A Quaker Weekly
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A Quaker Weekly VOLUME 3 FEBRUARY 23, 1957 NUMBER 8 IN THIS ISSUE dew sweet and pleas ant it is to the truly spiritual eye to see several sorts of be lievers, several forms of Chris tians in the school of Christ, every one learning their own The Nurture of the Spiritual Life lesson, performing their own by Rachel R. Cadbury peculiar service, and knowing, owning, and loving one an other in their several places and different performances to their Master, to whom they Beliefs into Action are to give an account, and by L. Emerson Lamb not to quarrel with one an other about their different practices. For this is the true ground of love and unity, not Senecas Struggle for Their Homes in 1957 that such a man walks and does just as I do, but because by Sarah M. Stabler and Glad Schwantes I feel the same spirit and life in him. -ISAAC PENINGTON Extracts from Epistles FIFTEEN CENTS A COPY Books - Poetry $4.50 A YEAR 114 FRIENDS JOURNAL February 23, 1957 Books WHITTIER-LAND. By SAMUEL T. PICKARD. Riverside Press, FRIENDS JOURNAL Cambridge, Mass. 160 pages. $2.00 1957 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of John Greenleaf Whittier, whose poems contain the kind of worship and aspiration that are acceptable in every Christian church. The poet's life was spent ainong the hills and shores of the Atlantic, mostly in a small area in the northeastern corner of Massachusetts, and Whittier-Land makes an excellent. guide book here. The author, Samuel T. Pickard, whose wife was the poet's niece, compiled material that he had been wisely gather Published weekly at 1616 Cherry Street, Philadelphia 2, ing for many years and brought out the book early in the Pennsylvania (Rittenhouse 6-7669) By Friends Publishing Corporation twentieth century. It went through several printings, then WILLIAM HUBBEN JEANNE CAVIN Editor and Manager AdveTtisements lapsed, "out of print." LOIS L. COMINGS MARTHA TURNER Full of illustrations, the volume is being as warmly received Assistant Editor Subscriptions as it was originally. The body of the book is untouched. The CONTRIBUTING COR•RESPONDENTS preface is new, but it fails to mention that the Commonwealth RICHARD R. WOOD, Philadelphia Afr ica . Maurice Webb, Durban of Massachusetts has lately honored a prominent new bridge England .. Horace B. Pointing, London Joan Hewitt, London and a highway with the poet's name. The original preface Germany .................. .. ..... Lottelore Roloff Gerda Crodel states that the book is designed to meet a desire ''from tourists I ndia . .Benjamin Polk, New Delhi Japan . .. ... ... .. ...... ..... Bruce L. Pearson, Osaka who are visiting the Whittier homes in increasing numbers." Jordan . • . ......... Graham Leonard, Ram allah The third chapter delightfully reveals the poet's sense of Scandinavia ...... ... ... Ole Olden, Stavanger, Norway Switzerland . Robert J. Leach, Geneva humor. The last part consists of poems that were discarded by Turkey . ... .. .... ...... William L. Nute, Jr., Ankara Lake Erie Association .... Winthrop M. Leeds, Pittsburgh Whittier himself. Midwest (Five Years) . .Russell E. Rees, Richmond New England . Thomas R. Bodine, Hartford People who desire to visit the fascinating birthplace in East West Coast . ....... Ferner Nuhn, Claremont, Calif. Haverhill, Mass., and the home in Amesbury, where, between BOARD OF MANAGERS the ages of 29 and 85, Whittier lived and wrote most of his 1965-1967: Eleanor S. Clarke, Barbara L. Curtis, Arthur M. Dewees, Irving Hollingshead, Emily C. Johnson. 1955- prose and poetry, will revel in Whittier-Land. 1968: Carol P. Brainerd, Willis H. Satterthwaite. Lydia F. Taylor, Daniel D. Test, Jr., Anne Wood. 1956-1959: How MARION E. KELSEY ard H. Brinton, Sarah P. Brock, Ruth 0. Maris, Margaret L. Matthews, Lawrence MeK. Miller, Jr., Sarah F. Splint. THE JOURNAL ASSOCIATES are friends who add five Book Survey dollars or more to their subscriptions annually to help meet th" over-all cost of publication. The Church Under the Cross. By J. B. Phillips. The SUBSCRIPTION RATES: United States, possessions, Can ada, and Mexico: $4.60 a year, $2.60 for six months. Macmillan Company, New York, 1956. Ill pages. $2.50 Foreign countries: $5.00 a year. Single copies: fifteen cents. Checks should be· made payable to Friends Pub This is the same J. B. Phillips who with a kind of spec lishing Corporation. Sample copies sent on request. tacular pyrotechnics has translated the New Testament into Re-enteTed as second-class .matter July 7, 1966, at the post office at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under th e Act of unforgettable modern English, under titles like The Young March 3, 1879. Church in Action and Letters to Young Churches. But those books were Scripture. Here the content is Phillips, and "ohl The difference to me." The Inspired L etters in Clearest English. Prepared by Contents Frank C. Laubach. Thomas Nelson and Sons, New York. Page 221 pages. $1.50 Books 11 4 Dr. Laubach's attempt to simplify the New Testament Editorial Comments ........ .... ......... 115 Epistles has not only made them more readable, especially for younger readers, but h as bestowed upon the text a new The Nurture of the Spiritual Life- Rachel R. flavor of permanence and freshness. Cadbury ............................... 116 Attack Upon Christendom. By Soren Kierkegaard. The Beliefs into Action-L. Emerson Lamb . 117 Beacon Press, Boston. 303 pages. $1.45 Extracts from Epistles (continued) .... .. ... 119 This book collects the most aggressive and controversial Senecas Struggle for Their Homes in 1957- papers directed against "official Christendom." They caused Sarah M. Stabler and Glad Schwantes. 119 such enormous changes in the thinking of Europe that they rank with Marx's writings as revoluntionary manifestues, Retrospect (poem)- ]ames Dickinson . ... .... 120 without, of course, being political. The thesis that Christian Friends and Their Friends . 121 ity is an "optical illusion" is repeated in all articles with Letters to the Editor . 123 fervor, passion, irony, and acidulous argument. FRIENDS JOURNAL Successor to THE FRIEND (1827-1955) and FRIENDS INTELLIGENCER (1844-1955) ESTABLISHED 1955 PHILADELPHIA, FEBRUARY 23, 1957 VOL. 3-NO. 8 Editorial Comments Intuitive Forethought Such terms and many other Quaker messages are A ROUND 1770, twenty years before the French Revo nothing less than the outrush of a divine inspiration .fl.. lution, a fantastic idea made its first appearance. for which the speaker is little more than a medium. The French architect Ledoux proposed to erect a build They, too, are like friendly intruders from another ing in the form of a huge ball. Architectural tradition, world. They contradict conventional ways as much as known physical laws, and all mathematical calculations ball-like architecture puzzled generations before us. Yet denounced the project as the mad dream of a disarranged we sense their authority; they precede incipient changes. mind. Yet, quite apart from such practical considera An inspired message implies the creation of some future tion,s, the design became the symbol of much vaster order. Like all worship, it creates the illumination of changes that were to come within less than twenty years. heart and mind, whether the speaker is aware of this This huge ball was something like an uncanny missile effect or not. Sincerity and a sense of urgency should be from another world. As all conventions were disregarded his sole concern for ministering through the spoken in such a project, so were all laws and traditions ignored word. There is something compulsive about sound min in the ensuing revolution which proclaimed the new istry that deprives the concerned minister momentarily ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity. of his own freedom. In like manner will it subject his Between 1890 and 1900 the project of ballistic archi hearers to the spell of his communication, because they tecture again was promoted, and the huge ball actually sense its authority. was displayed at the Paris World's Fair in 1900. This Ministry as a New Order time, too, the fantastic building seemed to be a signal for revolutionary changes occurring less than twenty Such considerations should make us appraise the ministry of the spoken word with reverence, caution, years later in Russia, Germany, and other nations. and self-criticism. The true message will always create The Power of Thought some new order out of the chaos of our lives. It must not, or rather cannot, be the outgrowth of logical reflec Good as well as bad revolutions evolve from our tion alone. Prayer, the total moral endeavor of a life minds and hearts. The gospel speaks not only of the time, and an uncomfortable sense of responsibility meet tiny mustard seed's growth as foretelling the advent of in the concern to serve the ministry of the spoken word. the kingdom but also of the power of evil thought that Such convergence is never accidental. It has the stamp will produce immoral deeds. Thought inevitably tends of divine calling. It carries the promise of eternity. to produce concrete reality. It also has an infectious, awakening, or suggestive effect upon others. This almost In Brief hypnotic effect is vastly increased through speech and An article in the Norwegian paper Vart L and tells the printed word. When Alfred Adler coined the term of a spontaneous religious movement in Russia that "inferiority feelings," literally millions of hitherto in consists largely of young people who call themselves articulate people suddenly confessed that such psycho "believers," but are popularly known as "monachki" logical trouble had bothered them for a long time. Who (little monks). These non-ritualistic evangelists are esti can ever fully assess the impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin mated to number several million members; they have as a rallying symbol for thousands of Americans? George , no sacraments, rely on Bible reading, prayer, discussion, Fox's phrase "that of God in every man" was known to and a non-violent way of life.