"But above all he excelled in prayer. The inwardness and weight of his spirit, the reverence and solemnity of his address and behaviour, and the fewness and fulness of his words, have often struck, even strangers, with admiration, as they used to reach others with consolation. The most awful, living, reverent frame I ever felt or beheld, I must say, was his in prayer. And truly it was a testimony he knew and lived nearer to the Lord than other men."—Preface to George Fox's "Journal."
[23] This is a characteristic illustration of the way Fox passed beyond theories and doctrines, and demanded practical life-results.
[N] That is, members of the English or Episcopal Church.
[24] The Friends from the time of Fox until the present have been careful to use the word "church" only for the community of spiritual believers. The cathedrals and churches were called "steeple-houses," and their own places of worship were called "meeting-houses."
[25] A beautiful valley southwest of Nottingham, near the edge of the counties of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, just west of Bardon Hills.
[26] See Whittier's poem, "Revelation."
[O] He means experience.
[27] There is no account of the origin of this meeting, which seems to have been in existence before Fox came to Eton. There seems to have been considerable definite work done which is not detailed in the "Journal." [See "Epistles," Vol. I., page 2, "Truth sprang up (to us as to be a people of the Lord) in Derbyshire in 1647.">[ Eton is in Derbyshire.
[28] This is an interesting illustration of Fox's sensitiveness to wrong social conditions and of the practical character of his religion.
[29] This passage which records a striking personal experience is undated. It is strangely like an experience of the great German mystic, Jacob Boehme, whose works were published in England about the time Fox was beginning his missionary labors. He, too, had all nature opened to him, so that he says he saw the true significance and essence of things. See Jacob Boehme, "Signatura Rerum," which was published in English in 1649. Muggleton, in his "Looking Glass for G. Fox" (second edition, 1756, page 10), says that the writings of Boehme are the "chief books" bought by the followers of Fox.