The Morning herald., 1876-07-04

| \ was doubtless from his masters shop tha
he rot the matsfials for that meEnDrabll
protect against the 6oFlorn nakodness q
q man, which makes him panper depended
for outdoor relief on his lowliest fellow cfea
ltures. Il was doubtless there that BIZ
Il wrought that ssleather huh from which thl
Idiyintty and dignity Of man WAS once again
lpreached, no longer IN sc0rn, rs from the
i cynic's tub, but In love- The owner0f thii
"perennial suit sof leather, Z this strange
young shepherd, ,that ssmo Spring when
Charles I, surrendered himself and hts cause
| to the Scotch Presbyterians might have been
seen wandering forlornly about the Aeldsoi
Drayton and Coventry, In sore conflict Of
SOU, sitting In hollow trees alone with hie
! Bible, ssfor, n al he says 10 that old Hebrew
prophets journal of hls, II found none to
speak to my condition" The clergymen oi
tMancetter, with whom be reasoned "sbout
the ground Of temptations and despair," /"
bade him take tobacco, and sing psalms.
ssBut, !" as he says quaintly tobacco was a
thing I did not love, and psalms ] was not
IN state to sing" Another, "a priest Of
high renown, !" would needs give him ply
SIC, and he was to have let blood but not
drop Of blood could they get from him,
his "body being, as II were, dried
| up with grlefs and sorrows and
troubles. 2 $50 neither them nor any Of
the dissenting people could / join with, but
was stranger to ell, relying wholly upon
the Lord Jesus Christ" At last, after en-
during greas troubles and torments, and
when all his hopes In all men were gone, so
that he had nothing outwardly TO help him,
nor could tell what To do, he heard voice
wL-s-: said, "Thefe Is One, even Jesus
Chrsas, that can speak to thy condition.
"And when heard It my heart did leap for
JOY" Soon after he thus found peace, not
in the systems Of man, but in the s inward
teachings Of Christ, who hath the key, and
who opened the door Of life and light, !"
George Fox began to preach, travelling on
horse or foot al over the United Kingdom,
and ultimately even extending his labors to
the BarbadOes, America and Holland. To
understand the effect produced by the
preaching of this remarkable but unedu-
Gated man, one must realizethe state of re-
ligious thought which then prevailed. The
ology had not yet broken through hard
crust of scholasticism and logomachy which
bound 1t In, and made it rather an endless
disputing on words and netions, than liv-
ing grasp on facts and spiritual realities.
A London minister could still undertake to
prove the doctrine Of the Trinity to some Of
the early Friends by the following syllogism,
supported by spurious text: There IRE
three that bear record In heayen, the
Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost, and
these three are one." These are either
three manifestations, three operations,
three Substances, or three anything
else besides subsistences. But they
are not three manifestations. three
operations, three substances, nor
three anything else besides subsistences.
Ergo, three subsistences. It is not likely
that such barren verbiage as this would af-
ford any common ground to meet on in the
worship Of common truth. Everywhere
strife and confusion reigned, while certain
hard externalism which characterized the
prevailing religious thought found its ap-
propriate expression in persecution, the only
ground of union being abhorrence- Of the
"hideous idol, t0leration." Calvinism, with
its remorseless logic, which If, In M. Gui-
zot's words, sit t0rtures history, "still more
tortures those infinite truths that from their
very nature bursts the bounds of our narrow
possibilities, and, existing as contradictions
to the intellect, can only be apprehended as
whole by the moral emotions of man
Romanism, with its spriestcraft and it's bur-
densome rites and ceremonies, the gilded
tomb beneath which the responsibility and
freedom OF man lay buried; hard Judaiz-
ing Puritanism on one hand, and on the
other church enforcing rigid conformity,
"as stanch and solid piece Of frame work as
ever any January frost could freeze to-
gether; !" what wonder II men like Milton
ceased to attend any place Of worship, loath- |
ing the jarring of the sects that Cromwell |
exclaimed in despair, "Every sect saith, |
Give me liberty, but give 1t to him, and |
to his power he will not yield 1t |
to anybody else." What wonder that /
mems souls were everywhere beginning to |
be sick of these disputed shadows, and to
long for some undisPuted realitya To this
craving the preaching of George Fox ap-
pealed, the imam who stood forth from the
Babel of tongues, and preached the inner
truth. and meaning Of all those things the
sects were disputing about" That the
kingdom of God is within us, that there is
IN indwelling Spirit, Light s'that lighteth
every man that cometh into the world"
hat one must listen to His voice, not in the
Babel of creeds without, not even In the
etter Of sacred book, but in the silence of
,ne's own heart within; that Christ's atom
ng work must be realized In the heart, and
hat It is the Christ In US which is the hope
# glory; that the church Is not Can old
louse made up Of stones, lime and wood;
'ut the blessed company of all faithful psosi
II Who IN waking ky tle inner LiSht::l
hat the true pf1sat and pr0phat n the man
i the woman ID whom tho EtArnaI aueakss
nd whpes minAstfy \ nCt ior hire thiS was u
NJ naeeeag9c cE GeOfEc Fox. Crowds gAth-
rsd N heaf him; wherever the repoft dsw
As{cdeh yillags ortown, sttls man n1eather