1 As you have
received the light from Christ Jesus, the fountain and fullness of
all light and life, so abide in the light, dwell in
the light, walk
in the light, have your being and habitation in the light. Life and
immortality moves in the light, so wait every one in your measure for
the
manifestation of God, his will is revealed in the light.
margaret fell, 1658
2
If but one man or woman were raised up by His power to stand and
live in the same spirit that the Apostles and Prophets were in,
who gave
forth the Scriptures, that man or woman should shake all the country
in
their profession for ten miles round.
george fox
3
The sum and substance of true religion does not stand on getting
a notion of Christ’s righteousness, but in feeling
the power of the
endless life, receiving the power, and being changed by the power.
And
where Christ is, there is his righteousness.
isaac penington
4
Answer the Witness of God in every man, whether they are heathen
that do not profess Christ, or whether they are such as do
profess
Christ that have the form of godliness and be out of the Power.
george fox
5
The gospel religion is very precious, being inwardly felt and experienced
in the life and power of it, but a bare profession of it,
out of the
life and power of godliness, is of no value in the sight of God,
nor is it of any
profit or advantage to the soul.
isaac penington
6
The humble, meek, merciful, just, pious, and devout souls are everywhere
of one religion; and when death has taken off the mask they
will
know one another, though the divers liveries they wear here makes
them
strangers. This world is a form; our bodies are forms; and no visible
acts of
devotion can be without forms. But yet the less form in religion
the better,
since God is a Spirit; for the more mental our worship, the more
adequate
to the nature of God; the more silent, the more suitable to the language
of
the Spirit.
william penn, 1693
7
The unity of Christians never did nor ever will or can stand in uniformity
of thought and opinion, but in Christian love only.
thomas story, 1737
8
There is a principle which is pure, placed in the human mind, which
in different places and ages hath had different names. It is,
however,
pure and proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no
forms
of religion nor excluded from any, where the heart stands in perfect
sincerity. In whomsoever this takes root and grows, of what nation
soever,
they become brethren in the best sense of the expression.
john woolman, 1746
9
When the pride of the heart is laid low, when the activity of human
reasoning is quieted, when the soul is reduced to a state of
silent
subjection in the presence of its Creator, then is
this “still
small voice” intelligibly heard, and
the word of the Lord, as it is inwardly revealed to
us,
becomes “a lamp” unto our “feet” and “a
light” unto our “paths.”
joseph john gurney
10 Meister Eckhart
wrote, “As thou art in church or cell,
that same
frame of mind carry out into the world, into its
turmoil and its fitfulness.” Deep
within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary
of the soul, a holy
place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously
return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives,
warming
us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto
Itself.
Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body
and
soul, utterly and completely, to the Light Within is the beginning
of true life.
thomas r. kelly, 1941
11 I should like
to change the name ‘seekers’ to ‘explorers’.
There is
a considerable difference there: we do not ‘seek’ the
Atlantic, we explore it.
The whole field of religious experience has to be explored, and has
to be
described in a language understandable to modern men and women.
ole olden, 1955
12
We all know the fruits of the Spirit, and recognise the beauty of
holiness in our own ancestral tree.… the flowers of unselfish
living may be
found growing in other men’s (people’s)
gardens and rich fruits of the spirit
may be tasted from other men’s trees. They
spring from the same Holy Spirit
of Truth, the same seed of God, whose power moves us through Christ.
marjorie sykes, 1959
13
The first Friends had an apocalyptic vision of the world transformed
by Christ and they set about to make it come true. The
present
generation of Quakers shares this conviction of the power of the
spirit, but
it is doubtful whether it will transform the world in our lifetime,
or in that
of our children or children’s children.
For us it is not so important when the
perfect world will be achieved or what it will be like.What matters
is living
our lives in the power of love and not worrying too much about the
results.
In doing this, the means become part of the end. Hence we lose the
sense of
helplessness and futility in the face of the
world’s
crushing problems. We
also lose the craving for success, always focusing on the goal to
the exclusion
of the way of getting there.We must literally not take too much thought
for
the morrow but throw ourselves whole-heartedly into the present.
That is
the beauty of the way of love; it cannot be planned and its end cannot
be foretold.
wolf mendl, 1974
14
There is just one further analogy between families and religious
movements that must be noted. Families die out. So do religious
movements. But here the analogy ends. For the end of a family line
is
usually a natural thing — too few marriages,
too few children, epidemic
disease. A religious movement, however, dies only when the Spirit
that gave
it birth is lost to the movement, when the movement itself turns
away from
the eternal Spirit which is its reason for being.
gordon m. browne, jr., 1986
15 … I
am clear that we are a branch of the Christian church, even
if to the majority of orthodox Christians our particularities may
put us
beyond the pale. Our capacity to hold within our fellowship those
who
cannot declare themselves Christian is part of our particular witness,
not
least to the Churches.
quoted by roger sturge, 1998