CHAPTER 2 The Light Within as Experienced
When a so-called
"public Friend" stood up to convince hishearers of the Truth, his
objective was to persuade them to wait upon the Lord, to experience directly and
immediately the life and power of God brought to bear upon their souls.
This was the objective of the Friends meeting for worship to which he directed
his hearers. The speaker pointed out the emptiness of outward forms, rituals, creeds, hymns, sacred books and
sermons when they were not immediate and sincere embodiments of an inward
spirit. These forms, when prescribed in advance and independent of the
inward spirit, become a
second-hand
religion, that is, a religion based on the experience of others. An
example of the typé of preaching which created the Society of Friends is
found in Margaret Fell's account of her convincement by George Fox who came to
the church which she was attending:
The next day being a
lecture, or a fast-day, he [Fox] went to Ulver-stone steeple-house, but came
not in till people were gathered; I and my children had been a long time there
before. And when they were singing before the sermon, he came in; and when they
had done singing, he stood up upon a seat or form, and desired that he might
have liberty to speak; and he that was in the pulpit said he might. And the
first words that he spoke were as followeth:
"He is not a Jew
that i one outward; neither is that circumcision which is outward;
but he is Jew that is one inward; and that is circumcision which is of
the heart. And so he went on, and said, how that Christ was the Light of
th world, and lighteth every man that cometh into the world; and
that by this light they might be gathered to God, &c. I stood up in m' pew
and wondered at his doctrine; for I had never heard such before And then he
went on, and opened the Scriptures, and said, "the Scriptures were the
prophets' words, and Christ's and the apostle., [16] words, and
what, as they spoke, they enjoyed and possessed, and had it from the
Lord": and said, "then what had any to do with the Scriptures,
but as they came to the Spirit that gave them forth? You will say, Christ saith this and
the apostles say this but what canst thou say?
Art thou a child of Light, and hast thou walked in the Light, and what thou
speakest, is it inwardly from God?" &c. This opened me so, that it cut me to the heart; and then I
saw clearly we were all wrong. So I sat down in my pew again, and cried
bitterly: and I cried in my spirit, to the Lord, "We are all thieves;
we are all thieves; we
have taken the Scriptures in words, and know nothing of them in
ourselves." So that served me, that I cannot well tell what he
spoke afterwards; but he went on in declaring against the false prophets, and
priests, and deceivers of the people.'
In
other words, the writers of the Scriptures possessed what they professed. Why
do we lean on them when we might have the same experience for ourselves, when
we might experience Christ himself who is the Light of the world? It is he
who shines in our hearts.
The
Protestants rejected the authority of the Church. Instead they set up the
authority of the Bible as the source of religious truth. Over and gone, they
believed, were the days of prophets and apostles, when God spoke directly to
man. Religious worship consisted of hearing what God had said long ago and of
expositions of the inspired written word. The Protestant preacher exhorted the congregation to
have faith in the truth of the Bible and to obey its commands. The service was
essentially pedagogical, a kind of sacred school where a lecture was delivered
on God's plan of salvation for men. Assurance was given that if that
plan were accepted through faith, salvation would follow.
The
Quakers had a different conception. The Spirit of God which gave forth the Scriptures was still at work, as
they believed, in the human heart. It was more important to hear what He was saying directly
to them than what He once said centuries ago. Worship consisted in waiting upon
the Lord to hear His voice and to feel His power. Rituals, books, words
and songs which were at one time vital expressions no longer for the most part
retained their vitality. They were not necessarily expressions of the
experience of the worshiper. Quaker
worship was designed [17] to prevent
the substitution of form for Spirit by omitting forms established in
advance of the time of worship and presenting an opportunity, in the silence
of waiting, for the Spirit to appear in whatever form it chose to take.
What that form would be no one could predict. "The wind blows where it
wills and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or
whither it goes, so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John
3:8).
The
public Friend, in addressing those of his hearers who were waiting on him and
not on the Lord, could not appeal to an experience which they had not achieved.
He could, however, appeal to the Scriptures which they for the most part
accepted as supreme authority in matters of religion. There he could find much
which was suited to his purpose. Both the religion of the prophets of the Old
Testament and the religion of the early Christian Church were based, not on
form and tradition, but, in the case of the prophets, on immediate experience
of the voice of God in the soul, or, in the case of the early church, on the renewing and resurrecting power of
the Christ Within. "The
new man, Christ Within," was the central concept and experience which
created the early Church. Whatever the first Christians may have
believed about Christ's second coming in the flesh, the feeling that he continued with them in Spirit was the vitalizing,
energizing factor which gave them life and power.
It was to John and
Paul that the Quaker preachers most often turned. John's
"doctrine that Christ is the Word of God by which the world was created,
the Light that lighteth every man, the Bread of Life which comes down from
heaven, the Way, the Truth and the Life, the well of water within springing up
into Eternal Life, the Vine of which we are all branches, the Resurrection
and the Life, these figures fitted perfectly into the Quaker theme. True
religion is Life, not blind adherence to a particular doctrine or a special
form.
Paul's language was equally apposite; "walk as children of
light" (Eph. 5:8), or his word to the Thessalonians,
l "Ye are all the children of
light" (I
Thess. 5:5), gave the Quakers one of their names.
l "If any man have not the
spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Rom. 8:9).
l "Because you are sons, God
hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts" (Gal. 4:6).
l "When it pleased God.. . to
reveal his Son in me" (Gal. 1:15, 16).
These texts were
frequently used. Paul
thought of this Inward Light as God or Christ or Spirit, not just one person in
a Trinity.
l "Ye are the temple of the
living God" (II Cor. 6:16).
l "God who commanded the
Light to shine out of darkness 'bath shined in our hearts" (II Cor. 4:6).
l "If so be that the Spirit of
God dwell in you" (Rom. 8:9).
l "The manifestation of the
spirit is given to every man to profit withal" (I Cor. 12:7).
0 The following quotations are taken from the King
James Version as being in the form in which the Quakers used them.
[18]
There is no single New Testament
doctrine which designates just what this experience of Christ within, or God
within, or Spirit within, meant in terms of systematic theology or philosophy. There are differences in the
conceptions of John, Paul, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the
Synoptic Gospels, James, and the writers of the Epistles of Peter.
Similar differences appear in the writings of the early Friends. They were not
Trinitarians in the usual sense of that word. The word "Trinity"
seldom occurs in their writings, except when they remark that it is not a word which
is found in the Bible. In their thought God was not divided; God is One.
He becomes manifest in
various ways. In the Old Testament He appeared as Father, in the Gospels
as Son and since the Gospel
days as Spirit, revealing His will in the hearts of those who heed His
voice. As Light Within He
manifests Himself as Father, Son and Spirit.
Barclay
says:
By this seed, grace, and word of God and light wherewith we say everyone
is enlightened . . . we understand a spiritual, heavenly, invisible principle in
which God as Father, Son and Spirit dwells, a measure of which divine and
glorious life is in all men as a seed which of its own nature draws, invites and
inclines to God.'
Barclay's
chapter on "The Universal and Saving Light" is an evidence of
real scholarship. He draws not only on the Bible, but also on the Church
Fathers and early leaders of the Reformation. As a treatise it is too
analytical and systematic to give a full impression of how this Light was
actually felt when it dawned upon Friends as they waited upon the Lord in
silence. For them it was not an intellectual, theological concept, but a living
expe-rience it was inevitable and necessary that in defending them‑[19] selves
against their enemies who left nothing untried to strangle the new movement,
the early Quakers should have rationalized their experience and made an effort
to explain it, but in writing to one another they spoke as they felt. Fox's
pastoral epistles contain a convincing account of the Light first meant to Friends. -
All friends everywhere in the Power of God dwell . . for that brings all
your souls into peace,
into oneness, into God. [Ep. 104, 1655]
Keep in the Power and
know the Power of God in one another that out of all dryness and barrenness ye
may be brought. .. . And when ye are met together in the Light, hearken to it that ye may
feel the Power of Cod in every one of you . . . ye that feel the Power of God,
ye feel Christ for Christ is the Power of God. [Ep. 130, 1656]
It is this Power, Fox shows, which creates the Fellowship.
The Mystery of the
Fellowship is known-which is in the Power. For want of the
Power, the Gospel, in which is the Fellowship, hath Christendom been in heaps.
. . and ye who are in the Power of God, ye are in the Mystery of the
Fellowship. [Ep. 169, 1658]
In the Power of God is the Fellowship of the Cross which keeps over all
the Fellowships in the world. [Ep. 216, 1662]
And to all Nations of mankind the Everlasting Gospel, the Power of God
is to be preached, through which Life and Immortality shall 'come to Light, in
which Power is the Fellowship. Therefore, this is the Word of the Lord God
to you all. Those that are convinced by the Power of the Lord God and the
Light, let them dwell in it, in which they may have unity. [Ep. 189, 1659]
Abuse not the Power, in which is the Gospel-Fellowship which will keep
all in Unity. [Ep. 228, 1663]
And wait in the Light for Power to remove the earthly part.. . that with
the Light your minds may be kept up to God, who is Pure, and in it ye may all
have unity who in the Light of Life do walk. [Ep. 49, 1653]
These
passages reveal the
secret at the heart of the early Quaker movement In the
group "standing still in the Light" [20] (Ep. 10, 1652), there emerged fellowship, unity and power. As when
carbon and oxygen are brought together and the temperature sufficiently
raised, there is a sudden unification of the two and a great increase in
energy, so in the gathered worshiping group whenhearts were opened toward
the Primal Source of unity, the members became fused together. There was a
heightened sense of life, fellowship and power. The gifts of the Spirit, the
charismata, are poured out upon the group which is able to realize the divine
Presence. The Inward
Christ is the unifying power.
l "In Him all things hold
together" (Col. 1:17).
l "He is our peace who . hath broken down the
middle wall of partition" (Eph. 2:14).
Fox
is never tired of repeating that in the Light there is Unity, and out of the Light there is
strife, discord and "jangling," to quote a favorite word.
[The Light is] the Word of Life, the Word of Peace, the
Word of Reconciliation which makes of twain one new man and if ye do
abide there, there is no division but unity in the life.. . Therefore, in the
Light wait where the Unity is, where the peace is, where the Oneness with the
Father and Son is, where there is no Rent nor Division. [Ep. 115, 1656]
This is the whole basis of the
peace doctrine of the Society of Friends, peace within the individual
and peace in society.
In
these Epistles of Fox we find many names for the Light. It is
l the Witness of God (Ep. 208),
l the Bread of Life (Ep. 211),
l the Royal Seed (Ep. 211),
l The Vine (Ep. 215),
l the Wisdom,
l sweet,
l cool and pure (Ep. 242),
l the Springs of Life opened to you (Ep. 38),
l the Truth's Voice (Ep. 222),
l your Habitation in the Power of the Lord God (Ep. 246),
l that of God in every one (Ep. 182),
l that of God in all consciences (Ep. 114),
l The Heavenly Dignity (Ep. 313),
l that Love which bears all things (Ep. 336),
l Truth in the inward parts (Ep. 186)
—the
list could be extended indefinitely.
The
variety of these designations shows that George Fox had no consistent system of philosophy or theology
into which he could fit his doctrine of the Light Within. Surprisingly enough,
nevertheless, he had more
of a philosophy than a theology, [21] though his philosophy was arrived at by feeling and
intuition rather than by systematic thinking.
To
Fox, the universe apparently consisted of two kinds of existences, variously
designated —
l Substance and Shadow,
l Eternity and Time,
l Unity and Multiplicity, or
l Life and Form.
The
object of religion was to bring men out of the second into the first or up to
the first, as Fox usually expresses Light was the Life which went out of Substance,
Eternity, Unity down into Shadow, Time, Multiplicity and
by its
uplifting Power drew men to the higher type of Being which existed
before the lower type of Being existed and which would continue to be
after the lower had disappeared.
There
is much in Fox's letters and other writings to indicate that he was master of
some such philosophical view of the universe.
As prophet, Fox followed the Hebrew tradition, bearing witness
to the personal God whose prophets are instruments through
which He utters his voice and works His will.
As philosopher, Fox foIlowed the Hellenic tradition, apprehending the inner
Unity which exists beyond time and space, Real as compared with the
phenomenal world, One as contrasted with the multiplicity recognized by
the senses.
It
is this inner Unity which generates in the outer world of strife and disunity
whatever there is of peace and harmony. When Fox first declared in 1650 that he
lived in the virtue of that life and power that takes away the occasion of all
wars,3 he meant that his life was centered in this Eternal Being:
And central Peace
subsisting at the Heart Of endless agitation.
So established, he was clear of
the world of haste, struggle and contention.
In
his early letters Fox speaks of the Light as that "which guides out
of many things into one Spirit," advising his friends "to keep in the
Oneness . . to guide and preserve all in the Unity of the Spirit
and the Bond of Peace" (Ep. 24, 1652). "The Light of God is but
one" (Ep. 25, 1653).
Friends
never used the term "spark" for the Inward Light as some other
mystics have done. Spark or Sparkle might imply that the Light was divided, a
part being in one person and part in another.
There
was but [22] one Light. The nearer all come to it, the nearer they come to one
another, like radii of a circle when they approach the center, to use a figure
from Plotinus. Fox writes in his Journal for the year 1648, near the beginning of his ministry:
Great things did the Lord lead me into and wonderful depths were opened
unto me beyond what can by words be declared; but as people come into
subjection to the Spirit of God and grow up in the image and power of the
Almighty, they may receive the Word of Wisdom that opens all things and come to
know the hidden unity in the Eternal Being.'
Coming
to know this "hidden unity" is to come into the state in which Adam was before he fell.
The fall of Adam was a
fall from unity to multiplicity. As for George Fox, he felt that he had
come to know "a more steadfast state than Adam's innocency,"
even the "state in Christ that should never fall." Adam's sinless
state was based on innocency. When he was tempted he fell. But Christ's sinless state was based
on resistance to temptation. This, therefore, remains stable. To reach
that state Fox had come "up in the Spirit through the flaming sword into
the paradise of God." He had reached the center of things from which he
says, "The creation was opened unto me."
This
"unity in the Eternal Being" is substance as compared with the external
changing world of shadow.
See if you do find something in your understandings made manifest, which
is Eternal, to guide your minds out of all external things which wither away
and fade. [Ep. 19, 1652]
In that dwell which doth bring out of the Shadows, types, traditions.
[Ep. 72, 1654]
So over all the world ye may stand in the Light which doth it comprehend
and condemn, and with it ye may witness to the end of shadows. [Ep. 78, 16541
All Friends take heed of running on in a form lest ye do lose the Power,
but keep in the Power and Seed of God, in which ye will live in the Substance.
[Ep. 178, 1659]
All know one another in Him who is the Substance. [Ep. 166, 1658] [23]
And so ye living in the
unchangeable Life and Light, ye see Christ, that does not change, but ends all
changeable things, types, figures, shadows. . . . Therefore in the Power of the
Lord God . . . live in which is the perfect fellowship which was before
imperfection was. [Ep. 221, 16621
In the inner world there is an eternal and changeless aspect to life, mind
and spirit.
In that live that doth not change, the unchangeable Life, the unchangeable
Mind, the unchangeable Spirit and Wisdom, and the unchangeable worship and
church of which Christ is the unchangeable head. [Ep. 200, 1661]
This existed before our changeable world of strife and shadow and will
exist after it. Fox seldom mentions the Light without bringing out its priority
in time to the created world. It was the Light or Word by which the world was
created (John 1:1).
Stand fast in the Unchangeable Life and Seed of God which was before all
changings and alterings were and which will remain when all that is gone. [Ep.
76, 1654]
Ye that be turned to the Light
walk in the Light . . . that never changeth, ye may come to see that
which was in the beginning before the world was, where there is no shadow nor
darkness. [Ep. 105, 1655]
For this Light was
before Time and is in Time. [Ep. 111, 1656]
Receive the living food from God to nourish you in time with that which
was before time. [Ep. 122, 1656]
In that live which was
before enmity was. [Ep. 147, 16571
Keep your minds in the strength of the Almighty and not in Weakness nor
in the infirmities but in the Lord's Power which was before weakness and
infirmities were. [Ep. 159, 16581
Out of such passages we can
construct a fairly consistent _philosophy of the Inward Light. No other early Quaker writer is
so expilicit, unless perhaps Isaac Penington, who also compares the
Light to substance as
contrasted with shadow.5
At the heart of things of things
is a Being whose characteristics are Unity, Substance, Life, Peace, Power,
Light, and who is eternal and changeless. From Him there streams into this
temporal world of shadow, [24] strife,
multiplicity and change His own Unity, Life, Peace, Power, Light (to use but a
few of the names) in order to transform this lower world into His own likeness.
Christ is this 'Power of
God" (Ep. 184, 186), this "Wisdom of God" (Ep. 247), the Way,
the Truth and the Life, which continually goes out from God to create and redeem this world.
This became fully embodied in Jesus of Nazareth.
He is your prophet, your
shepherd, your bishop, your priest in the midst of you to open to you and to
sanctify you and to feed you with Life and to quicken you with Life. [Ep. 288, 1672]
----------
The Dark World -- Deceit
These
are the main outlines of the picture as it seems to have existed in the mind of
George Fox, but something more must be emphasized to complete the delineation.
The Dark World is beneath the World of Light. This Dark World does not lack
reality, as is the case in some systems of thought which bear a certain
resemblance to the system which Fox worked out, but which may be said to be
less realistic. The phrase "shadow world" might be used, but, as
Penington points out, the shadow is a real shadow" and no illusion of the
mind. Throughout Fox's writings there appears a constant reference to that
which is contrary to the Light, a real opposing power which man is free to
choose instead of choosing the Power which comes from God.
All ye whose Minds are turned with the Light towards Jesus Christ, from
whence it comes, in it wait that with it ye may all see Jesus and all that
condemned which is contrary to it. [Ep. 90, 1655]
My dear hearts in the Seed dwell . . . that all the contrary may be kept
under. [Ep. 95, 1655]
Beware of striving in thy own will against Eternal Providence and Power
which is now working invisibly, cross and contrary to all the Powers of
Darkness. [Ep. 97, 16551
In which Seed shine, answering the Witness of God in every one which
bruises the earthly part under . . . and all the contrary. [Ep. 109, 1656]
All men's and women's strength is in the Power of God which goes over
the Power of Darkness. [Ep. 208, 1661]
[25]
In His Life wait to receive Power to bind and chain all down which is
contrary to Truth. [Ep. 156, 16581
Therefore, keep in the Power of the Lord which will keep all the
contrary down and out. [Ep. 180, 16591
A word often used by Friends for
this "contrary" was "Deceit," because it was contrary to
truth.
Confound the Deceit and bring the Truth over the heads of the heathen.
[Ep. 87, 1655]
That the dread and terror of the Lord may be among you and Deceit
confounded. [Ep. 96, 16551
And ye all walking in this Light, it will bring you to all plainness and
singleness of speech which will make the Deceit to tremble. [Ep. 111, 1656]
The Lord God of Power give thee Wisdom, Courage, Manhood and Boldness to
thresh down all Deceit. [Ep. 113, 16561
That . . . ye may be carried along to minister to all the Spirits
imprisoned by the Deceit. [Ep. 114, 1656]
Gervase
Benson writing to George Fox from London in 1653 says:
Pray to the Lord for me, that I may be kept in all faithfulness; with
boldness to bear witness
to the Truth against all deceits.6
The nature of Deceit is also made
clear in a letter from Anthony Pearson:
I find my heart is full of deceit, and I exceedingly fear to be beguiled
(as I have been) and to be seduced into a form without power, into a profession
before I possess the Truth.'
Deceit is a state of form without power. The Quakers believed that the
Christian Church of the seventeenth century had slipped into that condition. To be dependent on outward
forms—bap-tism, communion, singing, "preaching by the clock," and the
formal acceptance of
creeds as a condition of salvation, was to remain in the shadow world of time,
change and all that is contrary to the Light. This world of form was a
real world, but it was a
"deceit" in the sense that the form did not represent what [26] it professed to represent. The
common Quaker designation of Christians who did not wait upon the Light was professor
in Contrast to "possessor."
This contrast is an ancient, ever-continuing differentiation made by prophet, mystic and reformer who lay the emphasis on the inward life rather than on the outward form. "To obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams" (I Sam. 15:22); "Incense is an abomination unto me" (Isa. 1:13) are examples of a cry which goes out from the prophets all through the Old Testament. And Christ's complaint of the Pharisees as whited sepulchers [a hypocrite.] inwardly filled with dead men's bones renews the same indictment.
The world of appearance and the world of reality, however we may distinguish between them from a metaphysical point of view, are different.
Deceit arises when appearance takes
the place of reality instead of being a genuine and sincere expression of
it. In preaching this doctrine, the Quakers were delivering no new
message. What was new was the creation of a religious practice in which the form was more unlikely
than usual to take the place of the reality.
To
wait upon the Lord in silence can, of course, become formal, but silent waiting
commits no one to any action or expression which is not a sincere outcome of
inward life and thought. If silent waiting becomes a form, the participant
generally knows it, especially if, as sometimes happens even in the best
Quaker meetings, he should
fall asleep.
As
Barclay says of Quaker worshiping:
It is impossible for the enemy, namely the devil, to counterfeit it so
as for any soul to be deceived or deluded by him in the exercise thereof. . . .
He can accompany the priest to the altar, the preacher to the pulpit, the
zealot to his prayers, yea, the doctor and professor of divinity to his study.
. . when the soul comes to this silence and as it were is brought to
nothingness as to her own workings, then the devil is shut out.8
Barclay admits
that the devil "is not wanting to come to our assemblies" but
he has a more difficult
task in a Quaker meeting than elsewhere, for there is no set form of
activity which can be gone through in a routine way and so take the place of
inspired activity.
[27]
====
The
phrase "up to" or "on top of" which Fox often uses in speaking of the Inward Light,
refers, not to any position in space, but rather to the Light as highest in
nature, value and power. In one of his earliest openings he says:
I saw. . . there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite
ocean of light and love which flowed over the ocean of darkness.'
A few quotations from the Epistles will indicate this quality of
the Light as being "over" or guiding "up to."
Wait in the measure of the Spirit of God to guide you up to God, and
keep you all in peace and unity. [Ep. 70, 1654]
That which is new, that mind to guide all your minds up to the living God.
[Ep. 77, 1654]
Walk in the
Truth and the love of it up to God. [Ep. 79, 16541
Keep a-top of
that which will cumber the mind. [Ep. 86, 16551
Take heed of being hurried with many thoughts but live in that which
goes over them all. [Ep. 95, 1655]
As the Life of God doth arise, it will lead ycu up to God. [Ep. 114,
1656]
Keep your feet upon the top of the mountains and sound deep to the
witness of Cod in every man. [Ep. 195, 1660]
Mind the Light and dwell in it and it will keep you a-top of all the
world. [Ep. 203, 1661]
Let your minds and souls and hearts be kept above all outward and
visible things. [Ep. 283, 1670]
In
Fox's Journal, whenever he encountered an obstacle his effort was to get
"a-top of it." This sense of the Light as an elevating, uplifting
Power was primary. Frequently it is referred to as the Topstone (Ep. 84, 109,
121, 164).
===
Another
characteristic of the Light is its bestowal on each man "in a
measure." This does not mean that the whole Truth is not accessible to
every person, but rather the obvious fact that some persons apprehend more of
the Truth than do others. Returning to Fox's letters as our primary source, we
find such expressions as the following:
[28]
Mind the pure Life of God in you according to your measures to guide you
up to God. [Ep. 69, 16541
All Friends wait in the measure of the Spirit of God to guide you up to God. [Ep. 70, 1654]
Friends in the measure of the Life of God wait to guide your minds up to
the Father of Life where there is no shadow or changing. [Ep. 77, 16541
Wait in the measure of the Life of God, in it to grow up in Love, in
Virtue and in Immortality, in that which doth not fade, which joins and unites
your hearts together. [Ep. 77, 1654]
Dwell in the measure which God hath given you of himself, in which is no
Strife but unity. [Ep. 94, 1655]
Let no Friends go beyond their own measure given them of God, nor
rejoice in another man's line made ready to their hands. [Ep. 118, 1656]
If we are faithful to our measure of Light, we shall be guided up toward God, and up to a greater measure of the Truth.
To go beyond our measure and imitate
persons who have a greater measure than we have, is to be deceitful and to
represent ourselves as something more than we are.
l To take a specific example of the use of this conception, the Quakers
have all along considered participation in war to be unchristian.
l Nevertheless, if a man feels that his conscience urges him to fight, he must be faithful to the measure of Light he has, however small this may be.
If
he is really faithful and if he waits upon the Lord so as to sensitize himself
to the reception of more Light, a greater measure will be given him. He will
eventually come to see the error of all fighting.
l In his first state he would be a
coward if he did not fight;
l in his second state he would be a
coward if he did fight.
===
"answering,"
Another
characteristic of the Light, which is realized more by actual experience than
by any theory about it, is indicated by the use of the word "answering,"
which often occurs in Fox's writings. To Friends in Barbadoes he writes:
Be faithful and spread the Truth abroad and walk in the Wisdom of Cod
answering that of God
in every one. [Ep. 186, 1659]
[29]
Elsewhere,
he encourages "Friends beyond the Seas":
Do the work of the Lord, faithfully and ye will feel it prosper, answering that of God in every one.
[Ep. 182, 1659]
And to Friends in New
England who had opportunities to preach to the Indians:
,Answer
the Witness of God, in every man, whether they are the heathen that do not profess
Christ, or whether they are such as do profess Christ that have the form of
godliness and be out of the Power. [Ep. 292, 16721
,The most famous passage in which this concept occurs is found in a letter written from
prison to "Friends in the ministry":
This is the word of the Lord God to you all and a charge to you all in
the presence of the living God: be patterns, be examples in all countries, places,
islands, nations, wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all
sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering
that of God in every one.10.)
It was the responsibility of
the Quaker preachers to "answer that of God in every one,"
that is, 'appeal to the same Light of God in their hearers which they felt in
themselves, confident that this Light would lead them to the same Truth. Fox says of his ministry that
"he took them to their guide and left them there." For him, preaching was to bring
"people to the end of all preaching."" According to the Quaker
theory, it would be impossible to convince anyone of the Truth unless he
already had the divine Seed of Truth within him. That of God in the hearer
must answer that of God in the speaker. If this does not occur, the response of
the hearer is "in the form but not in the power."
This "answering that of
God in every one" is the basis, not only of the Quakers' welfare
work in general, but of their whole theory of social behavior.
We cannot "answer that of
God in every one" by any form of violence, physical or psychological, for
violence moves only the external flesh and not the internal spirit. But if we
feel that even in the most evil of men there is that of God, we can appeal to
it, and we may, though we are [30] never sure of success, reach it and set in
motion a process of transformation from within.
Fox's
epistles, formless, and rhapsodical though they often are, present a reasonably
consistent theory of the nature of the Light and the way in which it operates
in man, a theory obviously derived from experience rather than from any process
of logical reasoning. The Light, as experienced in personal form, may appear
as Father, Son or Holy Spirit—God is not divided. In a less personal form it
appears as Truth, Substance, Life, Power, as opposed to Deceit,
Shadow, Form without Power. As Truth and Substance, it shines down from a
world higher than our world of Deceit and Shadow, and guides us up toward
itself. This higher world is eternal. It existed before our world of time and
will outlast it. The higher world is a world of unity and peace as compared to
our lower world of multiplicity and strife. The Light is a principle of unity
which creates the fellowship of those who expose themselves to it. More than
that, the Light, in proportion to the measure of it which is granted, is a
source of Power by which those who follow it may create unity, not only in their
own fellowship, but by "answering that of God in every one."
