Fox, led and guided by the inner light, still proceeded onward with innovation on the usages of the world. That inner voice, which commanded him to set the Spirit above the Scriptures, bade him say thee and thou to all men, commanded him to swear no oath, and not to approve of any form of government which was not in accordance with the dictates of the inner voice. On the contrary, it commanded him to inclose all mankind in an embrace of brotherly love, and to treat even animals with tenderness. He voyaged to the New World, and said to the Indian, "Thou art my brother!"

Wherever he went preaching his doctrines, the inner beauty of his soul, and his love for eternal goodness and truth, were felt by all; and every where crowds accompanied him, and he made innumerable converts to a way which seemed so clear and so easy; for George Fox taught that the human soul was by nature good, and a pure child of God. William Penn, a young man of extraordinary powers, handsome person, and high and wealthy family, became one of George Fox's most zealous disciples. He also suffered for his opinions, and strengthened them by becoming one of his most powerful apostles.

The weapons of persecution and ridicule had long been directed against the increasing multitude of Quakers; human reason, too, directed her arguments to oppose them. They were charged with self-deception. "How can you know that you are not mistaking the fancies of a heated brain for the manifestation of the Spirit of God?" said the caviller.

"By the same spirit," replied Penn. "The Spirit witnesseth with our spirit."

"The Bible was the guide and rule of the Protestants. Had the Quakers a better guide?"

God's re

The Quakers answered that truth was one. vealed word can not be opposed to God's voice in the conscience. But the Spirit is the criterion, and the Spirit

dwells in the spirit of man. The letter is not the spirit. "The Bible is not religion, but the history of religion. The Scriptures are a declaration of the fountain, but not the fountain itself." "God's light in our souls bears witness to the truth of God in the Scriptures and in Christianity."

The Christian Quaker maintained his relationship to all the children of light in all ages, and received the reve lation of the light of Christianity only because it became strengthened by the inner light in his soul. His faith was founded upon the universal testimony of the conscience. This assisted him through all knotty controversy. When they propounded to him the doctrines of predestination, the questions of free will and necessity, the Quaker laid his hand upon his breast. The inner voice there testified of free will and responsibility; and it said more than that; it said, "All men are equal, because the inner light enlightens all. And all government is to be rejected which is not based upon the laws of universal reason. There is no difference between priest and layman, between man and woman. The inner light enlightens all, and knows no distinction of class or of sex."

But I must not go to greater length in these doctrines of the Quakers, or I should extend my letter too far. I must instead pass over to the establishment of this Quaker State.

In proportion as the sect protested more and more vehemently against Church and State, persecution and hatred increased, and thousands of the Quakers died in prison from cold and ill usage.

Amid these sufferings the oppressed people cast their eyes toward the New World as a place of refuge. Fox returned from his missionary journey through the Eastern States, from Rhode Island to Carolina, where he had sown the seed of his doctrines in thousands of willing souls.

Several Quaker families in England united to prepare for themselves and their friends an asylum on the other side of the Atlantic-in that land which had given a home to George Fox. They purchased, therefore, land along the banks of the Delaware, and set out with a large number of adherents to establish there a community whose one law and rule should be the inner law of the heart, enlightened by the inner light. To this party William Penn soon attached himself, and took the lead in the colony as its natural head and governor.

In the fundamental principles of their legislation the Friends adhered to that of the Puritan colony of New Hampshire; their concessions were such as Friends could approve of," because, said they, the power is vested in the people.

But the Quakers went further than the Pilgrim Fathers in their understanding of and application of this principle. The Puritans had made the Scriptures their guide and rule. The Friends made the Spirit the interpreter of the Scriptures. The Puritans had given the congregation a right to select their own ministers. The Friends would not have any priests at all. Every human being, man or woman, was a priest, and had the right to preach to others if the Spirit moved them, and the inner voice admonished them to give utterance to any truths; for the inner light was sent to all.

The Puritans had given the right of vote to every man in the community, and all questions of law or judgment were to be decided by a majority of voices. The Friends, believing in the power of the inner light, and the final unanimity of the inner light in all, allowed in their councils any questions under discussion to be dealt with again. and again, until all became voluntarily and unanimously agreed.

The Puritans had built their churches without ornaments or pictures.

The Friends built no churches. They assembled in halls or houses, called meeting-rooms, and sat there together in silence, listening to the revelation of the inner voice, and speaking merely when this admonished them to say any thing.

The Puritans regarded woman as the helper of man, and his companion in the house and on the private path of life.

The Friends regarded woman as man's helper also in his life as a citizen, as his helper in the business of his public as well as his private life, and acknowledged the right of woman to speak, as well in the Senate as the Church. The Female Assemblies of Council were of as much weight as those of the men, and the inspiration of woman was listened to with reverence when she stood forth, at the call of the Spirit, in their meeting-houses.

The Puritans had simplified the marriage ceremony. The Friends rejected marriage by a priest, and it became a civil rite. If a man and woman declared themselves willing to live together as a married pair, that sufficed to constitute the marriage. The inner voice was enough to sanctify the union, and to make it firm; the inner voice. alone could point out the way, and keep the heart pure.

Thus pure, thus sublime were the principles which guided this little people, who went over to the New World to make that "holy experiment," as William Penn terms it; to found a community wholly and entirely based upor that which is most inward and most spiritual in human life.

Thus began the colony which, under the guidance of William Penn, extended itself into the most flourishing condition, and received the name of Pennsylvania. Penn desired in it to found a free colony for all mankind.

The fame of that holy experiment resounded afar. The sons of the forest, the chiefs of the Indian tribes, came to meet the Quaker king.. Penn met them beneath the open

sky, in the depths of the forest, now leafless by the frosts of autumn, and proclaimed to them the same message of the nobility of man, and of the unity and truth of the inner light, which Fox had announced to Cromwell, and Mary Fisher to the Grand Sultan. The Englishmen and the Indians must regard the same moral law, and every quarrel between them be adjusted by a peaceful tribunal composed of an equal number of men of each race.

"We meet," said Penn, "upon the broad pathway of good faith and good will; no one shall seek to take advantage of the other, but all shall be done with candor and with love."

"We are all one flesh and blood.”

The Indians were affected by these noble words. "We will live," said they, "in love with William Penn and his children as long as sun and moon shall endure."

And the sun, and the forest, and the river witnessed the treaty of peace and friendship which was made on the shores of the Delaware; the first treaty, says an historian, which was not ratified by an oath, and the only one which never was broken.

The Quakers said, "We have done a better work than if we, like the proud Spaniards, had gained the mines of Potosi, We have taught to the darkened souls around us their rights as men."

Upon a stretch of land between the Rivers Schuylkill and Delaware, purchased from the Swedes, and blessed with pure springs of water and a healthful atmosphere, Penn laid the foundation of the city of Philadelphia, an asylum for the persecuted, a habitation for freedom, a home for all mankind. "Here," said the Friends, "we will worship God according to His pure law and light; here will we lead an innocent life upon an elysian, virgin soil."

That Philadelphia was later to become the birth-place of American independence, and of that Declaration which