GEORGE FOX

Perhaps no other small denomination of Christians has so influenced the world for good as have the Quakers, or Friends. When George Fox, the founder of the Friends' Societies, began his preaching, the churches everywhere were dead and formal, and when the churches drift into formalism the world drifts into infidelity. A formal church has always resulted in an unbelieving world. The Quaker movement seems to have been raised up of God just in the nick of time to save the church from formalism and the world from infidelity. George Fox, like the ancient prophets, was sent of God to call the church from formalism to a real spiritual worship. Like many other great reformers, he was doubtless an extremist on some lines, but it sometimes seems to be necessary for reformers to be extremists in order to thoroughly arouse the people. We cannot agree with the Friends in discarding the outward ordinances, which seem so clearly taught in the Scriptures and which seem to have been practised by the early Christian church and by the churches, all down through the centuries of the Christian era. But perhaps the Lord allowed the Friends to thus discard all outward ordinances in order the more clearly to direct the minds of the people to the fact that He requires spiritual worship, and not mere forms and ceremonies.

On many great questions the Friends were far in advance of the times in which the movement was founded.

They raised their voices clearly against slavery nearly two hundred years before others were brought to see the injustice, cruelty and sin of the traffic in human beings. Another matter in which the Friends were far in advance of others was in their opposition to war. They have probably been more instrumental than any other body of people in bringing about the present apposition to warfare. The peace and arbitration movements of today doubtless owe their origin to the Quakers more than to any other class of persons. The Friends have also been foremost in freeing woman from the bondage and subjection in which she has been kept all down through the ages, especially in Oriental lands. Believing that Paul's instructions concerning the subordination of women were only a temporary concession to the prejudice of the age in which he lived, the Friends have encouraged the teaching, preaching, and ministry of women as have no other denomination of Christians, with perhaps the exception of the Salvation Army, which is of more recent origin and which may have been influenced by the Friends. From the beginning of the movement the Friends have opposed not only war and slavery of every kind, but they have also done much to secure the abolition of capital punishment for minor offences, imprisonment for debt, and religious persecution of every kind.

It may be said that the reason why the Quakers have been leaders in so many great reforms, and the reason why they have been so prosperous in business affairs, is because their form of worship appeals to and attracts only persons of great reflective power and mental ability, and does not appeal to the masses. While there is some truth in this assertion, we believe that it is also true that the great reason why the Friends were leaders in spiritual thought and business enterprises was because God enlight

ened and blessed them because of their consecration to His service.

The remarkable thing about the Quaker movement, so far in advance of its times on so many great questions, was that it was founded by a poor and uneducated shoemaker. But many of the greatest leaders, like Bunyan, Moody, and Spurgeon, have been raised up from among the common people. "God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty" (1 Cor. 1:27). George Fox began his preaching without a follower, without belonging to anything, without any special training, without a place to preach in, and with out social prestige of any kind. He raised his voice uncompromisingly against all the popular evils of the age, against the formalism of both the established and free churches, and against the religious persecutions for which the King and magistrates were responsible. He was persecuted, beaten, stoned, arrested and imprisoned more frequently perhaps than any other person who ever lived. There are few pages in his large journals which do not contain some reference to his being mobbed, stoned, arrested, or haled before the magistrates. In like manner his followers were persecuted and imprisoned because they opposed so many popular evils and refused to conform to ceremonies and practises which they could not conscientiously perform. It is probable that George Fox and the early Quakers suffered more for conscience sake and the cause of religious freedom, and did more to bring about religious liberty, than did any other class of people since the days of the Reformation. Over and over again they were thrown into prison for not doing things they could not conscientiously do, especially for not conforming to the state church, for refusing to enter the army and navy, and because they would not take judicial oaths. It is es

timated that at one time, in the year 1662, no less than 4,500 Quakers were in prison in England and Wales for causes of this kind. But notwithstanding all they suffered for the cause of religious freedom, George Fox and the early Quakers increased in favor with God and man. Prejudice against them gradually died away. People found that they could trust them, and Friends in business were better patronized than any other class of people. Nations are coming more and more to recognize the right to religious liberty and freedom of conscience for which the Friends suffered so much. All over the world today there is talk of abolishing war and settling differences in a judicial and reasonable way rather than by murder and brute force. Thus mighty movements for the advancement of peace on earth and goodwill toward men" were brought about to a great extent by the humble ministry of a poor English cobbler; just as the world's most helpful book (the Word of God being excepted), " Pilgrim's Progress," was written by a poor illiterate English tinker, John Bun

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George Fox, the famous founder of the Quaker, or Friends', societies, was born in 1624, at Drayton-in-theClay, Leicestershire, England. His father, he says, a weaver, an honest man; and there was a seed of God in him. The neighbors called him Righteous Christer. My mother was an upright woman; her name was Lago, and she was of the stock of the martyrs."

Like Savonarola, Fox was solemn and grave even as a child, and was unlike other children around him. At eleven years of age he definitely yielded his heart to God, and ever afterward sought to live an honest, upright life. His parents, who were members of the Church of England, desired to train him in their way of worship, but did not urge him to conform to the Established Church. As he

grew up, some of his relatives wished him to become a priest, but others persuaded him to the contrary. He apprenticed himself to a shoemaker, who also dealt in wool and had many sheep. In this position much money went through the hands of Fox, but he says that the Lord's power was with him so that he never wronged a man or woman in all that time.”

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At the age of nineteen Fox was deeply grieved and shocked at the levity of some professing Christians, one of them being his own cousin, who asked him into a booth at a fair and then began to drink healths. He was so deeply grieved over this that he could not sleep all night, but walked up and down his room praying to the Lord. Even as a young man he was very careful of his conduct and conversation. "For the Lord showed me," says he, "that though the people of the world have mouths full of deceit, and changeable words, yet I was to keep to Yea and Nay in all things; and that my words should be few and savoury, seasoned with grace; and that I might not eat and drink to make myself wanton, but for health," etc. In 1643 he became so deeply grieved with the lightness and frivolity of the world that he broke off all com panionships with both old and young; and traveled to many strange places to be away from all friends, relatives, and acquaintances, and to be alone with God. He avoided conversing even with professing Christians, "for I was sensible," says he, "that they did not possess what they professed." He was in great distress, and strong temptation and despair seized upon him. "I was about twenty years of age when these exercises came upon me," says he, "and I continued in that condition some years, in great trouble, and fain would have put it from me. I went to many a priest to look for comfort, but found no comfort from them." The remedies suggested for his state of mind