The Journal of John Woolman

The Journal of John Woolman Author(s): Woolman, John (1720-1772) Publisher: Christian Classics Ethereal Library Description: The Journal of John Woolman tells the encouraging and powerful story of John Woolman©s life. John Woolman was a 17th century Quaker and abolitionist. His Journal focuses on his moral, spiritual, and intellectual development. In par- ticular, it depicts Woolman©s deep concern for equality and justice. His concern made him act as an agent of restoration towards those whom he saw as being oppressed in his time. He was an open advocate of abolition, and encouraged many to free their slaves. But his influence extended beyond the Quakers. His letters and journeys have impacted many different people; his Journal alone has been continuously pub- lished since 1774--a true testimony to the significance and impact of his life! Reading this powerful work will encourage one to be, following John Woolman©s example, a positive force of justice, equality, and restoration in the world. Tim Perrine CCEL Staff Writer Subjects: Christian Denominations Protestantism Post-Reformation Other Protestant denominations Friends. Society of Friends. Quakers i Contents THE JOURNAL 1 AN APPRECIATION 2 (Part 1) 3 (Part 2) 18 CHAPTER I 27 CHAPTER II 34 CHAPTER III 40 CHAPTER IV 50 CHAPTER V 62 CHAPTER VI 69 CHAPTER VII 78 CHAPTER VIII 86 CHAPTER IX 101 CHAPTER X 110 CHAPTER XI 115 CHAPTER XII 125 Appendix 136 The Testimony of Friends in Yorkshire 137 The Testimony of the Monthly Meeting of Friends 139 Indexes 142 Index of Scripture References 143 ii This PDF file is from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, www.ccel.org. The mission of the CCEL is to make classic Christian books available to the world. • This book is available in PDF, HTML, ePub, Kindle, and other formats. See http://www.ccel.org/ccel/woolman/journal.html. • Discuss this book online at http://www.ccel.org/node/2925. The CCEL makes CDs of classic Christian literature available around the world through the Web and through CDs. We have distributed thousands of such CDs free in developing countries. If you are in a developing country and would like to receive a free CD, please send a request by email to [email protected]. The Christian Classics Ethereal Library is a self supporting non-profit organization at Calvin College. If you wish to give of your time or money to support the CCEL, please visit http://www.ccel.org/give. This PDF file is copyrighted by the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. It may be freely copied for non-commercial purposes as long as it is not modified. All other rights are re- served. Written permission is required for commercial use. iii THE JOURNAL THE JOURNAL THE JOURNAL OF JOHN WOOLMAN 1 AN APPRECIATION AN APPRECIATION AN APPRECIATION BY JOHN G. WHITTIER1 2 (Part 1) (Part 1) (Part 1) “It is my purpose, as briefly as possible, to narrate the circumstances attending the relinquishment of slaveholding by the Society of Friends, and to hint at the effect of that act of justice and humanity upon the abolition of slavery throughout the world.” To those who judge by the outward appearance, nothing is more difficult of explanation than the strength of moral influence often exerted by obscure and uneventful lives. Some great reform which lifts the world to a higher level, some mighty change for which the ages have waited in anxious expectancy, takes place before our eyes, and, in seeking to trace it back to its origin, we are often surprised to find the initial link in the chain of causes to be some comparatively obscure individual, the divine commission and significance of whose life were scarcely understood by his contemporaries, and perhaps not even by himself. The little one has become a thousand; the handful of corn shakes like Lebanon. “The kingdom of God cometh not by observation;” and the only solution of the mystery is in the reflection that through the humble instrumentality divine power was manifested, and that the Ever- lasting Arm was beneath the human one. The abolition of human slavery, now in process of consummation throughout the world, furnishes one of the most striking illustrations of this truth. A far-reaching moral, social, and political revolution, undoing the evil work of centuries, unquestionably owes much of its original impulse to the life and labours of a poor, unlearned working man of New Jersey, whose very existence was scarcely known beyond the narrow circle of his religious society It is only within a comparatively recent period that the Journal and ethical essays of this remarkable man have attracted the attention to which they are manifestly entitled. In one of my last interviews with William Ellery Channing, he expressed his very great surprise that they were so little known. He had himself just read the book for the first time, and I shall never forget how his countenance lighted up, as he pronounced it beyond comparison the sweetest and purest autobiography in the language. He wished to see it placed within the reach of all classes of readers; it was not a light to be hidden under the bushel of a sect. Charles Lamb, probably from his friends, the Clarksons, or from Bernard Barton, became acquainted with it, and on more than one occasion in his Letters and Essays of Elia, refers to it with warm commendation. Edward Irving pronounced it a godsend. Some idea of the lively interest which the fine literary circle gathered around the hearth of Lamb felt in the beautiful simplicity of Woolman’s pages, may be had from the Diary of Henry Crabb Robinson, one of their number, himself a man of wide and varied culture, the intimate friend of Goethe, Wordsworth, and Coleridge. In his notes for First Month, 1824, he says, after a reference to a sermon of his friend Irving, which he feared would deter rather than promote belief: “How different this from John Woolman’s Journal I have been reading at the same 1 John Greenleaf Whittier, English poet of the late 1800s, and a Friend, wrote this “Appreciation” in 1871. 3 (Part 1) time! A perfect gem! His is a schöne Seele, a beautiful soul. An illiterate tailor, he writes in a style of the most exquisite purity and grace. His moral qualities are transferred to his writings. Had he not been so very humble, he would have written a still better book; for, fearing to indulge in vanity, he conceals the events in which he was a great actor. His religion was love. His whole existence and all his passions were love. If one could venture to impute to his creed, and not to his personal character, the delightful frame of mind he exhibited, one could not hesitate to be a convert. His Christianity is most inviting, it is fascinating! One of the leading British reviews a few years ago, referring to this Journal, pronounced its author the man who, in all the centuries since the advent of Christ, lived nearest to the divine pattern. The author of The Patience of Hope, whose authority in devotional literature is unquestioned, says of him: “John Woolman’s gift was love,—a charity of which it does not enter into the natural heart of man to conceive, and of which the more ordinary exper- iences, even of renewed nature, give but a faint shadow. Every now and then, in the world’s history, we meet with such men, the kings and priests of Humanity, on whose heads this precious ointment has been so poured forth that it has run down to the skirts of their clothing, and extended over the whole of the visible creation; men who have entered, like Francis of Assisi, into the secret of that deep amity with God and with His creatures, which makes man to be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field to be at peace with him. In this pure, universal charity there is nothing fitful or intermittent, nothing that comes and goes in showers and gleams and sunbursts. Its springs are deep and constant, its rising is like that of a mighty river, its very overflow calm and steady, leaving life and fertility behind it. After all, anything like personal eulogy seems out of place in speaking of one who, in the humblest self-abasement, sought no place in the world’s estimation, content to be only a passive instrument in the hands of his Master; and who, as has been remarked, through modesty concealed the events in which he was an actor. A desire to supply in some sort this deficiency in his Journal, is my especial excuse for this introductory paper. It is instructive to study the history of the moral progress of individuals or communities; to mark the gradual development of truth, to watch the slow germination of its seed sown in simple obedience to the command of the Great Husbandman, while yet its green promise, as well as its golden fruition, was hidden from the eyes of the sower; to go back to the well- springs and fountainheads, tracing the small streamlet from its hidden source, and noting the tributaries which swell its waters, as it moves onward, until it becomes a broad river, fertilising and gladdening our present humanity. To this end it is my purpose, as briefly as possible, to narrate the circumstances attending the relinquishment of slaveholding by the Society of Friends, and to hint at the effect of that act of justice and humanity upon the abolition of slavery throughout the world.

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