And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld
his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of
grace and truth. John 1:14.
I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Mark 1:8.
You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer
do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master
is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from
my Father I have made known to you. John 15:14-15.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable,
gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,
without partiality, and without hypocrisy. James 3:17.
Related Quaker Quotes
Remember that our spiritual life will not be complete unless we
have experienced an inward baptism and transformation. Growth in
inward purity and outward Christian effectiveness should follow this
experience; but such growth can come only if we persist in seeking to
know and follow...Christ. Advice 27, OYM Book of Discipline, 2001.
And when all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that
I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do, then, Oh
then, I heard a voice which said, There is one, even Christ Jesus,
that can speak to thy condition, and when I heard it my heart did leap
for joy. Journal of George Fox, Nickalls, ed. p. 11.
There is a Principle, which is pure, placed in the human Mind,
which in different Places and Ages hath had different Names; it is,
however, pure, and proceeds from GOD.It is deep, and inward, confined
to no Forms of Religion, nor excluded from any, where the Heart stands
in perfect Sincerity. In whomsoever this takes Root, and grows,
of what nation soever, they become Brethren, in the best Sense of the
Expression. Using ourselves to take Ways which appear most easy
to us, when inconsistent with that Purity which is without beginning,
we thereby set up a Government of our own, and deny Obedience to him,
whose Service is true Liberty. Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes, by John Woolman.
And when the priest had done I spoke to him and the people the
truth and the light which let them see all that ever they had done, and
of their teacher within them, and how the Lord was come to teach them
himself, and of the Seed Christ in them; how they were to mind that,
and the promise that was to the Seed of God within them, which is
Christ. Journal of George Fox, Nickalls, ed. p.48.
And here we are confronted with the real peculiarity of
Quakerismits relation to mysticism. There is no doubt that
George Fox himself and the other fathers of the Society were of a
strongly mystical turn of mind, though not in the sense in which the
word is often used by the worshippers of common sense, as a mild term
of reproach, to convey a general vague dreaminess. Nothing,
certainly, could be less applicable to the early Friends than any such
reproach as this. They were fiery, dogmatic, pugnacious, and
intensely practical and sober-minded. But they were assuredly
mystics in what I take to be the more accurate sense of that
wordpeople, that is, with a vivid consciousness of the inwardness of
the light of truth. Quaker Strongholds, by Caroline Stephen.
While seeking to interpret our Christian faith in the language
of today, we must remember that there is one worse thing than failure
to practice what we profess, and that is to water down our profession
to match our practice. Friends World Conference, 1952.
...if we make a definition of a Christian which is scriptural,
that a Christian is one who has the spirit of Christ and is led by it,
we will have to divest many Christians and indeed many of these great
masters and doctors of Christianity of the designation. Apology for the True Christian Divinity, Robert Barclay.
When Christians are learned in all other methods of obtaining
knowledge whether it be the letter of the scriptures, the traditions
of the churches, or the works of creation and providence and are able
to produce strong and undeniable arguments from these sources, but
remain altogether ignorant of the inward and unmediated revelations of
Gods Spirit in the heart, they ought not to be considered Christians.
On the other hand, there are those who are altogether ignorant of
some of the learned aspects of Christianity and who have very little
skill in other methods of obtaining knowledge, but who have been
brought to salvation by the unmediated revelation of God in the
heart. Barclays Apology in Modern English, Dean Freiday, ed., p. 22.
But if we shall make a right definition of a Christian,
according to the Scripture, videlicit, That he is one that hath the
spirit of Christ, and is led by it, how many Christians, yea, and of
these great masters and doctors of Christianity, so accounted, shall we
justly divest of that noble title? If then such as have all the other
means of knowledge, and are sufficiently learned therein, whether it be
the letter of the Scripture, the traditions of churches, or the works
of creation and providence, whence they are able to deduce strong and
undeniable arguments (which may be true in themselves), are yet not to
be esteemed Christians, according to the certain and infalliable
definition above mentioned; and if the inward and immediate revelation
of Gods Spirit in the heart, in such as have been altogether
ignorant of some, and but very little skilled in others, of these means
of attaining knowledge, hath brought them to salvation; then it will
necessarilly and evidently follow, that inward and immediate revelation
is the only sure and certain way to attain the true and saving
knowledge of God. But the first is true: Therefore the
last. An Apology for the True Christian Divinity, by Robert Barclay, p.27
Quotes from other Faith Traditions
O People of the Scripture! Do not exaggerate in your
religion nor utter aught concerning Allah save the truth. The
Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and His word
which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him... The Meaning of the Glorious Koran, 5:171, translated by Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall.
Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto
Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not
fear. Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, 18:66, translated by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad, 2nd Edition 1986.