We believe certainly that it has never been permitted to our Society to
be without its faithful labourers in the gospel, or without many sincere
confessors of its doctrines, who, by life and conversation, have been
true preachers to their brethren, and to the world in general. Yet we
must confess, that whilst as a Society, we continue to profess the same
religious views as were held and promulgated by our early Friends, we
fear we do not come up in practice to that pure standard to which they
attained. The door is open to all the world, yet we sit at ease in our
ceiled houses. Many around us are hungering and thirsting for the
knowledge of God, yet we are occupied with our farms and our merchandise.
Let us not be inquiring, "What shall this man do," or what should the
other have done? but remembering the reproof, "What is that to thee,
follow _thou_ Me," submit ourselves to that humbling, but preparing hand,
which was so signally displayed in the cause of those who were engaged in
the planting and watering of our religious Society. Then might we again
hope to witness an increase of spiritual life and vigour in the body, and
thus become as "a city set upon a hill, that could not be hid.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25