Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1906-07-05


the leaf mould of centuries. What bet
ter place for resting and tarrying?
What more favorable place for erect
ing habitations and building a town?
The great river was almost in sight
and the seaboard not many miles
away. Sometime, it might be a great
commercial port, like London with
docks and warehouses and shipping.
Nature had been most lavish in her
preparations for their coming. 1t was
in the late autumn that they landed.
perhaps one of those still. mild, warm
days we have seen in this beautiful
but fading time of the year, when ma
ture is all aglow with the varied tint
ings of the early frosts, and her in
fiuences are all serene and peaceful
The massive oaks and other timbers
towering higher than the nasts of
their anchored ship. some of which
had been dropping their leaves for CEN
turtles, must have been awe inspiring.
1t was a new departure for them
they were beginning the world again,
and all the unfoldings seemed to them
suspicious.
Such was the first of the ventures
in the work of peopling these shores
with English subjects. Now, the way
was open. It was no-longer an uncer-
tain experiment, and more ships fol
lowed in close succession with willing
helpers. and the homes and neighbor-
hoods multiplied and the province pros
pered and its fame spread to the ends
of the earth.
The voyage of the little ship Griffin
to Salem with its company of non-con-
fornists or heritics as they were cal
led by the Anglican or established
church, was not gazetted nor heralded
to and fro in the world at the time. 1t
was an event which made no stir in
the circles of potentates and princes.
In the royal palace the rounds of dis
sipation, reyelry and buffOnery went
on the same as they had been going
for years, with no prospect of change
It's sceptered harlequin smiled and
laughed at the coarse jests and songs
of his fawning retainers. Intriguers
surrounded his court and laid their
schemes of baseness and villiany for
nisrule and injustice throughout the
realm Still, after twenty years of
hopeless persecution the despised
Quaker. who had never been known to
raise hand against assault, and who
had Outlines been promised by Crom
well and the second Charles that he
should be accorded all the rights of an
English subject, had found no surcease
from the violence of inhuman miniOns
as they hailed him to the stocks or
prison with the jeers and execrations
of the mobs and the pharisaical cry
of the priest, away with him, away
with him, cruelty him. For the little
ship load of fanatics there was little
thought. For all the world cared, they
might have gone to the bottom of the
sea. "Only the riff raft of society so
it seemed to them, gone far out of
the realm and beyond the reach of
further troubling with their new fan
gled doctrines" but that event, seem.
ingly so unimportant then, was the
beginning of a series of circumstances
which were to astonish all Europe
and make kings wonder Thus has it
always been though the historic ages
of the world Oftenest the tiny
springs of great events as they trick
led drop by drop from their hidden
scources, have been overlooked or for
gotten, until the flood tide of their on
ward flowing in the after years into
the great sea of results. turns back
to them the wondering gaze of all
mankind
We sometimes hear it said, that
Quakerism is dying out, and disap-
pearing. It will never die out nor dis
appear. AS distinctive and separate
religious organization it has had its
time to a great extent. In this sense
it belongs to the past more than to the
present It has cast off some Of its
outward forms, some of its non-essen-
tails now no longer needed as testi- |
monies and examples, but the great
humanizing ideas. purposes and forces
which once vitalized it remain, and
continue to be manifested under other
forms and expressions. The wheat
stalks of the harvest field whiten
through the summer days, and ripen
their grains-the grains become the
loaves which feed the hungry millions. !
The stalks and chaff are of no more
use for sustenance. They are dead.
The roses Of the casket are withered
and faded, but their grateful frag-
rance remains Both have fulfilled
their natural purposes-the wheat
stalks and the roses. Quakerism is as
old as. humanity, and out of it have
come the great forces which have
been surely operating against human
slavery, wars and fightings, kingcraft.
priestcraft and all other great calami
ties, and its influences, in one form or
another, will continue operating along
the lines OF Gods holy DEGREES until
all its purposes shall find their perfect |
accompli and realization.