Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

To illustrate: The rays of the sun come freighted | But if the heart is at enmity with God, it will rebel, from that body with the light, warmth and other blasphemies will be uttered, and war will follow. In properties that go to promote the varied order of both cases God has been the same, and remains the growths on this earth, and wherever the conditions same. The first heart being pure and clean, or willare congenial their natural results are produced, ing to become so, to it God appears as love; the which could not be the case if those sun rays did not second being otherwise, He appears as a consuming actually possess these qualitities. Thus, those prin- fire. ciples that I claim as pertaining to the Society of Friends more eminently than to any other religious body in Christendom come forth from the Divine Center charged with those redeeming and uplifting powers; and, in proportion as they are admitted and permitted to incorporate themselves into our spirit life, they enlighten, qualify and enable those who submit themselves to their ministrations to be found bearing fruit as I have referred to, which they certainly could not do if they did not bring with them from the Divine Presence those superior elements.

Hence, when we are recommending to others these great truths, I desire we may realize that we are not offering them stones for bread nor serpents for fish, and when we are bearing our testimonies to the people at large we may feel the importance of our position, and give forth these truths with no uncertain

sound.

Now, as we as a Society have these sacred trusts committed to our care and keeping, we should institute some means adequate to the end, by which they would be brought more impressively not only to our own members, but to the thousands of others who are in our time coming to feel by the presence of the Divine within themselves their beauty and excellency. And how is it to be done? There was much truth in the remark of a thoughtful man, that we could not burn one stick alone, two scarcely, but might with three; so we need to be brought in contact mind with mind, and as we are widely separated in body, can we bring about this desirable condition of things better than through the press, in this reading age. I submit, can we? and I await the suggestions of others. I would also feelingly suggest that in writing for publication we write our names at the close of our communications; we would thereby, as I think, form a larger acquaintance and be more help and strength to each other. W. G. BARKER. Macedon Centre, N. Y., Seventh mo. 14th, 1885.

For The Intelligencer and Journal.
THE SWORD.

If, among the sayings of the blessed Jesus, there was one that appeared to support war, it certainly would be that recorded by Matthew: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." But, examining this in the spirit by which it was uttered, it will be seen, rather, to favor peace. For, this sword is fully described by Paul as the word of God, which, he says, "is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." When this sword penetrates the heart, if there is nothing there at variance with God, but all in harmony, then peace and quietness will reign.

The apostle James has queried, "From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" Christ sends the sword, not to make war, but to W. cleanse and purify the heart.

HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF OLD MEETINGS.

SHREWSBURY, N. J.

About five miles from the great summer resort of fashion at Long Branch is the quiet village of Shrewsbury, in which stands an old Friends' meetinghouse, large, and in good repair, where at one time there was evidently a considerable settlement of Friends.

This meeting once belonged to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and here the Half-Year's Meeting was formerly held.

The meeting was first established about the year 1676, and the present house was built in 1816.

The old burying-ground adjoining the meetinghouse has probably been used for that purpose since the first establishment of the meeting, a considerable part having no stones to mark the place of the graves. The oldest gravestone is that of John Allen, who died 19th of Fourth month, 1747, in his 27th year. There are in this graveyard a number of locust headboards to the graves, the oldest found is marked A. W., 1786, and is still in a good state of preservation.

Across the street from the meeting-house are the Presbyterian and Episcopal churches; the latter, a very old building, was standing at the time of the Revolution, and has an iron crown above the weather vane on the steeple. This was said to have excited the wrath of the Continental soldiers and they tried in vain to shoot it off the spire, but succeeded only in perforating the gilt ball below with bullets. this church yard the oldest grave we find is that of Benjamin Long, who died Nov. 14th, 1719.

In

We were unable to find the early records of the meeting, but an old book of records of births, deaths and marriages records the birth of John Tilton, son of John and Deborah Tilton, First mo. 11th, 1669; the death of Abigail Lippincott, daughter of Remembrance Lippincott, Seventh mo. 9th, 1674, and the marriage of Hannah Shafto to Restore Lippincott, Ninth mo. 6th, 1674.

There are earlier records than these but they are so obliterated that they cannot be deciphered.

There was a good attendance at the meeting on First-day morning the 12th inst., a number of the New York Yearly Meeting's Committee to visit subordinate meetings being present by appointment.

In the afternoon a Conference had been appointed by Shrewsbury Monthly Meeting to consider the subject of Intemperance, and what could be done towards its suppression. The Conference was well attended and profitable, we think, to all, and the need of properly educating the people to a right

knowledge with regard to the poisonous effects of alcoholic intoxicants clearly set before us.

It is cause for congratulation that so near these great resorts of fashion and folly, the popular watering place on the ocean on the one hand, and the Monmouth Park race track on the other, there still exists so substantial a people as this little settlement of Friends at Shrewsbury, and it is the earnest desire that the light may not be dimmed or placed under the bed of selfish ease or the bushel of covetous accuinulation, but on the candlestick it may yet burn brightly to the honor of Him who has called us to be a people.

A day spent at Elberon, the fairy land by the sea shore, whose beautiful cottages, without tree or shrub, bring to mind the wonderful childhood stories of Alladin's Lamp; and a day at Ocean Grove and Asbury Park, with the enjoyment of the ever varying, ever-fascinating ocean, closes a delightful and long to be remembered visit to Friends of Shrewsbury Meeting. R. S. HAVILAND.

Chappaqua, Seventh mo. 18th, 1885.

PIPE CREEK, MD. Pipe Creek Meeting-house stands on a knoll, from which water, as it descends from the clouds, flows down every side into the valleys below, and is surrounded by forest trees that stood there when it was built more than a century ago. It is a brick structure, and is the second house built by Friends at Pipe Creek; the first was located about two miles northeast of the present one, and stood near the road leading from Union Bridge to Uniontown, Carroll co., Md. A burial ground, where some of our early Friends were buried, still marks the location, which is now used and occupied by a congregation of colored Methodists. The present meeting-house is about onehalf mile from Union Bridge, a station on the Western Maryland Railroad.

About the year 1734 or 1735, William Farquhar (son of Allen), and his wife, Ann, with their children, moved from Pennsylvania on pack-horses, and settled near where Pipe Creek Meeting-house now stands. William Farquhar was a minister among Friends, and very soon after his settlement in Maryland established a meeting at Pipe Creek. We have no record of a Monthly Meeting here earlier than 1773, and about that period "Fairfax and Warrington Quarterly Meeting" was established; it was held alternately at Fairfax, in Virginia, Pipe Creek, in Maryland, and Warrington, in York co., Pa., in a house now standing, on land given by William Penn. There is now no regular meeting held at Warrington, except a Circular or Annual Meeting on the 4th First-day in Ninth month of each year.

There is quite a number of Friends and the descendants of Friends there, but the Monthly Meeting was laid down some years since.

Some time about the last of the past century, or the beginning of the present (the exact date can be found in the record of that meeting, at Lombard street, in fire-proof safe), Fairfax and Warrington | Quarterly Meeting was divided into Fairfax Quarterly Meeting and Warrington Quarterly Meeting. Warrington Quarterly Meeting is now composed of

Pipe Creek and Monallen Monthly Meetings, and held alternately at Pipe Creek, in Maryland, and Monallen, in Pennsylvania. Pipe Creek Preparative Meeting and Bush Creek Preparative Meeting constitute Pipe Creek Monthly Meeting, which is held at Pipe Creek (Union Bridge), Carroll co., and Bush Creek (New Market), Frederick co., Md.; they are both small meetings, but a goodly portion of our members attend meeting; we claim that there never has been a dropped meeting at Pipe Creek, but our meetings are sometimes very small. There was at one time a Friends' meeting held in Frederick_co., Md., near Buckey's town, called "Monocacy Meeting," but I think the records have been lost; there are some persons living who claim to be able to point out the site on which the meeting-house stood. Some of our members feel a concern for the welfare of our Society, and a willingness to labor for the truth and the advancement of our principles, and our Monthly Meeting has appointed a committee to labor in conjunction with the Yearly Meeting's Committee to visit subordinate meetings, etc. We have met in Conference, and feel encouraged to believe that some good may arise from our efforts for mutual benefit. S. SHEPHERD. Union Bridge, Md.

For The Intelligencer and Journal.
THE WARM SPRINGS OF VIRGINIA.

"There lacks no blessing here, the waters all
Have virtues like the garments of the Lord,
And heal much sickness: then, the crops and cows
Flourish past speaking, and the garden flowers,
Pink, blue and purple, 'tis a joy to see

How they yield honey for the singing bees;

I would the whole world were as good a home.”

I would wish to do ample justice to the virtues of this generous fountain of healing to the blessing of which so many can bear witness, but fear to weary our readers by my enthusiasm. Come and see for yourselves, you who need help for physical infirmities, and then bear witness to the truth. I have never heard of any being injured by the indulgence, but many, like pilgrims at a miracle working shrine, might leave their sedan chairs, their crutches and canes as a votive offering to the spirit which here abides. But we no longer expect special healing from local divinities, but proceed to pry into causes, in that more or less scientific method, that modern wisdom commonly approves. The chemist measures and weighs the soluble salts held in these pure looking waters, and tests the nature of the globules of sparkling gas which rise up so profusely as the bathers displace the shaly stones which loosely pave the bottom of the pool. And so we come to the knowledge of the truth of the matter, and there is no more mystery in the wonder working of the beneficent Warm Springs than in any other remedial agency, such as physicians dispense and apothecaries deal in.

We love to read in sacred story of the charmed pool of five porches,-the Bethsaida or Bethesda, by the sheep gate of old Jerusalem, of which the periodic outpouring of the waters was attributed to the holy or helpful agency of an angelic messenger.

Hither came the poor stricken ones with all their in | of nature grows to be an adoring worshiper as he describable maladies to be bathed in the fountain of ascends the flowery slopes of knowledge, pries into healing. The blessed Master came to look upon the the secrets of the hills, testing, comparing, musing, scene, and to the impotent one who had none to as he brings the unknown to the measuring rod of place him in the holy waters, he stretched the heal- the known, solves mysteries, dispels needless fears, ing hand, and by a word of assurance and sympathy sets free the mind, and attains to somewhat of absohe raises the helpless sufferer and sends him on the lute truth. And yet the Church fears these sincere way, rejoicing in unexpected power. But he bears and truthful ones who seek knowledge in the only with him, too, the admonition, "Sin no more, lest a way by which it may be attained. worse thing befall thee." Even so these waters of blessing cannot avail long to those who will not abstain from the physical sins to which their bodily infirmities are due. The true physician might now learn his lesson from the Elder brother who in the days of old gave the word of warning to the poor impotent sufferer whom he released from the thraldom of disease.

The form of our Bethesda is that of the baths of old Rome, where the luxurious rulers of the world spent the warm noontide hours of summer, not as a means of healing so much as a delightful indulgence. To get water for these baths and for other purposes, rivers had to be conducted, on high arches, across the Campagna from the neighboring Alban mountains and poured down in generous profusion in the Eternal city. We speculate in wonder as to the ways and means of warming the water in requisite quantities, for Rome had no such living volcanic springs as these, from which gushed the steaming currents we have here.

The extreme slowness of the changes to be looked for in thermal springs is illustrated by the constant character of the hot spring of Bath, in England, which has a temperature of 120° Fahr. No less than 180,000 gallons of water issue daily from this source, and we may well understand how great is the amount of heat of which the earth's crust is relieved by its agency. This spring has certainly maintained its present condition since the time of the Romans, without any sensible diminution of heat, or without bringing up less in solution of the material of the earth's solid substance.

We may come here, then, in all the remaining years of our lives, without fear of the alkaline salts we have found so beneficial, diminishing in their richness, and without any apprehension that the generous spring will turn a cold shoulder to its votaries.

mid-day and at eventide after the meal time, for genial conversation concerning the day's experiences, and for courteous comparison of views as to the many occurences of a more important character, which have a bearing upon the weal or woe of our broad nation.

This is a place of much innocent gaiety and genial sociality. The young folks love the sport of the cricket-ground, and the less sportive have pleasure Volcanoes have their various stages of develop-in sitting beneath the lofty colonnade at morning, ment, activity, progress and gradual cessation. I suppose this valley of the warm springs is the crater of some enormous Apallachian volcano of a long past time. Out of the central vent poured the lavas which hardened into vast sheets and dykes, and the earth shook and crashed under the mighty impulse of its earthquake forces. The strata laid by old geologic seas were ground to pebbles, the valleys rose up into mountains and the mountains were abased, geysers ascending from their boiling depths, cast forth the tormented solution of rocks. And so, as time rolled on, calm came at length, and denuding agencies smoothed the tossed elements into form, while from sulphurous and fiery depths issued the corrosive and powerful gases in great quantities. At length the sulphurous and hydrochloric acid gases decline, and sulphuretted hydrogen and carbonic acid are evolved in much smaller proportions. The thermal waters continue to be poured forth here while all the irritating gases have disappeared, and only the carbonic acid sparkles in great globules from the depths while merely a trace of sulphur appears. Now the scientific inquirer goes to every point on the earth's surface, which is seen to be a centre of volcanic activity, and takes accurate note of the steps of the sure progress of natural causes, acting on well-ascertained principles or laws, till to-day we could scarcely be better informed if we had the whole process right around us, and could watch it in progress as time passed on. It is comforting to the inquiring, finite mind to find questions put to nature, always evolving, by their faithful answers, unvarying laws, which we perceive to be the very voice of God speaking to man's progressive intelligence, and raising steadily the human mind toward the Infinite. The student

In view of the genial faithfulness of the servitors who look out for our creature comforts, representatives of far distant sections of the country unite in praise of the present amiable attitude of the colored race in the south. As we leave further and further behind us the dark days of slavery, the colored man has a chance to demonstrate his capability for free citizenship, or else his utter incapability. A large number. are employed around the hotel, both in attending on guests and in carrying on the needful labor on the princely domain which is the possession of the proprietor of the Warm Springs. I know not how many there are of them, but we soon find ourselves regarding them without suspicion, and leaving our doors all unbarred, feeling assured that no one wishes to do us any wrong. The admission is general that the negro is not degenerating in freedom, but that he earnestly desires and endeavors to procure for his children a degree of culture which will enable them to be really worthy to exercise the franchise. "They are certainly the best working class we have, says one thoughtful Virginian,' and as to some of the people who were once my slaves, I have no friends whom I value more." And so we feel that we have evidence that a good spirit exists among those who once looked upon each other as master and slave; though it would not be safe to attempt to formulate opinions on such slight knowledge as mine. There was a class of enthusiastic young men who after the

[ocr errors]

the existence in the South of the equality of oppor tunity, which is the only kind of equality that exists anywhere.-Ledger.

INTELLIGENCER AND JOURNAL.

HOWARD M. JENKINS, Managing Editor.

close of the Civil war took a gloomy view of the
future, and deeming their career as American citi-
zens barren of all hope of honor, went into volun.
tary banishment in other lands. Some entered into
the military service of foreign despots, and drew the
sword in contests in which they could surely have no
life. And so, many a young American who ought
to have been the comfort and help of a stricken
family, has perished in needless sacrifice in alien
lands, and in unholy warfare of oppression and HELEN G. LONGSTRETH.
wrong. Thus the long mourning is yet prolonged,
desolate places are left desolate, old families are
eradicated from the country of their forefathers,
while the enterprising and hopeful come in from other
regions, and possess "the sacred soil" of the Old
Dominion.

One cannot too strongly sympathize with the brave and faithful spirit which has animated many of the women of the south land in the new life that remained to them after the overthrow of their industrial system. No lowliest duty has been ignored, no household service neglected, and the inevitable has been accepted with dignity and cheerfulness. The days of comparative poverty have brought out shining virtues, which in unbroken prosperity might never have been developed. No one can tell of the bridges of expedients these have builded, nor the self denial they have patiently endured, that their dear ones might have home, shelter and the means of subsistence. And now comes forth a new generation who belong to the present and not to the past; bright eyed boys and graceful girls who are worthy to have a goodly inheritance in the land of their fathers. And with the coming of the dear children comes a new hope and joy to the land tried and chosen in the furnace of affliction.

"Howe'er the uneasy world is vexed and wroth,

Young children, lifted high on parent souls,
Look round them with a smile upon the mouth,
And take for music every bell that tolls;
(Who said we should be better if like these ?)
But we sit murmuring for the future, though
Posterity is smiling on our knees,
Convicting us of folly. Let us go,

We will trust God. The blank interstices
Men take for ruins, He will build into

[blocks in formation]

ONE Swallow does not make a summer, but a report that comes from Yorkville, South Carolina, is nevertheless encouraging. The will of Samson Hall, colored, has just been admitted to probate in that place. Until the emancipation proclamation, or practically until the close of the war, he was a slave. Starting in life with nothing but labor for his capital twenty years ago, he has raised a family of eight children to habits of industry, and at his death was enabled to leave them a farm of 138 acres, a thousand dollars in cash and other personal property valued at $500. The local paper gives him an obituary notice, and speaks of him as highly respected in the community where he was once a slave. This instance of a good use made of freedom is by no means isolated, but if it stood by itself would prove

SUSAN ROBERTS.

ASSOCIATE EDITORS:

LOUISA J. ROBERTS.
RACHEL W. HILLBORN.

LYDIA H. HALL.

PHILADELPHIA, SEVENTH MO. 25, 1885.

SIMPLICITY IN A RELIGIOUS FAITH.-The age in which we live is characterized by a broad liberality regarding religious belief, but there is still great need to cultivate and adhere to a true simplicity of belief. The intellect and the imagination so wisely bestowed upon us, have attained such a crowning place in the affairs of life, that we are sometimes in danger of losing sight of the necessity of keeping each in its proper place, and subject to that greater gift of the spirit, the indwelling of the Divine Father.

This recognition of kinship with Him is the one great incentive to that purity of life which brings us into closer and closer communion with him, and we need constantly to renew our faith in the fact that we are "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ."

In the multiplicity of arguments used to establish certain points of doctrine, we are liable to forget the simple query and declaration given in Genesis: "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well sin lieth at the door," a text well suited to the comprehension of every one. Or, if we desire not to consult so ancient a record, we can find the same truth conveyed in these few plain words, in that most incomparable sermon of Jesus, "Ye shall know them by their fruits."

But notwithstanding the many earnest words spoken and written in favor of a simple faith and trust in the one all-wise Creator, and the need of living lives of purity like unto that of the beloved Son, the world has insisted and still insists, in surrounding a religious belief with much that is mysterious and hard to understand.

Untold mischief has been done, innocently perhaps, by the zealous many, who feel it to be their mission to disseminate such spiritual food as leads the partakers thereof to think that only in a prescribed "faith" that almost ignores "works,” or correct lives, can they hope for eternal peace.

From a recent tract distributor there came into

our hands a little book, the burden of its teaching being this: that no one could in any way earn heaven, or the longed for rest beyond the grave, by the living

of a good life here, and that even repentance of past errors had little place in the great theory of salvation by substitution. Only the acceptance of this salvation as a free gift, just as a material gift of bread not earned could nourish the body, so heaven could be attained only by “a faith," righteous living counting as nothing, and this mistaken gospel is preached freely to such as need to be kept in the path of rectitude, by daily endeavor to overcome the tendency to wrong doing implanted by early and late association with vice and crime. And yet these darkened minds give evidence that within themselves there is an unseen power calling them to struggle for a better life. Alas! that so few are the appeals made to this power, in place of the great stress laid upon the outward manifestations of God's grace. We sincerely believe that the world would have seen less of sin and of sorrow, could there have been more encouragement given to a simple faith in the love and kinship of the Father united with a wholesome fear of offend

ing Him by wrong doing, and a constant pointing to the example of the pure and good in all ages.

But not rudely would we displace an old faith. Not for one moment would we unsettle the mind of one trying to live aright, if there was not time or inclination to embrace a new one. For instance, such a faith as was recently shown by a poor lad who lay dying in one of our hospitals, and when told that death must result, asked to see a priest of the church in which he had been reared, after which he calmly and hopefully awaited the end, far from all that was dear to him. Trust like this should be sacredly guarded, and we learn from such scenes that charity which is ever kind.

Idols must be crushed, and courage, the courage of conviction, is needed to do it, but be tender "with the idolaters, they worship the best they know," and we may not doubt their acceptance.

But for those whose high privilege it is to know the truth in its simplicity, let no environment of superstition, or bewilderment of reason be allowed to creep in and obscure its simple and direct revealings.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

city, Job C. Bowron, in the 59th year of his age; a BOWRON.-On Tenth mo. 1st, 1884, in New York member of New York Monthly Meeting of Friends.

His death was sudden, but there is a consolation in the belief that when the summons came he was found ready to be admitted into heavenly rest, having always lived a just and upright life. His death leaves a sad void in the household that never can be filled.

New Lexington Highland co., Ohio, of Bright's disHALLOWELL.-On Seventh month 9th, 1885, at ease, Ellwood Hallowell, in his 62d year, son of the Pa.; a member of Clear Creek Particular and Miami late Joseph and Esther C. Hallowell, of Chester co., Monthly Meetings, O.

WHITCOMB.-On Seventh mo. 14th, 1885, at the residence of her brother-in-law, Oliver P. Smith, Horsham, Pa., M. Louisa Whitcomb, aged 42.

For The Intelligencer and Journal.

NOTE FROM ANN PACKER.

There has been some account given in the last spring and this summer, but not yet of my jour INTELLIGENCER AND JOURNAL of my travels this ney being ended, on my arrival at home.

After the meetings named heretofore we proceeded to Plainfield, N. J., on Seventh-day, the 20th of Sixth month, stayed there until Second-day morning, then passed through the city of Philadelphia and had meeting in Camden that evening.

E. A. Davis met me at Camden, and I. and E. Eyre left me there. They were kind and faithful companions in our travel. On Third-day evening I went westward to Coatesville, stopped and was met by my friends and relatives, Priscilla and Margaretta Walton, and taken by them to the neighborhood of Fallowfield, to take a little rest before attempting to cross the mountains. I stayed there and attended their meeting on Fifth-day, after which I returned to the city, in order to procure a direct passage home without detention on the way, which was accomplished. I was there joined by Annie G. Jones, wife of Samuel Jones, of West Philadelphia, Charleston a few minutes after 5 the next evening. and we left the city at 10 P.M., and arrived at South Then and now, in looking back and seeing the many preservations I have passed through, and the numberless blessings bestowed upon me, my mind is humbled under a sense of the kindness and sympathy that I have felt from my friends wherever I go, that I must exclaim, "God is Lord, and to Him belongeth all praise and adoration, for His mercies are new every morning."

On my return I found the family in usual health, my dear aged sister fully as well as when I left, and my own strength equal to what it was when I left my home on the 16th of Fourth month, my

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »