34 If you build
upon anything or have confidence in anything which stands in time
and is on this side eternity and (the) Being of
beings,
your foundation will be swept away, and night will come upon you, and
all
your gathered-in things and taken-on and imitated will all fail you. … Why
trim you yourselves with the saints’ words, when you are ignorant
of the
life? Return, return to Him that is the first Love, and the first-born
of every
creature, who is the Light of the World. … Return home to within,
sweep
your houses all, the groat is there, the little leaven is there, the
grain of
mustard seed you will see, which the Kingdom of God is like; … and
here
you will see your Teacher not removed into a corner, but present when
you
are upon your beds and about your labor, convincing, instructing, leading,
correcting, judging and giving peace to all that love and follow Him.
francis howgill, 1656
35
There is a Spirit that I feel that delights to do no evil, nor to
revenge any wrong, but delights to endure all things, in hope to
enjoy its
own in the end. Its hope is to outlive all wrath and contention,
and to weary
out all exaltation and cruelty, or whatever is of nature contrary
to itself. It
sees to the end of all temptations, as it bears no evil in itself,
so it conceives
none in thoughts to any other, for its ground and spring is the mercies
and
forgiveness of God. Its crown is meekness, its life is everlasting
love
unfeigned; and takes its kingdom with entreaty and not with contention,
and keeps it by lowliness of mind. In God alone it can rejoice, though
none
else regard it, or can own its life. It’s conceived in sorrow,
and brought forth
without any to pity it, nor doth it murmur at grief and oppression.
It never
rejoiceth but through sufferings: for with the world’s joy
it is murdered. I
found it alone, being forsaken. I have fellowship therein with them
who
lived in dens and desolate places in the earth, who through death
obtained
this resurrection and eternal holy life.
james nayler, 1660
36
My prison shall be my grave before I will budge a jot; for I owe
my conscience to no mortal man; I have no need to fear, God will
make
amends for all.
william penn, 1668
37 The Cross
of Christ … truly overcomes the world, and leads
a
life of purity in the face of its allurements; they that bear it
are not thus
chained up, for fear they should bite; nor locked up, lest they should
be stole
away; no, they receive power from Christ their Captain, to resist
the evil,
and do that which is good in the sight of God; to despise the world,
and love
its reproach above its praise; and not only not to offend others,
but love
those that offend them. … True godliness don’t turn
men out of the world,
but enables them to live better in it, and excites their endeavors
to mend it;
not hide their candle under a bushel, but set it upon a table in
a candlestick.
william penn, 1682
38
Men may tire themselves in a labyrinth of search, and talk of God:
but if we would know him indeed, it must be from the impressions
we
receive of him; and the softer our hearts are, the deeper and livelier
those
will be upon us.
william penn, 1692
39
And one day being under a strong exercise of spirit, I stood up and
said some words in a meeting, but not keeping close to the divine
opening, I said more than was required of me; and being soon sensible
of
my error, I was afflicted in mind some weeks without any light or
comfort,
even to that degree that I could take satisfaction in nothing. I
remembered
God and was troubled, and in the depths of my distress he had pity
upon
me and sent the Comforter. I then felt forgiveness for my offense,
and my
mind became calm and quiet, being truly thankful to my gracious
Redeemer for his mercies. And after this, feeling the spring of divine
love
opened and a concern to speak, I said a few words in a meeting, in
which I
found peace. This I believe was about six weeks from the first time,
and as I
was thus humbled and disciplined under the cross, my understanding
became more strengthened to distinguish the language of the pure
Spirit
which inwardly moves upon the heart and taught [me] to wait in silence
sometimes many weeks together, until I felt that rise which prepares
the
creature to stand like a trumpet through which the Lord speaks to
his flock.
john woolman, 1740
40
They fail to read clearly the signs of the times who do not see that
the hour is coming when, under the searching eye of philosophy
and
the terrible analysis of science, the letter and the outward evidence
will not
altogether avail us; when the surest dependence must be on the light
of
Christ within, disclosing the law and the prophets in our own souls,
and
confirming the truth of outward Scripture by inward experience.
john greenleaf whittier, 1870
41
We who are members of the Society of Friends have little to fall
back on except as our experience with truth. We cannot resort to
ritual
or
creed or ecclesiastical decisions for guidance. We must find our
way by
seeing the hand of God at work in the weaving of the fabric of daily
life.
clarence e. pickett
42
There is a need in us to be controlled, to receive, to worship, and
adore. If our service is to be real it is that we have received something
in
worship and pass it on; we do not imitate, we express the Spirit
in us. To live
by the rule is one of the most disastrous things we can do. If you
try
deliberately to be loving and kind because you think you should imitate,
you put on something from the outside; you waste your life; and
worse— you do great damage. If you
live in the Spirit you live from the center within
you. In worship we search for the Center in ourselves and in one
another,“ from whence cometh our help.”
pacific yearly meeting, 1954
43
The concern arises as a revelation to an individual that there is
a painful discrepancy between existing social conditions and what
God wills
for society and that this discrepancy is not being adequately dealt
with. The
next step is the determination of the individual to do something
about it— not because he is particularly
well fitted to tackle the problem, but simply
because no one else seems to be doing it.
dorothy h. hutchinson, 1961
44
The character of Jesus Christ, the tone of his voice over the centuries,
so to speak, has made a tremendous appeal to me. I think
it very
likely that a great deal of legend has gathered round the story of
his life; and
yet many of his sayings ring so true today that
they — to
use an oldfashioned
Quaker phrase — they speak to my condition.
I rejected a good
deal of my religious upbringing during the process of thinking for
myself in
my teens and later; I found it impossible to accept as true much
that I had
been told I must believe about Jesus; but thinking for myself brought
me
closer to Jesus, for he had the simplicity of approach that I wanted.
He
didn’t just talk about God, he talked with
God; and he taught his friends to
do the same.
kathleen lonsdale, 1962
45
Lift us above frustration with our lack of quick solutions to social
and political problems.Move us so that our actions may be clear
and
wise. Let us not despair of mankind and surely not of each other.
May we
be open always to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
pacific yearly meeting, 1965
46
Whenever we are driven into the depths of our own being, or seek
them of our own will, we are faced by a tremendous contrast. On
the
one side we recognize the pathetic littleness of our ephemeral existence,
with no point or meaning in itself. On the other side, in the depth,
there is
something eternal and infinite in which our existence, and indeed
all
existence, is grounded. This experience of the depths of existence
fills us
with a sense both of reverence and of responsibility, which gives
even to our
finite lives a meaning and a power which they do not possess in themselves.
This, I am assured, is our human experience of God.
john macmurray, 1967
47
The inward experience must be checked by accordance with the mind
of Christ, the fruits of the Spirit, the character of that willed
caring
which in the New Testament is called Love.… if
God is known in measure
by every person, our knowledge of him will be largely gained through
the
experience of others who reverently and humbly seek him. In the last
resort
we must be guided by our own conscientiously
held conviction — but
it is
in the last resort. First, we must seek carefully and prayerfully
through the
insights of others, both in the past and among our contemporaries,
and
only in the light of this search do we come to our own affirmation.
l. hugh doncaster, 1972
48
To be without ordained clergy is not to be without either leadership
or ministry. The gifts of the Spirit include both. For us,
calls to
particular ministries are usually for a limited period of time, and
these gifts
pertain to the task rather than the person. In one lifetime a person
may be
called to a number of ministries, each with its own charism.
london yearly meeting, to lima with love, 1987
49
In 1657, George Fox counseled Friends not to travel and prophesy
as a way of life but, once their message had been delivered,
to go
home, stay home, and lead a sanctified
life ‘in the flesh.’ … The
fact that
prophetic preaching was a transient experience and not a permanent
office
or lifestyle meant that all Quakers, men and women, had to integrate
moments of being ‘in the power’ with other aspects
of their social and
personal existence ‘in the body.’
phyllis mack, 1992
50
A Quaker social concern seems characteristically to arise in a sensitive
individual or very small group — often decades
before it grips the
Society of Friends as a whole and as much as a century or more before
it
appeals to the secular world. … Good
enduringly practiced must overcome
evil.
stephen cary, 1997
51
Our commitment is to notice the stirrings within ourselves and to
let them carry us to new levels of expression and service.
paul niebanck, 1981
52 One of my
final observations … has to be about the
extraordinary ordinariness of many of these women. They wanted their
mundane daily lives to be impregnated with the experience of the
Spirit and
its fruits of love and peace and harmony. They went out into the
streets,
faced physical abuse and cried their message over baying opposition,
then
they went home to check the household accounts and feed and comfort
their children. They foresaw the millennium, wrote letters to the
King and
served beef and beer at supper.
christine trevett, 1991
53
How can we hope to prepare our hearts and minds for humble worship
by speeding to Meeting hermetically sealed in a tonne of glass,
metal and plastic? Cars inevitably “protect” passengers
from the real world:
wind, rain, the wait for a bus and the need to communicate with people.
This amounts to a spiritual challenge for Friends. Our need to seek
an
earthly humility adds other dimension to our need for a sane approach
for
transport and clean air.
david boyd, 1994