Friends, Society of. This body of Christians now subsists in two main divisions, generally known to the public as the Orthodox and the Hicksite ; but these designations are not used by the bodies them- selves. The former body is designated below as No. 1, and tlie article is written by William J. Allinson, editor of The Friends' Revieiv ; the latter body is desig- nated as No. 2, and the article is written by Samuel M. Jannej', of Lincoln, Loudon County, Va.
FRIENDS (No. 1). The organization of the Friends as a distinct society or church was not the result of any deliberate design to form a sect, but must be re- garded as a providential ordering, and as a necessity growing from the degeneracy, corruptions, and world- liness which permeated the churches in the early part of the 17th centur}-. They did not profess to establish a new religion, or claiui to have discovered any ne'w truth. Their object was the revival of primitive Christianity, which had been maintained through the centuries of the Christian asra by successive testimony- bearers, many of whom had scaled the truth with their
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Wood, and been counted unto tlie Lord for a genera- tion. Especially th(\y were led to call the attention of the people to the Holy Spirit as the living and infal- lible guide, as a precious and glorious reality, essential to the Christian life, and suflicient to lead into true holiness. 'I'hoy never held the doctrine of the Spirit ap a mere theory, or ignored the great truth that this unspeakable gift proceeded from the adorable Giver, and was consequent upon the death and vicarious sac- riiice of him who for our sakes laid down his life upon Calvary. They always regarded the close connection of cause and effect as described in our Lord's words : " I tell you the truth ; it is expedient for you that I go away ; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart I will send him unto you" (John xvi, 7). This truth George Fox began to teach and jireach, not as an invention of his own, but as a priceless jewel thrown aside and hidden under the rub- bish of dogmas and forms. The Divine Spirit asserted himself almost simultaneously in the hearts of many contemporaries, who were ready to respond to the preaching of Fox: "It is the verj' truth." Had the clerg}' and other professors of that day opened their hearts to the spiritualitj' of the Christian religion, and yielded themselves to the Spirit's guidance, the Church would have lieen reformed, and Fox would have been satisfied. The religious awakening of this period Avas well described by the pen of Milton : " Thou hast sent out the spirit of praj^er upon thy servants over all the land to this effect, and stirred up their vows as the sound of many waters about thj' throne. Every one can say that now certainly thou liast visited this land, and hast not forgotten the uttermost corners of the earth, in a time when men thought that thoxi wast gone up from us to the farthest end of the heavens, and hadst left to do marvellously among the sons of these last ages." Christ the object of faith, the Spirit the transforming power, was the doctrine of the first Friends, as it has ever been that of their true succes- sors. The divinit}'' of our Lord was not called in ques- tion by the teachers of that day, whilst the guidance of His Spirit, the light of Christ in the conscience, was denied or ignored ; and hence the prominence given to the latter truth, and the comparative silence respecting the other, in the controversial writings of the early Friends. George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, was born in 1G24, and in 1G47, after much deep experience of the blessedness of the Comforter, "even the Siidrit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father," he went forth through England, on foot and at his own charges, freel}' preaching to the people the unsearchable riches which Christ Iiad purchased for them, and was readj^ to give liberally to all who would ask for it, coming unto God bj' him. To the spiritual standard thus raised many flocked — ministers of vari- ous churches, sin-sick memliers of their flocks who had wandered unsatisfied upon " barren mountains and desolate hills," magistrates, rich men and poor, and "honorable women not a few." Eight years from the date last given, ministers of the new society preached the Gospel in various parts of Europe, in Asia, and Africa, and bore, with heroic endurance, persecu- tions, imprisonment, and the tortures of the Inquisition in Kome, ]\Lalta, Austria, Hungary, etc. An authentic history of their sufferings was collected by Joseph ]i(><sc, and published, London, IToP), in two large folios. The systematic interference by the state in matters of religion and conscience, which was the policy of Eng- land thi'ough all the political ovcrturnings, caused shameless oppressions and wrongs to be perpetrated upon this peaceable and God-fearing people, three thousand four hundred of them at one time being in- carcerated in iilthy and unwholesome prisons, where many of them d'wA martyrs to the truth. No one seemed to think of purchasing- exemption from perse- cution by 3'ielding, even in appearance, a point of prin- ciple.