110 It were happy
if we studied nature more in natural things, and acted according
to nature, whose rules are few, plain and most reasonable.… The
heavens, earth, and waters with their respective, various, and numerous
inhabitants, their productions, nature, seasons, sympathies,
and
antipathies, their use, benefit and pleasure, would be better understood
by
us; and an eternal wisdom, power, majesty, and goodness very conspicuous
to us through those sensible and passing forms, the world wearing the
mark
of its Maker, Whose stamp is everywhere visible and the characters
very
legible to the children of wisdom.
william penn
111 I have known
landholders who… being intent on paying their
debts by raising grain, have by too much tilling, so robbed the earth
of its
natural fatness, that the produce thereof hath grown light. … The
produce
of the earth is a gift from our gracious Creator to the inhabitants,
and to
impoverish the earth now to support outward greatness appears to
be an
injury to the succeeding age.
john woolman
112
We are a part, a dependent part, of a living whole. There can be
no true health (or “wholeness” — the two words
mean the same) in
humanity unless, at the same time, we look to the health of the whole
earthfamily
of living creatures. For far too long in our blind selfishness, we
have
misused the verses in Genesis and the Psalms which tell us how God
gave
man “dominion” over the works of his hands. Our “dominion” has
become
a power-drunk tyranny. Let us listen to John Ruskin: “God
has lent us the
earth for our life: it is a great entail. It means as much to those
who come
after us, as to us; and we have no right, by anything we do or neglect,
to
deprive them of benefits which it was in our power to bequeathe.”
marjorie sykes, 1970
113 When I steward
the earth, I believe I am caring for God’s
body.
This belief gives me a gentle push to work harder. For me that push
works
better than if I see my environmental work as mere civic responsibilities.
judith brown
114 HEALING — the
healing of a cut or wound of any kind is an
experience of personal miracle. The healing moves from inside out
and
takes as long as it needs to knit the rupture together. It may take
days or
weeks … that is why we do not see it as a miracle. But
it is a job of inner
work doing its work with patience.We often overlook the mystical
work of
our own bodies.
robert w. edwards, 1924-1981
115
Gospel order is the order established by God that exists in every
part of creation, transcending the chaos that seems too often prevalent.
It is
the right relationship of every part of creation, however small,
to every
other part and to the Creator. … [It] enables the individual
aspects of
creation to achieve that quality of being which God intended from
the start,
about which God could say that ‘it was very good.’ … Gospel
order is not
God … but it is an organizing principle by which Friends
come to a clearer
understanding of our relationship to God in all of the divine manifestations
and the responsibilities of that relationship.… It has been
the experience of
Friends that no part of their lives as individuals or as a faith
community is
separate from their vision of gospel order.
lloyd lee wilson, 1993
116 It is as
if the Divine Presence said to us, “Ever seek
balance.… You are to love and appreciate yourself, other persons, plants and
creatures around you, stars, earth, snow, rocks. Do not ‘fall
in love’ with any
of these to be possessed by them and swallowed up; neither turn away
from
them, nor renounce them.”
francis hole, 1995