Benjamin Rhodes

“ Unfortunately for the perfect realisation of his hopes, such a scheme, like Quakerism, needs grand men to work it. The maxims of Heaven cannot be worked out by the instincts of earth. Had the other Friends in Pennsylvania shared his spirit of lofty self-sacrifice, the story of this State might have been more noble and stimulating even than it is. But from the first, Quakers shrank from the turmoil and cares of official life. But this shrinking only makes more striking the unconquerable spirit that animated Penn. He could suffer and be strong. ”

“ And if we smile at the oddity of his language, at the curious missives which he hurls at mayors and magistrates, jailors and judges, we find at times a caustic style worthy of Hudibras or Cobbett, in which he lashes the frippery of the court, or meets the casuistry of the Jesuits or Ultra-Calvinists; and as we dwell on those words of wisdom in which he tells us of his faith, and cheers the heart of Cromwell's daughter, we perceive that he is no common man, but one who, with strange training and singular notions, rose by the strength of genius and piety to a wide command over men. ”

“ The thought is made to stand out not only boldly and clearly, but clothed with that subtle power which is only wielded by the transparently honest and the intensely earnest. At times the writer condescends to brusque vehemence or touching appeal to his own experience.
Whatever claim for originality of thought is advanced on behalf of Robert Barclay, must principally be based on his arguments in defence of Quakerism, and on his systematising of Quaker thought. ”

“ Keep within the rules of the spirit of Life which will lead into all truth, that all may be stirred up in your nation to walk in it, for they have been a long time asleep. For the Gospel bell does ring and sound to awaken them out of sin to righteousness. ”

“ Their hearts yearned after an ideal which they did not find in any existing sect. But when Quakerism was presented to their view, they recognised in it the features which they had learned to love. The case of Alexander Jaffray is fairly representative of others, and his diary enables us to watch the process in minute detail in most of its stages. The awakened soul gets disgusted with chopping logic, and with manipulating the dry bones of a formal theology. It longs for bread and is offered a stone. ”

“ His writings, his learning, his great ability, his rank, his aristocratic friends and connections, and his influence at court, made him a man of mark. In his own society, he was a recognised leader. His ministry evidently was of a high order. Possibly not so popular as that of Fox or Penn, it must have been solid, earnest, and impressive. He is known to us almost solely as an author, but his own generation knew him as a capable man of affairs. He was not a popular leader like Fox, or a man consumed by large humanitarian schemes like Penn. ”

“ And again he says, "Had there been more of the same determined spirit among others which the Friends displayed, the sufferings of all parties would sooner have come to an end. The government must have given way, as the spirit of the country would have been effectually roused. The conduct of the Quakers was infinitely to their honour."
Meanwhile Fox abounded in labours, sparing no exertions to make known the truth and to plead for righteousness. He sought a purer life as much as a purer faith. ”

“ Let there be but the zeal and the faith of George Fox, his urgency in dealing with men, his confidence in pleading with God, and Quakerism has yet a message that the world needs to hear, and that will win its olden triumphs, and bring its divine blessings to man. ”

“ While refusing to honour an unchristian statute by keeping it, he bore patiently and unresistingly the legal penalties, unshaken in his loyalty to the government and unsoured in his disposition towards mankind. But further, Fox clearly saw that endurance was sure to end in victory, and he inspired his friends with the same conviction. "The more they imprison me," he writes triumphantly, "the more the truth spreads." In the same spirit said William Penn at a later date, "I will weary out their malice. Neither great nor good things were ever attained without loss and hardship. ”

“ The cramping influence of custom and precedent is yielding to the free spirit which first made the Society a power. In the present remodelling of its "Practice and Discipline," the study of its early days is of great importance. And for a fervent and constraining piety, for free and large-hearted devotion to "the truth" wherever it leads, few men are more worthy of study and imitation at the present day than George Fox.
Should this effort prove a success, companion sketches of Penn and Barclay will shortly follow. ”

“ The man who advocated general education, who was anxious that Philadelphia should have a botanical garden, who battled for perfect religious liberty, who pleaded for the rights of the negro and for the reform of prison discipline, who organised the polity of Quakerism, and associated philanthropy inseparably with its system, was a remarkable man, far in advance of his age, and worthy of more regard from the country that has been so greatly blessed by his labours. ”

“ Until God satisfies the soul the words of men are vain; when His hour has come, the truth which brings light and peace is often one that has been explained and urged before. George Fox had to learn that it is God's work to enlighten, that there is still to be enjoyed a real guidance of the Holy Spirit, resulting in the solution of difficulties and mysteries, in a clear apprehension of the truth, and a soul-satisfying sense of its power. ”

“ Dear Robert Barclay,
With my love to thee and thy Father and all the rest of the faithful friends in the holy peaceable truth, that is over all and changes not. I am sorry to hear that there should be any difference or distance amongst any Friends in your parts, and that they should not keep in the power of the Lord to the spreading of the truth abroad, and such great want and need as there is in your country. For all should be in the Gospel of peace, in the power of God in which enmity cannot come, and [Pg 130] in the peaceable wisdom which is easy to be entreated. ”

“ Quakerism comes on the scene and at once commends itself to such a soul by dealing with the practical life, putting the teaching and promises of the Bible to the test of experience, and finding that they actually work and lead to assured conviction, hearty consecration, and holy living. ”

“ The Assembly's catechism correctly defined the chief end of man to be "to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." The Friends exemplified the definition in actual life. Most professing Christians, in spite of their beautifully finished creed, were still in bondage to questions like these: "Shall we succeed in life, and what will men think of us, and how will they treat us, if we act up to our convictions?" Such questions troubled the Quakers very little. They acted as if they believed religion a sufficient end and object in life, worth living for, and worth dying for. ”

“ Those who stood round him were struck with the triumph of faith over bodily weakness. He exulted in the power of Christ. "All is well—the Seed of God reigns over all, and over death itself." His thoughts were calmly fixed on the arrangement of Society affairs; his mind was clear, his habitual disregard of his bodily sufferings still marked him. ”

“ In spite of Fox's very noticeable imperfections, none could appreciate better than Penn his many excellencies and his energetic and noble-spirited labours. Only a few weeks before, Robert Barclay was laid to rest in his own grounds at Ury. As a gentleman and a scholar, no doubt there were points of sympathy between him and Penn which did not link Fox and Penn. But in aggressive energy, in evangelistic labours, and in entire freedom from the taint of quietism, Fox was much more after Penn's own heart than was Barclay. ”

“ But though the teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit are taught by Friends as distinctly as ever, it is questionable whether the doctrine of the Light within in the precise form in which Fox preached it, and Barclay developed it theologically, has obtained the general acceptance of the Society. It certainly is not to be found in its authorised publications, such as the official "Doctrine, Practice and Discipline." It speaks well for the independence of thought in the society, that the pet-child of its great leaders should be abandoned when it failed to secure their conscientious assent. ”

“ It is the spirit of truth that leads into all truth. And they that are not led by this spirit as Christ hath sent and sends, they are led by the spirit of the false prophet, beast, whore. Though in that spirit they may profess the scriptures from Genesis to the Revelations, that spirit shall lead them into the ditch together, where they shall be consumed by God's eternal fire without the heavenly Jerusalem, as all the filth was consumed by fire without the gates of the outward heavenly Jerusalem. ”

“ So strongly were Friends attached to him that when he was in Launceston gaol, one of them went to Cromwell and offered to lie in prison in his stead; which made the Protector turn to those around him and ask, "Which of you would do as much for me if I were in the same condition?" And Fox showed himself worthy of such devotion by always seeking the post of danger and the most arduous work. Urgent he might be, for he was tremendously in earnest, but to speak as Hepworth Dixon does of his "imperious instincts" simply shows ignorance of the man. ”

“ Wherefore, dear Robert, let thine eye be above the world and the comforts that fade, to the unfading glory, and keep close to the Lord, that thou mayest come through openings and visions to possessions, and like a good souldier encounter the enemy in his appearances as well to ensnare by the lawful as the unlawful things; and approve thy heart to the Lord in the way of the Cross and daily dying and living. O! great is the mystery of godliness, but the grace is sufficient! ”

“ No less remarkable are his courage and skill. As storms thicken, he is always in the front of the battle; wherever the strife is vehement there he is; now in Lancashire, now in Leicester, in Westmoreland or Cornwall; meeting magistrates and judges, braving them at Quarter Sessions, vanquishing officers, governors of castles, and judges. Then he sits down calmly to organise, with a forecast equal to that of Wesley, the scheme of Quaker polity which has lasted to our times. ”

“ Calm and self-possessed, he looked the robber in the face, with a firm but meek benignity, assured him he was his and every man's friend, that he was willing and ready to relieve his wants; that he was free from the fear of death through a divine hope of immortality, and therefore was not to be intimidated by a deadly weapon, and then appealed to him whether he could find in his heart to shed the blood of one who had no other feeling or purpose but to do him good. ”

“ Plato and Sir Thomas More, and even Algernon Sidney, had less to do with his constitution than had George Fox. He found in the Society to which he belonged a body combining a rare [Pg 58] amount of freedom with admirable organisation—a Society with abundant elasticity yet with excellent discipline and cohesion. Quakerism not only acknowledges that methods and governments exist for the sake of men, it believes that manhood, especially sanctified manhood, is the great security of liberty and justice. ”

“ There were two kinds of service which the devoted leader rendered to Christian truth—he preached it with zeal and unction, and he suffered for its sake. His sufferings were unquestionably often the result of his own unwisdom. Many Friends themselves now lament his want of a conciliatory spirit. He could not put himself in the place of others, so as to see how they viewed himself, his conduct and his claims. Thus he was constantly led to impute dishonest and impure motives to others if they did not agree with him. ”

“ They waited on God for clear and living views of his truth. They recognised it not by logic, but by their trained spiritual instincts. Naturally, therefore, when addressing others by tongue or pen, they preferred to be experimental rather than argumentative. But the habits of the age compelled them to be dialecticians. They could only gain a hearing by so far yielding to the popular taste. But with amusing truthfulness, William Penn says of Barclay that he adopted the scholastic style in his Apology in condescension to the weakness of literary men. ”

“ George Fox had to learn from sad experience that even enlightened Christians cannot stand instead of God. Robert Barclay had to learn by a shorter, but no doubt sharp experience, that his favourite books could do nothing for him in spiritual religion without Christ, and that in spiritual power and spiritual discernment illiterate men might be by far his superiors. He has described the experience in his Apology, when speaking of the insufficiency of learning to make a true minister, and the possibility of being a true minister without it. ”

“ He must remember that the Quakers were accustomed to accomplish such impossibilities; and where their hardy faith [Pg 124] could not succeed in such feats, it could persevere in attempting them. Their love was as invincible as their patience. They sincerely pitied their persecutors, and felt that they were harming themselves more than they hurt the Friends. So for their soul's sake they pleaded with them, using every argument which they thought they could ask God to bless. Whilst in Aberdeen prison, Barclay also wrote his treatise on "Universal Love," an earnest plea for religious toleration. ”

“ His ardent nature was laid hold of by the gospel in its fulness, and the result was a spirituality at once delicate and strong.
The same features attracted me in William Penn. He also had many of the gifts of the evangelist. He could collect and hold a crowd almost as well as Fox, and preach them as full a gospel. If other schemes had not claimed so large a share of his life, I think he might have done an evangelistic work equal to that done by George Fox.
Robert Barclay deserves to be highly honoured as one who truly devoted his all to Christ. ”

“ Most of the important passages referring to the authority of Holy Scripture, Barclay applies to the light within.
As to practice, nothing has more offended the proprieties of modern life than their imitations of the O. T. prophets, exhibiting themselves as signs. There is no reason to believe that any of the cultured Quakers of the day disapproved of these things; rather they rejoiced in them as part of the manifestation of the restored gifts of olden times. So far from Robert Barclay being superior to George Fox in this matter, he afforded one of the most striking instances on record. ”

“ And since I have heard that notwithstanding his Majesty's most gracious letters in his behalf to the Council of Scotland, he has been clapped up in prison with the rest of his friends, and they threaten to hang them, at least those they call preachers among them, unless they subscribe their own banishment; and this upon a law made against other sects that appeared armed for the maintenance of their heresy; which goes directly against the principles of those which are ready to suffer all that can be inflicted, and still love and pray for their enemies. ”