that was spoken. There was also one of the Indian priests, whom they called a Pauwaw, who sat soberly among the people. The ninth of the Tenth Month we got back to Bonner's Creek, where we had left our horses; having spent about eighteen days in the north of Carolina.

In his Memoirs, Joseph Hoag, records his experience in attending his religious meetings. He says:

We found it our duty, when at home, to be faithful in attending our meetings, so that the two first years we used to walk over four miles, twice a week, spring, summer and fall. In winter I used my oxen for a team, taking all our family with us. Starting about sun-rise, we could get to meeting seasonably, and home about sun-set. When I got able to buy and keep a horse for your mother to ride, I felt rich. Oh! dear children, I want, if any or all of you should arrive at easy circumstances, that you remember whence you have risen, and always let a thankful and humble mind be your inner garment, that the blessing of the dew of heaven may rest upon you.

A love of the attendance of meetings has been a characteristic of all true Quakers. Samuel Smith mentions his visiting Dorothy Owen, in North Wales, a young women noted for her excellent gift in the ministry. He says: "She had been several times to the Yearly Meeting at London, more than two hundred miles on foot, and to Quarterly Meetings frequently from twenty to fifty miles." Our late dear Friend, that honest minister of the Gospel, Ellen McCarty, of Elkland, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, often walked to the next settlement to attend meeting, a distance of five miles, carrying a babe with her. On one occasion in winter, she remained all night in the neighborhood of the meeting-house, and in the morning found that snow had fallen to a considerable depth. She had two of her little boys with her, who assisted her in turns with the babe, until the infant became fretful, and would cry whenever

either of the brothers took it, and the difficulty of walking through the snow with such a weight in her arms, made the journey very toilsome to her, and she had frequently to sit down, overcome with fatigue. Harassed in body and tried in mind, she declared aloud she would not go to the meeting again. She reached home safely, and things passed on during the week as usual, but on the next Seventh-day she found a weight of darkness, and an uncommon depression upon her spirits. On feeling this, she sat down in quiet, anxiously seeking the cause. Her mind was soon illuminated clearly to discern the truth, and she perceived a hand pointing to the meeting-house, whilst she remembered the hasty resolution she had formed in her own impatient will. She saw her error, took fresh courage to encounter the difficulties and trials of her situation, and the next day contentedly trudged with her usual load the five miles to attend her meeting and seek for spiritual strength to sustain her own soul. She was careful hence forward to be diligent in the performance of this, as well as her other duties, and in consequence thereof grew in the root of Life, became an able minister of the Gospel, and was made useful in the household of faith.

Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

CHAPTER VIII.

COMMUNION WITH GOD.

The whole tendency of the teaching and practice of our early Friends was towards communion with God. When they met for Divine worship they endeavored to draw near unto Him in feeling, and waited to feel the movings of his Spirit.

And this was a marked characteristic of their every day life. Hence they knew more of the workings of his power upon them, and were more abundantly favored with the revelations of his will, than is the common experience of those who are less spiritually minded. The records of their lives present very many remarkable and interesting illustrations of this; and show that the spirit of prophecy has not ceased to visit mankind.

In the Journal of the life of that worthy Friend, William Edmundson, is contained an account of a visit paid by him to the town of Londonderry, and the remarkable testimony which he delivered to its inhabitants, under the constraining power of the Spirit of the Lord. The narrative reminds one of the warnings uttered in ancient days by the prophets of Israel to a backsliding people.

Another time I was moved of the Lord to go from my own house to Londonderry, to warn them to repent, or the Lord would bring a scourge over them. So in obedience to the Lord I went, and when I came there it happened to be a day of humiliation, as they called it, being at the time the plague was in London. They were gone to their worship at the cathedral, and I was moved of the Lord to go there. When I came to the door, the man who used to ring the bells met me, and took me by the hand, and led me near the pulpit, where the bishop was preaching. He thought he had got a Presbyterian convert, and did not take off my hat, until he saw the people gaze at me, observing which, he took my hat off and laid it by. I stood there until the bishop had done preaching; the peoples' eyes were on me, and I spoke what the Lord gave me to say, warning them to repent, or the Lord would bring a scourge over them, and scale their walls without a ladder. The bishop called to the mayor and officers to take me away, but the dread of the Lord's power was over them; they all sat still, and did not molest me. When I had delivered the Lord's message, I went towards the door, where the man who led me in met me, and took me by the hand, having my hat in his other hand; he

led me to the door, put my hat on my head, and bid God speed me well.

I went to my lodging, which was a public-house, kept by John Gibson, who with his wife were convinced of the Truth. There I was moved to write a paper to the bishop and magistrates, and the next day I went to the bishop's house with it, he living in the city. I knocked at the door, and the man who led me in and out of the worship-house the day before, opened the door, and made his apology, that he did me no harm at the church. I told him he did well and asked him for the bishop. He said he was gone to dinner, and a great many gentlemen with him; for there was a great meeting of them; and he told me it would be better to come when they had dined.

I went back to my lodging, and in a little time came again, and they having then dined, I sent my paper to them, and they sent a priest to call me up. As I was going up the stairs, the word of the Lord said unto me, I will make thee as a wall of brass. There were the bishop, the governor, the mayor, several justices, priests and others in a great dining-room; the bishop sat with his hat on, and the rest all stood bare-headed. When I came into the room, the bishop rose up from his seat, put off his hat, and met me with several low bows; but I was as a wall of brass, and stood in the power of the Lord, that was with me, which smote him. Then he sat down, and told me that what I said at their worship the day before was true, and he preached the same, and pointed to two of the priests, saying, they preached the same, therefore there was no need of me. I told him, the more preachers of Truth the better, and there was need enough; and he being a bishop, ought to encourage me. He said he must know what I came to the city for, and who sent me, and he bid the mayor examine me. So the mayor came from among the rest, and asked me where I dwelt? I told him in the Queen's County. He asked what trade I was? I told him, a ploughman. He asked my business there and who sent me? I told him the Lord Jesus Christ sent me, to warn them to repent, or He would lash them with his judgments. As I declared this, the Lord's power reached him, and he could not refrain from tears, being a tender-spirited man; so he went back behind the rest.

The bishop seeing this, was amazed, and bid two of his waiting men take me into the buttery, and make me eat and drink. They took me by the arms down the stairs, and bid me go into the buttery to eat and drink. I told them I would not eat or drink there; but they urged me, saying, I heard their lord command them to make me eat and drink. I asked them if they were Christians at that house. They said yes; then, said I, let your yea be yea; and your nay be nay, for that is Christ's command. I said, I will not eat or drink here, and you take no notice of it, being accustomed to break your yea and nay. They stood silent and let me go, for the Lord's power astonished and was over them all.

I went to my lodging, and was moved of the Lord to write a paper, and put it on the gates of the city, and to declare the Lord's message through the streets. Accordingly I wrote a paper that evening, and in the morning went first to the mayor and told him the message I had to the city. He said the bishop had chid him the day before, because he did not send me to prison; but he did not intend to do it, so long as the law would bear him harmless, and wished he had me living by him, and then I should soon have another to help to suppress wickedness. I went from the mayor, and beginning near Water-gate, sounded the Lord's message through the streets; it was dreadful to the people, and several ran as if before naked swords. As I came near the main guard, a soldier being at the door mocked, but in the dread of the Lord's power I looked in at the guard-house door, and cried, Soldiers! all repent. The soldiers on the guard were smitten as men affrighted, for the power of the Lord was mighty, in which I performed this service; and when I had done, I put a paper on the gates, as the Lord moved me. Being clear, I left the city, and visited Friends' meetings in the north, and they admired the Lord's goodness that carried me through that service without a prison.

The city of Londonderry was one of the Protestant strongholds in Ireland; and during the civil war which was waged in that country after the coming to England of William of Orange, and the expulsion of James II., it declared in favor