Produced by Mark C. Orton, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net An Interpretation of Friends Worship BY N. JEAN TOOMER [Device] Published by THE COMMITTEE ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF FRIENDS GENERAL CONFERENCE 1515 Cherry Street, Philadelphia 2, Pa. _Price twenty-five cents_ CONTENTS Introduction 3 Worship and Love 7 The Basis of Friends Worship and Other Inward Practices 11 What to Do in the Meeting for Worship 20 Questions and Answers 28 For Further Reading 35 Copyright 1947 Friends General Conference Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note. INTRODUCTION I was not more than ten years old when I first heard mention of the Quakers. The grown-ups of my family were talking among themselves, speaking of an uncle of mine who lived in Philadelphia and operated a pharmacy near the university. I had never seen this uncle and was curious about him, so my ears were open. Presently a reference to the Quakers caught my attention. I wanted to know who the Quakers were. What was told me then I have remembered ever since. The Quakers, I was told, are people who wait for the spirit to move them. A picture formed in my mind. Many a time I had seen my grandmother sitting quietly, an aura of peace around her as she sewed or crocheted or did her beautiful embroidery work. So I pictured older people, most of them with white hair like my grandparents, all with kindly faces, gathered in silent assembly, heads bent slightly forward, waiting to be moved. It never occurred to me that young people, boys and girls of my age and even younger, might be present and participating. As the word "spirit" meant nothing definite to me, I could have no idea of just what would move the Quakers, but I had a sense that it would be something within them, perhaps like the stirrings that sometimes moved me, and I may have had a vague notion that this something within them was somehow related to what people called God. I never thought to ask what the Quakers might do after they were moved.