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In Friendship,
Themis Papaioannou

"The seeker's path does not lie over a well-marked road, for in worship the
person is on the fronteir of his or her conscious being."

Guide to Quaker practice, by Howard H. Briton, page 18.

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"While Jesus was in the Temple, he watched the rich people putting
their gifts into the collection box. Then a poor widow came by and
dropped in two pennies.
'I assure you,' he said, 'this poor widow has given more than all the
rest of them. For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but
she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.'"

- Luke 21:1

FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS MEANS…

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"And all the believers met together constantly and shared everything
they had. They sold their possessions and shared the proceeds with
those in need."

- Acts 2:44

…TO EACH ACCORDING TO HIS NEEDS.

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SOCIALISM IS A CHRISTIAN VALUE.

"Whoever can reconcile this, 'Resist not evil', with 'Resist violence
by force', again, 'Give also thy other cheek', with 'Strike again';
also, 'Love thine enemies', with 'Spoil them, make a prey of them,
pursue them with fire and the sword', or, 'Pray for those that
persecute you, and those that calumniate you', with 'Persecute them
by fines, imprisonments and death itself', whoever, I say, can find a
means to reconcile these things may be supposed also to have found a
way to reconcile God with the Devil, Christ with Antichrist, Light
with Darkness, and good with evil. But if this be impossible, as
indeed it is impossible, so will also the other be impossible, and
men do but deceive both themselves and others, while they boldly
adventure to establish such absurd and impossible things."

Robert Barclay, 1678

"A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil,
that good may come of it... It is as great presumption to send our
passions upon God's errands, as to palliate them with God's name...
We are too ready to retailiate, rather than forgive, or gain by love
and information. And yet we could hurt no man that we believe loves
us. Let us try then what Love will do: for if men did once see we
love them, we should soon find they would not harm us. Force may
subdue, but Love gains: and he that forgives first, wins the laurel."
- William Penn

"First keep peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to
others."
- Thomas à Kempis

"As for the claim that the Bible is the ultimate authority,
bibliolatry is unbibical.  To the contrary, the prophetic faith has
always required honest God-wrestling."

Ricardo Elford and Jim Corbett, "The Servant Church" PHP 328

2 Timothy 2:15

"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman
that needeth not to be ashamed."

1 John 2:10

"He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none
occasion of stumbling in him."

John 15:7
"If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." 

Truth -

It is such an enigma. It lies within, but must be realized, then filtered
through our conscience and our life experiences. (One person's truth is not
always the truth of another.)

So, the truth that a Quaker holds - that of having no war - turning the other
cheeck - can be countered by another's truth. A fundamentalist truly believes
that a strong army is needed, or that sparing the rod spoils the child.

What is the *real* truth?

2 John 1:2

'For the truths sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us
for ever.'

"There is certainly a cumulative power where many persons together are
fused and expectant.  It amounts to team work.  Each "lends his soul
out"  to help the rest,  and the corporate hush assists each individual
in turn to open the avenues of his soul. . "

Rufus Jones 1928

Selection from a hymn sung at Children's Meeting in the early part of
the 20th century --

Like a little candle
We must shine
You in your small corner
and I in mine


quoted by Elfrida Vipont Foulds in "The Candle of the Lord" -- Pendle
Hill Pamphlet 248 1983

"Therefore all wait patiently upon the Lord, whatsoever condition you be
in; wait in the grace and truth, that comes by Jesus: for if you do so,
there is a promise to you, and the Lord God will fulfill it in you."
	 - George Fox

Benjamin D. Crowe
Philosophy Department
105 Newcomb Hall
Tulane University
New Orleans, Louisiana 70118
(504) 865-5305 (Department)
(504) 865-7127 (Home)
Email: bcrowe@...

"For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the
light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth
cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they
are wrought in God"

John 3:20-21

It is time that Christians were judged more by their likeness to Christ
than their notions of Christ

L. Mott,  1849

"Realty exists somewhere between the shadows and the reflections of
one's thoughts."

Richard L. Walker

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who divide people
into two kinds … and those who don’t.

Elias Hicks - Advices

"It is often, in phrases commonly used by early Friends, to be broken,
melted down, ploughed up in preparation for the Seed.  To answer "that
of God" or "the witness" in others is to behave in such a way that they
are turned toward their Inward Teacher, shown their own trespass or
confirmed in the rightness of what they are doing.  When Fox speaks of
the reformation of the professions, he says that the lawyers might e
brought into the law of God. "

Paul A. Lacey  "Education and the Inward Teacher"  PH #278 1988

"The "peculiar mission" of a Friends school is to educate for goodness,
not by requiring its members to live certain truths, but by enabling
them to live their lives in ways that reveal Truth to themselves and
through themselves to others."

Douglas Heath PHP 225 1982

But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship
with one another.

1 John 1:7

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do

Matthew 6:7 (partial)