Friends,—To that which is pure, I speak, in which is unity, where no defiled thing shall enter. Silence all flesh [Zech 2:13], who strive about words, in which is no profit; who would draw you out of your conditions, and others out of their conditions [2 Tim 2:14]. Therefore be low, and mind that which is low, to draw you out of contention. And strive not for mastery [1 Cor 9:25], and do not exercise lordship over one another [Mark 10:42]; but mind that which is pure, which keeps you in the fear of the Lord God. For if your minds go from that which is pure, which leads to God, your nakedness will appear [Rev 3:18] to the world; and then ye go in your own wills and strength, and there is the seat for mastery and pride, out of the will of God, and that is out of the unity, out of the oneness, out of the way; and instead of building, ye destroy; and instead of edifying, ye draw back into the world. Therefore all be low, and wait upon the Lord [various, e.g. Isa 40:31], and be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath [James 1:19]; be low, and wait upon God, to receive the living food from God, to nourish you in time, with that which was before time; that God in all things may be glorified [1 Pet 4:11]. So the Lord God Almighty direct you and bring down all fleshly wills; that the pure may be raised up. So meet together and wait upon God, if there be not a word, I charge you. Beware of contention, for there ye get above that of God in the conscience, and so go out of the fear of the Lord.
G. F.
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George Fox (1624 - 1691)
Was an English Dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. This was a group the Lord started through the ministry of George Fox. God called him apart from all other forms of Christendom in his day because of the lack of Biblical obedience and holiness.The emphasis in George Fox's ministry was firstly prophetic. He called out the people of God to show them that they had the Holy Spirit of God and could be taught of Him and not to solely rely on the teachings of ecclesiastical leaders. Secondly, he spoke directly to many ministers in his day to show them they were hirelings and did not have a true shepherds heart for the people of God rather they were seeking after financial gain.
Founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers). George Fox was born in Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire, England, the son of Puritan parents. Little is known of his early life, apart from what he wrote in his journal: "In my very young years, I had a gravity and stayedness of mind and spirit not usual in young children. Insomuch that, when I saw old men behave lightly and wantonly toward each other, I had a dislike thereof raise in my heart, and I said within myself, `If ever I come to be a man, surely I shall not do so, nor be so wanton.'"
At the age of 19, he gained deep, personal assurance of his salvation and began to travel as an itinerant preacher, seeking a return to the simple practices of the New Testament. He abhorred technical theology, and preached a faith borne of experience, freshly fed and guided by the immediate presence of the Holy Spirit.
Fox was persecuted almost daily, yet his power of endurance was phenomenal. He was beaten with dogwhips, knocked down with fists and stones, brutally struck with pikestaves, hard beset by mobs, incarcerated eight times in the pestilential jails, prisons, castles and dungeons--yet he went straightforward with his mission as though he had discovered some fresh courage which made him impervious to man's inhumanity.
He undertook as far as possible to let the new life in Christ take its own free course of development in his ministry. He shunned rigid forms and static systems, and for that reason he refused to head a new sect or to start a new denomination, or to begin a new church. He would not build an organization of any kind. His followers at first called themselves "Children of the Light," and later adopted the name "The Society (or Fellowship) of Friends."
Fox preached and traveled for 40 years throughout England, Scotland, Holland, and America. His life demonstrated the truth of his famous saying, "One man raised by God's power to stand and live in the same spirit the apostle and prophets were in, can shake the country for ten miles around."