44 QUAKER ASPECTS OF TRUTH 



Then again they refused to recognise religious 

 distinctions ♦ No sex and no class has any monopoly of 

 the Light Within* Therefore the Society of Friends 

 has abolished the laity and has put into practice the 

 Universal Priesthood* 



Some of the implications which they applied to the 

 needs of the seventeenth century are now useless 

 anachronisms* Regardless of grammar, we now say 

 ** you '' to rich and poor alike, and regardless of social 

 distinctions, we doff the hat to the ** char-lady*'' What 

 we have to do now is to apply the principles of Universal 

 Brotherhood and Love to the needs of our time just as 

 faithfully and just as fearlessly as the Early Friends 

 applied them to the needs of their own* 



Let me, then, make a few suggestions* The Early 

 Friends sought to reform the penal system, but they 

 failed to realise that the whole penal idea is condemned 

 by the doctrine of the Light Within, and by the teaching 

 of Jesus* Not only did Jesus say ** Judge not that ye 

 be not judged,'' but, when He was asked to adjudicate 

 in a particular case, He indignantly replied ** Who made 

 Me a Judge or a Divider over you ? " 



All men of sound mind are in possession of the Light 

 Within, and we shall get the best out of them when, 

 and only when, we appeal to the best that is in them* 

 Now all penal systems appeal, not to the best, but to the 

 worst* They appeal to fear* 



Even at school the penal system does not work 

 satisfactorily* When I was at school the spirited 

 boys frequently broke the rules* If they were not found 

 out, they scored* If they were found out the school- 

 master scored, and they took their punishment like 

 men* The boys who never broke the rules were 

 regarded as lacking in sportsmanship, and that not 

 without reason* 



A brother of mine who, though not a schoolmaster, 



