“In all things we found the Light which we were enlightened withal, and all mankind (which is Christ), to be alone and only sufficient to bring to Life and eternal salvation. And so we ceased from the teachings of all men, and their words, and their worships and their temples, and all their baptisms and churches, and we met together often, and waited upon the Lord in pure silence, from our own words and all men’s words, and hearkened to the voice of the Lord, and felt His word in our hearts to burn up and beat down all that was contrary to God, and we obeyed the Light of Christ in us, and took up the cross to all earthly glories, crowns and ways, and denied ourselves, our relations and all that stood in the way betwixt us and the Lord, and, while waiting upon the Lord in silence, as often we did for many hours together, we received often the pouring down of the Spirit upon us, and our hearts were made glad and our tongues loosed and our mouths opened, and we spake with new tongues, as the Lord gave us utterance, and as His Spirit led us, which was poured down upon us, on sons and daughters, and the glory of the Father was revealed. And then began we to sing praises to the Lord God Almighty and to the Lamb forever, who had redeemed us to God, and brought us out of the captivity and bondage of the world, and put an end to sin and death,—and all this was by and through and in the Light of Christ within us.”[1] [Footnote 1: Burrough, Preface to “Great Mystery.”] Now, it is not my purpose to examine this experience from the side either of psychology or dogmatic theology. There are psychologists and theologians, too, with whom I could not venture to compare myself, but it is enough to take the great experience simply as historical fact. There can be no question that two hundred and fifty years ago actual living intercourse with the Divine, such as Burrough describes, gathered the first Friends into their wonderful fellowship. It lifted them into an order of life which set them in a place of vision and power and joy. They saw the things of time in the light of eternity. They knew what it was to overcome the world, so that nothing could daunt their faith. In the words of one of the finest of the first Friends, William Dewsbury, the very prisons became palaces to them and the bolts and locks jewels. The Kingdom of Heaven was theirs, not indeed bringing the prizes of worldly ambition, but filling life with something richer, righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. And all this was the reward and the result of a single-hearted sincerity,—full righteousness of heart, full humility of soul, full searching after truth, full opening of the heart to the incoming of the Divine life. It had been won, as men count, at a great price. It had meant a breach with the current fashions of life and forms of religion; it had meant a daring following of fresh truth through all its untried consequences; it had meant suffering and loss; it had