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| GEORGE FOX’S conversion made him certain of
one thing: Jesus Christ is there to be our friend and teacher, if only
we will respond to his presence. Of all the radicals of the 17th Century, George Fox was probably the most radical. He believed implicitly in the priesthood of all believers, so he founded a movement without any ordained ministers. He believed in an inward and spiritual faith, so his movement had no sacraments. He believed in the equality of all men and women before God, so his movement forbade keeping slaves, refused to treat royalty differently from beggars, and even rejected any language which treated some as more important than others. Fox was repeatedly arrested for his uncompromising attitudes, and sometimes spent months in prison. But they rarely made a charge stick, and, like St Paul, he often had the authorities apologising to him for their illegal actions. Fox's followers were called The Society of Friends. Because one of them called on a judge to “...quake before the Lord”, they were called Quakers. Quakers served their communities. Before Governments ever thought of it, Quakers produced train timetables so that poor people would be able to travel reliably and safely. While most businesses had no interest in the welfare of their employees, the Quaker Cadbury family built model villages for their workers, to ensure their health and safety, and their children's education. Quakers were active in prison reform and in public health issues. And, surprisingly, Quakers generally became wealthy. Everyone knew that Quakers set store by being honest in business. A Quaker’s yes meant yes; his no meant no. People preferred to do business with a Quaker businessman. Even today, Quakers have a marked impact on the world. When there is trouble worldwide, the Quakers will be there, seeking to do good and to establish peace. They are pacifists and non–credal. Some Quakers are strongly evangelical, others are barely Christian in their beliefs. Yet they all go back to that remarkable man, George Fox. William Penn, a founder of Pennsylvania, called Fox, “an original, being no man’s copy.” Fox was born in 1624 and died in 1691. He came from Fenny Drayton in South-Eastern England, but travelled widely, including the West Indies, North America and Holland. So, how did George Fox of Fenny Drayton become such a remarkable Christian leader? In retelling the story of his conversion, I have updated the language of Fox's Journal quite extensively. The story starts in 1643, when Fox was 19, and ends when he was 23. “Now during all this time I never joined myself in the profession of religion with any other people, but gave myself up to the Lord, having forsaken all evil company. I had taken leave of father and mother and all other relations, and travelled up and down as a stranger on the earth, wherever the Lord inclined my heart. I used to take a chamber to myself in the towns I came to, staying sometimes a month, sometimes more, sometimes less, in a place. For I dared not stay long in any place, being afraid both of those who professed a religion and of the profane people, lest, being only a tender young man, I might be hurt by talking too much with either kind of person. For this reason, I kept myself much as a stranger, seeking heavenly wisdom and getting knowledge from the Lord. So I was drawn away from outward things and grew to rely on the Lord alone. And, though my worries and troubles were very great, they were not continual, so that I had some intermissions , and was sometimes brought into such a heavenly joy that I thought I had been in Abraham’s bosom. In the same way that I can’t describe the misery I was in — it was so great and heavy on me — so I am also unable clearly to set out the mercies of God to me in all my misery. Oh, the everlasting love of God to my soul when I was in great distress! When my troubles and torments were great, then was his love exceedingly great... the knowledge of thee in the spirit is life, but that knowledge which is fleshly works death.” Fox came to mistrust most of the Christians he had met to that point, though he had been raised in a Christian home, and always spoke well of his parents’ faith. He felt that most Christians made too much provision for their human wants and desires and not enough provision for the Holy Spirit’s promptings. He visited many people who had the reputation of knowing about Christ, but generally came away disappointed. He was a very clever young man and knew how to ask probing questions, which sometimes provoked an angry response from the people he asked. He goes on, “Now after I had received that opening from the Lord that to be trained at Oxford or Cambridge was not enough to equip a man to be a minister of Christ, I respected the priests less, and looked more after the dissenting Christians. And among them I saw there was some tenderness, and many of them came afterwards to be convinced, for they had some openings from God. But as I had forsaken all the priests, so I left the separatist Preachers, also, together with those called the most experienced people. For I saw there was no one among them all who could speak to my condition. And when all my hope in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could I even tell what to do, then, Oh then, I heard a voice which said, “There is one — even Christ Jesus — who can speak to thy condition!” And when I heard it, my heart leapt for joy. Then the Lord showed me why there was no one on the earth who could speak to my condition. The reason was that I was to give him all the glory. For all are concluded under sin, and shut up in unbelief as I had been, so that Jesus Christ might have the pre-eminence, as the one who enlightens, and gives grace, faith and power. So, when God works, who shall prevent it? And I knew this experimentally through my experiences.” Fox now found that his desire for the Lord grew stronger. He had a zeal to know God and Christ alone, without the aid of man, book or writing. He read the Scriptures which speak of Christ and God, and even here he found that he only knew Christ by God’s revelation. Fox’s experience was that Christ was the one who held the key to the scriptures and was able to open the Word to his understanding. Yet even now, Fox had not come to a full assurance of faith. He became very aware of his own sinfulness and of the corruption of the world in which he lived. “I was afraid of all company,” he writes, “for I saw them perfectly where they were, through the love of God, which let me see myself. I had not fellowship with any people, priests or professors* of religion, nor with any sort of separated people, but with Christ, who has they key, and opened the door of light and life to me... So it was he who opened to me when I was shut up and had neither hope nor faith. Christ it was who had enlightened me. He gave me his light to believe in, and gave me hope, which is himself. He revealed himself in me, he gave me his spirit and gave me his grace, which I found sufficient in the deeps and in weakness.” Fox still had a way to go before he felt secure in Christ. Here’s more of the story: “One day when I had been walking around on my own and was coming home, I was taken up in God’s love, so that I could do nothing but marvel at the greatness of his love. And while I was in that state, it was opened to me by the eternal Light and power, and in it I saw clearly that all was done and to be done by Christ, and how he conquers and destroys this tempter, the Devil and all his works, and is atop of him... My living faith was raised, so that I saw that all was done by Christ, the life, and my belief was in him. After this a pure fire appeared to me; then I saw how he sat as a refiner’s fire and as the fuller’s soap; and then spiritual discernment came into me. By this I discerned my own thoughts, groans and sighs, and I understood what it was that veiled me, and what it was that opened me to Christ’s teaching.” Fox saw that it was his own human desires which lacked patience and feared judgment and placed a screen between himself and God. His human flesh still refused to die by the Cross, which is the power of God. He realised that the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, must cut down his human wants and desires until his entire life was under the control and direction of Christ. Finally, he began to find peace and a sense of direction. He visited a woman who had fasted for over three weeks, but saw that she was under a temptation, so he spoke to her what the Lord had laid on his heart for her, and then moved on. Later he attended a meeting of Baptists and others, but few Baptists arrived, so he spoke to the people who came, and some were convinced, though others became angry and abusive. In Mansfield, he heard a word from the Lord. He writes, “...The Lord said to me, ‘What the people trample upon must be thy food.’ And as the Lord spoke, he opened it to me how people and professors of religion trampled on the life; even the life of Christ was trampled upon; and they fed upon words, and fed one another with words, but trampled on the life, and trampled underfoot the blood of the Son of God — the blood which was my life — and lived in their airy notions, talking of him... I had a sense and discerning given me by the Lord that when many people talked of God and of Christ.., the serpent spoke in them; and this was hard to bear. Yet the work of the Lord went on in some; and my own sorrows and troubles began to wear off and tears of joy dropped from me... for I had been brought through the very ocean of darkness and death, and had come through and over the power of Satan, and this was all by the eternal glorious power of Christ. I was even brought through that darkness which covered all the world and chained all people down, and shut up all people in the death... The I could say that I had been in spiritual Babylon, Sodom, Egypt and the grave; but, by the eternal power of God I had come out of it and out of its power, into Christ’s power. And I saw the harvest white, and the Seed of God lying as thick in the ground, as ever I saw wheat that was sown outwardly, and there was none to gather it; and for this I mourned with tears.” We all have different experiences of coming to Christ. Some receive the word joyfully and, in a moment, have passed from death to life. Others, like George Fox, pass years in their spiritual struggle to find the light of Christ in the darkness of their souls. Others — and this was my experience — ignore and avoid the consequences of the word they have heard, yet the Spirit of God keeps intruding and will not let them go until they turn in repentance and surrender. George Fox did not give people a formula by which to come to Christ. He did not appeal for them to come forward and shake his hand, or to fill in a card or to be baptised. He told them to sit down under Christ, their Teacher, and learn from him. He assured them that Christ would lead them into all truth, because he is the true light which enlightens everyone who comes into the world. While some people abuse the Quaker idea of the Inner Light and have wandered into “vain imaginings”, as Fox would have described it, at its best, Fox’s ideal has led to the formation of little communities of people who take their faith with great seriousness, and refuse to accept simple answers or to take traditional paths just because they are there. There is a Quaker Meeting in Devonshire Street in Sydney, where they follow the practices of the early Quakers. Quaker meetings are mostly silent, though, if someone receives a word from the Lord which they deem to be a word to the entire congregation, they are free to share that word. In some places, though, they sing hymns, read from the Bible and have a short sermon. Quakers have been less committed to following a single pattern than to following the light that Christ shines on them and the truth that he opens to their hearts. I suggest that three things can be learnt from Fox’s experience as he found Christ: First, never give up. Sometimes it seems that we pass through all kinds of struggles and disappointments as we look for God’s work in our lives. Fox passed through struggles and disappointments for four years before light began to break into his darkness. In my experience, God is always there, ready to bless. But we are not always ready to receive what he has for us. Second, don’t reject openings. The Holy Spirit can open his truth to us in many ways. I am a visual person, so many times when the Spirit has revealed something to me, it has been in the form of a picture; when I check that picture against the Bible, I discover that it fits., so I accept it as a word from the Lord, or I find that it doesn't fit the Bible, so I reject it. But God can also use feelings, or even words to our hearts. We all receive in different ways. Finally, as Fox himself regularly advised people, please “sit down under Christ your teacher, and let him speak to you.” Christ rose from the dead; he still speaks today; listen to him! AMEN
* Fox regularly speaks of "professors" (of religion). By this he does not mean that they had any special expertise or were religious lecturers, rather he means they were people who professed a faith , whether or not they actually had a faith. |
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| © Peter R. Green 2003. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. | |
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