[1] A similar experience is to be found in the unpublished memoir of that pious and accomplished Quakeress, Miss P. H. Gurney, p. 43. "I was painfully struck with the want of any sign of true devotion or spiritual mindedness in the several congregations I attended in London, both in preachers and hearers. Had I gone, as I once felt some inclination to do, to that called St. Mary Woolnoth, (Jno. Newton's) I might have found an exception to this description; but being accidently prevented, I have sometimes thought it was in the ordering of Providence that whatever of spiritual religion was then circulating in the national church, I was not permitted to find it, though I sought it with the most earnest desire of success." Miss Gurney took these facts as a proof that God intended that she should turn Quakeress; but surely the true explanation of these providences is that God will have us look to Him, and not rest unduly on any man or human system. He spoils our idols that we may worship only Him.
Every experienced pastor must have met with such cases. Until God satisfies the soul the words of men are vain; when His hour has come, the truth which brings light and peace is often one that has been explained and urged before. George Fox had to learn that it is God's work to enlighten, that there is still to be enjoyed a real guidance of the Holy Spirit, resulting in the solution of difficulties and mysteries, in a clear apprehension of the truth, and a soul-satisfying sense of its power. And if the lesson was slowly and hardly learnt, it resulted in a clearer insight into the truth, and more fitness to deal with other tried souls.
At times during these days of trial the dark clouds broke, and for a time the sun shone through. But until he learnt that Christ was to be his Teacher and Comforter, it was but for a time. It was a short respite to gather strength, a brief foreshadowing of the coming joy. Hear his touching thanksgiving for the goodness that did not break the bruised reed. "As I cannot declare the misery I was in, it was so great and heavy upon me, so neither can I set forth the mercies of God to me in my misery. Oh! the everlasting love of God to my soul when I was in distress. When my torments and troubles were great, then was His love exceeding great. Thou, Lord, makest the fruitful field a wilderness, and a barren wilderness a fruitful field. Thou bringest down and settest up. Thou killest and makest alive. All honour and glory be to Thee, O Lord of Glory. The knowledge of Thee in the Spirit is life." But the clouds finally passed away, and abiding sunshine settled on him, when Christ revealed Himself to him as the Great Physician, for whom he had been longing so earnestly. His troubles had lasted three years, and, no doubt, had been aggravated by his morbid fears and mistaken loneliness. But through life his nature was keenly susceptible; for example, the sins of the nation at the Restoration made him blind and seriously ill with grief, in spite of active work and much society. No wonder then that his anguish wore him out at the time when his soul was in the dark, and when that which appeared to him alone worth living for seemed denied him. But now that he was weaned from trusting in an arm of flesh, came the time of divine deliverance. "When all my hopes in them (the dissenters) and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could I tell what to do, then, O! then, I heard a voice which said, 'There is one, even Jesus Christ, that can speak to thy condition,' and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy. Then the Lord did let me see why there was none upon the earth that could speak to my condition, namely, that I might give him all the glory. For all are concluded in sin and shut up in unbelief as I had been, that Jesus Christ might have the pre-eminence, who enlightens and gives grace, faith, and power. Thus when God doth work who shall let it? And this I knew experimentally. My desires after the Lord grew stronger, and zeal in the pure knowledge of God and of Christ alone, without the aid of any man, book, or writing. For though I read the Scriptures that spake of Christ and of God, yet I knew Him not but by revelation, as He who hath the key did open, and as the Father of Life drew me to His Son by His Spirit."
This discovery was to Fox what the unfolding of the great doctrine of justification by faith was to Luther. It was not only the commencement of a new life, it was the theme of his life-long ministry, and the special message which he was raised up to deliver to the world. In neither case was there the revelation of a new truth, only an old truth was to be emphasized, and to take its right place in the minds and hearts of men.
To this grand truth, that Christ is still with us to guide us by His Holy Spirit into all truth, Fox henceforth trusted to clear up all doubts, and to unfold all truths, and to explain the Holy Scriptures. So in our day has Mr. Moody set forth prayer as the all-sufficient practical commentator on the Bible. Henceforth, Fox expected Divine prompting to every service and Divine guidance in its performance, and without these he would not move. He had already been convinced of several points afterwards prominent in Quakerism, especially that no place or building can properly be called "holy ground," and that a University training was not a sufficient qualification for the ministry. As to the last point, just as the modern Quaker apostle, Stephen Grellet, said he could no more make a sermon than he could make a world, so did Fox protest against a man-made minister. As he was ever the enlightened and persistent advocate of sound education, this contention must not be mistaken for a contempt of human learning in its right place. It was but an emphatic assertion that the only availing spiritual knowledge comes not through human teaching but through the teaching of the Holy Spirit; and that, on the other hand, where He calls a man to the office of the ministry, the absence of a scholastic training was an utterly insufficient reason for interfering with the call. The abundant blessing which attended the preaching of Fox, Bunyan and other "unlearned and ignorant men," gave emphasis to this doctrine in that age. To these views the other Quaker "testimonies" were speedily added, and soon the whole scheme of doctrine was complete in his mind.
Two points must here be insisted upon:—1st, neither George Fox nor any of the early Friends, though their language is sometimes hazy, ever claimed to be inspired. Says a recent authority, [Fielden Thorp, B. A., in the Friends' Quarterly Examiner for April, 1870,] "It has often been a cause of satisfaction to us that nowhere in the authorised documents of our society is the word (inspiration) applied to the ministry of Friends." Secondly, notice that Fox was most careful to note how his convictions corresponded with Holy Scripture. So he says, "When I had openings they answered one another, and answered the Scriptures, for I had great openings of the Scriptures."[2] Whilst, then, the fallibility of the ministry is acknowledged, and the infallibility of the Bible asserted, surely the doctrine of the Divine Guidance is not perverted through insufficient safeguards. But we are not prepared in all points to defend Fox's application of the doctrine. Possibly he sometimes mistook the workings of his own mind for the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Nor are his theology and his interpretations of Scripture beyond criticism. His ideas on the Divine In-dwelling took the form of the famous doctrine of the Seed or Light within. But though the teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit are taught by Friends as distinctly as ever, it is questionable whether the doctrine of the Light within in the precise form in which Fox preached it, and Barclay developed it theologically, has obtained the general acceptance of the Society. It certainly is not to be found in its authorised publications, such as the official "Doctrine, Practice and Discipline." It speaks well for the independence of thought in the society, that the pet-child of its great leaders should be abandoned when it failed to secure their conscientious assent.[3]
[2] The following passage from an American life of George Fox, coming from a reliable Quaker source, corroborates this assertion. Speaking of the early Friends the writer says:—"Their belief in a divine communication between the soul of man and its Almighty Creator, through the medium of the Holy Spirit, by which the Christian may be 'led into all truth,' did not at all lessen their regard for the authority of the Holy Scriptures as the test of doctrines. They constantly professed their willingness that all their principles and practices should be tried by them; and that whatsoever any, who pretended to the guidance of the Spirit, either said or did which was contrary to their testimony, ought to be rejected as a Satanic delusion; and also, that 'what is not read therein nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith.'" Page 357.
[3] The reader will not mistake this for an assertion that Friends have surrendered the doctrine of the Divine guidance and indwelling. For a fuller discussion of the question see the close of the sketch of Barclay.