in order to get at the essentials of quakerism, we do well to go back to the beginnings, to those first years of nascent energy which carried the quaker message through the english-speaking world. whenever a new truth starts to life, it is intensely dynamic and vital; it masters every opposing circumstance; it flings itself victoriously against a stubborn world. it is a thing of life and movement, and i believe it will be found that a live truth in motion is the mightiest of all forces. but, a generation later, unless the vital forces have been cherished, the emphasis comes to be laid on establishment rather than movement, and when a thing gets established it usually ceases to move; the emphasis comes to 14be laid on dogma instead of truth, on organization instead of life, and the day of glory and power passes away. that was the case with quakerism.
two things, i believe, leave a vivid impression upon any student of the early quaker movement. they can be stated quite simply, but they make up together the fundamentals of quakerism to which everything else belongs as a natural consequence.
in the first place we find ourselves among men and women of an intense sincerity, who are seeking truth with all the energy of their faith, all the energy of their nature, and, in the second place, we become aware that this earnest search after the kingdom of god and its righteousness was rewarded with a great finding, a rich personal experience in their lives, of the living presence of jesus christ, their savior.
we know now that communities who called themselves “seekers” were specially receptive of the quaker message, and became the main strength of the new movement. in that puritan age, filled with 15religious zeal, there were many honest-hearted men craving after something more real than the mere outward profession of religion. they were not satisfied with the triumphant religion of the time, which put strong emphasis, and rightly put strong emphasis, on belief in the great historical facts of christianity, but had little or no conception of christ’s living presence in the world to-day. and when fox told these honest-hearted seekers that he knew in his own experience that jesus christ was come to teach his people himself, their souls leapt up to welcome the divine guest. fox himself was a man of intense sincerity, who found actually in his own spirit the place where the seed of divine life was springing up, the place where the voice of a divine teacher was being uttered, the place that was being inhabited by a divine and glorious presence. he could tell the great company of seekers who met at firbank fell in westmorland on that memorable afternoon in june, 1652, not only of an historical christ, but of a living savior, their teacher to instruct them, 16their governor to direct them, their shepherd to feed them, their bishop to oversee them, their prophet to open divine mysteries to them. i am giving you the points of his three-hour sermon on that occasion. their bodies, he said, were intended to be temples for jesus christ to dwell in. they were to be brought off from the temples, tithes, priests and rudiments of the world. they were to come to the spirit of god in themselves and to christ the substance.
the new message opened out a new way of life to men who were sincere enough to go through with it and to live it out. it carried with it a radical transformation or rather transfiguration of life from the earthly into the heavenly. i will give a passage in the quaint english of the time in which edward burrough, himself one of these westmorland seekers, describes the experience:
“in all things we found the light which we were enlightened withal, and all mankind (which is christ), to be alone and only sufficient to bring to life and eternal 17salvation. and so we ceased from the teachings of all men, and their words, and their worships and their temples, and all their baptisms and churches, and we met together often, and waited upon the lord in pure silence, from our own words and all men’s words, and hearkened to the voice of the lord, and felt his word in our hearts to burn up and beat down all that was contrary to god, and we obeyed the light of christ in us, and took up the cross to all earthly glories, crowns and ways, and denied ourselves, our relations and all that stood in the way betwixt us and the lord, and, while waiting upon the lord in silence, as often we did for many hours together, we received often the pouring down of the spirit upon us, and our hearts were made glad and our tongues loosed and our mouths opened, and we spake with new tongues, as the lord gave us utterance, and as his spirit led us, which was poured down upon us, on sons and daughters, and the glory of the father was revealed. and then began we to sing praises to the lord god almighty and to the lamb 18forever, who had redeemed us to god, and brought us out of the captivity and bondage of the world, and put an end to sin and death,—and all this was by and through and in the light of christ within us.”1
now, it is not my purpose to examine this experience from the side either of psychology or dogmatic theology. there are psychologists and theologians, too, with whom i could not venture to compare myself, but it is enough to take the great experience simply as historical fact. there can be no question that two hundred and fifty years ago actual living intercourse with the divine, such as burrough describes, gathered the first friends into their wonderful fellowship. it lifted them into an order of life which set them in a place of vision and power and joy. they saw the things of time in the light of eternity. they knew what it was to overcome the world, so that nothing could daunt their faith. in the words of one of the finest of the first friends, william dewsbury, the very prisons became palaces 19to them and the bolts and locks jewels. the kingdom of heaven was theirs, not indeed bringing the prizes of worldly ambition, but filling life with something richer, righteousness and peace and joy in the holy ghost. and all this was the reward and the result of a single-hearted sincerity,—full righteousness of heart, full humility of soul, full searching after truth, full opening of the heart to the incoming of the divine life. it had been won, as men count, at a great price. it had meant a breach with the current fashions of life and forms of religion; it had meant a daring following of fresh truth through all its untried consequences; it had meant suffering and loss; it had meant the daily crossing of the carnal mind. it had meant all these things, yes, but it had meant also the incoming of the life of christ, bringing men into a new fellowship with one another and with god.
we have to admit that in the first tide of this wonderful experience there were some serious extravagances of thought and conduct. it would be strange, i suppose, 20if newly opened eyes did not sometimes see men as trees walking. you get these extravagances when a fresh faculty of the soul is awaking to its powers. but the main phenomenon of quakerism is the heightened personality which undoubtedly came to the children of the light. they were men and women to “shake their country in their profession for ten miles round,” as some of our friends have done in the western states. their very look carried with it the sentence of honor or shame. their words had a challenging power, challenging men’s consciences, forcing them to face the issues of good and evil, shattering self-complacency and self-righteousness. the quaker was an impregnable man, his principles were held with an extraordinary tenacity. he stood not on a sandy foundation of notions, but on a rock of experience, and thus founded the man was sure and steadfast. the message of a present living christ within the heart and a present kingdom of god awaiting those who would receive it burned in the heart of these first friends. it burned 21in their hearts as a gospel for all men. it is a great mistake to suppose that the quaker church was founded as a sect. it had nothing sectarian about it. it had a great message of vital spiritual experience to give to the whole world. these first friends were evangelists of vital christianity.
they began as our evangelists to-day begin, by warning men to repent. george fox went up wensleydale calling on men to repent, for the day of the lord was at hand, and proclaiming the kingdom of christ at the door of men’s hearts, for them to take or reject. that is the spirit of this early quakerism, and it surely takes us back to the spirit of the prophets and of primitive christianity.
