254 FOTHERGILL AS A FRIEND CHAP. 



as expressed in its discipline, more especially in the 

 schedule of " Queries " ; these dealt with the duties of 

 meetings and of members, and enquired into conduct, 

 behaviour and faithfulness to Friendly principles. No 

 doubt the scope of the committee's work varied in different 

 places. Samuel Fothergill would have his Irish friends 

 to " bear twins " : they must uphold the discipline, and 

 they must preach the word. Tradition tells that in some 

 places the visitors had a sterner task ; a good many 

 members were disowned, not excepting even the clerk of 

 the meeting. 



The restoration of the discipline was the practical aim 

 of the committee. Certain it is that at this period the 

 organisation of the society was perfected and strongly 

 reinforced, and the committee of 1760 had probably the 

 chief influence in this result. The system of Monthly 

 and Quarterly Meetings throughout the British Isles 

 became so methodised and firmly established that it has 

 never since that time shown any material sign of weaken- 

 ing. John Griffith (1764) extols it as " the hedge or w r all 

 of good discipline in the Christian Church, as a defence 

 from dangerous enemies." So assured was the Friends' 

 conviction of heavenly guidance and direction in this 

 matter, that it is hardly too much to say that the discipline 

 was in their eyes as much divine as the Law given amid 

 the thunders of Sinai. The Yearly Meeting in 1703 

 repeated Fox's words : " Our Monthly and Quarterly 

 Meetings being set up by the power and in the wisdom of 

 God." Another feature in the reformed society was the 

 rule of the Elders. These officers were first appointed, 

 as we have seen, about 1727, and they became, as the 

 century passed its middle point, a body in whom rested 

 the chief authority in the congregations, both in meetings 

 for worship and in those for church order a condition 

 which continued more or less for several generations. 



Manuscript collections of minutes of the Yearly 

 Meeting had been drawn up about 1736 and preserved in 

 the various Quarterly Meetings, and these were for long 

 the only records of authority. They were often consulted : 



