our journey pursue;"

and after a short prayer by the preacher for blessings during the coming
year, the service closed, and out I went into the streets, suddenly as it
were wakened up into life--while church bells rang out the old 1869, and
rang in A.D. 1870.

CHAPTER XI.
THE QUAKERS.

Modern Christianity, it is often said, has little in common with that of
apostolic times: I fear it is equally true that the Quakerism of to-day
has little in common with the heroic Quakerism of an earlier day. It was
in 1646, during the prevalence of civil and religious commotions, that
George Fox commenced his labours as minister of the Gospel, being then in
the twenty-third year of his age. It was a hard time of it he and his
disciples had; no men ever fared worse and for less provocation given, at
the hands of arbitrary powers, than did the Quakers. Baxter thus
describes them:--"They made the light which every man hath within him to
be his sufficient rule, and consequently the Scripture and ministry were
set light by. They spake much for the dwelling and working of the Spirit
in us, but little of justification and the pardon of sin and our
reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. They pretend their
dependence on the Spirit's conduct against set times of prayer and
against sacraments, and against undue esteem of Scripture and ministry.
They will not have the Scriptures called the Word of God. Their
principal zeal lieth in railing at the ministers as hirelings, deceivers,
false prophets, &c., and in refusing to swear before a magistrate, or to
put off their hat to any, or to say _you_ instead of _thou_ or _thee_,
which are their words to all. At first they did use to fall into
wailings and tremblings at their meetings, and pretend to be intently
acted on by the Spirit, but now that is ceased. They only meet, and he
that pretendeth to be moved by the Spirit speaketh, and sometimes they
say nothing but sit an hour or more in silence and then depart." The
most fiery, the most untameable of men were the old Quakers, now a Friend
is the sleekest and fattest of men; lives in a style of the utmost
comfort, and wears the best of everything; there are no such homes of
luxury, no such lives of ease as amongst the Quakers. It is no wonder
they are a long-lived race. They mingle little with the world, and find
a peace which often the worldlings miss. As a religious organization
they are becoming weaker every day; they