Produced by Bryan Ness, David King, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Books project.) Transcriber's Note: This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the '_' character as _italic_. Footnotes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they are referenced. OBSERVATIONS ON THE SERMONS OF ELIAS HICKS IN SEVERAL LETTERS TO HIM; WITH SOME INTRODUCTORY REMARKS, ADDRESSED TO THE JUNIOR MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. BY A DEMI-QUAKER. Robert Waln "To expect that we should be informed of the divine economy with the same distinctness as of our own duty, would be a piece of arrogance above ordinary."--_Burgh._ "Dim, as the borrowed beams of moon and stars To lonely, weary, wandering travellers, Is reason to the soul: and as on high, Those rolling fires discover but the sky, Not light us here: so reason's glimmering ray Was lent, not _to assure_ our doubtful way, But guide us upward to a better day."--_Dryden._ PHILADELPHIA 1826. TO THE JUNIOR MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. The situation in which the Society of Friends has of late been placed, has, I have no doubt, attracted the attention of all its members; and that even those among you who have not been in the habit of attending its meetings for discipline, are no strangers to their proceedings, although you have not yet felt it your duty to take any part in them. And to you more especially I submit the observations contained in the following letters. When in my early days I sometimes attended these meetings, my mind was filled with admiration at the harmony and prudence with which their affairs were conducted, and that genuine christian forbearance, one with another, which enabled them to triumph over all the difficulties which are imposed by conflicting opinions, and generally to unite in the adoption of such measures as true wisdom dictated; and it was gratifying to me to observe that it was, to other sects, a subject of wonder, how any numerous association could conduct their business without the intervention of votes or other substitutes, to ascertain the opinions of the majority of the assembly.