PART I

_THE ESSENTIALS OF QUAKERISM_

BY WILLIAM C. BRAITHWAITE

PAGE Introductory 11

The early Quaker movement 13

Its two great characteristics,—intense sincerity and the experience of the living presence of Christ 14

“Seekers” were especially receptive to the message of George Fox 14

Edward Burrough’s description of experience 16

The heightened personality that came to the “Children of the Light” 20

Quakerism a religion of the prophetic and apostolic type, in contrast with the priestly and institutional type 21

The Church should be a living fellowship of disciples at work for the Kingdom of God, _plus_ Jesus Christ Himself, in whose Spirit they become together “one flock, one Shepherd” 23

The vital nature of such a fellowship 24

Our position not negative but positive 25

Quakerism a “religion of life” 25

The supreme question for the Church, How can we foster life? 26

Cheap substitutes for life 29

A religion of life must devote itself to vital processes and vital relations; chiefly, Loyal discipleship 30 Inspired leadership 31 Warm fellowship 33 Loving service 35 Steady spiritual growth 36

Methods and machinery, organization and Church discipline have only a subordinate value to these prime factors of health 37

The life must be allowed free expression; the form must be kept plastic 38

The physiologist tells us that living matter is always soft and jelly-like, permitting of the free play of molecular interchanges 38

Fit the clothes to the man, not the man to the clothes 40

Expansion that comes where the Spirit of God has been allowed freely to work upon groups of disciples without being limited by organization and tradition, _e. g._ Foreign Missionary Work, Adult School movement, Quakerism in Western States 40

Church-arrangements, important in themselves, should be regarded as machinery through which the life can work,—the life of the individual which we call personal responsibility, of the group, which we call fellowship, and above all the Divine vitality, which we call spiritual power and spiritual guidance 41

Above conclusion illustrated from the way in which these vital forces come into play in the various forms of Friends’ meetings 42

The evangelistic service and its needs 43

The meeting for worship, its great value and its needs 44

The teaching meeting and its needs 46

Quakerism, at its best, always the product of vital forces and the producer of vital relations 47

Its dependence upon the earnest seeking spirit 48

Craving to-day for reality in religion and life 49

Atmosphere of large-hearted charity and brotherly confidence needed 50

Quakerism, essentially, a religion of sincerity, answered by the incoming of the living Christ 51

Hopes confronting us to-day,—the craving after truth, the meaning and worth of personality, woman’s place in the world, the reign of law in international affairs, the regeneration of social conditions, the hope of Christ for the whole world 52

The Quaker Church called to be in the vanguard of progress with respect to all these 53

Duty of personal witness for truth, based on a living experience of it 53

Conclusion 54