1. The first thing I must say is, I don’t want anyone else to do as I’m doing; I want each citizen to follow the Light in their own conscience. By this I mean the Divine Guidance that shows you, truly, what you ought to do and avoid doing (for example, not to lie, steal, or murder), not the “false conscience” that can sometimes persuade us to do and think whatever our family and friends, our co-workers and neighbors, our faith-fellows and faith-elders do and think (for these may sometimes justify lying, stealing, or killing, for example in warfare).

The earliest Quakers read of “the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” in their Bibles (John 1:9 KJV), and interpreted it as (1) a reference to Christ, the manifestation of God in the created world, (2) a teaching that this manifestation of God shows every moral agent, Christian or not-Christian, what is right to do and what is wrong. You, reader, have this True Light in your heart. I want you to follow it on Election Day.

2. The earliest Quakers spoke of “carnal weapons” (things intended to injure or kill other humans) as things that true followers of Christ ought not to use, though they ought to respect “the magistrate’s sword” and cooperate with public safety officers. I believe that Christ forbids me to use carnal weapons, even in self-defense, and that the True Light of conscience in my heart confirms this.

The voting machine is itself a carnal weapon. If I vote in a presidential election, I must choose between one candidate and another. The winner will be empowered to make war on other nations (or armed groups acting like nations) if they are deemed to be threats to the security of the United States. In other words, I am asked, as a voter, to choose a proxy to use carnal weapons on my behalf. But if I am truly forbidden to kill, neither may I say “yes” to the choice of one proxy over another to authorize killing on my behalf — to serve, that is, as commander-in-chief to an army of killers; nor may I help select a proxy legislator to vote for a military budget on my behalf, nor may I empower a proxy state government to operate the electric chair on my behalf. (Neither should I seek pleasure in violent movies or T. V. news reports that show people killing people, for my faith obliges me to think of the “bad guys” whose deaths I’m being invited to celebrate, as fellow sinners for whose salvation Jesus Christ died. They are myself.)

A wise person once said, “Only God, who knows everything, should be allowed to exercise the death penalty.” I would modify that to read, “Only God, who is Love itself, and wishes what is best for every creature, should be allowed to exercise the death penalty.”

3. I know that one of the presidential candidates is infamous for his contempt for the truth, and for his disdain for underprivileged minorities and poorer nations. If I could justify voting for “the lesser evil” I would vote against him. But neither do I trust the opposing political party to do the right thing, tell the truth, act with integrity, and serve the interest of the people of the world as a whole (for whatever the United States does affects the whole earth). And, sad to say, neither do I trust the mainstream media to tell the public the truth about what the winners of the election will be allowed to do, forbidden to do, and forced to do, by the hidden controllers of this nation’s destiny, whoever they may be. (I suspect that they are themselves under the hidden control of the Evil One, though held in check by the God of providence.) But there is no danger of my making a well-intentioned but bad choice at the voting machine, fellow citizens, if I remember that God wants me to do no evil at all, not even a lesser evil, in this dark night of moral confusion and citizen ignorance.

https://tinyurl.com/QBI-Col-3-4

“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God!” ¹ — A command fit to wake the dead with! — And indeed, thought the earliest Quakers, that’s just what the Apostle Paul was meaning to do.

For the preaching of George Fox, and the others who caught and spread the fire of the new Quaker revelation, was an appeal to his hearers’ lived experience!  “Do you not realize that you have died?” Fox asks them, appealing to what he knows, and they know, they’ve experienced in the silence of waiting worship, and in the freedom from worldly lusts and passions they feel in rising from it. Fox’s ministry is simply to name it:

But as the glorious truth is springing and manifesting among you all, live and walk worthy of what ye are called unto, the high calling in God and Christ Jesus, above all the world, out of all that which doth change, where the life that is immortal is felt, and a crown that fadeth not away, a crown of life that endureth for ever! Live in the dominion of the life that is hid in God, and every particular [i.e. “individual Friend”] know it in one another. ²

For those which seek those things that are below, are the talkers of God and Christ, and the prophets, and apostles’ words, but they are not dead with Christ, nor risen with him; and therefore they do not seek those things that come down from heaven, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. But they are them that seek the things that are above, that are dead with Christ, and risen with him; they, I say, do seek those things which come down from heaven, where Christ sits at the right hand of God; and they have not only sought them, but have found them, and received them, and come to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, a safe, established, and heavenly sitting in the heavenly rest and habitation in Christ Jesus…. ³

But any difficulty Fox might have had in helping Quaker converts name this experience would seem to be no different from the difficulty Paul had had in helping his Corinthian converts name their own: “Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”⁴

Here I must confess that it took me a long time to “get it,” myself, about Christ’s indwelling me! The first time I ever gave vocal ministry in a Friends’ meeting, I was surprised to see, in my mind’s eyes, a white-robed Galilean standing just to my left, beckoning urgently to me to get up on my feet and say what I had to say. I didn’t know what to make of the experience, but it was just the sign I needed to prompt me to take the risk. But what should I call it — a “dream symbol?” A Jungian archetype? A guardian angel “channeling” Christ? Today I’d have no trouble claiming that it was the real Christ, alive in me since He first created me, ordering me, “Do it!” But how long it took me to dare to think that!

We Quakers of today, programmed or unprogrammed, collectively, have lost much or all of our original faith in the indwelling of a speaking, vision-granting, miracle-working Christ in us. Alas, we may like to take pride in our tradition of “immediate revelation,” as Robert Barclay memorably called it,⁵ but find it more socially acceptable, even among Friends, to say “Spirit seems to be persuading me…” than “Thus saith the Lord!”

For we modern Friends, I fear, still live under the shadow of the nineteenth-century phobia of “religious madness” that seems to have swayed as bold a thinker as the influential Rufus M. Jones (1863-1948), whose Studies in Mystical Religion (1909), heavily indebted to the pioneering work of William James (1842-1910), The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), extolled Quakerism as a “mystical” religion, but distinguished between “positive” and “negative” mysticism:

Jones agreed with James that all mystical experiences “are abnormal and pathological,” and, like James, he believed that these disordered states could contain promising insight into the deeper truths of human experience. “The real mystic,” Jones explained in his 1909 Studies in Mystical Religion, is one who has “realized his life upward in full union with God” but has done so without the dramatic and “abnormal” manifestations associated with religious madness. But there is another tradition that goes by the name of “mysticism.” This “negative mysticism” manifests as “trances, losses of consciousness, automatisms, visions of lights, auditions of voices, ‘stigmata,’ and such-like experiences” and is “in no way distinguishable” from mental illness…. Like prior theorists of the mind, Rufus Jones believed that such a thing as religious madness existed and that liberal Quakerism was a particularly effective prophylactic against it….

The longer legacy of this transformation [in abnormal psychology’s view of Quakerism] is that it was Quakers who decided whih religious experiences were healthy and which were disordered. Daniel Hack Tuke explained in his Manual of Psychological Medicine [published in 1858] what he viewed as the difference between normal healthy religious experience and unhealthy religious insanity…. to Tuke, ….. [a] diseased mind saw angels, heard the voice of God, or uttered prophecy.

In order to create a modern form of Christianity, one safe for an age of reason, Quaker theorists of the mind had to narrow the range of experiences that counted as authentic religious experience. What may have passed for authentic religious experience in previous centuries… became, over the course of the nineteenth century, proof of insanity. For Quaker theorists of the mind, if Christianity were to survive the modern world — if belief could coexist with reason — then Christianity had to change. If Christianity was to be made fit for an age of reason, it had to look more like liberal Quakerism.⁶

If visions, auditions, hearing the voice of God, or uttering prophecy are distinguishing marks of insanity, then, reader, you should read no further, because I am as insane as the Biblical prophets, the Apostles, George Fox, John Woolman, and the other luminaries of Christian and Quaker history! Would that I were only as brave and righteous as they! But otherwise, Friend, read on: Our Scriptures tell of a God who says, “Obey my voice,”⁷ which is something quite distinct from “Obey my rulebook,” and specifically promises a voice audible behind us, saying “This is the way; walk in it.”⁸

The Epistle to the Colossians, I would argue, was particularly precious to early Friends because it spoke so boldly of a loving, accessible, communicating God, one who would not only speak in us, and through us, when all the world was insisting that God would not, unless we were ordained clergy — but more: this God would perfect us,⁹ if we did not rebel, and translate us into eternal life in God’s presence even before the death of our mortal body! Colossians, in its compact scope of only 95 verses, told of a God so much more wonderful than the parish clergy made God out to be, the ones who said God could never wash us clean of sin so long as we inhabited this mortal body — no wonder early Quaker writers drew so heavily on this short letter!¹⁰

All this may explain why, in preparing a Main Scripture Index for the Epistle to the Colossians, I created such a massive one, all out of proportion to other Main Scripture Indexes heretofore incorporated into the Quaker Bible Index. I suppose you might say that I was carried away by the Epistle’s loveliness.

1. Colossians 3:3, with “are dead” corrected to “have died,” a more exact translation of the original Greek ἀπεθάνετε. All Biblical references herein are to the Authorized, or King James, Version. ︎
2. George Fox, Epistle 81 (1655), in Works, 7:92, as quoted in the Quaker Bible Index (“QBI”), s. v. Col 3:3. ︎
3. Fox, Epistle 361 (1679), in Works, 8:182, as quoted in the QBI, s. v. Col 3:1. ︎
4. 2 Corinthians 13:5. Other references to Christ’s indwelling the believer (and the believer, Christ)are found in the Pauline literature at Rom 8:9-11; 1 Cor 12:12-27; Gal 2:20; and Col 1:27. ︎
5. Robert Barclay, Apology for the True Christian Divinity (Glenside, PA: Quaker Heritage Press, 2002), Proposition 2, p. 21; online at http://qhpress.org/texts/barclay/apology/prop2.html. ︎
6. Richard Kent Evans, “Quakers and Religious Madness,” Ch. 6 in Stephen W. Angell, Pink Dandelion, and David Harrington Watt, eds., The Creation of Modern Quaker Diversity, 1830-1937 (University Park, PA: State University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023), 125-127. ︎
7. Exodus 19:5; Jeremiah 7:23; 11:4, 7. ︎
8. Isaiah 30:21. ︎
9. Colossians 1:21-22, 28; 2:13-14. Many modern translators prefer to use “mature” rather than “perfect” for the Greek τέλειος, and indeed both alternatives seem apt, but “mature” answers the believer’s query, “am I fit to work in my Lord’s vineyard?” whereas “perfect” answers the believer’s more burning question, “am I fit to disappear forever into the depths of His heart?” ︎
10. Stephen W. Angell, in “Universalising and Spiritualising Christ’s Gospel: How Early Quakers interpreted the Epistle to the Colossians” (Quaker Studies: Vol. 11: Iss. 1, Article 3, available at http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/quakerstudies/vol11/iss1/3), draws attention to individual verses and verse-clusters that seem to have attracted the most interest from early Quaker writers. Among these are the Christologically and soteriologically rich passage Col 1:13-28; the warning against pursuit of spiritual wisdom through “philosophy and vain deceit,” Col 2:8-11; and the promised overcoming of ethnic and class differences in Christ as we “put off the old man and put on the new,” Col 3:9-11. ︎

In the words of the QBI’s creator, Esther Greenleaf Mürer, the QBI is a work in progress. I, the QBI’s present custodian, am currently continuing that progress by converting the “Summary Index” of the Book of Acts into a more user-friendly “Main Scripture Index.” I’m also working, in spare moments, on making Main Scripture Indexes for the Pauline writings from Galatians to Philemon.

How the early Quakers interpreted the Scriptures is important for anyone who wants to understand Quakerism! Today I offer a preview of my QBI work on one single verse of Scripture, Colossians 1:23:

It is an unspeakable Benefit to Mankind, to be favoured with a powerful, living Ministry, which edifies the Church of God, and builds up the true Believers in the most holy Faith (according to the Word of God) in Christ Jesus, who is the great Minister of the true Tabernacle and Sanctuary, which God hath pitched, and not Man; and this great Minister sent forth his Ministers and Servants, saying, I send you forth as Sheep among Wolves; be ye therefore wise as Serpents, and harmless as Doves [Mat. 10. 16.]. He did not send them forth as Lords over his Heritage, nor as persecuting Priests or mercenary Hirelings, but said to them, Freely you have received, freely give: Here is no Compulsion nor Force enjoin’d by Christ; but it is plain, from his own Doctrine and Example, that his Ministry is a free Ministry, blessed be his holy Name and Truth for ever: Nor do we read or understand of any Alteration thereof by Christ: Indeed the Ministers of Antichrist have made an Alteration (contrary to this Doctrine of his) in their Ministry; but the holy Apostles, who after Christ were the first Planters of Christianity in the Earth, when it shone in its primitive Beauty and Glory, they followed the Counsel of their Lord and Master, and ministred [sic] freely: Then was the Power of Christ’s Ministry and Gospel through his Ministers and Servants great, and the Glory and Beauty thereof ravishing to pious Souls. Oh! may every true Minister, and every sensible Soul, bow before the Most High, and bless the holy Name of him that lives and reigns for ever, for this unspeakable Gift of Christ’s holy Ministry, which always was, now is, and ever will be, convincing and converting unto Souls, who are not slow at Heart to believe in God, and in his dear Son the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our great High Priest, and the Bishop of Souls; he saw the Need that his Church had of this his Ministry, and therefore he established it in his Church, and among his Followers, to the End of Time.

Now, in order to this great and wonderful Work, he told his Disciples (when he was going into his Glory and Kingdom of his Father) That he would pray to the Father, and he would send them another Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, and that he should abide with them for ever. [John 14. 17.] And he also told them, That when he is come, he shall first reprove or convince the World of Sin, because they believe not in me [John 16. 7,11.]; for if they believed truly in Christ, they would love his spiritual Appearance; but O how many are there in the World, who slight this high Favour, and Grace of God and Christ, calling this wonderful Gift and Grace, the Light of Nature; whereas Christ says, it is the Holy Ghost; and the Apostle Paul says, it is God’s Grace, that teaches us to deny Ungodliness, and hath appeared unto all Men. Oh that the Children of Men might love that which appears to them, and convinceth them of their Sins; and surely it is a great Sin not to believe in the Spirit and Light of Christ: Such unbelieving Souls are in Darkness, and not yet turned from Darkness unto Light, and from the Power of Satan, to the Power of God, which was the very Work Christ’s Ministers were sent of God to do.

2 dly, And he convinceth or reproveth the World of Righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye see me no more. When their Righteousness is only wrought in the Wisdom of Man, and not by the Power of God, whether it be in Preaching or Worship, when only the Form, and not the Power, is witnessed, this then convinceth them that they have been building their Religion upon a wrong Bottom, and a sandy Foundation; and sheweth the formal Minister, that he is only a Minister of the Letter, and not of the Spirit; and the formal Worshipper, that he is not yet come to worship in Spirit and Truth; and the Professor of Christ in Words, that he denieth him in Works and inward Faith; because Faith without Works is dead, as Works without this spiritual Faith is dead also.

“Because I go to the Father,” is the wonderful Cause given by Christ, for it is Christ’s Righteousness that must save the Soul, and Christ being gone to the Father, the Soul must go there to him, for all his Gifts and Favours, Mercies and Blessings, and must witness him in Spirit to be with them, and in them, as he is in the Father. When Christ was personally on Earth, he taught us by Words vocally express’d; but “henceforth know we him so no more.” Now he teacheth us by his Spirit, Light, and Life, which convinceth us of Form without Power, and Letter without Spirit, and Religion without Life, and Righteousness without Grace, and Light and imputative Righteousness, without actual Righteousness, and actual or formal Righteousness in our own Wills (only). All this, and much more, it convinceth us, not to be effectual to Salvation, and sheweth us that the spiritual Power, and Presence of Christ, is absolutely necessary for the Work of the Ministry, and the Conversion of Souls.

3 dly, He convinceth the World of Judgment, because the Prince of this World is judged. He, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, when he is come, sheweth us our wrong Judgment, and convinceth us of the Evil of being too censorious, rash, and uncharitable, in Judging, and plainly giveth us to understand, that such Judgment is from the Prince of this World, who is King over all the Children of Pride, and that this Prince of evil Spirit, is judged by the righteous and just Judge of Heaven and Earth, Christ Jesus. He also convinceth us of the Everlasting Truth, as it is in Jesus, and is our sure Comforter, while we keep therein, in Doctrine, Worship, and Conversation.

4 thly, He shall bring all Things (or those Things) to your Remembrance, which I have spoken unto you [John 14. 26.]. Wherefore this Gift is absolutely necessary for a Minister of Christ; and every true Believer in him, wants this Remembrancer, which must needs be a great Comfort to us, to have his excellent Speeches and divine Doctrine brought by his own Spirit to our Remembrance, if we do love him in Sincerity.

5 thly, He shall receive of mine, and shew it unto you, [John 16. 14.] says Christ. Take of his Light, his Life, his Grace, his Wisdom, his Mercy, Peace, and Truth, and shew it unto you. Oh infinite Love from a tender Saviour! Well may we admire his Goodness, and intirely love him above all Things in this World.

6 thly, Christ speaks in divers Places concerning this wonderful and extraordinary Gift of the Holy Ghost or Spirit, and in the 14th Chapter, and 16th and 17th Verses of John, he thus drops his divine Words, I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of Truth, whom the World cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: But ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. Oh! ye Ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ, in this his Gift is your Strength, your Comfort, and your exceeding great Reward, both here and hereafter, for ever; far exceeding Silver or Gold, or the Diadems of Princes: The whole World, wanting this, lieth in Wickedness, and must lie there unavoidably, if they have not the Sense of this unspeakable Gift: There cannot be Salvation, nor any saving Ministry without it; it being absolutley [sic] needful, to the Being and Well-being of a Minister of Christ: And indeed the holy Text is plain, and positive, that he that hath not the Spirit of Christ, is none of his; none of his Minister, none of his Believer: Oh! no, they cannot be his in any good Respect whatsoever, without his Spirit. But if it should be objected, How shall we do to know the Minister or the Man who hath this divine Gift, or Spirit of Christ, since it may be pretended to both by the Ministers and People; and yet they may not have it in Reality? This indeed is a great Point, and highly necessary to be searched into, which is to be known by our Lord’s Rule, which he has prescribed for that End. Do Men (saith he) gather Grapes of Thorns, or Figs of Thistles? (Surely No. The Grape is gathered from the Vine, and the Fig from the Fig-tree) Wherefore by their Fruits ye shall know them. Now those (according to this true Rule) who have the Spirit, or Holy Ghost, they bring forth the Fruits of it: Which Fruits are Love, Charity, Meekness, Temperance, Patience, Experience, Hope, Faith, and Wisdom from above, which is pure and peaceable, gentle and easy to be intreated, to all, and every Thing that is Good. And those who have the Holy Spirit, bring forth the Fruits of it as naturally, as the Vine doth the Grape, and the Fig-tree the Fig. Also, Whatsoever Things are holy, just, honest, pure, and of good Report, or tends to Piety, or Virtue; in a Word, every Thing that is Good, is the Fruit of the Spirit of God and Christ: And they are brought forth with divine Life and Power in that Minister and People, who through true Faith in the blessed Jesus, have received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, or Spirit of Christ.

The Minister of the Gospel being thus fitly furnished to every good Word and Work; he is ready to answer the Call of his great Lord and holy Master, which is in Heaven; he wants not the Call of Man, nor Authority from Man, nor Wages of Man. But those who bring forth Fruits contrary to the above, can neither be true Ministers, nor Christians, according to the Doctrine of our holy Lord. Being thus qualified by the Most High, those Ministers are freely given up to serve the Lord, and go wheresoever he is pleased to send them, though he send them as Lambs among Wolves: And it is worth noting, that Christ’s Messengers and Ministers are called and sent of him; they do not run of themselves, nor in their own Will; which if they did, their End would be like the forward false Prophets of old, who did not profit the People at all.

Our great Lord seeing what Need the World had of true Teaching, and of true Teachers, sends his Ministers forth into it, saying, Mat. xxviii. 18, 19, 20. All Power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth: Go ye therefore and teach all Nations, Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all Things whatsoever I have commanded you: And lo, I am with you always, even unto the End of the World.

Many of his excellent Sayings and Commands may be found in that wonderful Sermon which he preached on the Mount, Mat. 5th, 6th, and 7th Chapters.

Here Christ shews his Ministers his Power, and sends them forth in his own Name, for there is none other given under Heaven for Salvation; and Christ comforts his Ministers with a glorious Promise, of being with them to the End of the World. Oh the wonderful Sweetness of this gracious Promise! and such are all his Promises, for they are Yea, and Amen, for ever. Wherefore Christ’s Ministers may well go forth without doubting, having their Authority from the King of Kings. Again he saith, Go ye into all the World, and preach the Gospel unto every Creature. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned, Mark xvi. 15, 16. So Christ says, Go; but the World, the Flesh, and the Devil says, Stay; For the Spirit of Sin and Satan is for obstructing the Work of Christ, and hindring the free Gospel Ministry, and the Motions of the Word and Testimony of Jesus; and is for quenching it in those in whom it may appear: It is a new Mode or Fashion, contrary to the primitive Order of Christ, above mentioned, for Ministers to stay, and be tied to an outward Benefit, or a particular Meeting or Congregation; which Way of Preaching, or Reading (Reading being much in Practice now a-Days) is quite contrary to the Call, and Practice of Christ, and his Ministers, and of the Martyrs, and Confessors of Jesus: As also of many of the most noted Reformers in Religion. O but it is objected, If Ministers should always go about among the Nations, what would become of their Families, or how must they live, and be maintained? To which may be answered, as the Ministers of our Lord were, when he at the first sent them forth; who, when they returned to their Master, he asked them, If they lacked any Thing? They answered, No. But instead of lacking any Thing, the Devils were subject to them. Pray let the serious Christian consider, here is now a wonderful Change. Is it in Christ, or in the hireling Money-loving Priest? It is certainly in the Men, and not in Christ Jesus, for he is the same to Day, Yesterday, and for ever. Where the Power of Christ rules, there the Devil and his Power must of Necessity be subject. But some object, That People are not so free now a-Days; were there not a Law to maintain Ministers, the Ministers might perish or starve in this Generation; if so, then their Ministry must starve the People’s Souls. But this Thought of starving is for want of the Gift of God and Power of Christ; which Power in the Ministry would wonderfully open Peoples Hearts towards God, and those who are his true Servants and Ministers; who said, freely ye have received, freely give. Oh! faithless Generation, what shall we mistrust him who provides for all his Creatures, even to the Ravens and Sparrows, and will he not much more provide for his Servants and Ministers? How should we receive Power from on High, if we want Faith, and cannot depend on the providential Hand of God?

Christ sends his Ministers into the World, in order to propogate [sic] his Gospel of Salvation, and to let the World know that he is come to put an End to Sin, and bring Life and Peace to the Soul, according to the Angels Testimony of him, that his Name should be called Jesus (which is a Saviour) for he shall save his People from their Sins, Mat. i. 21. The Apostles of Christ also, according to their holy Commission, declared, that God had sent his Son to bless us, in turning of us from the Evil of our Ways [Acts 3. 26.]. But that Doctrine must certainly be opposite to this of the Angels, Christ, and his Disciples, which teacheth, that we must live in Sin while on this Side the Grave, and that there is no being free from it while we are in this World; though Christ himself came for that very End and Purpose, to put an End to it, and to save us from it, and to bring unto, and into, the World, everlasting Righteousness; as also is that Doctrine which maintains, that there is no Perfection that we can attain to in this Life; though Christ says, Be ye perfect (for or) as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect as he is perfect in Fulness, so are we to be perfect, according to the Measure of Grace received.

This Faith and Belief is much wanting in this unbelieving Generation, which is the Reason that People remain in their Sins, and the Peoples Leaders cause them to err, and their Ministers minister in their Sin, and minister Sin to the People. Oh! that the great Lord of All, may grant the Faith which purifies the Heart unto the Children of Men, and especially to his Ministers, that they might be instrumental to the convincing and converting Souls to Christ, and his Gospel, which is the Power of God to Salvation, to all them that believe. And as without believing and being baptized, we can neither be saved, nor truly preach the Gospel; how do we believe in Christ if we remain in our Sins? For Christ saith, If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your Sins: So it is plain, that the true Faith and Belief in Christ taketh away our Sins, and that if we remain in our Sins, it is evident that we have not the true Faith of Christ. It is not enough to have a notional or historical Faith or Belief that Christ is the Son of God, but we must also believe that this is he, that as the Angel declared to Joseph, should save his People from their Sins: This was before he was born of the holy Virgin; and those People mightily mistake the Doctrine of Christ in the holy Scriptures, who think or believe they shall be saved in their Sins; and those Ministers must needs be antichristian, who preach and write, that there can be no living here in this World without Sin, which is also contrary to their own Doctrine at other Times, and to their solemn Covenant in the Water Baptism (or Sprinkling) in which they promise for their Children, To forsake the Devil and all his Works, (and without doubt all his Works is Sin, no Christian can pretend to greater or higher Perfection, than to forsake the Devil, and all his Works) the Pomp and Vanity of this wicked World, and all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh, and to keep God’s holy Will and Commandments, and to walk in the same all the Days of our Lives; so that according to this solemn Covenant, here is no Day for Sin; yet those Covenanters at other Times will say, preach, dispute, and write, that the best Saints cannot live without Sin, and that People sin in their best Duties; if any think to mock the Almighty after that Manner, they will be much mistaken in the Day of the righteous Judgment of God: For Christ came to put an End to Sin, and to finish Transgression, and to destroy the Works of the Devil, which all Sin most certainly is. And it is plain, that John, the beloved Disciple of Christ, believed this, from his own Words, I write unto you, young Men, because ye have overcome the wicked One. I have written unto you, young Men, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked One, 1st Epistle of John, ii. 13, 14. To which I shall add, what he saith through the Spirit to the seven Churches in Asia.

To the Church of Ephesus, Rev. ii. 7. He that hath an Ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches, To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.

To the Church of Smyrna, Rev. ii. 11. He that hath an Ear, let him hear what, the Spirit saith unto the Churches, He that overcometh, shall not be hurt of the second Death.

To the Church of Pergamus, Rev. ii. 17. He that hath an Ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches, To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna, and will give him a white Stone, and in it a Name written, which no Man knoweth, save him that receiveth it.

To the Church of Thyatira, Rev. ii. 26, 27, 28, 29. He that overcometh and keepeth my Works unto the End, to him will I give Power over the Nations, and he shall rule them with a Rod of Iron, as the Vessels of a Potter shall they be broken to Shivers, even as I received of my Father, and I will give him the Morning Star. He that hath an Ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.

To the Church of Sardis, Rev. iii. 5, 6, He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white Raiment, and I will not blot out his Name out of the Book of Life; but I will confess his Name before my Father, and before his Angels. He that hath an Ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches.

To the Church of Philadelphia, Rev. iii. 12, 13. He that overcometh, will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the Name of my God, and the Name of the City of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of Heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new Name. He that hath an Ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches.

To the Church of Laodicea, Rev. iii. 21, 22. To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my Throne, even as I overcame, and am set down with my Father in his Throne. He that hath an Ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches.

Surely that Soul who cannot by all this see that there is an Overcoming, must certainly be blind as to a spiritual Sight of the Doctrine of Christ; and what is it but to make Christ and the Holy Spirit a Deceiver, to promise all those great Things to his Churches, if they cannot perform the Conditions he prescribes? And if it were true (as it is not) that it is impossible to overcome Sin and Satan, then would Christ be a hard Master, which is absurd and wicked to suggest. But this Overcoming must not be in our own Wills, nor in our own Time, nor with our own Weapons, but according to the Apostle Paul’s Testimony of the Saints Weapons, and their Warfare, and also of his own Fight and Victory, viz. 2 Cor. x. 4. The Weapons of our Warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong Holds (Satan’s Holds of Sin are strong Ones, if never to be overcome.) But with these Weapons we may overcome: And he bids the Christian put them on, and calls them the whole Armour of Light (opposite and contrary to Satan’s dark Power) and he names them after this Manner: Stand therefore, having your Loins girt about with Truth, and having on the Breast-plate of Righteousness, and your Feet shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace; above all, taking the Shield of Faith, where-with ye shall be able to quench all the fiery Darts of the Wicked, and take the Helmet of Salvation, and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, Eph. vi. 13.17.

I have fought a good Fight, I have finished my Course, I have kept the Faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness, which God, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that Day, and not to me only, but to all them who love his Appearing, 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8.

Thus the Saints and primitive Christians were victorious in this Christian and Spiritual Warfare, and they encouraged others to follow them, as they did Christ. The very Belief of this Doctrine, that we can never overcome Sin and Satan, is contrary to the Faith of Christ, and is a mighty Engine of the wicked One to destroy Souls; for what Encouragement can any have to the Work of Reformation, or to believe in or press after the New-birth, if they do not believe in the New-birth, or that they may or can be reformed, or created again a-new in Christ Jesus, unto good Works, and that they must not walk after the Flesh, to fulfil the Lusts thereof. Oh! that Ministers and People would consider that awful Sentence of holy Scripture, viz. If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die; but if ye, through the Spirit, mortify the Deeds of the Body, ye shall live, Rom. viii. 13. (the Want of a lively Hope and Faith in Christ, the great Lord of Heaven and Earth, is great, very great indeed) Oh! that true Faith in him might abound and increase in the Earth more and more; then would he inspire the Soul with inward Strength and Grace to resist the Devil, and overcome him, and actually to do the Works of God, and to forsake the Devil, and all his Works, and then, and not until then, is Christ’s Righteousness imputed unto us; so that true Christians are truly righteous, not only by Imputation, but by Action also. Oh that those who make Profession of holy Jesus would deny themselves, and take up their daily Cross, and follow him in the Regeneration! otherwise, how can they be his Disciples or Ministers? And then would true Christianity flourish in the Earth; then would Christ be exalted over all, who, with the Father and holy Spirit, is God blessed for ever.

Now to return a little to Christ’s Baptism, viz. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved. Here our great Baptizer, and chief Minister, is positive, that they shall be saved who are baptized with his Baptism: from which, with strong Reason, we may conclude, that the Baptism which is absolutely necessary to Salvation is not Water-baptism, which was John’s, but spiritual Baptism, which is Christ’s; and for this Reason also, that most Christians that have any Spiritual Understanding, do plainly see, that not withstanding People being baptized, or sprinkled with elementary Water, many live wicked ungodly Lives, and die in that State; but quite the contrary Effect hath that Baptism which is of the Holy Ghost, and Spiritual Fire, which is Christ’s Baptism; for that where it is witnessed, and where People not only talk of it, but live according to its holy Operation on the Soul, it saveth and cleanseth from Sin and Evil, it washeth by Regeneration, and reneweth the Soul by Grace, with divine Life and Power.

The Call of a true Minister, is from and by Christ, he must come to the School of Christ, and take his Degrees there; in the universal Love of God he must learn and experience Patience, Humility, Faith, Hope, and Charity; Learn of me, saith he, for I am meek and lowly in Heart; and yet, notwithstanding, he was the great Heir of all Things, and all Power in Heaven and Earth was given unto him, he humbled himself to the Death of the Cross, for the Sake of Mankind; and as the living Father sent his Son, so the Son sends his Servants contrary to the Will of Man, as the Apostle Paul said, But I certify unto you, Brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me, is not after Man; for I neither received it of Man, nor was I taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ, Gal. i. 11, 12. Hereby it is plain he thought there was no absolute Necessity of outward Learning nor outward Call by Man.

And as there is no absolute Necessity of outward Learning to make a Minister of Christ, so there is no Need to force an outward Maintenance; for Christ will take Care of his Servants, and feed and clothe them, when he sends them, as he did his Disciples, who went forth without Staff or Scrip, yet acknowledged, after their Return, they lacked nothing. And as Christ said, Freely ye have received, freely give; so there is no outward Compulsion or Force in Christ’s Doctrine or Religion: Some are indeed of another Opinion, and have practised the contrary, and bring those Words of Christ to uphold them in the Practice of forcing Religion, where he says, in the Parable of the Marriage Supper, Go, compel them to come in; which was no other Compulsion or Force but that of Love, which is the greatest Power in Heaven or Earth; to construe our Saviour’s Words in any other Sense, would be absurd, and contrary to the whole Tenor of his Doctrine and glorious Ministry.

Thus then the Work of Christ’s Ministers is to bring the People to Christ, as he is their Redeemer and Saviour from Sin, and as he is their Comforter, and good Remembrancer, and their spiritual Guide into all Truth; in the Performance of which Work, they will have their Reward in this World, and in the World to come everlasting Life. Amen.
_______________

This essay from the pen of Quaker minister Thomas Chalkley (1675-1741) has been extracted from pages 514-527 of A Collection of the Works of that ancient, faithful servant of Jesus Christ, Thomas Chalkley, etc., Fourth Edition (London: Luke Hinde, 1766), held in searchable electronic form by the Digital Quaker Collection of Earlham School of Religion (esr.earlham.edu/dqc/). Accessed 3/20/2021 by John Jeremiah Edminster.

“Some Consideration on the Call, Work, and Wages, of the Ministers of Christ” — I shall call it “Call, Work, and Wages” for short – invites comparison with A Description of the Qualifications necessary to A Gospel Minister, published by Chalkley’s contemporary Samuel Bownas in 1750, and also with the chapter “Proposition 10: Concerning the Ministry” in Robert Barclay’s Apology for the True Christian Divinity, first published in English in 1678.

Chalkley’s source-material is all from the recorded words of Jesus and His apostles (all biblical writers named “John,” including the author of Revelation, having been identified, in Chalkley’s day, with John the Beloved Disciple referenced at John 13:23, 21:7, and 21:20). And all their teachings found in Scripture, in Chalkley’s view, support the principle that Christ Himself, through the Holy Spirit, is the only source of all valid vocal ministry given among His people. This would invalidate much pseudo-ministry coming from or received by hypocrites who are not worshipers “in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24), or words cobbled together in the “wisdom of man” without the power of God. In this, Chalkley is united with Barclay, Bownas, and all early Friends.

What invites scrutiny is his uniquely nuanced structuring of what Christ’s teaching consists of, or how we need to be “turned from the power of Satan unto God” (Acts 26:18). With that suggestion I invite readers to explore the message for Chalkley’s “Call, Work, and Wages” for themselves.

Title Volume: page

Answer to the Speech… of the Great Turk, An 6:372
Antiquity of Our Cross, The 6:370
Authority of the Church of Christ, The 6:177

Beginning of Tythes in the Law, The 5:254

Cause of Drought, and Barrenness, Famine and Plagues, The 6:278
Cause why Adam and Eve Were Driven out of Paradise, The 6:149
Christ is the Rock and Foundation… Revealed to Peter 6:367
Christians’ Righteousness Must Exceed… Scribes and Pharisees 6:260
Christ’s Light 4:303
Christ’s Parable of Dives and Lazarus 5:271
Christ’s Way and Judas’s Way 4:156
Clear Distinction between the Old Covenant… and the New, A 6:38
Concerning Cain 6:171
Concerning Christ Jesus the Covenant of God 4:267
Concerning Christ, the Resurrection of the Just and Unjust 6:295
Concerning Christ the Spiritual and Holy Head over His Holy Church 5:291
Concerning Condemnation 6:267
Concerning Daily Sacrifices and Offerings 6:382
Concerning Exhortation and Admonition 6:179
Concerning Faith 4:286
Concerning God’s Promise to Cain 6:256
Concerning How the World Is Called the Sea 5:288
Concerning Meeting in Houses, Ships, Streets… and High-Ways 6:184
Concerning Persecution in All Ages to This Day 6:120
Concerning Revelation, Prophecy, Measure and Rule 5:228
Concerning Such as Cry against Orders 6:182
Concerning Such as Eat Up God’s People Like Bread … and Make Idols 6:276
Concerning Such as Have Forbidden Preaching… in the Name of Jesus 6:269
Concerning Such as Overcome the Beast, and Dragon… 6:280
Concerning Such as Shall Enter into the Kingdom of God 6:263
Concerning the Act that Prohibits, that Not above Four or Five May Meet 4:386
Concerning the Antiquity of the People of God Called Quakers 6:384
Concerning the Apostate Christians, that Think to Do Miracles… 6:360
Concerning the Apostate Christians’ Tradition of a Purgatory 6:362
Concerning the Apostate Christians’ Traditions… of Bread and Wine 6:364
Concerning the Living God of Truth 6:3
Concerning the Spirit 4:282
Concerning the Stone that Smote the Image; and… Christ the Vine 6:301
Concerning the Traditions of the Jews, and Apostate Christians 6:365
Concerning the Upright and Good Conversation of the Saints in Christ 6:105
Concerning the World’s Hypocritical Salutations, Being Out of the Truth 4:138
Cry for Repentance, A 4:99

Declaration Concerning Fasting, and the Prayer that God Accepts, A 4:111
Declaration of the Difference of Ministers of the Word, and of the World 4:90
Declaration to the Jews, A 4:290
Demonstration to the Christians in Name, A 5:367
Difference between the World’s Relation… and the Saints’ Relation, The 4:202
Distinction between the New Covenant and the Old, A 5:421
Distinction between the Two Suppers of Christ, A 6:282
Distinction between the Wars and the Weapons [in the Old Testament and the New] 6:165
Distinction between True Liberty and False, A 6:329

Election and Reprobation 5:381
Epistle to All Christians, Jews and Gentiles, An 6:118
Epistle to All People on the Earth, An 4:119
Exhortation to All People, to Pureness, Cleanness, and Holiness 6:275

Fashions of the World Made Manifest, The 4:139
Few Plain Words… to the Teachers and People of the Nation, A 4:259
For All the Bishops and Priests in Christendom 5:13
For the Emperor of China 4:252

Gospel Liberty, and the Royal Law of Love 4:329

Hammer, to Break Down All Invented Images, A 4:366
Heathen’s Divinity, The 4:387
Here You May See How Every One Is to Improve His Talent 6:359
Here You May See How Male and Female Were Meet-helps 6:356
How All Nations May See with the Light, the Life in Christ 6:353
How God’s People are Not to Take the Names of the Heathen gods 6:347
How the Devil Was, and Is the Old Informer against the Righteous 6:130
How the Lord Spake unto Moses in the Outward Tabernacle 6:338
How the Unchangeable God Is, and How All People May Know Him 6:333

Lamb’s Officer is Gone Forth with the Lamb’s Message, The 4:178
Looking Glass for the Jews, A 5:61

Man Christ Jesus the Head of the Church, The 5:434
Measuring Rule concerning Liberty and Persecution, A 4:305

Now concerning Schisms and Errors among the Christians 5:308
Now concerning Whom the Scripture Saith is the True Rock 6:369

Of Praying to the Saints… and Praying for the Dead 6:361

Paper to Friends, and Others, against the Pomps of the World 6:140
Pearl Found in England, The 4:184
People of God, in Scorn Called Quakers, The 5:217
Possession above Profession 5:197
Postscript Concerning Prayer, A 6:434
Primitive Ordination and Succession 5:171
Promise of God Proclaimed, The 4:115
Protestant Christian Quaker, The 6:92

Saints… Their Heavenly and Spiritual Worship, Unity, and Communion, The 6:234
Scripture Testimony against Persecution for Religion 6:409
Second Covenant, The 4:144
Serious People’s Reasoning and Speech, The 4:194
Several Plain Truths Manifested and Declared from the Spirit of God 6:161
Several Treatises Worthy of Every True Christian’s Serious Consideration 6:435
Small Treatise Concerning Swearing, A 5:154
Some Papers Given Forth to the Magistrates of the Isle of Milita 4:222
Some Queries to All Teachers and Professors of Christianity 4:316
Something Farther Concerning Silent Meetings 4:134
Speech or Declaration of Sultan Mahomet, the Great Turk, The 6:371
Spirit of Man the Candle of the Lord, The 5:341
Spiritual Man Christ Jesus, The 5:266
Spiritual or Heavenly Salutation to All the Tender-hearted in Christendom, A 6:402
State of the Birth Temporal and Spiritual, The 6:201

Testimony concerning the Blood of the Old Covenant, A 5:362
Testimony for All Masters of Ships, and Seamen, A 5:277
Testimony for God’s Truth, A 6:350
Testimony of What We Believe of Christ, A 5:84
To All Kings, Princes… Bishops, and Clergy, that Profess Christianity 6:309
To All Magistrates and People… to Turn from the Persecuting Mind 5:210
To All Magistrates in Christendom that Do Profess Christianity 6:344
To All Professors in the Christian World 4:407
To All Rulers of Families 4:312
To All Sorts of People in Christendom 4:317
To All that Profess Christianity 4:298
To All that Would Know the Way to the Kingdom 4:15
To All the Kings, Princes and Governors in the Whole World 5:313
To All the Magistrates in London, &c. 4:135
To All the Nations under the Whole Heavens 4:255
To All the Rulers of the Earth 4:51
To All Who Love the Lord Jesus Christ 4:40
To Both House of Parliament 4:264
To the Chief Magistrate 6:271
To the Emperor of the House of Austria 4:226
To the Great Turk 6:77
To the High and Lofty Ones 4:48
To the King of France 4:234
To the King of Spain 4:239
To the People of Uxbridge 4:205
To the Pope 4:246
To the Turk 4:216
True Account of the Sensible, Thankful, and Holy State of God’s People, A 6:336
Truth’s Triumph in the Eternal Power 4:270
Trying the Spirits in Our Age Now 6:210

Uniformity and Conformity Proclaimed to the Whole World 6:174

Vials of Wrath of God Poured Forth upon the Man of Sin, The 4:27
Visitation to All You who Have Long Had the Scriptures, A 4:76
Visitation to the Jews, A 4:53

Warning to All that Profess Christianity, A 5:425
Warning to All the Merchants in London, A 4:160
Warning to England, A 5:3
Warning to All that Profess Christianity, A 5:425
Way to Prevent the Indignation and Judgments of God, A 6:142
Woman Learning in Silence, The 4:104
Word from the Lord, to All the World, A 4:32
Word in the Behalf of the King, A 4:208
Word of Admonition to Such As Wander from the Anointing Within, A 6:246
Wrath of the Lamb, The 4:177

Appendix: How to Access Individual Works in the Digital Quaker Collection

1. In the “search” window of your browser, key in esr.earlham.edu/dqc/ (or simply google “Digital Quaker Collection,” which will take you to that URL). This will take you to a page with a prominent button labeled “ENTER.” Click on that button.
2. The page with “ENTER” on it has a column of buttons on its left-hand side, one of which is labeled “Instructions.” The Instructions deserve thorough study as soon as you can afford the time. But to proceed directly toward your goal: clicking on the “ENTER” button will bring up a page with two alternative buttons: “Search Collection” and “Browse Collection.”
3. Choose “Browse Collection.” This choice will bring up a column of alternative buttons: “View Results List,” “Browse Titles,” “Browse Authors,” “Search History,” and “Log Out.”
4. Choose “Browse Authors.” This choice will bring up an array of letters of the alphabet.
5. Choose the letter “F.” This choice will bring up a page beginning with “Fell, Margaret. – The life of Margaret Fox, wife of George Fox.”
6. Now click repeatedly on the ‘Next Page‘ button until you get to the ninth consecutive page of “F” authors. The second item on that page will read “Fox, George. – The works of George Fox (Volume 4).” You may note that individual Doctrinal Writings of George Fox are also listed on the fourth through sixteenth pages of “F” authors. You may also access the writings by clicking on them individually.
7. To the left of every item on every page is a little open book icon. Clicking on the open book icon to the left of “Fox, George. – The works of George Fox (Volume 4)” reveals a Table of Contents for that volume.
8. The entry for each item in that Table of Contents ends with underlined text reading “Starts at” and then a page reference like “Img 18 Pg UN.” Click on the “Starts at” and that will take you to the opening page of the work you want.
9. To access the Table of Contents of Volume 5 of the Doctrinal Writings, go to the eleventh consecutive page of “F” authors and scroll down to the sixth item on it. To access the Table of Contents of Volume 6, go to the sixteenth page (which is the fourth from the last page) and scroll down to the eighth item.

Dear brother in our Lord Jesus Christ:

Thank you for your choosing me to represent residents of Richmond, Indiana in your survey, and for appealing to me to “help raise a shield of protection over God’s chosen people,” which I indeed wish to do. But your survey asks me for knowledge or opinions I dare not pretend to have (for example, “Do you think recent events in the Middle East are a sign of the End Times?” – see Mark 13:32). Rather than fill out your survey, therefore, I prefer to speak to you from my heart.

Jesus Christ, in washing me clean of my sins and granting me membership in Himself, has also disarmed me of carnal weapons forever, even to the point of forbidding me to use my tongue or pen to hurt others. I may and do, however, rebuke many, in hopes of helping souls return to the God who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but, being Love Itself, wishes for the repentance and salvation of all. Please consider this seriously, and if you doubt it, ask the Lord to reveal the truth of the matter to you. In cases where sinners persist in behaving foolishly enough to repeatedly choose evil over good, it must be by their own will, and not God’s, that they flee from the Light into the outer darkness (John 3:19-20). I say this with confidence because Jesus has commanded me to forgive others their trespasses against myself, *all* others and *all* their trespasses, if I want my Heavenly Father to forgive my own trespasses (Matthew 6:14-15). Think: would our Heavenly Father expect us to hold ourselves to a higher standard of forgiveness than He Himself keeps to? It’s written that Jesus Himself forgave His own murderers (Luke 23:34). Would He exhibit a more all-forgiving character than the One whose will He came to do (John 6:38)? It is this very kindness of God toward sinners, Paul notes, that is meant to lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4).

I do not vote. Because Christ has disarmed me of carnal weapons, and forbidden me to urge others to use them on my behalf, I can’t use the ballot box to put Caesar’s sword into one would-be commander-in-chief’s hand rather than another’s. Neither can I, in good conscience, help American Christians empower fear-driven bullies in Israel’s government and military to engage in cruel injustices to the Palestinians with whom they are obliged by international agreements to share territory and resources. Neither would I encourage Palestinians, however hurt and angry, to be vengeful. I would say to the people of Israel, with Balaam, “Blessed is everyone who blesses you” (Numbers 24:9). But I would say the same, in the spirit of Jesus Christ, to all the nations round about Israel. If and when the people of Israel behave themselves like a righteous people of a merciful God, I have no doubt that the prophecy of Micah 4:1-2 will be fulfilled, with neighboring peoples streaming uphill to a Mount Zion established in divine truth and justice. But there can be no streaming through the checkpoints and razor wire currently in place.

I believe that Jesus Christ rebukes the State of Israel for its militaristic and oppressive stance toward its non-Jewish neighbors that makes enemies of them and keeps them enemies. I would advise fellow Christians to show love for God’s people, the Jews, by serving as peacemakers in the Middle East and not arms suppliers. But as for those Christians who see things otherwise, I don’t presume to judge them. I merely warn them that we have a Judge to face, they and I alike, and may our Judge be merciful to us all. As for you, M. E., a brother in Christ to whom I owe nothing but love (Romans 13:8, John 13:34), I hope you are a wise man who, if you feel rebuked by me, love me for it (Proverbs 9:8b).

In Christ’s love and truth,

John Jeremiah Edminster

This nothingness, as I understand it, is compatible with Buddhist, Advaitin and modern philosophers’ ideas of the illusoriness of selfhood, but does not require them, because it is not itself a philosophical idea but a discipline of the heart, a habitual “casting down of imaginations” in the poetic words of the King James Bible. [2] Are we attached to dreams of winning in competition or combat? Take your time if you must, but out they must go, along with fantasies of anything illicit. Nothingness of self in this sense does not mean neglect of self-care, refusal of pleasure, or erasure of any harmless personal quirks that your loved ones love in you, for, if you think about it, you’re commanded to love yourself as you love your neighbor (Lev 19:18; Mark 12:31, etc.), and it’s not loving, to starve your neighbor away in a dungeon. But it does mean listening for the Shepherd’s voice and obeying His always wise and loving directions. Christ’s yoke is easy, and His burden is light (Matt 11:30), but it is a yoke. I find it sweeter to wear my yoke not out of duty or fear, but out of the love for Him that He plants in my heart.

One of my seminary professors, who called my scriptural references “proof-texting,” commented that I’d shown that I could write like a seventeenth-century Quaker, but not yet like a twenty-first century religious thinker. What a high compliment, to be likened to those early Quakers! But this sets me on a quest for the twenty-first century religious thinkers who, enriched by the cultural advances of these past few centuries, are also exploring nothingness of self.

Footnotes:
[1] A search in Earlham School of Religion’s Digital Quaker Collection (esr.earlham.edu/dqc/) yields ten citations for the phrase “nothingness of self.” The earliest attestation is dated “27th of Fifth Month, 1754,” in Memoirs of Catherine Phillips (Philadelphia, 1798), 381.
[2] 2 Cor 10:5 AV=λογισμοὺς καθαιροῦντες in Paul’s original Greek. I find “casting down imaginations” close in spirit to Patanjali’s pratipakṣa-bhāvanam, a corrective “encouragement of the opposite [sentiment],” in Yoga Sūtras 2:33, 34.

Friends: I invite you all to join me, during this hour, in a guided meditation on what might have been going through the mind of Jesus as He was hanging on the cross, waiting to die. Whether or not you accept Him as your personal Savior, a Divine Incarnation, or just a very good man who may or may not have risen from the dead, you are attached to a Christian theological seminary, and the world will expect you to have given this subject some thought. So I’m here today to help with that, though I claim no special knowledge.. Because of the solemnity of the topic, I’ve scheduled no hymn-singing. I will not be dwelling on the cruelty and injustice of the crucifixion, but if you think that discussing the subject at all may be harmful to your peace of mind or mental health, you may leave at any time, with my blessing.

We’ve been trained here to identify the social location we think from, and mine is one you can all see: multiply-privileged white-looking, straight-seeming, well-educated American male. But I pray that, during this gathering, the Holy Spirit, speaking though me, might transcend the limitations of our social locations so that I speak to the condition of everyone here. But I also discern a need to disclose my theological location in giving a talk like this, so here it is: I self-identify as a follower of Jesus Christ, whom I call Lord and Savior, in whom I now live, and who lives in me. I was raised a nonbeliever, and I’m only where I am now theologically because I believe I’ve heard Christ’s voice and felt His guidance. For data about the Crucifixion I rely on the Bible. I recognize that the four canonical gospels disagree among themselves about many details, and include some stories I find unbelievable, like the pericope about bandaged zombies coming out of their tombs at the moment of Jesus’ death (Matt 27:51-53). The part about the darkness at midday (Luke 23:44-45) may be a distorted memory of the lunar eclipse of 4/3/33 CE (not a solar eclipse, impossible during a full-moon festival like Passover).

I believe the gospels reveal a clear and consistent picture of Jesus to anyone who studies them. I have no use for alternate theories I’ve heard, that Jesus was “really” a political revolutionary, or the son of a human father other than Joseph, or a mistaken believer in an imminent apocalypse, or an India- trained disciple of yoga masters. It’s not that I want to quash such speculations, but any truth that there may be in them would add nothing to Jesus’ value to me. I do believe in His miracles, which is to say, in what we call “paranormal” powers over the natural world. I do believe in His bodily resurrection. Finally: if you don’t agree with my theology, that’s fine with me; I don’t think your salvation depends on it. Anyway, Christ may not want you to agree with me.

In any case, there was something about Jesus – His purity of intention, clarity of vision, integrity if not outright divinity – that made Him so different from the rest of us that it’s hard for us to imagine “being” Him, walking in His shoes and thinking His thoughts. But if we must, let’s start by asking His help: Lord Jesus, purify our hearts and enlighten our minds to fit us for this work, so that we might, if only for this hour, love in accord with Your heart and know in accord with Your mind. Amen.

I believe that what He was doing on the cross was praying for the salvation of the world. Yes, also suffering; yes, also dying; but surely His intention was to be praying, with all the concentration He could muster, for He was not one to waste time on futile activities. You and I might just go to pieces when nails went into our hands and feet, but Jesus would not, if He knew in His heart that being crucified was an essential work-assignment that He had to do right if He wanted the world saved. Now some writers have conjectured that crucifixion spelled the failure of His mission, but that simply cannot be, if His mission was to model the way of all-forgiving God. If your mission is to model the way of an all-forgiving God, you do it by being forgiving unto death (Luke 23:34), and a public death like Jesus’s, or like Stephen’s in the Book of Acts, gives you the chance to show the world that you mean it. That God is all-forgiving is surely good enough news to die for!

An all-forgiving God? Look at the Lord’s Prayer with me: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” After He teaches that prayer, He comments, “forgive all trespasses and yours will be forgiven; but withhold forgiveness and yours won’t be” (my paraphrase of Matt 6:14-15). Now would God ask us to be all-forgiving if God weren’t all-forgiving? (If God had predestined most sinners to eternal damnation and Jesus knew it, Jesus couldn’t and wouldn’t have taught this!. Take that, John Calvin!) The only barriers to forgiveness by God seem to be ones that we put up, (1) by trying to hide our sins from God, often by denial of needing forgiveness, or (2) by refusing to extend forgiveness by holding on to grudges. This is what the Fourth Gospel must mean by describing [all] condemnation as self-condemnation, a fleeing from the truth-revealing Light into all-hiding darkness (John 3:19-20), where God’s forgiveness, by our own decision, cannot reach. But to know that we can be freely forgiven all those things we’ve loathed ourselves for is a kindness of God that, as Paul notes (Rom 2:4), should make us want to repent them! Jesus illustrates the wild joy and generosity of the much-forgiven by pointing to the uninhibited exuberance of the sinner-woman at Simon the Leper’s banquet (Luke 7:36-50).

Now I framed this digression about Jesus’ gospel of an all-forgiving God within a speculation that Jesus was praying from the Cross for the salvation of the world, a prayer that presupposes an all-forgiving God. The whole creation yearns for salvation! The whole creation groans (Rom 8:22), all sentient beings groan along with humankind, groan from ignorance, impermanence, fear, pain, danger, and mortality, things we all long to be saved from whether we can express that longing or not. Jesus is twice hailed as the “Savior of the world” in the writings of John, and I believe that Jesus felt that love, repentance, and forgiveness, practiced universally enough among humanity, might indeed undo our ancient fall from Paradise and work the “reconciliation of all things” (Col 1:20). Love “hopes all things,” Paul wrote (1 Cor 13:7), and if the crucified Jesus saw Himself as called to a ministry of saving the world through love, then He would have been praying with all His heart for it. “One-pointed” as any adept of yoga ever was, Jesus would have been supremely accomplished at focusing His attention on one single point and keeping it there.

Imagine Him focusing it on His own heart as a radiating source of love. Is He distracted by the pain in His hands and feet? Then He is willing them to be radiating outlets of the love in His heart: He’s experienced, as we know, at willing through His hands, which have touched and healed many, and willing through His feet, which have walked on water. Is He distracted by irrelevant thoughts? He’s experienced at silencing them: “Peace; be still,” He’d said to the wind and the waves (Mark 4:39). “Get thee behind me, Satan,” He’d said to His tempters (Luke 4:8, Mark 8:33). Pain does not break His resolve! According to the gospel accounts of the crucifixion, He breaks His silence only for essential things: to pronounce forgiveness of His killers (Luke 23:34), to bless the repentant thief (Luke 23:43), to put His mother under the protection of the Beloved Disciple (John 19:26), and to beg relief from thirst (John 19:28). He cries out “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34), signaling those “with ears to hear” that He is “fulfilling the scripture” of Psalm 22. He is also, perhaps, crying out as the Voice of All Creation to its Creator: “Restore us to the condition of Paradise!”

Jesus’ body may be in a state of shock as death approaches, with reduced blood pressure and possible hypothermia, so that He weaves in and out of consciousness, but I imagine that His will remains firm. Unprogrammed Friends are no doubt familiar with silences so deep that we seem to be fast asleep, except for the glimmering awareness that our abiding intention is to be at worship. Imagine, then, Jesus’ awareness thus reduced to just a bare, naked intention for the world’s salvation, before the final moment when He comes to, heaves a final sigh – “It is finished” – and gives up the ghost (John 19:30).

It is possible that His consciousness, during His hours on the cross, has expanded so far beyond the confines of His physical body, as egoless minds are said to be able to do, that He has allowed Himself to suffer the sufferings of all creation. This would allow Him to cry out the prayer of every suffering creature to God as with its own voice; – but of such a mystery I can have no knowledge, unless He reveals it to me and grants me a mind that can take it in. I only sense, by faith, that His is the perfect love that casts out fear (1 Jn 4:18); and that His prayer for us is one with the eternal blessing of the Creator, who pronounces the creation “very good” at its completion (Gen 1:31).

But then today it struck me that we humans are, as Paul wrote, “one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (Romans 12:5 KJV), a thought developed further in 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4:25 and 5:30, — but also in Hindu tradition where the Universal Human is called Hiranyagarbha Prajapati, in Qabalistic tradition where He/She is called Adam Qadmon. The theme of our membership in a larger being recurs in the thought of Swedenborg, in the Gaia Hypothesis, and in A Course in Miracles, among others: we are not merely separate individuals. If Christ my Savior lives in me, and I in Him; and if the fallen Adam/Eve also lives in me, and I in Him/Her, then I “contain” every nasty racist, and also every oppressed person of color, and also the Savior who is one with the God whose name is Love. How can I hear their voices if I don’t listen for them? How can I hope to understand Hitler, Stalin, or Cain if I refuse to see how something in me is like them? How can I break its evil power over me without first recognizing it, then calling on a Higher Power to vanquish it? So much for the lie, “I am not a racist.”

And yet I am limited by this body-identity, and dare not claim to know what a man or woman of color feels like — I, who have never been born and raised in the United States in a black or Native American skin. I can’t even know what my sisters, wife, mother, or daughter feel like, having wombs and female hormones in their blood, and histories of being treated as men’s inferiors. I can only listen with respect when they speak.