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—George Fox & others, The 1660 Declarations Regarding Wars and Fighting, presented to the King (Charles II) upon the 21st day of the 11th Month, 1660.

"Shall not the light of that candle, which the Lord hath lighted in one heart, discover and judge the darkness in another heart? The uttering of the words is but the declaration of what the light in the heart hath done before, and cannot but do; for as long as it is light, wherever it comes, it will and cannot but discover and judge the darkness it meets with Therefore be not afraid to judge deceit but be sure that the light alone in you judge; and lie very low in the light, that that part which the light in you judgeth in others get not up in you, while the light is making use of you to judge it in others."

IMMEDIATE REVELATION
"Christians now are to be led inwardly and immediately by the Spirit of God, even in the same manner as the saints were of old. He then that acknowledges himself ignorant and a stranger to the inward in-being of the Spirit of Christ in his heart, doth thereby acknowledge himself whatever he may otherwise know or believe of Christ, or however much skilled or acquainted with the letter of the holy scripture, not yet to have embraced the Christian religion. For take but away the Spirit, and Christianity remains no more than the dead carcass of a man, when the soul and spirit has departed, remains a man.

"Seeing then that Christ hath promised his Spirit to lead his children, and that every one of them both ought and may be led by it, if any depart from this certain guide in deeds, and yet in words pretend to be led by it, into things that are not good, it will not from thence follow, that the true guidance of the Spirit is uncertain, or ought not to be followed; no more than it will follow that the sun sheweth not light, because a blind man or one who wilfully shuts his eyes, falls into a ditch at noon-day for want of light; or that no words are spoken, because a deaf man hears them not; or that a garden full of fragrant flowers has no sweet smell, because he that has lost his smelling does not smell it."

THE SCRIPTURES
"From these revelations of the Spirit of God to the saints have proceeded the Scriptures of Truth.

"Because they are only a declaration of the fountain, and not the fountain itself, therefore they are not to be esteemed the principle ground of all truth, and knowledge, nor yet the adequate primary rule of faith and manners. Yet because they give a true and faithful testimony of the first foundation, they are and may be esteemed a secondary rule, subordinate to the Spirit, from which they have all their excellency and certainty; for as by the inward testimony of the Spirit we do alone truly know them, so they testify, that the Spirit is their Guide by which the saints are led into all Truth; therefore, according to the scriptures, the Spirit is the first and principal leader."

"The Humble, Meek, Merciful, Just, Pious and Devout Souls, are everywhere of one Religion; and when Death has taken off the Mask, they will know one another, tho' the divers Liveries they wear here make them Strangers."

UNITY IN FAITH
"And here is the true unity, in the Spirit, in the inward life, and not in an outward uniformity...

And oh, how sweet and pleasant it is to the truly spiritual eye to see several sorts of believers, several forms of Christians in the school of Christ, every one learning their own lesson, performing their own peculiar service, and knowing, owning, and loving one another in their several places and different performances to their Master... For this is the true ground of love and unity, not that such a man walks and does just as I do, but because I feel the same Spirit and life in him... walking sweetly and harmoniously together in the midst of different practices."

"LET US THEN TRY WHAT LOVE WILL DO"
"It is as great Presumption to send our Passions upon God's Errands, as it is to palliate them with God's Name.

Zeal dropped in Charity, is good, without it good for nothing: For it devours all it comes near.

They must first judge themselves, that presume to censure others: And such will not be apt to overshoot the Mark.

We are too ready to retaliate, rather than forgive, or gain by Love and Information.

Let us then try what Love will do: For if Men did once see we Love them, we should soon find they would not harm us.

If I am even with my Enemy, the Debt is paid; but if I forgive it, I oblige him for ever.

Love is the hardest Lesson in Christianity; but, for that reason, it should be most our care to learn it."

Nor can Spirits ever be divided that love and live in the same Divine Principle; the Root and Record of their Friendship.

Death is but Crossing the World, as Friends do the Seas; They live in one another still.

For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is Omnipresent.

In this Divine Glass, they see Face to Face; and their Converse is Free, as well as Pure.

This is the Comfort of Friends, that though they may be said to Die, yet their Friendship and Society are, in the best Sense, ever present, because Immortal."

"Remember then, O my soul! The Quietude of those in whom Christ governs, and in all thy Proceedings feel after it. Doth he condescend to bless thee with his Presence? To move and influence to Action? To dwell in thee, and to walk in thee? Remember then thy Station, as a Being sacred to God; accept of the Strength freely offered thee; and take heed that no Weakness, in conforming to expensive, unwise, and hardhearted Customs, gendering to Discord and Strife, be given way to. Doth he claim my Body as his Temple, and graciously grant that I may be sacred to him? O! that I may prize this Favour; and that my whole Life may be conformable to this Character!"

THE LIGHT WITHIN
"Meister Eckhart wrote, 'As thou art in church or cell, that same frame of mind carry out into the world, into its turmoil and its fitfulness.' Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto Itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely, to the Light Within, is the beginning of true life. It is a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us. It is a Light Within which illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories upon the face of men. It is a seed stirring to life if we do not choke it. It is the Shekinah of the soul, the Presence in the midst. Here is the Slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, to become the soul we clothe in earthly form and action. And He is within us all."

WORK WITHOUT CONTEMPLATION IS BLIND
"It has been quite natural that from the beginning the work camps of the American Friends Service Committee have given an important place to the practice of the direct act of contemplation and have regarded the corporate cultivation of this practice as a discipline that was integrally connected with the work experience of those it recruited to share in its camps. In the period of corporate silence in which the members of each work camp gather in the early morning before the manual work begins, it is a common experience that members report they have recovered the frame of meaning of their lives and of their work. They have often mentioned that they have become aware of incongruities, in the work or in the community or in themselves or between themselves and other members of the camp, that must be straightened before the work can become truly creative. In these periods of silent meditation, of waiting, they have felt the cold, icy capsulation in themselves and in their personal claimful demands melting down and a new and living sense of fellowship with, and responsibility for, the wider community springing up in them. And they have been brought to know by inward experience what the book of Ecclesiastes means when it says, 'For him that is joined to all the living, there is hope.' "

CONTEMPLATION WITHOUT WORK IS EMPTY
"There is something in commonly exercised physical work that prepares and cements and opens a community for common contemplation. For work breaks through reserves, physical work exposes hidden surfaces in men's lives to each other as conversation and ordinary social intercourse can rarely do. Work reveals sham, it reveals generosity, it reveals endurance, it reveals genuine capacity to cooperate. Work reveals a common humanity that runs through its own natural hierarchy of skill. Physical work breaks down barriers of age, and class, and race, and forms an outer brotherhood that calls for further common exploration. Only upon rare occasions today is it possible for a working community to share common corporate contemplation. But there is nothing that prepares for corporate contemplation more effectively than a community of common work."

ON MEETING FOR WORSHIP
"I cannot remember when I first discovered that there was a meeting place within, where Spirit met with spirit and where the Above and the below belonged together. I knew it certainly as early as I knew that the water in our lake was buoyant and held up the young swimmer instead of drowning him. The two things came together. I learned to swim and to enjoy silent worship at about the same time.

"The whole burden of worship was thrown upon each individual soul. One could be vacant and unconcerned with empty mind, or one could mount up as with wings of eagles into the heavenlies and find the Fatherland to which he belonged. Whatever was done in this period of silence had to be done by the person himself. It was once more like swimming. Nobody could do it for you. You either did your swimming or your worshipping yourself, or it wasn't done. There were no substitutes to perform for you in either of these activities."

The spiritual formation for my work as a healer came out of the Quaker tradition, out of repeatedly hearing the call in Meeting for Worship and testing it against ego's desire to speak. It comes from once having had a message in Meeting for Worship and not giving it and having a woman stand up beside me in meeting and say, "There is someone in this meeting who has a message who is not giving it. Will Thee be faithful?" The body of Christ, old Quakers say, is not a metaphor. It is a living climate, an organism in which we function. Those who minister are not separate; they are extensions of the one Life and Power. They dwell together in a pool of divine presence, which blends all souls into unity. They are not required to be leaders all the time; they can sink back as needed into the nurture and unity of the body until they are again called clearly forth to stand for the Lord.