Follow Whithersoever You Are Led

“John Churchman, a Pennsylvanian Friend, is stirred in the silence of a meeting for worship by a message ‘uttered in a language intelligent to the inward man, “Gather thyself from all the cumbers of the world and be thou weaned from the popularity, love, and friendship thereof.”‘ Not knowing whether this is a ‘merciful warning’ of death, or a call ‘To stand ready for some service which would separate me from temporal business, and the nearest connections in life,’ he settles his affairs and later feels ‘an inward silence for about two or three weeks.’ 

Then ‘One day walking alone, I felt myself so inwardly weak and feeble, that I stood still, and by the reverence that covered my mind, I knew that the hand of the Lord was on me and his presence round about, the earth was silent and all flesh brought into stillness, and light went forth with brightness, and shone on Great Britain, Ireland, and Holland, and my mind felt the gentle, yet strongly drawing cords of that love which is stronger than death, which made me say, “Lord! Go before, and strengthen me, and I will follow whithersoever thou leadest.”‘”

— Elfrida Vipont Foulds, 1964 (source)
Quaker children’s book author