generally observed, but that, on the contrary, there is a distinct lack therein. This has arisen, I believe, not from indifference, but from causes widely different therefrom, dating far back, and which should be mentioned here. The Society in its early days, in the desire to bear testimony against that which was formal and outward, and in the endeavor to adhere to an inward and spiritual religion, manifesting itself in godly living, in its distrust of forms and rituals as liable to take the place of the essentials of religion, perhaps unconsciously went too far, and dispensed with certain helps thereto, which, while they might be safely dispensed with under conditions of the highest spiritual living, cannot be permanently given up without real disadvantage-even danger-under the usual and inevitable conditions of normal human life and needs. The absence of form and ritual, the use of the simplest modes of worship, the belief in and practice of the highest standards of essential and practical religion, perhaps gradually led to some unconscious disregard of habits of joint daily worship in the family circle, which it is the purpose of this paper to consider and to make inquiry concerning, with the hope that answers from others in this assembly may throw light upon a subject, which, associated as it is with our joint family relationship and duty to the Supreme Being, and to each other, is of primal importance. Is it not a fact that our ancestors, the Friends of the olden time, and even those of the generation preceding ours, in their high standards of spiritual living, their close dwelling to the Divine Life, and their consequent simplicity in all things, set a standard which we are not called upon to accept as our standard, nor to follow as an example, in another age and under different conditions, which naturally involve a different call to duty; essentially the same in spirit, but widely differing in manifestation. The mission of the founders was from the nature of the case a radical one, and as they were pioneers, so were they to the outward eye fanatics, as all great pioneer reformers have been and ever will be, from causes apparently inherent in human nature and probably of the divine ordering.

Their lives were a constant devotion, in their severe adherence to the essentials of religion, and even in their apparent disregard of outward expressions of worship in the public gathering, or in the family circle. Undoubted abuses then permeated the church; rigid adherence to theological tenets; persecution of all who differed therefrom (when the power to persecute existed); extreme outward forms which seemed to stifle the true spiritual life—all these called for a protest, and a return, or rather an advance to the simple religion of Jesus; and the protest came in the rise of the Society of Friends, with its call to the church and to mankind to divest religion of all extraneous and hindering accompaniments. We, the successors and inheritors of a precious charge, are confronted by widely different conditions. The blessed and pervasive spirit of the Master has, especially in the last generation, more fully entered into the life and sensibly influenced the attitude of the Christian church, and the severe protest our ancestors felt called upon

to make against merely outward forms of worship, against cold and rigid creeds, devoid of the warm and living spirit, and against religious persecution-now happily almost antiquated—has not been required of us, in the form or to the extent which was required of them. But in this fact itself, perhaps the danger lies which accompanies a great inheritance without adequate attendant responsibilities, which are themselves its safeguards. We have been taught by all our traditions a faith in the essentials of religion, and a distrust of the merely outward expression of devotion. Have we not as a Society, in gradually dispensing with the severe service which the age does not demand of us, been unmindful that whatever service we lay down there should be a service substituted, and that while properly dispensing with the service to which we are not called, we should, if we are indeed to transmit our inheritance, see to religious culture in our homes, and thus strive to realize in these more favored times, all that our ancestors asserted and struggled for, in their own way, in the trying days in which they lived.

The subject of religious culture in the home, then presents itself to my mind as a call to our Society to consider a danger into which we may have insensibly drifted.

There have been and are certain tacit observances which are practiced in almost every Friendly household, such as the avoidance of games or diversions on the Sabbath and of the lighter forms of reading, as for instance, fiction and the Sunday newspapers, the practice of the silent grace before meals, and Bible reading at stated or irregular times. But does not the culture of the spirit call for a habit of family worship, a joint approach to the Divine Fountain, a social commingling of spirit in devotion and in communion with the Author of our being? The assembling of ourselves together in a meeting capacity is generally recognized as essential. Individual worship, introversion of spirit, communion with the Divine mind, is recognized as a necessary part of Christian life. But should not that which is of service to the individual be shared with others, especially one's own family, and as in public worship this is measurably done, so it would seem there should be in family worship not entire personal separation, but joint daily approach of members of the same household to the Divine Fountain, to the renewal, uplifting, and strengthening of each soul.

As regards the efficiency of prayer, may not an allusion be permitted to the two great men of our country's history-George Washington and Abraham Lincoln-and to their personal testimony, how they were upheld through the gravest responsibilities, and were alone enabled to carry a nation's load, by direct personal communion with God; and to the instance of Napoleon, no doubt the superior of either in brain power and mental equipment, but who lacked altogether this personal communion with God, and his supreme human abilities divorced from the Divine help, have left his career a colossal warning to mankind, and an impressive contrast to the instances just adduced of the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through the souls of men.

True prayer is not blind and selfish supplication for things opposed to universal law, and, therefore, useless, even irreverent, but is reverent aspiration for an uplifting and strengthening of the spirit.

The lisping of "Now I lay me down to sleep," | followed by "Our Father" and "Thy will be done,” is in turn followed and accompanied, if the spirit is given free course, by a joyful dedication of the soul in prayerful communion with God, which is the summit and crown of human life.

Prayer need not necessarily be in vocal utterance. Have we not all been tendered in hearing of the early days of the Society, when the little gatherings of Friends were at times melted into tears in silent social spiritual commingling, and how with each other's help, they thus came under the baptizing power of the Holy Spirit, even without a word being spoken in their midst ?

But the present concern is that as we dwell not on those spiritual heights, in these more material, more intellectual days, so in our religious gatherings, whether at the meeting-house or in the family circle,there may be required of us as a bounden duty, the spoken word, or the vocal prayer.

Is there anything so enduring as the influence of a true home life? Have not the recollections of a mother's prayers been not alone a safeguard but an inspiration to many a young man surrounded by the temptations of life, who without this blessed memory might have fallen by the way? And so the influence of a prayerful home does not cease with the life of the household, but may go down the generations, including in its widening circle many other homes, each with its cumulative influence on the world of mankind.

The power of prayer, of the uplifting of the Spirit to the Divine Fountain being conceded, does it not follow that it is a necessity in the family capacity and that there can be no real religious culture in the home life without a union of action, in aspiration, in prayer, and praise? So far from the Society of Friends being lacking in the culture of the Spirit, should it not be contrariwise, for the reason that claiming to dispense with all intermediaries, and to go directly to God, it would seem as if even more than all other branches of the Christian church, they should make it a point to cherish religious culture in their homes?

The first step is, perhaps, realization of the facts, and I call the attention of this large body of Friends to this deficiency among us of family devotion, of joint communion in the home circle with God the Father, increasing and strengthening the living faith which lies at the foundation of spiritual life.

Religious culture you will say means more than this. But will not all else follow a true dedication of spirit in joint devotion at the family hearth?

It is, perhaps, scarcely worth while as it is not practicable in this brief essay-to do more than allude to one of the great and salutary movements of the age, in this connection, the increasing study of the Bible.

Was it not Samuel M. Janney who said that "If the Inner Light be the compass by which to steer, the Bible is the Chart"?

Let us strive to be true to the compass always, but let us also study the chart-the grand old chart

which has come down the centuries, bearing to us the revealings, experiences, and pointings of God's truly inspired servants in times first recorded, as well as the later teachings of the glorious era of Jesus Christ and his dedicated followers.

As the generations pass, this chart of our religion grows even more luminous, more helpful to the sons of men, as it is studied with reverent and intelligent discrimination, without an undue admixture of the doubting spirit, and with the needle pointing true.

May I, in conclusion, illustrate my theme with a few lines of the poets, as from Lowell's "Cathedral": Thrice happy they that wander not life-long, Beyond near succor of the household faith."

And our own Whittier :

Through deepest joy of Him we learn,
In sorest grief. to Him we turn,
And Reason stoops its pride to share
The childlike instinct of a prayer.''
And the poet and prophet of the ages :

"Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall; but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles: they shall run and not be weary: and they shall walk and not faint."

ADDRESS OF WELCOME.

IV.

BY WILLIAM DUDLEY FOULKE.

(From stenographic notes by George B. Cock.)

My friends (and that is a great deal better form of salutation than to say "Ladies and Gentlemen "), my friends, you are welcome to Richmond! When you visit a Spaniard he says to you, "My house is at your disposition." He does not mean by that, exactly, that he intends to give you the title deeds; but he means that so long as you are to remain with him you are to consider his house your own; that is, you are to make it your home. The Spaniard at this moment is at a discount; but he is not all bad-he is hospitable and warm-hearted to his friends; so I think we may imitate his so far as to say that our town is at your disposition; you may make it your home.

And Richmond, after all, is not such a very bad home. We have no palaces; but we have few of the hovels that so often stand beside them; we have little that is ambitious; but, upon the other hand, we have a great deal that is comfortable. We have no magnificence; but we have very little of the poverty which so frequently attends it. We have no millionares in our midst; but at the same time we have none of the proletariat to wander through our streets, without a roof to cover them, or a morsel to eat. We have none of the "fashionables," but we also have none of the anarchists. We have none of the struggles—those contemptible struggles-for social distinction, which you find in so many a large metropolis, or the still more dangerous struggles between the capitalist and the laborer. Although we have few stately dwellings, yet nearly all our inhabitants are the owners of the houses in which they live, and of the trim door-yards in front of them. And so, after all, Richmond is not so bad a place for a home. If some of you should

of sojourn, if you should conclude to make it your permanent abode, I feel certain that we could give you quite as warm a welcome; for we should like to have additions to our population of just the kind that you represent-just the people that add bone and sinew to the real character of a community. You would find here an intellectual atmosphere, which I think would not be very greatly inferior to that of some of those cities in the East which have been regarded as having a sort of exclusive property in intellectual culture. We have our literary societies, our scientific societies, our art societies, and we have a public school system of which we are not ashamed. I had occasion not very long ago to talk with a gentleman who had been

excuse me for using the word "Quaker"; I like that word-I think I like it even better than the word "Friend"; I like all epithets which show how men without just cause, have tried to cast contempt upon their brothers and have failed. I like the word Yankee," for it epitomizes the barren memory of the British regulars, who at last showed their heels and their backs to the plain farmer boys whom they despised; I like the word "heretic," used so often by the advocates of superstitions now discarded to characterize the freedom and liberty of thought and investigation which was part of the progress of the world; and, for myself, I even like the word "Mugwump," which was intended to cast contempt, by the

through every one of the States of the Union for the purpose of examining the school systems of the States (and not only here but in the countries of the Old World), and he told me that he had made a comparative estimate of the value of the school systems, and that nowhere does he find it higher than in Michigan and Indiana; and in no part of Indiana does he find it superior to the city of Richmond. I think those were not the words of flattery; and I think we may perhaps legitimately take a pride in the system by which our children are educated for the duties of life. Business enterprise does not offer the golden opportunities that it does in the great centres of trade; but here, still, the man of industry and of thrift may find an honest living and lay by something for a rainy day. This is known as the Quaker City of the West. Of course we cannot compete with Philadelphia; but we are known throughout the country as "the Quaker City of the West." It was settled largely by Quakers ; and it is not hostile to modes of Quaker thought and to the methods of Quaker life; it is hospitable to

believers in conventional political creeds, upon those that dared assert their independence of political thought and action. And so I like the word "Quaker," for it calls to mind what I think we may designate as the heroic period in the Society of Friends, when they were willing to suffer the persecutions of a contemptuous world, when in their meetings of silent worship -not merely "silent meetings "-when they were so far moved by the depth and fervor of their religious emotions that they trembled at the power that possesed them. I believe the name "Quaker" is one not to be discarded. The unjust sneer ennobles the victim toward whom it is directed.

We are glad to see you upon many accounts; we are glad to see so many of our friends from the East. The East and the West are closer together than they used to be; and yet I am not sure that they wholly understand each other. There are a good many of the people of the West that are apt to attribute to the East a certain amount of exclusiveness-of conservatismof excess of refinement; and there are a good many

in the East that are disposed to attribute to us of the wild and woolly West a good deal of bad pronunciation, bad grammar, and other qualities that are supposed to inhere in the barbaric age. Now I think the better we come to know each other the better we will love and respect each other. We at the West go East a good deal. It is a good deal farther from New York or Philadelphia to Indiana than it is from Indiana to New York, I have always noticed. I observed when I lived East that it was a great deal further from New York to Brooklyn, when one had occasionally to go there, than it was from Brooklyn to New York, where. the Brooklynite had to go every day; I notice that it is a good deal further from Europe to America (Europeans think it is a dreadful journey!) than it is from America to Europe. The old centre of population is apt to be a sort of nucleus, and the new country is the place beyond. So, while we get to see our friends of the East pretty often, it is not so ofterf that they come to see us, and those opportunities must be prized. We want you to see us in our homes and to know us better. We believe that all which tends to draw together the bonds, not only of our Society, but of the people over the Union, tends to increase the mutual respect which they will have for each other.

We welcome you for another reason: because you come here in the interest of a great religious society which has developed people of character, and which tends to infuse a healthier spirit into all our social life. Friends in the past have been regarded as a peculiar people—as distinguished by certain idiosyncrasies of dress, of language, and of observances. A good many of these peculiarities are fading away, and, for myself, I think it is well that they should. I believe that isolation is not a good thing, either in a man or in a religious society. The man that retires to the cloister for fear of meeting the temptations of the world is not the best agent of social progress; and the society which keeps to itself, and regards the good of its own members as the exclusive object of desire, is not a valuable factor in the religious world. Our real duty is not to stay apart from the world, but to be a part of it-helping to rid it of its evil, but receiving and giving back what there is possible of its good. And so I think that the union,-the coming together, as it were, of Quakerism and the rest of the world-the withdrawal of the old barriers,-that their approach to something nearly alike, is not a thing to be deprecated but it is a thing to be desired. The fact is, that while the Quaker is becoming more like the world in externals, the world is becoming a little more a good deal more like the Quaker in a great many substantials; and I hail that progress upon both sides. After all, it does not make so much difference what the cloth is, as whether the man under the clothing remains the same. It does not make so much difference what the particular form of expression is, provided the thought expressed be honest and sincere.

Let me refer to a few of the "peculiarities" which were supposed to distinguish Friends,-some of their distinguishing characteristics and to some of the clothing, as it were, which ignored the real essentials of the

organization; and then, afterwards, to refer to what is really the substance of Quaker principles. Among the injunctions of the Discipline are those which require plainness of speech, behavior and apparel. "Plainness of speech was regarded by a great many of our Friends for many generations as to indicate a certain kind of speech,-the "thee" and the "thou" "thou"; because it was not considered right to offer flattery to those addressed by speaking of them in the plural number. It has been regarded as necessary to speak of the days of the week and the months of the year by numerals, not to follow the names of the heathen deities. Now, after all, those things are forms; they are not essential. “Plainness of apparel" was held to indicate a particular kind of bonnet or a particular selection of colors,-the drab, or the gray, or the black; that was plain dress, and other colors were practically prohibited. Plainness of behavior" was expected

to exclude a great deal of the art, the music, of that which makes up a good deal of the beautiful in modern civilization. Much of this has passed away. Friends have come to realize that there is no more essential sanctity about the color drab than there is about the color blue, or green; and they have come, a great many of them, to realize that there is no more actual wickedness in calling the first month, "January,” and the second month, "February," than there is in calling the first planet, “ Mercury," and the second planet,

Venus." Those things are not essential; they are the husks; the kernel is within. Real plainness of speech requires that we shall express our honest thought, that we shall say what we mean, and that we shall mean what we say. Real plainness of conduct requires that we shall conduct ourselves without arrogant ostentation; that we shall meet those who are around us upon a plane of equality, willing to give and to take and to be friends with all mankind. That, as I take it, is genuine plainness of speech, apparel and behavior. Now if Friends have kept that, then they have kept the essentials of plain conduct; if they lose that, if they exhibit the arrogant ostentation of pride, then it is time to call a halt; but in non-essentials the Friends and the world can come together with mutual advantage to both.

There is another principle to which the Society of Friends has been warmly devoted, and that is, to the principles of peace. Now I think it will be a long

time before absolute non-resistance can be made the general law of the world; I believe that the power of the magistrate must still sometimes be exercised; but the peace principles of Friend have a wide application in diminishing the causes for struggle and strife, in being willing to do justice to all men and to concede, if necessary, even a little more than what is just, and in providing the means to the settlement of national as well as individual controversies by arbitration,—by leaving it to others. Therein they perform a valuable part in the social economy, and in this particular the world is coming somewhat to their ideals. You may say, it is true," Not at the present time, when we have just had a great war." And yet compare this war with the war that took place a little over thirty years