12 QUAKER ASPECTS OF TRUTH 



And now we come to the doctrine of Original Sin. 

 This doctrine was no doubt derived from the Genesis 

 ** Story of the Fall/' and it taught that man is by nature 

 depraved ; that every child born into the world is 

 altogether born in sin^ and is doomed to everlasting 

 torments in Hell unless conversion takes place* But 

 Fox and the early Friends refused to accept any theo- 

 logical dogma that was not founded on first-hand 

 experience. They knew by observation that human 

 nature is not altogether depraved ; that there is some- 

 thing in human nature which responds spontaneously 

 and naturally to all that is good and true and noble. 

 And, however much this Divine part of man's nature 

 may be dwarfed and hidden by disadvantageous circum- 

 stances, it is always there, striving to express itself. Thus, 

 George Fox says in his journal : ** Now the Lord God 

 opened unto me by His Invisible Power, that every man 

 was enlightened by the Divine Light of Christ, and I 

 saw it shine through all,** 



Much later on, when George Fox was in America, 

 a certain doctor denied that the Light of Christ 

 was given to all men, and especially instanced the 

 American Indians as being without this Divine Light 

 and Guidance, Whereupon George Fox called to him 

 an unlettered Indian, and asked him whether, when he 

 did wrong, there were not something within him that 

 reproved him for it ; and the Indian answered that there 

 was such a thing in him which did so reprove him, and 

 he felt ashamed when he had done wrong or spoken 

 wrong. Thus did George Fox see in every man, how- 

 ever degraded, the Light Within, Thus did he recognise 

 in every human being a veritable Temple of the Holy 

 Ghost, 



To illustrate this fundamental doctrine of Quakerism, 

 the early Friends did not always use the metaphor of 

 light. They often spoke of this innate tendency to 



