- Home
- Speakers
- George Fox
- Epistle 289
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
Topic
Sermon Summary
George Fox preaches about the importance of faithfulness to God, urging believers to be true witnesses to Him and Christ Jesus, storing up riches and treasure for times of trouble. He emphasizes the need to stand firm in faith, even in the face of storms and tempests, unlike those who only profess faith in good times. Fox draws inspiration from the faith of David, highlighting God's faithfulness to never forsake the righteous. He encourages believers to endure persecution and suffering for the sake of the Lord, reminding them that those who suffer with Christ will reign with Him.
Scriptures
Epistle 289
Dear friends every where, be faithful to God, who hath been faithful and true [Rev 3:14] to you; therefore be you true to God, and faithful witnesses to him, and to Christ Jesus; that now ye may all have riches and treasure laid up in store, against a time of want, storms and tempests, that you may stand; for if you do not stand now, you are as bad as such professors, who stood only when the sun shined, and crept out when it was fine and fair weather, but when a storm or tempest came, then they ran creeping into their holes and corners, and skulking into by corners and fled by back doors, who were ashamed of their religion, and what they professed; but when the sun did shine, then they showed their enmity to the righteous. And therefore by you of the faith of David, and of his spirit, who said, ‘I was young, and now am old. I never saw the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread [Psa 37:25];’ and the Lord, (to encourage his people,) saith, ‘In all their afflictions he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them [Isa 63:9];’ and Christ tells you, it is he that suffers and is persecuted, when his children are persecuted [Mat 25:40]. And so it is for the Lord's sake that the just suffer by the unjust [1 Pet 3:18]; and you read how such as suffered the spoiling of their goods [Heb 10:34], and scoffing and mocking, yet they were not to forsake the assembling themselves together [Heb 10:25], <39> as the manner of some was; for they that suffer with Christ shall reign with him [2 Tim 2:12]; for the Lord may try you, (who hath blessed you with outward things,) whether your minds do stand with him, or in the outward things. G. F.
- 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.