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 John Wilhelm Rowntree. Essays and addres 
 
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X^L i^xJUL. vTfCJZT 
 
JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
John Wilhelm 
 Rowntree 
 
 ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 Edited by 
 
 JOSHUA ROWNTREE 
 
 London : HEADLEY BROTHERS 
 
 14, Bishopsgate Street Without, E.C. 
 1905 
 
HEADLEY BROTHERS, 
 
 PRINTERS, 
 
 LONDON ; AND ASHFORD, KENT. 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 Sincere thanks are due to J. M. Fry, F. Thompson, 
 A. Smithson, M. Rowntree, L. Richardson, F. Thorp, 
 J. B. Hodgkin, and J. J. Green for the loan of letters ; 
 to the Editors of The Friend, British Friend, Friends' 
 Quarterly Examiner, American Friend, Young Friends' 
 Review, Friends' Intelligencer, and Bootham for per- 
 mission to reproduce articles or extracts from their 
 pages ; to H. B. Binns for information as to Present 
 Day Papers, and to E. J. Hart for the index. 
 
 The two articles entitled " God in Christ " were to 
 have been completed by a third, but this was never 
 written. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introductory Sketch - - - - ix. 
 
 Testimony of Pickering and Hull Monthly 
 
 Meeting - ... x i v . 
 
 The Rise of Quakerism in Yorkshire (Three 
 
 Lectures) - i 
 
 The Basis of the Quaker Faith (Two Addresses) 77 
 
 The Problem of a Free Ministry - - - m 
 
 A Plea for a Quaker Settlement - - - 135 
 
 Summer Schools - .... ^ 
 
 Adult Schools and Mission Work ... 161 
 
 Our Educational Policy - - 179 
 
 A Study in Ecclesiastical Polity - - 191 
 
 Family Exclusiveness - - 211 
 
 Pentecost - ... 223 
 
 The Present Position of Religious Thought in 
 
 the Society of Friends .... 233 
 
 To Rise Again : A Sermon - - 251 
 
 God in Christ. I. & II. - - 269 
 
V1U. CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Man's Relation to God : (Five Addresses) 
 
 I. What is Worship ? - 299 
 
 II. May we Believe in God ? - - 321 
 
 III. What has Jesus to say to the Individual ? 342 
 
 IV. What has Jesus to say to the State ? 363 
 V. Faith and Life - - 384 
 
 Shades of the Prison House - - - 407 
 
 In Memoriam - .... ^j^ 
 
 Appendices - - 419 
 
 Index - - - 436 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. 
 
 " This is the Comfort of Friends, that though they may 
 be said to Die, yet their Friendship and Society are in the 
 best sense ever present, because immortal." 
 
 William Penn. 
 
 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 THE name is that of the Rowan, or mountain-ash. 
 Old people in the North Riding of Yorkshire still 
 give it a soft two-syllabic pronunciation. 
 
 It is understood that in the first half of the eighteenth 
 century, when the parental home was a farmhouse still to 
 be seen a mile or so north of Hutton Rudby, in Cleveland, 
 one William Rowntree was sent adrift portionless because 
 he had turned Quaker. He afterwards married, took the 
 Riseborough farm, near Pickering, and brought up his 
 family there. His son John migrated to Scarborough, 
 founded a grocery business, and married Elizabeth 
 Lotherington, who added sweetness to his strength. Their 
 third son, Joseph, moved to York, established there a similar 
 business, and married Sarah Stephenson, who combined 
 saintliness with an excellent judgment : he became a leading 
 member of the City Council, of Committees of the Friends* 
 Schools and Retreat, and of many other philanthropic 
 bodies, and was largely instrumental in abolishing the 
 suicidal custom of disownment for " marrying out " in 
 the Society of Friends. 
 
X. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Their second son, Joseph, who married as his second 
 wife E. Antoinette Seebohm, is the head of the Cocoa firm, 
 and is widely known as the co-author of " The Temperance 
 Problem." The Seebohms are said to be descended from 
 an officer in the Swedish army, who went over with Gustavus 
 Adolphus during the Thirty years' war, and afterwards 
 settled in Germany. 
 
 John Wilhelm, born on the 4th September, 1868, was 
 the eldest son of this marriage. He grew up in the city of 
 York, in a home in which hospitality and thought for others 
 were portions of his inheritance. It was enlivened as the 
 years went on by a family of four brothers and two sisters. 
 One who knew him well writes : — 
 
 "As a child, although very affectionate, he was of a 
 passionate nature, and he had to struggle against 
 this weakness certainly well into his school life. He had 
 a highly nervous temperament. He was always truthful 
 and honourable, but had to fight against selfishness. He 
 was a very close observer, was always imaginative, a great 
 mimic, and fond of acting. He had a German nurse, and 
 spoke German before he could speak English. His deafness 
 interfered with the enjoyment of school life, and probably 
 was then acutely felt. A power of composition was early 
 shown in childish harangues to his companions, and in 
 essays contributed to the School Essay Society. He had 
 the artistic temperament strongly developed, with a 
 great sense of beauty in nature and art. He showed con- 
 siderable facility in fine pen and ink work, and occasionally 
 did a little oil painting, but made little after use of these 
 gifts, except for diagrams and illustrations for his Adult 
 School lessons." 
 
 John was educated at the Friends' School at Bootham, 
 with an intermediate tarriance at Oliver's Mount School 
 at Scarborough. He was not distinguished in his classes, 
 caring more for men than mathematics, and the deafness 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. XI. 
 
 already alluded to shut him out from many of the games of 
 the playground. To the onlooker he would have passed as 
 a delicate child, observant and quick, not sympathetic, 
 inclined to be quizzical, and for a schoolboy, careful of his 
 appearance. One of his masters writes of his schooldays, 
 " J.W.R., as I remember him, was undoubtedly a boy 
 of good natural ability, but being far from robust had 
 never learned to use it effectively. He was not of a 
 happy, contented disposition. He had not developed that 
 genial brightness which was so striking on all occasions 
 when I have met him latterly." To this he adds, " No one 
 knows what he has been to some of us." 
 
 Another master in describing his final year at 
 Bootham, writes : — 
 
 " His difficulty in hearing had already begun to show 
 itself. He always sat by me to be able to hear, and when 
 I had occasion to use the blackboard he followed me there. 
 I always felt that he was a most appreciative pupil, anxious 
 to learn and to miss nothing, and very grateful for any 
 little one could do in helping him to take full advantage 
 of his last year of school life." 
 
 On leaving school he went at once into the 
 Cocoa works at York, and though not naturally 
 methodical, he applied himself to business with extra- 
 ordinary energy and diligence. Beginning in a very 
 subordinate position, he rapidly fitted himself for more 
 responsible posts, and won and retained the esteem 
 and friendship of the employees with whom he was 
 associated. At this time he had not learned to measure 
 his physical strength, and a certain degree of irritability 
 from overstrain was often noticeable. In the later years 
 of his life this irritability was so fully mastered, that few 
 even of his personal friends knew of the struggle before the 
 victory. His impetuosity of mind and disposition became 
 
Xii. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 gradually disciplined, without any loss of executive force 
 or administrative skill. 
 
 With a restless and inquisitive mind which familiarised 
 itself with many departments of knowledge, and was 
 determined when possible to test things for itself, it was 
 inevitable that the waves of modern doubt should break 
 heavily upon him. For a few years he experienced great 
 religious unsettlement. Ever afterwards he entered with 
 understanding and great sympathy into the condition of 
 any who were passing through a similar experience. At 
 times he would speak as if such conflicts were the lot of all 
 his hearers, hardly allowing for the unquestioning faith of 
 some, or for the intellectual indolence and spiritual sloth 
 which shield many mortals from the heartfelt searchings 
 he had passed through himself. 
 
 The following extracts from two letters written to 
 different friends in 1893 will best describe the early stages 
 of his wrestling after a personal religion : 
 
 " I believe my spiritual growth, taken for what it is 
 worth, springs from the first doubt I ever felt, which was 
 a doubt of the miracle of the raising of Lazarus. Till then 
 I never thought, and I think I woke up simply to find that 
 I had never really believed anything. I gave up one thing 
 after another gradually, without any heart-rending or 
 regret, I am afraid, but with sighs of relief if anything — 
 an unreality seemed removed when I had stripped myself 
 of what in me it was mere cant to hold to, and it was as if 
 I had cleared my mental decks for action. I could not have 
 worked under the old beliefs, I believe I should have gone 
 off into mere worldliness if it had not been possible to come 
 under the influence of free thought." 
 
 " West Malvern, Sept. 18th, 1893. 
 " Personally I feel that all talk of creed tests, etc., 
 is very apt to produce hypocrisy and unreality in some 
 young minds. The very idea of supposed essential con- 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. Xlll. 
 
 formity to some set dogma — an unwritten law which 
 certainly is supposed to exist, is extremely mischievous. 
 
 " For two or three years I have been on the verge of 
 resignation, and had it not been that I was favourably 
 circumstanced, should no doubt have left Friends. 
 
 " How can we demand of the young who are only 
 on the threshold of experience an acceptance of dogmas 
 the meaning of which they cannot fully grasp, and which 
 experience alone can teach them to understand or value. 
 
 " To demand this is to create unreality in many at 
 least, if not all, and tends I believe to check real spiritual 
 growth. I feel for myself and for many other young Friends 
 that what we want is to strike a deeper note in our meet- 
 ings for worship — deeper than the mere crust of words 
 and almost of thoughts, to the living springs of actual 
 spiritual experience." 
 
 Whilst he was still struggling to obtain a secure 
 foundation foothold of faith, religion became to John 
 Wilhelm Rowntree the most real quest of his life. Humanity 
 stood out before him as the highest of created things, and 
 yet as sorely in need of compassion and of uplifting. He 
 recognised the many ways in which sympathy could be 
 shown, and aid be given to man, in body, soul, and spirit. 
 He was keenly interested in art, in politics, in social reform, 
 and in education, but religion to him held the key of all 
 the rest ; and as it grew to be a living reality in his own 
 experience, he spared no time or thought or trouble to make 
 it a reality to others. " Religion and life are one, or 
 neither is anything," became a cherished maxim with him. 
 In his youthful ardour and longing for fearless sincerity, 
 he was no doubt often crude in his utterances, often per- 
 turbing to the watchmen of his spiritual Zion versed in the 
 watchwords of a former generation ; but from the outset 
 he sought for an underlying unity in the many diversities 
 of thought and language, and those who knew him best 
 
x iv. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 saw that the great utterance of the Master, " If any man 
 willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching," be- 
 came more and more applicable to his case. His eagerness 
 for more spiritual life in himself, and for more of its liberty 
 and power in the meetings of the Society to which he be- 
 longed, found vent in 1893 in a pamphlet entitled " A few 
 thoughts upon the position of young Friends in relation 
 to the Society." The summary at the end was as follows : 
 
 " (1) There exists among young Friends doubtless 
 much apathy and worldliness, but also much earnest 
 dissent from many commonly accepted dogmas. Our 
 general condition is far below an attainable standard. 
 
 " (2) That partly due to some of our ministry, and to 
 misunderstanding, there is a tendency to negativeness 
 in work, and a drift from the Society. 
 
 " (3) That we want both old and young to see 
 the possibility, so long as the root idea of the love and 
 desire for God be the same, of working together, however 
 different the intellectual presentment of truth. 
 
 " (4) That based on this idea, we want to stir up 
 young Friends and find work for those who will work, 
 removing as far as may be the difficulties and misunder- 
 standing which have hitherto existed." 
 
 This pamphlet brought in a vast correspondence to 
 its author. Though ready with his pen, he was not a 
 great letter writer. One of his letters in 1897 begins 
 " Probably I am the worst letter writer in England," but 
 this is hardly an impartial statement. One of his answers 
 to a correspondent gives a fuller revelation of his own 
 thoughts at this time than any outsider could give, and 
 may therefore rightly find a place here. It is in reply to 
 what he described as a " very kind and sympathetic letter," 
 from Fielden Thorp. Some sentences are curtailed for 
 the sake of brevity only. 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. XV. 
 
 " I have been anxious to avoid any misunderstanding 
 between myself and those from whom I may differ in the 
 intellectual acceptance of truth, — more and more I am 
 led to see that it is a question of attitude, and that, to quote 
 William Penn's beautiful words, ' when death removes the 
 mask ' we ' shall recognise each other, though the divers 
 liveries we wore made us strangers on earth.' (I have not 
 the exact words by me, but you will no doubt correct me 
 mentally as you read). 
 
 " As regards York especially and the Society in general, 
 I cannot help feeling the ' concern ' grow upon me that we 
 younger Friends should feel more and more the responsi- 
 bilities of the future. We may number many promising 
 ones among us, but we are far, far short of what we might 
 be. I have felt painfully the need of deeper spiritual life. 
 Again and again I feel that in myself, and I know in many 
 others, the deep well springs are not tapped. I want that 
 we should strike deeper than we do in meeting. I cannot 
 feel that meeting is, as it should be, the focus of our spiritual 
 struggles — the glowing centre of our life as a church. Often 
 for instance meeting is a blank to me. Often I feel that 
 the Adult School is more to me, and yet it ought not to be 
 so. This I know, too, is the case of many others. Of course 
 I speak to one with a far greater hold on things spiritual 
 than myself, and my view of things may seem to you to 
 be pessimistic. But I know too well how skin-deep worship 
 is with very many of us young Friends. And with a world 
 weary of doctrinal differences — yearning for something 
 deeper — the actual experience of God's love warm in the 
 heart, — with the masses practically not touched by deep 
 religious feeling, with signs of a great forward movement 
 in the social conditions, and of a ' silent revolution in 
 thought,' as Farrar calls it, going on in the religious world, 
 it seems to me that if only we Friends will rouse ourselves 
 in this time of crisis we have an immense future. The more 
 I read and understand George Fox, the more I feel that so 
 far from our work being done, it is yet to do. That the 
 world wants bringing back to the feet of Christ and to the 
 
xvi. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 simple faith of simple Christianity— of Christlikeness— that 
 there are still mountains of selfishness and indifference to 
 overcome— still masks of form and convention hiding the 
 truth. 
 
 " If there is one thing that I desire it is that we may 
 not dissipate the spiritual energy of our Society in seeking 
 difference, or conducting controversy on matters theological, 
 but that we may join hands of sympathy over intellectual 
 gulfs, and give ourselves to the work of bringing spiritual 
 life and vigour back to our England. What Church more 
 able than we, if only our Meetings for Worship were glowing 
 with warmth, and our silences living silences. We are 
 free from any weight of tradition or ritual, and with our 
 clearer perception of the indwelling nature of the Spirit, 
 ought to strike more easily below class distinction and form 
 to the recognition of the true brotherhood of man — the 
 want of which it seems to me is the cause of much of the 
 materialism of the present day. 
 
 " I hope I am not speaking too freely, but my pen runs 
 on when I speak of these things, and I must say what 
 I feel. 
 
 " I have been wanting to ask whether in this relation 
 a meeting of Young Friends might not be held at the January 
 Quarterly Meeting to consider the need of spiritual revival 
 amongst us. If you saw your way I should be very glad 
 if it could find a place in the programme. 
 
 " I am afraid there is much of the ' new criticism,' 
 as it is called, that is not of the right spirit. There is 
 undoubtedly that attitude of mind that rather glories in 
 ' shocking people ' and in ' being unorthodox.' That can- 
 not go along with real spiritual life. 
 
 " Wide as the difference may be between myself and 
 most with whom I come in contact, I still cling to reverence 
 as an essential element in worship and the treatment of 
 things spiritual. The books which have helped me most 
 are Robertson Smith's ' Old Testament Criticism,' and 
 on another line Caird's ' Evolution of Religion,' the latter 
 more than any other book I have read for years, and which, 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. XV11. 
 
 though I do not suppose you would accept it as I do, could 
 not pain the most ' hopelessly orthodox ' Friend. 
 
 " But I must not encroach upon you any more. Thank 
 you for the opportunity you have given me of speaking 
 freely. Often and often I have to confess to a want of en- 
 thusiasm, and it is hard to feel how constantly and grievously 
 one's own private life falls below one's ideals ; latterly I 
 have passed through great depression of spirits, but there 
 is no work I long to be fitted for more than that of sharing 
 in the service of the Society. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 John Wilhelm Rowntree." 
 
 He sought truth wherever it might be found at first 
 hand. The latest and best books on theology became more 
 engrossing to him than any works of fiction. Indeed, it 
 required some coaxing at times to get him to turn his mind 
 into lighter channels by way of rest, always excepting the 
 stories of Sherlock Holmes ! 
 
 Among the influences especially helpful to his religious 
 life, that of Dr. Richard Thomas may be mentioned. 
 Writing to Anna Thomas after the death of her husband, 
 and referring to him, John said : — "He was to me a dear 
 and intimate friend, and one who at a critical time in my 
 own religious experience gave me, more than any one person 
 I know, the help which I needed." 
 
 Of one address given by Dr. Thomas, he afterwards 
 said, " that sermon first enabled me to see Jesus Christ." 
 
 In the pamphlet already referred to, the quotation is 
 made from Robertson, " There are many problems in- 
 soluble, except in active life." Adult School work, which 
 had long been carried on in York, was an important factor 
 in the growth of John's thought and character. 
 
 On leaving School, he accompanied his father for some 
 time to the parent Adult School in Lady Peckett's Yard, 
 but after a few years the determination to launch out into 
 
XVlli. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 extension work grew upon him, and, almost single-handed, he 
 established a school in the neighbouring village of Acomb. 
 A number of railway employees had come to live in the 
 village, and the eager young teacher soon gathered a large 
 company of intelligent men around him. Many of them 
 were largely imbued with the questioning spirit of the age, 
 and no commonplace presentations of truth would suffice to 
 hold them. John rose early and sat up late to prepare his 
 Sunday lessons. Piles of note books and MSS. remain to 
 show the pains he took to give his hearers the best within 
 his reach. The most varied fields of knowledge were 
 searched for their spoils, and the reapings were all made 
 to subserve the deepest purposes of life. One short sample 
 of these notes may be of interest : — 
 
 " July 22nd, 1894, Acomb. 
 
 " Read Addison's ' The spacious firmament on high,' 
 quoted in Paine's ' Age of Reason.' 
 
 " We have been dealing with the development of life 
 from protoplasm, and have seen how in one direction from 
 chlorophyll and protoplasm we may have the development 
 up to the daisy ; in the other direction through varying 
 forms up to man. There is a volume of God's nature- 
 library we have not opened, and which we will first peep 
 into before proceeding with the social and moral develop- 
 ment of man." [Then follow some stiff but charming 
 geological notes on the formation of rocks]. 
 
 " Geological examination of ourselves will reveal the fact 
 that our character is a stratified rock, each day laying a layer. 
 
 " ' Little drops of water, little grains of sand,' etc. 
 
 " Life is made up of hundreds of little microscopic 
 decisions between right and wrong. Importance of little 
 things." 
 
 And so the notes run on, sometimes three or four 
 abrupt words only serving to suggest a train of thought, 
 sometimes widening out into a complete sentence. 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. xix. 
 
 The men were welcomed to the teacher's home as 
 warmly as to his Sunday lessons. The love and loyalty 
 of the class and its teacher were mutual. 
 
 It happened to the writer nearly three years ago 
 to be welcomed with open arms by the Secretary of 
 an Adult School in Auckland, N.Z. An English mechanic — 
 he had lost his wife and a son in the old country — had made 
 a fresh start with his surviving children on a government 
 allotment in the bush in New Zealand, and had brought up 
 his family in the love of good reading and a true life. He said 
 that two men had unfolded the real meaning of life to him, 
 viz., John Ruskin by his books, and by some personal 
 letters, greatly cherished, and John Wilhelm Rowntree, 
 by his addresses at the Acomb Adult School. The ex- 
 scholar has since written of his former teacher, " He was 
 one who could lead, for he evinced the wisdom we could 
 trust. We have all too few of such teachers. . . Our 
 good men are frightened at the depths, so keep in shallow 
 water which is not buoyant." 
 
 The development of the firm's estates led to more than 
 one visit to the West Indies. He travelled also in Mexico, 
 Egypt, and Syria, in addition to his many journeys to the 
 United States. The diaries which remain of some of these 
 tours are very readable and racy. 
 
 On 28th July, 1893, John Wilhelm Rowntree was 
 married to Constance M. Naish, of Bristol. His home 
 life, first at York and then at Scalby, was one of exceeding 
 happiness. It was lavishly shared with friends of all ranks 
 and conditions. Though his wife ever relieved him of 
 household cares, he did not lose sight of home duties in 
 the far vistas that were constantly opening out before him. 
 Only little more than a year ago he confessed one Sunday 
 to feeling tired at the close of a morning meeting for 
 worship at Scarborough, but said he must return home 
 
XX. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 and come in again at night ; as his home was three miles 
 away he was pressed to stay and rest. He replied 
 decisively that he had promised "Violet" to take her 
 out in her perambulator, and must do it. Violet, his 
 youngest child, was then a person of about a year old. She 
 was duly driven forth, and the tired man came back again 
 to the evening meeting. 
 
 Allusion has been made to his early deafness. As 
 the years went on a serious contraction of the power of 
 sight, greatly restricting the field of vision, took place. 
 In any dim light he could no longer see the way before him. 
 The stumbling over a child on one occasion pained him much. 
 One of the best physicians was consulted. He could hold 
 out no hope of improvement, or even of the arrestment of 
 the evil, and John went out from the consultation into the 
 street under a doom of coming and irreparable blind- 
 ness. He stood by some railings for a few moments 
 to collect himself, and " suddenly felt the love of God 
 wrap him about as though a visible presence enfolded him, 
 and a joy filled him such as he had never known before."* 
 Instead of retreating before this insidious foe and leaving 
 human wrongs to right themselves, as men would readily 
 have excused him for doing, he only sought the more con- 
 tinually to fit himself for efficient service for God and his 
 fellows, during every day which might yet be given him. 
 In many remarkable ways he turned " his necessity " to 
 " glorious gain " ; as one : — 
 
 " Who, not content that former worth stand fast, 
 Looks forward persevering to the last, 
 From well to better, daily self surpast." 
 
 A paragraph in a letter written shortly afterwards 
 to Lawrence Richardson, one of his most intimate friends, 
 
 * This sentence is taken from the account of J.W.R. in the 
 American Friend, by Rufus Jones. 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. XXI. 
 
 is characteristic in its prompt acceptance of the situation 
 in which he found himself, and in his determination to 
 make the best of it. 
 
 " October 17th, 1894. 
 " My complaint is Retinitis pigmentosa, and Nettleship 
 and Hutchinson have given me up. While writing, I may 
 as well inform you that I have at last finally undertaken 
 the pamphlet campaign. W. C. B., Grubb, Agnes Smithson 
 and myself are a sort of committee, and I am to receive 
 the papers and print and distribute them. We think of 
 calling them Present Day Papers, and numbering them, 
 printing in rich old black type on rough paper, ragged edges, 
 with thorough artistic get-up, and arrange for one person 
 in each big Quaker centre to act as distributor. They are to 
 be perfectly straight, and to have the definite aim of waking 
 up the Society to thought." 
 
 The occasional papers here anticipated grew in time 
 into a monthly periodical, which lasted for several years. 
 The volumes (from 1899 to 1902) are full of thoughtful 
 articles and informing reviews. 
 
 Though perforce an ambassador in bonds, he was 
 yet no invalid. He had great enjoyment in life, and re- 
 mained strong physically. His abounding labours put the 
 inertia of most men without any such limitations to shame. 
 He put himself under an American specialist, and for a time, 
 at the cost of severe regimen and treatment, the onward 
 ravages of the complaint were stayed. His endeavours 
 to reconcile his passion for work with due obedience to his 
 medical advisers often caused subdued amusement to his 
 friends. He was ever ready to explain that a time of 
 rest was coming speedily, when one or two things had 
 been put right first. 
 
 In 1899, John was ordered to give up town life and 
 daily attendance at business, and betake himself to a country 
 
XX11. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 home. He chose a house at Scalby, near Scarborough, 
 quickly found pleasure in his new surroundings, gave 
 himself eagerly to his garden, and began, as he said, to 
 " intensify cabbages." Happily this application of chem- 
 istry reacted favourably on himself, and injured nobody. 
 In reality the change of residence enabled him to give 
 much of the energy hitherto devoted to business to objects 
 nearer to his heart. He turned with redoubled desire to 
 the " intensifying " of the Society of Friends. 
 
 Those who knew him will bear witness that John 
 Wilhelm Rowntree's was one of the most catholic of 
 minds. He believed that the religion of Christ brought 
 out and nourished all that was best in man, — that 
 this religion was intended by its Founder to be a lay, 
 everyday religion, with His cross-bearing as its altar 
 of sacrifice ; with a ministry open to all who felt its 
 call, a common fellowship of service, and great liberty 
 in the exercise of spiritual gifts. He saw that this vision 
 had been realised to a remarkable extent in the early 
 days of Quakerism, and he believed that the re-awakening 
 of such a spiritual power in the land would far more than 
 repay all the efforts that could be bestowed upon it. 
 
 In 1894 he wrote to a friend, " The more I see of different 
 meetings the more I become amazed at the prevailing 
 contentment with existing conditions, the more I am de- 
 termined that I won't sit still and do nothing, even if as is 
 probable, anything I do will avail nothing." 
 
 "I am glad you deprecate anything approaching a 
 ' set.' I dislike such terms as the . . . School and 
 feel that this labelling and ticketing fosters irritation 
 and controversy." 
 
 He had taken part in the Yearly Meeting of 1893, 
 expressing himself on the lines of the pamphlet already 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. XX111. 
 
 referred to. Referring to young persons in doubt as to 
 their position he said : — 
 
 " He believed that such would benefit a great deal 
 from plain, uncontroversial sermons addressed to them 
 upon the practical duties of life. Much that was spoken 
 from the gallery simply passed by them and did not strike 
 home ; and if it was desired to strike home to them they 
 must be spoken to in their own language ; the minister not 
 yielding one iota of the faith which he held, yet speaking 
 to them in the language which they understood. He hoped 
 that by those words he had not pained those in the meeting 
 whose lives had greater spiritual truth than his own. But 
 he desired that such as himself should not be looked upon 
 by these with suspicion, but rather with a belief that those 
 things in them that were of God would stand, and that those 
 that were not of God would not stand." 
 
 On returning home he wrote as follows to a friend : — 
 
 " 30th May, 1893. 
 " I only got back late yesterday from Yearly Meeting, 
 where we have had the most wonderful sittings on the state 
 of the Church. We have spoken out plainly at last, and 
 have been heard with wonderful charity and sympathy. 
 There will now be no fear of a rupture I think, or need of 
 aggressiveness, if only the spirit of the sittings is continued — 
 while for those like myself it has been an immense stimulus 
 for work. I don't see why, if a more earnest spirit is stirred 
 up among our younger members, we should not fill the 
 largest halls in a town ; and I do believe ideal Quakerism 
 is the religion for all who are drifting from orthodox Non- 
 conformity." 
 
 And again under date 9th June : — 
 
 " The opportunities when a church meets in such a 
 representative way are tremendous. We must not waste 
 them. We spent twenty-five minutes debating whether 
 the women should be admitted to the men's meeting. It 
 
XXIV. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 was Quaker caution and love of detail running to seed — 
 the spectacle was not inspiring. . . Yearly Meeting 
 in short wants to be more real and alive — less preachy and 
 more practical — more representative and more thoughtful. 
 It wants getting out of its ruts and revivifying. People 
 must undertake to think a thing out and present a subject 
 definitely, that there may be practical, pointed debates 
 and less rambling talk. Take the Education meeting for 
 instance — it was exceedingly poor and profitless, yet mag- 
 nificently attended — the larger meeting-house crowded . . . 
 On the whole Yearly Meeting has stimulated me. I see 
 more what is wanted, and feel more determined than ever 
 to devote my life to making the Society of Friends, as far 
 as my little power and little scope allow, a real and living 
 force in the world." 
 
 Careful observers will probably regard the Yearly 
 Meeting of 1893 as the time when a new accession of younger 
 life manifestly blended with the older life of the Society, 
 and made the Manchester Conference and Summer Schools 
 possible in the years to follow. 
 
 The following extracts from letters will best show the 
 growth of his mind on themes which became more and more 
 a part of his being : 
 
 " York, 
 
 February 25th, 1896. 
 
 " . . My great concern is to have gathered together 
 only the more leisured and educated, and to appeal to them 
 to look upon their leisure and intellectual gifts as given for 
 the service of the Church, to be held in stewardship for God; 
 to say, that it is no use complaining of the Society of Friends, 
 but that we are perhaps the very ones for want of whose 
 whole-hearted service the church lacks strength." 
 
 " Inverness-shire. 
 
 July 21st, 1896. 
 " . . . I am personally somewhat optimistic in 
 regard to the future. I don't mean that I think we shall 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. XXV. 
 
 see the golden light break — or that there are no difficulties 
 or years of hard service, but I do mean that the principle 
 which we understand to be involved in the term ' Quakerism ' 
 is true, and that when the soil is softened by a new rain and 
 a warm sun, the seed of Life will grow up into a mighty 
 tree and not be lost. At present our work is that of tillers 
 of the soil. . . I believe it is of the utmost importance 
 while pressing, as Paul pressed it, the practical side of Chris- 
 tianity, to insist no less on the essential spirituality of the 
 Christian life. The transcendental and mystic element in 
 religion has generally failed as an effective force on any 
 considerable scale, not so much I think because of the innate 
 difficulties of the spiritual life, but because it lacked too 
 largely in the tangible things that men would get hold of — 
 was not sufficiently practical — while on the other hand, 
 we see the very definite limitations which are set to merely 
 practical work (I am using ' practical ' in a partial sense of 
 course, for there surely ought to be no antithesis between a 
 practical and a truly spiritual life — the former ought to 
 spring out of the latter). 
 
 " I come back again to my old friend Edward Caird's 
 statement at the close of his ' Evolution of Religion.' We 
 need a religion which shall take count of the whole complex 
 nature of man, shall satisfy his reason and his heart, and 
 really meet the needs of the new time. The world waits 
 for this." 
 
 " York, 
 
 April 19th, 1897. 
 " . . . I feel as if I had just come out of a tunnel — 
 the horrible feeling of being overworked and in hopeless 
 arrears is passing off, and I am enjoying a peace of mind 
 that is quite strange to me. . . 
 
 " I do not believe we shall get very far with an appeal 
 for simpler living and plainer, purer ways of life, unless we 
 can associate these ideas with the Christ, and show them forth 
 as essential to a true perception and grasp of Christianity 
 as a living faith. We want to translate Christ into modern 
 
XXVi. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 terms — to make him real, and to present him in such a way 
 that the appeal shall command the intellect and take a 
 practical hold of life. I am at present reading for the 
 first time carefully the second part of Wendt's great work, 
 and the longing grows upon me that I should be able to 
 give worthy expression to the thoughts which lie at the 
 back of his book. He is feeling his way along what I am 
 sure is a right path. If the idea of the Christ could be pre- 
 sented to men, vividly, simply, and in its true proportions — 
 if the atmosphere could be cleared of theological mists — 
 if we could approach this great subject without the preju- 
 dices and preconceived notions which mar our conception 
 of it — what a new life it would give us. And if as a Society 
 we could present the Christ-ideal both as it affects the 
 individual and the community — show him as the heart of 
 all that is true in art and literature — as the force which 
 makes for social progress, the development of the highest 
 and best in men and nations, focussing in him all the various 
 efforts and graspings after light, we would I think soon 
 speak so that men would listen. The work wanted now 
 is much the same as that of George Fox — it is to dig deeper 
 than the modern pessimist, and show him the living rock 
 he has never yet struck, which is the ground of our optimism 
 and faith. . . . It is appalling, when we contemplate 
 it, how few have a real knowledge of God as something 
 more than a superintendent engineer of the Universe, 
 or of Christ as something more real than a factor in a 
 theological proposition." 
 
 " York, 
 
 August 31st, 1897. 
 " . • • I am just beginning my Quarterly Meeting 
 visits, next Sunday is my first. I have offered the Quar- 
 terly Meeting every other Sunday, and am to go to Rawdon, 
 Wakefield, and Sheffield during September. It is a relief 
 
 to be really at work on what I feel is my main concern 
 
 for I have always put Adult School second, though it has 
 asserted itself for the first place until now." 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. XXV11. 
 
 " York, 
 
 March 23rd, 1899. 
 
 " . . . I am of the view that a spiritual problem 
 may also be a practical one, and on its practical side the 
 Quaker ministry is a very difficult one indeed to tackle. 
 
 " I think by October or November I shall be able to 
 send you a very interesting statement of the actual condi- 
 tions of the Ministry in America and in this country, so 
 far as figures — aided by brief statements as to spiritual 
 conditions can give the facts. The results of the inquiry 
 I am pursuing so far only enforce what I have often said 
 as to the extremely pressing nature of the whole question 
 of our Ministry. The condition of the meetings so far as 
 it has been revealed in an inquiry, and so far as my personal 
 investigations and visits have shown, is lamentable." 
 
 " York, 
 
 September 19th, 1899. 
 " . . . It is a discipline, doing nothing, to which 
 I find it hard to yield." . . 
 
 " Apparently we shall have to leave York soon, and as 
 building is so slow, I am looking to take a country house 
 somewhere, and not build for a few years. The change in 
 one's life will be considerable, but I quite hope it may have 
 its real compensations. The one thing I dread is to have 
 my work in the Society of Friends restricted. I know it 
 doesn't mean much in any case, but it is what I care most 
 about." 
 
 In one of the Present Day Papers, Quakerism is des- 
 cribed by this youngest of its prophets as " an ideal of life, 
 eminently practical, and which reveals whenever it is 
 properly understood a surprising beauty." For the 
 resuscitation of this faith, and to extend his own knowledge, 
 he utilised several visits to America by careful and sym- 
 pathetic inquiry into the various existing conditions of 
 those who bear the name of Friends, and by freely giving 
 
XXV111. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 in return his helpful fellowship and words of cheer. One 
 of his addresses in a Hicksite meeting for worship is given 
 in this volume. These labours led to many valued friend- 
 ships on the other side of the Atlantic. His last letters 
 show his eagerness to extend and cement such friend- 
 ships, and to give to his fellow religionists in the States all 
 the spare time and strength that his medical adviser there 
 could allow him. 
 
 The essays and addresses in this volume show that 
 to their author the enrichment of the spirit of man was 
 the greatest boon that could be conferred upon him. He 
 sought to nourish his own soul in the best pastures, and 
 by the purest springs he could find. His enjoyments 
 grew by sharing, and so the necessity was laid upon him 
 of ministering to others in thoughts divine, no less than 
 in things temporal. His sermons were often thoughts 
 springing from books just read, or passing events which 
 had strongly arrested his attention. He would ponder 
 on the relationship of these to the highest truths, and 
 prepare his mind to speak with clearness upon them. 
 The " blank sheet " frame of mind in worship stood for 
 slothfulness to him, but on the other hand he anxiously 
 sought to be sensitive to all intimations of Divine guidance, 
 and to the actual needs of those present ; speaking, or 
 withholding, accordingly. It was striking at times to 
 note how fine his perception was as to the state of a meeting, 
 although he had heard but little of any previous utterances. 
 Under the same desire to make the best of himself, he 
 took great pains to learn how to use and to modulate his 
 voice. His deafness made this a hard task, but he perse- 
 vered, and succeeded to a surprising extent in mastering 
 his difficulties. His ministry has been thus described by 
 one who often heard it : — * 
 
 *E. R. Cross, British Friend, April, 1905. 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. XXIX. 
 
 " John Wilhelm Rowntree's utterances were enriched 
 by his study of the best that has been thought and 
 said in the world, by his knowledge of German art, 
 particularly that of Diirer and Holbein, and of some 
 of the obscurer artists of the Renaissance, by his vivid 
 recollections of his visit to the Holy Land, by his 
 keen eye for form and colour in landscape, and by 
 his intimate acquaintance with religious history. But 
 all this scarcely goes to the root of the matter. He spoke 
 effectively because he felt deeply. It was heart speaking 
 to heart. His influence over young men and women was 
 due in large measure to the fact that his experience, no 
 less than his imagination, enabled him to put himself 
 in their place. He had felt the difficulties, moral as well 
 as intellectual, which prevent many thoughtful minds 
 from accepting the Christian synthesis, and he never 
 attempted to minimise them. His manly sincerity made 
 it impossible for him to use the stock phrases of the religious 
 vocabulary when they had come to have for him a meaning 
 different from that in which they have been understood 
 in the past. So he boldly proclaimed the fact of Christ 
 in words having the same content as when used in everyday 
 life. Of a singularly refined and reticent nature, and with 
 no trace of egotism in his composition, he was yet con- 
 strained by the power of the divine love which had made 
 its home with him, to present Christ to his hearers in the 
 light of his own experience. 
 
 " He had found the solution of the problem of suffering 
 in the revelation of a suffering God, and his conscious 
 realisation of the love of Christ in his own heart came to 
 him when he had entered into the fellowship of His suffer- 
 ings. And so there was something about his ministry 
 both in public worship and personal intercourse, peculiarly 
 comforting to all who mourned, or were in anxiety and 
 distress." 
 
 " Therefore to him it was given 
 Many to save with himself." 
 
 He liked Xo speak of Christ's passion, using the word 
 
XXX. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 in its old English sense of suffering. None who were 
 present can ever forget a wondrous tribute to the suffering 
 Saviour given on one occasion after a week of some storm 
 and sadness. He quoted the lines : — 
 
 " For the glory and the passion of this midnight 
 
 I praise Thy name, I give Thee thanks, O Christ ! 
 
 Thou hast neither failed me, nor forsaken, 
 
 Through these hard hours with victory overpriced. 
 
 Now that I too of Thy passion have partaken 
 For the world's sake called, elected, sacrificed." 
 
 Another fellow-worshipper has written of him in 
 prayer, " 'Twas the cry of the child, with the child's faith, 
 and the child's love ; and so he led me, hand in hand, and 
 then he spoke for me to God . . . and as the words 
 came a new strength came too, and a joy that seemed 
 to have been either unknown, or forgotten, until he prayed."* 
 
 One other reminiscence of his ministry, personal and 
 public, may be cited here : — f 
 
 " To him a man could open out his mind and lay bare 
 his difficulties as to no other friend, and he who had gone 
 through the gloomy sea of doubt was able to reach out 
 a saving hand to those who felt themselves alone amid 
 the waters. Around him, too, the most diverse natures 
 could gather and come into touch with each other ; ' he 
 was the clearing house to which we all brought our thoughts,' 
 said one of his friends and fellow- workers to me, as we talked 
 of what his going meant to us ... to know him was 
 to be his debtor. 
 
 " The last time on which I heard him speak in public 
 was when he came last autumn to give the opening address 
 at a series of religious discussions at Toynbee Hall. It 
 was a new experiment, begun not without anxiety, and 
 no easy task awaited him. But as he unfolded his thought 
 
 * E. T. W. Dennis, in The Friend, March 24th; 1905. 
 | T. E. Harvey, in Booiham, May, 1905. 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. XXXI. 
 
 before that audience of critical men, most of them hostile 
 to the very name of Christianity, one felt how his words 
 went home ; a hush fell at times over opponents that would 
 have been eager to scoff at a faith less deep and less sincere, 
 and the honest doubter must have felt within himself the 
 answering witness which the speaker was striving to arouse, 
 as he set forth to us the unique Revelation of God in the 
 personality of Christ. He could not see all his audience, 
 nor hear all the words that were used in argument, but 
 he had a vision of that which our eyes discerned not, and 
 his spirit listened to the silence of God." 
 
 Perhaps his most noteworthy characteristic from 
 the time of leaving school to his death, was that of all 
 round growth. He was not born a saint. As he consciously 
 entered the life which is " life indeed," his whole nature 
 seemed to reach up to the light, and to grow towards it. 
 His humanity became wider and more tender, as his spiritual 
 faculties grew in power and depth. This upward wrestling 
 was not without its cost, even to the last. He was often 
 greatly depressed at the seeming ineffectiveness of his 
 work. Now and then he felt as if he had lost all power 
 of helping others. He would then turn resolutely to some 
 other line of service, or plunge into some hard reading. 
 He would not allow slackness to prevail against him. 
 Passing glimpses of the struggle may be seen in extracts 
 from two private letters. 
 
 "Scalby, 
 
 September, 1903. 
 " . . . I have singularly little brain power and 
 suffer from acute mental depression, but otherwise, thanks, 
 I am gaining ground steadily. ... I have given 
 the small relics of energy which I could gather to a paper 
 on the ministry on the lines I spoke of to you." 
 
XXXU. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 " 2nd October, 1903. 
 
 " Every day, at noon till six a depression settles 
 down on me that is hard to shake off. 
 
 " The Summer School has been a great success, the 
 best yet I think, taken as a whole. As I expected, however, 
 the permanent settlement is going to begin very small. 
 But we must worry on with it." 
 
 Such letters recall the thought, "It is ever the deepest 
 sigh that leads to the highest note." 
 
 The South African war whilst it lasted was a perpetual 
 pain to him. Two brief extracts from letters at that time 
 indicate his thoughts upon it. 
 
 " January 15th, 1900. 
 " The whole affair is so sickening that it is working 
 upon me like a nightmare. At times I almost wish I 
 were not an Englishman." 
 
 " January 31st, 1900. 
 " The Society of Friends has been lamentably weak 
 upon this wretched war. I have been appalled at the 
 falling away among our younger people especially. I feel 
 that one lesson of the war for us as a church is the need 
 for the proper instruction of our own people. Each 
 generation has to recapture for itself its spiritual heritage, 
 and we need to seize upon the opportunity this war gives 
 us for the re-statement of our principles in terms which 
 will appeal to a new generation. It is quite a mistake 
 to assume that our young people will grow up ' right 
 upon the war question,' unless we take the proper steps 
 to inculcate our principles." 
 
 The " Plea for a Peaceable Spirit," issued by the 
 Yearly Meeting of 1901, was largely the result of his 
 efforts and drafting. 
 
 In person, John Wilhelm Rowntree was tall and 
 erect, his figure gained in breadth and strength during 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. XXX111. 
 
 his country life. He had a frank and manly bearing ; 
 and in later years especially, there was always the readiness 
 for a smile behind his straightforward earnestness of pur- 
 pose. Both in appearance, and often in the opening words 
 of an address, there were reminders of his Teuton ancestry. 
 Any one watching him felt that the gates that barred his 
 vision only shut out the foreground, not the distance. 
 The depicting of him as " with blind eyes luminous " is 
 not inapt. If his sense of humour softened, it grew richer 
 with his ripening years. His merry stories were well- 
 nigh endless. He was the best of companions. Dr. 
 Silvanus Thompson, in a vivid reminiscence of a moorland 
 walk,* has described him as " teeming with suggestions 
 and ideas. To pass half an hour with him was to catch 
 a glimpse of a soul possessed by an intense and penetrating 
 zeal, held in admirable balance by a ripe and discriminating 
 judgment." Arthur Rowntree has well expressed the 
 thoughts of many in the sentence, " Life for us possesses 
 true wealth because we have shared his friendship, and 
 been moved by his spirituality." On the news of his death 
 reaching one of our public schools, a child wrote home, 
 " I could not help crying when Bill told me, because I 
 liked him so much." 
 
 The endeavour has been made in this volume to bring 
 together and perpetuate the essays and addresses (whether 
 previously published, or not) which it is believed John 
 Wilhelm Rowntree set most store by, as representing 
 his deepest desires and highest aims. As they are pre- 
 faced by introductory notes explanatory of the times and 
 circumstances at which they were written or spoken it is 
 not needful to refer to them at length here. 
 
 Some of his latest activities cannot, however, be so 
 presented. The " Guest House " at Scalby is" one of these. 
 
 * Friends' Quarterly Examiner, April, 1905. 
 
 in 
 
XXXIV. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 John used to say that the danger of a comfortable country 
 home was the lessening of opportunity for serving others. 
 One of the objects of the Guest House was to safeguard 
 his children from such a snare. The Executive Committee 
 of the Yorkshire Adult Schools had already tried the 
 experiment of establishing a holiday home for their 
 members, but the results had not justified its continu- 
 ance. John's offer of " Friedensthal," ("The valley of 
 peace") — a detached house with spacious grounds 
 at Scalby, on generous terms, induced the hope that 
 a second attempt might prove more permanent, and 
 after conference between the Lessor and Lessees, the 
 undertaking was launched on a wider basis than before. 
 As the scheme matured John was building a home for 
 himself on land adjoining the Guest House. He needed 
 and deserved a quiet home more than most men, but he 
 planned it for others as much as for himself. The 
 hall was to be large enough for lectures, and on the second 
 floor was a long and pleasant dormitory with fifteen cubicles, 
 to take in an overflow of guests from "Friedensthal" on 
 occasions of pressure. The erection of a pavilion was also 
 contemplated, for the accommodation of week-end con- 
 ferences, or local Summer Schools. Without forecasting 
 what the future may bring, it may safely be said, that 
 the first summer season of the Guest House has proved 
 very satisfactory to upwards of three hundred residents, 
 and to the committee in charge. In this, as in all his 
 other undertakings, John Wilhelm spared no pains to 
 make the needful arrangements as complete as possible. 
 He was always ready to err on the side of over elabora- 
 tion, rather than of insufficiency. The great amount 
 of downright hard work which he put into the different 
 Summer Schools and the movement generally, the establish- 
 ment of Woodbrooke, and other objects that lay near 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. XXXV. 
 
 to his heart, cannot be realised by anyone who has not 
 looked on the piles of memoranda, note books, and corres- 
 pondence, which evidence his unflagging industry and 
 zeal. The summer settlement for Biblical and Social study, 
 held at Scarborough in 1891, for five weeks, will remain 
 in the memory of those who attended it as a monument 
 to the unassuming generalship, mastery of details, and 
 unflagging spirit of the Secretary. Departmental workers 
 might tire and grow limp, but the bearer of the heaviest 
 load never wearied as a comrade, and never ceased to 
 invigorate his comrades as their leader. 
 
 If unforeseen difficulties arose, he sought at once 
 for the underlying cause. The longest railway journey 
 was no bar to a personal interview, and his personal requests 
 were hard indeed to withstand. 
 
 " All hearts grew warmer in the presence 
 Of one who, seeking not his own, 
 Gave freely for the love of giving, 
 Nor reaped for self the harvest sown." 
 
 It is too soon yet to pronounce definitely on all the 
 gains of the Summer School movement to the Society 
 of Friends. There will, however, be general concurrence 
 in the thought which finds frequent expression in the 
 after pages of this volume, that because a lay Church does 
 not train a separate ministry, it is all the more incumbent 
 upon it "to secure a generally high level of spiritual in- 
 telligence, which will in itself provide the soil from which 
 the ministry shall spring." Summer Schools, like all 
 other occasions, have limitations. They may not answer 
 the needs of all, or meet all the needs of those who go 
 to them ; but they have opened out to very many souls 
 new possibilities of Christian fellowship and communion, 
 have helped very many into higher harmonies of mind 
 
XXXVI. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 and spirit, and have illustrated the sayings of the Earl 
 of Shaftesbury, that " Christianity is essentially practical," 
 and that " practical Christianity is the greatest curer of 
 corrupt speculative Christianity." 
 
 On Woodbrooke, the new Friends' settlement made 
 possible by the generosity of George Cadbury, John Wilhelm 
 Rowntree bestowed his time, thought, and affection without 
 measure. He saw in it a centre for the diffusion of religious 
 knowledge, a training place for social service, a home of 
 study with university men for those who could otherwise 
 hope for no such advantage, and a power house for the spread 
 of spiritual fellowship. " Intellectual development," he 
 said, " ought to lead, not to fastidious aloofness, but to 
 the most earnest and powerful advocacy of all that makes 
 for the highest life." The holiday gathering of teachers 
 of children's schools held there only last Easter, was due 
 to his planning and help in various ways. How much 
 that holiday meant to many who so gathered together, 
 it would be difficult to put into words. 
 
 The winter of 1904-5 was one of abounding effort 
 and far-reaching thought. The sudden death of his brother- 
 in-law, Ernest Grace, of Bristol, which came very closely 
 home to him, sent him on his way with even renewed faith 
 and diligence. The winter before, John Wilhelm had 
 laid down the lines of a history of Quakerism, — a modern 
 Apologia for its place in Christendom. He estimated 
 that it would prove a ten years' task. " I shall hope," he 
 wrote, "so to proportion my work day by day, — as to keep 
 this study going, and at the same time remain sufficiently 
 in touch with contemporary affairs, although undoubtedly 
 this undertaking involves a certain withdrawal from 
 work which would otherwise have been undertaken. I 
 feel clear that if it can be accomplished, having regard 
 to the far distant future, it is the work that needs doing, 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. XXXV11. 
 
 and may have a direct and practical effect upon the policy 
 of the Society. Naturally, I feel my own limitations 
 acutely, but the sense of the need has rested on my mind 
 for some years, and I feel that it is right to make the 
 attempt." 
 
 Upwards of two thousand volumes and pamphlets 
 collected together for this work prove the hold it had 
 taken upon him. In addition he had prepared the 
 materials for six lectures (see p. 295) on the Christian's 
 faith as verified in his own experience, and these he had 
 hoped to give in various centres. The building of his 
 own home, and the starting of the Guest House, have been 
 referred to. He was hoping to take part in a general 
 Summer School at Sidcot, and to undertake the secretarial 
 work, and to prepare some historical lectures for a local 
 School at Scalby, planned by his Monthly Meeting at his 
 own request for the ensuing summer. Largely at his 
 instance, it had been arranged to hold a week-end York- 
 shire Quarterly Meeting at Scarborough in the spring, 
 with two sittings devoted to a Conference on the subject 
 of the Ministry ; and further, he was throwing himself 
 with keen interest into plans for making the holding of 
 the Yearly Meeting at Leeds the occasion for a forward 
 movement in the Society of Friends throughout the north 
 of England, as he firmly held it ought to be. 
 
 " It may well be " (he wrote in a circular letter) " that 
 if we take advantage of the opportunities which the Yearly 
 Meeting affords, in the right spirit, and with faith and 
 courage, lasting results will accrue. 
 
 " It is, however, the desire of Friends that not only 
 should the Quaker view of Christianity obtain a wider 
 hearing, but that Friends should be drawn out into more 
 public service, and accustom themselves to a wider and 
 more hopeful view of their responsibilities." 
 
XXXVUl. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 The holding of the Yearly Meeting in the provinces, 
 after some two and a quarter centuries of London 
 Yearly Meetings only, was in itself largely due to his 
 advocacy, and to his strong desire that this annual gather- 
 ing should tell [more upon the life of the world around it. 
 Early in the present year, in the midst of all these hopes 
 and efforts, John's sight was again a cause of anxiety, 
 and a visit to his American specialist loomed suddenly 
 before him. The treatment on the last occasion had been 
 painful, but he never hesitated. For himself, he said he 
 would prefer to stay at his work and take the risks ; but 
 his powers were a trust for others, and so the best advice 
 obtainable must decide. He chose to go at once, in order 
 that he might be back before the Yearly Meeting. Shortly 
 before sailing, he presided at the annual meeting of share- 
 holders of the firm in which he was a director, making a 
 masterly speech on the aims and policy of the business, 
 and the importance of the social work carried on among the 
 employees. His last Sunday in England was spent at York. 
 He gave an address in connection with the laying of the 
 foundation stone of a new Adult School at Burton Lane. 
 A grand sunrise had suggested a passage in i Thessalonians v, 
 and he dwelt on the light as revealing love to man in the 
 love of God. This was followed by a sermon in the meeting- 
 house on the victory of faith, leading from simple beginnings 
 to " life on the heights," whilst in touch with humanity 
 in the valley. This true sunlight on the soul was for life's 
 morning, not only for its noontide or its evening. He 
 closed very impressively by quoting as a morning hymn, 
 
 " Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes, 
 Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies ; 
 Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee, 
 In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me." 
 
 His wife accompanied him to America, intending to 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. XXXIX. 
 
 return in time for the opening of the Guest House. On the 
 voyage John was seized with a severe attack of pneumonia. 
 Rufus Jones happily met the vessel on its arrival, and the 
 unconscious invalid was conveyed to the New York Hos- 
 pital, where he received every possible attention. There 
 was no recovery, only a quieting down of the fever. He 
 died on the 9th of March. Some references to his last 
 illness, by Rufus Jones, will be found in an article in the 
 American Friend, reproduced at the end of this volume. 
 
 William Penn said, " Death is but crossing the world 
 as Friends do the seas ; they live in one another still." 
 It was part of the longing of this son of the ancient city 
 of York, who breathed his last in the New York of the 
 great Republic, to bridge the seas, and to unite those of 
 Quaker faith and ancestry again into one living fellowship. 
 Since the separations took place in the United States 
 there has probably been no joint gathering of those bear- 
 ing the name of Friends, so large and so truly united, 
 as that which took place on the occasion of John Wilhelm 
 Rowntree's funeral, in the quiet grounds of Haverford 
 Meeting-house. 
 
 The sentence just quoted speaks of Friends as living 
 on "in one another still." The unifying influence of the 
 Divine love which lived in him was strikingly mani- 
 fested in the parish church of his own village of 
 Scalby, on the Sunday following the tidings of his death ; 
 as also in a great memorial gathering in the Salem Chapel 
 at York; it has made itself felt in newness of life in many 
 assemblies of Friends far and near, and in Adult Schools, 
 small and great, which had listened to his teaching. It 
 has added to the unseen power of the gatherings he had 
 helped to plan, it has wakened many a sleeper, and armed 
 many a hesitating worker with new faith and courage. 
 But one must check oneself here ; John could not do 
 
Xl. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 with funeral wreaths or tributes of mourning, and he ever 
 showed the finest reserve as to the place of the individual 
 in the service of Truth. To him, death was but the call 
 to a higher and fuller life, and this is the aspect of it which 
 his memory should ever cherish. 
 
 Two questions occur almost intuitively to the 
 reader of the briefest sketch of this brave and winsome 
 character. The first, What was the secret influence which 
 enabled him to grow up into the place he came to occupy 
 amongst his fellows ? And the second, Were the purposes 
 to which he gave himself worthy of the devotion of such 
 a life ? The answer to both these questions is to be found 
 in the subsequent pages of this book. A few sentences 
 only by way of indicators need be added here. 
 
 It may be said of him in the words he wrote of his 
 brother-in-law, Ernest Grace. " It was out of materials, 
 within ordinary reach, that the victory of his life was won," 
 and yet to the first question no merely human terms 
 suffice for a complete answer. The strong individuality 
 of his faith, and the freedom with which he stated it, at 
 times disturbed those whose spiritual attainments he 
 regarded as far in advance of his own ; but no one who 
 knew him questioned the reality of his communion with 
 God. In one of his last letters not intended for publication, 
 the confession, " having come myself to a real and living 
 experience of the saving knowledge of God in Christ," 
 is given as the reason for his whole-hearted desire to help 
 others who might still be facing the difficulties he had passed 
 through himself. 
 
 A further insight into his religious experience is given 
 in a letter written a few months previously, referring to a 
 volume lent to him by a friend. 
 
 "... My real difficulty with the book is, that 
 it seems to me to fail 'just at the point where failure is 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. xli. 
 
 most disastrous, and it is not enough for me to regard 
 Jesus as the most perfect of men. 
 
 " I do feel that the orthodox have been too timorous 
 and reticent in dwelling upon the humanity of Christ. 
 But whatever be the theological interpretation of the 
 word ' divinity,' Jesus is for me the meeting-point of the 
 human and divine — of man and God. His value to me 
 is not merely that He tells of the divine in men, but that 
 in Himself He reveals to us, through the Scriptures, the 
 human side of the character of God. 
 
 " We make a huge assumption if we say that God 
 cannot directly reveal Himself to man on His manward 
 side ; and that He did so in Jesus is what I mean by 
 ' divinity.' As a supreme effort towards God, Jesus 
 would indeed be great, but the dynamic of Jesus lies surely 
 in His being an effort of God towards man. 
 
 " Mr. A 's book leaves the great gulf that 
 
 yawned at the feet of Plato unbridged. His view, beautiful 
 though it be, does not, from my standpoint, meet the deepest 
 needs of a sinful world." 
 
 To this may be added the remark made on one 
 occasion to a friend, " To me the cross of Christ contains 
 the revelation that sin hurts God."* 
 
 On page 402, the " story from real life " is given 
 with the glow of the narrator's gratitude as he looked back 
 upon it near the close. " The consciousness," he said, 
 " of union with God in thought and action, of an eternal 
 purpose and worth in human life, and of an all embracing 
 love ... if experience be a guide, is strongest and 
 deepest where the thought of God has been focussed in the 
 personality of Jesus Christ." 
 
 In answering the second question — to most onlookers 
 the old difficulty presents itself of not seeing the wood 
 for the trees. John Wilhelm Rowntree sought a truer 
 
 * E. Grubb in The British Friend, April, 1905. 
 
Xlii. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 perspective of the religious life. "Amidst the decay 
 of creeds," he wrote, " and what some deem the inroads 
 of science upon faith, we see men abandon the respon- 
 sibility of private thought, and seek shelter in the authority 
 of a Church which claims to be infallible, or of an order 
 of men who claim to be the sole channels of Divine Grace. 
 It is no small honour (would that some of us were more 
 worthy of it) to bear witness to the reality of the immediate 
 communion of the soul with God as the ultimate basis 
 of faith and spiritual knowledge. This spiritual conception 
 of Christianity . . . has created a type of character 
 which England sorely needs — it deepens the sense of personal 
 responsibility, it gives a clearer vision upon moral ques- 
 tions." And again, " The love of luxury, and the loud 
 voiced gospel of Force, these hold the field. The call is 
 for those who have known and seen a living Lord." " We 
 stand not," he said, " by the Society as it is, but by what 
 it may be when its spiritual powers have deepened, and 
 its social conscience has quickened into life." 
 
 In Quakerism he saw, not the survival of some hundreds 
 of small companies of lay men and women, worshipping 
 without any separated order of clergy, but a renewal of 
 the freedom of the early church before its decadent restric- 
 tions " made the bishop and slew the prophet," to use 
 the graphic phrase of Dr. Rendel Harris. Denominational 
 rivalry had no attractions for him, but he had a general's 
 eye for the campaign of Christendom, and he saw that if 
 the power of Christ's teaching was to prevail in the lives 
 of men, there must be a widespread return to a free ministry, 
 and to the spiritual fellowship which won the victory 
 against a pagan world, and the forces of the Roman Empire. 
 It has been said that the Friends have already continued 
 their campaign against the heresy of a dual standard of 
 life longer than the early church did. But this latest 
 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. xliii. 
 
 young leader in the struggle believed that the signs of the 
 times, as well as the scholarship of the age, were again 
 converging in this direction, and that the possessors of 
 a faith " acknowledged on every hand to have been benefi- 
 cent in its results, are bound by every consideration of 
 duty and of patriotism to endeavour to extend it." For 
 this, then, he laboured and planned unceasingly. It is 
 surely a great vision, full of import, both to the churches 
 of Christ, and to the world at large. In proportion as it 
 is cherished and worked for, will humanity rise up into 
 that kingdom which is " righteousness, peace, and joy " 
 in the spirit of the living God. 
 
TESTIMONY 
 
 OF PICKERING AND HULL MONTHLY MEETING, RESPECTING 
 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE, A MINISTER, DECEASED. 
 
 We deem it right to bear witness to the power of Divine 
 grace in a life just taken from us. 
 
 John Wilhelm Rowntree was born at York on the 4th of 
 Ninth Month, 1868, and died in the New York Hospital on 
 the 9th of Third Month, 1905. His school life was passed at 
 the Friends' Schools at York and Scarborough. He entered 
 with keenness and success into business life. He had much 
 enjoyment in art and literature. His capacity for detail in 
 no way impaired his power and breadth of thought. A limi- 
 tation of hearing hardly affected his manhood's vigour, and 
 the thought, " How good is man's life, the mere living," was 
 given to him abundantly. His marriage with Constance M. 
 Naish brought him a home life of exceeding happiness. With 
 these gifts he had great strivings after reality, and his search 
 for truth led him at the outset through depths of doubt and 
 difficulty. When the light of Christ came home to his under- 
 standing, and grew there with increasing clearness, he yielded 
 himself with a whole-hearted obedience to the heavenly 
 vision. The love of Christ became the law of his life. 
 
 This vision followed immediately upon the knowledge that 
 a partial loss of sight which he was already suffering would 
 probably develop into blindness, with other ills in its train. 
 Instead of retreating before infirmity, he made the prayer his 
 own unceasingly : 
 
 i- So much the rather thou celestial light 
 Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers 
 Irradiate." 
 
xlvi. JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 And this prayer was answered. Once touched, as it were, 
 with the live coal from the Altar, his lips were opened, and 
 the cry came from a full heart : " Here am I, send me." 
 
 In 1898 he was recorded as a Minister. In 1899 the doc- 
 tors ordered him to desist from daily business, and to betake 
 himself to a country life. This brought him as a resident to 
 Scalby, near Scarborough. The change only transferred 
 his energies into a new channel. 
 
 His great longing was to be permitted to extend the 
 Kingdom of Heaven amongst men. He felt he could best 
 do this by helping to strengthen, to enlarge and vivify, the 
 lay religious Society to which he belonged. He saw a great 
 door and effectual open before it if only its members recog- 
 nised their full responsibilities, and brought to the Lord's 
 service minds and hearts prepared and consecrated. 
 
 His conception of the Christian Ministry was very wide. 
 He coveted earnestly the best gifts, but fully recognised the 
 width of meaning in the Master's expression : "lam among 
 you as he that serveth." He felt keenly the need in Chris- 
 tendom of a large-hearted, courageous following of the way 
 in which Christ and the Apostles transformed the everyday 
 life of man into effectual service for God and for humanity, 
 avoiding set channels and special forms of speech. He gave 
 ungrudgingly of all his possessions, first and foremost of a 
 richly stored mind and a humble childlike spirit. Some- 
 times the one was more observable, sometimes the other, 
 but the Meetings that knew him best knew that, as his 
 experience deepened, they were never dissociated. It was 
 given him to touch life at all sides with chivalrous tenderness 
 and to call out the best in men of very different classes and 
 experiences. To doubting and perplexed minds, to young 
 and old, his message came with power, because it was felt 
 that first he wrought and then he taught, — that he had 
 known that of which he spoke. 
 
 In the work of the Church he sought to be of a universal 
 spirit, to enter into fellowship with all seekers for the king- 
 dom, and with those whom he longed to see setting out on 
 the quest. He held with George Fox that " everyone hath 
 
TESTIMONY OF PICKERING AND HULL M.M. xlvii. 
 
 an office, and is serviceable," and that in truth we all have 
 need one of another. 
 
 Viewing the spread of the Kingdom of Christ as the 
 noblest purpose of life, he was eager to have the best equip- 
 ment provided for all its workers, whether for social, 
 educational, or more distinctively Gospel service. For this 
 end he devoted much time and strength to the building up 
 of Woodbrooke, and to the holding of Summer Schools. 
 His mind was not one that could be satisfied with repeti- 
 tions, or with the most approved formularies as such. He 
 had found them insufficient in his hour of need. " Let us," 
 he said, " in our message offer that which is beyond all 
 creeds — the evidence in our lives of communion with the 
 Spirit of God." 
 
 So he spoke, so he lived amongst us, and the life spoke 
 yet more convincingly than the words. 
 
 On his way across the Atlantic to undergo severe medical 
 treatment, because he felt that he held his life in trust for 
 others, pneumonia seized him. Three days after landing at 
 New York the call to higher service came, and all that is 
 mortal of him was laid to rest by the kindest of friends in the 
 Burial Ground at Haverford, not far from Penn's City of 
 Brotherly Love. 
 
 We feel weak to hand on the legacies of his life. Yet, in 
 the words of William Penn : " This is the comfort of Friends, 
 that, though they may be said to die, yet their friendship 
 and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because 
 immortal." 
 
 For his glad life lent to us we give praise and thanks to 
 Him whose power he manifested : whose voice he heard, 
 and followed. His words still sound in our hearts : — 
 " Thou, O Christ, convince us by Thy Spirit, thrill us with 
 Thy Divine passion, drown our selfishness in Thy invading 
 love, lay on us the burden of the world's suffering, drive 
 us forth with the apostolic fervour of the early Church ! 
 So only can our message be delivered : ' Speak to the chil- 
 dren of Israel that they go forward.' " 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 The three following Lectures were given at a Summer 
 School held in the Tolbooth, Kirby Moorside, under the 
 direction of Pickering and Hiill Monthly Meeting, from 
 the 22nd to the 28th of September, 1904. 
 
 The School was intended mainly for members of the 
 local congregations of Friends, especially for any who had 
 not been able to attend greater gatherings elsewhere. 
 The idea of localising Summer Schools in comparatively 
 small districts, was taken from the Friends at Mount 
 Kisco, in the State of New York. They had held a two 
 days' session in May of the same year, in a retired Meeting 
 House in the woods, to listen to lectures by Rufus Jones 
 and others, which two Scarborough Friends had the 
 privilege of attending. 
 
 The Kirby Moorside School proved to be a very 
 enjoyable fellowship, leaving happy memories behind it. 
 John Wilhelm Rowntree then and there resolved to work 
 for a similar gathering at Scalby in 1905. He proposed 
 following up the three addresses here given, by a lecture 
 on George Fox, from the national as well as from the local 
 standpoint, and by one or more lectures on the history of 
 Quakerism at Scarborough. These were never written. 
 
 The three Kirby Moorside lectures were written, as 
 they themselves continually suggest, for comparatively 
 small audiences in close followship one with another. In 
 their preparation, however, the lecturer had always in 
 view the history he was contemplating on a much larger 
 scale. From these addresses some idea may be formed 
 of the enthusiasm and skill which would have been brought 
 to bear on the larger work, if his life had been spared to 
 complete it. 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 
 
 Lecture I. 
 
 BY way of preface to these lectures, let me apologise 
 for delivering them. 
 
 In the first place, it is impossible to dismiss the 
 past and present of Yorkshire Quakerism in three hours. 
 There are more questions to ask than we can possibly 
 answer ; there is more material than we can possibly 
 digest. We can only nibble round the edges of our 
 cake and pull out a plum here and there, like Jack 
 Horner. We must, indeed, dismiss all hope of playing 
 the " compleat angler," whether for Quaker plums 
 or for Quaker trout, and confine ourselves to one or 
 two broad considerations, bringing in such details as 
 shall illustrate and enforce the lesson to be drawn. 
 
 Moreover, we must be local. We are met at Kirby 
 Moorside. In Pickering, Malton, Scarborough and 
 the surrounding wolds and moors, we find our natural 
 hunting-ground. This is the more suitable because 
 other localities have already had their historians. To 
 name no others, Isabel Hall has written racily of 
 Thirsk in the Friends' Quarterly Examiner of 1903. 
 Fielden Thorp has discoursed of York in the same 
 periodical in 1892, Joseph Sewell and William Linney 
 have written of the East Coast and Hull, and John 
 Stephenson Rowntree has published in pamphlet form 
 
4 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 a History of the Quarterly Meeting. Where the grass 
 is already cropped we must forbear to graze. 
 
 Local considerations, then, and a special purpose, 
 make up my apology. Exactly what the " special 
 purpose " may be, will appear at the end. Three 
 lectures, like the old three volume novel, must pro- 
 ceed decently and in set stages towards a conclusion, 
 which it would be a literary crime to betray in the 
 preface. 
 
 And now let me bring the beginnings of 17th 
 century Quaker history to your recollection. In 1624, 
 when Jacob Bohme, the mystic of Germany, lay on 
 his death-bed, when John Milton, a lad of sixteen, 
 was at college in Cambridge, and George Herbert of 
 " holy behaviour," was emerging from " very private 
 living " in Kent ; — George Fox was born in the Leicester- 
 shire village of Drayton in the Clay. The elusive 
 inwardness of the mystic, the fervid piety of the cultured 
 cleric, the prophetic grandeur of the poet, the Ish- 
 maelite, the ecclesiast, the Puritan, these are types of 
 an age torrential in its spiritual energy, and yet with its 
 quiet reaches of culture, its backwaters of mystic calm. 
 It was the age in which Fox lived, nay ! in which he 
 moved, mighty, magnetic, a storm centre travelling 
 from over great spiritual deeps to enrich parched lands 
 with heavenly rain. The contemporary of Baxter 
 and Bunyan, of Pascal, Molinos and Guyon, of Locke, 
 Hobbes and Dryden, the witness of the civil war, of 
 the rise and fall of the Protectorate, of the obscene 
 debaucheries of the Restoration, of the dangerous 
 pedantries of James II., and of the return of stable 
 government under William and Mary, Fox was the 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 5 
 
 great 17th century antagonist of sacerdotal pretension. 
 William Laud was executed in 1645, but the Indepen- 
 dents, Presbyterians and Baptists, though they denied 
 that Laud or his clergy were the divinely appointed 
 channels of grace, laid stress on the letter of Scripture 
 and the ordinances, and in their dispute about baptismal 
 rites ceremonialism reached its climax. 
 
 Thus, belief in the efficacy of forms remained 
 when the ritual of Laud had been hurried out of sight, 
 and when his head fell from the block, ecclesiastical 
 authority did not fall with it. Bibliolatry supplemented 
 rather than replaced the authority of the ministers of 
 the Word, and the Rabbi, armed cap a pie with texts of 
 proof, held the pulpit against all comers. Although 
 Fox did not so much raise a spiritual revolt as deepen 
 and direct tendencies already in being, his was the most 
 powerful voice crying for spiritual reality in the land 
 of shadows. 
 
 We must remember how the battle was arrayed, 
 if we are to understand the man, his message and his 
 success. A knowledge of the issues explains the spiritual 
 strife waged in hollow trees and desert places, which 
 ceased only in the conviction that there was one, even 
 Jesus Christ, who could speak to his condition. This 
 was in 1647. Had this Leicestershire shepherd never 
 Wandered in despair to find at last the divine know- 
 ledge, as he says, " experimentally," we had never been 
 here, never learned to call each other friends. 1647, then 
 is a year of grace, the year from which we may fairly 
 date our Summer School movement ! Before that, 
 however, the spirit was stirring. In 1644 there was 
 quickening in Leicestershire, in 1645 in Warwickshire, 
 
6 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 in 1646 in Nottinghamshire ; while the year 1647 
 marks the recognised beginning of Fox's ministry, 
 which was in Derbyshire. 
 
 In 1649, Fox is imprisoned for the first time at 
 Nottingham ; in 1650 at Derby, where Justice Bennett 
 gave Fox and his followers the nickname of Quaker, — 
 a nickname that was to stick. The Quaker movement 
 was now gathering force and assuming its true charac- 
 ter. Wars, oaths, the death penalty, are testified 
 against in 1651, the time of Fox's first visit to Yorkshire. 
 In the years 1651-1654, many of the great Quaker 
 preachers (as you will see from the list in your posses- 
 sion*) •were convinced, not forgetting Margaret Fell at 
 Swarthmore Hall, with several of her household, in 
 1652. In 1654, Swarthmore Hall was the centre of an 
 extensive organisation of ministers, who, to the number 
 of sixty, preached through the length and breadth of 
 England. This period marks the beginning of rapid 
 extension, the settlement of meetings for worship and 
 discipline, and the outbreak of severe persecution. 
 In 1653 persecution in the North is general, and the first 
 public flogging, that of Mary Fisher and Elizabeth 
 Williams, takes place in Cambridge. In 1656, one 
 thousand Friends are imprisoned in Great Britain, and 
 in 1658, the year of Cromwell's death and of the first 
 general Quaker meetings, occurs the martyrdom of 
 Mary Dyer, Marmaduke Stevenson and two others 
 at Boston in America. 
 
 In 1655, James Nayler fell into spiritual pride 
 and blasphemy, probably through mental overstrain, and 
 suffered cruel punishment at the instance of Parliament. 
 
 * See list of "Founders of Quakerism in Yorkshire," Appendix I. 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 7 
 
 He has been unjustly handled by those who have seen 
 only the odd and the fanatic in Quaker history, and an 
 altogether exaggerated importance has attached to his 
 temporary backsliding. 
 
 Nevertheless the event had its marked influence 
 upon Fox. Three years earlier, James Milner and 
 Richard Myer had " gone out into imaginations," and 
 George Fox realised that the doctrine of the Inner 
 Light was not without its perils. Was the individual 
 to be set above the Church ? In the reaction against 
 ecclesiastical authority and Bible worship, — was it 
 possible to go too far ? There were strange spirits 
 abroad. A perusal of Edwards' " Gangrcena," pub- 
 lished in 1643, which details 252 heresies, each with 
 their particular adherents, reveals a mental ferment 
 that might appal more charitable men than this 
 Presbyterian compiler, with his horror of religious 
 toleration. 
 
 In 1661, John Perrot and Charles Baily, to quote 
 Fox, " turned aside from the Friends and Truth." 
 They followed the spirit of the hat, which they refused 
 to remove in prayer. Perrot, visiting the Pope, was 
 confined in an asylum. Perhaps the Pope judged 
 truly, but there were many to hail Perrot as a martyr 
 on his return. The same temper was to be illustrated 
 in another and more serious form. In 1673, the settle- 
 ment of Women's Meetings for discipline met with 
 bitter opposition, and in 1675 a separation under 
 Wilkinson and Story took place. The publication of 
 Robert Barclay's " Anarchy of the Ranters " in 1676, 
 of William Rogers' " Christian Quaker " (Wm. Rogers 
 was a leading separatist) in 1680, of Thomas Ellwood's 
 
O JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 "Antidote to William Rogers" in 1682, of William 
 Rogers' " Scourge," which appeared in 1683, and 
 Ellwood's " Rogero Mastix " in 1685,— tell of a con- 
 tinued strife, which, although the dust-cloud of per- 
 sonalities obscured its proper significance, was indeed 
 soncerned with questions of fundamental importance. 
 
 Speaking broadly, we may say that from the time 
 of James Nayler's fall, the Whitefield in Fox is gradually 
 subordinated to the Wesley, and that such outbreaks 
 deepened his sense of the need, under the human 
 conditions of spiritual fellowship, for order and discipline 
 in the church. The individual is to be subject, not 
 supreme, and a compromise is effected between the 
 mystic, ecclesiast and prophet. 
 
 The closing years of Fox's life — he died in 1691 — 
 were much occupied with those practical measures 
 which have given the Society of Friends a church 
 machinery running, on the whole, with remarkable 
 smoothness after 250 years. If the early evangelism, 
 with its swift popular response, is a testimony to the 
 inwardness of Fox's message and to the reality of his 
 experience, his wise organisation is an illustration 
 of that sanctified commonsense, without which the 
 fervours of apostolic zeal are apt to be dissipated in 
 transient and ineffectual campaigns. 
 
 It is not my purpose, however, to discuss Fox in 
 particular, or Quaker History in general. The Chrono- 
 logy placed in your hands* will sufficiently remind you 
 of the general sequence of events. The cruel persecu- 
 tion, an experience of forty years (4,200 Friends were 
 in jail in 1662), — the severities under the Conventicle 
 
 • See "Chronological Memoranda," Appendix II. 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 9 
 
 Acts, met by a passive resistance never exceeded in 
 its quiet courage and sustained endurance, — a resis- 
 tance which secured liberty of worship for every English- 
 man ; — the rapid spread of Quaker evangelism, which 
 shrank not from approaching the Pope at Rome, or 
 the Sultan of Turkey, which sent its emissaries to 
 Malta in the South, Hungary in the East, Barbadoes, 
 Nevis, St. Kitts, Jamaica and the American colonies 
 in the West ; which, in William Penn, founded Phila- 
 delphia, and in Mary Dyer, martyred upon Boston 
 Common, opened the battle for religious liberty in the 
 New World, — an evangelism universal in its spirit, 
 unlimited in its ambition, and world-wide in its 
 scope. 
 
 Nor must we linger over the picturesque incidents 
 of Quaker history ; George Fox at Nottingham crying 
 out in the Steeple-house to the preacher who would 
 try all doctrines by the Scriptures, " Oh, no, it is not 
 the Scriptures, but it is the Holy Spirit," or at Ulver- 
 stone, where Margaret Fell stands up in her pew, so 
 astonished is she at his piercing words, or in the open 
 air preaching to thousands on a hill near Langlands 
 in Cumberland, from a rock near Firbank Chapel and 
 at Synderhill Green in Yorkshire ; — to ten thousand 
 in an orchard at Bristol, or sitting for hours in silence 
 on a haystack to " famish the people from words." 
 Nor must we dwell on the pathos of the sufferings ; 
 Fox laid six months in the terrible Doomsdale at 
 Launceston, too foul a den for public description ; 
 the young James Parnell, the first Quaker martyr, 
 dying of exposure in Colchester Jail ; Meeting-houses 
 closed by soldiers, the meetings held in the streets, 
 
10 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 the preacher seized, another taking his place, the 
 women testifying in their husbands' stead, and, when 
 all the adults are haled to prison, the Quaker children 
 with a zeal beyond their years, holding the meeting 
 by themselves. Or the Old Bailey trial of 1670, 
 famous in constitutional history, when Penn, only 
 twenty-six years of age, and William Mead, his sturdy 
 companion, support the jury in their great struggle 
 against the oppression of the bench. " I say you shall 
 bring in another verdict, or you shall starve and I will 
 have you carted about the city," shouts the Recorder. 
 " You are Englishmen," says Penn, " mind your 
 privileges, give not away your rights," and the jury 
 answer, " We never will ! " 
 
 Nor yet must we be tempted by the literary in- 
 terest of Penington and Ellwood's friendship with 
 Milton, of Robert Barclay, of Ury, writing his stately 
 " Apology " ; of Stephen Crisp, the weaver of 
 Colchester, fervent apostle, wise counsellor, states- 
 man in the Quaker fellowship, inditing his epistles of 
 exhortation to a pupil of Descartes ; the Princess 
 Elizabeth of the Palatine, a woman cultured, learned 
 in the lore of philosophers, and strongly attracted by 
 the Quaker's inward faith. No ! these are well- 
 travelled roads. We must turn to our bleak northern 
 moors, wrapped in their lurking mists, and seek in our 
 market towns, our farmsteads, and our fishing- villages, 
 such scant local records as we may gather of this deeply 
 interesting past. 
 
 As already stated, George Fox first visited York- 
 shire in 1651-2, travelling by way of Doncaster, Balby, 
 Wakefield, Beverley, York, where he speaks to Priest 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. II 
 
 Bowles in the Minster ; to Cleveland, Staithes, Whitby, 
 Scarborough, " across the Wolds " Malton and the 
 " towns thereabouts," Pickering and Holderness. 
 In all, he paid the county twelve visits, the last in 
 1679-80, eleven years before his death. Of his first 
 visit he says in his " Journal " of both Whitby and 
 Scarborough, " We had some services for the Lord ; 
 there are large meetings settled there since." He had 
 great meetings at Malton. At one of them he says, 
 " a wild, drunken man . . . was so reached that 
 he came to me as lowly as a lamb." " Some people 
 durst not come for fear of their relations . . . 
 for it was thought a strange thing then to preach in 
 houses and not go to the church." 
 
 At Pickering, where the justices held their sessions 
 in the Steeple-house, he had a meeting in the School- 
 room, and " Justice Robinson's priest was very lowly 
 and loving, and would have paid for my dinner, but 
 I would by no means suffer it." " The old priest " 
 who had lent the School-house, a Mr. Boyes, accom- 
 panied Fox when he passed up into the country, and 
 when they came to what Fox calls a " town," the 
 bells rang for Fox to preach in the church. It was on 
 this expedition that Fox felt called to sit on a hay- 
 stack and famish the people from words. It must have 
 been an extraordinary spectacle, for Fox says that he 
 spoke nothing for some hours. The silent Quaker, 
 with his impressive face and piercing eyes, the puzzled 
 people, coming and going and ever coming in greater 
 numbers as the wonder grew and the news spread. 
 The faithful Boyes, much pestered by inquisitive 
 questions, " What does it mean, when will he speak, 
 
12 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 when will he begin ? " — urges patience : " the people," 
 he explains, " had in the past to wait a long time upon 
 Christ before he spoke." Yet hour runs into hour 
 and the Quaker is mute as the grave. Suddenly the 
 features stir, a light shines in the eyes, the lips move, 
 and the vibrant voice of the preacher stills the crowd 
 to a tense silence. " They Were struck by the Lord's 
 power, the word of life reached to them, and there 
 was a general convincement amongst them." One 
 curious double effect this sermon produced. " Mr. 
 Boyes," cried the people, " we owe you some money 
 for tithes, pray come and take it." " But he threw up 
 his hands and said he had enough, he would have none 
 of it ; they might keep it, and he praised the Lord he 
 had enough." 
 
 Of his second journey Fox writes, " The Lord said 
 unto me, ' If but one man or woman were raised up 
 by his power, to stand and live in the same Spirit 
 that the prophets and apostles were in, who gave forth 
 the Scriptures, that man or woman should shake all 
 the country in their profession for ten miles round.' " 
 And coming to Pendle Hill, a mount of vision for this 
 seer of God, he was moved of the Lord to go up to the 
 top of it, " which I did with difficulty, it was so very 
 steep and high. When I was come to the top I saw the 
 sea bordering upon Lancashire. From the top of this 
 hill the Lord let me see in what places he had a great 
 people to be gathered." Where is the Quaker sonneteer 
 to sing of this Peak in Darien ? 
 
 At the close of the visit in 1652, Fox, passing over 
 into Westmoreland, holds his wonderful meeting at 
 Firbank Chapel. Here Francis Howgill and John 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 13 
 
 Audland, afterwards eminent Quaker preachers, were 
 present. 
 
 During his sixth journey in 1660, the great general 
 meeting for discipline was held at Skipton, about 
 business relating to the Church, both in this nation and 
 beyond the seas, an evidence of the growing needs of 
 the fellowship, and of Fox's gathering apprehension 
 in the face of unbalanced individualism. It was this 
 year that James Nayler died. 
 
 On his eighth visit in 1665, Fox travels from 
 Lancaster Jail, baiting his horse by the way at Malton, 
 to enter Scarborough Castle, a prisoner for truth. 
 Here he lies for some time in a cell on the sea side, 
 much open, where the rain drove in forcibly, " so that 
 the water came over my bed and ran about the room 
 that I was fain to skim it up with a platter." I 
 shall not tell again a well-known tale. How Fox 
 overbore opposition, won his enemies, captured the 
 heart of Jordan Crosslands, the Governor, and passed 
 out a free man on the 1st of September, 1666, with this 
 testimony from the garrison, " that he is as stiff as a 
 tree and as pure as a bell ; for we could never bow 
 him." His first act t was to go " about three miles 
 to a large general meeting at a Friend's house, that had 
 been a chief constable." — I suspect that this was at 
 Burniston. Returning to Scarborough, he had a 
 meeting at Peter Hodgson's house. " To this," says 
 Fox, " came one called a lady and other great persons, 
 also a young man, son to the Baliff of the town, who 
 had been convinced while I was in prison." At a 
 priest's house " towards the sea " he is visited by 
 Friends, including Philip Scafe, who had been minister — 
 
14 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 as Croese the historian tells us, " of a publick church 
 at a little village . . . near to Whitby, called 
 Robin Hood's Bay." He Was convinced during Fox's 
 first journey, at Staithes, at a meeting with the Ranters, 
 and accompanied Fox in his Walk by the edge of the 
 high cliffs there, when as Fox suggests, his presence 
 prevented a raging Scotch priest from pushing the 
 Quaker apostle into the sea. 
 
 Several large meetings are held at this time, 
 notably near Hull and Malton, and on his ninth journey 
 in 1669, Fox visits the Quarterly Meeting at York. 
 
 Of his eleventh visit in 1678, he writes, " I spent 
 two weeks in Yorkshire . . . and many heavenly 
 meetings I had." In 1680 he visits the Quaker 
 prisoners in York Castle, and journeying south into 
 Lincolnshire, passes finally from our view. 
 
 Undoubtedly these twelve visits played an im- 
 portant part in the building up of the fellowship. The 
 earlier visits laid the foundations and the later put the 
 coping stones in place. But it would be a great mistake 
 to attribute everything to Fox. 
 
 The printed list of the founders of Yorkshire 
 Quakerism will give some idea of the extent to which 
 the missionary labours were shared by others. With 
 the exception of Fox, the names are arranged not in 
 order of importance, but alphabetically. Were pre- 
 cedence determined by the value of the service, the 
 name of William Dewsbury would undoubtedly come 
 second to that of Fox. 
 
 The beginning of things with William Dewsbury 
 was in 1651, at Synderhill Green, near Balby, at the 
 house of Lieutenant Roper, where Thomas Goodyear, 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 15 
 
 James Naylerand Richard Farnsworth, among others, 
 were attending Fox's meetings. "At an evening 
 meeting there," says the latter, " William Dewsbury 
 and Ann his wife came and heard me declare the 
 truth. And after the meeting, it being a moonlight 
 night, I walked out into the field ; and William 
 Dewsbury and his wife came to me into the field, 
 and confessed to the truth and received it ; and after 
 some time he did testify to it." In the narrative of the 
 Early " Breakings Forth of Truth," collected by order 
 of the Morning Meeting in 1704, and now being pub- 
 lished by the Friends' Historical Society, we have 
 interesting witness to the character and power of that 
 testimony. From the Yorkshire records, not yet 
 published, I take the following : — " In 1652, William 
 Dewsbury, who doubtless Was the messenger of God 
 to many of us," visits East Yorkshire " exhorting to 
 repentance and to believe in ye Light which did shine 
 in our hearts . . . and those about Malton, 
 Liverton, Staithes and Egton Bridge which had 
 received G.F. did also gladly receive him." 
 
 Some of the first-fruits of William Dewsbury's 
 preaching may be named : — 
 
 Joseph Allatson in Harwood Dale ; Richard 
 Cockerill in Hackness ; Roger Cass in Hutton Bushell ; 
 John Whitehead and his wife and four others at 
 Scarborough Castle ; Christopher and Jonas Hedley, 
 Thomas Sedman, Jonathan Wasson, Elliner Weller, 
 in Scarborough town. On the Wolds some at Cotham 
 and Harpham. Robert and Grace Barwick at Kelk, 
 noted pillars and hospitable to ministers in the early 
 Quaker Church ; three at Bridlington Quay, Marmaduke 
 
l6 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Storr in Holderness, with many more in that neigh- 
 bourhood and at Crake. 
 
 The bare recital of these first fruits is however 
 of small avail unless we give play to our historical 
 imagination. This may be stimulated by the testi- 
 mony of Kelk Monthly Meeting, which, in a glowing 
 account of Dewsbury's service states that " many 
 faces did gather paleness at his preaching." It was 
 doubtless the earnestness and power of his unmeasured 
 self-sacrifice which established Leeds and Halifax 
 meetings in 1651, and in 1652 or 1653, through the 
 convincement by Dewsbury of Christopher Taylor 
 of the " Chappel in the Bryer betwixt Brighouse and 
 Halifax," was instrumental in settling a meeting at 
 Bradford. 
 
 Locally we have interesting evidence of the spread- 
 ing influence of this apostle. One of his converts, 
 Richard Cockerill of Hackness already named, died, 
 so we are informed by the Hackness Parish Register, 
 on 
 
 " Wednesday, the XIII. day of September, 1653, and was 
 buried the next day, being Thursday. And there was many 
 of them they call Quakers at his buryell. And Mr. Proude 
 did exhort and argue with them at the grave, and they held 
 out that that work which they had in them was not wrought 
 by the Word, which I was sorry to heare, but they said they 
 mayd use of the Word only to try whether it were right or 
 noe." 
 
 So early, in a remote and peaceful hamlet, enshrined 
 in forest amid the heather moors, did the great princi- 
 ple of the Inward Light find witness. 
 
 In that same year, when Quakers and priest 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. V] 
 
 disputed by an open grave in Hackness Churchyard, 
 a spiritual earthquake shook the market town of Mai ton. 
 Two hundred people " met to wait upon the Lord," 
 and " did continue," writes Richard Farnsworth to 
 Margaret Fell, " three or four days together, and did 
 scarce part day or night. I was with them. Twice 
 the mighty power of the Lord was made manifest. 
 Almost all the room was shaken." And with this result — 
 " that the men of Malton burnt their ribbons and silk 
 and other fine commodities, because they might not 
 be abased by pride." In which act the men of Malton 
 showed themselves of like kidney with the fiery preacher 
 of the Duomo in Florence, and stirred like resentment 
 in the breasts of their contemporaries. An anonymous 
 quarto volume appeared printed in Cornhill before the 
 year had run out, which Fox called " a book of dark- 
 ness, railing and lies." Its lengthy title, distilling 
 in each line the poison of religious malice, denounces 
 the " Quaking and entranced faction," which is 
 " discovered to be a new branch of an old root revived 
 by Satan," whose " unchristian practises and opinions " 
 are to be " abhorred and avoided by all holy Soules." 
 And in the text proceeds as follows : — " Whether 
 when about Malton there are towards 200 or 300 
 neglecting their callings, young and old, to compare 
 notes of their entranced madness, it concerns not a 
 church, nay, a Commonwealth, if it were no more than 
 Pagan, to look to it and prevent the growth of further 
 mischief." With this meeting in Malton claiming 
 attention so far away as distant Cornhill, we may say 
 that the Quaker campaign, in the district with which 
 we are concerned, is fairly begun ! 
 
10 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 To follow this campaign in detail would be a 
 fascinating but impossible pursuit. The limit of time 
 forbids any attempt to cover the ground. The printed 
 list of Quaker leaders referred to, may serve as a guide 
 to intending students, but we must confine ourselves 
 to a narrower field. 
 
 When Fox died, so great had been the response to 
 his labours that the Quakers were the largest of the 
 Nonconformist sects. 
 
 Two considerations press as this phenomenon 
 of early Quakerism, its speedy and wide diffusion, 
 comes before us : — 
 
 (a) The character of the men who did the work. 
 
 (b) The character of their message. 
 
 To deal with the first, let us select three names, 
 all of them local, and perhaps not all as familiar as 
 they should be. Roger Hebden, of Malton ; Thomas 
 Thompson, of Skipsea ; and John Whitehead, of 
 Owstwick. 
 
 Of the first we learn most in a little book entitled 
 " A Plain Account of the Christian Experiences, etc., 
 of Roger Hebden," published in 1700. As is usual with 
 these early Quaker lives, the book contains by way of 
 introduction, three testimonies. The first dated 
 Malton, 16th 1st mo., 1695-6, is signed by nine Friends 
 among whom I note the honoured name of Taylor — ■ 
 in this case Thomas Taylor. They speak of Roger 
 as having the " mighty power of God upon him," 
 as " consolating of the innocent " ; but " sharp, 
 powerful and penetrating upon the man of sin," and 
 add, " There were some sober people in this town of 
 Malton (who were not Friends) that sometimes were 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. ig 
 
 very desirous to know when Roger Hebden would be 
 at our Meeting (he then dwelling a few miles out of 
 town) who, after they had heard him, would freely 
 express their satisfaction." 
 
 This testimony is followed by one dated Kirby 
 Moorside, 23rd of the 12th Month, 1695, and signed by 
 twelve Friends, four of whom are Stocktons. They speak 
 of him as " very tender to the ignorant," and " very 
 plain " in his method of delivery, and conclude that 
 "as to his own innocent life and blameless conver- 
 sation we need say the less because it was so well known 
 to many " — indeed, "to all the people round about 
 . . . for many miles." 
 
 The third testimony is signed I.L., signifying 
 Isaac Lindley, a weighty York Friend. He describes 
 Roger Hebden's entrance upon the ministry in 1652, 
 and adds that he had a " reaching testimony that 
 pricked many to the hearts. And the better to follow 
 Truth's Service he turned over his house and shop at 
 Malton to a Friend, and gave over trading, and went 
 to live of his own Land, for he had an estate of his own, 
 and served truth at his own charge." 
 
 Turning to Roger Hebden's " Plain Account " 
 of himself, we learn that he was a woollen draper, his 
 father being of Appleton-le-Street. 
 
 In 1654 he went to the Steeple-house at Newton, 
 near Tadcaster, where he spoke probably, as was the 
 permitted custom of the day, after the priest had 
 finished his sermon. He was imprisoned in York 
 Castle, not for this speaking in church, — which was no 
 offence, — but for denouncing the priest as a hireling. 
 Later, we find him writing to Enoch Sinclair, " Parish 
 
20 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Teacher," as he calls him, of Slingsby, in much the same 
 strain of testimony. The letter follows the usual course 
 of the Quaker argument in such cases. Roger de- 
 nounces tithes and adds, " But thou and such like will 
 either see or hear from man, what you may have 
 before you will sit down with a people." After being 
 " sharp, powerful and penetrating " upon the " man 
 of sin " for the space of five pages, he concludes that 
 Christ did not ordain the ordinances ; — " prove that he 
 did, if thou canst, by plain Scripture, and let me hear 
 it in writing ; and do not back-bite — that is a work of 
 darkness . . . and what is said of thee and thy 
 brethren, do not call it railing, for it is no harsher than 
 Christ telling the Jews that they were of their Father 
 the DeviL" Which is something quaint by way of 
 admonition ! 
 
 Elsewhere in the " Plain Account," we are given a 
 hint as to the source of this correspondence. Our 
 Quaker is writing of the practice of exchanging livings 
 " as one did, to wit Priest Sinclair, of Slingsby, near 
 Malton, in Yorkshire, who having within a few years' 
 time been at three places or livings as they are called ; 
 being come to the fourth I asked him the cause why." 
 His reply was that in his previous livings he did not see 
 that fruit of his ministry that he desired. But Roger 
 will not have this. " His conscience will witness with 
 me that it was his own earthly profit more than the 
 people's good. . . For where he is now is near if 
 not more than double the value of that he left." It is 
 not a little disconcerting to the worthy woollen-draper's 
 argument to find, on referring to Calamy's list of ejected 
 ministers, that Sinclair of Slingsby went out into the 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 21 
 
 wilderness for conscience sake with the other noble 
 2,000 in 1662 ! We cannot easily judge at this distance 
 between Hebden and Sinclair. It is at least evident 
 from a perusal of the " Plain Account " that Roger 
 lived a life of faithful, sacrificing love, suffering more 
 than once in York Castle for truth's sake, and, if a little 
 harsh upon hirelings, testifying with power to the true 
 inwardness of religion, and the paltriness of worldly 
 ambition. He has written a general exhortation, 
 which may serve as his parting word : — 
 
 " And thou whose desire is to get wealth . . . 
 and may call this a provident care for thyself and family, 
 thou infidel that darest not trust God. . . . Therefore 
 take heed of that which would be high, that is not of God. 
 Its the lowly that the Lord loves. So all of you I exhort 
 to dwell low at the feet of Jesus — wait for to hear his 
 word." Worship in spirit that which is spirit, " not only 
 in form " or " by mere imitation " and " this leads into 
 Peace and into the endless life which changes not . . . 
 where is Peace . . . unutterable." 
 
 With Thomas Thompson, of Skipsea (distinguished 
 as " the elder," from his son a minister, who travelled 
 in America), I should have liked to spend some time 
 but we must be satisfied with a brief introduction. 
 
 When twenty-one, he hears of Fox " in these parts," 
 namely in 1652, and in a little volume called " An 
 Account of the Life and Service of Thomas Thompson," 
 we read an interesting account of the opinion then 
 current about the great Quaker leader. " They (i.e. 
 Thompson's friends) told me that he in his behaviour 
 was very reserved, not using any needless words or 
 discourses that tended not to edification, and that he 
 
22 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 used not respect of persons ; very temperate in his 
 eating and drinking, his apparel homely yet decent ; 
 as for his doctrine, he directed people to the Light of 
 Christ in their consciences to guide them to God." 
 
 In the same year " about the 6th or 7th mo.," 
 Thomas Thompson heard "of a people raised up at 
 or about Malton that were called Quakers, which was 
 the first time that I heard of that name being given 
 to any people." These he hears " by most people 
 spoken against," but can find them guilty of nothing, 
 only " that they Were a fantastical and conceited people, 
 and burnt their lace and ribbons and other super- 
 fluous things," and " fell into strange fits of quaking 
 and trembling." Soon after he hears that the Quakers 
 are come to Bridlington, at which he " greatly rejoices 
 in his spirit," and then that William Dewsbury was at 
 Frodingham, between Driffield and Hornsea. Thomas 
 is a lad in service at Brigham and cannot leave his 
 work in the day time, so he sets off in the night, which, 
 being " very dark, none would go, so I went alone." 
 The young lad trudges by the rough country ways, 
 stumbling doubtless over stones and in bog-holes, 
 but with the winged feet of a consuming zeal ; till, 
 trembling with eagerness, he reaches the house where 
 Dewsbury is lodging. The door is opened and in the 
 lighted room he sees William writing " and " (I quote 
 Thompson's own words) " the rest of the company 
 were sitting in great silence, seeming to be much retired 
 in mind, and fixed towards God ; their countenances 
 grave and solid withal, preached unto me and confirmed, 
 what I had before believed, that they were the people 
 of the Lord." Soon William puts aside his Writing, and 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 23 
 
 " in the power and wisdom of God, declares the truth." 
 Thomas Thompson, to use the current Quaker ex- 
 pression, is " convinced " and in that same month 
 enters on the ministry. He is now frequently with 
 William Dewsbury, John Whitehead, and sometimes 
 James Nayler, in their journeys in the East Riding. 
 
 In a testimony by Thomas Thompson, prefixed to 
 the " Written Gospel Labours of John Whitehead," we 
 are told of a visit to Malt on in the course of one of these 
 journeys. Thomas Stubbs has been in the company. 
 
 " The next morning it was with Thomas Stubbs to part with 
 William and go towards Beverley ; so we sat down and 
 were in prayer and supplication to the Lord much of the 
 day ; William labouring to strengthen Thomas and en- 
 courage him in the exercise and service for the Lord, till 
 about the third hour in the Afternoon ; So the day being 
 far spent, Thomas took leave, and departed towards Bever- 
 ley ; Then William and I made ready for our journey to- 
 wards Malton ; but William's care and travel being great, 
 for the prosperity of Sion, we got not from Friends there, 
 till after the setting of the sun ; then, having twelve or 
 thirteen miles to go, we set forwards, and many times run 
 upon the Wolds, and it being a clear Moonshine night, we 
 got to Malton about the 8th or 9th hour of the night. There 
 we found Brethren and Friends Assembled in the house 
 of Robert Hebden, Richard Farnsworth (another Travelling 
 Friend in the Ministry) being there with them ; so we were 
 greatly comforted and refreshed in the Love of God, with 
 our Friends that night. There I first see dear John White- 
 head, who was then a soldier at Scarborough, and was come 
 thither to meet with R. F. or visit Friends ; his mouth 
 was there opened in Prayer to the Lord. There we stay'd 
 the next Day, which was mostly spent in waiting upon the 
 Lord, and in Exhortation, Prayers and Praises unto God 
 Almighty." 
 
24 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Of the rest of Thomas Thompson's labours we must 
 not speak in detail. He was imprisoned three times 
 in York Castle, in all for ten years and five and a half 
 months ; eleven weeks for refusing to swear " and to 
 pay tythe hen, eggs, smoke penny and offerings to the 
 value of o.d. or thereabouts," and on the third occasion 
 no less than nine long years for refusing to go to church 
 or to pay for the repairs of Skipsea Steeple-house. 
 When not in Jail, he is constantly travelling in the 
 North and South of England, in Scotland, and up and 
 down the Yorkshire Coast. In the year of Fox's death, 
 he speaks of "a blessed meeting at Staintondale, 
 the Lord owning us with his love, and the sweet 
 enjoyment of his heavenly presence " ; and after a 
 journey to Cleveland returns " by way of Kirby Moor- 
 side, where he had a glorious and heavenly meeting." 
 He had indeed an affection for this place, for he singles 
 it out for special mention. On his next journey, 
 he says " at Kirby Moorside my soul was sweetly re- 
 freshed among Friends in a sense of the Heavenly Power 
 of God." He witnesses by speech and in writing 
 against gaming, horse-races and cards, and against 
 the " maintenance of worldly priests," and seeks 
 continually as the testimony of Friends asserts " to 
 appoint Meetings in Places where there had been few 
 or none before." Three months before his death, 
 the following brief Minute entered in the Monthly 
 Meeting book of Scarborough, affords pathetic illus- 
 tration of the heavy sacrifice this constant service 
 entailed : 
 
 " 4th mo., 1704 — A collection of £13 10s. 6d. 
 for the relief of Thomas Thompson, of Skipsea in 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 25 
 
 Holderness," was sent from Scarborough and Whitby 
 to Quarterly Meeting. 
 
 The last of our Quaker exemplars, John Whitehead 
 (not to be confounded with the famous George) was a 
 soldier in Scarborough Castle, who, to quote William 
 Penn's preface to Whitehead's printed works, " changed 
 his weapons, warfare and captain about 1654, when he 
 listed himself under the banner of Christ." He proved 
 a mighty warrior in Christ's holy cause. The testi- 
 monies, which, as in the case of Hebden and Thompson, 
 preface Whitehead's book, called in brief " The Written 
 Gospel Labours of John Whitehead," bear unanimous 
 witness to his faithful service. 
 
 One writes of his preaching " a word in due season 
 he had to administer . . . never very large but 
 short, sound and weighty." Another that " he was 
 a man of such a meek and quiet spirit that his life and 
 conversation preached daily amongst whom he came 
 . . . his words were few but very savoury." A third 
 writes that " he travelled on his feet through many 
 counties," that " he did labour and travel both day 
 and night that he might make the Gospel without 
 charge, and his care was very great to settle meetings 
 for worship." He would go many miles to visit a 
 single family, and, most beautiful testimony of all, 
 " he thought no pains too great to gain a soul to God." 
 " I never," says the same writer, " did see him shrink 
 at any trouble or persecution. . . he suffered many 
 long imprisonments without murmuring or repining 
 . . . . if any difference happened amongst Friends 
 he was a man of sorrow for it and did take care both 
 day and night until it was ended," 
 
26 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 John Whitehead, who figures in Fox's "Journal" 
 as the bearer of the order of release from Scarborough 
 Castle, was quite a copious writer, as were many Quakers 
 who suffered long terms of imprisonment. Joseph 
 Smith, in his Catalogue, enumerates forty separate 
 writings, short and long, treatises, epistles and appeals, 
 one printed in Dutch and some written in partnership 
 with others, to which may be added two not known to 
 Smith, — a total of forty-two in all. These include an 
 epistle " for Friends at Whitbay seat (Whitby), Os- 
 motherley, and in Blackamores (Blakey Moor above 
 Goathland), Cleveland, Bishoprick (Durham) and 
 that ways." " Ministers among the people of God 
 [called Quakers] no Jesuites" ; (a misconception that 
 had frequently to be met). "A reproof . . . to certain 
 professors in and about Hull and Beverley, etc." 
 
 Of his constant travels, his many sufferings, his 
 long imprisonment in Lincoln Castle and elsewhere, 
 we must say nothing. We get frequent glimpses of 
 the man himself, preaching on the moors or labouring 
 with his hands in the harvest-time at home, but one 
 incident must suffice to lift the veil on all this activity. 
 
 " In 1656, 3rd mo. 25th day, being the First Day," says 
 Thomas Thompson in his testimony " he had a Meeting at 
 Hunvanby (Hunmanby) on the Wolds, where there had 
 been none before ; and there not being a convenient Room 
 in the house, which was appointed for the meeting, we as- 
 sembled in a little Close adjoining. But there came a great 
 number of Rude People, who made much stir and noise 
 and threw stones at Friends in a desperate manner, so that 
 we could not enjoy our meeting at that place. Then we 
 drew into a Barn where for a little time the People were 
 indifferent quiet, and the Truth was thorow John, freely 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 27 
 
 declared ; but it was not long before some rude and wicked 
 Persons began to make a Disturbance ; and in great Fury 
 sought to make their way through the press to John, who 
 stood still and with great Boldness and Power declared 
 the Truth ; Now Friends standing close, both before and 
 on each side of John, they could not easily come to him ; 
 notwithstanding they pressed earnestly towards him, 
 violently pulling many Friends with Fury out of their way; 
 and with great wrath they raged like the Sodomites about 
 the door of Righteous Lot ; and truly the Lord wonderfully 
 chained them at that time ; for they were even mad with 
 wrath and Fury, and had pulled the most of Friends out 
 of their way so that very few were left between John and 
 them, Robert Barwick and I standing close together right 
 before him and a woman or two on either side, no other 
 Friends being left near us ; and the rude Rabble (like 
 the Beasts at Ephesus) furiously striving above an hour 
 before us, in much Choller, Wrath, and Madness, shaking 
 their fists at us, swearing many terrible oaths, and des- 
 perately threatening us in a cruel manner, yet (blessed be 
 God), they had not Power to lay a hand upon us to hurt 
 us, nor to pull us from our standing. . . So after they 
 had strove a long time and swelled in Fury raging like the 
 waves of the sea in a Tempest and nothing prevailed, they 
 suddenly turned their Backs (leaving us in our places) and 
 departed the Room. Then we had a precious time in wait- 
 ing upon the Lord, and J. Whitehead was preciously opened 
 in his testimony." 
 
 So much for the character of the men who did the 
 work. What was it in their message that aroused this 
 fierce opposition and at the same time so won men's 
 hearts ? What was the Quaker Gospel ? We will 
 keep true to our determination to be local, nor shall* 
 we suffer by it, for we can gather the main lines of the 
 Quaker Gospel from two of Whitehead's publications, 
 " The Enmity between the two Seeds," signed " From 
 
28 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 the righteous seed, whom the world in scorn called 
 Quakers, whose bodies are in outward bonds in the com- 
 mon Jail in Northampton," — and " A small Treatise 
 of these things which I have seen and learned of the 
 father ; writ in the Prison-house in Aylesbury the 3rd 
 mo., 1661." Comparing and analysing the two, we 
 get something as follows : — 
 
 " Christ is the light of the world which in con- 
 science makes evil manifest. Those who love sin hate 
 the light, but the light witnesses to their condemnation 
 that it is just. Therefore repent ; God's love has power 
 to lead out of darkness. But it must be inwardly 
 felt and experienced. The knowledge of Christ in 
 Jerusalem can do nothing without the knowledge 
 of Christ in the heart. An intellectual belief in justifi- 
 cation, through faith in Christ's blood is inadequate. 
 We must know God's grace. In our own will we hate 
 the light and are destroyed. God seeks freely through 
 the Inward Light of Christ to break the inclination or 
 will to sin. Grace — God's free grace given to all who 
 ask in sincerity — that is, in faith — is the power to love 
 the light, — that power by virtue of which we resist 
 and overcome temptation." This involves an inevitable 
 struggle and practical issue in everyday experience. 
 " In the strait gate of self-denial you must walk and 
 the daily cross of Christ you must take up or you 
 cannot be a disciple of Christ." 
 
 Grace and justification with John Whitehead are 
 in essence the same thing. 
 
 " I do witness," he says, " that faith in Christ's 
 blood justifieth, and the same faith that justifies purifies 
 the heart and the blood of Jesus cleanseth them that 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 29 
 
 be faithful from all sin. . . And this faith is not a 
 dead talk, but it is living and is a mystery held in a 
 pure conscience." In other words, God's free grace, 
 which, interpreted, is the power to believe in goodness 
 in a saving and living fashion, is a mysterious power, 
 which nevertheless can be felt, and which as it is yielded 
 to, purifies. The whole stress is here laid upon an 
 inward change. Moreover with the logical boldness 
 which characterised the first Quakers, he travels into 
 what we should call the region of speculative theology 
 and insists on the present possibility of entire santifica- 
 tion. God is able to save to the uttermost even while 
 the soul is " yet in the body." Let the priests be 
 warned who would put the " day of the Lord far off." 
 As for the Scriptures, he does not undervalue them 
 (in his " Enmity between the two Seeds," a pamphlet 
 of 39 pages, there are 277 marginal references to Scrip- 
 ture both Old and New Testament), but he seeks 
 " rather to shew unto People the Eternal life whereof 
 they writ, which we have seen, felt and handled as 
 they did." "So far," says Whitehead, "as they 
 (that is the Scriptures) are free from false transcriptions 
 and corrupt translations " (Oh ! shade of Rendel Harris !) 
 " I own them to be the very words and true sayings 
 of God." 
 
 Thus much for the simple theology. For the 
 rest, the points he makes, sometimes in felicitous phrase, 
 are in accord with the well-known testimony of the 
 early Friends, First, there is the witness to the Free 
 Ministry. I quote our author: "I do witness that 
 not any minister of Christ is made by the will of man, 
 nor fitted for his ministry by humane learning nor 
 
30 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 sharpness of wit, nor by any natural gift, but by the gift 
 of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Which gift cannot be 
 bought nor sold for money, nor limited to times, but 
 is free." He denies the virtue of " particular houses " 
 — no outward building in itself is sacred, the heart, not a 
 " heap of brick or stone," is the true temple of God. 
 As for the ordinances, these are spiritual, baptism is 
 no outward rite but a spiritual experience which "brings 
 down into death with Christ and into the fellowship 
 of his sufferings," the supper is no special meal, but 
 communion at a perpetual table of the Lord, " feeding 
 on living bread," and " drinking into one spirit, which 
 makes us of one heart and of one soul." 
 
 Does he deny the ordinances ? Nay, he does not 
 deny the ordinances. These are the ordinances of 
 Christ and " these I own. Self-denial and the daily 
 Cross, Love to one another, to do to all men as we would 
 be done unto, and not to swear at all, and if any smite 
 thee on one cheek to turn the other, and to feed the 
 hungry and to clothe the naked and the like." 
 
 Here speaks the true spirit of the early Friends, and 
 here we part with John Whitehead. 
 
 If we wonder at the rage of the people against such 
 a man, let us at least do justice to them. The times 
 were perilous. The civil war, the Protectorate, the 
 Restoration, James II., the Revolution, and the coming 
 of William and Mary, are the outward marks of a deep- 
 seated political unrest. England was in the throes of 
 a new birth. When none could trust his neighbour 
 suspicion spread like a fire. The Protectorate rested 
 on no divine right. Into the courts of justice step the 
 Quakers, haled by the constable from a shouting tumult. 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 31 
 
 They refuse to remove the hat, to take the oath. The 
 judges puzzled with their strange prisoners, visit them 
 with severe punishment for defying the magistracy and 
 the law. For the majesty of the law, in these days 
 of doubtful authority, must be upheld at all cost. It 
 is only as they learnt the probity of the Quaker, 
 had proof of his law-abiding spirit, and saw that his 
 contempt for human titles and perferments was but 
 his fear of God, that they abated their fury toward him. 
 Charles II. comes to the throne, and the wild scheming 
 of the Fifth Monarchy men provokes a new terror. 
 These Quakers who talk of an inward Christ and refuse 
 hat honour must be in league with the King's enemies. 
 Then down with them. 
 
 In spiritual matters the reasons for persecution 
 are no less plain. The doctrine of the Inner Light, 
 seemed to strike right across the main current of 
 religious thoxight, which surged up against it in angry 
 protest. The men of that generation had found in 
 the Bible a newly opened store-house of Divine truth, 
 and saw in the Quaker teaching a belittling of its au- 
 thority, a slight upon the Holy Name of God. It was 
 in large measure a case of misunderstanding. Men like 
 Baxter and Bunyan misread the Quaker, or at least 
 were more alive to the dangers attendant upon his 
 doctrine, than to the spiritual grandeur and quality 
 of his message. 
 
 Yet say what we will in extenuation, there remains 
 the greed of informers who battened on the distraints ; 
 the malice of unjust judges and cruel jailers, the harsh- 
 ness of religious intolerance, the blind irritation of 
 ignorant crowds, resentful of anything they could not 
 
32 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 comprehend ; the sheer hate of men resisting goodness 
 because they loved evil. Quakerism at heart was 
 nothing new, it was but a faithful application, in its 
 logical completeness, of Gospel truth. What other 
 people believed or said they believed, the Quakers did. 
 And for this more than anything else they suffered. 
 How they suffered we have not space to tell, but they 
 suffered in the true spirit of the Christian martyr. 
 
 William Dewsbury, nineteen years in jail, says 
 that his prisons were palaces and his locks and bars 
 precious jewels. I believe he spoke truth. The spirit 
 which bore so unflinchingly one of the cruellest perse- 
 cutions recorded in all the long story of human wrong, 
 never found more beautiful expression than in the 
 broken words of the dying Nayler, repentant and vic- 
 torious at the last : — 
 
 " It sees to the end of all temptation. As it bears 
 no evil in itself, so it conceives none in thought to any 
 other. If it be betrayed it bears it, for its ground and 
 spring is the mercies and forgiveness of God ; its crown is 
 meekness, its life is everlasting love unfeigned, and it takes 
 its kingdom with entreaty and not with contention, and 
 keeps it by lowliness of mind." 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 
 
 Lecture II. 
 
 IN considering the rise of Quakerism in Yorkshire 
 we have discussed the broad aspects of the Quaker 
 movements, we have done bare justice to the parts 
 played by Fox in the work of upbuilding, and, passing 
 by the more famous names, we have dwelt in some detail 
 on the character and the message of three early local 
 evangelists, Roger Hebden of Malton, Thomas Thompson 
 of Skipsea, and John Whitehead of Owstwick. The 
 words and sufferings of these devoted servants will 
 have baptized us in measure into the spirit of those 
 early days when, as Fox foresaw, a single Quaker 
 could " shake all the country for ten miles round." 
 
 To-day we shall set ourselves a different task. 
 We shall inquire : — 
 
 ist.— What were the immediate outward fruits 
 of local Apostolic Quakerism ? 
 
 2nd. — What was the inner life of the early fellow- 
 ship ? 
 
 3rd. — What was the subsequent development ? 
 
 In pursuit of these inquiries we shall go as far 
 as possible to the original documents, and endeavour 
 to make the past speak to us in its own language. 
 
 To-morrow morning we will discuss such facts as 
 we may have gathered, in their bearing upon the future 
 development of the Society of Friends. 
 
34 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 First, then, The immediate outward fruits of the 
 local Apostolic Quakerism. 
 
 Those not acquainted with the facts of the early 
 Evangelism, and accustomed to regard the Quakers 
 as a quiet, middle-class Society, mainly gathered in 
 a few towns here and there, and relatively numerous 
 or prominent in some half-dozen centres all told, 
 must be prepared for a striking contrast when they 
 examine into the prevailing conditions of the latter 
 half of the seventeenth century. 
 
 As already stated, when Fox died in 1691, the 
 Friends numbered 50,000 or 60,000, and were the 
 largest single body of Nonconforming Christians. 
 Most figures of the period are guess-work, and as no 
 reliable statistics are available, it is not safe to trust 
 over much to any proportionate estimates of the relation 
 borne by Friends to the whole population. 
 
 If we accept Gregory King's figures of 5^ millions 
 as the population of England at the accession of Queen 
 Anne, and take the estimate made by John Stephenson 
 Rowntree of 60,000 as representing the number of 
 Friends, we get one Friend in every 92 of the popu- 
 lation of England and Wales, or a percentage of 1.09 
 and if further we take the higher of J. S. Rowntree's 
 estimates of the number of Friends in Yorkshire, 
 viz., 6,000, and the population of Yorkshire at 780,000 
 (the figure accepted by Macaulay), we get one Friend 
 in every 130, or .76 per cent. 
 
 The same proportion to the present population 
 would yield us in London Yearly Meeting 350,000 
 Friends, instead of a total membership of 17,617 or 
 .005 of the population in 1903, or again thirty-six 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 35 
 
 thousand Friends in Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting, 
 instead of a beggarly two thousand, seven hundred 
 and fifty-five. 
 
 In 1669, eighteen years after Fox first crossed the 
 borders of Yorkshire, there were fourteen Yorkshire 
 Monthly Meetings against the present number of five. 
 The map* displayed in this room will give you their 
 names and boundaries. Two have been lost by absorption 
 in Durham Quarterly Meeting, namely Richmond and 
 Guisboro', which were in part transferred respectively 
 in 1816 and 1850. 
 
 Malton and Scarborough Monthly Meetings, sadly 
 depleted, were merged in Pickering Monthly Meeting 
 in 1788, and in 1858 were joined by Hull Monthly 
 Meeting, Which, composed of the wreckage of Owstwick 
 and Cave, had existed since 1803. Of this union was 
 born the wonderful compound name of " Pickering and 
 'Ull." So inexplicable is this geographical mixture, 
 apart from a knowledge of its historical origin, that 
 winged rumour has whispered of strangers to the 
 Quaker faith who, knowing the secret, have passed the 
 door-keepers at Yearly Meeting by murmuring the 
 mystic formula. 
 
 Kelk Monthly Meeting, nominally absorbed in 
 this compound, has really disappeared, for Bridlington 
 alone remains to witness to past glories when that 
 Monthly Meeting was a nursery of Quaker prophets. 
 
 Of Owstwick, where John Whitehead laboured 
 during the early years of his ministry, Hull alone is 
 left ; Elloughton has gone, Thirsk, in 1827, was divided 
 between York, Guisboro' and Darlington, while Settle 
 
 * See Appendix iv. 
 
36 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 and Knaresboro' disappeared in 1853 down the ravenous 
 jaws of the unwieldy Brighouse, which all sensible 
 people agree ought now to disgorge some of its spoils. 
 
 So much for the Monthly Meetings. Of the Par- 
 ticular Meetings it is less easy to speak with certainty. 
 John Stephenson Rowntree, in his " Quakerism Past 
 and Present," says : " At this time (in 1670-1679) 
 there were fourteen Monthly Meetings in Yorkshire, 
 seventy-two Meeting-houses, and Friends are known 
 to have resided in three hundred towns, villages and 
 hamlets." To what extent were there Meetings for 
 Worship beyond the 1 seventy-two Meeting-houses 
 spoken of ? Light is thrown on this question by the 
 Quarter Sessions records. I notice that on Sunday 
 next Friends are going to Laskill in Bilsdale. In 
 1827, when Thirsk Monthly Meeting was in process 
 of dissolution, a schedule of the Meeting-houses and 
 Burial-grounds which were coming to Guisboro' was 
 drawn up, and it is stated in a minute of the Monthly 
 Meeting held at Castleton in 4th month of that year 
 concerning Bilsdale (i.e. Laskill) that there are no title- 
 deeds, but that it is the property of Lord Feversham. In 
 1882, Lord Feversham incited by the Vicar of Helmsley, 
 an ardent High Churchman, tried to get the property 
 from Friends for the use of the Church . The inhabitants, 
 who had been represented as desiring this transference, 
 responded with a document expressing their wish that 
 the Meeting-house might still remain in the hands of 
 Friends. Alfred Edward Pease took the matter up 
 and the attempt was defeated. In gathering his 
 evidence he searched the North Riding Quarter 
 Sessions Records, which, he says are full of most 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 37 
 
 interesting and valuable references to Quakers, — and 
 extracted therefrom a list of Meeting-houses in the 
 17th and early 18th centuries. 
 
 The following is the preface to the list as it appears 
 in the records : — 
 
 "At Thirske, Oct. 8th, 1689, under an order etc., 
 etc., in pursuance of an Act for exempting their majes- 
 ties Protestant subjects, etc. etc., it was certified by 
 their justices etc., that in the following places are meeting 
 houses for certain persons dissenting from the church 
 of England called Quakers, viz : " — and here follows 
 a list of eighty-two places, all in the North Riding. 
 
 Of interest to the intending visitors next Sunday, 
 we may note en passant the following extract, also taken 
 by Sir A. E. Pease : — 
 
 " North Riding Quarter Sessions holden at Guisboro' 
 July 16th, 1734. 
 
 "... the house lately builtt nigh Laskill- 
 bridge in Bilsdale is appointed to be set apart for the 
 worship of Almighty God by the people called Quakers at 
 the request of John Petch and Will. Barker." 
 
 But this is a mere antiquarian digression. In addition 
 to the list of names quoted, Sir A. E. Pease found that 
 32 licences had been granted between October 2nd, 
 1677, and October 2nd, 1716. Eleven of these names 
 occur in the list of 1689, so that we get a total of 103 
 places in the North Riding in which Friends worshipped. 
 This list, however, is not complete. In the Meeting- 
 house safe at Scarborough is the following licence, 
 signed by Henry Frankland, Clerk of the Peace at 
 Stoxley, July ioth, 1705 : — 
 
3§ JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 " These are to certify whom it doth or may concern 
 that a house in Hutton Bushell is certified to this court to 
 be set apart for Religious worship and registered accord- 
 ingly." 
 
 This was lodged in the hands of Peter Garbutt, a leading 
 Scarborough Friend, and entered upon the minutes. 
 
 We must also add 32 others known, but not 
 included in either list, making a total of 136 for the 
 North Riding. 
 
 In the East Riding there were at least 43 
 Meetings in 1669, and in the West Riding over 100. 
 We thus get a grand total, — probably incomplete, — of 
 279. The number of Particular and Allowed Meetings 
 in the Quarterly Meeting in 1903 was 37. It would not 
 be strictly fair, however, to draw a comparison, for 
 many of these early meetings were in private houses, 
 barns and hired rooms, and would be more or less of 
 an ephemeral character, if we may judge by a list at the 
 beginning of a minute-book of Kirby Moorside Prepara- 
 tive Meeting, professing to give the Particular Meetings 
 in Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting about 1710, and which 
 yields us a total of only 68. This view of the matter 
 receives further support when examination is made 
 of the West Riding Quarter Sessions Records. In an 
 article on Non-Parochial Registers in the first number 
 of the published transactions of the Congregational 
 Historical Society, Bryan Dale writes : — 
 
 " The extraordinary religious activity of the Society 
 of Friends at this period (i.e., 1689) as well as during the 
 preceding forty years was only equalled by their rapid 
 decline in zeal and numbers a few years afterwards," and 
 connects this statement with the information that " over 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 39 
 
 200 Nonconformist places of worship were certified in the 
 West Riding alone, after the Toleration Act came into 
 operation," the majority of them " by the people of God 
 called Quakers," and "most of them private dwelling houses." 
 
 These particulars, nevertheless, indicate what might 
 have been. However transient, Quakerism had taken 
 root in 279 Yorkshire towns and hamlets. The pity is, 
 that the root so quickly withered. 
 
 I shall not, of course, read this long list to you 
 but it may be profitable to recite those of local interest 
 remembering that communities of country folk under 
 the Quaker name once gathered in them all. They are 
 
 Near York : — Nun Monkton, Green Hammerton 
 Tadcaster, Fulford, Dunnington, Strensall, Sutton-on-the 
 Forest, Huby and Tollerton. 
 
 Near Malton : — Aclam, Leavening, Birdsall, Settling 
 ton, Rillington, Scampston, Marishes, Oldstead, Ample 
 forth, and Hovingham. 
 
 Near Kirby Moorside : — Hutton le Hole, Gillamoor. 
 Rosedale, Farndale and Bilsdale, Norton and Helmsley. 
 
 Near Scarborough : — Harwood Dale, Silpho, Hackness. 
 Burniston, Stainton Dale, Hutton Bushell, Wykeham, 
 Urton, Ayton, and Seamer. 
 
 Near Whitby : — Lairpool, Fylingdale, Sandsend, and 
 of course many more. 
 
 The larger map has been referred to as recording 
 the number of places in which Friends were known 
 to reside. For the 17th and opening decade of the 
 18th centuries, the total is, so far as I have been able 
 to ascertain 464. The present number in the same 
 area is about 112. 
 
 Insecure as these statistics may be, they are not 
 far from the truth, and serve to call up before our 
 
40 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 inward eye some faint picture of the impress which 
 Fox, Dewsbury, Stephen Crisp, and local apostles like 
 John Whitehead left upon their generation. Through 
 lonely dales, where the bracken reddens at autumn 
 and the trout-streams tumble to the sea ; where the 
 long swell of the high moorlands sweeps the horizon ; 
 or where the sea-gulls scream and the spray breaks 
 over the rocks, or the low sand-hills melt down the 
 dismal coast ; by flat meadow-lands with kine and fields 
 of corn ; over high, bare hills where the west wind 
 storms with salt and sting of the Atlantic ; through 
 the great vale with its far glimpses of Cathedral towers ; 
 through narrow streets filled with the roar of the shingle 
 on the slipway, and the smell of fish and shipping ; 
 into broad market squares, among the wains and 
 cracking whips and stumbling teams, to city and ham- 
 let, sea-port and inland town, fearless and loving, 
 come the Children of the Light. 
 
 Even dry figures can stir us if we let them speak. 
 Those were great days of high courage, noble sacrifice 
 and rich fruit. It is hard to come back to the present 
 without discouragement, for the promise of the past 
 has failed. But there is still the future. 
 
 Quakerism has waned where it was once strong — 
 it would be foolish to ignore that fact, but when we con- 
 template the deserted villages, we need to recognise 
 that the decline was not wholly spiritual. Economic 
 changes account for something. In the time of Fox, 
 not a quarter of the people lived in towns ; to-day 
 41 per cent, live in towns and cities, containing 
 upwards of 50,000 inhabitants. Where Fox met one 
 man we meet six. 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 41 
 
 By way of introduction to the inner life of the early 
 fellowship, let us glance for a moment at the Yorkshire 
 of this day. The huge manufacturing centres, with 
 their network of railways and their forests of chimneys 
 were of course unknown. No factory system had come 
 to weaken the influence of the home-life, or to blacken 
 the sky with smoke. The hills of the West Riding 
 were lonely and wild, and her streams unpolluted ran 
 clear and cool. In the dales of Craven, and in the 
 romantic valleys of Skipton and Richmond, wool was 
 still spun by the glow of the family hearth. The ancient 
 one-thread wheel hummed through the long winter 
 evenings, and camlets, russets, serges, tammies and 
 calimancoes travelled on pack horses, from distant 
 upland villages to the open street markets of Leeds and 
 Halifax. We gather some idea of the volume of York- 
 shire's staple trade, when we learn that the famous 
 cloth market of Leeds held twice a week, was on the 
 bridge over the Aire and that the sellers hung their 
 pieces of cloth over the parapets. Yet a contem- 
 porary writer, Mrs. Fiennes, says of Leeds, " This is 
 esteemed the wealthiest town of its bigness in the 
 country," and of its inhabitants, she says, "they are 
 esteemed very rich and very proud." 
 
 Only two other towns enjoyed celebrity, Sheffield 
 and Hull. Sheffield had already turned her five 
 streams to account, to assist in her iron trade, while 
 Hull, without a single dock, was rapidly growing into 
 a thriving port, employing more ships " in the trade 
 to Greenland and the Greenland seas, in the fishing 
 for whales there," than any other port, save London. 
 
 The population of York was certainly under 
 
42 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 10,000, and until the close of the civil war there is 
 constant complaint of its serious decay. Scarborough 
 was hardly more than a fishing village, and bore no 
 sort of relation to its present overweening opulence. 
 It numbered only 6,000 in 1800. The people were 
 still "on the land," and agriculture was their chief 
 employment, but although as an industry it was 
 relatively prosperous during the period under review, 
 we must dismiss from our minds all idea of a social 
 paradise. The greater part of the eastern counties 
 was almost in its original state of natural wildness, 
 and where now are cultivated fields, there were miles 
 upon miles of barren waste. A typical 17th century 
 farm, consisted of unmanured land, from which, during 
 the winter, the poor pinched cattle could scarce gather 
 herbage to keep them from starvation. An ill- 
 cultivated patch grew oats and barley, the rest weeds. 
 Quakerism flourished in the country districts, because 
 the population was there ; but we must not expect a 
 cultured, critical community, demanding that their 
 mental and spiritual hunger shall be fed by a hyper- 
 mystical, occult philosophy. The people were un- 
 educated, simple, homely, coarse, animal in their 
 appetites, and yet not without that salt of Puritanism, 
 of deep if sombre religious earnestness, which kept 
 English life sweet even through the vicious revels of 
 Charles II. Accustomed as we are to the dignity and 
 repose of an ordered and respectable congregation, with 
 its spiritual emotion on the curb, and to Whittier's 
 description of the ancient Quaker " so calm, so pure, 
 so true," we can scarcely realise the uncouth aspect 
 of Quakerism in its earliest day. Listen to this, 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 43 
 
 presented to the Council of State by many noblemen, 
 Justices of the Peace, Ministers and citizens of 
 Lancashire, — a petition of complaint against Fox and 
 Nayler on the grounds that they dissolved the 
 " bond and unity that was between all sorts and 
 ranks of men. . . and brought their own followers 
 to such a pass that all of them, men, women, children 
 and little ones, were, in their conventicles, agitated 
 with strange and ridiculous motions, trembled, 
 foamed, swole with their bellies," etc., etc. 
 
 The courtly Penn, the refined Penington, the 
 scholarly Barclay, may join the fellowship, but the 
 rank and file are an unlettered folk, and their Meetings 
 for Worship are often revival meetings, marked by the 
 well-known psychological phenomena which, a century 
 later, distinguished the Methodist movement. The 
 drunken man who, at Fox's meeting in Malton, became 
 as lowly as a lamb, has his modern counterpart in many 
 a Saturday night temperance mission, and the marked 
 reference to the attendance of a real lady at one of 
 his meetings in Scarborough, shows us that Fox was 
 accustomed to sit down with a humbler class. When 
 we speak of a meeting " run on Quaker lines," we 
 are too often confounding a later eighteenth century 
 standard with the true Quaker type of the creative 
 period. There is a world of difference both in spirit 
 and in form. One is cold and fixed, and the other warm 
 and fluid. In Fox's day, the molten metal had not 
 congealed. 
 
 After thus much circumlocution, we come now to 
 our secondly : — " What was the inner life of the early 
 fellowship ? " — and faithful to promise, we will go to 
 
44 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 original documents. Do not be angry if they are dry ! 
 Only he who has waded through pages of sprawling 
 and faded writing, can know the true meaning of 
 monotony, or sympathise in his understanding with 
 the Arab when he spies an oasis in the wilderness. 
 And yet this is not wholly true. There is a fascination, 
 hard to describe, in these musty books, written by men 
 who knew persecution, not by hearsay, but by experi- 
 ence ; who perhaps saw and heard Fox, Dewsbury 
 and Whitehead in the flesh, and who, however we may 
 grudge to confess it at times, were our spiritual an- 
 cestors (in a manner of speaking). Let us, then, 
 with reverence take up, first the records of Scarborough 
 Monthly Meeting. Let us go through them, adding 
 afterwards the tit-bits of Guisborough, Malton and 
 Kirby Moorside. 
 
 The first minute-book of Scarborough, Whitby 
 and Stainton Dale Monthly Meeting dates from 1669 
 to 1687. The meeting was established by the Quar- 
 terly Meeting held at York on the 18th of 1st mo., 
 i66| (New Style, 18th March, 1669), or 235 years 
 ago. 
 
 The First Monthly Meeting was actually held on 
 5th of 3rd mo., 1669, or as we should call it, the fifth 
 of May. It met at the house of William Worfolk 
 in Stainton Dale, and continued to meet there till 
 the fourth of May, 1675, a period of six years. After 
 that date, it was held at Scarborough, Whitby and 
 Stainton Dale by rotation. At Scarborough, as in 
 May of 1675, it was held at " our meeting-house," 
 and at other times in Peter Hodgson's private house, 
 and on one occasion, in September, 1683, at the house 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 45 
 
 of Thomas Russell. The minute recording the cost 
 of Scarborough Meeting-house is as follows : — 
 
 " The acct. what the house cost which Peter Hodgson, 
 Senr. built for Scarborough in the year 1676 for the pub- 
 lique meetings of the Lord's people (by men called Quakers) 
 to meet in for ye worship and service of God. The first 
 purchase and building the said meeting house upon the 
 ground (with the charge of the writeings) cost £150 13s. 4d. 
 Which was disbursed by the persons underwritten as 
 followeth." 
 
 Then appear 59 names, Peter heading Scarborough 
 with £20, much the largest subscription. Twenty- 
 seven men friends from Scarborough subscribe with 
 him, among them Richard Priestman, one from 
 Holderness, seventeen from Stainton Dale and else- 
 where, Tomazen Smailes of Bridlington £5, and 
 finally thirteen women Friends from Scarborough. 
 
 The minutes in the first book, covering a period 
 of eighteen years, give little information as to the 
 spiritual or social condition of the meeting. They 
 indicate a quiet, methodical transaction of routine 
 business, they record no admissions, no itinerancy of 
 preachers, but are principally concerned with the 
 relief of the poor. There are in all thirty-one collec- 
 tions for this purpose alone ; Whitby is the biggest 
 contributor, and was either the richest or the largest 
 meeting. In 1677, there is a record of a collection 
 being ordered to be sent to the Quarterly Meeting for 
 " Friends in prison." 
 
 Quaker books are regularly purchased and dis- 
 tributed, including the works of Edward Burroughs, 
 Francis Howgill, Penn's " No Cross, No Crown," 
 
46 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 " The Christian Quaker," of which Perm and George 
 Whitehead were joint authors, and " The Spirit of 
 the Martyrs," by Ellis Hookes, the first predecessor 
 of our present esteemed friend Isaac Sharp. 
 
 Seventy-nine intentions of marriage are recorded 
 and whenever there are children by a previous mar- 
 riage, provision is duly made for them. The first 
 notice of a marriage taking place is on the 4th of 
 February, 1671. There is one disownment, or testi- 
 mony of denial, — that of a certain Edward Dutchman — 
 in May, 1677, for misconduct and " marrying his late 
 wife's own sister." 
 
 Various money differences between members 
 are arbitrated by the Monthly Meeting, but there are 
 no other cases of discipline. One of these arbitrations 
 was concerned with a prominent member who had 
 repudiated a debt. The matter was eventually re- 
 ferred to the Quarterly Meeting, which gave per- 
 mission for the complainant to put legal proceedings 
 on foot, " which " (the Quarterly Meeting warned the 
 delinquent) "may turn to thy damage and will not be of 
 good savour to the truth." The result is, with most 
 exasperating reticence, withheld. 
 
 There are at this time signs of the extensive emi- 
 gration to the New World, which set in with the opening 
 out of Pennsylvania. In November, 1681, we note a 
 certificate drawn up for Stephen Keddy and others 
 " removed out of this meeting and gone into Mary- 
 land," and in May, 1682, the year when Philadelphia 
 was founded, certificates granted to Robert Wilson and 
 Matthew Watson with their wives and families " on 
 their intended removal to America." The East of 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 47 
 
 Yorkshire sent a considerable quota to Penn's new- 
 colony, and this emigration distinctly reduced the size 
 of the meetings, an economic factor in the early decline 
 of East Riding Quakerism not to be ignored. 
 
 There is a pathetic entry in 10th month, 1681, 
 of money returned which had been collected for the 
 " redemption of John Easton of Stockton from the 
 Turks' captivity," as Easton was " not to be found." 
 The sum was then set apart for " the redemption of 
 Henry Strangwis from Turkish Slaverie," but two 
 years later the money was returned again "both being 
 dead." We may here remark that the number of 
 Quaker prisoners in the galleys was, at one time, large 
 enough to support a meeting in Algiers. 
 
 Scarborough seems to have been pretty regularly 
 " run " by a little group of Friends whose names 
 continually appear attached to the various minutes. 
 It may be of interest to read the list rapidly through : — 
 
 Peter Hodgson, Senr., Scarborough ; Peter Hodgson, 
 Junr., Nicholas Hopperton, William Worfolke, Stainton 
 Dale ; Joseph Harwood, William Heslam, Isaac Scarth, 
 Whitby ; William Nash, James Postgate, George Allatson, 
 Peter Garbutt, Scarborough ; John Ryther, Robert Trott, 
 Burniston, Christopher Shepheard. 
 
 An appeal for the " necessitie " of Robert Trott 
 for his " Chamber Rent in York Castle," is found in 
 the minutes of December, 1683, from which we learn 
 that he suffered imprisonment about that time. 
 
 The difficulty of attending meetings in winter is 
 shown by the minute of December, 1684, where two 
 women Friends desiring to announce their intentions 
 of marriage according to rule (one from Whitby and 
 
48 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 one from Ugthorp) were unable to get to the meeting 
 in Scarborough on account of the severe weather, 
 but their " intentions " were kindly published in their 
 absence. 
 
 " Intentions of marriage " are a fruitful source 
 of information as to the local habitat of Friends. The 
 following villages are among those named : — 
 
 Stainton Dale, Snainton, 
 
 Burniston, Wykeham 
 
 Hackness, Sawdon, 
 
 Suffield, Hutton Bushell, 
 
 Harwood Dale, Fylingdales, 
 
 Langdale End, Sandsend, 
 Ravenhill (Query " Peak ? ") Restdale, 
 
 Ruswarp, The Marrishes, 
 
 Silpho, Ugthorp. 
 Newton (upon Rockcliff). 
 
 In the second volume, dating from 1688-1699, 
 the minutes for the ten years which they cover show 
 growing activity in organisation and in itinerancy. 
 In August, 1691, four Friends are appointed (at the 
 advice of Quarterly Meeting) " to take the Oversight 
 of Friends of this meeting, that if need require they 
 may deale wth such as profess the Truth and do not 
 answer the same in spirit and conversation." Seven 
 years later, (July, 1698) John Richardson and Isaac 
 Scarth of Whitby, Nathaniel Bell and John Hinderwell 
 of Stainton Dale, and James Young, James Jaquiss and 
 John Agar of Scarborough are reported willing to take 
 upon them the service required by Quarterly Meeting, 
 i.e., " to see that those who profess Truth do walk 
 answerable to their profession." 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 49 
 
 " Public Friends " named as such (in other words, 
 ministers) appear for the first time in the above Minute 
 where a proposal is brought forward that they shall 
 meet every quarter. In December, 1698, it was agreed 
 that the said " Publick Friends " should meet once 
 a quarter, " eight days before ye Quarterly Meeting 
 at York," on the third day of the week, — an interesting 
 recognition of the growing needs of the fellowship. 
 
 Certain regulations as to marriage procedure are 
 agreed upon. Women Friends found it difficult, as we 
 have noted, to appear at two Monthly Meetings, when 
 they had to travel from Whitby to Scarborough, or 
 vice versa (especially in bad weather). This was recog- 
 nised, and it was decided (Jan. 1690) that one appearance 
 of the two parties intending marriage before " a full 
 Monthly Meeting " should suffice, provided the intention 
 of marriage had been previously laid before a Prepara- 
 tive Meeting. 
 
 In November, 1697, the Meeting desires that in 
 future care be taken that certificates be sent from 
 each particular Meeting to the Monthly Meetings, fully 
 declaring the clearness and concurrence of all concerned 
 either in regard to marriage or other affairs, and this 
 direction is again referred to at a later date. In 
 December, 1698, occurs the first record of Friends 
 being appointed to inquire into the clearness of the 
 intending parties in marriage. William Hodgson 
 and Francis Breckon are the first named for this service. 
 
 In December, 1698, Friends are desired to be 
 careful to register their children and to give account 
 thereof to the Monthly Meeting. During the close 
 of this period an outbreak of itinerancy is noticeable. 
 
50 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Eleven intentions to visit different parts of the country 
 were laid before the meeting in 1698 and 1699, consent 
 being given in all cases. The travelling ministers 
 were Susannah Atkinson, Rachel Breckon, Mary 
 Ellerton, George Wilson, John Agar, (who visited 
 Holland and Friesland), Elizabeth Ward, Joseph 
 Scarth and Elizabeth Pennitt. 
 
 No disownments are recorded, and only one case 
 of discipline (5th mo., 1693). The marriages continue 
 frequent, fifty- two " intentions " being laid before the 
 meeting during the ten years. 
 
 To gather the direction of the change that was 
 passing over the Society, we shall not require to 
 pursue the Scarborough Minutes beyond the first 
 two decades of the eighteenth century. In the 3rd 
 volume, covering the period from 1700 to 1719, there 
 is record of an increasing number of disownments — 
 twenty in the eighteen years, against one recorded 
 between 1669 and 1700. Cases requiring discipline 
 became very numerous. On the other hand, there is 
 an increase in itinerancy, especially among women 
 Friends ; no fewer than thirty-two travelling certifi- 
 cates being granted to women, and four to men. The 
 same women Friends applied regularly for certificates, 
 and one is tempted to suspect that they rather enjoyed 
 these outings. The marriage of one [soon after her 
 return,] with a member of a distant meeting has a 
 suspicious appearance, which is enhanced when we 
 consider the sad case of Elizabeth Pennitt, the servant 
 of a certain Mary Bannister. She was one of those 
 I named who took out certificates, but unfortunately 
 she " ran into ungodly and vain practices, going unto 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 51 
 
 those that pretend to be fortune-tellers and following 
 their directions and counsell, in order to accomplish 
 what she designed, . . . which has been proved 
 to her face." Sixteen men Friends sign the minute 
 of disownment, which was issued in September, 1709. 
 This tremendous punishment seems to have brought 
 Elizabeth Pennitt to a sense of her condition, for she 
 sends the following from Whitby Preparative Meeting 
 eighteen months later: 
 
 " Whereas I have been drawn aside and out of the way 
 of Truth, I am willing to condemn it all, so to own that I 
 ought not to have been of an aspiring mind, to have known 
 more yt. was the mind and will of God and Unconsistent 
 with Truth, so I own it was a great Evill to ask counsell 
 of Man or Woman to know what will befall one in this life, 
 so I sincerely condemn it in my heart, and Truly desire 
 that the Lord may preserve me and every one for the time 
 to come out of the same evill, and that I may be a Warning 
 to others that they may not be caught in the same snare. 
 
 " Elizabeth Pennitt." 
 
 Much scandal was occasioned in 1703 by the 
 marriage of Ellenor Hobson to an " Outsider." Her 
 mother, a member of the meeting, made things worse 
 by giving a supper after the wedding, at which the 
 guests " behaved themselves very rudely by getting 
 Fiddlers into her house and singing and dancing." 
 
 The number of marriages continues large, viz. 
 a hundred between 1700 and 1778. The relief of the 
 poor proceeds steadily, and the collections keep a good 
 average, the Whitby contributions increasing towards 
 the close. 
 
 Armed ships in the possession of Friends are cause 
 of concern in 1706 and exercised the meeting for some 
 
52 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 years. In 1713, Joseph Linkskill brings in a paper of 
 condemnation against himself, for carrying guns in 
 his ship and " using them in heat and passion to defend 
 myself with the arms of the flesh." 
 
 In 1712, papers of denial are ordered " to be read 
 in public first-day meeting, where the Person testified 
 belongs to, the next first-day after the Monthly 
 Meeting." 
 
 In 1718, 8s. 6d. is paid for " a Grose of Laces." 
 These were bought from the Quaker prisoners in York 
 Castle and sold among the meetings. In 1718, a 
 collection was ordered towards building the new Meet- 
 ing-house in York, and wealthy Friends were urged to 
 be liberal " so as that ye Poor may not be overcharged." 
 £143 is. was brought in, Whitby contributing £79 10s. 
 Scarborough £58 is., and Stainton Dale £$ 10s. 
 
 This dry chronological analysis requires the eye of 
 historical imagination for its proper interpretation. 
 There is much we are not told. The quaint, formal 
 minutes scarcely clothe the bones of Peter Hodgson 
 with living flesh. Yet these were men of like nature 
 with ourselves, knowing joy and sorrow, trial and 
 temptation. Robert Trott of Burniston suffers for 
 truth in York Castle, Joseph Linkskill yields to heat and 
 passion in his reliance upon " the arms of the flesh." 
 Elizabeth Pennitt, the serving-maid, gads foolishly 
 after charlatans that she may see less darkly in the 
 glass of fate than the apostle Paul ; while two poor 
 fellows wear out existence in the cruel galleys, longing 
 with faint hearts for home, and the good smell of the 
 peat-smoke curling from some familiar chimney in 
 a Yorkshire dale. 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 53 
 
 And all this while modern England is making. 
 James II. scurries in disgrace from the people he be- 
 trayed. The Toleration Act relieves the terrible 
 pressure of persecution, and the golden age of Anne, 
 the age of polished letters, of Addison and Steele, of 
 Pope and Swift, is ushered in. Little enough do the 
 simple folk of Stainton Dale know or care of high 
 politics, — the march of Marlborough's armies across a 
 continent, the intrigues, the cabals of the men of 
 affairs. For what, indeed, are they, these people of 
 whom we read, these local Quakers busy in this quiet 
 corner of England, building their little church, riding 
 upon ponies by the rough coast tracks, through blinding 
 sleet or hot sunshine, from Whitby, Scarborough, 
 Silpho, Hackness, Harwood Dale and Langdale End 
 to their Monthly Meeting at Stainton Dale ? They 
 were people of no great station. Where the chronicler, 
 by an accident, has vouchsafed information, I have 
 noted their occupation in life, and this is the list I get : 
 
 House Carpenter, Yeoman (or Farmer), Constable, 
 Cordwainer, Seaman, Compass -maker, Mariner, Weaver, 
 Master Mariner, or Shipowner, and Shopkeeper. 
 
 No fear of " humane learning," of Rabbinical subtleties, 
 here ! They were men, indeed, of practical gift, of 
 homely spirit, but of small book-knowledge, who with 
 all their human failings, kept the way open for us to- 
 day. 
 
 Time does not permit us to examine in like detail 
 the other local Monthly Meeting Books, but a few glean- 
 ings from their pages may help us to fill out the picture 
 and lead us towards our conclusion. 
 
54 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 We will turn first to those of Malton, which only 
 date from 1694. After 1696, Monthly Meetings were 
 held in rotation at Pickering, Malton and Thornton 
 in the Clay, the first Monthly Meeting at Pickering 
 falling in July, 1696. In March, 1699, Overseers are 
 appointed, as such, for Malton, Pickering and Barton 
 Meetings, two men and two women Friends for each, 
 with the following advice : 
 
 " Those Friends above named and chosen by this 
 meeting (i.e., Monthly Meeting at Malton) are not only to 
 be examples to the flock and church of Christ over which 
 the Church and Holy Ghost hath maid them overseers, 
 marked patterns in patience, love, virtue, humility, god- 
 liness ; and that faithfully discharge themselves in that 
 trust reposed in them, namely, to inspect into the lives 
 and conversations, habits and furniture in Friends' houses, 
 that all things be kept as become our holy profession and 
 that weighty testimony unto which we are called. The 
 men taking care to inspect into things chiefly belonging 
 to ye men and ye women to things chiefly belonging to ye 
 women, yet the one helping the other as need requires, and 
 that they give an account to this Monthly Meeting of their 
 proceedings." 
 
 On the 13th of November, 1699, George Mennell 
 is appointed M.M. scribe at 12s. per year. Whether 
 on the strength of this magnificent salary or not I cannot 
 say, but in 1701 he ventures to marry. In 1702, how- 
 ever, occurs a minute recording his discharge " nott for 
 any occasion given or mysdemeanour committed butt 
 because it is thought that the charge was unnecessary." 
 Perhaps Mennell knew his Monthly Meeting, and 
 married money ! 
 
 In 1700 Friends are recommended to moderation 
 at burials, and in 170 1 a lengthy minute on the subject 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 55 
 
 of marrying out, a prominent concern in all the books 
 of the period, announces that " ye Spirit of ye Lord in 
 his servants had advised to ye contrary and withstood 
 and reproved ye persons concerned in these kind of 
 marriages." The minute appeals for faithful dealing 
 in such matters, and where entanglement of the affec- 
 tions with the World's people is suspected, Friends are 
 exhorted " to stand up in God's authority, and in the 
 meek, lamb-like spirit speak to the person and advise 
 to the contrary," and if this " meek, lamb-like spirit " 
 has no effect — why then the Monthly Meeting must 
 resort to the carnal expedient of discipline. 
 
 Scattered through the books are many minutes 
 concerning Friends' burial ground at Rillington, at 
 Leavening, Strensall and Barton i' the Willows. In 
 1706, at Monthly Meeting held in June, in Thornton in 
 the Clay, we read that William Allen published his 
 intention of marriage with Mary Pilmore last month, 
 but is reported as " not clear from Dorothy Pate," 
 so permission to marry Mary Pilmore is refused. 
 Similar minutes are not so infrequent as might be 
 wished, and reflect not a little upon the gallantry of 
 young men Friends ! 
 
 In 1718, Malton Meeting, for the first time, heads 
 the list in the collections to be sent up to Yorkshire 
 Quarterly Meeting, displacing Pickering from the pre- 
 mier position it had hitherto held. In 1735, the fol- 
 lowing is added to the 8th Query : — " How are the 
 poor Friends taken care of, and what care is taken of 
 the education of their offspring ? " 
 
 In September, 1736, William Cook is spoken to 
 respecting his "keeping company by way of court- 
 
56 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 shippe in order to marry with a woman of another 
 persuasion." Next month, having failed to put in 
 an appearance, William Cook " desires Friends to have 
 patience, with him because he could not well leave his 
 scholars two days together," and is ordered to come 
 to a future meeting. In November he appeared, 
 "and signified his dissatisfaction at being entangled 
 with a woman of another persuasion, and gives some 
 expectation of delivering keeping her company, therefore 
 Friends are willing to show more lenaty (sic) and 
 Forbearance," but in the following year we learn 
 that the young lady conquered, and William Cook, 
 in spite of the " lenaty " of the Children of the Light, 
 was disowned. Our sympathy is with the couple. 
 
 There are various minutes of interest that cannot 
 be detailed. Of sufferings and imprisonments for 
 tithes, and of exhortation to be faithful in resisting 
 them, we find records everywhere. Nor need we 
 wonder. Luke Howard has calculated that from the 
 seventeenth century down to 1830, property to the 
 value of £1,125,000 was distrained from the Quakers 
 for ecclesiastical purposes. 
 
 Of Kirby Moorside, I regret to report, the less said 
 the better. I have gone through the Preparative 
 Meeting books and they are a melancholy record of 
 petty quarrels and the poisonous influence of perpetual 
 gossip, that really terrible curse of little towns. 
 
 Turning to the Guisboro' books we must again 
 set aside for want of time much that is of interest, 
 both humorous and grave. As illustrating the quaint 
 details of poor relief I select a minute of gth mo., 
 1753: 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 57 
 
 " John Martin is ordered to buy Agnes Kidd an 
 under waistcoat and bring to our next an acct. of ye 
 charges." 
 
 Elsewhere the following minute of the Quarterly 
 Meeting of 1737 is inserted : — 
 
 " Are they (i.e., the ministers) free from being trouble- 
 some and uneasy to meetings by too long and tedious 
 testimonies when life doth not attend them, and do they 
 give way to strangers " — 
 
 which last injunction, though not undesirable, savours 
 somewhat of human arrangement. 
 
 Going back to an earlier time, we note among the 
 deeds of the Meeting, now at Great Ayton, an inter- 
 esting document, — a conveyance of the Burial Ground 
 at Danby, dated 1658, which contains what is in effect, 
 a declaration of faith. After a legal preamble the deed 
 states that the Burial Ground is for the 
 
 " onely and proper use and behoof of the People of God 
 who are gathered in the light and Spirit of Jesus Christ 
 off from the outward Temple made with hands in the time 
 of Apostacy (which ignorantly is called a Church) and 
 from the will-worship and superstition that attends it, 
 to the Church in God, I. Thess. ii., of which Christ Jesus 
 is declared to be the Head, Ephes. i. 22, Ephes. v. 27, 
 Col. i. 18. And to worship God the Father in spirit and in 
 truth, according to ye Scriptures, John iv. 23, 24, Phil. iii. 3, 
 who are the true worshippers of God as aforesaid though 
 of the world they are reproachfully called Quakers, to and 
 for their onely and proper use and service to meet together 
 in and bury their dead at all time and times (as their free- 
 dom and occasion shall be) from henceforth and for ever. 
 And also to and for the same uses and service of all such 
 as shall in the same Light, Spirit and order for ever hereafter 
 succeed them in Danby aforesaid and any other adjacent 
 
58 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Dales, Townes, Villages or places thereabouts where any 
 are so gathered, or shall at any time or times hereafter be 
 gathered in the Light, Spirit and Order of the Church 
 the people of God aforsaid," — 
 
 continuing as it began like an ordinary legal document. 
 
 This declaration, which I have noted in two other 
 deeds, e.g., in a conveyance of land at Bagdale, Whitby, 
 also for a burial ground, dated 1659, was evidently 
 an accepted formula at that time. 
 
 Having entered by chance upon lawyers' preserves, 
 this may be a suitable occasion for quoting an interest- 
 ing document which would seem to bear on the deriva- 
 tion of the term Friends. A conveyance of land for 
 Whitby Meeting House, January 30th, 1669, for £36 
 by Isabel Sutton, widow, to Thomas Linskill and 
 Isaac Hayes, marriners of Whitby, and William 
 Letherington of Whitby, Merchant, departs from 
 common usage in speaking not " of the people of God, 
 in scorn called Quakers," but of Friends, even useing 
 the latter term without the customary addition " of 
 Truth." The purchase-money is paid " on the behalf 
 of all the rest of ffriends in the truth (as it is in Jesus) 
 in gennerall in the towne of Whitby aforesaid and 
 elsewhere." 
 
 " And whereas a meeting house for Friends of truth in 
 gennerall is intended to be erected and builded upon the 
 said parcel of ground or garden plott it is hereby fully 
 agreed to by and between the above-named ffower ffriends 
 on the behalfe and with the consent of the rest of ffriends 
 in gennerall, etc., as to leaving a passage way for Isabel 
 Sutton and her heirs to have free access for themselves 
 and tenants and others so long and no longer than she and 
 they live in the blessed Truth which wee the said ffower 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 5g 
 
 ffriends and the rest of ffriends to truth in gennerall do 
 prophess and practice." 
 
 And now in conclusion it may be asked, to what do 
 all these extracts tend ? 
 
 We set ourselves three questions : — 
 
 ist. — What were the immediate outward fruits 
 of local Apostolic Quakerism ? 
 
 2nd. — What was the inner life of the early fellow- 
 ship ? 
 
 There remains the third : — What was the subse- 
 quent development ? 
 
 Reviewing the mass of material collected during 
 the preparation of these lectures, I confess that the 
 picture which rises to my mind is sad and gloomy. 
 It is not possible to whitewash eighteenth century 
 Quakerism. It had its elements of beauty and strength. 
 John Woolman, who died in York in 1772, is still a 
 fragrant memory, and in the York Retreat for the 
 Insane, founded in 1796, and the establishment of 
 Ackworth School in 1779, the names of Tuke and 
 Fothergill are justly honoured to this day. Nor must 
 we forget, if we recall no others, men like David Hall 
 and John Richardson, or even the quaint Luke Cock, 
 whose oddities are remembered perhaps at the expense 
 of his virtues. But in the main, the middle period 
 of Quakerism is one of rapid decay. Some months 
 ago, looking over the Kendal Quarterly Meeting 
 minutes, I deciphered the following query, now almost 
 illegible : — 
 
 " Whether Friends keep up their week-day meetings, 
 observing the hour appointed, and how preserved out 
 of dulness and sleepiness when met, and how such as sit 
 
60 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 next them that be overcome by sleepiness do discharge 
 their brotherly duty by stirring them up." 
 
 The humour of this minute is perhaps more 
 apparent to us than to those who wrote it, and yet 
 when we have laughed our laugh, there is something 
 pathetic behind it. It is the creeping of the shadow 
 of eclipse over the glory of sacrifice and devoted zeal 
 which marked the rise of Quakerism. Zeal there was 
 even when Friends slept as they did habitually in the 
 afternoon meeting, but how was it directed ? 
 
 In 1712 the Women's Meeting at York issued the 
 following minute : — 
 
 " We desire an alteration in these things . . . 
 as follows, viz., Friends gowns made indecently, one 
 part over Long and ye other too short, with Lead in ye 
 sleeves and that Friends should come to a stability and 
 be satisfied in the shape and compass yt. Truth leads 
 into without changing as ye World changes, also black 
 or Coloured Silk or Musling Aprons, as likewise Hoods 
 or Scarves not too long or broad, and we desire yt. Friends 
 keep clear of putting on their Handkerchiefs according 
 to ye fashions of ye World leaving their neck bare behind 
 and also that Friends clothe may be a dark modest colour 
 and not have ye Hair Cut or powdered, neither Quoifs 
 to be made with gathers on ye Forehead bordering on 
 ye Fashion of ye world, these things Friends Judgment 
 is gone out against." 
 
 Signed by Mary White, etc. 
 
 Yes ! These things Friends' judgment is gone 
 out against, and increasingly do the minutiae of conduct 
 exercise the godly. 
 
 But in the weightier matters of the law, the creation 
 of a spiritual atmosphere in which mind and heart 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 6l 
 
 may be enlarged in the strength of all-embracing 
 Truth, Friends were sadly deficient. 
 
 I have foreborn to give you the analysis of the 
 disownments. It is a melancholy record. Apart from 
 the suicidal madness of casting out Friends for marry- 
 ing outsiders, which came near to extinguishing the 
 Society, there is continued and painful testimony 
 to widespread immorality and drunkenness. In 1761 
 a great visitation set on foot by the Yearly Meeting, 
 ushered in an era of disciplinary reform. That reform 
 was needed, no one who has read John Griffith's Journal, 
 or the reports sent in by the Visiting Committees, 
 can for a moment doubt. The spiritual state of the 
 Yearly Meeting was exceedingly low. But the [refor- 
 mation lacked what it needed most, the spiritual temper 
 of the early days. It set up a rigid type to which all 
 must conform, it fastened upon Friends the narrowing 
 distinction of external peculiarities, and raised about 
 the fellowship that Chinese wall which, with great 
 labour, we have just beaten down. Not till the middle 
 of the nineteenth century was the decrease in numbers 
 checked, and then the wide liberation of spiritual 
 energy at home and abroad, in the Foreign Missions 
 and the Adult Schools, brought with it a quickening 
 of life. 
 
 We can afford to study the history of the great 
 decline and to take its lessons to heart, because we 
 have hope in the future and faith in the great renewal. 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 
 
 Lecture III. 
 
 YESTERDAY we considered the immediate outward 
 fruits of local Apostolic Quakerism, the inner 
 life of the early fellowship, and its development during 
 the eighteenth century ; to-day we are concerned with 
 the bearing of past experience upon the present and 
 the future. Certain practical considerations will 
 come before us, and as I am anxious that there should 
 be an opportunity for discussion, my paper shall be 
 brief. 
 
 What are the broad facts which emerge after 
 studying the local details of Quaker history ? 
 
 The invincible spirit and stubborn conscience 
 of the early Friends brought upon them much cruel 
 suffering which they bore for the most part without 
 murmur or complaint. Their life was in the open. 
 No religious fellowship was more exposed to the view 
 and the criticism of the world. It was impossible to 
 ignore the Quaker because he would not be ignored. 
 If you close his meeting-house, he holds it in the street ; 
 if you beat him, he blesses you ; if you stone him 
 out of the city in the evening, he is there in the morning 
 preaching, with his bleeding wounds still fresh upon 
 him. Let, however, a magistrate be unjust, and there 
 is launched upon him all the thunder and lightning 
 
 hi 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 63 
 
 of the Hebrew Prophets ; neither king nor protector, 
 bishop nor pope, are spared. " Thus saith the Lord ! " 
 and so the Quaker stands, the messenger of Divine 
 wrath, of Divine love ; you may break the earthen 
 vessel, but the spirit is invincible, and that you cannot 
 kill. 
 
 Turn to the eighteenth century, the life that was 
 in the open is in secret. Timidly the Quaker peeps 
 over his hedge of prickly cactus, willing that his plain 
 coat of sleek broadcloth should testify for simplicity, 
 but loath indeed to take it off, like the Methodist, 
 and preach to a storming crowd at the street corner. 
 He is careful to avoid debts and financial disgrace, 
 ponderous in the sobriety of his language and the 
 dulness of his intellect. His culture is narrow, his 
 outlook small ; his dinners are good, and his worship 
 somnolent. Do not think that I am unjust. This is 
 literally true ; the picture of a common type. We are 
 too prone to judge the majority from the exceptions 
 and to forget, in the glamour of great names and 
 noble lives, the spiritual torpor which spread over the 
 rank and file. Were it otherwise there had been no 
 decay. Saints there were, of a rare quality, bred in 
 the calm of a cloistral life, whose sweet placidity 
 of temper and unobtrusive charities were a holy 
 and redeeming influence, preserving the honour of the 
 Quaker name ; but beyond this was a dead conformity 
 to an outward pattern, the spirit of the Jew who had 
 Abraham for his father, of the Pharisee who thanked 
 God that he was not as the publican. 
 
 Popular history lights up the mountain-tops and 
 leaves the valleys in shadow. But it is a false topo- 
 
64 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 graphy that describes the middle region of Quakerism 
 as a range of lofty peaks. The majority, always 
 unrecorded in history, lived on the plain. Listen to 
 the following extract from John Griffith's Journal : — 
 
 " On the 3rd of 6th mo. (1761) we visited Richmond 
 Monthly Meeting held at Aisgarth ; the number of members 
 here was very considerable, yet the life of religion seemed 
 at a low ebb. That sorrowful mistake of imagining them- 
 selves God's people without the real sense of the indwelling 
 of His holy Spirit . . . has I fear very much pre- 
 vailed upon the posterity of the faithful worthies who are 
 gone to their rest." 
 
 At Thirsk on the 5th, 
 " there is great lukewarmness, an earthly, carnal spirit 
 having much the ascendency in parents, and rawness, 
 insensibility and a deviation from plainness in divers of 
 the youth." On the 8th at Guisborough Monthly Meeting 
 held at Kirby Moorside, there is a " truly concerned rem- 
 nant." " But at this, as well as at other places, we had 
 with sorrow of heart to view the great desolation that an 
 enemy had made in time of outward ease and liberty. 
 He could not prevail upon our worthy predecessors, by 
 depriving them of their liberty in jails and stinking dun- 
 geons. . . . Nay ! the loss of all their outward sub- 
 stance and the lives of many could not deter them from 
 maintaining their testimony for God . . . ; yet he 
 hath mightily prevailed on many of their inconsiderate 
 offspring, who seem to have very little besides the husk 
 left to feed' upon." 
 
 What caused this change ? Undoubtedly the 
 Quaker fellowship shared in the general reaction which 
 affected all denominations and continued until the 
 fervid preaching of John Wesley and George Whitefield 
 once more stirred the cold embers of religion into 
 flame. When in 1689 the Toleration Act was passed, 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 65 
 
 the Quakers, like a rowing crew after a fierce race, 
 rested on their oars. 
 
 There are early evidences, going back indeed to 
 the time of Fox's death, of coming change. Advice 
 is given to guard Quaker children from contact with 
 those of the world's people, and that Friends do not 
 mingle in politics, — Stephen Crisp, for instance, urges 
 on Friends the avoidance of the terms " Jemmites 
 and Billites," current at the time of James' flight and 
 William's accession. The tendencies thus illustrated 
 were emphasised by the political and educational 
 disabilities imposed upon Friends in common with 
 other Nonconformists. The repeal of the Test and 
 Corporation Acts did not take place till 1828, Friends 
 were not admitted to Parliament till 1833, while the 
 religious tests continued in force at Oxford and 
 Cambridge till 1854-6. 
 
 The true spirit of Quakerism found vent at last 
 in practical philanthropy, as the abolition of the slave 
 trade in 1807 and the labours of Elizabeth Fry in 
 Newgate Jail remind us. But it was inevitable that 
 the broad effect of an early tendency to withdraw 
 into social and religious seclusion, enhanced by the 
 external conditions already particularised, was steadily 
 to contract the range of activity and to narrow the 
 outlook upon life. Thrown back upon themselves, 
 with no serious work before them, limited in the range 
 of their education, the mint, anise and cummin of dress 
 and forms of speech, all the little external differences 
 which grew finally into a Quaker ritualism, swelled 
 to the importance of first principles, and disturbed 
 the true balance in matters spiritual. A weight of 
 
66 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 dead, traditional forms crushed the old free life of the 
 spirit, and really hastened the decline it was intended 
 to arrest. 
 
 Friends travelling in the ministry are numerous 
 in the middle period, but as distinguished from the 
 labours of the first generation, they move, with few 
 exceptions, unknown to the world, and entirely within 
 the limits of the fellowship. Moreover, the great stream 
 of broadsheets, pamphlets and books, intended for a 
 general public, shrinks to a trickling rivulet, if it does 
 not dry up altogether, and with the close of the Keithian 
 controversy, or before the accession of Queen Anne, 
 all development of distinctive Quaker thought upon the 
 fundamentals of belief, appears suddenly to cease. 
 After Barclay, there is no serious attempt at the 
 exposition of Quakerism until we come to Joseph John 
 Gurney. Even to-day we are in this position, that 
 a view of Gospel truth, remarkable in its fitness to 
 meet modern needs, is without any adequate modern 
 interpretation in an accessible form. This is really a 
 fact of considerable significance, and is not uncon- 
 nected with the excessive fear of " humane learning " 
 which, at first a natural reaction from rabbinical 
 sermonising, became in the end a mere ignorant 
 prejudice and worked incalculable mischief throughout 
 the Society. A perusal of eighteenth century minutes 
 will pretty certainly reveal an indifference to education 
 which, in fact, existed to such an extent that it con- 
 verted the task of founding Ackworth School into a 
 work of reformation. 
 
 Behind this prejudice there lay a deep-seated 
 indolence, a refusal, whether wilful or not, to recognise 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 67 
 
 what was involved, in all its practical meaning, by the 
 responsibility of the Free Ministry. That which was 
 moved by the Spirit could entail no labour of the 
 intellect, and so far was the doctrine pressed that it 
 made the ministry appear almost independent of human 
 responsibility. 
 
 The late J. C. Atkinson, in his " Forty Years in 
 a Moorland Parish," tells a story of old William Hartas 
 at a " burial " in Danby Dale. " It was customary," 
 writes the author, "for William to say a few words 
 before the burial party separated. On this occasion 
 nothing had been said. The company, expecting 
 him to speak, waited in silence." Nor were they 
 disappointed. " After looking long and fixedly into 
 the grave in still silence, he gave utterance at length 
 to the following speech : ' Our fr'ind seems vara com- 
 fortable,' and turning to the sexton, ' Thou mun 
 hap him oop.' This concluded the ' burial service ' on 
 that occasion." I do not tell the story as any reproach 
 against the dear old Friend whose speech will provoke 
 a smile so long as the "Moorland Parish " finds a reader ; 
 I seek rather by this humorous tale to fix in your 
 mind the true weakness of the Quaker position. The 
 ministry which swept England in the days of Fox, 
 was impotent in after years to hold the congregations 
 together, and many a closed meeting-house and deserted 
 dale tells the sad story of its failure. 
 
 We have come now to the final chapter of our 
 three-volume novel, and the issue of the plot can no 
 longer be withheld. I would close with the practical 
 consideration of the Free Ministry, for here is the issue 
 that must determine the future of the Society. 
 
68 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 And although I acknowledge at once that the 
 problem of the ministry is really a question of spiritual 
 temper and outlook, yet I must insist that it has 
 certain aspects until recently neglected, calling for 
 separate attention. Spiritual temper, though vital, 
 is not in itself the whole matter. It is possible to 
 imagine a congregation where the spiritual condition 
 is individually healthy, and yet where the ministry 
 of the word is weak, where in the important sphere 
 of practical service love has free play, but where 
 consecrated intellectual guidance is wanting. Unin- 
 telligent social work, for example, may spring from 
 the prompting of a warm good heart, but it will be 
 less efficient where it is not supplemented by a clear 
 cool head. These are the human conditions never 
 absent in the service of God, and however much we 
 may insist upon immediate guidance, God never allows 
 us to transfer to Him our share of the work to which 
 He has called us. 
 
 We have seen the paralysing effect of a narrow, 
 formal discipline in the eighteenth century, and in 
 the inevitable reaction, we are perhaps inclined to 
 opposite extremes, accepting, somewhat light-heartedly, 
 the dictum that every man shall do what he thinks 
 right in his own eyes. Freedom for the individual, 
 however, must always have regard to his relation 
 with the fellowship. We are not detached units, 
 but members of one body. Do not let us forget the 
 strenuous efforts made by George Fox to set up and 
 establish a discipline in the church. We have seen 
 how early the need for organised effort was felt, that 
 as early as 1654, sixty-three ministers, with their 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 69 
 
 head-quarters at Swarthmore, and undoubtedly 
 under central control, were travelling the country 
 upon " Truth's ponies." Fox did not confound 
 spiritual government with administrative chaos. He 
 made a sane man's use of the faculties which God 
 had given him in common with the human race. It 
 was the absence of this sanity in the matter of the 
 ministry, a narrow rather than a broad interpretation 
 of the meaning of inspiration, coupled with a mistaken 
 and restrictive idea of the purposes of discipline, 
 that marks the eighteenth century. 
 
 I am not sure that we have thoroughly learned 
 the elementary lesson which our history teaches even 
 yet. 
 
 A few thoughts, then, about the dreaded word 
 organisation. I take it at this point because I recognise 
 its subsidiary, though essential, importance, and 
 because I wish to end upon a different note. 
 
 Why is it — I put the question pointedly — why 
 is it that our young men can throw their energy into 
 the Adult Schools, organise, prepare, arrange, teach, 
 gather companies about them, and when it becomes 
 a question of work in the direct line of Quaker teaching, 
 work for and in the meeting, that they hesitate and 
 fall away ? I am no pessimist, but can anyone face 
 the facts as they are and regard the comparative absence 
 of young people coming forward in the ministry without 
 misgiving ? It is a grave symptom, and, disregarded, 
 it will have grave consequences. 
 
 Suppose to-morrow we could enlist all this energy 
 at present absorbed in the Adult Schools, in the ex- 
 pansion of the Quaker fellowship. Suppose a com- 
 
70 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE.' 
 
 bination between our unsectarian Adult School class 
 and a Meeting for Worship, the latter at a different 
 hour ; suppose it the work of our young men in the 
 towns and villages of Yorkshire, not made to conform 
 to a rigid pattern, but conducted with perfect freedom 
 and elasticity. Suppose the Quaker fellowship ani- 
 mated by the same fervour and hope which marks 
 the faith of our workers in the Adult School movement, 
 the same belief in the cause. There is latent energy 
 to-day which, rightly called out, consecrated, directed 
 and equipped, could in a generation change the whole 
 aspect of the situation, and pave the way to a develop- 
 ment of unknown extent and possibilities. 
 
 By the side of the Quaker maps I have hung a 
 map, showing the extent of Wesleyanism in the North 
 and East Ridings. It represents in geographical form, 
 882 chapels with a membership of 38,604, and an 
 attendance of about 150,000. Wesley stepped in 
 and occupied what the followers of Fox had been 
 unable to retain. We may be thankful that he did so. 
 The debt England owes to Methodism, especially 
 in the country districts, will never be known, but do 
 not let us assume that therefore the spiritual wants 
 of the people are met, that there is no virgin soil to 
 till. It is not true — still the hungry sheep look up 
 and are not fed. 
 
 Can nothing, then, be done to satisfy their hunger ? 
 
 We are concerned with organisation ; let me 
 suggest what organisation can do. It can provide 
 for our gathering, a hundred strong, at the Toll Booth 
 in Kirby Moorside, it can repeat the gathering next 
 year at Scalby, and every year at some suitable point 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 71 
 
 within the " compass of ours." The early general 
 meetings of the Society were attended by thousands, 
 wooden booths were erected to accommodate the 
 throngs. We, too, may have our general meetings 
 and not merely for the transaction of business. Next 
 year, for example, the Spring Quarterly Meeting is 
 probably to meet at Scarborough. We hope for a 
 week-end visit. Let this be a hint. Let the Summer 
 Quarterly Meeting in 1906 and afterwards be held 
 on the lines of a Summer School, compressing the 
 business and devoting a day or two to meetings for 
 spiritual deepening held with the public, for con- 
 ferences like the great liberating conference at Manches- 
 ter, not always in the same place, but wherever the 
 need is great or opportunity offers. Again, we may 
 extend the excellent organisation by which our local 
 interchange of visits are provided, in order that, like 
 Thomas Thompson, our ministers may go where 
 there are no Friends, and hold public meetings with 
 the world's people. We may appoint and support 
 an organising secretary (a modern counterpart of 
 George Mennell at 12s. a year) — let him have a useful 
 lending library at his disposal, provide courses of 
 lectures and lecturers— an active propaganda, concerned 
 not only with established congregations, but with 
 the building up of new ones. We may call in other 
 Monthly Meetings to combine in the work, and as 
 we take the field, transform our meetings on Ministry 
 and Oversight into missionary conferences. 
 
 But we have not the time ; look at so and so, 
 and so and so, head over ears in work, a whole meeting, 
 an Adult School, half a political constituency, and a 
 
72 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 local council, upon his shoulders. I query whether 
 in the time of Fox better work was done than some 
 are doing to-day. There are those here, doubtless, 
 no less faithful than John Whitehead, who would have 
 suffered under the persecution of the Conventicle Act 
 as cheerfully as he. 
 
 But listen to this : — Four young men recently 
 came to a large meeting in the South, at different 
 times. In each case, Friends wrote letters of intro- 
 duction, asking the members of this meeting to get 
 the young men interested in the Adult School. There 
 was in no case a hint that they should be interested 
 in the meeting. This is not want of time, but of imagi- 
 nation. Those who, in the spirit of self-sacrifice, are 
 taking the full burden, need relief, not further stimu- 
 lation to service, but there are those who have not 
 taken on harness, and among younger workers there 
 is need for a wise direction and division of energy. 
 For example, the changed conditions of modern life 
 demand an equipment, mental as well as spiritual, 
 if they are to be adequately met. We cannot afford 
 to belittle " humane learning " ; the difficulties of 
 Biblical interpretation, the profound questions which 
 gather round the fundamentals of belief, cannot lightly 
 be set aside, nor can they be dealt with by untrained 
 minds. The service here is large, and because it has 
 been neglected, the need is pressing. It will not be 
 every one's service, for as there is infinite diversity 
 in gifts, so there is infinite diversity in needs. But 
 for those who feel the call to labour in this province, 
 a severe mental discipline, a wise economy of time, 
 a proper choice of reading, and definite studies methodi- 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 73 
 
 cally pursued, will be necessary. Woodbrooke will 
 gladly open its doors to assist them, and I wish that 
 our young men of energy would consent to regard 
 such apparent withdrawal from active service, from 
 work on committees and where the results are imme- 
 diate and tangible, as no less needful and practical, 
 destined to be no less fruitful in blessing to the church. 
 
 But it is idle to talk of these things unless the 
 message is clear, and unless the messenger knows 
 the imposition of the crucified hands. If organisation 
 is necessary, it is subsidiary. The Spirit is over all. 
 
 And here difficulties present themselves. There 
 is the statement : — 
 
 (1) That Quakerism (I wish someone would 
 hit on a better word) is absorbed in the other 
 churches, and that there is no call for a dis- 
 tinctive message, and 
 
 (2) That Quakerism is unsuited to the masses. 
 As to the second, I believe it to be absolutely 
 
 false. Fox did not think so, even when he sat on the 
 hay-stack and famished the people from words ; John 
 Whitehead did not think so, when he preached in the 
 barn at Hunmanby ; not one of the sixty-three 
 preachers who rode out of Swarthmore ever thought so. 
 No. Thomas Hancock in his " Peculium " put his 
 finger on a weak spot when he wrote in 1858, "In 1658 
 there was not a Quaker living who did not believe 
 Quakerism to be the one only true church of God. 
 In 1858 there is not a Quaker living who does believe 
 it." 
 
 We need not make the first claim in rejecting 
 the second. There is a mean between the affirmation 
 
74 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 and its negative which is possible and legitimate. 
 Thomas Hancock is right — we don't believe in Quakerism. 
 That is the trouble. We are Friends for a hundred 
 reasons but the right one. If it were not so the first 
 proposition, that Quakerism is absorbed in the other 
 churches, would never be made ; never, because 
 it simply is not true. 
 
 Please understand me. When I speak of 
 Quakerism, I am speaking, not of the visible body 
 of Friends as they are to-day. That would scarcely 
 arouse enthusiasm. We compromise too much, ac- 
 complish too little — there are too many dead branches 
 in our little tree. I am speaking of a way of looking 
 at life, of the ideal of what would be if the Quaker 
 view of the Gospel, the spiritual, inward view, were 
 realised and understood not only by the world's 
 people, but by the Children of the Light. For it is 
 the Children of the Light who do not understand. 
 There is something that has not broken in the heart, 
 some blindness that has not fallen from the eyes. We 
 look too low, we love too little. We are afraid to trust 
 the hidden power of God. Quakerism absorbed ? 
 In Fox's day the gloom of predestination, the awful 
 terrors of hell, hung over the trembling, and darkened 
 their days. Bunyan fled from the Church steeple for 
 fear the bells should fall, and crush him in his sins ; 
 Stephen Crisp at nine or ten years old sought God 
 with " strong cries and tears," and, imbued with the 
 stern spirit of an austere religion, was led at twelve 
 years of age to contemplate the doctrine of election ! 
 He writes : "In this iron furnace I toiled and laboured 
 and none knew my sorrows and griefs." 
 
THE RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 75 
 
 It is different now, the terrors of hell are no more. 
 Nay, eternity itself is forgotten. Men live from day 
 to day feeding their souls on the spiced fare of an 
 ephemeral press, with their eye on the price list or the 
 market, and yielding their bodies such self-indulgence 
 as their means afford. 
 
 Quakerism absorbed ? How much of public 
 worship is real ? How much a convention demanded 
 by society as the sign-manual of respectability ? How 
 many who name the name of Christ know him in their 
 hearts ? How many suffer with him for the cruelty, 
 the wars, the poverty, the vice, the shame, the sin, that 
 still shuts against us the doors of Paradise ? How 
 many love their neighbour as themselves ? No ! 
 Quakerism is not absorbed. There is room yet for 
 the teaching of the Inward Light, for the witness 
 of a living God, for a reinterpretation of the Christ 
 in lives that shall convict the careless, language that 
 shall convince the doubting. The dust of a busy 
 commerce hides the Cross. The Christ of the people 
 is but a lay figure draped in a many coloured garment 
 of creeds, and, worshipping the counterfeit of its own 
 creation, the world sins on. 
 
 There is room yet for a fellowship, all-inclusive 
 in its tender sympathy, drawn close in the loving 
 bondage of sincerity and truth, for a noble simplicity 
 of life and manners, rich in true culture and the taste 
 born of knowledge ; for a freedom that scorns the 
 flummeries of rank, the perquisites of pride, because 
 it knows the worth of manhood and loves the privilege 
 of friendship ; for a simple worship, homely and 
 informal because intimate and real. 
 
7 D JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Climb Pendle Hill with Fox and see once more 
 his vision — " a great people to be gathered," enter 
 in spirit the dungeons of the past and learn why they 
 were palaces, and the bolts precious jewels, repeat again 
 with Nayler his tender words, and in the spirit of his 
 message face the future that lies before you. " Its 
 crown is meekness, its life is everlasting love un- 
 feigned, it takes its kingdom with entreaty and not 
 with contention and keeps it by lowliness of mind."* 
 
 * See " The Spirit of 17th Century Quakerism." Appendix III 
 
THE BASIS OF THE QUAKER FAITH. 
 
 The historic sketches already given may be fittingly 
 followed by two addresses setting forth the Lecturer's 
 view of " the basis of the Quaker faith." 
 
 The first deals especially with Worship, and includes 
 several passages from his articles in " Present Day Papers " 
 on this subject. John Wilhelm Rowntree puts " the 
 golden thread of worship " in the foreground both in these 
 papers, and in the last series he wrote, on the yet wider 
 theme of " Man's relation to God " as it had become real 
 to him in his experience. " Jesus," he says, " points to 
 the heart of a man as the true seat of worship and sacrifice." 
 " To be a Christian is indeed to be hid with Christ in God." 
 It is in this teaching that " the basis of the Quaker faith as 
 discovered in the Gospels must be found." 
 
 The second lecture applies the same root thought to 
 the sacraments, the ministry, and church fellowship. 
 
 The addresses were written for some of the evening 
 meetings of Friends where arrangements are now made for 
 definite Christian teaching, in the winter of 1902-3. 
 
THE BASIS OF THE QUAKER FAITH. I. 
 
 Read John xvii. 
 
 FROM the year 20 B.C. until about ten years 
 before the fall of Jerusalem, the great Temple 
 of the Herods was building. 
 
 Throughout the life-time of Jesus Christ, the 
 workmen were busy with hammer, saw and chisel, 
 upon the house of the national God. And how great 
 a work it was. Professor Delitzsch tells us that more 
 than 18,000 workmen were employed upon it. He 
 says, (I quote from the translation) : 
 
 " The work was contracted for by the cubit and finished 
 according to a somewhat larger scale of cubit, so as to avoid 
 the least appearance of peculation in sacred matters. The 
 workmen did not suffer by this arrangement, for their wages 
 were high. They were paid not weekly but daily, and those 
 only working one hour a day received their wages at once. 
 Those employed were not only architects, stonecutters, 
 masons and carpenters. The wall which surrounded both 
 the forecourts of the Temple was forty cubits high, and 
 contained nine lofty portals, eight of which were furnished 
 with gilded or silvered folding doors, while the one towards 
 the east had folding doors of Corinthian bronze still more 
 rich!}' decorated. This was called the Nikanorgate or 
 Beautiful Gate. 
 
 " Inside, the Temple was richly ornamented with gold 
 and silver, both in its hangings and its massive goldsmiths' 
 work. The whole of the Temple itself shone with the fiery 
 glow of the plates of gold inlaying the walls on all sides, 
 
80 JOHN WILHELM EOWNTREE. 
 
 or, where it was not gilded, with the dazzling white of its 
 spotless marble ; the roof was covered with a gold inter- 
 lacing ... to keep away the birds." 
 
 And so we might go on, adding detail after detail 
 of costly magnificence. It is not only a poet's fancy 
 when Stephen Phillips exclaims in the person of his 
 musing Herod : — 
 
 " I dreamed last night of a dome of beaten gold 
 To be a counter glory to the sun : 
 There shall the eagle blindly dash himself, 
 There the first beam shall strike, and there the moon 
 Shall aim all night her argent archery ; 
 And it shall be the tryst of sundered stars, 
 The haunt of dread and dreaming Solomon ; 
 Shall send a light upon the lost in Hell, 
 And flashings upon faces without hope — 
 And I will think in gold, and dream in silver, 
 Imagine in marble, and in bronze conceive, 
 Till it shall dazzle pilgrim nations, 
 And stammering tribes from undiscovered lands, 
 Allure the living God out of the bliss, 
 And all the streaming seraphim from heaven." 
 
 Against this gorgeous background let us see the 
 scene at the well of Sychar. The stillness of the mid- 
 day heat ; the distant glimmer of white buildings 
 buried in the green figs and olives ; the mountain 
 pass parting Gerizim from the swelling shoulder of 
 Mount Ebal ; the broken, dusty road from Jerusalem 
 to Samaria ; the tired traveller sitting by the well ; 
 the woman, with the stately walk of the Oriental, 
 coming down from the scattered cottages of suburban 
 Sychar ; the conversation ; the drawing of the water — 
 the scene is so simple and so natural that the passer-by 
 
the basis of -the Quaker faith. 8i 
 
 would hardly turn his head, unless, indeed, he recog- 
 nised the traveller as a Jew, and wondered for a moment 
 how a Jew could be in public converse with a Samaritan 
 woman. The chance meeting is the merest incident 
 in the day's travel, and yet how great is the outcome. 
 
 " Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall 
 give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall 
 give him shall become in him a well of water springing 
 up unto eternal life." 
 
 " Sir," exclaims the woman, " I perceive that 
 thou art a prophet ; " and pointing up at Mount 
 Gerizim, she challenges him, " Our fathers worshipped 
 in this mountain ; you, a Jew, say that it is in Jeru- 
 salem men ought to worship." 
 
 " Woman, believe me, neither in this mountain 
 nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father. The 
 hour cometh, and now is, when true worshippers shall 
 worship the Father in spirit and in truth ; for such 
 does the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is 
 spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him 
 in spirit and in truth." 
 
 Our quest is the source of Quakerism in the Gospels. 
 And by Sychar's spring we approach more nearly 
 to what we seek, than we shall ever do in the gorgeous 
 temple of the Herods. 
 
 Let us examine this well-side teaching in view 
 of the thought and practice of the times in which 
 Jesus lived. Let us see, as we appreciate the atmos- 
 phere in which he moved, what was its full signifi- 
 cance. But to do so we must for a moment glance 
 back at times that were long before Christ, for through 
 all the story of the human race, runs the golden thread 
 
82 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 of worship. Even the rudest savage has his sense 
 of a higher power. His vision is distorted, his faith 
 little more than fear, his expression of the vague 
 sentiment in his breast is barbarous ; but cruel or 
 grotesque as the religions of man's spiritual infancy 
 may now appear, they were the first stage in the slow 
 evolution of worship from the dread of the strong 
 to the adoration of the righteous. The story is of 
 surpassing interest ; for it tells not merely of man 
 groping after God, but of the Father seeking His 
 children. 
 
 The development is not indeed without inter- 
 ruption. Again and again there is stumbling on the 
 altar stairs. We see simple faiths elaborated, and 
 overlaid with ceremonial, until their life departs and 
 the gaudy vestment alone is left. It was thus in Egypt. 
 There, as elsewhere, the earliest religious ideas were 
 probably expressed in Nature-worship ; the vague, 
 undetermined stage of spiritual life. Imagination, 
 uncontrolled by reason, would develop the damonistic, 
 magical rites observable to-day among the lowest 
 African tribes. Each village, or group of villages, 
 had its fetish or totem, its sacred cat, or hawk, or cow, 
 and so the rabble of the Egyptian gods came into being. 
 As the sense of national unity grew strong under 
 the rule of the Pharaohs, so also the different local 
 religious ideas underwent some sort of fusion 
 resulting in a national mythology, in which the local 
 gods were brought under the dominance of Amen-Ra 
 at Karnak. Then follows the decadence ! 
 
 Probably neither the Eastern nor the Western 
 church ever surpassed in splendour the service in the 
 
THE BASIS OF THE QUAKER FAITH. 83 
 
 temple of the Father of Gods. No religious procession 
 winding through the streets of Rome or Constantinople 
 was ever more gorgeous than that which passed down 
 the avenue of Sphinxes to the Nile, when the god in 
 his golden bark was borne aloft by shaven priests 
 in white garments, accompanied by every accessory 
 of magnificence ; by dancing priestesses and musicians 
 with their clashing instruments, by waving fans and 
 clouds of incense. But there was little in which 
 the common people might take part. The ancient 
 totem of the village had become a mystery, hidden 
 in the inner sanctuary from the eyes of the vulgar ; 
 the service of the god was now the exclusive privilege 
 of a class. Little wonder then that while the priests 
 might cherish a mystic interpretation of the symbols 
 of their worship, refining the grossness of an earlier 
 age, the people ceased to believe in a ceremonial which 
 for them had lost its meaning, and in which they hardly 
 shared. This tendency to elaborate worship, and 
 to create a separate class charged with the function 
 of the temple, is almost universal. Living symbols 
 become outworn, and obscure what once they revealed, 
 until the spirit of religion fails under a dead weight 
 of perfunctory rites. 
 
 Of such symbols propitiatory sacrifice was perhaps 
 the most significant. The chief deity was regarded 
 as a king, the local gods as lords and ladies, and divine 
 favour might only be obtained by presents. Homer 
 declares that the gods are persuaded by gifts, while 
 in Exodus xxiii. 15, we read that Jahveh must not 
 be approached empty-handed. 
 
 In process of time these crude ideas lost their 
 
84 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 meaning tor the worshipper, and sacrifice became a 
 dead convention. But the Hebrew prophets hurled 
 their denunciation against all sacrificial ceremonial, 
 even when its meaning was still evident.* They grasped 
 the truth that worship is inward and spiritual, the 
 reverence of the soul for a righteous God. Ceremonial 
 acts apart from moral conduct had for them no value 
 whatever. They had a vision of that Christian ideal 
 to which Paul gave noble utterance when he called 
 upon men, by the mercies of God, to present to Him 
 their bodies a living and acceptable sacrifice. f 
 
 But, in spite of the prophets, the deep spirituality 
 welling up in some post-exilic psalms % seems but a 
 slender stream by the swollen river of legalism. On 
 its return from Babylon the Jewish community had 
 been reorganised by the priests, who combining the 
 sacerdotal and the legal, ruled henceforward over both 
 the spiritual and material affairs of the people ; and 
 when in course of time their laxity provoked the rise 
 of the Scribes, these authoritative interpreters only 
 brought the Law into even greater prominence. In 
 the days of Christ the Jewish nation had become a 
 people of the Law, which commanded its enthusiastic 
 obedience by the promise of future glory through 
 faith in divine retribution. This faith in divine 
 
 * Amos protests in vigorous language : " Though ye offer me 
 your burnt offerings and meal offerings I will not accept them ; 
 neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts." See 
 also Isaiah i. 10-17, and Micah vi. 6-8. 
 
 f It may be interesting here to recall a quotation of Porphyry 
 from an earlier Greek writer : " We ought then having been united 
 and made like to God to offer our own conduct as a holy sacrifice to 
 him, the same being also a hymn and our salvation in passionless 
 excellence of soul#" 
 
 t e.g. Psalm cxxxix. 
 
THE BASIS OF THE QUAKER FAITH. 85 
 
 retribution was, says Schiirer, " a mainspring of all 
 zeal for the Law. Nay, the entire religious life of the 
 Jewish people during this period, revolved round 
 these two poles : — Fulfilment of the Law and Hope 
 of Future Glory." As the motive was an external 
 glory, so the result was an incredible externalising 
 of the religious and moral life. " The value of Good 
 is left out of account. Not the doing of good, as 
 such, but merely formal accuracy in fulfilling the 
 letter of the Law is the aim. And notwithstanding 
 all zeal, nay, just because of it, true morality was 
 the loser." * 
 
 The predominance of legalism seriously affected 
 the Hebrew thought of God. The old free spirit 
 of the son in the Father's House gave place to the 
 hardening conception of the worker by contract, 
 whose loveless labours the distant taskmaster was 
 bound to reward. God was conceived as a far-off 
 Oriental magnate, whose exclusive and artificial 
 holiness must not be contaminated by the common 
 and unclean things of a work-a-day world. 
 
 The people were a people of the law, but not 
 even through the law could they reach God. 
 
 Ever since the Deuteronomic legislation came 
 into force in the time of Josiah, about 630 B.C., it 
 was declared to be unlawful to offer sacrifices any- 
 where but in Jerusalem, the whole worship being 
 concentrated here in its sole and only legitimate 
 sanctuary. 
 
 * " His virtues were his pride ; and that one vice 
 
 Made all his virtues gewgaws of no price." — Cowper, Truth. 
 
 It cannot, however, be maintained that such zeal was merely 
 superficial. 
 
86 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Twice a day in the daily service a burnt offering 
 was sacrificed. In no circumstances could this be 
 dispensed with. We find for example that in the 
 year seventy, Jerusalem had for a considerable time 
 been invested by the Romans, and that in consequence 
 the scarcity of food had reached a climax, but for 
 all that, the daily sacrifices continued to be regularly 
 offered, and it was felt by the besieged as their heaviest 
 calamity when at last they found themselves in the 
 position of having no more to offer. This act, it 
 must be remembered, regarded as central and all 
 important, could be performed only by a priest, who 
 in virtue of his sacred office was raised above the 
 people. He stood between the people and their God, 
 while sacrifice as apart from morals, and the law 
 as apart from conviction, were regarded as objects 
 in themselves. 
 
 We can now again take up the words of Christ. 
 " Woman, believe me, neither in this mountain nor 
 in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father. The 
 hour cometh and now is, when true worshippers shall 
 worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for such 
 does the Father seek to be His worshippers. God 
 is spirit, and they that worship Him, must worship 
 Him in spirit and in truth." 
 
 In spite of the externalism we have noted in 
 the current religion, the premise that God is spirit 
 would be readily granted ; Jews and Samaritans 
 alike believe in the non-material nature of God.* 
 
 * In a prayer attributed to Solomon — I Kings viii. 27 — we read, 
 "But will God in very deed dwell on the earth ? Behold heaven and 
 the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee, how much less this 
 House that I have builded." 
 
THE BASIS OF THE QUAKEfc FAITH. 87 
 
 " But," to quote Godet, " what is absolutely new 
 in this saying is the consequence which Jesus draws 
 from this axiom in relation to worship. He sees 
 springing up from the ancient notion, converted 
 into reality by the Holy Spirit, a new people, who, in 
 virtue of the filial spirit with which they shall be 
 animated, will celebrate an unceasing and universal 
 worship." Men, as children, are to worship their 
 spiritual Father in spirit. It is the deepest element 
 of the human soul which is to hold communion with 
 the Divine. True worship can be rendered only in 
 the inner sanctuary of the heart. " Know ye not 
 that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost that 
 is in you, which ye have from God ? " * " The Most 
 High dwelleth not in temples made with hands." f 
 " Behold the Kingdom of God is within you." % 
 
 No limit of place or time may be set to Christian 
 worship. Not on Gerizim, not in Jerusalem, but 
 in the heart of man stands the altar of God. " Every 
 man has in his heart an altar, on which, if he invoke 
 it in earnestness, purity, and love, the Spirit of God 
 will descend."! 
 
 Ceremonial rites are no condition of Divine favour. 
 Madame Guyon has described ceremony as " only 
 a jet thrown up from the worship of the spirit," and 
 while Jesus lays emphasis on the spiritual nature 
 of worship, he does not fix its outward form. If he 
 nowhere expressly prohibits ceremonial, he nowhere 
 
 * 1 Corinthians vi. 19. 
 
 f Acts vii. 48. 
 % Luke xvii. 21. 
 § Mazzinj, 
 
88 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 enjoins it.* He visits Temple and Synagogue, and 
 takes -part in the great religious festivals, as a prophet 
 with a message to deliver rather than as a participant. 
 Indeed when he cleanses the Temple of its thieves 
 he appeals to the prophets, whose protest against 
 externalism we have already considered, quoting 
 Isaiah — " My house shall be called a house of prayer 
 for all peoples." He thus ignores the general con- 
 ception of the temple worship as culminating in cere- 
 monial sarcifice, and elevates the spiritual exercise 
 of prayer to a position of primary instead of secondary 
 importance. But when he emphasises the importance 
 of prayer, he establishes no rite ! The context of 
 " The Lord's Prayer " as well as the whole spirit 
 of His teaching, precludes our reading into it any 
 ceremonial injunction. We can only view its hurried 
 recitation by a congregation as one of those vain 
 repetitions which the Gentiles use, and as a direct 
 contravention of the solemn command " After this 
 manner pray ye." 
 
 Jesus does not once enjoin that observance of 
 external rites which was a matter of supreme im- 
 portance to the Jew. " There were in His day," 
 writes Principal Fairbairn, " two traditional ideas 
 of the religious life, the priest's and the scribe's ; 
 but His did not conform to either. The priests made 
 the temple, with its worship and priesthood, the 
 
 * The injunction to the cleansed leper to show himself to the priest 
 can hardly be strained into an acceptance of the priestly order, it is 
 rather the establishment of official testimony to a great deed. When 
 Jesus speaks of the gift offered at the altar, and of swearing by the 
 altar, he acknowledges and accepts the temple ceremonial only in so 
 far as he does not challenge it, but both are glearly references by way 
 of illustration, 
 
THE BASIS OF THE QUAKER FAITH. 89 
 
 great factor of religion . . . The holy man was 
 the man who came often to the temple and made 
 generous use of its priesthood, places, articles, and 
 modes of worship. . . . The ideal of the scribes 
 was different, yet akin . . . The holy man of 
 the scribe forgot no sacred day or solemn time, neglected 
 no fast, gave alms of all he had, prayed by book, 
 worshipped according to rule, and otherwise toiled 
 and comported himself as became a man who lived 
 by a written and traditional code." Judged by 
 every criterion of the Pharisee, Jesus was an irreligious 
 man. 
 
 " In His daily and familiar life they found none of the 
 customary signs of a religion . . . nay, they found not 
 only these absent, but a conduct that seemed studiously 
 to offend — kindly speech to Gentiles, association with 
 publicans and sinners, unheard-of liberty allowed to His 
 disciples and claimed for Himself on the Sabbath : the 
 right to do all this vindicated by the denial of the au- 
 thority of tradition and the elders, and by the assertion 
 of His own." 
 
 He sets ceremonial observance aside with perfect 
 inner freedom when he finds that it hinders the doing 
 of his Father's will. Against the Levitical idea of 
 holiness Jesus sets the purity of the heart. He con- 
 trasts the moral inwardness of man's due attitude 
 to the will of God with the mere externality of servile 
 obedience. " His ideal of worship was filial love 
 expressed in filial speech and conduct ; and this love 
 made all places sacred, all times holy, all service 
 religious, all actions duties done to the Father in 
 heaven." A divine passion glows through the at- 
 mosphere of cold legality. The gulf between God 3nd 
 
90 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 man, which the scribe had sought to widen, is bridged. 
 The meagre conception of the church as a temple of 
 ritual, becomes that of a brotherhood for service, 
 " where hand joins hand in helpfulness : " a spiritual 
 house built up of living stones, a holy priesthood 
 to offer up spiritual sacrifices. 
 
 In his " Dynamic Faith " Dr. Rufus Jones takes 
 as his cardinal text the passage in the Beatitudes 
 " The Pure in Heart shall see God," and proceeds : — 
 
 " No amount of psalm-singing or church going, no 
 amount of creed signing or pious attitudes, could make a 
 man see God if his heart was still impure and if he was still 
 clinging to some pet sin ; and this fact was as clear as day- 
 light to Geo. Fox, who himself went straight to the heart 
 of things and based his whole message on this practical 
 truth, that there can be no substitute in religion for purity 
 of heart. This fundamental ground, viz., that religion 
 begins with a more or less clear vision of God and that the 
 vision depends solely on purity of heart, is reason enough, 
 were there no others, why the rituals and ordinances of the 
 historic church are discarded by Friends." 
 
 Later, quoting the words " That they may be one in 
 us, as thou Father art in me, and I in Thee," Rufus 
 Jones adds : — " It is out of this ground that the 
 Society of Friends springs into existence." 
 
 We are not concerned to-night with the deductions 
 drawn by Friends from the Gospels and particularly 
 from the Johannine view of Christ. These we reserve 
 till next week, but let us endeavour to understand 
 more clearly in what this " ground " consists. 
 
 Jesus at the well sets aside the whole outward 
 paraphernalia of the National religion with its narrow 
 exclusiveness, and in the wonderful prayer which we 
 
THE BASIS OF THE QUAKER FAITH. 91 
 
 read at the outset, he prays that those whom the 
 Father has given Him may behold His glory and " that 
 the love wherewith thou lovest me may be in them 
 and I in them — that they may be perfected into one." 
 In the time at our disposal it is impossible to 
 collect all the evidence, but we cannot ponder these 
 passages nor study the Gospels as a whole without 
 recognising that Christ sought by His ministry, and 
 by the unfolding of His love upon the Cross, to open 
 to all the vision of God ; to show men an inward 
 kingdom, peaceful amid the strifes of the world, a 
 city holy though environed by sin, a life pure though 
 in the temple of the flesh, a communion free without 
 restriction to the sons of men. That neither in this 
 mountain nor in Jerusalem, neither here nor there, 
 neither through ritual worship nor ceremonial sacrifice, 
 neither through a priestly caste nor a written code, 
 nor an historic church, but in and through the inter- 
 penetration of the individual soul by himself, his 
 passion, and his love, lay the road to Eternal Life. 
 Not after bleeding heifers, but a contrite spirit, not 
 after clean linen but a pure mind, not after marble 
 walls with slabs of gold, but a pure love responding 
 to his own, did he yearn, who hung with breaking 
 heart upon the cross. From the foundation of the 
 world God had loved His Son, from the foundation 
 the spirit of the Christ had striven with the sons of 
 men, love with selfishness, purity with sin. From 
 the foundation, guided by unseen hands, men had 
 groped their way out of a great darkness. First 
 glimmered the twilight and then shone the full day. 
 To men the world had been a hard riddle. Pain, sin, 
 
92 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 sorrow, strife, the deep shadows chasing the sunshine, 
 the chill gloom beyond the grave, what of them ? 
 
 But with the passion of the Cross came hope. 
 The hidden love of God started into visible shape, 
 the hidden purpose of life lay uncovered. Fear had 
 built altars of sacrifice, but love was to pull them 
 down, ignorance had regarded particular places, times 
 and seasons as alone sacred, but Love was to show all 
 life, all nature, all time, sacred to the holiest purpose. 
 Nothing God had made was unclean, nor was anything 
 void of His presence. The earth was His garment, 
 the stars His diadem, the very air His breath. " I 
 and the Father," God and Christ, are one. The 
 message of the Cross is the message of the Universe — 
 redeeming love the beginning, the passage and the 
 end. And in truth, God in Christ is " closer than breath- 
 ing, nearer than hands and feet," for is not His Kingdom 
 within ? How hard to learn that truth, how far is the 
 Christian Church from accepting it as the kernel of 
 her message. 
 
 And yet to the pure in heart, to the quick eye of 
 the trusting soul, the veil of the flesh is rent in twain, 
 the gates of death fly apart and the glory of heaven 
 lies revealed. To the soul that feeds upon the bread 
 of life the outward conventions of religion are no 
 longer needful. Hid with Christ in God, there is for 
 him small place for outward rites, for all experience 
 is a holy baptism, a perpetual supper with the Lord, 
 and all life a sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God. 
 
 This hidden life, this inward vision, this immediate 
 and intimate union between the soul and God — this, as 
 revealed in Jesus Christ, is the basis of the Quaker faith. 
 
THE BASIS OF THE QUAKER FAITH. II. 
 
 Read pp. 42-43 Fox's Journal. Vol. I.* 
 
 WE endeavoured last week to understand the 
 meaning of the conversation by the well of 
 Samaria. Jesus, rejecting Gerizim and Jerusalem, 
 points to the heart of man as the true seat of worship 
 and sacrifice. Holiness is achieved neither through 
 a place nor in a rite, but in character. The Kingdom 
 of God is within, and the relation between man and 
 God, independent of ritual sacrifice or priestly caste, 
 is immediate, intimate and personal. 
 
 To be a Christian is indeed to be hid with Christ 
 in God. It was in this teaching of the inward kingdom 
 revealed in Jesus Christ that we said the basis of the 
 Quaker faith, as discovered in the Gospels, must be 
 fouruU 
 
 ■""'To-night we turn from the Gospels to the deduc- 
 tion — from the basis to the superstructure. 
 
 It has often been supposed that Quakerism is. 
 if not a bundle of oddities, at least a series of negations. 
 The oddities have gone. In so far as they were com- 
 prised in broad-brimmed beavers, collarless coats, 
 and coal-scuttle bonnets, they represented a true 
 thought caricatured, a living protest fossilised into a 
 dead custom. Beginning as an attempt to free the 
 individual from the tyranny of fashion, the Quaker 
 * Bi-Centenary Edition, 1901. 2 vols. 
 
94 J° H N WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 costume became, in time, a fashion in itself which 
 deserved to die. The teaching that life should be 
 simple, was surely lost when the young maidens of a 
 Quaker congregation were told to appear at the next 
 Preparative meeting in the dresses they proposed 
 to wear at the ensuing Quarterly Meeting — to appear, 
 in fact, at a dress-rehearsal with the Elders as critics. 
 
 But this is a type of Quakerism which lingers, 
 if at all, only at Philadelphia, and we need not let 
 it detain us. 
 
 The second supposition, that Quakerism is a system 
 of negations, requires, however, some attention. 
 
 We do not baptise, we do not take the Supper, 
 we do not have a separated ministry, we do not conse- 
 crate our Meeting-houses, we do not take oaths, we 
 do not fight ; what have we here, says the outsider, 
 but a bundle of negations ? and too often Friends 
 have lent colour to this view. They have laid stress 
 upon the things they do not believe or do not do, and 
 have failed to lay bare the positive basis of the faith 
 which is thus expressed. The supposition is, of course, 
 mistaken. The Quaker faith, rightly understood, 
 so far from being negative, is the profoundest affirma- 
 tion, but in view of the false impression so often given, 
 let us examine the matter briefly. 
 
 And let us take as our main theme the Quaker 
 worship, for this is the central outward fact of the 
 fellowship. 
 
 To make our examination effective we must 
 go back for a moment to Apostolic times, not indeed 
 that we may. prove a spiritual pedigree or insist on 
 historical continuity, but rather that we may under- 
 
THE BASIS OF THE QUAKER FAITH. 95 
 
 stand the ground for the Quaker practice. As Dr. 
 Fairbairn says, " It is a small thing, nay more, an easy 
 thing, for a church to make out its historical continuity 
 and catholicity — that is only a matter of deft criticism 
 and courageous argument ; but it is a great thing 
 for any church to have created or be creating a society 
 corresponding to the ideal of Christ." 
 
 This is the ideal issue, and therefore our interest 
 in history will only be in so far as it tends to reveal 
 identity between the theory of a Friends' meeting 
 and the ideal of Christ, nor can our interest in this 
 question be only in relation to the Society of Friends, 
 but rather must it be to the whole Christian experience. 
 
 We take then, the beginning of the Apostolic 
 Church. 
 
 In her earliest days the sense of brotherhood 
 was strong. McGiffert, one of the great authorities 
 on the Apostolic Age, dwells on the simplicity and 
 warmth of early church life. 
 
 " It would be a mistake to picture the Christians as 
 holding regular and formal services such as are held to- 
 day. ... It was ... in their daily intercourse 
 with one another and in the little family gatherings from 
 house to house, that their Christian life found fullest 
 expression and the sense of Christian brotherhood, which 
 was all-controlling, had freest play." 
 
 " The most notable and characteristic feature of the 
 Corinthian services, described by Paul, is the immediate 
 activity and controlling influence of the Holy Spirit. It 
 was supposed that those who took part in the Meetings did 
 it, not on their own impulse, but under the impulse of the 
 Spirit, and that all their utterances, consequently, were 
 divinely inspired. Whoever had a psalm, or a teaching, or 
 a revelation, or a tongue, or an interpretation, received it 
 
96 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 from the Spirit, and when he communicated it to his 
 brethren, it was accepted as a divine and not a merely 
 human utterance. It is in the light of this fact that the 
 freedom which characterised the Corinthian services must 
 be interpreted. The confinement of the right of participa- 
 tion to a special class, or to certain regularly appointed 
 individuals, was evidently quite unknown. Every Christ- 
 ian had the right to take part, and the woman's right was 
 equal to the man's." 
 
 The religious meetings of the Christians became 
 in time more regular and stereotyped. In Rome, 
 before the end of the first century, officials, appointed 
 by the brethren, were in control of the services, and 
 the movement which was ultimately to establish a 
 hierarchy had begun. The history of the Church 
 indeed is one of continual elaboration and absorption. 
 The Greek orator becomes the Christian preacher, 
 and the Christian sermon is modelled on the lines 
 of the Hall of Rhetoric. The spiritual fervour of the 
 early exhortations evaporates in the fine phrases of 
 the sophist and rhetorician. Free participation in 
 divine worship is increasingly restricted, till the priests 
 perform before an audience the drama of the Mass. 
 The Church under imperial patronage puts on earthly 
 armour, she vies with ancient Egypt in the splendour 
 of her ceremonial, and overlays the inward reality 
 with a gUtter of rituaL 
 
 There is a powerful passage in the Hibbert lectures 
 of Dr. Hatch which we cannot forbear quoting : — 
 
 " Christianity came into the educated world in the 
 simple dress of a prophet of righteousness. It won that 
 world by the stern reality of its life, by the subtle bonds 
 of its brotherhood, by its divine message of consolation 
 
THE BASIS OF THE QUAKER FAITH. 97 
 
 and of hope. Around it thronged the race of eloquent 
 talkers who persuaded it to change its dress and to assimi- 
 late its language to their own. It seemed thereby to win a 
 speedier and completer victory. But it purchased con- 
 quest at the price of reality. With that its progress 
 stopped. There has been an element of sophistry in it 
 ever since, and so far as in any age that element has been 
 dominant, so far has the progress of Christianity been 
 arrested. Its progress is arrested now because many of 
 its preachers live in an unreal world. The truths they set 
 forth are truths of utterance, rather than truths of their 
 lives. But if Christianity is to be again the power that it 
 was in its earliest ages, it must renounce its costly pur- 
 chase. . . The hope of Christianity is that the class 
 which was artificially created may ultimately disappear, 
 and that the sophistical preaching will melt as a transient 
 mist before the preaching of the prophets of the ages to 
 come, who, like the prophets of the ages that are long gone 
 by, will speak ' only as the spirit gives them utterance.' " 
 
 The upheaval of the Reformation was in some 
 measure a protest against that unreality which Dr. 
 Hatch deplores ; a protest which is perhaps best 
 illustrated by the teaching of George Fox. In the 
 seventeenth century there rose under his guidance 
 a people who, with no original intention of founding a 
 separate sect, ultimately became a distinct religious 
 body, known to this day as the Society of Friends. 
 Their testimony was against externalism. They met 
 for worship with but little pre-arrangement. Those 
 whose vocal ministry was acceptable were officially 
 encouraged and called ministers, but with no rite of 
 ordination, no priestly function, or special privileges. 
 None were forbidden to speak or pray. All the men 
 and women of the congregation shared alike in the 
 responsibility of a priesthood free to all in the brother- 
 
9& JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 hood of Christ. They met on a basis of silence, believing 
 that there is a worship of the heart too profound 
 for the utterance of the lips, though this silence in no 
 way withheld liberty from those who had a message to 
 deliver.* Symbolism in worship having shown a 
 universal tendency to obscure the truth it once revealed, 
 they disregarded all forms, fearful lest the spirituality 
 and inwardness of their worship might suffer. They 
 built their meeting houses in simple fashion, that no 
 sensuous aesthetic delight in outward beauty might 
 displace the dependence on the inward light in the 
 temple not made with hands. The underlying principle 
 of their worship was the responsibility and the priest- 
 hood of each worshipper, and his immediate dependence 
 upon the Spirit of God. Worship cannot be " done by 
 proxy." W. E. Gladstone has spoken of " the work 
 of divine worship," "of the sustained mental effort 
 necessary to complete the act wherein every Christian 
 is a priest." Upon this truth, which a spiritually 
 indolent age seems eager to forget, William Penn long 
 ago laid emphasis. He says : — 
 
 " If you would know God and worship and serve God 
 as you should do, you must come to the means he has 
 ordained, and given for that purpose. Some seek it in 
 books, some in learned men ; but what they look for is in 
 themselves, though not of themselves, but they overlook 
 it. The voice is too still, the seed too small and the light 
 shineth in darkness. Wherefore, O Friends, turn in, 
 
 * It should be remembered that the modern objection to singing 
 had no part in the original protest of the Society of Friends. A 
 minute of 1675 in the manuscript Book of Discipline bids Friends 
 not to quench or discourage " Reverant singing, breathing forth an 
 Heavenly sound of Joy with Grace, with the Spirit and with Under- 
 standing ... to Edification and comfort in the Church of Christ." 
 Singing can only be inconsistent with spiritual worship when it is 
 professional or insincere. 
 
THE BASIS OF THE QUAKER FAITH. 99 
 
 turn in, I beseech you ! There you want Christ, and there 
 you must find him ; and, blessed be God, there you may 
 find him. Seek and you shall find ; I testify for God." 
 
 " He who only hears," says Prof. Drummond, 
 " leaves life and character in arrears, while 
 truth and knowledge may seem to increase. 
 His organism acquires a growing immobility, and 
 finally exists in a state of entire intellectual helpless- 
 ness and inertia. . . What cost nothing can come 
 to nothing. . . Such an one becomes at last the 
 listless, useless, pampered parasite of the pew. . . 
 his will unbraced, his crude soul unquickened and 
 unimproved." 
 
 Such in the briefest outline is the historical expla- 
 nation for the Quaker theory of Worship ; it has its 
 roots in the early practice, or rather in that which 
 underlay the early freedom of the Corinthian Church, 
 namely, the Gospel teaching of the inward kingdom. 
 It is no mere asceticism as some suppose, no mere 
 denial of the place of art and ritual and of all the rich 
 accessories of public worship. It is rather an assertion 
 of an inward truth so rich that by its side all acces- 
 sories are poor. 
 
 So with the supper and the baptism. I do not 
 propose to discuss these questions argumentatively 
 and in detail, — time does not allow. But we may at 
 least take notice that modern scholarship is in the most 
 remarkable way justifying the position intuitively 
 taken by Fox and the early Quakers towards these 
 ancient rites. Harnack, Weiszacher, McGiffert, Hatch, 
 and Lindsay, have between them, either directly or by 
 inference, practically established the Quaker position. 
 
100 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 McGiffert, for example, claims (speaking of the 
 supper) that there is no evidence whatever that the 
 earliest disciples held a special service or partook of a 
 special communion meal. He maintains rather that 
 whenever they ate together they partook of the Lord's 
 Supper and looked back with tender hearts in the 
 breaking of their daily bread, to his life of service and 
 of sacrifice. 
 
 Of the baptism, we may remark that Jesus, when 
 he took up the little children and said " of such is the 
 Kingdom of Heaven," was speaking of Jewish children, 
 who, according to the Jewish custom would not have 
 been baptized, and the Quaker position is really 
 summed up in the words, " John indeed baptized with 
 water but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit." 
 
 It is the inward change, the inward purification, 
 the spiritual fact and not the outward symbol, that 
 belongs in truth to the kingdom of God. Neither in 
 the refusal to baptize nor to take the supper, do Friends 
 set forth a negation. They assert, on the contrary, 
 the positive truth that the religious life is the inward 
 life of the spirit. But no place or time can limit its 
 action, nor any symbol adequately express it, and that 
 therefore of necessity no priest can claim to intervene 
 between that inward life and its source of strength 
 and power. 
 
 Again and again this assertion is put forward by 
 Fox. He will not take an oath, for no outward rite 
 can make a false man true, nor strengthen the truth 
 when it is spoken. The steeple-house at Nottingham 
 was a " great idol," not because it was a steeple-house, 
 or because Fox had an insane hatred of churches as 
 
THE BASIS OF THE QUAKER FAITH. 101 
 
 some suppose, but because in this church as in so many 
 others at the time, Pharisaism was rampant, and the 
 dry externals of dogmatic teaching were offered as 
 the bread of life. 
 
 The hireling ministry was hireling not so much 
 because it was paid, as that it was supported by the 
 state, rather than by the free-will offerings of the 
 people, because it loved soothsaying rather than 
 truth-speaking, and feared human authority rather than 
 the hidden majesty of God. In all its aspects it is not 
 so much that the teaching of Fox was new. What 
 was really new was its fearless application to every 
 activity of life. Fox had the courage to be logical. 
 Other churches profess belief in inward guidance, but 
 they dare not found their constitution upon their 
 belief. 
 
 There is no deeper scepticism as to the reality 
 and directness of human intercourse with God, the 
 great truth which Fox realised in himself when he heard 
 " one, even Jesus Christ, who could speak to his con- 
 dition," and which he made the pivot of his teaching, — ■ 
 than that which has created the priest and endowed 
 him with authority. 
 
 The conception of the inwardness of the Kingdom 
 faithfully interpreted, cut at the root of all the shams, 
 all mere conventionalities, all religion by proxy, all 
 unbrotherliness, all injustice, all artificial limitations. 
 Interpreted with sincerity, it worked itself out into a 
 practical gospel, a spiritual and social order transcend- 
 ing all contemporary ideals in its realization of lofty 
 purity, and loving fellowship. 
 
 It stamped the individual with a new dignity, 
 
102 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 and gave him an independence that no earthly tribunal 
 could fetter. But it did not develop independence 
 at the cost of brotherhood, rather it deepened the sense 
 of social responsibility which in time was to liberate 
 the slaves, and may yet go far to remove the curse 
 of poverty and redress the unequal distribution of the 
 opportunities of life. 
 
 Professor James has given eloquent testimony 
 to the consequences which flowed from Fox's insistence 
 upon a neglected teaching : — 
 
 " The Quaker religion which he founded is something 
 which it is impossible to overpraise. In a day of shams it 
 was a religion of veracity rooted in spiritual inwardness 
 and a return to something more like the original Gospel 
 truth than men had ever known in England. So far as 
 our Christian sects to-day are evolving into liberality they 
 are simply reverting in essence to the position which Fox 
 and the early Quakers so long ago assumed." 
 
 I quote the passage in no spirit of vain-glory, 
 it is spoken of Fox and his work, and not of us. 
 
 To-day the gulf between theory and practice is 
 sufficiently wide, and it must rest with this generation 
 of Friends by renewed faithfulness to vindicate their 
 claim to so great a testimony. 
 
 You observe what Professor James says, "so 
 far as our Christian sects to-day are evolving into 
 liberality they are simply reverting in essence to the 
 position which Fox and the early Quakers so long 
 ago assumed." It is important to observe the bearing 
 of that paragraph. It witnesses to a positive aspect 
 of Fox's testimony that we are sometimes in danger 
 of forgetting. The dependence upon the inward 
 
THE BASIS OF THE QUAKER FAITH. IO3 
 
 involves a comparative disregard of the outward marks 
 by which men were accustomed to measure the value 
 of persons and things. 
 
 Why have Friends no rigid standard of orthodoxy, 
 no exact outward conditions of fellowship ? The 
 absence of these checks upon the individual have not 
 seldom been deplored, and yet it is the very freedom of 
 the Quaker in these matters that makes him strong. 
 He cannot accept superficial judgment. 
 
 A man may go to the theatre and yet be less 
 worldly than some rigorous attender at church or 
 chapel, he may take the supper as a memorial feast, 
 and yet his inward attitude, free from sacerdotal 
 dependence, be that of a true Friend. And so he wel- 
 comes into his fellowship all who are spiritually akin 
 with him, not asking, nay, not caring, for a rigid 
 outward uniformity, for these things of the outward 
 life are immaterial where the inward unity prevails. 
 ^ There is a significant incident in the life of Fox, 
 which illustrates my meaning. One of his early 
 preachers, Humphrey Wooldrig, baptized a convert 
 in 1658. Wooldrig wrote to Fox that Friends had 
 judged him for it, as indeed they had. He explained 
 that he had baptized for the " satisfaction amd com- 
 fort " of the convert. 
 
 Wooldrig wrote to Fox in full confidence that his 
 
 action would be approved and bis confidence was 
 
 . justified. Fox refused to condemn him. He denied 
 
 the necessity of the outward rite, but he declined to 
 
 limit the fellowship by a uniform outward observance. 
 
 There is nothing more desolating, nothing more 
 subversive of true brotherhood, than the separatist 
 
104 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTEEE. 
 
 spirit. Fox had none of this, and though the melan- 
 choly history of Quaker disownments shows that the 
 Society of Friends failed to maintain the loftiness and 
 the true inwardness of Fox's conception, we may 
 hope that as enlightenment spreads, we may break 
 away from the pitiful limitations that have been so 
 mischievously imposed. 
 
 We have, indeed, no call to waste our strength 
 in such miserable negations. It is for us to recognise 
 rather the occasion and the need, which await the 
 positive message, and this is true even though we con- 
 fine ourselves to the testimony of worship. 
 
 At the present time, we are face to face with a 
 movement, which lays extreme emphasis on ritual, 
 and narrows its conceptions of brotherhood to a rigid 
 outward conformity. Does the present generation of 
 Englishmen recognise what that emphasis involves ? 
 Can history show a single instance of ritualistic de- 
 velopment unaccompanied by the ultimate spiritual 
 enfeeblement of the worshipper, and the creation of 
 a priestly class ? Can the teaching of Jesus be re- 
 conciled with a sacerdotalism which re-establishes in 
 the supreme place that practice of ceremonial sacrifice 
 which was condemned by the prophets and set aside 
 by Christ ? Can we find even a trace of Christ's teach- 
 ing in the denial to the layman of access to the Holiest 
 save through the mediation of the priest ? These are 
 urgent questions. We believe that this movement 
 now agitating the Anglican Church is but a fresh 
 illustration of those retrograde tendencies in the prac- 
 tice of worship, which, as we have seen, assert them- 
 selves in Pagan and Christian churches alike. 
 
THE BASIS OF THE QUAKER FAITH. 105 
 
 God is Spirit and we must worship Him in spirit. 
 To whatever religious denomination we may belong, 
 and this is no mere sectarian question, true spiritual 
 inwardness is clearly essential. The worshipper must 
 recognise his own priesthood ; he must seek to come 
 into living communion with the Father of Spirits ; 
 he must take his own share in the work of worship. 
 He must not contemplate divine service as a mere 
 propitiatory gift offered to God for his own protection, 
 for 
 
 . . . " Book and Church and Day are given 
 For Man, not God — for Earth, not Heaven." 
 
 He must not merely repeat in hymn or prayer the 
 words of another ; he must think his own thoughts, 
 he must make the words his own. Praise has its 
 place, the glad overflowing of a thankful heart, but 
 God's House is also the House of Prayer. _ 
 
 " The profoundest of all human wants is the want 
 of God," Prayer must be, not the vain repetition of 
 the Gentile, but the passionate cry of the soul that 
 seeks a knowledge of God, the reverent concentration 
 of the whole inner being upon its supreme ideal, that 
 movement of the soul which leads it into the light 
 of love and the presence of the righteous father. We 
 stand in sore need of such prayer in our 1. odern life, 
 and of the conscious unity with God in thought and 
 action which is its benediction. There is a danger 
 that we may get further away from Him than the 
 trembling savage who heard His voice in the rustling, 
 branches. After setting forth the testimony to man's 
 sense of the Divine, from the very beginning of self- 
 
106 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 conscious life, must the historian write down the 
 twentieth century as so rich and busy that it forgot 
 " the King Eternal, immortal, invisible ? " 
 A recent writer says,* 
 
 "Have a soul of your own. Be your true self. Think, 
 realise, reflect, until you have a measure of unborrowed 
 conviction, which establishes a centre of repose, and is a 
 source of happiness and contentment — a centre which yields 
 to no outer tumult, but is ever receptive to the Divine Self ; 
 which never harbours fear or doubt, no matter what the 
 wavering self may say ; which never wavers, never forgets 
 that the individual belongs to the Universal, never relaxes 
 its hold of the deepest, the truest, the most spiritual in 
 life, come what may, be it sorrow, illness, or any calamity 
 which life may bring ; a centre which you will probably 
 discover at last rests on the love of God for its strength, 
 making it part of eternity and of all power and substance, 
 though it be but a point in the infinite whole. And, when 
 you lose this poise, regain it, as though you would say, 
 ' Sit still, my soul ; thou at least must not lose thy com- 
 posure nor thy awareness of the eternal presence of God.' " 
 
 Silent worship is not an end in itself, though it is the 
 only practical basis of a free ministry. But even silent 
 worship, if it be truly spiritual, does not lack the 
 unifying element of fellowship. We remember Robert 
 Barclay's beautiful tribute to its influence : — " When 
 I came in to the Silent Assemblies of God's People, 
 I felt a secret power among them, which touched my 
 heart ; and, as I gave way unto it, I found the Evil 
 weakening in me, and the Good raised up." 
 
 There is a strong tendency to ignore this value 
 of fellowship in worship. Some claim that they can 
 worship best alone upon the hills or in the fields. No 
 * Horatio Dresser — " The Power of Silence." 
 
THE BASIS OF THE QUAKER FAITH. 107 
 
 spot is more sacred than another, for the whole world 
 is consecrated by the presence of God, — 
 
 Where'er they seek Thee Thou art found, 
 And every place is hallowed ground. 
 
 But, while lonely worship has its place, we set ourselves 
 against the whole teaching of Christ if we deny the 
 place of fellowship in worship. True worship is never 
 selfish. In George Eliot's words," One wants a temple 
 besides the outdoor temple, — a place where human 
 beings do not ramble apart but meet with a common 
 impulse." And as true worship can never be selfish, 
 so, though it may have in it an element of mysticism, 
 it will never be unpractical. Divine service consists 
 mot in ceremonial, nor yet wholly in the gratification 
 of personal desires after the infinite, but in labour for 
 the Brotherhood. 
 
 The work of Jesus Christ must be the work of 
 his Church. Such work is worship. Not the intoning 
 of the Lord's Prayer, but the passionate longing of 
 men, fired by the vision of Christ and sustained by 
 him, to do the Father's will on Earth as it is done in 
 Heaven. 
 
 There is room yet for a witness to that inward 
 life, which draws out nourishment from the hidden 
 love of God, and bears rich fruit in holy fellowship, 
 blessed by the unity of a common consciousness that 
 God, the world, and humanity are one. 
 
THE PROBLEM, AND A PLEA. 
 
 The previous addresses are mainly historic and recita- 
 tive in thought and fact, though expressed with a thrill 
 of present actuality and need. The two following essays, 
 though prior in date to the preceding lectures, fall into 
 sequence here, as representing some of the conclusions to 
 which the writer was led by his study of the past, by his 
 careful observation of the present conditions around him. 
 
 As before stated, worship came first in his apprehension 
 of the relationship between the human and the Divine. In 
 the contemplation of worship, the problem which pressed 
 itself most urgently upon him was that of the maintenance 
 of a free, lay, hfe-quickening ministry. 
 
 The first essay deals with this problem in its widest 
 aspect including the formative influence of Boarding School 
 education. The second goes on to plead for further educa- 
 tional facilities for Bible study, for the work of the Ministry, 
 and for more efficient service in the building up of religious 
 fellowship. 
 
 The generous establishment of Woodbrooke has been 
 an answer to the growing sense of need forcibly expressed 
 in these two papers. 
 
 They appeared originally in the Present Day Papers, 
 in September and December, 1899. 
 
THE PROBLEM OF A FREE MINISTRY. 
 
 STIRRED by a general sense of shortcoming, the 
 recent Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends 
 published a pastoral letter on Worship and Ministry.* 
 Both the letter, and the discussion which gave rise 
 to it provide us with helpful and encouraging sugges- 
 tions, but neither claim to solve the problem which 
 a free lay ministry presents. If these suggestions 
 to individuals are to have their full value, we must 
 go further, and consider what are the conditions of 
 life in the church at large to foster a strong ministry. 
 
 But in thus approaching our subject, let us briefly 
 anticipate two questions : — 
 
 (i) Is a free ministry a vital element in our con- 
 ception of public worship ? 
 
 (2) Is the Quaker conception of public worship 
 of essential and permanent value ? 
 
 In the pastoral letter already referred to, we are told 
 that " an active attitude of soul is of the very essence 
 of a good meeting." This means that we recognise what 
 has been well called " the divine work of worship," 
 the need for that individual exercise of spirit, without 
 which there can be no true communion with God. 
 We ignore the outward help of ritual and of a set ser- 
 
 * " Worship and Ministry." A letter from London Yearly Meeting 
 on Ministry and Oversight, 1899, to the congregations and individual 
 members of the Society of Friends. 
 
112 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 vice, because of the stress we lay on this supreme 
 individual necessity. Our silent waiting is the oppor- 
 tunity for the prisoned soul to escape into the freedom 
 of spiritual intercourse. 
 
 Friends do not assert that ceremonial precludes 
 true spiritual communion. But they believe that 
 in the course of history, symbolism has always tended 
 to become a hindrance rather than an aid to spiritual 
 worship, and that an ordered service, however dignified 
 and uplifting, offers an inadequate and an inelastic 
 substitute for the immediate dependence of the soul 
 upon God. 
 
 Apart from all sacerdotal pretensions which we 
 reject as contrary to the teaching of Jesus, we hold 
 that to limit the service of the vocal ministry to one 
 person, or to a separate class, is not, as is commonly 
 maintained, a necessary condition of church life. 
 
 The freedom of the ministry prevalent in the 
 early days of the Christian Church is still the ideal, 
 and its restriction in the interests of order and dignity, 
 even if justified on the ground of human infirmity, 
 cannot fairly be presented as a survival of the ideally 
 fittest or as a stage in ideal development. The surren- 
 der of the " lay " ministry involved the quenching 
 of the Spirit, the closing of the door to the divine 
 call to prophesy. Friends believe that the restriction 
 of the ministry is at best but a stage to be outgrown, 
 and that it is their office to seek the reinstatement 
 of the higher ideal. The doctrine of immediate depend- 
 ence carries with it the diffusion of responsibility and 
 an emphasis on " the divine work of worship," which 
 ought powerfully to combat those tendencies to parasi- 
 
THE PROBLEM OF A FREE MINISTRY. II3 
 
 tism and to worship by proxy, which a prearranged 
 service of necessity invites. 
 
 In spite of our acknowledged weakness, this 
 ideal has been a source of strength in our Society. 
 It is to this special sense of the share and responsibility 
 of the individual in the work of worship, that we must 
 largely attribute that force of character which has 
 given the Society of Friends an iafluence out of pro- 
 portion to its numbers. 
 
 A free ministry, then, is a vital element in our 
 conception of worship. 
 
 But, in the second place, can we further claim that 
 our conception of worship is of essential and permanent 
 value ? 
 
 To find our answer we need only study the widely 
 prevailing tendency towards more elaborate ceremonial, 
 and the facility with which the element of real worship 
 is lost in musical or other services which do not appeal 
 to the spiritual faculties. This is an age of pleasure. 
 Religion must be dressed in pleasing raiment, or it 
 is rejected as narrow and intolerant. The Sword of 
 the Word must have a velvet scabbard ; the inexorable 
 realities of spiritual law must be hidden in a golden 
 haze. The divine work of worship is too onerous. 
 It must be lightened or evaded by ceremonial, or by 
 the offices of a priest. But spiritual consciousness is not 
 the involuntary emotion produced by music or ritual. 
 It is the fruit of a voluntary effort of the soul, and no 
 evasion of spiritual exercise can give us spiritual life. 
 
 The clear testimony to this truth afforded by the 
 Society of Friends in their ideal of worship is, then, 
 of essential and permanent value. 
 
114 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 But are we in a position to present this ideal, 
 not as a beautiful theory, but as a living fact ? It 
 is when we come to answer this question that we falter, 
 for we know at heart that our meetings for worship 
 are the weakest point in our church life. The responsi- 
 bility of a free ministry must be carefully considered 
 in the light of this fact, and such consideration will 
 show that the free ministry presents a practical problem 
 which has not yet been solved. 
 
 In thus treating our subject as a problem for 
 solution, we need scarcely be reminded that nothing 
 can be accomplished without pure life, heart surrender, 
 and spiritual power. If these be absent, nothing 
 else can have any value. 
 
 It is needful to make this clear at the outset, 
 because those who make practical suggestions are 
 sometimes supposed to confound machinery with power. 
 There are those who feel a deep distrust of any approach 
 to system in matters relating to our meetings for worship. 
 Their attitude of mind is illustrated in its extreme 
 form in the words of a valued Friend, who says : — 
 
 "It is very important to remember that no change of 
 organization will put new life into souls, no change of methods 
 can increase the spiritual tone of the community. A man's 
 surroundings will not improve him. System will not make 
 a healthy church." 
 
 These statements belong to that class of half 
 truths which, unless rightly qualified, are apt to do 
 serious harm. The words are true if we take them 
 to mean that without spiritual power the spiritual 
 machinery of the church is impotent for good. But 
 
THE PROBLEM OF A FREE MINISTRY. I15 
 
 they are not true if we understand them as implying 
 that changes in organization are valueless even where 
 they are the result of spiritual power intelligently 
 directed. Practical measures, such as changes in 
 organization, must necessarily affect the church for 
 good or ill. The Friend already quoted virtually 
 admits this in acknowledging that " there are certain 
 and indispensable conditions by which alone we can 
 carry the Word of Life to others." Among these are 
 mentioned study and meditation. But to secure 
 time for study and meditation in the life of a business 
 man involves the proper arrangement of affairs, and 
 such a change in the organization of a business life 
 may undoubtedly result in a direct access of spiritual 
 power to the Church. What applies in this way to 
 the individual applies also to the church as a whole. 
 As already insisted, we shall find, as we seriously study 
 the problem of our ministry, both in the light of past 
 history and present conditions, that though the ques- 
 tion is primarily one of spiritual power, it is certainly 
 one which calls for practical common sense. Spiritual 
 power and church organization are so closely inter- 
 related that they cannot be fully considered apart. 
 The familiar illustration of the Evangelical revival 
 must not be forgotten. Great as was the influence 
 of Whitefield, it would have been largely evanescent 
 but for the organizing genius of Wesley. The fear 
 of what is called the systematizing of spiritual matters 
 is nevertheless entitled to all respect. If the Society 
 of Friends were to become a mere mechanism, its 
 day would be over. That point is conceded ; the 
 question which remains is the nature and limit of the 
 
Il6 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 organization needful to secure the healthy develop- 
 ment of the ministry in our church. 
 
 Having thus attempted to clear the ground, we 
 are free to consider our subject as now outlined, and 
 it may help us to escape from traditional ideas to view 
 it for a moment from the standpoint of an outsider. 
 r A member of another denomination, aware that 
 his own clergyman or minister had passed through 
 a severe course of training, and possessed mental 
 equipment and leisure for his service altogether beyond 
 what any layman in his congregation possessed, would 
 probably feel considerable surprise on discovering 
 a group of laymen in the same walk of life as himself, 
 content to dispense with the minister, and willing 
 to supply the ministry themselves. He would note 
 that these laymen, so far from being men of much 
 leisure or scholarship, were of that class who are 
 chiefly busy all the week in office, warehouse, and 
 shop— perhaps prominent on Town Council or School 
 Board. He would further note that thej' gave their 
 best energies to an extensive Sunday School work, 
 without endeavouring to render this in return a support 
 to the church. He would naturally feel that these 
 men had dared to take upon themselves a very heavy 
 responsibility in thus foregoing the help of a separated 
 ministry, and departing from a universal practice. 
 He would wonder how, with all the many claims pres- 
 sing upon them, these laymen could find the means 
 and the time to equip themselves for their voluntary 
 service. But his wonder would increase with closer 
 acquaintance as he discovered how few among these 
 busy men gave much time or thought to the ministry, 
 
THE PROBLEM OF A FREE MINISTRY. II7 
 
 and how readily its claims were permitted to give 
 way to others, which were deemed more urgent. 
 
 Doubtless, some things would favourably impress 
 him. The freedom from monetary considerations 
 would come upon him with a sense of relief. He would 
 at once appreciate the marked service of women's 
 ministry. He would learn to recognise that laymen, 
 unacquainted with Biblical Criticism or modern scholar- 
 ship, can gather material for helpful sermons in the 
 practical experience of a busy week, and that the 
 effect of such ministry, coming from a manufacturer, 
 or shopkeeper, or artizan, had its peculiar value. 
 He would notice the existence of a spontaneous minis- 
 try of real spiritual helpfulness, and of a type impossi- 
 ble under the conditions of his own denomination, 
 and would recognise that, in spite of the disadvan- 
 tages of scanty leisure and imperfect equipment, some 
 few of their ministers could fill the pulpit of any denom- 
 ination with distinction. But these considerations 
 could not conceal from him the fact that a large pro- 
 portion of the ministry failed in its purpose, and 
 lacked that force and application which better equip- 
 ment and further knowledge would have given to it, 
 and he would hardly be surprised when he discovered 
 a prevalent sense of shortcoming. Even if he did 
 not condemn the lay ministry as impracticable, he 
 would infer an inadequate conception either of the 
 value and purpose of the ministry, or of the self-sacri- 
 fice it involves. ' 
 
 Without accepting this sketch (which has been 
 constructed entirely from the actual comments of 
 friendly outsiders), as either accurate or complete, 
 
Il8 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 we shall unite in acknowledging that self-sacrifice 
 is the price of our ideal. Without this it would indeed 
 be found, as some have pronounced it, a beautiful, 
 but impracticable dream. 
 
 Nor does the measure of that self-sacrifice decrease 
 as time goes by. We hardly realise the advantages 
 which the ministers of other denominations enjoy. 
 The rich store of modern scholarship is placed within 
 their reach. Picked men are at their service as teachers 
 and guides. Freed from the worry and distractions 
 of business life, the young man called to the ministry 
 may bend himself whole-heartedly to the work of 
 equipment. Only ignorance will maintain that these 
 advantages are of no moment. At our Summer Schools 
 we learn to measure our loss. Moreover, the standard 
 of training in other churches is being continually 
 raised. The new learning, the work of men of the 
 stamp of Robertson Smith, is beginning to tell. Those 
 who come under this influence, infuse new life into 
 their ministry. Their interpretation of the Bible 
 has a freshness that ours sorely lacks, and the life 
 and teaching of Christ, studied not only in a new 
 aspect, but with unprecedented patience, are no longer 
 presented in conventional phraseology, but with the 
 nervous force of a compelling message. 
 
 In this connection we must bear in mind that 
 Friends are no longer restricted in the development 
 of their energies. The abolition of the Test and 
 Corporation Acts opened a field of public and municipal 
 service hitherto closed. Prior to this change it would 
 be more natural to concentrate upon the ministry 
 and to travel largely, as the custom was, in the service 
 
THE PROBLEM OF A FREE MINISTRY. Iig 
 
 of the Gospel. And now the Adult School has come to 
 assert its claims, and to absorb much of our time and 
 strength. Moreover, our young people have escaped 
 into the outer world. The Quaker meeting no longer 
 holds the same large place in their imagination. Young 
 Friends have learnt to measure by other standards. 
 They have heard other ministry, and perhaps their 
 hearts have first been reached in places very different 
 from the plain Meeting-house. Their loyalty must be 
 held by ties stronger than were deemed sufficient 
 in the times of exclusiveness. For in those days the 
 ministry in other denominations was seldom such as 
 to tempt an envious comparison. But Anglican dulness 
 and the frequent crudity of the Nonconformist are 
 yielding place to such virile ministry as that of Canon 
 Gore and Dr. Dale. 
 
 It may here be objected that learned or eloquent 
 discourses are out of place in a Friends' Meeting, 
 that too much may be made of intellectual equipment, 
 that the Quaker ministry must be of a type by itself, 
 and that in a meeting for worship the importance of 
 the sermon must be relatively small. 
 
 But these objections must not be pushed too far. 
 The cause of Christ can best be served when to the 
 consecration of the heart is added the consecration 
 of intellectual gifts. 
 
 Isaiah teaches us the value of an eloquence sincere 
 and free from artificial taint, and experience shows 
 that meetings which are not fed by thoughtful and 
 uplifting sermons will ultimately languish. Let us 
 remember that the phrase " meeting for worship " 
 does not entirely express the purpose for which we 
 
120 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 assemble. Whilst mainly for adoration and spiritual 
 communion, it is the chief opportunity for mutual 
 edification and instruction. Further, this is an age 
 when it has become more than ever necessary to com- 
 mand the allegiance of both head and heart, especially 
 of the young. To meet this end, we need not only 
 spiritual warmth, but the mental sympathy that is 
 fostered and widened by knowledge. 
 
 It is clear upon the briefest survey that the burden 
 of a free ministry is not a light one. 
 
 In view of the equipment provided by other 
 denominations, what are our corresponding advan- 
 tages ? 
 
 Our Adult Schools and the valuable lessons of 
 experience learnt in other fields of Christian labour, 
 afford an equipment of an indirect character, but it 
 would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that our 
 church ignores the need for an equipment that is 
 direct. Everything is left to the sense of individual 
 responsibility. The Quaker minister often serves 
 his meeting at considerable self-sacrifice, but his 
 education, his religious training, and the arrangement 
 of his time are rarely controlled by any sense of the 
 special qualification which the ministry demands. 
 His education has been of the ordinary middle 
 class standard ; if he has had any definite religious 
 instruction it has been fragmentary ; and while he is no 
 less engrossed in business than his neighbour who profits 
 from Sunday to Sunday by the thoughtful sermons of 
 a trained minister, he probably still further curtails his 
 leisure by taking a larger share in the responsibilities 
 of citizenship. He takes on himself more work and 
 
THE PROBLEM OF A FREE MINISTRY. 121 
 
 receives less instruction. Once in a few years an official 
 exhortation to the ministry from the Yearly Meeting 
 may reach him. His Meeting on Ministry and Over- 
 sight takes no steps to develop his gift, and his Elders 
 mainly confine their office to its negative aspects. 
 
 The strong sense of responsibility, and the degree 
 of self-sacrifice which our ministry represents, under 
 these depressing conditions, are an encouraging evi- 
 dence of life, but the limitations of such haphazard ways 
 are only too obvious. Exhortations to our ministers 
 will not meet the case. Our ministry labours under 
 practical disadvantages which must be met by practical 
 measures. Our present deficiencies cannot be over- 
 come by thus reserving for the ministry the lees of 
 our energy and the fag-ends of our time. 
 
 The church must come to close quarters with the 
 problem : — How can we maintain a free ministry 
 among busy men, who feel the exacting toll of increas- 
 ing commercial competition ; and at the same time, 
 how can we give to this ministry an intelligence, 
 directness and attractive force, which, though the 
 ministry may be of a different type from that of 
 other denominations, shall at least render it 
 comparable in effectiveness ? 
 
 In attempting to seek an escape from this apparent 
 dilemma, let us briefly consider the attitude of mind 
 that has led us into our present condition. It cannot 
 be maintained that the sole explanation of our incom- 
 plete equipment is the absence of a self-sacrificing spirit. 
 This, no doubt, plays some part, but the fact remains 
 that while many Friends are not alive to the necessity 
 for such equipment, there are others who deprecate it. 
 
122 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 We believe the truer explanation lies in that dread 
 of what are called human arrangements to which we 
 have already had occasion to refer. 
 
 This dread rests upon weighty reasons, but it 
 must be clearly recognised that the characteristic 
 note of the Quaker Meeting, with its cherished freedom 
 of spiritual dependence upon God, is endangered not 
 by the intellectual equipment of the ministry, but 
 by its restriction to one man or to one type. It is 
 difficult to overestimate the extent of the mischief 
 which this dread has wrought. In the first place, 
 it has led to a limited view of what constitutes a call 
 to the ministry. It is profoundly true that God does 
 call his servant unexpectedly in the presence of a con- 
 gregation, and bid him speak unprepared. We may 
 rejoice that Friends have never minimized that supreme 
 prophetic gift. It is also true that no minister can 
 rightly speak without a strong conviction when he 
 rises that what he says is said in season. But the 
 deduction that there can be no call during the week, 
 and no right preparation of the message, is wholly 
 inadmissible. God works in many ways, and Friends 
 living in the freedom of the Spirit should be the last 
 to maintain such an artificial limitation. 
 
 The consequences of this mistaken view, now 
 happily losing its hold, have hardly received sufficient 
 recognition. It must be ranked with the dread of 
 " creaturely activity " and the reckless disownments 
 for marrying a non-member, as among the three chief 
 causes of disaster in the recent history of our church. 
 To it must be attributed much of our weakness in the 
 intellectual equipment of the ministry. Indeed, in its 
 
THE PROBLEM OF A FREE MINISTRY. 123 
 
 extreme form, this view has regarded the intellect 
 as an enemy to be fought rather than an ally to be 
 welcomed. 
 
 It is to this view that we must trace the almost 
 entire neglect of the spiritual gift of a teaching ministry. 
 Marks of preparation in a sermon have been resented, 
 and thus through fear of giving offence, a type of mind 
 that would have lent added definiteness and weight 
 to the ministry has been largely excluded, and it is 
 not too much to say that the removal of this difficulty 
 alone would call much valuable ministry into existence. 
 The mistaken view which practically limits the Quaker 
 ministry to the prophetic type has caused many need- 
 lessly to doubt their qualification. We cherish the 
 memory of those rare spiritual gifts which, in men like 
 Stephen Grellet and Benjamin Seebohm, were so 
 powerfully used in the service of Truth, but while we 
 do well to value them, we cannot rightly assume that 
 lesser gifts do not qualify for service. 
 
 Again, we must recognise that the dread of the 
 human element has encouraged the spirit of indolence, 
 and lulled Friends into a belief that the minister need 
 set no time apart for study or definite meditation. 
 
 It is, however, not difficult to see that this fear of 
 preparation has even wider consequences than those 
 already enumerated. It is closely associated with 
 that strange haziness which characterises the mind 
 of the average Friend, when questioned as to the 
 historical and spiritual significance of his church. Our 
 ignorance, both as to the facts of our church history 
 with their meaning for the present and the future, 
 and the want of any adequate conception of our spiritual 
 
124 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 heritage, is not likely to develop the gifts latent amongst 
 us. This haziness has, to a considerable extent, robbed 
 our ministry of its proper formative influence, and 
 given to our appeal as a church a confused character, 
 lacking coherence, and a clear-cut outline. A small 
 body like the Society of Friends, which has with 
 almost dramatic suddenness broken down its social 
 barriers and mingled with the world after a century 
 of aloofness, must have very clear convictions if it is 
 not to lose its identity. 
 
 We have now discovered our main principle of 
 action, in dealing with the problem of the lay ministry. 
 // there is to be a strong ministry in our church, a rich 
 soil must be provided for its growth. 
 
 All questions of the distribution of the ministry, 
 especially in relation to declining meetings, or the 
 establishment of new ones, are of subordinate impor- 
 tance. Something can even now be done in these 
 fields, but until the conditions of Church life are so 
 altered that the gift of the ministry is fostered and 
 not discouraged, nothing great can be accomplished. 
 Sooner or later we shall be brought up by the fact 
 that we have not the Friends qualified for the service. 
 As a church, we have yet to learn that a minister is 
 both bom and made. 
 
 Assuming, then, that we recognise our need for 
 equipment, how and where is that equipment to begin ? 
 Our first preparation for the ministry must be as wide 
 as the church. In accepting the sacred burden of a 
 free ministry, we lay it upon every member of the 
 Society of Friends. We must so shape our life that we 
 may bear that burden worthily. We demand more of 
 
THE PROBLEM OF A FREE MINISTRY. 125 
 
 our members than almost any other church, and we 
 must adopt special measures to qualify them. Our 
 consideration of this first preparation will fall naturally 
 under three heads : — 
 
 (i) The training of children in Friends' Boarding 
 Schools. 
 
 (2) The religious training of our young people 
 after leaving school, and of those who are not taught 
 in Friends' Schools. 
 
 (3) The religious training of our adult members. 
 
 ( 1 ) The training of children in Friends' Boarding Schools. 
 
 During a recent visit to America, undertaken with 
 a view to the study of the whole question upon which 
 we are now engaged, the writer was impressed with 
 the clear evidence that where undenominational edu- 
 cation prevailed, it was telling adversely upon Friends. 
 
 We are aware that there are thoughtful Friends 
 on this side of the Atlantic who deprecate any denomin- 
 ational colour being given to our schools. They 
 claim that any distinctive Quaker training must be 
 given exclusively at home and in the Meeting. This, 
 however, will be found insufficient. In many homes 
 the parents are not qualified to supply the needful train- 
 ing, while there is practically no sustained effort in 
 the Meeting to give any training which can rightly 
 be called distinctive. In any case, the time spent at 
 school covers so large a part of the plastic period of 
 life, that the church cannot neglect the valuable oppor- 
 tunity afforded by school instruction. 
 
 The objection to denominational education arises 
 from the malpractices which flourish under that name. 
 
126 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 We do not mean that our pupils shall be forced 
 by a sort of Jesuitry into accepting statements ex 
 cathedra, but we do mean that they shall have pointedly 
 placed before them the practical, spiritual, and non- 
 sacerdotal aspects of divine truth in relation to 
 individual and national life . In teaching secular history, 
 we unhesitatingly deduce the lessons or warnings 
 offered by states founded on slavery or formed on free- 
 dom, ruled by despots or ruled by patriots, reverencing 
 character or bent on pleasure, and it would be absurd 
 to deprive Biblical and Church history (not forgetting 
 the history of our own Society) of the broad lessons 
 which they teach. 
 
 Fifty years ago, when we were an exclusive people, 
 undenominational schools might have had much-needed 
 liberalizing influence, but the conditions are very differ- 
 ent to-day. It has now become necessary, if we would 
 check the serious disaffection of educated young 
 Friends, to provide them with the data upon which 
 to form their opinions in later life. No boy or girl 
 educated in a Friends' school, should leave it without 
 having seen how, in the main, sacerdotalism has dimmed 
 the moral vision, and without at least a knowledge of 
 the history, and of the broad underlying principles, 
 of our religious Society. We will have nothing to do, 
 either with catechism or creed, and we are quite right 
 to leave our scholars free to form their own independent 
 judgment — for nothing else would have any but the 
 most superficial or transient value. But it would be 
 folly to send our young men and women out into the 
 world ignorant even of the historical meaning of their 
 church. 
 
THE PROBLEM OF A FREE MINISTRY. 127 
 
 Young people, perhaps especially young men, are 
 keenly sensitive to adverse criticism and ridicule. 
 What chance has a young man, sent from a Friends' 
 School to one of the Universities, with their aggressive 
 clerical influence, if to the chaff about the silent meet- 
 ings he has no explanation to offer, no conception of 
 the spiritual beauty of the ideal it represents ? Or, 
 if he finds himself in a weak meeting without strong 
 Ministry, there is danger, unless he has some intelli- 
 gent attachment to the essential ideal of our worship, 
 that he will become discouraged, and either yield to 
 the seductive influence of the Anglican Church or seek 
 robust ministry elsewhere. We lose too many of our 
 more highly educated young people at this stage, and 
 they will need a stronger grip on the true principles 
 of spiritual life and worship to carry them through it. 
 
 In some of our Boarding Schools, valuable work 
 has already been done, and their influence has been a 
 powerful factor in stimulating the loyalty of their 
 scholars to the Society. But our whole conception 
 of education is inadequate — it needs broadening, and 
 above all it needs shaping far more definitely to the 
 peculiar needs of a membership upon which the res- 
 ponsibility of a free lay ministry rests. 
 
 It is not enough, as some suppose, to rely alone upon 
 the high moral tone which is rightly held to characterize 
 a Friends' school. We must recognise that these 
 schools have for the work of the Society, which includes 
 the Ministry, something of the same importance 
 which training ships have for a fleet, and so far as is 
 consistent with general education, they should have a 
 curriculum specially designed to this end. 
 
128 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 It is of contributory importance that the whole 
 equipment and general education of our schools, 
 apart from this special feature, should be of the highest 
 possible standard. Our schools should be so good that 
 no Friend need be tempted to send his children else- 
 where. If this is not so already, it is due more to the 
 lack of funds than to any fault in management. One 
 must suppose that the exceptional importance of these 
 schools as contributing to the spiritual efficiency of 
 our church is not understood, otherwise it is difficult 
 to explain why our wealthy Friends overlook our 
 educational institutions, and allow them to struggle 
 on under a cloud of debt, or with miserably inadequate 
 endowments. 
 
 The especial value of denominational education, 
 as already defined, to a small Society like ours, lends 
 also an added importance to the position of the school 
 teachers. Upon their influence much depends, and 
 the church having accepted the responsibility of a 
 free ministry, her future must be largely in their hands. 
 The career and prospects of a Quaker teacher should 
 then be such as to attract the highest order of mind, 
 and to encourage the most liberal training for the 
 service. 
 
 It is not unreasonable to suppose that Friends 
 will be able efficiently to maintain their middle-class 
 schools, especially if they can command the proper 
 endowment which American Friends in their wisdom 
 have been careful to secure. But it may be seriously 
 doubted whether we shall have the strength to provide 
 for those who would, in the ordinary course, be educated 
 in Board Schools. 
 
THE PROBLEM OF A FREE MINISTRY. I2Q 
 
 This, however, will only emphasise the importance 
 of retaining our hold on the class which represents the 
 educated and hereditary stock, whose connection with 
 the past is too valuable to lose. 
 
 (2) The religious training of our young people after 
 school, and of those who are not taught in Friends' 
 Schools. 
 
 If we recognise the great value of our Boarding 
 Schools, it is clearly essential that the religious training 
 of those who are not educated by the Society should 
 have careful attention. But no consecutive training 
 exists ; we have some children's classes with more or 
 less scattered teaching, but there is no constructive 
 development carefully planned to qualify the young 
 people for the exceptional demands of our church 
 membership. 
 
 We need, also, training of a quality and calibre 
 suited to those who have just left a Friends' school, 
 but who have hardly reached the stage when private 
 Biblical study can yield proper sustenance. The want 
 of any arrangement by which the interests of our young 
 people are rightly directed at a critical period of life, 
 to the support of the meeting for worship, is already 
 disastrous in its consequences, and calls for immediate 
 action. 
 
 (3) The religious training of our adult members. 
 Already under this head we may chronicle the 
 
 appearance of the Summer School movement, and note 
 the valuable correspondence class of the Young Friends' 
 Christian Fellowship Union. 
 
130 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 These are admirable, and such work calls only for 
 encouragement, but inasmuch as they are largely in- 
 dependent of the special attitude and teaching of our 
 Religious Society, there remains an important branch 
 of the work, which has hitherto received little atten- 
 tion. We have already noticed in our Society the wide- 
 spread ignorance as to what constitutes our spiritual 
 heritage. We have called attention to the vagueness 
 of view too often found, when a Friend is questioned 
 upon the spiritual position and historical significance 
 of the church to which he belongs. We must supple- 
 ment the Summer School work by placing within the 
 reach of all our adult members, advanced religious 
 teaching, similar in aim to that which we have seen 
 to be needful for our children. 
 
 This is especially urgent in view of the more 
 frequent admission of new members. The experience 
 of Friends in America should impress us with the im- 
 portance of this consideration. There is no doubt 
 that where American Friends have drawn in large 
 numbers of outsiders, they have sometimes felt the 
 lack of that controlling and guiding influence which an 
 intelligent understanding of the past necessarily brings. 
 A scheme of lectures on Quaker History, on the 
 teaching of George Fox, on the life and writings of 
 Penn, on the Apology of Barclay, on the Journal of 
 Woolman, or, to come to more modern times, on 
 Elizabeth Fry, on William Allen, on John Greenleaf 
 Whittier, should be worked out, not simply with the 
 view of presenting biographical sketches, and interesting 
 historical data, but in order to bring out what we have 
 already called " the practical, spiritual, and non- 
 
THE PROBLEM OF A FREE MINISTRY. 131 
 
 sacerdotal aspects of Divine truth," in relation to in- 
 dividual and national life. The isolated addresses on 
 Friends' principles, which are at present our only 
 substitute for more systematic work in this field, are 
 hardly satisfactory, and are certainly insufficient. 
 
 We believe a feasable way of meeting, at least in 
 part, the present need, would be to reserve the entire 
 services of a suitable Friend, probably remunerated 
 and controlled through the Summer School Continuation 
 Committee, who would devote part of his time to 
 necessary study, and the remainder to lecturing in 
 different centres. These lectures would naturally 
 be of a varied character. In some meetings a definite 
 course might be given, in others separate lectures. 
 In small country meetings, the magic-lantern might 
 be used with effect, and the public might usually be 
 encouraged to attend. The lectures could also be 
 extended to our Adult Schools, for it is along this 
 line, without necessarily sacrificing the undenomina- 
 tional character which they maintain, that the gulf 
 between the Society and the schools is most likely to 
 be bridged. 
 
 It will be seen, that this suggestion does not conflict 
 with existing Summer School work, but is a develop- 
 ment of that already begun. Even the Church of 
 England has found it necessary to adopt like measures, 
 and we can hardly pretend that our standard of in- 
 telligence is so high that we can dispense with such 
 education. 
 
 Thus far, we have endeavoured to indicate some 
 of the directions in which our general conception of 
 equipment for membership in the Society of Friends 
 
132 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 may be enlarged. We, have, in other words, been 
 dwelling upon the necessity of providing a rich soil 
 from which the ministry may spring. At present, the 
 conditions of our church life are such as to starve the 
 ministry. We do not foster its growth — we neglect 
 the ordinary duties of the husbandman, and complain 
 because the harvest is poor. 
 
 But there is another and a serious consideration. 
 Is the tender plant that springs from this carefully 
 prepared soil to be left to itself ? We must accept a 
 further responsibility. There must be means placed with- 
 in the reach of any Friend, who feels the call to the 
 ministry, for still further equipment, and for closer study % 
 
 There should be established a permanent Summer 
 School, if one may be permitted thus to stretch the 
 season of sunshine and warmth over the whole of our 
 inclement year. This must not be a Theological College, 
 but a permanent Bible School, open to either sex, 
 and to persons of any age. Friends who did not feel 
 themselves called to the ministry would be at liberty 
 to attend, but the curriculum would be aimed mainly 
 at the development of ministerial gifts. Without 
 attempting to detail the scope of study, three main 
 divisions naturally suggest themselves : — 
 
 (i) Biblical Study. 
 
 (2) General Church History ; and 
 
 (3) Quaker Church History. 
 
 These subjects would be handled with the definite 
 intention of giving clearness and force to our spiritual 
 message. The mistake of most theological teaching 
 lies in the fact that truth is conceived as a crystal, 
 and not as a seed. To teach general Church History, 
 
THE PROBLEM OF A FREE MINISTRY. I33 
 
 which, of course, includes the history of our Society, 
 side by side with its spiritual meaning, is to avoid 
 this error, and to set the student in the line of spiritual 
 growth and vision. 
 
 The " lay " character of the school would be 
 prominently kept in mind, and facilities would be 
 offered to those whose means were limited, or who had 
 little time to give. Some would attend only to receive 
 sufficient advice and training to set them along lines 
 of fruitful study at home, and much assistance might 
 in this connection be given by correspondence classes. 
 Such a school would necessarily commence on a small 
 scale, and the attendance would at first be very limited 
 especially for the longer periods of time. But as 
 Friends are gradually brought to recognise what the 
 responsibility of a free ministry involves, they will 
 learn to shape their lives in subordination to it. 
 
 Let us remember, for we cannot escape the fact, 
 that our free ministry is now upon its trial. No half 
 measures will solve the problem which faces us. We 
 would repeat that self-sacrifice must be the price of 
 our ideal. Sacrifice of leisure, business sacrifices, sacri- 
 fices of money, sacrifice of personal ease and comfort. 
 But while nothing that has been suggested can be 
 undertaken without self-sacrifice, there is nothing to 
 alarm. Spiritual insight remains, as it always must, 
 the mark of the true minister, and neither the prophetic 
 ministry, which obeys an immediate call, nor that 
 mystic element which is the quality of a few choice 
 souls, can be imperilled. We seek not to stereotype 
 our worship, nor to tamper with the freedom of 
 spiritual dependence upon God, but to secure such a 
 
134 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 general condition of church life that spiritual growth 
 shall be fostered, and a high standard of spiritual 
 intelligence shall be maintained. For want of proper 
 nourishment, the ideal of the free ministry is perishing 
 before our eyes, and we are but seeking a rich and 
 well-tilled soil from which every type of ministry shall 
 spring with a robuster growth. 
 
 It may seem that even this partial solution of the 
 problem is difficult and slow. The drudgery of hard 
 work is evident through it all. But this must be. 
 There is no short and easy way ; we must go back to 
 our foundations, and begin again. We must correct 
 the consequences of past mistakes, and, for a time, 
 at least, there will be much labour with small reward. 
 
 This brings us at the close to that which we have 
 never forgotten. We can do nothing without the 
 patience of a faith that sees clear through apparent 
 discouragement to its goal. We need the vision of 
 the end, the sense of a high and worthy aim to spur us 
 on, and, dependent on a Power greater than our own, 
 we need the humble spirit which asks that it may be 
 ever led by the Master's hand. 
 
A PLEA FOR A QUAKER SETTLEMENT. 
 
 " The chances of exceptional genius, moral or intel- 
 lectual, in the gifted few, are highest in a society where the 
 average interest, curiosity, capacity, are highest." 
 
 John Morley. 
 
 IN the previous papers of this series, we have at- 
 tempted to suggest the pressing need for evan- 
 gelical effort in a world where Christian ideals have 
 taken but partial root. The special capacities for 
 immediate service which lie latent in the Society of 
 Friends have seemed to us to call for development. 
 Our endeavour in this concluding essay will be to point 
 out one more method by which we may fortify ourselves 
 for the work. 
 
 As we have said before, we stand to-day in the 
 midst of a widespread materialism, — a little handful 
 of men and women called to be heralds of the " peace- 
 able Gospel." Around us even the churches seem to 
 share in the false imperialism of the age. Is not the 
 reproach of their silence laid upon us, that we, in their 
 default, may once again bear practical testimony to 
 the spiritual simplicity of the Kingdom of God, and 
 the higher possibilities of human life ? 
 
 If we have inherited in a special degree those 
 Christian conceptions of stewardship and of ministry 
 which alone can save the nations of the earth amid the 
 temptations of material development, we are yet 
 
 135 
 
I36 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 but a feeble folk for so heavy a burden. How may we 
 sufficiently brace ourselves to bear it ? 
 
 We cannot attempt a complete answer, as we are 
 dealing primarily with a free ministry. Nevertheless, 
 the question of our ministry vitally affects the whole 
 service which our Church may render. There is a call 
 for the searching testimony and the stern rebuke of 
 the messenger of God. We need men and women 
 whose lips are touched by the fire of the Holy Ghost, 
 to point our people to the better way. No scheme of 
 education, no Bible School, can create, or alone prepare, 
 these prophets. Is there then no place for a practical 
 consideration of the ways and means by which the 
 religious life of our Society may be fostered ? Are we 
 at all answering the questions we have put to our- 
 selves in discussing Quaker education, Sunday and 
 Bible Schools ? 
 
 Many who feel deeply the needs of our time, and 
 who desire above all else the baptism of spiritual 
 power, listen with indifference, if not with suspicion, 
 to the advocacy of what are called " practical measures." 
 It is not system, machinery, or organisation, but 
 spiritual power that they seek. Why fit up elaborate 
 pumps to suck water from a well which is already dry ? 
 Rather let us repair to the banks of the running stream 
 that flows from the Fountain of Life. 
 
 We clearly recognise the limit that must be set to 
 system, organisation, and even religious education, 
 but may we suggest another allegory ? Though the 
 phrase is understood, no gardener really grows his plants. 
 The secret springs of life that move the sap are alto- 
 gether beyond his art. He can only obey the laws 
 
A PLEA FOR A QUAKER SETTLEMENT. 137 
 
 which enable him to make a tangled waste of weeds 
 blossom in ordered beauty. 
 
 The problem before us is not to manufacture 
 ministers or prophets — that is clearly impossible — it 
 is rather to seek those conditions which foster healthy 
 spiritual growth. We cannot create, but if we husband 
 the life we have, the Lord of Life will grant us a richer 
 growth. He does not yield the fruit to the spiritually 
 indolent. The garden of the church must be well 
 tilled, or weeds will choke the soil. 
 
 To this extent, we believe that what is variously 
 described as " system," " organisation," and " pre- 
 paration," is not merely desirable, but vital to the 
 continued spiritual health of our Society. We can 
 never lay too great a stress upon the life of God in the 
 " central depth " of the soul as the true source of power, 
 and the foundation of church fellowship, but that is 
 no reason why we should minimise the place of the 
 husbandman in the church. 
 
 We are much concerned lest, in the recoil from a 
 too exclusive dependence on organisation and ma- 
 chinery, a tendency to neglect the essential laws of 
 life should again be developed. Much of our weakness 
 may be traced to such a neglect in the past. 
 
 Doubtless, the primary cause of any shortcomings 
 must be the want of spiritual power, but under what 
 conditions has that spiritual power been lost ? Even 
 spiritual power may be dissipated, and it is a grievous 
 fallacy to imagine that a church can continue to 
 nourish independent of certain human conditions. 
 It is unpractical and unwise to disregard the close 
 reaction of life and environment. Is it not obvious 
 
138 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 that a society, constantly renewed by birth, and more 
 largely by admission, requires the proper application 
 of those influences which make for the continuance of 
 spiritual life ? We should never regard want of 
 system as the hall mark of spiritual religion. 
 
 It is because spiritual experience is a thing so 
 intangible and of so delicate an aroma that many decry 
 an approach to ordered arrangement. And the 
 objection holds where artificial restriction or mere 
 mechanism are in question. It is one thing to advocate 
 restriction, it is quite another to advocate the highest 
 possible standard of religious knowledge throughout 
 a society in which a free ministry is maintained. 
 
 As we were forcibly reminded at the last Summer 
 School, restriction of the vocal ministry in the early 
 Church led to disastrous consequences. That restric- 
 tion Rendel Harris has admirably described as " the 
 old Catholic error ... it was at once the triumph 
 of the Church and its spiritual ruin. It made the 
 bishop and it slew the prophet." But this restriction 
 was not unconnected with disorders which turned 
 liberty into licence. The lesson taught by the history 
 of the early Church has two aspects, — it may serve as 
 a warning against any attempt at restriction which 
 Friends both here and in America may well ponder, 
 but it also teaches us that, even in such a time of 
 spiritual awakening as that which witnessed the dawn 
 of the Christian era, it is dangerous to rely upon un- 
 tutored freedom. If liberty is to be with power, it 
 must be cherished by those who know the discipline 
 of mental and spiritual training. Fervent zeal must be 
 tempered by knowledge, and warmth of heart must be 
 
A PLEA FOR A QUAKER SETTLEMENT. I39 
 
 supplemented by intellect that is under the dominance 
 of truth. 
 
 To promote an intelligent knowledge of the 
 Bible, to encourage a large acquaintance with the 
 lessons of church history and of Christian experience, 
 to indicate for our own generation the lines of service 
 which these suggest, is not to hinder, but rather to 
 favour the unfolding of the spiritual blossom in the 
 heart. 
 
 No attempt is now made to take note of all the 
 strong and subtle influences which are brought to bear 
 in the contact of soul with soul. Nor is it pretended 
 that the means suggested are adequate to cover the 
 whole ground. While indispensable, they must remain 
 subordinate, and it is only their neglect which compels 
 us to lay what seems undue emphasis upon them. 
 
 Assuming that the question of " preparation " 
 is no longer a difficulty, it is needful, in discussing the 
 problem of a free ministry, to be on the alert against 
 the dangers that attend every reform. If by restric- 
 tion the early Church slew the prophet and made the 
 bishop, we must be careful that we do not by learning 
 slay the prophet and make the Rabbi. We feel great 
 unity with the late Professor Bruce when he tells us* 
 that 
 
 " the bane to be dreaded by churches not sacramentarian 
 in tendency is a rabbinized pulpit, offering the people 
 scholastic dogmas or philosophic ideas in place of the 
 gospel." 
 
 " Religious teachers," he says, " ought to know theology 
 and to be deep, earnest thinkers, but in the concio ad populum 
 the prophet should be more prominent than the theologian, 
 
 * In -- St. Paul's Conception of Christianity." 
 
140 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 and the poet than the philosopher. . . . Learning 
 may kill enthusiasm, and transform the prophet into a 
 Rabbi. That will mean the decay of the evangelic spirit 
 and a lapse into legalism." 
 
 These are wise words, and they come with more 
 weight from one who maintained that it was " a 
 question of grave concern " for all churches, whether 
 a " systematically trained class of professional 
 preachers " could be a legitimate development out 
 of the evangelism of the early Church. 
 
 Having boldly stated this doubt, so suggestive to 
 a Friend, and having faced the real danger of learning, 
 the Professor, speaking of a " learned ministry," 
 nevertheless says, 
 
 " My sympathies are very strongly with the advocates 
 of a learned ministry. In my view what we have to com- 
 plain of is not that the churches have adopted this as their 
 ideal, but that the ministry turned out of their theological 
 seminaries can only by courtesy be described as learned. 
 What we need is not less learning, but a great deal more, 
 and of the right sort." 
 
 Are not Friends, with their spiritual conception 
 of worship and their practical recognition of the common 
 priesthood of all believers, naturally marked out to 
 provide that " learning of the right sort," which shall 
 not foster Rabbinism, but nurture the prophets ? 
 The phrase " a learned ministry " is unsatisfactory, 
 for it suggests the Rabbinism against which Dr. Bruce 
 inveighs ; but we sorely need that kind of learning 
 which he supports, a learning which does not concern 
 itself with mint, anise and cummin, but with the 
 weightier matters of the law, — which implies a know- 
 ledge of the conditions of progress, and a strong spiritual 
 
A PLEA FOR A QUAKER SETTLEMENT. 141 
 
 and intellectual grasp upon the fundamental principles 
 of the higher life. 
 
 But the need is for our Society as a whole. We 
 cannot portion off a favoured group, and say that these 
 shall have an equipment specially designed for the 
 ministry in which they are to serve ; we must make 
 the basis of our education as wide as the Church. 
 That education may be well adapted to provide a needed 
 equipment in the service of the vocal ministry, but 
 this cannot and must not be its sole aim. Its aim 
 must be nothing less than that of raising the whole 
 standard of efficiency throughout the Church. In 
 practice, those who feel a call to the service of our 
 meetings for worship will perhaps be more ready to take 
 advantage of any privileges which the Church has to 
 offer, but we must not make this our particular concern. 
 
 It is easy to see that while we must guard against 
 the danger of Rabbinism, the conditions of our church 
 life protect us so long as we remain faithful to our 
 principle of absolute freedom in the ministry. The 
 establishment of Quaker Sunday Schools, of preparation 
 classes for teachers, of permanent Bible Schools, or of 
 occasional Summer Schools, and the provision of 
 special teaching in our Boarding Schools, and of teachers 
 properly equipped for the purpose, do not necessarily 
 endanger this essential freedom. The very breadth 
 of their scope is their safeguard. Moreover, however 
 much we may avail ourselves of the service of qualified 
 teachers and lecturers (as we have already done to 
 advantage in our Summer Schools), the constitution 
 of our Society makes it necessary that the work of the 
 Church shall be carried on by the voluntary service 
 
142 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 of men and women who are more or less dependent 
 for their livelihood upon some profession or business. 
 This close touch with the everyday affairs of life in 
 itself provides us with a notable and effective antidote 
 to Rabbinism. 
 
 But there is a danger, more serious because less 
 obvious. It is the danger that fear may induce us to 
 do nothing at all. The striking development of the 
 Pastoral System among American Friends is no doubt 
 responsible for much of the wide-spread fear and caution 
 which exists in our Yearly Meeting. The present 
 writer has enjoyed exceptional opportunities for study- 
 ing the Pastoral System, and that study has made a 
 deep impression upon him. It became abundantly 
 clear, in the course of a careful inquiry, that the root 
 cause of this new development was the failure of the 
 ministry under the old order. It is merely begging the 
 question to assert that this failure was in its turn due 
 to the decline of spiritual power. That is of course 
 true, but it is also true that spiritual life languishes 
 where it is not properly cherished. Scarcely any 
 direct means, and often no means whatever, were taken 
 to secure proper qualification and equipment for the 
 ministry. The divine gift was regarded as being 
 independent of human conditions, and the Church 
 suffered the inevitable nemesis of decay. Few Friends 
 realise how complete that nemesis has been. The 
 system, which may now be studied in all the stages of 
 its development, has overrun the Western Yearly 
 Meetings and has made large inroads into the conserva- 
 tive Quakerism of the East. This is not the place for 
 criticism ; indeed, we have no sympathy with that 
 
A PLEA FOR A QUAKER SETTLEMENT. 143 
 
 policy of criticism which English Friends have some- 
 times unhappily pursued. But we feel bound to state 
 clearly that this development is to us a matter of the 
 gravest concern, and that after the most careful investi- 
 gation we believe it involves the increasing departure, 
 more or less conscious, from our fundamental con- 
 ception of worship. The point of importance for us 
 is this : the Pastoral System, whether we approve it 
 or no, was established as a consequence of previous 
 failure. Our surest defence against invasion by any 
 such system is to maintain our ideal of fellowship and 
 worship not as a mere tradition, but with life and 
 power. 
 
 The great interest aroused in the Yearly Meeting 
 of 1899 by the Minutes of two Quarterly Meetings, and 
 expressed in the weighty letter of advice upon worship 
 and ministry, must not be allowed to die out before 
 some practical measures have been taken. We have 
 on the one hand the call from without to meet the needs 
 of an unspiritual age, and to combat the insidious 
 evil which masquerades as "Imperialism," and upon 
 the other the call from within so to establish our Church 
 upon the rock of our ideal, that service may be without 
 fear. 
 
 If we have now cleared the ground for the consider- 
 ation of our proposals, let us again emphasise the 
 thought that a free ministry cannot be considered apart 
 from the life of the fellowship. The suggestion of a 
 Bible School does not relate to the vocal ministry as an 
 entity by itself, but relates to it only as a part of the 
 whole ministry of the Church. It may, indeed, assist 
 us to understand the place the school is intended to 
 
144 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 fill if we put the thought of the vocal ministry out of our 
 minds altogether, and consider the " school " in relation 
 to the larger problems. 
 
 The modern Paganism, which not only cries in 
 our streets, but utters its voice in our pulpits ; which 
 is not only indigenous in the clubs of Pall Mall, but 
 bares its head in a Quaker meeting, suggests something 
 of the terrible misconception which now, as in the time 
 of Christ, surrounds the teaching of the Kingdom. 
 We have but to inquire among our own people to 
 discover the looseness of thought and the dimness 
 of vision which in every church is sapping the vitality 
 of ancient testimonies and destroying the community 
 of service. If the glory of citizenship is to be preserved, 
 our people must be nurtured in quietness and in the 
 things of God. 
 
 We have in previous essays discussed the needs of 
 our young people, it remains for us to consider the means 
 of equipment which should be available for those of 
 mature age. 
 
 What is suggested is, in effect, a Way-side Inn, 
 a place where the dusty traveller, stepping aside for 
 a moment from the thronged highway, shall find 
 refreshment and repose. Its outlines have already 
 been sketched in the first essay of this group but they 
 may be briefly recapitulated. 
 
 It is proposed that a permanent Bible School — 
 not a Theological College — be established, open to 
 any person of either sex, above, say, eighteen years 
 of age. While the curriculum would probably be of 
 special value to those who feel called to serve as teachers 
 or as ministers of the gospel, it would only be so because 
 
A PLEA FOR A QUAKER SETTLEMENT. 145 
 
 it aimed at placing pointedly before Friends " the 
 practical, spiritual and non-sacerdotal aspects of divine 
 truth, in relation to individual and national life." 
 
 Three main divisions of study suggest themselves 
 inter alia : — 
 
 Biblical Study. 
 General Church History. 
 Quaker Church History.* 
 To quote from a previous essay : f " These subjects 
 would be handled with the definite intention of giving 
 clearness and force to our spiritual message. The 
 mistake of most theological teaching lies in the fact 
 that truth is conceived as a crystal and not as a seed. 
 To teach general Church History (which, of course, 
 includes the history of our Society) side by side with its 
 spiritual meaning is to avoid this error." 
 
 Facilities would be afforded to those whose means 
 and leisure are limited. No fixed term of study would 
 be insisted upon ; Friends would be encouraged to make 
 use of the School whenever opportunity offered ; 
 whether for a period of weeks or months. Some would 
 only attend to receive advice which would start them 
 along lines of fruitful study at home. Much assistance 
 could probably be given by means of correspondence 
 classes. 
 
 Such is a bald statement of an idea that is capable 
 of considerable expansion and enrichment in detail. At 
 present such a settlement would be most likely to 
 prosper at some favoured resort, which those in search 
 
 * Courses of Lectures might with advantage be added upon the 
 Mystics and upon the economic aspects of the stewardship of wealth. 
 
 f Present Day Papers, Sept., 1899. " The Problem of a Free 
 Ministry." 
 
146 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREEJ 
 
 of health and rest might find it easy to visit. The 
 beginning would be on a small scale — a dwelling-house 
 fitted up with a library would probably satisfy the 
 modest wants of our Way-side Inn. Two or three 
 " well-concerned " and qualified Friends would be 
 appointed as teachers and guides, and we are not 
 without scholars of the true spirit for our purpose. 
 
 It is important that such a place should not be 
 regarded as merely another privilege of the rich. Local 
 funds in the different Quarterly Meetings could, without 
 objection, be raised to enable any Friend of limited 
 means to avail himself of this opportunity for study ; 
 such assistance ceasing, of course, when the Friend 
 returned to his ordinary occupation. Thus the school 
 might offer a partial solution to the difficulties encoun- 
 tered by the " convinced Friend " who feels himself 
 but imperfectly acquainted with the historical con- 
 ditions of our Society. 
 
 Advantage would be undoubtedly derived from 
 attaching a " social wing " to this settlement, an 
 outlet for practical Christianity. There could be no 
 better check than this upon the would-be Rabbi. 
 
 The numbers in attendance might not at first be 
 large, and in any case it would probably be desirable 
 only to remain in session for a portion of the year. 
 The teachers, after needful rest, would be profitably 
 employed in study, or in lecturing in the meetings and 
 schools of the Society. The settlement would serve 
 as a permanent centre for the Summer School move- 
 ment, and it would be comparatively easy to organise 
 holiday camps and reading circles in different parts of 
 the country. Indeed, a .temporary school, less costly 
 
A PLEA FOR A QUAKER SETTLEMENT. 147 
 
 and elaborate than our two Summer Schools, say of 
 Quarterly Meeting dimensions only, could from time 
 to time be arranged, thus giving the work of the settle- 
 ment a root in many localities. 
 
 Probably those to whom such a settlement would 
 most appeal are young people just beginning life, 
 who have not yet committed themselves deeply in 
 affairs ; artisans, assisted to the advantages of study, 
 hitherto denied them ; and older Friends, workers 
 in every field, who, having " given out " their message, 
 feel that they stand in need of mental and spiritual 
 recuperation. 
 
 Of course our scheme teems with practical diffi- 
 culties. Common sense will maintain that the rush 
 of business life does not permit of such things. In 
 very many cases this will be perfectly true ; but if it 
 is generally true, what a flood of light such an admission 
 lets in upon our condition. 
 
 Is there to be no longer any scope for the spirit 
 which abandons the commercial successes within reach, 
 for the advantages of quiet thought and of spiritual 
 contemplation ? We may as well recognise at the 
 outset that there is no way of bracing ourselves to do 
 the work of the Church and at the same time of evading 
 the necessity of self-denial. Friends have adopted 
 a view of life which forbids their entire devotion to the 
 pursuit of commerce. We will not have our worship 
 done by proxy, but what if we will not bear the exercise 
 of the Spirit ? Christianity is founded upon the 
 principle that he who seeks his life must lose it, and no 
 church can prosper which denies in practice the teaching 
 of her Lord. 
 
I48 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 But if at first the numbers are not large, there need 
 not be a lack of students. Such a settlement would 
 offer an invaluable training for the teachers in our 
 Boarding Schools, and meet the serious deficiency 
 in their Biblical instruction. Here, too, the teachers 
 for the preparatory classes advocated in the last essay 
 might receive their mental equipment, if indeed special 
 teachers, as apart from those in our Boarding Schools 
 are found to be necessary. Finally, the workers in 
 the Home and Foreign Mission Field might with 
 advantage enjoy the privileges of such an institution. 
 We are not here concerned with the question of " paid 
 workers," but as long as we maintain them we shall gain 
 by placing the privileges of a settlement within their 
 reach. Friends who dread the development of the 
 Pastoral System need not fear for the association of 
 paid with voluntary workers. The less the Home 
 Mission worker is treated as belonging to a separate 
 class, the better. The work of Home Missions, quite 
 apart from the question of any special organisation 
 or of payment, must remain exceedingly difficult. A 
 sharp distinction needs to be drawn between a Quaker 
 and an ordinary Nonconformist Mission. In the one 
 it is necessary to present an unusual view of worship 
 and a severe standard of religious life, carrying with it 
 the fullest responsibilities of church fellowship, in the 
 other the difficulty of full responsibility is met by the 
 establishment of a pastor. Clearly the equipment of a 
 Quaker missionary is no ordinary one ; whether at 
 home or abroad it involves not only a definite call, but 
 a clear comprehension of the spiritual message of the 
 Church. 
 
A PLEA FOR A QUAKER SETTLEMENT. 149 
 
 A genuine objection may be raised against such a 
 scheme that a class, represented by the students at the 
 school, will be formed within the Society. We believe 
 that upon examination this fear will be seen to be 
 groundless. That some Friends will receive advantages 
 denied to others by the circumstances of life, is in- 
 evitable ; but it is no new thing. Friends who have 
 received inspiration and help from the quiet study and 
 the spiritual fellowship enjoyed in the settlement 
 will undoubtedly be distributed throughout the 
 country, but if this be to " create a separate class " 
 we may set our fears at rest. 
 
 Again, it is urged that the founders of the school 
 may have excellent motives, but that these may be 
 disregarded by a subsequent generation, which will 
 change the open settlement into a college of pastors. 
 We believe this fear to be equally groundless. The idea 
 of a free Quaker settlement does not even hint at 
 restriction in the ministry. Nothing could bring 
 about such a change as is suggested save a widespread 
 dissatisfaction with existing conditions, such as that 
 which prepared the way for the Pastoral System in 
 America. But one of the special provinces of the 
 school will be to bring out into clear relief the lessons 
 of our spiritual experience as a church, and it is diffi- 
 cult to see how a closer acquaintance with the past 
 should involve us in a revolution so alien to its clearest 
 teaching. Indeed, the settlement will be founded 
 to meet the very shortcomings which may otherwise 
 lead us, in despair, to adopt methods fatal to spiritual 
 freedom. There is far more danger in the present 
 [situation, and in the policy of the status quo, than can 
 
150 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 by the most lively imagination be attributed to such a 
 Friends' Bible School as we have suggested. 
 
 In the noisy rush of modern life we need periods 
 of quiet when the soul may feed in peace on that which 
 shall nourish it for action. We need that type of 
 character which, in earlier days, by its calm strength, 
 its transparent truthfulness, and its spiritual depth, 
 worked as a leaven of righteousness in the land. 
 Neither a sound education, nor Quaker Sunday Schools, 
 nor a settlement for Bible study can give us all this, 
 but they will contribute to "an intelligent grasp of 
 Christian truth, and the large shaping of Christian 
 character in the mould of a strong manhood and 
 womanhood." 
 
SUMMER SCHOOLS. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 In strict order of time the plea for Summer Schools 
 should precede the plea for a permanent Settlement as the 
 Schools were the first in the field. In reality the two were 
 always associated together in the writer's mind as com- 
 ponent parts of a whole. 
 
 The tersest and ripest introduction to the subject 
 may be found in the extract here given from a letter John 
 Wilhelm Rowntree wrote to Dr. George Barton, of Haver- 
 ford, regretting his inability to be present at the Haverford 
 Summer School, 1904. The essay which follows the 
 extract appeared in Present Day Papers in 1902. 
 
 Extract from Letter to Dr. George Barton. 
 
 Scalby, 
 
 June 6th, 1904. 
 
 The need for a deep and more intelligent apprehension 
 of the vital aspects of religious belief, has never been greater 
 than the present. 
 
 One cannot but deplore, at a time like this, when men 
 are feeling their way from a sacerdotal and professional 
 religion to a simpler and more inward faith, that the 
 Society of Friends should be so feeble, not only in numbers, 
 but in spiritual and intellectual power. 
 
 It is my conviction that, in the lifetime of this and 
 the succeeding generation, the whole problem of church- 
 fellowship will be before the Christian Church in a new and 
 more imperative form, and that questions of belief, pro- 
 found and far-reaching, will press more urgently upon us 
 than at any time since the early days of the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 151 
 
152 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 We hardly yet see the issue of the great social move- 
 ment about us, nor do we, within the fold, realise 'the mag- 
 nitude of the effort that will be necessary to win civilisation 
 to the faith of Christ. But we can see that the current 
 forms and conceptions are as old bottles that cannot hold 
 the new wine, and that it is the duty of those who are con- 
 cerned to give life its true value and direction, to seek a 
 baptism of divine knowledge and love bravely to face the 
 contemporary conditions and needs, for which the occasion 
 calls. 
 
 Again and again the history of the Church has repeated 
 the experience of Paul with the church at Jerusalem, both 
 in questions of organisation and of the expression of Chris- 
 tian truth. 
 
 We surely are not of the church of Jerusalem. Like 
 Paul, let us have faith to enlarge our borders, let us expect 
 a spiritual Parousia, and like the writer on the Isle of 
 Patmos, amid the darkness and gloom of contrary times, 
 say with all the earnestness of the longing soul, " Amen, 
 Lqrd Jesus, come. " 
 
THE NEED FOR THE SUMMER SCHOOL 
 MOVEMENT. 
 
 AS we write, the Friends' Summer School is in 
 session upon the shores of Windermere. It is a 
 gathering of work-a-day " laymen," who seek to unite 
 physical recreation with Biblical and religious study. 
 
 Those who dispense with a trained and separated 
 ministry may well be expected to devote not a little 
 of their leisure and energy to the subjects which the 
 programme of this Summer School includes. Indeed, 
 it is one of the extraordinary facts of Quaker history 
 that the responsibility of a Free Ministry has been 
 undertaken without any properly sustained recogni- 
 tion of the intellectual qualifications for a searching 
 ministry. 
 
 Friends have been more ready to recognise the 
 direct spiritual needs of the minister, than the place 
 and importance of his mental equipment. They have 
 set emphasis upon the fact that the Truth is most 
 compelling when the Spirit speaks through human 
 character. And, of course, such emphasis is not 
 misplaced. 
 
 A message, however true, whether delivered from 
 a " ministers' gallery," or a pulpit, must fail unless 
 it expresses some reality in the spiritual life of the 
 speaker. When a man fires at a mark with blank 
 cartridge, there will be smoke and noise, but nothing 
 
 '53 
 
154 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 will be hit ; and it is firing with blank cartridge to 
 preach a sermon without experience. 
 
 If we forget this we ignore the true root of ministry, 
 but we must not also forget that an informed mind 
 and an intelligent outlook are conditions of power. 
 The weakness of the Quaker ministry, which, in spite 
 of all its peculiar qualities, must be confessed, its 
 comparative failure notwithstanding the unique oppor- 
 tunities which the times and message afford, has in 
 part been consequent upon the neglect of the human 
 conditions of spiritual life. 
 
 For the Society of Friends the Summer School 
 Movement may mean much. It may mean a quickened 
 sense of responsibility, a firmer grasp upon the essentials 
 of Truth and a renewal of spiritual power. 
 
 But the need for Summer Schools is surely not 
 confined to Friends, it extends rather throughout 
 the Church. 
 
 In the special training for the ministry the stan- 
 dard though lower in some denominations than in 
 others, is gradually being raised. In the meantime, 
 among laymen, progress in Biblical and in kindred 
 knowledge is slow. The Sunday School is, on the 
 whole, miserably inefficient. It is taught by persons 
 often of exemplary character, but seldom of adequate 
 equipment, and there is a real danger lest the growing 
 effectiveness of the preacher's training should actually 
 widen the gulf between the pulpit and the pew, through 
 the want of correspondence in interest and knowledge 
 between the minister and the congregation. 
 
 Biblical scholars practically live in a world by 
 themselves. They are an international con-fraternity, 
 
SUMMER SCHOOLS. 155 
 
 with their special lingo and their expert's knowledge. 
 They are intimate with the evidence for and against 
 particular views of Biblical interpretation. The main 
 outlines and the basal principles of criticism, its purpose, 
 methods, and its broad results, are the A.B.C. of their 
 craft. 
 
 To an inadequate but increasing extent the pulpit 
 understands and appreciates them. Not so the 
 ordinary layman. Take a common type ! Immersed 
 in affairs, he borrows his ideas on religion at second 
 hand. He has not time to work them out for himself. 
 He is satisfied with some hereditary heirloom, say of 
 the fifties, when criticism was not, or with the obiter 
 dicta of his spiritual adviser, whom he regards as en- 
 dowed in a miraculous degree with infallibility. Even 
 if he do not go so far, he is not without a certain respect 
 for the Bible, not unmixed with superstition it is 
 true, and marked by a woful ignorance as to its real 
 teaching and significance. Is it not, for instance, 
 on the Bible that he takes his oath ? 
 
 His " religious things " must be done or ex- 
 pressed in an accustomed way or his religious pro- 
 prieties are apt to be shocked. His reverence for 
 these, which we fear is largely conventional, attri- 
 butes a peculiar sacredness to those observances for 
 which silk hats and frock-coats are the correct wear. 
 
 In his mind, the British constitution, the Bible, 
 the national flag, are hopelessly confused as being 
 equally the private properties of the Anglo-Saxon, 
 and this reverence for sacred things is intertwined 
 with a species of patriotism which is, moreover, not 
 seldom tinged with a party-political bias. To him, 
 
156 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 God is primarily the national, or British God, and he 
 recognises that he must propitiate Him, especially on 
 Sundays, if his private affairs and those of the nation 
 are to prosper ; otherwise it can scarcely be said 
 that his " religion " has any very direct bearing upon 
 his conduct. 
 
 Or take another type, likewise frequently met 
 with, perhaps more frequently as time goes on. He 
 is conscious that something is happening. He believes 
 that the orthodox people have been " smashed," that 
 the story of Jonah and the whale is " done for," and 
 that the Bible is no longer a book that need be regarded. 
 He does not trouble to inquire exactly what has been 
 going on, he only discovers that whereas he never 
 believed these things to be true, he is now sure that 
 they are not, and free from the irksome necessity of 
 supporting the boredom of being religious, he wears 
 flannels on Sunday, " does the river," or " motes," 
 and passes for an honest man without pretence, who 
 believes in being straight, and kind " and all that," 
 but brushes what he calls religion aside. 
 
 Two other leading types shall take us through 
 our list. First the man nourished in the Evangelical 
 theology of fifty years ago, and strong upon Old 
 Testament types ; who regards all criticism as sin, 
 either fails or refuses to understand the critics, and 
 often suffers real anguish of heart when he witnesses 
 what he regards as the defection of the elect. And 
 secondly, the man who has read every book in German 
 criticism from Strauss downward, has saturated him- 
 self with Evolution, read Herbert Spencer, Huxley, 
 has dabbled in comparative religion, and made ac- 
 
SUMMER SCHOOLS. 157 
 
 quaintance with the philosophers, from Aristotle 
 and Plato, to Hegel and Kant. He regards the Chris- 
 tian minister with aversion as one who shirks real 
 issues ; he attends church frankly disbelieving, to 
 soothe his orthodox friends, but assails the claim of 
 Revelation with unflagging energy. To him a system 
 of ethics is all sufficient. Evil is only good in the 
 becoming, and while his standard of life and his practice 
 are often exceedingly high, he feels no reality in prayer, 
 no sense of dependence, and claims at any rate, con- 
 tentment in his belief that God is unknowable. 
 
 As yet but few understand how great a work 
 Biblical scholarship is accomplishing. The place, 
 even in comparative religion, of the prophets of the 
 eighth century, B.C., the significance of their message, 
 not only in the revised historical setting which has 
 been given to it, but in relation to the principles which 
 govern the conduct and relationships of modern 
 individuals and nations, receives scant appreciation. 
 Yet we shall scarcely exceed the truth in asserting 
 that the critics have discovered the prophets, setting 
 them forward for the first time in their true light. 
 
 At least, it is certain that they have freed Chris- 
 tian ethics from Old Testament bondage, by com- 
 pelling attention to the fallacy of verbal inspiration, 
 and disclosing the internal evidence of a moral develop- 
 ment, within the limits of the Old Testament itself. 
 
 They have saved us from the fantastic vagaries 
 of the text hunter, who skipped from verse to verse 
 in happy disregard of all laws of exegesis, and almost 
 of common sense, they have turned the shaft of ridicule 
 by separating history from drama and legend and 
 
158 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 allegory, and by uncovering the processes of compila- 
 tion have given a sense of reality and of human interest 
 to much that was merely dull and unintelligible. 
 
 But more than all, they have thrown a flood of 
 light upon the life and times of Jesus, and have drawn 
 attention from the elaborate scholasticism of the creed- 
 makers to the vital throbbing truths which seemed 
 in danger of being obscured. Difficulties have indeed 
 been emphasised or brought to light both in the Old 
 Testament and in the New, Which yet remain unsolved. 
 Enough has, however, been done to quicken faith and 
 to vindicate the work of the critics as the greatest 
 and most potential reformation since the first centuries 
 of the Christian era. 
 
 The Bible was loosening its hold through our 
 ignorance and mis-interpretation. To the mass of 
 men it is already an unreal book. It is the much 
 maligned critic who is restoring both its reality and 
 its power. Yet the work is only begun. The mistakes 
 of orthodoxy still bear their fruit, and on the other 
 hand as even the critics are fallible, there is room, 
 with growing light, for much correction and revision. 
 
 As this process develops, the ferment in religious 
 thought must become more general, a ferment, however, 
 not of dissolution, but of stirring life. We err when 
 we deprecate criticism on the ground that it disturbs 
 faith. The faith of the majority will be saved or 
 quickened only by compelling thought and fearlessly 
 seeking the truth. 
 
 To defend Genesis as a scientific text book is to 
 manufacture doubt. The day when quibbles could 
 pass for apologetics is gone. The churches lose in- 
 
SUMMER SCHOOLS. 159 
 
 fluence for want of candour and courage. It is a grave 
 thing when the truth must be sought outside the 
 pulpit, and when compromise and hesitancy marks 
 the utterances of divines. 
 
 We may keep out the waves for a little time 
 with walls of sand, but a rising tide has an inexorable 
 force, and our castle must be levelled at last. Yet 
 after all it is only the sand castles that will disappear ; 
 what is living rock will remain. For in the long run 
 criticism is constructive, and we shall yet come to wel- 
 come it as another generation welcomed the " New 
 Learning." 
 
 To break the indifference of a pleasure-loving age, 
 to quicken a deeper sense of life's solemn purpose, 
 to bring home, with freshness and power the practical 
 aspects of the Christian faith, to supplant militarism 
 with brotherhood, self aggrandisement with self- 
 sacrifice, hate with love, the wars of commerce and of 
 race with the holy peace of God, these must sooner 
 or later fuse in an overmastering passion in those who, 
 piercing the misinterpretation of centuries, find them- 
 selves face to face with the living Christ. And because 
 Christ is behind the Gospels, it is to him inevitably 
 that criticism will lead. In the meantime we must 
 busy ourselves with re-adjustment. 
 
 Science has much to tell us as well as much to 
 learn. We need a wider and more comprehensive 
 sweep in the range of our thought. Specialism has its 
 necessary place, but it tends to narrowness. The 
 scientist often dogmatises in religion with an im- 
 perfect apprehension of spiritual truth, brushing aside the 
 facts of spiritual experience with unintelligent contempt ; 
 
l6o JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 on the other hand the theologian and the philosopher 
 are prone to profitless abstractions without a due regard 
 for concrete facts. Science, philosophy, theology, need 
 a closer inter-relation and greater mutual respect. 
 
 Moreover, in examining afresh the claims of the 
 Christian revelation a different estimate of other religions 
 will be necessary. Even Biblical criticism may be too 
 narrow. A study of comparative religion may (we 
 believe it will), justify the supreme claims of the 
 Christian faith. But it will certainly teach us that 
 the work of the Holy Spirit has been more universal 
 than we thought, and bring us into closer sympathy, 
 with our brothers of the human race. 
 
 The work of criticism and of re-examination is, 
 indeed, the re-conquest as a living possession of that 
 which, accepted merely as an hereditary bequest, 
 must remain an impotent gift. In the Society of 
 Friends, hereditary testimonies are only too apt to 
 become sterile. We should not deprecate, but encour- 
 age fresh thought. Our testimony against war, our 
 views of the Lord's Supper, and so forth need to be 
 thought out by this generation in relation to the 
 progress of ideas and the changed environment of a 
 modern world. It may well be that in essence the 
 testimonies will remain, but we shall gain at least the 
 living expression of what we have made our own. 
 
 To this end, and in view of the widespread indiffer- 
 ence and misunderstanding which calls aloud for the 
 teacher and the prophet, we earnestly support the aim 
 and work of the Summer Schools as the work of the 
 modern reformation, and the promise of fuller spiritual 
 life. 
 
ADULT SCHOOLS AND MISSION WORK. 
 
 John Wilhelm Rowntree threw himself with great 
 earnestness into Adult School work, and spared no pains 
 to inform and to inspire the men with whom he met. 
 
 He regarded the Adult School movement as a means 
 to an end. The end being the advancement of Christ's 
 kingdom amongst men. He never dissociated it from 
 his conception of the work of the section of the Church 
 with which he so closely identified himself. 
 
 The following address was given at the annual breakfast 
 meeting of the Bedford Institute, held at Peel, 23rd May, 
 1896, and was afterwards published in the Friend (19th 
 June, 1896). 
 
 13 
 
OUR ADULT SCHOOLS AND MISSION WORK, 
 
 AND THEIR 
 
 RELATION TO THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 AT the outset let me frankly admit that in ap- 
 proaching the many-sided problem suggested 
 by the title of this paper, I am not going to make a 
 novel contribution towards its solution. If I deal 
 largely in commonplace, and by deliberate choice 
 repeat an oft-told tale, my excuse must be that though 
 in conference after conference we have come to close 
 quarters with this problem, we have hitherto shirked 
 it in practice. 
 
 There is a delicate warfare to which most men 
 are not altogether strangers, where persistence in a 
 certain urgent appeal is seldom resented nor often un- 
 successful. It is with something of the same hope- 
 fulness that I venture to put forward a few thoughts 
 without pretending to be either comprehensive or 
 original. 
 
 No one who has studied the report of the Manchester 
 Conference can fail to have noticed the chart which 
 exhibits the comparative growth of the Society of 
 Friends and its First-day Schools. There we note 
 at once, as the striking feature of the diagram, how 
 the gentle, undulating rise, representing our Church 
 
 163 
 
164 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 membership, is rudely cut across in 1869 by a sharp 
 incline — at an angle of 6o° — representing our Adult 
 School membership. Beginning at about sea-level, 
 so to speak, in 1845, this bold mountain rises in abrupt 
 precipices till it loses itself in Himalayan peaks, and in 
 1895 disappears in the clouds at an elevation of 
 40,000. 
 
 The movement which was thus strikingly indicated 
 will no doubt furnish one of the most interesting 
 chapters in our history. I think I shall not be far 
 wrong if I say that our future historian, contemplating, 
 let us hope, a large and vigorous Church, will point to 
 this period — the period covered by the chart — as the 
 decisive one in the history of our Society. The Adult 
 Schools have been to us not merely a new and success- 
 ful form of Christian endeavour, but have been of 
 critical importance to us in our development as a 
 church. They have liberated our pent-up energies 
 in a sphere of fruitful service. They have given us 
 new bone and sinew. They have expanded our 
 sympathies and our aims. They have quickened 
 our sense of responsibility, and done not a little to 
 break down our selfish exclusiveness and spiritual 
 pride. The doors of the cloister have been opened, 
 and the recluse of Quietism is becoming once more 
 the Brother of Mercy and the Preaching Friar. 
 
 Small wonder that those brought up in an atmos- 
 phere of renewed religious and social activity should 
 find new hopes and new faith possessing their souls. 
 For it is impossible to take any part in the work of 
 the Adult Schools without being profoundly impressed 
 with the limitless possibilities that lie before them, if 
 
ADULT SCHOOLS AND MISSION WORK. 165 
 
 only the energy and the workers be forthcoming 
 for their development. 
 
 Perhaps no church has found a more direct way 
 to the people, and no church has an influence of the 
 same kind lying ready to its hand. Were we a school 
 of the prophets, think of all that our schools might be ! 
 Think how through them we might leaven public 
 opinion, stem the forces of reaction, create a new 
 and a tenderer conscience, and a better love than the 
 greed for gold, and might give to our country strong 
 and God-fearing citizens who would bring Christian 
 principle to bear upon public affairs ! Think what 
 outward results Christianity applied through our 
 schools might achieve ! Public-houses and gambling- 
 dens replaced by lecture-halls and popular places 
 of healthy amusement, slums abolished, and a healthy 
 life made possible for the poorest, and all this not as 
 the substance, but as the outward symbol and the 
 necessary consequence of a purifying and elevating 
 faith in the living Christ. 
 
 In the Adult School movement and its allied 
 mission work our church has come upon a vein of 
 gold ; but if we are fully to work the vein, we shall 
 need a large increase in power, for the quartz is obstin- 
 ate, our miners few, and our machinery inadequate. 
 Were it otherwise, we should not find in the paper 
 which follows the description of the diagram, the ever- 
 recurring question, " Why is it that with so large 
 a number of persons directly associated with us in our 
 Adult Schools and mission meetings, so very few, 
 comparatively, find their way into full membership 
 with us ? " And we should not read that this " com- 
 
l66 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 paratively few " is less than one per cent, of the number 
 of our scholars. This question has been asked again 
 and again and yet again ; and while, undoubtedly, 
 there are signs that our evangelistic work is increasing 
 our membership, the problem in its broad aspect 
 remains unsolved. 
 
 Church and school do not grow in equal proportion, 
 and unless by the growth of the church we can supply 
 fresh workers, we must inevitably, of physical neces- 
 sity, come to the limit of our power. Moreover, a 
 church which would extend its influence must draw 
 its educated men and women into its service. Intellec- 
 tual development ought to lead, not to fastidious 
 aloofness, but to the most earnest and powerful advocacy 
 of all that makes for the highest life. Educated men 
 and women of this stamp it ought to be the function 
 of our church to supply. When the vision of the 
 Kingdom — the wall and towers of the Eternal City 
 — shine before us in a glory of prophetic light, we feel 
 how great is the work, and the labourers how feeble 
 and few. 
 
 It is the meeting for worship that ought to be 
 our recruiting-ground, and if church and school and 
 church and mission are to grow together, the same 
 devotion, the same freedom, the same business-like 
 application, the same spiritual power that have created 
 the adult class and filled the mission hall must be 
 brought to our meetings for worship. If a larger 
 share of the energy and life of our church be given to 
 our own meetings, the schools will not suffer, but gain. 
 
 To this end, we may, I believe, fruitfully direct 
 our earnest thought in three main directions, viz., 
 
ADULT SCHOOLS AND MISSION WORK. 167 
 
 Outward Arrangements, Social Life, and Spiritual 
 Power. We must look to the practical reforms, larger 
 or smaller, which a timid and sometimes self-regarding 
 conservatism has hitherto prevented. We must give 
 a larger place to the social side of Christian life. We 
 must earnestly seek that spiritual power without 
 which all outward energy must fail of its highest 
 results. Any one of these three headings, all so 
 closely allied with the future of our aggressive work, 
 would form an adequate subject for a far longer paper 
 than the present. I propose only to make a few sug- 
 gestions under each head. 
 
 Reforms in Arrangements. 
 
 In the first place, as to Reforms in Arrangements, 
 I know of no instance more typical of unwise con- 
 servatism in usage than the tenacity with which 
 we cling to the practice of breaking up our families 
 at meeting time. In itself it is a small matter, but 
 if at Manchester speaker after speaker emphasised the 
 difficulty of getting the outside public to unite with us 
 in our worship, why increase that difficulty by placing 
 this needless barrier in the way ? I remember once 
 asking an intelligent adult scholar, who was often 
 my companion in class-visiting, what he took to be 
 the raison-d' etre of the Society of Friends. He 
 thought for a moment, and replied, " Well, I suppose 
 you don't sing, and you separate your men and women 
 in meeting." What noble tenets with which to conquer 
 the world ! If we would discuss these and similar 
 matters, not from the point of view of our own com- 
 fort, and of what we have been used to, but from the 
 
l68 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 standpoint of outsiders, surely this senseless anomaly 
 would no longer survive. 
 
 I have introduced this detail because it is typical 
 of larger questions of reform to which there is the 
 same attitude of a dull and complacent conservatism. 
 Not long ago, in passing down the Tyne, I commented 
 on the number of steamers which were laid aside, and 
 inquired if this were due to depression of trade. The 
 reply was, " No, their engines and boilers are out of 
 date, and it pays the owners to lay the ships aside, 
 and use the modern type which give a higher speed 
 and a less consumption of coal. If the hulls are good, 
 it may sometimes pay to refit them. Otherwise, 
 not." I fancy that we Friends have a considerable 
 stock of machinery which, excellent in its day, is now 
 antiquated, rusty and creaking. Yet ours is a vessel 
 shaped by master-builders, and we need not cast 
 her aside ; but if we are to compete with modern 
 liners we must refit her with the best engines and 
 boilers we can secure. If I am asked to be explicit, 
 and to point out a piece of rusty machinery, I fear 
 I must first — though with all deference — point to 
 our Meetings on Ministry and Oversight, and, as an 
 excuse, shall quote the story which has been told 
 before, how a Friend was once asked whether he were 
 a member of the Meeting on Ministry and Oversight, 
 and on giving a negative answer was addressed as 
 follows : "I should have thought thou was old enough, 
 and rich enough, and dry enough, to be a member 
 of that Meeting ! " 
 
 Surely there is practical work for our inner coun- 
 cils of war — such as our Meetings on Ministry and 
 
ADULT SCHOOLS AND MISSION WORK. 169 
 
 Oversight ought to be. May we not look to them 
 to stimulate and direct the aggressive work of the 
 church, to organise special meetings and visits, and 
 in many ways to promote amongst us a livelier 
 spirit ? 
 
 And, again, is there not creaking and rust in our 
 Preparative and Monthly Meetings ? In some places 
 the Preparative Meetings are becoming more and 
 more real Church meetings, and are held on a week- 
 day evening, when the congregation is not for ever 
 craning round at the clock, and wondering if their 
 dinners are getting cold. Why should not agenda- 
 papers and whips be employed to secure interested 
 and adequate attendance ? Why should not a paper 
 be read now and again at Preparative or Monthly 
 Meetings, on some definite and important subject, 
 either concerning the church, or its relation to some 
 local or national question ? In short, why not in our 
 business meetings take the same pains to make them 
 effective and interesting, and to secure good attend- 
 ance, that we take with our Adult School gatherings ? 
 
 So, too, with regard to the arrangements of our 
 Yearly Meeting, I question whether we sufficiently 
 allow for the changes that have come over our Society 
 and English fife. We have a large number of members 
 of limited means, and the majority of them are tied 
 down to retail trades, or occupy positions where their 
 time is not their own. Working men cannot, as our 
 arrangements go, share in the deliberations of our 
 legislative assembly, and we do little to secure their 
 attendance and assistance. We profess that all 
 members have equal rights, but we are governed by 
 
170 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 those amongst us who are rich enough to pay their 
 own expenses to London. 
 
 Wherever our machinery is out of date we must 
 either modify it, or look out for better. 
 
 But it is not only in business meetings that we need 
 less formalism and more liberty and life. In our 
 Meetings for Worship our very want of form has 
 hardened into the subtlest of all formalisms. I have 
 often heard the remark " Your meeting is so stiff ! " 
 I once pressed two adult scholars, who would have 
 made helpful members, to attend our meeting, with a 
 view to joining it. They were very sympathetic, 
 but no, they wouldn't feel free if they came, we 
 were too stiff. And this vague objection was never- 
 theless sufficiently rooted in their minds to determine 
 their decision. 
 
 Our form of worship ought to be the very freest 
 from any charge of stiffness. Why cannot anyone 
 who feels he has some message laid upon his heart, 
 and who wishes to impress it by some passage in a 
 book, be permitted to read what he wishes if his memory 
 is unequal to the call ? If we may quote from memory, 
 it is absurd to suppose that Quakerism will collapse 
 if we quote from a book. In some meetings oppor- 
 tunity is given which minimises the necessity for 
 such a quotation. I mean the evening reading, when 
 a carefully prepared paper or address may alternate 
 with a simple Scripture-reading. I have myself 
 benefited so much as a listener at such times, that 
 I wish the practice were far more common among 
 Friends than it is. 
 
 Closely allied to these matters, and in relation 
 
ADULT SCHOOLS AND MISSION WORK. 171 
 
 with our Adult Schools, and mission-halls, there is 
 another question of real importance, and that is 
 the vexed question of singing. As I think of the power 
 for good that may lie in congregational singing, I 
 sometimes wonder whether, as a church, we have not 
 made a grievous mistake in entirely excluding it from 
 our meetings. 
 
 I mention this question of singing less on account 
 of its intrinsic importance than as an illustration 
 of necessity for that freedom in our ministry and 
 worship, which would remove all reproach of " stiff- 
 ness." It is, after all, on those periods of silence 
 which vitally distinguish our worship from that of 
 other bodies, that our real freedom of worship ulti- 
 mately depends. 
 
 The Social Life of our Church. 
 
 We have spoken of outward arrangements, let 
 us briefly dwell on the social life of our church. One 
 of the few working men who attended the Conference 
 at Manchester said, in reference to his first acquaint- 
 ance with a Friends' meeting, " I went to that meeting 
 for five months, and only one man and my teacher 
 ever spoke to me. There are two or three elders who 
 have never spoken to me yet. All these things keep 
 people away from your church." These words bring 
 us very near to the main cause of our failure to bring 
 our scholars into membership. 
 
 We live too much in family cliques. We fraternise 
 with those whom we think interesting. We are willing 
 to pour out tea at an annual meeting, or to shake 
 hands on a Sunday, and make a few nice remarks 
 
172 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 about the weather, but we too often neglect to ask 
 those we meet to our home, where we may come to 
 close quarters with them. Surely the Church of 
 Christ should know no caste, and yet Dr. Fairbairn 
 gives it as his deliberate opinion that social differences 
 are actually accentuated by the modern churches. 
 
 Brotherhood must be more than a name. The 
 Apostle John strongly denounced the cant use of 
 this word. Christianity implies stewardship. We are 
 traitors to its first principles if we hold that there can 
 be lawful tenancy of wealth, except as a sacred trust 
 for the service of our fellows. Let us open our houses 
 more freely, and use our gardens or carriages for tired 
 mothers and little children. Let us gather working 
 people around us, not merely in our schools, or at 
 lectures, or public meetings, but at our own fireside, 
 and meet them, not as superior beings, but as members 
 of one family. 
 
 There are many ways in which social life in a 
 meeting can be quickened and warmed. We may 
 have the social gathering at the meeting-house (I 
 have known one of the most successful opened by 
 blind-man's buff in the meeting-house yard). We 
 may have bicycle clubs, and reading circles, and so 
 on. But, though all will demand from us more or 
 less of thoughtfulness and self-sacrifice, and though 
 in all we shall be careful to draw out the lonely ones, 
 yet there is nothing that so promotes social life in a 
 meeting as simple, private hospitality. 
 
 I fear that our official visiting committees do not 
 always systematically arrange for kindly calls at the 
 homes of poorer or invalided Friends. It should 
 
ADULT SCHOOLS AND MISSION WORK. 173 
 
 never be that in times of trial any member or attender 
 nominally under the care of a Meeting on Ministry 
 and Oversight should be by oversight debarred from 
 its ministry. At any rate, till the rusty machinery 
 of these meetings is improved, we may have wzofficial 
 visiting societies, each member of which will take so 
 many on the list of his meeting, and either visit or 
 invite them before the next committee. Indeed, 
 there seems hardly any limit to opportunity if only 
 really interested and sympathetic ■ consideration be 
 given. 
 
 " Well " — it may be asked — " What is the bearing 
 of all this on religious work ? What is the connection 
 of all this with Adult Schools and missions ? I believe 
 it is a very real one indeed. Suppose a stranger 
 working man comes to a meeting where this spirit 
 of brotherhood is alive. He does not come his five 
 months without being spoken to by only his teacher 
 and one other friend. He is pounced upon and drawn 
 into the social circle. He feels the glow of a kindly 
 sympathy and interest. He says to himself, " These 
 people don't keep their religion to themselves. They 
 don't just shake hands in the yard and ask me how I 
 am, while they look over my head at the opposite 
 wall and wonder what next to say. They show 
 me at once that they care for me and want me." Do 
 you think that the present " gulf between church 
 and school " would continue if every visit to our 
 meeting by the men we influence were met in this 
 fashion ? Or do you think that the chilly reception 
 which is too often their fate contrasts favourably 
 with the warmth of their Sunday class ? 
 
174 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 And further. Which ministry is more likely to 
 be effective — that which is offered by those who have 
 entered into the condition of the people they address, 
 who know their private sorrows and cares, and ap- 
 preciate the difficulties of individual cases ? Which 
 ministry will gain the more sympathetic hearing ; 
 which will win the readier entrance to the heart for 
 the message of healing, peace and life ? 
 
 We have mentioned the ministry, and this brings 
 us to our third and final consideration : — 
 
 The Need for Spiritual Power. 
 
 I believe it is often the experience of those scholars 
 who come to our meetings, after previously attending 
 their morning class, that they leave the meeting with 
 the feeling that they had more real help in their school, 
 that the teaching there was more direct, more practical, 
 more powerful, more searching than the ministry 
 in the meeting. 
 
 Sometimes, no doubt, this is due to the fact that 
 the best energy and thought of the preachers have 
 already been absorbed in the school — that the teacher 
 is also the one on whom the main burden of the meeting 
 is allowed to fall, and that his physical limit has been 
 reached. But sometimes, and oftener, it is due to 
 that strange and fatal misapprehension as to preparation 
 and prearrangement which lies at the root of so much 
 of failure in our ministry, and which results in many 
 cases in spiritual negligence and in leaving the meeting 
 "to run itself." 
 
 I think that the state of our meetings generally 
 justifies the belief that our greatest outward need 
 
ADULT SCHOOLS AND MISSION WORK. 175 
 
 is a ministry — fearless and direct — able to deal with 
 life in its various aspects, and presenting in fresh and 
 modern terms, and with prophetic power, the message 
 of Jesus to the men of to-day. If our meetings were 
 what they ought to be, we should rear among our 
 young men and women a band of preachers not afraid 
 of open-air testimony, but fired once more with apos- 
 tolic zeal. 
 
 Instead of this, we are compelled to review meeting 
 after meeting, where the pulse of spiritual life beats 
 low, where the sense of individual responsibility is 
 weak, and where apparently no young Friend is pre- 
 paring himself for the inevitable call to the service 
 of the ministry. 
 
 We have taken a bold step in declining — almost 
 alone among the Churches — to set up a class of men, 
 trained and paid, to meet our spiritual needs, but 
 we have shown a strange indifference to the respon- 
 sibility we have thus voluntarily taken upon us. 
 Until we fully appreciate what we lose by the want 
 of an adequate ministry, until the younger generation 
 have felt how great is the responsibility that must 
 in time be laid upon them, and have learned to train 
 their minds and hearts in view of this solemn service, 
 we shall always have one great obstacle to the expansion 
 of our Society. 
 
 It is impossible, in this paper, to deal with all 
 the points that suggest themselves in this connection. 
 It is freely allowed that preaching is not everything, 
 that all ministry is not vocal, and that much that is 
 vocal, unpretentious and simple as it may be, comes 
 direct from the heart, and constitutes one of the most 
 
176 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 precious privileges we have enjoyed. These things 
 I have taken for granted, and at the risk of appearing 
 one-sided, I have urged other considerations which 
 seem to me to be of immediate and pressing impor- 
 tance. 
 
 To review. I think the points we have arrived 
 at are these 
 
 That our Church grows at a rate entirely dis- 
 proportionate to the task it has undertaken. 
 That though our aggressive work has probably 
 saved us from extinction, it has so taxed the 
 workers that unless their numbers can be in- 
 creased it must inevitably reach an early 
 limit. 
 That if we are to extend our services as we have 
 done in the past, we must give more energy, 
 time and thought to our own Church meetings, 
 which are spiritually weak, and have not yet 
 reaped all those benefits that renewed religious 
 activity in the mission-field might have been 
 expected to bring. 
 That the three chief lines along which we may 
 look for help are : — 
 
 (1) Prompt and practical reforms in our arrange- 
 ments, coupled with less formality in our 
 method of worship. 
 
 (2) A livelier sense of brotherhood in our social 
 life. 
 
 (3) A deeper sense of responsibility for our minis- 
 try, and a new baptism of spiritual power. 
 
 This last — the baptism of spiritual power — has 
 been but scantily dealt with, yet plainly it includes 
 
ADULT SCHOOLS AND MISSION WORK. I77 
 
 the whole, for it is small use clearing the channel 
 unless there is water to flow through it. 
 
 We cannot raise these questions, so vitally con- 
 cerning the future of our Church, without being "humbled 
 and sobered by the sense of our short-comings and the 
 magnitude of our work. But I trust that we shall 
 know also something of the joy of warfare in a noble 
 cause. " When Trowbridge went ashore with the 
 Culloden, and was able to take no part in the battle 
 of the Nile, Nelson wrote to the Admiralty, ' The 
 merits of that ship and her gallant captain are too well 
 known to benefit by anything I could say. Her 
 misfortune was great in getting aground, while her 
 more fortunate companions were in the full tide of happi- 
 ness.' "* It is in that spirit of battle that the knights 
 of Christ must win their spurs. 
 
 We have spoken of " mission work." Let us 
 give the word no narrow application. For is not 
 the Society of Friends, as a church, itself a " mission " 
 to the world ? We represent the ultimate principle 
 of the Reformation. And in this age of reaction, 
 when the priest seeks once more to bind men with 
 the fetters he has forged, there is the greater need for 
 the Free Churches to set forth the religion of Christ 
 in its essential liberty, spirituality and power. We 
 have our special part in this great work. Let us 
 be faithful in the doing of it. 
 
 *R. L. Stevenson, Virginibus Pueresque, p. 191. 
 
OUR EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 In Present Day Papers September and October, 1900, 
 there appeared two lengthy essays on the above subject. 
 The first is an historical sketch of the most noteworthy 
 educational efforts of the Friends within their own borders. 
 The first half of the second gives statistical details as to 
 the accommodation, fees, scholarships, endowment, and 
 teaching staff of our Public Boys' Schools. The informa- 
 tion so brought together by Henry Bryan Binns, co-editor 
 with John Wilhelm Rowntree, in Present Day Papers, 
 is valuable to all who are interested in the matter treated 
 of, and should not be lost sight of by educationalists in 
 the Society. The conclusions given at the close of the 
 second paper are from the pen of John Wilhelm Rowntree, 
 and are reprinted here on that account, and as completing 
 the presentment of his views on this side of the Society's 
 life. 
 
OUR EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 
 
 " The Society of Friends ought to exert itself for the 
 right instruction of its youth in literature and science, 
 in connection with religious care." 
 
 Dr. Fothergill in the original prospectus of Ackworth School ; 
 quoted by J. H. Tuke, Education Conference, 1879. 
 
 A SURVEY such as ours is necessarily imperfect, but 
 it may serve to mark the main trend and features 
 of our educational progress. There is evidence in 
 almost every period of much indifference to the need 
 for more adequate equipment, but Friends have rarely 
 been without earnest and effective educationalists. 
 With that genius for thoroughness natural to a Society 
 which by its constitution fosters the sense of individual 
 responsibility, they have promoted schools famed for an 
 admirable blending of sound mental and moral training. 
 Some of our schools have perhaps been but indifferent, 
 and even now fall far short of their proper standard ; 
 but not a few have contributed powerfully to the 
 formation of virile Christian character, and many 
 of the scholars who passed out through their gates have 
 become leaders in progressive social and religious 
 work. 
 
 More than a century ago Edmund Burke, looking 
 back to his training under Abraham Shackleton at the 
 little Quaker School of Ballitore, wrote : " If I am any- 
 thing, it is the education which I had there that made 
 
 18! 
 
l82 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 me so." And, as John Morley says : " His master's 
 skill as a teacher did not impress him more than the 
 example which was every day set before him of up- 
 rightness and simplicity of heart." 
 
 This quality of the Quaker school and of the 
 Quaker teacher must ever continue of inestimable 
 value. Though the range and quality of the education 
 in our Public, Grammar and High Schools, and even 
 our Elementary Schools, may be admirable, it is difficult 
 to believe that they can attain to the standard of care- 
 ful individual training set by the best Quaker schools ; 
 while their definite religious teaching must in all remain 
 unsatisfactory or inadequate for Friends. Even where 
 professedly undenominational, the Public, Grammar 
 and High Schools have as a rule a pronounced Anglican 
 bias ; while in the compulsory undenominationalism 
 of the Board School, religious teaching becomes neces- 
 sarily colourless and often mechanical. 
 
 We must indeed cherish our schools, not to pro- 
 mote the narrow spirit of sectarianism, but because 
 we desire to see our children develop into strong men 
 and women of rich culture, and possessed with that 
 deep practical and spiritual conception of Christian 
 responsibility which we call Quakerism. It was evi- 
 dently this sentiment which in the past stirred Friends 
 to provide a careful education for their children, and 
 to include the children of their poor within its scope. 
 Under the widely different conditions of recent years 
 the direct query, " Is due care taken of the education 
 of the offspring of the poor among you ? " has been 
 discontinued, and it has almost appeared as though 
 the development of free elementary education was 
 
OUR EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 183 
 
 destined to terminate the long struggle made by the 
 Society to compass the education of all its children. 
 
 We have marked the uneasiness with which 
 Friends have contemplated this situation. We have 
 pointed out that a large number of children are growing 
 up, associated with the Society but not trained in its 
 schools. 
 
 The Society of Friends is once more a growing 
 church, mainly drawing its recruits from Adult Schools 
 and Mission Meetings, and the question arises, how is 
 the social solidarity and the religious effectiveness of 
 the Society to be maintained, unless all Friends have 
 more or less similar facilities for education and moral 
 training placed within their reach ? 
 
 Briefly the problems which emerge from this 
 discussion may be stated thus : — 
 
 (A) To adjust and endow our educational system 
 so that it may be opened to the children of all members 
 and associates : 
 
 (B) To maintain the educational standard of our 
 schools at a level which shall at least compare favour- 
 ably with others of a similar class : 
 
 (C) To attract the best men and women into the 
 ministry of teaching, and to secure them against 
 penury in old age : 
 
 (D) To provide definite historical and Biblical 
 teaching, calculated to interpret the true message and 
 significance of the Society of Friends and to foster a 
 right sense of the responsibility of membership : 
 
 (E) To raise central and local funds for the proper 
 and efficient development of our educational equip- 
 ment. 
 
184 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 The problem thus stated has on various occasions 
 received the attention of Friends, but no result at all 
 commensurate with the labour and thought bestowed 
 upon it in recent years has yet been attained. The 
 solution is largely a matter for educational experts, 
 but in order to provoke discussion we venture to put 
 forward the following suggestions : — 
 
 (A) To adjust and endow our educational system 
 that it may be opened to the children of all members and 
 associates. Under this head may be grouped the 
 following : — 
 
 (1) That the schools be graded and the educational 
 
 standard in each school be definitely fixed as 
 part of a common plan.* 
 
 (2) That the need for an executive body with a 
 
 comprehensive, as opposed to a merely local, 
 outlook upon educational questions, and with 
 some central control and initiative for con- 
 
 * The proper grading of our Schools pre-supposes the adoption 
 by each of a sound and suitable educational standard, which is per- 
 haps best secured by taking certain public examinations. This is 
 hardly the right place, nor if it were would the writers of this article 
 be the proper persons, to discuss the highly technical question of 
 the leaving examination which should be chosen. We may, however, 
 quote from an able and well-qualified correspondent, who has 
 expressed grave doubts as to the value of the College of Preceptors 
 examination now taken, we believe, at most of our Friends' Public 
 Schools. This correspondent describes it as " an examination mostly 
 taken in private schools to satisfy lower middle-class parents," but 
 "not in good repute among the best teachers." That for junior and 
 senior Cambridge local certificates, is said to be better regarded from 
 the educational point of view. London Matriculation has had a bad 
 name among teachers, affording " no sort of test of scholarship 
 either in classics or in English ; the mathematics is very elementary, 
 and the ' science ' superficial." " All the best girls' High Schools 
 and the best boys' Grammar Schools," continues our correspondent, 
 " take the Oxford and Cambridge joint Board Examination ; the 
 lower certificate for boys and girls of 16, and the higher for boys and girls 
 of 18 or 19. It is the examination in best repute as really tending to 
 thorough work, and is accepted as a preliminary both at Oxford and 
 Cambridge," 
 
OUR EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 185 
 
 certed action, should be met by a Central and 
 representative Educational Board with well 
 defined executive powers. The School Com- 
 mittees at present existing, to retain local 
 control and responsibility ; the Central Board 
 to concern itself with all matters which affect 
 the common educational policy of the Society.* 
 This Central Executive Board to report to the 
 Yearly Meeting and to supersede the present 
 advisory Educational Board. 
 
 (3) That an adequate " ladder " of scholarships be 
 
 constructed and endowed, leading from the 
 Public Day Schools through Friends' Schools 
 to the Universities, open to the children of 
 members and attenders, and to those who 
 have one parent a member. 
 
 (4) That Friends be encouraged to increase the 
 
 endowments of their schools, and in view 
 of the competition of Free'Education to adopt 
 as their policy in " the eight English schools " 
 the lowering of fees and the ultimate abolition 
 of differentiated or graduated fees.f 
 
 * The duties of the Educational Board would thus be largely 
 an expansion of their present advisory office. It would, however, 
 have the control of a central fund for assisting schools (vide E, 4). 
 The expert examination, the grading of the schools, the training of 
 the teachers, their scholarships, etc., and the minimum scale of 
 salaries would fall within its scope. Probably all the local committees 
 would be strongly represented along with other members elected 
 by co-option and by the Yearly Meeting. The chief source of power 
 would lie in the administration of the central funds, and its exercise 
 would have the broad effect of securing a coherent system of education 
 throughout the Society and stimulating local committees to maintain 
 the highest educational efficiency. 
 
 ■f In the case of any children neither of whose parents were 
 associated with Friends, full rates, fixed as though there was no 
 endowment, would still, in fairness have to be charged, 
 
l86 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 (B) To maintain the educational standard of our 
 schools at a level which shall at least compare favourably 
 with other schools of a similar character. 
 
 Much is at present being done under this head, 
 especially in equipment and building, but the teaching 
 itself is, of course, the fundamental issue. 
 We would suggest 
 
 (i) That the Central Executive Board appoint a 
 thoroughly qualified and independent examiner 
 who should report annually. 
 
 (2) That the application of the Flounders bequest 
 
 be again carefully reconsidered, both in rela- 
 tion to the scope and location of the Institute, 
 and possibly to the conversion of the fund 
 into training scholarships. 
 
 (3) That a more liberal scheme of special scnolar- 
 
 ships be developed and endowed to enable 
 teachers to secure the best Quaker and 
 University training, both in this country and 
 abroad. 
 (C) To attract the best men and women into the 
 
 ministry of teaching and to secure them against penury 
 
 in old age. 
 
 (1) That a scale of minimum salaries be drawn up 
 
 by the Central Educational Board. 
 
 (2) That a fund be started for the augmentation of 
 
 teachers' salaries, in order that the standard 
 of the profession may be raised, and teachers 
 enabled to provide against old age or failing 
 health.* 
 
 * We have, perhaps, sufficiently indicated the need for general 
 augmentation. But it should not be merely indiscriminate. It would 
 
OUR EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 187 
 
 (3) That wherever possible, house-masterships be 
 
 offered for married teachers. 
 
 (4) That teachers have reasonable leisure and 
 
 privacy during term time. 
 
 (5) That the Central Education Board provide a 
 
 registry office for teachers seeking employ- 
 ment either again as teachers or, at the close 
 of their teaching career, in other occupations ; 
 and shall in the latter case take special means 
 for assisting teachers in such inquiries. 
 
 (D) To provide definite historical and Biblical 
 teaching calculated to interpret the true message and 
 significance of the Society of Friends and to foster a right 
 sense of the responsibility of membership. 
 
 So far as the children are concerned we do not add 
 to our suggestions made in the Present Day 
 Papers for November, 1899, but with regard 
 to teachers we would propose that among 
 the conditions of some of the training scholar- 
 ships and fellowships should be included a 
 course of study under this head for a defined 
 period, and suitable provision for this should 
 be made, either at the Flounders Institute f 
 
 be conditioned by efficiency and as already suggested should encour- 
 age insurance against old age, etc. Local committees should be 
 enabled to pay liberal salaries apart from any special augmentation, 
 and such augmentation, say, by the Central Board would proceed 
 upon definite lines, i.e.; by a system of fellowships for high merit; 
 and by some system of assisted insurance. 
 
 t Some tentative arrangements are already in force which are 
 intended in part to supply on Sundays the definite teaching upon 
 religious subjects for which there is now no room in the week-day 
 curriculum. We should, however, like to see further opportunities 
 of a more thorough and definite character provided'under the training 
 scholarships or fellowships suggested. 
 
l88 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 or elsewhere (vide Present Day Papers, 
 
 December, 1899, p. 18). 
 
 (E) To raise central and local funds for the proper 
 
 and efficient development of our educational equipment* 
 
 While we gladly recognise the efforts of our 
 
 Central Education Board to raise a fund of £25,000 
 
 for this purpose, we venture to make the following 
 
 additional suggestions : — 
 
 (1) That the Yearly Meeting appoint a committee 
 
 to lay before individual meetings the serious 
 nature of our educational responsibilities, 
 and to solicit bequests (whether at death or 
 in the form of annuities) and subscriptions, 
 etc. 
 
 (2) That Friends be periodically reminded of the 
 
 importance of remembering the educational 
 needs of the Society in their bequests, either 
 by the addition of a clause to Query XI. or 
 to the General Advices, — or again, through 
 the committees of advice " on outward 
 affairs and wills." 
 
 (3) That for the sake of a simpler and more uniform 
 
 administration, any funds now existing for 
 the reduction of fees should, wherever possible, 
 be amalgamated into a central fund for that 
 purpose. 
 
 * The financial needs of our educational system may seem 
 relatively large, but when we consider the small total number of 
 children with whom we have to deal, they ought to be easily met. 
 Wealthy Friends of America have recognised the importance of 
 special education,- but hitherto English Friends in a similar position 
 have been comparatively indifferent. Six or seven English Friends 
 of means could, if they chose, set the whole system on a basis of 
 adequate endowment and thus render the Society an incalculable 
 and lasting service. 
 
OUR EDUCATIONAL POLICY. 189 
 
 (4) That the Yearly Meeting invite each Quarterly 
 Meeting to raise funds annually for the pur- 
 poses of the Central Educational Board. 
 Grants by the Central Board to local com- 
 mittees could only be made on the recom- 
 mendation of the examiner, and on condition 
 that they be applied for strictly educational 
 purposes, in a manner approved by him, or 
 by the Board. 
 Whatever opinion may be expressed upon these 
 proposals we feel clear that the need for action has not 
 been exaggerated. Thoughtful consideration of the 
 conditions of healthy church life emphasises the supreme 
 importance of a thorough Quaker education for our 
 young people. How to deal with the large numbers of 
 children we do not educate, how to give all our children 
 definite religious teaching, and how to meet the diffi- 
 culty of old age or superannuation which is, perhaps, 
 the kernel of the teacher's problem, are questions to 
 the solution of which we must address ourselves 
 seriously. The problem of the children is a problem 
 of our future as a church ; security for old age is the 
 condition upon which must depend the continuance 
 of a line of qualified Quaker teachers. 
 
 Whatever our position in the past, we are no longer 
 in the van of Educational reform. We have none the 
 less a mission in our schools. We must set before our- 
 selves a standard higher than that commonly attained, 
 a conception of education as qualifying for larger 
 responsibilities than those of business, pleasure, or even 
 politics. Few are better qualified than Friends, 
 whether by constitution, experience, or character, 
 
igO JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 fitly to blend the intellectual, spiritual, and physical 
 training of the child, and to educate for a liberal 
 citizenship its unformed mind. 
 
 We cannot express our closing thought better 
 than in the following passage which we quote from an 
 American onlooker, interested in the Schools of 
 Friends : — " What I fear most of all is that you are 
 getting to think that your mission in Education is not 
 so pressing as it was a century ago. I believe that it 
 is more so. To be sure, the public schools are good ; 
 but where are we to get the models for the public 
 schools ? No great progress in Education has come 
 about through public systems ; the leaders must 
 always be infused with a spirit above the needs of petty 
 politics or social expediency."* 
 
 * Friends' Intelligencer, March 3rd; 1894. 
 
A STUDY IN ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 John Wilhelm Rowntree's zeal for the spread of a 
 strong lay spiritual Christianity extended to both sides 
 of the Atlantic. In the course of several visits to the 
 United States, he studied the history and present condi- 
 tions of the various Quaker communities there, with much 
 care. He made many friendships which he greatly prized, 
 and sought to see the good everywhere, and to judge 
 impartially, with an all pervading charity. 
 
 The essay here given entitled " A Study in Ecclesias- 
 tical Polity " summarizes some of the general conclusions 
 he had reached in October 1902. It first appeared in 
 Present Day Papers. 
 
A STUDY IN ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 
 
 THERE appears in the Encyclopedia Biblica an 
 article on the Ministry by Professor Schmiedel, 
 which is the most important contribution upon the 
 subject of church organisation since the publication 
 in Germany of what is known as the Hatch-Harnack 
 literature.* This deepening interest in the beginnings 
 of Church development is of especial importance to 
 Friends, and we may be thankful that the work of 
 Dr. Hatch is being pursued by such able scholars. 
 Schmiedel traces step by step the congealing process 
 which set in so rapidly in the Christian Fellowship. 
 
 He makes, of course, short work with the dogma 
 of an unbroken apostolic succession, he is inclined to 
 regard the bishop as a later creation than did Lightfoot, 
 but he remarks "... however far the full conse- 
 quences of the catholic constitution of the church may 
 have been from having been explicitly drawn up prior 
 to 180 a.d., all the premises were present, and they 
 necessarily pressed forward to their full expression." 
 
 Schmiedel recognises the necessary place of 
 organisation even in a spiritual fellowship, indeed not 
 to recognise this is, as history has repeatedy shown, 
 to fling wide the door to anarchy. But while he regards 
 such organisation as, under certain forms, a mark of 
 progress, he sounds at the same time a note of warning. 
 
 * Gesellschaftverfassung der Christlichen Kirchen in Alterihum, 
 1883, with Harnack's Analehten. 
 
 193 
 
 U 
 
194 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 " Such arrangements," that is, arrangements of which 
 Schmiedel has expressed his approval, " may carry within 
 them a danger to the purity of religion. The sharp division 
 between members and non-members lends only too easily 
 to an exaggerated consciousness of selectness and a de- 
 preciation of outsiders (Cp. i Cor. v. 12 1). The practically 
 compulsory attendance at the regular meetings, the uni- 
 formity of the proceedings there, the formal common prayer, 
 may result in a cooling of the emotions of the heart ; such a 
 thing as attachment to the religious principles of the com- 
 munity, yet without full formal assent given and without 
 participation in all ceremonies, is not regarded as admissible ; 
 and yet it is easily possible that not only particular institu- 
 tions but also (and above all) the formulated expressions 
 of the common faith may take such a form as many a one 
 may find himself unable to accept, whilst yet his attitude 
 towards the matter in its religious essence is entirely 
 sympathetic and the impossibility of full membership is 
 felt by him as involving a grievous loss. The interference 
 in private affairs . . . may easily be carried further 
 than is desirable ; what is worse, in place of a pure concern 
 for the imperilled individual may come concern for the in- 
 terests of the community, for appearances, for the main- 
 tenance of decisions once arrived at though now in need 
 of reform. . . . Above all there is apt to develop itself 
 only too readily in the persons charged with the duty of 
 ruling and judging an unhealthy sense of superiority. . ." 
 
 We make no excuse for quoting at such length. 
 Coming from a brilliant scholar who has just risen, as 
 it were, from a close and exhaustive scrutiny of the 
 beginnings of the church, the passage is of great 
 significance. We are approaching a time when the 
 question of the character of church fellowship will 
 press with increasing urgency, and it is high time 
 for us to have regard for the lessons of the past. We 
 may be grateful for all impartial and critical study, 
 
A STUDY IN ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. I95 
 
 for such study has too often been biassed, the Anglican 
 or Roman demanding of history the justification of his 
 claims, the Quaker on the other hand seeking in the 
 epistle to the Corinthians his ideal meeting, without 
 proper regard for the practical difficulties so early 
 encountered. 
 
 Signs of flux in the forms of church fellowship 
 are not wanting. The movement known as the P.S.A. 
 is in one sense a signal of distress.* Chapels which 
 
 * The following extract from a pamphlet entitled " The 
 Problem of the Mid Town Church," by Bertram Smith and 
 Francis Wrigley, B.A., with a preface by T. C. Taylor, M.P., leads 
 up to an appeal for a P.S.A.; and for considerable adaptation in the 
 methods of worship. It serves to illustrate the point; and describes 
 a condition not unknown to Friends. 
 
 " No one can deny that there is a widespread anxiety as to the 
 future of Congregationalism. One of the saddest signs of the times is 
 the great number of decaying city churches — churches that once were 
 filled to overflowing, but now have been left lonely and desolate by the 
 receding tide of suburbanism. Here is a church, for example, with 
 accommodation for a thousand people, with excellent school premises, 
 splendidly equipped, standing within easy distance of a great in- 
 dustrial population, yet at no service on a Sunday with a congregation 
 of more than about 200 worshippers, and most of them not drawn 
 from the immediate neighbourhood. Every year the burden of 
 sustaining the cause becomes more difficult. The few families still 
 loyal to the church of their fathers grow less and less in number ; 
 their children, who have not the same associations with the old place, 
 find another home in the suburbs, or drift ' to the Church ' ; a feeling 
 of depression and hopelessness steals over the hearts of minister 
 and people," etc. 
 
 It may be useful to set against this a quotation from Dr. 
 Horton's address on Public Worship,- p. 97,- Free Church Year Book} 
 1901. 
 
 " Therefore what I want to urge upon you is that you deliberately 
 and even ostentatiously, put aside all these attractions, which are 
 supposed to draw people to the House of God. I am asking for a 
 great reversal of a tendency that has been growing amongst us ; 
 I am asking for a revolutionary change, and I would not venture to 
 do it were it not that I understand that the effect of the present 
 method is that our congregations are smaller and our churches 
 worse attended than they were thirty years ago. I do not dog- 
 matically say that these methods are wrong. I simply point out that 
 they have failed. The masses are more indifferent to public worship 
 than they were ... I will have no attractions in my churcn 
 unless they are the austere and awful attractions of Mount Sinai 
 and Mount Calvary." 
 
196 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTEEE. 
 
 can no longer " draw " by the ordinary means, adopt 
 special " popular " services. The Adult School 
 Movement, on the other hand, stands as a practical 
 comment upon the insufficiency of the Church, and a 
 most suggestive indication of some neglected condi- 
 tions of fellowship. Its proper place and its relation 
 to existing church organisation is as yet hardly under- 
 stood. 
 
 In the Anglican Church a remarkable transfor- 
 mation, of which more anon, has been in full progress, 
 tending to exalt the authority of the clergyman, or 
 rather, as he prefers it, the " priest " ; an increasing 
 elaboration of the service and a corresponding decline 
 of the sermon.* Changes in the social and intellectual 
 environment have doubtless emphasised, if they have 
 not induced these " adaptations," and if a just esti- 
 mate is to be formed of them these must be properly 
 weighed. 
 
 Confining our examination to the Society of 
 Friends, we are met with the same type of evidence. 
 There is a generally expressed sense of imperfect 
 adaptation to existing needs. The report of the Home 
 Mission Committee " On the use of Meeting-houses 
 on First-day Evenings " is a document that should be 
 carefully pondered, not so much for what it actually 
 contains, though that is valuable, as for the suggestive- 
 ness of its facts. Having made an extensive inquiry 
 into the practice of Friends in their various localities 
 the Home Mission Committee reviews the situation as 
 follows : 
 
 * See address by the Bishop of Durham at the Church Congress 
 at Leicester reported in the daily press. - 
 
A STUDY IN ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. I97 
 
 *". . . . it seems clear that the Morning Meeting 
 for Worship continues to hold a very high, perhaps even an 
 increasingly high place in the attachment and esteem of our 
 members. 
 
 " Evening Meetings for Worship held as in the morning 
 have evidently been widely discontinued, and when held are, 
 with a few notable exceptions, poorly attended." 139 out 
 of 332 Evening Meetings reporting (two-fifths of the number) 
 are held " on the same basis as an ordinary Friends' Meeting 
 with additions — as for example, the reading and exposition 
 of Scripture, arranged addresses on Christian truth as held 
 by Friends, greater liberty in the giving of Gospel addresses 
 and of singing " ; but " the ground plan is still largely 
 that of individual responsibility and equality of oppor- 
 tunity." 
 
 Forty-eight meetings (a seventh of the number 
 reported) " are more distinctively classified as Gospel 
 or Mission Meetings with a large amount of definite 
 pre-arrangement throughout." The report practically 
 sums up the situation in its fifth " conclusion." " The 
 trend of thought among our members seems generally 
 to be in one of two ways — viz. (a) the desire for meet- 
 ings providing more teaching ; (b) the desire for freer 
 Gospel Meetings."t 
 
 The existence of the Home Mission Committee 
 is in itself not without oearing upon the subject under 
 discussion. In their last annual report { thirty-five 
 Friends are enumerated as working under the com- 
 mittee, and forty-nine meetings as being regularly 
 
 * P. 39 1, Extracts from the Minutes and Proceedings of the Yearly 
 Meeting of Friends, 1902. 
 
 f A remark of a correspondent is quoted which is of no little 
 significance, " The Evening Meeting is a Friends' Meeting for worship 
 made homely." 
 
 % See p. 19 f., Extracts from the Minutes and Proceedings of the 
 Yearly Meeting of Friendst 1902. 
 
tO.8 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 visited by them. Grants in aid of Friends engaged in 
 various parts of the country including office salaries 
 amount to £3,957, and the principle of supported 
 residence in a meeting is frankly accepted. 
 
 The natural alarm which this departure from the 
 later practice of Friends called forth has now, to a large 
 extent, evaporated. It is recognised that the work 
 of the Home Mission Committee is, on the whole, 
 conducted with caution, and that there are special 
 practical needs which cannot be met by spasmodic or 
 even by fairly regular visits of travelling ministers. 
 There are, in fact, conditions which call for the more 
 or less prolonged residence of a real Friend with the 
 needful spiritual qualities, if permanent results are 
 to be attained. Meetings which have been allowed 
 through various causes to fall into decay need medicinal 
 treatment, and the constant attendance of a doctor, 
 until normal health is restored. 
 
 But while we accept the situation as of practical 
 necessity, we are deeply impressed with the importance 
 of steadily maintaining the fundamental Quaker 
 conception of worship. A Friends' Mission ought not 
 to be the same as any other mission, for its object is 
 different. If it be here demurred that the object in all 
 missions is to bring people to Christ, we answer : True, 
 but the statement requires definition. Men view 
 Christ differently from their various standpoints, and 
 Quakerism, as one particular view of Christ, must 
 express itself according to its own standpoint. This 
 implies the true priesthood of all believers, with its 
 practical consequences in the fellowship. An Anglican 
 or a Wesleyan mission, for example, may gather people 
 
A STUDY IN ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 199 
 
 to Christ, but in either case, if a congregation be formed, 
 a clergyman or a pastor is set over it, and the freedom 
 of spiritual exercise inevitably confined. 
 
 The thoughts which naturally arise from a study 
 of Hatch, McGiffert, or Schmiedel, bear very directly 
 upon all these phenomena ; and especially when we 
 view the state of flux in the Society of Friends in all its 
 Yearly Meetings. 
 
 Do Friends at all realise the magnitude or the 
 import of the change which is taking place ? Do they 
 know at all where they are steering ? Have they given 
 penetrating thought to the practical issue before them ? 
 We do not think so, and that at present they are 
 drifting without a proper knowledge of their course is 
 not the least of the dangers attending the transition. 
 
 Let us briefly state the facts. 
 
 The number of Friends of all branches throughout 
 the world is in round numbers 134,000, made up as 
 follows : — 
 
 Name of Yearly Meeting. . " 
 
 J in 1901. 
 
 Indiana, U.S.A. 20,224 
 
 "Hicksite," " Wilburite," and other 
 branches of Friends not in correspond- 
 ence with London Yearly Meeting * 
 
 (estimated) 20,000 
 
 London {i.e. England) not including 236 
 resident in Australasia . . . . 17,240 
 
 Western U.S.A. 
 Kansas, U.S.A. 
 Iowa, U.S.A. 
 Wilmington, U.S.A. 
 Ohio, U.S.A. 
 North Carolina, U.S.A. 
 New England, U.S.A. 
 
 15,9*5 
 11,002 
 10,814 
 6,299 
 5,489 
 5,483 
 4,532 
 
200 
 
 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Name of Yearly Meeting. 
 
 Membership 
 in 1901. 
 
 Philadelphia (Orthodox, not in corres- 
 
 
 pondence with London Y.M.),* proba- 
 
 
 bly over-estimated 
 
 . 
 
 4,400 
 
 New York, U.S.A. 
 
 . 
 
 3,606 
 
 Ireland 
 
 . 
 
 2,609 
 
 Oregon, U.S.A. 
 
 
 1,607 
 
 California, U.S.A. 
 
 . 
 
 I>567 
 
 Baltimore, U.S.A. 
 
 . 
 
 1,217 
 
 Canada 
 
 . 
 
 1,059 
 
 Australasia (probably under-estimated, 
 
 
 including 236 who retain English 
 
 
 membership) 
 
 786 
 
 Scattered (certainly under the mark) . . 
 
 257 
 
 
 I34.096 
 
 This table may be analysed thus : — 
 
 
 America. Rest of the World. 
 
 In correspondence England 
 
 . . 17,240 
 
 with London Ireland 
 
 2,609 
 
 Y.M 88,804 All other . . 
 
 • • 1,043 
 
 Not in correspond- 
 
 
 ence with Lon- 
 
 
 don Y.M. . . 24,400 
 
 
 Total, America . . 113,204 Total, rest of World 20,892 
 
 We would call particular attention to a feature at 
 present confined to the Quakerism of the United States. 
 In America a system known as the " Pastoral " has 
 found wide acceptance. Writing in an earlier number 
 of this journalf we expressed our opinion of it as 
 follows : " The system which may now be studied in 
 
 * i.e.; exchanging Epistles with London Yearly Meeting, which 
 implies official recognition. These bodies separated from the parent 
 body at different times, on theological and other grounds. 
 
 f "A Plea for a Quaker Settlement." Present Day Papers, 
 
 Vol. II.; pp. II-I3. 
 
A STUDY IN ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 201 
 
 all the stages of its development, has overrun the 
 Western Yearly Meetings, and has made large inroads 
 into the Conservative Quakerism of the East. . . . 
 We have no sympathy with that policy of criticism 
 which English Friends have sometimes unhappily 
 pursued. But we feel bound to state clearly that this 
 development is to us a matter of the gravest concern, 
 and that after the most careful investigation we believe 
 it involves the increasing departure, more or less 
 conscious, from our fundamental conception of worship. 
 The point of importance for us is this : the Pastoral 
 system, whether we approve it or no, was established 
 as a consequence of previous failure." 
 
 To these opinions we adhere, but on this occasion 
 it seems desirable to state more clearly what the 
 Pastoral system is. Believing that its initiation was 
 of importance not only from the standpoint of Quaker 
 Church polity, but of Church history as a whole, we 
 devoted some months to a close personal study of the 
 system at first hand, and gathered a mass of material 
 to which we have from time to time been able to add. 
 
 We venture to draw upon the knowledge thus ob- 
 tained for a brief and confessedly incomplete sketch 
 of the origin and course of the movement. And con- 
 sidering the movement, the origin is all important. 
 It was briefly the failure of the ministry under the old 
 order. We shall be opposed with the objection that 
 the immediate cause of this must have been a decline 
 in spiritual life. Granted, but why did the spiritual 
 life decline ? We have not space for an exhaustive 
 examination into an interesting question which is really 
 of present moment, but we are satisfied that an im- 
 
202 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 portant cause was the absence of adequate provision 
 for teaching, and the practical impotence, arising from 
 an exaggerated dread of arrangements, which tended 
 to increasing feebleness in the congregational life. 
 The ministry was too often ineffectual, to use no harsher 
 term, and the central conception of the Quaker ideal, 
 inadequately portrayed both in preaching and practice, 
 failed to provoke evangelical effort. 
 
 Here and there as early as the 'sixties, and doubt- 
 less in response to the influence of Joseph John Gurney 
 amongst others, there were uneasy stirrings. Some 
 changes were locally effected in the practice of worship, 
 which led to serious discord, but broadly speaking, a 
 somewhat formal conservatism prevailed. 
 
 Into this atmosphere of suspended animation 
 swept the hurricane of Moody's revival.* Many 
 Quakers were carried off their feet. For the first time 
 in their lives they felt the uplift of congregational 
 singing when the heart is in the voice, and abandoning 
 the old restrictions, flung themselves with fervour 
 into the revival campaign. There was little or no 
 distinction between the Methodist and the Quaker. 
 In a Quaker village, the Methodist missioner sent his 
 converts to claim the fellowship of the Meeting-house, 
 and in a Methodist village, the Quaker returned the 
 compliment. 
 
 When the hurricane passed, the landscape was 
 changed. Crowds converted in the Mission Hall had 
 found their way into the Meeting-house. They were 
 not prepared for the silence nor for a ministry of tangled 
 
 * It should be said that the leading evangelists among Friends 
 had commenced their work before D. L. Moody began his revival. 
 The latter undoubtedly added great impetus to the Friends' work. 
 
A STUDY IN ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 203 
 
 texts set to a Gregorian chant. They chafed, hesitated, 
 and slowly drifted away. 
 
 But there were Friends who, having laboured to 
 draw them in, were not prepared to let them out ! 
 Adaptation became the watchword. There must be 
 more freedom, there must be singing, there must be 
 direct preaching. 
 
 Step by step changes came, tardily perhaps at 
 first, but, early in the 'eighties, with an increasing 
 sweep. Admirable as was the spirit, there was never- 
 theless behind these changes a fatal misconception. 
 After the " splits " (for American Christianity is ever 
 fissiparous, and before the great revival, discord had 
 thrown her apple into the Quaker Church) the pro- 
 gressive or " fast " Friends, as they were called, found 
 themselves in possession. 
 
 They concluded that the old conception of the 
 Free Ministry was impracticable, and it became their 
 aim to draw close to what they regarded as the success- 
 ful Evangelical Churches. The " meeting-house " 
 became a " church " with stained glass windows, and 
 with a bell which summoned the congregation to 
 worship ; the gallery became a platform and the plat- 
 form became smaller ; the body of the meeting became 
 the " audience " or the " auditorium " ; the service 
 was pre-arranged, and a practised choir with con- 
 ductor, solos and anthems, an organ, little or no 
 silence, a preacher supported by the congregation, 
 who dismisses his people with uplifted hands and the 
 Benediction, and before whom Friends are married 
 kneeling, are the inevitable outward marks of this 
 inward policy. 
 
204 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 The whole of this description will not, of course, 
 apply to every case, but we have in our possession a 
 pile of notebooks, the contents of which are conclusive 
 as to the general and inevitable drift. Every stage of 
 evolution is represented, but unless some unforeseen 
 counter-movement is developed, of which there is no 
 present sign, and unless history is without meaning, 
 the freedom of the ministry, the individual exercise in 
 worship, and the basis of silence upon which these 
 must necessarily rest, seem doomed. A pastoral super- 
 intendent of one of the largest of the Yearly Meetings 
 pointed out that a meeting without a pastor was in the 
 black books of the Pastoral Committee, and would be 
 under pressure until it fell into line. He definitely 
 asserted that the Pastoral system was intended to be 
 permanent, and that the old order was effete ; in fact, 
 " all the premisses are present " and at the moment 
 seem " pressing forward to their full expression." 
 We might multiply instances did space permit, but 
 perhaps have sufficiently sketched the situation. 
 We would only remark that the sketch is drawn 
 without malice. 
 
 American Friends must work out their own 
 salvation. They have faced great difficulties with 
 splendid courage, and have set an example in devoted 
 earnestness and practical effort, which English Friends 
 may well emulate.* 
 
 Whether they have taken sufficient count of the 
 
 * It would be an error to suppose that we have fully described 
 the Pastoral system. In many respects it is simply a practical re- 
 cognition of the necessity for pastoral care,- and there is much to be 
 learnt from it. We are concerned primarily, however, with what 
 we regard as its dangerous elements. 
 
A STUDY IN ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 205 
 
 lessons of Church History we must however gravely 
 question. 
 
 Our desire is that with a full knowledge of the 
 facts, Friends on both sides of the Atlantic shall face the 
 problem of the Free Ministry as a problem not solved 
 but still awaiting solution. 
 
 It is not yet too late for American Friends to give 
 such a direction to the pastoral movement that the 
 conclusion which seems at present inevitable may be 
 averted, and they will do a great service not only to 
 themselves and to us, but to the Church of Christ, if 
 by avoiding the weakness of both the free and the 
 paid ministry they can point out for us a safe line 
 of advance. 
 
 Meanwhile, let us return to our figures. Ap- 
 pended is a table setting out the statistical relationship 
 of Pastoral to Non-pastoral Quakerism. 
 
 Non-Pastoral.* Pastoral. 
 
 America : America .- 
 
 In Correspondence In Correspondence 82,000 
 
 (estimated) . . 6,000 
 
 Not in Correspond- 
 ence . . . . 24,400 
 
 Total America 30,400 
 Rest of World . . 20,892 
 
 Total Non-Pastoral 51,292 Total Pastoral . . 82,000 
 
 (or 38 per cent, of the world's (or 62 per cent, of the world's 
 total). total). 
 
 * i.e'.j conducting worship, etc., according to the practice of 
 London Y.M: 
 
206 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 The fact that already only 38 per cent., or con- 
 siderably less than half of the Friends in all the Yearly 
 Meetings of the world, worship substantially upon the 
 basis of the practice of London Yearly Meeting, surely 
 offers food for serious reflection. 
 
 The lesson of the American situation appears to 
 be twofold. It points, on the one hand, to the danger 
 of undisciplined freedom, and the disregard of the 
 human conditions of church fellowship, which are the 
 temptations of mystical religion ; and on the other 
 hand, of haste and the disregard of historical teaching 
 in relation to church organisation, which are the 
 temptations of evangelising zeal. Already it is clear 
 from the facts that the position of present-day 
 Quakerism is critical. Friends are being called by the 
 peculiar circumstances of the time to vindicate the 
 Free Ministry as a practicable ideal, and the question 
 remains, Will they have the self-sacrifice and the 
 statesmanship that the occasion demands ? They are 
 no longer a leisured body cut off by legislation from 
 many of the channels of public service ; the pressure 
 of commerce, and the increasing necessity for virile 
 religious teaching, emphasise the difficulties which the 
 artificial seclusion of the past has served in part to 
 conceal. 
 
 Unless there be a spiritual awakening expressing 
 itself in practical measures, there is danger lest the 
 Society of Friends as an organised body cherishing a 
 spiritual conception of fellowship shall melt like a late 
 snow before an April sun. 
 
 We may be charged with pessimism, but the charge 
 does not touch us. We recognise with gladness many 
 
A STUDY IN ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 207 
 
 signs of life. Nevertheless we must insist that the 
 crucial nature of the situation is not understood. 
 Until Friends see things as they really are, and give 
 evidence as a body that they intend to face the facts, 
 we must continue to set them forth, especially as it 
 appears to us that the opportunity for " Quakerism " 
 — and we must never be interpreted as using the term 
 in its narrow sectarian sense — seems prepared in a most 
 remarkable degree. 
 
 At the Free Church Congress in 1901, Dr. Horton 
 delivered an address on " The Lord's Day,"* and 
 spoke as follows : " I believe that the sanctuary as a 
 place of open communion and of the restoration of the 
 spirit would be a Godsend to many human beings 
 to-day ; and some of our friends like Professor Rendel 
 Harris, who believe in a quiet worship, have a great 
 mission for the present day if they can only make clear 
 to strained modern nerves that worship is settling 
 down quietly in the presence of God, and that life may 
 be recovered by contact with Him. We cannot 
 disguise the fact that the tendencies of the present day 
 are strongly against public worship." Here is a 
 challenge ! It is the more interesting that it comes 
 just when the movement towards sacerdotalism and 
 ritual appears at its height. And yet it is timely. 
 One first and natural result of the intellectual upheaval 
 in religious thought — we can call it nothing less — is to 
 accentuate the desire for an authoritative church. 
 
 First and natural, but not ultimate. In the long 
 run an intellectual awakening must make against all 
 claims which are based upon superficial, unhistorical 
 
 * Free Church Year Bookj 1901, p. 95. 
 
208 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 or irrational grounds. It is the first shock of the new 
 movement which frightens men and drives them to 
 seek refuge behind the walls of sacerdotal pretension 
 or within the citadel of an infallible book. The final 
 consequence must be to drive men back upon their 
 inner consciousness and to deepen the bases of faith. 
 That final consequence is our opportunity. Is our 
 spiritual message ready ? Can we articulate it? Do 
 we comprehend the philosophical content, the tre- 
 mendous spiritual import of Fox's " gospel " ? Can 
 we give it a vital and modern interpretation ? 
 
 At present the answer is no ! The Society of 
 Friends does not understand itself. It is a loose 
 fellowship, bound partly by tradition and habit and 
 only to a comparatively small extent by the living ties 
 of a common consciousness. Almost every range of 
 doctrinal thought from Calvinism to Unitarianism is 
 to be found amongst us, and Fox was neither a Uni- 
 tarian nor a Calvinist. Wild fantastic forms of thought 
 from time to time run riot here and there, for lack of a 
 steadying central conception. If we attempt to speak 
 we are a discord. 
 
 An iron uniformity is neither possible nor to be 
 desired. Our quotation from Professor Schmiedel 
 may remind us of its fatuity, and the terrible crudity 
 of the Richmond Declaration of Faith may give us 
 pause. But a greater measure of unity, of intellectual 
 apprehension, and of affinity with a spiritual ideal is of 
 cardinal moment. 
 
 Outward effort, social earnestness, missionary 
 enterprise, these can have no permanence unless they 
 radiate from a common centre of quickening life. 
 
A STUDY IN ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 200. 
 
 John Morley has somewhere said that " the chances 
 of exceptional genius, moral or intellectual, in the 
 giftedffew, arejhighest in a society where the average 
 interest, curiosity, capacity, are highest." We are not 
 concerned to produce a race of merely clever giants, 
 but if we are to take the opportunity that Time is 
 waiting to give, it will be by increasing the sensitiveness 
 to spiritual tuition, and raising the general average of 
 spiritual knowledge and experience. 
 
 This can be achieved by no one process. Various 
 practical measures will have their place, various 
 influences directly and indirectly " religious " must be 
 brought to bear, and every method and every influence 
 must be steeped in self-sacrifice. 
 
 We want thought, we want vision, we want the 
 touch of soul with soul. The Summer Schools have 
 given us some taste of the power of fellowship dominated 
 by the sense of union with God. 
 
 A rare opportunity has now opened to give further 
 definition to the work already achieved. May we 
 have the courage to accept it in the light of our own 
 great need, and of the widening range of service which 
 the future reveals. 
 
 15 
 
FAMILY EXCLUSIVENESS.* 
 
 [This essay, a plea for Christian catholicity in the 
 home, in society, and in the church, appeared in Present 
 Day Papers, November, 1902.] 
 
 " And the multitude cometh together again so that 
 they could not so much as eat bread. And when his friends 
 heard it they went out to lay hold on him for they said, 
 "He is beside himself " . . . And there came his 
 mother and his brethren ; and standing without they 
 sent unto him, and a multitude was sitting about him ; 
 and they say unto him, " Behold, thy mother and thy 
 brethren without seek for thee ! " And he answered 
 them, and saith " Who is my mother and my brethren ? "f 
 
 WHAT was the motive of this visit ? Why did the 
 " mother and brethren " seek out Jesus in the 
 midst of his labours ? 
 
 The key to the situation lies in the words, " He is 
 beside himself." If we use our imagination — and in 
 historical retrospect imagination is something more 
 than legitimate, it is essential, — we shall readily under- 
 stand how the matter presented both to Jesus and to 
 the family circle from which he has but lately stepped. 
 
 " Think ye that I am come to give peace in the 
 earth ? I tell you nay, but rather division ; for there 
 shall be from henceforth five in one house divided 
 
 * We are indebted to some notes by Dr. Hastings in the 
 Expository Times for suggestions which are here developed. 
 
 f Mark iii. 20,- 21 ; 31-33. 
 
212 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 three against two and two against three. They shall 
 be divided father against son and son against father."* 
 . . . These words are something more than a 
 prophecy. They reveal the bitterness of a personal 
 experience. 
 
 " In his own country he could do no mighty work. 
 A prophet is not without honour save in his own 
 country, and among his own kin and in his own house." f 
 
 We cannot ignore the deliberate steps of progres- 
 sion, — first the country, then the kin, then the home ; 
 their indication is clear. His own people understood 
 him not. We do not need to assume that because 
 of misunderstanding their affection was withheld, 
 for affection and misunderstanding are not incom- 
 patible ; but still the house was divided against itself. 
 
 In the storm on the lake the disciples seeing their 
 teacher so calm in the midst of peril exclaim, " Who 
 then is this ? " They echoed an old question, a 
 question that had been asked, sometimes perhaps 
 with a note of irritation rather than of wonder, at least 
 a dozen times, in the carpenter's mountain home. 
 Can you not picture them in Nazareth, the shrewd 
 wise-heads, cautious and not unworldly with all their 
 religion, shaking their heads solemnly as the news 
 trickled in ? " He has spoken here, he has spoken 
 there, this and that has he said ? And what ? repeat 
 it ! No, it is incredible ; Jesus, who played in our 
 village streets as a little lad, whom we have known 
 all his life, claiming to be the Messiah ? " 
 
 " Whence has he all this ? Joseph ? Mary ? " 
 — and step by step back along the line of descent they 
 
 * Luke xii. 51. f Mark vi. 1-6. 
 
FAMILY EXCLUSIVENESS. 213 
 
 trace his origin. " This is no royal house ; it is but 
 a lowly lineage." 
 
 " Whence then has he all this ? Our great ones 
 say it is of an evil source, and they are wise and learned 
 in the law." Doubt yields to scorn. 
 
 Many an one had his cart mended at the little 
 shanty, and the son has held the nails as the father 
 drove them in, quiet, obedient, of pleasant manner 
 and speech ; but still — a carpenter's son ! 
 
 "And they were offended in him." Offence in 
 the village meant uneasiness in the home. The neigh- 
 bours talked ! Doubtless they spoke their mind to 
 Mary with that discriminating tact for which neigh- 
 bours have ever been famous. 
 
 That the family loved Jesus we would fain believe, 
 that they could not understand him, feared for him, 
 desired to hold him back from what seemed like un- 
 balanced presumption, is after all only natural. More, 
 they regard his teaching as unsound. Did he not 
 break the Sabbath, defy the Pharisees, set good pious 
 people talking against him ? 
 
 The situation he was creating for them in the 
 village was intolerable. Talk that is derogatory was 
 no easier to bear 1,900 years ago than it is to-day. 
 
 And now when Jesus had gone through every city 
 and village preaching the glad tidings of the Kingdom 
 of God, when he had taken the candle from the vessel 
 and lighted it, and had told the people to take heed 
 to his words that they might hear his message, 
 " come his mother and his brethren ! " 
 
 Through all his youth Jesus had shared the 
 burden of the family and paid his tribute to the family 
 
2X4 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 exchequer. Probably not till that burden was distri- 
 buted on shoulders qualified to bear it, and not till the 
 means of subsistence were secure, had he felt freedom 
 to take up his ministry and leave the home which he 
 loved. 
 
 Perhaps this is the secret of the thirty years of 
 silence. 
 
 Be that as it may, he turned to the people about 
 him, saying to the man who told him of his mother's 
 message from the outskirts of the thronging crowd, 
 " Who is my mother ? and who are my brethren ? " 
 and stretching forth his hand towards his disciples, 
 his "learning knights," as the Saxon version has it, 
 exclaims with the rapture of a prophet, "Behold my 
 mother and my brethren ! " 
 
 What did Jesus mean ? Beneath his mother's 
 mistrust there was the yearning of a mother's heart. 
 Then was not this a cruel rebuff ? We get some light 
 upon our question from the story of Martha and Mary ; 
 Martha anxious and troubled aoout many things and 
 cumbered about much serving, Mary sitting at his feet. 
 The rebuke is to Martha who was doing so much for 
 him, preparing his meal, seeking to honour the guest, 
 and not to Mary who is apparently neglecting the rules 
 of hospitality as she sits at his feet. 
 
 Jesus is distinguishing between the inward devo- 
 tion to his teaching, and the outward devotion to his 
 person. However kindly and sincere that outward 
 devotion] might be it was the inward devotion that he 
 prized most highly. 
 
 " Is not this," say the villagers, " the carpenter's 
 son ? " Nay ! He is no longer the carpenter's son, 
 
FAMILY EXCLUSIVENESS. 215 
 
 he is the son of man. He has served the family, now 
 he serves humanity ! 
 
 He does not seek external relationship, external 
 service. Adhesion to him must be adhesion not to a 
 carpenter but to a Divine principle. He is preaching 
 the Kingdom. He is setting a new value upon old 
 things. A widow's mite is more precious than un- 
 counted riches, and father and mother, home and 
 friends, all that men hold most close in the treasury 
 of the heart, must be freely yielded in the service of 
 the larger family of God. 
 
 The Kingdom is within, not without. Its relation- 
 ships are spiritual and eternal, not temporal and of the 
 flesh alone. 
 
 The world, suffering humanity, these who sit like 
 Mary at his feet, are his mother and brethren. To 
 go back to the little mountain village would be to 
 abandon the glorious city not made with hands, that 
 he was to build upon the wide basis of earth. Let us 
 interpret his thought by applying it to our modern 
 life. First to the family, second to the state, and 
 third to the church. 
 
 First, then, The Family. 
 
 It was Jesus who had done so much for the family, 
 who broke the family bonds. He knew that the 
 family, though it was the inevitable focus of social life, 
 and might be the nursery of virtue, could also in its 
 spirit oppose the advent of the Kingdom. Every 
 Englishman's home is his castle ; alas ! how often is it 
 the stronghold of his selfishness. 
 
 Pride of place, pride of wealth, pride of tradition, 
 pride in lands and houses, such pride it is that warps 
 
2l6 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 a man's vision and withers his soul. What com- 
 promise with conscience, what hardening of heart, 
 what narrowing of aim does it not involve ? When 
 the family stands for exclusive possession, then it is 
 that, like a piercing sword, the words of Jesus are 
 directed against it. " He that loveth father or mother 
 more than me is not worthy of me ; and he that 
 loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of 
 me ; and he that does not take his cross and follow 
 after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life 
 shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake 
 shall find it." 
 
 We would not be misunderstood. This is no 
 argument for the weakening of family ties, no covert 
 attack upon the sanctity of the fireside. In these 
 days when our young people move easily into the larger 
 life of the world, when the world, in magazine and 
 newspaper, is for ever thrusting itself upon our private 
 life, we should be far indeed from minimising in any 
 degree those priceless influences which take their refuge 
 in the home. " The home," as Mazzini has finely 
 said, " is the heart's fatherland." The country in 
 which its influence weakens shall assuredly be num- 
 bered, like Assyria and Rome, among the shipwrecked 
 nations. The strange thing is that it is Jesus, claiming 
 humanity for his mother and brethren, who has given 
 us back the home life, enriched with a sweeter and a 
 purer joy. If the home be not merely of the earth, 
 if it be the centrifugal centre, not of selfish but of 
 selfless love, then be assured that, however paltry its 
 outward adorning, it has even now its number and 
 place in a street of the new Jerusalem. 
 
FAMILY EXCLUSIVENESS. 217 
 
 But when the home is walled and barred by 
 exclusiveness, when it is cherished as in itself the end, 
 when we gather wealth for the family and not for 
 him, when we set our face against public duty that 
 we may win selfish leisure and comfort for ourselves, 
 then do we sin against the Kingdom and utter the 
 negation of brotherhood. 
 
 The caste marks of Society, the " creeping para- 
 lysis of luxury," the heartless disregard of social 
 justice in the blind pursuit of pleasure, these are the 
 witness to that selfish and ignoble spirit against which 
 Jesus continually strove. 
 
 When he stepped from the village into the world, 
 it was that he might strip off from every family all 
 that was degrading and mean. But note that in the 
 purified conception of the family which Jesus has 
 given us there is no lessening of the family obligation. 
 We are not to put the world to rights while the ashes 
 grow cold on the family hearth. Charity knows no 
 limits, but she knows that her origin is in the intimate 
 companionship of family life. We must only be 
 careful not to bind her hands. 
 
 Probably for some fifteen years or more Jesus 
 laboured at the carpenter's bench. There is a pro- 
 found teaching in this unrecorded ministry. 
 
 And then The State — for the State is a larger 
 family. Do not the same principles apply ? Yes, 
 but they are harder to put in practice. The Christian 
 conception of patriotism cuts right across the pagan, 
 and the pagan roots to present day patriotism are not 
 far to seek. 
 
 Many Englishmen — they would not, of course, 
 
2l8 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 put it so baldly — measure their patriotism by the 
 contempt they pour upon other nations. " Mine is 
 the greatest country, the greatest fleet, the greatest 
 power, the greatest glory, the greatest destiny ! " 
 
 How this boasting withers under the calm scrutiny 
 of Christ. How low are our standards measured by 
 his, how superficial our estimate of value. 
 
 The popular conception of international relations 
 is as yet hardly redeemed from the taint of the prize 
 ring. How splendid are the thews of your champion ! 
 How fine your military organisation ! How jealously 
 you watch the expansion of Germany, the growing 
 wealth of America, the territorial aggrandisements 
 of Russia. " Christian " diplomacy is a tissue of lies, 
 a mask of dissembling. You play for the common 
 good of the nations when it suits you, but always for 
 your own ! 
 
 As yet, in international politics, the selfish family 
 spirit is almost supreme. When shall we recognise 
 that Germany, France, Russia, these are our " mother 
 and brethren," that in very truth the Kingdom is 
 within, and that so it be on earth as in heaven, " supre- 
 macy," " the balance of power " are but chaff in the 
 scales. 
 
 Nowhere has the church failed more miserably 
 than in preaching the inclusiveness of the Kingdom, 
 the oneness of humanity under the Fatherhood of 
 God. 
 
 Must we then do violence to our patriotism ? 
 Is it wrong to love our country ? Surely not. Yet 
 here again, He who bids us love our enemies, seek the 
 Kingdom that is within, and welcome all men as 
 
FAMILY EXCLUSIVENESS. 2IO, 
 
 brothers, gives us back our country as a nobler trust 
 and our patriotism as a purer passion. Nations, no 
 less than individuals, must learn the hard lesson that 
 to seek life, it must be lost in the service, not of 
 Mammon but of God. 
 
 And finally, the lessons of the family apply to 
 The Church. It is possible for that separatist spirit, 
 that negation of brotherhood, which we have noted 
 in the family and the nation, to prevail here also. 
 
 Have you ever entered a railway carriage which 
 has come perhaps some distance and has some occu- 
 pants who have travelled together ? Perhaps you 
 have encountered the chilling stare of disapproval 
 with which your entry is greeted. Very slowly and 
 very reluctantly rugs and bags are moved to give you 
 room. The knees next the door are aggressively 
 rigid as you stumble past with your burdens. So it is 
 often in the Church. The tabernacle has been erected, 
 its membership formed, and subtly but surely as the 
 original fervours cool there creeps over the fellowship 
 the spirit of family exclusiveness. It breaks out in 
 various directions, it takes various shapes. 
 
 Among our social amenities there are certain 
 stereotyped customs which come to be observed, 
 perhaps some of them legitimate and desirable in their 
 origin, but generally tending to limit our freedom of 
 intercourse and to give authority to that caricature 
 of fellowship which we are pleased to call " Fashion- 
 able Society ! " Likewise in the organism of the 
 Church a certain stereotyping takes place ; certain 
 customs come to acquire an increased definition and 
 importance, and finally, like the liana, to wind so 
 
220 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 tightly about the Church Life as to endanger or check 
 its growth. 
 
 Professor Schmiedel's warning comment on the 
 congealing process of church development is freshly 
 with us, and has its application here. The spiritual 
 family may become exclusive, then formal, then self- 
 complacent, and complacency in spiritual matters is 
 the doorway of death. A ground-work of organi- 
 sation there must be, but the essential freedom of 
 spiritual life must never be hampered, nor the limits 
 of spiritual sympathy be denned. 
 
 Stephen Grellet filled St. Martin's Lane Meeting- 
 house with prostitutes, and spoke to them of the love 
 of God till they felt the touch of an unwonted purity, 
 and though many good people were doubtless shocked, 
 he was never nearer to his Master than when he did 
 this service. 
 
 We come aback to the point from which we 
 started. The family of the Church must be the centre 
 of selfless love if it is to be a true spiritual home. Not 
 a few misinterpret Mary's attitude at the feet of Christ. 
 An exquisite mysticism daintily gloved, an atmos- 
 phere of vague contemplation divorced from practice, 
 a luxury of worship screened by aesthetic barriers from 
 the ugliness of an unsatisfactory world, are not seldom 
 regarded as true religion. Stephen Grellet, to such 
 starved souls, would seem like Martha cumbered about 
 much service ! But Mary was drinking in from the 
 lips of Jesus as he taught, the quickening life of the 
 Spirit, which must by its nature, sooner or later, 
 express itself in the service of fellowship. 
 
 Do we remember that Jesus shocked the ortho- 
 
FAMILY EXCLUSIVENESS. 221 
 
 doxy of his day, the correct, conventional people who 
 worship the proprieties ? He dined with Publicans 
 and Sinners, and denied his ceremonial purity by their 
 base touch. Nor did he dine with them because it 
 was his duty to elevate them, but because he loved 
 them. That is the trouble about so much of our charity 
 and service, it lacks the quality of genuine love. " Let 
 us clearly hold in mind," says the writer of Pro Christo 
 ei Ecclesia, "that love that is less than liking is not 
 love. If then we love our enemies and sinners, it 
 must be by genuine liking for all that it is possible to 
 like in them, which cannot be found out without 
 companionship and some community of interest. 
 The ungodly have done well to jeer at Christian love 
 when this element of liking has been lost in sophistry. 
 If without unnaturalness we discover all there is to 
 like in a man, the effort will bring us very near to the 
 practice of Jesus, in whose life we see the great value 
 which God sets on bon-homie, the God-likeness of 
 simple good nature. He feasted with all who invited 
 him, were they false teachers or corrupt politicians." 
 And this, we may add, by way of caution, was some- 
 thing very different from the accommodating com- 
 promise of the worldly religious, who desire to be 
 worldly with the worldly, and religious with the reli- 
 gious, in sheer feeble dread of giving offence. 
 
 Let the church free herself from formalism, keep 
 her organisation and her church life simple, her 
 fellowship open and her sympathy free, and we shall 
 hear less of the gulf between the church and the 
 masses. There is a central insincerity in the pro- 
 fession of organised Christianity, which is not far 
 
222 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 removed in its essence from the social exclusiveness 
 of family pride. " Who then is this ? " asked those 
 who were with Jesus. " Why is God silent ? " says 
 the worldhng to-day. 
 
 Bondage to self, whether in the family or the 
 church, means spiritual deafness to the voice of God. 
 So long as your sympathies are turned inward instead 
 of reaching out and searching all the nooks and crannies 
 of life, so long God must remain invisible and silent, 
 for your eyes and ears are bent on the one spot on 
 earth where the manifestation of His presence is denied. 
 He is not really silent. He continually speaks in the 
 hearts and through the lives of countless men and 
 women, did you but listen. 
 
 The great gods pass through the great Time Hall 
 
 Stately and high ; 
 The little men climb the little clay wall 
 
 To watch them by. 
 " We wait for the gods," the little men cry, 
 " But these are our brothers passing by." 
 
 The great gods pass through the great Time Hall 
 
 With veiled grace, 
 The little men climb the little clay wall 
 
 To bow the face. 
 " Lo ! these are our brothers passing by, 
 Why tarry the gods ? " the little men cry. 
 
 The great gods pass through the great Time Hall, 
 
 But none can see ; 
 The little men nod by the dull clay wall, 
 
 So tired they be. 
 " 'Tis a weary waiting for gods," they yawn, 
 " There's a world of men, but the gods are gone." * 
 
 * Lines contributed some years ago to the Scot's Magazine. 
 
PENTECOST. 
 
 [The short paper under this heading is the writer's 
 closing contribution to the series of Present Day Papers, 
 which he had published for upwards of four years.] 
 
 " And suddenly there came from heaven a sound 
 as of the rushing of a mighty wind. . . . And they 
 were all filled with the Holy Spirit. . . ." 
 
 Acts ii. 2, 4. 
 
 Foreword. 
 
 IN closing the fifth volume of the Present Day 
 Papers we are, for a time at least, closing the 
 series. What have they stood for ? What is the 
 concern, to adopt a word familiar to Quaker use, 
 under which they have appeared. It is hard in a 
 brief space to say all that might be said. As we pass 
 in review what we have written in these pages we are 
 painfully conscious of the halting utterance, the in- 
 complete portrayal. As we look forward we feel the 
 crisis of the coming years, and confess that we lay 
 aside the pen with not a little sadness. We should 
 have welcomed a further opportunity of clothing in 
 language, more clear and more urgent, the thoughts 
 that still press for speech. 
 
 Briefly our concern has been two-fold, personal, 
 as for the individual, and general, as for the church. 
 Interested naturally and chiefly in the Society of 
 
 223 
 
224 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Friends, we have regarded the issues before it not 
 from the standpoint of a sect, but of religion. We 
 have no concern for any fellowship, save as it deepens 
 individual experience in spiritual life, and produces 
 that -character which is the promise of the Kingdom. 
 Professor James,* speaking of the Quaker religion, 
 makes the assertion that " in a day of shams it was a 
 religion of veracity rooted in spiritual inwardness, 
 and a return to something more like the original Gospel 
 truth than men had ever known in England," and he 
 continues, " So far as our Christian sects to-day are 
 evolving into liberality, they are simply reverting in 
 essence to the position which Fox and the early Quakers 
 so long ago assumed." 
 
 This praise is spoken of Fox and his times. 
 
 To-day the Friends are a small and feeble folk, 
 making but a slight impression upon the religious life 
 of England, and only with difficulty " evolving into a 
 liberality " which offers something of the hope and 
 promise of an earlier time. 
 
 This fact, and the desire for that " religion of 
 veracity" which is " rooted in spiritual inwardness" 
 have been both the spur and the motive in our little 
 enterprise. 
 
 " A religion of veracity," how the phrase appeals ! 
 How the shams of life have mocked us, when " jaded 
 with the rush and glare of the interminable hours," 
 we have sought, as in a darkness, the truth of God. 
 The longing for that faith which, passing through 
 experience beyond the region of dispute, can know no 
 fear, possesses men with a ceaseless pain and drives 
 * " Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 7. 
 
PENTECOST. 225 
 
 them not seldom to revolt against a creed that seems 
 but dead tradition. 
 
 " We belong," says William James, " in the most 
 intimate sense, where our ideals belong," and we cannot 
 be at rest until like Arthur's knights, we have found 
 and seen our Holy Grail. 
 
 But this goal of all our striving — what may it be ? 
 
 " Not a vain and cold ideal, 
 Not a poet's dream alone, 
 But a presence warm and real, 
 Seen and felt and known." 
 
 Aye ! though the mystery of life seem to us like 
 some clinging fog upon a lonely moor — 
 
 " Tho' truths in manhood darkly join, 
 Deep seated in our mystic frame, 
 We yield all blessing to the Name 
 Of Him that made them current coin." 
 
 To Him who is the Light and the Life and the Way 
 of the world, the Interpreter of its riddle, the Healer 
 of souls and the Saviour of men J He is our goal, his 
 the love we would cherish, even though our lips refuse 
 his Name. 
 
 In the beginning and at the end, in the vigour 
 of youth and the weakness of old age, this is the 
 intimate problem of our lives, to know him and in that 
 knowledge, peace ! 
 
 Review. 
 
 It must not be supposed that we forget the supre- 
 macy of this personal question if in reviewing the field 
 from the standpoint thus selected we turn first to 
 consider the general issue before the Society of Friends. 
 
226 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 We have repeatedly drawn attention in the 
 Present Day Papers to the problem of the Free Ministry. 
 Recently we set forth the startling facts as to the 
 development of what is known as the Pastoral System 
 in the Society of Friends, and pointed out that only 
 38 per cent. — and we believe the figure to be sub- 
 stantially accurate, — of our membership throughout 
 the world, worship according to the practice of London 
 Yearly Meeting. The remaining 62 per cent, have 
 already more or less abandoned the idea of a ministry 
 that is entirely unsupported, and appear at the present 
 time to be approximating to a modified Methodism. 
 
 As yet the outlook for a free ministry is dark. A 
 few Friends have been aroused to the real gravity of 
 the situation, but the majority either fail to grasp the 
 essential point, or slumber on in undisturbed com- 
 placency. 
 
 We have been weak so long that our standard of 
 spiritual efficiency has fallen low, and habitude has 
 bred in us an indifference to conditions which, if we 
 were a living church, should sting us to activity. 
 
 Review calmly and impartially each meeting in 
 turn, and though you may recognise to the full the 
 many elements of hopefulness, you will be compelled 
 to acknowledge the general and practical failure of 
 the ministry. This is surely a fact of serious im- 
 portance and not less so when the rapid growth of the 
 Pastoral system is borne in mind. 
 
 How many young people are accepting in a weighty 
 spirit the responsibility which a free Ministry 
 must involve ? What hold are we maintaining upon 
 their imagination and their hearts ? 
 
PENTECOST. 227 
 
 Again and again the same story is told. The 
 young people lack conviction, the ministry does not 
 reach them, the half-life of the meeting for worship 
 does not stir them, and they drift away. A hundred 
 alluring voices of the world call to them from without, 
 and thither they pass. They remain on our books 
 but their strength is not ours, and their children will 
 only remember the Quaker name as something remote, 
 a respectable descent from an honourable ancestry ! 
 Do not let us be deceived by our list of members. 
 It is a fallacious document. As a record of our " fight- 
 ing strength " it is a mockery. The living remnant 
 is already dangerously small and among the cultured 
 and intelligent tends ever to decrease. 
 
 The Anglican Church with her outward dignity 
 of architecture, her claim of historical continuity, her 
 culture, her aesthetic attractions, her comfortable 
 doctrine of authority, and her social prestige, offers a 
 natural home, not only to those drawn to her by 
 conviction, but to those for whom religion is a secondary 
 consideration, and who desire to appear well with the 
 world. 
 
 And upon the other side what is there to say ? 
 
 So feeble is the witness borne to the freedom of 
 our spiritual heritage, so negative and barren is the 
 interpretation of our testimony, so threadbare and so 
 poor is our simplicity, which in the baptism of the 
 spirit would be riches indeed, that the glory of the 
 Quaker ideal has drawn well nigh to extinguishment. 
 
 It is hard to say these things, but they are true, 
 and they must be said. To this generation has been 
 given to decide whether the Free Ministry, nay even 
 
228 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 the Quaker testimony itself, shall survive in a living 
 fellowship. 
 
 A slight numerical increase may be taken for what 
 encouragement it can give, but it does not alter the 
 fact that the conditions are to-day gravely critical, 
 for the accumulated neglect of a century must bear its 
 fruit, and the rapid social metamorphosis that has 
 come upon us has not told all its tale. 
 
 We have yet to face lean years with a depleted 
 granary, before we can win through to the time of corn 
 and wine. 
 
 These facts form the basis of a movement which 
 gathering strength during five short years already 
 promises much. 
 
 The Summer Schools and Settlements have laid 
 bare our needs and provoked our hunger for better 
 things. They have deepened spiritual life at the same 
 time that they have quickened intellectual interest 
 in the subject matter of religion. The experimental 
 year at " Woodbrooke," if rightly conducted, may 
 prove a turning point. Nay ! already under all the 
 discouragement of declining power and disintegrating 
 strength, we have felt the tides of the Spirit. But we 
 must not expect results to flow at once from the 
 Summer Schools. They are but part of the work of 
 needful upbuilding, and since the mistakes of genera- 
 tions are not remedied in a day, their effect can only 
 be slow. For it is not merely the ministry that is 
 their concern. The ministry, if the stimulus to life, 
 is also its fruit. Our object, therefore, is not so much 
 the ministry as the creation of that type of character 
 which will naturally support it, and which will of itself 
 
PENTECOST. 229 
 
 inevitably demand in its worship the freedom of the 
 power of God. 
 
 It is nothing less than a revolution that is involved, 
 a revolution in our ideas, our character, and our out- 
 look. Complacency must yield to self-sacrifice, 
 selfishness in all its forms to the spirit of stewardship, 
 parochialism to a quickened sympathy as wide as life, 
 and love must crown the whole. 
 
 The ministry is weak because we are weak, our 
 fellowship is small because we have not dared or cared 
 to love enough, and so in the last resort we are driven 
 back to the personal issue. Practical steps there are 
 that can and must be taken. Our educational system, 
 for instance, of such prime importance to the life of 
 our church, is weakest at its base. The training and 
 supply of teachers, and the provision of incomes 
 adequate to their proper needs, demand what they have 
 scarcely received, the immediate and pressing con- 
 sideration of our wisest statesmen. Instruction, con- 
 gregational and other, in the essentials of our faith 
 is neglected at the moment to a degree that is extra- 
 ordinary, and should be provided without loss of 
 precious time, through pastoral committees or existing 
 organisations. Our testimony for peace, the social 
 question, the problem of poverty, so terrible a menace 
 and so sad a reproach, these and like matters demand 
 trained sympathetic thought and study, to ensure 
 sound exposition and wise action. 
 
 But the need for a personal experience of spiritual 
 truth, at once the goal and the motive of all we plead 
 for, remains. It may seem a need that is hard to meet 
 amid the confusion of tongues. The changes in 
 
230 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 religious thought, the growth for the first time of a 
 scientific criticism of Scripture, have bewildered us, 
 and though science "charms her secret from the latest 
 moon," men wander ignorant, not knowing the way. 
 
 It has indeed seemed as though the ruin of faith 
 must be the end of criticism. But it is not so. Slowly, 
 yet surely, we are being driven from our false positions 
 to our true defence. 
 
 We may regret the serenity of unchallenged belief 
 that once was ours, we may even resent the intrusion 
 which has disturbed our peace, but we shall be wrong. 
 It is better as it is. 
 
 Criticism is performing for us a needed service. 
 It is compelling us from externals to seek reliance on 
 the inward witness of God in the soul, and in this it is 
 making for the essential teaching of the Quaker faith 
 and ever further away from the sacerdotal position 
 to which it has given but a fleeting strength. That the 
 hardest trial is past, that there are no dark hours 
 before the Christian church, we do not say. We believe 
 the contrary. We believe that in the near future 
 there will be a time of severer sifting than the church 
 has ever known. 
 
 The more careful study of comparative mythology, 
 the broader examination of the Gospel records in the 
 light afforded by older and contemporary religions, 
 will we believe force upon us questions that have long 
 been evaded by the Christian apologists. 
 
 But those alone will suffer whose faith has been 
 propped too exclusively upon historical evidence, and 
 for whom the inward Voice has no sure message of 
 living consolation. To believe that the essentials of 
 
PENTECOST. 231 
 
 faith can really be touched is to abandon belief in the 
 love of God. The received idea of what is essential 
 may be affected, but that is the destruction of a 
 misconception rather than of faith. 
 
 In spite of the conflict that rages about the 
 believing soul we feel in all things the guiding hand of 
 God, and the certainty that His Truth shall triumph 
 in the minds as in the hearts of Men. 
 
 Envoi. 
 
 Let us strengthen our testimony along the line of 
 the Soul's experience. Let us pray for the rushing 
 wind of the Holy Spirit, for a new Pentecost in the 
 Church on earth. 
 
 " God," says Ruysbroeck, " is nearer to us than 
 our faculties." Let us pray not so much that our 
 historical or theological beliefs may stand the test of the 
 critic, but that, in the vie intime of the soul, we may 
 know the living power of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Let us pray with the Poet : 
 
 " Be near me when my faith is dry, 
 And men, the flies of latter spring, 
 That lay their eggs and sting and sing, 
 
 And weave their petty cells and die." 
 
 Be near me ; bless with the benediction of Thy 
 sweet love poured out upon the Cross. For the burden 
 of the present and the trial of the future I am weak 
 apart from Thee. Take me unto Thyself and make me 
 Thine. Fire my heart with Thy passion, and touch 
 my eyes with Thy finger that I may see my work and 
 Thy work, the glory of Thy church that is to be. 
 
 And always, in the darkness as in the light, 
 Let us pray. 
 
THE PRESENT POSITION OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 
 IN THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 During the winter months of 1904-5 John Wilhelm 
 Rowntree's desire that the religious Society to which he 
 belonged should in very truth arise and live, grew in intensity 
 and found expression in many ways. Whilst appealing 
 to others, he never spared himself. 
 
 The following paper appeared in the pages of the 
 Friends' Quarterly Examiner, in January, 1905. 
 
THE PRESENT POSITION OF RELIGIOUS 
 THOUGHT IN THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 
 
 THERE are times when it is well for a person or a 
 community to take stock of mental or spiritual 
 assets, to reflect upon the inner meaning of passing 
 events, and to have regard to their trend. It may 
 indeed be whispered, as many weary pages of his 
 biographies suggest, that the Quaker has too facile a 
 gift for introspection, and at the threat of yet another 
 self-analysis, it might seem not unnatural to cry aloud, 
 " In the name of common-sense let us stop thinking 
 and do something." 
 
 The writer confesses to a secret alliance with this 
 revolutionary aim. It is his great hope that very soon 
 the Society of Friends may, by " doing something," 
 re-assert its positive claim, now so largely historical, 
 if not in some measure even mythical, to a share in the 
 constructive spiritual work that is afoot in the world. 
 But two considerations weigh with him. The hos- 
 pitable pages of the Friends' Quarterly Examiner are, 
 by the title they bear, not inappropriately devoted to 
 purposes of self-examination, and there is no evidence 
 of any proper measure of clear vision and definition 
 of aim able to impart such power to our fellowship as 
 would justify an attempt to " stop thinking." The 
 melancholy fact lies rather the other way. If it be the 
 truth that our introspections have hitherto been largely 
 
 235 
 
236 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 barren, it is also true that we are not doing the " some- 
 thing " upon which our hearts are set. In other words 
 we have failed to arrive at that coherence of ideas, and 
 unity and force of action, which are brought forth only 
 of consecrated and vivifying thought. 
 
 I am not about to make the profound ejaculation 
 that the " times are out of joint," that inevitable 
 prefatory " hem " of the pessimist clearing his throat. 
 On the contrary, I desire, however inadequately, to 
 give expression to something of that belief in the 
 future which I thank God has still possession of us. 
 Beneath the husk of Quaker formalism there are signs 
 of germinating seed. The present is no occasion for 
 despair, but on the other hand there is no room for 
 blind optimism. Facts are facts, and to handle them 
 rightly we must first state them fairly and study them 
 dispassionately. The Society, still suffering the effects 
 of long years of limited vision and grave errors in its 
 ecclesiastical administration, has been too near ex- 
 tinction to admit of any complacent satisfaction with 
 its present state. If we have escaped shipwreck, it 
 cannot yet be said that we have made our port. 
 
 I ask leave therefore to write frankly about 
 delicate matters, and to say without reserve, but I 
 trust with proper consideration, what I take to be some 
 of the most urgent questions in the minds of the 
 younger and therefore of the coming generation of 
 Friends. I offer no " nostrums," but rather the 
 rough notes of a recluse, much away from the activities 
 of life, suggestions if it may be, towards more fruitful 
 and constructive thinking upon the immediate pro- 
 blems of our outward and spiritual fellowship. 
 
PRESENT POSITION OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 237 
 
 Thejflrst fact to consider will be the vast change 
 in mental environment which affects, more or less 
 directly, the mental habit and outlook of the average 
 " young Friend." We often fail to realise the intel- 
 lectual chasm which separates the young Quaker 
 of 1905 from the Quakerism of a hundred or even of 
 fifty years ago. It is not merely that he has stepped 
 out of the magic circle of a carefully restricted and 
 self-centred social life, and has been merged in the 
 general organism of society ; that he has abandoned 
 the distinctive dress, speech and shibboleths which 
 the world mistook for essential Quakerism ; that he 
 paints pictures, buys engravings, cultivates art, at- 
 tends the concert and the play, it is rather that in 
 many important respects his view of life, his " welt- 
 anschauigng " has radically altered. The world has 
 opened out to him, not gradually or by judicious 
 stages, but as though folding doors had been suddenly 
 flung wide to admit the curious to forbidden chambers. 
 The sheltered life of the past, so far as he knows it by 
 hearsay, seems a dull, starved existence from which 
 the present is an emancipation. If he looks back at 
 all, and this is seldom, it is with pity rather than 
 regret. 
 
 That there is much of justice in his view any 
 student of Quaker history will readily admit. Despite 
 the delightful intercourse of certain coteries of bygone 
 Quakers, there was often a deadly dulness, a torpor of 
 undeveloped intellectual power, which bred worse 
 things than mental sterility. 
 
 But this is scarcely the question. Be the respec- 
 tive merits of past and present what they may, and 
 
238 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 they cannot be assigned in a parenthesis, we may take 
 it that for better or for worse the old order is beyond 
 recall. With its set feasts of Monthly and Quarterly 
 meetings, and its annual social festivity in Bishopsgate, 
 standing out in its calendar of microscopic interests as 
 the chief events in the Quaker year, with its " yard " 
 gossip, its thee and thou, its uniform social status, its 
 close intermarrying of families, its comfortable medi- 
 ocrity only broken here and there by a Grellet, a Fry, 
 a Gurney, a Sturge, a Tuke, and a Seebohm, the quiet 
 history of Victorian Quakerism is really the history 
 of an inward revolution. The borders marked out in 
 the eighteenth century have been finally overstepped, 
 and now having broken with our past we turn perhaps 
 not without misgiving to the unknown future. Shall we 
 win back the fervours of the seventeenth century, make 
 good our spiritual connection with the primitive giants 
 who, wrestling mightily for the Lord, bore unflinching a 
 cruel persecution, and in the twentieth century give such 
 an interpretation to the Christian Gospel as may move 
 the England of King Edward VII. as Fox moved the 
 England of Cromwell and the Stuarts ? That is the 
 question. Once more we are back in the main stream 
 of life, and like Fox and Barclay are aware of the 
 surging current of modern thought. In the eighteenth 
 century we floated into a backwater, but the floods 
 have come and about us are the eddies of a hurrying 
 river, the uprooted tokens of a tempest. Voltaire 
 might dwell under a Quaker roof in Hampstead and 
 write of the Quakers in his " Lettres Philosophiques," 
 Hannah Barnard might perturb orthodoxy by her free 
 handling of the Scriptures, Elias Hicks divide the 
 
PRESENT POSITION OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 239 
 
 American fellowship and Isaac Crewdson the English, 
 but these were external influences, disturbances which 
 had their origin outside. It is true they were not 
 without effect, but they failed to shake the self-con- 
 tained aloofness of the Society or reproduce seventeenth 
 century conditions when Quaker thought was at the 
 very heart of English religious life. The public 
 agitators who turned the country upside down and 
 organised an extensive band of preachers to carry the 
 fiery cross to every town and hamlet, shrank by a 
 sudden transformation into a private body of respect- 
 able citizens. Let the Deists write their essays and 
 Butler his " Analogy," Paley his " Evidences " and Paine 
 his " Age of Reason," the Quaker has nothing to say 
 upon the controversy of the hour. If the contagion of 
 Gentile thought should touch the carefully shepherded 
 fold, he sets in motion the machinery of " disown- 
 ment," and ejects the innovators. Not until Joseph 
 John Gurney successfully grafts the Evangelicalism of 
 Charles Simeon and the Cambridge school into the 
 Quaker stock is there a general stirring of the Quaker 
 sap. 
 
 The remarkable output of books and pamphlets 
 by the early Friends designed for the public eye, 
 almost ceased with the Keithian controversy. Subse- 
 quent Quaker literature is private, hortatory or 
 biographical rather than public, or if controversial, 
 is often little else than the powder and shot of in- 
 ternecine feuds. 
 
 Though for a time the writings of Joseph John 
 Gurney had great influence as the echo of the evan- 
 gelical movement then in force, they were more an 
 
240 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 attempt to bring Quaker views into some conformity 
 with earnest contemporary religious life, than a direct 
 development from the seventeenth century. They are 
 scarcely "public" books in the sense that Robert 
 Barclay's " Apology " may be so described, and they 
 certainly failed to impress contemporary opinion in any 
 marked degree. At present forgotten by the outside 
 world they are neglected by Friends. 
 
 To bring this rapid survey to an issue, the young 
 Friend stands briefly thus : — He has broken more 
 emphatically with the past than would be true 
 of any other generation of Quakers, he has neither 
 time nor inclination to read the musty original 
 literature of the Society, he is satisfied to connect 
 Barclay with Ury, and leave him there. He 
 has possibly dipped into Fox's Journal, but more 
 likely he knows the leather breeches and the " woe " 
 to the bloody city of Lichfield, and nothing more. 
 The eighteenth and even the nineteenth century, so 
 far as Quaker history is concerned, are to him 
 a complete blank. He has heard of Elizabeth Fry, 
 less often of John Woolman, and sometimes of 
 Joseph Sturge. He has a vague idea that there was a 
 Hicksite controversy, but only because he is aware 
 that the question of corresponding with the " other 
 branch " is a matter of present dispute, he has no 
 notion what is meant by the " Beacon " or by John 
 Wilbur's disownment, but turns from it all with an 
 impatient shrug to his Adult School and its absorbing 
 activities. " Better so," you say, " far better." 
 " Better a live dog than a dead lion." Certainly ! 
 But there are some aspects of the situation which are 
 
PRESENT POSITION OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 241 
 
 not so lightly dismissed. Remember that for the first 
 time since the seventeenth century the young Friend finds 
 himself in the open, and how is he equipped ? He 
 has little or no hold on the past, little or no acquaint- 
 ance with any living Quaker literature for until lately 
 there was but little of it. If the truth must be told 
 that which he sees of concrete Quakerism, as for 
 example in its Meetings for Worship, is not seldom 
 discouraging. He has but little direct modern 
 Quaker teaching to guide him in the struggle of 
 faith. 
 
 For the last fifty years the Society of Friends so far 
 from leading as it did in the seventeenth century, has 
 been an unintelligent spectator of the greatest revolution 
 in religious thought since the time of the Reformation. 
 The effect of this, which we are only beginning to 
 measure, tells directly upon the young, unformed 
 mind. Literature is full of it. It cannot be escaped. 
 On every hand science demolishes the old familiar 
 landmarks. Biology, geology, and astronomy unite 
 to make away with a cherished cosmogony, and the 
 trained scientific scholarship of the modern Biblical 
 student, immeasurably superior in intellectual force 
 and honesty to the old rationalism, forces us by the 
 sheer weight of its achievements to reconsider our 
 attitude to the Holy Scriptures. Fundamental issues, 
 centred in the heart of the Christian faith, are raised, 
 fought out in reviews back and forth before the public 
 eye. Is there a God ? Is He knowable ? What is 
 inspiration ? How far can we rely on the Bible ? 
 Was Jesus divine ? Can we trust his claim to reveal 
 the Father ? How does the evolution of species affect 
 
242 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 the problem of sin ? — and so forth and so forth. The 
 mind grows dizzy in the mere recitation. 
 
 But more than this — there is a notable stirring 
 of the social conscience. The existing order is chal- 
 lenged. Poverty in its hideous shape is regarded not 
 as a fixed institution but as a social disease, an evil 
 too great to be borne. That the many should suffer 
 a stunted life while a few enjoy the freedom of wealth 
 and leisure is a contradiction of brotherhood that 
 cannot be glozed over by the application of a few stock 
 platitudes. So it comes about that the old party lines 
 break down, and time honoured political beliefs are 
 seething in the melting-pot. In all this there is a 
 great hope and a great peril. A great hope that out 
 of the strife of tongues shall issue a new courage and a 
 new faith, — a great peril that, ignorant of the past, 
 we may fail to read its lessons and, wanting knowledge, 
 miss the positive notes of a new Gospel. Of course, 
 the consequences of the great revolution are for all 
 churches alike, and each will meet them in its own way. 
 The Roman Catholic will draw into the shell of ecclesi- 
 astical authority, and the High Anglican will do like- 
 wise, though he may poke his head oui; at times, but 
 those who have abandoned the doctrine of an infallible 
 church and have been driven out of their last defence — 
 the doctrine of an infallible Book, — must face the final 
 issue of faith. The hour of their supreme trial and 
 their supreme victory is at hand, that which the 
 Reformation foreshadowed and Fox almost saw. 
 
 For this reason, if we only knew it, the situation 
 is one of peculiar peril and peculiar hopefulness for the 
 Society of Friends. If we really understood, we have 
 
PRESENT POSITION OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 243 
 
 the great opportunity of our history before us at this 
 moment. But we do not understand. We stopped 
 thinking in the seventeenth century. The thought-stuff 
 of Fox, Penington and Barclay was never properly 
 worked out. We never understood the Inward Light. 
 We fell back from the advanced positions, set up an 
 idolatry of the past, grew into formalists as ritual in 
 temper as the Anglican with his crosses and processions, 
 repelled fresh thought by discipline instead of argu- 
 ment, and finally accepted a compromise with mid- 
 Victorian Evangelicalism. Where are we now ? At 
 cross-purposes. Just when the trumpets should sound 
 for advance our general staff is in confusion. It has 
 no plan of campaign. Some would march here, some 
 there. Some attack, some retreat, with the result 
 that like Kuropatkin on the Shaho we dig trenches and 
 stand still. This, of course, is figurative writing, but it 
 expresses a rough truth. What do I mean ? I mean 
 this : first, that we have never properly established 
 the basis of belief, second, that we have never properly 
 outlined the spiritual truth of the indwelling God, 
 and its relation to sin ; third, that we have wanted 
 consistency and courage properly to express in conduct 
 and life, in social relations and ideas, the large practical 
 consequences which that truth involved. It is the 
 profound issue of the basis of belief which in the last 
 fifty years has again become acute. Except in a 
 limited sense, the Bible was never the ultimate court 
 of appeal. We have been slow to recognise this, but 
 it is being forced upon us at last. 
 
 As Auguste Sabatier expresses it in his lecture on 
 Religion and Modern Culture : — " No external witness 
 
244 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 can prevail to-day against the inner and peculiar law 
 of reason, for this sovereign law ever judges both the 
 testimony and the witness. Even when we yield to 
 the testimony of another, it is to our own mind that 
 we are yielding, for we esteem that, after all, the thing 
 is reasonable ; so much so that the assent of ourselves 
 to ourselves appears more and more as the sole foun- 
 dation of all human rationality, as well as of all 
 morality." 
 
 / This throws us back on the Inward Voice as the 
 ultimate arbiter — even of the Bible. Is this to mean 
 as Lecky drily suggests, " the deification of a strong 
 internal persuasion " ? Here it is that clear guidance 
 and teaching is needed — that the doctrine of the 
 I Inward Light upon which the tongue trips so lightly 
 ! requires searching elucidation. We are face to face 
 j with psychic phenomena but dimly understood — pace 
 [ the elaborate text-books which codify everything, — 
 \ and stand upon the edge of spiritual deeps of mystery 
 and understanding which the fool cannot compass. 
 ,' The question is one not to be hastily handled. The 
 difficulties of the doctrine of Inward Guidance are, as 
 ; James Nayler's experience reminds us, serious and 
 \ practical. I would suggest that the solution lies in a 
 J deeper interpretation of the person and message of 
 ; Jesus Christ. Apart from the thought of God as we 
 ' see Him set forth in Jesus, and the common conscious- 
 ness of truth as revealed in lofty souls who have been 
 i touched by His spiritual fire, it is not evident how the 
 \ faults of individual interpretation are to be corrected. 
 ] It is at least significant that as the doctrine of Biblical 
 I infallibility has weakened, the interest of the thoughtful 
 
PRESENT POSITION OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 245- 
 
 1 world has centred with strange fascination upon the 
 prophet of Nazareth. It may be that the loss of an 
 infallible book is a shock to faith intended to drive us 
 at last into real and effective union with him. In any 
 case, and I say it with all tenderness, the main trend 
 appears to be setting not only away from an ignorant 
 obscurantism, hostile to the scientific method and 
 knowledge, but away from what is usually understood 
 as the Unitarian position. I use the label with diffi- 
 dence, partly because it implies a reproach I would 
 not utter, and a prejudice I do not share, and partly 
 because the Unitarians have done much to rescue from 
 a truly shocking theology the great Gospel conception 
 of the Fatherhood of God, — nor do I forget that when 
 Christian ministers called upon a Hebrew Jehovah for 
 a bloody vengeance upon the wretched and ignorant 
 farmers of the Transvaal many Unitarians upheld in 
 striking contrast the practical teaching of the Prince 
 of Peace. None the less it appears to me that in in- 
 sisting that Jesus was merely man all the real beauty 
 and significance of his life and our own is missed. If 
 I give up external authority I do not want to know 
 only what man can be, but what God is, and I want 
 to see within the limits of human consciousness an 
 identification or meeting-point between the soul of 
 man and the unseen Spirit. If Jesus is that meeting- 
 point of identification — a movement not merely of man 
 towards a God who never answers, but of God towards 
 man — then, with Jesus as the Gospel, witnessed in the 
 conscience of a civilization infected by his Spirit, I 
 see the balance wheel to the doctrine of the Inward 
 Light, 
 
246 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 This excursion into which I have been betrayed 
 may serve to illustrate the lines of thought which open 
 before us, and sets us free to draw our conclusion. 
 
 We may incline to ask what, in the light of 
 existing facts, are the immediate prospects of the future. 
 It is, I think, clear that there lies a grave menace in the 
 extraordinary absence of constructive Quaker thought. 
 If our young people continue on the one hand to draw 
 their spiritual nourishment and take their intellectual 
 guidance from sources outside the Quaker fellowship, 
 and at the same time to find their main interest and 
 activity in an undenominational Adult School move- 
 ment, which tends increasingly to become interdenomi- 
 national, there can be no question of the result. The 
 Society of Friends as a separate organisation will 
 speedily disappear. The hold it has upon its young 
 life is even now perilously feeble. Who can rouse 
 enthusiasm upon a cry of " no baptism," and " no 
 supper," " no paid ministry," and " no singing " ? 
 These negations do not touch the heart of the modern 
 questions which exercise us, it is impossible to maintain 
 a fellowship upon negative distinctions, or to gather a 
 people round a system of worship, however primitive 
 or simple. It is only as the separate elements in the 
 Quaker view of life are seen to cohere round an internal 
 faith, and to take upon them the positive aspect of a 
 constructive interpretation of divine truth, that they 
 can claim validity or exercise power. The question of 
 baptism and the supper are incidental and relatively 
 unimportant. The vital point is our basis of belief, 
 our interpretation of the Inward Light, of life, sin, 
 death, and our relationship to God. The truth, clearly 
 
PRESENT POSITION OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 247 
 
 grasped and passionately believed, will overcome where 
 the mere tenets of a sect, atrophied by long divorce 
 from the central life, fall unheeded like the dead for- 
 malisms they have already become. 
 
 It is the present fashion to congratulate ourselves 
 upon two things : that we have no creed and that we 
 are free from controversy. I am not sure of the first, 
 and I doubt the unmixed blessing of the second. That 
 we are no longer vexed by the spirit which animated 
 the Hicksian and Beaconite controversies is indeed a 
 favour from heaven, but that the causes which make 
 for outward calm are altogether healthy I am prepared 
 to deny. 
 
 In the first place there is a tendency — weakening 
 I admit — to thrust aside thought upon the deepest 
 issues for something more practical. " The mystery 
 of life baffles me, but I know my duty, and I will turn 
 from philosophy to the active service of men." This 
 is a healthy and needed reaction from an other worldli- 
 ness which regarded this life as a temporary exile from 
 the Kingdom of God, to be endured with resignation ; 
 and forgot that it is but one among many of the 
 heavenly workshops. Nevertheless it is a one-sided 
 reaction and cannot last. Man needs a substratum of 
 belief in order to draw from his life and work its fullest 
 possibility and meaning. To say that we have no 
 creed is only true in the sense that we have not shackled 
 our intellects by a formal documentary declaration. 
 The necessity remains as it was for Paul and for every 
 victorious soul to work out our own salvation with fear 
 and trembling. And here the absence of controversy 
 in the sense of public discussion qonduqted in the spirit 
 
248 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 of mutual helpfulness is really fatal. If we were indeed 
 at work upon the central truths of faith, Quaker 
 literature would show more evidence of the results. 
 We ought by now to have reached such a measure of 
 understanding as would permit a frank interchange 
 of views without the hateful bias of theological preju- 
 dice and with the object of constructive thought. 
 If the silence is due to the fear of " heresy hunting," 
 then those who are responsible, so far from defending 
 the ark of the Lord, are in reality quenching the spirit 
 and driving the young life of the Society into indiffer- 
 ence. We shall pay the penalty when we find that our 
 thoughtful people have left us for want of intellectual 
 sympathy and spiritual nourishment. 
 
 The object of this argument is a plea. Returning 
 life, under the altered conditions which now prevail, 
 and in the face of the revolution which has taken place, 
 will involve a free handling of subjects which by common 
 consent have long been taboo. The doctrine of the Atone- 
 ment, the inspiration of the Bible, the personality of 
 Christ — these are questions which, had they been before 
 us in the seventeenth century as they are to-day, would 
 have been the open subject of discussion. If they 
 are to possess reality for younger Friends, they must 
 be so again, and those who have formed their views 
 in the fifties, or have not felt the pressure of change, 
 may render a high service if they will forbear to con- 
 demn, and will recognise the sincerity and earnestness 
 of those from whom they differ. It is not the least 
 hopeful and encouraging symptom that there should 
 be so much rich and tender charity of feeling upon 
 which to build. The development which is upon us 
 
PRESENT POSITION OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 249 
 
 is not destructive. We have to work out, each genera- 
 tion for itself, our own interpretation of the Gospel. 
 Already there are indications that the needed con- 
 structive work is upon the way. After a long silence 
 our literature is showing signs of a new growth. In 
 the writings of Rufus Jones, to name no other, the 
 attempt is being made to attack the problem which re- 
 mained unsolved at the close of the seventeenth century. 
 That we should expect or desire to find our spiritual 
 food only in books by Quakers is, of course, never 
 pretended. We have been emancipated from the 
 slavery of denominational narrowness, and laying the 
 whole world in fee, we cherish a free trade in ideas. 
 But if the Society of Friends is to have a wider and 
 increasing service, if it is to hold its young people, if 
 indeed it is to have a continued existence at all, it 
 must produce a modern interpretation of its original 
 conception, and lead the world of thought to a deeper 
 interpretation of Jesus Christ. 
 
 If it is the weakness of what is called the evan- 
 gelical school that it is not open to the growth of know- 
 ledge, it is certainly the weakness of the " Broad " 
 school that it fails to interpret its message in the 
 vibrant language of a living faith. 
 
 It is the earnest prayer of the writer that under 
 the pressure of an urgent need, the two " schools " 
 will come closer together, and will be each sufficiently 
 humble to learn from the other. We must express our 
 gospel in its spiritual and social aspect, so that our 
 young people may find in our fellowship what they are 
 seeking, the infection of a lofty view of life, and a fresh 
 inspiration of the love and power of God, 
 
TO RISE AGAIN— A SERMON. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 At the meeting at Fourth and Green Streets, Phila- 
 delphia, First-day evening, Tenth month, 27, John Wilhelm 
 Rowntree, of York, England, was present and spoke. The 
 report following is from notes made by George B. Cock. 
 It has not been revised by the speaker. 
 
 The Friends' Intelligencer, Philadelphia, 1 1 th mo. 9th, 1901. 
 
TO RISE AGAIN— A SERMON. 
 
 " The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot cele- 
 brate thee ; they that go down into the pit cannot hope 
 for thy truth." — Isaiah xxxviii. 18. 
 
 I REMEMBER once, on a brilliant morning in May, 
 turning aside at the direction of my guide from 
 the barren valley of the Tombs of the Kings, running 
 up from the Nile at Luxor into the boundary of the 
 desert. It was such a day as I suppose one could 
 rarely find outside of Italy — a brilliant deep blue sky, 
 sunshine that seemed to cut like a knife — so sharp were 
 the shadows, so clearly defined even distant objects. 
 As we turned aside from that brilliant sunshine, from 
 that deep blue of the skies which spread like a curtain 
 over the desert, into a narrow rock-hewn passage 
 running into the cliff, we walked for some time upon a 
 carpet of dust which had taken centuries to form, — 
 as silent a carpet as ever decorated the floor of a rich 
 man's house ; upon either side upon the walls were 
 multitudes of carvings, gradually becoming less distinct, 
 as they penetrated deep into the gloom of the rock- 
 hewn passage. At last we found ourselves in a small 
 chamber, thick with dust ; in the middle the magnesian 
 wire revealed to us the sarcophagus of an old king who 
 lived 1,200 years before Christ ; and even as we looked, 
 the light startled a creature in that rock-hewn chamber, 
 
 253 
 
254 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 and we felt the fluttering of a bat in our faces. Our 
 feet had disturbed the carpet of dust, and the air was 
 thick and choking with the fine, impalpable sand of the 
 desert, as it had drifted in through all these years. 
 
 Among the writings of the Assyrians there is an 
 account of the goddess Ishtar descending into Hades ; 
 and the account, which is in the form of an epic, 
 describes how she went down into the nether regions 
 of the world ; and though I cannot quote the exact 
 words, I give you them nearly : " But the house of 
 darkness " (as the ancient scribe proceeds) " the 
 house of darkness — the house men enter but do not 
 depart from," where " the souls of the dead lie as 
 fluttering wings." 
 
 As I remember the experience of that day in Egypt 
 there comes to me some dim sense of the horror of 
 this pall over the future life for those people who knew 
 not the larger hope. Many years afterward another 
 sovereign wrote upon the tomb of her dead husband, 
 " Here at last I shall rest with thee — with thee in 
 Christ to rise again." That is what Queen Victoria 
 wrote upon the mausoleum of the Prince Consort at 
 Frogmore ; and that inscription marks the different 
 measures of progress between the Old Testament and 
 the New, between King Hezekiah and his gloominess, 
 and the hope which is to be, of England to-day. 
 
 I do not think it is possible, from whatever stand- 
 point we study the Bible, to ignore this difference, 
 which is so strikingly illustrated, between what is 
 known as the Old Testament and the New Testament. 
 In the Old Testament the note of immortality is un- 
 certain and hesitating : there is no clear and definite 
 
TO RISE AGAIN — A SERMON. 255 
 
 teaching running through its pages ; but when we 
 turn from the Old to the New we find ourselves in an 
 atmosphere altogether different : the whole New 
 Testament rings with the certainty of a new hope : 
 the very language of that New Testament is the 
 language of great expectation — how he that liveth 
 and was dead shall have life for evermore. No matter 
 what interpretation we place upon this account which 
 describes the event of the Resurrection, one thing is 
 perfectly clear to the student — that something occurred 
 to introduce a new hope in a group of people who 
 became afterwards the Christian Church — that a new 
 dynamic entered the world with the Christian faith, 
 and that it carried with it the larger hope. 
 
 Now it is not at all impossible that we, studying 
 the lives of men and of women who have lived without 
 that larger hope — without the certainty of the future 
 life — it is not impossible, I say, that we should feel 
 some measure of respect and admiration for their 
 fortitude. It is impossible not to feel admiration for 
 Marcus Aurelius ; it is impossible not to feel admiration 
 of a different kind for King Hezekiah. Men have lived 
 this life bravely, with the uncertainty of the future 
 before them ; they have bent themselves with their 
 whole energy to the immediate concerns of the present, 
 and have steeled their hearts, strung their nerves, to 
 bear with fortitude the uncertainty that lies in the 
 very mystery of being. Perhaps it is possible for us 
 to say, Is that not really the finer qualification ? Is 
 there not a higher nobility in a life which can be lived 
 with such discouragement, that it rings so pure and 
 high ? We may shape the argument in a more positive 
 
256 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 form : we may even say of those who live perfect lives 
 for the sake of future reward, " What merit is it in 
 them, any more than those who would shun evil for 
 the sake of punishment which would follow, can be 
 reckoned among the just ? " 
 
 I remember the story which is sometimes told of 
 an old woman who was found one day setting forth 
 with a brazier of coals in one hand and a pail of water 
 in the other. She was going, she said, to burn up 
 heaven with the coals, and to put out the flames of 
 hell with the water, in order that men might learn to 
 love God for His own sake, and to hate sin for its own 
 sake. Surely we may sympathize with the moral of 
 that story, even though it is somewhat quaintly framed. 
 We can sympathize with the thought that lies behind 
 the story. We recognise that virtue which is not 
 pursued for its own sake is but a starveling thing at the 
 best ; we can recognise that those who shun evil 
 simply for the fear of consequences, are contemptible 
 and mean ; and yet does it follow that in the admira- 
 tion that all naturally feel for men like Marcus Aurelius 
 we are right in accepting their position and their view 
 of life ? That is a question to which there is more 
 than one answer ; but I know that in speaking from 
 my own experience my answer must be : " No, it does 
 not follow." 
 
 There is a passage in the writings of the Apostle 
 Paul which, I think, has a directly remarkable appli- 
 cation to us to-day, though written without any 
 thought of a twentieth century audience : " If in this 
 life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men 
 most miserable." 
 
TO RISE AGAIN — A SERMON. 257 
 
 Let us try and see by examination what the 
 modern application of those words is for us. I want 
 to call your attention to what I conceive to be the 
 most serious development of our modern life. I think 
 if I were to suggest a gospel which, it would seem, the 
 majority of the world accepts as all-sufficient, it would 
 be found in the words, " Eat, drink, and be merry ; 
 for to-morrow we die." That, perhaps, puts it some- 
 what forcibly ; and yet it is not possible to look 
 out upon life and not to recognise that Paganism, 
 under a very thin disguise of conventional Christianity, 
 nourishes upon every hand ; it is impossible not to 
 recognise that selfishness in all its subtle and varied 
 forms gangrenes society ; the love of pleasure has 
 gained added means of satisfying pleasure ; the moral 
 and spiritual fibre of this generation has been unstrung 
 by the developments of luxury seducing men from the 
 sterner hands of duty and of honour. Life has become 
 so rich and so many-coloured that men refuse to look 
 beyond the immediate present ; they decline to lift 
 their eyes from the dust to the angel who stands there 
 with the crown ; they epitomize the allegory of John 
 Bunyan ; they persist in stirring up the dust upon the 
 highway of life that it may hide from their eyes the 
 White Presences upon the hills. They live in a fever 
 of excitement ; not one, not two, but many news- 
 papers in a day ; they are drowned in a sea of ephe- 
 meral literature, with morphine injections to drown 
 the conscience. The world is becoming one great 
 maelstrom, whose roar drowns the still, small voice of 
 God. My friends, this is a moment of peril and of 
 trial for the Christian Church. We are confronted 
 
258 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 with an atheism far more terrible than the barren 
 negative atheism of the cynic who denies God logically 
 and defies the Christian Church with his logic. We are 
 face to face with an atheism that laughs at the earnest- 
 ness of the old atheist ; that cares not whether there 
 be a God or no. It does not trouble to deny him — it 
 passes by and ignores him. " Eat, drink, and be 
 merry ; for to-morrow we die," — on the other side 
 those words of the Apostle Paul coming to us across 
 the centuries, " If in this life only we have hope in 
 Christ, we are of all men most miserable." 
 
 Years ago, long before the deductions of the 
 morality of civilization had been introduced into the 
 British Isles, when many savage people who had been 
 brought up in the love of nature and who felt the spell 
 of nature which charms, were brought face to face with 
 Christian missionaries, — hearing the message of those 
 missionaries they said that it gave a new view to life. 
 Life had seemed to them, until that message came, 
 like the flight of a bird from the cold darkness of a 
 winter night into the warmth of a fire-lit room, and 
 then into the darkness beyond — a momentary gleam 
 of warmth and light, but darkness before and darkness 
 behind. When we are thrown back upon ourselves — 
 we modern pagans, with so much left of the true fibre 
 of those old pagans who knew not the advantage of 
 the Divine authentication ; when we modern pagans 
 are thrown back upon ourselves by some sharp buffet 
 of misfortune, when the gay toys with which we have 
 amused ourselves are suddenly destroyed by a blow 
 from the iron hand of fate, then, too, there may come 
 to us a sense of the dreariness which came over King 
 
TO RISE AGAIN — A SERMON. 259 
 
 Hezekiah ; then, too, we may realise that we have 
 been living but on the surface of things, and that there 
 is no real thought to our life ; then, as we look up, 
 there will be no longer the cruder blessings of our life : 
 the sky will have no star, and the sigh of a wind from 
 the desert will bring the loneliness of despair. In 
 such moments as those (and they come to some of us) 
 it is not sufficient to admire Marcus Aurelius. Is there 
 not something in the heart which asks for sustenance 
 which it cannot define ? Do we not reach out with 
 hands of prayer, longing for the shadow of the unseen 
 God to be made manifest in some living shape that it 
 may appeal to us and support us ? 
 
 I have quoted from King Hezekiah : let me quote 
 from one very different. In Hezekiah there is hardly 
 any profound philosophy. He represented perhaps 
 simply the current ideas of his day and generation. 
 Let us turn to Plato, the supremest of all the pagans. 
 We find there that same longing which I believe lies 
 at the root of every human heart, of a certainty of a 
 true knowledge of God, — of a knowledge which shall 
 interpret life, and give it its final and its fullest meaning. 
 Plato longed for some sure, some definite word that 
 might bear him across the sea of life's uncertainty. 
 Yet to Plato there came no certain word, and he had 
 to satisfy himself with the shadow and the best of 
 human words. Are we to stop with Plato and with 
 Marcus Aurelius ? is there no other significance for the 
 larger hope than the mere selfish longing for eternal 
 ease (which is utterly ignoble) or the mere selfish 
 dread of eternal pain (which is no less ignoble) ? Or, 
 is there something in those words of Paul full of deep 
 
200 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 meaning : " If in this life only we have hope in Christ, 
 we are of all men most miserable " ? Is there not 
 something in that larger hope which is essential to the 
 best welfare of the human race ? Is it not necessary 
 for us, that our life shall be taken out of its self- 
 containedness, and brought into unity with some 
 eternal whole ? Is it not necessary for us, if our 
 human life is to be lived as it can be lived, and should 
 be lived, that it should be pierced through and through 
 with divine meaning ? 
 
 Surely we need some key to our lives ! Surely 
 we need that " sure and certain word " upon which 
 we may rely ; surely we need some conception which 
 interprets our life to us, and gives it a complete purpose, 
 and adds to it a dignity which may fire our hearts with 
 divine consciousness and fill our veins with a passion 
 that may not be withstood ; and how is that to come 
 to us ? From the mere thought of the immanent 
 God ? The Greek had that thought of an immanent 
 God ; he saw God in nature everywhere about him ; 
 and yet the finest ethics of Greek philosophers is based 
 on that cry of Plato ! "Oh, for some sure, some certain 
 word ! " 
 
 What are you in the eye of nature ? Contradict 
 her law, and you are a man torn by machinery into 
 which he has got involved. The machine goes on 
 relentlessly and you are dust ; you have got in the 
 way of the law ; the law annihilates you. The hope 
 there ? Surely not, if we probe deep enough. 
 
 This human experience, — is that all so clear that 
 he who runs may read ? Is there no difficulty, — 
 nothing to conflict with our thought of the universal 
 
TO RISE AGAIN — A SERMON. 261 
 
 love ? Ah ! we have but to think a moment of the 
 inconsistencies, and explain the sufferings, sometimes 
 apparently so undeserved, with which humanity is 
 afflicted, and it becomes surely possible for us, regarding 
 that field alone as our evidence, to rise up here without 
 the knowledge that God is love. No ; if we are 
 honest, and take life as it really is, we are bound to see 
 its difficulties and its problems upon every hand, we 
 are bound to cry with Plato for that divine, that surer 
 word, which shall carry us across this sea of difficulty. 
 And more than that ; in our heart of hearts we know 
 it ; deep down there is a craving which cannot be 
 quenched, which we cannot extinguish, — a craving 
 for a personal knowledge of God, a groping in the 
 darkness with hands of prayer feeling for Him we love, 
 that through all this tangle of difficulty which sur- 
 rounds us He may reach down to us the Divine hand, 
 that we may grasp like children, that we may be lifted 
 up out of that which threatens to overwhelm, us, to 
 feel and know the love of it. It is not a question of 
 creeds ; it is not a question of theology, of orthodoxy 
 or heterodoxy ; it is a question of reality, of healing ; 
 in a word, of knowing that God is love, to be so conscious 
 of our relationship with Him that it can sustain us 
 no matter what we think or believe. Such a relation- 
 ship presses right down below words into the very 
 centre of our being, and tides us over and bears us on 
 and lifts us above all the trials and drag and friction 
 of our every-day life. There is not a man, there is not 
 a woman, that in his or her heart of hearts has not 
 known that longing to know God. 
 
 Now, friends, I want to speak what is real to me 
 
262 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 (if it be not real to you), and I want to be understood 
 as speaking not as a demagogist but as talking out of a 
 precious experience to myself, and a longing to have 
 it shared by others. That consciousness has come 
 to me through Jesus Christ ; it has come to me after 
 darkness which it seemed to me at one time was never 
 to be pierced. 
 
 I have known what it was almost to give up the 
 belief in God ; I have certainly known what it was not 
 to believe God in my heart, but only to believe in Him 
 with my head. I have known what it is to believe 
 that there was no reality in the Bible — certainly no 
 reality in Jesus Christ. These things have come back 
 again to me along unexpected paths, in ways which 
 I had not discerned, — but they have come back and 
 they are clear to me. The Bible has come back to me, 
 through difficulty, in modern theology. Jesus Christ 
 has come back to me in ways which I cannot express 
 in speech. This I do know — even that light from out 
 of darkness comes at times — a heavenly light. I know 
 what it means when the poet says that the heart has 
 felt ; I know what it means to feel in my heart the 
 active presence of the love of God that has come to me 
 through Jesus Christ. 
 
 I am fully aware that to very many the authority 
 — the ordinary teaching — of Jesus Christ seems a 
 limitation. In the first place the evidence rests upon 
 a superficial basis, — upon, for instance, the verbal, 
 the absolute, inspiration of Scripture ; upon the 
 argument from miracle, and from such evidence. 
 These are matters which do not concern me at all. 
 I am fully prepared to admit that there are historical 
 
TO RISE AGAIN — A SERMON. 263 
 
 questions in the New Testament, even, which are yet 
 to be solved by closer and higher scholarship ; I am 
 fully alive to all the difficulty which has been raised 
 in that connection ; but to me these things have ceased 
 to possess any essential interest, because my own 
 evidence lies deeper than that, even though it is an 
 evidence which I cannot communicate to others. 
 From that knowledge it seems to me that there are 
 certain cases of the teachings in relation to Jesus 
 Christ which have not received emphasis by the 
 Christian Church, and which, if they were in future 
 more generally emphasized, would very much reduce 
 the intellectual difficulties which so many of us have 
 felt and still feel in regard to such teachings. 
 
 In the first place emphasis has been laid upon the 
 teaching, " No man cometh to the Father but by me " ; 
 and to a few that imposes a restriction of the witness 
 of God, the narrowing down of the evidence of God, 
 to one personality. 
 
 To me it appeals with a totally different light ; 
 it does not mean in that way at all. God witnesseth 
 essentially for man. He is the immanent God ; closer 
 than breathing, nearer than hands and feet, who 
 witnesseth in another which is but the garment of 
 God. 
 
 But to me, without Jesus Christ, all that thought 
 of God would have remained unvitalized and indefinite. 
 I would have had nothing sure and certain, which, in 
 the tangled maze of things, speaks to me clearly of the 
 love of God. I need that human agent of communi- 
 cation between the human and the Divine ; need that 
 interpretation of life, that interpretation of its 
 
264 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 mysteries, that interpretation of my own being, which 
 is itself the revelation of the heart of God. To me Jesus 
 Christ is not a theological figure, not a factor in some- 
 body's divine mathematics, not an element in an 
 external scheme of salvation, but the unveiling of the 
 Father's face, the audible beat of the heart of God, 
 " the word made flesh," as John has expressed it — 
 God Himself made flesh, in order that man, with his 
 finite mind, might grasp it through nature and the true 
 character and the true purposes and the true will of 
 God ; in order that in the first course of evolution 
 there might be introduced that vivid spiritual ideal 
 which alone can lift the human race, which can draw 
 men up from the brute to the spirit — lifting them by 
 language which will not be denied by the great world 
 to the very Father's house itself. It is to me a curtain 
 drawn aside, so that man has looked through into the 
 ineffable glory of heaven and beheld Him, the glory, 
 the only begotten Son — beheld in Him the very glory 
 of God Himself. 
 
 That is not limitation. If we look upon Jesus 
 Christ in that light, not as coming to contradict what- 
 ever evidence in whatever religion may have been 
 already given of the love of God, but as coming to 
 confirm everything, coming to illuminate everything, 
 coming to focus everything, then it is no limitation, 
 but simply Divine sanction ; the seal is set upon all 
 that which man has hesitatingly identified with God 
 Himself. It is the sanction of all that is true in 
 Buddha, all that is true in the Egyptian cult of the day, 
 all that is true in the teachings of Confucius, all that 
 is true in the teachings of Zoroaster ; it is the binding 
 
TO RISE AGAIN — A SERMON. 265 
 
 together from every point in the world of all the little 
 fragments of light, — gathering together into one great 
 shaft broadcast that which should pierce the selfishness 
 and darkness of the world. 
 
 In the twelfth century there lived in France a 
 man called Henry de Suso — a mystic, whose faith 
 later found its highest expression in the writings of 
 John Tauler. " Friends of God " they called them- 
 selves ; and in many ways they were forerunners of 
 George Fox. Henry de Suso, a Spaniard by birth, 
 was found one day kneeling before the image of the 
 Virgin Mary, and as he prayed he fell into a trance, 
 and he cried out in his prayer to the Virgin ; the Child 
 she held in her arms was manifested as a reality by 
 stooping down and kissing him ; and even as he prayed 
 the Child took life and form, and the Virgin smiled 
 down on the kneeling mystic ; even as he prayed the 
 heavenly kiss was imprinted upon his forehead, and 
 for one brief moment Henry de Suso was permitted 
 to enjoy such ecstasy. Then the dream passed. Is 
 this simply a crude, childish Roman Catholic story ? 
 I think we have misread its meaning if we so account 
 it. Of course, it was a dream, and of course it was not 
 actual ; but Henry de Suso was experiencing that 
 deepest longing of the human race : he was longing for 
 a view of the face of God ; he was longing that the 
 hand might be stretched out which should touch his 
 heart-strings, and set those chords in motion which 
 respond only to the deepest passion — the passion of 
 personal devotion, and personal obedience, and per- 
 sonal knowledge ; and, friends, believe me, our faith 
 will remain diffuse and impotent, — our power as a 
 
266 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 religious Church must remain short of what it might 
 be, unless our faith and our love and our devotion, all 
 the deepest energy of our human nature, can find a 
 personal focus, a personal living thought of God. 
 
 And, as we advance, that thought of God revealed 
 in Jesus Christ — does it not mean that life acquires 
 a new significance ? The ideals are then no longer 
 misty, but vivid. The grandeur of God as it is born 
 to us, so to speak, and upon its human side, is unfolded 
 to us ; and we know the meaning of the divine sym- 
 pathy, and the divine redemption, and the divine 
 passion. We see that it overfloods our life, and carries 
 us beyond the gates of death — that there is no end, but 
 all seems one with the eternal love of God. It does 
 not explain for us in scientific terms all the difficulty 
 and the conundrums of life ; it does not tell us why the 
 stars are made or where they are made ; it does not 
 explain for us the conservation of energy ; it does not 
 explain for us the force of gravity ; it does not read 
 for us the riddle of protoplasm : it leaves these ques- 
 tions still to solve — but it gives us an assurance, in 
 spite of fife's difficulties, in spite of life's problems, 
 in spite of the shadow and the darkness, that God is 
 love. Love not cold, not passionless ; it reaches out 
 of itself, seeking to save. Our life is lifted by it out 
 of the uncertainty which ruled the thought of the 
 Hebrew king. We are made to feel that our lives are 
 part of the great divine plan of which we see but a 
 momentary glimpse, and therefore may read it wrong ; 
 through the teon God is working out His great purpose, 
 — working it through us if we are willing to put our- 
 selves in line with Him, — if we are willing to stand up 
 
TO RISE AGAIN — A SERMON. 267 
 
 and say to Him, " Take my hands and use them ; 
 take my lips and speak with them ; take my heart and 
 use it as a lamp of love by which Thy light may shine 
 in this dark world of selfishness." 
 
 Life is then no longer a flash in the pan ; it is no 
 longer a hollow mockery, something at which fate 
 laughs with a hollow laugh as we struggle and strive. 
 It is something with a Divine meaning, with a personal 
 tongue. Even as we believe this, and as we yield 
 to the belief, and as we go on winning victory after 
 victory over our selfishness by the help of God's love, 
 even so does God's face which seemed like darkness 
 before us, become transparent. They are no longer 
 brazen gates ; death hath no sting and grave no victory. 
 " I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am 
 alive for evermore." Physical death may come to us ; 
 but immortality remains, and God remains, and His 
 love remains, as shown to us in Jesus Christ ; and our 
 work remains, no matter where, and we go on working 
 with Him, through the aeons of day, seeking to find 
 and to realise that prayer which He taught us, " Thy 
 kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in 
 heaven." 
 
GOD IN CHRIST. 
 
 [The two following papers appeared in the Young 
 Friends' Review of November, 1904, and February, 1905, 
 respectively.] 
 
 IN the history of the Christian Church we observe 
 fluctuations in the emphasis set upon the different 
 aspects of the work and revelation of Jesus Christ. 
 It is as though in different ages, men have felt the need 
 for Christ under different forms. Fundamentally, 
 the need is always one and the same. The " Welt- 
 schmerz " as Goethe calls it, and as a man like Romanes 
 felt it, is at heart the craving for a personal knowledge 
 of God, for Plato's sure raft whereon haply we may 
 cross this world's troubled sea with hope of safe 
 anchorage at our journey's end. 
 
 Sometimes these fluctuations of emphasis are very 
 marked, and we see that the doctrinal teaching about 
 Christ and his work, which has proved helpful to one 
 generation, is a difficulty to another. This is best 
 illustrated by the history of the doctrine of the Atone- 
 ment. 
 
 The first theory of the church maintained that 
 Christ saved men from sin by offering a ransom to 
 Satan, and this theory prevailed as the orthodox 
 Christian doctrine for nearly a thousand years. 
 
 It was very simple, and, in the childhood of faith, 
 very easy to believe, but it had an obvious defect. 
 
 269 
 
270 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 In the eleventh century Anselm saw that this doc- 
 trine exalted the power of Satan and set up a dual 
 monarchy over the world, limiting the power of God. 
 He asserted therefore that the ransom paid by Christ 
 was paid not to Satan, but to God. 
 
 He argued that sin was a terrible offence against 
 the infinite holiness of God. Only an infinite satis- 
 faction could cancel it, and this, man, as a finite being, 
 could not render. God therefore in His great mercy 
 became man, in order that, in Christ, the infinite 
 sacrifice or ransom might be paid. 
 
 At the time of the Reformation this doctrine was 
 modified and expressed more directly in the terms of 
 criminal law. The satisfaction due to God was thought 
 of as punishment, and Christ as being punished by God 
 for our sins. 
 
 This Reformation theory is known as the theory 
 of penal substitution, and its particular defect lies in 
 this, that it destroys the reality and freedom of Divine 
 forgiveness. 
 
 It has been superseded by what is known as the 
 governmental theory, a theory still prevalent, especially 
 among Scotch theologians, but now losing its hold. 
 God, it is said, cannot forgive freely without threatening 
 the majesty of Eternal Law. This law is inexorable 
 justice, sin is a breach of the law, the law must therefore 
 be vindicated. Christ upon the Cross satisfied or 
 vindicated the law on behalf of humanity, and the law, 
 or the demands of Eternal Justice, being, so to speak, 
 put out of court, Love had untrammelled play and God 
 was made able to forgive freely, and of His own grace.* 
 
 • Of what is called the moral theory we will speak later. 
 
GOD IN CHRIST. 271 
 
 For many at the present day, all these theories 
 are painfully unreal. They fall, as it were, outside 
 the range of the inward experience of the soul. Where 
 they do not outrage the moral consciousness they fail 
 to interpret the vital facts of the spiritual life. 
 
 Once, doubtless, they were real enough ; to this 
 day some one of these statements, or some modification 
 of them, still holds sway in many minds, still gives 
 comfort and strength. But it is a symptom common 
 to all denominations that an increasing proportion 
 (probably the majority) of the younger generation 
 regard what we loosely call the doctrine of the Atone- 
 ment as a difficulty, rather than as a help. What 
 conclusion are we to draw ? 
 
 Some say that this feeling of difficulty represents 
 a wicked spirit of unbelief, but that view does not 
 square with the facts. Many who feel the difficulty 
 most are the most distressed at their inability to accept 
 a belief which they are told is vital to salvation. So 
 far from the doubters being indifferent to the person 
 and work of Christ, there was never a time when both 
 were more anxiously discussed. 
 
 Thoughtful people are making strenuous endeavour, 
 and the effort is full of promise, to get behind shibbo- 
 leths and merely borrowed beliefs to a vital knowledge 
 of the truth of God. 
 
 It is quite possible that this attitude of mind may 
 involve a change of emphasis, but that it marks a 
 decay of faith in Jesus Christ is not true. 
 
 When we recall the striking development through 
 which the doctrine of the Atonement has already 
 passed we can hardly insist that the present must be the 
 
272 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 final interpretation, nor need we be alarmed if there is 
 evidence of further development, and even of con- 
 siderable modification. 
 
 If there be any cause for alarm it lies rather in the 
 fact that the doctrine of the Atonement, as most 
 commonly presented, is proving, in so many cases, a 
 barrier to the acceptance of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Our object must be, not the blind and rigid 
 maintenance of a doctrine, at all costs and for its own 
 sake, but the realization in the hearts of sinful men and 
 women of the redeeming life of Christ. Doctrines are 
 means, not ends, a fact the Church has been too slow 
 to learn. The end transcends all doctrines and is 
 spiritual union with God through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord ; this is the one purpose of the Gospel, it is the 
 one purpose of the Church of Christ. 
 
 When we are faced with such a symptom as that 
 just described, we must endeavour sympathetically 
 to understand just what that symptom means. We 
 must not jump to hasty conclusions. Human needs 
 are the same, but the intellectual outlook is extreme 
 in its diversity. We must avoid doctrinaire assertions, 
 imputations of pride or dishonesty to those who differ 
 from us. We must not imagine that to insist upon a 
 view which has been helpful in the past, or to ourselves, 
 is necessarily to help another. What is clear to us 
 may be dark to him. He may need to approach from 
 another side, to seek his interpretation in other 
 formulae. 
 
 We must begin by seeking a common ground. 
 What is that common ground ? It is experience. 
 The sense of sin and of shortcoming, the spiritual 
 
&0D IN CHRIST. 273 
 
 loneliness of alienation from God, the longing to know 
 Him, to be pure, to be free from the miserable limi- 
 tations and checks of our faulty nature, our selfishness, 
 our irritability, our false pride, our unsociableness, 
 from the deeper sins of the flesh, — these are the lot 
 of all, the experience of all. Every man in measure 
 knows, in the secret of his heart, the craving to escape, 
 and the power of evil, and, substantially, the way of 
 escape is the same for all. Surrender to the highest, 
 the holiest influence we know, repentance, a hearty 
 shame for the past, a loathing for all that is alien to 
 the purity of mind and soul, and with the growing love 
 of Goodness, the incoming of the power of Goodness, 
 the gathering sense of internal peace and unity. 
 
 Yes ! The substantial method and reward of salva- 
 tion must be the same for every man. The solidarity 
 of the human race demands this. 
 
 But is there then no place and importance to be 
 given to the mental apprehension of Divine truth ? 
 Of course there is. We shall come to that presently. 
 My immediate object is to drive controversy back to 
 the true beginnings of unity and understanding. 
 For although it is true that to see truth clearly is an 
 incalculable reinforcement in the warfare with evil, 
 it is not true that to think correctly is absolutely 
 necessary to salvation. In shaping our beliefs we 
 must deal with facts, not with abstract theorems. 
 If, for example, we can express a spiritual truth of our 
 personal experience when we say that we accept 
 Jesus Christ as our Saviour, then we are pronouncing 
 the fact and completeness of our spiritual victory as 
 we could not otherwise pronounce it. But to say this 
 
 19 
 
274 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 is not to pronounce a dogma, an assertion of the 
 hide-bound theologian, it is the statement of a practical 
 truth that can be tested by the history of the individual 
 and of the Church. 
 
 And mark this ! it is a statement that has remained 
 true through all the vicissitudes of the doctrine of the 
 Atonement. Those who believed that Christ paid 
 his ransom to the Devil, those who believed that 
 Christ paid his ransom to God, those who believed 
 that Christ was punished for our sins, those who believed 
 that Christ vindicated Eternal Justice and liberated 
 God to forgive us freely, and those who feel the un- 
 reality of one and all of these statements, unite on this 
 common ground, that they have found as a living 
 experience that Jesus Christ was their Saviour. 
 
 Here we have a hint as to the direction in which 
 some measure of intellectual unity may be found, or 
 the lines upon which a helpful statement of Divine 
 truth may be built up. When we find ourselves at 
 variance, let us cease from chopping logic and go back 
 to the facts of real life, for it is these facts and not the 
 theories of schoolmen that need interpretation. Nay ! 
 the schoolmen themselves are to be studied and 
 respected only where they seek such interpretation 
 in the spirit of truth. 
 
 The gravamen of the charge so often laid against 
 theology, the reason for the contempt poured upon it, 
 especially by men of scientific habits of thought, is 
 to be found in its frequent remoteness from the pressing 
 difficulties and demands of the soul. The subject 
 matter of theology cannot, as some nevertheless 
 believe, be studied in vacuo. It is too much entangled 
 
GOD IN CHRIST. 275 
 
 in the heartstrings of humanity to be separated and 
 regarded apart. 
 
 In any discussion, I repeat, the difficulties and 
 demands of the soul must be our starting point. The 
 history of the Christian Church would have been 
 spared the blemish of many fruitless controversies 
 had men been willing to turn from the arid deserts of 
 scholastic disputation to consider with earnestness 
 what I may call the spiritual psychology of the human 
 heart. 
 
 Let us then, in relation to this difficulty illustrated 
 by the doctrine of the Atonement, establish some of 
 the elementary conditions which limit the whole 
 question of belief, recognising that for those who feel 
 the difficulty of past or current interpretations, a 
 frontal attack, so to speak, may not prove the shortest 
 way to victory. 
 
 As I understand it, the Atonement, using the term 
 to cover what is called the plan of salvation, has become 
 a stumbling block to many earnest people who desire 
 above all else to know God in Christ. The difficulty 
 is aggravated by the effect upon the whole body of 
 Christian thought of the scientific doctrine of evolution, 
 and of critical Biblical scholarship, working in harmony 
 with the study of comparative religion. 
 
 The doctrine of the Atonement is not so much 
 doubted, as felt to be unreal. Where doubt exists it 
 goes deeper, playing rather around the validity of 
 Christ's claim to reveal the Father. Indeed the real 
 point at issue is this : — Granted, as most will grant, 
 that Jesus was an historic personality, was he, — 
 without pressing for a subtle philosophical determina- 
 
276 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 tion of the meaning of divinity — was he, as we practi- 
 cally understand the word, divine ? 
 
 In attempting an answer, let us get further back. 
 Look where you will in history, you find religion. 
 Sometimes faint, sometimes rich and deep, but always 
 there. This is a fact — not a theory, not a doctrine. 
 Vague or clear, pure or coarse, spiritual or sensual, 
 gentle or cruel, in some form, expression is given to a 
 common human instinct, the instinct to look beyond 
 man for the interpretation of life. Are we to argue 
 that this instinct was misplaced — that it corresponds 
 to no reality, that there is no interpretation of life 
 beyond humanity, — no fourth dimension? Apart from 
 the fact that such a statement would be an unscientific 
 assumption, there is that in the cumulative experience 
 of humanity which not only bids, but literally corn-pels 
 us to assert (perhaps it may be with only a dumb 
 conviction) that there is a reality corresponding to the 
 instinct of religion — a reality to which we can pray. 
 If it were not so, then, greater than the problem of the 
 existence of evil, would be the problem of the existence 
 of prayer. That reality to which we pray, the reality 
 outside ourselves, we call God. 
 
 But history tells us more than this. Every 
 religion credits the supreme power with supreme 
 qualities. In the grosser stages of consciousness, and 
 in cases of moral retrogression, the supreme power is 
 often supremely bad, but the grand truth that emerges 
 is this, — that, as humanity progresses from lower to 
 higher intelligence, the supreme power stands forth 
 more and more supremely good. The presence of 
 evil may cloud the vision. Often in ignorance or 
 
GOD IN CHRIST. 277 
 
 despair Evil is throned in the sky, but slowly and 
 surely Good is recognised as the victorious factor in 
 the great Struggle of Life. In the belief of man, 
 Goodness and God become one. 
 
 This is a fact, not a theory, not a doctrine ; it is a 
 fact of history. 
 
 But again history tells us more than this. In the 
 gathered biography of the human race, in the vie 
 intime of the human soul, there is nothing more 
 pathetic, nothing more persistent, than that of which 
 we spoke at the commencement of this discussion, — 
 the passionate longing to know personally this reality 
 to which we pray. 
 
 What are we to say to this longing ? Are we to 
 say that God is good, and in the same breath that His 
 goodness is unapproachable, incommunicable ? Think 
 what supreme goodness means, — has come to mean 
 as a historic fact. It is just the reverse of unap- 
 proachable and incommunicable. What are the terms 
 we associate with goodness ? They are at once Love, 
 unselfishness, pity, sympathy, the spirit of self-sacrifice. 
 Is the supreme goodness less than these ? Is it not 
 rather their sum ? For goodness, as the world has 
 come through long travail to know it, is not an abstrac- 
 tion, it is not passive. To talk of goodness as im- 
 personal, inactive, is to destroy the meaning of the 
 word. It simply cannot be either. Goodness can 
 only be personal.* The Cheshire cat could fade away 
 till only the grin was left. But that was in a pro- 
 
 * I meanj of course, personal as implying volition, consciousness; 
 individuality; not mere bodily shape, the temporary vehicle for the 
 expression of personality. 
 
278 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 fessedly nonsense book. A man cannot fade away 
 till only his goodness is left. He may and does when 
 he dies leave the memory of his goodness behind him, 
 and the memory lives in another person, bearing fruit 
 as goodness in his life, by the power of example, but it 
 does not and cannot survive as an abstraction. 
 
 But if our conviction be true, that there is an 
 outward reality, and if the accumulated testimony 
 of the human heart be also true that this outward 
 reality is good, how can we, in the light of this experi- 
 ence and testimony, proceed to declare that this 
 outward reality is one with which we cannot com- 
 municate, and that God is a silent God ? 
 
 We should not only be guilty of a contradiction 
 in terms, we should be making an assumption, rather 
 than stating a fact, following the theologian in the very 
 practice for which we condemned him. 
 
 Moreover, it would be an assumption denied by 
 an overwhelming multitude, a great cloud of witnesses. 
 Sinners and saints, men in the miry clay, and men on 
 the mountains of vision, men who suffered and men 
 who rejoiced, every sort, every condition, an unbroken 
 apostolic succession, rise to refute you. " To me, 
 and to me, my Lord hath spoken. I have seen His 
 face, and my heart glories in His love." 
 
 This is a fact, not a theory, not a doctrine, it is a 
 fact of human history. 
 
 But how has He spoken ? The saint knows and 
 can tell you best in his own language, tell you as 
 Madame Guyon tells you in her Autobiography, or 
 John Woolman, lying on his bed, sick of pleurisy. 
 From all lands and all ages, divine voices call to you. 
 
GOD IN CHRIST. 279 
 
 History, did you only know it, is the voice of God, 
 many tongued. 
 
 But is there no commanding voice, none that 
 gathers up the scattered messages of all the times of 
 God in one clear call ? Yes ! there is one. In these 
 last days God has spoken to us by His Son. 
 
 Ah ! but you say, this indeed is assumption. 
 Now you depart from fact and enter the region of 
 theology. How can you defend this statement ? 
 The Gospels are challenged ; taken as historical 
 evidence, they must be regarded as sub-judice. You 
 are arguing from inadequate premises. 
 
 But I say, No ! you are wrong. We accept 
 our self-imposed conditions, We keep close to the 
 facts of the heart's experience, — the final and valid 
 test. 
 
 The witness for Christ does not rest solely, nor in 
 one sense even primarily, upon the Gospels. Grant 
 them the fallible writings of fallible men, grant inter- 
 polations, grant them not history in the strict modern 
 sense. The witness does not stop there, it stretches 
 unbroken through twenty centuries and is never 
 clearer than to-day. Cut out the Gospels and you 
 cleave a chasm in history that nothing else can fill, you 
 are faced by living forces that only Jesus Christ can 
 explain. 
 
 First judge Christ by the effect he has produced, 
 is producing. Compare, check that effect, the forces 
 he has liberated, with the best the world has to offer 
 you apart from him. 
 
 Then judge the claim which the Gospels make for 
 him. 
 
280 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 In an article in the Contemporary for August, 
 Dugald Macfadyen writes : — 
 
 " The Gospel which is the distinctive contribution of 
 Christianity to the world's history, is Jesus Christ. Jesus 
 Christ is the Gospel. It is not His teaching alone, though 
 that is full of glad tidings ; it is not His death alone for the 
 sin of the world, though His death as the means of man's 
 reconciliation with God is included in the Gospel ; it is 
 not even His rising again, though by it, life and immortality 
 are brought to light ; His teaching, His cross and His 
 resurrection find their ground and explanation in what He 
 was — they are the exposition and unfolding of His per- 
 sonality. The new fact which is itself both God's spell, 
 the Divine word to and in Humanity, and the good news 
 to men, is that, within the limits of the great human family, 
 there has been one life, one personality, in whom the perfect 
 relation of humanity to God has been achieved, and the 
 eternal character and inner nature of God revealed." 
 
 I must be forgiven for so long a quotation. It 
 takes me to the limit of my space. I hope on some 
 future occasion to go further, and discuss the relation 
 of this line of thought to the difficulty of the Atone- 
 ment. 
 
 If history is true, God has spoken in language 
 that we can understand. He is not a silent God 
 because He is supremely good. Nay, He so loved the 
 world that He sent His only begotten Son. This is 
 the testimony of the Gospels. It is the testimony 
 of martyrs sealed in their blood, of wayfaring folk 
 whose sainthood no Acta Sanctorum has enshrined 
 in illuminated text. It is the gathering witness of 
 twenty centuries. Will you set yourself against it, or 
 will you " taste and see " ? 
 
GOD IN CHRIST. 28l 
 
 Will you, with Browning, acknowledge in your 
 heart the combined strength of power and love, and 
 repeat after him what he, a modern of the moderns, 
 has written with passionate conviction : — 
 
 " I say, the acknowledgment of God in Christ, 
 Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee, 
 All questions in the earth and out of it, 
 And has so far advanced thee to be wise." * 
 
 * " A Death ip the Desert-" 
 
GOD IN CHRIST.— II. THE PRODIGAL SON. 
 
 IN the first paper, of which this is the sequel, we 
 defined love as necessarily active and personal. 
 Love cannot be abstract in the sense of passive non- 
 personal existence, or as apart from volition and 
 object. That would be to state a contradiction in 
 terms. Love is essentially social. It is the expression 
 of a spiritual force, radiating from a personal centre, 
 and having its motive in persons. If then we believe 
 that God is love, we believe not in a passive God, 
 indifferent to human suffering and need, but in a 
 personal God who cares for every individual soul, 
 who is ever in the intensity of His sympathy seeking 
 to make Himself known, to make His redeeming and 
 healing power felt. 
 
 Love, as we understand it in the intercourse of 
 human life, is the sum, to name no other qualities, of 
 tenderness, pity, sympathy, thoughtfulness, insight, 
 unselfishness, self-abnegation. In its highest ex- 
 pression it is pure and holy, and in that form it is recog- 
 nised as the greatest power in the, world. Men 
 possessed with it are called saints. In some com- 
 munities they are worshipped. This love, which we 
 know in history and experience, we find in the Gospels 
 personified, active, and powerful, in Jesus Christ ; 
 we find it here indeed in the purest form known to 
 
 J82 
 
GOD IN CHRIST. — THE PRODIGAL SON. 283 
 
 human consciousness. Moreover Jesus puts forth 
 the tremendous claim that He and the Father are one, 
 that in other words love as we see it in Him is the 
 same in character as the love of God Himself. It is 
 true that Jesus says " The Father is greater than I " ; 
 that the Creator with His infinite power and knowledge 
 is greater than the Creator self-limited in the flesh, 
 but the love of God is not different in kind from the 
 love of Jesus. Nay, Jesus is the outcome of that love. 
 " For God so loved the world that He sent His only 
 begotten son " — the scripture is familiar to us. There 
 is nothing wonderful in this if we believe that God 
 is love. Man could not know God except within the 
 limits of human consciousness, he could not identify 
 God except by identifying traits of character in Him 
 similar in kind to those which he knew in himself. 
 Jesus is the identification mark of God. The terms 
 " abstract " and " infinite " so often applied to God 
 in philosophical argument are really incomprehensible 
 — they are the letter X in the algebraical equation, 
 useful till the solution is found. When we say we can 
 believe in an abstract, infinite God we are really 
 juggling with our intellects. We can as a strict matter 
 of fact do nothing of the sort. We do not believe in 
 God until we get some human hold upon Him, and 
 realise Him in terms which come within the range of 
 our actual experience. If we can accept the quotation 
 with which I closed my last article, and say with 
 Macfadyen that " within the limits of the great human 
 family there has been one life, one personality, in 
 whom the perfect relation of humanity to God has been 
 achieved, and the eternal character and inner nature 
 
284 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 of God revealed," then we have gone a long way 
 towards the solution of the Atonement problem. 
 Jesus is the bridge between man and God, the necessary 
 means to the fullest knowledge of the Divine nature. 
 Without God interpreted in human terms, God would 
 be forever unknowable to the human mind ; and one 
 great fact which emerges from the Gospels, where Jesus 
 as the interpretation of God's character and purpose, 
 is Himself the Gospel, is the identity in kind between 
 the love of God and pure, unselfish human love. If 
 Jesus and the Father are one, then God's relations to us 
 are in the spirit of Jesus — they are in the spirit of a 
 good human father's relations with his children. We 
 have to do, not with an " unknowable first cause," 
 but with a God we can know and understand, and as 
 the unity of Jesus with God is grasped, and the identity 
 of pure love in the Divine and human life is realised, 
 the harsh judge throned in a distant celestial court 
 becomes forever an impossible conception. 
 
 Let us, then, accepting Jesus as God expressed in 
 human terms, and identifying the spirit of Jesus with 
 the spirit of God, examine the Gospel view of human 
 relationship. Tenderness, pity, sympathy, thought- 
 fulness, insight, unselfishness, self-abnegation — all are 
 there. The love of Jesus is a love we can identify in 
 human experience, — and remember Jesus is the Gospel. 
 
 Then how does this affect the doctrine of the 
 Atonement ? 
 
 We shall soon discover if we turn to the story of 
 the Prodigal Son. Theologians with a pre-conceived 
 theory to defend will tell us that this parable is theo- 
 logically incomplete, that it does not give us the whole 
 
GOD IN CHRIST. — THE PRODIGAL SON. 285 
 
 Gospel. It is at any rate absolutely harmonious with 
 the whole spirit of the Gospel, and unlike some texts 
 the true meaning of which it is difficult to define, it so 
 expresses truth that the meaning it is intended to con- 
 vey is left beyond doubt. It is neither an isolated 
 fragment, like an uprooted text, nor an erratic boulder 
 out of place in its environment. On the contrary it 
 expresses the spirit of the Gospel with rare tenderness 
 and force, and with an application deeply practical, 
 intimate and real. If the parable of the Prodigal Son 
 has any meaning, it sets forth the character and the 
 conditions of Divine forgiveness — the relation of God 
 to sinful man. Accustomed as we are to elaborate 
 theological theories, based upon the teaching of the 
 early fathers, Augustine, Anselm or Paul, the extra- 
 ordinary simplicity of the Parable, if we are able to 
 read it without arriere pensee, comes home to us as a 
 startling fact. The prodigal sins, spends his substance 
 in riotous living in a far country. He repents bitterly, 
 sincerely, and returns to his father's house. What 
 happens ? Is there talk of a ransom, of an account 
 to be balanced between love and justice, of the need 
 for punishment, or for a substitute upon whom punish- 
 ment must fall? Nothing of the kind. The father 
 clasps the prodigal to his breast, a feast is prepared, 
 and as if to throw into deliberate prominence the 
 unconditional acceptance of the returned penitent we 
 have the episode of the elder brother. And the whole 
 is so organic with the spirit and teaching of Jesus, 
 that it is impossible for us to suppose that the ordinary 
 theological elaborations with which we are familiar 
 were accidentally omitted. They would be obviously 
 
286 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE 
 
 out of place, there is no room for them in the story, 
 they would be foreign both to its substance and form. 
 I venture to suggest that in any reconstruction or 
 development of the doctrine of the Atonement the 
 story of the Prodigal Son will have a larger influence 
 than it has hitherto enjoyed. And the more so because 
 the teaching of the parable corresponds with experience. 
 In the last article I spoke of the test of experience as 
 all important, of the need for checking and testing 
 our religious formulae by the acknowledged facts of 
 the inner life. Let us check and test this parable by a 
 common human counterpart. Imagine a good father 
 who has a son he loves. This son, the apple of his eye, 
 breaks away from the home life, with its pure atmos- 
 phere and influence, he goes, say to London, gives 
 himself up to vice, squanders his money in gambling 
 and drink. At last, overtaken by satiety, the unfailing 
 Nemesis of self-pleasing, his heart fails him. He 
 realises in a sudden flash all the horror of those wasted 
 years. There rises before him the vision of home, of 
 the sorrowing father, the mother who fondled him 
 and dreamed great things for her darling «on. Blinded 
 with hot tears of repentance and shame he returns to 
 fling himself, a broken man, at his father's feet, crying 
 " I have sinned, receive me still." What wise and 
 good father, assured of the sincerity of the repentance, 
 would hesitate to give full play to the pent-up yearning 
 of his long years of anguished waiting, as he drew his 
 lost sheep back into the fold. " If ye then being evil, 
 know how to give good gifts unto your children, how 
 much more shall your Father who is in heaven give 
 good things to them that ask Him ? " 
 
GOD IN CHRIST. — THE PRODIGAL SON. 287 
 
 But the answer of the theologian and the moralist 
 will at once be that such forgiveness is too easy. Here, 
 in this parable, we have the basis of the moral theory 
 of the Atonement, and the tendency is to discoun- 
 tenance it as making too light of sin. " On this basis," 
 it may be said, " you can have your fill of the lusts and 
 pleasures of life, and when weary of carnal things you 
 have only to turn round, ask to be forgiven, and all will 
 be well." " Only to turn round." There lies the 
 weakness of all objection to this view of the love and 
 forgiveness of God. Only to turn round ! He who 
 has tried it knows how hard it is, he who has done it 
 knows that repentance is a fierce flame torturing the 
 soul as it sears its gaping wounds. Let us put the 
 matter in plain and homely language. I have a secret 
 sin ; at the heart of my life there remains an uncon- 
 quered selfishness, some untrampled lust of the flesh 
 that still reigns over my will. It comes between me 
 and God, or if you will between me and the self I know 
 I ought to be. Say what I like, do what I can, so long 
 as that sin is master, so long there lurks an unrest in 
 my soul. I am not at peace ; outwardly gay enough, 
 in my heart of hearts I feel an intolerable loneliness. 
 I know I am without God. His love cannot reach me, 
 I cannot reach Him — because of that sin. The self 
 I ought to be is beyond me. I see it but try as I will I 
 cannot come at it. Let us assume that by prayer, or 
 if that is a term that needs interpreting, then by the 
 conscious devotion to the life of God as revealed in 
 Jesus, the concentration of all good desires in me 
 upon Jesus as my ideal, that the power of goodness 
 within me gains the upper hand, and I am able to 
 
288 JOHN W1LHELM rowntree. 
 
 conquer the last citadel of the lower self. What then i 
 I shall observe two things. First, that the redeeming 
 quality of goodness grew in exact proportion with the 
 growing intensity of my shame and sorrow for the sin 
 I longed to flee. Second, that when, so to speak, the 
 balance tipped over and the sin lost its power, the 
 tortures of penitence ceased, and there came into my 
 soul a sense of peace and unity unknown before. This 
 is a real analysis of actual experience. What is it but 
 the story of the Prodigal ? Penitence is the return to 
 the Father's house, forgiveness the entrance into the 
 peace of the Father's home. The condition of for- 
 giveness is penitence — a condition involving primarily 
 an inward fact and change, and there is absolutely no 
 other condition whatever. The means God has taken 
 to provoke repentance I leave to the next and concluding 
 paper ; here I am only concerned with the conditions 
 of Divine forgiveness — and I repeat that if the parable 
 of the Prodigal Son has any significance and any 
 validity, its testimony is emphatic that penitence is 
 the one key to the door of heaven. But you may say, 
 is it possible to meet the pressing sense of the need for 
 pardon — pardon for past sins as felt, for instance, by 
 John Bunyan — in this simple fashion ? There are 
 many who will feel that their own penitence is not 
 enough. Let us examine this matter closely. It is 
 one of great importance and bears upon a current fact 
 often noted — I mean the fact that this sense of the need 
 for pardon, even among earnest Christians, does not 
 take the same outward form as it once did. What 
 does the sense of pardon actually mean ? When we 
 have stripped off the symbolic phraseology of religion 
 
GOD IN CHRIST. — THE PRODIGAL SON. 289 
 
 we find it means a sense of harmony between the 
 human soul and God — a measurable sense of unity 
 between our human will and the recognised purposes of 
 God as interpreted by conscience. It may take the 
 form of quiet resignation under suffering, or active 
 service for humanity, — but in any case its mark is 
 faithfulness to that view of God and of life which we see 
 and know in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The 
 barrier of sin which separates the soul from God, from 
 the realisation of the higher view of life, has been 
 removed, the love of the Heavenly Father has free play 
 in the heart to which it has found entrance, the soul is 
 growing closer to Him, it is being made in His image, 
 because it has chosen His view of life, His thought, 
 His will. Penitence means surrendering the citadel 
 of self, and at once when we pull down our flag and 
 open the gates, the regiments of heaven, without 
 pour parlee or hesitation, take possession and man the 
 fortress. Forgiveness does not imply a change in God 
 but a change in man. If the Gospels are to be trusted, 
 God is Love. If God is Love, He is actively, continually, 
 earnestly seeking to open up communication with us. 
 Sin bars the way. When sin is removed His love 
 pours in upon us. There is no question of a legal 
 transaction. We are not here in the law courts, but 
 in the region of moral realities. Divine forgiveness 
 follows upon human penitence, i.e., upon the destruc- 
 tion of sin, as day follows night, automatically, inevit- 
 ably, by the inner laws of His being. Our own penitence 
 is adequate, God asks nothing else. If we doubt this we 
 have mis-read the message of Jesus. We have drawn, 
 perhaps from Calvin, perhaps through misunder- 
 
29O JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 standing Paul, a dark, gloomy view of God. Intellectual 
 misconception, no less than sin, may come between us, 
 and the sense of pardoning love. It is because the 
 shadow of a misinterpreted God is passing away, 
 because His Fatherhood is growing clearer in the coming 
 light, that this anguished sense of the need for pardon, 
 even after penitence has broken or cleansed the heart, 
 is less and less phenomenal of the earnest religious life. 
 In a little book recently published by Auguste 
 Sabatier, entitled "The Atonement and Modern 
 Culture," the following strongly worded passage 
 occurs : — 
 
 " The gravest consequence of the old judicial and legal 
 point of view was that it introduced an irreducible dualism 
 into the Christian conception of God ; that is to say, that 
 it destroyed the conception of the Father revealed by Jesus. 
 In fact, men have imagined an internal conflict between 
 His justice and His mercy, so that He was not able to 
 exercise the one without offending the other. Christ 
 instead of being the Saviour of men, became an intradivine 
 mediator, whose essential office it was to reconcile the 
 hostile attributes within the Godhead, and to ensure peace 
 and unity within God Himself." 
 
 There is profound truth in this judgment. We must 
 approach every theory of the Atonement from the 
 standpoint of God's Fatherhood, and no view which 
 obscures that cardinal truth can be held consistent 
 with the Gospel of Jesus. 
 
 But perhaps those who have felt the stern side of 
 truth and who see in modern life painful evidence of 
 moral relaxation and indifference to sin, may still hold 
 that the parable of the Prodigal Son is inadequate 
 because it does not present the stern judgments of 
 
GOD IN CHRIST. — THE PRODIGAL SON. 29 1 
 
 God. " God is Love," they say, " but God is Justice 
 too." True. Yet is there here a complete misappre- 
 hension. What is God's judgment ? It is not for a 
 moment to be compared to the sentence pronounced 
 by a judge in court. It is not an outward fact con- 
 cerned with outward laws and taking effect after the 
 event. It is continuous, inward, the inevitable counter- 
 part of every sin. That view which piles up the moral 
 account to be squared at some future date, in some 
 great cataclysm when the world is to come to an end 
 does not explain the facts or meet the needs of experi- 
 ence. Every day is a judgment day. Every sin 
 carries its own punishment. So long as sin reigns 
 in our heart, whether it be pride, lust, avarice, or any 
 other form of selfishness, there is no real peace, no 
 centre of repose, but the cark of unsatisfied craving, 
 the bitterness of disappointment, the weariness of 
 satiety, loneliness of spirit, the helpless dependence 
 upon physical conditions and surroundings, the terror 
 of death. Alienation from God is the punishment 
 of sin, and alienation from God is hell. So long as we 
 persist in sin there can be no forgiveness, for this 
 alienation is a moral, not an artificial fact, and a moral 
 change can alone put an end to it. The wages of sin 
 is death. At every step in the whole problem of man's 
 relation to God we must keep the moral realities before 
 us. We must keep close to experience, to the facts of 
 the inner life. 
 
 To say that God is love, that He forgives the 
 penitent freely, instantly, is not to weaken the claims 
 of eternal justice or lessen the terrible consequences 
 of sin. The condition of penitence carries with it, as 
 
2g2 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 we have shown, the necessity for the destruction of the 
 power of sin, and as God's punishments are remedial, 
 not vindictive, the very fact of penitence blots out the 
 past. With penitence the first object of God's love 
 has been attained, the sinner has been placed in the 
 right attitude towards Him, his latent powers of good 
 have been liberated, and are free to grow heavenward. 
 He who accepts the Parable of the Prodigal Son as 
 embracing the whole Gospel, no less than the strictest 
 theologian of the old school, who paints the terrors of an 
 everlasting torment, are at one in insisting upon the 
 condition of penitence as absolute. God does not, by 
 His nature He cannot, yield in this. To love Him and 
 know Him, we must have some points of contact, some 
 likeness to Him, our aims in life must be those He would 
 choose for us, our thoughts, character, will, must be as 
 His. Sin is the deliberate choice of other aims, con- 
 trary thoughts, alien character and hostile will. Peni- 
 tence is the abandonment of sin. These are the moral 
 facts of the situation. They depend upon that which 
 is woven into the very tissue of our being and the very 
 nature of God. We cannot alter these conditions, 
 and unless God can change His nature, neither can He. 
 Here Love and Justice are one. In holding the moral 
 view of the Atonement we may readily grant that 
 the irrevocableness of the moral law needs to have 
 more emphasis set upon it than is now customary, an 
 emphasis which shall in no wise obscure the vision of 
 the Fatherhood of God, but shall throw into more vivid 
 light the terrible loss which sin involves. 
 
 In his posthumous work, " The Gospel and Human 
 Life," Canon Ainger deplores the comparative absence 
 
GOD IN CHRIST. — THE PRODIGAL SON. 293 
 
 of contrition, and traces the modem indifference to 
 public worship to this source. 
 
 " Have we learned to sorrow ? " he asks. " If not, 
 the remedy is not to look continually into ourselves, analys- 
 ing and weighing and wondering if we are this or that. 
 Let us look outside ourselves at the Person who can alone 
 win our highest love and awaken our deepest regret." 
 
 This passage might suitably have introduced the 
 next article of this series, but I quote it here, for it 
 puts a question appropriate to our discussion. There 
 is joy in life, deep joy, legitimate even when sensuous, 
 as the old Greek love of being, of the salt spray, the 
 purple sea, and the green hills of Hellas : there is a 
 deep joy in faith, the joy of vision and victory ; and 
 yet in a most real sense these joys have their justification 
 and their root in the sorrow of the contrite heart. 
 There is room yet for the prophet's voice calling to 
 penitence, room yet for the cry of the Psalmist, " Create 
 in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit 
 within me." 
 
MAN'S RELATION TO GOD. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 The best introduction to the last series of addresses 
 written by John Wilhelm Rowntree is to be found in 
 the following letter, written to three Friends in Manchester, 
 Croydon and Darlington meetings respectively, expressing 
 his desire to give the lectures in those meetings. The 
 letter is dated 17. II. 1905. 
 
 My Dear Friend, 
 
 In offering as a matter of individual concern 
 six consecutive Sunday evening addresses, to be delivered 
 in the autumn at . . . . , I should have been glad to do 
 so verbally at your Preparative Meeting. This, however, 
 is impossible, and I therefore write you fully in explanation 
 of my offer, that you may if you think fit, lay this letter 
 before your meeting. 
 
 I have for some time felt a desire to express in a 
 form less fugitive than an isolated address, such a measure 
 of Gospel truth as I have personally been enabled to grasp. 
 You may call the proposed addresses a statement of the 
 Quaker view of life, for they are a Quaker's view, and I 
 believe in harmony with the inner conception of Truth 
 which has come to our branch of the Universal Church ; 
 but my desire is not so much to emphasise the denomina- 
 tional label nor even to confine myself to a Quaker audience, 
 as to reach a wide circle of thoughtful people of all denomina- 
 tions or of none. I am, if your meeting is willing to give me 
 the opportunity, prepared, on my side, to make the weekly 
 journey without cost to yourselves. 
 
296 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Briefly my concern is as follows : — I feel that our 
 activities as a religious society are running out freely 
 in missions and Adult Schools, and but scantily in 
 service among the more thoughtful and educated. Of 
 course I take no exception to Adult School work whatever, 
 it has my warmest sympathy, but I do feel the need of a 
 wiser balance and distribution of power, and am obliged 
 to recognise that there are classes more difficult perhaps 
 to reach than the artizan, but needing help no less, and 
 which, if consecrated to the Higher Life, are equipped 
 by means and leisure for a service that others cannot render. 
 
 More than this, I feel we need a more definite and 
 focussed expression of Gospel truth, interpreted in the 
 language of to-day, and in terms within the range of moral 
 reality, if we are to win men to our fellowship, and find in 
 our social work that centre of living faith which can alone 
 give it permanence and power. 
 
 Under a sense of this need, I devoted, last year, some 
 weeks to the careful preparation of six addresses, in which 
 I have endeavoured as far as I could and as guidance was 
 given me, to state that view of life and of man's relation to 
 God which was real in my own experience. I laid this 
 concern before my own meeting and the series was accepted.* 
 Six consecutive Sunday evenings were devoted to them, 
 the ordinary meetings for worship being set aside. Posters 
 were placarded and cards sent to all suitable people, 
 invitations also being given verbally. The attendance, 
 apart from small fluctuations due to the weather, was en- 
 couraging, — the Meeting-house being practically full. The 
 visitors were mostly of the thoughtful class, and many 
 attended the whole series. I think on the last occasion 
 especially, we drew . very close together in the solemn 
 devotional silence which concluded the meeting. While 
 the majority were undoubtedly educated persons of the 
 middle class, I was glad to see that the Adult Schools were 
 represented. 
 
 * One, as explained at the end of this letter, was given by 
 another Friend. 
 
MAN S RELATION TO GOD. 2gf 
 
 The scheme of the addresses is as follows : — 
 
 The first paper, entitled " What is Worship ? " dealt 
 with the present indifference to public worship, its signifi- 
 cance, the efforts of the churches to meet it, the true mean- 
 ing of worship, its personal character, the work of worship 
 and communion with God. 
 
 The second paper supposes the difficulty of the ordinary 
 man whose thought of God is indefinite, and the question 
 is asked " May we believe in God ? " I attempt to sketch 
 the main philosophical arguments, to indicate their weak- 
 ness, and finally to treat of the relation of the message and 
 personality of Jesus Christ to the need for a personal view 
 of God. 
 
 This brings me to the difficulty of the historical records. 
 In the third paper I ask " Is the Bible Inspired ? " and 
 after attempting a statement of the true meaning of 
 inspiration I endeavour to state the true line of approach 
 to the final problem of the basis of belief. 
 
 Having cleared the ground as far as I am able I state 
 in the fourth paper what I conceive to be the " Message 
 of Jesus to the Individual " ; in the fifth paper the " Mes- 
 sage of Jesus to the State," and in the final paper, which 
 I have named " Faith and Life," I made an appeal for 
 personal religion and prayer. 
 
 I have written thus at length not from any idea that 
 these papers have any special merit, but because I feel that 
 it is only fair to you that if I make this large request I should 
 properly explain myself. I may say that at Scarborough 
 a friend sat by me in the gallery, opened with a short passage 
 of Scripture and explained the nature of the closing devo- 
 tional pause. The meetings were ij hours in length — the 
 paper and preliminary reading an hour and the devotional 
 ending about a quarter of an hour. There was no singing, 
 though I personally have no objection to an opening 
 hymn, which, with a number of strangers present, is often 
 more " settling." I prefer, however, for the conclusion 
 to be silence, with opportunity for vocal prayer. 
 
 I may mention that at York, where I hope to give the 
 
298 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 addresses, the meetings will probably be in the afternoon, 
 and possibly written questions will be allowed, to be dealt 
 with at a special meeting at the end or at the beginning 
 of the following address. I think it is essential that these 
 papers, which are closely interlocked, should be given 
 consecutively. 
 
 I need hardly add that I make this proposal with a 
 full consciousness of the very real shortcoming and limitation 
 inevitable in the weakness of the human instrument. I can 
 only trust that I have rightly interpreted the Father's 
 will in desiring to take up this service, and leave the matter 
 with your meeting, in the full confidence that if you do 
 not feel easy to take up the proposal, it will be in right 
 ordering. 
 
 Very sincerely your friend, 
 
 J. WlLHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 [A break occurred in the proposed series of six lectures, 
 owing to the sudden death of J. W. R.'s brother-in-law, 
 Ernest Grace, of Bristol. The third lecture as planned, 
 on the Inspiration of the Bible, was never actually written. 
 A Friend kindly filled this gap in place of the lecturer.] 
 
WHAT IS WORSHIP? 
 
 Scripture portion — Psalm cvii. 1-22. 
 
 I SUPPOSE everyone -has a ready answer to such a 
 simple question. Is it not clear that public 
 worship is a commonplace of our social life ? 
 
 Scarce a village without its hoary church with 
 squat tower or tapering spire, grey with the weathering 
 storms of five hundred winters. Scarce a village 
 indeed without a chapel severely plain, its bleak 
 windows and denominational credentials carved above 
 a porch of uncertain style, its air of halting hospitality, 
 yet reminiscent none the less of fervid revival and the 
 strong cries of fearful or victorious souls. And in the 
 towns a wealth of architectural piety from massive 
 cathedral, well grounded in its social prestige, to the tin 
 tabernacle of some struggling mission. 
 
 I am convinced, however, in spite of this seemingly 
 adverse evidence, that my question is far from super- 
 fluous. What is worship ? 
 
 We take commonplaces for granted, but we do not 
 always understand them. 
 
 Buildings for social worship may be frequent, 
 but so is the neglect of social worship. Indeed this 
 neglect is so striking that a great newspaper has been 
 at pains to take a census of the worshippers of Greater 
 London, a census which was in progress during eleven 
 
300 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 months, from November, 1902, to November, 1903 
 (the month of August being excepted). 
 
 Four thousand and twenty-six places of worship, 
 doing duty for a population of over 6,240,000 souls, 
 claimed the attention of the enumerators. Four in 
 five of that number were found not to attend at any 
 place of public worship, and in a ponderous volume 
 of 518 pages the results and lessons of this great 
 investigation are stated and discussed. 
 
 Nor is this all. The third series of Charles Booth's 
 magnum opus, " The Life and Labour of London 
 People," devotes seven substantial volumes to the 
 Religious Influences of the metropolis in the closing 
 decade of the nineteenth century. And in these 
 volumes the subject of public worship is continually 
 under notice. 
 
 Perhaps if we briefly examine these two works 
 for the facts they give and the opinions they express, 
 we shall clear the ground for a more profitable con- 
 sideration of the larger question with which this 
 discussion opened. 
 
 In considering then, the subsidiary question, 
 " Why do men neglect social worship ? " I propose 
 first rapidly to summarize the conclusions of Charles 
 Booth. 
 
 He gives testimony at the outset to the power of 
 conviction. Those who feel that they hold the truth 
 and feel constrained to spread the knowledge of it are 
 " comparatively few in number, but," says Mr. Booth, 
 " the amount of work which they do is marvellous, 
 and its influence on the lives of the whole population 
 very great." 
 
WHAT IS WORSHIP ? 301 
 
 He proceeds, however, to dispel what he calls 
 an " optimistic delusion common among religious 
 bodies," namely, that all men are open to receive the 
 Gospel, as presented, that is, by the organised Christian 
 Churches. 
 
 He points to the confusion of ideas upon this 
 point. One clergyman says that London should be 
 treated as wholly heathen and worked from a central 
 mission ; another that all London is on the contrary 
 thirsting for visitation. A third supposes that the 
 people might be won over if the Bishop of Stepney had 
 a Palace in the East End ! 
 
 There is, however, a painful sense of failure on the 
 part of the workers. Even the optimistic are des- 
 pairing when it comes to results, and make strenuous 
 efforts to meet the situation. 
 
 But they appear to base their hopes very largely 
 upon what may be called " mechanical contrivances." 
 There must be novelty. The people, they say, are 
 ready enough for the Gospel, but the pill must be coated 
 with sugar. The Tit Bits style must be cultivated in 
 the sermons, and costly buildings of a confectionery 
 type of architecture must be encouraged because they 
 are supposed to attract. And yet these very " con- 
 traptions " are inadequate for success. Be all things 
 to all men is the motto. " Alas," says Mr. Booth, " they 
 are only all things to themselves and something to 
 quite a narrow circle of sympathisers." 
 
 Moreover, cheap successes are ephemeral and in 
 their result degrading. 
 
 " Highly coloured appeals," says Mr. Booth, " bring 
 in a golden return, treats and blankets swell the list of 
 
302 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE 
 
 mothers and children on the books of the undertaking, 
 and above all the sectarian spirit binds and braces 
 together the energies of the band of workers." But " when 
 the poor are made the subjects of such ignoble competition 
 the result is apt to show itself in cringing poverty with all 
 its evils, lack of independence, hypocrisy and lies, accom- 
 panied by the contempt of those who stand aside." 
 
 The result is that between the churches and the 
 people there, is a want of respect. 
 
 " The churches have come to be regarded " — I 
 quote Mr. Booth — " as the resorts of the well-to-do, 
 and of those who are willing to accept the charity and 
 patronage of people who are better off than them- 
 selves." 
 
 Viewing the situation entirely from the stand- 
 point of the people, it is stated that the churches are 
 regarded as insincere. 
 
 " The spirit of self-sacrifice inculcated in theory, is not 
 observed among, or believed to be practised by, the mem- 
 bers of those churches in any particular degree, and this 
 inconsistency is very critically and severely judged. The 
 clergy and ministers have no authority that is recognised, 
 but their professional character remains, and owing to it 
 they perhaps lose influence. It is accounted their business 
 to preach, they being paid to do it. . . . A life of volun- 
 tary poverty, seems to be the only road to the confidence 
 of the people in this matter." 
 
 A minister who is known for his humanitarian 
 interests has influence, but, so says our investigator, 
 " his doctrinal teaching carries no weight." 
 
 A liberalized form of Christianity as preached by 
 some makes no better headway than the narrowly 
 
WHAT IS WORSHIP ? 303 
 
 orthodox, and the doctrinal bickerings between the 
 sects have a disastrous consequence in hindering the 
 appeal of the Gospel. 
 
 Outside the church, the great reason for non- 
 attendance at worship is indifference to the spiritual 
 life. The great mass of men have more leisure but 
 religion hardly gains. The maw of pleasure is not easy 
 to fill. The appetite grows. Sunday is increasingly 
 regarded as a day of recreation. 
 
 " What then is happening ? " says Mr. Booth. " It 
 is claimed that changes making for improvement are in 
 progress amongst the working classes, that habits are 
 becoming softened, that the influence of education is 
 making itself felt, that intelligence is spreading ; are then 
 their interests becoming more political or more social, more 
 intellectual or more material ? No conclusive answer can be 
 given. We only know that such interests as trade unions and 
 friendly societies, co-operative effort, temperance propaganda 
 and politics (including socialism), with newspapers and 
 even books, are filling, in the mental life of the average 
 working man, a larger space than in the past, and with 
 some may be taking a place which might have been other- 
 wise occupied by religious interests ; but this usurpation 
 and engrossment of the mind may probably be asserted 
 much more confidently of pleasure, amusement, hospitality 
 and sport." To this cautious statement Mr. Booth, adds : — 
 " Amongst all the reasons for abstaining from public worship, 
 genuine, conscientious, reasoned unbelief takes a very 
 small place." Indifference, however, is the distinguishing 
 mark of no particular class, it runs through all. On the 
 other hand, " if those not seriously concerned far outnumber 
 the rest, those deeply touched are drawn from all classes. 
 It is the form of expression, rather than the profounder 
 spiritual development of religion, that is affected by class, 
 neither the highest mental training, nor its entire absence, 
 leads particularly either to or from religion." 
 
3©4 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 And finally, for the hint is pregnant with meaning, 
 our author remarks apropos of the abstention par- 
 ticularly of the working classes, " that it is to the 
 warmth of welcome that success is mostly to be attri- 
 buted when success is secured at all." 
 
 So much for Charles Booth. I have endeavoured 
 in this severely compressed summary to make Mr. 
 Booth's statement as far as possible in his own words, 
 but where from necessity I have departed from them, 
 I have been careful to reflect his own values and his 
 own meaning. 
 
 We turn now to the printed report of the religious 
 Census, an enquiry of more recent date. 
 
 All of Mr. Booth's deductions are not accepted 
 in this volume. That is hardly likely, for the influence 
 of religion is difficult to estimate and easy to mis- 
 interpret. But in general the conclusions are the same. 
 
 Again we open with the testimony to the power 
 of strong convictions. 
 
 " Wherever," says the editor, Mr. Mudie Smith, 
 " Wherever there is the right man in the pulpit, there are 
 few if any empty pews. By the right man I do not mean 
 a genius. On the contrary the preacher may be an " ex- 
 traordinarily ordinary ' man, so long as he possesses strong 
 convictions, keen sympathies, and a magnetic personality." 
 
 Again there is the sense of failure and the desire 
 to alter the mechanism of public worship. The same 
 writer tells us that the second lesson of the census is 
 " that the buildings we erect in the future must be the 
 antithesis of those now in existence." ..." Cold, 
 repellant stone walls, forbidding divisive pews, some 
 cushioned and others bare," ..." must give 
 
WHAT IS WORSHIP ? 305 
 
 place to large, handsome central halls, well lit and 
 well ventilated, furnished throughout with seats of 
 one pattern, which permit of no arbitrary divisions 
 based on class distinctions." And not only must the 
 outward appearance and fittings of the place of worship 
 be altered but a strong plea is put in for an institutional 
 church and for open-air preaching. 
 
 Percy Alden adds his testimony to the value of 
 the " simply furnished, brightly lighted and well 
 warmed " hall, and protests that the average chapel 
 and mission room reminds him of nothing so much as 
 " a mortuary." He would have them all pulled down 
 and rebuilt, and, like Mr. Mudie Smith, pleads for the 
 institutional character, — for concerts, socials, enter- 
 tainments, lectures, in the same halls, during the 
 week. 
 
 " The people," says Mr. Alden, " are tired of being 
 preached at," and he quotes Meredith with satisfaction, 
 " We all of us have a parlous lot too much pulpit in 
 us." His ideal church is " a large, spacious building 
 seating at least one thousand people, with a good organ, 
 a platform instead of a pulpit, chairs instead of pews, 
 surrounded by class-rooms and games rooms, with at 
 least one smaller hall at the side, etc." 
 
 Mr. Walter Warren, writing for North London, 
 supports Mr. Alden's views, and in his own way 
 testifies to the need for conviction. 
 
 "What infinite, untold loss," he exclaims, "lies 
 at the doors of dull, incompetent pastors, the men who 
 are lazy in body and brain," who preach without 
 devoting consecutive thought to the subject in hand, 
 in hackneyed phrases, " and all of it emptied out like 
 
306 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 a pail of odds and ends over the hapless heads of the 
 hearers." 
 
 Mr. Alden, like Mr. Booth, condemns the blatant 
 " charity," which, using the word in Mr. Booth's 
 sense, always degrades both the giver and the recipient, 
 although he remarks, " a different kind of charity is 
 needed, and if the word is to be used, let us ' depolarize ' 
 it and make it once more to signify the spontaneous 
 outflow of love in the heart of man for his fellow- 
 creature." 
 
 The widespread suspicion of insincerity which in 
 the popular mind attaches to the organised churches 
 is again referred to. 
 
 " The masses," says Mudie Smith, " subcon- 
 sciously believe that a large stipend is not in harmony 
 with the teaching and example of Jesus Christ." The 
 minister " must have a large heart, and, if he is to be 
 believed in by the people, a small salary." 
 
 " People are weary," says Mr. Warren, " of the 
 monotony of singing doggerel rhymes and saying 
 perfunctory prayers. Most of all they feel unmoved 
 by the travesty of the Gospel perpetually presented 
 in some quarters." 
 
 It is the old story, conviction and all that testifies 
 to its depth and its reality, is the thing that tells. 
 
 But the most striking section of the report is that 
 written on behalf of South London by C. F. G. 
 Masterman. 
 
 He agrees in large measure with what I have 
 already quoted, and in regard to public worship 
 acknowledges that there is a search for something 
 more " warm, human and inspiring." 
 
WHAT IS WORSHIP ? 307 
 
 He recognises on the one hand the indifference 
 against which organised Christian effort seems to beat 
 in vain ; " the masses " (I quote his words) " to whom 
 the spiritual world has no meaning, and from whose 
 lives the very fundamental bedrock effects of religion 
 seem to have vanished." 
 
 On the other hand, with Charles Booth and the 
 other writers he recognises the failure of the churches, 
 " whose faith," he says, " has grown cold and whose 
 good news sounds far removed from anything ap- 
 proaching the passionate enthusiasm of other Christian 
 centuries." 
 
 He epitomises the situation as he sees it in a 
 miniature portrait of suburban life, which I will give 
 you as he paints it. 
 
 Speaking of suburban religion, he says : — 
 
 " Much of it is the mere conventional homage to the 
 accepted gods of the community. And even the section 
 that is honest and deliberate is often partly lacking in certain 
 essentials of an active and aggressive Christian endeavour. 
 It upholds a decent life and a clean moral standard, with 
 much individual personal piety. But it is far too content 
 to limit its outlook to its own family or church, heedless 
 of the great chaos of confusion and failure which lies at 
 its very doors. It regards with disapproval and often with 
 contempt, this world of poverty with its dumb demand 
 for aid ; it is generous in charity, but no appeal for justice 
 in the name of the forgotten poor goes forth with united 
 voice from the churches of South London. It is content 
 to cultivate its own garden, to save its own soul ; it is loth 
 to identify its interests with those of its less successful neigh- 
 bours. The challenge " Which think ye was neighbour 
 to him that fell among thieves ? " remains unaccepted. 
 For this neglect of obvious Christian duty its loss is at least 
 
308 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 as great as the loss of those it declines to aid. It becomes 
 more and more cut off from the great realities to which a 
 real religion has always appealed. It draws a line tight 
 round its own border, and endeavours to satisfy with 
 missions and gifts of money the obligation of personal 
 service and of a campaign for justice to all the desolate and 
 oppressed. It has remained up till now unaffected by de- 
 structive Criticism, and the changes of thought and outlook 
 which have so ravaged the orthodox religions in other 
 regions. But there are not wanting signs of the approach 
 of the disturbance ; it has still to pass through a time of 
 trial in which it will be tested to its foundations. Ma- 
 terialism, the lust for pleasure, the modern impatience 
 with a definite creed, are slowly creeping in to this vigorous 
 suburban area ; and the negative assertions of science and 
 Biblical criticism are creating centres of local disquietude. 
 If the prevailing type of religion largely withers before 
 such forces as these, it will be because it has set itself apart 
 in comfort, content with a personal creed of salvation ; 
 because it has felt no passionate impulse to assert a common 
 fellowship with the less fortunate who are lying at its 
 doors — no call to right the wrongs which, in the words of 
 a great modern reformer, ' cry continually into the ears 
 of the Lord God of Sabaoth.' " 
 
 Turning to specific remedies, Mr. Masterman, 
 like the rest, criticizes the form and method of the 
 services. I will not, however, detain you with the 
 details but will content myself with a quotation 
 expressing his view of the average sermon : — 
 
 " I would not reiterate the demand for * good preaching,' 
 which seems to me utterly to confuse the purposes of the 
 services of the Church. We meet, not for edification, but 
 for worship, — to confess our sins, to obtain spiritual succour, 
 to renew the visible guarantee of fellowship. Eloquence 
 will instruct everywhere, in the pulpit as in the market- 
 place. But the crowds that run after a popular preacher, 
 
WHAT IS WORSHIP? 3O9 
 
 that purchase his portraits and finger his clothes and pry 
 into his family life and the contents of his larder, seem 
 to me somewhat alien from the sincerest forms of religion. 
 Yet there is no doubt we laymen have a right to appeal for 
 better preaching ; that the pulpit in many cases is not only 
 not an attractive, but is actually a repellent, force. We 
 have no right to demand eloquence, but we may demand 
 sincerity, the frank facing of difficulty, freedom from the 
 conventional machinery of the popular exposition of doc- 
 trine. The prevailing theology, even more perhaps than 
 the prevailing liturgy, is wrapped up in an ancient language. 
 The very terms are technical — grace, justification, conver- 
 sion, perseverance. They flow out glibly from the student 
 who has soaked himself in their historical meanings ; they 
 are Greek to the general. They were once living realities 
 for which men fought and gladly died ; they still symbolize 
 realities, the permanent elements of the life history of the 
 soul ; but they are wrapped around in cobwebs and the 
 complications of a technical system," and he concludes 
 by appealing for " some message concerning the things of 
 the spirit, delivered in simplicity and humility and sin- 
 cerity to men who fain would be simple, humble and sincere." 
 
 This quotation brings me to the point which 
 Mr. Masterman has rightly emphasised, and with a 
 concluding extract, will leave me free to develop my 
 argument. 
 
 " The worship of machinery," says Masterman, 
 " as Matthew Arnold continually asserted, is a national 
 characteristic of Englishmen." Summing up what 
 we have been discussing, he says : — 
 
 " Each observer appears to hold that if that particular 
 section of the machine in which he can detect a flaw could 
 be repaired, or if a particularly up-to-date invention re- 
 placed some antiquated adjustment, the machinery of the 
 Churches would once again grind out religious enthusiasm. 
 
310 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 With one it is the edifice ; he deplores the cold Gothic 
 building, repellent to the poor ; he would substitute large 
 lighted halls of the remarkable and dignified style charac- 
 teristic of the later nineteenth century, with plenty of car- 
 pets, paint, and colour. With another it is the edifices 
 themselves ; let the leaders of religion come into the street, 
 he holds, and the problem is solved. With one again 
 it is the service, antiquated, unintelligible to the vulgar ; 
 collect a band, he urges, sing the ' Holy City ' and other 
 moving modern melodies, weave into your prayers allu- 
 sions to politics and incidents of the day. With another 
 it is the sermon ; the minister is too cold, or speaks with 
 stammering tongue. Let us place a great preacher in every 
 pulpit, and the masses will vehemently fight for entrance 
 to our churches. Some advocate, some deprecate, the 
 methods of the theatre ; some would abolish pews alto- 
 gether, and let the men stand ; some see the inevitable 
 advance of religion if pews are made more comfortable. 
 Each one has convinced opinions as to what ' the poor ' 
 i will come to — the large hall, the small mission, the street 
 corner. Few seem to care to face the question what we 
 have to offer ' the poor ' when they come." 
 
 I think that our examination of the two publi- 
 cations which have been under review will support 
 my statement that the question " What is worship ? " 
 is not untimely. If we examine the facts we see that 
 there is an actual decline in the attendance at public 
 worship. If we compare the recent religious census 
 in London with the census undertaken by the British 
 Weekly in 1886 we find that while the population of 
 London proper has increased by half a million in the 
 last seventeen years, there has been a decrease of 
 150,000 in the attendances, the Church of England 
 having fallen from 535,000 to 396,000, and the Non- 
 conformists from 369,000 to 363,000. The quotations 
 
WHAT IS WORSHIP ? 3II 
 
 from the writers I have selected — all of them by 
 investigation or actual service acquainted with the 
 inner life of the metropolis and qualified to speak with 
 authority, — point to the fact that the problem of public 
 worship is recognised as unsolved. Ideas relating 
 thereto are fluid, not fixed. There is a sense of im- 
 pending change, of need and of baffled endeavour. A 
 single fact will throw into vivid light the measure of 
 indifference which it is sought to overcome. On one 
 Sunday in London 122,000 persons out of a population 
 of 142,000 visited public-houses, and only 31,331 
 attended public worship. Even so great an effort as 
 the United Free Church Mission of 1900 and 1901 
 practically failed to reach the outside world, and, like 
 a stone cast into a stagnant pool, has left scarcely a 
 ripple behind it. We may be prepared to admit that 
 bright halls, chairs instead of pews, with other such 
 details, have their place, and even an important place, 
 in the solution of the problem. The need for a warmer 
 social atmosphere in our religious fellowship, for less 
 formality and more sincerity of feeling and expression, 
 is self-evident. One reads it in every fine of the census 
 reports, and in the last addresses of this series I shall 
 have more to say upon the social side of Christian 
 responsibility. 
 
 But behind all these questions, legitimate as they 
 are, and not to be neglected as mere practical details 
 (for they may be the outward expression of a new 
 and healthier spirit in our religious life), stands the 
 great and fundamental question of the message. As 
 compared with spiritual temper and outlook, adjust- 
 ments and machinery count as nothing. This question 
 
312 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 of the message is the subject of these addresses, and 
 we shall find ourselves face to face with it, when by 
 way of preface we ask the personal question, " What 
 is worship — what does worship mean to us ? " 
 
 The man who contracts the week-end habit and 
 goes down to a house-party in the country in his 
 motor-car to play bridge, or the man who goes to the 
 nearest waste land or common on Sunday morning to 
 do a bit of rabbit coursing, if he is not simply in revolt 
 against a stupid and narrow conception of the Sabbath, 
 is laying bare the emptiness of his soul, and, with a 
 light-headed irresponsibility, playing pitch and toss 
 with the immortal issues of life. Worship clearly has 
 no meaning for him. 
 
 But what meaning has it to the man who on 
 Sundays takes pains over his toilet, and, wearing the 
 spotless credentials of respectability, repairs to church, 
 chapel or meeting-house ? Too often, alas, the 
 performance is no more than a convention. And how 
 oppressive the conventional formality of worship can 
 be is soon discerned as we turn over the pages of any 
 volume of ordinary sermons. The language is remote, 
 the expression stilted and according to a set pattern 
 which is regarded as "correct." Sir Edward Fry, in 
 an essay on sermons, remarks, " the ordinary preacher 
 is afraid to call a spade a spade ; he would rather 
 describe it as ' that instrument of agriculture with 
 which our first father laboured when, by the providence 
 of God, he was called on to till the garden of Eden.' " 
 This indirectness, this evasion of straight issues, 
 affects, alas, the whole atmosphere of devotion. The 
 cry " mea culpa " seldom disturbs the smug com- 
 
WHAT IS WORSHIP ? 313 
 
 placency of the slumbering congregation. The silk 
 hat is newly ironed, the best dress worn, and Sunday 
 dinner, with coffee and forty winks on a Chesterfield 
 before a nice crackling fire, swim vaguely before the 
 mental vision, and touch the proceedings with the mild 
 pleasures of comfortable anticipation. 
 
 " I'm willing a man should go tollable strong 
 Agin wrong in the abstract, for thet kind o' wrong 
 Is oilers unpop'lar and never gits pitied, 
 Because it's a crime no one ever committed, 
 But he must not be hard on particler sins, 
 'Cos, then he'll be kickin' the people's own shins." 
 
 And of course the people's own shins must never be 
 kicked. ,, 
 
 Even where this description is scarcely just/the 
 sermon is too often a lecture, and illustrates /n its 
 want of spiritual inspiration, no less than its elaborate 
 and exclusive appeal to the intellect, the detachment 
 of preacher and hearer from the true idea of worship. 
 A minister north of the Tweed, who prepared his 
 sermons with all the ponderous patience of a German 
 and with all the theological disputatiousness of a Scot, 
 once lost the manuscript on which a week's labour 
 and much midnight oil had been spent. Feverish 
 search, till the last tolling of the summoning bell, 
 proved unavailing. He had to face his congregation 
 without it, and having explained the disaster, he con- 
 cluded : — 
 
 "This morning, brethren, I must speak even as 
 the Lord gives me utterance, but to-night, brethren, 
 I hope to come better prepared," 
 
314 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 I am afraid I cannot vouch that the story is true, 
 but in its implication it reflects, only too faithfully, a 
 common attitude of mind. It is not under such 
 conditions that the inwardness of worship is known. 
 Where the simple freedom and the warmth of the 
 family spirit are absent there will be nothing indeed 
 of the wonderful spiritual intimacy of a Mme. Guyon 
 and formalism will creep in apace. The want of 
 homeliness in public worship is indeed a serious loss, 
 for the conscious rectitude of fixed conventional 
 worship has in it something of the properties of an 
 iceberg, chilling the spiritual atmosphere, and clouding 
 the deeper issues of life in its self-created fog. 
 
 But formal worship is already smitten with the 
 doom of unreality. In these days men will not tolerate 
 make-believe. No shibboleth will satisfy them, the 
 interpretation of worship must be profound if it is to 
 have lasting power. Hymns and sermons are a 
 necessary element in social worship, but neither 
 singing hymns nor listening to sermons will save men 
 " out of their distresses, bring them out of the shadow 
 of death, or break the gates of brass and cut the bars 
 of iron in sunder." The need is too deep for external 
 palliatives. For a time, it is true, religion has been 
 unfashionable, and there has been a notable tendency 
 to look upon spiritual matters with indifference, to 
 scoff at theology and philosophy, and to put an ex- 
 clusive emphasis upon practical work. We have 
 heard in this generation a great deal about environ- 
 ment. The slums with their tainted atmosphere, 
 dingy courts and bad drains, the dull, unlovely streets, 
 the drear monotony of smoke-grimed walls — and so 
 
WHAT IS WORSHIP ? 315 
 
 forth. We have heard less than we did of the inward 
 struggle between the soul and the spiritual paralysis 
 of sin, the tragic witness of the Cross, the passion of the 
 Divine redemption. No doubt the reason is simple. 
 We have been witnessing a reaction from the other 
 worldliness of a religious profession which took too 
 little count of the terrible evils of social life. What 
 was once a matter of course is now intolerable. An 
 enlightened sympathy has quickened the social con- 
 science, and thought awakened by necessity has 
 concentrated upon practical reforms. Garden cities, 
 allotments, model cottages, the science of sanitation, 
 physical culture, these are subjects of general interest 
 and conversation. Nor can we complain of this 
 development. It has not indeed gone far enough. 
 The social condition of England is such that a hundred 
 years hence men will look back upon it with wondering 
 pity. Nay ! where organised Christianity continues 
 indifferent or blind to the curse of poverty and the 
 starved, unwholesome life to which thirty per cent, 
 of our population is condemned, it is unfaithful to 
 Jesus Christ and working in defiance of his spirit. 
 
 With this view every one here is doubtless agreed. 
 It is conceded that if earth is to blossom into heaven 
 we must have healthy conditions of life, shorter hours 
 of labour, a more equable distribution of wealth, the 
 abolition of social disabilities. But external environ- 
 ment, important in its moral as in its physical conse- 
 quences, is not the whole environment of man. There 
 is an environment of the soul, an unseen but real 
 influence, bearing upon character more intimately 
 than do good or bad drains, and ill or well ventilated 
 
3l6 JOHN WILHELM EOWNTREE. 
 
 houses. In the swing of the reaction from an unreal 
 religion, this less tangible environment has been 
 neglected. Many have felt that reaction and have 
 shared in measure the prevailing doubt as to the 
 efficacy of direct spiritual communion. 
 
 But even in a Garden City death enters, and 
 selfishness ; sin and pain are known. God forbid that 
 we should slacken for a day in social effort, but we are 
 coming back to the deeper things of life. The mystery 
 of being, the whence and the whither of man, the 
 awful reaches of eternity, the unmeasured solitudes of 
 space, the silent majesty of universal law, irrevocable 
 cause and effect, the iron machinery of fate, the unequal 
 distribution of pain, the sense of sin, the sickening 
 despair of failure, the certainty of death, the apparent 
 silence of God. Here is the stuff of theology and 
 philosophy. Despised ? Yes, for a time, but never 
 for long. Unpractical ? No, because the ground of all 
 enduring work must be faith in the love of God. 
 
 This generation has rediscovered a truth which 
 ought never to have been obscured — the truth that 
 spiritual realities underlie the outward facts of life. 
 The ordinary man is pondering it already. Sir Oliver 
 Lodge, in the pages of the Hibbert Journal, tells us how 
 the cultured layman is feeling his way, and Mr. Blatch- 
 ford, under the pressure of this movement, re-hashes 
 in the Clarion the rationalism of forty years ago. 
 
 Both are symptoms. While the Church Congress 
 discusses the emptiness of the pews and Mr. Cadbury 
 counts the minority of Londoners who publicly worship 
 God, and Mr. Booth in several volumes marks the 
 failure of the Churches, men are digging down again 
 
WHAT IS WORSHIP ? 317 
 
 to the foundations of religion. They are burdened 
 once more by that age-long need of the heart, the 
 " Weltschmerz " of Goethe, the craving, the longing 
 to know God, His character, His purpose, and His 
 love. 
 
 What is worship ? It is not a form but an exer- 
 cise. The worshippers by proxy, who leave spiritual 
 exercise to the minister and praise to the choir, have 
 been named by Professor Drummond the " helpless, 
 pampered parasites of the pew." Their beliefs are 
 borrowed contentedly at second-hand, not won by the 
 sweat of the brow. They know nothing of what 
 Mr. Gladstone has called the work of worship their 
 soul has never fainted in them, they have never cried 
 unto Jehovah in their trouble. The abandonment of 
 the senses to aesthetic charm, the surrender of the 
 intellect to claims veiled in all the glamour of a great 
 historic past, the yielding up of individual responsi- 
 bility to the authority of a priest, are sore temptations 
 which assail the weakness of the flesh. 
 
 Under every form and in every denomination 
 there is true worship, but its truth is inward and 
 intimate in the secret of the soul. The willing abase- 
 ment of creaturely pride, the concentration of the 
 whole energies of mind and heart upon the highest 
 ends of life, upon purity of thought and motive, upon 
 self-forgetting love, upon Him who in Himself personi- 
 fied for us the Holiest instincts of Humanity — this is 
 worship — the mingling of prayer and praise, of strife 
 and victory, the hunger and thirst of those who wander 
 in the wilderness, in a desert way, who have found 
 no city of habitation, the praise of men who can thank 
 
3l8 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Jehovah for His loving-kindness, for His wonderful 
 works to the children of men, who have passed in His 
 strength from victory to victory, from the regions of 
 doubt into the sunshine of knowledge, from the loneli- 
 ness of spiritual isolation to the joy of conscious 
 union with the unseen Spirit of the universe. 
 
 In all the clamour of our modern life, with its 
 feverish pleasures and hasty judgments, its fierce 
 scramble of the markets, its dull ennui of endowed 
 selfishness, its social aloofness and insincerities, nay ! 
 its lust and its cruelties, is there to be no place for the 
 quiet and peace of God ? 
 
 Stand apart at times from outward observance 
 and the spoken word, and in the spirit of inward 
 worship weigh your life, observe its trend, realise its 
 purpose. Give your soul room to grow. Seek the 
 reality which others have won before you and make 
 it your own. The silence of the Quaker meeting 
 means only this. It is no foolish freak of seventeenth 
 century fanaticism, but a necessity of the soul's true 
 life. It is not, it ought not to be, the perquisite of 
 any one denomination. The soul must know itself 
 and the battle of life must be fought within. 
 
 " For as the eye sinks inwards 
 A bolt is shot back somewhere in our breast, 
 And a lost pulse of feeling stirs again 
 . . . and the heart lies plain, 
 And what we mean we say and what we would we know, 
 A man becomes aware of his life's flow, 
 And hears its widening murmur . . . 
 And then he thinks he knows 
 The hills where his life rose, 
 And the sea where it goes." 
 
WHAT IS WORSHIP ? 319 
 
 Character will be deepened and enriched, and all 
 work, faith and life will be the stronger for such inward 
 consciousness of God. 
 
 In the stately ceremonial of cathedral worship, 
 in the simple service of a village tabernacle, there is 
 room for the silent pause, for the earnest offering of 
 individual and personal prayer. Formalism can only 
 be dispelled as men recognise in public worship an 
 expressed belief in the eternal values of life, and in its 
 continuance beyond the limits of this physical exist- 
 ence. And reality will only return as, bound by the 
 spirit of true fellowship, they unite in a common social 
 endeavour (the supremest of which the soul is capable) 
 to realise a sensible contact between the flesh-im- 
 prisoned spirit and the enveloping presence of Eternal 
 Love. 
 
 " Dear Lord and Father of mankind, 
 
 Forgive our foolish ways ! 
 
 Reclothe us in our rightful mind, 
 
 In purer lives Thy service find, 
 
 In deeper reverence, praise. 
 
 " In simple trust like theirs who heard 
 
 Beside the Syrian sea 
 The gracious calling of the Lord, 
 Let us, like them, without a word, 
 
 Rise up and follow thee. 
 
 " O Sabbath rest by Galilee ! 
 
 O calm of hills above, 
 Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee 
 The silence of eternity, 
 
 Interpreted by love ! 
 
320 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 " With that deep hush subduing all 
 Our words and works, that drown 
 The tender whisper of Thy call, 
 As noiseless let Thy blessing fall 
 As fell Thy manna down. 
 
 " Drop Thy still dews of quietness, 
 
 Till all our strivings cease ; 
 Take from our souls the strain and stress, 
 And let our ordered lives confess 
 
 The beauty of Thy peace. 
 
 " Breathe through the heats of our desire 
 Thy coolness and Thy balm ; 
 
 Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire ; 
 
 Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire, 
 O still, small voice of calm ! "* 
 
 ♦Whittier. 
 
II. 
 
 MAY WE BELIEVE IN GOD? 
 
 Scripture portion — Psalm vii. or John xv. i-ii. 
 
 THOSE who have been fortunate enough to escape 
 from the town into the country during these 
 beautiful days of the waning year, have found nature 
 in a kindly mood. Autumn, spirit though she be of 
 gentle melancholy, has kept her court in regal fashion, 
 decorating the woods with glowing colour, touching 
 the leaves with " fiery finger tips " to scarlet and 
 gold, and diffusing the slant rays of the setting sun 
 through a delicate veil of mist upon the moorland 
 heights, till they seemed as the glory of a haloed saint. 
 Often it has been possible in the loneliness of the 
 hills, with the fragrance of the damp woods in our 
 nostrils, and in the clinging silence of nature, to feel 
 with Wordsworth : — 
 
 " that serene and blessed mood, 
 In which the affections gently lead us on, — 
 Until the breath of this corporeal frame 
 And even the motion of our human blood 
 Almost suspended, we are laid asleep 
 In body, and become a living soul ; 
 While with an eye made quiet by the power 
 Of harmony, and the deep power of joy, 
 We see into the life of things," 
 
 and with the poet learn to evade 
 
 ..." the fretful stir 
 
 Unprofitable, and the fever of the world." 
 
 321 
 
 22 
 
322 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 As the light fades in the evening sky, outward 
 and inner vision are enticed from distance to distance 
 of faint colour, up from " the russet lawns and fallows 
 grey " into the illimitable void of space. Now twilight 
 has in her " sober livery all things clad." The ecstasy 
 of colour is past. Gathering gloom blots out the 
 familiar details, the church tower seen through the 
 trees, the farm nestling under the distant hill, the 
 glint of water in the stream, the far roadway, all the 
 marks of human fellowship, the home surroundings 
 of the earthly life, fade in the blackness of night, and 
 the sky is stretched above us, a great dome pierced 
 with a thousand twinkling points of light. Man and 
 all his business of courts and parliaments, markets 
 and finance, his pains and pleasures, shrinks into 
 infinitely little compass. The mind ranges free along 
 pathless ways among the stars. 
 
 And yet in this joy of colour, this mood so exalted, 
 so aloof, this severance of human ties, is it all peace ? 
 
 There is so much beauty in a starlit sky ; the 
 moon, subject of endless verse, 
 
 " Oft, as if her head she bowed, 
 Stooping through a fleecy cloud," 
 
 the planets with their steady beam, the glittering 
 dust of the milky way, — that we might well forget 
 everything save the pageant spread before us — did not 
 other thoughts intrude. The emptiness of intervening 
 space, the dizzy gulf that separates star from star, 
 the unthinkable, interminable, appalling vastness of 
 a universe without a limit. The terror of the giant 
 forces let loose in the flaming gases of those wheeling 
 
MAY WE BELIEVE IN GOD ? 323 
 
 suns, their fierce unswerving onrush, second after 
 second, year after year, century after century, mille- 
 nium after millenium ; the mystery of the dead 
 worlds, heaven's spent fireworks, hung barren and 
 frozen to swing monotonously through their inex- 
 orable circles. 
 
 As the solemn realities of eternity, the impotence 
 of human power, the poverty of human knowledge, 
 are unfolded to our searching quest, the peace of the 
 starlit sky is broken. We hear the clang and roar of 
 the machinery of the universe ; a wind from desert 
 places, cold and inhospitable, shrivels the soul. We 
 feel suddenly the unutterable sense of loneliness 
 which, in hours of self-realisation, gathers round the 
 faltering faith of man. What is he that thou art 
 mindful of him ? And the son of man that thou 
 visitest him ? 
 
 Is it true that thou crownest him with glory and 
 honour ? thou who hast set thy glory upon the heavens, 
 the work of thy fingers ? 
 
 And is there behind this pageant, in the earth- 
 quake wind and fire, is there, can there be one who 
 cares, one to whom I can pray, one I may call my 
 Father ? 
 
 That is the question we have before us to-night, 
 the question involved in the title " May we believe 
 in God ? " — the question which the unflinching self- 
 examination of the soul, earnestly intent upon the 
 realities of worship, must put and answer. 
 
 Last Sunday we discussed two questions : — Why 
 men neglect social worship ? and what social worship 
 really is ? We noted the frequent formalism of 
 
324 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 public worship, the widespread indifference to spiritual 
 life, the evidence of neglect as shown in the statistics 
 of attendance, the growing concern of the churches, 
 their varied efforts to attract, the increasing fluidity 
 of the forms of worship, the evident need for a simpler 
 type of church fellowship and of congregational 
 worship, which shall give greater place to social needs 
 and secure greater freedom and range of individual 
 expression in the exercise of worship, and finally we 
 defined worship as the recognition of a life outside 
 ourselves, as a labour of the spirit, a concentration of 
 mind and heart upon the supreme end, the establishing 
 of a living contact between the individual soul and the 
 spiritual force or forces of the Universe. Worship 
 must be something more than the conventional homage 
 paid to an idol personifying our national pride, self- 
 righteousness and self-esteem ; an idol which is made 
 to throw its protection over law and order under the 
 mask of religion, and to recognise as inviolable under 
 that name all rights of property and dignities of rank 
 and place, while slow to recognise social justice or to 
 cherish humility, mercy and peace. 
 
 It is only in the inwardness of true spiritual 
 worship that the soul grows aware of its deepest need, 
 becomes impatient of self-deception and of the world's 
 poor baubles, and seeks with passionate longing to 
 know the real basis and meaning of life. 
 
 Here in the crowded congregation, as alone in the 
 temple of nature, man is driven to face the naked 
 facts of experience, and to ask the question already 
 stated, " Is there a God whom I may worship, and if 
 there be, how may I find him ? " 
 
MAY WE BELIEVE IN GOD ? 325 
 
 " Canst thou by searching find out God ? Canst 
 thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ? " So 
 enquired Zophar the Naamathite of Job, and such is the 
 interrogation of the modern mind, baffled and con- 
 fused in the conflict of life, and by the ever growing 
 problems of existence. 
 
 How shall we set about to answer ? Few of us 
 probably are trained in philosophical thinking, the 
 technical language of abstract thought is difficult to 
 us, for the average Englishman is practical rather than 
 speculative. A learned logical argument is probably 
 beyond our reach, certainly beyond mine, and in any 
 case could not possibly be conducted to a satisfactory 
 issue in one hour. Must we then abandon the search ? 
 I think not. There is fortunately a path of approach 
 wherein the wayfaring man, though a fool, cannot err. 
 The way to God lies not solely nor even primarily 
 through intellectual processes of reasoning, but through 
 the heart. There are in short two modes of attack, 
 the intellectual and the spiritual. And while I do not 
 say that intellectual processes have no place or validity, 
 I believe the second alternative is at once the most 
 hopeful and helpful for this or for any company of 
 men. 
 
 I believe this to be inevitable, because we are 
 compelled by the conditions of our nature, to think 
 of God in the terms of human relationship. We can 
 talk as we like of the " absolute," and the " infinite." 
 These terms are convenient and stand for certain 
 philosophical ideas. But at best they are terms used 
 to express supposed realities, which the human mind 
 cannot possibly grasp or comprehend. They are as 
 
326 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 counters in the game of logic, the letter X in our 
 algebraic equation, they cannot be palpitating realities 
 to us as men. It is a great fallacy to suppose that 
 you can argue a man into the knowledge of God ; 
 supply him, that is, with intellectual proofs of his 
 existence and character, altogether apart from the 
 question of spiritual state or receptivity. That there 
 are mental difficulties, difficulties of the reason, which 
 check or bar spiritual progress is, of course, sadly true. 
 These have to be removed if peace is to be won, and 
 intellectual arguments may and do have a persuasive 
 or suggestive influence. Only I do not see that by 
 themselves they can be exhaustive or complete. A 
 dear friend of mine, a professor of philosophy, has just 
 published a book which he has called " Social Law 
 in the Spiritual World," and which he sent me during 
 the preparation of this address. In establishing the 
 lines of his argument he takes much the same position 
 and rejects one after another the stock arguments for 
 the proofs by logic. I shall sin in good company if I 
 follow his example. 
 
 Take the causality argument. By itself it leads 
 nowhere. It proceeds in this fashion. Here is some 
 object, let us say Burns' "wee, modest crimson- 
 tippit flower." It must have had a cause. You 
 press the enquiry back and back, effect, cause, effect, 
 cause, effect, cause — but where do you stop ? At 
 God ! Then who caused God ? No ! There is no 
 finality — no helpful issue here. It contains a truth, 
 but not the final truth. 
 
 Take the argument from design. Now I am 
 quoting the philosopher : — 
 
MAY WE BELIEVE IN GOD ? 327 
 
 "The argument from design to a personal God 
 does not convince anyone who is not already con- 
 vinced." 
 
 " The most that can be proved from design," he 
 adds, " is the fact that a man is a being who finds 
 designs and ends and purpose everywhere in his 
 world." 
 
 In other words, although the argument from 
 design contains a great and suggestive truth, by itself 
 it is not adequate for our purpose. Let us attempt 
 a brief excursion into this field of argument and see 
 how much we can gather from it. You know the 
 famous watch theory; an intelligent savage picks up 
 a watch upon the beach. It is evident to him that it 
 is the work of an inventive and constructive mind, a 
 higher intelligence (whom he will probably worship as. 
 a god), and this view is strengthened by the discovery 
 that the little wheels one within the other co-operate 
 to measure time, have in short a definite end which 
 they serve. The facts of nature, we say, are like 
 this watch and lead us to make the inference of a 
 controlling mind. But here science interposes diffi- 
 culties. She develops the theory of the struggle for 
 the survival of the fittest. There is constant adapt- 
 ation to changing conditions and necessities. 
 
 The ends served by nature, says science, are not 
 ultimate, visible, definite and fixed, like the ends 
 served by the watch. Moreover they are those of the 
 creatures that seek them, not those of God. Darwin 
 saw conditions develop necessities, necessities develop 
 ends, and ends develop the power to seek them, and he 
 could not see that in this there was any need of creative 
 
328 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 invention or of creative purpose. A man falls lame 
 through an accident, and cuts a walking stick with his 
 knife to help himself along, but the stick is the design 
 of the man, not of God. Such difficulties, though 
 often pressed and sometimes confusing, do not in 
 reality touch the central truth. The power and 
 freedom of adaptation remains, and is no argument 
 against an ultimate purpose, an original initiative, 
 a working and controlling mind. As a matter of fact 
 man does find coherence in the universe. He is able to 
 classify the forces and facts, to rely upon their certain 
 action and character under recognised conditions and 
 in recognised modes. 
 
 Whether the universe has existed always or 
 whether it has been created in six days, whether it is 
 real or a subjective illusion, we do not escape the 
 necessity for a cause, and since the universe, whether 
 it be an illusion or not, is intelligible to the individual 
 and to the corporate human consciousness, since the 
 structure and action of our minds correspond to the 
 structure and method of things around us, it is neither 
 absurd nor illogical for us to argue from the facts, 
 to a mind outside our own. 
 
 But where does all this lead us ? Such argument 
 may be of service in meeting the stupid dogmatism 
 of those who assert, in the fulness of their omniscience, 
 that there is no first cause, no creative mind, no God. 
 It is certainly useful in assisting to clear away the 
 mental barriers which obstruct the earnest soul in his 
 search after the ultimate cause, but it fails hopelessly 
 to realise for the seeker that which he most longs to 
 know, the character and purpose of the ultimate cause 
 
MAY WE BELIEVE IN GOD ? 329 
 
 in its personal relation to himself. To quote my 
 friend again, " the God and Father of Jesus Christ is 
 the God whom we, in our modern quest, want to know, 
 and not another." 
 
 That I believe whether we are all willing to 
 confess it or not is the truth. It is God, as we see Him 
 in Christ, who satisfies the longings of the human heart, 
 God the loving Father, whose passionate tender care 
 for the least and most insignificant makes the burden 
 of life supportable — brings faith and hope to man. 
 
 Let us then abandon the intellectual argument, 
 that is to say the argument in vacuo, and endeavour 
 to follow out what we may call the spiritual line of 
 approach, keeping close to the facts of experience 
 and of history as we do so. A certain view of God 
 has come to us through Jesus of Nazareth. Let us 
 take this view as our assumption or hypothesis and 
 test it. We shall only be adopting the methods of 
 science if we do so. Given a fact the scientist frames 
 his interpreting hypothesis, and sets to work to subject 
 it to the test of an experiment. He makes indeed 
 an experimental venture of faith. That is a sound 
 method. Neither in science nor religion can we 
 arrive at truth unless we experiment. In both, the 
 construction of unverified theories is a barren task. 
 The man who asserts that he will believe only what he 
 understands, forgetting the wholesome teaching of the 
 old adage, " Nothing venture, nothing win," is in 
 great danger of turning into an intellectual fossil. 
 
 We must at the outset arm ourselves with a 
 definition. The word " God " is used in so many 
 different senses that we must be particular in this. 
 
330 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 We are not concerned for instance in the national 
 God, who fights the battles of England or Germany 
 or Russia, as if he were the chieftain of a tribe ; we 
 are concerned with the God of Jesus, who is yet very 
 imperfectly known and understood in Christian 
 Europe. 
 
 And the matter is important because our idea of 
 God means really our idea of life. You cannot separate 
 them. The two are inevitably and organically related. 
 You hate or despise the foreigner. You make a proud 
 boast of your national strength. You straddle across 
 the seas and dare others to compete with you, and at 
 once the Universal Father shrinks to the God of 
 England, or the conception becomes so pagan that 
 he is spoken of as the God of Battles, and all the grace 
 of Christian humility and all the moral grandeur of 
 Christian meekness are swallowed up in the vapourings 
 of an ignoble pride. 
 
 Belief in God and the character and terms of our 
 belief are of practical, individual, nay, of international 
 importance. We set out therefore with the Christian 
 definition of God ; a definition drawn from the material 
 of the Gospels ; I give it you as stated by Professor 
 Clarke in his " Outlines of Christian Theology." 
 
 " God is the Personal Spirit, perfectly good, who 
 in holy love, creates, sustains and orders all." 
 
 Can we test that ? 
 
 To begin with, if God is as thus described, per- 
 fectly good, the Creator of all, how comes it that so 
 many doubt His existence ? Would not His reality be 
 self-evident, all pervading, all controlling ? Yes, it 
 would if man's spiritual consciousness were developed 
 
MAY WE BELIEVE IN GOD? 331 
 
 to the necessary degree of spiritual sensitiveness. 
 But man sees very dimly. Mr. Blatchford, for example, 
 is cocksure that there is no God, and demolishes him 
 in two hundred pages of journalese. With Job, we 
 can only answer him, " No doubt ye are the people 
 and wisdom shall die with you," though we shall be 
 inclined to extend the quotation and add in the words 
 of the patriarch, " But I have understanding as well 
 as you ! " The fact is that the conception of a good 
 God is too far-reaching for our immediate compre- 
 hension. To quote Professor Clarke : — " The reality 
 of such a being can be firmly established only by 
 concurrent reasons coming from various realms of 
 existence and approved by various powers of the 
 human spirit." Proof by intellectual argument is one 
 thing — the growing knowledge of active experience is 
 another. 
 
 Introduce a primitive savage to Lord Kelvin. 
 How long would it be before they conversed upon 
 equal terms ? To the savage Lord Kelvin would 
 simply be a physical animal of the same species, 
 inferior probably in brawn and muscle to himself. 
 His powers of intellect would be simply non-existent 
 so far as the savage was concerned. Perhaps Lord 
 Kelvin might perform a chemical experiment before 
 him, give him, so to speak, a sign from heaven with an 
 explosion and a flash, something like Mount Pelee on 
 a small scale, and then the savage would probably 
 beat the ground with his forehead and grovel, not 
 because he understood, but in fear and dread of that 
 which he did not understand. Assuming for the 
 moment that the savage was capable of such tuition 
 
332 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 in the space of a lifetime, he would need to be taught 
 step by step what Lord Kelvin knew, to have Lord 
 Kelvin interpreted for him, so to speak, and then he 
 would see, not merely a physical being like himself, 
 but a commanding intellect. Nay, more than that, 
 he would find that in understanding Lord Kelvin he 
 himself had ceased to be the mere cunning brute of the 
 wilderness, and the whole of life would have a different 
 aspect. Instead of the fish in the river and the nuts 
 on the tree and the sheltering cave at night, his mental 
 horizon would embrace civilisation. Literature, art, 
 science, culture, the subtle relationship of intellectual 
 and refined society, all these would have swept in upon 
 his consciousness. It was all there before, but the 
 savage did not know. He could not see. He had to 
 learn. 
 
 So it is with man and God. Man needs to learn. 
 God needs to be interpreted. To see Him and know 
 Him we must grow into His image. 
 
 Or let me put it in another way. In his book, 
 already quoted, " Social Law in the Spiritual World," 
 Professor Rufus Jones says : — 
 
 " The revelation of God is like the revelation of music. 
 Music is revealed, can be revealed, only through a musician. 
 It comes to be reality, to be influencing power, a subduing 
 and controlling force, only as an appreciative mind seizes 
 and expresses the meaning and value of harmony. To the 
 musician himself the world of harmony which he blindly 
 felt at first as he laboriously toiled to master his instrument 
 has now become a reality not a whit less real than are the 
 scenery and circumstance of his life of sense." 
 
 And having quoted this passage, I find Professor 
 
MAY WE BELIEVE IN GOD? 333 
 
 Jones so much in accordance with what I desire to 
 say, that I shall quote him again : 
 
 " If," he says, " our search for God is to have a happy 
 issue we must first resist the tendency to narrow know- 
 ledge. We must rather insist on raising it to the highest 
 terms. We must include under the knowledge process our 
 entire capacity for dealing with reality. Secondly we must 
 look for God where He could be found — not in the wide stellar 
 spaces, not ' in eagle's wing or insect's eye,' not at the end 
 of a logical syllogism. If He is to be found at all we must 
 look for Him in the spiritual realm. We must go at once 
 where spirit manifests itself. All attempts to find God 
 apart from and dissevered from personal life have failed, 
 and of course always will fail. He is surely not less personal 
 than we are ; He will at least be as genuinely spiritual 
 as we mortals are ! " 
 
 Here is a clear lead as to the method we are to 
 adopt in testing our definition. 
 
 The scientific man, working with laborious patience 
 in his proper sphere, has an aversion for what he calls 
 " subjectivity." The inward spiritual facts of life 
 are no facts to him. You cannot put them in a cru- 
 cible or examine them under a lens. Direct the 
 telescope to Saturn and you see his rings, direct the 
 microscope upon a leaf and you see its cells. But the 
 astronomer turning from his telescope, exclaims, " I 
 have swept the heavens and find no God ! " What 
 shall we think of the man who after adjusting and 
 focussing his microscope, rises with the exclamation, 
 " I have examined the brain and find no trace of 
 love." 
 
 We should be reminded I think of Lord Kelvin 
 and the savage. What is it we value most in life ? 
 
334 J 0HN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 i 
 
 Is it things as they are in the outward ? Is it the 
 bare objects of sense ? that which we can weigh, mea- 
 sure, dissect ? In the landscape is it not its inde- 
 finable aspect of beauty ? in the human being is it not 
 the subtle charm of character, the winsomeness of 
 unselfish love, the radiant joy of a pure heart ? If we 
 think of it, outward facts are of moment to us only as 
 the vehicles of an inward reality, and without that 
 inward reality, to adopt Professor Jones' vigorous 
 language, " a man would be as interesting as a sand 
 dune, as unspiritual as an extinct volcano on the 
 moon." 
 
 The answer to the scientist is this : — Judging by 
 the sure test of cumulative experience, the facts of the 
 spiritual life are as real and of deeper importance than 
 the facts of the physical world. But these facts are 
 personal. 
 
 Very well then, I shall be frankly " anthropo- 
 morphic," and that terrible anathema which the 
 agnostic pronounces upon the orthodox with all the 
 unction of an " abracadabra " shall for once be dis- 
 regarded. 
 
 Our definition says, " God is the Personal Spirit," 
 and as I study the history of Christian experience — 
 the test of the definition — I find it is this personal 
 aspect of God which has uplifted and sustained men 
 in the stress of suffering and persecution, and given 
 them peace and joy in the bitterness of bereavement 
 or in the article of death. Science dwells on the 
 vastness of God — the endless reaches of space, the 
 majesty of law. This is an aspect of the supreme 
 power, but not that aspect towards which we turn as 
 
MAY WE BELIEVE W GOD ? 335 
 
 children seeking help. We cannot follow Him through 
 space, we are lost in the desolate void. No doubt 
 to the pantheist who asserts the abstract essence as 
 over against the personality, this thought appeals, 
 but whatever be the truth of Pantheism, — and it 
 doubtless expresses a truth, — we are bound to say 
 if we accept the Christian revelation, that God may be 
 more than we can mean by personal, but he is not less. 
 The thought of God's vastness crushes, whereas we 
 need a conception of him which shall give us confidence 
 and courage. The evidence of experience is final, 
 that help comes through another channel, by the way 
 of a personal interpretation. 
 
 " God is the Personal Spirit, perfectly good, who 
 in holy love creates, sustains and orders all." On 
 whose witness do we say that ? On the witness of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 If we resist the tendency to narrow knowledge 
 and insist on raising it to the highest terms, what are 
 the highest terms in the range of human experience ? 
 
 Again it is the witness of Jesus Christ. Now let 
 us keep close to experience ; what as an historical 
 fact, is that witness ? First of all, if we are to interpret 
 the gospels and the history of the church we are bound 
 to say again that it is the witness of personality. The 
 Gospel is the story of an incarnation, the Gospel is the 
 assertion that in Jesus " God and man came together 
 in a single individual life " — in short the Gospel is 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 I am not making a theological assertion of my 
 own. I am not even confining myself to the evidence 
 of the New Testament. I am trying to discover the 
 
33^ JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 spiritual and social dynamic of twenty centuries — 
 and I find it not only in the teaching and death, in the 
 life and the message, but in the person of Jesus. 
 
 History points to him as the supreme interpreter 
 of the divine music — of that " deep power of harmony " 
 in which " we see into the life of things " — the inter- 
 preter of God. 
 
 Let me put it as it has come to me and to many 
 more. As our human minds are constituted there can 
 in the nature of the case be no revelation of God except 
 in human terms, terms we can understand with human 
 faculties. A God who is unrelated to man by human 
 ties is a God who must remain for ever unknowable 
 and remote. Very well then. Read in the history 
 of the human race the story of man groping after God. 
 Here and there he catches a gleam of the heavenly 
 radiance, hears the " rustling of garments of the Lord." 
 In Egypt, India, China, Persia, Greece, men have 
 gathered something of eternal truth. We find it 
 scattered in their literature, their old books tell us 
 what they saw. But the vision was imperfect. Truth 
 flickered, flaming high in Socrates and Plato, sinking 
 low in the Egyptian Priest. Hope and knowledge 
 were uncertain. Pessimism lurked at the heart of the 
 Hindoo philosophy, and Plato longed for a sure and 
 certain raft — some Divine word upon which men 
 might make perchance a safe harbour from life's 
 stormy sea. 
 
 Into the twilight of the world steps the pure child 
 of God. He was the dawn. With Him came daylight. 
 The sun shone above the hills. What had been dim 
 was clear. " I and the Father are one." The great 
 
MAY WE BELIEVE IN GOD? 337 
 
 gulf between man and God is bridged. The heavens 
 like brass are pierced. God has spoken in human 
 language. He has made Himself known on His human 
 side. He has interpreted His own character and will 
 in a life lived under human conditions, and has 
 brought Himself within our human comprehension. In 
 nature there is mystery. The mystery of unequal 
 suffering, of pain, sin, and the terror of death, of the 
 cruel struggle for survival, the preying of the strong 
 upon the weak, of " nature red in tooth and claw." 
 But through the dark veil which hid God from man 
 comes a crowned figure with this speech upon his lips : 
 " Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the 
 world." To the slave of doubt and fear he gives his 
 hand. Life has had no meaning, no adequate ideal or 
 purpose. " Take up thy cross and follow me." Cer- 
 tain facts of nature have seemed to you to fight 
 strongly against a belief in the love of God. " Come 
 unto me and I will give you rest." 
 
 What is there inherently impossible in this move- 
 ment of God towards man ? Apart altogether from 
 historical evidence, the gathering witness of experience, 
 the continued and growing vitality of the Christian 
 view of life, which have somehow or other to be ac- 
 counted for, why may we not freely accept the claim 
 of Christ to be the revealer of the Father and render 
 him gladly the homage of intellect and heart ? 
 
 We are assuming the truth of the Christian view 
 of God, God a loving, holy, personal spirit. But what 
 does that involve ? We forget sometimes that love 
 is the most intense and active principle in the whole 
 range of spiritual experience. The most loving per- 
 
33§ JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 sonality we know is always the strongest in self-sacrifice, 
 the richest in sympathy, the tenderest in charity, the 
 one who enters most deeply into the lives of others. 
 He is never self-centred, he is always reaching out, 
 seeking to serve. This is our human experience. 
 If we say God is love, can His love be less or other than 
 ours ? People sometimes talk loosely of their belief 
 in love as an abstraction, as if an indefinable atmos- 
 phere of passive, impersonal good nature could pervade 
 all things. But love cannot be either passive or im- 
 personal. Its nature demands that it be both active 
 and personal. Deprived of these attributes love 
 ceases to exist. Love must have volition, initiative, 
 direction, and love must have an object outside itself. 
 If God is love He must seek man, He must wish to help 
 him. He must be the sum of all the attributes which 
 are swallowed up in the meaning of love. If the 
 structure and action of our minds correspond to the 
 structure and method of things around us, if we find 
 the universe, whether illusion or reality, coherent and 
 intelligible, are we to draw an arbitrary line and say 
 that there cannot be a personality outside our own 
 with which we are able to correspond ? Upon what 
 principles of logic, what evidence of experience, do 
 we defend such a view ? What for example will you 
 make of the existence from a remote past of the in- 
 stinct of prayer ? 
 
 Experience is against us. Men have accepted 
 the saying, " I and the Father are one," not on the 
 mere authority of the Gospels, but because it has borne 
 the test of time and satisfied their craving. Jesus, 
 pure, holy and selfless, in the agony of Gethsemane, 
 
MAY WE BELIEVE IN GOD? 339 
 
 and on the cross, is the accepted witness to the suffering 
 love of a personal Father, one who cares, who grieves 
 over sin, and is wounded in His heart by every trans- 
 gression. Men have felt the strong drawing of that 
 passionate yearning which broke forth in the cry 
 "Father forgive them for they know not what they 
 do," and they have yielded their will to the higher and 
 stronger will of one whom they have come to recognise 
 as a saviour, finding in this surrender a peace that 
 nothing could destroy. Remember this is not specu- 
 lative theology, but a statement of experience, an 
 experience, moreover, illustrated in the victory of 
 countless souls over sin and death. We are but 
 pseudo-scientific if we contemptuously brush aside 
 such evidence as of no account in a serious analysis 
 of the forces and realities of life. 
 
 I repeat that if the witness of Jesus means any- 
 thing, it means that God is not unrelated and im- 
 personal, but that He is in spiritual contact with men, 
 intelligible like the universe to human consciousness, 
 that His love is not intangible but real, and corres- 
 ponds to human love ; that His character is like our 
 character but pure and perfect, that He knows and 
 understands us and that we can know and understand 
 Him. 
 
 " By all that He requires of me," says Whittier, 
 " I know what God Himself must be," and by the 
 obligations of human love, by the witness of Jesus 
 Christ, we may know and see the character of God 
 upon His human side. In Jesus we hear the beating of 
 the Father's heart, and touch the hidden spring of 
 the Divine Passion. 
 
340 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 This at least is the strongest and most hopeful 
 faith in the world to-day. Whatever our own may 
 be, we must recognise its wonderful attraction — its 
 drawing power. Close the Gospels for ever, erase 
 the name of Jesus from the literature and the memory 
 of men, and a dark shadow falls upon the world. A 
 view of God full of solace and comfort disappears, 
 and we are left to brood helpless once more over the 
 mysteries of space and time. The divine music dies, 
 and we hear again the roar and clang of the machinery 
 of the universe. 
 
 Is there not in this evidence, so imperfectly 
 marshalled, an indication of the true line of advance ? 
 We may believe in God but it must be an affair of the 
 heart. We must be willing to make the venture of 
 faith, to learn the virtue of self-sacrifice, to take with 
 Christ the form of a servant, and with him to live 
 within self-imposed limits for the sake of doing good. 
 Step by step as we approach Christ experimentally, 
 see with his eyes of tender pity, feel with his heart the 
 burden of the world, we shall be learning to know the 
 Father. 
 
 For man such faith is an end worth striving after, 
 for, in the language of Erskine, it will rescue him from the 
 uncertainties of time, by giving him a secure standing 
 place in the eternal purpose of God. 
 
 " O Lord and Master of us all ! 
 Whate'er our name or sign, 
 We own Thy sway, we hear Thy call, 
 We test our lives by Thine. 
 
 " Thou judgest us ; Thy purity 
 Doth all our lusts condemn ; 
 
MAY WE BELIEVE IN GOD? 341 
 
 The love that draws us nearer Thee 
 Is hot with wrath to them. 
 
 " To Thee our full humanity, 
 Its joys and pains, belong ; 
 The wrong of man to man on Thee 
 Inflicts a deeper wrong. 
 
 " We faintly hear, we dimly see, 
 In differing phrase we pray ; 
 But, dim or clear, we own in Thee 
 The Light, the Truth, the Way ! 
 
 " The homage that we render Thee 
 Is still our Father's own ; 
 Nor jealous claim nor rivalry 
 Divides the Cross and Throne. 
 
 "To do Thy will is more than praise, 
 As words are less than deeds, 
 And simple trust can find Thy ways 
 We miss with chart of creeds. 
 
 " No pride of self Thy service hath, 
 No place for me and mine ; 
 Our human strength is weakness, death 
 Our life, apart from Thine. 
 
 " Apart from Thee all gain is loss, 
 All labour vainly done ; 
 The solemn shadow of Thy Cross 
 Is better than the sun. 
 
 " Alone, O love ineffable ! 
 Thy saving name is given ; 
 To turn aside from Thee is hell, 
 To walk with Thee is heaven ! "* 
 
 * Whittier. '-•- Our Master." 
 
III. 
 
 WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE INDIVIDUAL ? 
 
 Scripture portion — 2 Cor. v. 14-21. 
 
 TWO weeks ago we discussed the question " May 
 we believe in God ? " In seeking an answer 
 we took three points of view : — 
 
 1. The Intellectual. 
 
 2. The Scientific. 
 
 3. The Personal. 
 
 We rejected the first not because we despise the 
 intellect, or belittle its place in religious life. That 
 would be a crowning folly in these days of sloppy 
 and superficial thought, when men mistake spiced 
 rhetoric for spiritual fervours, and the garnished 
 paganism of the doctrine of force for Christian Gospel. 
 Deep, serious thinking is a most desirable discipline 
 for this hasty, pleasure-loving age, and as a condition 
 of true progress is alike indispensable whether we are 
 engaged in the spiritual or the social aspects of the 
 religious problem. 
 
 We rejected what we have labelled the intellectual 
 method of finding God because by itself the intellectual 
 method, that is the method of proceeding by the 
 processes of pure reason and logical sequence is proved 
 futile or inadequate in experience. A young American 
 
 34* 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE INDIVIDUAL ? 343 
 
 who had been sent to a theological college wrote after 
 six weeks' residence to his father that he guessed he 
 had learnt all there was to know about God — what 
 was he to do next ? He is an effective caricature of 
 a type which finds its philosophy of life cheap and 
 ready made, of men who live not deeply but pleasantly 
 so the wind but favour their sails, optimists in blinkers, 
 whose motto is evasion, who shirk life's sterner facts, 
 who never practise their spiritual sinews in the wrest- 
 ling of faith, but draw down the blinds of a comfortable 
 domesticity against the solemn realities of Eternal 
 Truth. 
 
 For them doubtless anything is good enough, but 
 the serious seeker cannot find God at the end of a chain 
 of argument, because on the one hand, God is some- 
 thing more than a philosophical product, the " Ergo " 
 of the logician, and on the other, because the wounds 
 of the broken-hearted, stricken with life's deepest 
 sorrow, in the desolation of bereavement or heavy 
 under the burden of sin, can find no comfort in the 
 crackle of scholastic parchment. 
 
 We rejected what we have labelled the scientific 
 method of finding God, not because we have any fear 
 of science, not because we deprecate its vigorous 
 search after scientific truth, its methods or its con- 
 clusions, when confined to their proper sphere. That 
 would be to make the cardinal error of separating 
 God from His world and of refusing to find Him in 
 Nature. If we believe that the revelation of God is 
 coherent and continuous, we must believe that there 
 are no gaps without God in the Universe. We must 
 welcome every new fact, whether from the hands of 
 
344 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Darwin or Huxley, and whether or not it disturbs 
 the comfort of those accustomed ideas of the cosmo- 
 gony which too often we confound with faith. 
 
 But the " Nature " of Science is not and never 
 can be the God of the human heart. Nor can science 
 alone reveal Him to us. Nature as understood by 
 science, and treated as the only revelation to the 
 exclusion of the Christian conception of the Eternal 
 Fatherhood, becomes, as Sabatier tells us in his " Out- 
 lines of a Philosophy of Religion," a "formidable 
 screen erected between ourselves and God, destroying 
 hope and quenching prayer." 
 
 Its enigmas are so terrible, its evidence of law 
 so crushing, its fatalism so complete. 
 
 In this connection I quoted Professor Clarke : — 
 "The reality of such a being," that is of a God to 
 whom we can reach out in the need of our souls just as 
 children reach out their little hands to their mother 
 in the dark, " can be formally established only by 
 concurrent reasons coming from various realms of 
 existence and approved by various powers of the 
 human spirit." 
 
 We do not indeed absolutely reject the intellectual 
 and scientific when we turn to what I call the personal 
 method of finding God, we reject them only as in 
 themselves insufficient, and adopt the personal method, 
 the method of the heart, because experience teaches 
 that this is the method by which alone the others 
 become valid. 
 
 I have described this method as personal because 
 that description defines what are, in the nature of the 
 case, the conditions of any real knowledge of Divine 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE INDIVIDUAL ? 345 
 
 Truth. We are personal, finite beings. Our powers 
 of apprehension are personal and finite. If God 
 cannot interpret Himself in human language, the 
 language of the personal and the finite, then He must 
 remain forever unrevealed and unknowable to man. 
 He may be there, but the point of contact is missing. 
 There may, for example, be civilization in Europe, 
 but the savages in some undiscovered forest of South 
 America who live for the chase and whose blow-pipes 
 are the only symbol of their superiority over the 
 brutes, can know nothing of it. The means of know- 
 ledge, the points of contact, are missing. They 
 would need a visitor from Europe to teach them what 
 the higher life of our civilization might mean, and 
 would only begin to understand him when he stooped 
 to their intelligence and spoke in their tongue. Even 
 as music demands an interpreter before it can flood the 
 soul with its divine harmony, so God demands an 
 interpreter before the heart can recognise that which 
 it forever seeks and craves to know and feel. 
 
 If the contemporary witness of men and women 
 and the cumulative experience of twenty centuries 
 is to count for evidence, it must be taken as an attested 
 fact that we find the supreme personal contact with the 
 invisible God in Jesus Christ. What is the signifi- 
 cance of that contact ? In other words, if this be true, 
 and its truth, remember, must be tested by experience 
 rather than by argument, " What has Jesus to say to 
 the Individual ? " If in him the veil is pierced, the 
 terror of death taken away, the meaning and purpose 
 of fife revealed, if in him we may find the musician 
 who plays on our heart-strings the melodies of God, 
 
346 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 the great interpreter, what is the burden of that 
 music ? What is the interpretation ? 
 
 Now in answering this question we must be 
 careful to avoid as far as we can the use of theological 
 terms. They are not satisfying. There has been far 
 too much scholasticism in our treatment of the person 
 and work of Christ. The cry " Back to Christ," 
 though it means many things, means also, if not 
 primarily, this, — that men have grown weary of seeking 
 spiritual food in doctrinal formulae. They have 
 lost the human touch of Jesus. Theology has pro- 
 ceeded so often apart from the actual experience of the 
 soul, it has so often confounded Roman Jurisprudence 
 with spiritual law, and treated the subtle fabric of 
 spiritual life as if it were capable of mathematical 
 measurement, that it has lost sight of the terrible 
 pressure of our need for human relationship with God. 
 
 Consider for a moment the significant cult of the 
 Virgin. We may interest ourselves if we like with 
 the mythological origins, and trace the worship of 
 Mary to the adoration of the female principle in 
 creation which under its various forms is to be found 
 all over the world. But surely the practical meaning 
 of this phenomenon is this, — that the tender warmth 
 and human attractiveness of the personality and 
 teaching of Jesus have been destroyed or hidden by 
 the cold, harsh and repellent theological interpretation 
 which has been forced upon them. The human 
 craving for Divine Love, barred from Jesus, has sought 
 refuge in the mother heart of the Virgin, has carried 
 over to her that conception of God which Jesus really 
 gave. Nay, I will go further and state my belief that 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE INDIVIDUAL ? 347 
 
 the fact of what we call " Unitarianism " may be 
 attributed very largely to the same cause. Tender 
 spirits more truly baptized than many who acknow- 
 ledge the title of Christian in its accepted sense have 
 been revolted by the " Jesus " of orthodoxy, and have 
 been driven to find direct in God that thought of the 
 Eternal Fatherhood to which Jesus in his life of perfect 
 filial obedience first gave vitality and power. 
 
 To my mind both these positions have their 
 peculiar dangers. The worship of the Virgin resting 
 as it does on no adequate historical basis, and in itself 
 an unconscious compromise with truth, is liable to 
 superstition, and the Unitarian view, so essentially 
 Christian in spirit and often so beautiful in its expres- 
 sion, runs the terrible risk of becoming de-humanized 
 in the absence of a personal focus. The conscious 
 acknowledgment of Jesus as a movement of God 
 towards man, as the bearer of a saving revelation of 
 Truth, seems to me of more than mere intellectual 
 importance, for experience as a whole, does, I think, 
 sufficiently witness that the vision of the Fatherhood, 
 when it comes to us through the medium of the suffering 
 Christ, is imbued with a wonderful fulness of spiritual 
 power, and is able to touch the springs of the heart's 
 devotion as no other expression of Truth has ever done 
 in the long story of the human race. 
 
 In saying this Christians do not pass moral judg- 
 ment upon those who differ from them. They have 
 no right to do so. Too often in the practical witness 
 of everyday life we have miserably limited and dis- 
 torted the teaching and the witness of the Lord whom 
 we would serve. During the last great struggle inj 
 
348 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 South Africa few have been more faithful in their 
 protest against the degrading passions of the war- 
 spirit than the Unitarian, and when we remember 
 some of the sentiments so loudly expressed by pro- 
 fessing Christians, who, forgetting the sad figure in the 
 garden of Gethsemane, hastened to espouse a Hebrew 
 God of Battles in their eagerness to justify their 
 country, we may well be dumb. 
 
 There is indeed no sign of grace, despite the dark 
 symptoms of prevailing materialism, more full of hope 
 than the gathering determination to get behind the 
 symbols of speech and the doctrines of the creeds, to 
 the spiritual reality underlying them all. For long 
 years it has seemed as if we were witnessing the steady 
 attrition of faith subjected to the continual and 
 effective bombardment of an informed and powerful 
 criticism. But at last there are signs of change, signs 
 of positive results arising out of what seemed a purely 
 negative process. It is true that in the last hundred 
 years more books have been written about Jesus 
 than in any other century of the Christian era. The 
 interest deepens. Whether we approach from the 
 standpoint of the avowed agnostic or of the devout 
 believer we must feel as though the world were trem- 
 bling on the brink of a great spiritual discovery, as 
 if in these modern days we were about to receive a 
 clearer vision of God, a great fresh unfolding of His 
 Will and of His Divine Sympathy, which will touch 
 the heart of modern culture even as the fervid gospel 
 of Wesley and Whitefield reached the buried life of the 
 down-trodden and outcast in eighteenth century 
 England. There is hope that the fruit of what we call 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE INDIVIDUAL ? 349 
 
 " Modern thought," which, by the way, is strangely 
 old, may be a richer life, a deeper unity, a melting 
 of the hard lines of division between sect and sect, 
 and that in the dissolution of stereotyped creeds we 
 may find true brotherhood in a fuller interpretation 
 of God's Fatherhood, and unite in a living fellowship 
 under the sway of the Christ's compelling power. 
 Creeds are milestones, doctrines are interpretations ; 
 Truth, as George Fox was continually asserting, a seed 
 with the power of growth, not a fixed crystal, be its 
 facets never so beautiful. 
 
 We shall be right, then, if we keep as close as we 
 can to experience as our guide, and answer the question 
 " What has Jesus to say to the Individual ? " in the 
 simple, untaught speech of unprofessional laymen. 
 
 If a thoughtful person were reading the gospels 
 for the first time and were asked what he judged to be 
 the dominant note of the message of Jesus, I think the 
 answer would certainly be " The Fatherhood of God." 
 
 What do I mean by that ? The fatherhood of 
 God and the brotherhood of man are unfortunately 
 stock platform phrases and find but a weak illustration 
 in the practical ways of shrewd, self-seeking business 
 life — the life of the majority. 
 
 I will put it this way : — Here is the world with its 
 tangible facts. I study it and find law everywhere, 
 in the minutest cranny of the remotest mountains, 
 in the Stardust on the deep ocean floor, in the common 
 daisy and the rarest hothouse bloom, in the smallest 
 insect and in the elephant — it is all one. I cannot 
 escape from it. I consider myself. I am one of 
 millions, coming and going. I too am in the grip of 
 
350 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 law, no account is apparently taken of my personal 
 desires except in so far as they subserve this common 
 law. I know absolutely nothing of a previous exist- 
 ence, absolutely nothing at first hand of a future 
 existence. I see just what I do see and no more. I 
 am like a cyclist on a dark night : the lamp of my 
 reason and experience lights up just a very little of my 
 road. But with this difference : I am not propelling 
 my bicycle, and I cannot see what or who it is who 
 controls the handle bars. I see no home lights in the 
 gloaming shining for me, and yet however much I 
 may long to dismount from my machine of life, how- 
 ever much I may dread my goal, I must go on. Must, 
 and the darkness is very great. For example, I love 
 someone dearly, my whole life is wrapped up in that 
 life, the life of my friend, in closest unity of heart 
 and sentiment. Suddenly in a few days, in a few 
 hours, an unforeseen disease develops. Death strikes 
 with savage knife. That friend is taken from me. 
 I hear nothing, I see nothing more of him. I do not 
 know where he is gone. I am left alone. All the 
 little things we did and planned together bring a sharp 
 pain to the heart as I think of them. They can never 
 be again. Never. The future is desolate, the present 
 is filled with an intolerable ache of hopeless longing. 
 I pray till my heart breaks, but 
 
 " no answer from on high 
 Breaks the crystal spheres of silence, 
 And no white wings downward fly." 
 
 Again I reflect. This world is one of millions, 
 perhaps the most powerful telescope can only reveal 
 our neighbours, perhaps there are not only worlds 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE INDIVIDUAL ? 351 
 
 beyond worlds but systems of worlds beyond systems, 
 without any end, perhaps they are all or mostly peopled 
 and the hosts of individual souls are without number. 
 Then who am I ? Shall I not be cast as rubbish to the 
 void ? Can I, even I, count for anything in this vast 
 scheme of things. In this ordered chaos of blind fate, 
 can there be a meaning which will satisfy my hungry 
 heart ? 
 
 Suddenly I hear these words : — " Are not two 
 sparrows sold for a farthing ? and not one of them 
 shall fall upon the ground without your Father : but 
 the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear 
 not therefore : ye are of more value than many spar- 
 rows. Every one therefore who shall confess me 
 before men, him will I also confess before my Father 
 who is in heaven." 
 
 " Your Father, my Father who is in heaven." 
 Who said that ? Jesus. Ah ! but it may be a gloss, 
 an interpolation, something borrowed from Hillel, 
 who knows ? How can I be sure that he said it. 
 How can I know that it is true ? Look abroad, what 
 do you find ? Others suffering like you and passing 
 through a like experience into a holy peace. How 
 can they be peaceful and patient when you are hopeless 
 and sad ? Question them. They will tell you that 
 the love of Jesus Christ has comforted them, that in 
 learning to know him they have learnt to know God 
 as a loving Father, that the presence of His love and 
 the sense of His sympathy is so real and abiding that 
 against the seeming cruelty of a bitter bereavement, 
 there is no rebellion but through it all a sense of sweet 
 surrender to a Heavenly Will. 
 
352 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 " I know not," (says one of these) " where His islands lift 
 Their fronded palms in air, 
 I only know I cannot drift 
 Beyond His love and care." 
 
 Climb the ladder of history. In every age you 
 will find this human witness to the power of the reve- 
 lation of Jesus, until you come step by step to Jesus 
 himself. In the biographies of saints, the sufferings 
 of martyrs, the daily itinerary of wayfaring men, in the 
 experience of cultured and ignorant, rich and poor, 
 slave and free, the chain of evidence is unbroken. 
 Why should you set it aside ? It has its source in the 
 dynamic personality of the suffering Christ. In the 
 face of this broadening stream of influence you are not 
 compelled to found your belief on an isolated text. 
 Moreover the words quoted from Matthew are har- 
 monious with the whole atmosphere of the Gospels, and 
 whatever may be true of passages or fragments, no 
 historical or literary criticism of real weight and 
 insight will tolerate the supposition that they are 
 altogether false. Read any able rationalist book, and 
 there are none more able than J. M. Robertson's, and 
 you will feel that while there may be much or little 
 to modify in the historical details, the attempt to 
 destroy the historicity of Jesus, or to deny him his 
 broad characteristics as we know them in the pages 
 of the New Testament, lands . us in the insuperable 
 difficulty of explaining the Christian Church, and still 
 more the living power of Christianity, in progressive 
 religious and social thought and life to-day. You 
 cannot dig a huge hole in history and expect us to be 
 satisfied if no attempt is made to fill it up. Yet in 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE INDIVIDUAL ? 353 
 
 effect that is what the rationalist plea amounts to. 
 All this evidence of trustful faith in the love of a 
 Heavenly Father, even when victoriously submitted 
 to the sternest tests of which life is capable, is to go 
 for nothing. The fact that before Christ there is no 
 similar force of comforting assurance is to be lightly 
 regarded, and the profound gulf which separates the 
 life and death of Socrates, beautiful and moving though 
 it was, from the life and death of Jesus, is to have no 
 significance. I think we may safely say that, be the exact 
 historical truth about Jesus what it may, there came 
 with him into the life of men a unique revelation of the 
 Fatherhood of God — of a Divine love and sympathy, 
 tender, infinite in its scope, caring individually for the 
 countless millions of individual souls. True or false, 
 this revelation has been of the deepest moment, it has 
 profoundly influenced civilization, and is directly or 
 indirectly influencing it now. The pain of death and 
 the mystery of life do, as a matter of tested experience, 
 lose their terrors for those who are able, in the faith of 
 God's Fatherhood, to fall back upon the strength of 
 His everlasting arms. And as for the rationalists. 
 I know nothing more wildly irrational than the chaos 
 of a universe where trustful love is a delusion and all 
 the deepest instincts of the human heart have no 
 correspondence with outward reality. Such a universe 
 is unthinkable — a dreadful nightmare. From the 
 loneliness of the noblest pagans, as of all those without 
 a sense of God, or oppressed with the weight of this 
 weary world, the littleness of life and the uncertain 
 hope of immortality, the Fatherhood of God has 
 redeemed us. 
 
 21 
 
354 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 But are we to stop here ? Is this all that the 
 revelation of Jesus implies ? Does he simply draw 
 aside the veil which hid the Father from us, or is there 
 more ? I think there is, and although it really flows 
 from the revelation of the Fatherhood, we will treat 
 it as a second and distinct consideration. 
 
 It is this, that in his message to the Individual, Jesus 
 says that Unity between Man and God is possible. 
 
 Here again we are not dependent upon texts but 
 have a " cloud of witnesses " who testify by their lives 
 and writings that the veil between flesh and spirit is 
 only thin to the eye of faith. Such men and women 
 as St. Teresa and John Woolman, Mme. Guyon and 
 George Fox, tell us in their different language the 
 same story. They trusted the message of Jesus and 
 they found, knew and possessed the love of God in 
 their hearts. There can be no question that this 
 possession was real, or if it was delusion then reality 
 has no meaning. Delusive love does not radiate real 
 warmth, and we have the witness of contemporaries 
 to its magnetic and uplifting power. 
 
 But let us accept this and take our consideration 
 under review, — that unity between man and God is 
 possible. There are two things that would make it 
 impossible : — 
 
 First, the intellectual inability to see and know 
 God, an inability removed by the revelation 
 of the Fatherhood. 
 Second, the love of fleshly things, absorption in 
 the lower or animal life, the deliberate choice 
 of what, in the light of a higher revelation, 
 we know to be evil, — in a word, sin. 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE INDIVIDUAL? 355 
 
 How is the second obstacle to be removed ? 
 What is the bearing of the teaching of the Fatherhood 
 upon this terrible cause of separation ? 
 
 Here we approach the central difficulties of the 
 Christian position. It is in dealing with this aspect 
 of the life of the soul that the use of theological terms, 
 terms borrowed from the law-courts, or from the old 
 Jewish Rabbis, taken bodily from an ancient civili- 
 zation with its oriental modes of thought and ex- 
 pression, and set down, so to speak, without due 
 adjustment or deduction, in our modern western life, 
 has done untold mischief. There is nothing in the 
 statement of Christian truth that is more generally 
 unsatisfying than the doctrine of the Atonement. 
 There is nothing that needs to be stated with more 
 careful regard to the use of terms, or which needs more 
 emphatically a reinterpretation in closer accord with 
 the facts of the spiritual life. Unreality is so generally 
 felt in this connection that the doctrine of the Atone- 
 ment is gradually being left out of the pulpit reper- 
 toire, and unfortunately a good deal is going with it 
 that ought to be retained. Let us endeavour to keep 
 to the rules we have already laid down, and express 
 in as simple language as may be, what is involved in 
 the removal of sin as a barrier between man and God. 
 In making this statement I would urge three 
 governing considerations : — 
 
 First, that we should test everything by Christ's 
 conception of the Fatherhood of God. What- 
 ever is inconsistent with that view, as we 
 gather it from the Gospel narratives, must 
 be dismissed. 
 
356 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Secondly, that we keep steadily before us the 
 conditions of Paul's education, his Rabbinical 
 training, the atmosphere of Jewish tradition 
 which formed his environment, and hold 
 ourselves prepared to translate his language 
 into modern terms which, while they express 
 his inner meaning, discard his symbolism, 
 much of which is not only offensive but un- 
 intelligible to the uninstructed Western mind. 
 Thirdly, that we put out of our thoughts all 
 theological battle cries, and approach the 
 question from the standpoint of men, con- 
 scious of shortcomings and sin, who long for 
 a living and saving knowledge of Eternal Truth. 
 I leave the doctrinal and scripture proof texts, 
 which by the by, are generally torn up violently by 
 the roots from the soil in which they grew and thrown 
 about as missiles, regardless of the controlling signifi- 
 cance of the little word context, — and make my state- 
 ment in the light on the one hand of Christ's teaching 
 of God's Fatherhood, and on the other of man's spiritual 
 need. 
 
 To take up the proof texts one by one would be 
 to set the cart before the horse. We must first clearly 
 grasp the root idea, and then we shall be at leisure 
 to examine the proof texts as we please. This, I think, 
 must be a private occupation, not only because time 
 fails us, but because the public discussion of a series 
 of isolated texts is the same thing as not seeing the 
 wood for the trees. 
 
 In the first place then, the revelation of the 
 Fatherhood of God is unquestionably implied in the 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE INDIVIDUAL ? 357 
 
 parable of the Prodigal Son. It is implied or directly 
 stated elsewhere again and again, but nowhere is it 
 suggested in such tender and luminous form. God is 
 represented as loving the sinner and forgiving him 
 because of his repentance. There is no suggestion of 
 any other condition — indeed the Elder Son is rebuked 
 because he grumbles at what he regards as the excessive 
 attention paid to his erring brother. This little touch 
 seems designed expressly to emphasize the simplicity 
 of the terms upon which the sinner gains or regains 
 the Divine favour. Now let us translate this from the 
 eastern parable into the conditions of our own ex- 
 perience. You are a father. A son of yours breaks 
 away and goes wrong. He lives among dissolute 
 companions, out of sight, out of touch with you and 
 your ideas of life. You mourn in your heart for him. 
 Your life is saddened by this great sorrow, for, of 
 course, you love him, notwithstanding. Something, 
 some circumstance or some holy influence, no matter 
 what, converts your son to your view of life. He 
 bitterly regrets his wasted years. He returns and 
 asks forgiveness in full and sincere repentance. What 
 do you do ? Do you hold him at arm's length and talk 
 about satisfying your sense of justice ? Do you say 
 that in order to forgive, some one else must be punished 
 on his behalf ? Nothing of the kind. All the pent- 
 up love of years flows out at the instant as you clasp 
 him to your breast. He might have had that love 
 at any moment for the asking, upon the one condition 
 of repentance, which indeed would be the condition 
 of his desire. But has there been no punishment ? 
 Assuredly ; there is never repentance without punish- 
 
358 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 ment. Repentance implies shame and bitter regret 
 for what has been wrongly done, it implies the pain 
 of acknowledged shortcoming, it implies the smart 
 and rankle of an uneasy conscience and injured self- 
 esteem. Repentance is the burning out of the old sin, 
 the cauterizing of the wounds of the soul, it is, it must 
 be, a painful and an arduous process. And on the 
 other side, you as a father have been bearing the burden 
 of your son's sin. It has been a heavy weight upon 
 your heart. It has taken away the sunshine from your 
 life. Your son has been crucifying you, and you have 
 borne pain for his sake. More than that, you have 
 prayed and agonized for him in the secret of your 
 closet. You have suffered vicariously — suffered for 
 him. 
 
 Now suppose it is true that God was really in 
 Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. Find me 
 anything in the teaching and life of Jesus to suggest 
 that the love and character of God are of a different 
 stamp of goodness from that to which Jesus calls us. 
 Does not the grand truth of His revelation lie rather 
 in this, that in a unique Divine-Human Personality 
 we find not a yawning gulf separating us hopelessly 
 from God, but a point of living contact, a witness to 
 the essential unity in character which binds man to 
 God and God to man ? "I show you the Father," 
 he says, and " I and the Father are one. I stoop to 
 speak your language, to tell you of a higher civili- 
 zation, a kingdom of heaven, and because I stoop to 
 come within the reach of your intelligence, therefore 
 the Father is greater than I, the creator is beyond 
 your finite comprehension. But nevertheless in His 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE INDIVIDUAL ? 359 
 
 essential character He is comprehensible. His love, 
 His sympathy I show you here in my life and in its 
 extreme issue upon the cross." There is nothing here, 
 nothing whatever, to justify a departure from the 
 teaching of that wonderful parable of the Prodigal Son. 
 God loves and forgives just in the same spirit in which 
 a good earthly father loves and forgives. Ah, but you 
 say, this destroys the terror of the Lord. If it is 
 possible to come to God whenever we like, you say in 
 effect, " Sin just as long as you please, and then when 
 you are tired of it, give it up and turn to God." This 
 might be a valid objection were it not for the condition 
 of repentance. Sin carries its own bitter punishment 
 with it, lust breeds satiety and loathing, and selfishness 
 breeds a morose and sour spirit, joyless as a sub- 
 terranean cavern. Hell is separation from God, and 
 the longer we live in hell the harder it is to escape. 
 Character congeals, as it grows it stiffens, and takes 
 shape, ugly or beautiful according to our absence from 
 God or His presence with us. There is indeed nothing 
 weak or effeminate in the goodness of God as Jesus 
 unfolds it. We speak of Jesus as the revealer, but 
 remember that if he is the revealer of the Father, he 
 is also the revealer of the sin that separates Him from 
 His children. Let me quote Sabatier again : — 
 
 " So far from blunting the edge of the moral law, He 
 sharpens it as one sharpens a dissecting knife in order the 
 better to pierce the living flesh and penetrate to the very 
 joints and marrow ; He infinitely enhances the demands of 
 the traditional ideal ; from the outward act He descends 
 to the inward feeling ; He makes lust equal to adultery, 
 and anger or hatred to murder itself. He tells His disciples 
 to love their enemies, to pray for those who persecute 
 
360 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 them, to answer violence by gentleness, and injuries by 
 love. He speaks thus not to weaken the vigour of righteous- 
 ness, but because He sees in love and gentleness a higher 
 righteousness, and the sole means of securing the final 
 triumph of good over evil. That is why the righteousness of 
 His friends exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and 
 Pharisees. It is no longer dictated by an outward letter, 
 but it has, for soul, the very spirit of the Father, and, for 
 inward rule, the ideal the Master has lit up in the conscience : 
 " ' Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.' " 
 
 Yet more, Jesus is not only the revealer of the 
 Fatherhood or of sin, he is the revealer of the agony 
 of God's heart under the burden of the sin of the world 
 — that agony which a good earthly father feels for a lost 
 and erring child. God knows the possibilities of the 
 higher civilization of the Kingdom of Heaven, and by 
 this He measures earth's failures. He sees under 
 every roof, into every heart, every drunken orgie, 
 every scene of lust and crime, every secret thought, 
 pure or foul, every motive, lofty or selfish, are naked 
 in His sight. Think how sin, seen in all its horrid 
 ugliness, must wound His purity, how His love, active 
 out-reaching, passionate, must yearn to save, to uplift 
 and to redeem. Here the witness of the cross has its 
 supreme mission. But what does the cross mean ? 
 It is alas, no uncommon stumbling block that theology 
 takes symbolism, an expressive or suggestive phrase, 
 literally, and works out its blundering theses upon 
 false assumptions. We talk, for example, of Jesus 
 as the Son. Certainly he was the Son in his relation 
 of perfect filial obedience to the Father, a relation in 
 which he is for us the Way, the Truth and the Life, 
 but I think we miss the deep significance of the cross, if 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE INDIVIDUAL ? 361 
 
 we set Jesus in antithesis to God and press the sym- 
 bolism of the son too far. " I and the Father are one." 
 That means to me that I think of God in terms of Jesus 
 Christ, that I pray to Jesus as representing the Father 
 to my consciousness, or to the Father as I see Him in 
 Jesus. Carry that thought to Calvary itself. See in 
 the Crucifixion not merely a martyr's death, not merely 
 a passing gleam of God's love, certainly not a sacrifice 
 to God carrying a legal significance, but in truth the 
 flashing into light of an eternal fact, the nature of 
 God's relation to sin, of the pain we inflict on His 
 heart by our own wrong doing. Here is the wonderful 
 dynamic of the Cross. God calls you to Him. He 
 shows you His suffering, He shows you the hatefulness 
 of the sin that caused it, and in showing you His love, 
 shows you the punishment of alienation from Him, 
 the hell of the unrepentant, in which we must remain 
 until repentance opens the gate for the prodigal and 
 gives entrance to the free forgiveness and love of the 
 Father's house. In Jesus, in his life, and his death 
 upon the cross, we are shown the nature of God, and the 
 possibilities that are within our reach. We are shown 
 the world as the Father sees it, are called to live in 
 harmony with His will and purpose, to hate the sins 
 that made Him mourn, to scale the barrier of sin and 
 discover that the way of penitence lies open and 
 direct to the Fatherly heart. No legal bargain, but a 
 spiritual conflict, an inward change, the rejection of 
 the living death of sin, the choice of the new birth, of 
 the purified self, the conversion from a low and earthly 
 to a high and spiritual standard of life and conduct, — 
 here you have the practical conditions of salvation, 
 
362 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 and in the active, free and holy love of God, ever 
 seeking entrance, ever powerful if we but yield the 
 gateway of our heart, is the substance of the Gospel. 
 The revelation of God's Fatherhood and the possibility 
 of unity with Him through Christ, meet the deep need 
 of the soul for a centre of repose apart from the transi- 
 tory interests and the things of time. Hear, then, 
 the gentle appeal " Come unto Me and rest." 
 
 " How sweet the name of Jesus sounds 
 In a believer's ear ; 
 It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, 
 And drives away his fear. 
 
 It makes the wounded spirit whole, 
 And calms the troubled breast ; 
 
 Tis manna to the hungry soul, 
 And to the weary rest. 
 
 " Dear Name, the Rock on which I build, 
 My shield and hiding-place, 
 My never-failing treasury, filled 
 With boundless stores of grace. 
 
 " Jesus, my Shepherd, Saviour, Friend, 
 My Prophet, Priest and King, 
 My -Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, 
 Accept the praise I bring. 
 
 " I would Thy boundless love proclaim 
 With every fleeting breath ; 
 So shall the music of Thy Name 
 Refresh my soul in death." 
 
IV. 
 WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE STATE? 
 
 Scripture portion — Galatians v. 13-25. 
 
 MANDELL CREIGHTON, late Bishop of London, 
 in a most interesting letter to an old friend 
 of his, writes as follows upon the subject-matter of 
 faith, — I quote fragmentarily : — 
 
 " Pure reason leads nowhere. It is not a beginning. 
 We act from the heart first, then the head explains. . . 
 Love is the motive power. Life is only explicable as part 
 of a general purpose, and our life is the development of our 
 personality. . . This thought explains and justifies 
 the nature of the revelation of God in Christ. God could 
 be known in nature, in conscience, in history, but if He was 
 to be thoroughly known, He must be known in a person. 
 So Christ stands, the central fount of personality, who 
 explains not my gifts, my attainments, my knowledge, 
 my capacities, but me, that which lies beyond these, uses 
 them, and gives them meaning and coherence. So He 
 stands, the sustainer of all men, and I am led to Him by 
 all . my experience. . . Relationships, founded on a 
 sense of lasting affection, are the sole realities of life. . . 
 Faith is personal trust in a person." 
 
 I read this letter after preparing my last paper, 
 " What has Jesus to say to the Individual ? " and the 
 sentences I quote from it seem to me both to sum up 
 our argument so far as we have conducted it, and to 
 introduce us to the question we have now to discuss, — 
 " What has Jesus to say to the State ? " 
 
 363 
 
364 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 If God has revealed His character in a personality 
 and if that personality is Jesus Christ, then we are able 
 to start from the knowledge of God's Fatherhood, we 
 are able to interpret that fatherhood as involving 
 active personal love for individual souls, freely and 
 continually given, and to recognise in repentance the 
 means by which we can convert the knowledge of the 
 Divine Love into a realised fact, consciously accepting 
 it as the propelling and guiding force in our lives, 
 We have recognised that the great barrier to a living 
 knowledge of God is not so much the mystery of being, 
 with its vision of the bottomless chasms of space and 
 the endless reaches of eternity, not so much difficulties 
 of intellectual apprehension, as it is the terrible fact of 
 sin, the conscious choice of selfish views of life, of mean 
 and unworthy ends which effectually prohibit that true 
 companionship with God which is the " saint's ever- 
 lasting rest." Unity with God implies unity with Him 
 in thought and action, what Paul meant by the mystic 
 phrase, " being hid with Christ in God." To achieve 
 this we have to burn out our old sins, to cauterize the 
 wounds of the soul, to give our desire for holiness and 
 God's desire for us, free play in our hearts. We have 
 to effect a dynamic union of that which is best in us, 
 with that which we know through Christ to be in the 
 Father. 
 
 Out of such a union there spring certain conse- 
 quences, both for the individual and for the state, 
 consequences which are summed up in the word 
 brotherhood, fruits which have been catalogued by an 
 Apostolic writer as "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, 
 kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control." 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE STATE ? 365 
 
 Unfortunately the brotherhood of man is now a 
 glib platitude, commonly accepted side by side with a 
 view of life which is largely at variance with the 
 essential spirit of brotherhood as expressed in Jesus. 
 
 We cannot, however, rest satisfied with mere 
 pious patter, and we must ask ourselves what brother- 
 hood ought to mean in recognised facts of experience, 
 when taken as the corollary of God's declared Father- 
 hood. 
 
 In the first place, then, the teaching of Jesus, 
 whether to the individual or to the state, is the teaching 
 of social love. Love cannot be self-contained. The 
 Gospels tell us this again and again in parables like that 
 of the good Samaritan, and in more direct teaching : 
 " He that rmdeth his life shall lose it, and he that 
 loseth his life for my sake shall find it." " Thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all 
 thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and 
 great commandment, and the second like unto it is 
 this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." 
 " Ye have heard that it was said Thou shalt love thy 
 neighbour and hate thine enemy, but I say unto 
 you, Love your enemies, and pray for them that 
 persecute you, that ye may be the sons of your Father 
 who is in heaven." 
 
 These are familiar not to say hackneyed quotations, 
 continually repeated if too seldom put in practice, 
 and sufficiently illustrate the justice of Mandell 
 Creighton's deduction : — " Relationships founded on 
 a sense of lasting affection are the sole realities of 
 life." 
 
 The revelation of Jesus is indeed a revelation of 
 
366 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 relationships, relationship with God, its character 
 and possibility, and relationship with man. God is 
 social, man is social, because God is Love, and because 
 love expresses itself through personal relationships. 
 
 Dr. Rufus Jones, in his " Social Law in the Spiritual 
 World," writes : — 
 
 " The older views of God regarded Him as being in 
 another world, of totally other nature from our own and 
 as being so absolute in Himself as to need nothing from 
 us. These views did not fit our New Testament, but had 
 been formed on the basis of a now dead philosophy and 
 had become fixed and traditional. The doctrine of the 
 conjunct and social nature of personality has made them 
 impossible views for those who think. We realise 
 now that our views of God must be grounded in 
 the eternal nature of things, and conform to the inherent 
 facts of personal life, and that means that this conjunct, 
 or spiritual ' group ' characteristic must run up to the 
 highest scale of life, that even God finds His life and joy 
 by going out of Himself and bringing other lives to Himself." 
 
 This view agrees at least with that prayer uttered 
 under the olive trees at night by the Son of man in 
 agony, " And the glory which thou hast given me I 
 have given unto them, that they may be one, even 
 as we are one ; I in them and thou in me that they 
 may be perfected into one." 
 
 And if we marvel how John could possibly have 
 set down such a prayer in writing, it is at least organic 
 with the whole life and teaching of the Master whom 
 he portrayed with such rare intuition and sympathy. 
 It is the teaching of the parable of the Vine and the 
 branches, the thought of the kingdom on earth as it is 
 in heaven. Professor Everett has put the case for us 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE STATE ? 367 
 
 in a modern version of the old imagery, found in his 
 " Immortality and other Essays." 
 
 " We ask the leaf, ' Are you complete in yourself ? ' and 
 the leaf answers, ' No, my life is in the branches.' We ask 
 the branch, and the branch answers, ' No, my life is in the 
 trunk.' We ask the trunk, and it answers, ' No, my life is 
 in the root.' We ask the root, and it answers, ' No, my life 
 is in the trunk and the branches and the leaves. Keep the 
 branches stripped of leaves and I shall die.' So it is with 
 the great tree of being. Nothing is completely or merely 
 individual." 
 
 No ! nothing is merely individual. The supreme 
 question of religion is personal salvation, the personal 
 struggle to overcome evil and escape from the prison 
 of selfishness into the freedom of sonship, but it is not 
 individual. If we seek our lives we lose them. One 
 of the most beautiful souls ever lit by the love of Christ 
 was John Woolman, a poor unlearned working man 
 of New Jersey, the friend of the slave and the apostle 
 of the simple life. 
 
 Upon one occasion he lay sick on his bed of 
 pleurisy. Hear what he says in that journal which 
 Channing called " the sweetest autobiography in the 
 language," and which Charles Lamb tells us to get by 
 heart. Lying as it were in a trance he forgot his own 
 name, — I quote his words : — 
 
 " Being then desirous to know who I was, I saw a 
 mass of matter of a dull gloomy colour, between the south 
 and the east ; and was informed that this mass was human 
 beings in as great misery as they could be and live, and 
 that I was mixed with them, and that henceforth I might 
 not consider myself as a distinct or separate being. In 
 this state I remained several hours. I then heard a soft 
 melodious voice, more pure and harmonious than any I 
 
368 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 had heard with my ears before ; I believed it was the voice 
 of an angel, who spake to the other angels ; the words 
 were — ' John Woolman is dead.' I soon remembered that 
 I was John Woolman, and being assured that I was alive 
 in the body, I greatly wondered what that heavenly voice 
 could mean. I believed beyond doubting that it was the 
 voice of an holy angel, but as yet it was a mystery to me. 
 
 " I was then carried in spirit to the mines, where poor 
 oppressed people were digging rich treasures for those called 
 Christians, and heard them blaspheme the name of Christ ; 
 at which I was grieved ; for His name to me was precious. 
 I was then informed that these heathen were told, that those 
 who oppressed them were the followers of Christ ; and they 
 said among themselves, ' if Christ directed them to use us 
 in this sort, then Christ is a cruel tyrant.' 
 
 "All this time the song of the angel remained a mystery ; 
 and in the morning, my dear wife and some others coming 
 to my bedside, I asked them if they knew who I was ; 
 and they telling me I was John Woolman, thought I was 
 light-headed ; for I told them not what the angel -said, 
 nor was I disposed to talk much to anyone, but was very 
 desirous to get so deep, that I might understand this 
 mystery. . . 
 
 " As I lay still for a time, I at length felt Divine power 
 prepare my mouth that I could speak ; and I then said, 
 ' I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live ; yet not I, 
 but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in 
 the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved 
 me and gave himself for me.' Then the mystery was opened, 
 and I perceived there was joy in heaven over a sinner 
 who had repented, and that the language ' John Woolman 
 is dead,' meant no more than the death of my own will." 
 
 Here is the practical meaning of the teaching of 
 Jesus, the flowering of Christian character in the 
 fragrance of its proper bloom. It is the justification 
 of the social gospel which men are preaching to-day. 
 And the Gospel must be social. What we understand 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE STATE ? 369 
 
 by Evangelicalism — that is the Gospel expressed in the 
 prevailing theology of fifty years ago, under the formula 
 of the plan of salvation, was strong in its personal note, 
 but its urgent plea to escape the wrath to come, 
 weakened at once the thought of God's Fatherhood 
 and its effective bearing on the oneness of humanity. 
 
 It almost became at times a " suave qui peut," 
 a hurried retreat, without thought of fallen comrades, 
 from the devastating range of the enemies' guns. I 
 shrink even from an unintentional travesty of a 
 movement which has worked miracles of redemption 
 amongst the lost and degraded of our kind, miracles 
 performed by men who felt that they must work as 
 firemen work to save the helpless from the flames of a 
 burning building. Yet this quotation from a notable 
 sermon on the " Resurrection of the Dead " has its 
 significance. I take it from an article in the November 
 issue of the Independent Review. 
 
 " When thou diest thy soul will be tormented alone ; 
 that will be a hell for it ; but at the Day of Judgment 
 thy body will join thy soul, and then thou wilt have twin 
 hells, thy soul sweating drops of blood and thy body 
 suffering with agony. In fire exactly like that we have on 
 earth thy body will be asbestos-like, for ever unconsumed, 
 all thy veins roads for the feet of pain to travel on, every 
 nerve a string on which the devil shall forever play his 
 diabolical tune of hell's unutterable lament." 
 
 Read that with the parable of the prodigal son ! 
 The thing is impossible. In the baleful gleam of those 
 post-mortem terrors it is not difficult to see that the 
 affairs of this world shrivelled to ashes, that morbid 
 fears grew apace, that a spiritual selfishness, if I may 
 use the term, found easy entrance into hearts prepared 
 
 23 
 
370 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 by terror. Other-worldliness with its paralysing in- 
 fluence upon practical work, its spurious asceticism, 
 its transference of all hope, and of the fruitful energies 
 of the soul to objects beyond the limits of this human 
 life, weakened the social conscience of the religious, 
 and made it possible for inconsistencies in the social 
 system to pass unchallenged. That which was strong 
 and helpful in Evangelicalism sprang from the personal 
 devotion to a personal Father. This faith struggling 
 with the incongruous elements of a creed based in no 
 small measure upon a misinterpretation of the office 
 and message of Jesus Christ, has survived, and will 
 doubtless emerge clearer and more robust, because no 
 longer trammelled by a false theology. 
 
 It will lead us, nay, it is leading us, to seek here 
 on this earth, and among the sins and sorrows of men, 
 the materials for building the Holy City of God. It is 
 not that the need for salvation is any less urgent, or 
 any less personal than it was to the preacher who heard 
 the terrible cry of the eternally lost ringing in his ears. 
 It is rather that we know God better, trust Him more, 
 and find not only beyond the grave the promise of His 
 kingdom. Salvation must still retain its personal 
 meaning, perhaps in the inevitable reaction from such 
 teaching it has lost too much of this, but we give it, 
 we must give it, a wider interpretation. 
 
 " 'Tis not enough to weep my sins ; 
 'Tis but one step to heaven ; 
 When I am kind to others, then 
 I know myself forgiven." 
 
 We must learn the meaning of God's fatherhood 
 by giving the fullest content to the meaning of brother- 
 
what has jesus to say to the state ? 371 
 
 hood. We must recognise that because the individual 
 stands in need of redemption from the power of selfish- 
 ness, that therefore the State, that Socitey, needs 
 salvation, and we must set about it in the spirit of 
 William Blake when he exclaimed : — 
 
 " I will not cease from mental fight, 
 
 Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, 
 Till we have built Jerusalem, 
 
 In England's green and pleasant land." 
 
 What has Jesus to say then to the State ? We 
 must answer this by repeating what Jesus has to say 
 to the individual. He shows us in himself the supre- 
 macy of unselfish love. He directs us to God as its 
 source and centre. He calls us to walk in the way 
 of his sacrifice, to trust in the truth of his unfolding, 
 to live the life which he shows us to be at one with 
 the life of the Father. Our existence, he says, is no 
 aimless wandering, there is behind it no mockery of 
 hope, no cruel sport with the heart's desire. Life has 
 an eternal meaning which passes into vivid reality as 
 we understand the message of Jesus and grasp the 
 profound significance of his personality. 
 
 The way, the truth, the life, he is the reality of 
 God, the interpretation of God's character, expressed 
 in human speech, in a human life, the Divine made 
 personal, the Infinite touching the finite, God at one 
 with humanity, the unseen visible in the flesh, the 
 soul's ladder reaching from the known to the unknown, 
 in a word at once the dynamic and the goal of spiritual 
 evolution. 
 
 But I repeat, that which he reveals to the indi- 
 vidual cannot be confined to the individual. The 
 
372 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 selfless love, the sympathy, and the passion of the 
 cross are forever radiating outwards. Love is social. 
 The standard for the individual is to be the standard 
 for society. The Kingdom of God, the higher civili- 
 zation of which Jesus was the messenger and prophet, 
 has its seat in the heart, but its outward expression is 
 an inevitable consequence of its inward reality, nay, 
 it is the test of that reality. If, for example, the 
 Fatherhood of God is real, and the brotherhood of 
 man means that all men are the children of God, 
 then the term brotherhood covers the whole human 
 race and not merely the Anglo-Saxon, of whom in these 
 imperial days we hear so much to the exclusion of the 
 loftier and the larger thought of the Gospel. " There 
 can be," says the Apostle who had broken with the 
 narrowness of Jewish tradition, " neither Jew nor 
 Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can 
 be no male and female, for ye are all one man in Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 There is no national limit to the family of God. 
 The tribal deity is dethroned. Most men, whether 
 they are professed Christians or not, have a pretty 
 clear idea of what individual fidelity to the life of 
 Jesus would involve. They know it means unselfish- 
 ness, the tender service of sympathy, the triumph of 
 chastity, the surrender of the lower appetites and 
 desires to the control of the higher impulses of the 
 soul become urgent and authoritative through the 
 knowledge of God in Christ. They see Jesus " clothed 
 in the irresistible might of meekness " and they know 
 that to believe in him, really means staking every- 
 thing upon the victorious power of holy, selfless, 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TQ THE STATE ? 373 
 
 redeeming love. In the secret of their hearts men 
 acknowledge this to be the greatest thing in the world, 
 and whenever it is found in its pure, Christlike form, 
 as we find it for example in St. Francis of Assisi and 
 John Woolman, its wonderful magnetic and trans- 
 forming power is at once felt. But most men, whether 
 because they love the dust-heap, like the man with the 
 muck-rake, and refuse to see the angel with the crown, 
 or because they are too busy and have not time to 
 think, or because they have more confidence in the 
 world's prudence and the world's methods, are un- 
 willing or afraid to make this great venture of faith. 
 "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. . . . 
 thou shalt have treasure in heaven, . . . follow 
 me. 
 
 Ah ! that is just what we will not do. We cling to 
 the shekels of earth, and the treasures of heaven kick 
 the beam. Our hesitancy to accept the full practical 
 consequences of the Gospel is magnified in international 
 conduct, which it goes far to explain. The individual 
 has made some progress, be it ever so small, towards 
 the Christian ideal of conduct. To kill a man in a 
 quarrel is murder, to take his goods by force is theft, 
 to ravage and destroy a man's property is violence, 
 be the provocation what it may. To boast of your 
 wealth, pedigree, strength, and to scoff openly at the 
 weakness or poverty of your neighbour is bad form, 
 not to be tolerated in polite society. Publicly to 
 defame another's character is libel. But mark the 
 transformation when we pass from the conduct of single 
 individuals to the conduct of a group of individuals 
 acting as a nation. To kill a man in a private quarrel 
 
374 J 0HN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 is murder, as a national quarrel it is a " regrettable 
 necessity," rewarded however by every mark of public 
 honour and popular acclaim. 
 
 To take goods by force in private life is theft, in 
 national life the talk is of national destiny, spheres of 
 influence, annexation, and under the plea of accepting 
 the white man's burden, private companies exploit 
 the lands of savages for the sake of dividends. 
 
 To boast of wealth and scoff at poverty in private 
 life is bad form, in national life the parade of ships and 
 troops, the loud trumpetings of orators, the slighting 
 comments upon the shortcomings and peculiarities 
 of the foreigner who serves in the Divine ordering as a 
 counterfoil to our own virtues — all this is accepted 
 by the crowd without question as the evidence of 
 patriotism. The dominant note is self-praise, self- 
 interest, and when the flag, country, national honour, 
 are supposed to be at stake, the muddy depths are 
 stirred by a yellow press, and there emerges naked 
 and unashamed, the sheer blind hatred of the primitive 
 savage. In the heat of quarrel brotherhood goes to 
 the winds. Both disputants reach out for their 
 bludgeons prepared to strike, and as passion rises the 
 very pulpits join in the shouting. " Thank God," 
 cries a Vicar, " we have done with the cowardice of the 
 Sermon on the Mount." Love your enemies, did you 
 say ? Nay, says a Canon of the Church, " the Lord 
 Jesus never says a word against war. . . . The 
 history of the world is full of wars, thus must war be 
 congenial to the mind of God in His evolution of 
 humanity. What does God care for death ? What 
 does God care for pain ? " 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE STATE ? 3^5 
 
 Writes another minister of religion, this time 
 breaking into verse : 
 
 " And as I note how nobly natures form 
 Under the war's red rain, I deem it true 
 That He who made the earthquake and the storm, 
 Perhaps makes battles too." 
 
 John Newton, who wrote the famous hymn, 
 
 " How sweet the name of Jesus sounds, 
 In a believer's ear," 
 
 was a slaver, and as he paced his deck beneath which 
 the victims of a foul traffic lay in chains herded like 
 cattle, could say with perfect truth that he never 
 enjoyed such sweet communion with his Maker as 
 in the religious reveries of those deck promenades. 
 
 We must not judge too harshly those ministers 
 of religion who, like John Newton, fail to realise all 
 the significance of their words. It required for a 
 generation the concentrated focus of Christian feeling 
 and thought upon the iniquity of the slave traffic, 
 to dispel the moral blindness of those who in all sin- 
 cerity defended it. It will require a similar concen- 
 tration to dispel the moral blindness which associates 
 militarism with the love of God. 
 
 Read this extract from the newspapers as an 
 example, side by side with the assertion that " war 
 must be congenial to the mind of God," and remem- 
 bering him whose life was peace, and who called men 
 from their loneliness and suffering to come unto him 
 and rest, we cannot for one moment justify the passions 
 of war in His name. 
 
376 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 " The temper of the combatants (I quote from the 
 ' Yorkshire Post ' ) has reached an absolutely merciless 
 pitch. No quarter is given on either side, and flags of 
 truce and surrender are disregarded. 
 
 " In one of the recent assaults 600 Japanese hoisted 
 the white flag but the Russians ignored it, and the Japanese 
 in the rear, enraged at the action of their comrades, as- 
 sisted the Russians to shoot them down. Every man fell, 
 and the piteous appeals of the wounded were unheeded 
 Within a week the last arm had signalled its unregarded 
 prayer, and the shambles where the 600 had fallen, was a 
 place of horror." 
 
 The terrible gap between the morality of indi- 
 vidual and of national conduct, where theft becomes 
 annexation with its thousand excuses, where boastful 
 pride becomes patriotism, and a quarrel leading to 
 violence and murder becomes war with an army for 
 a bludgeon, is indeed one of those fatal inconsistencies 
 which go far to discredit Christianity in the eyes of 
 thoughtful doubters at home and of the heathen 
 abroad. The missionary in China with the Sermon 
 on the Mount in his hand, sadly confesses the obstacle 
 presented by that criminal policy which literally forced 
 a poisonous drug upon the Chinaman at the point of 
 the bayonet ; and when we talk of evangelizing South 
 Africa, we may well wonder how the Kaffir will regard 
 the brotherly love of Christians after we have paraded 
 before him the long panorama of a cruel and devastating 
 war ? 
 
 Already we ridicule the duel, demanding that 
 individuals shall settle differences in courts of law, 
 and there is no logical defence for denying the same 
 principle in the intercourse of nations. International 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE STATE ? 377 
 
 wars must go the way of private and tribal wars, and 
 international differences must be settled as they are 
 already often settled, in international courts. 
 
 It is true that Jesus never categorically con- 
 demned war, as he never categorically condemned 
 slavery, but both are alien to his teaching, foreign to 
 the whole temper of his Gospel, and a defiance of the 
 Fatherhood of God. Nor is the Old Testament any 
 justification. The distinction drawn in the Gospels 
 is explicit. 
 
 " Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love 
 thy neighbour but hate thine enemy, but I say unto 
 you, Love your enemies." 
 
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning exclaims : — 
 
 " And soon we shall have thinkers in the place of 
 fighters. . . . 
 What ye want is light, indeed 
 God's light organized 
 In some high soul." 
 
 The thinkers, men like Herbert Spencer and John 
 Morley, have already exposed the costly futility of 
 militarism, its intellectual absurdity, its direct oppo- 
 sition to all true social progress, its menace to the 
 liberty of the people ; but that which will overthrow 
 it will be " God's light organized " in a Christian 
 community. For the sin of militarism is that it 
 delays the coming of the Kingdom, as it is the sin of 
 the Church of Christ that it wavers between the Spirit 
 of the Cross and the Spirit of the Sword. 
 
 It may be true that in the progress of evolution 
 war and slavery have been inevitable factors, it is true 
 
378 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 that even to-day men are not ready for disarmament, 
 and it is unquestioned that, as in the case of ship- 
 wrecks or mine disasters, war has been and is the 
 theatre for the display of a lofty heroism and a noble 
 self-sacrifice. But just as we would not dream of 
 arranging for annual shipwrecks to encourage heroism, 
 so we cannot maintain war for the same purpose, and 
 if evolution means progress, if civilization as Christ 
 foreshadowed it has any worth, any beauty, any 
 moral grandeur, any spiritual grace, we must seek all 
 means to escape from past traditions to a deeper and 
 truer view of life. 
 
 It is the duty of the Christian Church to realise in 
 common experience and intercourse the ideal of her 
 Master. Were she consistent to his teaching the 
 armies of Europe would melt like snow in spring-time, 
 and the vast enginery of war pass like an evil dream. 
 
 This thought brings us from the consideration 
 of international relations to that which must ultimately 
 transform them. I mean the spiritual temper of the 
 peoples in whose name acts of war and deeds of violence 
 are done. What Jesus has to say to the State concerns 
 not only the question of foreign politics, but most 
 intimately the welfare of the State itself. Raise the 
 spiritual temperature of the people, and instead of the 
 spectacle of Christian ministers writing heathen 
 apologies for a barbarous survival, war disappears. 
 Raise the spiritual temperature of the people, and 
 instead of twisting the saying, " The poor ye have 
 always with you " into an excuse for the selfishness 
 of wealth, the grinding poverty of a third of the popu- 
 lation becomes an evil too heavy to be borne. 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE STATE ? 379 
 
 I remember hearing the battle-hymn of the 
 Republic sung by thousands in Broadway, before the 
 office of the New York Journal, during the Spanish- 
 American war. The shameful sequence of events in 
 the Philippines was still a matter of unwritten history, 
 but even then, in the fierceness of the crowd thinking 
 more of the destruction of the American warship 
 Maine (for the words " Remember the Maine " hung 
 in great letters before their eyes) than of the Cuban 
 reconcentradoes, and intoxicated by the magnificent 
 roll of the music, the last verse jarred painfully in the 
 contrast of its spirit : — 
 
 " In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, 
 With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me, 
 As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, 
 While God is marching on." 
 
 Aye ! take your revenge and " Remember the 
 Maine " while God is marching on. The scene has an 
 impressive witness to the facility with which men 
 bind up the name of Christ with ideas altogether at 
 variance with his Gospel. We may, however, redeem 
 that hymn from its relation to the slaughter of men, 
 and accept it as an interpretation of the message of 
 Jesus to the State : — 
 
 " As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, 
 While God is marching on." 
 
 " He that seeketh his life shall lose it and he that 
 loseth his life for my sake shall find it." If brother- 
 hood involves the disappearance of militarism and the 
 growth of a fraternity of nations, what does it involve 
 within the community itself ? In what sense are we 
 
380 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 to die to make men free ? Not perhaps in a literal 
 sense, though this has happened and will happen again, 
 but certainly in a spiritual sense, in the sense in which 
 John Woolman realised it when he saw in his vision 
 that the loss of his name meant the death of his own will. 
 
 I think everyone who has at all escaped from the 
 frozen grip of indifference, who has entered even a 
 little into the sufferings of Christ, must have felt more 
 than a vague unrest at the extravagant indulgence 
 of the rich, and the miserable stunted life of the poor. 
 There is in it something so flagrantly inconsistent with 
 the spirit of Him who came as a servant to minister, 
 as a physician to heal, and as a Saviour to redeem. 
 With its stern struggle for bare existence, with its 
 luxurious vice and its hopeless penury, its aggressive 
 selfishness and its bitter despair, our social fabric is 
 remote indeed from the city of brotherly love, the city 
 of our dreams. 
 
 Hell, said someone, is a place much like London. 
 We may reject that exaggeration, but the social worker 
 will tell you that in tens of thousands of homes the 
 spirit of hell does in truth reign. The problem of that 
 great city crushes as one contemplates it, yet London 
 only repeats in the gathered volume of some five 
 million voices what we hear in fainter tones elsewhere. 
 Thirty per cent, of our people live more or less in the 
 abyss of poverty. The imagination cannot interpret 
 that fact. The most we can do is to lift a corner of 
 the curtain that hides the buried lives of the unfortu- 
 nate from us. 
 
 Consider this deliberate statement made after a 
 careful survey of the poverty of a neighbouring city, 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE STATE ? 381 
 
 namely, " that the wages paid for unskilled labour are 
 insufficient to provide food, shelter and clothing 
 adequate to maintain a family of moderate size in a 
 state of bare physical efficiency." 
 The writer I quote continues : — 
 
 " And let us clearly understand what ' bare physical 
 efficiency ' means. A family living upon the scale allowed 
 for in this estimate must never spend a penny on railway 
 fare or omnibus. They must never go into the country 
 unless they walk. They must never purchase a half-penny 
 newspaper or spend a penny to buy a ticket for a popular 
 concert. They must write no letters to absent children, 
 for they cannot afford to pay for the postage. They must 
 never contribute anything to their church or chapel, or 
 give any help to a neighbour which costs them money. They 
 cannot save, nor can they join sick club or Trade Union, 
 because they cannot pay the necessary subscriptions. 
 The children must have no pocket-money for dolls, marbles 
 or sweets. The father must smoke no tobacco, and must 
 drink no beer. The mother must never buy any pretty 
 clothes for herself or for her children, the character of the 
 family wardrobe as of the family diet being governed by the 
 regulation ' Nothing must be bought but that which is 
 absolutely necessary for the maintenance of physical 
 health, and what is bought must be of the plainest and most 
 economical description.' Should a child fall ill, it must 
 be attended by the parish doctor ; should it die, it must 
 be buried by the parish. Finally, the wage-earner must 
 never be absent from his work for a single day." 
 
 These are hard conditions, but beneath these there 
 are yet lower depths, of misery. 
 
 Need we wonder that the tender conscience of 
 John Woolman was burdened by the sense of social 
 injustice, or that he cried out continually against the 
 selfishness of the rich. His counsel, steeped in the 
 
382 JOHN WILHfiLM ROWNfREE. 
 
 wisdom and spirit of his Divine Master, is faithful and 
 searching in its loving solicitude : 
 
 " It is good," he says, " for those who live in fulness 
 to cultivate tenderness of heart, and to improve every 
 opportunity of being acquainted with the hardships and 
 fatigues of those who labour for their living, and thus to 
 think seriously with themselves : Am I influenced by true 
 charity in fixing all my demands ? Have I no desire to 
 support myself in expensive customs, because my ac- 
 quaintances live in such customs ? 
 
 "If a wealthy man, on serious reflection, finds a 
 witness in his own conscience that he indulges himself 
 in some expensive habits, which might be omitted con- 
 sistently with the true design of living, and which, were he 
 to change places with those who occupy his estate, he 
 would desire to be discontinued by them, — whoever is 
 thus awakened will necessarily find the injunction binding, 
 ' Do ye even so to them.' Divine Love imposeth no 
 rigorous or unreasonable commands, but graciously points 
 out the spirit of brotherhood and the way to happiness in 
 attaining which it is necessary that we relinquish all that 
 is selfish." 
 
 Time does not permit us to pursue this subject, 
 nor is this the place for elaborate schemes of reform. 
 We are not indeed concerned with them to-night. 
 We are concerned rather with that view of life and its 
 responsibility which arises naturally from the teaching 
 of Jesus to the individual and to the state, and which, 
 as we are faithful to his conception of God's Fatherhood 
 and of the all-embracing unity of the family relation- 
 ship in His great household, we shall accept as our 
 guide. We cannot live to ourselves, even if we would. 
 It matters infinitely how we live to others. Rooted 
 in the love and power of Christ we shall not dare to be 
 satisfied with spasmodic service. Brotherhood is not 
 
WHAT HAS JESUS TO SAY TO THE STATE ? 383 
 
 a question of bazaars, of subscriptions, of occasional 
 charities paid as doles to conscience, or the gifts of 
 lightly missed etceteras from the full basket of pleasure. 
 It is the question of a life of stewardship given in all 
 its energies and purposes to the common good. No 
 other life is the complete Christian life. No other 
 life is at once so hard and so easy. It is the way of 
 the Cross, but its guerdon is a crown. Let us then 
 make the venture of faith. The steady, persistent 
 bending of all powers of mind and heart to the for- 
 mation of a real fraternity of free, equal spirits, whether 
 it be by the laborious study of economics, or the homely 
 offices of neighbourly love, whether it be by the public 
 advocacy of an ennobling cause, or the private out- 
 pouring of the healing gift of sympathy, shall prove 
 the golden age sung by saints and seers, no unavailing 
 dream. This is the flowing of the sap from the Vine 
 into the branches, the unity of the root with the leaves, 
 the work of Christ continued in his disciples who 
 realise their lives in him and find life's sacrament 
 in surrender. 
 
 " To lessen the distresses of the afflicted and to increase 
 the happiness of the creation, here," says John Woolman, 
 " we have a prospect of one common interest from which 
 our own is inseparable, so that to turn all we possess into 
 the channel of Universal love, becomes the business of 
 our lives." 
 
 " The world sits at the feet of Christ, 
 Unknowing, blind and unconsoled ; 
 It yet shall touch His garment's fold, 
 And feel the heavenly Alchemist 
 Transform its very dust to gold."* 
 * Whittier. 
 
I 
 
 V. 
 FAITH AND LIFE. 
 
 Scripture portion — Ephesians iii. 14-19. 
 
 N discussing the inner meaning of Religion we 
 shall need to preface our consideration by the 
 recognition of some current facts and difficulties. 
 
 We may, for instance, as we observe the striking 
 statistical evidence of growing indifference to public 
 congregational worship query what is worship ? And 
 the question would be far from untimely. Judging 
 by the facts there is apparently increasing dissatis- 
 faction with forms and ceremonies, however ancient 
 or historic. Even the basis of church fellowship 
 appears to be under review. Men are groping after 
 some system more human and intimate, which shall 
 express in a less rigid form of worship the gathering 
 sense of social needs. An enquiry on these lines would 
 however soon make it evident that we must go deeper 
 than social needs to explain the cause of the unrest 
 laid bare by the London census and the investigations 
 of Charles Booth. These reveal a widespread sense of 
 unreality, affecting not only those who stray abroad 
 to graze in alien pastures, but running through the 
 most carefully tended flocks. The attempt to give a 
 warmer social colouring to church life is full of hope 
 and far from superfluous, yet it is continually frus- 
 trated of its object by the want of intellectual and 
 spiritual grasp upon the vital truths of the soul's 
 
 384 
 
FAITH AND LIFE. 385 
 
 experience. It is not enough to change methods, to 
 set up an institutional church with clubs, smoke-room, 
 games-room, lectures, reading circles, and the like, 
 that which is of supreme importance, which over- 
 shadows every question of church organisation, and 
 which really leads us to the inner meaning of religion 
 is the question of the message. Can we say that the 
 view of life through which a congregation has been 
 gathered is quick with the compelling power of a great 
 unrealised spiritual and social ideal ? Is it a view 
 of life at all, or is it only a dead tradition ? — a con- 
 cession to the conventional respectability of the 
 modern Pharisee who wears a top hat instead of 
 phylacteries, and prays in the front pew instead of the 
 market place ? Is the sermon preached because it is 
 the accepted thing that it should be preached, some- 
 thing that is as much a part of the settled constitution 
 as the Union Jack and the British Lion, or because the 
 preacher has something within him from God which 
 must find utterance, which he dare not withhold ? 
 
 In answering such questions we should finally be 
 driven to conclude that worship consists not in singing 
 hymns, not in preaching, not in listening to sermons, 
 though all these functions have their necessary place 
 in public gatherings for worship, both as stimulants 
 and as means, but that worship, the end to which these 
 means might minister, implies the individual move- 
 ment of the soul towards God, the concentration of all 
 its energy in the inward silence of the heart upon the 
 realisation of the fact and presence of the sympathy 
 and life of God. "The sort of belief which religion 
 requires is one which is immediate, very vivid, very 
 
386 JOHN WlLHfiLM ROWNTREE. 
 
 moving to the affections, and very influential upon 
 action." This is the belief which should grow out of 
 worship, a true and conscious union of the soul with the 
 will and power and love of the unseen Spirit. 
 
 Such worship cannot be performed by proxy ; 
 no priest, no minister, no other person can take our 
 place in this supreme effort of the soul ; it must be our 
 own proper work and exercise. It lies beyond ritual 
 or sermon, nay, it is best performed in outward silence 
 (a silence for which all denominations, and not only the 
 Society of Friends, might arrange with real spiritual 
 profit in their public worship), when the individual, 
 stripped of all self-deception, is drawn back from his 
 dependence upon external things, upon sweet music, 
 for example, or upon pulpit eloquence, and forced 
 down on to the bare realities of the inward life. 
 
 The questions raised by this discussion will carry 
 us a step further. If there is unreality in worship, 
 we say that there is need of a living message going 
 home to the heart and conscience, of union with God 
 as the fruit of worship. But how can we have these 
 without faith ? How can faith be, unless we can in 
 some way or other understand God, see Him and know 
 Him in history, and in contemporary life ? Can we 
 thus see Him and know Him ? May we, in short, 
 believe in God ? The difficulties are great. The 
 problem of life is so complex. Life is so profound a 
 mystery. Whence came man ; whither is he going ? 
 What is the meaning of sin, pain, death, the seeming 
 injustice which metes out at the very cradle luxury 
 and pleasure to one, poverty or disease to another ? 
 Behind the conflict of existence, the fatalism of law, 
 
FAITH AND LIFE. 387 
 
 the terrors of an unknown eternity and of fathomless 
 space, what is there ? Is there any fact which can 
 save me from that intolerable loneliness which assails 
 me even in the midst of friends, and the affairs of life ? 
 Is there any fact in the Universe which can drive out 
 the secret despair bred in my heart by the sense of my 
 impotence, and my insignificance, one as I am of 
 countless millions coming out of the black unknown 
 and passing out again through death, to the black 
 unknown, upon one only among countless millions of 
 worlds. 
 
 Is there any fact in the universe that can rob 
 death of its sting, the grave of its victory, and give 
 nobility and purpose to my being ? 
 
 To seek our answer we may explore in three 
 directions which can be described respectively as the 
 intellectual, the scientific, and the personal. The 
 intellectual we shall find inadequate, because God, 
 the ultimate fact of which we are in search, is not 
 evolved at the end of a process of reasoning in mere 
 " quod erat demonstrandum " fashion. The intel- 
 lectual faculties of reasoning and logic, have of course 
 their most important place, but they are only valid 
 in co-operation with other faculties of observation 
 and apprehension which the intellectual method, 
 followed exclusively, does not call into play. You 
 cannot argue a man into belief in God. You cannot 
 arrive at God's character, even if you can prove His 
 existence, merely by the sequence of logical demon- 
 strations. 
 
 The scientific we shall find inadequate, because by 
 itself the study of nature cannot lead us to the know- 
 
388 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 ledge of a God who answers the questions of the heart 
 and satisfies its craving. Nature shows us law in every 
 nook and cranny of the Universe, but it cannot reveal 
 a God of personal love. Some people think it can, 
 but the real truth is that, like the Roman Catholic 
 in his cult of the Virgin, they read into the goddess or 
 principle they call Nature that which they have 
 unconsciously borrowed from Jesus Christ. To be 
 strictly scientific in the accepted sense of the term is 
 to be strictly agnostic. Science has its legitimate 
 field and its legitimate methods, although, like the 
 theologian at whom he so often girds, the scientist is 
 not without his prejudices and his narrow dogmatism. 
 He is to be respected when he speaks according to 
 what he knows. His knowledge is at least something 
 more learned by man about God. Unless we are to 
 fall into an ancient fallacy and exclude God from His 
 universe, we must regard every fact of science as a 
 fresh revelation of His creative activity and power. 
 Nevertheless, scientific knowledge lies on a plane 
 different from that on which the knowledge we seek is 
 to be found. The fact that radium emits heat without 
 apparent diminution in bulk, or that there are magnetic 
 streams radiating from the sun, and disturbing our 
 magnetic needles at regular intervals, or even the 
 biological fact of our descent from the anthropoid 
 apes and all that this descent implies, cannot help a 
 man to resist a present temptation, or to face death 
 with Christian confidence and hope. Science by itself, 
 is, and must always remain, powerless to give us a God 
 who will draw out the tendrils of the human heart 
 towards Himself. 
 
FAITH AND LIFE. 389 
 
 We turn then to the personal method. We 
 reflect that we are after all personal, and that all our 
 contacts with each other are personal. We may, if 
 we please, denounce an anthropomorphic God, by 
 which terrible formula I suppose we mean that God 
 is the mere gigantic shadow of our reflected selves 
 cast, like the spectre of the Brocken, upon the clouds 
 of our imagination. But in any case unless we can 
 apprehend God personally, that is, within the limits 
 of our personal nature and understanding, or to put 
 it in other words, unless God can interpret Himself in 
 some way within the limits fixed by our human con- 
 ditions and capacity, He must by the terms of the case, 
 remain for ever invisible and unknowable to man. 
 
 We are bound to fall back on experience. Is it 
 true that God has never so interpreted Himself ? 
 Does the intellectual evidence, such as it is, for a 
 controlling mind in the universe, does the practical 
 evidence, such as it is, of coherence and purpose in 
 Nature, unite with any evidence of personal experi- 
 ence which permits us to add the dynamic formula 
 " God is Love " ? In both cases the answer of con- 
 temporary experience and of history is unquestionably 
 yes, it does. Then where is this revelation ? In 
 unnumbered human lives. Martyrs and saints, famous 
 in story, plain men and women whose memory no 
 illuminated Acta Sanctorum has rescued from 
 oblivion, whose chronicles are the tales of mean streets, 
 unite in an uninterrupted witness which flows forward, 
 a broadening stream of testimony through the years 
 and the centuries. What is the source of this testi- 
 mony ? There are many springs more or less pure and 
 
390 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 constant, under the shadow of the Himalayas, among 
 the hills of Greece, in the plains of China and of Egypt, 
 but there is only one spring adequate in volume, 
 altogether pure and inexhaustible, a spring which upon 
 a time broke forth in the hills of Galilee and now. .flows 
 continually in the heart of man. The test of living 
 power in actual experience points to one Divine 
 Human life in history, as the supreme revelation of 
 God. That life is the life of Jesus Christ. That life 
 interprets all other lives governed by its spirit, that 
 life has brought with it a view of God which although 
 it does not explain the mystery of being, makes our 
 individual striving intelligible, and gives the Divine 
 sanction to all that is pure, holy and unselfish. It 
 identifies the highest love we know in man with the 
 character and purpose of the eternal governing power 
 of the universe. This is not theory, but a statement 
 of experimental truth tested by the severest methods 
 known to men and devils. The fires of persecution 
 and the tortures of the rack, or better still (for intel- 
 lectual obstinacy or the tenderness of conscience in 
 mistaken beliefs may bear these tests), the humdrum 
 of everyday life and the witness of character blossom- 
 ing to beauty under pain and sorrow, — these tests have 
 been and are continually applied, with the result that 
 the faith in God as revealed in Jesus Christ, after 
 nineteen centuries of conflict, misinterpretation and 
 criticism, remains dominant and victorious. 
 
 This is surely a stupendous fact which no spectre 
 of the Brocken theory can possibly explain. It 
 looms so large in history that it would be childish, 
 nay, unscientific, to brush it aside. In any earnest 
 
FAITH AND LIFE. 39I 
 
 quest after God the enquirer must sooner or later come 
 face to face with Jesus Christ. 
 
 But then arises the difficulty of the Scripture 
 records. Is the Bible Inspired ? Are not the gospels 
 challenged as historical records ? And if we are to 
 give up the infallibility of Scripture how can we rely 
 upon the historicity of Jesus ? The trouble with such 
 questions is that people continually forget that the 
 real basis of faith is not, never has been, and never will 
 be, an infallible book. The Bible is the gathered 
 literature of a people, intensely human, wide in its 
 range and variety, unequal in its spiritual value. 
 Its inspiration is to be judged by the simple test of its 
 ability to inspire, and its value lies, not in its supposed 
 infallibility, but in its record of phenomena unique in 
 human experience, illustrating the working of God 
 in the human heart, and, above all, the message, life 
 and death of Jesus Christ, and the beginnings of the 
 Christian Church. The theory of an infallible text is 
 purely mechanical, not spiritual, and inasmuch as the 
 theory dehumanizes the Bible, while distorting its 
 really Divine quality into a parody of the fact, it has 
 worked untold mischief, destroying the sense of reality 
 and lowering the Bible to the level of an idol or a 
 fetish. We may indeed welcome in the higher critic 
 and all that he signifies a return to an intelligent belief 
 in the divine worth of the Scriptures, confident that 
 scholarly and reverent study of material so rich in 
 spiritual teaching must be increasingly fruitful. Truth 
 can never be destroyed, in the fiercest light of criticism 
 it can never suffer. 
 
 If some misconceptions have to be removed, if 
 
392 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 here we took for history what was really folk-lore, or 
 there we read as canonical a text that was interpolated, 
 faith will ultimately be clearer and stronger for the 
 correction. But of this we may be perfectly sure, 
 that whatever may be the ultimate results of the 
 development of honest, scientific, Biblical criticism, 
 nothing can eliminate the person of Jesus nor weaken 
 the value of a single text which is spiritually true. 
 If we attempt to prove that Jesus never lived, that 
 he is a mere literary creation, an amalgam of Greek 
 and Jewish thought, we have then to explain the 
 Christian Church, and the dynamic of the personal 
 revelation of Jesus in modern life. The fact is that 
 the Bible is not apart from human history, but or- 
 ganic with it. The evidence for Jesus does not rest 
 upon the Gospels alone, it rests also upon the history 
 of two thousand years, a history unintelligible and 
 impossible apart from him, and finally upon the living 
 witness of the heart, a combined testimony which must 
 increasingly vindicate the broad, substantial truth 
 of the Gospel records. 
 
 " So long," says Erskine of Linlathen, "as a man 
 receives his Christianity merely on the authority of a church 
 or a book — so long as it has not commended itself to his 
 higher reason and moral sense, or reached his inner 
 consciousness — he has no real hold of Christianity ; he is 
 believing only in his church or in his book." 
 
 The correspondence of the conscience with the 
 teaching of the Bible is its surest defence. 
 
 Freed from this entanglement we are at liberty 
 in the pursuit of our message to consider what Jesus 
 had to say to the individual. God is no longer an 
 
FAITH AND LIFE. 393 
 
 unknowable "first cause," but a Father who cares 
 alike for each one of us, whose love is warm and per- 
 sonal, radiating outwards with continual activity, not 
 different from human love save in its absolute purity, 
 and the depth and range of its sympathy. Nothing 
 shuts us out from the full benefit of that love but our 
 own will. Repentance is the one condition of sonship 
 and forgiveness. God must find in us some likeness 
 to Himself before He can make Himself felt and 
 known. To be at one with God, is to accept His love 
 and to recognise His will as a governing principle. 
 We must therefore turn towards Him and view life 
 in some measure as He views it, hating indifference 
 sloth, impurity, and selfishness as He hates them. 
 There must be some point of contact between our souls 
 and His, and to secure this we must cut down the 
 hedge of prickly cactus which sin has reared about the 
 soul. Or to put it more accurately, His pierced hands 
 cannot break through to draw us out until we on our 
 side of the fence begin the work of pulling down. 
 If we will do this His response is instant, even when it 
 is not recognised, for His love is unsleeping in its con- 
 tinual watch to seek an entry in the heart for which 
 it yearns. Some regard this view of the Divine re- 
 lationship as too easy. Sin, they say, must be punished 
 before God can forgive. Eternal Justice must be 
 satisfied. The answer is complete, there is punish- 
 ment. Justice is satisfied and this without any legal 
 figment. Sin, not as a theory but as a matter of fact, 
 carries its own punishment with it. Repentance is not 
 a trivial or easy matter, it involves the tearing up of 
 evil growths by the roots, and often alas, a torn and 
 
394 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 bleeding heart. Repentance implies not only the joy 
 and peace of surrender, the escape to a quiet haven 
 from a sea of storms, but the sharp pain of acknow- 
 ledged shortcoming, the bitterness of remorse for 
 wasted years. 
 
 It is in relation to this fact, to the terrible hold 
 of sin upon human nature, of the magnitude of the 
 moral effort which repentance often involves, that 
 the personal message of a suffering Redeemer has its 
 supreme importance. 
 
 " All that is fair and beautiful," says Mrs. Besant, 
 " in Christian morality has been taught in the world 
 ages before Christ was born." That may be more 
 or less true, but the statement misses the point. Some 
 seem to imagine that the soul of truth can exist in 
 unvarying definiteness without a body of historic fact, 
 without an embodiment, a witness, a type of the truth. 
 Matthew Arnold hints at the real need of humanity 
 when he says : — " A correct scientific statement of 
 rules of virtue has upon the great majority of mankind 
 simply no effect at all." Jesus did not come to con- 
 tradict what had been truly said by others before his 
 time, He came to personify the truths they expressed. 
 The Gospel is not a mere code of morals, it is Jesus, 
 and Jesus is himself the dynamic of moral force. In 
 him God has spoken, in him God lays bare His heart, 
 he reveals love, he reveals sin, he shows us that there 
 is no gulf of radical difference between his nature 
 and our own. He shows us the possibilities of our life, 
 exposes with merciless truth the barren emptiness of 
 existence apart from him, and pleads with tenderest 
 passion for the life union with the Divine harmony and 
 
FAITH AND LIFE. 395 
 
 love. Upon the cross, the witness to an eternal fact, 
 the suffering inflicted upon the loving heart of the 
 Father by the sin of the world is exposed in its true 
 nature, and the appeal of God takes its most vibrant 
 and urgent note. 
 
 As in the life of Christ the virtues of humility, 
 meekness, sympathy, and purity receive the sanction 
 of the Divine nature and are for ever identified with it, 
 so upon the Cross the quality of the Divine self-sacrifice 
 is revealed, and self-sacrifice for ever identified with 
 God. 
 
 Here is the focus of the message of Jesus to the 
 individual. It is at once a vivid illumination of the 
 true issues before the soul, and an intense and urgent 
 appeal from the heart of God to the heart of man, 
 written, spoken, in language man can understand. 
 
 From this appeal flow practical consequences. 
 The life Jesus unfolds to the individual is not different 
 for the state. The wars of international jealousy, 
 the huge enginery of militarism, the selfishness of the 
 rich, and the evils of poverty, are alike inconsistent 
 with the higher civilization to which Jesus calls us, 
 they are alien and hostile to the nature and purpose 
 of God. 
 
 I do not deceive myself by the supposition that 
 in this statement of Christian truth I have put even 
 a tithe of the objections which earnest doubt may 
 have to offer. Points of view are so different, the 
 deepest thoughts are so hard to express, that it would 
 be impossible within the limits of a public lecture even 
 to state, much less to anticipate (were that within 
 my power), every intellectual difficulty, or to render 
 
396 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 exactly the different shades of meaning which words 
 convey. At best words are but symbols. The term 
 fatherhood as applied to God, and the term son as 
 applied to Jesus, are for example symbolic of ideas 
 which it is intended to associate with God and with 
 Jesus, and to express the oneness in essence which runs 
 from man up to God through Jesus, rather than to be 
 interpreted as a scientific statement of fact. Often 
 those who have been separated from each other by the 
 intellectual forms of their belief, and have perhaps 
 discussed their differences with not a little of that 
 unhappy temper which so often mars theological 
 disputes, have been really quarrelling about a super- 
 ficial difference due to the imperfections of human 
 speech, and concealing a fundamental unity upon 
 which fellowship might have been based. 
 
 Recognising these difficulties of mental ap- 
 prochement I must nevertheless assume for the sake 
 of argument that we are agreed in the presentation of 
 the Gospel which has just engaged us, and I pass 
 therefore to the concluding question : — If these things 
 be true, how may we appropriate their truth ? What 
 is the inner meaning of religion ? 
 
 In discussing this question we shall, I think, 
 find ourselves at length upon common ground. For 
 although the diversities of individual outlook are 
 great, the needs and experience of humanity are 
 universal and the same. 
 
 Moreover, it is one thing to have clear intellectual 
 views, another to be pure and unselfish. Clear views 
 are an incalculable gain, they add to the efficacy of 
 faith, but they are the means, not the end or object 
 
FAITH AND LIFE. 397 
 
 of faith. The end is neither philosophy nor theology, 
 neither creed nor formula, but simply character 
 redeemed and possessed by the power of love. 
 
 It is a great mistake to think that faith is ex- 
 clusively or even mainly an affair of the head. It is 
 mainly an affair of the heart, a question of the spiritual 
 temper or attitude of the soul. As William Law 
 expresses it in one of his essays, faith "is a living, 
 working power of the mind, that wills, desires, and 
 hopes and trusts and believes and obeys." Aye, 
 obeys. That is where our faith is weak. That is where 
 we need the potency of the Gospel. We know better 
 than we do. Perceiving the good we continually 
 choose the evil. 
 
 Let us put the case as a matter of personal ex- 
 perience, for we are here at the intensely personal 
 centre of all religion. We are face to face with the 
 question of personal salvation. I am, shall we say, 
 the average man. I have none of the vices which 
 shock public opinion or bring me under the penal laws 
 framed by society to protect itself and its respecta- 
 bility. I have more or less, perhaps in a neutral 
 fashion, the good esteem of my fellows. I pay my 
 debts, live within my income, am indulgent to my 
 family and — to myself. Every now and then I am 
 stirred by something of which I read or hear, the 
 distress of the unemployed or some peculiar case of 
 trouble, and for a brief space am unusually charitable. 
 I give a guinea, ten guineas, fifty guineas. I speak at 
 a meeting, I attend a bazaar, and then by imperceptible 
 degrees slip back into my normal forgetfulness. If 
 anyone were to charge me with unorthodoxy I should 
 
398 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 be painfully shocked. I read the Bible, perhaps 
 sometimes wondering what I have read five minutes 
 afterwards. I go certainly once, perhaps under favour- 
 able circumstances twice, to church, chapel or meeting. 
 I don't understand what is meant by the Trinity or 
 the Atonement ; I leave all that to the clergyman or 
 the minister, but in a more or less definite way I 
 believe that my earthly life is so irreproachable that 
 my eternal future is sure to be pleasant. Christ, I say, 
 is my Saviour, by which I mean (if I were ever so 
 brutally frank with myself, which I am not) that he 
 will leave me alone in this world, and save me in the 
 next. So I go on. Now and then someone upon 
 whose companionship I depend is called beyond the 
 grave. On such occasions I am deeply touched. It 
 is always hard to say good-bye to one's friends. I 
 have solemn thoughts, not unmingled with self-pity. 
 I feel stirred for a time to double my devotions. And 
 then the tide of life, business and pleasure flows in again. 
 The gap is filled. I forget, and once more am satis- 
 fied to live on the surface. I flutter through the hours 
 like a butterfly in a meadow — dipping aimlessly now 
 here, now there. But let us suppose that the strong 
 blow of some great catastrophe were to smite me. 
 Something that destroyed the routine of self-pleasing 
 and compelled me to face the realities which I have 
 so steadfastly shirked. Let it be some permanent 
 physical restriction like blindness, or some financial 
 disaster involving penury — no matter what. Where 
 do I stand now ? What is there in this life of mine 
 that is real, what is there that carries comfort with it 
 through the long years yet to come ? Little or nothing. 
 
FAITH AND LIFE. 399 
 
 I have spent my life for things that have irrecoverably 
 passed with time. They cost me much once, they are 
 worth nothing to me now. Everything is bitter, life 
 and the interminable future are desolate. Suddenly 
 I realise that my Christ was a lay figure. I made him 
 and draped him myself. I realise that at the heart 
 of what I called my religion was but selfishness, that 
 my faith was self-deception, and that my insincerity 
 has brought upon me the doom of spiritual emptiness. 
 I have nothing to carry me with hope and confidence 
 through the gates of death. " The heresy of all 
 heresies," says William Law, "is the worldly spirit." 
 There are tens upon tens of thousands of such heretics, 
 living upon make-believe and taking it for belief. God 
 save us from lives like theirs, from good-natured 
 indifference, the indolence of slumbrous souls. 
 
 But how are we to be saved ? How are we to 
 realise the Christ of our Gospel ? " If a man be sin- 
 cere," says a recent writer, " then his sincerity is the 
 hammer that drives his belief home, and the stronger 
 the sincerity the deeper will the practical point of the 
 belief penetrate into his life and conduct." Beyond 
 all question a first consideration is sincerity, the 
 sincerity born for example of conviction for sin and the 
 desire for pardon. We must honestly seek the true 
 life, we must honestly wish to escape the toils of self- 
 love. Assume this sincerity. Assume for example 
 that I have grown dissatisfied with a drifting life, that 
 I have felt a touch of that satiety which is the scourge 
 of the worldling. How then am I to set about the 
 business of salvation ? I turn to Christ, the Christ 
 of the Gospels. What is salvation by Christ ? It is 
 
400 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 nothing mysterious, it is to be made like unto him. 
 Again I quote from William Law : — 
 
 " Wherever- thou goest, whatever thou dost, at Home 
 or Abroad, in the Field, or at Church, do all in a desire of 
 union with Christ, in Imitation of His Tempers and In- 
 clinations, and look upon all as nothing, but that which 
 exercises and increases the Spirit and Life of Christ in thy 
 Soul. From morning to night keep Jesus in thy Heart, 
 long for Nothing, desire Nothing, hope for Nothing, but 
 to have all that is within thee changed into the Spirit and 
 Temper of the Holy Jesus. Let this be thy Christianity, 
 thy Church, and thy Religion. For this New Birth in 
 Christ thus firmly believed and continually desired, will 
 do everything that thou wantest to have done in thee, it 
 will dry up all the Springs of Vice, stop all the workings of 
 Evil in thy Nature, it will bring all that is Good into thee, 
 it will open all the Gospel within thee, and thou wilt know 
 what it is to be taught of God." 
 
 Here we have the method, not only of the mystic, 
 but of every soul who has sought God through Christ. 
 It is the method of experiment. The test of the 
 Christian life from the inside. A cathedral window 
 is ugly enough until you look through it from within, 
 and then the dull leaded glass with its meaningless 
 contortions of device, flashes into ordered beauty. 
 Moreover, it is an experiment which again and again 
 has vindicated the method, in the evolution of char- 
 acter fragrant with peace and love, breathing the 
 benediction of holy calm upon the fever of a restless 
 heart. 
 
 But we must know the steps of this pilgrim's 
 progress. Let me state the case again in terms of 
 personal experience. I determine to seek this peace 
 of God till I find it. My sincerity is not to be doubted. 
 
FAITH AND LIFE. 401 
 
 I am earnest in my quest. So far so good. I have the 
 first condition requisite. I am willing to pull down 
 the prickly cactus hedge of my sins. I realise that self 
 is the devil's workshop. I want to get away from the 
 prison of my selfishness. I want to realise love. 
 But I am not going to do it by mere mortifications and 
 penances. In my desire to practice self-sacrifice I am 
 in danger of confounding the mutilated life of the 
 ascetic with the cross and discipline of Christ. I am 
 right in thinking that the worldly life full of self- 
 indulgence is a small and contemptible life, I am wrong 
 in thinking that the Christian life consists merely in 
 not doing things that other people do. The Christian 
 life is not an empty garret but a palace beautiful by the 
 side of which the life of the most sumptuous sybarite 
 is a wretched hovel. Moreover, mortification of this 
 sort breeds a judging temper and a spirit of pride. 
 Self-sacrifice is self-realisation. I must approach my 
 holy experiment from another side. I must seek not 
 merely to lop off but to grow. I must acquire some- 
 thing I have not got. And here is a difficulty. In 
 practical experience how am I to know what is meant 
 by listening to the voice of Christ, obeying him and 
 following him ? How am I to identify the substance 
 behind the current phrasing of the religious in my own 
 inner consciousness ? At first indeed there may be 
 nothing to recognise, no intimation of Divine power, 
 no distinct voice thrilling and commanding the soul, 
 no presence before whom I instinctively kneel. No, 
 perhaps not. But there is conscience, and conscience 
 is a guide I can follow. For example ! Be thought- 
 ful of others, even in little things. Make a practice 
 
 27 
 
402 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 of forgetting yourself. In the past it was always I, 
 what do they say and think of me, am J getting the 
 recognition that is my due ? Now let it be otherwise. 
 Am I helping him, what can I do for him, what am I 
 thinking of him ? Am I giving him his due ? With- 
 out cessation, in the intimacies of the home life or on 
 the broader stage of public service, the choice between 
 recognised alternatives recurs. Generally I know 
 perfectly well which is the right choice. Some one 
 angers me, insults me. I want to hit back, sting with 
 a sharp repartee, crush with a jibe. I practise re- 
 straint. I return soft answers. And so I might 
 illustrate at large. In every activity of life I might 
 select instances to mark the steps of my pilgrim's 
 progress. 
 
 But I cannot rest satisfied here. I seek not only 
 discipline but victory. I want to know not only 
 conscience, but Christ. Yes, but to the sincere ex- 
 perimentalist, using his conscience as a guide, and 
 seeking always to focus his life on that of Jesus Christ 
 as he knows him in the Gospels and recognises him 
 in his faithful disciples, there comes a time when 
 the line between conscience and Christ grows very 
 thin. There comes a time when the higher life of 
 which I am always aware, and which I have tried to 
 follow, becomes so merged in my thought of Christ 
 \ and my devotion to him, that I can hardly distinguish 
 the two in my mind. There comes a time when 
 suddenly I am on my knees, my whole soul flooded 
 with light and love, tears in my heart and eyes, an 
 unspeakable peace enfolding me. The pierced hands 
 have reached through to me at last and draw me 
 
FAITH AND LIFE. 403 
 
 gently forth to him. "Come unto me and rest," 
 and I answer, Yea, for I am hid with Christ in God. 
 
 I have sketched, you say, a hypothetical career. 
 No, it is a story from real life. . You say I have spoken 
 in mystical language. I answer, Yes, the supreme 
 moment cannot be defined in the dry language of 
 theology, nor can words express it. You say jthe 
 experience is the result of mental suggestion practised 
 over a term of years. I answer, No one believes that 
 who has once been there and taken off his shoes on 
 holy ground, — the reality is too overpowering, the 
 effect too profound. But is this the experience of 
 every one who tries the experiment ? That question 
 needs a careful answer. There are for example degrees 
 in the sincerity and earnestness with which the experi- 
 ment is pursued, and we must consider the great 
 variety of temperament, no two. individuals seeing life 
 with the same eyes. I think the true answer is this, 
 that the measure of God's response is the urgency and 
 strength of our appeal, but it would be mischievous 
 to assert that the character of the response always 
 bears the same identity. I believe experience shows 
 on the contrary that the character of the response is 
 conditioned by individual needs, though in its substance 
 it must always be the same — the consciousness, more 
 or less clear, of union with God in thought and action, 
 of an eternal purpose and worth in human life, and of 
 an all embracing love. This union and sense of love, 
 if experience be a guide, is strongest and deepest 
 where the thought of God has been focused in the 
 personality of Jesus Christ. 
 
 But perhaps I have made haste too fast. If I 
 
404 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 go back to my pilgrim I find in his experience some- 
 thing upon which I have not touched. It is not a 
 smooth progress that he makes. His sincerity wavers 
 before the fierce resistance of hereditary evil, in- 
 grained selfishness, natural sloth. There are times 
 when he cannot keep his eyes upon the cross, when 
 the goal upon which he set his heart grows dim, when 
 the baser self yearns for the flesh pots of Egypt. How 
 can he win through ? There is only one way, the way 
 of prayer. I do not mean formal praying, the rapid 
 gabbling of the Lord's Prayer, or the set petition for 
 outward benefits. I mean the prayer of the sinful 
 man crying from the depths of his great need, " Create 
 in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit 
 within me"; the prayer of the longing soul seeking 
 to escape from the clog of fleshly imperfection and to 
 breathe the free, pure air of the spiritual life. Such 
 prayer to be potent must be personal, it must throb 
 with the conviction of human helplessness and of God's 
 power to save, it must spring from a heart in which 
 deep emotion has broken the reserve of pride. And 
 while in its supreme expression such prayer may be only 
 occasional, victory will be finally won only by the 
 continuous cultivation of the prayerful spirit. In the 
 spiritual athlete prayer becomes a habit of mind, 
 not a spasmodic exercise. It becomes indeed the 
 sign-manual of the soul's intimacy with God. 
 
 Amid the feverish activities of these modern 
 days, when the loud-voiced interests of the world stun 
 the ear, may we seek by devotional exercise in the 
 private sanctuary of the home, no less than in public 
 worship, to realise the saving love of God. And as we 
 
FAITH AND LIFE. 405 
 
 turn our thoughts inward to face the solemn realities 
 of eternal life, may the light of God's holiness reveal 
 our sin as He sees it, that knowing our weakness we may 
 seek His strength, and pray the Father whom Jesus 
 has shown us, to take us as children by the hand, and 
 lead us into His everlasting truth, by the way of service 
 and a life of love freely given. 
 
SHADES OF THE PRISON HOUSE. 
 
 [This " self-revelation " speaks for itself. It needs 
 no introduction. It appeared in Present Day Papers on 
 the 15th April, 1902.] 
 
 '■'- And all the windows of my heart I open to the day." — Whittier. 
 
 LET us turn from the contemplation of the general 
 and external to that which must govern all, the 
 spiritual life of the individual man. 
 
 Not because we think politics are outside the 
 sphere of religion, that is an old fallacy, nor in mere 
 weariness and disgust recoiling from the sordid details 
 of everyday affairs, that is an old temptation ; but 
 to make sure that the spring of our life's energy is true, 
 
 " These," said Thomas Paine, writing to the 
 soldiers of Washington, " are times that try men's 
 souls." The words are applicable in a peculiar degree 
 both to nations and to individuals at the present day. 
 The sense of vague movement in the political world, 
 movement charged with destiny, is heavy upon us ; 
 the sense of transition in the world of religious ideas 
 was never more acute ; the mind of the modern is 
 stretched upon the rack of uncertainty, and the old 
 comfortable feeling of assured progress upon well 
 understood lines has passed away. But though such 
 thoughts may be with us, they must not engross us. 
 We are concerned rather with the times which try the 
 
 407 
 
408 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 souls of men in their private and intimate life, times 
 which others do not share, trials of the spirit which 
 come suddenly upon us in our solitude, and search the 
 inmost recesses of the heart. 
 
 Who has not known these moments of self- 
 revelation ? laying bare to the shrinking sight our 
 most secret motives with the ruthlessness of truth ? 
 There are times when self-deception falls away helpless, 
 struck by a sudden paralysis in the midst of her strength, 
 when through the torn web of facile delusions we see 
 our selfishness ugly and naked, and upon deeds we 
 thought meritorious the stain of self-love. 
 
 And perhaps after such an experience, we shall 
 feel creeping over us the shades of the prison house. 
 
 It may be the bitterness of unrealised hope, or 
 the recognised strength of unconquered passions, or 
 the silent appeal of the passing years which point 
 forward with warning to the mystery of death. 
 
 In that moment the golden apples of life turn to 
 dust, a terrifying inconsequence besets all things ; 
 we feel our impotence and know the meaning of des- 
 pair. And by such despair I do not mean the pleasur- 
 able melancholy which loves to brood over the past, 
 the yearning, for instance, of the lover for the first 
 days of love, or of the old man for childhood's butter- 
 cups and daisies. Such melancholy belongs rather 
 to the luxuries of life, more often enervating than 
 profitable, and it lies in any case beyond our scope. 
 I am concerned not with sentimental regrets but with 
 that pressure upon the heart as of an iron fate, the 
 baffled beating of the imprisoned soul against bars of 
 its own slow forging. That time of trial, when it 
 
SHADES OF THE PRISON HOUSE. 409 
 
 comes, crushes the worldling as we crush a butterfly 
 in the hand, nor will strong men always win through it. 
 
 And yet it is a time to be looked for, even as a 
 mother looks, though she dreads it, for the birth of her 
 child. For it is then that the real and eternal self seeks 
 both utterance and victory, then that the Scripture, 
 " Ye must be born again," may find its glorious ful- 
 filment. It is well indeed that we creatures, prone 
 to the fascination of ephemeral joys, occupied with 
 affairs, living the superficial life that is sufficient only 
 so long as it flows unchecked through easy channels, 
 should be brought up, even if it be with a rude shock, 
 by the eternal truth of the Unseen. It is well that we 
 cannot always live upon shams, but that deep in the 
 heart there is a craving, never wholly subdued, for the 
 real and true, for the final expression of our highest 
 self. 
 
 Ignore this stirring of the Divine life, chill with 
 your persistent indifference its glowing warmth, but as 
 the years pass the shadows of the prison house will 
 deepen, and you shall at the last behold fife's sunset 
 through prison bars. 
 
 Oh, doom beyond the saddest guess, 
 As the long years of God unroll, 
 
 To make your dreary selfishness 
 The prison of a soul. 
 
 Whereon, in such hour of stress, shall the soul be 
 stayed ? 
 
 By what might may the bars be broken and the 
 soul set free ? 
 
 The ties of the flesh are strong, and the will is 
 weak. We see the true fife, it shines before us a holy 
 
4IO JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 picture, with the radiance of God, but our steps are 
 stayed. We see our sin, we loathe its horrid shape, 
 we know it ignoble and mean, but we do not flee. It 
 seemed fair once, when the holy life seemed distant 
 and cold. Could this moment pass, this moment of 
 true values and eternal vistas, it would seem fair again. 
 Yea, even as we shudder and tremble this thought 
 whispers evil in our ear : 
 
 "Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we 
 die." 
 
 Is this issue final ? Let us sin a little more ! 
 Is that picture — that of the radiance of God — is it 
 true ? Is there certainty of peace if I struggle, even 
 if with pain and bleeding I win free ? And life was 
 so pleasant until this moment of shattered self-esteem ; 
 its shams were realities ; it had no memory and no 
 foreboding. None ? What of those shadows slowly 
 deepening, that touch of occasional chill in the summer 
 air ? Yet the baubles glitter and the vision fades 
 and I fail. 
 
 Or I strive and yet fail, fail unwillingly and with 
 pain at the heart. I see the true life and reach after 
 it, and step forward to it and stumble, even as I grasp. 
 And I was alone with none to help me. I cried unto 
 God and He did not answer me. I sought His hand 
 to take it, but He stretched it not out, and I went 
 back from His house where there was no welcome, 
 to the swine husks and the feeding trough. 
 
 But was there no welcome and no outstretched 
 hand ? Was there not rather a strain of doubt in 
 my striving, and impurity at its source ? It is the 
 pure in heart that see God. 
 
SHADES OF THE PRISON HOUSE. 4II 
 
 At such times we learn the limits of helpfulness 
 in systems of ethics, theological propositions, and 
 philosophical treatises. They are fine rafts in fair 
 weather, but alas ! as Emerson has said, " we know 
 better than we do ! " When the storm breaks and 
 the seas rise round about us, we discover that we 
 have nothing to hold to and are swept helpless away. 
 They know little indeed of " the terror of the Lord," 
 who find an all-saving belief in the admiration of an 
 ideal. 
 
 Admire Christ they say, and you will grow like 
 him, admire him as the ideal of the race, and it 
 matters not whether or no he be the Son of God. 
 The quality of admiration, when rightly directed, is 
 excellent, but what barren advice for the storm-tossed 
 soul. I do not lack the capacity to admire, I lack 
 the will to imitate and to obey. There is the heart 
 of the question, and when the will is weak whither 
 must I turn ? Admiration will not help me except 
 to deepen my despair. Example and precept, these 
 can but faintly stir my soul, nay they stand as it were 
 outside and mock me in my distress. To those who 
 would advise me I exclaim with Faust, " I know 
 the message well, but I lack the faith." 
 
 Christ, the historical Christ, is so far away, and 
 if it be true that in him is the power to save, that he 
 is " nearer than hands and feet," yet I have not seen 
 him nor felt his presence near. My office or school 
 work, my interests in politics, literature, art, society, 
 the minutiae of the home life, its intimate intercourse 
 its fights and shadows, these are real enough. But 
 the Christ is so far away. He moved among a people 
 
412 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 and spoke a language that are not our own. In his 
 oriental dress with his Galilean following his entrance 
 into our modern life with its railways and newspapers, 
 its hotels and clubs, would be strangely incongruous. 
 Perhaps in a vague way at times of favoured insight 
 or of rare emotion, it may have seemed as if I felt the 
 touch of a heavenly hand and saw the glimmer of a 
 Divine radiance, and then it has gone and once more 
 the trivialities of everyday life have swept in upon 
 me with their deadening weight, — the shades of the 
 prison house ! 
 
 But what says Browning — who in his "Death 
 in the Desert " has set this difficulty forth ? 
 
 " I say the acknowledgment of God in Christ, 
 Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee 
 All questions in the earth and out of it, 
 And has so far advanced thee to be wise." 
 
 It is true that there are difficulties, real and pressing, in 
 the acceptance of the historical Christ, difficulties 
 of Scripture interpretation, the text, authorship, 
 the possibility of error and myth, the inevitable diffi- 
 culties of distance and of time, but do not forget that 
 there is a living bridge which links us to the past. 
 
 The present witness of Christ's power in the heart 
 truly yielded to the dominance of his love, has a con- 
 vincing power denied to all the doctrines of the schools. 
 And step by step, generation by generation, we may 
 trace back our way through a succession of holy lives 
 to their Divine source, in Jesus of Nazareth. It is 
 the fact not the theory that must convince. Philosophy, 
 criticism, analysis, none can avail against the living 
 testimony of one holy soul. Men have known in their 
 
SHADES OF THE PRISON HOUSE. 413 
 
 hearts that God is not a silent God. They have thrust 
 their hands with doubting Thomas into the Divine 
 wounds and found them real. They have been turned 
 from helpless sinning to triumphant victory, by the 
 redeeming passion of the Cross. 
 
 And this experience is not the fruit simply of some 
 intellectual process. The recognition of the ethical 
 beauty of Christ's teaching is much, but it is not all. 
 Those who rest satisfied with this, or who imagine that 
 the recognition of the ideal is in itself salvation, must 
 know a deeper baptism before they can pass behind 
 the veil. The living personal knowledge of God as 
 revealed in Christ, convicting us of selfishness, searching 
 out our sin, destroying in its pure flame the dross of 
 our lower nature, is an experience which forever banishes 
 doubt and demands no explanation. It is enough ! 
 The heart has felt ! It is enough to feel that the power 
 of sin is broken and that the will lies plastic to the 
 Master's hand. And to that experience, be it fierce and 
 sudden, or slowly born of lingering pain, there is but 
 one royal road. It is not through Biblical criticism, 
 nor through philosophical speculation, though these 
 have their place. 
 
 No ! the road lies through a garden — the garden 
 of Gethsemane. By prayer, the prayer of our whole 
 nature, voicing our abasement and our hope, our 
 weakness and the strength of our striving, our unfitness 
 and our longing, prayer that rises from the very deeps 
 of our being, such prayer alone can pierce the darkness 
 that walls us round, and yield us the joy of the Divine 
 illumination — " the glory as of the only begotten 
 of the Father, full of grace and truth." 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 [This, the last essay that John Wilhelm Rowntree pub- 
 lished, was written for Bootham, the journal of the Friends' 
 Schools at York. It appeared on February 7th, 1905.] 
 
 NINETEEN Hundred and Four has taken a heavy 
 toll from the larger " Bootham " which counts 
 past as well as present scholars of its fellowship. Under 
 circumstances of peculiar pathos, several " Old Boys," 
 all young in years, have obeyed the silent summons. 
 Their life-work just begun has been abruptly cut 
 short, and we still feel the pang of parting, feel perhaps 
 as an intolerable burden the weight of that dark mystery 
 of life which grows no less with the gathering years. 
 
 In the gloomy waters of Lough Neagh, seven 
 young people fought death for each other, plunged 
 suddenly from the innocent pleasures of a picnic into 
 a strife which opened on Eternity. For the readers 
 of this journal the memory of that catastrophe centres 
 naturally round the names of two Old Bootham Boys, 
 Hugh William Pettifer Catchpool and Herbert James 
 Green. When they died in a vain attempt to save 
 the others, they were but nineteen years of age. In 
 their unselfish heroism, face to face with death, they 
 honoured the school from which they came, and enriched 
 her records with the emblazonment of a fine example. 
 
 4«5 
 
416 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 But not only to them do we render the parting 
 salute. Under differing circumstances, less dramatic 
 though hardly less poignant, there are other names 
 to inscribe on the roll. Herbert Andrews, an only 
 son, about to be married, and about twenty-four years 
 old, passed with an unfaltering courage, from the 
 light of a young life with all its hope and interest, 
 to the unknown land ; James Edward Rowntree, 
 always cheerful, never complaining, suffering long 
 months of terrible pain, was released at length from 
 his prison of tortured flesh, leaving a little daughter 
 and a widow ; and Henry Ernest Grace, at thirty-four, 
 buoyant, cheery, ever sympathetic and unselfish, 
 was taken after a few brief days of agony, in the full 
 tide of strenuous labour for God and man, leaving a 
 widow, but no child. 
 
 Faith falters in such a recital. The strokes of 
 fate seem so pitiless, so cruel and unmeaning. Can 
 it be that man is " cast as rubbish to the void " ? 
 One is tempted at times to take hard views of God, 
 and fall back upon a self-contained stoicism as the 
 only way of life : to say, " Come what may, I do my 
 duty," and leave it there. But that is only the first 
 counsel. Wisdom comes with patience. I have before 
 me a reproduction of an old German print. It is a 
 copper engraving by an artist who, nourishing at the 
 beginning of the sixteenth century, saw death ride 
 across Europe in the appalling disguise of the Plague 
 — saw it in an age when science was superstition and 
 medicine quackery, and the powers of evil were personi- 
 fied, to the terrified imagination of an ignorant people, 
 as devils bearing all the sombre marks of their subter- 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 417 
 
 ranean degradation. The artist, Beham, was an 
 agnostic, in full revolt against the social order, and 
 his engraving, terrible in the fierce significance of its 
 symbolism, expresses his cynical estimate of life. 
 The print presents us with Adam and Eve standing 
 on each side of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good 
 and Evil. The stem of the tree is a skeleton with a 
 grinning skull, one arm becomes a branch from which 
 Eve gathers the apple, and the serpent, coiled round 
 the neck of the skeleton, bites the apple with poisonous 
 fangs as Eve plucks it. That was a sad conclusion 
 to come to in the morning light of the Renaissance ! 
 We cannot, we dare not, be content with it. To let 
 death poison life and draw between us and the sunshine 
 its cloud of morbid horror, is to commit a moral suicide 
 and reduce cosmos to chaos. We might brave it out 
 for a time, but sooner or later the wheels of progress 
 would run down, for the spring would be broken. 
 We may reverence Marcus Aurelius, that granite 
 peak in a range of ignoble hills, but to insist that his 
 brave spirit can teach us an all-sufficient philosophy 
 is to deny the most obvious facts of experience. Nay ! 
 the very lives taken from us call us to a sunnier view 
 of faith, a stronger belief in the dignity and purpose 
 of being. Courage, unselfishness, and above all love, 
 that root of faith and unity of all the virtues, found 
 in them their witness. Every man knows in his heart 
 that there is no greater thing in the world than pure, 
 unselfish love. Death cannot conquer, nay, he teaches 
 ever that love is supreme. Good men do not die. 
 Their lives are as the tearing of the veil, they show us 
 something of that which is eternal, for if here love is 
 
 28 
 
418 JOHN WtLHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 greatest in the heart of man, must it not be greatest 
 in God Himself ? And if greatest in Himself, then let 
 the mystery of His will be never so dark, we may gird 
 ourselves each to his life's work with something more 
 than courage. Love bridges death. We are comrades 
 of those who are gone ; though death separate us, 
 their work, their fortitude, their love, shall be ours, 
 and we will adventure with hope, and in the spirit and 
 strength of our great Comrade of Galilee, who was ac- 
 quainted with grief and knew the shadows of Geth- 
 semane, to fight the good fight of faith. 
 
 " Glory of warrior, glory of orator, glory of song, 
 Paid with a voice flying by to be lost in an endless sea." 
 
 No ! give me 
 
 " The wages of going on and not to die." 
 
APPENDIX I. 
 
 FOUNDERS OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 
 
 GEORGE FOX. Born at Draytoo-in-the-CIay, Leicestershire, 1624. 
 Visited Yorkshire, 1651, 1652 (twice in this year), 
 1654, 1656, 1657 (twice in this year), 1663, 1665-6, 
 1669, 1677, 1678, 1679-80. Died in London 13th 
 of 11th Me. 1690 (Old Style). 1st Mo. 1691 (New 
 Style). 
 
 Thomas Aldam, of Warms-worth; Yorkshire. Convinced there by 
 George Fox in 1651. One of the first Quakers 
 imprisoned in York Castle. Kept there two 
 years and a half. Died 1660. Buried at 
 Warmsworth. 
 
 John Blaykling, of Drawell,- near Sedburghj Yorkshire. Born 
 1625. Convinced by George Fox in 1652. 
 Many times imprisoned in York and Tynemouth 
 Castles and elsewhere. At his house the meeting 
 was held with Story and Wilkinson,- which 
 began April 3rd; 1676, and lasted four days. 
 Died 1705. 
 
 Gervase Benson. Once a Colonel in the Army. Appears to have 
 lived at Kendal. Convinced by George Fox 
 in 1652. He and John Blaykling preached in 
 Coverdale; and soon after a meeting was settled 
 there. Died 1679. 
 
 John Camin. Born 1605 at Camm's Gill; near Kendal. Con- 
 vinced at the great meeting at Firbank Chapel; 
 1652; by George Fox. Laboured around 
 Bentham and Settle in Yorkshire. Died 1657. 
 
 Stephen Crisp. Born in Colchester,- 1628. Convinced by James 
 Parnell in 1655. Travelled in Yorkshire in 
 1660. Ill-used at York by Leonard Thompson; 
 then Lord Mayor. Re-visited Yorkshire in 
 1671 and 1678. Malton, 1678. Died 1692. 
 
 419 
 
420 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 William Dewsbury. Born at Allerthorpe,- near Pocklington; 
 Yorkshire. Convinced by George Fox at Balby,- 
 Yorkshire,- in 165 1. Became the principal 
 leader of Yorkshire Quakerism. Spent about 
 nineteen years in prison; nine of which were in 
 Warwick Castle. Died at Warwick; 1688. 
 
 Richard Famsworth. Convinced at Balby by G. Fox,- 165 1. 
 Became an eminent minister. Present at the 
 great three days' meeting at Malton in 1653. 
 Imprisoned at Banbury for twelve months 
 in 1655. Died in London,- 1666. 
 
 Thomas Goodyear. Convinced by George Fox at or near Wake- 
 field in 1651. Suffered much persecution and 
 imprisonment. Died at Selby,- 1693. 
 
 Richard Hubberthorne, of Yealand,- Lancashire. Convinced by 
 G. Fox,- 1652. Laboured in Wensleydale. 
 Died in Newgate; 1662. 
 
 Roger Hebden, of Malton. Born about 1620. Convinced by 
 George Fox ; 1651. Became a well-known local 
 minister. Helped to gather and settle several 
 meetings. Had a draper's shop in Malton,- 
 which he gave up for the sake of the ministry. 
 Imprisoned at York. Died 1695. 
 
 James Nayler. Born in the parish of Ardsley,- near Wakefieldj 
 about 1616. Convinced by George Fox; 165 1. 
 Laboured actively in and around Wakefield,- 
 and helped to found Scalehouse Meeting. Fell 
 into spiritual pride and blasphemy about 1656. 
 Tried by Parliament and severely punished. 
 Died at Holm,- and was buried at King's Rip ton,- 
 Huntingdon, 1660. 
 
 Richard Robinson, of Countersett in Wensleydale. Born at 
 Preston in this dale, 1628. Convinced 1652 by 
 G. Fox. Preached often at Askrigg; Richmond,- 
 Middleham, Bedale, Thirsk; Northallerton,- 
 Barnard Castle, and other places in Yorkshire. 
 Imprisoned in York Castle,- where he had to lay 
 in a great oven in the Castle Yard wall,- the Jail 
 being so full of Friends who were prisoners. 
 Prisoner in Richmond Jail; 1678 and 1684. 
 Died at Countersett; 1693. Buried at Bam- 
 bridge. 
 
FOUNDERS OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 421 
 
 Thomas Taylor, of Skipton; Yorkshire. Born 161 6. Educated 
 at Oxford. Had a benefice at Richmond) 
 Yorkshire. Convinced by George Fox; 1652 
 (at Swarthmore). Laboured at Bradford; 
 Knaresborough; in Netherdale and Brighouse 
 district. Imprisoned for nearly two years in 
 Appleby Jail; 1657 ; in York and Lancaster 
 Castles; 1660 ; in Derby Jail; 1661 ; Stafford 
 for nearly ten years. Died 1681. 
 
 Christopher Taylor. Brother of Thomas Taylor. Supposed to 
 have been born near Skipton. Convinced 1652. 
 Laboured like his brother in Yorkshire. Im- 
 prisoned 1654 and 1661. Later, kept a Boarding- 
 school for Friends' Children in Waltham Abbey,- 
 Essex,- and afterwards at Edmonton. Emi- 
 grated to Pennsylvania about 1682; and there 
 died; 1686. 
 
 Thomas Thompson, of Skipsea. Born 163 1. Convinced by Wm. 
 Dewsbury,- and began his ministry in 1652. 
 Accompanied Wm. Dewsbury, John Whitehead; 
 James Nayler,- and other early ministers in the 
 East Riding of Yorkshire. Suffered ten and a 
 half years imprisonment. Died 1704. 
 
 John Whitehead. Probably born in Yorkshire about 1630. Con- 
 vinced (while a soldier at Scarborough Castle) 
 by William Dewsbury in 1652. One of the most 
 prominent of the early Quaker preachers in North- 
 east Yorks. Often imprisoned on Truth's 
 account. Died 1690; and was buried at Lincoln. 
 
 Robert Wedders. Born about 1618 at Upper Kellet; Lancashire. 
 Convinced by G. Fox; 1652. Laboured in 
 Swaledale. Imprisoned; 1653, in Carlisle Jail. 
 Died at Kellet; 16S6. 
 
APPENDIX II. 
 
 RISE OF QUAKERISM IN YORKSHIRE. 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL MEMORANDA. 
 [Largely selected from J. Stephenson Rowntree's Chronological Notes.'] 
 
 RISE OF PURITANISM 1559 
 
 Robert Brown, the first " Independent." i55o(?)-i633(?) 
 
 Jacob Bdhme 1 576-1624 
 
 George Herbert 1 593-1632 
 
 John Milton 1608-1675 
 
 ENGLISH BIBLE; AUTHORISED VERSION 161 1 
 
 Pilgrim Fathers 1620 
 
 Blaise Pascal 1623-1662 
 
 GEORGE FOX BORN 1624 
 
 Michael Molinos 1627- 1696 
 
 John Bunyan 1628-1688 
 
 John Locke 1632-1704 
 
 Madame Guyon 1642-17 17 
 
 George Fox began his Ministry 1647 
 
 Quakers. A name coined by Justice Bennett of Derby 1650 
 
 George Fox's first visit to Yorkshire (including Whitby, Scar- 
 borough and Malton) 165 1-2 
 
 422 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL MEMORANDA. 423 
 
 Friends' Meetings settled In Yorkshire (principally by the 
 preaching of George Fox, William Dewsbury, James 
 Nayler, Christopher and Thomas Taylor, Thomas 
 Aldham, and Richard Farnsworth) 1651-54 
 
 Settlement of earliest Meetings for Discipline of Friends 1653 
 
 Great Meeting at Malton, lasting three or four days, attended 
 
 by 200 persons 1653 
 
 James Milner and Richard Myer " went out into imagi- 
 nations" 1653 
 
 MORE THAN SIXTY MINISTERS DECLARING 
 
 " THE TRUTH " 1654 
 
 George Fox's Imprisonment at Launceston 1655 
 
 One thousand Friends imprisoned in Great Britain ; 
 Mary Fisher (a Yorkshire woman) and Ann Austin 
 visit America. FALL OF JAMES NAYLER 1656 
 
 General Meeting at Scalehonse, Skipton ; Collections to 
 promote visits of Friends beyond the seas ; DEATH 
 OF CROMWELL ; Yearly Meeting at John Crook's; 
 Luton 1658 
 
 Martyrdom of Mary Dyer ; Marmaduke Stevenson (from 
 Yorkshire), William Leddra,- and William Robinson 
 at Boston. Restoration of Charles II. 1659-1660 
 
 John Perrot and Charles Baily " turned aside from the 
 
 Friends and Truth" (G.F.) 1661 
 
 4; 200 Friends prisoners 1662 
 
 ACT OF UNIFORMITY. St. Bartholomew's Day. 
 
 Ejectment of 2,000 Nonconformist Ministers 1662 
 
 George Fox imprisoned in Lancaster and Scarborough 
 
 Castles 1663-66 
 
 CONVENTICLE ACT PASSED 1664 
 
 Five Monthly Meetings in Yorkshire 1665 
 
 FIVE MILE ACT PASSED 1665 
 
 Friends' Marriage procedure revised. Waltham and 
 
 Shacklewell Schools. Milton's " Paradise Lost" 1667 
 
424 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Robert Barclay and William Penn join the Friends 1667-1668 
 
 "CANONS AND INSTITUTIONS" OF GEORGE 
 FOX ISSUED (Published in adverse pamphlet,- 
 1669). Recommended that disorderly walkers 
 be exhorted and report made ; Provision made for 
 children of first marriages ; Children to be trained 
 up in the fear of the Lord ; and books to be pro- 
 vided for registering Births; Marriages, and Burials 1668 
 
 William Penn's " No Cross,- No Crown." Marriage of 
 George Fox and Margaret Fell. Earliest Minute- 
 book of Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting. Testi- 
 monies drawn up against Joshua Green and William 
 Farthing. Fourteen Monthly Meetings in Yorkshire 1669 
 
 Minute Book of Scarborough and Whitby Monthly 
 Meeting commences. First M.M. held at Stainton- 
 dale 1669 
 
 Further regulations on Marriage procedure promul- 
 gated; CONVENTICLE ACT RENEWED. 
 GREAT PERSECUTIONS OF FRIENDS 1670 
 
 Trial of William Penn and William Mead 1670 
 
 George Fox recommends that the condemnation of such 
 as went out from truth into disorderly practices, 
 and the repentance and restoration of such as re- 
 turned again,- be recorded in a book for that purpose. 
 G.F. visits West Indies 167 1 
 
 First Yearly Meeting in London 1672 
 
 Liberation of many Friends from prison,- also John 
 
 Bunyan ; George Fox visits Maryland 1672 
 
 Great opposition to settlement of Women's Meeting 
 for Discipline. William Penn's " Alexander 
 the Coppersmith " 1673 
 
 Meeting-house built in New York. New Jersey a 
 
 Quaker Colony 1674 
 
 Robert Barclay's " Apology." Wilkinson-Story 
 separation. Opposition to Women's Meetings and 
 the Friends' discipline generally 1675 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL MEMORANDA. 425 
 
 Meeting-house in Scarborough built 1676 
 
 Robert Barclay's " Anarchy of the Ranters " 1676 
 
 Earliest existing Minutes ot Yorkshire Women's Quarterly 
 
 Meeting 1676-1677 
 
 First Testimony of Disownment in Scarborough and 
 
 Whitby Monthly Meeting Minute-books 1677 
 
 George Fox visits Holland. One hundred and forty-nine 
 names of meetings of Quakers in North and East Ridings 
 of Yorkshire officially recorded 1677-1716 
 
 Spirit of separation rife. Wilkinson,- Story; and Rogers 1677 
 
 " Pilgrim's Progress " published 1678 
 
 Publication of " Christian Quaker," etc. W. Rogers r68o 
 
 William Penn's " State of Liberty Spiritual " 1681 
 
 William Penn founds Philadelphia. Thomas Ellwood's 
 
 antidote to William Rogers. Great persecution 1682 
 
 William Rogers' " Scourge " and " Second Scourge for 
 
 John Whitehead." (A Poem !) 1683-1684 
 
 George Fox visits Holland 1684 
 
 Death of Charles II. More than 5,100 Friends imprisoned 
 during his reign. 1,383 Friends in Jail on accession of 
 James II. Release of many Friend prisoners. Thomas 
 Hammond, Clerk of Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting 
 (holds office forty-five years) 1685 
 
 Revocation of Edict of Nantes. Thomas Ellwood's 
 
 " Rogero Mastix " 1685 
 
 TOLERATION ACT PASSED ; more than 100 Friends' 
 Meetings licensed in West Riding soon after this. 
 Most of them private dwelling-houses 1689 
 
 DEATH OF GEORGE FOX, 13th January, (i. e. 1 1 Mo. 
 
 1690 O.S.) 1691 
 
 By advice of the Quarterly Meeting, four Friends of Scar- 
 borough and Whitby Meeting appointed " to take the 
 Oversight of Friends at this Meeting " 1691 
 
426 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Malton Monthly Meeting Minute Book Commences (with 
 
 entries from earlier book) 1694 
 
 FRIENDS AFFIRMATION ACT PASSED 1696 
 
 York Quarterly Meeting orders two Friends to be appointed 
 to enquire into the clearness of those intending marriage, 
 and two honest Friends to see that the proceedings at 
 weddings are orderly 1697 
 
 First Recorded Appointment of Overseers (Men and Women) 
 
 by Malton Monthly Meeting 1699 
 
 Friends known to be resident in 464 Towns and Villages 
 in Yorkshire about this time 
 
 Narratives of the early " Breaking forth of Truth," 
 collected by the Morning Meeting. Yorkshire 
 Quarterly meeting of Ministers meets at 6 a.m. 1705 
 
 First recorded Disownment in Malton Monthly Meet- 
 ing Minute Book 1707 
 
 Kelk Monthly Meeting becomes Bridlington 17 12 
 
 York large Meeting-house built 1 7 1 8 
 
 Simplification of Friends' form of Affirmation legalised 1722 
 
 Series of Queries issued by Yorkshire Quarterly Meet- 
 ing 1727 
 
 Membership with Friends defined by Minute of Yearly 
 
 Meeting 1737 
 
 MSS. books of Extracts prepared in London (charged 
 
 £2 10s. each) 1738 
 
 RISE OF METHODISM 1739 
 
 Elloughton Mo. Meeting becomes Cave M.M. 1743 
 
 Elders and Overseers appointed in many meetings 1750 
 
 Calendar amended. New Year's Day; January 1st; 
 instead of March 2$th. January becomes the " first 
 month" with corresponding changes throughout 1752 
 
 Seventy Particular Meetings in Yorkshire 175 s 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL MEMORANDA. 427 
 
 VISIT OF YEARLY MEETING'S COMMITTEE TO 
 YORKSHIRE; REVIVAL OF DISCIPLINE, 
 JOHN GRIFFITH 1761 
 
 John Woolman dies at York ; growing interest in anti- 
 Slavery movement 1772 
 
 Bridlington Monthly Meeting " laid down," the con- 
 gregations being divided between Owstwick and 
 Cave 1773 
 
 First Quarterly Meeting held at leeds ; War of American 
 
 Independence. Junction of Owstwick and Cave M.M.'s 1775 
 
 Visit of Yearly Meeting's Committee to Yorkshire ; they 
 
 make a printed report 1777 
 
 j£iji5o collected in Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting for 
 
 Philadelphia Friends in distress 1778 
 
 Establishment ol Aekworth School ; Dr. John Fothergill 1779 
 
 First printed Book of Extracts published 1783 
 
 Establishment of the Women's Yearly Meeting 1784 
 
 Lindley and H. Murray settle at York 1785 
 
 Proprietory Girls' School opened at York ; William and 
 
 Esther Tuke 1784-18 13 
 
 Junction of Scarborough and Malton Mo. Meetings under 
 
 the name of Pickering Mo. Meeting 1789 
 
 French Revolution I79 2 
 
 Monthly Meetings in Yorkshire enter into a union for 
 
 the Relief of the Poor 1795 
 
 Opening of York Retreat 1796 
 
 Religious Tract Society founded 1799 
 
 Book of Discipline,- second edition 1802 
 
 Four Particular Meetings discontinued. Owstwick 
 
 and Cave to be called Hull Monthly Meeting 1803 
 
428 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Salterforth and Bridlington Meetings reopened ; a Statis- 
 tical Memorandum states that in the ten years 
 (1801-1810) the births registered in Yorkshire 
 Quarterly Meeting were — Members,- 735; Non- 
 Members, 417 ; burials, Members,- 725; Non- 
 Members, 282 ; marriages,- 152 ; admissions from 
 convincement, 67 18 10 
 
 Dewsbury Meeting Established 18 12 
 
 York large Meeting-house (re-building, £2,963) ; Rich- 
 mond Monthly Meeting joined to Westmorland 
 Quarterly Meeting j 18 16 
 
 Death of Henry Tuke ; building of Barnsley Meeting- 
 house. Strong Minute re " Fictitious Paper 
 Credit"; books received from Morris Birkbeck 18 17 
 
 Knaresborough Meeting re-opened ; Shipton Meeting 
 
 closed; " Transcribing Clerk " proposed 18 18 
 
 Boys' School begun in Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting prem- 
 ises in Lawrence Street, York, by William Simpson J 1823 
 
 Dissolution of Thirsk Monthly Meeting 1827 
 
 Rawdon School opened ; Friends' Provident Institution 
 
 Established 1832 
 
 KIrby Moorslde and Helmsley transferred from 
 Guisborough Monthly Meeting to Pickering 
 Monthly Meeting 1833 
 
 Surrender of Friends' Registers to Government i 
 Entries of Births,- 260,000 ; marriages,- 40,000 ; 
 burials,- 310,000 1840 
 
 Ayton School Established 1841 
 
 Helmsley Meeting closed 1842 
 
 Bridlington Meeting closed 1844 
 
 Guisborough Monthly Meeting joined to Durham 
 
 Quarterly Meeting 1850 
 
 Dissolution of Settle and Knaresborough Monthly Meet- 
 ings 1853 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL MEMORANDA. 429 
 
 A bolition of Religious Tests in Scottish Universities 1853 
 
 Pickering and Hull Monthly Meeting united 1858 
 
 Particular Meetings, 40 ; Members, 2,198 ; Attenders, 
 1,099 
 
 Particular Meetings,- 39 ; Members, 2,399 ; Attenders, 
 1.333- Friends' Home Mission Committee estab- 
 lished 
 
 Particular Meetings, 37 ; Members, 2,581 ; Attenders, 
 
 1,377 
 Particular Meetings,- 37 ; Members, 2,632 ; Attenders,- 
 
 1.S09 
 
 1872 
 
 1892 
 
APPENDIX V. 
 
 THE DEATH OF JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 [This article is taken from the American Friend of 
 16th March, 1905. Dr. Rufus Jones, the Editor, was with 
 John Wilhelm Rowntree at the time of his death]. 
 
 AFTER a long, brave fight with pneumonia, contracted 
 on the steamer, our beloved friend, John Wilhelm 
 Rowntree, peacefully passed into the invisible life, in New 
 York City, Third month, 9th. It seems well-nigh impossible 
 to break the awe and hush which cover one who has stood 
 by his bedside in these last moments, and to tell in calm 
 words what his life has been and what his death means. 
 To those of us who belong to the younger generation of 
 Friends he was our foremost leader. He possessed in very 
 high degree the qualities of mind and heart which fitted 
 him for leadership, and he had the genius and spirit of a 
 Christian statesman, farseeing in plan and policy, fertile in 
 constructive ideas and unwearied in execution. His death 
 has removed the person whose life at this juncture seemed 
 the most important and indispensable for the expansion and 
 reinterpretation of Quakerism. He brought to this task 
 rare and precious gifts. Upon few Friends who have ever 
 lived has such a powerful gift in the ministry been conferred. 
 At its highest his ministry had a reach and power and a 
 winning appeal which have appeared in few men of our day. 
 The command of perfect expression, the power of descrip- 
 tion, the immense grasp of truth, the penetration of soul, 
 
APPENDIX IV. 
 
 prrrt-n # ff//,,^ # . 
 
 GUISBOROUGH 
 
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 RICHMOND 
 
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 KNARESBOROUGH 
 
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 <w 
 
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 IN THEYEAB 
 
 1609. 
 
APPENDIX V. 
 
 THE DEATH OF JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 [This article is taken from the American Friend of 
 16th March, 1905. Dr. Rufus Jones, the Editor, was with 
 John Wilhelm Rowntree at the time of his death]. 
 
 AFTER a long, brave fight with pneumonia, contracted 
 on the steamer, our beloved friend, John Wilhelm 
 Rowntree, peacefully passed into the invisible life, in New 
 York City, Third month, 9th. It seems well-nigh impossible 
 to break the awe and hush which cover one who has stood 
 by his bedside in these last moments, and to tell in calm 
 words what his life has been and what his death means. 
 To those of us who belong to the younger generation of 
 Friends he was our foremost leader. He possessed in very 
 high degree the qualities of mind and heart which fitted 
 him for leadership, and he had the genius and spirit of a 
 Christian statesman, farseeing in plan and policy, fertile in 
 constructive ideas and unwearied in execution. His death 
 has removed the person whose life at this juncture seemed 
 the most important and indispensable for the expansion and 
 reinterpretation of Quakerism. He brought to this task 
 rare and precious gifts. Upon few Friends who have ever 
 lived has such a powerful gift in the ministry been conferred. 
 At its highest his ministry had a reach and power and a 
 winning appeal which have appeared in few men of our day. 
 The command of perfect expression, the power of descrip- 
 tion, the immense grasp of truth, the penetration of soul, 
 
432 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 the fire of conviction, the tenderness of spirit and the glow 
 of consecration united in one man made his ministry ex- 
 traordinary. No living Friend has done so much as he to 
 make the atonement real and compelling. He has preached 
 his greatest sermons on the theme of the Cross. He had 
 spent the last weeks of his life interpreting it in written 
 articles, but he has told the message best in quiet personal 
 talks, when he made one feel that the atonement had 
 become an experience to him as it had to the apostle Paul. 
 Just this deep possession of the truth in a personal ex- 
 perience was the most striking feature of his life. His 
 words weighed heavy because they were always loaded 
 with his large, rich life, and had been forged in the heat 
 and glow of his own experience. 
 
 He had a love and passion for his own society, like that 
 of a Hebrew prophet for his race andnation. All his strength 
 and genius and gifts were devoted to it. With patient 
 care he studied every movement in its past history, so that 
 he might bring to his present day tasks a wisdom and in- 
 sight which would make the advances of this generation 
 real advances. He was at work, when his summons came, 
 upon a complete history of Quakerism, with special stress 
 upon the great changes which had characterised it, and had 
 broken it up into " branches " during the nineteenth century. 
 
 It was most pitiful to hear him dwell, in the delirium 
 of fever, upon the great literary plan of his life. He had 
 spent years preparing for it. He had ransacked two con- 
 tinents for his mass of facts, and with an earnestness which 
 pierced one's soul he pleaded for the privilege of completing 
 this undertaking. Who will take up the pen which his 
 fingers can no longer hold ? 
 
 No other person beyond the sea so thoroughly under- 
 stood all the aspects and phases of American Quakerism. 
 He had visited and studied sympathetically every kind of 
 meeting, and he knew, as few others know, the problems 
 which confront us or the difficulties to be overcome before 
 we can repair the blunders of the past and realise the mission 
 to which we are called. He earnestly longed to see the gaps 
 
APPENDIX. 433 
 
 and chasms of separation closed, and the whole body of 
 Friends once more united in work and in message, a living 
 power in the spiritual conflicts of our age. He had hoped 
 to spend some years of service among us, when a way opened 
 for it, that he might labour with us toward the realisation 
 of that larger future which his vision forecast. 
 
 His greatest visible service has been in the organisation 
 of settlements for religious study. Eight years ago he 
 began to plan an adequate institution for the religious 
 training of English Friends. At first his plans were too 
 ambitious to be realised. But, like a wise man, he soon 
 decided to begin with what he could get. With other splen- 
 did helpers he organised the Scarborough settlement, which 
 proved a time of profound blessing. It was followed by 
 another at Windermere, and finally the way opened for a 
 permanent settlement at Woodbrooke, where he lived to 
 see the deep purpose of his life well on the way toward 
 realisation. He was coming to America with his mind all 
 full of plans for a great settlement next summer, and he 
 was expecting to draw together a band of lecturers who 
 would make it one of the most important religious events 
 of the summer in Great Britain. He had himself sat in 
 the darkness of agnosticism, and had been delivered from 
 it, and he longed with a holy longing to help as many as 
 he could out of ignorance and out of partial knowledge into 
 the breadth and freedom of truth. There are many who 
 now see because of his labours. 
 
 But the greatest thing about our dear friend was his 
 life. His gifts were large, his culture was rich and broad, 
 he did an astonishing amount of work for a man who finished 
 his course at thirty-six, but those of us who were nearest 
 him knew that best of all God had given to us in him a 
 precious friend, a life luminous with character and with 
 goodness. Just as he was entering young manhood and 
 was beginning to feel the dawning sense of a great mission 
 before him, he discovered that he was slowly losing his sight 
 and hearing. He was told that before middle life he would 
 become totally blind. Dazed and overwhelmed he staggered 
 
434 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 from the doctor's office to the street and stood there in 
 silence. Suddenly he felt the love of God wrap him about 
 as though a visible presence enfolded him, and a joy filled 
 him, such as he had never known before. From that time 
 until this joy was deepened in the new life of to-day, he 
 was a gloriously joyous and happy man. His physical 
 limitations have all along been turned into inward profit. 
 His long, hard battle with a stubborn disease which was 
 attacking the very citadel of his powers — his sight, his 
 hearing, and his memory, — has only made him more heroic 
 and gentle. No complaint, no bitterness was ever heard. 
 If he could not have full light, he was duly thankful for 
 one-third vision, and year after year he came to America 
 in the hope of preserving the narrow sight which was left 
 to him. He worked when he could, and when the doctor 
 laid an embargo on him he waited his time to gather up his 
 work again and go on. 
 
 Few things show the true, deep nature of a man more 
 than his humour. The finest humour always comes from 
 the finest spirit. The play of his spirit was one of the love- 
 liest things about him. He thoroughly enjoyed life, and 
 when he was with congenial persons his happy spirit flowed 
 out in sheer joy. He was intensely human. He was as 
 far removed from the ascetic as a man could be. He be- 
 lieved that religion meant the abundant life, the full life, 
 not a cramped and contracted one, and in the completest 
 way he practised this faith. The result was that he got 
 into close touch with all kinds of persons and had a way 
 of entering almost any life. He could pass naturally and 
 with perfect ease from the strain of work or from solemn 
 meditation of spirit to complete relaxation in happy inno- 
 cent play, as though one were as truly a part of life as the 
 other. 
 
 When he prayed, you discovered best how real and 
 genuine his life was. He talked with God in perfect 
 sincerity and simplicity. It was a needy, finite spirit opening 
 itself to a loving Father who needed no phrases or flattery, 
 but who would hear every word spoken in spirit and in 
 
APPENDIX. 435 
 
 truth. His prayers in times of sorrow and affliction were 
 revelations of the depth of his love and sympathy. Out 
 of his own last illness there rose a prayer of confidence and 
 trust, a cry for a personal immortality and further life of 
 love which left an undying impression on everyone who 
 heard it. 
 
 His love of man, or, better his love of men, was shown 
 by his interest in all the problems of labour and poverty, 
 and by his years of effort in the village of Acomb, where he 
 had a large class of men, and he frequently addressed 
 large meetings in the town of Scarborough, near where he 
 lived in these closing years. One of the last plans of his 
 life was the construction of a " rest home" for working men 
 and working women — "a valley of peace" (Friedensthal) as 
 he named it — where the tired worker might have a thorough 
 refreshment of mind and body. And now after the storm 
 and stress of fever and pain he has broken away from 
 the worn body and has found his " valley of peace " in the 
 circle of those who have fought the good fight and have 
 kept the faith. He has seen much fruit from his brief life, 
 he has had the joy of rich love and noble friendship, and he 
 has lived these last years with the light of God on his face. 
 His going has cast a shadow on many of our lives, it has 
 made all our tasks harder, and it has left us much poorer, 
 but his banner shall not fall, and what he lived to do shall 
 with Christ's help be carried on by the band of faithful 
 friends who have felt the inspiration of his life, and who have 
 had visions of the goal toward which he was pressing. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Ackworth School founded, 59 ; estab- 
 lishment a work of reformation 
 66 ; Dr. FothergilTs prospectus 
 of, 179. 
 
 Acklam, 39. 
 
 " Adam and Eve," picture of, by Beham, 
 
 Addison, 53. 
 
 Advices re Overseers, 54. 
 
 Adult Schools, energy of workers in, 61, 
 69, 70 ; meetings for worship not 
 to be neglected for, 72 ; critical 
 importance of in development of 
 Quakerism as a Church, 164 ; pos- 
 sibilities of, 164-5 ; proper relation 
 of to Church organisation not yet 
 fully understood, 196 ; references 
 to, 240, 246, 296. 
 
 "Adult Schools and Mission Work." J. 
 Wilhelm Rowntree's paper on, 163. 
 
 Agar, John (of Scarborough), travels 
 in ministry, 48, 50. 
 
 Ainger, Canon, quoted, 292-3. 
 
 Aire, see Leeds. 
 
 Aldam, Thomas, Biographical data, 419. 
 
 Alden, Percy, 305. 
 
 Algiers, meeting of Quaker prisoners 
 in, 47. 
 
 Allan, William, irregular marriage pro- 
 ceedings of, 55. 
 
 Allatson, George, a leading Friend at 
 Scarborough, 47- 
 
 Allatson, Joseph; early convert at Har- 
 wood Dale, 15. 
 
 America, visited by Quaker evangelists, 
 
 &,.^g; emigration of Friends to, 46; 
 
 ft| j Pastoral System in, 141 ; Hicksite 
 
 ™ division in, 239. 
 
 American opinion on Friends' education, 
 190. 
 
 American Christianity, its discords, 203. 
 
 American Friends and their difficulties, 
 204. 
 
 American Situation, its lessons, 206. 
 
 Ampleforth, 39. 
 
 " Anarchy of the Ranters " pub., 7. 
 
 Andrews, Herbert, 416. 
 
 Anglicanism and ecclesiastical authority, 
 242-3. 
 
 Anglican Church, transformation in, 196 ; 
 attractions of, 227. 
 
 Anglican Missions, 198. 
 
 Anselm, his view of the Atonement, 270 ; 
 teaching of, 285. 
 
 " Antidote to Wm. Rogers " pub., 8. 
 
 Appleton-le-Street, 19. 
 
 " Apology " of Barclay, 10. 
 
 Aprons, see Dress. 
 
 Apostolic Quakerism, 33-34- 
 
 Apostolic succession, doctrine of, 193. 
 
 Appendices, 419. 
 
 Armed vessels owned by Friends, 51-2. 
 
 Arnold, Matthew, 309. 
 
 Arrangements, reforms in, 167. 
 
 " Arthur's Knights," 225. 
 
 Assyria, 216. 
 
 Assyrians, writings of, 254. 
 
 Atkinson, Rev. J. C, 67. 
 
 Atkinson, Susannah, a travelling Minister, 
 
 50. 
 Atonement, the, 248, 269, 270, 271, 272, 
 
 275, 279, 284, 286, 287, 290, 292. 
 Audland, John, 13. 
 Augustine, his teaching, 285. 
 Autumn, description of, 321-2. 
 Aylesbury, 28. 
 Ay ton, 39. 
 Aysgarth, John Griffiths at, 64. 
 
 Bacdale, burial ground at, 58. 
 
 Baily, Charles, 7. 
 
 Balby, G. Fox at, 10. 
 
 Ballitore, 181. 
 
 Bannister, Mary, 50. 
 
 Baptism, Quaker view of, 100. 
 
 Baptists, 5. 
 
 Barbadoes, visited by Quaker Evangelists, 
 
 9- 
 Barclay, Robert (of Ury), 7, 10, 43, 66, 
 
 106, 173, 238, 240, 243. 
 Barclay's " Apology," lectures on sug- 
 gested, 120. 
 Barker, W., 37. 
 Barnard, Hannah, 238. 
 Barton, George, letter from J. Wilhelm 
 
 Rowntreeto, 151. 
 Barton i' the Willows, burial ground at, 
 
 55- 
 Barwick, Robert, 27. 
 Bar-wick, Robert and Grace (of Kelk), 15. 
 "Basis of the Quaker Faith," J. Wilhelm 
 
 Rowntree's address on, 79. 
 Basis of Silence, 98. 
 Baxter, Richard, contemporary of G. 
 
 Fox, 4 ; Quakerism misunderstood 
 
 Beacon, The, 240. 
 
 Beaconite Controversy, 247. 
 
 Bedford Institute, J. Wilhelm Rown- 
 tree's address at, 162. 
 
 Beham, Hans, 417. 
 
 Belief in God, 323. 
 
 Bell, Nathaniel (of Staintondale), 48. 
 
 Benson, Gervase, 419. 
 
 Bennett, Justice, gives nickname of 
 " Quakers," 6. 
 
 Besant, Mrs., 394. 
 
 436 
 
INDEX. 
 
 437 
 
 Beverley, G. Fox at, 10. 
 
 Bible, inspiration of, 248, 391, 392 ; 
 
 ignorance of ordinary laymen con- 
 cerning, 155 ; our misinterpretation 
 
 of, 158. 
 Bible Schools, 136, 141, 143, 144. 
 Biblical criticism, cannot destroy spiritual 
 
 truth, 392. 
 Biblical and Church History, lessons 
 
 of, 126. 
 Biblical Infallibility, doctrine of, 244. 
 Biblical Instruction, deficiencies of, 148. 
 Biblical knowledge, lack of progress in, 
 
 154. 
 Biblical scholarship, 157. 
 Biblical scholars, their aloofness, 154 ; 
 
 scientific attitude of modern, 241. 
 Biblical study, 132 ; value of private, 
 
 129. 
 Biblical teaching, need of, 183, 187. 
 Bibliolatry, authority of clergy sup- 
 plemented by, 5. 
 " Billites," 65. 
 Bits dale, 39. 
 Binns, H. B., 178. 
 Birdsall, 39. 
 Bishopsgate, 238. 
 Bishopnck, 26. 
 " Blackamores," 26. 
 Blake, Wm., quoted, 371. 
 Blatchford, R., 316, 331. 
 Blaykling, John, 419. 
 Board Schools, religious instruction in, 
 
 182. 
 Boarding Schools (Friends'), need for 
 
 special religious teaching in, 141 ; 
 
 training of teachers for, 148. 
 Bohme, Jacob, 4. 
 Bootham, J. Wilhelm Rowntree's paper 
 
 in, 415- 
 Booth, Charles, 200, 304, 316, 384. 
 Boston Common, martyrdom of Mary 
 
 Dyer and Marmaduke Stevenson 
 
 on, 6, 9. 
 Boyes, (Mr.) and G. Fox, n, 12. 
 Bradford Meeting established, 16. 
 " Breakings forth of Truth," 15. 
 Breckon, Francis, 49. 
 Breckon, Rachel, a travelling Minister, 50. 
 Bridlington, early Friends at, 15, 22. 
 Brigham, 22. 
 Brighouse, t6. 
 
 Brighouse Monthly Meeting, 36. 
 Bristol, G. Fox at, 9. 
 British Isles, early Christianity in, 258. 
 British Weekly, religious census, 310. 
 " Broad " School, reference to, 249. 
 Brocken, spectre of, 389, 390. 
 Brother of Mercy, 164. 
 Brotherhood, 172-176. 
 Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, quoted, 377- 
 Browning, Robert, quoted, 281, 412. 
 Bruce, Professor, 139- 
 Buddha, teaching of, 264. 
 Bunyan, John, 4, 31, 74, 257, 288. 
 Burial-grounds (Friends'), schedule, 36; 
 
 references to, 55> 57, 58. 
 Burials, Moderation at recommended, 54. 
 Burke, Edmund, trained at Quaker 
 
 School, 181. ■ 
 Burniston, G. Fox at, 13 ; Meeting, 39 ; 
 
 early Friends at, 47, 
 
 Burnt Offerings, 86. 
 
 Burns, Robert, 326. 
 
 Burroughs, Edward, Books circulated, 45. 
 
 Burton Meeting, Overseers, 54. 
 
 Butler's " Analogy," 239. 
 
 Calamy, (E.) list of ejected Ministers, 20. 
 
 Calvin, 290. 
 
 Cambridge School, evangelicalism of, 239. 
 
 Cambridge, Milton at College, 4 ; Quaker 
 women flogged at, 6 ; religious tests 
 at, 65. 
 
 Camm, John, Biographical data, 419. 
 
 Carpenter, see Trades. 
 
 Cass, Roger (of Hutton Bushell), 15. 
 
 Castleton Monthly Meeting, 36. 
 
 Catchpool, H. W. P., 415. 
 
 "Causality" argument, the, 326. 
 
 Census, Religious, 304. 
 
 Central Education Board, 185-186. 
 
 Ceremonial Rites, 87. 
 
 Ceremonialism after Laud's death, 5. 
 
 Certificates re Marriages, 49. 
 
 " Chamber Rent " in York Castle, se$ 
 Trott, Robert. 
 
 Channing, Dr., 367. 
 
 " Chappel in the Bryers," 16. 
 
 Charity, right and wrong kinds, 306. 
 
 Charles II., 31, 42. 
 
 " Children of the Light," 40, 56, 74. 
 
 Children of first marriages, provision 
 for, 46. 
 
 Children hold meetings, 10. 
 
 China, 376, 390. 
 
 Christ, behind the Gospels, 159 ; in 
 Nazareth, 212-13 ; personality of, 
 248 ; necessity for revelation of 
 God through him, 263 ; experience 
 of in the heart, 279 ; the witness 
 for, ibid ; knowledge of in experience, 
 402 ; difficulties of accepting the 
 historic, 411, 412. 
 
 Christian Apologists, 230. 
 
 Christian Catholicity, plea for, 211. 
 
 Christian Church, the present a time 
 of trial for, 257. 
 
 Christian ethics, freed from Old Testament 
 bondage, 157. 
 
 "Christian Experience," by Roger Hebden, 
 18. 
 
 Christian experience, teaching of, 334. 
 
 Christian faith, practical aspects of, 159. 
 
 Christian ideals of conduct not recognised 
 by the State, 373, 374- 
 
 Christian life, importance of social side, 
 167 ; what it is, 401. 
 
 Christian Minister, 157. 
 
 ** Christian Quaker," by Penn and White- 
 head, 46. 
 
 " Christian Quaker," by Wm. Rogers, 7. 
 
 Christian Sects, evolving into liberality, 
 224. 
 
 Christian view of God, 337. 
 
 Christianity, conventional, 257 ; implies 
 stewardship, 172 ; outward results 
 of practical, 165 ; of to-day, 75. 
 
 Church of Christ should know no 
 caste, 172. 
 
 Church Congress, Bishop of Durham's 
 address, 196 ; reference to, 316. 
 
 Church of England, 131 ; Religious 
 Census of in London, 310. 
 
43« 
 
 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Church arrangements, Schmiedel on, 194. 
 Church fellowship, its character, 194. 
 Church History, lessons of, 139 ; necessity 
 
 for study of, 145. 
 Church life, 220. 
 
 Church meetings, need of energy in, 176. 
 Church membership, chart of, 163. 
 Church work, need for self-denial in, 147. 
 Church organisation necessary, 193. 
 Church and Adult Schools, their relations, 
 
 165-166. 
 Church, social life of, 171* 
 Church, spiritual message of, 148. 
 Church, failure of preaching, 218. 
 Church, plea for simplicity, 221. 
 Church, teaching of Jesus applied to, 219. 
 Civil War, 30. 
 Clarion, the, 316. 
 Clarke, Prof., his definition of God, 330-1 ; 
 
 quoted, 344. 
 Cleveland, iz, 24, 26. 
 Cliques, danger of, 171 • 
 Cock, Geo. B-, report of J. Wilhelm 
 
 Rowntree's sermon, 252. 
 Cock, Luke, oddities of, 59. 
 Cockerill, Richard, first Quaker convert 
 
 at Hackness, 15 ; burial, 16. 
 Colchester, 10. 
 
 Colchester Jail, Parnell's death at, 9. 
 Comparative religion, 156. 
 Compass-maker, see Trades. 
 Confucius, his teaching, 264. 
 Congregational Historical Society, 38. 
 Congregationalism, its future prospects, 
 
 195- 
 Constable, see Trades. 
 Constantinople, 83. 
 Contemporary Review, Macfadyen's article 
 
 in, 280. 
 Controversy, Modern Quakerism free from, 
 
 247. 
 Conventicle Act, 72- Severities to Friends 
 
 under, 9. 
 Cook, Wm. , marriage and disownment, 56. 
 Council of State petitioned, 43. 
 Cordwainer, see Trades. 
 Corinthian Church, 99. 
 Cornhill, 17. 
 
 Corporation Act repealed, 65. 
 Correspondence classes, 145. 
 Cotham, 15. 
 Cowper, quoted, 85. 
 Crake, 16. 
 Craven, 41. 
 
 Creeds, difficulties of, 194. 
 Creighton, Bishop Mandell, quoted, 363, 
 
 365- , 
 Crewdson, Isaac, 239. 
 Crisp, Stephen, 10, 40, 65, 74, 4ig. 
 Criticism, constructive modern, 159. 
 Creese, 14. 
 
 Crosslands, Jordan, 13. 
 Cross, the, its lessons, 361. 
 Croydon, J. Wilhelm Rowntree's pro- 
 posed addresses at, 295. 
 Culloden, the, 177. 
 Cumberland and G. Fox, g. 
 
 Dale, Bryan, 38. 
 
 Dale, Dr. 119. 
 
 Danby Burial ground, conveyance of, 57. 
 
 Dauby Dale, Quaker burial at, 67. 
 
 Darlington Meeting, 35. 
 
 Darwin, 327, 344. 
 
 " Death in the Desert," quoted, 281, 4x2. 
 
 Death bridged by Love, 418. 
 
 Death Penalty testified against, 6. 
 
 Deists, 239. 
 
 Denial, papers of, 52. 
 
 Denominational Education, 128. 
 
 Derby, G. Fox imprisoned, 6 ; nickname 
 of Quaker given at, Ibid. 
 
 Derbyshire, Fox begins ministry in, 6. 
 
 Descartes, 10. 
 
 Design, argument from, 326-7. 
 
 Deuteronomic legislation, 85. 
 
 Dewsbury, Ann, 15. 
 
 Dewsbury, William, joins Friends, 14, 
 15 ; at Malton, Leverton, Staithes 
 and Egton Bridge, 15 ; convinces 
 Christopher Taylor, 16 ; establishes 
 meetings in Leeds, Halifax and 
 Bradford, ibid ; at Frodingham, 22 ; 
 in Bast Riding, 23 ; his long im- 
 prisonment, 22 ; testimony of Kelk 
 Monthly Meeting concerning, 16; 
 references to, 40, 44 ; biographical 
 data, 420. 
 
 Disciples, i.e., Learning Knights, 214. 
 
 Discipline, 46, 50. 
 
 Disownments, first at Scarborough Month- 
 ly Meeting, 46 ; reasons for, 61 ; 
 increase of number, 50. 
 
 Divine forgiveness, conditions of, 288. 
 
 Divine-human Personality, its revelation 
 in Christ, 358. 
 
 Divine work of worship, zix, 1x2. 
 
 Doctrines, their limits, 272. 
 
 Doncaster, G. Fox at, 10. 
 
 Doomsdale, G. Fox's imprisonment In, 9. 
 
 Doubt, experienced, 262. 
 
 Drayton in the Clay, 4. 
 
 Dress, minute re, 60. 
 
 Dresser, Horatio, 106. 
 
 Drummond, Prof., 99, 317. 
 
 Dryden, contemporary of Fox, 4. 
 
 Dunnington, 39. 
 
 Duomo, preacher of the, 17. 
 
 Durham, Bishop of, 196. 
 
 Durham Q.M., 35. 
 
 Dutchman, Edward, disowned, 46. 
 
 Dyer, Mary, martyred, 9. 
 
 " Dynamic Faith," (Rufus Jones), quoted, 
 90, 
 
 Dynamic personality of Christ, 352. 
 
 Early Christianity in Britain, 258. 
 
 Early Church, its historical lessons, 138. 
 
 Early Friends, their character, 18 ; 
 their inner life, 33 ; their invincible 
 spirit, 62 ; would not be ignored, ibid; 
 trade or calling, 53 ; veracity Of 
 their religion, 224. 
 
 Bast Riding meetings, 36. 
 
 Easton, John, prisoner to Turks, 47. 
 
 Education, indifference of eighteenth 
 century Quakerism to, 66; J. 
 Wilhelm Rowntree's plea for in- 
 creased facilities, no; need for 
 wide basis, 141 ; problems of, 183 ; 
 funds for equipment, 188 ; reform, 
 189 ; weakness of system, 229. 
 
 Edwards, Thomas, publishes "Gangraena," 
 
INDEX. 
 
 439 
 
 Egton Bridge, 15. 
 
 Egypt, 3go. 
 
 Egyptian Priest, 336. 
 
 Egyptian Philosophy 264. 
 
 Egyptian Religion, 82, 83. 
 
 Ejected Ministers, CaJamy's list of, 
 reference to, 20. 
 
 Ellerton, Mary, a travelling Minister, 50. 
 
 Eliot, George, quoted, 107. 
 
 Elizabeth of the Palatine, attracted 
 to Friends, zo. 
 
 Blloughton Meeting, 35. 
 
 Ellwood, Thomas, books by, 7, 8 ; friend- 
 ship with Milton, 10. 
 
 Emerson, quoted, 411. 
 
 Emigration of Early Friends, 46. 
 
 " Encyclopaedia Biblia," 193. 
 
 England, of Cromwell and Stuarts, 
 238 ; Methodism in, 70 ; present 
 social condition, 315. 
 
 English life, effects of Puritanism on, 42. 
 
 Englishmen, practical rather than specu- 
 lative, 325- 
 
 Englishmen, their worship of machinery, 
 
 309- 
 "Enmity between the Two Seeds," by 
 
 John Whitehead, 27-29. 
 Erskine of Linlathen, quoted 340, 392. 
 Ethics, limitation of their helpfulness, 41 1. 
 Europe in sixteenth century, 4x6. 
 Evangelical Churches, 203. 
 Evangelical effort needed to-day, 135. 
 Evangelical man, type of, 156. 
 Evangelical revival, 115, 
 Evangelical School, 2494 
 Evangelicalism of Charles Simeon, 239. 
 Evangelicalism, right and wrong views 
 
 of, 369, 370. 
 Evening readings, advocated, 170 ; in 
 
 Scarborough, 297- 
 Everett, Prof., quoted 366, 367. 
 Evolution, 156. 
 Exegesis, law of, 157. 
 
 Fairbairn, Dr., quoted, 88, 95, 172. 
 
 Farmer, see Trades. 
 
 Farndale, 39. 
 
 Farnsworth, Richard, 15, 23, 420. 
 
 Faith, neglect of instruction in essentials, 
 
 229 ; what it is, 397. 
 " Faith and life," outline of address 
 
 on, 297> 
 "Faith and Life," J. Wilhelm Rowntree's 
 
 address on, 384. 
 Family, teaching of Jesus applied to the, 
 
 215-16. 
 "[Family Exclusiveness," J. Wilhelm 
 
 Rowntree's paper on, 211. 
 Fashionable society, 219- 
 Fatherhood of God, 245, 349. 353- 
 Fell, Margaret, 6, 9. *7- 
 Fellowship, value of in worship, 106-107. 
 Feversham, Lord, and Friends' property, 
 
 36. 
 Fiennes, Mrs., 41. 
 Fifth Monarchy Men, 31. . 
 
 Fisher, Mary, flogged at Cambridge, 6. 
 Firbank Chapel, 9, 12. 
 First-day Schools, 163. 
 Flounders Institute, 187. 
 Poieign Missions, quicken spiritual life, 61. 
 formal worship, its futility, 314, 
 
 "Forty Years in a Moorland Parish," 
 quoted, 67. 
 
 Fothergill, John, establishes Ackworth 
 School, 59 ; on education, 179. 
 
 Fox, George, birth and contemporaries, 
 4 ; antagonist of sacerdotalism, 4 ; 
 spiritual strife, 5 ; begins ministry, 
 6 ; first imprisonment, 6, io, ; 
 first visit to Yorkshire, 6 ; influence 
 of Nayler's fall on, 7 ; compared 
 with Whitefield and Wesley, 8 ; 
 his use of organisation, 8 ; at Not- 
 tingham, 9 ; at York Minster, 10, 
 11 ; preaches on hay-stack, 11 ; 
 second visit to Yorkshire, 12 ; 
 contemporary description of, 21 ; 
 at Malton, 43 ; Lancashire petition 
 against, 43 ; establishes discipline 68, ; 
 his practical spirit, 6g ; theology 
 of his day, 74 ; on Pendle Hill, 76 ; 
 and Early Friends, 99 ; his views 
 re sacraments justified by modern 
 scholarship, 99 ; oaths, " hireling 
 ministry, and steeple-houses, 100- 
 102 ; and H. Wooldrig, 103 ; sug- 
 gested lectures on, 130 ; his gospel 
 and its modern interpretation, 208 ; 
 Prof. James on Quakerism of Fox's 
 day, 224 ; Suso and Tauler bis 
 spiritual forerunners, 265 ; his defi- 
 nition of truth, 349 ; references 
 to, 40, 44> 97, 238, 242-3, 349, 354, 
 Biographical data, 419. 
 
 Frankland, Henry, signs licence for 
 Hutton Bushell meeting-house, 37-8. 
 
 Free Churches, must uphold religious 
 liberty, 177; Congress of, 207. 
 
 " Free Church Year Book," quoted, 195. 
 
 Freedom, danger of untutored, 138 ; 
 necessity of in ministry and worship, 
 171. 
 
 Free Ministry, John Whitehead's witness 
 to, 29 ; responsibility of, 67 ; J. 
 Wilhelm Rowntree's concern for, 
 1 10 ; a vital principle in Quaker 
 worship, 111-112; in Early Church, 
 zi2 ; practical aspects of, 115 ; 
 from outsider's standpoint, 116-117 ; 
 practical disadvantages of, 121 ; 
 what it entails, 133 ; its needs, 136 ; 
 necessity for mental equipment, 153 ; 
 indifference to responsibilities, 175 ; 
 American abandonment of old con- 
 ceptions of it, 203 > a problem not 
 yet solved, 205 ; dark outlook, 226. 
 
 Friends, number of at Queen Anne's 
 accession, 34 ; statistics re Yorkshire, ■ 
 in seventeenth century, 34, 35, 36 ; 
 places of residence, 39, 48 ; collections 
 for prisoners, 45 ; and armed vessels, 
 51; derivation of name, 58 ; political 
 and educational disabilities, 65 ; 
 admitted to Parliament, 65 ; views 
 of on ceremonial, 112; boarding 
 schools, 125, 126, 127 ; in America, 
 138 ; spiritual conception of worship, 
 140; Bible school, 150 $ machinery 
 out of date, 168 ; narrowing effects 
 of cliquism, 171-2 ; educational 
 problems, 183 ; need of more funds 
 for educational equipment, 188 ; 
 number of at present day, 199-200, 
 
440 
 
 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Friends' Historical Society, 15. 
 Friends' Missions, distinctive object of, 
 
 198. 
 Friends' modern books, 240. 
 " Friends of God," 365. 
 Friends* Intelligencer, 190, 252. 
 Frodingham, 22. 
 Frogmore, 254. 
 Fry, Sir Edward, 312. 
 Fry, Elizabeth, at Newgate, 65 ; lecture 
 
 on suggested, 130 ; referred to, 23S, 
 
 240. 
 Fulford, 39. 
 
 Galleys, Friends prisoners in, 52. 
 
 "Gangraena," (Edwards') 7. 
 
 Garbutt, Peter (of Scarborough), 38, 47. 
 
 Garden City, 315, 316. 
 
 General and Quaker Church History, 
 taught together, 132-3. 
 
 Genesis, not a scientific book, 158. 
 
 German criticism, 156. 
 
 Gcsdhchafivcrfassung der Chrisllichen 
 Kirchcn in Altertkum, 193. 
 
 Gillamore, 39. 
 
 Gladstone, W. B., on worship, 98 ; quoted, 
 317. 
 
 Goatnland, 26. 
 
 God, Greek idea of in Nature, 260; 
 craving of man for personal knowledge 
 of, 261 ; love of, revealed in Christ, 
 262, 266 ; immanent, 263 ; spiritual 
 union with, 272 ; speaks by Christ, 
 279 ; personal, 283 ; Jesus the 
 identification mark of, 283 ; character 
 of His forgiveness, 285 ; only realis- 
 able in terms of human relationship, 
 325 ;' the " Personal ISpirit," 330 ; 
 intellectual and scientific methods 
 of finding, 342, 343, 344 ; personal 
 contact with, 345 ; Fatherhood of, 
 349, 353. 354. 355, 356, 362, 382; 
 man's unity with, possible, 354 ; 
 separation from is hell, 359 ; de- 
 throned as a " tribal deity " 372 ; 
 may we believe in ? 386 ; Nature 
 cannot reveal a personal, 388 ; faith 
 in, remains dominant, 390. 
 
 "God in Christ," J. Wilhelm Rowntree's 
 papers on, 269. 
 
 Godet, quoted, 87. 
 
 Goethe, 269. 
 
 Goodyear, Thomas, 15, 420. 
 
 Gore, Canon, 1x9. 
 
 Gospel, the, embodied in Jesus Christ, 
 280, 394 ; testimony of to Christ, 280. 
 
 Grace and Justification, John Whitehead's 
 views on, 28. 
 
 Grace, H. Ernest (of Bristol), 298, 416. 
 
 Great Ayton, 57. 
 
 Greek philosophers, longing for revelation 
 of God, 260. 
 
 Greek love of life, 294. 
 
 Greek and Jewish thought, Jesus not 
 
 * ' an amalgam of, 392. 
 
 Green, H. T., 415. 
 
 Green Hammerton, 39. 
 
 Greenland, trade to, 41. 
 
 Grellet, Stephen, 123, 220, 238. 
 
 Griffiths, John, and Yearly Meeting 
 visitation to Yorkshire, 61, 64 ; 
 at Aysgarth, 64 ; at Thirsk, ibid, 
 
 Guisborough, minute books and records, 
 44, 56 ; references to, 36, 64. 
 
 Gurney, Joseph J., 66 ; his influence, 202 ; 
 writings of, 239. 
 
 Guyon, Madame ; contemporary of G. 
 Fox, 4 ; her definition of ceremony, 
 87 ; her autobiography, 278 ; refer- 
 ences to, 314, 354. 
 
 Hackness, first Quaker convert at, 15 ; 
 
 Quaker burial at, 16 ; parish register 
 
 quoted, 16 ; meeting at, 39. 
 Hades, Ishtar's descent into, 254. 
 Hair, see Dress. 
 Halifax meeting established, 19 ; woollen 
 
 trade at, 41. 
 Hall, David, 59. 
 Hall, Isabel, 3. 
 Hampstead, Voltaire at, 238. 
 Hancock, Thos., 73. 
 Handkerchiefs, see Dress. 
 Harwood Dale, 15, 39, 47. 
 Harnack, Adolf, 99, 193. 
 Harpham, 15. 
 
 Harris, Rendel, 29, 138, 207. 
 Hart as , William, 67. 
 Hastings, Dr., an. 
 Hatch, Dr., 96, 97, 99, 193, 199. 
 Haverford Summer School, 151. 
 Hayes, Isaac (of Whitby), 58. 
 Hebden, Robert, meeting at his house, 23. 
 Hebden, Roger (of Malton) " Plain 
 
 Account " 18-19 > testimonies to, 
 
 18-19 : imprisoned in York Castle, 
 
 19 ; and Priest Sinclair, 19-20 ; 
 
 biographical data, 420. 
 Hebrew prophets, 84. 
 Hebrew conception of God, 85. 
 Herod, 80. 
 
 Herods, Temple of, 79-80. 
 Hedley, Christopher and Jonas (of 
 
 Scarborough), 15. 
 Hegel, 157. 
 HeJmsley Meeting, 39. 
 Helmsley, Vicar of, and Friends' property 
 
 37- 
 Herbert, George, contemporary of G. 
 
 Fox, 4. 
 Heslam, Wm. (of Whitby), 47. 
 Hezekiah, 254, 255, 259. 
 Htbbert Journal, 316. 
 Hicks, Elias, 238. 
 Hicksite Controversy, 247. 
 Hinderwell, John, 48. 
 Hindoo philosophy, its pessimism, 336. 
 Historical teaching needed in Friends 1 
 
 Schools, 187. 
 Historical study, biased by Churches, 195. 
 History of the Church, development 
 
 of elaboration, 96. 
 History, religion always found in, 276. 
 History, voice of God in, 279. 
 History, testimony of, 352. 
 Hobbes, John, contemporary of G. Fox, 4. 
 Hobson, Ellenor, disorderly marriage 
 
 of, 51. 
 Hodgson, Wm. (of Scarborough), 49. 
 Hodgson, Peter (of Scarborough) Fox 
 
 at his house, 13 ; Monthly Meetings 
 
 at his house, 44 ; builds Scarborough 
 
 Meeting-house, 45 ; a leading Friend, 
 
 47- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 441 
 
 Holderness, G. Fox travels through, 11 ; 
 first convert in, 16. 
 
 Holland and Friesland, visited by Early 
 
 Friends, 50. 
 Holy Grail, the, 225. 
 Homer, 83. 
 
 Home, The, Mazzini's definition of, 216. 
 Home Missions, workers in, 148. 
 Home Missions Committee, report of, on 
 
 *• Use of Meeting-houses on First-day 
 
 evenings," 196, 197. 
 Hoods and Scarves, see Dress. 
 Hookes, Ellis, 46. 
 
 Hopperton, Nicholas (of Staintondale), 47. 
 Horton, Dr., on Public worship, igs ; 
 
 reference to, 207. 
 Hovingham, 39. 
 Howard, Luke, statistics re distraints 
 
 from Friends, 56. 
 Howgill, Francis, with Fox at Firbank 
 
 Chapel, 12 ; circulation of his 
 
 books, 45. 
 Huby, 39. 
 Hubberthorne, Richard, Biographical 
 
 data, 420. 
 Hull, meetings near, 14 ; Monthly Meeting 
 
 joined to Pickering, 35 ; in seventeenth 
 
 century, 41 "; Greenland trade, ibid. 
 " Human arrangements," dread of, 122. 
 Hungary, visited by Early Friends, 9. 
 Hunmanby, John Whitehead at, 26, 27. 
 Hutton Bushell, first convert at, 15 ; 
 
 meeting licensed at, 38 ; meeting 
 
 at, 39. 
 Hutton-le-Hole, 39. 
 Huxley, T. H., 156, 344. 
 
 Immortality, not clear in Old Testament, 
 254 ; certainty of, in New Testament, 
 255 ; St. Paul on, 256 ; triumphs 
 over physical death, 267. 
 
 " Immortality and other Essays" by Prof. 
 Everett, quoted, 367. 
 
 Imperialism, 143. 
 
 Independent Review, 369. 
 
 Independents, on letter of Scripture, 5. 
 
 Individual ethics, progress of, 373- 
 
 "In Memoriam,'' by J. Wilhelm Rown- 
 tree, 415. 
 
 Intellectual argument, fails to reveal 
 God, 329, 342. 
 
 Intentions of marriage, 46, 47, 5©- 
 
 " Inner Light," its perils, 7 ; opposition 
 to the doctrine, 31 ; need for teaching 
 of, 75 ; not properly understood, 
 243 ; the ultimate arbiter, 244 ; 
 balance wheel to doctrine of, 245 ; 
 interpretation of a vital point, 246. 
 
 Isaiah, sincerity of his eloquence, 119. 
 
 Ishtar, the goddess, 252. 
 
 Itinerancy, outbreak of, 49 _ 5o* 
 
 Tahveh, to be propitiated, 83. 
 
 Tames, Prof., on Quakerism, 102, 224, 225. 
 
 James II., pedantries of, 4; reference 
 
 Jaquiss, James (of Scarborough), 48. 
 " Jemmites," 65. 
 
 Jerusalem, building of Temple of Herods, 
 79 ; and Samaria, 80 ; invested by 
 
 Romans,, 86, 
 
 Jesuits, 26. 
 
 Jesus, his life and times illuminated 
 by recent Biblical criticism, 158 ; 
 the meeting-point of God and man, 
 245, 284 ; revealer of the Father, 
 264, 283 ; the dynamic of moral 
 force, 394. 
 
 Jews, belief in spiritual God, 86 ; im- 
 portance of external rites to, 88. 
 
 Jews, return from Babylon, 84. 
 
 Jewish children not baptised, xoo. 
 
 Jewish tradition, narrowness of, 372. 
 
 Job, 325, 331. 
 
 John (the Apostle) on Brotherhood, 172. 
 
 Johannine view of Christ, go. 
 
 Jonah, 156. 
 
 Jones, Rufus, lectures at Mount Kisco, 1 ; 
 quoted, 90, 326, 327, 366 ; writings 
 of, 249 ; on revelation of God to 
 man, 332-3 ; on J. Wilhelm Rown- 
 tree, see Appendix V., p. 431. 
 
 Josiah, time of, 85. 
 
 Justices of Peace, 43. 
 
 Kant, 157. 
 
 Keddy, Stephen, emigrates to Maryland, 
 46. 
 
 Keithian Controversy, 66, 239. 
 
 Kelk, early converts at, 15 ; Monthly 
 Meeting, 16, 35. 
 
 Kelvin (Lord), 331. 
 
 Kendal Quarterly Meeting, Minutes of, 59. 
 Kidd, Agnes, 57. 
 
 Kingdom of God, conception of its in- 
 wardness, 101 ; misconception sur- 
 rounding teaching of, 144 ; vision of 
 the, 166 ; preached by Jesus, 213 ; 
 its relationships spiritual, 215. 
 
 King, Gregory, estimate of population, 34. 
 
 Kirby Moorside, Summer School at, 1 ; 
 testimony of Friends at, to Roger 
 Hebden, 19 ; minute-books, 38, 56 ; 
 meetings near, 39 ; records of, 44 ; 
 John Griffiths at, 64. 
 
 Knaresborough, 36. 
 
 Knowledge of God, instinctive cravin 
 for, 261. 
 
 Laces, made by Quaker prisoners, 52. 
 
 Lairpool, 39. 
 
 Lamb, Charles, 367. 
 
 Lancaster Jail, 13. 
 
 Lancashire, G. Fox in, 12 ; petition 
 
 from against Quakers, 43. 
 Langdale End, 53. 
 Langlands, Fox at, 9. 
 Laskill in Bilsdale, 36, 37. 
 Laud, Archbishop, 5. 
 Launceston, G. Fox imprisoned at, 9. 
 Law, William, 397, 399-400. 
 Layman, ordinary type, 155. 
 " Learning knights," see Disciples. 
 Learning, dangers of Rabbinical, 139, 140. 
 Leavening, 39, 55. 
 Lectures on Quakerism, 130. 
 Lecky, W. E., quoted, 244. 
 Leeds Meeting established, 16; cloth 
 
 market at, 41. 
 Legalism and Hebrew thought, 85. 
 Leicester, Quakerism, 5 ; Bishop of 
 
 Durham at Church Congress, 196. 
 
442 
 
 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Letherington, William (of Whitby), 58. 
 Lettres PhUosopkiques, of Voltaire, 238. 
 Levitical idea of holiness, 89. 
 licences for Friends' Meetings, 37, 
 Lightfoot, Bishop, 193. 
 Lincoln Castle, 26 ; 
 Lincolnshire, G. Fox in, 14. 
 Lindley, Isaac (of York), 19. 
 Lindsay, T. M., mentioned, 99. 
 Linney, William, 3. 
 
 Linskill, Joseph, carries guns on ship, 52. 
 Linskill,' Thomas (of Whitby), 58. 
 Liverton, 15. 
 
 Locke, John, contemporary of G. Fox, 4. 
 Lodge, Sir Oliver, quoted, 316. 
 London, and Greenland trade, 41 ; 
 
 Matriculation, 184. 
 London, *' Life and Labour in " (Booth), 
 
 300 ; religious census of, 310. 
 London Yearly Meeting, 34, 226. 
 " Lord's Day," Br. Horton's address, 207. 
 Lord's Prayer, 88. 
 Lord's Supper, the, 160. 
 Love, defined, 283 ; must be active and 
 
 personal, 338 ; power of, 417, 418. 
 Lough Neagh catastrophe, 415. 
 Lowell, J. R., 313. 
 Luxor, 253. 
 
 Macauxay, Lord, estimate of population, 
 34- 
 
 Macfadyen, Dugald, 280, 283. 
 
 Machinery, English worship of, 309. 
 
 McGifEert, A. C, on Apostolic Age, 95, 
 96 ; on the Supper, 99, 100 ; thoughts 
 suggested by, 199. 
 
 Maine, the, destruction of, 379. 
 
 Malta, visited by Quaker evangelists, 9. 
 
 Malton, G. Fox at, 11, 13, 43 ; meetings 
 near, 14, 39 ; Wm. Dewsbury at, 
 15 » " Spiritual Earthquake " at, 
 17 ; three days' meeting, ibid ; tes- 
 timony to R. Hebden, 18 ; Thos. 
 Thompson at, 23 ; Early Friends 
 at, ibid; Monthly Meeting merged 
 in Pickering, 35 ; records, 44 ; 
 minute-books, 54 ; reference to, 3. 
 
 Man, God's altar in heart of, 87 ; his search 
 after God, 336. 
 
 Manchester, proposed addresses at, 295 ; 
 conference, 71, 163, 167, 171. 
 
 "Man's Relation to God," 295. 
 
 Marcus Aurelius, 255, 256, 259. 
 
 *' Marrying out," 55. 
 
 Marishes, 39. 
 
 Marlborough, Earl of, 53. 
 
 Martha and Mary, 2x4, 220. 
 
 Maryland, emigration to, 46. 
 
 Martin, John, 57- 
 
 Mastennan.C. F. G., quoted, 306, 307, 310. 
 
 " May we believe in God ? " J. W. Rown- 
 tree's address on, 321. 
 
 Mazzini, his definition of the home, 216. 
 
 Mead, William, 10. 
 
 Meetings, settlement of for worship and 
 discipline, 6; first General, ibid; 
 held in streets, 9 ; held by Quaker 
 children, 10 ; in West and Bast 
 Ridings, 38 ; listofinKirby Moorside 
 minute-book, ibid ; old list of in 
 Yorkshire, 39 ; for worship, compared 
 with Adult Schools, 174. 
 
 Meeting-house at York, 52. 
 Meeting-houses, closed by soldiers, 9 ; 
 
 in Yorkshire, 36 ; licensed at Thirsk, 
 
 37 ; A. B. Pease's statistics re, ibid; 
 
 use of on First-day evenings, 196 ; 
 
 Mission Hall converts in, 202 ; 
 
 become Churches under Pastoral 
 
 System, 203. 
 Meetings for Worship, in Yorkshire, 
 
 36 ; early, 43 ; need of life and 
 
 energy in, 166 ; formalism in, 170 ; 
 
 state of, 174-175 ; morning and 
 
 evening, 197. 
 Membership, statistics of, 199, 200. 
 Mennell, George, clerk of Malton Monthly 
 
 Meeting, 54, 71. 
 Meredith, George, quoted, 303. 
 Messiah, the, 2x2. 
 Methodist movement compared with 
 
 early Quakerism, 43. 
 Methodist preaching, 63. 
 Methodist and Quaker, united in Revival, 
 
 202. 
 Methodism, England's debt to, 70. 
 Mid-Victorian Evangelism, 243. 
 Militarism, evils of, 377-8. 
 Milner, James, " goes out into imagina- 
 tions," 7. 
 Milton, John., contemporary of G. Fox, 
 
 4 ; friendship with Ellwood, 10. 
 Ministers, sixty-three go out preaching, 
 
 6 ; of Lancashire, 43 ; called " Public 
 
 Friends," 49 ; advantages possessed 
 
 by professional, 1x8 ; importance 
 
 of their mental equipment, 153. 
 Ministry, problem of, considered, 68 ; 
 
 need of young Friends in, 72-3 ; 
 
 a rich soil must be provided for its 
 
 growth, 124 ; its true root, 154 ; 
 
 preparation and pre-arrangement 
 
 neglected, 174 ; Schmiedel on, 193 ; 
 
 causes of weakness, 229. 
 Ministry and Oversight, meetings on, 
 
 71, 168, 173. 
 Missions, Home and Foreign, workers 
 
 in, 148. 
 Mission Meetings, 183, 197. 
 Mission work, wide meaning of, 177. 
 Modern critic, type of, 156. 
 Modern Life, need for quiet in, 150, 318. 
 " Modern man," type of, 156 ; and 
 
 Sunday, 3x2. 
 Modern preaching, 1x9. 
 " Modern thought," fruit of, 348, 349. 
 Molinos, Miguel, contemporary of G. 
 
 Fox, 4. 
 Monthly Meeting books, 24, 53. 
 Monthly Meetings in Yorkshire, 35, 36. 
 Moody, D. L., his revival, 202. 
 Morley, John, on Shackleton, 182 ; 
 
 quoted, 135, 209, reference to, 377. 
 Mount Bbal, 80. 
 Mount Pelee, 331. 
 
 Mudie-Smith, R-, quoted, 304, 305, 306. 
 Myer, Richard, 7. 
 Mystics, suggested lectures on, 145 ; 
 
 methods of, 400. 
 
 Nash, William, 47. 
 
 Nature, relentlessness of, 260, 
 
 Nature-worship, 82, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 443 
 
 Nayler, James ; at Synderhill Green, 15 ; 
 journeys in Bast Riding, 23 ; petition 
 against from Lancashire, 43 ; quota- 
 tion from, 76 ; fall, 6 ; dying testi- 
 mony, 32 ; reference to, 13 ; 244, 420 ; 
 see also Appendices I., II. 
 
 Nazareth in time of Christ 212-13. 
 
 Nelson at Battle of Nile, 177. 
 
 Nevis, visited by Quaker evangelists, 9. 
 
 Newgate Gaol, 65. 
 
 " New Learning," 159. 
 
 New Testament, difficulties in, 263. 
 
 New World, beginning of religious liberty 
 in, 9 ; emigration to, 46. 
 
 Newton, near Tadcaster, 19, 
 
 Newton, John, 362, 375. 
 
 Nile, Battle of, 177. 
 
 Nile, at Luxor, 253. 
 
 "No Cross, No Crown," by W. Penn, 45. 
 
 Nonconformist Places of worship in 
 West Riding, 39; Missions, 148. 
 
 Nonconformists, Quakers largest body of, 
 at end of seventeenth century, 34 ; 
 disabilities imposed on, 65 ; religious 
 census of London, 310. 
 
 Non-Parochial Registers, 38. 
 
 Norton, 39. 
 
 North London, 305. 
 
 Northampton, 28. 
 
 Nottingham, G. Fox at, 9. 
 
 Nottinghamshire, Quakerism beginning 
 in, 5- 
 
 Nun-Monkton, 39. 
 
 Oaths, testimony against (in 1651), 6. 
 
 Official visiting, defects of, 172. 
 
 Old Bailey Trial (of 1670), 10. 
 
 Old and New Testaments, difficulties 
 
 in, 158. 
 " Old Priest " at Pickering, accompanies 
 
 Fox, it, 12. 
 Old Testament bondage, 157. 
 Oldstead, meeting at, 39. 
 Organised Christianity, insincerity of, 221. 
 Organised effort, need for, 68 
 Organisation, 136-7 
 Organisation, Quaker, 69. 
 Orthodoxy, mistakes of, 138. 
 "Our Educational Policy," J. Wilhelm 
 
 Rowntree's paper on, 18 r. 
 " Outlines of Christian Theology," (Prof. 
 
 Clarke), quoted, 330. 
 " Outsider," see Hobson, Bllinor. 
 Outward arrangements, 166. 
 Overseers appointed, 54. 
 Oversight, Friends appointed to, 48. 
 Owstwick and Cave, 18, 35. 
 Oxford and Cambridge local exams., 
 
 see Quaker Schools. 
 Oxford, religious tests at, 65. 
 
 Paganism, modern, 144, 257. 
 
 Paine, Thos., 239, 407. 
 
 Palatine, Princess Elizabeth of, 10. 
 
 Paley^s " Evidences," 239. 
 
 Pantheism, an expression of truth, 333. 
 
 Pardon, what it implies, 288, 289. 
 
 " Parish Teacher," see Sinclair, Enoch. 
 
 Parnell, James, death of, 9. 
 
 Pascal, contemporary of G. Fox,*4. 
 
 Pastoral Committee in r America,$204. 
 
 pastoral Quakerism," statistics, 205. 
 
 Pastoral System, 142, 143, 149, 200, 
 
 201, 202, 226. 
 
 Pate, Dorothy, 135. 
 
 Patriotism, 218, 219. 
 
 Paul, teaching of, 285, 290 ; his Jewish 
 education and traditions, 336 ; refer- 
 ence to, 152, 256, 258, 259. 
 
 Pease, Sir A. E., 36, 37, 38. 
 
 "Peculium, The," 73. 
 
 Peel, Meeting of Bedford Institute at, 162. 
 
 Permanent Settlement, objections to 
 discussed, 149. 
 
 " Penal Substitution," doctrine of, 270. 
 
 Pendle Hill, and G. Fox, 12, 76. 
 
 Penn, William, founds Philadelphia, 9 ; 
 his preface to J. Whitehead's works, 
 25 ; No Cross, No Crown, circulated, 
 45 ; joint author of '* Christian 
 Quaker," 46 ; Yorkshire emigrants 
 to his colony, 47 ; on worship, 98, 99 ; 
 lectures on suggested, 120 ; reference 
 to, 43. 
 
 Pemngton, Isaac, to, 43, 243. 
 
 Penitence, its meaning, 288, 292. 
 
 Penitence, the condition of forgiveness, 
 288, 289. 
 
 Pennitt, Elizabeth, 50 ; disownment, 51-2. 
 
 Pennsylvania, 46. 
 
 Pentecost, need of a new, 231. 
 
 "Pentecost," J. Wilhelm Rowntree's 
 paper on, 223. 
 
 People, The and the Churches, 302. 
 
 Persecution, outbreak of, 6. 
 
 Personal experience, of spiritual truth 
 needed, 229 ; in religion, 397, 398. 
 
 Personal point of view, 344, 345, 389. 
 
 Perrot, John,"defection of, 7. 
 
 Petch, John, 37. 
 
 Pharisee, the modern, 383. 
 
 Pharisees, 213. 
 
 Philadelphia, founded, 9, 46 ; and 
 Quaker costume, 94 ; sermon by 
 J. Wilhelm Rowntree at, 252. 
 
 Philanthropy of Quakers, 65. 
 
 Philips, Stephen, quoted, 80. 
 
 Philippines, war in the, 379- 
 
 Philosophy, needs inter-relation with 
 science and theology, 160. 
 
 Pickering, G. Fox at, n ; Monthly 
 Meeting, 35, 54; reference to, 3. 
 
 Pilmore, Mary, 55. 
 
 Plato, 239, 261, 336- 
 
 " Plea (a) for a Quaker Settlement," 
 J. Wilhelm Rowntree's paper on, X35. 
 
 Poor, relief of at Guisboro', 56. 
 
 Pope, the, and John Perrot, 7 ; Early 
 Friends visit, 9 ; reference to, 53. 
 
 Popular services, 310. 
 
 Population, of England at Anne's acces- 
 sion, 34 ; percentage of Friends 
 at same time, ibid. 
 
 Porphyry, quoted, 84. 
 
 Postgate, James (of Scarborough), 47. 
 
 "Power of Silence" (H. Dresser) quoted, 
 106. 
 
 Practical measures, indifference to, 136. 
 
 Practical work, present emphasis on, 3x4. 
 
 Prayer, what it must be, 105 ; problem 
 of, 276 ; power of, 404. 
 
 Preaching Friars, 164. 
 
 Preparation, misapprehension as to, 174. 
 
 Presbyterians, 5» 
 
444 
 
 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 Present Day Papers, J Wilhelm Rown tree's 
 papers from, on " Problem of a 
 Free Ministry," in ; " Plea for 
 a Quaker Settlement," 135 ; " Need 
 for Summer School Movement," 
 153 J " Our Educational Policy," 
 181 ; *' A Study in Ecclesiastical 
 Polity," 193 ; Pentecost," 223 ; 
 " Shades of the Prison House," 406. 
 
 " Present Position of Religious Thought 
 . in the Society of Friends," J. Wil- 
 helm Rowntree's paper, 235. 
 
 Priest, his office, 86. 
 
 " Priest Bowles," and G. Fox, n. 
 
 Priestman, Richard, 45. 
 
 Prince Consort, inscription on his tomb, 
 
 254- 
 "Problem of a Free Ministry, The," in. 
 " Problem of the Mid-Town Church," 
 
 (Smith and Wrigley) quoted, 193. 
 Pro Christo et Ecclesia, quoted, 221, 
 Prodigal Son, Story of, its meaning, 284, 
 
 285, 286, 357. 
 Professional preachers, 140. 
 Progressive Friends, 203. 
 Prophets of eighth century B.C., 151. 
 Prophetic ministry slain by restriction 
 
 in Early Church, 139. 
 Protectorate, the, 4, 30, 
 Proude, Mr., Minister of Hackness, 16. 
 *' Public Friends," see Ministers. 
 Public Houses in London, Sunday Cus- 
 tomers at, 31X. 
 Public worship, Dr. Horton on, 195 ; 
 
 a commonplace of social life, 299. 
 Publicans and sinners, Christ's love for, 
 
 221. 
 Puritanism, 42. 
 
 Quaker conception of worship to be 
 maintained, i98. 
 
 Quaker, nickname first given, 6 ; preachers 
 convincement of, ibid; prisoners in 
 York Castle, 14 ; leaders see Appen- 
 dix I. ; Gospel, 28, 30 ; described 
 by Whittier, 42 ; meetings, 43 ; 
 books circulated, 45 ; prisoners in 
 galleys, 47 ; prisoners make laces, 
 52 ; history, results of studying 
 local, 62 ; in eighteenth century 
 63 ; children kept from contact, 
 with " the world's people," 65 ; 
 " ritualism," ibid ; thought, lack of 
 development in, 66 ; pamphlets, ibid ; 
 organisation, 69 ; maps of meetings, 
 70, see also Appendix IV. ; latent 
 energy, 70 ; faith, basis of the, 78 ; 
 worship, 94, 95, 98, 99; freedom, 
 103 ; conception of worship, in, 
 113 ; meetings, sermons in, 119 ; 
 ministers, 120 ; ministry, not only 
 prophetic, 123 ; its weakness, 154 ; 
 school teachers should be highly 
 qualified, 128 ; history, suggested 
 lectures on, 130-1 ; education, schemes 
 of, 136 ; Sunday Schools, 141 ; 
 settlement, suggestions for, 144, 
 145 ; missions, 148 ; character, 
 early type of, 150 ; views on Lord's 
 Supper, 160 ; aggressive work, 176 ; 
 Church, growth of, ibid ; school, 
 Burke at, 181 ; teacher's problem, 189 ; 
 
 Quaker meeting, ideal of in Corinthians, 
 195 ; Church polity, 201 ; and 
 Methodist, 202 ; Church in America, 
 and divisions in, 203 ; ideal, almost 
 extinguished 227 ; faith strengthened 
 by criticism, 230 ; formalism, 236 ; 
 history, 237 ; literature, modern 
 ignorance of, 239, 240 ; teaching, 
 lack of direct, 241 ; constructive 
 thought absence of, 246 ; view of 
 life, statement of, 295 ; silence 
 in meeting, meaning of, 318. 
 
 Quaker Schools, 178, 182, 183, 184, 186. 
 
 Quakers : first public flogging, 6 ; con- 
 founded with Jesuits, 26 ; in Courts 
 of Justice, 30, 31 ; accused of leaguing; 
 with Fifth Monarchy Men, 31 ; 
 misunderstood by Baxter and Bunyan, 
 ibid; supposed to belittle the Bible, 
 ibid; references to in North Riding 
 Quarter Sessions records, 37 ; private 
 houses licensed for worship after 
 Toleration Act, 39 ; in slavery to 
 Turks, 47 ; lukewarmness of in 
 eighteenth century, 64 ; and philan- 
 thropy, 65 ; called to be heralds 
 of the ** peaceable gospel," 135. 
 
 Quakerism : lectures on rise of, in York- 
 shire, by J. Wilhelm Rowntree, 1-76 ; 
 rapid extension of, 6 ; message of 
 early, 18 ; a practical religion, 32 ; 
 development of early, 33 ; widely 
 spread in Yorkshire, 39 ; wane of in 
 villages, 40 ; uncouth aspects of 
 earliest, 42 ; in country districts, 
 ibid ; in East Riding, 47 ; in eighteenth 
 century, 59 ; decay of, ibid ; ex- 
 position of, 66 ; not absorbed in 
 other Churches, 74, 75 ; sources 
 of in the Gospels, 81 ; oddities of, 
 93 ; not a negative faith, 94 ; social 
 life of, 171 ; in United States, 200 ; 
 the *' old order " of, passed away, 
 238 ; spirit of seventeenth century, 
 see Appendix III. 
 
 " Quakerism, Past and Present," J . S. 
 Rowntree, 36. 
 
 Quarter Sessions Records, 36, 38. 
 
 Quarterly Meeting, in 1669 at York, 14 ; 
 collection for Thomas Thompson 
 sent to, 25 ; at Scarborough, 7r ; 
 J. Wilhelm Rowntree's suggestion 
 for holding on Summer School 
 lines, 71. 
 
 Queen Anne, population at accession 
 of, 34. ; " Golden Age " of, 53. 
 
 Queen Victoria's inscription on Prince 
 Consort's tomb, 254. 
 
 Query, on care of poor Friends, 55. 
 
 Quietism, exchanged for activity, 164. 
 
 Quoifs, see Dress. 
 
 " Rabbinical Subtleties," 53. 
 
 Rabbinism, antidote to,- 142. 
 
 Rabbinised pulpit, dangers of, 239. 
 
 Ranters, and G. Fox at Staithes, 14. 
 
 Rationalists, irrationalism of their view 
 352. 353- 
 
 Reformation : a protest against unreality, 
 97; ultimate principle of represented 
 by Friends, 177 ; views on Atonement 
 at time of, 270 ; references, 241, 242 
 
INDEX. 
 
 445 
 
 Reforms in arrangements, 176. 
 Registration of Friends' children, 49. 
 Religion , found everywhere in history, 276 ; 
 
 what is its inner meaning ? 396-7. 
 " Religion and Modern Culture " (A. 
 
 Sabatier), 243. 
 "Religion of Veracity" (Prof. James), 
 
 224. 
 Religious belief, change in aspects of, 
 
 151. 152- 
 Religious census of London, 310. 
 Religious knowledge, highest possible 
 
 standard needed, 138. 
 Religious teachers, what they should 
 
 be, 139. 
 Religious thought, revolution in, 241. 
 Religious training, 'after school, 125, 129 ; 
 
 of Adult members, 125, 129, 131. 
 Renaissance, an artist of the, 417. 
 Repentance, 357, 358. 
 Republic (American) Battle hymn of, 379. 
 Restoration, debaucheries of the, 4 ; 
 
 reference to, 30. 
 " Resurrection of the Dead," sermon 
 
 on quoted, 369. 
 Revelation, assailed, 157 ; times of, 408. 
 Revival, influence of Moody's on Friends, 
 
 202. 
 Revolution the, 30. 
 Richardson, John (of Whitby), 48, 59. 
 Richmond Declaration of Faith, 208. 
 Richmond in Yorkshire, 35, 41. 
 Rillington meeting, 39 ; Friends' burial 
 
 ground at, 55. 
 "Rise of Quakerism in Yorkshire/' J. 
 
 Wilhelm Rowntree's lectures on, 
 
 1-76. 
 Ritualistic development enfeebles spiritu- 
 ality, 104. 
 Robertson, J. M., 352. 
 Robin Hood's Bay, 14. 
 Robinson, Justice, and G. Fox, n. 
 Robinson, Richard, 420. 
 " Rogero Mastix/* by T. Ellwood, publi- 
 cation of, 8. 
 Rogers, William, publishes his "Christian 
 
 Quaker," 7. 
 Romanes, Prof., 269. 
 Roman Catholics and Mariolatry, 345.388. 
 Roman Jurisprudence, 344. 
 Rome, Early Christian meetings in, 96 ; 
 
 reference to, 83, 216. 
 Roper, Lieut., 14. 
 Rosedale, 39- 
 Rowntree, James E., 416. 
 Rowntree, John Stephenson, 3, 4 1 bis 
 
 estimate of Friends' numbers, 34 ; 
 
 his " Quakerism, Past and Present " 
 
 quoted, 36. 
 Rowntree, John Wilhelm, see Introductory 
 
 Sketch, pp. ix.-xllii ; testimony of 
 
 Pickering and Hull Monthly Meeting 
 
 concerning, p. xlv. ; Rufus Jones on, 
 
 see Appendix V., p. 431- 
 Russell, Thomas, Scarborough Monthly 
 
 Meeting at his house, 45. 
 Russia, 218, 330. 
 Ruysbroeck, quoted, 23X. 
 Ryther, John (of Burniston), 47. 
 
 Sabatier, Augusts, quoted, 243, 244, 
 29©> 359, 360. 
 
 Salvation, practical conditions of, 361 ; 
 wider interpretation of needed, 370* 
 37i. 
 
 Sand send, 39. 
 
 Savage, a, and Lord Kelvin contrasted, 
 33i> 333- 
 
 Savonarola, see Duomo. 
 
 Scafe, Philip, 13, 14. 
 
 Scalby, Summer School at suggested, 
 1, 70. 
 
 Scamps ton, 39. 
 
 Scarborough, G. Fox holds meetings at, 
 ri, 43 ; collection for Thos. Thompson 
 at Monthly Meeting, 24, 25 ; meetings 
 near in seventeenth century, 39 ; 
 first minute-book, 44 ; first Monthly 
 Meeting at, ibid; building of Meeting- 
 house, 45 ; leading Friends of, 47 ; 
 Monthly Meeting contributes to 
 York new Meeting house, 52 ; Monthly 
 Meeting merged in Pickering, 35 ; 
 references, 3, 52. 
 
 Scarborough Castle, Fox imprisoned 
 at, 13 ; first converts at, 15 ; see 
 John Whitehead, 25. 
 
 Scarth, Isaac (of Whitby), 47, 48. 
 
 Scarth, Joseph, 50. 
 
 Science, needs inter-relation with philoso- 
 phy and theology, 160 ; demolishes 
 old landmarks, 241 ; its legitimate 
 field, 288. 
 
 Scientific dogmatism, 159. 
 
 Scholarships in Friends' Schools, 185. 
 
 Schmiedel, Prof., on ministry, 193 ; on 
 church development, 220 ; reference 
 to, 199, 208. 
 
 Schiirer, quoted, 85. 
 
 Scotch theologians and " Governmental 
 Theory " of Atonement, 270, 
 
 Scotch minister, anecdote of, 313. 
 
 Scotland, visited by Thomas Thompson, 
 24. 
 
 "Scourge " of William Rogers, pub- 
 lished, 8. 
 
 Scribes, 84. 
 
 Scripture, stress laid upon the letter, 5; 
 scientific criticism of, 230 ; attitude 
 towards must be reconsidered, 24. 
 
 Scripture-reading in meetings advocated, 
 170. 
 
 Seaman, see Trades. 
 
 Seamer, 39. 
 
 Sedman, Thos. (of Scarborough), 15. 
 
 Seebohm, Benjamin, 123, 238. 
 
 Settle, absorbed in Brighouse Meeting, 36. 
 
 Settlement, suggestions for a permanent 
 Quaker, 144, 145, 146, 147. 
 
 Settlements, quickening of intellectual 
 interest by, 228. 
 
 Setterington, 39. 
 
 Seventeenth Century, a time of torrential 
 spiritual energy, 4 ; Yorkshire farms 
 in the, 42; Quakerism, spirit of, 
 see Appendix III., p. 430. 
 
 Sewell, Joseph, 3. 
 
 Shackleton, Abraham, 181. 
 
 "Shades of the Prison-House," by J. 
 Wilhelm Rowntree, 406. 
 
 Sharp, Isaac, 46. 
 
 Sheffield, 41. 
 
 Shepherd, Christopher, 47. 
 
 Shipowner, see Trades. 
 
446 
 
 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 SUeni worship, needed in modern life. 
 
 Silent worship, 106. 
 
 Silpho, 39, 53. 
 
 Simeon, Charles, 239. 
 
 Sin, involves alienation from God, 287, 
 291 ; abandonment of the essence 
 of penitence, 292 ; what is involved 
 in its removal as a barrier, 355; 
 carries its own punishment, 359 ; 
 horribleness of in God's sight, 360 ; 
 and repentance, 393. 
 
 Singing, not originally objected to by 
 Friends, 98 (footnote) • question of in 
 meeting, 171. 
 
 Sinclair, Enoch, 19. 
 
 Skipsca,i8,2i. 
 
 Skipsea " Steeple-house,*' 24. 
 
 Skipton, meeting for discipline at, 13 ; 
 in seventeenth century, 41. 
 
 Slingsby, 20. 
 
 Smailes, Tomazen (of Bridlington), 45. 
 
 Smith, Bertram, 195. 
 
 Smith, J. Robertson, 118. 
 
 Smith, Joseph, 26. 
 
 Social conditions and religion, 315. 
 
 Social conscience, stirring of, 242. 
 
 " Social Law in the Spiritual World," by 
 Rufus Jones, 326 ; quoted 332, 333, 
 366. 
 
 Social life of the Church, 171, 172 173, 
 174. 
 
 Social love taught in Gospels, 365. 
 
 Social worship, neglect of, 299, 300. 
 
 Society, caste marks of, 217. 
 
 Society of Friends, its testimony against 
 externalism, 97 ; capacities for ser- 
 vice of, 135 ; organisation vital 
 to spiritual health of the, 137; 
 importance of Summer School move- 
 ment to, 154 ; hereditary testimonies 
 of the, 160 ; and First-day schools, 
 163 ; and Adult Schools, 164 ; 
 what is its ration d'Stre ? 167 ; a 
 " mission " to the world, 177 1 its 
 educational duties, 179 ; once more 
 a growing church, 183 ; its state 
 of flux, 199 ; dangers to, 206 ; not 
 understood by itself, 208 ; present 
 opportunity of, 209 ; Bryan Dale 
 on, 38 ; reference to, 90, 104, 124, 
 131, 224, 225, 226, 235,241, 242,243, 
 246, 249 • 
 
 Socrates, 336, 353. 
 
 Solomon's prayer, 86, footnote. 
 
 South African war, reference to, 348, 376. 
 
 South London, religion in, 306, 307. 
 
 Spanish American war, 379. 
 
 Specialism, tends to narrowness, 159. 
 
 Spencer, Herbert, 156, 377. 
 
 "Spirit of the Martyrs," by Ellis Hookes, 
 46. 
 
 Spiritual consciousness, not an involuntary 
 emotion, 113. 
 
 Spiritual growth should be fostered, 137. 
 
 Spiritual life, indifference to, 303. 
 
 Spiritual power, loss of, 137, 138 ; need 
 for, 174. 
 
 Spiritual reality, modern search for, 348. 
 
 Spiritual temperature of nations to be 
 raised, 378. 
 
 St. Francis of Assisi, 373. 
 
 St. Kitts, visited by early Friends, 9. 
 
 St. Martin's Lane Meeting-house, Stephen 
 Grellet at, 220. 
 
 "St. Paul's conception of Christianity" 
 (Prof. Bruce), 139. 
 
 St. Teresa, 354. 
 
 Stain tondale, Thomas Thompson at, 
 24 ; first Minute-book, 44 ; first 
 Monthly Meeting at, ibid ; Early 
 Friends of, 47; Monthly Meeting 
 contributes towards new Meeting- 
 house at York, 52 ; mentioned, 
 39, 45. 48, 53- 
 
 Staithes, G. Fox visits, ir ; Philip Scafe 
 convinced at, 14 ; Wra. Dewsbury 
 ** gladly received " at, 15. 
 
 "State, what has Jesus to say to the?" J. 
 Wilhelm Rowntree's address on, 363. 
 
 State, the ; Christian principles to be 
 applied to, 217, 218, 371, 372. 
 
 Steele, R., reference to, 53. 
 
 Stepney, Bishop of, 301. 
 
 Stevenson, R. £.., quoted, 177. 
 
 Stevenson, Marmaduke : martyred at 
 Boston, 6. 
 
 Stewardship and Ministry. Christian 
 conceptions of inherited by Friends, 
 135- 
 
 Stocktons, family of, 19. 
 
 Stockton, 47. 
 
 Storr, Marmaduke, x6. 
 
 Stoxley, 37. 
 
 Strangwis, Henry, slave to Turks, 47, 
 
 Strauss, 156. 
 
 Strensall, 39 ; Friends' burial-ground 
 at, 55- 
 
 Stubbs, Thomas, 23. 
 
 " Study in Ecclesiastical Polity (A) " by 
 J. Wilhelm Rowntree, 193. 
 
 Study, suggested divisions of in Permanent 
 Settlement, 145. 
 
 Sturge, Joseph, 238, 240. 
 
 Sultan of Turkey visited by Early 
 Friends, 9. 
 
 Summer School, at Kirby Moorside, 1 ; 
 idea of localising, ibid ; at Mount 
 Kisco, ibid; J. Wilhelm Rowntree 
 decides to work for one at Scalby, 
 ibid ; Summer Quarterly Meeting might 
 be held on lines of, 71 ; at Haverford, 
 151 ; at Windermere, 153. 
 
 Summer Schools, their work that of the 
 modern Reformation, 160 ; demon- 
 strate power of fellowship, 209 ; 
 effects of, 228 ; J. Wilhelm Rown- 
 tree's paper on need for, 153 ; refer- 
 ence to, 118, 131, 138, 141, 146, 147. 
 
 Sunday evening addresses: J. Wilhelm 
 Rowntree's plan of, 295, 296. 
 
 Sunday, modern man's attitude towards 
 312. 
 
 Sunday Schools, their inefficiency, 154 ; 
 reference to, 116, 135. 
 
 Suburban Religion, 307, 308. 
 
 Suso, Henry de, 265. 
 
 Sutton, Isabel, sells ground for Whitby 
 Meeting-house, 58. 
 
 Sutton-in-the-Forest, 39. 
 
 Sychar, scene at well of, described, 80. 
 
 Synderhill Green, G. Fox at, 9 ; Wm. 
 Dewsbury convinced at, 14, 15. 
 
 Symbols, 83. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 447 
 
 System, and meetings for worship, 114, 
 "5. 1 <-* 
 
 Swarthmore, convincement of Margaret 
 Fell at, 6 ; a centre of organisation, 
 1bid\ headquarters of travelling 
 ministers, 69 ; mentioned, 73. 
 
 Swift, Dean, 53. 
 
 Tadcaster, 39. 
 
 Tauler, John, 265. 
 
 Taylor, Christopher, convinced by Dews- 
 bury, 16 ; biographical data, Ap- 
 pendix I ., p. 421. 
 
 Taylor, Thomas, of Skipsea ; biographical 
 data, Appendix I., p. 421. 
 
 Taylor, Thomas (of Malton), 18. 
 
 Taylor, T. C, see " Problem of a Mid- 
 Town Church," 195. 
 
 Temple of the Herods, 79, 81. 
 
 Temple, Jesus in the, 88. 
 
 Tennyson, quoted, 418. 
 
 Test Act, repeal of, 65. 
 
 Test and Corporation Acts, effects of 
 abolition, 118. 
 
 Testimony for Peace, 229. 
 
 Text-hunter, vagaries of, 157. 
 
 Tit Bits style in sermons, 301. 
 
 Theology, its inter-relation with science 
 and philosophy, 166. 
 
 Thirsk, Isabel Hall on, 3 ; Meeting-house 
 licensed at, 37 ; John Griffiths at, 64 ; 
 Monthly Meeting divided, 35, 36. 
 
 Thompson, Thomas (of Skipsea), hears 
 of G. Fox, 21 ; " Account of Life 
 and Service of " quoted, 21, 22, 23 ; 
 travels with Dewsbury, Whitehead 
 and Nayler, 23 ; visits Malton with 
 Win. Dewsbury, ibid; meets John 
 Whitehead, ibid ; imprisoned three 
 times in York Castle, 24 ; visits 
 Staintondale and Kir by Moorside, 
 ibid ; collection for, in Scarborough 
 Monthly Meeting, 24, 25 ; with 
 John Whitehead at riotous meeting 
 at Hunmanby, 26-27 ; reference 
 to, 18, 33, 71 ; biographical data, 
 Appendix I., p. 421. 
 
 Thornton in the Clay Monthly Meeting, 
 
 54* 55- 
 
 Thorp, Fielden, paper in Friends* Quar- 
 terly Examiner mentioned, 3. 
 
 Toleration Act passed, 64 ; effect of, 39 ; 
 relieves persecution, 53. 
 
 Tollerton, 39. 
 
 Tombs of the Kings near Luxor, described, 
 
 Z53- 
 "To Rise Again," sermon by J. Wilhelm 
 
 Rowntree, 253. 
 Trades, of Early Quakers, 53- 
 Transition, to-day a time of, 407. 
 Transvaal, 245. 
 Travelling, difficulties of between Whitby 
 
 and Scarborough in seventeenth 
 
 century, 49 ; Friends, 66 ; Ministers, 
 
 of Scarborough and Whitby Monthly 
 
 Meeting, list of, 50. 
 Truth, a seed, not a crystal, 349. 
 Trott, Robert (of Burniston), 47, 52. 
 Trowbridge, Captain, i77« 
 Tuke, J. H., quotes Dr. John Fothergill, 
 
 179. 
 Tuke, S.„ founds Ackworth, 59. 
 
 Turks, Quakers prisoners to, 47. 
 Tyne steamers, obsolete types, 168. 
 
 Ugthorp,48. 
 
 Ulverstone, G. Fox at, 9. 
 
 Union with God, 364. 
 
 Unitarian position, the, 245. 
 
 Unitarian thought among Friends, 208. 
 
 Unitarians, testimony against war, 348. 
 
 Unitarianism, 347. 
 
 United Free Church Mission, 311. 
 
 United States, J. Wilhelm Rown tree's 
 
 visits to, 191 ; Quakerism in, 200. 
 Universe, coherence in the, 328. 
 Urton, meeting at, 39. 
 
 " Varieties of Religious Experience " 
 
 (Prof. James) quoted, 224. 
 Vicar of Helmsley, 36. 
 Victorian Quakerism, 238. 
 Virgin (the) a legend of, 265. 
 Virgin-worship, 346-7. 
 "Virginiqus Puerisque" (Stevenson) 
 
 quoted, 177. 
 Visiting Committees, reports from, 61. 
 Vocal Ministry, restriction of in early 
 
 Church, 138. 
 Voltaire, in Hampstead, 238 ; writes 
 
 of Quakerism, 238. 
 
 Wakefield, first visited by G. Fox, 10. 
 
 Ward, Elizabeth, a travelling minister, 80. 
 
 War, early testimony against, 6 ; Uni- 
 tarian protest against, 348 ; upheld 
 by some preachers, 374 ; moral 
 blindness of associating with God's 
 will, 375 ; horrors of, described 
 in the press, 376 ; alien to teaching 
 of Jesus, 377. 
 
 Warren, Walter, on religion in North 
 London, 305-6. 
 
 Warwickshire, beginning of Quakerism 
 in, 5. 
 
 Washington's soldiers, T. Paine's letter 
 to, 407. 
 
 Wasson, Jonathan, early convert at 
 Scarborough, 15. 
 
 "Watch" theory, 327. 
 
 Watson, Matthew, emigrates to America, 
 46. 
 Wayside Inn," 144. 
 
 Wealth, stewardship of ; suggested lec- 
 tures on, 145. 
 
 Weaver, see Trades. 
 
 Wedders, Robert, biographical data, 
 Appendix I., p. 421. 
 
 Weiszacher, C. von, 99. 
 
 Weller, Elliner (of Scarborough), 15. 
 
 " Weltschmerz," 269, 317. 
 
 Wesley, John, 64, 70, 115, 348. 
 
 Wesleyanism in North and East Ridings, 
 70. 
 
 West Indies visited by Early Friends, 9. 
 
 West Riding, Meetings in, 38 ; Quarter 
 Sessions records, ibid ; in seventeenth 
 century, 41. 
 
 Western Yearly Meetings overrun by 
 Pastoral System, 142, 201. 
 
 Westmoreland, G. Fox in, 12. 
 
 " What has Jesus to say to the Indi- 
 vidual?" J. Wilhelm Rowntree's 
 address on, 342. 
 
448 
 
 JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 
 
 "What has Jesus to sayto the State?"J. 
 Wilhelm Rowntree's address on, 363. 
 
 "What is Worship ? " J. Wilhelm Rown- 
 tree's address on, 299. 
 
 Whitby, first visited by G. Fox, 11 ; 
 collections for Thomas Thompson 
 sent from, 25 ; meetings near in 
 seventeenth century, 39 ; records 
 of, 44 ; Early Friends of, 47 ; Month- 
 ly Meeting contribution to new 
 Meeting-house at York, 52 ; Meeting- 
 house, conveyance of land for, 58 ; 
 reference to, 26, 47, 51, 53. 
 
 White, Mary, see Dress. 
 
 Whitefield, — G. Fox compared with, 8 ; 
 preaching of, 64 ; his influence 
 aided by Wesley's organisation, 115. 
 
 Whitehead, G. , joint author of " Christian 
 Quaker," 46. 
 
 Whitehead, John (of Owstwick), convinced 
 by Wm. Dewsbury, 15 ; meets T. 
 Thompson at Malton, 23 ; Soldier 
 at Scarborough Castle, ibid; testi- 
 monies concerning, 25 ; brings order 
 for Fox's release from Scarborough 
 Castle, 26 ; a voluminous writer, 
 ibid ; imprisonment in Lincoln 
 Castle, ibid ; at Hunmanby, 26, 27 ; 
 summary of his theology, 27-30 ; 
 biographical data, Appendix I., 
 p.421 ; references to, 18, 23, 35»40, 44* 
 
 Whittier, J . G. , his description of ancient 
 Quaker, 42; lecture on suggested, 
 130; quoted, 319-20, 339, 340-1, 
 352. 383» 407. 
 
 Wilbur, John, 240. 
 
 Wilkinson and Story separation, 7. See 
 also Blaykling, John. 
 
 William and Mary, 4, 30. 
 
 Williams, Elizabeth, flogged at Cambridge, 
 6. 
 
 Wilson, George, a travelling minister, 50. 
 
 Wilson, Robert, emigrates to America, 46. 
 
 Woman of Samaria, 80, 81. 
 
 Women's meeting for discipline opposed, 7 
 
 Women's meeting at York, minute re 
 Dress, 60. 
 
 Woodbrooke, 73, no, 228. 
 
 Wooldrig, Humphrey, baptises a con- 
 vert, 103. 
 
 Woolman, John, quoted, 367, 368, 382, 
 383 ; lectures on suggested, 130 ; 
 reference to, 59, 130, 240, 278, 354, 
 367, 368, 373, 380, 381. 
 
 Wordsworth, quoted, 32r. 
 
 Worfolk, William (of Staintondale), 
 Scarborough and Whitby Monthly 
 Meeting meets at his house, 44 ; 
 a leading Friend, 47. 
 
 " World's people," marriages with, 55* 
 
 Worship, " golden thread of," 78 ; 
 development of, 82-83 » Jesus em- 
 phasises its spiritual nature, 86, 87 ; 
 heart of man its true" seat, 93 ; 
 " the work of divine worship," 98 ; 
 statistics re attendance at public, 
 300 ; an exercise, not a form, 3x7 ; 
 must be an individual work, 386. 
 
 Worship and Ministry, Pastoral letter 
 on, reference to, in. 
 
 Wykeham, 39. 
 
 Yearly Meeting, visitation (1761), 61 ; 
 pastoral letter on Ministry and 
 Worship, in, 185 ; minutes and 
 proceedings of quoted, 197 ; statistics, 
 199, 200 ; references to, 34, 35, 61, 
 142, 143, 185, r8g. 
 
 Yeoman, see Trades. 
 
 York Castle, Quakers imprisoned in, 
 
 14,19,21,24,47,53- 
 
 York; G. Fox at, 10, 14; number of 
 members in Quarterly Meeting, 35 ; 
 meetings near, 39 ; population of 
 in seventeenth century, 41, 42 ; 
 new Meeting-house, 52 ; Retreat 
 founded, 59 ; J . Wilhelm Rowntree's 
 proposed addresses at, 297-8. 
 
 York Quarterly Meeting, number of 
 meetings in at present, 38 ; Scar- 
 borough and Whitby Monthly Meet- 
 ing established by, 44 ; reference 
 to, 55. 
 
 Yorkshire Quakerism, local writers on, 
 3 ; founders of, 14, and Appendix 
 I., pp. 419-421. 
 
 "Yorkshire, Rise of Quakerism in," J. 
 Wilhelm Rowntree's lectures on, p. 
 1-76. 
 
 Yorkshire, G. Fox in, 9, 11, 12 ; number 
 of Friends in seventeenth century, 
 34 ; Macaulay's estimate of popula- 
 tion in seventeenth century, ibid; 
 meetings and meeting-houses in 
 seventeenth century, 36 ; woollen 
 trade, 41 ; farms, 42. 
 
 Yorkshire, East, Wm, Dewsbury's minis- 
 try in, 15. 
 
 Yorkshire Coast, Thomas Thompson 
 travels on, 24. 
 
 Young, James (of Scarborough), 48. 
 
 Young Friends, urged to work in ministry, 
 72-3 ; and modern conditions, 119 ; 
 at Universities, 127 ; of to-day, 
 237, 240 ; " Christian Fellowship 
 Union," its work, 129, 130. 
 
 Young Friends' Review, J. Wilhelm 
 Rowntree's papers in, 269. 
 
 Zoroaster, teachings of, 246.