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Allen’s Neck Friends Meeting |
George Fox wrote a letter to lady Claypool (1629-1658), the second daughter of Cromwell, the Protector of England. She was quite sick and troubled in her mind at the time.
Friend,
Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit from thy own thoughts, and then thou wilt feel the principle of God to turn thy mind to the Lord God, whereby thou wilt receive his strength and power from whence life comes, to allay all tempests, against blusterings and storms. That is it which moulds up into patience, into innocency, into soberness, into stillness, into stayedness, into quietness, up to God, with his power.George Fox
The old fashioned English is tricky to read but the spirit is alive.
The grace and presence and spirit of God are accessible and can be experienced by all human beings in the spiritual understanding of early Friends. In the silence we are met by God. There is no set of steps that we have to carefully follow, no notion that we have to wrap our minds around. In the quiet we turn our hearts to God. Then God finds us, rises up from the deep in us, calls us to what we know as our true selves, in tune with imagio dei, image of God, that of God, the seed in each of us. Trials often take us to the edge. This growing edge has in it the call that George Fox described to Lady Claypool three hundred and fifty years ago. The call that Jesus made to everyone he met. "Come unto me all ye who are heavy laden and I will give you rest."
An early expression of what it really means to be cool!
Here is the voice of John Woolman from New Jersey in the 1700’s.
Oh, that we declare against wars and acknowledge our trust to be in God only, may walk in the Light and therein examine our foundation and motives in holding great estates! May we look upon our treasures and the furniture of our houses and the garments in which we array ourselves and try whether the seeds of war have any nourishment in these our possessions or not.
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