The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-11-10
The Rise Of the Quakers in England.

Tae early half of the seventeenth GEN.
fury in England was one of the culmi-
mating epochs in its history. For nearly
one hundred years disintegration Of
society had been going on, kept in check
only by strong bonds of repression; at
last these bonds were broken, the pop
ular will took positive shape, and blow
after blow fell upon the social structure
of the old, overthrowing it and tearing
it away to make place for the new
The Society of Friends was natural
outgrowth of those times. Taking its
rise at the period of general upheaval
and dissolution of existing customs, re-
ligious. social and political. holding in
formulated by the leaders of the period.
but carrying them to far greater ex-
tremes, finding no prescribed checkupon
the free and unlicensed expression of its
theories, it reached bound of radical
ism compared to which Puritanism itself
was conservative, and which all classes
combined to oppose with an intense ami
mostly that brought q deluge of perse-
cution and abuse upon the devoted sect.
The Puritans were willing to decapi-
tate King that stood in the way of the
advancement of progress. They did not
hesitate to tear down an existing relig-
ious institution, but even the most eX-
treme Puritan never advocated such
measures as the entire abolition of all
clergy, the leveling of all classes.
whether monarchical or aristocratic, into
a universal brotherhood, or the UNDER
mining of all laws, whether national or
civil, to make place for a law of brotherly
love that alone was to guide all mankind.
But this was virtually what the new sect
demanded. They were religious Mill
lists.
But, they maintained, man must pre-
pare himself to be a fit agent to govern
his own actions. He must depend upon
the word of the Lord for guidance,
therefore he must open his heart to re-
ceive that word, and in such way that
the truth shall not be distorted by the
lusts of carnal heart. To so prepare
himself he must abjure all the joys Of
this world that else might tend to turn
his heart toward It and away from the
world to come. He must live upon the
simplest food and dress in the plainest
garments. He must obey none of the
mandates of the world, even in their
smallest observances, for the ways of the
world were the ways of man and not Of
God. Personal cleanliness and chastity
must be observed. for, said they, if the
outer man is unclean how can the inner
man be otherwise? Only to the. man
who had followed such life as these
principles pointed out could the word of
the Lord come in all its strength and pur-
ity; but when it came to such a one it
must be obeyed implicitly, no matter to
what it directed. This was the doctrine
of sinner light"
Above all other institutions, the clergy,
whether Episcopalian or Presbyterian,
was most obnoxious to this sect.
However, it was not the clergy alone that
were thus attacked. but all other exist
ing institutions of the time. Courts of
law were entered, and justice such as
they believed in demanded for the people.
and those in power received
calling upon them to
come down from the vanity of their
place, and veil their stomachs in humil-
ity. Prominent officers OF the army also
were called upon to give up the ways of
blood and wickedness and live in peace
with all mankind. Ofcourse persecution
followed, swift and terrible. Ho,card
Pyle, in Harper's Magazine.