HAS QUAKERISM A MESSAGE TO THE WORLD TO-DAY?

This question has been answered in the affirma-
tive by those who have preceded me. But the
possession of a message is one thing, and its
 delivery to the age another. I therefore propose
to consider three great prevailing elements which we must
take into account:—
* Indifference to the Higher Life.
* The change in Religious Thought.
* The expansion of Social Ideals.

Sadly must we admit that, in the cities of modern
civilization, the tide of paganism still runs high. The growing
magnificence of our public-houses and music-halls, and the
large and flourishing fraternity of sporting papers, are but an
index to the power of low ideals over the minds of men. The
greed for wealth, the tyranny of drink, the passion for
gambling, the fascinations of vice, these have too often in the
past baffled the endeavours of reforming zeal.

But it is not only with an active hostility that we have to
cope. The Church, in her appeal to the conscience of men,
meets with no more frequent or obstinate difficulty than that 
of indifference to the higher life. Who has not seen the
spectacle, so pathetic and so common, of the man with the
muck-rake, absorbed body and soul in scraping together his
little heap of gold? Who has not observed the vulgar and
selfish display of the "nouveau riche," or the less vulgar
but no less selfish uselessness of the mere dilettante, who
dabbles in art and indulges in travel, not that he may brighten
the lives of others, but only to gratify himself. Who does not
know the large class, indolently benevolent, and negatively
virtuous, who, wanting in depth of conviction, offer a passive
obstruction t o the progress of the Church ?

Alas, for the army of the Lord, when men desert the rough
life of the soldier and the rude ways of the camp, for the
pleasant and sheltered streets of Laodicea !

The opposition o f indifference is, however, no new thing
It is when we pass from indifference to the mental atmosphere
of our day, that we meet with conditions which, save for the
striking period of the Renaissance, find no parallel in history.
Great was then the expansion of human knowledge, but to us
it has been given to apply the invisible forces of nature, and
almost to annihilate time and space. And as the Middle Ages
learnt the place of the earth in the universe, so we are learning
the truth about man, his slow development, his physical
affinities with all other forms o f life.

We, too, have to reconstruct our cosmogony. And in this
reconstruction, the timidity of the Church, the irreconcilable
attitude of certain among our scientists, and the revulsion from
the iron hardness of terrible and fatalistic creeds, have led to
some present confusion.

There are, i t is true, many whom nothing has yet troubled,
and over whom, no doubt, the Church maintains her hold.
But, nevertheless, where in any place the Church has failed to
grasp the changed conditions, she suffers continued defections,
and ceases to appeal to an ever increasing number outside her
borders. Many Churches are enfeebled, many individuals find
themselves forced to exchange wholesome centres of activity
for the misery of spiritual loneliness, and must drift to extremes
of negation or seek relief in isolated service.

God's secrets are often swiftly unveiled. But though the
revelation may be sudden, our re-adjustment is slow. Confusion,
nevertheless, is not for ever. One moment the Bible seems
taken from us, the next it is restored, more living than before
and with a new light upon its page.

The clouds of controversy gather at each great discovery
of science, and seem to hide the Christ; but, lo! the clouds
disperse, and the Divine figure stands out in renewed
splendour.

Even a s now so at the Renaissance came perplexity and
scepticism. But it was of the new learning, with its larger
views of God and the universe, that the reformation was born.
So do I unfalteringly believe will there spring out of the present
seeming chaos, a renewed and more powerful faith, deeper in
its basis, clearer in its vision, broader in its charity, than ever
was the old; and as warm in its love.

We have now briefly dwelt on two of our three conditions:-
Indifference to the Higher Life and The change in Religious Thought.

Closely allied to this last—which is after all only an
inevitable development of the Reformation, accelerated and
illumined by scientific discovery—we find a great expansion of
social ideals.

No one could fail to note how swift and momentous has
been the industrial revolution of the past hundred years. The
creation of our great industrial classes, the massing together of
men in huge centres, such as London, Birmingham and
Manchester, has altered the whole fabric of society, and
forces of unknown power are coming into play. The progress
of political enfranchisement has almost completely transferred
the governing power to the hands of the people, and the
increasing efficiency of education must inevitably tend to bring
the humblest citizen and the humblest peasant to political
consciousness.

Already there are signs of movement in the deep. The
supposed immutability of the existing social system is ques-
tioned. Men even doubt if it be the best. They refuse to
believe that to be an ideal life, which compels the labourer " to
hold desperately to the small niche into which he has been
fitted, if he would not be of the helpless flotsam and jetsam
tossed to and fro on the tides of poverty" They refuse the
comfortable belief that the present extreme inequalities of
wealth are the ordering of Divine providence, or that the strong
caste feeling that mars English social life, reflects the teaching
of the Nazarene Joiner.

The profound dissatisfaction with existing conditions, and
the desire for a fuller and happier life, are well nigh universal.
But still it is true, that "there is an almost complete
absence of any clear indication from those who speak in the
name of science and authority a s to the direction in which the
path of future progress lies."

There are those who think the outlook is already brighten-
ing with the light of a better day.

That may well be true, but it would be idle to maintain
that the situation is not fraught with danger. "We see not
our signs. There is no more any prophet."

Let us listen to the warning voice of perhaps the greatest
of our Nonconformist leaders:-" We are face to face with
what we may truly call the supreme moment of our history.
It is the people that now rule, and unless God live in and
through the people, the end of all our struggles, the goal of all
our boasted progress will be chaos, and chaos is death."

These three elements: Indifference to the Higher Life,
the Change in Religious Thought, and the expansion of Social
Ideals must be vividly realised if we would make our appeal a
message to the world to day. And I am thankful that Friends,
having caught something of the spirit that was in their greatest
leaders, have met at this Conference boldly to face facts, and
frankly review their position.

Never, it has been said, in spite of all that is discouraging,
was an age more earnest in spirit, an age so moved and so
possessed with the consciousness of evil. And though this
earnestness may be largely outside the initiative of the Church,
it i s an element o f the highest promise of good. This is no
place for pessimism. "He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till he hath set judgment in the earth."

Yet we cannot look unmoved at the extent to which the
Churches generally, not least our own, fail to inspire and lead
the people. Can we really say that they hold men as they did?
We cannot believe it. It needs but the briefest acquain-
tance with our large cities to reveal the existence among the
people of widespread mistrust of Church and Chapel. And
in considering the number of their adherents we are bound to
remember that the census of a Church is but a deceptive index
of its spiritual power. We must deduct those who from the
force of habit, rather than from strength of conviction, or from
the love of respectability, rather than that of truth, cumber the
pews with a soulless occupancy. The large activity which
spends itself in Bazaar Committees, or the proud charity that
loves the high places of subscription lists, is no criterion of
deep religious feeling.

If there be failure, the cause must b e sought, not without
the Church, but within.

The empty benches and deserted galleries of our meeting-
houses are signs of a high-water mark from which the tide
has ebbed away. We may recognize local or particular
reasons, more or less pertinent, but the real causes, which
cannot be minimised, are the poverty of our spiritual life or
the want of aggressive power.

Were the simple worship of those who profess to g o
beneath form and convention, and strike the deep springs of
actual communion with the Father, to become only another
of the empty forms of religion, then grant us another George
Fox to denounce us as "professors"! Our meetings for
worship must be the glowing centres of our spiritual life if we
would keep and attract men or satisfy their spiritual hunger.

I believe it is sadly too true that spiritual pride, false
respectability, and unmanly deference to mere wealth or title,
have crept into our Church; and wherever they are still to b e
found we see the melancholy spectacle of an invertebrate
Christianity, which in its sluggish self-complacency is even
ignorant of its weakness.

A lady recently told me, "I had thought of becoming
a Friend, but I found you were a pearl of such great price
that I had not the spiritual pride to join you."

Such is not the attitude for an appeal to the world. As
labourers seeking help to carry on a great work, for which
our strength i s inadequate, it is both our right and our duty
to call men to us, and in the plea that "we are not
a proselytizing body," there lies the poison of stagnation.
Rather let us break down our barriers, and offer our fellow-
workers a social and spiritual home.

To the true Christian the world is a commonwealth of all
men, knowing neither rank nor class. Nevertheless certain
sections of the Christian Church tend to represent certain
grades of society and to perpetuate class distinctions rather
than destroy them. The equality of position nominally possessed
by our members should remind us that we are bound, more
than other Churches, to overcome this difficulty. There is,
however, grave danger of one-sidedness.  We shall never
know our full power if we appeal to the working classes alone.

Why do we fail almost entirely to reach cultured and
thoughtful people?

Why is it that even many of our own more educated
members are leaving us ?

By all means let us encourage the Adult School movement,
and let us warmly welcome every working man who comes
into membership with us, but we must remember that our
message is for the world. True thought clearly and simply
expressed reaches all men. It is a great mistake to imagine
that what satisfies the simplest may not also be food for the
most completely furnished minds.

Surely it is impossible to view without concern the
spiritual starvation of our professional and literary classes.
Great is the talent committed to their charge, and small the
use they make of it. Would they but contribute to religion
something nobler than fastidious criticism of other men's
methods, they could render the Church a powerful service of
trained intelligence, which she greatly needs.

How to set free their dormant spiritual energy is a
problem demanding from us all the self sacrifice and patient
thought that have characterised our devotion to our Adult
Schools. And though, hitherto, it has been strangely neglected,
it is a work which if more difficult is no less urgent.

I do not suggest the method, but though there are many
Adult Schools in London, I know of none in Fleet Street for
lawyers and journalists, and none in Piccadilly for baronets and
dukes. But, because these men are difficult to reach, we have
no right to shrink from our duty. Difficulties exist to be over-
come. And were there more of that close dependence on God
and fearless independence of men which marked John Woolman
and Stephen Grellet, we should not stand under the condemna-
tion of this failure.

Let us welcome a large conception of our responsibilities.
Great hearted men are not nurtured on small ideals, and there
is something in our Church of that parochialism which is fatal
to vigorous action. Parochialism and exclusiveness bring with
them that want of proportion so typical of Friends.

Such a matter a s the sitting together of men and women
Friends in Meeting, is surely of infinitesimal importance when
measured by the larger concerns of life. Yet I have heard
that petty question discussed in a usually torpid Preparative
Meeting with the heat and passion of a House of Commons
debate. If we are to do great things we must lift up our eyes
from our microscopic affairs and look out upon the world. And
if we look aright we shall see-across the darkness of vice
unconquered and problems unsolver—like a vision of the Holy
Grail, the city of God that is to be; and into our souls will
come a great longing, and to our ears the sound of a voice,
"Arise and labour for the need is great."

Is there development in Social Ideals?

Then let us face the facts, nor lose our faith in the power
of true religion to guide and inspire.

Christianity is before all things practical. A presentment
of truth merely theological is also inadequate. We shall give
more force to the preaching of Christ if we illustrate our
theology by our practice, and work with a deep sense of our
social responsibility. Let working men feel our sympathy as
something more than a kind patronage, let them feel that we
believe in brotherhood, not as a mere catch-word, but as an
essential teaching of Christ. Let them see that irresponsible
and selfish wealth, blind to its potentialities for good, has our
scornful and pitying denunciation, and we shall do something
to dispel their justifiable distrust.

The message of salvation hereafter is cold comfort to men
who are starving here; and it is our place as soldiers of the
Cross to bring hope and gladness into barren places, and to
carry the glad presence of the living Christ into dark slums and
lonely garrets.

The engineer is helpless without applied mechanics, and if
we Adult School teachers would bridge the gulf between rich
and poor, we must study the dark problems of poverty which
cry aloud for solution, and give our teaching the force of
APPLIED CHRISTIANITY.

Is there change and perplexity in Religious Thought?

Let us face the facts with confidence and courage.

If the age of the faith which comes by tradition and
authority is gone, and men can no longer believe without
knowing why they believe; if they are expanding those partial
views of the truth that were inevitable in earlier times, then
such a change will bring, as its ultimate result, not weakness
but new strength.

At the root of this great movement is the longing for reality,
for a more real and human touch with God. We must not—
we dare not—continue in a spirit of timid conservatism. We
must understand sympathetically if we would convince and lead.

Those who, having the ability, refuse to acquaint them-
selves with the modern development of thought, sadly limit the
scope of their service. That faith alone will satisfy which,
triumphant and aggressive, fights no longer with "bows and
arrows, but arms her with the weapons of the time."

In the early days faith and science were one. What we
wait for now is a religion that shall once more appeal to the
whole complex nature of man.

Much earnest Christianity to-day fails to command the
intellect and establish its own authority beyond all doubt and
criticism. Yet a religion merely intellectual will never warm
the heart with the fire of self-sacrificing love. Let us in
our message offer that which is beyond all creeds-the
evidence in our lives of communion with the spirit of God.
The need of positive animating faith in the inward presence
of His spirit was never greater than now. All who earnestly
seek truth could unite with us in fellowship on the broad
platform of faith i n that indwelling guidance.

The Church exists to create for each succeeding genera-
tion the ideal of the Christ in the thought-form of the age, and
in the adaptability of Christ's teaching lies one secret of its
power.

Friends are not bound by a heritage of creeds, and need
not break with their great past to put themselves in touch with
the present.

Is there perplexity and change in religious thought?

Then God grant to our Church the spirit of understanding
which shall give her the eye of a seer, the voice of a prophet,
the place and power of a leader.

Is there Indifference to the Higher Life?

Then, O Christ, convince us by Thy Spirit, thrill us with
Thy Divine passion, drown our selfishness in Thy invading
love, lay on us the burden of the world's suffering, drive us
forth with the apostolic fervour of the early Church! So only
can our message be delivered:-Speak to the Children of
Israel, that they go forward."