Thursday, were set apart by them for religious meetings.  Women were placed on an equality with men, by being admitted to this free Gospel ministry, and appointed on committees with men, to regulate the affairs of the Society.  They abjured war under all circumstances, and suffered great persecution rather than pay military taxes.  They early discouraged the distillation or use of spirituous liquors, and disowned any of their members who distilled them from grain.  Protests against slavery were among their most earnest testimonies, and it was early made a rule of discipline that no member of the Society should hold slaves.  When the Quakers first arose, it was a custom in England, as it still is on the continent of Europe, to say thou to an inferior, or equal, and you to a superior.  They saw in this custom an infringement of the great law of human brotherhood; and because they would “call no man master,” they said thou to every person, without distinction of rank.  To the conservatives of their day, this spiritual democracy seemed like deliberate contempt of authority; and as such, deserving of severe punishment.  More strenuously than all other things, they denied the right of any set of men to prescribe a creed for others.  The only authority they recognized was “the light within;” and for freedom to follow this, they were always ready to suffer or to die.

On all these subjects, there could be no doubt that Elias Hicks was a Quaker of the old genuine stamp.  But he differed from many others in some of his theological views.  He considered Christ as “the only Son of the most high God;” but he denied that “the outward person,” which suffered on Calvary was properly the Son of God.  He attached less importance to miracles, than did many of his brethren.  He said he had learned more of his own soul, and had clearer revelations of God and duty, while following his plough, than from all the books he had ever read.  He reverenced the Bible as a record of divine power and goodness, but did not consider a knowledge of it essential to salvation; for he supposed that a Hindoo or an African, who never heard of the Scriptures, or of Christ, might become truly a child of God, if he humbly and sincerely followed the divine light within, given to every human soul, according to the measure of its faithfulness.

Many of his brethren, whose views assimilated more with orthodox opinions, accused him of having departed from the principles of early Friends.  But his predecessors had been guided only by the light within; and he followed the same guide, without deciding beforehand precisely how far it might lead him.  This principle, if sincerely adopted and consistently applied, would obviously lead to large and liberal results, sufficient for the progressive growth of all coming ages.  It was so generally admitted to be the one definite bond of union among early Friends, that the right of Elias Hicks to utter his own convictions, whether they were in accordance with others or not, would probably never have been questioned, if some influential members of the Society had not assumed more power than was delegated to them; thereby constituting themselves a kind of ecclesiastical tribunal.  It is the nature of such authority to seek enlargement of its boundaries, by encroaching more and more on individual freedom.