what then shall groups of friends, who have reached the vital experience of which i have been speaking, do with their experience? surely there are great demands confronting them to-day, great duties and convictions to be entered upon, great messianic hopes stirring in the world. this world of change is also a world that is fertile in the promise of richer life. there is the passionate craving after truth. surely we are to stand for reality in religion and life. there is the fresh sense that is coming to men of the meaning and the worth of personality. men are learning what the early friends reached as a fact of inner experience, that their hearts could be places where the divine side of life could spring up, and that here in this world of our own 52personality, in personal responsibility, personal dedication, personal service, is the very heart of religion.

there is another messianic hope: woman’s place in the universe in equal fellowship with man. surely we can stand for that. we have expressed that in our church life long before it came as a great hope to the mass of the people.

then there is the hope of the establishment of the reign of law instead of brute force in international affairs. we stand and have always stood for that.

again, there is the hope of the better ordering of society, removing the menace of destitution from the poor, securing an equality of opportunity for all, remedying the conditions that produce stunted lives, and giving those whom we call men the chance to become men in reality. the social regeneration of england and america has become to-day a living messianic hope, making an insistent demand upon the christian church. surely, with our witness to the practical application of christianity to every part of life, we stand for 53that. above all, and finally, there is the great hope of christ and his kingdom, not for a few only but for the whole world. with our living experience of jesus christ, we must stand for that. are we not again called to form a vanguard of progress towards the kingdom of god? our response to the call depends upon our personal consecration to the task. behind the kingdom of god as it is, behind the kingdom of god as it is to be, there stand the actual groups of disciples, their personal experience, their personal devotion.

joseph sturge, the founder of the adult school movement, once wrote: “it seems to be the will of him who is infinite in wisdom, that light upon great subjects should first arise and be gradually spread through the faithfulness of individuals in acting up to their own convictions.” this personal witness for truth, based upon a living experience of it, is the great duty laid upon each member of the quaker church. it carries with it the necessity for self-sacrifice. we know how the self-sacrifice of our lord on the cross was the atonement of 54the world, and the self-sacrifice of men and women, in the spirit of jesus christ, has still redemptive force.

we see before the society of friends, as it renews its spiritual communion and its warmth of fellowship, a great service for which it has been wonderfully prepared—a service for the revival of vital, prophetic religion and for its expression in righteousness of life—but the service will be fruitful through discipline and suffering; if it is to be redemptive of society it will cost much; those of us who have seen the vision of the future that may be will find our eyes filled with light and our hearts with peace, and our souls will know the springings-up of everlasting life and power, but at the same time our feet must be treading the way of the cross with our lord.