Claiming the complete spirituality of the gospel dis- ' pensation, they denied all outward rites and ceremonies, and insisted that the types' of the Jewish ritual were fulfilled and ended in Christ. They acknowledged no order of priesthood but the universal priesthood of believers. They held that Christ as the head of His church chose and commissioned whom He would to preach His gospel, and that no human ordination was of any avail ; and they taught the doctrine of the immediate and perceptible influence of the Holy Spirit upon the individual soul of man. These positions were so radical that many good people thought them dangerously wild, and, as a consequence, the Quakers were almost everywhere persecuted.

George Fox, the founder of the sect, was born in Leicestershire, England, in 1G24. After he began to preach, in 1647, his life was little more than a journey from one prison to another. But this attracted the public attention, so that great numbers flocked to hear | him when opportunity offered. His converts came from '

nearly every rank of society, and the kingdom seemed to swarm with them.

Quakers first came to America in 1656. They attempted to settle in Massachusetts. The story of their persecutions there is well known. Remembering the age and the temper of the times, we must judge these persecutions leniently. From the Puritan standpoint, the Quaker had no right to go there. The Puritans had come to Massachusetts to establish a religious, not a civil, commonwealth. Only members of their church were eligible to citizenship. The Quakers claimed that, as Englishmen, they had a legal right to visit and to live wherever the English flag proclaimed English j urisdiction. This claim rested upon the clause in the Massachusetts charter which expressly guaranteed " all liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects of the realm to all Englishmen 'which shall go to and inhabit' Massachusetts, or which shall happen to be born there, or on the seas in going thither or returning from thence." The result of the contest was one of those sad episodes in history over which, in this age, it is better to throw the mantle of charity, with devout thankfulness that our lot is cast in better times.