that there were many Demases and Cains who embraced the present world,
and encumbered themselves with their own business, and neglected the
Lord's, and so were good for nothing; and he said, they that had wives,
should be as though they had none; and who goeth a warfare should not
entangle himself with the things of this world."

This characteristic extract will suggest, probably, to many readers, our
object in quoting it. If there was cause for the reproof conveyed in it
in that day, in which we know the primitive zeal still burned brightly,
what must we say of the subsequent, and of the present state of our
little church!

Long after the death of George Fox, there continued to be a large
increase to the numbers of friends; many who had been wise and great in
this world, were made to rejoice in the laying down of their outward
wisdom, and in sitting down in deep humility to learn of Jesus, by the
teaching of the Holy Spirit in the heart. These were prepared boldly to
declare God's controversy with sin, and the means by which it might be
subdued, not omitting to proclaim the alone ground of a sinner's pardon
through the propitiatory sacrifice of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

We believe certainly that it has never been permitted to our Society to
be without its faithful labourers in the gospel, or without many sincere
confessors of its doctrines, who, by life and conversation, have been
true preachers to their brethren, and to the world in general. Yet we
must confess, that whilst as a Society, we continue to profess the same
religious views as were held and promulgated by our early Friends, we
fear we do not come up in practice to that pure standard to which they
attained. The door is open to all the world, yet we sit at ease in our
ceiled houses. Many around us are hungering and thirsting for the