to
visit the sick, the afflicted, and the destitute, and to superintend
marriages and funerals. The farmer, the shoemaker, the physician, or the
merchant, followed his vocation diligently, and whenever the Spirit
moved him to exhort his brethren, he did so. The "First, and Fifth Day"
of the week, called by other denominations Sunday and Thursday, were set
apart by them for religious meetings. Women were placed on an equality
with men, by being admitted to this free Gospel ministry, and appointed
on committees with men, to regulate the affairs of the Society. They
abjured war under all circumstances, and suffered great persecution
rather than pay military taxes. They early discouraged the distillation
or use of spirituous liquors, and disowned any of their members who
distilled them from grain. Protests against slavery were among their
most earnest testimonies, and it was early made a rule of discipline
that no member of the Society should hold slaves. When the Quakers
first arose, it was a custom in England, as it still is on the continent
of Europe, to say _thou_ to an inferior, or equal, and _you_ to a
superior. They saw in this custom an infringement of the great law of
human brotherhood; and because they would "call no man master," they
said _thou_ to every person, without distinction of rank. To the
conservatives of their day, this spiritual democracy seemed like
deliberate contempt of authority; and as such, deserving of severe
punishment. More strenuously than all other things, they denied the
right of any set of men to prescribe a creed for others. The only
authority they recognized was "the light within;" and for freedom to
follow this, they were always ready to suffer or to die.

On all these subjects, there could be no doubt that Elias Hicks was a
Quaker of the old genuine stamp. But he differed from many others in
some of his theological views. He considered Christ as "the only Son of
the most high God;" but he denied that "the _outward person_," which
suffered on Calvary was properly the Son of God. He attached less
importance to miracles, than did many of his brethren. He said he had
learned more of his own soul, and had clearer revelations of God and
duty, while following his plough, than from all the books he had ever
read. He reverenced the Bible as a record of divine power and goodness,
but did not consider a knowledge of it essential to salvation; for he
supposed that a Hindoo or an African, who never