Dear friends, of the Monthly Meeting of Charleston, in Ashley Cooper River, in Carolina, I received your letter, dated the sixth day of the Eighth-month, 1683. Wherein you give an account of your meeting, and of the country, and of your liberty in that province, which I am glad to hear of, though your meeting is but small; but, however, stand all faithful in truth and righteousness, that your fruits may be unto holiness [Rom 6:22]; and your end will be everlasting life. And that you may be patterns [Tit 2:7] of virtue, modesty, chastity, and sobriety, showing forth the fruits and life of christianity in your lives and conversations, that they may preach righteousness, truth, and holiness to all people in that dark wilderness, that you may answer the truth both in them that are called christians, and in the Indians. And my desire is, that you may prize your liberty, both natural and spiritual, and the favour that the Lord hath given you, that your yea is taken instead of an oath [Mat 5:33-37]; and that you do serve both in assemblies, juries, and other offices, without swearing, according to the doctrine of Christ: which is a great thing, worth prizing. And take heed of abusing that liberty, or losing the savour of the heavenly salt, which seasons your lives and conversations in truth, holiness, and righteousness. For you know, when the salt hath lost its savour, it is good for nothing but to be trodden under the foot of men [Mat 5:13]. For we here are under great persecution, betwixt thirteen and fourteen hundred in prison; an account of which hath <234> lately been delivered to the king. . . .
But in Ireland, Scotland, Holland, Germany and Dantzick, we hear that Friends are in peace and quietness; and therefore you that have great liberty, both natural and spiritual, (as aforesaid,) be valiant for God's truth upon the earth [Jer 9:3], and spread it abroad, both among them that are called Christians and Indians, turning them from darkness to light [Acts 26:18], Christ Jesus, the saviour, whom God hath set up for an ensign among the Gentiles or heathen [Isa 11:10], and to be his salvation unto the ends of the earth [Isa 49:6]: so seek the good of all, and the profit of all, and the salvation, and the glory of God above all, and the exalting of his name and truth in your day and generation; and live in love, and in the truth, and the love of it; and overcome evil with good [Rom 12:21]; and hold fast that which is good, then you can try all things [1 Th 5:21]. . . .
G. F.
Be the first to react on this!
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."