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George Fox
George Fox (1624 - 1691). English Dissenter, founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), born in Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire. Apprenticed as a shoemaker, he left home at 19, seeking spiritual truth amid Puritan and Anglican tensions. In 1647, after visions and direct experiences of God, he began preaching an “inner light” accessible to all, rejecting clergy and formal worship. By 1652, he gathered followers in northern England, forming the Quakers, known for pacifism and simplicity. Fox traveled across England, Ireland, the Netherlands, and America, enduring eight imprisonments for his beliefs, including at Lancaster Castle. He wrote Journal (1694) and numerous letters, shaping Quaker theology with calls for equality and justice. Married to Margaret Fell in 1669, a key Quaker leader, they had no children, but she had eight from her prior marriage. His 1660 Declaration rejected violence, influencing conscientious objection. Fox’s emphasis on personal revelation transformed Protestantism, and his writings remain central to Quaker thought.
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George Fox preaches about the enduring power of truth and the sovereignty of God amidst trials and tribulations. He encourages believers to find strength in Christ, the bread of life and water of life, even when faced with destruction and darkness. Fox reminds his audience to rejoice in God's truth, to endure temporary hardships with faith, and to trust in the unwavering love and power of God over all challenges and adversities.
Epistle 236
All my dear friends, in the everlasting power, life, and truth live, for you cannot live without it in the winds and storms. And though the hills and the mountains are burned [various, e.g. Psa 83:14, Jer 51:25], and the trees are become fruitless [Jude 1:12], and winter hath devoured the former fruits, and you do see that persecution hath choked them, and the heat hath scorched them [Mat 13:6, 21]; whereby the untimely figs are fallen [Rev 6:13], and the corn is withered on the house-top [Psa 129:6], and the night is come, and the evil beasts go out of their den. But truth lives [1 Esd 4:38], and the power of God is over them all; and Christ ruleth, and there is bread of life [John 6:35], and water of life in him, and in his house; though the caterpillars and locusts are agreed to eat up all the green [Psa 105:34f]. But, as you are in the truth, you are in its day; and they in the darkness, are in the day of darkness [Joel 2:2, Zeph 1:15]. And all who are in the truth, rejoice through Christ, in the God of truth [Psa 31:5], and never heed prisons, for they are but for a time; and mind him who hath all times and seasons in his hand [Acts 1:7]. And never heed the raging waves of the sea [Jude 1:13], nor be troubled at his tongue that speaks nothing but tribulation, anguish, and bondage; nor be troubled at the cords of the ungodly [Psa 129:4]; for the cords of love [Hos 11:4], the power of God are stronger. And what doth he that sits in heaven, but laugh them to scorn [Psa 2:4]? And so be valiant for the truth upon the earth [Jer 9:3], for the power is the Lord's. And so my love to all Friends in the everlasting seed, that never fell [1 Pet 2:22] nor changeth [Heb 13:8]. G. F.
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George Fox (1624 - 1691). English Dissenter, founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), born in Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire. Apprenticed as a shoemaker, he left home at 19, seeking spiritual truth amid Puritan and Anglican tensions. In 1647, after visions and direct experiences of God, he began preaching an “inner light” accessible to all, rejecting clergy and formal worship. By 1652, he gathered followers in northern England, forming the Quakers, known for pacifism and simplicity. Fox traveled across England, Ireland, the Netherlands, and America, enduring eight imprisonments for his beliefs, including at Lancaster Castle. He wrote Journal (1694) and numerous letters, shaping Quaker theology with calls for equality and justice. Married to Margaret Fell in 1669, a key Quaker leader, they had no children, but she had eight from her prior marriage. His 1660 Declaration rejected violence, influencing conscientious objection. Fox’s emphasis on personal revelation transformed Protestantism, and his writings remain central to Quaker thought.