The Ancient Banner | Page 5

conscience. But there seems,
Disquietude in Boston. Men appear

Urged on by stormy passions, and some wear
A look of
unrelenting bitterness.
But what is that now rising into view,
Where
crowds are gathered on an eminence?
These are the Puritans. They
now 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