William Penn Lecture 1916

The Quaker of the Future Time

Delivered at

Moorestown, N.J

by

George A. Walton

Published by The Book Committee

Religious Society of Friends

Philadelphia and Vicinity

     302 Arch Street, Philadelphia

The William Penn Lectures are supported by the Young Friends Movement of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, which was organized on Fifth month thirteenth, 1916, at Race Street Meeting House in Philadelphia, for the purpose of closer fellowship; for the strengthening by such association and the interchange of experience, of loyalty to the ideals of the Society of Friends; and for the preparation by such common ideals for more effective work thru the Society of Friends for the growth of the Kingdom of God on earth.

The name of William Penn has been chosen because he was a Great Adventurer, who in fellowship with his friends started in his youth on the holy experiment of endeavoring “to live out the laws of Christ in every thought, and word, and deed,” that these might become the laws and habits of the State.

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George A. Walton, one of the members of the movement, delivered this second lecture on “The Quaker of the Future Time,” at Moorestown, N. J., on Eleventh month fourth, 1916. At his request Eleanor Scott Sharples assisted him with the poem written for the occasion.

Philadelphia, Pa., 1916.

Deep in a soul all tenderness,

He bears the great world’s woe,

Knowing, thru fellowship in pain,

Each agonizing throe;

He sees in faces sad, or scarred,

In eyes that mutely plead,

The birth-pain of the wrestling soul

That travails to be freed.

He bends with gently listening ear

To every faintest cry,

And clasps with hand of manly strength

The fingers weak and shy.

He counts no effort great or hard

That draws him close to men,

Changes their weakness into hope,

Makes sorrow smile again.

He sees God in the starlit night,

In every sun-kissed flower;

Each birdsong sings life’s mystery,

Each forest tree its power;

In every voice of harmony,

He hears the Voice Divine;

In every wavelet’s sparkling hue,

He sees God’s wonder shine.

Close to the throbbing heart of life

He walks in reverent awe,

His aim in every deed and word

To live the Master’s law,

Humble, because he knows how frail,

How weak, the strength of man,

Yet strong, because a friend of God

And part of God’s great plan.

Eleanor Scott Sharples.

The Quaker of the Future Time

The new thing in Quakerism in the days of George Fox was an understanding of the relation of God and man. George Fox knew from his own experience that God knew about him and cared that he develop to the fullness of manhood. His followers were not convinced by intellectual processes; they felt the Life. In their hearts, they felt the impulse of God’s power. They became conscious of a new faculty, a sixth sense. God was reaching out to them; they, in turn, might reach up to Him. It was a personal act, transcending both body and intellect. It was an inward process, vital, holy. They felt the promise of partaking of His own nature. The Divine seed within was growing; man was progressing upward; never was life so much worth the living.

To the growing body of theological thought, the Quaker made no permanent contribution. He anticipated, but cannot be said to have influenced, the conclusion of the nineteenth century thinkers who have so expressed the truths of religion that the modern mind can grasp them. The Quaker first wrote about his religion as a defense against open attacks. There is a reason why the Quaker was slow to express his religion in words. It was not a creed that had been revealed to him; he had discovered no new form of worship, more beautiful and more satisfying. No! to him, religion was a life, aspiring towards God from every side, conscious of His interest and support, making decisions as nearly as possible in the light of His will, and seeking always to keep vital the wonderful bond of spirit between human and divine.

Such a religion found its best expression in conduct, and in the spirit of one’s dealings with his neighbor. The early Quaker, accordingly, concerned himself with his behavior, and soon developed a number of characteristic acts, which were to him vitally a part of his scheme of life. He dressed without ornament, used the language of common life to all, doffed the hat to no man, no matter how high his position, became scrupulously honest in worldly business, refused oaths, avoided military service, contributed money liberally to help Friends in need, and with his time, counsel and energy, sought to relieve human distress.

The essential thing was the revived spirit of manhood rising from practice of the presence of God; these points of behavior were but ways of expressing the spirit.

* * * * * *

Today the essential remains unchanged. That the Divine Spirit can be the Bread of Life to men is the great fact of religion. But how will we live fed by such food? The fruits of the Spirit, what are they?

The Friend of the future, as of the past, will build his life on the faith that God knows him personally and extends to all others the same opportunity. In mankind is the finest, clearest, truest manifestation of God to be found in this material world. Mature with all her transcendent beauty pales before the glory of a human soul.

The Friend therefore, can recognize among men, no superiority except that of personal worth and personal achievement, and it will be to him a divine command that all should have a free opportunity for development. Since the Friend believes that all have access to God in their own hearts, he can conceive of no truer guidance or more final authority than the voice of God, and upon man rests no more urgent duty than the cultivation of the inward ear to hear that voice.

The Friend cannot admit that any man or institution has final authority over his life. His own conscience, impelled by the inward Presence, is supreme. Neither the home nor the church, nor the national government can deny the supremacy of each person’s understanding of his duty to God. For man is struggling slowly upward, subject, as the Friend believes, to a divine stimulus, arousing him to fresh endeavor. It is God’s world; what the end of man’s development will be God only knows. Hence man may not presume to dictate the course of life for his fellows.

This is the essence of democracy, that political creed which claims for each person the right to make the best of himself in his own way. Democracy has faith in the latent power of the individual, and in his capacity for development. Since democracy thrusts upon each person the duty of development, it seeks in its social order security, freedom and brotherhood, and in its culture such food for mind and soul as will nourish lifelong growth.

Quakerism is a bold application of democracy to religion. Like any truly democratic movement, its characteristic note is personal duty. The very freedom on which democracy rests will not survive individual faithlessness. The spirit of brotherhood which unifies a democracy will blossom forth only from the root of duty fulfilled. A true culture, which stimulates the young, refreshes those of middle age, and enriches the old, cannot be maintained, if men are heedless of their individual duty. Quakerism strives for lives of freedom, brotherhood and culture. The Friend of the future time believes that above all, he must find and fulfill his duty to God, and further, since he believes God’s greatest concern in this part of His universe, is the development of the whole human race to the fullness of the stature of manhood, the Friend will see his duty to man, wrapped up in his duty to God. Such devotion to duty will prevent democracy from degenerating into unbridled individualism.

This is the belief of the Friend of the future; that the greatest stimulus to human growth is the power of God operating in each person’s heart, that God has no favorites but like rain and sunshine, pours down on all alike. In family life, in church life, in civic life, it is his duty to recognize these truths, to treat men in accord with them.

In family life duty will include above all the bearing and rearing of children. God’s great plan of a perfected humanity will fail unless the stream of human life flows without ceasing. Those races who have made the most progress must needs produce heavily enough to carry their way of life to the ends of the earth. Children are not born for the parents’ satisfaction; they are in no sense a reward of merit; it is right to enjoy them, but duty will not let the parents’ satisfaction interfere with the child’s best growth. With beautiful cheer a young couple have sent from home their little tot, born deaf and dumb. Home cannot teach him to speak; without speech he will not grow to his fullness. For the child’s good the sacrifice is made and the risk accepted. Such is the true Friendly spirit in the home.

The purpose of punishment, for instance, will not be relief of parental feelings, but the child’s right growth. It will be understood that the school alone cannot educate the child. Parents will study the school, and supply, if they can, what the school fails to do. Amidst the pressure which adults feel these days, it is needful to cultivate the affection and confidence of one’s children. There is nothing better than playing with them. The home is the great laboratory for demonstrating the power of love in real life.

The children will early be taught to do for themselves, and to work, with hand as well as mind. Real responsibilities must be placed on them, which, if neglected, will make home less desirable. From the dawn of consciousness the child should learn that fundamental principle of democracy – that each one must do his share, and that neglect inevitably causes discomfort and suffering. Cold rooms, late meals, lost playthings, will quickly arouse family resentment against the laggard. He feels the force of public opinion, and in a natural but effective way learns for a lifetime the great lesson of doing his share.

In the affairs of his meeting the Friend will strive for the fullest expression of the spirit of democracy. The first move will be to do his share to help make the meeting useful. He will be in his place, regularly, entering, as far as he may, into the spirit of worship. Before coming he will prepare, that is there may be a welling up of feeling during the busy week, carefully stored away for further development during the hour of worship, or he may enter the house, resolved to wrestle with some vital and trying perplexity of business or home affairs, or if life be so well ordered that he takes his seat calm and satisfied, and no spoken word is likely, he will have found in his morning reading some thought to start on. It is not his desire to supersede the guidance of the spirit of God; but experience teaches that we feel the impelling force of the Divine more readily if we go to meeting under a concern. The consciousness that is already active responds more quickly to the breath of inspiration than if torpid. In this way the humblest worshipper fulfills the duty to the meeting.

The Friend of the future will not find worship complete without expression of the hidden life of the spirit. The existing love and unity must be made vocal to enable the meeting to enter into the fullness. The more diverse the membership, the greater the need for outward expression. Friends will not speak for the relief of their own spirits. The purpose of vocal ministry is to express the best of what is given the meeting, to harmonize, to carry individuals out of themselves into new feelings and convictions. No one will speak regularly week after week, nor at great length. What is said belongs to that particular meeting, and is a reflection of the spiritual elements there represented. The thoughts uttered may have been thought years before or the day before, but because no one can predict the exact spirit of the meeting, we cannot fix beforehand the words nor the speaker.

There will in the future be a greater willingness to speak than at present, and the spoken word will not be the only medium of expression. There will be musical instruments in our meeting houses for some are gifted to express spiritual things in music. Others can contribute more in song. All do not speak. All will not sing; perhaps one only will feel the call. There will be no pre-arrangement of musical service. It will spring up spontaneously from divine prompting, and none can take offense, for it will be as truly a part of the spirit of the meeting as the spoken word to which we are accustomed.

We cannot feel that our way of worship is truly democratic, unless there is a duty for every one, and opportunity for each to express what is given him, as he is best fitted.

Our meetings are organizations with business to conduct, and finances to handle. Considerable care is exercised over the affairs of the members. Our method of doing business is an attempt to apply the principle of democracy to the carrying on of ecclesiastical affairs. The Friend of the future will not consider the experiment so successful that change will be impossible. He will appreciate the freedom of expression, as well as the duty of serious thought before taking his seat. He will not be satisfied until all elements in the meeting are drawn into discussion, and also into committee service.

As to the financial support of the meeting, the principle of democracy demands that each one do his share. For this reason meetings will dread endowments for running expenses. Nothing could be more disastrous for the spiritual life of a meeting than invested funds for heating, lighting and repairing meeting houses. Spiritual life thrives upon effort; folks appreciate what they pay for; our meetings will mean nothing, if they cost nothing.

Meetings may very well receive endowments for permanent works of general benefit or to care for the helpless. Homes, hospitals, asylums, schools and colleges, to benefit the whole community, not Friends alone, ought to be endowed. In many instances the best service will be rendered by sharing the control of such activities with others. Swarthmore College, for instance, is not under the control of any part of our church machinery. Its board of managers is not restricted to Friends. Among our English brethren, the Adult School movement into which they have poured so much love, so much time, so much money, is a non-sectarian movement. It is not under the control of any meeting. If Friends virtually direct it, the reason lies in their ability and devotion, and not in the method of organization.

Many of our meetings are already moving in this direction by contributing to the Anti-Saloon League, and other reform organizations. Friendly concerns, such as the Neighborhood Guild in Philadelphia, receive contributions from meetings not connected with their management.

The Friends of future time will extend this form of activity and open new ones. The way may open for us to join in a Peace movement far greater than anything we can do ourselves, and as our spiritual life mounts higher and higher, an overflow into foreign lands and foreign civilizations will be inevitable. Such mission work will not be to make the foreigner similar to ourselves. It will be in the interest of human brotherhood. He must know us, and we him. The different nations of the earth need to understand each other. There is need for us to get together, not in commerce alone, nor in pleasure seeking, but in sharing knowledge, skill, culture, aspirations and religion. We are now spending the money of the meeting visiting distant yearly meetings and entertaining visitors in return. In time we will be doing foreign missionary work in the same spirit, and when that time comes it will cost more to be a Friend and will be worth more.

Outside the home and the church, in the larger circle of social, business and political life, the Friend of the future will always recognize the innate human yearning for higher development. Men will be to him sensitive, aspiring holy beings; if they appear sullen, heartless, they either are acting a part, or some unfortunate circumstance has thwarted God’s great plan of a perfected humanity. Of Himself, God will not ennoble men. He makes it part of our duty to join with Him in this magnificent work. Our poet’s beautiful lines tell us of this fundamental attitude in all social relations, and of our duty:

Deep in a soul all tenderness,

He bears the great world’s woe,

Knowing, thru fellowship in pain,

Each agonizing throe;

He sees in faces sad, or scarred,

In eyes that mutely plead,

The birth-pain of the wrestling

That travails to be freed.

He bends with gently listening ear

To every faintest cry,

And clasps with hand of manly strength

The fingers weak and shy.

He counts no effort great or hard

That draws him close to man,

Changes their weakness into hope,

Makes sorrow smile again.

Let us not misunderstand the meaning of these lines. If we would ease “The birth-pain of the wrestling soul that travails to be freed;” or “Change their weakness into hope, Make sorrow smile again,” we face definite duties both individual and social. The shackles which bind men are partly personal, that is, centered in our own hearts, and partly social, outward conditions, affecting us, yet beyond our control. We escape from our individual sins as other individuals, “bend with gently listening ear,” “clasp with hand of manly strength our fingers weak and shy.”

But social evils yield only to social legislation, the form of which is the result of long foresight, much thinking and sympathetic judgment, and the enforcement of which is the constant concern of a devoted citizenship.

The Friend of the future will feel both of these phases of duty as he engages in the larger circle of business and political life. We will consider first the social duty.

The easiest part is the support of organized movements to free men from the degrading shackles of war, intemperance, poverty, ignorance. The more difficult part is to guide these movements in a far seeing, thoughtful and judicious way. For they all contain a serious element of danger. The power of the government is increased, while the individual surrenders rights and privileges for the common good. We can gain much from prohibition of the liquor traffic, from compulsory education, or compulsory training for citizenship, but if these things destroy the freedom of each person to make the best of himself in his own way, if they substitute implicit obedience to law for intelligent following of our individual duty to God, they are disastrous to democracy. For democracy consists of more than everybody voting. The consent of the governed is part of democracy, but equally fundamental is the freedom to find one’s own contact with the spirit of God, to build up one’s own ideals, to make the best of oneself in one’s own way. Such freedom permits a man to fail, to degrade himself, if he will, to deny God and disregard the rights of men. It is a terrific dilemma. Without freedom, man’s progress may be hampered by the red-tape, the bureaucratic standards of fixed human institutions; with freedom man may wreck himself and injure others.

The present tendency is to restrict human freedom. We have compulsory education, compulsory wage scales, compulsory insurance. We are facing compulsory temperance and compulsory training for citizenship. Our objection to the last mentioned is not on account of its compulsory feature, but because it involves learning the art of war.

It seems these movements are generally in the right direction and deserve our support. Even training for citizenship, through compulsory national service, would win the ardent support of many of us, if conscientious objectors could be exempted from the military and naval branches of service. Our country is an experiment with democracy on an enormous scale, with peoples of widely varying races, ambitions and needs. These compulsory movements are to unite us, to develop a consistent national character, without which democracy will not win in its struggle with the aristocratic, monarchical culture of the old world.

As these compulsory social movements make progress the Friend will realize more and more clearly a duty laid upon him. To save democracy, to rescue individual freedom will be his task. The central government will build up complicated machinery for the control of education, industry, transportation, health. How can we make this machinery helpful, and prevent it from crushing out or perverting the spirit of the individual?

The answer to this question is seen in the best type of school room. Many a community boasts a skillful devoted teacher who never has to think of keeping order. She is puzzled when asked to describe her method of discipline. Her personality wins the students to their work, and to right conduct. They want to do the right thing because she wants them to do it. Attendance at her school is compulsory, good order and the performance of work are compulsory, but the spirit of her personality wins the cooperation of her students, she exercises the compulsion of love, not of law. The spirit of her students grows, for there is neither repression nor consequent rebellion.

Such a teacher points the way to the salvation of democracy. We need not fear the powerful and complicated machinery of government, if our institutions are filled so full of personality, both human and divine, that they will attract righteousness, that they will make men want to do what the institution stands for. The tyranny of the majority can be as damaging to the minority as the tyranny of an aristocratic class, and yet there must be unity of spirit in democracy, a consciousness of brotherhood that will make the rule of the majority rest as easily on the sensitive soul as the good teacher’s quiet power controls the restless eager children.

To create such a spirit will be the duty of the Friend of the future. He will therefore understand that the passage of any law for social reform is a moment, not of duty accomplished, but of duty begun. For the law itself will not secure righteousness. The Friend and others like him will at once obey its provisions; indeed in most instances, he will, for a long time, have been living up to the standard of the law, just as his ancestors outgrew slavery and hard drinking before prohibition and abolition became popular issues. Those who need the uplifting effect of such laws are those who tend to disobey. How will they be dealt with? In what spirit will the law be enforced? Will it be in the cold, impersonal, suspicious way that characterizes so much of our legal machinery, or in that sympathetic human way, breathing the spirit of good will and brotherhood, which Lindsey has demonstrated in Denver, and Osborne in Sing Sing?

The creation of this spirit of brotherhood will come about in some instances by volunteer police service such as Friends are already rendering in connection with Law and Order societies or No-License Leagues.

Of far more value will be the development of such customs and conditions as will make it easy and desirable to live in accord with the law.

For instance, the passage of prohibition will impose on every Friend the duty of providing some means by which the worker may free himself from the tension of the day’s machine-driven labor. A dull reading room will not suffice. We will have to use our Y. M. C. A., our churches, our schools, our town halls, as centers for the most attractive kind of recreation. The public may have to bear some share of the expense of the music, the moving pictures, the playgrounds, the swimming pools, the libraries, which will be provided. New possibilities of amusements for the worker will be permitted on the Sabbath-day. Rooms should be available in public buildings, free of charge, for organizations seeking recreation or self-improvement and above all every one active in the management of these things should carry out his work in the spirit of Lindsey and Osborne, and of the good school teacher. Human relations must become personal; human institutions must radiate brotherhood.

Compulsory school attendance is a fact in many states. To distil from school attendance real education will appeal to the Quaker of the coming time as a duty. Whether he teaches or not he will strive for an adequately supported school system, paying higher taxes, gladly giving of himself to make the system human. The parent will know the teacher, seeking to understand his child better through the teacher’s eyes, and the teacher will welcome the parents’ view of the youngster. Each will appreciate, encourage and assist the other.

Further illustrations are unnecessary. Our social duty, in general, is incomplete, until we have worked hard for those institutions and customs which make it easier to observe the high requirements of social law, and for that spirit which makes men want to live without ruining each other.

It is characteristic of the Friend of the olden time that he would not rely on law. George Fox would make no laws. His classic reply to the youthful Penn, “Wear thy sword as long as thee can, William,” shows what his soul desired: not conformity with law, but growth of spirit. When John G. Whittier portrays the Quaker character at its best, he says of the Quaker of the olden time,

“He walked by faith, and not by sight,

By love and not by law.”

Jesus also made no laws. He touched men’s hearts. He opened to them the inexhaustible power of the spirit of God. They drank Living Water, their eyes saw with the Light of the World, they were discovering the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

In the same way, the Friend of the future will labor that life may rest, not on law, but on the spirit of love as among brothers. To foster such a spirit, as a part of the spiritual endowment as a nation will be the commanding purpose of his private life. His duty as an individual will be to carry into the larger circle of business and political life a sense of brotherhood, a deep respect for others, and a sublime faith that the best side of humanity will awaken to such a touch.

He will, therefore, hate in himself the contented feeling of being fixed, settled down as it were. He will hunger for growth. He will never think of his education as finished; he will long to learn more. His meeting will be to him, not a comfortable social center, not an avenue to a glorious future life, but a source of discontent, a stirring up of yearning, a stimulus to renewed endeavor to realize in the present an ever growing ideal. He will expect the future to produce something better than he now enjoys. Public needs may change, and a lifelong pledge of allegiance to one political party would be unthinkable. His understanding of Science and Theology will not be final. To him, Truth is as yet but imperfectly comprehended. We know so little of God, of human life, of nature. Life is a quest. Who knows what the morrow will bring forth!

He will bring up his children as living in the presence of profound wonder. He will be himself humble of heart as becomes one facing the immensity of God, and the depth of the God-filled human spirit.

To such a person social mingling, political activity, business and professional affairs, are but opportunities for service. Work is no curse; it is the way God provides to use the talents of the individual for the benefit of his associates. The spiritual life, the life spent in communion with God will not be lived in the seclusion of a monastery, nor shut in by the tenets of a peculiar people.

After voting twice, John Comly refused to exercise again the right of franchise. He subscribed for a newspaper for a year but would not renew. His reasons are clearly stated: “I found that as my thirst for a knowledge of the outward world was indulged, my relish for divine things and my attention to the inward world of my own mind diminished.” As for voting, “I saw that Friends could have nothing to do with the strife of politics, if they kept their places in the Truth as followers of Him who declared that His kingdom was not of this world.”

In referring to a certain village he says, “At this village is the courthouse for Washington county and a bank. Several Friends in traveling have held meetings in this village, but courts and banks, when peoples’ minds become filled with them, allow very little room for religious impressions to take root, so as to produce the fruits of the Spirit.” (Journal p. 254).

John Comly and Friends of like mind felt the religious life to be a plant of tender nurture, liable to injury thru exposure to a worldly atmosphere. The Divine Spirit belonged to another world and could not fully operate among the institutions of this. They believed that the well grown religious life should be an active force for righteousness, as their arduous journeys and many meetings testify, but they restricted the expression of the God-filled human spirit to preaching, meetings for worship, and neighborhood charity. The man who found his largest scope in business, or other public activities was, if devout, led to feel himself inferior in piety. From this no doubt arises that profound fear of speaking in meeting and sitting on the facing benches which characterizes so many Friends.

The Friend of the coming time will see in voting and banking simply another opportunity for him to help fill the world full of the glory of God. Among his associates he may find occasions to speak of the power of God in life, in sermon form, or in conversation as man to man. He will often invite his co-workers to join with him in worship and will, extend a helping hand if there is need. But in addition to these things the way he meets his business associates will testify eloquently of the quality of his soul. How do we greet them, how direct them and how do we receive directions? In what spirit do we rise triumphant in the realization of some cherished hope? What is our spirit when overwhelmed by deceit, unfaithfulness? How do we bear up under illness, injustice, partiality, misrepresentation? What is our response to cold, sad, discouraged persons? Are we just, courteous and concerned when dealing with the indifferent, uninteresting and insignificant people? By such things as these men form their estimate of each other, and in this language of daily intercourse, the spirit of God has a most vigorous expression.

The product of our worldly work is also of value, both to the material and spiritual needs of our time. It is a divine calling to do our work in the right way; it is also a divine concern that the result of our labor be useful. Human life, created by God, needs food, clothes, shelter. It does not lead us away from God to engage in the world’s work. Rather, it brings us closer.

“Raise the stone, and thou shalt find Me;

Cleave the wood, and there am I.”

In what spirit do we address ourselves to our work? Do we labor for the utmost production at the lowest fair price? Do we strive to avoid waste? Is our work honestly what it appears to be? Are we using all our intelligence to solve such problems as just wages for labor and efficient distribution of goods? Justice in the wage scale may cut down profits; distribution, so as to reach all who need, without exceeding their purchasing power, may radically alter the present methods of advertising and selling and may reduce the margin of profit. But the purpose of business and professional life is service, not profit. Business must pay its own expenses, including the support of all who labor therein; that is part of its service; but it is a perversion of business when sudden wealth is concentrated into the hands of the few. As long as poverty and disease and intemperance and war flourish as at present, things are not right. There is a deficiency in intelligence, in honesty and sincerity, as we work, because of the widespread opinion that business and professional matters are of the world and not of God.

The Friend of today feels it his duty to carry the spirit of God into the world’s work, and expects to render service by following the Divine inspiration, not only in meeting associates, but also in attacking the problems which the day’s work presents. The spirit of his personal dealings, and of his methods, together with the honesty, quality and the usefulness of his product, will speak to the world in general of God and furthermore will have the personal effect of intensifying the life of the spirit in which man and God meet.

The term “business” has been used in a most general sense, equivalent to the other term of which use has been made, world’s work. The principle evolved may be applied to any sort of public activity, politics, teaching, medicine, law, art; these things of the world, inseparately woven into the warp and woof of our existence in this sphere, are not beyond the reach of God’s interest. They are His vital concern, and He calls us to busy ourselves with them, but in such a way that men have free opportunity to make the most of themselves. Such a spirit will save democracy from its own inherent dangers and create the environment which God needs to carry out His plan of perfecting humanity.

And yet the phase of truth expressed in John Comly’s objection to newspapers and voting, banks and courts will appeal to the Friend of the coming time. These things of the world can absorb the whole store of human energy, they can make men narrow and mechanical, and play havoc with the spiritua1 life.

The Friend will understand that these things, tho feeding in part the development soul, are insufficient. Religion is a matter of the whole life. It must feed on every interest, and on the yearning for direct communion with God. The Friend will devote himself to his work, as far as he can, but he will not neglect those pursuits which build him up. He will seek for God in public worship, as well as private; he will seek self-mastery and refreshment of spirit in the quiet; he will keep alive his interest in people, books and pictures. Nature will fill his heart with boyish elemental joy; music will uncover for him the surprising beauty of his daily life.

He sees God in the star-lit night,

In every sun-kissed flower;

Each birdsong sings life’s mystery,

Each forest tree its power;

In every voice of harmony,

He hears the Voice Divine;

In every wavelet’s sparkling hue,

He sees God’s wonder shine.

The spirit of one’s own life is the channel by which the spirit of Christ animates human affairs, business, politics, government. That is God’s way. Thru men, He expects to reach human institutions. The Friend of the future, therefore, eager to be a “part of God’s great plan,” will neither neglect the development of his spiritual life, nor overwork it. He will dread equally that indifferent state, the result of too close, too continuous, application to business, and that jaded condition, the result of hurrying from conference to committee and committee to conference. Neither radiates spiritual power.

For the true life of the spirit is vigorous, fresh, clear, like the autumn air, under blue skies, on the hill tops. It has perspective and therefore may look on things as they are without fear or discouragement. There is poise, faith and good cheer. Amongst men there is the warm glow of sympathy and understanding, fresh, spontaneous; never mechanical nor indifferent. Towards God is the constant yearning for guidance, and inspiration, up to the very fullness of the stature of manhood that is in Christ. Such is the Quaker of the future coming time.  

About the Author

George A. Walton (1883-1969) was the long-time headmaster of the George School, a Quaker boarding school in Newtown, Pennsylvania. He succeeded his father as headmaster in 1912 and served until 1948. After his retirement, he continued to be active in Quaker organizations and concerns, including the reunification of the Society of Friends in 1955. He was a member of Newtown Monthly Meeting.

Walton advocated for living faith in one's work, and to ensure that it has meaning and value to both the material and the spiritual realms. Walton gave this speech in 1916 and was responding to many changes in society at the time, although his work still resonates today.

http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/friends/ead/5157gewa.xml

See also: https://www.georgeschool.org/history-timeline/george-a-walton-third-head-of-school/

About the Lectures

The William Penn Lectures started as a ministry of the Young Friends’ Movement of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.  In the beginning of the last century, “Young Friends” was the community of young adults from both the Hicksite and the Orthodox Philadelphia Yearly Meetings, which reunited in 1955.  The Young Friends Movement began the lecture series “for the purpose of closer fellowship; for the strengthening by such association and the interchange of experience, of loyalty to the ideals of the Society of Friends; and for the preparation by such common ideals for more effective work through the Society of Friends for the growth of the Kingdom of God on Earth.”  The name of William Penn was chosen because the Young Friends Movement found Penn to be “a Great Adventurer, who in fellowship with his friends started in his youth on the holy experiment of endeavoring ‘To live out the laws of Christ in every thought, and word, and deed; and that these might become the laws and habits of the State.’”

The first run of William Penn Lectures were given between 1916 and 1966, and are warmly remembered by Friends who attended them as occasions to look forward to for fellowship with our community, inspiration, and a challenge to live into our faith.  The lectures were published by the Book Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.  Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has granted Pendle Hill and Quaker Heron Press permission to reproduce the lectures as free ebooks. 

Although it was announced in 1960 that the series would be discontinued several lectures were published in the early ‘60s. It appears that the lectures given between 1923 and 1931 were never published.  If we come upon manuscripts of these lectures, we hope to publish them in future.

In 2010, the Young Adult Friends of PYM revived the series, officially launching the second run of the William Penn Lectures in 2011.  The series was renamed the Seeking Faithfulness series in 2016, as part of the Young Adult Friends of PYM’s concern for dismantling racism within the yearly meeting and the wider society.  It no longer felt rightly ordered to have a major event named after a slaveholder.  The Seeking Faithfulness series is hosted by the Young Adult Friends for the benefit of the whole yearly meeting community, and invites a Friend to challenge us all to explore new ways to practice our Quaker faith.  The Seeking Faithfulness series seeks to nourish our spiritual lives and call us to faithful witness in our communities and throughout the world.