[Gutenberg 24576] • An Interpretation of Friends Worship

An excerpt from the book-

I was not more than ten years old when I first heard mention of the

Quakers. The grown-ups of my family were talking among themselves,

speaking of an uncle of mine who lived in Philadelphia and operated a

pharmacy near the university. I had never seen this uncle and was

curious about him, so my ears were open. Presently a reference to the

Quakers caught my attention. I wanted to know who the Quakers were. What

was told me then I have remembered ever since. The Quakers, I was told,

are people who wait for the spirit to move them.

A picture formed in my mind. Many a time I had seen my grandmother

sitting quietly, an aura of peace around her as she sewed or crocheted

or did her beautiful embroidery work. So I pictured older people, most

of them with white hair like my grandparents, all with kindly faces,

gathered in silent assembly, heads bent slightly forward, waiting to be

moved. It never occurred to me that young people, boys and girls of my

age and even younger, might be present and participating.

As the word "spirit" meant nothing definite to me, I could have no idea

of just what would move the Quakers, but I had a sense that it would be

something within them, perhaps like the stirrings that sometimes moved

me, and I may have had a vague notion that this something within them

was somehow related to what people called God. I never thought to ask

what the Quakers might do after they were moved.