rill had not arrived, they said, but Ruth
Baxter had spent the last night at Friend Way's, and would certainly
be there. Besides, there were Friend Chandler, from Nine Partners, and
Friend Carter, from Maryland: they had been seen on the ground. Friend
Carter was said to have a wonderful gift,--Mercy Jackson had heard him
once, in Baltimore. The Friends there had been a little exercised about
him, because they thought he was too much inclined to "the newness,"
but it was known that the Spirit had often manifestly led him. Friend
Chandler had visited Yearly Meeting once, they believed. He was an old
man, and had been a personal friend of Elias Hicks.

At the appointed hour they entered the house. After the subdued rustling
which ensued upon taking their seats, there was an interval of silence,
shorter than usual, because it was evident that many persons would
feel the promptings of the Spirit. Friend Chandler spoke first, and was
followed by Ruth Baxter, a frail little woman, with a voice of exceeding
power. The not unmelodious chant in which she delivered her admonitions
rang out, at times, like the peal of a trumpet. Fixing her eyes on
vacancy, with her hands on the wooden rail before her, and her
body slightly swaying to and fro, her voice soared far aloft at the
commencement of every sentence, gradually dropping, through a melodious
scale of tone, to the close. She resembled an inspired prophetess, an
aged Deborah, crying aloud in the valleys of Israel.

The last speaker was Friend Carter, a small man, not more than forty
years of age. His face was thin and intense in its expression, his hair
gray at the temples, and his dark eye almost too restless for a child of
"the stillness and the quietness." His voice, though not loud, was clear
and penetrating, with an earnest, sympathetic quality, which arrested,
not the ear alone, but the serious attention of the auditor. His
delivery was but slightly marked by the peculiar rhythm of the Quaker
preachers; and this fact, perhaps, increased the effect of his words,
through the contrast with those who preceded him.

His discourse was an eloquent vindication of the law of kindness, as the
highest and purest manifestation of true Christian doctrine.

The paternal relation of God to man was the basis of that religion which
appealed directly to the heart: so the fraternity of each man with his
fellow was its practical application. God pardons the repentant sinner:
we can also p