The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-11-04
TRso Friends

a CREST nasettn9 ol =.
i held at North Garden. in GnEforo COUNTY, s
I'm. c., makes the following br1ei acc .o.a
of tte society OF Friends peculiarly in ,o
soot,no n IL furnished to US by gens,e-
n.an nccnnviup a prominent position IN .he
Society and may be regarded as eoIIee' :,
~. .I.,n of the Society OF Fr1ep at,s
/ Inc oliein ,,,ed Ouakers) was ABOUT sne
(com9leV,a They huve never peen nu.1 tho
year Wtoh hut are widely scatteIeu c orot y,
Gus sso| some members may DC soT IIni+ed
Mot or quite every one Q. ra .on,hern
stataS. though in some OF Ine uu At nre-
there sao h twelve separate. and IN some
SEM I'm iunaependcnt, yearly meetings, na.ne a
scn Suo,,,s T ,ondor1, Dublin, New Eng1anu,
~ Mau, York. Philadelphia. Baltimore, Morth
EEo om Ohio, Indiana, Western lpd.ana),
Iowa. Canada, with prospect y, 9 9,as
shortly to be set up IN Kansas. boues
called meetings for sufferings, or represent
tives upon urgent OCCASIONS III ,ne ln. ,et;
aci for the yearly meetings, and are sunect
~ their anproyal. Beside the yearly meet
mos nroper, there is a half-year meeting
in Virginia, subordinate to Baltimore
YEARLY meeting, and there are also regular
meetings ct Pyrmont and Menden, in Prus-
sa !: at Congeuies, FOntanes, Nismes, and
st. GILES, In France, and annual meetings
in Norway. Tasmania, Victoria, Hobort
Town, and Neutrality-suspicious. TO
London yearly meetings. Tie twelve
yearly meetings abovc-naned are said to
be, in q sense, independent. BY this Is
meant that no one Of them is recognized as
an authoritative head. The action OF no par
ticular one of them binds the others till such
action is sanctioned by the others. Yet a
very close harmony, LII The main, is kept up
by the constant interchange of epistles
touching upon various points of doctrine
and practice, as well as by the frequent
visits of ministers and others from one
yearly meeting to the meetings and families
of others. Perhaps in no branch of the
Church has the saying of Christ been more
literally fulfilled: Zone is your master,
even Christ, and all ye are brethren"
Their meetings are for worship and dis
cipline meetings for worship held gene
rally twice week, those for discipline also
Offering opportunity for worship. The
order of the disciplinary meeting is pre-
parative, monthly, quarterly, and yearly,
each subordinate to the one next named,
the yearly meeting having the ultimate
authority to determine on points of prac-
tice. discipline, and doctrine.
Without specifying points in which
Friends agree with most other Christian de-
nominations, it may be said that their funda-
mental testimony upholds the spirituality
of the gospel, and directs to the light OF
Christ within, or to the law Of the spirit OF
life manifested in the heart, obedience to
which is necessary to salvation. They be-
licye in the headship of Christ IN bis
Church, and the necessity of his
Immediate and perceplible guidance for
every religious act; in a free gospel
ministry, and special call and quallfica-
ton therefor derived from Christ himself ;
and that this gift is bestowed upon women
as well as upon men. They have testl-
mony against all rites and ceremonies de-
yised Nv the will of man or adopted as 4
substitute for unreseryed obedience TO the
law of God revealed to the seeking soul.
They are to abstain from the impure, un-
truthful, tlltte,ing language, and the VAN
and corrupt manners and laSnlons oil tue
day.
On many of the great questions which
have agitaied the civil and religious world,
The spirituality OF the gospel, the freedom
of gospel ministry, the recognition of the
true position Of woman, the incompatible
ity of war and slavery with the teachings
of Jesus, the True Friends have not wa
vcred, and may he said to-day to maj CHI
a. the vanguard. A writer in one OF the
British Reviews, speaking Of George Fox,
says "On almost all those great questions
OF civil and religious polity which the world
Is now coming to late discussion Of, he
made up his mind at once, and as at one
splendid leap vauted across the mOrass OF
the errors and sophistres of ages
North Carolina yearly meeting Of Friends,
made up of six quarterly meetings in North
Carolina and two in Tennessee, will open
at New Garden, Guiford county, n. g.,
on the 9th instant the preliminary meet
ing for ministers and elders and the meet
ing for SutFsrings at Deep river on the 81
and 4th. n. NJ.