enjoyed, whether true or false, is broken; the title-deeds of our
opinions, the reason of our practices, are demanded. Our very right to
exist as a distinct society is questioned. Our old literature--the
precious journals and biographies of early and later Friends--is
comparatively neglected for sensational and dogmatic publications. We
bear complaints of a want of educated ministers; the utility of silent
meetings is denied, and praying and preaching regarded as matters of will
and option. There is a growing desire for experimenting upon the dogmas
and expedients and practices of other sects. I speak only of admitted
facts, and not for the purpose of censure or complaint. No one has less
right than myself to indulge in heresy-hunting or impatience of minor
differences of opinion. If my dear friends can bear with me, I shall not
find it a hard task to bear with them.

But for myself I prefer the old ways. With the broadest possible
tolerance for all honest seekers after truth! I love the Society of
Friends. My life has been nearly spent in laboring with those of other
sects in behalf of the suffering and enslaved; and I have never felt like
quarrelling with Orthodox or Unitarians, who were willing to pull with
me, side by side, at the rope of Reform. A very large proportion of my
dearest personal friends are outside of our communion; and I have learned
with John Woolman to find "no narrowness respecting sects and opinions."
But after a kindly and candid survey of them all, I turn to my own
Society, thankful to the Divine Providence which placed me where I am;
and with an unshaken faith in the one distinctive doctrine of Quakerism--
the Light within--the immanence of the Divine Spirit in Christianity. I
cheerfully recognize and bear testimony to the good works and lives of
those who widely differ in faith and practice; but I have seen no truer
types of Christianity, no better men and women, than I have known and
still know among those who not blindly, but intelligently, hold the