USA > Indiana > Discipline of the Society of Friends, Indiana Yearly meeting, 1878 > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
٦
4
٠
٢٠
٠٠
٠٩٠
-
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01628 6079
Gc 977.2 Sollo SOCIETY OF FRIENDS : INDIANA YEARLY MEETING. DISCIPLINE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS, INDIANA YEARLY
SOCIETY OF FRIENDS,
OF
INDIANA YEARLY MEETING.
Revised by the Yearly. Meeting held at Richmond, in the year 1878, and printed by direction of the same.
RICHMOND, IND .: NICHOLSON & BRO .. 1878.
Allen County Public Library Ft. Wayne, Indiana
DALLADIUN PRINTING HOUSE RICHMOND,IND.
INDEX.
Acknowledgments. 54
Advices to Parents and Children. 62 Advices, General 86
Advices to Ministers and Elders 98
Advices relative to Ministers
102
Advices relative to Marriage 108
Amusements 53
Appeals . 89
Applications for Membership. 75
Arbitrations. 58
Baptism. 31
Births and Deaths. 120
Books.
65
Burial Grounds 120
Certificates of Removal 78
Certificate of Removal, Form of 122
Certificates from England
80
Charity 57 62
Children
Children, Rights of.
Christian Simplicity
Civil Government
Clerks
76 50 42 69
Communications to Yearly Meeting 70
Conduct, Disorderly 52
Contributing to Support of Church. 116
Deaths and Births
120
Detraction
56
vi
INDEX.
Declaration of Faith 18
Concerning God the Father 18
Jesus Christ .18, 23, 25,52
Holy Scriptures .21, 22,53
Family Worship 21
Resurrection of Dead. 23
Holy Spirit .29,53
Baptism. 30
The Supper of our Lord 31
Public Worship 31
Prayer
34
Observance of First Day of the Week. 37
Disorderly Conduct
52
Disownments
54
Discipline, Meetings for 67
Divorce 114
Drunkenness 53
Elders and Ministers 92
Elders and Ministers, Meetings of 96
Elders and Ministers, Queries for 97
Elders and Ministers, Advices to 98
Elders.
100
Executors 48
Family Worship 21,86
First Day of the Week. 37
Fortune Tellers 53
Funerals 119
Gambling
53
Government, Civil 42
Holy Scriptures
21, 22, 53, 65, 69
Introduction 1
Intemperance 41
Indiana Yearly Meeting 70
Interments
120
Joining another Religious Society 77
Jugglers
53
INDEX. vii.
Law. 44 Letters from other Religious Denominations 75
Liberty of Conscience 43
Marriage 108
Marriage, Advice relative to 108
Marriage, Rules of 110
Meeting Houses. 118
Meetings for Worship 31, 54
Meetings for Discipline 67
Meetings, Representative 71
Membership, Applications for 75
Memorials
121
Ministers and Elders. 92
Ministers and Elders, Meetings of.
96
Ministers and Elders, Queries for 97
Ministers and Elders, Advices to
98
Ministers, Acknowledgment of. 92
Ministers, Liberating.
94
Ministers, Supply of. 94
95
Ministers advice relative to
102
Ministers, decease of 121
120
Moral Duties
39
Moderation. 51
67
Oaths
39
Opium
42
Overseers 81
Parents and Children 62
Pernicious Publications 65
Poor 81
Prayer 34
Preparative Meetings
67
Public Worship 31
Quarterly Meetings 67
Queries
84
Ministers, Support of.
Mourning Habits
Monthly Meetings
viii.
INDEX.
Queries for Ministers and Elders 97
Records. 68
Record of Births and Deaths
120
Religious Societies, Letters from.
75
Religious Societies, Letters to 77
Religious Society, Joining another 77
Removals 78
Representative Meeting 71
Representatives
. 70, 74
Resignations
78
Rights of Children
76
Secret Societies
55
Simplicity
50
Slavery
41
Spiritual Gifts
105
Supper of our Lord 31
Support of Church. 116
Temperance 41
Testimonials of Disownment 54
Theatrical Exhibitions 53
Tobacco. 42
Tombstones
120
Trade 45
Treasury
115
Trustees 48
Unbecoming Behavior in Meeting
53
Unity
56
War
39
Yearly Meeting .67,70
CHRISTIAN DISCIPLINE.
INTRODUCTION
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLINE ESTAB- LISHED AMONG FRIENDS.
By the term discipline, is to be understood all those arrangements and regulations which are in- . stituted for the civil and religious benefit of a Christian Church. The Meetings for Discipline are, of course, for the purpose of carrying those objects into effect ; their design was said by George Fox to be - the promotion of charity and piety.
It can not be said that any system of discipline formed a part of the original compact of the Society. There was not indeed, to human appear- ance, anything systematic in its formation. It was an association of persons who were earnestly seeking after the saving knowledge of Divine Truth. They were men of prayer, and diligent searchers of the Holy Scriptures. Unable to find true rest in the various opinions and systems which in that day divided the Christian world, they be- lieved that they found the Truth in a more full reception of Christ, not only as the living and ever- present Head of the Church in its aggregate capacity, but also as the light and life, the spiritual
1
2
INTRODUCTION.
ruler, teacher, and friend, of every individual member.
These views did not lead them to the abandon- ment of those doctrines which they had heretofore held, in regard to the manhood of Christ, his pro- pitiatory sacrifice, mediation, and intercession. They did lead them, however, to much inward re- tirement and waiting upon God, that they might know his will, and become quick of understanding in the fear of the Lord; and they were very fre- quent in their meetings together for mutual edifica- tion and instruction, for the purpose of united worship in spirit and in truth, and for the exercise of their several gifts, as ability might be afforded by Him who has promised to be with the two or three disciples who are gathered together in his name.
From these meetings, in which the love of God was often largely shed abroad in the hearts of those who attended them, even when held in silence, most of those ministers went forth, who in the earliest periods of the Society, proclaimed to others the truth as they had found it, and called them from dependence on man to that individual knowl- edge of Christ and of his teachings, which the Holy Scriptures so clearly and abundantly declare to be the privilege of the Gospel times. As these views struck at the very root of that great corrup- tion in the Christian Church, by which one man's performances on behalf of others had been made essential to public worship, and on which hung all the load of ecclesiastical domination and the
3
INTRODUCTION.
trade in holy things; so it necessarily separated those who had, as they believed, found the liberty of the Gospel from those who still adhered to that system which was upheld by the existing churches of the land.
Being thus separated from others, and many being every day added to the church, there arose, of course, peculiar duties of the associated persons toward each other. Christianity has ever been a powerful, active and beneficent principle. Those who truly receive it no more " live unto themselves ;" and this feature and fruit of genuine Christianity was strikingly exhibited in the conduct of the early Friends. No sooner were a few persons connected together in the new bond of religious fellowship, than they were engaged to admonish, encourage, and, in spiritual as well as temporal matters, to watch over and help one another in love.
The members who lived near to each other, and who met together for religious worship, immedi- ately formed, from the very law of their union, a Christian family or little church. Each member was at liberty to exercise the gift bestowed upon him, in that beautiful harmony and subjection which belong to the several parts of a living body, from the analogy to which the apostle Paul draws so striking a description of the true church: "Ye are the body of Christ and members in particular."
Of this right exercise of spiritual gifts, and thereby of an efficient discipline, many examples are afforded in the history of the earliest period of the Society : we shall select one which we believe
4
INTRODUCTION.
may be considered as fairly illustrating the prac- tice of early times. Stephen Crisp, in his memoirs, speaking of his own state soon after his convince- ment, which was in 1665, and within a few years of the establishment of a meeting at Colchester, the place of his residence, thus expresses himself : - The more I came to feel and perceive the love of God and his goodness to me, the more was I hum- bled and bowed in my mind to serve Him, and to serve the least of his people among whom I walked ; and as the word of wisdom began to spring in me, and the knowledge of God grew, so I became a counselor of those that were tempted in like manner as I had been : yet was kept so low, that I waited to receive counsel daily from God, and from those that were over me in the Lord, and were in Christ before me, against whom I never rebelled nor was stubborn ; but the more I was kept in sub- jection myself, the more I was enabled to help the weak and feeble ones. `And, as the Church of God in those days increased, and my care daily in- creased, and tlie weight of things relating both to the outward and inward condition of poor Friends came upon me; and being called of God and his people to take the care of the poor, and to relieve their necessities as I did see occasion, I did it faithfully for divers years, with diligence and much tenderness, exhorting and reproving any that were slothful, and encouraging them that were diligent, putting a difference according to the wisdom given me of God; and still minding my own state and condition, and seeking the honor that cometh from God only."
5
INTRODUCTION.
Thus, then, we believe it may be safely asserted, there never was a period in the Society when those who agreed in religious principles were wholly independent of each other, or in which that order and subjection which may be said to constitute discipline did not exist. But, as the number of members increased, those mutual helps and guards which had been, in great measure, spontaneously afforded, were found to require some regular ar- rangement for the preservation of order in the church.
The history of these proceedings affords no small evidence that the spirit of a sound mind influenced the body in its earliest periods. Contending, as they did, for so large a measure of individual spiritual liberty, and placing the authority of man, in religious matters, in a position so subordinate to that of the one Great Head of the church, they nevertheless recognized the importance and neces- sity of arrangements and of human instrumentality, under the direction of the Spirit of Christ ; and they were led to establish a system of order at once so simple and efficient, that, notwithstanding the varying circumstances of the Society, and the power of every annual meeting to alter it, it has been found in its particulars, adapted to those changes, and it remains to this day essentially the same as it was within forty years of the rise of the Society. Previously, however, to the establishment of that regular system of discipline, and of that mode of representation in the meetings for con- ducting it, which now exist, there had been many
6
INTRODUCTION.
General Meetings held in different parts of the nation, for the purpose of providing for the various exigencies of the Society. George Fox mentions, in his Journal, that some meetings for discipline were settled in the north of England, so early as 1653. The first General Meeting, of which we are aware that any records are extant, was held at Balby, near Doncaster, in Yorkshire, in the year 1656; and from this meeting a number of direc- tions and advices were issued, addressed "To the Brethren in the North." This document refers to most of the points which now form the chief sub- jects of our discipline. It contains instructions as to the Gospel order of proceeding with delinquents, and advices to husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, as to the discharge of their relative duties, and also in regard to strict justice in trade, and a cheerful and faithful per- formance of civil offices in the commonwealth. George Fox mentions attending a General Meeting in Bedfordshire, in 1658, which lasted three days ; at which he says "there were Friends present from most parts of the nation, and many thousands of persons were at it." He also mentions attending a meeting at Skipton in 1660, "for the affairs of the church, both in this nation, and beyond the seas ;" and he says that he had recommended the establishment of this meeting several years before, when he was in the north; "for many Friends suffered in divers parts of the nation; their goods were taken from them contrary to law, and they understood not how to help themselves, or where
7
INTRODUCTION.
to seek redress." " This meeting," he adds, "had stood several years, and divers justices and cap- tains had come to break it up; but when they understood the business friends met about, and saw Friends' books, and accounts of collections for the use of the poor; how we took care one county to help another, and to help our friends beyond sea, and to provide for our poor, so that none should be chargeable to their parishes, the justices and officers confessed we did their work, and would pass away peaceably and lovingly."
Next to General Meetings we must notice the establishment of Quarterly Meetings, which were constituted of Friends deputed by the several meetings within a county. These meetings, in several of the counties at least, had existed prior to the establishment of Monthly Meetings, and they appear to have had much the same office in the body as the Monthly Meetings now have among us. George Fox, in an epistle of an early date, writes thus respecting them : " In all the meetings of the county, two or three may be appointed from them to go to the Quarterly Meet- ings, to give notice if there be any that walk not in the truth, or have been convinced and gone from the truth, and so have dishonored God; and like- wise to see if any that profess the truth follow pleasures, drunkenness, gaming, or are not faithful in their callings and dealings, nor honest, but run into debt, and so bring a scandal upon the truth. Friends may give notice to the Quarterly Meetings (if there be any such), and some may be ordered to
8
INTRODUCTION.
go and exhort them, and bring in their answers to the next Quarterly Meeting. And to admonish all them that be careless and slothful to diligence in the truth and service for God, and to bring forth heavenly fruits to God, and that they may mind the good works of God, and do them in believing on his Son, and showing it forth in their conversa- tion, and to deny the devil and his bad works, and not to do them; and to seek them that be driven away from the truth into the devil's wilderness by his dark power ; seek them again by the truth, and by the truth and power of God bring them to God again."
It appears to have been with our Society as it had been with the primitive church, that the care and provision for its poor members was among the earliest occasions of disciplinary arrangements. The occasion for this provision was much increased by the cruel persecutions and robberies to which, on their first rise, the Friends were almost every- where exposed. It was no rare occurrence, at that period, for the father of a family to be thrown into a dungeon, and for the house to be spoiled of the very children's beds and all their provisions. Nor was it uncommon to seek their entire proscription and ruin, by refusing to deal with them. Well may we say with reverent thankfulness, in reference to those times, " If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us."
The members of the persecuted Society were far
9
INTRODUCTION.
from opulent; but they proved themselves rich in charity, as well as in faith and hope ;. and the illus- tration of these virtues, by the sacrifices which they made for the relief of their more afflicted associates, and their unbroken constancy in the sufferings which they endured for the testimony of a good conscience, were doubtless among the practical arguments which at length extorted the commendation even of their enemies.
A second, and perhaps contemporaneous, object of the meetings, for the discipline of the Society, was the obtaining of redress for those illegally prosecuted or imprisoned. Though so patient in suffering, they deemed it their duty to apprise magistrates, judges, and the government, of illegal proceedings, and to use every legal and Christian effort to obtain redress. Several Friends in London devoted a large portion of time to this object, and regular statements of the most flagrant cases were sent to them, and were frequently laid by them be- fore the king and government. Their constancy in suffering was hardly exceeded by their unwearied efforts to obtain relief for their suffering brethren, and for the alteration of the persecuting laws ; and through these means the cause of religious liberty was essentially promoted.
A third object, which at a very early period of the Society pressed upon its attention, was the proper registration of births and deaths, and the provision for due proceedings relative to marriage. Their principles led them at once to reject all priestly intervention on these occasions, and hence
10
INTRODUCTION.
the necessity for their having distinct arrange- ments in regard to them. In some of the meetings of earliest establishment regular registers are pre- served from the year 1650 to the present time. Great care was taken in regard to proceedings in marriage ; investigation as to the clearness of the parties from other marriage engagements, full pub- licity of their intentions, and the consent of parents, appear to have been recommended in early times as preliminaries to the ratification of the agreement between the parties; and this act took place publicly in the religious meetings of the Society. Marriage has always been regarded by Friends as a religious, not a mere civil compact.
The right education of youth, the provision of suitable situations for them as apprentices or other- wise, and the settlement of differences without going to law one with another, were also among the early objects of the Society's care.
The last object of the discipline in early times which we shall enumerate, was the exercise of spiritual care over the members. As the Society advanced it was soon reminded of our Lord's declaration : "It must needs be that offenses come." Evidencing, as the Society did to a large extent, the fruits of the Spirit, there were those who fell away from their Christian profession, and walked disorderly; and sound as was the body of Friends in Christian doctrine, there were members who were betrayed into false doctrines and vain imaginations ; and pure, and spiritual, and con- sistent with true order and Christian subjection as
-
11
INTRODUCTION.
were the principles of religious liberty avocated by the Society, there were those who appear to have assumed them under the false expectation of an entire independence.
To all these cases the discipline was applied in very early times; yet the spirit of tenderness, which breathes through the writings of George Fox in regard to the treatment of delinquents, and which there is good reason to believe was practi- cally illustrated, to a large extent, in the conduct of the Friends of those days, is worthy of especial notice. From one of his epistles we make the fol- lowing extracts : "Now concerning Gospel order, though the doctrine of Jesus Christ requireth his people to admonish a brother or sister twice before they tell the church, yet that limiteth none so as. that they shall use no longer forbearance. And it is desired of all, before they publicly complain, that they wait to feel if there is no more required of them to their brother or sister, before they ex- pose him or her to the church. Let this be weightily considered, and all such as behold their brother or sister in a transgression, go not in a rough, light, or upbraiding spirit, to reprove or admonish him or her, but in the power of the Lord and spirit of the Lamb, and in the wisdom and love of the truth, which suffers thereby, to admonish such an offender. So may the soul of such a brother or sister be seasonably and effectu- ally reached unto and overcome, and they may have cause to bless the name of the Lord on their behalf, and so a blessing may be rewarded into the
-
12
INTRODUCTION.
bosom of that faithful and tender brother or sister who so admonished them. And so keep the church order of the Gospel, according as the Lord Jesus Christ hath commanded; that is, 'If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone ; if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother: but if lie will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established : and if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church.'"
We now proceed to notice the more regular and systematic establishment of Monthly and Quarterly Meetings, and of the Yearly Meeting. Though the history of those times bears ample testimony to the useful part which was taken in this impor- tant work by many faithful Friends, yet it is clear that George Fox was the chief instrument in the arrangement and establishment of these meetings. There was doubtless much reference to his indi- vidual judgment, but it is worthy of notice how carefully he sought to keep the body from an im- proper dependence upon him. As in his preaching he directed his hearers to Christ for themselves, as alike their and his teacher, so in the discipline of the Society he labored diligently that the body might be strengthened to help itself.
Under the date of 1666, George Fox says, in his Journal : "Whereas, Friends had had only Quar- terly Meetings, now truths were spread and Friends were grown more numerous, I was moved to recom- mend the setting up of Monthly Meetings through-
13
INTRODUCTION.
out the nation." In 1667 he labored most diligently in this service, under much bodily weakness from his long confinements in cold and damp prisons. In 1668, he thus writes: " The men's Monthly Meetings were settled through the nation. The Quarterly Meetings were generally settled before. I wrote also into Ireland, Scotland, Holland, Bar- badoes, and several parts of America, advising Friends to settle their men's Monthly Meetings in those countries, for they had their Quarterly Meet- ings before." These Monthly Meetings, so insti- tuted, took a large share of that care which had heretofore devolved on the Quarterly Meetings, and were no doubt the means of bringing many more of the members into a larger sphere of usefulness and the exercise of their respective gifts. in the church, the free course for which he was so anxious to promote. With reference to this subject, he ob- serves, in one of his epistles : " The least member in the church is serviceable, and all the members have need one of another."
The Quarterly Meetings from this time received reports of the state of the Society from the Monthly Meetings, and gave such advice and decisions as they thought right; but there was not, until some years after this period, a general Yearly Meeting, at which all the Quarterly Meetings were repre- sented. Of the establishment of that meeting we come now to speak.
In the year 1672, a General Meeting of ministers was held at Devonshire House, London : among its proceedings we find the following minute, in
14
INTRODUCTION.
which we trace the origin of the Yearly Meeting, constituted as it now is of representatives from various parts of the kingdom. "It is concluded, agreed, and assented unto, by Friends then present, that, for the better ordering, managing, and regu- lating of the public affairs of Friends relating to the truth and service thereof, there be a General Meeting of Friends held at London once a year, in the week called Whitsunweek, to consist of six Friends for the city of London, three for the city of Bristol, two for the town of Colchester, and one or two from each of the counties of England and Wales respectively."
This representative Yearly Meeting met at the time proposed in 1673, and came to the conclu- sion, that the General Meeting, constituted as it then was, " be discontinued till Friends, in God's wisdom, shall see a further occasion; and it was further agreed, that the General Meeting of Friends who labor in the work of the ministry, do continue as formerly appointed." This meeting of Friends in the ministry appears to have been regularly held annually from this time to the year 1677 inclusive.
In 1675, a series of important advices and in- structions were agreed upon, and sent forth to the several meetings : they are contained in an epistle, and are thus introduced : " At a solemn General Meeting of many faithful Friends and brethren concerned in the public labor of the Gospel and service of the Church of Christ, from the most parts of the nation." This document is signed by
15
INTRODUCTION.
eighty-one Friends, most of whom are well known as conspicuous in the early history of the Society ; and the spirit of fervent piety and charity which it breathes is well worthy of their character. In 1677, it was agreed again to convene the meeting of representatives in the ensuing year, and then to advise respecting its continuance. Accordingly, in 1678, the representative Yearly Meeting assembled in London, and, after agreeing - upon several matters, the substance of which was conveyed to the various meetings of Friends in the form of an epistle with much Christian counsel, concluded to meet again the next year after the same manner ; and these meetings have continued to assemble once a year in London, with unbroken regularity, to the present time.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.