- Home
- Speakers
- George Fox
- The Springs Are Opening
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.
Download
Sermon Summary
George Fox emphasizes the opening of the spiritual springs and the refreshing of the soul through the love of God. He urges believers to walk in the truth and remain in the light of Christ, warning against turning away from the Spirit, which leads to self-separation and withering fruit. Fox highlights the importance of unity in the light, which brings fellowship with the Father and the Son, and encourages all to love the light as a pathway to salvation. He reassures that walking in the light is essential for receiving Christ and experiencing true oneness with God. Ultimately, he calls on everyone to cherish their souls by embracing the light and waiting for Christ, the Savior.
The Springs Are Opening
FRIENDS, the Love of God is to you, the Springs are opening, and the Plants are refreshing with the living Waters. Now Friends, walk in the Truth as ye have received it; and wait in that which keeps you in the Yea and Nay, in the pure Communication, in the Good Manners. Ye that turn from the Light, ye turn from Christ . . . and ye that walk in the Light, ye walk after Christ, and he is your Way. . . . And ye that turn from the Spirit, . . . and ye that get up into Presumption . . . which leads into Self-Separation: . . . this Fruit will wither, which is natural Knowledge and is to be condemned with the Light, which never withers, . . . which all the Children of the Light walk in . . . Which Light walking in, it will bring you to receive Christ, from whence it comes, here is the Way of Salvation. . . . And the Son of God is but one in all, Male and Female; and the Light of God is but one. So all walk in it, to receive the Son; in which Light is the Unity which brings to Fellowship with the Father and the Son. And the Oneness is in the Light, as the Father and the Son is one, and brings you to, where he is, out of the World, from the World, and not to be of the World. . . . Thou that lovest thy Soul, love the Light to wait for Christ, the Saviour of thy Soul.
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download

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.