The History of Quakerism
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By MACMILLAN
THE Friends, or Quakers, have exerted an influence in religious thought, and in American life generally, that is out of proportion to their numbers. As Professor Russell points out in his history, which presents all the essential facts in the history of Quakerism from George Fox to the present time, there are a little over 160,000 Friends in the world, with 116,000 in the United States and 22,000 in Great Britain and Ireland. Perhaps it is just because of their limited numbers that the Friends have remained a distinctive leaven in the Christian body. What the Friends have stood for pretty consistently would include the following principles: a deeply personal, informal, and simple method of worship; simplicity in living; opposition to slavery and to all forms of oppression; rejection of war and of organized violence.
As Professor Russell shows, with a good deal of illustrative detail, the Friends have not been content to turn away from a world of war and violent revolution. One would feel happier about the prospect for world reconstruction after the war if one could believe that it would be carried out, with all the resouness of governments, in the spirit that has animated the Society of Friends in its own limited sphere. W. H. C.