New-York tribune., 1871-06-14
PROGRESSIVE FRIENDS.

"A
County, Pa, deserves attention as significant
hint Of one of the most curious phases OF
American religious life. 1t is convention of
farmers and their wives in quiet country
meeting house, far remote from any highway
of travel. We are apt, usually, to find such
people far removed from the trampled and
yexed highways of thought, especially In re-
lieious matters. The farmer, as rule, wOr-
ships God in the old formula of his fathers.
The picture of "Wesleys Death-Bed" hangs on
the parlor wall, or "The Assemblys Con
"fession of Faithr lies on the center-taDle,
for generation after generation. DouDe'
reform, demolition and rebuilding OF IDEAS,
belong to towns where perpetual
friction forces the brain in self-defense to DC
alert and vigilant 1t strikes us the more odd
". therefore to hear June after June the
warlke trumpet calls to free thinking and free
action issuing from these peaceful Quakers in
their solitary corner of the world, who during
the rest of tho year busy themselves with
their oats and buckwheat. They form, accord
ing to their own showing, pioneer band to
lead the army of reform, and their utterances
are bold enough to take away the breath even
of radicals. Whether the fact that Friends
are forbidden to fight with their bones and
muscle renders them dOubly aggressive and
bloodthirsty in mental conflicts, we do not
know, but assuredly these slow-speaking men
and women show the desire to deal vehement
and powerful blows at the very strOnghOlds OF
error.
The Society had its birth in 1853. Since then
its aim has been to abjure all creeds and
systems of theology. Every member Is per-
mitted to cherish unmolested his own concep-
ton of God and Christ, and to worship In
what form he thinks fit; the only bond be-
tween them being cordial cooperation in
working for Justice, Equality, and Fraternity.
There are no ministers OF church officers.
Sunday-schools are held every First-day, in
which the children are instructed in their duty
toward their neighbor. In the church, after
ward, their elders discuss all matters of prac-
teal reform, and offer their individual religious
opinions, about which. we hope, for the con-
sistency of their profession, no argument is
permitted So far as we know, this singular
little band is the only body of Christians who
hold that a mans doctrinal or devotional
religion concerns only himself and his
God; and that the sole basis of
church is the practical work for hu-
take, as might be expected, foremost ground
on the subjects of woman and negro equality,
the Indian wrongs, the use of liquor, tobacco,
ETC., and free education for the people. AS
their very existence as a religious body grows
out of the needs and evils of the present, they
fight only living Satans and manifest dispo-
sition to snub and ignore not only the Apol-
lyons known to our forefathers, but the
Christians and Greathearts who gave them
battle, paying not much more respect to
Luther than to the hOOfed and horned imp at
whom he threw the ink-bottle. They profess
to be tired of hearing of Abraham and
Moses, and David and Jesus, and want this
perpetual incense to their memories taken out
"Of their nOstrils." They, however, offer their
own perpetual incense to the memory of Theo-
dore Parker, he having preached in their
Westinghouse several times.
For Progressive Friends are mortal after all,
and must have their tangible saint and hero.
1t is necessity of nature, we suppose. The
French atheist had his flesh and blood Goddess
of Reason; just as John Chinaman sets up his
JOSS behind his chamber door. Our neighbors
in Chester County have apparently healthy and
strong ideas on most subjects OF human
wrongs and the practical ways of righting
them, and if they choose to set up as their
model man who did good service to his
generation, we certainly are not inclined to
quarrel with them. They have too much good
sense and humility, we are sure, to fall into
common error of reformers who overlook the
conflict, as old as Time, between Truth and
Error, and fancy that God has waited half
crippled with world out of joint on his
hands. until they came to his relief to set it
right.
The New Hampshire Democrats, dissatisfied with