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Quaking, Trembling. Only a few years before the religious maidens landed at Boston, when England was in a state of great religious unrest, the Society of Friends came into being under the leadership of George Fox (1624-91), an itinerant preacher whose personal habits approached those of a latter-day John the Baptist. Once he walked barefoot through the streets on market day crying, "Woe to the bloody city of Lichfield!"
Fox, protesting against the sluggish formalism of the English churches, declared that every man must experience a personal revelation of God, an "Inward Light," which availed more than mere parroting of Scripture. After the organization of the first Quaker community in Lancashire, the movement spread rapidly through northern England and Wales.
Some of the early Quakers went barefoot, some in sackcloth, some even naked. In moments of great fervor they exhibited violent physical reactions, and it was their contention that those who did not know "quaking and trembling" had not found the "Christ within." To this is ascribed the name "Quakers," given them in derision in the first years of the movement.
Peace in America. From the beginning the Quakers cherished a hope for refuge from their'persecutors in America. Fox was considering the purchase of land from the Indians in 1660. The first large settlements were in New Jersey in 1677-78, and under William Penn in Pennsylvania.
No longer do the Friends go barefoot, or even quake in public. In 1927 there were 115,963 of them in the U. S. They were grouped in several divisions according to emphasis laid on this or that doctrine, the largest body being called collectively the Five Years Meeting. Another important body was the Friends' General Conference; and it was a standing committee of this, the Advancement Committee, which initiated the campaign for members.
* Herbert Clark Hoover was born a Quaker, his mother being zealous in the communities of Friends in Iowa. Mrs. Hoover was an Episcopalian, but adopted her husband's faith after their marriage. Hoover's reticence before the public was said to be due largely to his Quaker upbringing.
† Evidently the Rev. Dr. Malcolm James Mc-Leod, pastor of the Collegiate Reformed Church of St. Nicholas, in New York, had not seen the circular. In his Thanksgiving sermon he criticized Hoover for going south on a dreadnought. Said he: "A Quaker on a battleship looks like a cannon in a parlor."