The Anglicans, being the most conservative, took out a few of these elements, the Presbyterians a few more, the Congregationalists a few more, the Baptists a few more, and finally the Quakers, being the most radical of the new sects, took out everything except dependence on the Divine Spirit for guidance and power. Quakerism was therefore a new revival of the old prophetic religion. The Spirit was not for them the third person of a trinity but God revealed inwardly as God had been revealed outwardly through Jesus of Nazareth. There is no effort to save one's soul by accepting a theological formula, though convincement of Quaker principles is generally the first step in the process. The writers describe how, gradually, after alternate victories and defeats, they become at last fully obedient to the will of God as inwardly apprehended and center their life in the light.
Victory is never final and complete, but future lapses are more rare.
The Divine Spirit This Divine Spirit, revealing itself in the depths of the soul, is thought of as a source of religious and moral knowledge, a source of power to act according to that knowledge, and a source of unity with others. Religious and moral knowledge, like the knowledge or appreciation of beauty, is not attained by a logical process of thought but by feeling. As some of our greatest psychologists have pointed out, feeling is as much an organ of knowledge as thought. It reveals values rather than facts. Outward authorities such as the Bible and the tradition of the church are important but secondary sources of truth.