THE latter part of the summer, 1763, there came a man to Mount Holly who hadpreviously published a printed advertisement that at a certain public-house he would show many wonderful operations, which were therein enumerated. At theappointed time he did, by sleight of hand, perform sundry things which appearedstrange to the spectators. Understanding that the show was to be repeated thenext night, and that the people were to meet about sunset, I felt an exerciseon that account. So I went to the public-house in the evening, and told the manof the house that I had an inclination to spend a part of the evening there;with which he signified that he was content. Then, sitting down by the door, Ispoke to the people in the fear of the Lord, as they came together, concerningthis show, and laboured to convince them that their thus assembling to seethese sleight-of-hand tricks, and bestowing their money to support men who, inthat capacity, were of no use to the world, was contrary to the nature of theChristian religion. One of the company endeavoured to show by arguments thereasonableness of their proceedings herein; but after considering some texts ofScripture and calmly debating the matter he gave up the point. After spendingabout an hour among them, and feeling my mind easy, I departed.
Twenty-fifth of Ninth Month, 1764. -- At our Yearly Meeting at Philadelphiathis day, John Smith, of Marlborough, aged upwards of eighty years, a faithfulminister, though not eloquent, stood up in our meeting of ministers and elders,and appearing to be under a great exercise of spirit, informed Friends insubstance as follows: "That he had been a member of our Society upwards ofsixty years, and he well remembered that, in those early times, Friends were aplain, lowly-minded people, and that there was much tenderness and contritionin their meetings. That, at twenty years from that time, the Society increasingin wealth and in some degree conforming to the fashions of the world, truehumility was less apparent, and their meetings in general were not so livelyand edifying. That at the end of forty years many of them were grown very rich,and many of the Society made a specious appearance in the world; that wearingfine costly garments, and using silver and other watches, became customary withthem, their sons, and their daughters.
"These marks of outward wealth and greatness appeared on some in our meetingsof ministers and elders; and, as such things became more prevalent, so thepowerful overshadowings of the Holy Ghost were less manifest in the Society.
That there had been a continued increase of such ways of life, even until thepresent time; and that the weakness which hath now overspread the Society andthe barrenness manifest among us is matter of much sorrow." He then mentionedthe uncertainty of his attending these meetings in future, expecting hisdissolution was near; and, having tenderly expressed his concern for us,signified that he had seen in the true light that the Lord would bring back Hispeople from these things, into which they were thus degenerated, but that Hisfaithful servants must go through great and heavy exercises.
Twentieth of Ninth Month. -- The committee appointed by the Yearly Meeting tovisit the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings gave an account in writing of theirproceedings in that service. They signified that, in the course of the visit,they had been apprehensive that some persons holding offices in governmentinconsistent with our principles, and others who kept slaves, remaining activemembers in our meetings for discipline, had been one means of weaknessprevailing in some places. After this report was read, an exercise revived inmy mind which had attended me for several years, and inward cries to the Lordwere raised in me that the fear of man might not prevent me from doing what Herequired of me, and, standing up, I spoke in substance as follows:
"I have felt a tenderness in my mind towards persons in two circumstancesmentioned in that report; namely, towards such active members as keep slavesand such as hold offices in civil government; and I have desired that Friends,in all their conduct, may be kindly affectioned one towards another. ManyFriends who keep slaves are under some exercise on that account; and at timesthink about trying them with freedom, but find many things in their way. Theway of living and the annual expenses of some of them are such that it seemsimpracticable for them to set their slaves free without changing their own wayof life. It has been my lot to be often abroad; and I have observed in someplaces, at Quarterly and Yearly Meetings, and at some houses where travellingFriends and their horses are often entertained, that the yearly expense ofindividuals therein is very considerable. And Friends in some places crowdingmuch on persons in these circumstances for entertainment hath rested as aburden on my mind for some years past. I now express it in the fear of theLord, greatly desiring that Friends here present may duly consider it."In the fall of this year, having hired a man to work, I perceived inconversation with him that he had been a soldier in the late war on thiscontinent; and he informed me in the evening, in a narrative of his captivityamong the Indians, that he saw two of his fellow-captives tortured to death ina very cruel manner. This relation affected me with sadness, under which I wentto bed; and the next morning, soon after I awoke, a fresh and living sense ofdivine love overspread my mind, in which I had a renewed prospect of the natureof that wisdom from above which leads to a right use of all gifts, bothspiritual and temporal, and gives content therein. Under a feeling thereof, Iwrote as follows: -"Hath He who gave me a being attended with many wants unknown to brutecreatures given me a capacity superior to theirs, and shown me that a moderateapplication to business is suitable to my present condition; and that this,attended with His blessing, may supply all my outward wants while they remainwithin the bounds He hath fixed, and while no imaginary wants proceeding from an evil spirit have any place in me? Attend then, O my soul! to this purewisdom as thy sure conductor through the manifold dangers of this world.
"Doth pride lead to vanity? Doth vanity form imaginary wants? Do these wantsprompt men to exert their power in requiring more from others than they wouldbe willing to perform themselves, were the same required of them? Do theseproceedings beget hard thoughts? Do hard thoughts, when ripe, become malice?
Does malice, when ripe, become revengeful, and in the end inflict terriblepains on our fellow-creatures and spread desolations in the world?
"Do mankind, walking in uprightness, delight in each other's happiness? Anddo those who are capable of this attainment, by giving way to an evil spirit,employ their skill and strength to inflict and destroy one another? Rememberthen, O my soul, the quietude of those in whom Christ governs, and in all thyproceedings feel after it.
"Doth He condescend to bless thee with His presence? To move and influencethee to action? To dwell and to walk in thee? Remember then thy station asbeing sacred to God. Accept of the strength freely offered to thee, and takeheed that no weakness in conforming to unwise, expensive, and hard-heartedcustoms, gendering to discord and strife, be given way to. Doth He claim mybody as His temple, and graciously require that I may be sacred to Him? Oh thatI may prize this favour, and that my whole life may be conformable to thischaracter! Remember, O my soul! that the Prince of Peace is thy Lord; that Hecommunicates His unmixed wisdom to His family, that they, living in perfectsimplicity, may give no just cause of offence to any creature, but that theymay walk as He walked!"Having felt an openness in my heart towards visiting families in our ownmeeting, and especially in the town of Mount Holly, the place of my abode, Imentioned it at our Monthly Meeting in the fore part of the winter of 1764,which being agreed to, and several Friends of our meeting being united in theexercise, we proceeded therein; and through divine favour we were helped in thework, so that it appeared to me as a fresh reviving of godly care amongFriends. The latter part of the same winter I joined my friend William Jones ina visit to Friends' families in Mansfield, in which labour I had cause toadmire the goodness of the Lord toward us.
My mind being drawn towards Friends along the seacoast from Cape May to nearSquan, and also to visit some people in those parts, among whom there is nosettled worship, I joined with my beloved friend Benjamin Jones in a visit tothem, having Friends' unity therein. We set off the 24th of Tenth Month, 1765,and had a prosperous and very satisfactory journey, feeling at times, through the goodness of the Heavenly Shepherd, the gospel to flow freely towards a poorpeople scattered in these places. Soon after our return I joined my friendsJohn Sleeper and Elizabeth Smith in a visit to Friends' families at Burlington,there being at this time about fifty families of our Society in that city; andwe had cause humbly to adore our Heavenly Father, who baptized us into afeeling of the state of the people, and strengthened us to labour in truegospel love among them.
Having had a concern at times for several years to pay a religious visit toFriends on the eastern shore of Maryland, and to travel on foot among them,that by so travelling I might have a more lively feeling of the condition ofthe oppressed slaves, set an example of lowliness before the eyes of theirmasters, and be more out of the way of temptation to unprofitable converse; andthe time drawing near in which I believed it my duty to lay my concern beforeour Monthly Meeting, I perceived, in conversation with my beloved friend JohnSleeper, that he also was under similar concern to travel on foot in the formof a servant among them, as he expressed it. This he told me before he knewaught of my exercise. Being thus drawn the same way, we laid our exercise andthe nature of it before Friends; and, obtaining certificates, we set off the6th of Fifth Month, 1766, and were at meetings with Friends at Wilmington, DuckCreek, Little Creek, and Motherkill. My heart was often tendered under thedivine influence, and enlarged in love towards the people among whom wetravelled.
From Motherkill we crossed the country about thirty-five miles to Tuckahoe,in Maryland, and had a meeting there, and also at Marshy Creek. At the lastthree meetings there were a considerable number of the followers of one JosephNichols, a preacher, who, I understand, is not in outward fellowship with anyreligious society, but professeth nearly the same principles as those of ourSociety, and often travels up and down, appointing meetings which many peopleattend. I heard of some who had been irreligious people that were now hisfollowers, and were become sober, well-behaved men and women. Someirregularities, I hear, have been among the people at several of his meetings;but from what I have perceived I believe the man and some of his followers arehonestly disposed, but that skilful fathers are wanting among them.
We then went to Choptank and Third Haven, and thence to Queen Anne's. Theweather for some days past having been hot and dry, and we having travelledpretty steadily and having hard labour in meetings, I grew weakly, at which Iwas for a time discouraged; but looking over our journey and considering howthe Lord had supported our minds and bodies, so that we had gone forward muchfaster than I expected before we came out, I saw that I had been in danger oftoo strongly desiring to get quickly through the journey, and that the bodily weakness now attending me was a kindness; and then in contrition of spirit, Ibecame very thankful to my gracious Father for this manifestation of His love,and in humble submission to His will my trust in Him was renewed.
In this part of our journey I had many thoughts on the differentcircumstances of Friends who inhabit Pennsylvania and Jersey from those whodwell in Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina. Pennsylvania and New Jersey weresettled by Friends who were convinced of our principles in England in times ofsuffering; these, coming over, bought lands of the natives, and applied tohusbandry in a peaceable way, and many of their children were taught to labourfor their living. Few of these, I believe, settled in any of the southernprovinces; but by the faithful labours of travelling Friends in early timesthere was considerable convincement among the inhabitants of these parts. Ialso remembered having read of the warlike disposition of many of the firstsettlers in those provinces, and of their numerous engagements with the nativesin which much blood was shed even in the infancy of the colonies. Some of thepeople inhabiting those places, being grounded in customs contrary to the puretruth, were affected with the powerful preaching of the Word of Life and joinedin fellowship with our Society, and in so doing they had a great work to gothrough.
In the history of the reformation from Popery it is observable that theprogress was............