[*Elias Hicks*] West Chester Local News. ELIAS HICKS. Passages Relating to His Life and Early Quaker History. The following from the pen of Phebe Earle Gibbons, of Bird-in-Hand, Lancaster county, we take from the N.Y. Tribune of Sunday, January 9, 1881. In the "Reminiscences of Washington," which appeared in The Atlantic Monthly for September 1880, recounting the events of Harrison's Administration, we are told that the Quaker congregation at the capital was hopelessly divided, "owing to the effective preaching of Elias Hicks, an old man whose age and peculiar eloquence gave him a higher rank in the scale of polemic divines than his power of reasoning could have down without such aids." When William Henry Harrison was inaugurated in 1841, Elias Hicks had been dead about eleven years. He died in his eighty- second year, having been born in 1748, on Long Island. Just before his birth his father united with the Society of Friends, or Quakers. Elias says in his journal: "My father was considered a member among Friends at the time of my birth, which in that day gave me the privilege of taking a wife in the order of Society, and that established by membership." The order of marriage at that time was as follows, if we may judge by the recollection of an aged Friend, who formerly belonged to the New England Yearly Meeting. The contracting parties appeared in a monthly meeting of the Society, and said: "With Divine permission and Friends' approbation, I intend marriage with ____________." Each repeated the same form. Committees were appointed to see whether they had the consent of surviving parents, and whether they were clear of other engagements. Those reporting favorably, the two espousing Friends again appeared in a monthly meeting to receive their answer. These two occasions were more trying than the public marriage for, as Friends' business meeting were (and still are, almost universally) held by men and women separately, the parties had first to go into the men's meeting and then into the women's, almost entirely alone. Soon after, the meeting was held in a meeting open to the public, "and the said William Evans (to borrow names), taking the said Mary Wright by the hand, did, on that solemn occasion, publicly declare that he took her, the said Mary Wright, to be his wife, promising, with Divine assistance, to be unto her a faithful and affectionate husband until death did them part." The promise of the wife was an equal one. The two then signed the certificate; she, after the custom of marriage, taking the name of her husband; and it was then free for all present to sign it. Elias tells us that when he was about eight years old his father settled on the south side of Long Island. The shore abounded with fish and wild fowl, and the boy soon began to angle and shoot. For these diversions he afterward felt condemned, yet they then had a tendency to keep him about home, and to prevent his joining "loose company," for which he had frequent opportunities without his father's knowledge. When about thirteen years old, he was removed from his father's control, and placed with an elder brother, where he learned "to sing vain songs and to take delight in running horses." Yet he adds that he had always a regard for strict honesty and such conduct as comported with politeness and good breeding. At about seventeen he was apprenticed to a carpenter and joiner. He said that although his master frequently attended Friends' meeting, yet he eagerly pursued riches and was of little use to him in religious improvement. Their work took them from place to place, and Elias says that he was thereby introduced into hurtful company, and learned to dance and pursue other vain amusements. The last time that he was at a dance he was brought under "great concern of mind," and at length sat down and told the company that he was resolved to go no further. When his apprenticeship was over he became more acquainted with Friends, but says he made slow progress in religious improvement until several years after his marriage. He began to feel that his amusement with the gun was not without sin, for although he often went alone, and while waiting in stillness for the coming of the fowl, was at times taken up in divine meditations, yet when his acquaintances went with him and no useful fowls appeared they would sometimes in watonness destroy small birds. It became a principle with him not to kill any creature but such as were noxious while living or useful when dead. In his twenty-second year, having to use his own quaint language, gained an intimate acquaintance with Jemima Seaman, of Jericho (Long Island), and his affection being drawn toward her, he communicated his views to her, and received from her a corresponding expression of affection. They accomplished their marriage at a solemn meeting of Friends in 1771. His wife was not strong, yet they lived together fifty-eight years, "in an unbroken bond of endeared affection, which seemed, if possible, to increase with time to the last moment of her life," said her widowed husband in a letter to her friend. Of their eleven children, nine lived to years of discretion, but the four sons were weak and not able to walk after the ninth or tenth year; and all died before the age of nineteen. Yet, we are told that their innocent lives and resigned cheerfulness made the care of them pleasant. His wife being an only child, her parents invited him soon after their marriage, to live with them and carry on the farm. This place became his home; he attended the meeting at Jericho; and beside the meeting-house he was buried at the close of his long and not uneventful life. BEGINNING HIS MINISTRY He did not appear as a minister until about twenty-seven. He did not speak when first he felt an intimation to do so. But he says in his journal: "It was not long before I felt an impressive concern to utter a few words, which I yielded to in great fear and dread; but oh! the joy and sweet consolation that my soul experienced as a reward for this act of faithfulness." Elias made many religious journeys during his life, sometimes attending regular meetings, sometimes appointing meetings, and sometimes visiting and preaching in Friends' families. The journeys mentioned in this journal number over forty, but they never went beyond the limits of the United States and Canada. Of one, as far as Virginia, he says that he was absent from home about five months and two weeks, rode about 1,600 miles and attended 143 meetings. The following passage shows how Friends have described their exercises of mind. (The meeting alluded to was in New England): In the fore part of this meeting, my mind was reduced into such a state of great weakness and depression that my faith was almost ready to fail, which produced great searchings of heart, so that I was led to call in question all that I had ever before experienced. In this state of doubting I was ready to wish myself at home from an apprehension that I should only expose myself to reproach and wound the cause I was embarked in; for the heavens seemed like brass, and the earth as iron; such coldness and hardness I thought could scarcely have been ever experienced before by any creature, so great was the depth of my baptism at this time; nevertheless, as I endeavored to quiet my mind in this condicting dispensation, and be resigned to my allotment, however distressing, toward the latter part of the meeting a ray of light broke through the surrounding darkness, in which the Shepherd of Israel was pleased to arise, and by the light of His glorious countenance to scatter those clouds of opposition. Then ability was received and utterance given to speak of His marvelous works in the redemption of souls, and to open the way of life and salvation and the mysteries of His glorious kingdom, which are hidden from the wise and prudent of this world and revealed unto only those who are reduced into the state of little children and babes in Christ. It proved a time of renewed strength and consolation to myself and I trust it was so to many present. Renowned forever be the name of the Lord, who hath His way in the cloud and in the thick darkness, and who can cause the Light to shine out of obscurity, when He pleaseth, for the comfort and help of His devoted children, and to cause their darkness to become as the noon-day. [column 2] Friends' ministers have not always spoken even when they have appointed meeting. Of a certain one Elias says: "I found it my business to set the people an example of my silence." Having appointed a meeting at the house of a certain John Cook, he says "Our landlord undertook to give the notice to his neighbors, and having heard that Friends sometimes sit their meetings in silence, he was [afraid], as he afterward informed me, to notify any of the meeting, except two or three of his particular friends, lest, if it should prove silent, they might laugh him to scorn. In consoquence thereof the meeting was very small. But such was the kindness of of Divine Providence that. He did not fail to manifest His presence powerfully among, as it were, the two or three, to the conviction and reproof of our unfaithful landlord." Of another occasion he speaks in following language: "I was much worn down by constant travelling and hard labor, and felt much fatigue when we came here and in going to this meeting I felt a desire to rise in my mind that I might have a silent meeting. The prayer of my spirit was answered, for I had not sat long before a perfect, sweet calm ensued wherein my whole man was swallowed up in a divine, seraphic enjoyment, so that not only my mind, but also my wearied body, forgot all its toll; and and my soul was so inflamed with gratitude to the all-beautiful Author of all our rich mercies and blessings that praises and thanksgiving ascended as incense from the altar of my heart to His great and glorious name, who remains to be God over all, blessed forever, world without end. Amen." He is not always, however, in this ecstatic state; on another occasion he says: "Sat our meeting in silence, and was much interrupted by the intrusion of unprofitable thoughts, against which I had to struggle through most of the meeting." THE MINISTRY NO SINECURE. In all his labors in the ministry Elias Hicks was unsalaried. The Society of Friends is opposed to what it calls a hireling ministry. He speaks, when approaching the age of seventy, of having passed a week principally inn attending to his temporal concerns, especially from a sense of duty to provide for himself and family; through the blessing of Providence on his frugal industry he has enough when called from his home for the Gospel's sake to keep the Gospel free. "How inconsistent," he adds, "must it appear to those who profess to have taken yup their cross to self and the world, to follow their self-denying Saviour in the plain path of duty, to be anxious about what they shall eat or drink, or what they shall wear, or manifest a desire after praise or applause from their friends or others, or have their hands and hearts open to receive the gratuities of the rich." While he was thus traveling in the ministry it was the duty of Friends to entertain him; but in other matters he was scrupulous. An aged Friend on Long Island has told me that his brother-in-law traveled many hundred miles with Elias, and that he was very guarded against receiving any compensation for preaching. He was not willing to have the writer prepay the postage of letters sent to him while traveling in the ministry, and he would pay his own ferriage, etc., being desirous to keep the Gospel free. Of his manner of employment when at home we can learn much from his journal. One day in the spring he speaks of gardening, another he spends in manual labor. Less would be enough, he says, if all would do their parts, "but the poor and indolent must and will be helped." He tells of mending a vehicle in which he has traveled several thousand miles in his "religious engagements." One day (when about sixty-five) he wearies himself with hard labor in helping his workmen to build stone fences; and in the evening reads Paul's epistle to the Galatian's in which he thinks that Paul has fully shown the final and abolition of all outward ordinances and observances in matters of religion. Again he says: "I endeavor to spend this day as I ought to do. Met with some interruption from a careless neighbor, by the trespass of his unruly cattle." He says that he considers a reasonable portion of manual labor his duty and delight, esteeming it a reasonable and Christian service; also he abhors idleness and sloth. On one day he does not feel his usual satisfaction, owing, he supposes, to his not attending to a small inward intimation respecting the day's employment. He adds: "Remember, oh, my soul, that all thy success in temporals, as well as all thy sweet inward heavenly consolations, depend upon thy faithfulness and ready submission to those inward divine meditations." In 1814, during the war with Great Britain, we find him engaged with other Friends in collecting some relief for the poor in the City of New York. He speaks further of attending a meeting of a society of Friends for educating the children of poor black people. He attends the marriage of a daughter, where "he is led to set forth, by public testimony, the excellency of the Divine fear;" and he says that a comfortable calm spread over the meeting, a fit preparation for a quiet and orderly marriage. He adds: "It was cause for thankfulness to my mind, having had four daughters agreeable married in the comely order of Friends: the other, yet single, a tender, precious young woman, observing with tender submission her parents' counsel. But this is a blessing which few parents enjoy, except those who live under a daily concern to watch over and nurse their tender offspring in the fear of the Lord." EQUAL RIGHTS AND UNIVERSAL PEACE. The testimonies of friends are against war, oaths, intemperance, slavery, and in favor of a free Gospel ministry. The last has already been mentioned, but it includes the equal spiritual rights of woman. On this subject Elias speaks very boldly in a letter to one not yet a Friend. He says in substance: When I meet with parts of Scripture that I do not understand, I leave them until I may arrive at a state of deeper experience, by which means I have come to understand things that seemed mysterious, and this, I have no doubt will be thy case in respect of what Paul says of women keeping silence in the churches; for if Paul said what we find in Corinthians and Timothy, I judge that he had no allusion at all to their preaching or prophesying in the churches; and if he had, we have no right to admit it as should doctrine, as it contradicts a number of his own declarations (and the general testimony of Scripture) which are more rational and clear, as in the fourteenth chapter of the Romans; in Philippians, where he speaks of the women who labored with him in the Gospel; and in 1st Corinthians, where he speaks of women praying or prophesying; and Paul assures us that male and female are one in Christ. Also under the law there were prophetesses as well as prophets, and the effusion of the Spirit in the latter day, as prophesied by Joel, was to be equally on sons and daughters, servants and hand-maids; and to believe otherwise is irrational and inconsistent with the divine attributes, and would charge the Almighty with partiality and injustice to one-half of his rational creation. Therefore I believe it would be wrong to admit it, although asserted in the most plain and positive manner by men or angels. As regards war, we find that during our last conflict with Great Britain Elias called the attention of Friends to a faithful support of their testimony against was and injustice, desiring them to maintain their Christian liberties against encroachment of the secular powers, laws having been enacted levying taxes for the support of the war. At another meeting there was considerable altercation; some Friends who refused payment of the tax had been distrained some three or four fold more than the tax demanded, while others complied and paid the tax, and justified themselves in so doing. He says that his mind was deeply baptized, and he labored to encourage friends to faithfulness, to exalt their testimonies for the Prince of Peace. Elias Hicks not only frequently held meetings for the blacks or colored people, but he preached against slavery both in Maryland and Virginia. He says of a meeting in Baltimore that he especially addressed slaveholders. Further he opposed the use of slave-grown goods. At a meeting in Providence, R.I., he mentions that his mind was opened to show the great and essential and difference there is between the righteousness of man, as comprehended in laws, customs and traditions of men, and the righteousness of God, which is comprehended in pure, impartial, unchangeable justice. He speaks further of cunning, sophistical reasoning in the wisdom of this world which many are using to justify themselves and silence the convictions of conscience while opposing this pure principle of justice, as continuing a traffic in and making themselves [column 3] rich by a commerce in the labor of the poor, afflicted and deeply oppressed Africans and their descendants (held in a state of slavery by the mere force of war), and which is wrested from them without their consent. Some other Friends were much opposed to the use of slave produce; but the society in general did not "enter into the concern." Lucretia Mott, who herself used "free goods," considered Elias' preaching on this subject was one of the causes of the separation of the society. DOCTRINE OF THE INWARD LIGHT. Having thus spoken of "testimonies" of Friends, I now come to their great distinguishing principle, the importance of the Light within, or the teachings of the Holy Spirit. Said George Fox, "Friends, mind the light." In one of his sermons Elias Hicks says: "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God. What is the Spirit of God? It is light and life in the soul of man." He also speaks of a knowledge of love in our own souls, adding "All that men or books can do is to point us to this great principle, which is only to be known in our own souls. The way to arrive at a knowledge of this Divine love and the way to be enabled to fulfil the whole law is to love all the creation of God, and do right to all, men and beasts." Again he speaks of this Divine love and Divine light, which he says are one, indivisibly one. "The Lord is love, and love may be considered as comprehending all His power and all His wisdom; but goodness is the most proper term that we can apply." Every one, he says, is enlightened by the same Divine light that Jesus was enlightened with, and we receive it from the same source. He had the fulness of it as we have our several allotments. In his journal Elias speaks of Christ in us, the hope of glory, and makes the bold assertion that "all the varied names given in Scripture to this divine light and life, such as Emmanual Jesus, Sent of God, Great Prophet, Christ our Lord, Grace, Unctiou, Anointed, etc., mean one and the same things, and are nothing less nor more than the spirit and power of God in the soul of man, as his Creator, Preserver, Condemner, Redeemer, Saviour, Sanctifier, and Justifier." I have sometimes thought that the principal divisions in the Society of Friends in this country differ thus: that the Hicksites place the Light within above the Scriptures; that the Gurneyites )who are with London Yearly Meeting) would, if they are willing to admit the possibility of a difference make the Scriptures the surer guide; and that the Wilburites would consider the two of equal authority, or would not admit the possibility or probability of a difference. But this must be considered my individual surmise. It is not carried out by what I have heard from Friends on Long Island, who have told me that it was Elias Hicks' preaching upon the doctrine of the atonement which caused the first great separation of 1827-28. Extremely strong expressions on the subject of the Bible may be found in the letter of Elias Hicks to Phebe Wills, 1818. In a letter of John C. Sanders, 1823, he says: "Not all the books ever written, nor all the external miracles, recorded in the Scriptures, not all other external evidences of what kind soever, has ever revealed God, who is an eternal invisible spirit, to any one of the children of men." I have had the use, in preparing this letter, of Elias Hick's Sermons, Philadelphia, 1826; his Journal, New York, 1832; and Letters, New York, 1834. As regards the doctrine of the atonement, however, I give nothing from these volumes. On Long Island, about three years ago, I met the venerable Rachel Hicks, herself a preacher. She was the wife of a nephew and friend of Elias, but her father joined "the Orthodox." One of his acquaintances came to see her father, and told him that Elias had said there is no hereafter. She did not believe that he had said so, but refrained from disturbing her father by entering into a controversy. She, however, inquired into the matter, and was told that Elias said Heaven is not a fixed place above, nor hell one below, but that both are states of the soul. She added: "I remember that he said that the blood of Christ, shed upon the cross, was no more to us than the blood of bullocks and of rams, and the Orthodox thought that this was blasphemy; but he meant that we must know Christ within to save us from sin; and I remember his saying that men depended so much upon the crucifixion to save them from sin that they neglected to attend to the Divine light within the soul." The following incident was, I think, first related to me by Lucretia Mott. About the time of the separation English Friends were quite active on the side called Orthodox. When Annie Braithwaite and others were in this country preaching salvation by the blood of Christ, Elias Hicks rose and spoke in this manner: "Friends, to the Christ that never was crucified, to the Christ that never was slain, to the Christ that cannot die, I commend you." When Elias Hicks was seventy nine years old the separation began in Philadelphia. He lived about three years longer. Those Friends who agreed with him in sentiment have sometimes been called by other Separatists, but that title could scarcely be appropriately applied to him, as he continued till his death a member of the same monthly meeting, quarterly meeting and yearly meeting that he had attended before (the yearly meeting of New York), and these meetings coniitnued to be held in the same houses. PHŒBE EARLE GIBBONS. Bird-in-Hand, Penn., Jan. 5, 1881. Election of Officers.--The members of the Penn Mutual Fire Insurance Company met this morning at 10 o'clock at the office of the secretary, G.M. Rupert, Esq., for the purpose of holding an election of officers to serve the ensuring year. The meeting was organized as follows:--President, I.A. Cleaver, Esq.; secretary, Charles B. Lear; tellers of election, Emmor G. Griffith and John E. Leaman. Before proceeding to the election the annual report of the secretary was submitted, which shows that the company has insured property during the year to the amount of $1,500,000, making the whole amount of property insured in the company now about $7,000,000. The election for officers is going on as we go to press. Sweet Cider just made from Sound Apples and twice filtered. Absolutely pure juice. DARLINGTON BROS. Boyd's Battery at S.K. Hammond's. Use Kervey's Wine of Iron, Beef and Calisaya. Sweet Florida Oranges 30c. a dozen. T.C. Hogue. For Cought and Colds, Give to your babies! Give to your grown-up children! Take a dose yourself on going to bed! Kaighn's Syrups of Tar, Wild Cherry and Hoarhoud, ½ teaspoonful for a dose. Sold by Hammond, the Druggist. 15 cents a bottle. Markets. Special to LOCAL News. PHILADELPHIA CATTLE MARKETS. STOCK YARDS, Philad'a, Jan. 10, '81. CATTLE.--Arrivals of Cattle at the various Philadelphia Yards for to-day. Thirty-five hundred arrived. The market was slower and quarter lower. SHEEP--Ninety-five hundred arrived. Market fair and quarter lower M. PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 8.--Flour inactive and less inquiry. Sales of 1,800 barrels, including Minnesota extras, at $5 00@5 75; straight at $6 00@ 6 50; Penn'a family at $5@5 50; western do, at $5 50@ 6 25, and Patents at $7 00@8 25. Rye flour is steady at $5 25 per barrel. Corn Meal is held at $3 10. Wheat is active and rather higher; sales of 4,000 bush.; including rejected, at $1 00 and $1 06; ratings, 96 a 98c.; red, on track and afloat, at $1.15⅛, and No. 2 red, elevator, at $1.14¼, and $1.14 bid for Oct.; $1.14 for November, $1.14½ or December, and $1 15¼ January. Rye is quiet and steady at 92c. for new and 93c for old. Corn is rather lower and in moderate demand, with sales of 12,000 bus.,including rejected, at 51@ 52c., as in quality; steamer at 52½a53c., mixed at 53@53½c., and yellow at 53a53½c., and 52c. bid for November; 52c. for December, and 52c. for January. Oats are firm; sales of 10,000 bush., including mixed, at 45@45½c. rejected at 44@45c., and white at 46@49c. Buckwheat meal sells slowly at [email protected]. Bran sells at $18@18 50 per ton. PHIL'A HAY AND STRAW MARKET for the week ending January 8th, 1880.--Loads of Hay 190; of Straw 66; average price during the week; Prime Timothy $1 85@2 00 [?] 100 lbs.; Mixed $1 60@ $1 75 [?] 100 lbs.; Straw $1 35@1 45 [?] 100 lbs. $5 to $20 per day at home. worth $5 re Sample Address STINSON Portland, Me & Co.