LIFE

OF

JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY.

CHAPTER XXVII.

1835. ET. 47.

STATE OF FEELING IN THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS; PUBLICATION OF THE BEACON; LETTER TO ISAAC CREWDSON.

THE interest felt by Joseph John Gurney in the controversy that was at this time agitating the Society of Friends, and the prominent part which he was led to take in some of the proceedings to which it gave rise, render some notice of it here unavoidable. It is far from the object of these pages to stir up painful recollections. No one

de lored more than he did the severance of ties which had long united him to many whom he loved and valued. Deeply as he was attached to the religious community of which he was a member, from a settled conviction of the Christian soundness of its principles, no one more regretted the loss to that body of many whom he had hoped to have seen numbered amongst its brightest ornaments. Nothing but a sense of duty could have

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sustained him in the course which he felt it right to take. It was a course attended with much suffering and humiliation; and he has often spoken of this period as one of the most sorrowful of his life. It may be desirable here to premise a few observations for the information of the general reader.

The Society of Friends, as is well known, took its rise about the middle of the 17th century. Raised up at a period of religious excitement, unparalleled in English history, the early Friends were instrumental, under the divine blessing, in bringing about a revival of primitive Christianity and vital godliness, to which the general historian of the Christian Church has not yet done justice. The successors of these devoted men inherited the results of their faithfulness in the enjoyment of a large measure of civil and religious liberty; but, in the midst of ease and abundance, worldliness in too many instances gradually took possession of the heart; coolness succeeded to zeal; and a traditional attachment to the opinions derived from early education, took the place of that vital change and depth of conviction which had wrought so marvellously in their forefathers. True indeed it is, that, through the divine mercy, there were preserved among them a considerable number of honest and true-hearted disciples of Christ, who were enabled to hold fast the truth in the love of it; but no one who duly reflects upon the internal state of this religious body about the middle of the last century, as it is unfolded in the mournful but instructive pages of the Journals of some of its most valued members at that period,* can fail to deplore

*See particularly the Journal of John Griffith.

the degeneracy that was then laying it waste. Brighter days followed; increased attention to the discipline purged the Society of many unworthy members; and, without the ordinary human provisions, or the stimulus of worldly emoluments, a body of faithful ministers was still raised up to preach, with increasing clearness and authority, the unsearchable riches of Christ. Yet in this revival there appeared lacking that thorough Christian devotedness which was so remarkably manifested at the rise of the Society. Whilst the preaching of the Gospel amongst Friends, at this period, was often marked by great earnestness in setting forth the spirituality of religion, and the necessity of its inward operations,-it was not always connected with an equally clear and practical enforcement of other great and not less essential portions of revealed truth, which, in the minds of the earlier Friends, were inseparably connected with their deep and comprehensive views of the soul-searching and spiritual character of true Christianity.* And

* "Christ," says George Fox, "gave himself, his body, for the life of the whole world; he was the offering for the sins of the whole world; and paid the debt and made satisfaction." And surely no one who did not, in his heart, feel the deep practical value of this precious truth, could have addressed his suffering friends in the following touching strain :-"The heavenly joy fill your hearts and comfort you in the inward man in all tribulations! The glorious light is shining, the immortal is bringing forth out of death; the prisoners have hope of their pardon, the debt being paid, and they freely purchased by Christ's blood." And again, "The voice of the Bridegroom is heard in our land, and Christ is come amongst the prisoners, to visit them in their prison houses; they have all hopes of releasement and free pardon, and to come out freely, for the debt is paid. Wait for the manifestation of it, and he that comes out of prison shall reign." Selections from George Fox's Epistles by

it may, perhaps, be added, that the increased attention to the discipline, valuable and important as it was, was too often associated with a rigid adherence to forms, and a tendency to multiply rules, and to make the exact carrying of them out, in degree at least, a substitute for that patient and discriminating wisdom, tempered with love, which should ever characterize Christian discipline. In this country the revival was happily connected with an increased attention to the education of the youth (among the results of which may be noticed the establishment of the School at Ackworth,) and to the reading of the Holy Scriptures in families, which, though always recommended and carefully practised by the more faithful members, had too much fallen into disuse. And it cannot but be considered as a striking evidence of the general prevalence of sound Christianity among the members, that when, towards the close of the last century, a minister from America attempted publicly to throw discredit upon the writings of

Samuel Tuke, pp. 12 and 17, second edition. Without needlessly. multiplying quotations, this note may be closed by the following testimony recorded among the dying sayings of a Friend in the year 1698. The passage, it may be observed, is, on account of its excellence, printed in large black letter, in the original editions of Piety Promoted. "Now is my soul redeemed to God, and he that hath redeemed me is near me. THE SUFFERINGS AND DEATH OF CHRIST, AND HIS AGONIES, THE SHEDDING OF HIS BLOOD, AND WHAT HE HATH DONE for me, I feel NOW THAT I HAVE THE BENEFIT of all. BLESSED BE MY REDEEMER WHO IS NEAR ME." Piety Promoted, part 2nd, p. 19, second edition. Truly could they, who had been brought to such an experience, feelingly adopt the language of the Apostle, "We joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." Rom. v, 11.

the Old Testament, and when, in 1814, as has been already stated, an individual who had been disowned for promulgating Unitarian doctrines, appealed to the Yearly Meeting for a reversal of his disownment; in each of these cases the Yearly Meeting openly disavowed the opinions attempted to be pressed upon it, and plainly declared itself on the side of the pure and simple truths of Holy Scripture.

Meanwhile, in the United States of North America, to parts of which many members of the Society had emigrated in the days of Robert Barclay and William Penn, and where the body had become very numerous, causes had been more recently at work, which at length, between the years 1826 and 1828, produced a separation from the main body in five out of the eight of the American Yearly Meetings, of a considerable number, (estimated at about one third of the whole,) amongst whom, Elias Hicks, an aged and influential minister held the most prominent position.* "Captivated by specious pretences to a refined spirituality," they had been led on, step by step, into an open denial of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion, to the undervaluing of the Holy Scriptures, and to the denial of the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of his offices as the Redeemer and Saviour of men, and the one Propitiation and Mediator with the Father. And not a few, who

*The largest secession was in the Yearly Meetings of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; but the separation extended also to the Yearly Meetings of Ohio and Indiana. No secession took place in New England, North Carolina, or Virginia.