and obscure, but obedience brought clearness o perception and definiteness of understanding, ti the habit was begotten of living in the continua experience of its guidance and discipline.

Such men could not fail to be democrats in the ordinary affairs of life. Because many mad a distinction in rank, by addressing some with you and others with a thee, they testified agains inequality by using the singular pronoun to all Because in the obsequiousness of the manne of the day, men would bow to the great ar scorn the poor, they bowed to none. Becaus the newly imported doffing of the hat was onl given to those in high place, the Quaker's h stayed on his head in the presence of King an courtier, priest, judge and magistrate.* Th doctrine of human equality was to them mo than a theory, it was a principle to be incorpor ated with their social and political institutions to go to jail for, if need be to die for.

The same principles determined their manne

"My friend Penn came there, Will Penn the Quaker, a the head of his brethren to thank the Duke (Ormond) fc his kindness to the people of Ireland. To see a doze scoundrels with their hats on, and the Duke complimen ing with his hat off, was a good sight enough."-Swift 1 Stella, January 15th, 1712.

worship. Discarding all sacraments as tendg to obscure the brightness of the spiritual ptism and communion which above all things ley desired, they met not to hear preaching or acred music or emotional human impulses, or

take part in ritual or ceremony, but to hear he words of God as they came directly to the Faiting heart, or mediately through an inspired essenger. Without preparation, each one beving in his own capacity for priestly approach the source of all truth and instruction and mfort, they sat in silence to await whatever fluences came to their souls, and so real was Bis communion that there are frequent accounts meetings of entirely wordless worship, where ere was such tender union of spirit that the or was wet with their overflowing tears, their Hearts were strengthened and confirmed in their Divine Master, and they were braced to stand ith quietness and fortitude all the trials of heir persecuted life.

Their morality was based on the New rather han the Old Testament, and they accepted the arrent views as to its inspiration and authority. The Sermon on the Mount, if not in every repect a literal standard of conduct, was not to be plained away as a millennial model only, but

be

as something to be obeyed in this present work But here again all Biblical truth was in one r d. pect subordinate to the voice of direct revelatides to which it owed its origin. It was permitted, use it to test the validity of professed inspiratid to for the Divine teaching must be consistent win, itself. It was of unquestioned authority, but tth proper application of its rules could only he made by the same Spirit who gave it birth. From the Bible therefore, thus interpret the Friends derived their ethical ideas. It tod, them "Swear not at all," and that comma ld they accepted unquestioningly and absolute nd Again, its direct teaching and whole spirit tesy. fied against war and fighting and in favor tilove and forgiveness, and they refused all pof ticipation direct or, so far as they could, indirir in any war or warlike measures. It exalted tect spiritual over the temporal, and they preache much and practiced much the greatest simplicit d of dress, furniture and living. It exhorte y obedience to government, and here they had d difficult task. For the government of the da a commanded disobedience to their principles any not following the teaching of Hobbes, the, newly given to the world, they continuously din regarded its commands.

The Quakers in England.

15

As Peter affirmed before the Sanhedrin, " We ought to obey God rather than man," as Socrates declared before his judges, "Athenians, I will obey God rather than you," so when the slightest point of conscience was done violence to by law or human command, to the Friend it became as the apple of his eye, and no power on earth could require its violation. They obeyed the law which demanded their appearance at court on an unrighteous charge, or which detained them in a jail with open doors, when the authorities evidently hoped to be rid by inadvertence of a troublesome prisoner, but the conventicle act interfering with their religious worship had no validity for them. Deprived on trifling pretenses of all the rights of Englishmen, they never in an age of plotting did anything to justify the government in any suspicions as to their loyalty; but the legal requirement of an oath of allegiance was refused with the assurance of perfect rectitude. "Where we can not actually obey we patiently suffer," says William Penn, and such was their consistent attitude.

It is surprising that a people so just as the English have generally proved themselves to be should have consented for so long a time to the severe persecutions of these pacific, conscientious

fellow-citizens. It was very easy in those days to find excuses legal and otherwise to fine and imprison them. They would not pay tithes to support a religion of which they disapproved, and hence incurred the enmity of the ecclesiastical Presbyterians and Independents of the Commonwealth, and the ecclesiastical Episcopalians of the later Stuarts. Their goods were distrained in extravagant amounts, and they brought into court. Once there it was very easy to fine them for contempt for not removing the hat and to send them to jail till the fine was paid, which it would never be with their cor.sent; or to require them to take an oath of allegiance, always in order, which would result in a similar imprisonment. The Conventicle act of the reign of Charles II., prohibiting more than five persons outside the resident family to meet together except according to the forms of the Church of England, they most persistently disobeyed, and went wholesale to jail, to be followed next meeting day by the children, who kept up the assemblies, in the meeting houses, on their ruins, or in the street as near as the officers' presence would permit.*

After explaining how easy it was to break up the wor

The foulness of the dungeons into which they were cast, the cruelties of jailers, the impoverish

ship of other denominations by abstracting some of their machinery, Masson says: "Not so a Quakers' meeting, where men and women were worshipping with their hearts and without implements, in silence as well as in speech. You may break in upon them, hoot at them, roar at them, drag them about; the meeting, if it is of any size, essentially still goes on till all the component individuals are murdered. Throw them out of the door in twos and threes, and they but re-enter at the window, and quietly resume their places. Pull their meeting-house down, and they re-assemble next day most punctually amid the broken walls and rafters. Shovel sand or earth upon them, and there they still sit, a sight to see, musing immovably among the rubbish. This is no description from fancy. It was the actual practice of the Quakers all over the country. They held their meetings regularly, perseveringly, and without the least concealment, keeping the doors of their meeting-houses purposely open, that all might enter, informers, constables, or soldiers, and do whatever they chose. In fact, the Quakers behaved magnificently. By their peculiar method of open violation of the law, and passive resistance only, they rendered a service to the common cause of all nonconformist sects which has never been sufficiently acknowledged. The authorities had begun to fear them as a kind of supernatural folk, and knew not what to do with them, but cram them into gaols, and let them lie there. In fact, the gaols in those days were less places of punishment for criminals than receptacles for a great proportion of what was bravest and most excellent in the manhood and womanhood of England."-Masson's "Life of John Milton and History of His Time," VI., 587-8.

"We shall engage by God's assistance to lead peaceable, just and industrious lives amongst men, to the good and