My dear friends,—Be not carried away by good words and fair speeches [Rom 16:18], nor the affectionate part, which is taken with them; but every one have hold of the truth in yourselves, and the life, and light, and power of the Most High, by which ye may be stayed upon Christ, your bread of life [John 6:35]; he is the staff of your heavenly and eternal life; bread is the staff of life. Now friends, who have denied the world's songs and singing; sing ye in the spirit [1 Cor 14:15], and with grace [Col 3:16], making melody in your hearts to the <156> Lord [Eph 5:19]. And ye having denied the world's formal praying, pray ye always in the spirit, and watch in it [Eph 6:18]. And ye that have denied the world's giving of thanks, and their saying of grace, and living out of it; do ye in every thing give thanks to the Lord through Jesus Christ [Eph 5:20, 1 Th 5:18]. And ye that have denied the world's praising God with their lips, whilst their hearts are afar off [Isa 29:13]; do ye always praise the Lord night and day, and from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, praise ye the Lord [Psa 113:3]. And ye that have denied the world's fastings, and of their hanging down their heads like a bulrush for a day, who smite with the fist of wickedness, keep ye the fast of the Lord, that breaks the bond of iniquity, and lets the oppressed go free [Isa 58:4-6]; that your health may grow, and your light may shine as the morning [Isa 58:8].
G. F.
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George Fox (1624 - 1691)
Was an English Dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. This was a group the Lord started through the ministry of George Fox. God called him apart from all other forms of Christendom in his day because of the lack of Biblical obedience and holiness.The emphasis in George Fox's ministry was firstly prophetic. He called out the people of God to show them that they had the Holy Spirit of God and could be taught of Him and not to solely rely on the teachings of ecclesiastical leaders. Secondly, he spoke directly to many ministers in his day to show them they were hirelings and did not have a true shepherds heart for the people of God rather they were seeking after financial gain.
Founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers). George Fox was born in Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire, England, the son of Puritan parents. Little is known of his early life, apart from what he wrote in his journal: "In my very young years, I had a gravity and stayedness of mind and spirit not usual in young children. Insomuch that, when I saw old men behave lightly and wantonly toward each other, I had a dislike thereof raise in my heart, and I said within myself, `If ever I come to be a man, surely I shall not do so, nor be so wanton.'"
At the age of 19, he gained deep, personal assurance of his salvation and began to travel as an itinerant preacher, seeking a return to the simple practices of the New Testament. He abhorred technical theology, and preached a faith borne of experience, freshly fed and guided by the immediate presence of the Holy Spirit.
Fox was persecuted almost daily, yet his power of endurance was phenomenal. He was beaten with dogwhips, knocked down with fists and stones, brutally struck with pikestaves, hard beset by mobs, incarcerated eight times in the pestilential jails, prisons, castles and dungeons--yet he went straightforward with his mission as though he had discovered some fresh courage which made him impervious to man's inhumanity.
He undertook as far as possible to let the new life in Christ take its own free course of development in his ministry. He shunned rigid forms and static systems, and for that reason he refused to head a new sect or to start a new denomination, or to begin a new church. He would not build an organization of any kind. His followers at first called themselves "Children of the Light," and later adopted the name "The Society (or Fellowship) of Friends."
Fox preached and traveled for 40 years throughout England, Scotland, Holland, and America. His life demonstrated the truth of his famous saying, "One man raised by God's power to stand and live in the same spirit the apostle and prophets were in, can shake the country for ten miles around."