BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS ii 



It happened in this wise : the Rector of Nottingham 

 was preaching in his parish church, and he took his text 

 from the Second Epistle of Peter — *' We have also a more 

 sure word of Testimony, whereunto ye do well that ye 

 take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, 

 until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts/* 

 And he went on to say that this *' more sure word of 

 Testimony '' was the Bible, which had been given by God 

 to man, as the highest authority whereby we must try 

 all doctrines, religions, and opinions* It was such a 

 sermon as one might hear in many a church or chapel 

 to-day* But on this occasion a young man stood up 

 and exclaimed, '' No, it is not the Bible ; it is the Spirit 

 of God/' And he went on to tell his astonished hearers 

 that the Spirit of God, which inspired the writers of the 

 Scriptures to write what they did, would, in proportion 

 as they had the willingness and the faith to receive it, 

 come into their hearts and inspire them, and lead them 

 into all Truth* It was the Spirit of God, he said, which 

 inspired the writers of the Scriptures, and not the 

 Scriptures themselves, which is, and was, and ever 

 must be, the highest authority whereby we must try all 

 doctrines, religions, and opinions* Now that young 

 man was George Fox, and he paid for his bold assertion 

 of the truth by being cast into a vile dungeon in 

 Nottingham Castle* 



No one now will suggest that George Fox under- 

 rated the value of Scripture* It was said, during his 

 lifetime, that if the Bible was lost George Fox could 

 easily reproduce it* It was not that he loved the Bible 

 the less, but that he loved God and His Truth the more* 

 God never wished that man should offer up on the altar 

 of Scripture his common sense and reason, and one is 

 thankful that George Fox, thus early in his career, bore 

 such courageous testimony to the Light Within as the 

 final court of appeal* 



