{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_60308/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_60308","id":"gutenberg_60308","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60308","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Society of Friends"],"text":"THE\n      MESSAGE AND MISSION\n         OF QUAKERISM\n\n\n             By\n    WILLIAM C. BRAITHWAITE\n             and\n  HENRY T. HODGKIN, M.A., M.B.\n\n\n  PUBLISHED BY DIRECTION OF THE\n       FIVE YEARS MEETING\n\n\n         [Decoration]\n\n\n         PHILADELPHIA\n  The John C. Winston Company\n            1912\n\n\n\n\n      Copyright, 1912, by\n    The John C. Winston Co.\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nThe two addresses which compose this book were delivered at the Five\nYears Meeting of the Society of Friends held in Indianapolis, Indiana,\nfrom October\u00a015th to 22nd, 1912. They were listened to with profound\ninterest and appreciation, and were approved by a Minute which also\nordered their publication, in order that the wider group of Friends,\nand all others who are interested in the message and mission of a\nreligion of this type, might have the opportunity to read them. It is\na plain duty of any religious body to put its truths into circulation,\nand to reinterpret again and again the vital principles by which its\nmembers live and work. Here in this little book will be found in\nconvenient form a fresh and illuminating expression of the truths,\nprinciples and ideals of present-day Quakerism and some of the\npractical problems confronting the modern world which the application\nof these truths, principles and ideals might solve. The reader will\ndiscover that the writers live in the Twentieth Century and that they\nare \u201cspeaking to the condition\u201d of the age.\n\n                                        Rufus M. Jones.\n\nHaverford, Pennsylvania\n12th mo.\u00a09th, 1912\n\n\n\n\nANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS\n\n\nPART I\n\n_THE ESSENTIALS OF QUAKERISM_\n\nBY WILLIAM C. BRAITHWAITE\n\n                                                        PAGE\n  Introductory                                            11\n\n  The early Quaker movement                               13\n\n  Its two great characteristics,\u2014intense sincerity and\n    the experience of the living presence of Christ       14\n\n  \u201cSeekers\u201d were especially receptive to the message of\n    George Fox                                            14\n\n  Edward Burrough\u2019s description of experience             16\n\n  The heightened personality that came to the \u201cChildren\n    of the Light\u201d                                         20\n\n  Quakerism a religion of the prophetic and apostolic\n    type, in contrast with the priestly and institutional\n    type                                                  21\n\n  The Church should be a living fellowship of\n    disciples at work for the Kingdom of God,\n    _plus_ Jesus Christ Himself, in whose Spirit\n    they become together \u201cone flock, one\n    Shepherd\u201d                                             23\n\n  The vital nature of such a fellowship                   24\n\n  Our position not negative but positive                  25\n\n  Quakerism a \u201creligion of life\u201d                          25\n\n  The supreme question for the Church, How can we\n    foster life?                                          26\n\n  Cheap substitutes for life                              29\n\n  A religion of life must devote itself to vital\n    processes and vital relations; chiefly,\n      Loyal discipleship                                  30\n      Inspired leadership                                 31\n      Warm fellowship                                     33\n      Loving service                                      35\n      Steady spiritual growth                             36\n\n  Methods and machinery, organization and Church\n    discipline have only a subordinate value to these\n    prime factors of health                               37\n\n  The life must be allowed free expression; the form\n    must be kept plastic                                  38\n\n  The physiologist tells us that living matter is\n    always soft and jelly-like, permitting of the free\n    play of molecular interchanges                        38\n\n  Fit the clothes to the man, not the man to the\n    clothes                                               40\n\n  Expansion that comes where the Spirit of God has been\n    allowed freely to work upon groups of disciples\n    without being limited by organization and tradition,\n    _e.\u00a0g._ Foreign Missionary Work, Adult School\n    movement, Quakerism in Western States                 40\n\n  Church-arrangements, important in themselves, should\n    be regarded as machinery through which the life can\n    work,\u2014the life of the individual which we call\n    personal responsibility, of the group, which we call\n    fellowship, and above all the Divine vitality, which\n    we call spiritual power and spiritual guidance        41\n\n  Above conclusion illustrated from the way in which\n    these vital forces come into play in the various\n    forms of Friends\u2019 meetings                            42\n\n  The evangelistic service and its needs                  43\n\n  The meeting for worship, its great value and its\n    needs                                                 44\n\n  The teaching meeting and its needs                      46\n\n  Quakerism, at its best, always the product of vital\n    forces and the producer of vital relations            47\n\n  Its dependence upon the earnest seeking spirit          48\n\n  Craving to-day for reality in religion and life         49\n\n  Atmosphere of large-hearted charity and brotherly\n    confidence needed                                     50\n\n  Quakerism, essentially, a religion of sincerity,\n    answered by the incoming of the living Christ         51\n\n  Hopes confronting us to-day,\u2014the craving after truth,\n    the meaning and worth of personality, woman\u2019s place\n    in the world, the reign of law in international\n    affairs, the regeneration of social conditions, the\n    hope of Christ for the whole world                    52\n\n  The Quaker Church called to be in the vanguard of\n    progress with respect to all these                    53\n\n  Duty of personal witness for truth, based on a living\n    experience of it                                      53\n\n  Conclusion                                              54\n\n\nPART II\n\n_THE CONTRIBUTION OF FRIENDS TO THE LIFE AND WORK OF THE CHURCH_\n\nBY HENRY T. HODGKIN, M.A., M.B.\n\n  Personal experience of co-operation with other\n  denominations in west China and elsewhere               56\n\n  An ideal of Christian unity                             57\n\n  The Society of Friends in relation thereto              58\n\n  That which the Society holds in common with others      62\n\n  The attitude in which the contribution can be made      63\n\n  Summary of some contributions Friends have already\n    made.\n    Need of first-hand experience\u2014Religious\n    toleration\u2014Brotherhood of all races\u2014High business\n    standard\u2014Practical philanthropy                       66\n\n  Contribution of Friends to modern life.\n    Direct personal intercourse with God\u2014Modern drift to\n    materialism\u2014The greater danger in the child\n    races\u2014Proposed remedies\u2014The positive message of\n    Friends                                               69\n\n  The quiet heart.\n    The rush of modern life\u2014The sense of need felt at\n    home and abroad\u2014Worship as a united inspired act\u2014A\n    high ideal to be reached                              76\n\n  The leadership of the Spirit.\n    From autocracy to democracy\u2014The nationalist spirit in\n    the East\u2014The Quaker meeting for discipline\u2014A\n    theocratic ideal                                      83\n\n  Idealism.\n    The danger of opportunism\u2014Solution of the race\n    problem\u2014Place of the idealist                         89\n\n  Woman\u2019s contribution.\n    The Woman\u2019s Movement to-day\u2014The emancipation of women\n    in the East\u2014The failure of the Church to respond\u2014The\n    experience of Friends                                 95\n\n  A non-professional ministry.\n    The labor-movement an aspiration\u2014Difficulty of the\n    organized Churches\u2014Danger abroad\u2014Freedom of the\n    ministry                                              99\n\n  The spirit of tolerance.\n    Modern scholarship and the Bible\u2014Suggested solutions\n    of the difficulty\u2014A grave peril\u2014Where Friends can\n    help                                                 104\n\n  How the message is to be delivered.\n    A fresh conviction\u2014A fuller consecration\u2014Large\n    sympathy with others\u2014A corporate sense of\n    mission\u2014Apostles                                     109\n\n\n\n\nPART I\n\n_THE ESSENTIALS OF QUAKERISM_\n\nBY WILLIAM C. BRAITHWAITE\n\n\n=Introductory Words=\n\nIt is with great diffidence that we from England venture to speak to\nthe American Yearly Meetings. Our circumstances and the problems we\nhave to face are often so different that it would be presumptuous in\nus to feel that we had advice on matters of detail that would deserve\nvery great attention from you. But when it comes to our common history\nand to the common inheritance we have in the principles and faith of\nthe Society of Friends, we may speak freely.\n\nWe represent the main body of those who call themselves \u201cFriends.\u201d The\nYearly Meetings from which we come connect by continuous history with\nthe first Quaker Churches of two hundred and fifty years ago. Of\ncourse when we compare ourselves as we are now, with the first\nFriends, we find great differences, as great undoubtedly as exist\nbetween the New Englander of to-day and the Pilgrim Fathers. We should\nfind much to astonish if we could peep in at one of those first London\nmeetings held in the summer of the year 1655 at the Bull and Mouth,\nthe great \u201ctavern-chapel\u201d in Aldersgate, in which you could then crowd\na thousand people standing. I fancy these meetings may have been\nrather like some of your pioneer meetings in the West. But the\npioneers of the London work, Howgill and Burrough, would find modern\nQuakerism, whether in England or in the Middle West, a strange thing.\nIt takes a wise man to recognize his own great-great-great-great\ngrandchildren. They have an inheritance that connects them up with\ntheir ancestor, but their environment is so different that on the\nsurface they seem to have been changed into another type of man. At\nbottom, however, we shall find that the inherited type will continue.\n\n  \u201cFor never Pilgrims\u2019 offshoot scapes control\n   Of those old instincts that have shaped his soul.\u201d\n\n                                      (Lowell, \u201c_Fitz Adam\u2019s Story_.\u201d)\n\nIn other words, the inner life of a religious movement remains,\nalthough the expression of that life will greatly vary under changing\nconditions of time and place.\n\n\nI.\n\nIn order to get at the essentials of Quakerism, we do well to go\nback to the beginnings, to those first years of nascent energy which\ncarried the Quaker message through the English-speaking world.\nWhenever a new truth starts to life, it is intensely dynamic and\nvital; it masters every opposing circumstance; it flings itself\nvictoriously against a stubborn world. It is a thing of life and\nmovement, and I believe it will be found that a live truth in motion\nis the mightiest of all forces. But, a generation later, unless the\nvital forces have been cherished, the emphasis comes to be laid on\nestablishment rather than movement, and when a thing gets established\nit usually ceases to move; the emphasis comes to be laid on dogma\ninstead of truth, on organization instead of life, and the day of\nglory and power passes away. That was the case with Quakerism.\n\nTwo things, I believe, leave a vivid impression upon any student of\nthe early Quaker movement. They can be stated quite simply, but they\nmake up together the fundamentals of Quakerism to which everything\nelse belongs as a natural consequence.\n\nIn the first place we find ourselves among men and women of an intense\nsincerity, who are seeking truth with all the energy of their faith,\nall the energy of their nature, and, in the second place, we become\naware that this earnest search after the Kingdom of God and its\nrighteousness was rewarded with a great finding, a rich personal\nexperience in their lives, of the living presence of Jesus Christ,\ntheir Savior.\n\nWe know now that communities who called themselves \u201cSeekers\u201d were\nspecially receptive of the Quaker message, and became the main\nstrength of the new movement. In that Puritan age, filled with\nreligious zeal, there were many honest-hearted men craving after\nsomething more real than the mere outward profession of religion. They\nwere not satisfied with the triumphant religion of the time, which put\nstrong emphasis, and rightly put strong emphasis, on belief in the\ngreat historical facts of Christianity, but had little or no\nconception of Christ\u2019s living presence in the world to-day. And when\nFox told these honest-hearted Seekers that he knew in his own\nexperience that Jesus Christ was come to teach His people Himself,\ntheir souls leapt up to welcome the Divine Guest. Fox himself was a\nman of intense sincerity, who found actually in his own spirit the\nplace where the seed of Divine life was springing up, the place where\nthe voice of a Divine teacher was being uttered, the place that was\nbeing inhabited by a Divine and glorious presence. He could tell the\ngreat company of Seekers who met at Firbank Fell in Westmorland on\nthat memorable afternoon in June, 1652, not only of an historical\nChrist, but of a living Savior, their Teacher to instruct them, their\nGovernor to direct them, their Shepherd to feed them, their Bishop to\noversee them, their Prophet to open Divine mysteries to them. I am\ngiving you the points of his three-hour sermon on that occasion. Their\nbodies, he said, were intended to be temples for Jesus Christ to dwell\nin. They were to be brought off from the temples, tithes, priests and\nrudiments of the world. They were to come to the Spirit of God in\nthemselves and to Christ the Substance.\n\nThe new message opened out a new way of life to men who were sincere\nenough to go through with it and to live it out. It carried with it a\nradical transformation or rather transfiguration of life from the\nearthly into the Heavenly. I will give a passage in the quaint English\nof the time in which Edward Burrough, himself one of these Westmorland\nSeekers, describes the experience:\n\n\u201cIn all things we found the Light which we were enlightened withal,\nand all mankind (which is Christ), to be alone and only sufficient to\nbring to Life and eternal salvation. And so we ceased from the\nteachings of all men, and their words, and their worships and their\ntemples, and all their baptisms and churches, and we met together\noften, and waited upon the Lord in pure silence, from our own words\nand all men\u2019s words, and hearkened to the voice of the Lord, and felt\nHis word in our hearts to burn up and beat down all that was contrary\nto God, and we obeyed the Light of Christ in us, and took up the cross\nto all earthly glories, crowns and ways, and denied ourselves, our\nrelations and all that stood in the way betwixt us and the Lord, and,\nwhile waiting upon the Lord in silence, as often we did for many hours\ntogether, we received often the pouring down of the Spirit upon us,\nand our hearts were made glad and our tongues loosed and our mouths\nopened, and we spake with new tongues, as the Lord gave us utterance,\nand as His Spirit led us, which was poured down upon us, on sons and\ndaughters, and the glory of the Father was revealed. And then began we\nto sing praises to the Lord God Almighty and to the Lamb forever, who\nhad redeemed us to God, and brought us out of the captivity and\nbondage of the world, and put an end to sin and death,\u2014and all this\nwas by and through and in the Light of Christ within us.\u201d[1]\n\n  [Footnote 1: Burrough, Preface to \u201cGreat Mystery.\u201d]\n\nNow, it is not my purpose to examine this experience from the side\neither of psychology or dogmatic theology. There are psychologists and\ntheologians, too, with whom I could not venture to compare myself, but\nit is enough to take the great experience simply as historical fact.\nThere can be no question that two hundred and fifty years ago actual\nliving intercourse with the Divine, such as Burrough describes,\ngathered the first Friends into their wonderful fellowship. It lifted\nthem into an order of life which set them in a place of vision and\npower and joy. They saw the things of time in the light of eternity.\nThey knew what it was to overcome the world, so that nothing could\ndaunt their faith. In the words of one of the finest of the first\nFriends, William Dewsbury, the very prisons became palaces to them\nand the bolts and locks jewels. The Kingdom of Heaven was theirs, not\nindeed bringing the prizes of worldly ambition, but filling life with\nsomething richer, righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.\nAnd all this was the reward and the result of a single-hearted\nsincerity,\u2014full righteousness of heart, full humility of soul, full\nsearching after truth, full opening of the heart to the incoming of\nthe Divine life. It had been won, as men count, at a great price. It\nhad meant a breach with the current fashions of life and forms of\nreligion; it had meant a daring following of fresh truth through all\nits untried consequences; it had meant suffering and loss; it had\nmeant the daily crossing of the carnal mind. It had meant all these\nthings, yes, but it had meant also the incoming of the Life of Christ,\nbringing men into a new fellowship with one another and with God.\n\nWe have to admit that in the first tide of this wonderful experience\nthere were some serious extravagances of thought and conduct. It would\nbe strange, I suppose, if newly opened eyes did not sometimes see men\nas trees walking. You get these extravagances when a fresh faculty of\nthe soul is awaking to its powers. But the main phenomenon of\nQuakerism is the heightened personality which undoubtedly came to the\nChildren of the Light. They were men and women to \u201cshake their country\nin their profession for ten miles round,\u201d as some of our Friends have\ndone in the Western states. Their very look carried with it the\nsentence of honor or shame. Their words had a challenging power,\nchallenging men\u2019s consciences, forcing them to face the issues of good\nand evil, shattering self-complacency and self-righteousness. The\nQuaker was an impregnable man, his principles were held with an\nextraordinary tenacity. He stood not on a sandy foundation of notions,\nbut on a rock of experience, and thus founded the man was sure and\nsteadfast. The message of a present living Christ within the heart and\na present Kingdom of God awaiting those who would receive it burned in\nthe heart of these first Friends. It burned in their hearts as a\ngospel for all men. It is a great mistake to suppose that the Quaker\nChurch was founded as a sect. It had nothing sectarian about it. It\nhad a great message of vital spiritual experience to give to the whole\nworld. These first Friends were evangelists of vital Christianity.\n\nThey began as our evangelists to-day begin, by warning men to repent.\nGeorge Fox went up Wensleydale calling on men to repent, for the day\nof the Lord was at hand, and proclaiming the Kingdom of Christ at the\ndoor of men\u2019s hearts, for them to take or reject. That is the spirit\nof this early Quakerism, and it surely takes us back to the spirit of\nthe prophets and of primitive Christianity.\n\n\nII.\n\nThe centering of life on the realities of inward intercourse with God\nis the great mark of the prophetic and apostolic type of religion and\nis in sharp contrast with religion of the priestly or institutional\ntype. The prophet was a man who knew what it was to have converse\nwith Jehovah and sure knowledge of His will. He became a Seer, a man\nof insight and foresight, aware of the true values of things, the true\nvalues as weighed in the balance of the sanctuary. He became thereby a\ngreat social and moral reformer. His ideal was of a time when all\nwould be prophets\u2014when \u201cyour sons and your daughters shall prophesy,\nyour old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.\u201d\nAnd we may remember that this ideal is recognized on the day of\nPentecost as the natural first-fruits of the Spirit. If it had been\nrealized the Church would have been a school of prophets from\ngeneration to generation. Unfortunately the Church has more often\nstifled the seer and glorified the priest.\n\nAs I understand it, it is the specific mission of Quakerism to\npropagate a Christianity of this prophetic, apostolic type, a\nChristianity in which the Church is a living fellowship of disciples\nat work for the social and moral ends of the Kingdom of God. But the\nChurch is not simply, in the Quaker conception, a fellowship of\ndisciples at work for the Kingdom of God; it is such a fellowship\n_plus_ Jesus Christ Himself, in whose Spirit, the Spirit which unites\nthem one to another and to Him, they become together \u201cone flock, one\nShepherd.\u201d\n\nFellowships, made up of groups of men and women who are with Christ,\nredeemed by Him, learning from Him, following Him, helping in His\nwork, looking out on life with something of His devotion to the will\nof God and His passion to seek and save the lost\u2014such are the true\nQuaker Churches. It is worth while to analyze the conception a little.\nThe Church, we say, is a living fellowship\u2014not in the first place an\norganization, but in the first place an organism\u2014not an institution,\nbut a body, built up of many cells, many individuals, just as the body\nhas cells that grow and change and perform their several functions\nunder the direction of an all-pervading, all-embracing life. That is\nwhat a living fellowship means. This life received through direct\ncontact with the Divine life is the one essential of the Christian\nChurch. It is the business of the Church to see that it is fostered\nin every possible way, so that the body may freely grow under its\ninfluence and freely express the life in all forms of worthy living.\n\nHistorically, Quakerism is the product of this vital experience and\nwhile we gladly recognize that the experience is shared by us with\nmany other branches of the Christian Church, it remains true that no\nother religious community so deliberately and emphatically bases its\nindividual and corporate life upon this supreme fact of the soul\u2019s\nimmediate contact with God.\n\nOur special position among the churches is sometimes stated\u2014not by the\nFive Years\u2019 Meeting\u2014in a series of desolating negatives. We do not\npractice water baptism, nor partake of the outward elements of the\nLord\u2019s Supper, we are against war and oaths and priestcraft, our\nmeetings are held on a basis of silence, and so on\u2014all negatives. But\nwe were gathered as a people out of the world through the force of\ndynamic positives. We withstand priestcraft because every disciple is\nordained for service. As George Fox said, every man hath an office\nand is serviceable. We witness against oaths, because we uphold a\nsingle standard of truth speaking, and against distinctions of dress\nand address, because all men are equal in the sight of God; we oppose\nwar because the armor of the children of light is the armor of\nrighteousness, and disuse the outward form of baptism because the\nall-important thing is not the form but the inward repentance and\ncleansing by the blood of Christ. We cannot narrow down the experience\nof communion with our Lord to special ceremonials and places and\nministrants, when we hold that Jesus offers Himself as the Bread of\nLife to His people day by day\u2014in the home, in the factory, at\nbusiness, in all our common work and in all our loftiest worship\u2014the\nwhole of life may be a sacrament of communion with Jesus Christ.\n\nIt is as a \u201creligion of life\u201d that Quakerism will be presented in the\nfuture and is being presented now.\n\nIts distinguishing note will be its resolve to bring all this human\nlife of ours under the transforming power of spiritual life. It will\nstand out against all divisions and compartments that separate the\nsacred from the secular, the sanctuary from the outward world of\nnature, the sacrament from the day\u2019s common work, the clergy from the\nlaity.\n\nIt will tell of a Christian experience that makes all life sacred and\nall days holy, all nature a sanctuary, all work a sacrament, and gives\nto every man and woman in the body fit place and service. Its concern\nwill be to multiply men and women who will have a message of power\nbecause they are themselves living in the power of God, who will\nspread the light because they are themselves the children of light. It\nwill claim the whole of a man\u2019s life, and the whole of life,\nindividual, social, national, international, for the dominion of the\nwill of God.\n\n\nIII.\n\nSo then the question comes: How can we foster this life? How can the\nChurch continue, through a succession of generations and amid\nmanifold changes of circumstance and thought, not merely its name and\norganization, its tradition of the fathers and its orthodoxy of\nlanguage, but a living body of Christ, which shall embody Him, as He\nwould make Himself known to each age?\n\nThat is the supreme question. Unless the Church does that, it\nmisrepresents its Lord and hinders the coming of His Kingdom.\n\nEverything must be thought of in terms of vital relation if we are to\nsee our way to an answer. We are dealing with life, and it is life, a\nunity of life, that connects the individual Christian with his Savior\nand with his fellow-Christians.\n\nI know vital relations are costly things; it is comparatively easy to\npreach and profess; it is not easy to give ourselves. But vital\nrelations are abundantly fruitful, and that supreme giving of life\nwhich we associate with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is, we know, the\nmost fruitful vital relation that has ever been exhibited in history.\n\u201cHe, the Son of man, gave his life a ransom for many\u201d\u2014for the whole\nworld.\n\nDr.\u00a0Hort has finely said:\n\n\u201cIn the times when Christianity owed nothing to custom and tradition,\nand when all the ways of ordinary society tended to draw men away from\nit, what drew them to it and held them to it, despite all persecution,\nwas the power of its life.... Life calling to life was the one\nvictorious power which mastered men and women of all conditions and\nall grades of culture.\u201d[2]\n\n  [Footnote 2: \u201cThe Way, The Truth, The Life,\u201d p.\u00a0183.]\n\nWe cannot commend the Kingdom of God to the world through institutions\nthat are starched and stiff, but only by the living, warm, expansive\ntouch of human hearts reaching out in fellowship to others.\n\nMen substitute tradition for the living experience of the love of God.\nThey talk and think as though walking with God was attained by walking\nin the footsteps of men who walked with God. There has been a great\ndeal of that in the Quaker Church.\n\nThey substitute authority for leadership, the authority of the men of\nthe past for the inspiration of men who have vision and first-hand\nexperience of truth to-day. They substitute conventional methods\u2014we\nhave had a great deal of that, too\u2014for the natural arrangements which\na living fellowship of disciples would make and modify from time to\ntime and place to place. They substitute a cold organization for a\nwarm fellowship, an outward profession for an inward experience,\npriestly agency for personal responsibility, dogmatic teaching for\neducation, almsgiving for personal social service, sectarian ends for\nthe great purposes of the Kingdom of God.\n\nThere is no end to the cheap substitutes offered for the use of the\nChurch. Almost all of them are methods for running the Christian\nSociety with the minimum of spiritual energy, seeing how little\nspiritual life you can manage with, whereas our aim ought to be to\ngenerate and use the maximum in the illimitable service of the Kingdom\nof God.\n\nA religion of life must devote itself to vital processes and vital\nrelations. These are the things that concern our truest welfare. Take\nthe chief:\u2014loyal discipleship, inspired leadership, warm fellowship,\nloving service, steady spiritual growth; every one of them vital\nprocesses. Look at them in order just sufficiently to get them well in\nmind.\n\nJesus Christ, so far as we know, wrote nothing, He organized no\nreligious society, He formulated no creed, but what He did was to\ngather around Himself a band of disciples, men and women, who received\nHis spirit, and in turn would bring others into touch with the life\nwhich had redeemed them. His life, springing up in the lives of men,\nwas to be fundamentally that which should regenerate the world.\n\nThe act of discipleship was following Jesus. It began with personal\nadherence to the Lord, and it continued through personal communion\nwith Him. In art and in learning we know how stimulating the daily\ncontact of teacher and disciple proves to be\u2014the disciple\u2019s spirit\nkindled by the enkindled spirit of his teacher, the coming together of\nteacher and scholars into a common life and a common purpose. That is\nwhy the colleges of American Quakerism have been such great forces.\nStill greater, vastly greater, is the discipleship which is ours in\nthe School of Christ. It calls for the fullest dedication, the closest\nfollowing, the daily taking of the cross, but it gives us Him who is\nthe Way, the Truth and the Life.\n\nDiscipleship then is the first vital relation that must be always\nenergizing the Church, but next in order comes inspired leadership.\n\nThe great initial success of Quakerism was due, beyond all else, so\nfar as human means went, to the traveling \u201cPublishers of Truth,\u201d as\nthey called themselves, who carried their burning message far and\nwide; they were like rich life-blood circulating freely through the\nbody. They were for the most part men and women of competent Bible\nknowledge and religious training, men with intense sincerity, with a\ngreat experience, who were talking about Christ because they knew Him.\nThey went out on a devoted service, which no privations or\npersecutions could daunt, and many of them were young men in the\nprime of their ardor and strength, who would follow the movings of\nlife rather than the counsels of prudence\u2014and we want those in the\nChurch. The Church must be prepared to take a few risks with its young\nmen. After all, the hearts of the young are burning for a crusade.\n\nIn the days of persecution which came upon the Quaker Church there was\na great mortality among these leaders and unfortunately the supply of\nnew leaders was small, indeed, ever since that glorious morning of\nQuakerism, the equipment of the Quaker Church with inspired leaders\nhas been a pressing problem. It is our business to raise up not\npriests but prophets, Christian men and women of trained intelligence\nand wide outlook, who know God and have a sure insight into the great\nsocial and spiritual needs of humanity, whose lives have been\nredeemed, whose hearts have been touched with the live coal from off\nthe altar. There is no place in vital religion for the vested\ninterests of a clerical caste, nor the dead hand of tradition, nor\nthe compulsion of conscience by the authority of the expert; but\nthere is every need for a leadership, which continues the past in a\nliving experience and educates and inspires and illuminates. A\ndemocracy requires leadership, not the leadership of authority, but\nwhat we may call, to use the constitution of the Five Years Meeting,\nan _advisory_ leadership, moving along channels of inspiration and\npersonal influence. \u201cFor lack of vision the people perish.\u201d\n\nThe third great vital relation that the Church has to be fostering is\nwarm fellowship. A few degrees of temperature may alter a climate and\nintroduce wonderful possibilities of new life. Change the climate and\nyou change the kinds of growth which may come into the world. It is\nvery much the same with the Church. I remember a story of a little\ngirl who was taken into a cold church one winter\u2019s day. She got in at\none end and could scarcely hear what the preacher was talking about.\nAfter church she went home and her mother asked her: \u201cNellie, what was\nthe text to-day?\u201d She answered, \u201cI couldn\u2019t hear it very well, but I\nthink it was \u2018Many are cold but few frozen.\u2019\u201d\n\nI think congregations have sometimes preached that sermon. It is\noftener preached by the congregation than by the minister.\n\nQuakerism at times has suffered from a frigidity of climate which has\nrepressed and repelled. In the first centuries Christianity became a\ngreat power, because it was a great brotherhood. Surely we need to\nwarm up our church organization so that it becomes quickened into a\nliving fellowship. We want a Christianity with the brotherliness left\nin and the starch taken out. I remember seeing an advertisement,\n\u201cCatlow\u2019s preserves, boiled in silver pans.\u201d What it meant was this:\nyou got the sugar, you got the fruit, and you got nothing else. That\nis what we want in our Christianity. We want the sweetness and we want\nthe fruitfulness. We don\u2019t want much else. We don\u2019t want frigidity, we\ndon\u2019t want starch.\n\nGroup life with a strong fellowship about it has always been a Quaker\ncharacteristic. In the early days it was groups of Seekers who\nembraced the message of Fox, and in England we still find Friends\nsettled in groups over the country. I notice, in the expansion of\nQuakerism in the far West, that it is colonies of Friends you get. You\ncannot have a diffused Quakerism diffused over the whole State of\nNebraska or California, but you can have a few groups of Friends at\nparticular points. But group life means a great deal more than the\ncollection of persons within the four walls of a particular building.\nIt means a life in community and comradeship, because the members are\njoined together actually and vitally in a common Lord and a common\ndiscipleship. It means, as with the limbs of the body, that the gifts\nand activities of each are freely used for the service of the whole.\nIt means that each shares in and contributes to the larger life of the\nwhole.\n\nThen there is the need for loving service. A Church is not an end in\nitself, not a club where we sit at ease in Zion; it is a means to an\nend. It ought to be, in the phrase of our early Friends, a \u201ccamp of\nthe Lord.\u201d It needs to have the purposes of the Kingdom of God ringing\nin its ears all the time. It needs to be vowed to the great redemptive\nwork of seeking and saving the lost. It will be rightly judged by its\noutput of service for the Kingdom of God. I fancy that the weakness of\nmodern Christianity is very similar to the besetting weakness of\ncivilization. We grasp our privileges and shirk our responsibilities.\nThe healthy Church fixes each member with personal responsibility for\nusing the life which he has received. It finds work for all to do. It\nknows that activity is the natural expression of life, and that the\ntorpor of any part spells atrophy and death.\n\nLast of my list is what I have called steady, spiritual growth. The\nvital relations which are the wealth of the Church not only bring\nabout a unity of life with God and with one another, but produce that\nprogressive development of personality that we call growth.\n\nThese are the questions we need to be asking ourselves all the time:\nAre our church members bigger men and women inwardly than a year ago?\n\nAre they stronger in faith, more radiant in hope, warmer in love?\n\nHave their spiritual senses developed? Do they see more of truth, hear\nmore readily the Divine voice, respond more quickly to the guidance of\nthe Spirit?\n\nAre their consciences alert, their loins girt, their hands eager for\nsacrifice and service?\n\nHere surely is what we may call the intensive work of the Church, the\nmaking of men and women not after the pattern of the world, but after\nthe pattern of Jesus Christ, who shall go forth in His power and\nspirit to serve the Kingdom of God.\n\nNow, we might well enlarge on these five important vital\nprocesses\u2014discipleship, leadership, fellowship, service and growth.\nBut my purpose will have been served if I have said enough to bring\nhome to you the fact that these are the things that matter, the things\nthat are of vital importance in the Church. Methods and machinery,\norganization and Church discipline have a value of their own, but\nonly a subordinate value to these prime factors of health. If these\nlesser things are accepted as a substitute for the vital factors, the\nChurch becomes weak. If they are allowed to limit the development of\nthe life, the Church may become dwarfed and deadened. Their true\nfunction, the true function of organization and discipline and these\nother matters, is surely large enough\u2014namely, to provide means with\nwhich and through which the life can readily work.\n\n\nIV.\n\nIn vital Quakerism then, the form has continually to be subordinated\nto the life. The life must be allowed free expression from time to\ntime and place to place according to the varying needs and\ncircumstances. In a word, the form must be kept plastic. This should\nbe as much a fundamental of religious biology as it is of physiology.\n\nThe physiologist tells us that living matter is always soft and\njelly-like. It is matter in a jelly-like state, permitting of the free\nplay of molecular interchanges, so that it is called a \u201cdynamical\nstate of matter.\u201d That is the general statement about living matter\nwhich the physiologist has to make to us to-day. It is essential that\nit should be plastic, able to grow, able to change its shape from time\nto time. It is always changing its form, as may be seen in the\ncolorless cells of the blood. It has been said, and said truly, that\nno one of us is the same person we were seven years ago, every little\nbit of us has been changed in the interval. Living matter does not\ngrow like the crystal, by the addition of new matter on its surfaces.\nIt grows by absorbing matter into its substance and transforming that\ninto matter like itself.\n\nIt should surely be the same in the life of institutions. The form\nshould be flexible so that the life may be continually growing and\nchanging its form according to the great directing control which the\nlife exerts upon the body, and you want ease and flexibility in\norganizations just as you do in clothes. If you do not have this, you\nwill have a good deal of chafing and cramping. Sometimes, perhaps, a\ngrowing boy will burst his waistcoat. It is a great mistake to try to\nfit the man to the clothes when we ought to be fitting the clothes to\nthe man, but it is a mistake that the Quaker Church has frequently\nmade.\n\nIn Church life, our own included, the letter that killeth has again\nand again encroached upon the quickening spirit. Outward government\nand external rules have limited spiritual guidance. The desire to\npreserve the deposit of faith has crystalized vital experience into\nformularies and creeds. Emphasis has been laid upon life according to\nsome stereotyped standard with a particular cut of collar and a\nparticular mode of language and the life of the spirit has been\nquenched. But where the Spirit of God has been allowed freely to work\nupon the groups of disciples there has been a wonderful expansion of\nChristianity of a vital kind. This has been largely the case in the\ngreat foreign missionary work of the Churches, and in our Adult School\nmovement in England, and in the pioneer work of Quakerism in the\nWestern states.\n\nIf spiritual life is allowed to be the controlling, directing, molding\nforce in Quakerism I have no fear for our future. We shall put in the\nforefront of our Church work the things that belong to life, the\ngathering of disciples, the raising of leaders and prophets, the\nmaintenance of warm fellowship, the encouragement of service, the\nfostering of growth. This means that our Church arrangements will be\nso made and modified as to promote and secure the expression through\nthem of the living forces which we have at our command. Those living\nforces are the spiritual force of the individual, which we call\nindividual responsibility, the living force of the group, which we\ncall fellowship, and above all, the Divine vitality, the incoming of\nthe life of Jesus Christ, which we call spiritual power and spiritual\nguidance. Church arrangements, important in themselves, must be\nregarded as simply machinery through which forces can work, and the\nmore efficiently the machinery allows the forces to work, the richer\nwill be the service of the Church.\n\nLet us consider the way in which these great forces get to work. I\nwill take the meetings of the Church as my illustration. I am not one\nwho says that the only kind of Friends\u2019 meeting is a meeting for\nworship. I believe that there are three or four types of Friends\u2019\nmeetings, in all of which we may have personal responsibility and\ngroup fellowship and the spiritual power and guidance of Jesus Christ.\n\nTake first\u2014it comes first\u2014the evangelistic service, the meeting which\nseeks to do the primary work of the Church, by bringing the gospel of\nJesus Christ to man, the living gospel of a living Savior. For such a\nmeeting you want a man who feels his personal responsibility, who\nfeels that he is speaking as the ambassador of Jesus Christ, called,\nchosen, faithful, with a freshly given message of truth on his lips,\nbut you want also behind him to back him the fellowship and sympathy\nof a group of earnest souls, who are helping the meeting by their\nprayer and sympathy, and who perhaps themselves will have some share\nin the delivery of the message or in the other outward service of the\nmeeting. Moreover, the ingathering of disciples is a matter not only\nfor evangelistic services, but for individual personal influence.\nAndrew findeth his own brother Simon: Philip findeth Nathanael. The\nmen and women reached will need from the first to be surrounded with a\nnew set of companions and to be brought into a new fellowship. They\nwill need, not simply one service on a Sunday stimulating them to\nfollow Jesus Christ, but the helpful comradeship of a group bringing\nthem into a knowledge of what it means to live according to the will\nof God. In the redemptive work which our Adult Schools in England have\ndone in hundreds of cases amongst men and women who had lost their own\nrespect and were down in the gutter, the most fruitful work has been\ndone by bringing men and women a new set of companions, in whose\nfellowship they may learn what the love of Jesus Christ means.\n\nTake next the Friends\u2019 meeting with worship as its primary object.\nThere you see clearly the three-fold play of these same forces of\npersonal responsibility, group-fellowship and spiritual guidance.\nWorship in fellowship is an intensely active thing. Its basis is not\nan inert stillness, but a waiting upon God in the unity of the spirit.\nThe meetings of the first Friends were radiant with the joy of\nChrist\u2019s indwelling life. There were times of living fellowship and\ncommunion, warm with the central fires of Divine love, so delightful\nthat sometimes they could hardly break them up and would stay far into\nthe night.\n\nThe meeting for worship, more than any other agency, has given the\nworld the Quaker type of character\u2014the man or woman who meets life\u2019s\nproblems simply and wisely, because he resolves them, not by passion\nor prejudice, nor mainly by the motions of human wisdom or policy, but\nby habitually consulting the Light of God which shines in the waiting\nsoul.\n\nThe revival in its power of the Quaker meeting is an urgent need in\nthe crowded hurry of this twentieth century, when men live so much\nupon the surface and so little in the deep places of their lives.\n\n  The world is too much with us, late and soon,\n  Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.\n\nIn England, wherever you get earnest-hearted groups of persons\ntogether at a special gathering, as an Adult School week end, or a\nlecture school, or a conference, you find, whether they are Friends or\nnot, that a Friends\u2019 meeting of a free, open kind, with prayer and\npraise and speech and silent worship all mingled under the guidance of\nthe Spirit, comes as the great crown of all our fellowship and our\nintercourse, the benediction of all that has taken place, the\nperfectly natural means through which the common fellowship and\npurpose are lifted into communion with the life of God. We hardly\nsufficiently understand the great value in deepening character and\nconsolidating fellowship of meetings of this kind, where there is a\ncommon purpose.\n\nThe poverty of many Friends\u2019 meetings for worship has lain, I think,\nin the poverty of common purpose in the congregation. Where there is a\ncommon purpose, a sincere waiting upon the Lord in fellowship, their\nvalue is very great.\n\nIt is the place for withdrawing awhile from the things of outward\nsense and exercising the faculties of spiritual sense; the place where\nto the awakened soul the vision of truth may be seen, the Word of the\nLord may be heard, the guidings of His hand may be felt; the place\nwhere the heart may become aware of its waywardness and want and may\ngain strength to repent and come to Christ and choose the narrow road\nof life and dedicated service; the place where many have been able to\nsay, with Isaac Penington, \u201cI have met with my God, I have met with my\nSavior, and He hath not been present with me without His salvation,\nbut I have felt the healings drop upon my soul from under His wings.\u201d\nBut it is also the place where the worship we render and the life we\nreceive are parts of a fellowship of worship and of life which comes\nto the meeting as a whole and finds its natural expression through the\nlips of one and another as the Spirit touches them to utterance.\n\nThere is a third type of meeting, which we may call a teaching\nmeeting, sometimes a Bible class and sometimes a service in which\nteaching ministry is to the front. There, again, surely you get the\nsame forces in operation. The most vital teaching meetings are those\nwhich best combine inspiration, personal influence and fellowship. In\ntrue educational work the character and the faculties of a group of\nscholars are being trained by vital contact with one another and with\nthe teacher. The contact of life with life is going on all the time.\nMy friend, Rufus M. Jones, is quite right in saying that the central\nweakness of the Friends in the past lay in their failure to appreciate\nthe importance of the fullest education of human personality in mind\nand soul, and the attention that is now being given to education in\nthe Society of Friends is of the highest value. We cannot overestimate\nthe promise to American Quakerism and to English Quakerism of our\ngreat educational institutions.\n\n\nV.\n\nI have now sought to show that Quakerism at its best is always the\nproduct of vital forces, and is always producing vital relations. I\nsay \u201cat its best\u201d; that is the necessary qualification.\n\nThis brings me to my last point. What is needed besides the life of\nthe Spirit, the life of Jesus Christ in the Church? Surely what we\nneed is an earnest dedication on the part of those who are seeking to\nknow Jesus Christ. God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must\nworship in spirit and truth.\n\nIn the early days of Quakerism men were athirst for the gospel of a\nliving Christ. In the present day, side by side with much indifference\nand indolence there is a wide-spread craving for reality in religion\nand life.\n\nTremendous social problems confront men to-day, new hopes of higher\nlife are coming to the mass of workers, new convictions and new duties\nare dawning on the world, and fresh questions are being raised in the\ndomains of history, psychology and philosophy. We are probably living\nin the midst of as great a period of transition as that which formed\nthe bridge between the Middle Ages and Modern Europe, and those alone\nwill find the fuller truth and lead men into it who will bear the\ntravail and follow the trail of the Seekers of the Light. We want men\nwho will get on the top of the situation, men in the spirit of George\nFox. When he was overwhelmed by the confusion of the year of anarchy\nthat preceded the Restoration of 1660, he lay in great exercise of\nspirit at Reading for ten weeks and he writes:\n\n\u201cAnd so when I had travailed with the witness of God which they had\nquenched and gotten through with it and over all that hypocrisy ... I\ncame to have ease and the Light shined over all.\u201d[3]\n\n  [Footnote 3: _Cambridge Journal_, i,\u00a0343.]\n\nIt is the duty of the Church to discountenance all the manifold\ninsincerities which disfigure our current Christianity, and to give\nfree scope to honest-hearted love of truth. Sincerity is a plant that\nthrives under freedom and light, but withers under authority. The\nChurch must use methods of illumination and education and fellowship\nas its means for cherishing true-hearted allegiance to the Lord. It\nwill find these methods more fruitful than methods of authority.\nMethods of authority may secure an artificial conformity, but it will\nalways be at some expense of sincerity.\n\nJesus resolutely turned His back on the quickly won Kingdom of God, to\nbe made up of those who gave Him external obedience; He set Himself to\nthe slow achievement of an inward Kingdom, which should gather men\ninto willing discipleship.\n\nI desire an atmosphere of large-hearted charity and brotherly\nconfidence, which will allow the Seeker after truth to live in the\npower of his experience, even if it is not a full experience, without\nbeing expected to live beyond his experience, an atmosphere which will\nallow him to make use of all the great aids which we have to-day in\nthe search after truth\u2014the great aids of scientific investigation, and\nwhat is still more important, in my opinion, the modern historical\nmethod which we are using to-day. We want to have as the motto of our\nChurch the motto of one of our Yorkshire towns, \u201cWeave truth with\ntrust.\u201d We want a Church that believes in the nobility of the truth;\nas this belief prevails amongst us, so shall we find a deeper reality\nin all our Church life, and a fresh release of energy and renewal of\ninspiration. For Quakerism is essentially _a religion of sincerity,\nanswered by the incoming of the living Christ_.\n\n\nVI.\n\nWhat then shall groups of Friends, who have reached the vital\nexperience of which I have been speaking, do with their experience?\nSurely there are great demands confronting them to-day, great duties\nand convictions to be entered upon, great Messianic hopes stirring in\nthe world. This world of change is also a world that is fertile in the\npromise of richer life. There is the passionate craving after truth.\nSurely we are to stand for reality in religion and life. There is the\nfresh sense that is coming to men of the meaning and the worth of\npersonality. Men are learning what the early Friends reached as a fact\nof inner experience, that their hearts could be places where the\nDivine side of life could spring up, and that here in this world of\nour own personality, in personal responsibility, personal dedication,\npersonal service, is the very heart of religion.\n\nThere is another Messianic hope: Woman\u2019s place in the universe in\nequal fellowship with man. Surely we can stand for that. We have\nexpressed that in our Church life long before it came as a great hope\nto the mass of the people.\n\nThen there is the hope of the establishment of the reign of law\ninstead of brute force in international affairs. We stand and have\nalways stood for that.\n\nAgain, there is the hope of the better ordering of society, removing\nthe menace of destitution from the poor, securing an equality of\nopportunity for all, remedying the conditions that produce stunted\nlives, and giving those whom we call men the chance to become men in\nreality. The social regeneration of England and America has become\nto-day a living Messianic hope, making an insistent demand upon the\nChristian Church. Surely, with our witness to the practical\napplication of Christianity to every part of life, we stand for that.\nAbove all, and finally, there is the great hope of Christ and His\nKingdom, not for a few only but for the whole world. With our living\nexperience of Jesus Christ, we must stand for that. Are we not again\ncalled to form a vanguard of progress towards the Kingdom of God? Our\nresponse to the call depends upon our personal consecration to the\ntask. Behind the Kingdom of God as it is, behind the Kingdom of God as\nit is to be, there stand the actual groups of disciples, their\npersonal experience, their personal devotion.\n\nJoseph Sturge, the founder of the Adult School movement, once wrote:\n\u201cIt seems to be the will of Him who is infinite in wisdom, that light\nupon great subjects should first arise and be gradually spread through\nthe faithfulness of individuals in acting up to their own\nconvictions.\u201d This personal witness for truth, based upon a living\nexperience of it, is the great duty laid upon each member of the\nQuaker Church. It carries with it the necessity for self-sacrifice. We\nknow how the self-sacrifice of our Lord on the cross was the atonement\nof the world, and the self-sacrifice of men and women, in the spirit\nof Jesus Christ, has still redemptive force.\n\nWe see before the Society of Friends, as it renews its spiritual\ncommunion and its warmth of fellowship, a great service for which it\nhas been wonderfully prepared\u2014a service for the revival of vital,\nprophetic religion and for its expression in righteousness of life\u2014but\nthe service will be fruitful through discipline and suffering; if it\nis to be redemptive of society it will cost much; those of us who have\nseen the vision of the future that may be will find our eyes filled\nwith light and our hearts with peace, and our souls will know the\nspringings-up of everlasting life and power, but at the same time our\nfeet must be treading the way of the Cross with our Lord.\n\n\n\n\nPART II\n\n_THE CONTRIBUTION OF FRIENDS TO THE LIFE AND WORK OF THE CHURCH_\n\nBY HENRY T. HODGKIN, M.A., M.B.\n\nSecretary of the Friends Foreign Mission Association, of London,\nEngland\n\n\n=Introductory Words=\n\nAfter a general introduction I shall refer briefly to some ways in\nwhich Friends in the past have made a contribution to the Church\u2019s\nlife and work. I shall then set forth under seven heads the\ndistinctive mission which I believe the Society of Friends has to our\nown generation both in Western lands and in the awakening nations of\nthe East. In closing we may pause to consider what is required in\norder that this message may be believed in its fullness and power.\n\n\n\n\nI.\n\nDuring the time that I spent in China as a missionary, it was my\nprivilege to be associated with the members of other Christian bodies\nwho were working alongside of Friends in the Province of Szechwan. For\na number of years there has been a large measure of co-operation in\nthe missionary work in that province, in some directions of a more\nthorough character than in any other part of the mission field. The\nprovince was mapped out thirteen years ago between the various\nmissions, and by this means overlapping has been avoided and great\nharmony has prevailed. To such an extent has this been the case that,\nat the Conference of West China Missions held in Chengtu in 1908, the\nideal of \u201cOne Protestant Christian Church for West China\u201d was\nunanimously adopted by a gathering representing the missions of six\ndifferent denominations, and two inter-denominational societies. It\nwas also resolved \u201cthat whereas all Christian missions laboring in\nWest China have for their aim the establishment of the Kingdom of\nGod, and whereas there is a sincere desire for more co-operation and a\ncloser union of our Churches, this Conference recommends the free\ninterchange of full members on a recommendation from the Pastor of the\nChurch from which they come.\u201d This remarkable action on the part of\nthe West China Missionary Conference compelled me to look into the\nproblem suggested by the title of this address in an altogether new\nway. If we were really working for a single united Church, what was to\nbe the contribution of our Society: had we in fact anything\ndistinctive and vital to give, and in what way were we to give it? The\nstill more remarkable gathering held at Edinburgh in 1910, and the\ncontact which I have since had with members of other Christian bodies\nin following up the results of that Conference, have pressed the\nquestion home with renewed force.\n\nTo many it may seem that the ideal of a single organically united\nChristian Church is a wild and impracticable dream. To some it will\nappear as an altogether undesirable object to set before ourselves.\nWe are indeed perpetually reminded in a variety of ways of the\ninestimable gain which comes to the Kingdom of God through the wide\ndifferences of opinion and view-point represented by the existing\nsections of the Christian Church. If union spelt uniformity, I confess\nthat I should be found amongst its strongest opponents. If, indeed, it\nstood for merging all differences and an emphasis upon nothing beyond\nthe minimum upon which we are all agreed, I could not look forward\nwith any satisfaction to such a prospect. To me, however, union stands\nfor something far other. My ideal of it is represented by the\nfollowing sentence from the report presented to the Edinburgh\nConference on this subject: \u201cThey desire that ... those who are at\npresent separated should seek to be led by the Spirit of God into a\nunity in which all that is true and vital in the principles and\npractices of each may be preserved and reconciled.... Unity when it\ncomes must be something richer, grander, more comprehensive than\nanything which we can see at present. It is something into which and\nup to which we must grow, something of which and for which we must\nbecome worthy. We need to have sufficient faith in God to believe that\nHe can bring us to something higher and more Christ-like than anything\nto which at present we see a way.\u201d[4]\n\n  [Footnote 4: Report of World\u2019s Missionary Conference, vol.\u00a0viii,\n   pp.\u00a0137, 138.]\n\nIt is not, however necessary for us to determine in our own minds what\nis the ideal towards which the Christian Church is moving, or ought to\nmove, in regard to this particular problem. One thing is abundantly\nclear, and that is that, if our own generation is to receive and\nrespond to the Christian message, every section of the Church must\nbring its best contribution. No one section will, in itself, contain\nthe whole of truth. In this day of Foreign Missions we are enabled to\nsee on the horizon the glorious ideal of the Kingdom of God into which\neach nation and each race shall contribute its own distinctive\nelements of moral strength and spiritual illumination. Even so may we\nnot conceive, as a preparation for this end, the delivery of a\nChristian message more comprehensive than any which has been delivered\nto the world since Apostolic days? If this message is to be delivered,\neither at home or abroad, there must be a larger sympathy and a better\nunderstanding between the various Christian communions. Each must seek\nto interpret its own message in terms intelligible to the others: each\nmust make a patient endeavor to appreciate the strength and beauty of\nthat which has been committed to other Christian communions with which\nit has perhaps hitherto been at war. Whether this will ultimately lead\ninto an organic unity or not none of us can possibly say. Whether,\nindeed, we should work for organic unity or not will evoke large\ndivergence of opinion. Whether or not we should cultivate the spirit\nof unity\u2014the atmosphere in which the beautiful flower of unity will\ncome to perfection\u2014this is a question upon which there can surely be\nno divergence of view.\n\nI approach this question as one who dares to believe that\nChristianity is the future religion of mankind. I believe this because\nI see no other religious system in the least degree competent to take\nthis place. I believe it because the closer linking of mankind by\ncommercial and intellectual bonds appears to me as nothing less than a\npreparation for the linking together of the whole human race in one\ngreat spiritual kingdom. I believe it because I see in the Man Christ\nJesus the One who alone can appeal to all ages and all races and all\nclasses of men: who is in very truth the Son of Man. I believe it\nsupremely because I see in Him the only begotten Son of God sent into\nthe world for the redemption of mankind, and offering His life as the\none supreme sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It is with\nnothing short of a passionate longing that I desire that the Society\nof Friends may make its full contribution to the achievement of this\nglorious ideal. In the great purposes of God the full content of truth\nwill, I feel assured, be some day discovered and followed by a\nredeemed humanity. For the Society of Friends, which has already\nplayed a great part in leading men into the truth, I am ambitious that\nwe may not, through any failure of spiritual perception or moral\nearnestness, lose the opportunity of giving what has been given to us.\nThat which we have, we hold in trust for the Church and for the world.\n\nOn this occasion, it is not my purpose to enlarge upon the\ncontribution of our Society to the _world_. In common with all the\nChristian Churches, we have a great message to deliver. Even as George\nFox said in his day we are charged primarily with \u201cthe preaching of\nthe Everlasting Gospel.\u201d The great essentials of this gospel\u2014the\nDivine Sonship of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: His great\nsacrifice for sin: His victory over it in His resurrection: the gift\nof His Holy Spirit\u2014these are the things which bind us together with\nall sections of the Christian Church, and which give us, in common\nwith them, a life-giving message to our own generation. I wish it to\nbe clear that, in passing over these fundamental questions, it is not\nbecause I lightly esteem them; but simply because I feel so sure that\nwe here are united with one another and with all who truly call upon\nthe name of Christ, and because I wish rather to emphasize and plead\nfor a more deliberate and sympathetic attempt to bring the message of\nQuakerism to our own generation.\n\nBut I do this in no narrow sectarian spirit. It may be that the\nfollowing recollection of a Quaker boyhood represents to some extent\nthe attitude which many of us have held at one time in our lives. \u201cI\nsaid \u2018thee\u2019 and \u2018thy\u2019 to everybody, and I would fully as soon have\nused profane words as have said \u2018you\u2019 or \u2018yours\u2019 to any person. I\nthought only \u2018Friends\u2019 went to heaven, and so I supposed that the use\nof \u2018thee\u2019 and \u2018thy\u2019 was one of the main things that determined whether\none would be let in or not. Nobody ever told me anything like this and\nif I had asked anybody at home about it, I should have had my views\ncorrected. But for a number of years this was my settled faith. I\npitied the poor neighbors who would never be let in, and I wondered\nwhy everybody did not \u2018join the Meeting\u2019 and learn to say \u2018thee\u2019 and\n\u2018thy.\u2019 I had one little Gentile friend whom I could not bear to have\n\u2018lost,\u2019 and I went faithfully to work and taught him \u2018the language,\u2019\nwhich he always used with me till he was ten or twelve years old, when\nthe strain of the world got too heavy upon the little fellow! I am\nquite sure no Israelite, in the days of Israel\u2019s prosperity, ever had\na more certain conviction that he belonged to a peculiar people whom\nthe Lord had chosen as His own than I had. There was for me an\nabsolute break between \u2018us\u2019 and anybody else. This Phariseeism was\nnever taught me nor encouraged directly by anybody; but I none the\nless had it. If I had anything in the world to glory over, it was that\nI was a Quaker.\u201d[5]\n\n  [Footnote 5: \u201cA Boy\u2019s Religion from Memory,\u201d by Rufus M. Jones,\n   pp.\u00a024, 25.]\n\nI have no doubt that we shall all wish to banish from our minds any\nlingering suspicion of such a spirit as is represented by these words.\nTo us it must be clear that no one sect is the sole repository of\ntruth, and that others may have more to give than we; but this\nattitude is not inconsistent with a clear sense of what _is_ entrusted\nto us and an intense desire to share it with all.\n\nAgain I want to make it clear, in referring to various elements of the\nQuaker contribution, that I am well aware that in respect of many of\nthese questions there are many individuals belonging to other\nChristian denominations who hold the same views and exemplify in their\nlives the same moral qualities. I think, however, that I am right in\nsaying that in each case Friends hold a distinctive position through\nthe fact that they, as an organization, stand for these views of truth\nand, in some cases, exhibit them through that organization in a way\nwhich it is not possible for them to be exhibited in the lives of\nsingle individuals.\n\n\nII.\n\nWhen one looks back upon the past 250 years and attempts to estimate\nthe value of Friends to the Christian life of England and America,\nthere are certain outstanding features which at once arrest\nattention. Amongst the chief contributions which the Society has been\nsuccessful in making hitherto to the Christian life of England and\nAmerica are the following:\n\n1. At a time when religion was in danger of becoming, to a large\nextent, formal, ceremonial and external, the early Friends succeeded\nin calling the attention of their own generation to the necessity for\na vital, inward experience. They undoubtedly helped many besides those\nwho actually joined with them into a clearer understanding of the\ninwardness of the Christian gospel, and into a personal experience of\nthe living and indwelling Christ.\n\n2. The Reformation and post-Reformation period was marked by that\nintensity of religious conviction which so often leads to intolerance\nand religious bigotry. Even those who had suffered persecution\nthemselves followed the very example one would have expected them to\navoid as soon as the opportunity occurred. That our spiritual\nforefathers had an immense influence upon that age, in bringing about\na greater spirit of religious toleration, cannot be doubted by any\nwho read carefully the religious history of that time.\n\n3. From the day that William Penn entered into treaty with the Red\nIndian Chiefs till the day when John Woolman made his protest against\nNegro Slavery, and on till John Greenleaf Whittier thrilled the nation\nwith the songs which called to love and brotherhood, Friends have\nconsistently stood for an attitude of sympathetic understanding of\nother races. Nowhere perhaps has this been more publicly and more\ndeservedly acknowledged than by the action of President Grant in\nhanding over to Friends the management of certain reservations for Red\nIndians, a policy which he declared had proved \u201cmost satisfactory.\u201d\n\n4. Even at the time when Quakerism ceased to be a powerful evangelical\nforce, and when Friends seem to have lost something of their first\nlove, the Society was producing men and women of outstanding Christian\ncharacter, who were known to be no hypocrites; whose word was their\nbond; whose business integrity was proverbial and whose character for\ntruthfulness and honesty was surely an outstanding contribution to the\nChristian life of the eighteenth century. This type of character has,\nI believe, been largely maintained till the present day.\n\n5. And lastly, scarcely any great philanthropic movement has risen\nduring the last 200 years which has not had the support of Friends;\nand notable cases could be quoted to show the way in which Friends\nhave taken the lead in such matters. Especially at times when\nreligious revival has taken on emotional forms, and when the emphasis\nhas been thrown almost exclusively upon the subjective side, it has\nbeen of great benefit to the Church to have the association of\npractical philanthropy with the very Society which has always insisted\non the necessity for an inward experience.\n\nI refer to these few historic examples in order to illustrate the way\nin which I am approaching the question, and to show how a particular\nChristian Society has, for upwards of 250 years, been steadily\nbringing its influence to bear upon the Christian life of two great\nnations. In looking back upon the past, we may truly thank God and\ntake courage. Let there be no thought of arrogance in our minds; but\nrather of deep humility, as we proceed to look into the problems which\nconfront us to-day, and consider in what direction our Society may\ncontribute towards their solution.\n\n\nIII.\n\nIn whatever direction we look to-day, we see the danger of an invading\nmaterialism. By this I do not mean any philosophic position. In fact,\nI do not believe that what might be called philosophic materialism is\ngaining ground at the present time. It does seem to me, however, that\na practical agnosticism is making itself felt in very many quarters.\nThe vague sense that God is responsible for the Universe, that at one\ntime some great Cause operated to bring it all into being and that, in\nsome way, we are all still depending upon the benevolent activity of\nthat Cause, is not Christianity. The Christian Church is being\ninvaded by this uncertainty with regard to God. There is a loosening,\nit seems to me, of that close grip upon the eternal verities which\nenables men perpetually to draw upon the resources of God, to throw\nthemselves in the abandonment of faith upon a living Savior and to\nfind that faith justified at every step of the way. Men do not like to\nset forth upon a path without knowing whither it leads. The prevailing\nscientific temper leads men to test everything many times, to trust\nnothing beyond the range of verifiable scientific facts. This breeds a\nspirit which only takes cognizance of the things which can be seen and\nfelt and weighed and measured. Where is there room in this narrowed\nuniverse for the limitless activity of the God of Love?\n\nWhen we turn our eyes to the non-Christian world, the danger becomes\nmore startlingly apparent. Here are the \u201cchild races\u201d filled with that\nsense of the mystery and awe which the little child, even in our\nmaterialistic modern world, still has. The savage thinks of God as\ninfinitely near, or at least he thinks that the spirits of the\ndeparted are. It needs no carefully stated argument to demonstrate the\nexistence of an unknown world. It lies all about and around. He is\nreminded of it by the thunder and the lightning. And to him there\ncomes our modern education explaining away all the beautiful or the\ndreadful mystery of life, and, before he knows what has happened, he\nis losing his sense of God. The old sanctions are loosened as the old\nfear is removed, and he has got helplessly adrift into the mid-stream\nof a barren rationalism.\n\nWhat are we to do for him and what are we to do for the modern man in\nour midst? We shall not have to go very far to search for those who\nstill find the remedy in an elaborate and beautiful religious\nceremonial; who will tell us that it is foolish to build our religious\nconviction upon mere personal experience: that we are rather to turn\nback to the experience of the Christian Church. We are to observe its\nordinances perfectly. There are to be stated seasons of prayer: there\nare to be stated means of grace: and through these, whether you\n_feel_ any better for it or not, you will be brought into line with\nthe experience of the Catholic Church and become partakers of Heavenly\ngrace. I am far from denying that beautiful forms of worship, that\nstated seasons of prayer, or that time-honored ritual may have a real\nplace in the spiritual experience of very many. Doubtless, these\nthings have been of value in bringing numbers of souls into the\nKingdom of God, and will still be so. To me it seems, however, that\nthey are fraught with great danger. Especially at the present time,\nwhen men intensely desire reality, they are apt to become impatient\nwith the forms of a bygone age, however zealously they may be followed\nby some of their contemporaries. And, on the other hand, there are\nthose who are too readily content with the outward and allow the mere\nforms of religion to salve the uneasy conscience. Was there, I wonder,\never a time when men needed more than they do to-day a clear summons\ninto a life of spiritual reality and of personal intimate knowledge of\nGod? Can we summon them back as did our forefathers? Have we the\nmessage that they had? Can we say, as did Francis Howgill, \u201cThe Lord\nappeared daily to us to our astonishment, amazement and great\nadmiration, insomuch that we often said one to another with great joy\nof heart, \u2018What! Is the Kingdom of God come to be with men?\u2019\u201d The\nmessage sent forth by the Edinburgh Conference to the whole Church of\nChrist called her to realize that \u201cGod is demanding of us all a new\norder of life ... that He is greater, more loving, nearer and more\navailable for our help and comfort than any man has dreamed.\u201d If there\nwas one thing which the Society of Friends was called into existence\nto proclaim, it was this very truth. Are we proclaiming it to-day?\nAnd, for the non-Christian world, how great is the danger of\nsubstituting one set of ceremonies for another. To those who have been\nin the habit of trusting to such barren rites as the burning of paper\nmoney, the washing in the Ganges and the sacred but often most unholy\nfeasts, how easy it is to allow the burning of incense or the rites\nof Baptism or the Holy Communion to take the same place in their\nthoughts and to be trusted for salvation or merit in the same way. In\nfact, one of our own missionaries in Ceylon was a man who had, for\nsome years, worked in connection with another Society, and who had\nfound that he was in constant difficulty because he was building up\nwith one hand what he had to remove with the other. He came to the\nconclusion that, if he was to help men into a personal experience of\nChrist, he must take away entirely all possibility of trusting to\noutward rites, and preach to them the simple Quaker message. When the\nFriend missionaries in China met after the West China Conference to\nconsider the way in which we might express in a few words the\ncontribution of Friends towards the doctrine and practice of a Union\nChurch, they drew up a brief statement which contains the following\nwords under the heading of \u201csacraments.\u201d These words are intended to\nconvey the essence of the Quaker position on this point.\n\n1. \u201cThe Pre-eminence of the Spiritual Experience.\n\n2. \u201cThe Spiritual Experience may be realized independently of any\nspecial occasion, rite, or mediating person, except our Lord.\n\n3. \u201cMembership of the Church of Christ is of such a character that any\noutward recognition fails adequately to determine it.\u201d\n\nIf the complete Christian message is to be given, if the Christian\nChurch is to enter fully into an understanding of the mind of the\nMaster, this aspect of truth needs to be emphasized, not only by words\nbut by lives, and not only by the lives of individuals but by that\nadded emphasis which comes through the existence of a corporate Body,\nwhose very existence depends upon the validity of this tremendous\nfact. Our position as a Society does depend upon this truth, and out\nof it grow many other of our special contributions, if not all. We are\nset in the world of to-day to testify to a truth the enunciation of\nwhich has never been more urgently or more widely needed. The whole\nChurch of Christ should be sounding forth this message. _She needs,\ntherefore, a body of persons who stand for the principle that God\ndeals directly with every soul of man, ever challenging the spirit of\nman to rest in nothing short of direct personal intercourse with God._\n\n\nIV.\n\nNo one can be blind to the way in which every detail of our life is\nbeing modified by the many new inventions which accelerate the rate of\nliving. We crowd into a single day more than our forefathers could put\ninto a week. The express train, the telegraph and the telephone, the\ntypewriter, the multiplied devices for saving time\u2014all these things\nare speeding up life to the point at which the time for meditation and\nquiet is crowded out. This is surely a great and growing danger of\nwhich none of us is wholly unconscious.\n\nI have been surprised to find in how many different circles there is\nat the present time a feeling of dissatisfaction with the forms of\nworship which have for long been regarded as sufficiently\nsatisfactory. I know a number of cases where, in high church circles,\nprominent people are feeling after something more akin to a Quaker\nMeeting than anything else. I am also intimately associated with some\nof the most living movements in my own country, in which meetings have\nbeen held on the same lines. This does not mean that great value does\nnot still attach to regular arranged services. No doubt the vast\nmajority of those who attend the services of the Anglican Church are\nstill finding out that their spiritual needs are met thereby; but,\nthere are others, and some of them are choice spirits, who feel the\nneed of more liberty and who crave for more stillness in their\nworship. They are coming to recognize the great danger of the regular\npre-arranged service such as is usual in most other denominations.\nThey fear, perhaps, the invasion of the sanctuary by the spirit of\nrush and hurry.\n\nTurning to the mission field, I could quote many examples which show\nthe way in which the Quaker form of worship appeals to some of those\nwho are being brought out of heathenism. I think of one young man, a\nclose personal friend of my own in China, who, having attended one or\ntwo Friends\u2019 Meetings, came to us and urged us, at a very early stage\nin our mission work in Chengtu, to establish a regular Friends\u2019\nMeeting in addition to the ordinary mission services; and I recall\nwith keen satisfaction the experiment which we made and the true\nworship into which Chinese and English together entered and the\nhelpful and inspired ministry which arose out of it. A leading Indian\nChristian, describing the establishment of the National Missionary\nSociety of India, explained to a Friend the way in which the\nChristians had met together for united worship, sitting as he said\noften as much as half an hour in silence and then breaking out, as\nprompted by the Spirit, into prayer and praise. \u201cWe,\u201d he said, \u201cfind\nthis most helpful; it means a great deal to us, and we have meetings\nof this kind before every one of our business sessions; but,\u201d he\ncontinued, \u201cyou won\u2019t be able to understand it; it is so different\nfrom your English ways.\u201d You can imagine his surprise on being told\nthat he had almost exactly described the way in which the Friend to\nwhom he was speaking habitually worshiped. Not long ago I took a\nfriend of mine to Meeting. He was a man who had spent some years in\nIndia and had become intimately associated with a number of Indian\nstudents. After Meeting he asked me if our Meetings were open to the\npublic; because, if so, he would like to bring some of his Indian\nfriends to Meeting, as he felt it was exactly the thing which would\nhelp them.\n\nIt seems to me that, in the forms of worship in other Churches, we\nhave either on the one hand a united act of worship which is to some\nextent formal, as when the congregation joins in the singing of a hymn\nor in a set prayer; or else on the other hand we have an individual\nact which is not formal but inspired, as when a man filled with a\nmessage from God delivers it to the congregation. I know no other\nform of worship which fulfils my idea of a _united act inspired of\nGod_. As we wait together upon Him we are together called into His\nHoly presence. The silence represents to us not merely the touch of\neach individual spirit with the Spirit of God; it represents rather\nthe uniting of our spirits together in harmony with His Spirit. Thus\nare we privileged to understand something of that true Communion of\nthe Saints which is to be fully experienced in the life beyond. A\nFriends\u2019 Meeting filled with the sense of the presence of God is, to\nmy mind, one of the chief contributions which Friends ought to be\nmaking to the life of the Church of Christ. This ideal was well\nexpressed by T.\u00a0R. Glover in the Swarthmore Lecture.\n\n\u201cWhen it is real worship, common worship may take the individual soul\na good deal further than it may go alone. We make the atmosphere for\none another\u2014courage, depression, hope, study, reflection or whatever\nit may be; and faith is, as a matter of fact, as liable to be helped\nas hindered by environment. Prayer, when it is reality, and when it\nis the common activity in one place at one time of a community of like\nexperience, may reach a higher plane than we have known before, not as\na matter of mere emotion but with results that do not pass away.\n\n\u201cLove is reinforced by this solidarity of the Christian communion, for\nin it Christ becomes more real, and things are apt to be seen here\n_sub specie aeternitatis_ in their true proportions. Such vision of\nreality will over and over again be translated into action and\nconsecration. The common worship, if it is the act of all, and done in\ndeep seriousness, passes out of the formal into the effective, with or\nwithout mystical rite or element, it becomes communion, and we\nunderstand in a new and quieter way what the early Church meant by its\ndoctrine of the Holy Spirit. God\u2019s Spirit is not bound by our\nchoosing, but it is possible for us to become more receptive. It is\neasy to see how men have come to the view that through the Church the\ngift of the Spirit is mediated.\u201d[6]\n\n  [Footnote 6: Swarthmore Lecture, 1912, pp.\u00a068, 69.]\n\nHe has to add however, \u201cIt is, I think, right to say here that these\nparagraphs are an epitome of my observations and experience of the\nStudent Christian Movement;\u201d a statement which may well suggest to us\nin England that our Meetings have not been all they might have been in\nrecent years. Although I do not consider the following statement as\nsatisfactory as that previously quoted from the same source, I should\nlike again to refer to the statement drawn up by the members of the\nFriends\u2019 Mission in West China.\n\n\u201c1. United worship should provide opportunities for the Spirit of God\nto deal individually with each worshiper as well as for each worshiper\nto approach to God in the way best suited to his individuality.\n\n\u201c2. Each individual has a ministry for the benefit of all, to be\nexercised in spirit, and the true worship of believers depends upon\nthe faithfulness of each.\n\n\u201c3. Worship should provide an opportunity for this ministry to assume\nvocal form, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who may thus use\nany worshiper.\u201d\n\nI recently received a letter from one of the most prominent religious\nleaders in this country in which he said: \u201cThis morning I attended the\nOld Friends\u2019 Meeting here in Philadelphia and was much refreshed in\nspirit. I believe we must have more of the spirit of the Friends if we\nare to save North American Christianity.\u201d\n\nIf meetings such as these have a real and timely message to-day, it\nbecomes us to see that we do not lower our ideal and that we strive to\nachieve it more nearly in every meeting we hold. _For the Church needs\na quiet place in which its members can together hear God\u2019s voice and\nfind afresh the message and the power to believe it. It needs to learn\nhow to wait upon God._\n\n\nV.\n\nOne of the most notable features of the last century has been the\nprogress of the democratic movement. Every one who has watched that\nmovement must realize the great danger of the tyranny of majorities.\nIt is true that this danger seems to most of us to-day a smaller one\nthan the danger of the tyranny of a bureaucracy or of an autocrat.\nBut, whichever way we look at it, it does not seem that we have found\nthe true solution. Is it not possible that the pendulum has swung too\nfar and that we have yet to discover the highest principle upon which\na State may be governed?\n\nIn the new democracies of the East there is perhaps a greater danger,\nowing to the rapidity with which the new ideas have spread and the\nlack of an understanding of the deeper principles out of which they\nspring. Those who have closely followed affairs in the Far East will\nrealize with what anxious eyes Japan has been watching the democratic\nmovement in China, and how she would have given almost anything to\npreserve at least the name of monarchy for China. In India and in\nother nations the desire for an independent government and the rule of\nthe people is outrunning the growth in ability to fulfil such\nfunctions. The spread of democracy and the desire for national\nindependence is making itself felt, not only in the State but also in\nthe young Churches in the Far East. On the one hand we have those\nsystems of Church Government which are classed together as Episcopal,\nand in which the authority is vested in a comparatively few. On the\nother hand we have Churches which pin their faith to the old adage\n\u201c_vox populi vox Dei_.\u201d\n\nI question whether either has found the solution to the difficulty of\nthe young Church. In both systems there lurk dangers which can here\nonly be hinted at.\n\nIt has often seemed to me that Friends do not realize how much they\nhave in their Meetings for Discipline. I believe that we have here a\nmost valuable contribution towards the solution of the difficulty at\nwhich I have hinted. We have at least an ideal which we ought to be\nmost careful not to surrender. Let me explain a little more fully what\nI mean.\n\nWe meet together on the assumption that Jesus Christ is the Head of\nthe Church and that we can trust Him to lead it. We enter upon the\ndiscussion of a difficult matter of business with the full knowledge\nthat many different shades of opinion will be represented in that\nmeeting. Nevertheless, we discuss it with the confidence that the will\nof God will be made known to us as a Body of persons, and through the\nwhole Body; not that is to say merely through the individual or set of\nindividuals who act as a Cabinet, nor even through the majority of\nthose present. We discuss the question together and we believe that,\nat the end of that discussion, we shall be led to a united judgment as\nto the wisdom of a certain course of action. That judgment may not be\nthe opinion of any one individual in the room. It may be the opinion\nof the actual minority of those present; but, if we are in a true\nFriends\u2019 Meeting for Discipline, we come out of that room all of us\nsatisfied that the Spirit of God has Himself determined our action and\nthat He has, as it were, made Himself responsible for it. If we\nentered our Meetings for Discipline in this spirit, they would\nassuredly be a sacrament to every one of us. There is need for as much\nconsecration of heart in them as in the Meeting for Worship; and\nperhaps more, for it is not easy to give up one\u2019s own pet theories and\nprejudices. If this call to sacrifice is cheerfully accepted, our\nMeetings for Discipline should be of untold blessing to each of us;\nand thus there would be a chance for us to do our part in the solution\nof this most difficult problem. The end towards which we are working\nis the Kingdom of God\u2014neither a democracy nor bureaucracy, but a\ntheocracy. Here again I am encouraged by noticing in some movements\nwith which I have been connected in recent years, a tendency to follow\nin certain lines the methods which Friends have adopted in their\nMeetings for Discipline. I refer especially to certain Missionary\nConferences and Committees with which I am connected, and to my\nexperience in the Student Christian Movement of Great Britain and\nIreland. And to apply this more particularly to the conditions in the\nmission field at the present time: in every mission we find this\nrestless desire for autonomy. If we truly believe that the Spirit of\nChrist is present in the Church itself, surely there need be no fear\nin our standing aside as foreigners and leaving the Church to Him who\nhas been the Founder of it and who is Himself responsible for its\nfuture. If, on the other hand, we leave only the ideal of government\nby certain Bishops specially chosen, or by a majority which can\nperhaps be maneuvred in the interests of a particular person or\nopinion, we shall indeed have grave cause to fear for the Church as it\nis left to itself.\n\nTo those not accustomed to such procedure this seems, no doubt, like a\nwild impossibility. To Friends it is a serious truth and the\nexperience of this one Christian body has demonstrated, amid much\nfailure at times, its entire practicability as a method of transacting\nbusiness. Whether or no this method be adopted by wider circles, it is\nnevertheless true that _the Church needs a deeper conviction of the\nactive presence of God \u201cin the midst of her,\u201d not merely to inspire\nthe individual but also to direct the counsels of the body as a\nwhole_.\n\n\nVI.\n\nNext to the danger of materialism or practical agnosticism in the\nChurch of Christ comes perhaps the danger of opportunism. I suppose to\nthe end of time there will be difference of opinion on the question of\ncompromise. That a certain element of compromise must come into human\nlife, as it is now arranged, seems to me inevitable. Much as we chafe\nagainst it, we are bound to accept it, owing to the limitations of our\nexistence here. To take one of many examples: I suppose there is no\none of us who does not year by year contribute, through the payment of\ntaxes either direct or indirect, to the maintenance of the Army and\nthe Navy, and perhaps to other actions on the part of the State with\nwhich he equally disapproves. There is, however, a whole range of\nproblems upon which opinions differ very greatly. The question to\nwhich I have made allusion\u2014the question of Peace\u2014illustrates my\nmeaning perhaps as well as any. At what point are we going to make our\nPeace principles felt? There are certain fundamental propositions to\nwhich every member of the Church of Christ can be found to assent.\nThat we should love our enemies: that we should do good to those that\nhate us: that we should show kindness to all men: and so forth. But at\nwhat point are you going to apply these principles? We are living in a\nworld where some kind of physical force seems to be absolutely\nnecessary. I doubt if there are any of us who would go as far as\nTolstoi in our rejection of it.\n\nBut does this mean that we must therefore accept war as a necessity of\nthis present evil time, and therefore be prepared ourselves to take up\narms, as many of our fellow-Christians think? The \u201cpractical\ncommonsense man\u201d sees no other course, even if his conscience do cry\nout at times.\n\nTo take another of the great problems which press upon us in these\ndays, viz: the relation of Christianity to business. \u201cBusiness is\nbusiness\u201d too often means that Christian principles cannot be applied\nto it. There are so many things a man \u201cmust do\u201d if he is to get along\nat all. \u201cIt is better to leave religion out altogether in some of\nthese practical affairs.\u201d In non-Christian countries we constantly see\nthe divorce of ethics from religion; and I am afraid the evil is not\nconfined to distant lands. We all know something of the pulpit that\ndare not denounce the sins practiced by the wealthiest of the\ncongregation: the minister whose tongue is tied upon sweating and\novercrowding: the church-member who is zealous in the observance of\nreligion, but lacking in his business obligations.\n\nWhat a need for the thoroughgoing Christian who has ideals and\nmaintains them in everyday life, who will not lower them to suit the\nexigencies of life, or the pressure of social custom, to whom\nexpediency is a forbidden word even though its exclusion may mean the\nCross!\n\nOr turn to the great non-Christian world with which we are daily\nbrought into contact. Here is one of the greatest problems, if not the\ngreatest, which confronts our civilization to-day. How are we going to\nmeet our fellow-men of other races? The politician has his solution:\nthe commercial man has his. What is to be the solution of the citizen\nof the Kingdom of God? There can only be one answer: we must go to\nthese men as to those who are our brethren; we must see them not as\nwholly bad or depraved, but as those who have in them infinite\npotentialities, who are called into the same citizenship and the same\nsonship which we enjoy. We must reaffirm to-day our belief in that\nLight which lighteth every man, but we dare not be content at that. As\nour forefathers led the way in the understanding of sympathy with\nother races; so we to whom these still more intricate problems present\nthemselves, must stand for the ideal, however hard it seems\u2014the ideal\nof spiritual kinship and the strenuous effort to realize it in our\nrelationship with other races; and so it comes about that the Foreign\nMissionary enterprise seems to be of the very essence of Quakerism,\nand that we find it closely akin to the great causes of Peace and\nAnti-slavery with which our Society has ever been identified. Is the\nChurch of Christ playing the part which it ought to play in regard to\nthese matters? Is it taking the stand which it ought to take in regard\nto the color problem in this country, in regard to the export of\nspirituous liquors, and so forth? What, indeed, is to be our view of a\nChristian Mission College which deliberately includes in its\ncurriculum military drill with the full paraphernalia of warfare, and\nthis in the traditionally peace-loving empire of China? To me it seems\nevident that there is a great place for the Society of Friends in this\nmovement, just because we stand upon the side of idealism in all these\ncomplicated issues.\n\nRight along the line Quakerism ranks itself on this side. The Society\nof Friends, as I read its history, has stood for an idealism which is\nwell in advance of the current practice. In the holding of our\nMeetings for Worship we have stood for the absolute ideal; many of our\nChristian brethren admit it in theory, but regard it as quite outside\nthe sphere of practical religion. The same seems to be true as regards\nthe Sacraments, Oaths, and so forth. The idealist is needed as much\nto-day as ever he was. The moral reforms, to the achievement of which\nFriends have contributed so much, have been attained by men who dared\nto be regarded as utterly impracticable, as mere dreamers and\nvisionaries. When slavery, for example, was knit into the very fabric\nof Society, when its abolition seemed certain to lead to an industrial\ncataclysm, Friends were not wanting who boldly said, \u201cWhatever\nhappens, we must liberate the slave;\u201d and in the end the visionary was\nright and the practical common-sense man was wrong; and the simple\nsecret of it all was that the visionary saw God first and his\nfellow-men in the light of God\u2019s will for them.\n\nNo less has it been true in business affairs that Friends have\nmaintained the strictest standard of integrity in the face of\nopposition and probable loss. They recognized a higher obligation\nwhich must be obeyed whatever the consequence which faced them. And in\nthe strength of that idealism they won their way to the respect and\nconfidence of their fellows. In the end they were often found to be\nthe more practical in spite of (or was it because of?) _their\nunreasoning idealism_. \u201cIt was in this focussing upon moral effort\nthat the Quakers differed most from the other sects of the\nCommonwealth period. Their \u2018views\u2019 were not novel or original. Every\none of their peculiar views had already been proclaimed by some\nindividual or by some religious party. What was new was the fixing of\ntheir ideas into one living truth, which was henceforth _to be done_,\nwas to be put into life and made to march.\u201d[7]\n\n  [Footnote 7: W.\u00a0C. Braithwaite\u2019s \u201cBeginnings of Quakerism,\u201d\n   p.\u00a0xliii.]\n\nAnd to-day, if the Society is true to its past it will not lose the\nchance of standing on the same side for the ideal, the Christian and\nthe only final solution of these complex problems. The _Church needs a\nbody of men and women who will dare to be fools, unpractical,\ndreamers, in following the Light and who will act up to their ideals._\n\n\nVII.\n\nAnother outstanding feature of to-day, to which the Society of Friends\nought to have a special relation, is that which is spoken of as the\nWomen\u2019s Movement. This undoubtedly expresses much more than a\npolitical or social aspiration. It corresponds in some measure to the\ndemocratic movement and indicates the stirring of spiritual\naspirations. Its symptoms are seen not only in the movement for\nwomen\u2019s suffrage, and not only in Western countries. A recent book,\npublished by the wife of one of the ruling chiefs of India, is\nsymptomatic of great changes that are taking place all over the East.\nThe book is a statement of the positions which are open to women in\nWestern countries, and an urgent plea for the opening of these doors\nto the women of the East also. Although lacking in the realization of\nthe difficulty of suddenly making so great a change in India, the book\nis well worthy of notice as indicating the stirrings of a new life\namong Indian women. Hardly any contrast could be imagined greater than\ntheir condition in the past and that which is sketched out for them in\nthe future by the authoress of this book. Probably many will have\nnoticed that an incident in the deliberations of the Provisional\nNational Convention of China at Nanking was the presentation of a\npetition from the women of that country for the granting of women\u2019s\nsuffrage.\n\nI was recently made vividly aware of the vast difference between the\npractice of Friends and that of other Christian denominations by the\nconsideration of a report on the relations between men and women in\nthe mission field, which was presented to a representative Missionary\nConference in Great Britain last summer. The report urged that an\nequal share in the management of mission affairs should be given to\nwomen, and brought forward a strong array of reasons in favor thereof.\nIt was referred to by a member of one of the largest missionary\nsocieties as \u201ca momentous report.\u201d A lady Friend described it as\n\u201cdaring incursions into the obvious.\u201d The fact is that we as Friends\npossess the very thing which some other Churches are beginning to\nrealize they need. A brilliant writer and prominent Free Church\nleader in Great Britain has recently asked the question why, in these\ndays of the higher education of women, should the ministry be a\nmonopoly of the men; and we Friends echo, with the thought of\nElizabeth Fry and Hannah Chapman Backhouse and many another in our\nminds, \u201cWhy, indeed!\u201d To the spiritual insight and courage of our\nforefathers we owe it, that in the Society of Friends we can say\n\u201cThere is neither male nor female.\u201d I wonder if we sufficiently\nrealize how great an heritage this is\u2014how sacred a trust; and if we\ntake sufficient pains to bring our message in this respect to the\nnotice of others. If the women\u2019s movement, with all its great\npossibilities, is to be a contribution, as it ought to be, to the\nbuilding up of the Kingdom of God, the Churches need to adopt a\nsympathetic attitude towards it, and to express in their own\norganizations their readiness to adapt themselves to meet its ideals.\nIf they are to do this with confidence, what greater stimulus could\nthey have than the knowledge, which few outside our borders possess, I\nfear, of the uniform experience of our Society throughout its\nhistory? _The Church needs to realize with greater vividness how much\nthe consecrated womanhood in her midst can contribute to her life, and\nto give women the fullest opportunity to make that contribution._\n\n\nVIII.\n\nIf the women\u2019s movement expresses, as it undoubtedly does, a spiritual\naspiration, I think the same may be said with perhaps equal force of\nthe labor movements in Western countries. That many working-men have\nbeen practically unable to develop the higher side of their nature, on\naccount of the conditions of labor, is generally admitted. The\nmovement for higher wages and better conditions of work is, after all,\nsomething more than the expression of a grievance against capital.\nThere is the deep yearning for a fuller life. This great aspiration\nthe Churches should recognize and seek to meet. Speaking for my own\ncountry, I can say that one of the great obstacles with which the\nChurches are confronted in dealing with the working-men is the\nsuspicion of the mercenary spirit. To the workingman, the clergyman is\npaid to do a certain job and must justify his existence. Of course\nthis is a prejudice which is soon removed when the man gets into such\npersonal relations with the minister as to feel the heartbeat of a\ntrue friendship, but often these personal relationships are hindered\nthrough the prejudice referred to. Do not these facts suggest that\nthere is a need for one section of the Church which has not this\ndisability and whose ministers are all laymen?\n\nAnd this brings me to the further thought of the need for this very\ntestimony on the mission field to-day. The other day in India a\nmissionary of another Society said to me, \u201cWhatever you Friends do, do\nnot give up your principles in regard to a free ministry,\u201d and he\nproceeded to quote to me a case of some well-to-do young men whose\nmother was an earnest Christian woman. She, it appeared, had been\nurged to take up regular Christian work, and they had constantly stood\nin the way. When pressed as to the reason for such action, they\ninformed the missionary that they could not allow their mother to take\nup Christian work because the neighbors would at once say that they\ncould not afford to keep her; so intimately were the ideas of\nChristian work and the payment of a salary connected in the minds of\nthe Indians. How often do we hear the gibe flung at Christian Missions\nthat their converts are all \u201crice Christians!\u201d The element of truth in\nthe slander of course is this\u2014that so many of the best are called to\ndirect religious work for which they receive regular payment. At a\nconference of leading Christians held recently, a strong\nrepresentation was made to the foreigners present, and through them to\nthe home boards, to the effect that missionaries should lay greater\nemphasis on the calling of Christians into business life and cease to\nso state the problem of Christian service as to lead to the inevitable\nconclusion that the only place for the most consecrated Christians was\nthe ministry. The great need, in fact, is that there should be a vast\nincrease of voluntary workers; that the idea of \u201cevery Christian a\nmissionary\u201d should permeate the whole Church, both at home and abroad.\nWe have seen recently that wonderful results can flow when this ideal\ndominates the Church, as in the history of the last ten years in\nKorea.\n\nNow Friends have a position of peculiar strength in this matter and\none which in England has been nobly used, especially through the Adult\nSchool movement.\n\nI am not here to say that the practice of Friends needs no\nmodification, in view of the special circumstances either of\nmissionary work abroad or of the conditions of a new country like\nthis; but I do most emphatically believe that Friends have here a\ngreat testimony and one which is needed by the whole Christian Church.\n\nI am not maintaining that there is no place for the supported\nminister. You in America have found for him a larger place, in the\nspecial conditions of your life, than we have among Friends in\nEngland; but, even here, I am persuaded that you recognize to the full\nthe primary thought that a man is not paid for his services or in\nproportion thereto, but that he is simply maintained in order that he\nmay fulfil the ministry which has been entrusted to him.\n\nIs there not also great value in the insistence upon the fact that the\nministry of the Church is not dependent upon the laying on of hands,\nor any other outward ceremony? I should like to quote again from the\nWest China document to which I have already referred, under the\nheading of \u201cMinistry.\u201d\n\n\u201c1. The supreme and only indispensable qualification for the Christian\nministry is the Divine call, habitually responded to. Any man or woman\nso used of God is thereby constituted a Christian minister.\n\n\u201c2. The part of the Church is to recognize such ministers.\u201d\n\nIt is not only the mere fact of his salary which makes the workingman\nshun the parson. It is the thought of a class set apart, different\nfrom the ordinary man in the street. Are we making full use of the\nadvantage we possess through having our business men engaged in the\nactive ministry of the Church? If we have broken down the barrier\nbetween lay and cleric, have we not at the same time done something to\nremove the barrier between labor and the Church?\n\n_The Church, then, needs to be reminded perpetually that the ministry\nis not the work of a class but of all, and that the service of Christ\nis not a profession but a free-will offering._\n\n\nIX.\n\nThere is one other direction in which my own experience leads me to\nbelieve that Friends have a position of peculiar advantage and\nresponsibility, and I cannot close this address without making some\nreference thereto. We are all well aware of the great difficulties\nwhich have been faced and are still being faced by the Church of\nChrist to-day through the advent of the historical criticism of the\nBible. On the one hand there are those who believe that the Bible\nshould be treated exactly as any other book; that the various\ndocuments which have been embodied in it should be critically\nexamined and that every statement should be checked and challenged.\nThis treatment of the Bible has led to results which many regard as\nserious, if not disastrous. So much is this the case that many of the\nmost earnest followers of Christ believe on the other hand that the\nwhole movement, generally spoken of as the \u201chigher criticism,\u201d is\naltogether evil and to be resisted with the whole strength of the\nChurch. This school, with which are associated some of the most\nsaintly and earnest Christian workers, believes that we should\nmaintain the entire literal inspiration of the whole of Holy\nScripture. From the results which they have seen in the case of many\nwho have been grievously upset, and whose faith seems to have been\nshipwrecked through following the higher critics, they have come to\nthe conclusion that it is wrong to allow any question to be asked\nwhich might lead to the shaking of our faith in the literal accuracy\nof the whole book. To some it seems as though these two schools of\nthought could not possibly be reconciled. They regard their opponents\nas hopelessly narrow-minded and bigoted or as giving away the very\nessence of Christian faith. But can the Christian Church afford to\nlose either section? It is true there may be irreconcilable extremists\non both sides; but even this I should be sorry to admit. Of course,\nthere are some who have entered upon the critical study of the Bible\nfrom a sceptical standpoint: I am not referring to these. But there\nare many who are truly devout scholars and who are intensely loyal to\nour Lord Jesus Christ; and there are many younger men and women who\nlong to be able to maintain the faith delivered to their fathers, but\nwho feel that, in doing so, they dare not be untrue to their own\nGod-given reason, and who are therefore compelled to face the\nquestions which some would counsel them to leave alone. The cure for\nsuch is not to tell them that an unorthodox view with regard to the\nauthority of a certain book puts them outside the Kingdom of God:\nunfortunately there are not a few whose counsels to the young would\nseem to point in this direction. Can we not find a _via media_ which\nwill help us to work together in love in spite of the fact that we\ndiffer so greatly even on so important a question? If we cannot so\nwork together I believe there must be weakness in our testimony to\nChrist.\n\nI think that the Society of Friends is in a position of unique\nstrength in regard to this difficult problem. The early Friends\nrealized\u2014as their contemporaries did not\u2014that the Holy Scriptures\ncontained the word of God; but that it was not right to speak of them\nas being the word of God. They realized the danger, to which the\nReformers were many of them blind, of a literalism in the\ninterpretation of Scripture which would bind men as did the tradition\nof the Elders in the time of Christ. Nevertheless, they held with\ntremendous tenacity the view that the Scriptures were indeed inspired\nof God, and this none the less because the same Spirit who first\ninspired men of old to write was present and necessary to help the men\nof to-day in the interpretation of those writings. This view is thus\nexpressed by Samuel Fisher:\n\n\u201cAnd because we do not, with the misty ministers of the mere letter,\nown the bare text of Scripture entire in every tittle, but say it hath\nsuffered much loss of more than vowels, single letters and single\nlines also, yea, even of whole epistles and prophecies of inspired\nmen, the copies of which are not by the clergy canonized nor by the\nBible sellers bound up, and especially because we own not the said\nalterable and much altered outward text, but the holy truth and inward\nlight and spirit to be the Word of God, which is living [and] the true\ntouchstone, therefore they cry out against us. Yet the Scriptures are\nowned by us in their due place and the letter is acknowledged by us\nfull as much as it is by itself, to have been written by men moved of\nGod\u2019s Spirit.\u201d[8]\n\n  [Footnote 8: Quoted in \u201cBeginnings of Quakerism,\u201d p.\u00a0289.]\n\nThis, it seems to me, is the platform upon which all reverent scholars\nand devout lovers of the Bible can meet. The Society of Friends, which\nhas ever stood for tolerance, is not the Body to hurl anathemas at\nthose who are finding light for their path in ways that to some of us\nmay seem dark and tortuous. Rather, is it not the Body which, in the\ntrue spirit of its founders, may bring us together with a tendering of\nspirit, as we own allegiance to one common Lord and as we recognize\ntogether the far greater dangers that confront the Church in the sin\nand unbelief of the world in which we live.\n\n_The Church needs to recognize that even large divergence of view in\nreference to the Bible is consistent with loyalty to Christ, and that\nwe must all stand together to face the great tasks that demand her\nundivided attention._\n\n\nX.\n\nIn conclusion, let me say a few words upon the meaning of all this to\nourselves. Much that I have said to you will be familiar, and perhaps\neven of the nature of platitudes to many of you; but it is worth\nsaying if it does no more than bring us all to the same point for\nfacing the tasks that are before us to-day. We come to this point\nrecognizing that, whether at home or abroad, the Society of Friends\nis called to play a part, to make a contribution of permanent worth to\nthe Church of Christ. I have touched upon some of the things that are\nincluded in the heritage of the past. In our Books of Discipline, in\nthe memoirs of ancient Friends, in the lives of our own parents and\ngrandparents we have abundant proof of our goodly spiritual\ninheritance; and the amazing fact that confronts us to-day is surely\nthis\u2014that, having so much, we are giving so little. The really\npressing question is not, \u201cWhat is our contribution?\u201d but, \u201cHow are we\nto make it?\u201d What a glorious heritage the Jews possessed when our Lord\nwas on earth, and yet how many of them were content to say \u201cWe have\nAbraham to our father!\u201d We need, then, first a new conviction\u2014a\nconviction that what God has given to us is not only beautiful,\nuplifting and inspiring, but that it is true. Whence can this\nconviction come? It can come to us only from God Himself. The records\nof the past, however luminous, will not enlighten us without His\nSpirit. We need to be brought into His presence, that we may see Him,\nas did our fathers, and have that note of conviction in all that we\nsay and do that shall compel men to believe that what we say is true.\n\nAnd, secondly, we need a new consecration. To us there may be revealed\n\u201cthe vision beautiful\u201d; but only when we have said with the whole\nheart, \u201cHere am I, send me,\u201d can we be trusted to bring that vision\ninto the lives of others. If we are mere imitators of others, the\nideal may seem beautiful, but it is not compelling enough for us to\ntake up the cross and go all lengths in the service of the Master.\nWhen we draw our inspiration from Him direct, there comes into our\nlives that intensely personal motive which the Apostle described in\nthe words \u201cThe love of Christ constraineth us.\u201d In this spirit of\nconsecration to Him we shall be united with one another, and, being\nthus joined together, we shall be permitted to bring our message home\nto others as we could in no other way.\n\nAnd, thirdly, we need to have a larger sympathy with those to whom we\ngo. It is not the passion of bigotry which will enable us to deliver\nour message. Let us remind ourselves again that we are one with all\nwho love the Lord in sincerity and truth. If we expect others to\nunderstand us, let us be at least as patient in seeking to understand\nthem. Let us beware of the sectarian spirit. Let us emphasize the\nfundamentals which we hold in common with others even more than our\nown distinctive views. The more we have to give, the more vital does\nit become that we should \u201cwalk humbly with our God.\u201d The spiritual\npride which writes off the achievements of our ancestors on the credit\nside of our own balance sheet is perhaps one of the chief hindrances\nto our paying the debt which we owe to the Church.\n\nAnd, fourthly, we need a corporate sense of our mission and message.\nIf only each of us in this great representative gathering might be\ngiven afresh the child-like spirit, and if all together we might hear\nonce more the call of the Master ring out clear and strong to our\nSociety, might not even the early triumphs of Quakerism be surpassed?\nA new age needs indeed a new spirit. We are not called to give just\nthe same thing as was given by our spiritual forefathers; but we are\ncalled each and all to give our best, without stint, without counting\nthe cost, and, unless we do, we cannot be true to that which God has\ngiven us.\n\nOut of the dedicated spirit of the body as a whole there will be born\na race of apostles. To each is given his ministry\u2014\u201cTo some apostles.\u201d\nWe must have such if our message is to ring forth with its ancient\npower and in new and living tones. It should be the peculiar task of\nthe Society of Friends to raise up apostles. We need to travail in\npain till they be born, and the pain is to be the long sorrow of a\nworld\u2019s need which God has given us the ability to meet, and which for\nChrist\u2019s sake we will make our own.\n\nWhen I think of these great needs around me, I can sometimes feel that\nthe illusion lifts and \u201cthe _truth_ lies bare.\u201d In the Church and\nbeyond its borders I seem to hear the yearning cry of those who\naspire and whose aspirations are checked and thwarted: the bitter\nmurmurings of those who have lost their confidence in organized\nChristianity and have been soured and alienated where they should have\nfound sympathy and help: the warring and discordant notes of those who\nquarrel and misunderstand each other where they should unite firmly to\nrepresent Christ to the world: the perplexed questionings of those who\nseek to steer a straight course through the maze of modern life, and\nwho have no certain guide: the weary sigh of those for whom life is\ntoo rapid and who have no time to turn inward and find their peace in\nChrist: the almost stifled sob of the souls that are cramped by the\npressure of a materialistic view of life, or by the crushing weight of\na world that leaves out God.\n\nThe call comes from far and near for sympathy, deliverance, direction,\npeace and courage. Through it all may we not catch the tones of One\nwhose heart still beats with the heart of his weakest child, saying\n\n  \u201cMy voice is crying in their cry,\n   Help ye the dying lest ye die\u201d?\n\n\n\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHY\n\n\n  J.\u00a0S. Rowntree: \u201c_Friends\u2014Their Faith and Practice._\u201d\n\n  T.\u00a0E. Harvey: \u201c_Rise of the Quakers._\u201d\n\n  Elizabeth B. Emmott: \u201c_Story of Quakerism._\u201d\n\n  Rufus M. Jones: \u201c_A Dynamic Faith._\u201d\n    \u201c_Social Law in the Spiritual World._\u201d\n    \u201c_Quakerism a Religion of Life._\u201d (Swarthmore Lecture.)\n\n  W.\u00a0C. Braithwaite: \u201c_Spiritual Guidance in Quaker Experience._\u201d\n      (Swarthmore Lecture.)\n    \u201c_Beginnings of Quakerism._\u201d\n\n  Allen C. Thomas: \u201c_History of Friends in America._\u201d\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Note\n\nInconsistent hyphenation (common-sense/commonsense,\nChurch-arrangements/Church arrangements) has been retained as printed.\nA handful of minor typographical errors have been corrected.","title":"The Message and Mission of Quakerism","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":20084}