THE

CHRISTIAN EXAMINER

AND

RELIGIOUS MISCELLANY.

JULY, 1856.

A. Clarke,

ART. I.-THE PROGRESSIVE FRIENDS.*

THE secession from the Friends which has taken the above name in Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio, has become sufficiently important to deserve notice. There is also something interesting in the fact of this development of Quakerism on its reformatory and progressive side.

The early Quaker movement was an extraordinary one. Consider how much it included in itself. It was the most radical enterprise ever yet undertaken, — a rebellion without parallel against Church and State. It was at once a spiritual movement, aiming at a loftier piety, a theological movement, seeking a broader creed, a reform movement, aiming at the overthrow of war, slavery, and public evils, a social movement, seeking to inaugurate a better mode of life.

It would be easy, were it necessary, to justify this

1. Minutes and Proceedings of the Green-Plain Yearly Meeting of Friends, who have adopted the Congregational Order of Church Government. 1849-1851. 2. Address to Friends of Genesee Yearly Meeting. 1848.

3. Proceedings of Annual Meeting of Congregational Friends, Waterloo, N. Y. 1849, 1850, 1851, 1852, 1853.

4. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Friends of Human Progress, Waterloo, N. Y. 1854 and 1855.

5. Proceedings of Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends. 1854 and 1855.

VOL. LX. 4TH S. VOL. XXVI. NO. I.

1

statement with ample proofs, taken from the writings of the early Friends. The spiritual character of their system showed itself in their doctrine of the inward light. Like the mystics of every age and every church, like William Law and Madame Guion, like Erigena and St. Bernard, like Bonaventura, Tauler, and Gerson, they taught a substantial and immediate communion with God; they believed that religion consists in the immanence of God in the soul, and religious faith in recognizing this immanence. Dissatisfied both with the formalism of the Church of England and the dogmatism of the Puritans, the founder of Quakerism sought for a more substantial and interior religion through a direct communion with God, for which the mediation of the Church and the creed were not essential. Barclay says, that "where the true inward knowledge of God is, through the revelation of his Spirit, there is all; neither is there an absolute necessity of any other." This faith in the constant presence of the Comforter in the soul created a piety more vital and profound than that of the surrounding churches. But it naturally led at once to a reformed theology. The new Life in the soul was also a new Light. Every doctrine of the Church was attacked by it; for though the Friends did not make it their direct aim to reform theology, this was a natural consequence of their fundamental principle. It modified their view of human depravity, of the atonement, of the Trinity. In practical affairs, the Quaker movement immediately showed itself as a very radical reform. It attacked all social customs. It refused to take oaths, and so seemed to shake the foundation of society as upheld by government and united by law. It rejected public worship of the usual sort, renounced baptism and the Lord's Supper, denied the duty of keeping the Sabbath, rejected a clergy as a class distinguished from the laity, and so seemed to shake the foundations of the Christian Church. It refused to conform to social usages of dress and address, kept on its hat in the presence of dignitaries, said Thee and Thou, and thus displeased the whole community. It refused to fight, would pay no tax for the support of war, and so seemed to renounce patriotism and the defence of one's country. Before there was any Antislavery Society, the Quaker,

1856.]

Origin of the Movement.

3

preached against slavery; before there was any Prisoner's Friend Society, he sought to abolish capital punishment and imprisonment for debt; before there was a Peace Society, he renounced war; before there was a Woman's Rights Society, he placed woman on a level with man, and called on them to speak in his meeting, and to preach in public. Thus radical and broad was the movement of the early Quakers. It really involved in itself almost every subsequent reform.

But however free the first movement of any religious sect or party may be, it is apt very soon to stiffen and harden into a routine. That which was first done from an inward impulse, continues to be done as a matter of form. By and by the body which at first rejoiced in its individual character, and loved its separate existence, begins to desire to be again like others. Of late years the Quakers in England and the United States have cultivated Orthodoxy. Many of them, receding from the early doctrine of their founders, conform much more nearly to the popular theology in regard to the inspiration of the Bible, the Trinity, and the atonement. This naturally led to a reaction in the opposite direction. The movement of Elias Hicks turned more particularly upon the question of the Trinity and Unity, but presently led to other things, and among the rest to the progressive religious movement of which we have now to speak. Originating with the Hicksite Friends, it now embraces many persons hitherto belonging to other sects and to no sect, who have associated together on a pretty distinctly defined platform of perfect freedom of religious opinion, and united action in regard to personal improvement and active usefulness. From a gentleman connected with the body from the first, we have the following account of its origin.

"The whole matter may be summed up in a few words. The Friends, like every other sect, have been divided in spirit into two classes, viz. :— - 1. The Conservatives, the ruling party, those who strenuously resisted all radical changes; who glorified the fathers, adhering more closely to the letter than to the spirit of their works; who compromised the former testimonies of the Society against slavery, and resisted by all possible means the antislavery movement, and other and kindred efforts for the amelioration of popular customs, laws, and institutions. 2. The

Reformers, more especially the Antislavery Reformers,who struggled earnestly to assist the Society in practical labors for the overthrow of slavery. The latter, in many cases, were made to feel the rod of ecclesiastical proscription and outlawry. Conservative Quaker preachers denominated Abolitionists as irreligious and worldly men, whose purpose it was to destroy the ancient landmarks. The disownment of Isaac T. Hopper (see his Life by Mrs. Child), and of that sweet-spirited and deeply religious man, Charles Marriott, in New York, for the offence of belonging to the American Antislavery Society, may be taken as an example of what was done by the rulers in the Quakers' Israel in different parts of the country. The said rulers maintained that the Quakers were a 'select people,' and that it was a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the Dis. cipline, for members to unite with those not Friends in works of charity and reform. They were allowed, however, without molestation, to join political parties, and such benevolent associations as brought fame and reputation to the Society. The rule was applied only to those who went into unpopular reforms. The contest between these parties went on, until the Reformers were compelled to choose between dishonorable submission to ecclesiastical tyranny, and the organization of new associations. The form of organization which prevailed among the Friends afforded many facilities for the exercise of despotic authority. The Yearly Meetings have full power over the Discipline, and to them the Quarterly Meetings were held directly responsible, while the Monthly Meetings, in their turn, were answerable to the Quarterly.

"The first movement for a new organization was made by the Friends of Green-Plain Quarterly Meeting, in Ohio. This meeting was a part of the Indiana Yearly Meeting, which brought the whole weight of its power upon it to compel submission. The Reformers constituted a very large majority of this Quarterly Meeting, and, thus pressed, they took refuge in a new organization, framing it upon Congregational principles, that is, giving each local congregation full power to manage its own affairs, and holding larger meetings only for good fellowship and union in philanthropic and religious objects. This meeting was formed, I think, in 1848, and its name and style was GreenPlain Yearly Meeting of Friends who have adopted the Congregational Order of Church Government.' Owing to extensive emigration to the West, this meeting is now extinct, though some of the local congregations sympathizing therewith yet remain.

"Next in order comes the Waterloo Yearly Meeting of Congregational Friends.