312 



FRIENDS. 



FRIENDS. The later statistical reports 

 of several yearly meetings of the Society of 

 Friends indicate a small gradual increase of 

 members. The London yearly meeting, which 

 had been declining for fifty years, lias within 

 a few years past been receiving accessions; 

 and its reports for 1881 indicated an increase 

 during the year of 106 members, the whole 

 number being 14,981. The reports of the In- 

 diana yearly meeting showed an increase of 

 1,000 members during the year, and a total of 

 19,342 members. This increase is not, how- 

 ever, observed in all the yearly meetings, some 

 of which still appear to be falling back or sta- 

 tionary. Thus, the Philadelphia yearly meet- 

 ing had only 5,650 members in 1881 against 

 6,000 in 1871, and the New England yearly 

 meeting 4,399 in 1881 against 4,403 in 1871. 

 The mission at Matamoras, Mexico, returned 

 204 members. Its converts were preaching ef- 

 fectively at several places. A series of school- 

 books published by the mission has gained a 

 large circulation throughout the country. 



Among the marked features in the recent 

 history of the Society of Friends are the de- 

 velopment of a tendency among individual 

 members to conformity with the usages of 

 other denominations, and to occasional partici- 

 pation in their religious exercises, and the tol- 

 eration which has been accorded to it in some 

 of the yearly meetings. The singing of hymns 

 has been permitted in Friends' meetings ; min- 

 isters of the society have preached in the pul- 

 pits of other denominations ; and an English 

 Friend of sufficient prominence to make his 

 case conspicuous has been baptized without 

 provoking any adverse action from the month- 

 ly meeting with which he was connected. A 

 suit which was brought in the State of Indiana 

 for the control of the property of the society, 

 and of a legacy which had been left it, involved 

 the question of the legality of departures of 

 this character. The points wherein the " Pro- 

 gressive" party, who brought the suit, differ 

 from the Orthodox party, or adherents of the 

 old order, were defined in the pleadings as fol- 

 lows : The Progressive party deny that Chris- 

 tians should await the influence of the Holy 

 Spirit in conducting religious services, but 

 claim that they should be governed by fixed 

 purposes, or a sense of duty, iu such matters ; 

 they deny that men have an inward light, such 

 as the light of Christ, till after conversion; 

 they teach that Christ had a human and a Di- 

 vine nature, and that the divine nature or God- 

 head died on the cross ; that the material 

 bodies of the redeemed will be raised ; that it 

 is no longer necessary to continue the peculiar 

 habit, dress, address, and forms of worship of 

 the Friends ; they hold protracted meetings by 

 prearrangement, and call publicly on persons 

 to speak, or pray, or relate their Christian ex- 

 perience, ask the unconverted to make con- 

 fession of their sins, setting seats apart for 

 them, and have singing ; their Sunday-schools 

 are formally opened and closed, and vocal and 



instrumental music is used in them ; they hold 

 that marriage is a civil ordinance, and that 

 ministers may marry persons without refer- 

 ence to the inquiry or consent of the society ; 

 that ministers should be regularly assigned to 

 the ministry, and money should be systemat- 

 ically collected for their support; they do not 

 discourage the use of titles of address in con- 

 nection with the names of persons ; and their 

 funerals are conducted with reading from the 

 Scriptures, singing, and a discourse from a 

 special text. 



In the case referred to, the plaintiffs held 

 that they represented the original and regular 

 quarterly meeting, and that it was recognized 

 as such by the Western yearly meeting, with 

 which it was connected, and which was in 

 orderly communication, according to the cus- 

 tom of the society, with all the other yearly 

 meetings ; therefore they were, according to 

 the Friends' custom, a branch of the society in 

 good standing, notwithstanding their alleged 

 departures from the old usage, and, as such, 

 legitimately entitled to the possession of the 

 property they claimed. The defendants, the 

 plaintiffs maintained, who had separated from 

 the quarterly meeting and from the Western 

 yearly meeting on account of their toleration 

 of departures from ancient Friends' usage, and 

 had formed a new quarterly meeting and a 

 new yearly meeting, were not entitled to be 

 recognized as representatives of regular organi- 

 zations, notwithstanding their adherence to the 

 ancient usage, because they had not received 

 the recognition which was accorded to the 

 bodies of which the plaintiffs were representa- 

 tive, in correspondence with the other yearly 

 meetings. The court held, in answer to an 

 argument on demurrer in which these allega- 

 tions were set forth, that the highest church 

 organization must decide whether there has 

 been departure in doctrines, and, until the su- 

 perior organization has so determined, the civil 

 court can not enter upon an investigation of 

 that question ; that no organization can be rec- 

 ognized by the civil courts as legal and valid, 

 whether a yearly, quarterly, or monthly meet- 

 ing, which has not been recognized in accord- 

 ance with the rules and usages of the Church 

 as having been regularly established. By the 

 averments of the papers as presented in the 

 proceedings, it appeared, in effect, that all the 

 yearly meetings throughout the world hold 

 control over the establishment of each pro- 

 posed new yearly meeting, not like the Pres- 

 byterian Church, through a General Assembly, 

 or, like the Methodist Church, through a quad- 

 rennial General Conference, but through cor- 

 respondence of recognized officers of each 

 yearly meeting, the means only being different, 

 but the end accomplished, so far as the present 

 inquiry is concerned, being the same. Apply- 

 ing these principles to the facts stated in the 

 answer, the subject of inquiry in the case was 

 narrowed down practically to the recognized 

 legitimacy of succession of each of the two 



