The Ancient Banner | Page 5

surround?A common gallows. On its platform, stands?A lovely woman in the simple garb?Worn by the early Quakers. Of the throng,?She only seems unmoved, although her blood?They madly thirst for.?The first professors of Christ's inward Light,?Who brought this message into Boston bay,?Were inoffensive women. They were searched?For signs of witchcraft, and their books were burned.?The captain who had brought them, was compelled?To carry them away. But others came,?Both men and women, zealous for the Truth.?These were received with varied cruelties--?By frequent whippings and imprisonments.?Law after law was made excluding them;?But all in vain, for still these faithful ones?Carried their Master's message undismayed?Among the Puritans, and still they found?Those who received it, and embraced the Truth,?And steadily maintained it, in the midst?Of whipping posts, and pillories, and jails!?A law was then enacted, by which all?The banished Quakers, who were found again?Within the province, were to suffer death.?But these, though ever ready to obey?All just enactments, when laws trespassed on?The rights of conscience, and on God's command,?Could never for a moment hesitate,?Which to obey.--And soon there stood upon?A scaffold of New England, faithful friends,?Who, in obeying Christ, offended man!?Of these was Mary Dyer, who exclaimed,?While passing to this instrument of death,?"No eye can witness, and no ear can hear,?No tongue can utter, nor heart understand?The incomes and refreshings from the Lord?Which now I feel." And in the spirit which?These words a little pictured, Robinson,?Past to the presence of that Holy One?For whom he laboured, and in whom he died.?Then Stevenson, another faithful steward?And servant of the Lamb, was ushered from?Deep scenes of suffering into scenes of joy.?But Mary Dyer, who was all prepared,?To join these martyrs in their heavenward flight,?Was left a little longer upon earth.?But a few fleeting months had rolled away,?Ere this devoted woman felt constrained,?Again to go among the Puritans,?In Massachusetts, and in Boston too.?And here she stands! the second time, upon?A gallows of New England. No reprieve?Arrests her sentence now. But still she feels?The same sweet incomes, and refreshing streams?From the Lord's Holy Spirit. In the midst?Of that excited multitude, she seems?The most resigned and peaceful.--But the deed?Is now accomplished, and the scene is closed!?Among the faithful martyrs of the Lamb,?Gathered forever round His Holy Throne,?She doubtless wears a pure and spotless robe,?And bears the palm of victory.?The blood of Leddra was soon after shed,?Which closed the scene of martyrdom among?The early Quakers in this colony,?But not the scene of suffering. Women were?Dragged through its towns half-naked, tied to carts,?While the lash fell upon their unclothed backs,?And bloody streets, showed where they past along.?And such inhuman treatment was bestowed?On the first female minister of Christ,?Who preached the doctrine of his inward Light.?But in New England, there was really found?A refuge from oppression, justice reigned?Upon Rhode Island. In that early day,?The rights of conscience were held sacred there,?And persecution was a thing unknown.?A bright example, as a governor,?Was William Coddington. He loved the law--?The perfect law of righteousness--and strove?To govern by it; and all faithful Friends?Felt him a brother in the blessed Truth.?In North America, the Puritans?Stood not alone in efforts to prevent?The introduction and the spread of light.?The Dutch plantation of New Amsterdam,?Sustained a measure of the evil work.?The savage cruelties inflicted on?The faithful Hodgson, have few parallels?In any age or country; but the Lord?Was with His servant in the midst of all,?And healed his tortured and his mangled frame.?The early Friends were bright and shining stars,?For they reflected the clear holy light?The Sun of Righteousness bestowed on them.?They followed no deceiving, transient glare--?No ignis fatuus of bewildered minds;?They followed Jesus in the holiness?Of His unchanging Gospel. They endured?Stripes and imprisonment and pillories,?Torture and slavery and banishment,?And even death; but they would not forsake?Their Holy Leader, or His blessed cause.?Their patient suffering, and firm steadfastness,?Secured a rich inheritance for those?Who have succeeded them. Do these now feel?That firm devotion to the cause of Truth--That?singleheartedness their fathers felt??Do they appreciate the price and worth?Of the great legacy and precious trust?Held for their children? The great cruelties?Borne by the fathers, have not been entailed?On their descendants, who now dwell at ease.?The world does not revile them. Do not some?Love it the more for this? and do they not?Make more alliance with it, and partake?More and more freely of its tempting baits,?Its fashions and its spirit? but are these?More pure and holy than they were of old,?When in the light of Truth, their fathers saw?That deep corruption overspread the world??Other professors latterly have learned?To speak of Quakers with less bitterness?Than when the name reproachfully was cast?In ridicule upon them. Has not this?Drawn watchmen from the citadel of Truth??Has it not opened doors that had been closed,?And should have been forever? And by these,?Has not an enemy been stealing in,?To spoil the goods of many; to assail,?And strive in secrecy to gather strength,?To