The Gospel According to Quakers

A bit of search suggests that Mark Twain never said “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” He should have.

In this episode I explain a subtle difference between “type” and “allegory,” at least as the latter is used in modern English. I mention that Paul talks about an allegory in the last chapter of Galatians. Once again I’m wrong; it’s in Gal. 4:23.

This episode also discusses the handling in I Peter  of Noah’s ark as a type of baptism. The text discussed is at the end of chapter 3 in I Peter.

This episode brushes on the important topic of the inwardness of Christian reality.

I said in this recording that I didn’t know what Paul said about whether women should be covered or uncovered when prophesying. I misspoke; of course I know. (It’s in I Cor. 11.) I meant to say it was of no consequence to me or to what I was saying. This, and the other matter I mentioned in relation to the preaching of women, that of the women being first to the tomb on Easter, are handled by Margaret Fox in Women’s Speaking Justified, Proved, and Allowed of by the Scriptures.

Regarding “convincement” note that in the AV (KJV), “convince” means something close to “convict” in every case where it appears in the NT, except perhaps Acts 18:28, where the NIV’s “refuted” is a good choice. The other occurrences are I Cor. 14:24; Jas 2:9; Jn 8:46.

The piece on Margaret Fell’s convincement is on pp83-84 of the 1856 edition of Sewel’s History (Chapter 2).

Today’s two texts from the Journal of John Woolman:

#1 (from chapter 1):

I may here mention a remarkable circumstance that occurred in my childhood. On going to a neighbor’s house, I saw on the way a robin sitting on her nest, and as I came near she went off ; but having young ones, she flew about, and with many cries expressed her concern for them. I stood and threw stones at her, and one striking her she fell down dead. At first I was pleased with the exploit, but after a few minutes was seized with horror, at having, in a sportive way, killed an innocent creature while she was careful for her young. I beheld her lying dead, and thought those young ones, for which she was so careful, must now perish for want of their dam to nourish them. After some painful considerations on the subject, I climbed up the tree, took all the young birds, and killed them, supposing that better than to leave them to pine away and die miserably. In this case I believed that Scripture proverb was fulfilled, “The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” I then went on my errand, and for some hours could think of little else but the cruelties I had committed, and was much troubled. Thus He whose tender mercies are over all his works hath placed a principle in the human mind, which incites to exercise goodness towards every living creature; and this being singly attended to, people become tender-hearted and sympathizing; but when frequently and totally rejected, the mind becomes shut up in a contrary disposition.

#2 (from chapter 4):

Soon after I entered this province a deep and painful exercise came upon me, which I often had some feeling of, since my mind was drawn toward these parts, and with which I had acquainted my brother before we agreed to join as companions. As the people in this and the Southern Provinces live much on the labor of slaves, many of whom are used hardly, my concern was that I might attend with singleness of heart to the voice of the true Shepherd and be so supported as to remain unmoved at the faces of men.

As it is common for Friends on such a visit to have entertainment free of cost, a difficulty arose in my mind with respect to saving my money by kindness received from what appeared to me to be the gain of oppression. Receiving a gift, considered as a gift, brings the receiver under obligations to the benefactor, and has a natural tendency to draw the obliged into a party with the giver. To prevent difficulties of this kind, and to preserve the minds of judges from any bias, was that Divine prohibition: “Thou shalt not receive any gift; for a gift bindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.” (Exod. xxiii. 8.) As the disciples were sent forth without any provision for their journey, and our Lord said the workman is worthy of his meat, their labor in the gospel was considered as a reward for their entertainment, and therefore not received as a gift; yet, in regard to my present journey, I could not see my way clear in that respect. The difference appeared thus: the entertainment the disciples met with was from them whose hearts God had opened to receive them, from a love to them and the truth they published; but we, considered as members of the same religious society, look upon it as a piece of civility to receive each other in such visits; and such receptions, at times, is partly in regard to reputation, and not from an inward unity of heart and spirit. Conduct is more convincing than language, and where people, by their actions, manifest that the slave-trade is not so disagreeable to their principles but that it may be encouraged, there is not a sound uniting with some Friends who visit them.

The prospect of so weighty a work, and of being so distinguished from many whom I esteemed before myself, brought me very low, and such were the conflicts of my soul that I had a near sympathy with the Prophet, in the time of his weakness, when he said: “If thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thy sight.” (Num. xi. 15.) But I soon saw that this proceeded from the want of a full resignation to the Divine will. Many were the afflictions which attended me, and in great abasement, with many tears, my cries were to the Almighty for his gracious and fatherly assistance, and after a time of deep trial I was favored to understand the state mentioned by the Psalmist more clearly than ever I had done before; to wit: “My soul is even as a weaned child.” (Psalm cxxxi. 2.) Being thus helped to sink down into resignation, I felt a deliverance from that tempest in which I had been sorely exercised, and in calmness of mind went forward, trusting that the Lord Jesus Christ, as I faithfully attended to him, would be a counsellor to me in all difficulties, and that by His strength I should be enabled even to leave money with the members of society where I had entertainment, when I found that omitting it would obstruct that work to which I believed He had called me. As I copy this after my return, I may here add, that oftentimes I did so under a sense of duty. The way in which I did it was thus: when I expected soon to leave a Friend’s house where I had entertainment, if I believed that I should not keep clear from the gain of oppression without leaving money, I spoke to one of the heads of the family privately, and desired them to accept of those pieces of silver, and give them to such of their negroes as they believed would make the best use of them; and at other times I gave them to the negroes myself, as the way looked clearest to me. Before I came out, I had provided a large number of small pieces for this purpose and thus offering them to some who appeared to be wealthy people was a trial both to me and them. But the fear of the Lord so covered me at times that my way was made easier than I expected; and few, if any, manifested any resentment at the offer, and most of them, after some conversation, accepted of them.

More On Haggadic Reading

A further note on haggadic reading: When George Fox and other early Friends were called on to defend their practice of allowing women to preach, they not only quoted some abstract principles from scripture in favor of their practice, but also pointed out that women were the first at the tomb of Jesus on resurrection Sunday. They then went and told the men. Had God never wanted women to instruct men, He surely would not have arranged that morning’s events in this manner.

Below are most of the excerpts from Fox’s Journal which I read in the podcast:

[I] sometimes walked up and down, and sometimes prayed, and cried to the Lord, who said unto me: “Thou seest how young people go together into vanity, and old people into the earth; thou must forsake all, young and old, keep out of all, and be as a stranger unto all”.

At another time, as I was walking in a field on a Firstday morning, the Lord opened unto me, “that being bred at Oxford or Cambridge was not enough to fit and qualify men to be ministers of Christ”:

At another time it was opened in me, “that God who made the world did not dwell in temples made with hands”.

But as I had forsaken the priests, so I left the separate preachers also, and those called the most experienced people; for I saw there was none among them all that could speak to my condition.  And when all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do; then, Oh! then I heard a voice which said, “There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition”. When I heard it, my heart did leap for joy.  Then the Lord let me see why there was none upon the earth that could speak to my condition, namely, that I might give him all the glory.

I went back into Nottinghamshire, where the Lord showed me, that the natures of those things which were hurtful without, were within in the hearts and minds of wicked men.  The natures of dogs, swine, vipers, of Sodom, and Egypt, Pharaoh, Cain, Ishmael, Esau, &c.  The natures of these I saw within, though people had been looking without.  I cried to the Lord, saying, “Why should I be thus, seeing I was never addicted to commit those evils?” And the Lord answered, “It was needful I should have a sense of all conditions, how else should I speak to all conditions?” In this I saw the infinite love of God.  I saw also, that there was an ocean of darkness and death; but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness.  In that also I saw the infinite love of God, and I had great openings.

As I was walking by the steeplehouse side in the town of Mansfield, the Lord said unto me, “That which people trample upon must be thy food”. And as the Lord spake he opened to me, that people and professors trampled upon the life, even the life of Christ was trampled upon; they fed upon words, and fed one another with words, but trampled upon the life, and trampled under foot the blood of the son of God, which blood was my life; and they lived in their airy notions talking of him.

… I was very much altered in countenance and person… While I was in that condition, I had a sense and discerning given me by the Lord, through which I saw plainly, that when many people talked of God and of Christ, &c. the serpent spoke in them…

In the year 1648, as I was sitting in a Friend’s house in Nottinghamshire, (for by this time the power of God had opened the hearts of some to receive the word of life and reconciliation), I saw there was a great crack to go throughout the earth, and a great smoke to go as the crack went, and that after the crack there should be a great shaking. This was the earth in people’s hearts, which was to be shaken before the seed of God was raised out of the earth.

Soon after there was another great meeting of professors, and a captain named Amor Stoddard came in.  They were discoursing of the blood of Christ.  And as they were discoursing of it, I saw through the immediate opening of the invisible spirit, the blood of Christ; and I cried out among them, saying, “Do ye not see the blood of Christ? See it in your hearts, to sprinkle your hearts and consciences from dead works, to serve the living God”. For I saw it, the blood of the new covenant, how it came into the heart.

Great things did the Lord lead me into, and wonderful depths were opened unto me, beyond what can by words be declared; but as people come into subjection to the spirit of God, and grow up in the image and power of the Almighty, they may receive the word of wisdom that opens all things, and come to know the hidden unity in the Eternal Being.

I saw the state of those, both priests and people, who, in reading the scriptures, cry out much against Cain, Esau, Judas, and other wicked men of former times, mentioned in the holy scriptures; but do not see the nature of Cain, of Esau, of Judas, and those others, in themselves. These said, it was they, they, they, that were the bad people; putting it off from themselves: but when some of these came, with the light and spirit of truth, to see into themselves, then they came to say, I, I, I, it is I myself, that have been the Ishmael, the Esau, &c.

The Lord God opened to me by his invisible power, how that “every man was enlightened by the divine light of Christ”. I saw it shine through all, and that they that believed in it came out of condemnation to the light of life, and became the children of it; but they that hated it, and did not believe in it, were condemned by it, though they made a profession of Christ. This I saw in the pure openings of the light without the help of any man; neither did I then know where to find it in the scriptures; though afterwards, searching the scriptures, I found it. For I saw in that light and spirit which was before the scriptures were given forth, and which led the holy men of God to give them forth, that all must come to that spirit, if they would know God or Christ, or the scriptures aright, which they that gave them forth were led and taught by.

I was sent to turn people from darkness to the light, that they might receive Christ Jesus; for to as many as should receive him in his light, I saw he would give power to become the sons of God; which I had obtained by receiving Christ.

But with and by this divine power and spirit of God, and the light of Jesus, I was to bring people off from all their own ways, to Christ the new and living way; from their churches, which men had made and gathered, to the church in God, the general assembly written in heaven, which Christ is the head of; and off from the world’s teachers made by men, to learn of Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, of whom the Father said, “This is my beloved son, hear ye him”; and off from all the world’s worships, to know the spirit of truth in the inward parts, and to be led thereby, that in it they might worship the Father of spirits, who seeks such to worship him; which spirit they that worshipped not in, knew not what they worshipped. I was to bring people off from all the world’s religions, which are vain; that they might know the pure religion, might visit the fatherless, the widows, and the strangers, and keep themselves from the spots of the world: then there would not be so many beggars; the sight of whom often grieved my heart, as it denoted so much hardheartedness amongst those that professed the name of Christ.

Listen to the episode here. (To download the MP3 file, right-click and choose Save As.)

This episode refers to the epistle (letter) of George Fox to Friends in the ministry, famous for its words, “…walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one.”

The full text of the letter is here. Also on that page is a link to a modernized version of the letter.

Listen to the episode here. (To download the MP3 file, right-click and choose Save As.)

Historically, Friends have not received credit from their Protestant neighbors for their profound respect for scripture.

This episode refers to the story of Josiah, his reforms based on the new-found Book of the Law, and his untimely death. The relevant passages are:

• The finding of the book, including the words of Huldah: II Kings 22:1-20.
• How and why Josiah died: 2 Chronicles 35:20-27.

Listen to the episode here. (To download the MP3 file, right-click and choose Save As.)

Around the time of the American Revolution, the Quakers in North America decided as a body to free their slaves. In the process, they too found freedom.

Listen to the episode here. (To download the MP3, right-click and choose Save As.)

A scholarly book recently stated that the “first woman minister in America” came along after 1800. But there were hundreds of female Quaker ministers at the time of the Revolution. Don’t they count?

Listen to the episode here. (To download the MP3 file, right-click and choose Save As.)

Friends are rather famous for all the things they don’t do. This first episode of GAQ explains why some things aren’t done among Friends.

Listen here (Right-click and choose Save As to download the MP3 file.)