[D] "Dear friends and brethren that have gone into America and
the islands thereaway, stir up the gift of God in you and improve
your talents. Let your light shine among the Indians, the blacks
and the whites, that ye may answer the truth in them and _bring
them to the standard and ensign that God hath set up, Jesus
Christ_. _Grow in the faith and grace of Christ that ye be not
like dwarfs_, for a dwarf shall not come near to offer upon God's
altar."
_From an Epistle of George Fox written in 1690._
4. On the distinctively religious side his discovery of a direct
divine-human relationship led to a new interpretation of worship
and ministry. God is not far off. He needs no vicar, no person
of any sort between Himself and the worshipper. Grace no more
needs a special channel than the dew does. There is no special
holy place, as though God were more _there_ than _here_. He does
not come from somewhere else. He is Spirit, and needs only a
responsive soul, an open heart, to be _found_. Worship properly
begins when the soul discovers Him and enjoys His presence--in
the simplest words it is the soul's appreciation of God. With his
usual optimism, he believed that all men and women were capable
of this stupendous attainment. He threw away all crutches at the
start and called upon everybody to walk in the Spirit, to live
in the Light. His house of worship was bare of everything but
seats. It had no shrine, for the shekinah was to be in the hearts
of those who worshipped. It had no altar, for God needed no
appeasing, seeing that He Himself had made the sacrifice for sin.
It had no baptismal font, for baptism was in his belief nothing
short of immersion into the life of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit--a going down into the significance of Christ's death and
a coming up in newness of life with Him. There was no communion
table, because he believed that the true communion consisted in
partaking directly of the soul's spiritual bread--the living
Christ. There were no confessionals, for in the silence, with
the noise and din of the outer life hushed, the soul was to
unveil itself to its Maker and let His light lay bare its true
condition. There was no organ or choir, for each forgiven soul
was to give praise in the glad notes that were natural to it. No
censer was swung, for he believed God wanted only the fragrance
of sincere and prayerful spirits. There was no priestly mitre,
because each member of the true Church was to be a priest unto
God. No official robes were in evidence, because the entire
business of life, in meeting and outside, was to be the putting
on of the white garments of a saintly life. From beginning to
end worship was the immediate appreciation of God, and the
appropriate activity of the whole being in response to Him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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