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Jean Toomer + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + h1 {text-align: center; clear: both; font-weight: normal; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} + h2 {text-align: center; clear: both; font-size: large;} + .ti1 {text-align: center; line-height: 1.5em;} + h3 {text-align: center; clear: both; font-size: large; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} + hr {width: 65%; margin: 2em auto; clear: both;} + table {margin: 1em auto 5em;} + .td1 {text-align: left; padding-right: 6em;} + .td2 {text-align: right;} + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; right: 1%; font-size: small; font-style: normal; text-align: right; text-indent: 0em;} + .blockquot {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .figcenter {margin: 3em auto 8em; width: 22px;} + .trans1 {border: solid 1px; margin: 3em 15% 1em; padding: 1em; text-align: justify;} + img {border: none;} + a:link {text-decoration:none;} + a:visited {text-decoration:none;} + p.cap:first-letter {float: left; margin-right: .05em; padding-top: .05em; font-size: 300%; line-height: .8em;} + .dcap {text-transform: uppercase;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's An Interpretation of Friends Worship, by N. Jean Toomer + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Interpretation of Friends Worship + +Author: N. Jean Toomer + +Release Date: February 11, 2008 [EBook #24576] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRIENDS WORSHIP *** + + + + +Produced by Mark C. Orton, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1><big>An Interpretation of<br /> +Friends Worship</big></h1> + +<h2 class="ti1"><span class="smcap">By</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">N. Jean Toomer</span></h2> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/001.png" width="22" height="22" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="center">Published by<br /> +THE COMMITTEE ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF<br /> +FRIENDS GENERAL CONFERENCE<br /> +1515 Cherry Street, Philadelphia 2, Pa.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Price twenty-five cents</i></p> + +<hr /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td class="td1">Introduction</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="td1">Worship and Love</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="td1">The Basis of Friends Worship and Other Inward Practices</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="td1">What to Do in the Meeting for Worship</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="td1">Questions and Answers</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="td1">For Further Reading</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p class="ti1"><small>Copyright 1947<br /> +Friends General Conference</small></p> + +<div class="trans1"><b>Transcriber's Note:</b><br /> +Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. +copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and +typographical errors have been corrected without note.</div> + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> +<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">I was</span> not more than ten years old when I first heard +mention of the Quakers. The grown-ups of my family +were talking among themselves, speaking of an uncle of +mine who lived in Philadelphia and operated a pharmacy +near the university. I had never seen this uncle and was +curious about him, so my ears were open. Presently a +reference to the Quakers caught my attention. I wanted to +know who the Quakers were. What was told me then I have +remembered ever since. The Quakers, I was told, are people +who wait for the spirit to move them.</p> + +<p>A picture formed in my mind. Many a time I had seen my +grandmother sitting quietly, an aura of peace around her as +she sewed or crocheted or did her beautiful embroidery work. +So I pictured older people, most of them with white hair like +my grandparents, all with kindly faces, gathered in silent +assembly, heads bent slightly forward, waiting to be moved. +It never occurred to me that young people, boys and girls +of my age and even younger, might be present and participating.</p> + +<p>As the word "spirit" meant nothing definite to me, I could +have no idea of just what would move the Quakers, but I +had a sense that it would be something within them, perhaps +like the stirrings that sometimes moved me, and I may have +had a vague notion that this something within them was somehow +related to what people called God. I never thought to +ask what the Quakers might do after they were moved.</p> + +<p>Had I been invited in those days to attend a Friends meeting +for worship I would have gladly gone. I would have gone +because my picturings had given me good feelings about the +Quakers. I would have gone because, young though I was, +I liked to be silent now and again. Sometimes my best friend +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>and I would sit quietly together, happy that we were together +but not wanting to talk. Sometimes I would go off by myself +on walks to look at the wonders of nature, to think my +own thoughts, to dream, to feel something stirring in me for +which I had no name. Or I might withdraw for a time from +the activities of the boys and girls and sit on the porch of our +house, my outward eyes watching them at play, my inward +eyes turned to an inner life that was as real to me, and +sometimes more wonderful than my life with the group.</p> + +<p>Certain experiences I had when alone, certain experiences +I had with my young friends, attitudes and feelings that +would suddenly arise in me at any time or place—these made +up the mainstream of my religious life. Such religion as I +had was life-centered, not book-centered, not church-centered. +It arose from the well of life within me, and within my +friends and parents. It arose from the well of life within +nature and the human world. It consisted in my response +to flowers, trees, birds, snow, the smell of the earth after +a spring rain, sunsets and the starry sky. It consisted in my +devotion to pet rabbits and dogs, and to some interest or +project that caught my imagination.</p> + +<p>I had been taught several formal prayers. One of these +I said every night, regularly, before getting into bed. But +I am thinking of the unformed prayers that welled up in me +whenever I had need of them. I had been read some +stories from the Bible and some of the psalms, and from +these I had doubtless gained attitudes of reverence. But I am +thinking of the worship that spontaneously arose as I beheld +the wonders of the world which God created. Young eyes +are new eyes, and to new eyes all things are fresh, vivid, +original.</p> + +<p>It is sometimes asked if children and young people are +capable of the religious life. Certainly they are not capable +of sustained effort towards an unswerving aim. Certainly +they cannot hold themselves to a consistent discipline. They +cannot engage in the religious life as a conscious way of +living. These abilities come only as we grow up and subject +ourselves to training. But, just as certainly, young people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +do have religious experiences, and these often are more vivid +and glowing than those of the elders. That is it—children +can glow. They can light up. This capacity to glow is at +the very heart of what we are talking about.</p> + +<p>To be sure, people young and old need instruction. We +need instruction in the Bible, in poetry, in all literature that +contains truth and beauty. We need to be helped to struggle +against our faults, to overcome our imperfections. And we +need to be curbed on occasion, as the only way in which we +may eventually become able to curb ourselves. But it should +not be forgotten that all people, especially young people, have +poetry in them. And, more than that, according to the faith +of the Friends all people have within them something of the +very spirit that created the scriptures.</p> + +<p>Religious education, it seems to me, is on the wrong track +if it assumes that religion is something that must be drilled +into people. It is on the right track if it recognizes that the +source of religion is within us as a native endowment, and +that the function of education is to call this endowment forth, +supply it with the nourishment it needs in order to grow, and +guide it in ways that promote maturing. People should have +reason to be assured that formal religion is not contrary to +the springs of innate religious experience and longing, but +is in accord with the life and light within, and simply seeks +to direct and develop this spiritual life.</p> + +<p>Had a Friend approached me in those days with some such +understanding and assurance, and had I been able to understand +what he said, I would have had still another reason, +and this a compelling one, for attending a meeting for worship. +And so I would have gone. I'd have sat there with the others, +feeling much at home, perhaps feeling I was in a holy place. +I'd have sat as quietly as any for the first ten or fifteen +minutes. I would not have worshiped in any formal sense, +for I had not been taught any form. But I would have practiced +my kind of inwardness, thinking my own thoughts as +I did when alone, dreaming wonderful dreams, feeling a life +stir within me. Had there been a spoken message or two,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +I would have listened attentively, tried to understand, and +honestly responded.</p> + +<p>Presently, however, I would have begun to fidget. Not +knowing what I should try to do in a meeting for worship, +I would have had nothing to fall back on when my thoughts +ran out, no purpose for curbing my increasing restlessness. +Through the windows my eyes would have caught sight of +the world outdoors, and I'd have wished I were out there +having fun with the boys. Time would have dragged. I'd +have asked myself, "Will the meeting never end?" And +when finally it did end, I'd have been as glad for the ending +as I had been for the beginning.</p> + +<p>What should we try to do in a meeting for worship? What +do we hope to attain through it? Why is silence desirable? +What is the main idea behind the Friends manner of worship? +It is true that Quakers wait for the spirit to move them. Why +wait? Wouldn't it be better just to go ahead? Besides +waiting, what more is to be done? Can we not pray and +worship when we are alone, or as we go about our daily +affairs? Why is it necessary to meet together? What is +worship?</p> + +<p>These are not questions that you answer once and for all. +You continue to think about them and continue to increase +your understanding. But it helps us to think if we put our +thoughts in order and study the thoughts of others. So I +am going to write down some of the thoughts that have come +to me. We shall think about worship and the central faith +of the Friends, and let the answers come as they may.</p> + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> +<h2>WORSHIP AND LOVE</h2> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Worship</span> is the action of the spirit. It springs up +from our depths, as love does. It is a form of love, +and just as desirable, and just as necessary to human +life at its fullest and highest. To worship is an innate need +of man. It is not imposed upon us from the outside, though +the way we sometimes go about it may make it seem an +imposition.</p> + +<p>Suppose you are hungry. No one has to tell you to eat. +No one has to force you to take food. Suppose you are in +love. Must you be told to think of the person you are in +love with? Must you be forced to yearn for the loved one?</p> + +<p>Worship is a hunger of the human soul for God. When +it really occurs, it is as compelling as the hunger for food. +It is as spontaneous as the love of boy for girl. If we feel +it, no one needs tell us we should worship. No one has to +try to make us do it. If we do not feel it, or have no desire to +feel it, no amount of urging or forcing will do any good. +We simply cannot be forced, from the outside, to worship. +Only the power within us, the life within, can move us to it.</p> + +<p>But others can guide our preliminary efforts. They can +help us to prepare to worship. Such preparation, as Rufus +Jones has said, is the most important business in the world. +Others can provide conditions, such as the Friends meeting +for worship, thanks to which the desire to worship may spring +up and grow. The meeting for worship came into existence +because the early Friends were powerfully moved to worship +together and meet the spiritual needs of one another. I use +the word <i>needs</i>. Their spiritual needs were more dynamic +than ours—or theirs—for food and shelter. Neither threats of +violence nor active persecution could keep them away from +their meetings.</p> + +<p>Why is it that some of us would rather go to a movie,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +or listen to the radio, or see a ball game, or read an exciting +book? One reason, it must be acknowledged, is because our +meetings today are sometimes dull and unliving. We assemble +in our meeting houses, but nothing happens. A related reason +is that many of us have not yet awakened spiritually. Our +bodies are active. Our minds are alert. But not our spirits. +Such awakening, however, will come in due time, if we +encourage it, if we do our part to prepare for it, if we live +honestly and are true to ourselves, face life with clear eyes, +and continue growing.</p> + +<p>The main reason why we do not worship, or do not want +to, is that God is not yet sufficiently real to us. He is not +as real to us as our human father. His power is not as +real to us as the power of man's brain and muscles, as +steam power, as electricity. Worship expresses man's relationship +to God. How then can we worship if we are not +aware of this relationship, if the main party to it is unreal +to us?</p> + +<p>Some people speak of worshiping things that are not of +God. God being unreal to them, their relation to Him being +unrecognized, they turn to what is real to them, and engage +in various so-called worships: money-worship, hero-worship, +ancestor-worship, the worship of material power and machines, +the worship of political States and their rulers. These are +false worships. God is the sole object of genuine worship—God +and His power which He manifests to us as love, light, +and wisdom.</p> + +<p>All forms of true worship arise from an experience of the +<i>fact</i> of God, from the realization that God <i>is</i>. Men such as +George Fox and John Woolman had their first experiences +of God early in life. Most of us come to the experience +gradually and later on, if at all. What are we to do meanwhile? +Most religions offer formal official statements of what +they believe God to be. They say what God's nature is, and +set forth His attributes. Friends make no such pronouncement; +and I, for one, am glad there is none. Man's words +about God cannot substitute for a first-hand experience of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +living reality. Friends are directed to seek for the reality +within themselves. Meanwhile, we are called upon to have +faith that God exists and that it is possible for us to meet +with Him. We are called upon to prepare ourselves for this +supreme experience. We are urged to try to sense God's +presence, daily to practice His presence. By such practice, +if we persevere, we shall surely come to have a convincing +experience.</p> + +<p>Worship is our response to God's reality, a reality which +is, to be sure, within men, but which also is the radiant +foundation of the entire universe. In trying to worship, we +turn ourselves Godwards. We yearn for Him and endeavor +to know His will. Our lives are pointed toward Him. If, +and as we succeed, we make contact with God, and by this +contact He is made real to us. When He becomes real to us +we spontaneously love Him.</p> + +<p>Can we see a sunset without responding to its beauty? +Can we witness those we love, in their goodness to us, +without being touched and moved? Can we hear the voice +of our best friend on the phone without eagerly listening +and eagerly replying? Be sure, then, that when we come into +God's presence we will be touched and moved beyond our +greatest expectation.</p> + +<p>Nothing so deters us from wanting to worship as the notion +that worship is unliving. If it is unliving it is not worship. +If it seems dull, tedious or difficult, it is because we are not +truly worshiping. We are, perhaps, preparing ourselves to +worship. There are difficulties to be overcome in the preparatory +stages. Or, we are but assuming the appearance of +worship, there being no life, no yearning within, we being +more dead than alive inside. Indeed it is dull and tedious +to hold the posture, if it is not backed up by a quickening life +of the spirit.</p> + +<p>True worship is a living experience. By and through it +we enter into a life so vital, so vivid, so large and glorious +that, by comparison, our life of ordinary activities seems narrow, +dull, dead. By bodily action the body comes alive. By<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +mental action the mind comes alive. So by spiritual action +the spirit comes alive. Worship is spiritual action. By means +of it our spirits awake, mature, and grow up to God.</p> + +<p>All human beings, except those who have been badly damaged +by man's inhumanity to man, are moved to love. Some +love animals, some flowers. Others love the sea or farm lands +or mountains. Some love truth, some love beauty. All of +us want and need to love and to be loved by our families and +friends, and we would be happy were we able to love all +people everywhere. To love and be loved is a universal +human urge. Is it any wonder, then, that we are moved to +seek God's love? It is inevitable that we should desire this +supreme form of love. The First Commandment expresses +our innermost desire as well as God's will.</p> + +<p>There is nothing incredible about our wanting to love and +to be loved by God. The incredible fact is that it can +actually happen, does happen. Some day we will experience +it. Then our doubts will end. Then we will worship God +through love of Him.</p> + +<p>Here is what two religious men of advanced spiritual development +had to say of their experiences. George Fox wrote, +"The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'My love was +always to thee, and thou art in my love.' And I was ravished +with the sense of the love of God." Brother Lawrence wrote, +"You must know that the benevolent and caressing light +of God's countenance kindles insensibly within the soul, which +ardently embraces it, a divine and consuming flame of love, +so rapturous that one puts curbs upon the outward expression +of it."</p> + +<p>It is to this divine love that we are called. This is the high +promise of man's life. We are called away from indifference, +from meanness, malice, prejudice and hate. We are called +above the earthly loves that come and go, and are unsure. +We are called into the deep enduring love of God and man +and all creation. Worship is a door into that love. Once we +have entered it, our every act is a prayer, our whole life a +continuous worship.</p> + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE BASIS OF FRIENDS WORSHIP AND +OTHER INWARD PRACTICES</h2> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Some</span> people believe that whereas God's nature is divine, +man's nature is depraved. God is good, but men are +evil. God, according to this view, exists in heaven, +remote from us. We exist in sin, remote from Him, in hell +or next door to it. Human beings are completely separated +from the Divine Being. The only possible connection between +men and God is that brought about by the mediation of the +church and its authorized officials. Friends have never held +this view.</p> + +<p>Friends, beginning with George Fox, realized that something +of God dwells <i>within</i> each and every human being, and +that, therefore, He is reachable by us through direct contact, +and we are within His reach, subject to His immediate influence. +This is the well-known basis of Friends worship.</p> + +<p>Since God is within us, Friends turn inward to find Him. +This is not a matter of choice or inclination; it is a matter +of necessity. Turning inward, we turn away from all externals. +Friends practice inwardness. Rufus Jones writes, +"The religion of the Quaker is primarily concerned with the +culture and development of the inward life and with direct +correspondence with God."</p> + +<p>Some number of Friends in the early days of the movement +not only sought God but found him, though it would perhaps +be better to say were found by him. It was because they +found God that they had such living worship, such vital +meetings. It was because they truly worshiped and had +vital meetings that they progressively discovered God and +came increasingly within his power. The one led to the other. +Without the one we cannot have the other.</p> + +<p>That there is that of God in every man was, as already +implied, more than a belief or a concept with the early Friends.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +It was an experience. It was a recovery of the living Deity. +As he made and continued to make this recovery in himself, +George Fox went about his apostolic work and laid the +foundation of what came to be the Society of Friends. What +did Fox aim for? How did he regard his ministry? Let +him answer in his own words. "I exhorted the people to +come off from all these things (from churches, temples, +priests, tithes, argumentation, external ceremonies and dead +traditions), and directed them to the spirit and grace of God +in themselves, and to the light of Jesus in their own hearts, +that they might come to know Christ, their free Teacher."</p> + +<p>Pointing as they do to the basis of Friends worship, these +several considerations do not, of themselves, throw light on +the reason for certain other inward practices. The basis of +these other practices is, unfortunately, less simple and less +well-known. Why is there need of particular occasions for +prayer and worship? Why need we gather together and sit +quietly? Why practice waiting before God? If He is in us, +why does He not manifest to us continually, why does His +power not always motivate our actions? Why do we have +to practice His presence, and why is this practice so difficult? +To answer these questions we are forced to adopt a +somewhat complex and non-habitual view of the situation.</p> + +<p>Suppose we are approached by a person of inquiring mind +who says, "You say that there is that of God in every man. +All right, I am prepared to accept that as truth. But precisely +where in us does the divine spark exist? Is it in our bodies? +Is it in our ordinary minds and everyday thoughts and emotions? +Do you mean to say that God exists in ignorance, +in man's prejudices and hatreds, in human evil?" How will +we reply? Obviously God does not exist in our trivial actions, +nor in our godless thoughts and feelings. Certainly He does +not exist in our ignorance and evil. But these things exist +in us. They constitute a part of us. This part of us, then, +is separated from God, while another part is related to Him. +Insofar as we identify with the separated part and believe it +to be ourselves, we exist divorced from that of God in us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> + +<p>The attitude, in brief, is this. There is that of God in +every man. Therefore man, in his entirety, is not separated +from God. But man is divided within, and against, himself, +into two different and opposing aspects, and one of these +aspects is separated from God. This is my view of the situation. +If I understand the writings of the early Friends, this +was their view of the situation.</p> + +<p>The early Friends had names for the part of us that is +separated from God. They called it the "natural man," the +"earthly man." I shall sometimes refer to it as the "body-mind" +or the "separated self." The early Friends called the +part of us that is related to God and in which God dwells +the "spiritual man," the "new birth," the "new creation." I +shall sometimes call it the "inner being," the "spiritual self."</p> + +<p>It is of course the separated self that presents the problem. +It obstructs our attempts to relate ourselves to God and to +our fellow men. It interferes with worship as well as with +love. It is because of this self that we do not pray and love +as naturally as we breathe. The separated self stands in the +way. Therefore it must be overcome. For divine as well as +genuinely human purposes it must be subdued and eventually +left behind. Every real religious practice, whether of Friends +or of others, either directly or indirectly aims to enable human +beings to transcend the separated self in order that we may +be united with the spiritual self or being which is near God +because He dwells therein.</p> + +<p>In the light of these facts we can understand the need and +the purpose of certain specific inward practices, such as the +practice of contending with oneself (Isaac Penington called +it "lawful warring") and the practice of gathering silently and +waiting upon God. Since the separated self exists, and is an +obstruction, we must contend with it. We contend with it so +as to remove it and, at the same time, activate the spiritual +nature. Gathering in silence and waiting upon God is necessary +for the same reason, and is another means to the same +end. More will be said of this presently.</p> + +<p>The early Friends, while proclaiming the good news that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +there is a spiritual man in each and all of us, that God dwells +in this part of human beings and is, for this very reason, +close even to the earthly man, regarded the earthly man as +unregenerate, sinful, blind and dead to the things of the +spirit. Only by rising above the earthly aspect of ourselves +can we pass from sin into righteousness, from death to life, +from that which exists apart from God into that which exists +as part of God. Only by yielding to God's power can the +earthly man be regenerated. To the degree that this happens, +we are unified with our spiritual natures. Thus we are +mended and made whole. What formerly was a separated +and contrary part, becomes the instrument of expression of +the resurrected spiritual being.</p> + +<p>If the earthly man is dead to the things of the spirit, then, +as long as he remains so, he obviously can neither truly pray +nor truly worship. Nor can we, as long as we remain identified +with him. Should he try to pray, he but prays according +to his own ignorant and faulty notions. Should he try +to worship, he but worships in his own will, not according +to the will of God. Robert Barclay called this kind of worship +"will-worship."</p> + +<p>Will-worship was what the Friends condemned and tried +to avoid. They aimed for true spiritual worship. They wanted +to worship God by and through the workings of His spirit +and power in their spiritual beings. How were they to fulfill +this aim? What, specifically, were they to do? Try, by +all available means, to quiet and subdue the earthly man, to +lay down his will, to turn the mind to God. But, having +done this, they found that something more was wanted. They +discovered, as you and I have or will, that it is one thing +to still our habitual thoughts and motions, but quite another +to cause the spiritual self to arise. By our own efforts we +can subdue the body-mind to some extent. Few of us, by our +efforts alone, can activate our spiritual natures in a vital and +creative way. We need God's help. We need the help of +one another. But God's help may not come at once. Our +help to each other, even though we are gathered in a meeting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +for worship or actively serving our fellow men outside of +the meeting, may be and often is delayed as regards our kindling +one another spiritually. What are we to do in this +case? There is only one thing we can do—wait. Having +done our part to overcome the separated self, we can but wait +for the spiritual self to arise and take command of our lives. +Having brought ourselves as close as we can to God, we can +but hold ourselves in an attitude of waiting for Him to work +His will in us, to draw us fully into His presence.</p> + +<p>So the early Friends engaged in silent waiting, humble yet +expectant waiting, reverent waiting upon the Lord, that they +might be empowered by Him to help one another and to +render to Him the honor and the adoration which, as Robert +Barclay said, characterizes true worship; that His power might +come over them and cover the meeting; that He might bring +about the death of the old, the birth of the new man.</p> + +<p>Friends waited, both in and out of meeting. They waited +for God to move them, quicken them to life, make them His +instruments. They waited for the power of God to do its +wonder-work, lifting up the part of them that was akin to +Him, gracing them with the miracle of resurrection. Waiting +preceded worship. Waiting prepared for worship, and the +springing up of new life. By waiting they began worshiping. +The stillness of the meeting house, the silence of the lips, +the closed eyes and composed faces were the tangible signs +of the preliminary period of waiting.</p> + +<p>It is instructive and reassuring to note how frequently, +among the early Friends, the practice of waiting did have the +desired sequel. This seeming inactivity led to spiritual +action. Out of this chrysalis what a life was born! God +found them in the silence. Blessed and renewing experiences +came to Friends, experiences which enabled them to be agents +of the divine spirit in every situation of human life. It is +instructive because it points us, of this day, to a religious +practice that is effective. It is reassuring because from it +we may have sound hope that, if we rightly and faithfully +engage in this and other inward practices, we may reach and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +even surpass the high level of religious experience and service +attained by Friends in the days when the Quaker movement +really moved. In our present-day lives and meetings there +can be soul-shaking events. The Light can invade us. Truth +can take hold of us. Love may gather us. Above all, God +himself may become real to us as the supreme Fact of the +entire universe.</p> + +<p>We of this modern age are inclined to be more lenient in +our views of the earthly man. We are disposed to consider +him a moderately decent fellow except when under the active +power of evil. This makes us more tolerant, less intense. It +makes us more likely to indulge our fondness for the earthly +world and its things and pleasures, less moved to seek God +and His Kingdom. Nevertheless if we examine our experience +we shall recognize characteristics of the earthly man that are +similar to those seen by the early Friends. The outside world +has changed considerably in three hundred years, but man's +constitution is much the same now as then in all essential +respects.</p> + +<p>The earthly man, whether we regard him as good, bad, or +indifferent, is evidently an exile from God's kingdom. Our +body-minds, namely our everyday persons, are out of touch +with our spiritual natures most of the time, hence out of touch +with God. We, as ordinary people, are not by inclination +turned towards God, but, on the contrary, are turned away +from Him. Day in and day out we do not even think of the +possibility of loving God and doing His will, but think of +ourselves, and are bent to enact our own wills, have our own +way. Whether we, as earthly men, can truly pray and worship +is a question about which there is likely to be disagreement. +But who will deny that when we are absorbed in our affairs, +as we are most of the time, we do not pray or worship? +Recognition of these several facts will lead us to a position +similar to that of the early Friends, and point us to the same +needs as regards what we must do if we would truly pray +and worship, and, indeed, truly live. We too must endeavor +to subdue the body-mind and turn the mind Godwards. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +too must try to overcome the separated self and re-connect +with our spiritual natures. We too must practice waiting. +We too must strive to attain the Quaker ideal so well expressed +by Douglas Steere, "to live from the inside outwards, +as <i>whole</i> men."</p> + +<p>When compared with bodily action, what could seem more +inactive than waiting upon God? The modern world asks, +"Where will that get you?" Young people say, "We want +action." Yet, as we have seen, it was precisely through this +and other apparently inactive means that the early Friends +came into a power of whole action that surpasses anything +that we experience today. We say we are activists, but often +lack the spiritual force to act effectively. They said they +were waiters, and frequently acted as moved by God's light +and love. I think that we in this age of decreasing inner-action, +of ever increasing outer activity, have a profound +lesson to learn from the early Friends. We had best learn +it now, and quickly, lest the faith and practices of the Friends +become so watered that they lose their character and flow into +the activities of which the world is full, and are absorbed +by them, and Friends cease to be Friends. I do not say we +should go back to the old days. That is impossible. Let us +move forward, as we must if we are to move at all. But let +us build upon those foundations, not scrap them. Let those +past summits show us how high men can go, with God's help.</p> + +<p>Friends are by no means the only ones who realize that +the body-mind presents a problem; that, in its usual state, +it is an obstacle to worship and to all forms of the religious +life. Friends are not alone in recognizing that when the +separated self is uppermost and active, the spiritual self is submerged +and passive, and that we are called upon to reverse +this. All genuine religious people, whatever the religion, +have recognized the problem and have endeavored to solve +it in one way or another. Generally speaking, there are two +ways of dealing with the situation. One way consists of the +attempt to lift the body-mind above its usual condition, so +that it may be included in the act of worship. The body-mind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +is presented with sight of religious symbols. It is +given sound of religious music and of specially trained speakers +called priests or ministers. It participates in rituals, ceremonies, +sacraments. This way may be effective. When it +is, the body-mind actually is lifted above its usual state, the +spiritual nature is evoked. But when this way is not effective +it merely results in exciting the body-mind and gives people +the illusion that this excitation is true worship. Or it may +result in a sterile enactment of outward forms.</p> + +<p>The other way is just the opposite. It consists of the +effort to reduce the body-mind below its usual state, so that +it will not interfere with worship. All externals are dispensed +with. No religious symbols are in view. No music +is provided, no rituals, no appointed speakers. The external +setting is as plain as possible, so that the body-mind may be +more readily quieted. Internally, too, the attempt is to +remove all causes of excitement, all of the ordinarily stimulating +thoughts, images, desires. The one thought that should +be present is the thought of turning Godward, seeking Him, +waiting before Him. This way may be effective. When +it is, the body-mind is subordinated and ceases to exist as +the principal part of man. The spiritual nature is activated +and lifted up. When, however, this way is not effective, it +merely produces deadness.</p> + +<p>In both cases the test is this: Does the spiritual nature +arise? Friends have chosen the way of subduing the body-mind, +of excluding it from worship except insofar as it may act as +an organ of expression of the risen spirit. Having chosen this +way, we are called upon to do it effectively, creatively. If we +succeed—and we sometimes do—our inner life is resurrected, +the whole man is regenerated, and a living worship connects +man with God. But if we fail—and we often do—the spiritual +nature remains as if dead, and, on top of this, we pile +a deadened body-mind. What should be a meeting for worship, +a place where man and God come together, becomes a +void. There is no life, only a sterile quietism. Sterile quietism +is as bad as sterile ritualism.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sterility, in whatever form, is what we want to avoid. +Creativity is what we must recover—aliveness, growth, moving, +wonder, reverence, a sense of being related to the vast +motions of that ocean of light and love.</p> + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p> +<h2>WHAT TO DO IN THE MEETING FOR WORSHIP</h2> + +<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Definite</span> periods for worship should be established +because, constituted as we are, worship does not occur +as naturally as it might, and at all times. Unless we +set aside regularly recurring times, many of us are not likely +to worship at any time. We appoint times and places so +that we may do what something deep in us yearns to do, yet +which we all too rarely engage in because most often we are +caught up in the current of contrary or irrelevant events. +Set times of worship not only aid us to worship at those +times but at others too; and, of course, the more often we try +to worship at other times, the more able we become to make +good use of the established occasions.</p> + +<p>Among the people of our day, Mahatma Gandhi is an +outstanding example of applied religion. It might seem that +he, of all people, would feel no need of special times of +prayer; yet this is not the case. There are appointed times +each day when he and those around him engage in prayer. +Whenever possible he attends a Friends meeting for worship. +The following quotation from the <i>Friends Intelligencer</i> gives +his view of this matter. "Discussing the question whether +one's whole life could not be a hymn of praise and prayer +to one's Maker, so that no separate time of prayer is needed, +Gandhi observed, 'I agree that if a man could practice the +presence of God all the twenty-four hours, there would be +no need for a separate time of prayer.' But most people, he +pointed out, find that impossible. For them silent communion, +for even a few minutes a day, would be of infinite use."</p> + +<p>Each of us individually should daily prepare for worship +and, now and again, go off by himself in solitude. Fresh +stimulus and challenge are experienced when a man puts himself +utterly on his own and seeks to come face to face with his +God. Aloneness may release the spirit. So may genuine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +togetherness. Group or corporate worship is also necessary +because, as already mentioned, we need each other's help +to quiet the body-mind, to lay down the ordinary self, to lift +up the spiritual nature. Many a person finds it possible to +become still in a meeting for worship as nowhere else. Peace +settles over us. Many a person is inwardly kindled in a +meeting for worship as nowhere else. The creative forces +begin to stir. When a number of people assemble reverently, +and all engage in similar inward practices with the same aim +and expectancy, life-currents pass between them; a spiritual +atmosphere is formed; and in this atmosphere things are +possible that are impossible without it. More particularly, +we may have opportunity in a meeting for coming close to a +person more quickened than we are. By proximity with him +or her we are quickened. It is true that in a Friends meeting +the responsibility for worship and ministry rests upon each +and every member; but it is also true that Friends, like others, +must somewhat rely for their awakening upon those who are +more in God's spirit and power than the average. We minimize +an essential feature of our meetings if we fail to recognize +the role of the sheer presence of men and women who +are spiritually more advanced than most and are able to act +as leaven.</p> + +<p>The meeting for worship should begin outside of the meeting +house, on our way to it. As we enter the house, we would +do well to remind ourselves of the meaning of worship, the +significance of corporate worship, the possibility of meeting +with God. Be expectant that this may happen in this very +gathering. Lift up the mind and heart to the Eternal Being +in whom we have brotherhood. The hope is that by these +initial acts we will put ourselves in the mood of worship +and kindle a warmth of inner life that will continue throughout +the meeting and give spiritual meaning to all subsequent +efforts.</p> + +<p>Settle into your place as an anonymous member of an +anonymous group. If you have come to have a reputation +among people, forget this and become anonymous. If you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +have not made a name for yourself, forget this. The opportunity +to practice anonymity is a precious one. The meeting +for worship would be of great value if it did no more than +make this practice possible. If you are accustomed to feel +yourself important in the eyes of men, lay it down and feel +only that you and others may have some importance in the +eyes of God. If you feel unimportant, lay this down. If +articulate or inarticulate, forget this. Lay aside all your +worldly relationships and your everyday interior states. In +fine, forget yourself. Surrender yourself. Immerse yourself +in the life of the group. This is our chance to lose ourselves +in a unified and greater life. It is our opportunity to die as +separated individuals and be born anew in the life and power +of the spirit. Seek, in the words of Thomas Kelly, to will +your will into the will of God.</p> + +<p>Quiet and relax the body. We should try to quiet its +habitual activity, to relax it from strain, yet not over-relax +it. Though relaxed it should not become limp or drowsy. +It must be kept upright, alert, wakeful. What we desire +is a body so poised and at rest that it is content to sit there, +taking care of itself, and we can forget it.</p> + +<p>Still the mind, gather it, turn it steadfastly towards God. +This is more difficult. It is contrary to the mind's nature +to be still. It is against its grain to turn Godwards. Left +to itself it goes on and on under its own momentum, roaming, +wandering. It thinks and pictures and dreams of everything +on earth except God and the practice of His presence. Even +those who developed great aptitude for taking hold of the +mind and turning it to God found it difficult and even painful +in the beginning. If we expect it to be easy and pleasant +we shall be easily discouraged after a few trials. Brother +Lawrence warns us that this practice may even seem repugnant +to us at first.</p> + +<p>The mind of an adult is more restive and all over the place +than the body of a child. How are we to curb its incessant +restlessness and stay it upon prayer and worship? How +restrain its wanderings and point it to the mark? How<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +take it away from its automatic stream of thoughts and focus +it on God? Only by effort, practice, repeated effort, regular +practice. It requires life-long preparation and training. We +cannot hope to make much progress if we attempt to stay the +mind only on First-days during meeting. We must make +effort throughout the week, daily, hourly.</p> + +<p>It is by stilling the body-mind that we center down. Put +the other way, it is by centering down that we still the body-mind. +I would judge that all Friends have in common the +practice of centering down. This is our common preparation +for worship. From here on, however, each of us is likely +to go his individual way, no two ways being alike. This is +the freedom of worship which has ever been an integral part +of the Friends religion. We are not called upon to follow +any fixed procedure. This is creative. The individual spirit +is set free to find its way, in its own manner, to God. Yet +it leaves some of us at a loss to know what to do next. Some +of us are not yet able to press on. We are unsure of the +inward way, and our available resources are not yet adequate +to this type of exploration. We need hints from others, suggestions, +guides. To meet this need, a number of Friends +have written of what they do after they center down. Among +these writings may be mentioned Douglas V. Steere's <i>A +Quaker Meeting for Worship</i>, and Howard E. Collier's <i>The +Quaker Meeting</i>. In the same spirit I would like to indicate +what I do.</p> + +<p>Once I have centered down I try to open myself, to let the +light in. I try to open myself to God's power. I try to open +myself to the other members of the meeting, to gain a vital +awareness of them, to sense the spiritual state of the gathering. +I try so to reform myself inwardly that, as a result of +this meeting, I will thereafter be just a little less conformed +to the unregenerate ways of the world, just a little more conformed +to the dedicated way of love.</p> + +<p>I encourage a feeling of expectancy. I invite the expectation +that here, in this very meeting, before it is over, the +Lord's power will spring up in us, cover the meeting, gather<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +us to Him and to one another. Though meetings come and +go, and weeks and even years pass, and it does not happen, +nevertheless I renew this expectation at every meeting. I +have faith that some day it will be fulfilled. We should be +bold in our expectations, look forward to momentous events. +We should not be timid or small but large with expectancy, +and, at the same time humble, so that there is no egotism +in it.</p> + +<p>I kindle the hope that, should the large events not be for +me and for us this day, some true prayer will arise from our +depths, some act of genuine worship. I hope that at the least +I will start some exploration or continue one already begun, +make some small discovery, feel my inward life stir creatively +and expand to those around me.</p> + +<p>Having aroused my expectancy, I wait. I wait before the +Lord, forgetting the words in which I clothed my expectations, +if possible forgetting myself and my desires, laying +down my will, asking only that His will be done. In attitude +or silent words I may say, "I am before thee, Lord. +If it be thy will, work thy love in me, work thy love in us."</p> + +<p>"O wait," wrote Isaac Penington, "wait upon God. Be +still a while. Wait in true humility, and pure subjection of +soul and spirit, upon Him. Wait for the shutting of thy +own eye, and for the opening of the eye of God in thee, and +for the sight of things therewith, as they are from Him."</p> + +<p>Sometimes, while waiting, a glow steals over me, a warmth +spreads from my heart. I have a chance to welcome the +welling up of reverence, the sense that I am in the presence +of the sacred. Sometimes, though rarely, the practice of +waiting is invaded by an unexpected series of inner events +which carry me by their action through the meeting to the +end. I feel God's spirit moving in me, my spirit awakening +to Him.</p> + +<p>More often I come to have the sense that I have waited long +enough for this time. To forestall the possibility of falling +into dead passivity, I voluntarily discontinue the practice of +waiting and turn my attention to other concerns. I may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +summon to mind a vital problem that confronts me or one +of my friends, trying to see the problem by the inward light, +seeking the decision that would be best. I may bring into +consciousness someone I know to be suffering. This may be +a personal acquaintance or someone whose plight I have +learned of through others, or people in distress brought to my +attention by an article in a newspaper or a magazine. I call +to him or them in my spirit, and suffer with them, and pray +God that through their suffering they will be turned to Him, +that by their very pain they may grow up to Him.</p> + +<p>Hardly a meeting passes but what I pray that I and the +members of the meeting and people everywhere may have +this experience: that our wills be overcome by God's will, that +our powers be overpowered by His light and love and wisdom. +And sometimes, though again rarely, I find it possible +to hold my attention, or, rather, to have my heart held, without +wavering, upon the one supreme reality, the sheer fact +of God. These are the moments that I feel to be true worship. +These are the times when the effort to have faith is +superseded by an effortless assurance born of actual experience. +God's reality is felt in every fibre of the soul and +brings convincement even to the body-mind.</p> + +<p>I would not give the impression that what I have described +takes place in just this way every time, or that it happens +without disruptions, lapses, roamings of the mind, day-dreams. +Frequently I must recall myself, again still the mind and turn +it Godwards, again practice waiting. All too often I awake +to find, no, not that I have been actually sleeping, but that +I might as well have been, so far have I strayed from the path +that leads to God and brotherhood. And I must confess, +too, that during some meetings I have been buried under +inertia and deadness and unable to overcome them. Having +meant nothing to myself, it is not likely that my presence +meant anything to the others. My body was but an object, +unliving, filling space on a bench. It would have been better +for others had I stayed away. A dead body gives off no life; +it but absorbs life from others, reducing the life-level of the +meeting.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> + +<p>As I am one of those who are sometimes moved to speak +in meetings, I may indicate how this happens in my case. +First let me say what I do not do. I never try to think up +something to say. I am quite content to be silent, unless +something comes into my mind and I am moved to say it, +or unless I sense that the meeting would like to hear a few +living words. In this latter case, I may search myself to see +what may be found; and by this searching I may set in motion +the processes which discover hidden messages.</p> + +<p>I never go to the meeting with an "itch" to speak, though +it sometimes happens to me, as to others, that I am moved +to speak before arriving at the meeting house. Even so, I +usually restrain the urge until we have had at least a short +period of silent waiting before God. One is vain indeed if he +thinks that his words are more important than this waiting. +If I have not been moved to speak before arriving, such an +impulse, if it comes at all, is likely to arise after I have been +waiting a while. It arises within my silence. An insight or +understanding flashes into my mind. A prayer or a pleading +or a brief exhortation comes upon me. I hold it in mind and +look at it, and at myself. I examine it.</p> + +<p>Is this a genuine moving that deserves expression in a +meeting for worship, or had I best curb and forget it? May +it have some real meaning for others, and is it suited to the +condition of this meeting? Can I phrase it clearly and simply? +If it passes these tests, I regard it as something to be said +but I am not yet sure it should be said here and now. To find +out how urgent it is, I press it down and try to forget it. If +time passes and it does not take hold of me with increased +strength, I conclude that it is not to be spoken of at this time. +If, on the other hand, it will not be downed, if it rebounds +and insists and will not leave me alone, I give it expression.</p> + +<p>If it turns out that the words were spoken more in my +own will than in the power, I feel that egotistical-I has done +it, and that this self-doing has set me apart from the other +members of the meeting. I am dissatisfied until again immersed +in the life of the group. But if it seems that I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +been an instrument of the power, I have the feeling that the +power has done it and has, by this very act, joined those +assembled even closer. Having spoken, I feel at peace once +again, warmed and made glowing by the passage of a living +current through me to my fellows. With a heightened sense +of fellowship with man and God, I resume my silent practices.</p> + +<p>I never speak if, in my sense of it, spoken words would +break a living silence and disrupt the life that is gathering +underneath. But I have on occasion spoken in the hope of +breaking a dead silence. Spoken words should arise by common +consent. The silence should accept them. The invisible +life should sanction them. The members of the meeting +should welcome them and be unable to mark exactly when +the message began and when it ends. The message should +form with the silence a seamless whole.</p> + +<p>If the message be a genuine one, the longer I restrain it +the better shaped it becomes in my mind and the stronger +the impulse to express it. A force gathers behind it. Presently, +however, I must either voice it or put it from my mind completely, +lest it dominate my consciousness overlong and rule +out the other concerns which should engage us in a meeting +for worship. It is good when a message possesses us. Our +meetings need compelling utterances. But it is not good +when a message obsesses us to the exclusion of all else. This +is a danger which articulate people, particularly those like +myself who have much dealing with words, must avoid. We +miss our chance if we do not use the meeting for worship +as an opportunity to dwell in the depths of life far below +the level of words, rising to the surface only when we are +forced to by an upthrust of the spirit which seeks to unite +the surface with the depths and gather those assembled into +a quickened sense of creative wholeness—each in all and all +in God.</p> + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> +<h2>QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS</h2> + +<p><b>What moves us to pray and worship?</b> Sometimes we are +moved by a quickened sense of a sacred Presence. Prayer +and worship are our spontaneous responses as we awaken to +God's unutterable radiance and wonder. Sometimes we are +moved by a realization that, left to ourselves, we are inadequate, +that apart from God we are insufficient. Realizing +that our knowledge is insufficient, we turn to God's light and +wisdom. And there are those who pray and worship as a +conscious means of growing up to God and becoming firmly +established in His kingdom.</p> + +<p><b>Why do not more people pray?</b> Why do not all of us +worship more often? Many lack a quickened sense of a sacred +Presence. Though aware of material things, they are inert +to the things of the spirit. They wait to be spiritually awakened. +Most of us persist in feeling that we are self-sufficient. +We feel we are adequate for all ordinary affairs, and it is only +when we find ourselves in overpowering situations that we +recognize we are not self-sufficient, and may then turn to +God. But when the crisis passes we are likely to lapse into +an assumption of self-sufficiency.</p> + +<p><b>Why do not the leaders of nations turn to God?</b> Did not +the recent war, does not the present chaos of the world show +them that their powers and knowledge are inadequate? It +would seem that the leaders, despite all evidence to the contrary, +still believe that their own powers and politics are +enough to prevent war and to secure an ordered and peaceful +world.</p> + +<p><b>When will the people learn? When will the leaders learn?</b> +I do not know, but for the sake of mankind I hope we learn +soon. The people of all nations would do well to suspend +their ordinary affairs for an hour each day, and, in concert, +turn their minds and hearts steadfastly towards God. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +purpose of regeneration would be better served in this one +hour than in all the other hours of the day.</p> + +<p><b>Is the meeting for worship based on silence?</b> No. Friends +know that it is not, yet some Friends have fallen into the +habit of saying that it is. Jane Rushmore brought out this +point in one of our meetings of Ministry and Counsel. She +reminded us that the meeting for worship is based on the +conviction that we can directly communicate with God, and +He with us. Silence, we believe, is a necessary means to such +communion. For if we are busy with our own talk, God will +not speak to us. Stillness is a necessary condition for practicing +the presence of God. For if we stir about in our own +wills, God will not move us. In the meeting for worship we +try to obey the command, "Be still, and know that I am God." +God is the goal. A living silence is a means thereto.</p> + +<p>Recently I was visited by three young Friends, thirteen +years of age. They had some problems to talk over. I asked +if they felt they knew what to do in the meeting for worship. +Their happy confidence that they did know was a pleasant +surprise, as I have found many Friends, young and old, who +are in need of suggestions and guides. I asked these three +what they did in the silence. After some hesitancy, one +brightened and replied, "I talk over my problems with God." +I told her that was a splendid thing to do. For young people +of thirteen or thereabouts, it is enough that they talk over +their problems with God, or engage in some other simple and +sincere exercise. For some older people one or two simple +practices are enough. I am in sympathy with those who +would worship in simplicity of mind and heart. But others +are in need of more, and the preceding chapter tries to speak +to this need. Whatever the means used, the important thing +is that we spiritually awake and come alive during the meeting +for worship even more than at other times.</p> + +<p><b>Who should speak in the meeting for worship?</b> Anyone +who is genuinely moved to. Age has nothing to do with it, +though older people may be more able because of longer +practice. Education has nothing to do with it, though education<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +may facilitate verbal expression. The essential matter +is the inward prompting, under God's guidance. The Book +of Discipline says, "Our conviction is that the Spirit of God +is in all, and that vocal utterance comes when this Spirit +works within us. The varying needs of a meeting can be best +supplied by different personalities, and a meeting is enriched +by the sharing of any living experience of God."</p> + +<p><b>What are we to do if we feel genuinely moved to speak but +are inhibited by the fear of not expressing ourselves well?</b> +Attend to what you have to say. Put your mind on that, and +take it off yourself. Do not be concerned that your speech +may be halting and imperfect. Do not compare yourself +with others, thinking that they speak fluently, you poorly. Be +concerned to communicate. Summon up your courage and +break the ice. Try. If you can once overcome an inhibition, +you have broken its hold. It will still be there, but you can +overcome it more readily the next time. Keep trying.</p> + +<p>It is true that some people seem born with the facility to +speak, but it is also true that the ability, like other abilities, +is developed by practice. Most of those who speak well now, +began with embarrassment, self-consciousness, and an imperfect +command of words. Friends can be counted on to understand +if at first your thoughts and feelings are not expressed +as well as they might be. They will attend more to what you +are trying to say than to how you say it. Here again the +Book of Discipline gives wise counsel. "One who is timid +or unaccustomed to speak should have faith that God will +strengthen him to give his message."</p> + +<p><b>When should we speak in the meeting for worship?</b> Whenever +we are moved to. We may be moved to speak near the +beginning, midway, or towards the end. The important thing +is not the time but the moving. However, as Rufus Jones +once pointed out, it sometimes helps if, once we are really +settled, something is said that lifts the spirit, that raises us +above our worldly problems and gives impetus to our search +for the indwelling divinity.</p> + +<p><b>What should be spoken of in the meeting for worship?</b> This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +question will be answered for us, inwardly, if we are in the +spirit of the meeting, if the meeting is in God's spirit. We +may speak of spiritual things. We may speak of daily affairs +and events, if these are given a spiritual interpretation. We +may speak of world problems, if these are seen in the light +of religion. Anything that comes from the heart is proper +and acceptable. We will not go wrong if we keep in mind +the central purpose of the meeting for worship, and are striving +to fulfill this purpose. Let your heart respond to the need +of our meetings for a vital ministry. Open yourself and accept, +should it come to you, the call to an inspired ministry.</p> + +<p><b>Should messages come one after the other in rapid succession?</b> +No. There should be a due interval between them, +a living silence in which the spirit works deep below the level +of words. Messages should arise from the silence and return +to it. Of course there are times when one message arises +from another. Even so, there should be pauses between them +during which the creative forces may operate in unexpected +ways. Restraint of speech improves both the speech and the +silence. Read what Thomas Kelly has to say of spoken words +in his pamphlet, <i>The Gathered Meeting</i>.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>But more frequently some words are spoken. I have in mind +those meeting hours which are not dominated by a single sermon, a +single twenty-minute address, well-rounded out, with all the edges +tucked in so there is nothing more to say. In some of our meetings +we may have too many polished examples of homiletic perfection which +lead the rest to sit back and admire but which close the question +considered, rather than open it. Participants are converted into spectators; +active worship on the part of all drifts into passive reception +of external instruction. To be sure, there are gathered meetings, +which arise about a single towering mountain peak of a sermon. One +kindled soul may be the agent whereby the slumbering embers within +are quickened into a living flame.</p> + +<p>But I have more particularly in mind those hours of worship +in which no one person, no one speech stands out as the one that +"made" the meeting, those hours wherein the personalities that take +part verbally are not enhanced as individuals in the eyes of others, +but are subdued and softened and lost sight of because in the language +of Fox, "The Lord's power was over all." Brevity, earnestness,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +sincerity—and frequently a lack of polish—characterizes the best +Quaker speaking. The words should rise like a shaggy crag upthrust +from the surface of silence, under the pressure of river power and +yearning, contrition and wonder. But on the other hand the words +should not rise up like a shaggy crag. They should not break the +silence, but continue it. For the Divine Life who was ministering +through the medium of silence is the same Life as is now ministering +through words. And when such words are truly spoken "in the Life," +then when such words cease the <i>uninterrupted</i> silence and worship +continue, for silence and words have been of one texture, one piece. +Second and third speakers only continue the enhancement of the +moving Presence, until a climax is reached, and the discerning head +of the meeting knows when to break it.</p></div> + +<p><b>What are we to do if some Friends are sometimes over-vocal +about matters that are hardly the proper concern for a Meeting +for Worship?</b> How are we to regard those who do not +always speak acceptably to us, or are overlong in their words, +or who get up and repeat what we have heard them say again +and again? Instead of viewing them as objects of criticism, +separated from you, try to feel them as being together with +you in a common life, and pray that the Creator of this life +may make all expressions living expressions. Do not let your +resentment build up, but increase your humility by recognizing +that the faults that others display may well be your own.</p> + +<p><b>How are we to manage the occasional rustlings and noises, +within and without the meeting, that threatens to distract us +and draw us away from worship?</b> Here Douglas Steere has +a helpful practice. Try to include these distractions in one's +worship. Instead of attempting to exclude them, weave them +into your efforts to practice the presence of God. Read +what Douglas Steere has to say of this in <i>A Quaker Meeting +for Worship</i>.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>But again and again before I get through this far in prayer my +mind has been drawn away by some distraction. Someone has come +in late. Two adorable little girls who are sitting on opposite +sides of their mother are almost overcome by delight in something +which is much too subtle to be comprehended by the adult +mind, the drafts in the coal stove need readjusting, how +noisy the cars are out on the highway today, the wind howls around<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +the corner and rattles the old pre-revolutionary glass in the window +sashes. Do these rude interruptions destroy the silent prayer? Well, +there was a time when they did, and there are times still when they +interfere somewhat, but for the most part, I think they help. The +late-comers stir me to a resolve to be more punctual myself—a fault +I am all too well aware of—and I pass directly on to prayer, glad +that they have come today. The little girls remind me of the undiscovered +gaiety in every cell of life that these little "bon-vivants" +know ever so well, and they remind me too that a meeting for worship +must be made to reach these fierce-eyed nine- and ten-year-olds, +and I pass on. I get up and open the draft in the coal stove. Sometimes +I pray the distractions directly into the prayer—"swift, hurrying +life of which these humming motors are the symbol—pass by at your +will—I seek the still water that lies beneath these surface waves," or +"the wind of God is always blowing but I must hoist my sail," and +proceed with my prayer.</p></div> + +<p><b>What are we to do when a meeting is unliving?</b> Suffer it. +Continue to do your part to contribute to the life. Continue +to pray that God will quicken the meeting, shake it awake. +Suppose you yourself are heavy with inertia and feel more +dead than alive. The only way to overcome inertia is to +become active. Since, in a meeting for worship, our bodies +are still, the only positive action is inner-action. We have +already considered several inward practices that facilitate +inner-action. Engage in one or more of these with renewed +determination. See your deadness as a challenge and resolve +not to be overcome by it but to overcome it. Struggle against +it. Persist in the act of turning your mind and heart Godwards. +Kindle your expectancy. Wait before the Lord. +Think of Him. Pray Him to send His life into you, and into +the meeting, and into the people of the world. Should these +inward practices prove of no avail, I sometimes fall back +on this device. There is always in us some theme that the +mind wants to think of, some fear, some desire, some problems, +some situation, some prospect. Though the theme is +not a fit one for a meeting for worship, I let my mind run on +about it. Once the mind is well started on this topic, I switch +it and transfer its momentum to one of the practices that +prepare for worship.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> + +<p><b>How should we come to meeting?</b> Reluctantly? No. Burdened +by a feeling of obligation to attend? No. Expecting +something dull and tedious? No! If a meeting evokes only +dullness in its members it is a dead meeting and ought to be +laid down. A live meeting evokes life. Just the prospect of +attending such a meeting should quicken us. It were better +to come alive doing housework than to become deadened in a +meeting house.</p> + +<p>Come with the expectancy that, as you make effort to turn +yourself Godwards, the life deep within you will arise, and +meet you half-way, and call you, and draw you, gather you +into God's presence. Come with the hope that the Teacher +within will teach you of spiritual things. Come with the expectancy +that as you meet with other Friends, in this very +gathering you and they will be shaken awake by the impact +of God's power, and made to tremble, and become actual +Quakers. Come with the prayer that one and all may be +"brought through the very ocean of darkness and death, by +the eternal, glorious power of Christ, into the ocean of light +and love."</p> + +<p><b>What should we do, in and out of meeting, in our periods +of worship and in our daily lives?</b> Practice the presence of +God. Practice, as far as we are able, the love of God and the +love of man and all creation. But let George Fox declare it +to us, as he declared it to the early Friends and to people of +all ranks and conditions in two continents. "All people must +first come to the Spirit of God in themselves, by which they +might know God and Christ, of whom the prophets and +apostles learnt; by which Spirit they might have fellowship +with the Son, and with the Father, and with the Scriptures, +and with one another; and without this Spirit they can know +neither God nor Christ, nor the Scriptures, nor have right +fellowship one with another."</p> + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p> +<h2>FOR FURTHER READING</h2> + +<h3>Books</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">An Apology for the True Christian Divinity</span> by Robert Barclay</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Book of Discipline of the Religious Society of Friends</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Creative Worship</span> by Howard H. Brinton</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Faith and Practice of the Quakers</span> by Rufus M. Jones</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Journal of George Fox</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Letters of Isaac Penington</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Prayer and Worship</span> by Douglas V. Steere</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Quaker Ministry</span> by John William Graham</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Quaker Way of Life</span> by William Wistar Comfort</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers</span> by William Penn</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Silent Worship, the Way of Wonder</span> by L. Violet Hodgkin</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">A Testament of Devotion</span> by Thomas R. Kelly</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Testimonies and Practice of the Society of Friends</span> by Jane P. Rushmore</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Worship and the Common Life</span> by Eric Hayman</p> + +<h3>Pamphlets</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">Penn's Advice to His Children</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Practice of the Presence of God</span> by Brother Lawrence</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Quaker Meeting</span> by Howard E. Collier</p> + +<h3>Leaflets</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Gathered Meeting</span> by Thomas R. Kelly</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Going to Meeting</span> by Leonard S. Kenworthy</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">A Quaker Meeting for Worship</span> by Douglas V. Steere</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Interpretation of Friends Worship, by +N. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Interpretation of Friends Worship + +Author: N. Jean Toomer + +Release Date: February 11, 2008 [EBook #24576] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRIENDS WORSHIP *** + + + + +Produced by Mark C. Orton, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + An Interpretation of + Friends Worship + + BY + + N. JEAN TOOMER + + + [Device] + + + Published by + THE COMMITTEE ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF + FRIENDS GENERAL CONFERENCE + 1515 Cherry Street, Philadelphia 2, Pa. + + _Price twenty-five cents_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + Introduction 3 + + Worship and Love 7 + + The Basis of Friends Worship and Other Inward Practices 11 + + What to Do in the Meeting for Worship 20 + + Questions and Answers 28 + + For Further Reading 35 + + + Copyright 1947 + Friends General Conference + + +Transcriber's Note: + + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and + typographical errors have been corrected without note. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +I was not more than ten years old when I first heard mention of the +Quakers. The grown-ups of my family were talking among themselves, +speaking of an uncle of mine who lived in Philadelphia and operated a +pharmacy near the university. I had never seen this uncle and was +curious about him, so my ears were open. Presently a reference to the +Quakers caught my attention. I wanted to know who the Quakers were. What +was told me then I have remembered ever since. The Quakers, I was told, +are people who wait for the spirit to move them. + +A picture formed in my mind. Many a time I had seen my grandmother +sitting quietly, an aura of peace around her as she sewed or crocheted +or did her beautiful embroidery work. So I pictured older people, most +of them with white hair like my grandparents, all with kindly faces, +gathered in silent assembly, heads bent slightly forward, waiting to be +moved. It never occurred to me that young people, boys and girls of my +age and even younger, might be present and participating. + +As the word "spirit" meant nothing definite to me, I could have no idea +of just what would move the Quakers, but I had a sense that it would be +something within them, perhaps like the stirrings that sometimes moved +me, and I may have had a vague notion that this something within them +was somehow related to what people called God. I never thought to ask +what the Quakers might do after they were moved. + +Had I been invited in those days to attend a Friends meeting for worship +I would have gladly gone. I would have gone because my picturings had +given me good feelings about the Quakers. I would have gone because, +young though I was, I liked to be silent now and again. Sometimes my +best friend and I would sit quietly together, happy that we were +together but not wanting to talk. Sometimes I would go off by myself on +walks to look at the wonders of nature, to think my own thoughts, to +dream, to feel something stirring in me for which I had no name. Or I +might withdraw for a time from the activities of the boys and girls and +sit on the porch of our house, my outward eyes watching them at play, my +inward eyes turned to an inner life that was as real to me, and +sometimes more wonderful than my life with the group. + +Certain experiences I had when alone, certain experiences I had with my +young friends, attitudes and feelings that would suddenly arise in me at +any time or place--these made up the mainstream of my religious life. +Such religion as I had was life-centered, not book-centered, not +church-centered. It arose from the well of life within me, and within my +friends and parents. It arose from the well of life within nature and +the human world. It consisted in my response to flowers, trees, birds, +snow, the smell of the earth after a spring rain, sunsets and the starry +sky. It consisted in my devotion to pet rabbits and dogs, and to some +interest or project that caught my imagination. + +I had been taught several formal prayers. One of these I said every +night, regularly, before getting into bed. But I am thinking of the +unformed prayers that welled up in me whenever I had need of them. I had +been read some stories from the Bible and some of the psalms, and from +these I had doubtless gained attitudes of reverence. But I am thinking +of the worship that spontaneously arose as I beheld the wonders of the +world which God created. Young eyes are new eyes, and to new eyes all +things are fresh, vivid, original. + +It is sometimes asked if children and young people are capable of the +religious life. Certainly they are not capable of sustained effort +towards an unswerving aim. Certainly they cannot hold themselves to a +consistent discipline. They cannot engage in the religious life as a +conscious way of living. These abilities come only as we grow up and +subject ourselves to training. But, just as certainly, young people do +have religious experiences, and these often are more vivid and glowing +than those of the elders. That is it--children can glow. They can light +up. This capacity to glow is at the very heart of what we are talking +about. + +To be sure, people young and old need instruction. We need instruction +in the Bible, in poetry, in all literature that contains truth and +beauty. We need to be helped to struggle against our faults, to overcome +our imperfections. And we need to be curbed on occasion, as the only way +in which we may eventually become able to curb ourselves. But it should +not be forgotten that all people, especially young people, have poetry +in them. And, more than that, according to the faith of the Friends all +people have within them something of the very spirit that created the +scriptures. + +Religious education, it seems to me, is on the wrong track if it assumes +that religion is something that must be drilled into people. It is on +the right track if it recognizes that the source of religion is within +us as a native endowment, and that the function of education is to call +this endowment forth, supply it with the nourishment it needs in order +to grow, and guide it in ways that promote maturing. People should have +reason to be assured that formal religion is not contrary to the springs +of innate religious experience and longing, but is in accord with the +life and light within, and simply seeks to direct and develop this +spiritual life. + +Had a Friend approached me in those days with some such understanding +and assurance, and had I been able to understand what he said, I would +have had still another reason, and this a compelling one, for attending +a meeting for worship. And so I would have gone. I'd have sat there with +the others, feeling much at home, perhaps feeling I was in a holy place. +I'd have sat as quietly as any for the first ten or fifteen minutes. I +would not have worshiped in any formal sense, for I had not been taught +any form. But I would have practiced my kind of inwardness, thinking my +own thoughts as I did when alone, dreaming wonderful dreams, feeling a +life stir within me. Had there been a spoken message or two, I would +have listened attentively, tried to understand, and honestly responded. + +Presently, however, I would have begun to fidget. Not knowing what I +should try to do in a meeting for worship, I would have had nothing to +fall back on when my thoughts ran out, no purpose for curbing my +increasing restlessness. Through the windows my eyes would have caught +sight of the world outdoors, and I'd have wished I were out there having +fun with the boys. Time would have dragged. I'd have asked myself, "Will +the meeting never end?" And when finally it did end, I'd have been as +glad for the ending as I had been for the beginning. + +What should we try to do in a meeting for worship? What do we hope to +attain through it? Why is silence desirable? What is the main idea +behind the Friends manner of worship? It is true that Quakers wait for +the spirit to move them. Why wait? Wouldn't it be better just to go +ahead? Besides waiting, what more is to be done? Can we not pray and +worship when we are alone, or as we go about our daily affairs? Why is +it necessary to meet together? What is worship? + +These are not questions that you answer once and for all. You continue +to think about them and continue to increase your understanding. But it +helps us to think if we put our thoughts in order and study the thoughts +of others. So I am going to write down some of the thoughts that have +come to me. We shall think about worship and the central faith of the +Friends, and let the answers come as they may. + + + + +WORSHIP AND LOVE + + +Worship is the action of the spirit. It springs up from our depths, as +love does. It is a form of love, and just as desirable, and just as +necessary to human life at its fullest and highest. To worship is an +innate need of man. It is not imposed upon us from the outside, though +the way we sometimes go about it may make it seem an imposition. + +Suppose you are hungry. No one has to tell you to eat. No one has to +force you to take food. Suppose you are in love. Must you be told to +think of the person you are in love with? Must you be forced to yearn +for the loved one? + +Worship is a hunger of the human soul for God. When it really occurs, it +is as compelling as the hunger for food. It is as spontaneous as the +love of boy for girl. If we feel it, no one needs tell us we should +worship. No one has to try to make us do it. If we do not feel it, or +have no desire to feel it, no amount of urging or forcing will do any +good. We simply cannot be forced, from the outside, to worship. Only the +power within us, the life within, can move us to it. + +But others can guide our preliminary efforts. They can help us to +prepare to worship. Such preparation, as Rufus Jones has said, is the +most important business in the world. Others can provide conditions, +such as the Friends meeting for worship, thanks to which the desire to +worship may spring up and grow. The meeting for worship came into +existence because the early Friends were powerfully moved to worship +together and meet the spiritual needs of one another. I use the word +_needs_. Their spiritual needs were more dynamic than ours--or +theirs--for food and shelter. Neither threats of violence nor active +persecution could keep them away from their meetings. + +Why is it that some of us would rather go to a movie, or listen to the +radio, or see a ball game, or read an exciting book? One reason, it must +be acknowledged, is because our meetings today are sometimes dull and +unliving. We assemble in our meeting houses, but nothing happens. A +related reason is that many of us have not yet awakened spiritually. Our +bodies are active. Our minds are alert. But not our spirits. Such +awakening, however, will come in due time, if we encourage it, if we do +our part to prepare for it, if we live honestly and are true to +ourselves, face life with clear eyes, and continue growing. + +The main reason why we do not worship, or do not want to, is that God is +not yet sufficiently real to us. He is not as real to us as our human +father. His power is not as real to us as the power of man's brain and +muscles, as steam power, as electricity. Worship expresses man's +relationship to God. How then can we worship if we are not aware of this +relationship, if the main party to it is unreal to us? + +Some people speak of worshiping things that are not of God. God being +unreal to them, their relation to Him being unrecognized, they turn to +what is real to them, and engage in various so-called worships: +money-worship, hero-worship, ancestor-worship, the worship of material +power and machines, the worship of political States and their rulers. +These are false worships. God is the sole object of genuine worship--God +and His power which He manifests to us as love, light, and wisdom. + +All forms of true worship arise from an experience of the _fact_ of God, +from the realization that God _is_. Men such as George Fox and John +Woolman had their first experiences of God early in life. Most of us +come to the experience gradually and later on, if at all. What are we to +do meanwhile? Most religions offer formal official statements of what +they believe God to be. They say what God's nature is, and set forth His +attributes. Friends make no such pronouncement; and I, for one, am glad +there is none. Man's words about God cannot substitute for a first-hand +experience of the living reality. Friends are directed to seek for the +reality within themselves. Meanwhile, we are called upon to have faith +that God exists and that it is possible for us to meet with Him. We are +called upon to prepare ourselves for this supreme experience. We are +urged to try to sense God's presence, daily to practice His presence. By +such practice, if we persevere, we shall surely come to have a +convincing experience. + +Worship is our response to God's reality, a reality which is, to be +sure, within men, but which also is the radiant foundation of the entire +universe. In trying to worship, we turn ourselves Godwards. We yearn for +Him and endeavor to know His will. Our lives are pointed toward Him. If, +and as we succeed, we make contact with God, and by this contact He is +made real to us. When He becomes real to us we spontaneously love Him. + +Can we see a sunset without responding to its beauty? Can we witness +those we love, in their goodness to us, without being touched and moved? +Can we hear the voice of our best friend on the phone without eagerly +listening and eagerly replying? Be sure, then, that when we come into +God's presence we will be touched and moved beyond our greatest +expectation. + +Nothing so deters us from wanting to worship as the notion that worship +is unliving. If it is unliving it is not worship. If it seems dull, +tedious or difficult, it is because we are not truly worshiping. We are, +perhaps, preparing ourselves to worship. There are difficulties to be +overcome in the preparatory stages. Or, we are but assuming the +appearance of worship, there being no life, no yearning within, we being +more dead than alive inside. Indeed it is dull and tedious to hold the +posture, if it is not backed up by a quickening life of the spirit. + +True worship is a living experience. By and through it we enter into a +life so vital, so vivid, so large and glorious that, by comparison, our +life of ordinary activities seems narrow, dull, dead. By bodily action +the body comes alive. By mental action the mind comes alive. So by +spiritual action the spirit comes alive. Worship is spiritual action. By +means of it our spirits awake, mature, and grow up to God. + +All human beings, except those who have been badly damaged by man's +inhumanity to man, are moved to love. Some love animals, some flowers. +Others love the sea or farm lands or mountains. Some love truth, some +love beauty. All of us want and need to love and to be loved by our +families and friends, and we would be happy were we able to love all +people everywhere. To love and be loved is a universal human urge. Is it +any wonder, then, that we are moved to seek God's love? It is inevitable +that we should desire this supreme form of love. The First Commandment +expresses our innermost desire as well as God's will. + +There is nothing incredible about our wanting to love and to be loved by +God. The incredible fact is that it can actually happen, does happen. +Some day we will experience it. Then our doubts will end. Then we will +worship God through love of Him. + +Here is what two religious men of advanced spiritual development had to +say of their experiences. George Fox wrote, "The word of the Lord came +to me, saying, 'My love was always to thee, and thou art in my love.' +And I was ravished with the sense of the love of God." Brother Lawrence +wrote, "You must know that the benevolent and caressing light of God's +countenance kindles insensibly within the soul, which ardently embraces +it, a divine and consuming flame of love, so rapturous that one puts +curbs upon the outward expression of it." + +It is to this divine love that we are called. This is the high promise +of man's life. We are called away from indifference, from meanness, +malice, prejudice and hate. We are called above the earthly loves that +come and go, and are unsure. We are called into the deep enduring love +of God and man and all creation. Worship is a door into that love. Once +we have entered it, our every act is a prayer, our whole life a +continuous worship. + + + + +THE BASIS OF FRIENDS WORSHIP AND OTHER INWARD PRACTICES + + +Some people believe that whereas God's nature is divine, man's nature is +depraved. God is good, but men are evil. God, according to this view, +exists in heaven, remote from us. We exist in sin, remote from Him, in +hell or next door to it. Human beings are completely separated from the +Divine Being. The only possible connection between men and God is that +brought about by the mediation of the church and its authorized +officials. Friends have never held this view. + +Friends, beginning with George Fox, realized that something of God +dwells _within_ each and every human being, and that, therefore, He is +reachable by us through direct contact, and we are within His reach, +subject to His immediate influence. This is the well-known basis of +Friends worship. + +Since God is within us, Friends turn inward to find Him. This is not a +matter of choice or inclination; it is a matter of necessity. Turning +inward, we turn away from all externals. Friends practice inwardness. +Rufus Jones writes, "The religion of the Quaker is primarily concerned +with the culture and development of the inward life and with direct +correspondence with God." + +Some number of Friends in the early days of the movement not only sought +God but found him, though it would perhaps be better to say were found +by him. It was because they found God that they had such living worship, +such vital meetings. It was because they truly worshiped and had vital +meetings that they progressively discovered God and came increasingly +within his power. The one led to the other. Without the one we cannot +have the other. + +That there is that of God in every man was, as already implied, more +than a belief or a concept with the early Friends. It was an +experience. It was a recovery of the living Deity. As he made and +continued to make this recovery in himself, George Fox went about his +apostolic work and laid the foundation of what came to be the Society of +Friends. What did Fox aim for? How did he regard his ministry? Let him +answer in his own words. "I exhorted the people to come off from all +these things (from churches, temples, priests, tithes, argumentation, +external ceremonies and dead traditions), and directed them to the +spirit and grace of God in themselves, and to the light of Jesus in +their own hearts, that they might come to know Christ, their free +Teacher." + +Pointing as they do to the basis of Friends worship, these several +considerations do not, of themselves, throw light on the reason for +certain other inward practices. The basis of these other practices is, +unfortunately, less simple and less well-known. Why is there need of +particular occasions for prayer and worship? Why need we gather together +and sit quietly? Why practice waiting before God? If He is in us, why +does He not manifest to us continually, why does His power not always +motivate our actions? Why do we have to practice His presence, and why +is this practice so difficult? To answer these questions we are forced +to adopt a somewhat complex and non-habitual view of the situation. + +Suppose we are approached by a person of inquiring mind who says, "You +say that there is that of God in every man. All right, I am prepared to +accept that as truth. But precisely where in us does the divine spark +exist? Is it in our bodies? Is it in our ordinary minds and everyday +thoughts and emotions? Do you mean to say that God exists in ignorance, +in man's prejudices and hatreds, in human evil?" How will we reply? +Obviously God does not exist in our trivial actions, nor in our godless +thoughts and feelings. Certainly He does not exist in our ignorance and +evil. But these things exist in us. They constitute a part of us. This +part of us, then, is separated from God, while another part is related +to Him. Insofar as we identify with the separated part and believe it to +be ourselves, we exist divorced from that of God in us. + +The attitude, in brief, is this. There is that of God in every man. +Therefore man, in his entirety, is not separated from God. But man is +divided within, and against, himself, into two different and opposing +aspects, and one of these aspects is separated from God. This is my view +of the situation. If I understand the writings of the early Friends, +this was their view of the situation. + +The early Friends had names for the part of us that is separated from +God. They called it the "natural man," the "earthly man." I shall +sometimes refer to it as the "body-mind" or the "separated self." The +early Friends called the part of us that is related to God and in which +God dwells the "spiritual man," the "new birth," the "new creation." I +shall sometimes call it the "inner being," the "spiritual self." + +It is of course the separated self that presents the problem. It +obstructs our attempts to relate ourselves to God and to our fellow men. +It interferes with worship as well as with love. It is because of this +self that we do not pray and love as naturally as we breathe. The +separated self stands in the way. Therefore it must be overcome. For +divine as well as genuinely human purposes it must be subdued and +eventually left behind. Every real religious practice, whether of +Friends or of others, either directly or indirectly aims to enable human +beings to transcend the separated self in order that we may be united +with the spiritual self or being which is near God because He dwells +therein. + +In the light of these facts we can understand the need and the purpose +of certain specific inward practices, such as the practice of contending +with oneself (Isaac Penington called it "lawful warring") and the +practice of gathering silently and waiting upon God. Since the separated +self exists, and is an obstruction, we must contend with it. We contend +with it so as to remove it and, at the same time, activate the spiritual +nature. Gathering in silence and waiting upon God is necessary for the +same reason, and is another means to the same end. More will be said of +this presently. + +The early Friends, while proclaiming the good news that there is a +spiritual man in each and all of us, that God dwells in this part of +human beings and is, for this very reason, close even to the earthly +man, regarded the earthly man as unregenerate, sinful, blind and dead to +the things of the spirit. Only by rising above the earthly aspect of +ourselves can we pass from sin into righteousness, from death to life, +from that which exists apart from God into that which exists as part of +God. Only by yielding to God's power can the earthly man be regenerated. +To the degree that this happens, we are unified with our spiritual +natures. Thus we are mended and made whole. What formerly was a +separated and contrary part, becomes the instrument of expression of the +resurrected spiritual being. + +If the earthly man is dead to the things of the spirit, then, as long as +he remains so, he obviously can neither truly pray nor truly worship. +Nor can we, as long as we remain identified with him. Should he try to +pray, he but prays according to his own ignorant and faulty notions. +Should he try to worship, he but worships in his own will, not according +to the will of God. Robert Barclay called this kind of worship +"will-worship." + +Will-worship was what the Friends condemned and tried to avoid. They +aimed for true spiritual worship. They wanted to worship God by and +through the workings of His spirit and power in their spiritual beings. +How were they to fulfill this aim? What, specifically, were they to do? +Try, by all available means, to quiet and subdue the earthly man, to lay +down his will, to turn the mind to God. But, having done this, they +found that something more was wanted. They discovered, as you and I have +or will, that it is one thing to still our habitual thoughts and +motions, but quite another to cause the spiritual self to arise. By our +own efforts we can subdue the body-mind to some extent. Few of us, by +our efforts alone, can activate our spiritual natures in a vital and +creative way. We need God's help. We need the help of one another. But +God's help may not come at once. Our help to each other, even though we +are gathered in a meeting for worship or actively serving our fellow +men outside of the meeting, may be and often is delayed as regards our +kindling one another spiritually. What are we to do in this case? There +is only one thing we can do--wait. Having done our part to overcome the +separated self, we can but wait for the spiritual self to arise and take +command of our lives. Having brought ourselves as close as we can to +God, we can but hold ourselves in an attitude of waiting for Him to work +His will in us, to draw us fully into His presence. + +So the early Friends engaged in silent waiting, humble yet expectant +waiting, reverent waiting upon the Lord, that they might be empowered by +Him to help one another and to render to Him the honor and the adoration +which, as Robert Barclay said, characterizes true worship; that His +power might come over them and cover the meeting; that He might bring +about the death of the old, the birth of the new man. + +Friends waited, both in and out of meeting. They waited for God to move +them, quicken them to life, make them His instruments. They waited for +the power of God to do its wonder-work, lifting up the part of them that +was akin to Him, gracing them with the miracle of resurrection. Waiting +preceded worship. Waiting prepared for worship, and the springing up of +new life. By waiting they began worshiping. The stillness of the meeting +house, the silence of the lips, the closed eyes and composed faces were +the tangible signs of the preliminary period of waiting. + +It is instructive and reassuring to note how frequently, among the early +Friends, the practice of waiting did have the desired sequel. This +seeming inactivity led to spiritual action. Out of this chrysalis what a +life was born! God found them in the silence. Blessed and renewing +experiences came to Friends, experiences which enabled them to be agents +of the divine spirit in every situation of human life. It is instructive +because it points us, of this day, to a religious practice that is +effective. It is reassuring because from it we may have sound hope that, +if we rightly and faithfully engage in this and other inward practices, +we may reach and even surpass the high level of religious experience +and service attained by Friends in the days when the Quaker movement +really moved. In our present-day lives and meetings there can be +soul-shaking events. The Light can invade us. Truth can take hold of us. +Love may gather us. Above all, God himself may become real to us as the +supreme Fact of the entire universe. + +We of this modern age are inclined to be more lenient in our views of +the earthly man. We are disposed to consider him a moderately decent +fellow except when under the active power of evil. This makes us more +tolerant, less intense. It makes us more likely to indulge our fondness +for the earthly world and its things and pleasures, less moved to seek +God and His Kingdom. Nevertheless if we examine our experience we shall +recognize characteristics of the earthly man that are similar to those +seen by the early Friends. The outside world has changed considerably in +three hundred years, but man's constitution is much the same now as then +in all essential respects. + +The earthly man, whether we regard him as good, bad, or indifferent, is +evidently an exile from God's kingdom. Our body-minds, namely our +everyday persons, are out of touch with our spiritual natures most of +the time, hence out of touch with God. We, as ordinary people, are not +by inclination turned towards God, but, on the contrary, are turned away +from Him. Day in and day out we do not even think of the possibility of +loving God and doing His will, but think of ourselves, and are bent to +enact our own wills, have our own way. Whether we, as earthly men, can +truly pray and worship is a question about which there is likely to be +disagreement. But who will deny that when we are absorbed in our +affairs, as we are most of the time, we do not pray or worship? +Recognition of these several facts will lead us to a position similar to +that of the early Friends, and point us to the same needs as regards +what we must do if we would truly pray and worship, and, indeed, truly +live. We too must endeavor to subdue the body-mind and turn the mind +Godwards. We too must try to overcome the separated self and re-connect +with our spiritual natures. We too must practice waiting. We too must +strive to attain the Quaker ideal so well expressed by Douglas Steere, +"to live from the inside outwards, as _whole_ men." + +When compared with bodily action, what could seem more inactive than +waiting upon God? The modern world asks, "Where will that get you?" +Young people say, "We want action." Yet, as we have seen, it was +precisely through this and other apparently inactive means that the +early Friends came into a power of whole action that surpasses anything +that we experience today. We say we are activists, but often lack the +spiritual force to act effectively. They said they were waiters, and +frequently acted as moved by God's light and love. I think that we in +this age of decreasing inner-action, of ever increasing outer activity, +have a profound lesson to learn from the early Friends. We had best +learn it now, and quickly, lest the faith and practices of the Friends +become so watered that they lose their character and flow into the +activities of which the world is full, and are absorbed by them, and +Friends cease to be Friends. I do not say we should go back to the old +days. That is impossible. Let us move forward, as we must if we are to +move at all. But let us build upon those foundations, not scrap them. +Let those past summits show us how high men can go, with God's help. + +Friends are by no means the only ones who realize that the body-mind +presents a problem; that, in its usual state, it is an obstacle to +worship and to all forms of the religious life. Friends are not alone in +recognizing that when the separated self is uppermost and active, the +spiritual self is submerged and passive, and that we are called upon to +reverse this. All genuine religious people, whatever the religion, have +recognized the problem and have endeavored to solve it in one way or +another. Generally speaking, there are two ways of dealing with the +situation. One way consists of the attempt to lift the body-mind above +its usual condition, so that it may be included in the act of worship. +The body-mind is presented with sight of religious symbols. It is given +sound of religious music and of specially trained speakers called +priests or ministers. It participates in rituals, ceremonies, +sacraments. This way may be effective. When it is, the body-mind +actually is lifted above its usual state, the spiritual nature is +evoked. But when this way is not effective it merely results in exciting +the body-mind and gives people the illusion that this excitation is true +worship. Or it may result in a sterile enactment of outward forms. + +The other way is just the opposite. It consists of the effort to reduce +the body-mind below its usual state, so that it will not interfere with +worship. All externals are dispensed with. No religious symbols are in +view. No music is provided, no rituals, no appointed speakers. The +external setting is as plain as possible, so that the body-mind may be +more readily quieted. Internally, too, the attempt is to remove all +causes of excitement, all of the ordinarily stimulating thoughts, +images, desires. The one thought that should be present is the thought +of turning Godward, seeking Him, waiting before Him. This way may be +effective. When it is, the body-mind is subordinated and ceases to exist +as the principal part of man. The spiritual nature is activated and +lifted up. When, however, this way is not effective, it merely produces +deadness. + +In both cases the test is this: Does the spiritual nature arise? Friends +have chosen the way of subduing the body-mind, of excluding it from +worship except insofar as it may act as an organ of expression of the +risen spirit. Having chosen this way, we are called upon to do it +effectively, creatively. If we succeed--and we sometimes do--our inner +life is resurrected, the whole man is regenerated, and a living worship +connects man with God. But if we fail--and we often do--the spiritual +nature remains as if dead, and, on top of this, we pile a deadened +body-mind. What should be a meeting for worship, a place where man and +God come together, becomes a void. There is no life, only a sterile +quietism. Sterile quietism is as bad as sterile ritualism. + +Sterility, in whatever form, is what we want to avoid. Creativity is +what we must recover--aliveness, growth, moving, wonder, reverence, a +sense of being related to the vast motions of that ocean of light and +love. + + + + +WHAT TO DO IN THE MEETING FOR WORSHIP + + +Definite periods for worship should be established because, constituted +as we are, worship does not occur as naturally as it might, and at all +times. Unless we set aside regularly recurring times, many of us are not +likely to worship at any time. We appoint times and places so that we +may do what something deep in us yearns to do, yet which we all too +rarely engage in because most often we are caught up in the current of +contrary or irrelevant events. Set times of worship not only aid us to +worship at those times but at others too; and, of course, the more often +we try to worship at other times, the more able we become to make good +use of the established occasions. + +Among the people of our day, Mahatma Gandhi is an outstanding example of +applied religion. It might seem that he, of all people, would feel no +need of special times of prayer; yet this is not the case. There are +appointed times each day when he and those around him engage in prayer. +Whenever possible he attends a Friends meeting for worship. The +following quotation from the _Friends Intelligencer_ gives his view of +this matter. "Discussing the question whether one's whole life could not +be a hymn of praise and prayer to one's Maker, so that no separate time +of prayer is needed, Gandhi observed, 'I agree that if a man could +practice the presence of God all the twenty-four hours, there would be +no need for a separate time of prayer.' But most people, he pointed out, +find that impossible. For them silent communion, for even a few minutes +a day, would be of infinite use." + +Each of us individually should daily prepare for worship and, now and +again, go off by himself in solitude. Fresh stimulus and challenge are +experienced when a man puts himself utterly on his own and seeks to come +face to face with his God. Aloneness may release the spirit. So may +genuine togetherness. Group or corporate worship is also necessary +because, as already mentioned, we need each other's help to quiet the +body-mind, to lay down the ordinary self, to lift up the spiritual +nature. Many a person finds it possible to become still in a meeting for +worship as nowhere else. Peace settles over us. Many a person is +inwardly kindled in a meeting for worship as nowhere else. The creative +forces begin to stir. When a number of people assemble reverently, and +all engage in similar inward practices with the same aim and expectancy, +life-currents pass between them; a spiritual atmosphere is formed; and +in this atmosphere things are possible that are impossible without it. +More particularly, we may have opportunity in a meeting for coming close +to a person more quickened than we are. By proximity with him or her we +are quickened. It is true that in a Friends meeting the responsibility +for worship and ministry rests upon each and every member; but it is +also true that Friends, like others, must somewhat rely for their +awakening upon those who are more in God's spirit and power than the +average. We minimize an essential feature of our meetings if we fail to +recognize the role of the sheer presence of men and women who are +spiritually more advanced than most and are able to act as leaven. + +The meeting for worship should begin outside of the meeting house, on +our way to it. As we enter the house, we would do well to remind +ourselves of the meaning of worship, the significance of corporate +worship, the possibility of meeting with God. Be expectant that this may +happen in this very gathering. Lift up the mind and heart to the Eternal +Being in whom we have brotherhood. The hope is that by these initial +acts we will put ourselves in the mood of worship and kindle a warmth of +inner life that will continue throughout the meeting and give spiritual +meaning to all subsequent efforts. + +Settle into your place as an anonymous member of an anonymous group. If +you have come to have a reputation among people, forget this and become +anonymous. If you have not made a name for yourself, forget this. The +opportunity to practice anonymity is a precious one. The meeting for +worship would be of great value if it did no more than make this +practice possible. If you are accustomed to feel yourself important in +the eyes of men, lay it down and feel only that you and others may have +some importance in the eyes of God. If you feel unimportant, lay this +down. If articulate or inarticulate, forget this. Lay aside all your +worldly relationships and your everyday interior states. In fine, forget +yourself. Surrender yourself. Immerse yourself in the life of the group. +This is our chance to lose ourselves in a unified and greater life. It +is our opportunity to die as separated individuals and be born anew in +the life and power of the spirit. Seek, in the words of Thomas Kelly, to +will your will into the will of God. + +Quiet and relax the body. We should try to quiet its habitual activity, +to relax it from strain, yet not over-relax it. Though relaxed it should +not become limp or drowsy. It must be kept upright, alert, wakeful. What +we desire is a body so poised and at rest that it is content to sit +there, taking care of itself, and we can forget it. + +Still the mind, gather it, turn it steadfastly towards God. This is more +difficult. It is contrary to the mind's nature to be still. It is +against its grain to turn Godwards. Left to itself it goes on and on +under its own momentum, roaming, wandering. It thinks and pictures and +dreams of everything on earth except God and the practice of His +presence. Even those who developed great aptitude for taking hold of the +mind and turning it to God found it difficult and even painful in the +beginning. If we expect it to be easy and pleasant we shall be easily +discouraged after a few trials. Brother Lawrence warns us that this +practice may even seem repugnant to us at first. + +The mind of an adult is more restive and all over the place than the +body of a child. How are we to curb its incessant restlessness and stay +it upon prayer and worship? How restrain its wanderings and point it to +the mark? How take it away from its automatic stream of thoughts and +focus it on God? Only by effort, practice, repeated effort, regular +practice. It requires life-long preparation and training. We cannot hope +to make much progress if we attempt to stay the mind only on First-days +during meeting. We must make effort throughout the week, daily, hourly. + +It is by stilling the body-mind that we center down. Put the other way, +it is by centering down that we still the body-mind. I would judge that +all Friends have in common the practice of centering down. This is our +common preparation for worship. From here on, however, each of us is +likely to go his individual way, no two ways being alike. This is the +freedom of worship which has ever been an integral part of the Friends +religion. We are not called upon to follow any fixed procedure. This is +creative. The individual spirit is set free to find its way, in its own +manner, to God. Yet it leaves some of us at a loss to know what to do +next. Some of us are not yet able to press on. We are unsure of the +inward way, and our available resources are not yet adequate to this +type of exploration. We need hints from others, suggestions, guides. To +meet this need, a number of Friends have written of what they do after +they center down. Among these writings may be mentioned Douglas V. +Steere's _A Quaker Meeting for Worship_, and Howard E. Collier's _The +Quaker Meeting_. In the same spirit I would like to indicate what I do. + +Once I have centered down I try to open myself, to let the light in. I +try to open myself to God's power. I try to open myself to the other +members of the meeting, to gain a vital awareness of them, to sense the +spiritual state of the gathering. I try so to reform myself inwardly +that, as a result of this meeting, I will thereafter be just a little +less conformed to the unregenerate ways of the world, just a little more +conformed to the dedicated way of love. + +I encourage a feeling of expectancy. I invite the expectation that here, +in this very meeting, before it is over, the Lord's power will spring up +in us, cover the meeting, gather us to Him and to one another. Though +meetings come and go, and weeks and even years pass, and it does not +happen, nevertheless I renew this expectation at every meeting. I have +faith that some day it will be fulfilled. We should be bold in our +expectations, look forward to momentous events. We should not be timid +or small but large with expectancy, and, at the same time humble, so +that there is no egotism in it. + +I kindle the hope that, should the large events not be for me and for us +this day, some true prayer will arise from our depths, some act of +genuine worship. I hope that at the least I will start some exploration +or continue one already begun, make some small discovery, feel my inward +life stir creatively and expand to those around me. + +Having aroused my expectancy, I wait. I wait before the Lord, forgetting +the words in which I clothed my expectations, if possible forgetting +myself and my desires, laying down my will, asking only that His will be +done. In attitude or silent words I may say, "I am before thee, Lord. If +it be thy will, work thy love in me, work thy love in us." + +"O wait," wrote Isaac Penington, "wait upon God. Be still a while. Wait +in true humility, and pure subjection of soul and spirit, upon Him. Wait +for the shutting of thy own eye, and for the opening of the eye of God +in thee, and for the sight of things therewith, as they are from Him." + +Sometimes, while waiting, a glow steals over me, a warmth spreads from +my heart. I have a chance to welcome the welling up of reverence, the +sense that I am in the presence of the sacred. Sometimes, though rarely, +the practice of waiting is invaded by an unexpected series of inner +events which carry me by their action through the meeting to the end. I +feel God's spirit moving in me, my spirit awakening to Him. + +More often I come to have the sense that I have waited long enough for +this time. To forestall the possibility of falling into dead passivity, +I voluntarily discontinue the practice of waiting and turn my attention +to other concerns. I may summon to mind a vital problem that confronts +me or one of my friends, trying to see the problem by the inward light, +seeking the decision that would be best. I may bring into consciousness +someone I know to be suffering. This may be a personal acquaintance or +someone whose plight I have learned of through others, or people in +distress brought to my attention by an article in a newspaper or a +magazine. I call to him or them in my spirit, and suffer with them, and +pray God that through their suffering they will be turned to Him, that +by their very pain they may grow up to Him. + +Hardly a meeting passes but what I pray that I and the members of the +meeting and people everywhere may have this experience: that our wills +be overcome by God's will, that our powers be overpowered by His light +and love and wisdom. And sometimes, though again rarely, I find it +possible to hold my attention, or, rather, to have my heart held, +without wavering, upon the one supreme reality, the sheer fact of God. +These are the moments that I feel to be true worship. These are the +times when the effort to have faith is superseded by an effortless +assurance born of actual experience. God's reality is felt in every +fibre of the soul and brings convincement even to the body-mind. + +I would not give the impression that what I have described takes place +in just this way every time, or that it happens without disruptions, +lapses, roamings of the mind, day-dreams. Frequently I must recall +myself, again still the mind and turn it Godwards, again practice +waiting. All too often I awake to find, no, not that I have been +actually sleeping, but that I might as well have been, so far have I +strayed from the path that leads to God and brotherhood. And I must +confess, too, that during some meetings I have been buried under inertia +and deadness and unable to overcome them. Having meant nothing to +myself, it is not likely that my presence meant anything to the others. +My body was but an object, unliving, filling space on a bench. It would +have been better for others had I stayed away. A dead body gives off no +life; it but absorbs life from others, reducing the life-level of the +meeting. + +As I am one of those who are sometimes moved to speak in meetings, I may +indicate how this happens in my case. First let me say what I do not do. +I never try to think up something to say. I am quite content to be +silent, unless something comes into my mind and I am moved to say it, or +unless I sense that the meeting would like to hear a few living words. +In this latter case, I may search myself to see what may be found; and +by this searching I may set in motion the processes which discover +hidden messages. + +I never go to the meeting with an "itch" to speak, though it sometimes +happens to me, as to others, that I am moved to speak before arriving at +the meeting house. Even so, I usually restrain the urge until we have +had at least a short period of silent waiting before God. One is vain +indeed if he thinks that his words are more important than this waiting. +If I have not been moved to speak before arriving, such an impulse, if +it comes at all, is likely to arise after I have been waiting a while. +It arises within my silence. An insight or understanding flashes into my +mind. A prayer or a pleading or a brief exhortation comes upon me. I +hold it in mind and look at it, and at myself. I examine it. + +Is this a genuine moving that deserves expression in a meeting for +worship, or had I best curb and forget it? May it have some real meaning +for others, and is it suited to the condition of this meeting? Can I +phrase it clearly and simply? If it passes these tests, I regard it as +something to be said but I am not yet sure it should be said here and +now. To find out how urgent it is, I press it down and try to forget it. +If time passes and it does not take hold of me with increased strength, +I conclude that it is not to be spoken of at this time. If, on the other +hand, it will not be downed, if it rebounds and insists and will not +leave me alone, I give it expression. + +If it turns out that the words were spoken more in my own will than in +the power, I feel that egotistical-I has done it, and that this +self-doing has set me apart from the other members of the meeting. I am +dissatisfied until again immersed in the life of the group. But if it +seems that I have been an instrument of the power, I have the feeling +that the power has done it and has, by this very act, joined those +assembled even closer. Having spoken, I feel at peace once again, warmed +and made glowing by the passage of a living current through me to my +fellows. With a heightened sense of fellowship with man and God, I +resume my silent practices. + +I never speak if, in my sense of it, spoken words would break a living +silence and disrupt the life that is gathering underneath. But I have on +occasion spoken in the hope of breaking a dead silence. Spoken words +should arise by common consent. The silence should accept them. The +invisible life should sanction them. The members of the meeting should +welcome them and be unable to mark exactly when the message began and +when it ends. The message should form with the silence a seamless whole. + +If the message be a genuine one, the longer I restrain it the better +shaped it becomes in my mind and the stronger the impulse to express it. +A force gathers behind it. Presently, however, I must either voice it or +put it from my mind completely, lest it dominate my consciousness +overlong and rule out the other concerns which should engage us in a +meeting for worship. It is good when a message possesses us. Our +meetings need compelling utterances. But it is not good when a message +obsesses us to the exclusion of all else. This is a danger which +articulate people, particularly those like myself who have much dealing +with words, must avoid. We miss our chance if we do not use the meeting +for worship as an opportunity to dwell in the depths of life far below +the level of words, rising to the surface only when we are forced to by +an upthrust of the spirit which seeks to unite the surface with the +depths and gather those assembled into a quickened sense of creative +wholeness--each in all and all in God. + + + + +QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS + + +WHAT MOVES US TO PRAY AND WORSHIP? Sometimes we are moved by a quickened +sense of a sacred Presence. Prayer and worship are our spontaneous +responses as we awaken to God's unutterable radiance and wonder. +Sometimes we are moved by a realization that, left to ourselves, we are +inadequate, that apart from God we are insufficient. Realizing that our +knowledge is insufficient, we turn to God's light and wisdom. And there +are those who pray and worship as a conscious means of growing up to God +and becoming firmly established in His kingdom. + +WHY DO NOT MORE PEOPLE PRAY? Why do not all of us worship more often? +Many lack a quickened sense of a sacred Presence. Though aware of +material things, they are inert to the things of the spirit. They wait +to be spiritually awakened. Most of us persist in feeling that we are +self-sufficient. We feel we are adequate for all ordinary affairs, and +it is only when we find ourselves in overpowering situations that we +recognize we are not self-sufficient, and may then turn to God. But when +the crisis passes we are likely to lapse into an assumption of +self-sufficiency. + +WHY DO NOT THE LEADERS OF NATIONS TURN TO GOD? Did not the recent war, +does not the present chaos of the world show them that their powers and +knowledge are inadequate? It would seem that the leaders, despite all +evidence to the contrary, still believe that their own powers and +politics are enough to prevent war and to secure an ordered and peaceful +world. + +WHEN WILL THE PEOPLE LEARN? WHEN WILL THE LEADERS LEARN? I do not know, +but for the sake of mankind I hope we learn soon. The people of all +nations would do well to suspend their ordinary affairs for an hour each +day, and, in concert, turn their minds and hearts steadfastly towards +God. The purpose of regeneration would be better served in this one +hour than in all the other hours of the day. + +IS THE MEETING FOR WORSHIP BASED ON SILENCE? No. Friends know that it is +not, yet some Friends have fallen into the habit of saying that it is. +Jane Rushmore brought out this point in one of our meetings of Ministry +and Counsel. She reminded us that the meeting for worship is based on +the conviction that we can directly communicate with God, and He with +us. Silence, we believe, is a necessary means to such communion. For if +we are busy with our own talk, God will not speak to us. Stillness is a +necessary condition for practicing the presence of God. For if we stir +about in our own wills, God will not move us. In the meeting for worship +we try to obey the command, "Be still, and know that I am God." God is +the goal. A living silence is a means thereto. + +Recently I was visited by three young Friends, thirteen years of age. +They had some problems to talk over. I asked if they felt they knew what +to do in the meeting for worship. Their happy confidence that they did +know was a pleasant surprise, as I have found many Friends, young and +old, who are in need of suggestions and guides. I asked these three what +they did in the silence. After some hesitancy, one brightened and +replied, "I talk over my problems with God." I told her that was a +splendid thing to do. For young people of thirteen or thereabouts, it is +enough that they talk over their problems with God, or engage in some +other simple and sincere exercise. For some older people one or two +simple practices are enough. I am in sympathy with those who would +worship in simplicity of mind and heart. But others are in need of more, +and the preceding chapter tries to speak to this need. Whatever the +means used, the important thing is that we spiritually awake and come +alive during the meeting for worship even more than at other times. + +WHO SHOULD SPEAK IN THE MEETING FOR WORSHIP? Anyone who is genuinely +moved to. Age has nothing to do with it, though older people may be more +able because of longer practice. Education has nothing to do with it, +though education may facilitate verbal expression. The essential matter +is the inward prompting, under God's guidance. The Book of Discipline +says, "Our conviction is that the Spirit of God is in all, and that +vocal utterance comes when this Spirit works within us. The varying +needs of a meeting can be best supplied by different personalities, and +a meeting is enriched by the sharing of any living experience of God." + +WHAT ARE WE TO DO IF WE FEEL GENUINELY MOVED TO SPEAK BUT ARE INHIBITED +BY THE FEAR OF NOT EXPRESSING OURSELVES WELL? Attend to what you have to +say. Put your mind on that, and take it off yourself. Do not be +concerned that your speech may be halting and imperfect. Do not compare +yourself with others, thinking that they speak fluently, you poorly. Be +concerned to communicate. Summon up your courage and break the ice. Try. +If you can once overcome an inhibition, you have broken its hold. It +will still be there, but you can overcome it more readily the next time. +Keep trying. + +It is true that some people seem born with the facility to speak, but it +is also true that the ability, like other abilities, is developed by +practice. Most of those who speak well now, began with embarrassment, +self-consciousness, and an imperfect command of words. Friends can be +counted on to understand if at first your thoughts and feelings are not +expressed as well as they might be. They will attend more to what you +are trying to say than to how you say it. Here again the Book of +Discipline gives wise counsel. "One who is timid or unaccustomed to +speak should have faith that God will strengthen him to give his +message." + +WHEN SHOULD WE SPEAK IN THE MEETING FOR WORSHIP? Whenever we are moved +to. We may be moved to speak near the beginning, midway, or towards the +end. The important thing is not the time but the moving. However, as +Rufus Jones once pointed out, it sometimes helps if, once we are really +settled, something is said that lifts the spirit, that raises us above +our worldly problems and gives impetus to our search for the indwelling +divinity. + +WHAT SHOULD BE SPOKEN OF IN THE MEETING FOR WORSHIP? This question will +be answered for us, inwardly, if we are in the spirit of the meeting, if +the meeting is in God's spirit. We may speak of spiritual things. We may +speak of daily affairs and events, if these are given a spiritual +interpretation. We may speak of world problems, if these are seen in the +light of religion. Anything that comes from the heart is proper and +acceptable. We will not go wrong if we keep in mind the central purpose +of the meeting for worship, and are striving to fulfill this purpose. +Let your heart respond to the need of our meetings for a vital ministry. +Open yourself and accept, should it come to you, the call to an inspired +ministry. + +SHOULD MESSAGES COME ONE AFTER THE OTHER IN RAPID SUCCESSION? No. There +should be a due interval between them, a living silence in which the +spirit works deep below the level of words. Messages should arise from +the silence and return to it. Of course there are times when one message +arises from another. Even so, there should be pauses between them during +which the creative forces may operate in unexpected ways. Restraint of +speech improves both the speech and the silence. Read what Thomas Kelly +has to say of spoken words in his pamphlet, _The Gathered Meeting_. + + But more frequently some words are spoken. I have in mind those + meeting hours which are not dominated by a single sermon, a single + twenty-minute address, well-rounded out, with all the edges tucked + in so there is nothing more to say. In some of our meetings we may + have too many polished examples of homiletic perfection which lead + the rest to sit back and admire but which close the question + considered, rather than open it. Participants are converted into + spectators; active worship on the part of all drifts into passive + reception of external instruction. To be sure, there are gathered + meetings, which arise about a single towering mountain peak of a + sermon. One kindled soul may be the agent whereby the slumbering + embers within are quickened into a living flame. + + But I have more particularly in mind those hours of worship in which + no one person, no one speech stands out as the one that "made" the + meeting, those hours wherein the personalities that take part + verbally are not enhanced as individuals in the eyes of others, but + are subdued and softened and lost sight of because in the language + of Fox, "The Lord's power was over all." Brevity, earnestness, + sincerity--and frequently a lack of polish--characterizes the best + Quaker speaking. The words should rise like a shaggy crag upthrust + from the surface of silence, under the pressure of river power and + yearning, contrition and wonder. But on the other hand the words + should not rise up like a shaggy crag. They should not break the + silence, but continue it. For the Divine Life who was ministering + through the medium of silence is the same Life as is now ministering + through words. And when such words are truly spoken "in the Life," + then when such words cease the _uninterrupted_ silence and worship + continue, for silence and words have been of one texture, one piece. + Second and third speakers only continue the enhancement of the + moving Presence, until a climax is reached, and the discerning head + of the meeting knows when to break it. + +WHAT ARE WE TO DO IF SOME FRIENDS ARE SOMETIMES OVER-VOCAL ABOUT MATTERS +THAT ARE HARDLY THE PROPER CONCERN FOR A MEETING FOR WORSHIP? How are we +to regard those who do not always speak acceptably to us, or are +overlong in their words, or who get up and repeat what we have heard +them say again and again? Instead of viewing them as objects of +criticism, separated from you, try to feel them as being together with +you in a common life, and pray that the Creator of this life may make +all expressions living expressions. Do not let your resentment build up, +but increase your humility by recognizing that the faults that others +display may well be your own. + +HOW ARE WE TO MANAGE THE OCCASIONAL RUSTLINGS AND NOISES, WITHIN AND +WITHOUT THE MEETING, THAT THREATENS TO DISTRACT US AND DRAW US AWAY FROM +WORSHIP? Here Douglas Steere has a helpful practice. Try to include +these distractions in one's worship. Instead of attempting to exclude +them, weave them into your efforts to practice the presence of God. Read +what Douglas Steere has to say of this in _A Quaker Meeting for +Worship_. + + But again and again before I get through this far in prayer my mind + has been drawn away by some distraction. Someone has come in late. + Two adorable little girls who are sitting on opposite sides of their + mother are almost overcome by delight in something which is much too + subtle to be comprehended by the adult mind, the drafts in the coal + stove need readjusting, how noisy the cars are out on the highway + today, the wind howls around the corner and rattles the old + pre-revolutionary glass in the window sashes. Do these rude + interruptions destroy the silent prayer? Well, there was a time when + they did, and there are times still when they interfere somewhat, + but for the most part, I think they help. The late-comers stir me to + a resolve to be more punctual myself--a fault I am all too well + aware of--and I pass directly on to prayer, glad that they have come + today. The little girls remind me of the undiscovered gaiety in + every cell of life that these little "bon-vivants" know ever so + well, and they remind me too that a meeting for worship must be made + to reach these fierce-eyed nine- and ten-year-olds, and I pass on. I + get up and open the draft in the coal stove. Sometimes I pray the + distractions directly into the prayer--"swift, hurrying life of + which these humming motors are the symbol--pass by at your will--I + seek the still water that lies beneath these surface waves," or "the + wind of God is always blowing but I must hoist my sail," and proceed + with my prayer. + +WHAT ARE WE TO DO WHEN A MEETING IS UNLIVING? Suffer it. Continue to do +your part to contribute to the life. Continue to pray that God will +quicken the meeting, shake it awake. Suppose you yourself are heavy with +inertia and feel more dead than alive. The only way to overcome inertia +is to become active. Since, in a meeting for worship, our bodies are +still, the only positive action is inner-action. We have already +considered several inward practices that facilitate inner-action. Engage +in one or more of these with renewed determination. See your deadness as +a challenge and resolve not to be overcome by it but to overcome it. +Struggle against it. Persist in the act of turning your mind and heart +Godwards. Kindle your expectancy. Wait before the Lord. Think of Him. +Pray Him to send His life into you, and into the meeting, and into the +people of the world. Should these inward practices prove of no avail, I +sometimes fall back on this device. There is always in us some theme +that the mind wants to think of, some fear, some desire, some problems, +some situation, some prospect. Though the theme is not a fit one for a +meeting for worship, I let my mind run on about it. Once the mind is +well started on this topic, I switch it and transfer its momentum to one +of the practices that prepare for worship. + +HOW SHOULD WE COME TO MEETING? Reluctantly? No. Burdened by a feeling of +obligation to attend? No. Expecting something dull and tedious? No! If a +meeting evokes only dullness in its members it is a dead meeting and +ought to be laid down. A live meeting evokes life. Just the prospect of +attending such a meeting should quicken us. It were better to come alive +doing housework than to become deadened in a meeting house. + +Come with the expectancy that, as you make effort to turn yourself +Godwards, the life deep within you will arise, and meet you half-way, +and call you, and draw you, gather you into God's presence. Come with +the hope that the Teacher within will teach you of spiritual things. +Come with the expectancy that as you meet with other Friends, in this +very gathering you and they will be shaken awake by the impact of God's +power, and made to tremble, and become actual Quakers. Come with the +prayer that one and all may be "brought through the very ocean of +darkness and death, by the eternal, glorious power of Christ, into the +ocean of light and love." + +WHAT SHOULD WE DO, IN AND OUT OF MEETING, IN OUR PERIODS OF WORSHIP AND +IN OUR DAILY LIVES? Practice the presence of God. Practice, as far as we +are able, the love of God and the love of man and all creation. But let +George Fox declare it to us, as he declared it to the early Friends and +to people of all ranks and conditions in two continents. "All people +must first come to the Spirit of God in themselves, by which they might +know God and Christ, of whom the prophets and apostles learnt; by which +Spirit they might have fellowship with the Son, and with the Father, and +with the Scriptures, and with one another; and without this Spirit they +can know neither God nor Christ, nor the Scriptures, nor have right +fellowship one with another." + + + + +FOR FURTHER READING + + +Books + +AN APOLOGY FOR THE TRUE CHRISTIAN DIVINITY by Robert Barclay + +THE BOOK OF DISCIPLINE OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS + +CREATIVE WORSHIP by Howard H. Brinton + +THE FAITH AND PRACTICE OF THE QUAKERS by Rufus M. Jones + +THE JOURNAL OF GEORGE FOX + +THE LETTERS OF ISAAC PENINGTON + +PRAYER AND WORSHIP by Douglas V. Steere + +THE QUAKER MINISTRY by John William Graham + +THE QUAKER WAY OF LIFE by William Wistar Comfort + +THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS by William Penn + +SILENT WORSHIP, THE WAY OF WONDER by L. Violet Hodgkin + +A TESTAMENT OF DEVOTION by Thomas R. Kelly + +TESTIMONIES AND PRACTICE OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS by Jane P. Rushmore + +WORSHIP AND THE COMMON LIFE by Eric Hayman + + +Pamphlets + +PENN'S ADVICE TO HIS CHILDREN + +THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD by Brother Lawrence + +THE QUAKER MEETING by Howard E. Collier + + +Leaflets + +THE GATHERED MEETING by Thomas R. Kelly + +GOING TO MEETING by Leonard S. Kenworthy + +A QUAKER MEETING FOR WORSHIP by Douglas V. Steere + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Interpretation of Friends Worship, by +N. Jean Toomer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRIENDS WORSHIP *** + +***** This file should be named 24576.txt or 24576.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/5/7/24576/ + +Produced by Mark C. 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