THE QUAKERS.
Modern Christianity, it is often said, has little in common with that of
apostolic times: I fear it is equally true that the Quakerism of to-day
has little in common with the heroic Quakerism of an earlier day. It was
in 1646, during the prevalence of civil and religious commotions, that
George Fox commenced his labours as minister of the Gospel, being then in
the twenty-third year of his age. It was a hard time of it he and his
disciples had; no men ever fared worse and for less provocation given, at
the hands of arbitrary powers, than did the Quakers. Baxter thus
describes them:--"They made the light which every man hath within him to
be his sufficient rule, and consequently the Scripture and ministry were
set light by. They spake much for the dwelling and working of the Spirit
in us, but little of justification and the pardon of sin and our
reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. They pretend their
dependence on the Spirit's conduct against set times of prayer and
against sacraments, and against undue esteem of Scripture and ministry.
They will not have the Scriptures called the Word of God. Their
principal zeal lieth in railing at the ministers as hirelings, deceivers,
false prophets, &c., and in refusing to swear before a magistrate, or to
put off their hat to any, or to say _you_ instead of _thou_ or _thee_,
which are their words to all. At first they did use to fall into
wailings and tremblings at their meetings, and pretend to be intently
acted on by the Spirit, but now that is ceased. They only meet, and he
that pretendeth to be moved by the Spirit speaketh, and sometimes they
say nothing but sit an hour or more in silence and then depart." The
most fiery, the most untameable of men were the old Quakers, now a Friend
is the sleekest and fattest of men; lives in a style of the utmost
comfort, and wears the best of everything; there are no such homes of
luxury, no such lives of ease as amongst the Quakers. It is no wonder
they are a long-lived race. They mingle little with the world, and find
a peace which often the worldlings miss. As a religious organization
they are becoming weaker every day; they have a few chapels in various
parts of London, but as the old worshippers die off no new ones appear.
At their last annual meeting Mr. R. Barclay, who referred with
satisfaction to the fact that all over the land, Sunday by Sunday, 1100
Friends were engaged in teaching 1400 children and 3000 adults, regretted
to find that no other Church had declined so much either in this country
or in America since 1720. In the United States 13,000 seats were closed
in the meeting-houses between 1850 and 1860. "If," said he, "other
Churches had declined as we have done, Christianity must have died out."
As regards the metropolis they seem to be in a little better condition;
the last statistics of membership show an increase of 95 in the year, the
whole number being 6608 males, 7286 females; total, 13,894; the births
exactly balanced the deaths. There were 121 new members from
convincement and 61 resignations, against 31 disownments there were 19
reinstated. The habitual attenders at the places of worship are 3803,
being an increase of 145. It was remarked by a senior Friend that the
resignations were fewer and the convincements more than in any year since
accounts had been kept; Mr. Tallack gave it as his opinion that the
Society was never more healthy, not even in the first years of its
existence; J. Grubb believed that there was a considerable change for the
better, both as regards public and private prayer. It is to be hoped
such may turn out to be the case. The great characteristic testimony of
the Friends, particularly against ecclesiastical pretensions on the one
side and against religious forms on the other, is as much requisite now
as ever; there is, as one of their official documents remarks, "a strong
tendency in the human mind to substitute the form of religion for the
power, and to satisfy the conscience by a cold compliance with exterior
performances while the heart remains unchanged. And inasmuch as the
baptism of the Holy Ghost and the communion of the body and blood of
Christ, of which water baptism, and bread and wine, are admitted to be
only signs, are not dependent on those outward ceremonies or necessarily
connected with them, and are declared in Holy Scripture to be effectual
to the salvation of the soul, which the signs are not, Friends have
always believed it to be their place and duty to hold forth to the world
a clear and decided testimony to the living substance--the spiritual work
of Christ in the soul and a blessed communion with him there."
Practically, in the promotion of temperance and education, in the
improvement of prisons and prison discipline, in the advocacy of
universal peace and freedom, in philanthropy and charity, the Friends
have ever led the way. For such ends they have freely sacrificed money
and time, and energy and life itself; nor do they forget those of their
own household, as it were; every poor Friend who may be unable to earn a
livelihood usually receives aid from his brother members to the extent of
20_l._ to 40_l._ per annum (administered privately in general), according
to age or infirmity. When the poorer Friends are out of a situation they
are often helped to obtain employment by various arrangements under free
registries, and by the aid of private inquiries for vacancies. In
addition it may be remarked that a large number of charitable bequests
and special funds have been bequeathed for the local or general benefit
of the members of this religious community. The City of London owes much
to Quakers, who in time past by their industry and self-denial laid the
foundations of many of its noblest charities and its most princely
mercantile establishments.
JONATHAN GRUBB AT THE AGRICULTURAL HALL.
Long, long ago the wise men came from the East, and from the east of
England has come to us a man wise, in the opinion of his friends, in the
best wisdom. It is of Mr. Jonathan Grubb I write, who has been living in
Sudbury for many years, and who for the last twelve or fourteen has
almost entirely devoted himself to missionary work in various parts of
England, Scotland, and Ireland. I think as a temperance lecturer he
first came before the public. It was the sin of drunkenness which first
led him to lecturing. He had seen the evils of intemperance; he had seen
what poverty, what wretchedness and crime were its results; and much and
deeply moved thereby he mounted the platform, which more or less ever
since has been familiar with his name. While in Cornwall on one occasion
he found an opportunity of talking on something else--on that common
salvation without which, in the opinion of pious people, temperance
itself is of little worth. The opportunity was one of great spiritual
benefit, and ever since he has been engaged in what is called by the
denomination to which he belongs--the denomination whose energetic and
untiring philanthropy has been honoured all the world over--the
denomination which, from the days of George Fox, has ever borne a silent
protest against the frivolities of fashion and the vanities of
life--public preaching. In the opinion of those excellent people an
ordinary minister is not a public preacher at all. They reserve that
title exclusively for one who, like Mr. Grubb, goes out into the world,
as it were, collects the crowds by the wayside, on the seashore, in the
crowded street, and there, to those for whose souls few care, who
otherwise would perish for lack of knowledge, proclaims that Gospel which
tells how, for such as they, pardon can be secured and life and
immortality brought to light. In our day no Friend is more extensively
engaged in this work than Mr. Grubb. In all parts of Suffolk his labours
have been many. In various districts of the metropolis he has been
similarly engaged. He has also spent much time in Ireland--where he has
been listened to and aided by Roman Catholic and Protestant alike. It
was only on one occasion that he has ever been prevented from preaching
by the intrusion of a mob, and that was (tell it not in Gath, publish it
not in the streets of Askalon) in no less ancient and respectable a
borough than that of Bury St. Edmunds. In the filthiest and most
depraved districts of London, in the very heart of Roman Catholic
Ireland, he has never been interfered with at all. Of course some of
this success is due to Mr. Grubb himself. With his one aim to tell how
sinners may be saved, he has been remarkably successful in avoiding
collision with class feelings and sectarian animosities. His manner is
also eminently kind and gentle; but after all does not his experience
also show, what we have long believed, that honest, simple, faithful
preaching is never exercised in vain? It may be also said that some of
Mr. Grubb's qualifications are hereditary. By birth he is an Irishman
(he comes from Tipperary), and his mother was an eminent Quakeress, and
extensively useful in her day. It was a sermon from her that was the
instrument, humanly speaking, in the conversion of one of the most
respected of our open-air preachers in London at the present day. We
take much from those to whom we owe our being. Why should we not also
inherit some of their excellences? The question may be asked though not
answered here.
But to return to Mr. Grubb. The last time I heard him he had a truly
magnificent congregation at the Agricultural Hall, Islington. Mr. Thain
Davidson's well meant effort to attract outsiders, and to keep up a large
Sunday-afternoon service, now that the novelty of the thing has passed
away, seems as successful as ever. He and his people have lately moved
into the new hall, a most commodious building, and right well do they
fill it. It will be much to be regretted if this scheme fall through for
want of funds. It appears much good has resulted from it. Not a week
passes but cases occur in which it has been shown how awakening have been
the addresses delivered. A service that only lasts an hour is a
desideratum. No one could have listened to Mr. Grubb without feeling how
his kind of address is pre-eminently adapted to encourage and stimulate
the religious life, to arrest the attention of the impenitent, and to
touch especially the hearts of the young. Mr. Grubb takes no text,
preaches no formal sermon, aims at no rhetorical flight, does not strike
you as being very intellectual, or very original, or very learned. It
may be that he is all three--it certainly is not for me to say that he is
not--but whether he be so or not, it is clear that he judges and judges
rightly that, at the Agricultural Hall on a Sunday afternoon what is
wanted is not the glare of the rhetorician, not the learning of the
divine, not the elaborate argument of the trained logician, not the fancy
of the poet, not the dramatic action of the elocutionist, but the tender
beseeching of one who, saved by Divine mercy himself, and assured of all
its fulness and omnipotence, would force a similar boon on all around.
It was thus he preached on Sunday afternoon. He seemed to speak out of
the depth of a holy love, in language very simple, abounding with the
commonest, and, as some might think, most worn of Scripture quotations,
yet with a pathos that, as it came from the heart, at once reached the
hearts of all his hearers. A more homely or plainer-looking man than Mr.
Grubb you don't often see. As he stood there, with his sunburnt, honest
face, with his suit of sober black and grey, with his rustic air, you
felt that his power (for there was not a single unattentive hearer) was
such as a Whitefield or a Wesley wielded, and which has never been
exerted in our world in vain. Man's fallen state, his need of pardon,
his need of pardon now, the danger of delay, the duty of all instantly to
receive the proffered grace--such were his themes. He told them he had
stood by the death-bed of a woman who had believed that there was no
mercy for such a wicked old sinner as she was, and had heard her song of
joy as she passed from the poverty and sorrow of earth to the wealth and
joy of heaven. Yes, for all there was mercy, and that all there present
might attain it was his prayer; and as thus he spoke, light came to his
eye and animation to his voice, and, with uplifted arm and flowing
utterance, he gave you his idea of the true evangelist--the man always
needed in our land--and it is to be feared, in spite of all our boasted
Christianity, never more than now. But it is not for me to say what are
Mr. Grubb's peculiar qualifications for his work. What they are may be
best gathered from his abundant labours. In his own denomination it is
well known how numerous are his efforts and how great his successes. He
is a fitting representative of active and spiritual Quakerism. Men say
that body is not what it was; that it is losing its power; that it has
little hold upon the people; that it makes no converts. It may be so,
but if it has many such ministers as Mr. Grubb in its midst, as much as
any it is fitted with a living ministry which will go out into the
highways and hedges and bring back to the fold those who have wandered
far away. His appeal is not to the high and mighty, to the rich, the
learned, or the great, but to the poorest of the poor. Mr. Grubb's
mission is evidently a special one. Amongst fallen women, in districts
where ragged-schools and churches are required, in corners of our land
where no regular means of grace exist, he finds special charm and need.
It is pleasant to see him supported by the good men and true of his own
denomination and others. It is evident that at the Agricultural
Hall--perhaps all the better for its not being professedly such--we have
the true idea of an Evangelical Alliance, an alliance for Christian work
rather than of Christian creed, an alliance practical, not speculative,
not in form and dogma, but in life and love.