The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-06-09

The first Society of Friends in Maine was or
gained at Eliot in 1870, though previously
| Friends meetings had been held in that vicini
ty. The sect evidently fourshed, for three years
afterwards the churches which looked upor
their doctrines as pestilent heresies set apart &
day for special appeals to the Almighty to pre-
vent their spread. Under the date of July 30,
174O. Parson Smith makes the following entry
in his journal:
The church held day of fasting and prayer
on account of the spread of Quakerism Mr.
Jeffrey and myself prayed in the forenoon an6
l Mr.. Thompson preached. Mr.. Allen and Mr.
| Lord prayed and Mr.. Willard preached in the
afternoon.
All the churches then existing in this vicinity
| took part in the meeting, and evidently the sit
l uation was considered alarming. Nothing more
| occurs about "Quakers' in the Parsons Jour
| nal till three year after, when walking in the
| street one day he espied come members of the
hated sect, and entered in his journal, "Many
strange Quakers in town today" What the
| Parsons feelings would be today il he could
walk in our streets, can easily be imagined. His
| faith in the efficacy of prayer would doubtless
| experience a severe shock.
1t was in the same year James Winslow, who
resided near the Presumpscot river, was the
| first in Falmouth to embrace the doctrines Of
George Fox, and he established particular
meeting" in that town. His children, six in
number, became converts. In 1851 monthly
meeting was established. which met alternately
in Falmouth and North Yarmouth. Prominent
among its early converts were David Estes,
Lemuel Jones, Ebenezer Pinkham and James
Goddard
In DR.. Deane's Diary we learn that on Con-
tinental Fast Day, May 6, 1879, "Four Quak-
ers were at our meeting; sat with hats on all
the forenoon service, and then harangued." At
this time there was greater interest in Quak-
erism than ever before, which Willis thinks
due to the war then raging. The first entry in
the ''Record Of the Monthly Meeting of Friends
for North Yarmouth and Falmouth, Is that
Lemuel Jones and Watt Eastos had notified
the meeting Of an intention to marry, and a
committee was appointed to "see to their clear
ness" AT the next meeting they received per-
mission ''to marry according to the good order
of Friends" In 1852 meeting house was
built in Falmouth, near Mr.. Winslow's, where
the Portland Friends worshirped until meet
ing house was built within the present Getty
limits in 1886. This meeting house stood with
in the present limits of Lincoln Park, and was
destroyed in the great fire of 1866. 1t was
plain brick building, and will be remembered
by many of our citizens as the marble shop of
James r. Thompson, who occupied it sixteen
years.
The old Pearl street meeting house was aban-
doned in 1850, and the present tidy little struc-
ture on Oak street, was erected at a cost of
$2293. Here the Friends have since worship
ped.
Yesterday was an important epoch in the
history Of the Friends in this city. 1t was no
less than the opening of the yearly meeting of
the New England Society of Friends, the first
meeting which has been held ontside of New.
port for the last 200 years. The weather was
not as suspicious as could be wished, but there
were large number of delegates present. The
first meeting was held at Reception Hail. and
was ministers conference. The session
was opened with fervent prayer by Mrs. Char
lotte D. Holmes of Rhode Island, followed by
s. Myles of Vermont, Edward c. Strong, M.
D., of Ohio, and Mrs. Rebecca Collins of New
York. Earnest Evangelical addresses were
made by Mrs. Sattertbwaite of England and
Mrs. d. G. Thomas of Baltimore. John Paige
of Weare, N. H., acted as presiding officer, and
was assisted in his duties by Benz amin H.
Jones, Hate city clerk of Lynn, Mass.
The remainder Of the session was devoted to
the usual routine business. The senior member,
of the conference, the venerable Isaac r. Gift
ford, over 80 gears old, was present in prime
health and spirits His home is 10 Dartmouth,
Mass.
Official credentials were presented and ac-
cepted on behalf of Sarah B. Satterthwaite
England. Reuben Coli rs, New York, Samuel
Myles, Ferrishburg, Vermont, ID. c. Thomas,
G. Young, NJ D., Ohio, George E. Dillingham;,
Iowa.
In the course of four lectures (The Bible
and the Koran. By Rev. r. w. Stephens.
New York. Scribner, Armstrong & Co. Port
land: Loring, Short & Harmony given at the
Cathedral church of Chichester condition
upon which the Prebendary stall has been held
since the thirteenth century-are brought out
the points of contrast between Islam and Chris.
tianity, the Bible and the Koran. The view
taken from the Christian standpoint, finds in
the code of Mahomet many hazy circle re-
fected from the true Light, whose power Meth
er could or should be denied however much it
may be refracted and shorn Of its cams. The
impression is clearly made upon the readers
mind that the young Mahomet, nervous, ep-
ileptic child, was honesty supposed
especially by himsels, TO be the sut-
ject of peculiar spiritual influences
a belief akin to the Jewish superstition of de-
moniacal possession. By this intense nervous
self-consciousness he was enabled to absorb in
to his own personality, traditions which he had
gathered from Jews and Christians, fusng
them in the vivid heat of Eastern imagination
into system of which he behell himself the
prophet, successor and equal to the Christ
He had certainly enough keen appreciation of
the worth of moral and spiritual truths to in
corporate into his system enough of them to in
sure a great measure of vitality; but
the pure, unselfsh devotion, admirable
in his early time of struggle and adversely, was
shown too weak for the last test of prosperity.
His entrance into Medina seems to the Chris
tan almost as a prepared antithesis to the en-
uduCo iHto ocIuSdlom. aere where Gne palm
branch is taken up by the true prophet the
young Mahomet saizes the sword, and hence
forth strives for the Kingdoms of this world and
the glory of them-nor can all the brighter
beams with which he has tricked his religion,
from that time put out the fires of personal am
biton that lit the path to his low Arab heaven
In measure the successes of the Mohamme-
dan religion must perhaps be attributed, beyond
its vital truths gained from the Christian and
the Jew, to its very points of contrast; while in
this transitory adaptability lies its necessity to
decay. These points of contrast are clearly
made and strikingly set forth in the present
volume, forming very valuable and pleasant
source .of information on topic of especial
timely interest.
In the afternoon the clerks were appointed to
serve for one year. Cordial invitations from
some of the city churches to have Friend min
listers supply their pulpits tomorrow were re-
ceived and will be gratefully accepted. Among
the prominent persons who arrived in season to
attend this session were David B. Updegraff of
Ohio, the eminent preacher of sanctificat;on
and Christian holiness, David Douglass of In
diana, well known for his revival labors in this
state Martha b. HINT the effact;vo oocnol