A History of the Disciples of Christ, the Society of Friends, the United Brethren in Christ and the Evangelical Association (Volume 12) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ...have six Yearly Meetings, viz.: New England, Ohio, Western (Indiana), Iowa, ami Kansas. At first they did not officially recognize one another ly correspondence, hut lately they have established it. The Friends who left Indiana Yearly Meeting at the time of the separation in Ohio are memliers of Ohio Meeting. CHAPTER VI. PERIOD OF REORGANIZATION.--FURTHER PROGRESS. As soon as the separation of 1827-28 was over both Orthodox and Hicksites began to strengthen the things that remained, and to go forward as best they could under the somewhat crippled conditions in which they found themselves. Many heartily regretted the separation. Nearly thirty years after, Samuel Kettle, who had been the Orthodox clerk at the time of the separation in Philadelphia, publicly stated that he believed patient labor and suffering would have been better than division.1 A careful study of the times can hardly fail to lead to the same conclusion. The Society, never very numerous, presented thereafter a broken front with diminished influence. That some members would have been lost in any case is probable, but the same Hook of Discipline continued to be used by the Hicksites, with the clauses making it a disownable offense to deny the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures and the divinity of Jesus Christ.-' The leaders who agreed with Hicks held views very different from the Orthodox; but many of those who followed them did so iii order to maintain what they felt was right liberty. In the Yearly Meetings of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, where their great strength lay, theirs was the popular party. This fact became their strength and their weakness, for while they gained numbers they also received the large proportion of those who had no settled convictions, ...