The Message and Mission of QuakerismBraithwaite, William C. (William Charles)
Religion
The Message and Mission of Quakerism
Braithwaite, William C. (William Charles)
Society of Friends
Turning to the mission field, I could quote many examples which show
the way in which the Quaker form of worship appeals to some of those
who are being brought out of heathenism. I think of one young man, a
close personal friend of my own in China, who, having attended one or
two Friends’ Meetings, came to us and urged us, at a very early stage
in our mission work in Chengtu, to establish a regular Friends’
Meeting in addition to the ordinary mission services; and I recall
with keen satisfaction the experiment which we made and the true
worship into which Chinese and English together entered and the
helpful and inspired ministry which arose out of it. A leading Indian
Christian, describing the establishment of the National Missionary
Society of India, explained to a Friend the way in which the
Christians had met together for united worship, sitting as he said
often as much as half an hour in silence and then breaking out, as
prompted by the Spirit, into prayer and praise. “We,” he said, “find
this most helpful; it means a great deal to us, and we have meetings
of this kind before every one of our business sessions; but,” he
continued, “you won’t be able to understand it; it is so different
from your English ways.” You can imagine his surprise on being told
that he had almost exactly described the way in which the Friend to
whom he was speaking habitually worshiped. Not long ago I took a
friend of mine to Meeting. He was a man who had spent some years in
India and had become intimately associated with a number of Indian
students. After Meeting he asked me if our Meetings were open to the
public; because, if so, he would like to bring some of his Indian
friends to Meeting, as he felt it was exactly the thing which would
help them.
It seems to me that, in the forms of worship in other Churches, we
have either on the one hand a united act of worship which is to some
extent formal, as when the congregation joins in the singing of a hymn
or in a set prayer; or else on the other hand we have an individual
act which is not formal but inspired, as when a man filled with a
message from God delivers it to the congregation. I know no other
form of worship which fulfils my idea of a _united act inspired of
God_. As we wait together upon Him we are together called into His
Holy presence. The silence represents to us not merely the touch of
each individual spirit with the Spirit of God; it represents rather
the uniting of our spirits together in harmony with His Spirit. Thus
are we privileged to understand something of that true Communion of
the Saints which is to be fully experienced in the life beyond. A
Friends’ Meeting filled with the sense of the presence of God is, to
my mind, one of the chief contributions which Friends ought to be
making to the life of the Church of Christ. This ideal was well
expressed by T. R. Glover in the Swarthmore Lecture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account