A Book of Quaker SaintsHodgkin, L. V. (Lucy Violet)
Religion
A Book of Quaker Saints
Hodgkin, L. V. (Lucy Violet)
Society of Friends
Another time, when he was attending a meeting at a Friend's house, he
says that 'hundreds of vain people continued all the while throwing
great stones in at the window, but we were kept in great peace
within.' It would be rather difficult to sit quite still and 'think
meeting thoughts' with large stones flying through the windows, would
it not?
Once, when I was at a service on board ship, a few years ago, a
tremendous wave broke through the port-hole and splashed the kneeling
men and women on that side of the saloon. They were so startled that
nearly all of them jumped, and one called out quite loudly, 'Oh,
what's that?' But the clergyman went on quietly reading the service,
and very soon everything became still and quiet again.
James Nayler also continued to give his message of stillness and calm,
and the gathered people, listening to him intently, forgot to think
about the stones. He must have had a great deal of that strange
quality that we call magnetism. Just as a magnet attracts bits of iron
to it, so some people have the power of attracting others to listen to
them and love them. Fox was the most powerful magnet of all the Quaker
preachers. He attracted people in thousands all over the country. But
Nayler seems to have had a great deal of magnetism too, though it was
of a different kind. For one thing he was handsomer to look at than
Fox. He is described as 'of ruddy complexion and medium height, with
long, low hanging brown hair, oval face, and nose that rose a little
in the middle: he wore a small band close to his collar, but no band
strings, and a hat that hung over his brows.'
But it would have been happier for him if he had not been so
good-looking, as you will see presently. He must have had much charm
of manner, too. A court lady, Abigail, Lady Darcy, invited him to her
house to preach, and there, beside all the people who had assembled to
hear him, many other much grander listeners were also present although
unseen, 'lords, ladies, officers, and ministers.'
These great people, not wishing it to be known that they came to
listen to the Quaker preacher, were hidden away behind a ceiling.
Nayler himself must have known of their presence, since he mentions
it in a letter, though he does not explain how a ceiling could be a
hiding-place. He spoke to them afterwards of the Voice that had called
him as he was ploughing in the fields at home. These fine lords and
ladies could not understand what he meant. 'A Voice, a Voice?' they
asked him, 'but did you really hear it?' 'Aye, verily, I did hear it,'
he replied in such solemn tones that they wondered more than ever what
he meant; and perhaps they began to listen too for the Inner Voice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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