i have now sought to show that quakerism at its best is always the product of 48vital forces, and is always producing vital relations. i say “at its best”; that is the necessary qualification.

this brings me to my last point. what is needed besides the life of the spirit, the life of jesus christ in the church? surely what we need is an earnest dedication on the part of those who are seeking to know jesus christ. god is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

in the early days of quakerism men were athirst for the gospel of a living christ. in the present day, side by side with much indifference and indolence there is a wide-spread craving for reality in religion and life.

tremendous social problems confront men to-day, new hopes of higher life are coming to the mass of workers, new convictions and new duties are dawning on the world, and fresh questions are being raised in the domains of history, psychology and philosophy. we are probably living in the midst of as great a period of transition as that which formed the bridge between the middle ages and modern europe, and those alone 49will find the fuller truth and lead men into it who will bear the travail and follow the trail of the seekers of the light. we want men who will get on the top of the situation, men in the spirit of george fox. when he was overwhelmed by the confusion of the year of anarchy that preceded the restoration of 1660, he lay in great exercise of spirit at reading for ten weeks and he writes:

“and so when i had travailed with the witness of god which they had quenched and gotten through with it and over all that hypocrisy ... i came to have ease and the light shined over all.”3

it is the duty of the church to discountenance all the manifold insincerities which disfigure our current christianity, and to give free scope to honest-hearted love of truth. sincerity is a plant that thrives under freedom and light, but withers under authority. the church must use methods of illumination and education and fellowship as its means for cherishing true-hearted allegiance to the lord. it will find these 50methods more fruitful than methods of authority. methods of authority may secure an artificial conformity, but it will always be at some expense of sincerity.

jesus resolutely turned his back on the quickly won kingdom of god, to be made up of those who gave him external obedience; he set himself to the slow achievement of an inward kingdom, which should gather men into willing discipleship.

i desire an atmosphere of large-hearted charity and brotherly confidence, which will allow the seeker after truth to live in the power of his experience, even if it is not a full experience, without being expected to live beyond his experience, an atmosphere which will allow him to make use of all the great aids which we have to-day in the search after truth—the great aids of scientific investigation, and what is still more important, in my opinion, the modern historical method which we are using to-day. we want to have as the motto of our church the motto of one of our yorkshire towns, “weave truth with trust.” we want a church that believes in the nobility of 51the truth; as this belief prevails amongst us, so shall we find a deeper reality in all our church life, and a fresh release of energy and renewal of inspiration. for quakerism is essentially a religion of sincerity, answered by the incoming of the living christ.