Friends,—Every particular, mind that which is pure of God in you, to guide you up to God, and to keep you in the fear of the Lord, that ye may receive refreshment from God alone in yourselves, and grow up in the inward man, nourished and strengthened by that which is immortal. And delight in that which shows you the deceit of your hearts, and judges that which is contrary to God, and be obedient to that which is pure; so ye will see the Lord God present with you, a daily help, his hand always ordering of you, and as a shepherd always keeping the dogs from his lambs, whom he feeds in green pastures [23" class="scriptRef">Psa 23;2], and waters with his heavenly dew of mercy, who makes them all fruitful. The cry of want and poverty shall be no more heard in the land of the living, but joy, gladness, and plenty. The wearied soul, that hath lain in the pit and in the mire, and lived in the clouds of temptation, and cried out for want of the Lord, shall cry plentious redemption [Psa 130:7], and say, God is our king, who fills heaven and earth, and the voice of our king is heard in our land [Song 2:14]. So fare ye well in the Lord! and the Lord God Almighty keep you and preserve you in his mighty power.
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."