give 
 a. sign of his mission, and it behoves every Quaker to 
 uphold his ideal faith now as never before. To be a child 
 of the Light, and a, friend of Truth in very deed, 
 abhorring equivocation as heartily as direct untruthfulness ; 
 hating all darkness, whether of absolute sin or unfair 
 argument, and insisting on the entirely spiritual nature, 
 and yet intensely practical- character, of his views with no 
 
96 The Message of Quakerism to the Freseni B(uy. 
 
 uncertain voice. Making the Ufe the test not the doctrim, 
 and absolute purity, not only in deed, but in thought and 
 word, whether in man or woman, the essential sign of 
 faith. Protesting as much against the iniquitous traflSc in 
 drink and opium as against slavery ; that enbondaged the 
 body, but these enslave the soul as well. . Making peace — 
 i.e. the disarmament of the world, the spread of that sense 
 of universal brotherhood which would make war and 
 outrage impossible — his first aim and end. Striving and 
 agitating for the complete emancipation- of women, — the, 
 complete equality of the sexes, — ^^until woman, free to 
 develop her life, as man is fre'e to develop his, can indeed 
 set herself to him, 
 
 " Like perfect music unto noble words." 
 
 Visibly denouncingthe commercial immorality, which to-day 
 alas! has become so hydra-headed, so Protean-formed, by 
 strict and unswerving obedience to the noble advices and 
 queries of his Book of Discipline, which sets before him the 
 noblest ideal of spiritual perfection and practical usefulness 
 eVer given to any church since the Master gave His two 
 comprehensive commands, to love God and the neighbour. 
 Denouncing, as he is bound to. do by his principles, all 
 gambling, whether on the Race-course or the, Stock Ex- 
 change. Renouncing for himself, and protesting against 
 in others, the cruelty to their helpless and innocent fellow- 
 creatures, known sarcastically under the name of " Sport ! " 
 Striving in every way open to him, so to educate public 
 honour and honesty, that it will seem as disgraceful tp the 
 ordinary man to tell a lie, not merely in actual words to 
 his neighbour, but in issuing deluding advertisements,' 
 publishing or patronizing Society Jounials, recommending , 
 frlaudulent investments, bogus compariies, or adulterated 
 goods, as to cheat at cards. This last oifence representing 
 to the present ordinary Englishman, we imagine, the place ' 
 where he draws a hard and fast line, never to be passed 
 without his feeling himself eternally disgraced. All this it 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Dm/. 97 
 
 behoves the trae Friend to do, thus letting " his Ufe 
 preach " to the watching Seeker. 
 
 Many other wrongs waiting to be righted, many other 
 sins waiting to' be denounced, will at once occur to those 
 who have imbibed the spirit of essential Quakerism. 
 Friends might do more than they have done for instance 
 in forming Boards of Arbitration ie/ore the grievances of 
 masters and men have grown into strikes and lock-outs ; 
 although it is well-known how actively engaged many 
 members of the Society have been already in this work : 
 still these Boards of Arbitration require organizing for the 
 different trades all over the country, and being so formed 
 that both parties in any dispute would feel certain of 
 scrupulous care in hearing their evidence, and justice in 
 pronouncing judgment. In these days, also, when every 
 penny-a-liner or notoriety-hunter flings his or her pebble 
 of cheap abuse, or second-hand sarcasm, at the sacredness 
 of the marriage-relation, Friends have a great duty to do 
 in upholding the religious character of marriage. George 
 Fox said, and Friends have always felt he said truly, " We 
 marry none but are witnesses of marriage. . . " 
 
 Such are a few of the subjects on which Quakerism may 
 claim to speak to the 20th century more clearly than any. 
 other religious body, because its name already bears the 
 grand distinction won for it by its foundei: and his followers, 
 of representing truth, and honesty, and kindness, and 
 benevolence. 
 
 To be a Quaker once meant, — and means even yet to 
 the great majority of people who trouble themselves little 
 about ideas or special views, — to be a man or woman 
 peculiar, and somewhat strait-laced in appearance and 
 manner, but who might be implicitly trusted. Whose calm 
 " I intend doing so," is amply equivalent to an ordinary 
 person's solemn oath, and though of course painful examples 
 of different conduct will occur to everyone, yet Quakers, as 
 a body, could never have won the name they have, without 
 making perfect truth and strict honesty their rule in life. 
 
98 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 
 
 The peculiarities may go — they are fast disappearing — 
 the dress, the plain language, the too-restricted family or 
 class feeling, the abstinence from all enjojonent of art, and 
 a certain narrowness of view caused by the recoil from J;he 
 unrestrained worldliness and saturnalia of jarring, hideous 
 caricatures of religion, which Friends encountered at their 
 first foundation. But the inner meaning of all this, — the 
 simple dress that the wearer may have more time, and 
 thought, and money, to give to others. The plain language, 
 that the speaker may not be tempted to transgress or hurry 
 beyond the exact limits of truth, by any exaggerated senti- 
 ment or violent .passion of any kind. The strong family 
 or class'feeling, which signified in an age of persecution 
 the brotherhood of all professing Truth beneath the 
 Fatherhood of God, these will remain until essential 
 Quakerism itself ceases to exist ! 
 
 With regard to their, stern renunciance of art, it was 
 neither pure and noble art, nor true and earnest science, 
 that Friends renounced in the past, and will renounce in 
 the future. The spiritualside of their message leads them 
 to value the first, and the practical side the second. 
 
 The art which they denounced was the art which had 
 fallen from its high estate, and forgotten its divine mission 
 to reveal the spiritual behind, and through the material, 
 thus always leading thoughtful souls to remember the 
 revelation of the Saviour through the human symbol. An 
 art which had descended to a mere pagan worship of 
 physical beauty, a mere pagan spirit of sensual gratifica- 
 tion. An art which denied the Supreme Artist, and blas- 
 phemed the holy ideal in all men's souls, leading them 
 downward instead of upward. An art which, far from 
 recognizing the aiilgel behind the flower, the essential 
 holiness of each thought of God revealed in Nature, and 
 its own divine possibilities of interpretation, had fallen so 
 low as to regard all these things as lures to sin, as panderers 
 to hell, instead of ladders to heaven. Well was it then, 
 well is it now, to renounce and tread under foot an art 
 
The Message of Quakerism to (hs Present Day, 99 
 
 like this ! An art which under the 'false name of Realism 
 sees only the brute, and never the angel : only the foul 
 lust, and never the pure love ; only the tempting devil, and 
 never the redeeming God ! 
 
 Friends have always felt that the artist should be also 
 the disciple, should walk close to the Master in daily life, 
 and should work'as though kneeling at the feet of God. 
 
 They have felt, too, that the scientist should be like the 
 Neophyte amongst the Rosicrucians and other secret 
 societies, who, having tempered his spirit by self-denial 
 and ardent yearning toward the light, and won by constant 
 strife against base instincts and personal desire, strength, 
 courage, and the faith which is only bom of love, dares 
 undergo any ordeal, dares probe and dissect all things, 
 recognizing the while behind them the immanent yet 
 elusive Spirit of God. 
 
 We are aware that to some people art appeals not at all, 
 and science, is dumb ; there is no shame in the confession : 
 it may be that God has closed some of the gates of our 
 nature, but what He has closed He can also open, atnd if 
 once His Breath has reached us through any avenue of, 
 spirit or sense, it is a disgrace if we allow it to be closed 
 again. It shows we are growing materialized, and giVen 
 up to physical facts ; thus losing grasp of one side of 
 our nature, and shutting out the spiritual refreshment, 
 strength, and joy which came through the once open 
 door. . . If at any time music has "led us to the 
 edge of the Infinite," or poetry raised our soul to God, or 
 painting or sculpture revealed the ideal beauty at the 
 heart of life, or science manifested hidden truth, let us 
 hold fast to their revelation ; let us treasure their peaceful 
 message. . . Art and Science are both God's angels 
 sent to minister to His children, and lead them home ; 
 but by means of the free-will given to these children they 
 can drag these beautiful angels down to the foul dungeons 
 of sensualism, and hold them in the bondage of base use's, 
 or take their hands and be guided to the gate of heaven. . . 
 
100 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 
 
 They are always, prisoned or free, God's angels, with a 
 deathless power of showing forth the Divinity under all 
 material manifestations. 
 
 To some of us the question in Tennyson's much-ridi- 
 culed song, 
 
 Science enough and exploring 
 
 But aught that is worth the. knowing ? 
 
 represents very fairly the pith of the matter, but we must 
 remember that God is absolute Truth, and that Science is 
 just as much a revelation of Him on its own particular 
 plane — the intellectual one — as Scripture or immediate 
 Inspiration are on the spiritual plane which they illuminate 
 for our souls. 
 
 As will be gathered we think from the preceding para- 
 graphs. Friends have .'always claimed the whole earth, the 
 entire life for Christ, and have in their truest utterances 
 always protested against that doubting, cowardly spirit, 
 which would withhold members of the Society from taking 
 part, and a leading part wherever possible, in the affairs, 
 social, political, and commercial, .of the work-a-day world. 
 There should be no shrinking from duty either as citizens 
 or private individuals. "I pray not," said Jesus, "that thou 
 shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou should 
 keep them from the evil thereof." 
 
 They, should strive to set the crooked straight as Members 
 of Parliament, County Councillors, Judges, Magistrates, 
 lawyers, doctors, lecturers, artists, scientists, literary men, 
 in every walk of life where it is possible: it is also incumhent 
 on Friends to lead pure and peaceable existences, and 
 thus preach the gospel to all nations. Preaching the 
 gospel, we must remember, did not mean to Christ and 
 His Apostles, pulpit oratory, or even mission-work, home 
 or foreign ; but the commentary of a holy life and con- 
 science, void of offence toward God and man, on the 
 doctrine of love they preached, and a Readiness to be tor- 
 tured, imprisoned, or slain for the truth's sake. And 
 although we are no longer subjected to these extreme 
 
The Message of Quahrism to the Present Brnf. 101 
 
 penalties, yet if we really preach the gospel in Christ's 
 sense, — a gospel shown quite as Clearly in what He wa^, 
 and in what He iAd,, as in what He saii, — we must be 
 prepaifed for coldness, misunderstanding, possibly loss, — 
 certainly misinterpretation. We must be as ready to sacri- 
 fice, if needful, love, fame, success, to our Ideal, as to find 
 them crowning the struggle. We must cheerfully deny 
 ourselves for the sake of others, refraining from what may 
 be to ,us innocent amusements, or harmless indulgences, 
 from the glass of wine or the concert, the game of cards 
 or the witty repartee, if any of these put stumbling-blocks 
 in our weaker brethren's path to God. We must always 
 remember that Love is the fulfilment of the Law, and so 
 remembering, everything , in daily life will- gradually fall 
 into its natural place and become easy and harmonious. 
 
 In the life of love alone is there true freedom for the 
 spirit, because thus it receives its laws from the Father of 
 Spirits Himself, while the Inner Light shows best in the 
 silent communion love reaches, and if truly watched and 
 waited upon, it will enable us to enjoy all the revelations of 
 science, all the glories of art, without fear ; for it will dis- 
 entangle the harmful from the innocent with as much 
 certainty as the ministering ants in Psyche's story disen- 
 tangled the grains from the husks, leaving no doubt in our 
 minds as to what we should renounce or retain, if only we 
 prayerfully Hsten. 
 
 Our natures, we must remember, are not composed 
 entirely of reason and intellect ; there is also heart (emotion, 
 love, faith,) to be- considered and satisfied, in quite other 
 ways than by visible or Oral proof or logic. When we 
 travel in spiritual regions our spirits need other nourish- 
 ment than the outside appearance, which is usually called 
 fact; though the undoubted fact of outward righteousness 
 of life necessarily accompanies any real spiritual revelation, 
 for no one can really believe anything without his belief 
 taking tangible form in his conduct. 
 
 Professing a creed is not believing in Christ. A person 
 
 H 
 
102 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bay. 
 
 may belong to a Christian Church all his days, yet no 
 more know the Inner Light, which is Christ within, than 
 the atheist. Indeed, if the latter does good deeds, as 
 many atheists do, he witnesses to the hidden Christ against 
 his will, and is of those to whom Jesus referred when He 
 said, "Whoso is not against us is on our part." 
 
 Quakerism, on the spiritual side of its message, has always 
 most clearly recognized this, and has preached no narrow 
 Gospel — sought to advance no sectarian church — but 
 remembering that Christ sent His gospel to all nations — 
 His simple gospel of Love to God and the neighbour — 
 a gospel quite apart from any rite, ceremony, sacrament, 
 creed, dogma, or priest, has sought to bring all nations 
 into the glorious liberty of willing obedience to the law 
 written in their hearts : the law of the development of 
 their highest natures, in obedience to which all barriers of 
 race or rank fall, and all things grow pure and peaceable. 
 
 This inwrought Law develops from within, and the new 
 life is a perfect form, fair and full of symmetrical grace 
 like a flower ; it seeks to show the completed circle, — 
 wherein spirit, heart, intellect, and reason, are welded to- 
 gether into that beauty which is also the greatest strength, — 
 never the straight unlovely line of one-sided growth. 
 "The God-begotten instrument of the human soul has 
 more than two or three strings. There are many who in 
 their communion with God never touch half the chords of 
 their soul. Seven or eight parts of their nature are 
 abjured or. quiescent. What is the consequence ? God 
 never hears them sounding back the grandeur and mani- 
 foldness of His Name. He hears only monotones, and 
 day after day the same monotones. Their life with Him 
 is a' very poor thing." These words of Dr. Pulsford's 
 deserve constant remembrance, for they contain a mighty 
 aiidjmuch-neglected truth. They contain also the explan- 
 ation in great measure of Friends' mode of worship. To 
 the true Friend no worship that takes a definite line, — 
 such as a set liturgy, a set time for extemporary prayer or 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present bay. l03 
 
 preaching, appointed intervals for silence or singing, — 
 is in a true sense worship at all. Worship must be drawn 
 from the whole nature quiescent before Him, by God's 
 hand alone ; therefore Friends meet in silence, their spirits 
 watching and listening, until, like ^Eolian harps wind- 
 smitten, the Breath of God, thp Spirit of Christ, touches 
 them, and prayer, and praise, and preaching, and thanks- 
 giving, answer the touch, and flow forth in a stream of 
 music. 
 
 The experience so beautifully described by Caroline E. 
 Stephen in "Quaker Strongholds" has been, wej believe, 
 the experience of many other earnest souls, to whom thie 
 silence of the Friends' Meeting has proved the very gate 
 of Heaven. There the soul draws apart from every 
 material aid, with no frailest ladder of sense to climb or 
 rest upon. . . There it is pure spiritual communion, it 
 is utter surrender of the whole nature to the in-breathing 
 of God, or it is mere weariness, a mere blank wall of 
 vacuity. There is no possibility of a half-hearted partici- 
 pation, as in a conducted, service, a performed worship. But 
 to those who have once been in complete unity with its purely 
 spiritual character, all other services or modes of worship — 
 beautiful, thrilling, gorgeous, as many of them are — seem 
 like veils of darkness hiding the Light of the Father of 
 Spirits ; seem like shrouds bound about the figure of the 
 living risen Cljrist. It was not in the whirlwind of 
 eloquent preaching, or the thunder of sacred song, but in 
 the still, small voice that God made Himself heard. 
 "Not by the comet's rush, but the rose's birth." 
 
 And the silence of the Friends' Meeting, which grows 
 so full of revelation — the thoughts which, rising in the 
 mind of one, are so frequently spoken by another — the 
 wonderful realization of the veritable presence of the 
 Light of the World in each yearning spirit, opened wide 
 for His entrance, and thrilling into utterance at His 
 gracious touch — who can describe these things } They must 
 be felt to be realized. Mere words convey such a miserably 
 
104 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Day. 
 
 imperfect idea of what a real Friends' Meeting can be. 
 Speech or silence are all one, and spiritual communion 
 the only reality ; until it is difficult sometimes, in that 
 marvellous blessedness of divine overshadowing, to know, 
 if the voice speaking is indeed the voice of a brother or 
 sister Tcindled by the Spirit, or the still, small voice of God 
 in the listening soul. The world and the world's interests 
 fade away into the distance and are lost sight of, and 
 Christ Himself breathes oyer all. His calm atmosphere of 
 divine peace and rest. 
 
 Probably the spiritual communion which the true Friend 
 enjoys at his meetings, is the nearest approach known to 
 the renewed life which will be the portion of all in ihe 
 Kingdom of Christ. A life which will make existence on 
 any lower plane impossible, but which in its universal 
 spiritual circle, will embrace all varieties of nature, and 
 race, and opinion, and belief. A life which will include all 
 " Jews, Turks, infidels, and heretics ; " all whom the 
 churches have excluded, or Society has ostracized ! Yea, 
 and even, in some fashion we cannot yet comprehend, all 
 life below the human, all those despised or tortured 
 creatures, to whom we in our arrogance have , denied a 
 soul, and have hunted or dissected under the names of 
 sport or science, ignorant or forgetful that Life proceeds 
 from God, and is a portion of His Spirit wherever found. 
 
 There is an old legend that the Christ is still joume)dng 
 amid the countless stars which gem the heavens, bringing 
 to each world salvation and peace, in the special develop- 
 ment of life needed by its constitution ; making God 
 manifest according to the diverse natures of the varying 
 stars : and that when His gospel of Love shall have been 
 delivered to the whole universe. His Kingdom will be 
 ready, for all hearts will turn to Him with an overpowering 
 love and worship, and the eternal life will begin at last. 
 
 This legend contains a ,s:reat truth, for it shows the 
 Light of the World in His true character, as the Light 
 and Saviour of all worlds ; Who can never cease His Incar- 
 
The Message of Quakerism, to the Present Day. 105 
 
 nation, until the marriage morn, when Creator and created 
 are no more twain, but one perfect whole. 
 
 Star after star may kindle and melt in the fervent heat of 
 divine love, until, what we call material substance is trans- 
 formed into the true spiritual substance. Sun after sun 
 may shine, giving light and life to its surrounding planets, 
 and then breathe itself with fiery breath of devotion into 
 the Eternal Sun ; yet while one soul remains in bondage, 
 the Saviour is still crucified, the cross is there. But there 
 comes a time when death is swallowed up in life, when cross- 
 bearing is ended, and crown-time strikes : when the human 
 no longer fetters the divine, but the divine sets the 
 prisoned human free. And it is to this innermost essence 
 of Christianity, this freedom from the bondage of sin, 
 quite apart from any fear of punishment or hope of reward, 
 that Quakerism must appeal to-day, as in the first flush of 
 Inspiration, George Fox and his followers appealed more 
 than two centuries ago. It must lay more stress on the 
 universal Christ, and far less on the national or sectarian 
 Christ. More attention must be given to the Light, which 
 is indeed Christ Himself in us, but which is also manifested 
 under other names, and shown forth in a different gospel, 
 to other nations and other races, and in times and places 
 whereto His blessed name has never come. 
 
 It must insist that the one test of faith shall be the life 
 that preaehes, and in delivering its message to the coming 
 century it must beware of making a form of formlessness, 
 or pinning its- faith to the letter of Scripture, apart from 
 the spirit; of shaking off all outward signs of its pro- 
 fession in order to join in the world's amusements, the 
 world's aims, the world's mode of thought ; or, on the 
 other hand, of doggedly adhering to these outward symbols, 
 which have become mere husks, though once holding 
 precious seed. 
 
 The dead form of birthright membership must be re- 
 nounced, and once again Quakers must mean all those 
 " professing Truth," and not merely members of " our 
 
106 The Message of Quakerism to the Present Day. 
 
 Religious Society !" Can we imagine Christ, and John, 
 and Paul, talking of a Religious Society? How then 
 shall we, to whom the Holy Spirit has been sent, with 
 whom Christ dwells each day, each hour of our renewed 
 life, dare to imprison the Light of the World in the nar-' 
 row walls of a human society. 
 
 Love God and your neighbour, said Jesus. Believe in 
 the Lord Jesus, said Paul and John. And what is our 
 message to-day beyond these two answers given to the 
 Seekers of old ? 
 
 It is — love God and your neighbour, brealj; down every 
 barrier, destroy^every wall, unloose every fetter, that keeps 
 the spirit of man your brother, from union with the Spirit 
 of God your Father. Do not believe in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ because of an. ancient record, or because His name 
 resounds on the lips of men, in all civilized lands, but 
 believe in Him because you have striven with all your 
 might to follow the highest and deepest promptings of 
 your nature after purity and holiness, after a noble life of 
 perfect freedom won from willing obedience to the law 
 written in your heart, and thus you have found that in the 
 wise words of Tolstoi "all those who, with their whole 
 soul, seek for knowledge of the Truth, for communion with' 
 the Father, all who yearn for true happiness, involuntarily, 
 and without conscious effort find themselves travelling 
 along the same road that Christ traversed, and instinctively 
 taking theirjstand behind Him, are soon aware that He is 
 leading the Way. All who love God will converge towards 
 and finally meet on this road. . . He is the Son of 
 God, the Mediator between God and man; it is not that 
 we have been told this by someone, and therefore blindly 
 believe it, but we hold it to be true because all those who 
 seek God find His Son before them, and only through the 
 Son do they understand, see, and know God." In follow- 
 ing this law inscribed in your deepest being, in seeking 
 God, (and all seek God in one way or another who seek 
 Truth, in any form) you will find that you are becoming 
 
The Message of Quakerism to the Present Bwy. 107 
 
 more Christ-like ; you are treading in His foot-prints, and 
 so cannot help your life preaching Him, whatever your 
 spoken words or unspoken thoughts may do. But once 
 this is discovered, once Christ is really seen as JSe is — no 
 fetish in whose name devil's deeds are wrought, despite 
 the record of the churches — but the truest ideal of man, 
 and therefore the clearest manifestation of God the world 
 has known : — not only your lives, but your words and 
 thoughts will be filled with His Spirit, and you will recog- 
 nize that the tremulous hope, the untiring strife of all 
 nations towards the freedom of a hitherto undreamed of 
 brotherhood,, together with the wondrous growth in all 
 spiritual and material power and knowledge, are the 
 shadows cast before it by the approaching Kingdom of 
 Christ; And that the golden city He enlightens and 
 glorifies, as the sun enlightens the sky, is built up with 
 human stones, transmuted into gold, {gold, symbolizes love') 
 by the love which made their everyday-earthly lives grow 
 like unto His divine life ; until all the wrongs, and sins, 
 and sorrows, all the despair and remorse, all the crooked 
 instincts and murderous impulses which , fettered their 
 spirits, have been trodden under foot and vanquished by 
 the Light, which "runneth like a swift and hungry fire 
 amid dry stubble," and the gold of love, the frankincense 
 of worship, and the myrrh of willing sacrifice, are laid at 
 the Saviour's feet, not only by three kings as of old, but 
 by the whole human race. 
 
 This is the goal which Quakerism strives to reach : this 
 is the Ideal it sets before us. But it sets it before us in a 
 purely practical fashion. Let each one, it says, seek the 
 Light in all ways open to him or her, and be quite sure — 
 not with the surety of tradition or teaching, but with the 
 surety of personal discovery and experience — that it is 
 found ; but once having found it, let them follow its 
 guidance unhesitatingly, caring for nothing save that they 
 are absolutely i/rm, even should the Light appear to lead 
 them into the quaking bog of doubt, or unbelief in its 
 
108 The Message of Qmkerkm to the Present Bay. 
 
 Divine Source, let them go on never faltering, and they 
 will at last awaken in the likeness of Christ, and be 
 satisfied. However dark the shadows, God is hidden 
 amongst them ; however long the night, Christ is the day- 
 star and the Sun of Righteousness, Who will presently 
 arise and scatter the darkness. 
 
 And if they walk watchfully in the Light they have 
 found, each hour will bring its little duty of deed or word ; 
 nothing that helps another, or loosens the material shroud- 
 ing of our own or another's spirit, is unimportant, and 
 life rightly lived becomes like a precious mosaic, bound 
 and ■ encircled with gold, wherein is pictured in various 
 colours the life of the Saviour. 
 
 Nothing is unimportant, nothing is trivial from the Quaker 
 point of view ; because the Inner Light is either growing 
 stronger with each moment, each action wrought, each 
 word spoken; or waning into darkness, and ceasing to fall 
 athwart the footsteps of ; Christ across the world, until its 
 gleam is merged in the eternal radiance of Heaven. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 W. B, LUKE, PRINTBK, ' BEEMNEH ' OFEIOES, ST. AUSTELL.