George Fox endeavoured to inculcate
this idea into his new society. In his letter to the yearly meeting in
1679, he expresses himself as follows: "The world also does expect more
from Friends than from other people, because they profess more.
Therefore you should be more just than others in your words and
dealings, and more righteous, holy, and pure, in your lives and
conversations; so that your lives and conversations may preach. For the
world's tongues and mouths have preached long enough; but their lives
and conversations have denied what their tongues have professed and
declared." I may observe, therefore, that the circumstance of a more
than ordinary profession of consistency, and not any supposed immorality
on the part of the Quakers, has brought them, in the instances alluded
to, under the censure of the world. Other people, found in the same
trades or occupations, are seldom noticed as doing wrong. But when men
are set as lights upon a hill, blemishes will be discovered in them,
which will be overlooked among those who walk in the vale below.
The trades or occupations which are usually condemned as improper for
Quakers to follow, are numerous. I shall not therefore specify them all.
Those, however, which I purpose to select for mention, I shall accompany
with all the distinctions which equity demands on the occasion.
Pages:
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64