THE ATTRACTION OF QUAKERISM.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.1 SIR,—Your article in the Spectator of June 9th and the reply thereto from my friend, John William Graham, came to me several weeks later ; and while I was very glad to have him
reply to you as he did, I was disappointed that he did not dis- pose at once of the curious idea that the original Quakers were of the fanatical sort of your old lady who refused even to lock her doors against burglars. I enclose you a couple of extracts from the writings of two of the originals of the
Society, George Fox and his friend, Isaac Pennington, whioh will effectually dispose of any idea that they did not recognise the use and actual necessity of force and a resort to "the sword of justice." My delay in writing this has come from
my inability to look up these authorities earlier, and I hope the subject will not have lost its interest by the delay. John William Graham has made a mistake about John Bright, surely, in stating that he "theoretically objected to every war which had happened in his time." No more than Isaac Pennington would have done,—though admitting that " there is
"Ye that are in that seed, see that you accuse no man falsely, that hath the sword of justice, which is to keep the peace, and is a terror to the evil-doers, and to keep down the transgressors, and for the praise of them that do well ;—this is owned in its place."—From 188th Epistle of George Fox.
"It is not for a nation (coming into the Gospel life and prin- ciple) to take care beforehand how they shall be preserved ; but the Gospel will teach a nation (if they hearken to it) as well as a particular person to trust the Lord, and to wait on him for pre servation. Israel of old stood not by their strength and wisdom and preparations against their enemies ; but in quietness and confidence, and waiting on the Lord for direction (Isaiah w. 16), and shall not such now, who are true Israelites, and have indeed attained to the true Gospel state, follow the Lord in the peace-
able life and spirit of the Gospel, unless they see by rational demonstration beforehand how they shall be preserved therein P I speak not this against any magistrates or peoples defending themselves against foreign invasion, or making use of the sword to suppress the violent and evil-doers within their borders (for this the present estate of things may and (loth require, and a great blessing will attend the sword where it is borne uprightly to that end, and its use will be honourable ; and while there is need of a sword the Lord will not suffer that Government or those governors to want fitting instruments under them, for the managing thereof, to wait on Him in His fear, to have the edge of it rightly directed), but there is a better state which the Lord bath already brought some into, and which nations are to expect and travel towards."—Isaac Pennington's Works—" Something Spoken Concerning the Magistrates' Protection of the Innocent."
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