George Fox, 400 years later
What may the journal of the founding Quaker say to Quakers and the world today?
George Fox was born in 1624, 400 years ago. Who was George Fox? He is the name and face of the movement that became ‘The Religious Society of Friends’ otherwise known as Quakers.
I am not particularly into names but I felt challenged when I heard the Quaker World Office encouraging Friends to mark the anniversary. I have a copy of his journal (Everyman’s Library 1948) so I began to read.
In the opening pages, we read of a young man who was in search of the truth. He did not find it where he thought and ultimately had to find it for himself.
Speak to my condition
In the first few pages (page 8), the phrase that stands out and I still hear amongst Quakers today is ‘speak to my condition’. Fox found nothing that spoke to him from the established Church of England to the various non-conformist groups that had emerged in England by the 17th century. It required a direct encounter with Jesus for Fox to be set on his path.
Now after I had received that opening from the Lord that to be bred at Oxford or Cambridge was not sufficient to fit a man to be a minister of Christ, I regarded the priests less and looked more after the dissenting people… As I had forsaken all the priests, so I left the separate preachers also, and those called the most experienced people; for I saw there was none among them all that could speak to my condition. And when all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do, then, oh then, I heard a voice which said, ‘There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition’, and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy. Then the Lord did let me see why there was none upon the earth that could speak to my condition, namely, that I might give him all the glory; for all are concluded under sin, and shut up in unbelief as I had been, that Jesus Christ might have the pre-eminence who enlightens, and gives grace, and faith, and power. Thus, when God doth work who shall let [i.e. hinder] it? And this I knew experimentally.
Fox and I have in common that my faith journey also began with an encounter with Jesus. If I think about the initial encounter as a nine-year-old it was a belief in Jesus that later became and is an ongoing encounter with Jesus.
Equality
On page 14 we read of Fox passing through fields and deciding to go to Leicester to join with others in discussions. A woman asked a question and the priest did not permit her to speak due to her gender. Fox wrote,
“ For the woman asking a question, he ought to have answered it, having given liberty for any to speak.”
I reminded myself this was 1648. The Religious Society of Friends the organisation that came about due to Fox permitted women to speak at meetings.
A mighty power of God
Fox makes references to the power of God, one example is recorded on page 16
“At Eton, a town near Derby, there was a meeting of Friends, where appeared such a mighty power of God that they were greatly shaken, and many mouths were opened in the power of the Lord God. Many were moved by the Lord to go to steeple-houses, to the priests and people, to declare the everlasting truth unto them.”
Do we see this power of God in Quaker meetings today?
After a bit more reading and reflection I note him being involved in healing and speaking up for the poor
Healing
The following is written on page 26,
Coming to Mansfield-Woodhouse, I found there a distracted woman under a doctor’s hand, with her hair loose about her ears. He was about to let her blood, she being first bound, and many people about her, holding her by violence; but he could get no blood from her.
I desired them to unbind her and let her alone, for they could not touch the spirit in her by which she was tormented. So they did unbind her; and I was moved to speak to her, and in the name of the Lord to bid her be quiet; and she was so. The Lord’s power settled her mind, and she mended. Afterwards she received the truth, and continued in it to her death; and the Lord’s name was honoured.
Many great and wonderful things were wrought by the heavenly power in those days; for the Lord made bare His omnipotent arm, and manifested His power, to the astonishment of many, by the healing virtue whereby many have been delivered from great infirmities. And the devils were made subject through His name; of which particular instances might be given, beyond what this unbelieving age is able to receive or bear.
Speaking up for the poor (page 29)
As I travelled through markets, fairs, and diverse places, I saw death and darkness in all people where the power of the Lord God had not shaken them. As I was passing on in Leicestershire I came to Twy-Cross, where there were excise-men. I was moved of the Lord to go to them, and warn them to take heed of oppressing the poor; and people were much affected with it.
The term Quaker was first used (page 34)
“When the morning came he rose and went to the justices, and told them that he and his house had been plagued for my sake. One of the justices replied (as he reported to me) that the plagues were upon them, too, for keeping me. This was Justice Bennet, of Derby, who was the first that called us Quakers, because I bade them tremble at the word of the Lord. This was in the year 1650.”
As with everything be cautious in saying ‘the first time’. The online journal listed at the end give this note:
“This is the whole of our data for the origin of the name “Quaker.” Fox told the Justice to tremble at the word of the Lord, and the Justice thereupon fixed the name “quaker” upon him. There is probably, however, something back of this particular incident which helped give the name significance. The editors of the New English Dictionary (see the word Quaker) have discovered the fact that this name for a religious sect was not entirely new at this time. Letter №2,624 of the Clarendon collection, written in 1647, speaks of a sect from the continent possessed of a remarkable capacity for trembling or quaking: “I heare of a sect of woemen (they are at Southworke) come from beyond the Sea, called quakers, and these swell, shiver and shake, and when they come to themselves (for in all this fitt Mahomett’s holy-ghost hath bin conversing with them) they begin to preach what hath been delivered to them by the Spirit.” It seems probable that Justice Bennet merely employed a term of reproach already familiar.”
Description of a Meeting (page 45)
“The day following I passed to Cleveland, among those people that had tasted of the power of God. They had formerly had great meetings, but were then all shattered to pieces and the heads of them turned Ranters. I told them that after they had had such meetings, they did not wait upon God to feel His power, to gather their minds inward, that they might feel His presence and power amongst them in their meetings, to sit down therein, and wait upon Him; for they had spoken themselves dry; they had spent their portions, and not living in that which they spake of, they were now become dry.
They had some kind of meetings still; but they took tobacco and drank ale in their meetings, and were grown light and loose. But my message unto them from the Lord was that they should all come together again, and wait to feel the Lord’s power and spirit in themselves, to gather them to Christ, that they might be taught of Him who says, “Learn of me.”
For when they had declared that which the Lord had opened to them, then the people were to receive it; and both the speakers and hearers were to live in that themselves. But when these had no more to declare but went to seek forms without life, that made themselves dry and barren, and the people also; and from thence came all their loss: for the Lord renews His mercies and His strength to them that wait upon Him. The heads of these people came to nothing: but most of them came tobe convinced, and received God’s everlasting truth, and continue a meeting to this day, sitting under the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ their Saviour.”
I came away for two days to read the journal. That was ambitious as it is 334 pages. It will be achievable to some but not this someone who reads slowly and who stops to ponder as if in a beautiful meadow. Nonetheless, I have a better understanding of Fox and indeed feel he may have spoken albeit from a book written over 300 years ago. More importantly, did I hear above his words the voice of the inward teacher?
The below is an easy-on-the-eye-read online version of Fox’s journal
You may also have noticed the word Ranters you may find the link below of interest.
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PS I spent the two days at St Katherine’s Parmoor link below
