Quaker Beginnings

  • Imagine the darkness of 1650

    “Imagine yourself back in 1650 England. For much of the year, it’s dark by 4 PM. Imagine walking to another Quaker’s home for an evening meeting for worship. Maybe the moon is full or maybe it’s absent. Maybe the moon is shining, but maybe its light is obscured by an overcast sky. Perhaps you carry a candle or an oil lantern, but its light isn’t very bright and it doesn’t extend very far. It’s very dark. It’s that darkness that’s key to understanding a major difference between how early Quakers related to the Light and how we do today.”

  • To our persecutors: I seek the welfare of your souls

    “You Magistrates of the City and County of Gloucester, who have been active in this unchristian work of Persecution against an In­nocent People, if this should come to your Hands, I entreat you to read it with Moderation, and take Counsel in time, for as I have sometime said to some of you, Good Counsel will not hurt you, or any Man. Oh, that I may prevail with you to take Counsel of the Lord, and obey the Light of his Son Christ Jesus in your own Hearts, that will teach you to do as you would be done by, and not to continue in such an unchristian frame of Mind, still to Oppress the Poor…”

  • Quaker heroines in prison

    “The English Fryar [in the prison] was wrath, and shewed us his Crucifix, and bid us look there. We said, ‘The Lord saith, “Thou shalt not make to thyself the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow to them nor worship them, but I the Lord thy God only.”‘ 

  • How to flourish under persecution

    “Our Society originated, grew stronger, and flourished under persecution, and the members were united in the strong bonds of mutual love and affection, which qualified them to deeply feel for each other, and made them willing to share in each other’s sufferings. In this state nothing but force or ill health kept them from their meetings.”

  • I could no longer keep back

    “And now, persecution coming fast on, and many Friends being in prison, and sufferings growing sharp and great in most places; I could no longer keep back, or conceal myself: but a necessity came upon me to come forth, and show myself, and take my part and lot with the sufferers… Thus were the bonds and sufferings of faithful Friends made a means to confirm, and embolden me to profess the Truth.”

  • Primitive Quakerism Revived

    “What would it look like if Friends revived the essential principles of seventeenth-century Quakerism? The contemporary religious environment and civil structures are quite different from those of the 1600s, but… these still support a social order that is in many ways diametrically opposed to the values that animated early Quakerism. Our calling as a people of God has not been fulfilled.”

  • Our hearts melted as wax

    “How were our hearts melted as wax, and our souls poured out as water before the Lord, and our spirits as oil, frankincense and myrrh, offered up unto the Lord as sweet incense, when not a word outwardly in all our assembly had been uttered!”

  • Be a witness for God

    “We are also to be witnesses for God, in the world: to be instruments in his hands, to bring others out of death and captivity into true life and liberty. We are to fight against the powers of darkness everywhere, as the Lord called us forth. And this we are to do in his wisdom, according to his will, in his power, and in his love, sweetness, and meekness.”

  • My body began to contort and shake

    “Quakerism is mystical. Sitting in silence is mystical. And yet you won’t find any Quaker guide to mystical experience. We offer no gurus who will guide you on a path of advancement. We are all on our own together. There are good reasons for this. But I suspect that something is missing from contemporary Quakerism. Something that the early Quakers had in spades. Early Quakers were flagrant mystics.” 

  • Quaking with the power

    “‘The Power of the Lord’ had multiple meanings for Fox and other early Friends, but the most common use of the phrase was to refer to a sensible, divine power or energy. Friends would experience this power surrounding them or flowing through their bodies under a variety of conditions, but most often at the point of convincement, when facing a trial, or during meeting for worship. An experience of the power was often associated with some kind of involuntary physical or mental phenomenon. When seized by the power, some Friends quaked, vocalized, or fell unconscious to the floor, while other Friends saw brilliant light, had visions, experienced healing, or felt a force emanating from them that was capable of subduing an angry and hostile mob…”

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