A Book of Quaker SaintsHodgkin, L. V. (Lucy Violet)
Religion
A Book of Quaker Saints
Hodgkin, L. V. (Lucy Violet)
Society of Friends
Beloved Swarthmoor! Dear home, where kind hearts abode, where gentle
faces and tender hands were ever ready to welcome and bind up the
wounds, both visible and invisible, of any persecuted guest in those
troubled times. Surely, after his terrible experiences on the day of
the riot at Ulverston, George Fox would yield to the entreaties of his
entertainers, and allow himself to be persuaded to rest in peace under
the shadow of the Swarthmoor yew-trees, until the bloodthirsty fury
against all who bore the name of Quaker, and against himself in
particular, should have somewhat lessened in the neighbourhood? Far
from it. To 'Flee from Storms' was never this strong man's way.[13]
Gentle reeds and delicate grasses may bow as the storm-wind rushes
over them. The sturdy oak-tree, with its tough roots grappling firmly
underground, stubbornly faces the blast. George Fox, 'ever Stiff as a
Tree,' by the admission even of his enemies, barely waited for his
'yellow, black and blue' bruises to disappear before he came forth
again to encounter his foes. Certain priests had however taken
advantage of this short enforced absence to 'put about a prophecy'
that he had disappeared for good, and 'that within a year all these
Quakers would be utterly put down.' Great, therefore, must have been
their chagrin to hear, only a short fortnight after the Lecture Day at
Ulverston, that the hated 'Man in Leather Breeches' was off once more
on his dangerous career.
Fox's companion on this journey was that same James Nayler who had
followed him on his first visit to Swarthmoor, a few weeks previously.
Nayler was one of the most brilliantly gifted of all those early
comrades of George Fox, who were hereafter to earn the name of 'the
Valiant Sixty.' Clouds and sorrows were to separate the two friends in
years to come, but at this time they were united in heart and soul,
both alike given up to the joyful service of 'Publishing Truth.' The
object of their journey was to visit another recent convert, James
Lancaster by name, in his home on the Island of Walney that lies off
the Furness coast.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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