2. Worship and Ministry. Barclay (Apol ogy') says: °All true and acceptable worship to God is offered in the inward and immediate moving and drawing of his own spirit. All other worship, praises, prayers and preach ings, which man sets about in his own will, at his own appointment, and can begin and end at his pleasure are but superstitious will-wor ship." Again, "As our worship consisteth not in words, so neither in silence as silence; but in an holy dependence of the mind upon God: from which dependence silence necessarily fol lows in the first place, until words can be brought forth which are from God's spirit." Hence silence is the basis of meetings for wor ship, which can be, and often are, held without a minister or any vocal service. Neither min isters, nor others, are supposed to break this silence without an immediate opening of a sub ject, and a sense that the Lord requires the de livery of the message revealed. No special training or educational qualifications are con sidered necessary for the ministry, and no con sistent "Quaker" minister accepts pecuniary compensation for services in that capacity. Ac cepting literally the command of Christ to his apostles, "Freely ye have received, freely give" Friends refuse to pay tithes or in other way to contribute to the support of a paid ministry.
3. Sacraments. Sacraments require the serv ices of a priest or minister. Friends denied this necessity, rejecting all types and outward ordinances. They taught that the only saving baptism was that of the Holy Spirit; and that the true communion was not partaking of bread and wine, but the spiritual °eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood" of Christ. They held that marriage was the Lord's joining of man and woman, and, therefore, was not per formed by man — men were but witnesses.
4. War, Oaths, etc. Friends have always maintained that war and oaths were incon sistent with Christianity, being forbidden by Christ and his apostles in the New Testament. Consistent members refuse to perform military service or partake in warlike preparations. They refuse oaths in civil courts or elsewhere as forbidden by Christ's language, "Swear not at all." In their early history they suffered much on this account. They decline the use of complimentary titles and language, believing they proceed from pride and tend to foster it. They refuse the complimentary use of the plural pronoun to a single person, although the "thou* and "thee" to judges and magistrates has often resulted in 'suffering. They use the numerical language of Scripture instead of the names of months and days in honor of heathen deities. Their plainness of dress is a testimony against pride, and any uniformity the result of a refusal to change its style at the dictates of fashion.
Present Condition and Membership.— With some unimportant exceptions the society maintained a practical unity until the year 1827. At that time a separation occurred in Phila delphia Yearly Meeting and later in others.
Since then two district bodies have claimed the title "Religious Society of Friends," commonly distinguished by the names "Hicksite and "Orthodox," although not recognized or offi cially used by either body. The name "Hicksiten came from Elias Hicks, a talented and popular minister of Long Island, whose ministry was the immediate cause of the schism. The Ortho dox party hold that unsound doctrines caused the separations. The followers of Hicks, ad mitting differences in doctrines, contend that the real cause was not so much these differ ences, as an arbitrary exercise of authority by the Orthodox party. Quotations from Hicks establish the contention that the divinity of Jesus Christ, the doctrine of atonement, and the inspiration and authority of the Bible were denied or questioned. There were probably some grounds for the charge of an arbitrary spirit on the part of the Orthodox. In the separations, two-thirds of Philadelphia and New York yearly Meetings were of the allicksite" party, and in Baltimore four-fifths; in Ohio they were about evenly divided, while in In diana Hicks had comparatively few sympathiz ers. No separations occurred in New England or North Carolina meetings, they continuing to be identified with the Orthodox bodies, which were officially recognized by London Yearly Meeting.
There are seven yearly meetings of the "Hicksite" Friends: Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, Genesee (Canada), Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, numbering about 17,800 members. They are connected by epistolary correspond ence. Their principal schools are Swarthmore College, and the George School in Pennsyl vania, Friends Central in Philadelphia and sim ilar schools in New York and Baltimore. The Friend's Intelligencer, an ably conducted weekly paper, is published in Philadelphia.
Several of the Orthodox yearly meetings have experienced separations. Joseph John Gurney of England, a wealthy and educated minister and voluminous writer, expressed views which many in England and America re garded as subversive of some always held by the society. Prominent among those in America who opposed his views was John Wilbur, a minister in New England. This resulted in a division in that Yearly Meeting in 1845, which was followed by one in Ohio in 1854. These, and later separations in others, resulted in two distinct bodies of Orthodox Friends within the limits of six yearly meetings, including Canada. They have been distinguished by the respective names, °Gurney" and and the terms "Progressive* and °Conservative? In Ohio the "Conservative" body was the larger, and in each of the others the smaller. London gave its official recognition to the "Progressive* bodies. There are now 13 of these, connected with each other and with London and Dublin Yearly Meetings by correspondence: New Eng land, New York, Canada, Baltimore, North Carolina, Ohio, Wilmington (Ohio), Western, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Oregon and California. Total membership in America about 75,000.