Quakers.

King Country Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 909, 23 September 1916, Page 6

Quakers.

Quakers are exempt from military service under the Compulsion Bill, their religion forbidding them to bear arms or take life.

Quakers are, of course, the members of the Society of Friends, and the peculiar name is .an instance of a term originally given in derision, having spread until it held no reproach. George Fox, the founder of the "Friends," wae hauled before the magistrates for preaching at Derby, and it was stated that he bad bidden his h««re*e "quake in the name of the Lord." The word caught the fancy of the magistrate, and he used it contemptuously. It spread rapidly and is now over 250 years old. Originally the Quakers called themselves "Professors of the Light," or "Children of the Light," and one or other of these wa* their only name until 1650. Quakers are—or were—unique in that their mode of worship their religious beliefa, and their social customs differ from those of any other body of Christians. They held that no preacher miißt preach unless he felt himself moved to do so. They had no fixed liturgy, or stated form of prayer. At their meetings they met, sat down, and kept silence ! They addressed everyone as thee or thou, would use no title of rank, and would not raise their hats in greeting. Fox declared the equality of the sexes, forbade the "Friends" to so to law with each other, had a peculiar and very simple form of marriage, and imposed upon the members severity and simplicity of attire. No Quaker will take an oath, basing his objection on the Biblical injunction : "Swear not at all. Let your nay be nay ; and your yea yea." The passing of time has altered many Quakerish customs, but, although never numerous, the "Friends' have always been held in great respect for their purity of life and their great charity. Many are serving the country well in this war —mineBweeping, Red Cross work, etc.