USA > Pennsylvania > Chester County > New Garden > Two hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the Friends meeting at New Garden, Chester County, Pennsylvania > Part 3
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and very often had to put people out and take charge of people who wanted to speak two or three at a time. A Friends' meeting in those days was not the calm, quiet, decor- ous affair that it is today, but was much more like the Sal- vation Army, with its fife and drum corps. William Mead and William Penn were imprisoned for speaking from the top of a barrel in one of the streets of London, and because they were disturbing the peace and promoting disorder. That was simply one instance in which one of the wealthiest and best educated men of the Society sacrificed himself in a way that none of us would sacrifice himself today.
Things became very complicated and very disorderly. The work of the church devolved almost entirely upon the minis- ters; and the ministers were not recognized or recommended as we recommend them today, because there were no meetings to do it. George Fox, like an old Patriarch, was recognized as the father of the church, and the chief one upon whom responsibility rested. Margaret Fell Fox, his wife was the nursing mother of Israel.
Fox developed a group of sixty preachers who went out thrilled with his message and his vision of the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they spread through all England-sixty men, going two by two, just as the Apostles first had done. I think they must have thought of the same arrangement and how our Lord sent out the seventy to preach. Well, just so the "sixty valiants" went out with the wonderful vision, as publishers of the truth. They went throughout England. They preached in Yorkshire; they preached along the seacoast to the fishermen, and then finally, with great trepidation, they came to London, and were im- prisoned by dozens and scores, until one of the first queries at the meetings was, "What Friends imprisoned? What Friends died in prison? What new meetings established?" and there were answers that nowadays we do not have.
That led to a great, enthusiastic, spiritual development which spread over England and made an enormous impression upon the life of the people. It is said that the justices and magistrates of England, even while they were punishing and imprisoning them, could not help but realize that the preach- ing had a good effect on the people who were affiliated with the Friends in the loose way in which the organization was at that time constituted.
In 1666 George Fox came to London. He had just been released from three years' imprisonment in Launceston Cas- tle. He was weak and poor in body from the hardships of
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such an imprisonment as we cannot realize. I think we would deem it hard if we were imprisoned in the Chester County prison for three years. But when released from that noisome dun- geon, which you can read about in his journal, where filth and squalor were the ordinary thing, he came down to London, and his spirit was very much troubled. Things were in disorder- great masses of people coming together, eager to hear the Word preached, and eager to hear this martyr of the North, who had been throughout all England preaching the new, yet old Gospel.
He had been preceded a few years by Edward Burrough, another of these "valiants," and Edward Burrough, had said, just as I think was said in the sixth chapter of the Acts, that those who were preaching the Gospel found it difficult to take care of the affairs of the church. You remember that they found that some of the widows were not getting their share in the breaking of bread in the love feasts, and so they set apart seven to attend to that part of the work.
So Edward Burrough came to London before George Fox, and he said, "Ministers cannot take care of this. We have to preach the Gospel; we have to write pamphlets; we must en- gage in disputes and discussions with the hireling priests; (as the were called) "we cannot take care of these things. You will have to see to it that somebody is appointed that can take care of the discipline of the meeting, and somebody who can see that order is preserved; that marriages are observed in the right way." They could not observe marriages in those days in the same manner as other people, according to the religious rites of the Church of England, and there was danger that the children of their marriages might be held to be illegitimate. They had Parliament against them; the Commonwealth par- tially against them, although the Protector himself was friendly to George Fox. They had the laws against them. They could not hold meetings of more than a certain number of people. And the ministers could not take care of that; so they set apart a few judicious, spiritually-minded Friends to govern the people, and as George Fox said, "to take care of God's glory and to preserve order and establish regularity among the flock." I think those are about his words. It began with "to take care of God's glory," which was the primary neces- sity, and secondarily to establish order among the meetings.
That was the origin of the overseers in those days. The modern term "elders" came later. The overseers, though not so called, were set apart first. Then Fox said, "I was moved of God to establish monthly meetings." They also had "Six
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Weeks Meetings," but they have long since passed out of exist- ence. The nearest thing that we have today to the Six Weeks Meeting is the Representative Meeting, or the Meet- ing for Sufferings, as it was called later in England, and which we imported under that name into this country, and which we now call in our branch of the Society (and I presume the other Friends do) "The Representative Meeting." That is the near- est prototype to the old Six Weeks Meeting.
So he advocated the setting up of the five monthly meet- ings in London, and consequently they were established, and from them there were reports-not from queries as we have them today, but in a more or less informal way. Those meet- ings were open to everybody who wanted to attend. There was no membership, you remember. They were largely in control of the "Representatives." £ They do not have anything to do in these days except to nominate clerks at the Yearly Meet- ing.
They carried up with them reports which we now know as answers to the queries. In fact, in the early days it was rec- ommended that they should bring up verbal reports. I do not know what our representatives would think today if they should be asked to make a verbal report as to conditions in their month- ly meetings.
You see, gradually the organization was being perfected Gradually there came around a concentration and amalgama- tion, until in 1737 they set up regular rules of membership and laid, down disownable offences. About 1760 things had become pretty well systematized, so that the Society of Friends was about as near dead as ever in its history. Then London Yearly Meeting called upon a committee to stir up the life in the meet- ings. That was constituted in a very friendly way. Any one who felt called upon to volunteer his services was sent forth a second time from London. And also on this side of the water there went forth another gigantic effort throughout the entire Society of Friends, and there was a great renaissance, a great new birth in the Society of Friends throughout the world.
Some of us think that about 1905 there was another effort of that kind. We like to think that we are on the eve of an- other event like this in the present day-a reunited Society, to the extent that it is possible in this twentieth century. We are all ready, waiting and looking for another revival of Friends, just such as occurred in 1760, such as followed the dynamic efforts of the "valiant sixty" of about 1650.
I want to call your attention, Friends, to the reason why the Society of Friends spread so quickly, and I might say,
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miraculously, through England. We have not an organization which leads up to one man. We are at the antipodes from the Roman Catholic situation. We are practically the anarchists of religious freedom. We have always chafed under ecclesi- astical restraints. We have no hope; we have no bishops. We have our sub-organizations, and we have our powerful men who constitute the weight of the meeting; but we do not have one man whose ipse dixit is final. We do not have bishops or archbishops or ecclesiastica! officers of any kind who are able to tell you and me what we should think. We have always chafed under that, and I think the chief significance of the Hicksite separation of '27 and '28 was a chafing under the power of the Philadelphia elders, of the branch to which I belong. That is a pretty big admission for an Orthodox Friend, but I believe it. (Laughter and applause). We have always chafed under restraint of that kind. Do you know that the Discipline was not allowed out of the hands of the over- seers and elders until well on in the recollection of some of the older Friends who are here? Now, when we have the privilege of reading the Discipline, we do not half appreciate it. We ought to go home and read it.
All of those things made the people chafe. On the other hand, it was one of the chief factors of the order, that regu- lated the early thought of the Society of Friends, that there should not be a predominance of machinery. We want far less machinery than there is. I wish that our monthly meet- ings might be exploded and that we would not answer the queries in cut-and-dried fashion. If anything is to be done, it is wondered whether it ought to be broached in open meet- ing or not. ITalf the subjects are squelched outside of meet- ing. I wish there might be more freedom and liberality. I think that is entirely in harmony with the early plan and con- templation of the early Friends. There has been far more liberality for the expression of unbiased and unprejudiced opinion in our recent meetings than there used to be. Things are now said and permitted as pertaining to the life of the meeting, that heretofore were not permitted to be said, or, if said, were soon hushed up as probably not being exactly proper.
The early meetings of the Society of Friends were able to hold down any improper expression, and yet were able to weigh and sift the chaff from the wheat and to preserve the wheat and to hand it on; and my plea today is that our meet- ings might reassume that early power and spirit which the early meetings of the Friends necessarily adopted. And there is only one way in which that can be done, and that is by re-
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assuming the spontaneity of the early spirit, which drove those sixty men and women-Edward Borrough, John Camm, Thomas Taylor, (he is no ancestor of mine, so I can talk about him) ; Francis Howgill, John Audland, and others-I cannot remem- ber them all-to go out and spread the message.
They simply started out with the spirit of Paul-"Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel." They simply went because there was an impelling force behind them that drove them out, and they went to London, that great citidel of infidelity, which had just seen the fire sweep over it, which they believed to be a judgment of God. They knew that they faced imprisonment; but they went in the power of the Spirit that the early Apostles had behind them, and they accomplished a work that is parallel in very many instances with the work that the early Apostles accomplished in the Roman empire. Oh, if we could get hold of it in its fullness and in its purity ! That is essential. If we could get back on that foundation, other than which has not been laid-that foundation of Christ Jesus -and go forth in the power of the spirit of God, to spread the Kingdom of God and His righteousness upon earth, then we would accomplish something.
That is the responsibility and the high privilege of the inheritance that has been received of our forefathers. I be- lieve we are on the eve of something of that kind. I believe Young Friends are training themselves for work of that kind. I believe the Spirit is stirring within us. We only need more faith, more sincerity of purpose, a little more power, a little more prayer, in order to enable us to grasp that power, to ap- propriate it to ourselves, and then to go forth in the power and in the spirit of His name, and in that power and in that spirit and in that Name to conquer the world-not for Quaker- ism, because that is only a small branch of it-but for "primi- tive Christianity revived."
I wish you would take that phrase home. It is as old as the Society of Friends, but were we to take home primitive Christianity revived; were we to show it to our friends of all denominations-Protestant, Catholic, Hebrew, Buddhist- I do not care what they are, throughout the face of the earth, and advocate it in the power and in the spirit of Jesus Christ, and with the fervor of that "valiant sixty" that went through- out England; who traversed the trackless forests of America ; who went to the South seas, and the East Indies and the West Indies; who went to Constantinople, as it is now called, to convert the Sultan; who went to Rome to convert the Pope, with the great dynamic force of a great explosive power, feel-
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ing that they were the modern Apostles of an old doctrine- if we were to do that, we could revive from the old doctrine a new, expansive Christianity on the lines of the old gospel which was laid down by Jesus of Nazareth.
That is our high mission, calling and privilege in the ad- ministration of this precious heritage which has been left to us by our forefathers. (Applause).
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OUR MEETING HOUSE
WRITTEN BY MARY L. BARNARD. READ BY EUGENE BARNARD NELSON.
Our love for the old meeting house Has brought us here today, Where we can greet our many friends In the old familiar way.
When a timid child I came here, And my small heart throbbed with pride As I took my seat in the gallery Very close to grandmother's side.
Time passed on with relentless speed, Bringing changes both sad and gay, And I from a happy little girl Have grown to a woman gray.
In memory I see the meeting house Unchanged as in days of yore, When we sat upon uncushioned seats And walked o'er uncovered floor.
The partitions then no barriers were To those who loved old ways, But they, like many other things, Are useless these modern days.
The poplar trees that stood in front And grew so straight and tall Have given place to later trees That shade the low stone-wall.
Methinks I see the carriage sheds Where we children used to play, But that of late is dangerous ground, For the autos there hold sway.
There is a charm about the spot Where the ancient horse-block stands, A charm we never can forget Though we dwell in distant lands.
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There are not now so many trees In the pleasant grove near by ; It grieves me that these old friends, Like our human friends, must die.
I look around when I sit down In this house so quaint and dear For friendly faces I used to see, But, alas, they are not here.
When I wander to the grave-yard, It is there the names I see
Of those long-departed comrades Who were so dear to me.
They are not dead, these loved ones, But only gone on before, Where they await our coming On the bright celestial shore.
Ah, how they would rejoice with us If they could be here today,
To see all the Friends together In the good, old-fashioned way.
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SCRAPS OF FAMILY HISTORY
BY AUGUSTUS BROSIUS
T HE solicitation to participate in the exercises of this an- niversary and the consequent investigation through gene- alogical sources for material, reveals the facts that al- though never having been a member of New Garden meeting the bonds of kinship are interwoven into many of the fam- ilies comprising its past and present membership. Therefore in the few minutes that are allotted, it may be well to recall a little of the history that particularly appeals to me, and the part different actors played as factors in various events. From a very early time in the history of this meeting many who love the name of Moore were members and their descendents are still conspicuous through direct descent or intermarriage with very many of the families of the present population. A his- torical review informs that in consequence of religious oppres- sion under the reign of King James I, the antecedents of Andrew Moore, the one from whom we trace our origin in this country, emigrated from Scotland to Ireland in 1612; and after passing through more than another century of varying perse- cutions, they doubtless pined for a still more liberal religions atmosphere and Andrew our forefather born in 1688 came to this country, a widower with four children, in 1723, landing at New Castle, Del., and a year later placed his certificate from Friends in Northern Ireland with New Garden monthly meet- ing; but business interests drew him to permanently reside above Atglen where he was very soon identified with church affairs and was one of the chief instruments in the erection of a meeting house and establishing Sadsbury meeting in 1725, to which, when it became a monthly meeting, he properly be- longed. But the fascinations of society here were such that he laid claim to one of its fair damsels, in the person of Rachel Holliday who in 1725 became his companion. Andrew Moore, it is said was a man of considerable literary ability; being a writer of both prose and poetry, as well as a man of affairs, and early gave vent to his energies by engaging in the milling business which he conducted in connection with farming. The records show his prominence in many matters, being frequently called upon to settle difficulties and questions of moment, and it is presumed would be a leading character in the public affairs
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of his community. He died at the age of sixty-five years and both he and wife were buried in the burying ground at Sads- bury meeting house. Upon further review we find that our great grandfather David Moore, the eighth child of a family of ten children of Andrew and Rachel, married Mary Williams of Sadsbury where they spent their active life, but later lived with their son-in-law David Fell in London Grove, where they died and are buried in the burying ground at this place. From this union came David our grandfather, born in 1769, the eldest of twelve children, who in 1791 married in West Grove meet- ing house our grand-mother, Martha, daughter of Joseph Sharp- less of New London and through the friendly attractions and associations that have ever centered around this place, he brought her to reside within the limits of this meeting on the property that was until recently the home of Joseph Whitson. He died while accompanying his wife on a religious visit to Ohio and was buried at Redstone, Washington County, Penna. Grandmother married a second time to William Way and lived to be almost ninety-eight years of age and is buried at Penns- grove, having been for over fifty years an acknowledged min- ister. From this homestead perhaps the most interesting his- tory to the Moores in this section emanates, and through a multitude of intermarriages, which it would be a task to re- view, a great many of the residents trace back to antecedents.
Of the twelve children who constituted grandfather's house- hold, eleven of whom grew to be adults, their youngest child, Rachel, was my mother. It is here the most treasured links of my kinship in which I feel a pardonable pride naturally ap- pears more manifest. From this hillside home my mother grew into sturdy womanhood. And even in that earlier time the atmos- phere of New Garden must have been of a character calculated to develop the intellectual, moral and physical well being of its people. Assembled with others at this meeting, within those aged walls she doubtless listened with profit to the exhortations and admonitions from ministerial lips. Emerging from this parental home she took her place among the instructors of youth, and from bits of history gathered we infer that the reverence and affection begotten through a mother's love and devotion were to a degree experienced by those who were privileged to be subject to her influence as instructor.
The establishment of a home of her own in an adjacent township resulted in. the severing of connections with this meeting and her history therein closes. Perhaps this little per- sonal reference will be pardoned, as the investigation in our family history was a pleasing exercise for the writer and it
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was thought that to some the rehearsal would prove interesting and probably cement more closely the ties of kinship.
The remaining ten adult children who came from this home all married, and five of them settled within the radius of a few miles; indeed all the members of the generation thus far enumerated, who lived to be adults, with very few excep- tions, entered into connubial relations, and were so thoroughly imbued with the thought "that it is not well to live alone" that they have in some instances made such ventures from two to five times and the earlier records indicate that a family of ten or twelve children was a reasonable household.
The marriage of Moore descendants as given in the rec- ords has so widely extended our kinship as to not only embrace a large portion of the familiar names of this section, but also includes residents from distant parts of America and Canada, and up to 1897 gives Andrew Moore's total descendants at 14,089, which record if continued to embrace the remaining eighteen years to the present, would doubtless add several thou- sand to this number.
The ramifications to which a review of my generation or those younger would extend, preclude the possibility in a brief article of tracing further family history. The part our kindred in unison with many other interested friendly residents has played from time to time in the activities of the meeting and the community would seem to warrant an expression of exist- ing impressions as to how potential has been the effort exerted during the past two hundred years in shaping public thought and spreading influences that tend to beneficent results. This has long been known as a Friendly settlement, and if it has lost some of its exclusiveness, there still remains in its present stable population the landmarks of the earlier time. The gen- erally frugal prosperous condition of the township's citizens in- (dicate clearly that the children trained under the privations to which early settlers were subjected, developed qualities that have descended with their children and render them somewhat conspicuous through prevailing prosperity, and a stranger vis- iting this community would soon discern the Friendly discipline of the past, the unostentatious but substantial homes and hon- orable business qualities that it has been a desire to inculcate.
The inherited progressive spirit, the desire to succeed, and industry essential to accomplish the same have not rendered them satisfied to remain where their predecessors left them but enables them to keep pace with the progress of the times, eager for what the changed condition of the age seemed to demand, and they are now seen with greatly diversified business
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operations in whatever honorable channels that were congenial, through which has come the ability to enjoy the comforts of life and partake of the proper indulgences that add to passing pleasures. If we attach the importance to heredity that is generally recognized and believe that environment, social con- ditions and probity of character make their impress on poster- ity, we should give due credit to our ancestry for bestowing on us traits that have very rarely reflected to our detriment. And the interest and earnestness now evident in matters per- taining to human welfare are but the reflection of the ancestral concern to live worthy the high profession Friends have ever made.
The inheritance that is ours is one that needs no apology ; the preceding four generations are shown very generally to have been of a class that gives tone to society and stamps its personality on surroundings, giving its influence for the pro- motion of such objects as tend to higher culture and human betterment. Recognizing the importance of religious services they have probably maintained their meetings with a fidelity superior to our own, and made manifest the sterling character- istics that not only tend to worldly prosperity but pertain to the enrichment of life. Having for two centuries been subject to the teaching of the simple but comprehensive underlying principle of the Society of Friends, that our Heavenly Father through His direct revealings will illuminate the pathway of all His children if they are in the receptive mood, and recog- nizing the personal responsibility that is attached to such a belief in the performance of life's complex duties, the natural tendency would be to develop a people with impulses to follow in the footsteps of the Holy pattern and like Him be found giving heed to their father's business. With the inheritance that has come to those of our generations through the sacri- fice, industry, fidelity and devotion of predecessors, and with the prestige that their labor has given to our people in the line of reform and worthy endeavor, it is up to us to continue the work so meritoriously conducted, and with the increased facili- ties which this modern age places at our command, should not the results of our careers mark with at least equal clearness the course of practical effort in the world's reform. And New Garden Meeting with its past as encouragement, its large mem- bership for future endeavor, the outlook brings much for the third century upon which it is now entering. With such an equipment and with continued devotion to God, home and country, there should be a vision clearly portrayed for the promotion of the eternal truths that tend to righteousness.
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