THE QUAKERS.
[To TRH EDITOR Or TRH " SPECTATOR:1
Sia,—Though not a member of the Society of Friends, your article on " The Quakers " in last week's issue interested me greatly. You suggestively state that the study of William Penn's words would reveal a mind broader and more in harmony with present-day thought than is generally supposed. Indirectly, the spiritual force exercised by members of the Quaker community has, I believe, been far greater than is indicated by their numbers. Their zeal for education is well known,—the adult school movement has gained a firm hold in many places, nor is higher education, as represented by their puivate schools, neglected. My chief object, however, in writing to you is to emphasise two underlying principles that appear to me to actuate this remarkable sect. The first of these is the recognition that " God's spirit and man's spirit meet," that there is communion between God and man apart entirely from the Church as ordinarily understood; and, secondly, that worship is "the enjoyment of God" which can best be realised without symbols of any kind. And here I may be allowed to quote from Rufus M. Jones. He says :— " No outward act in itself can constitute worship. It must of necessity be spontaneous in its character, or it will lack the elements of spirituality or of truth."—I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
