George Fox and the Quakers |
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In the middle of the 17th century, one of the most remarkable Christian movements began. Today, in many countries across the world, there are groups of people called simply "The Society of Friends", or "The Friends Church". |
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They began with a man called George Fox. He was a man who looked everywhere in the churches of his time for a religion that was "real". He asked Christian teachers to show him how to experience the love of God directly. Their answers did not satisfy him. They talked about God, but didn't seem able to introduce him to God. He decided that their religion was "second-hand". He came to believe that all the groups of Christians he met were "formal", just playing at being Christians. His own Christian life began, he claimed, when he heard a voice speak to him. He felt the experience brought him into direct contact with Jesus Christ. What he had been told about now became real to him. He felt he had to share with other people the fact that a direct experience of the love of God was possible, and that you could know you were forgiven by God. He began to preach. Sometimes he spoke after the minister had finished the usual sermon. Sometimes he preached in the churchyard outside. People were aware of a special force in his words, unlike the formal and lifeless sermons of many ministers. |
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George Fox |
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