BIO: Joseph John Gurney, evangelical Quaker (4 Jan 1847)

JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY, EVANGELICAL QUAKER (4 JAN 1847)

A list of related biographies follows:
  MARY DYER, QUAKER MARTYR (1 JUN 1660)
  ROBERT BARCLAY, QUAKER THEOLOGIAN (3 OCT 1690)
  GEORGE FOX, FOUNDER OF THE QUAKERS (13 JAN 1691)
  WILLIAM PENN, QUAKER STATESMAN (30 JUL 1718)
  JOHN WOOLMAN, QUAKER VOICE OF CONSCIENCE (7 OCT 1772)
  ELIZABETH GURNEY FRY, QUAKER HELPER OF PRISONERS (12 OCT 1845)
  STEPHEN GRELLET, QUAKER ARISTOCRAT (16 NOV 1855)
  RUFUS JONES, QUAKER MYSTIC AND SOCIAL ACTIVIST (16 JUN 1948)
  KENNETH BOULDING, QUAKER ECONOMIST FOR PEACE (19 MAY 1993)
  (Many of the biographies have appended sections on aspects of the
  Quaker mvement.)

$$$ JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY

[NOTE: DET stands for D Elton Trueblood, author of THE PEOPLE CALLED
QUAKERS. See book list at end of Essay.]

     In the Gurney family, Quakers of Earlham Hall, Norwich (see
Elizabeth Gurney Fry, 12 Oct), the most distinguished man was
Elizabeth's brother, eight years her junior, Joseph John Gurney,
always called Joseph John (1788-1847). He was (in DET's words)
"scholar, banker, author, preacher, philanthropist, and cultivated
gentleman." He was a brilliant scholar, and studied at Oxford,
although as a Quaker he could not be granted a degree. At sixteen,
he was reading Dante in Italian and the Old Testament in Hebrew. At
seventeen he left Oxford to work in the family bank, but continued
his studies on his own. He became a chief organizer for the
anti-slavery movement in the Norwich area (his sister Hannah was
married to Sir Thomas Buxton, who was, after William Wilberforce
(see 31 July), the principal voice in Parliament against slavery).
>From 1811 to 1836, the Bible Society held its annual convention at
Earlham Hall.
     In 1837-1840 he travelled in Canada <@ 55 N 100 W>, the United
States <@ 40 N 90 W>, and the West Indies, and addressed a joint
session of Congress. For his correspondence with a then relatively
obscure politician named Abraham Lincoln, see THE CHRISTIAN HERALD,
July, 1965, pp 24-7. In 1842 he travelled in France <@ 47 N 3 E>,
and spoke with King Louis Philippe and the Prime Minister, seeking
an end to slavery in the French colonies.

     Gurney was constantly being accused by his fellow Quakers of
being unorthodox. The charge was that he relied too much on the
Bible, rather than on the Inner Light. He read the Bible diligently
in the original Hebrew and Greek. He was deeply committed to belief
in Jesus Christ as Lord, God, and Savior. He stressed the identity
of the Inner Light with Christ in the heart of the believer. He had
many close friends who were Anglicans, in particular the bishop of
Norwich and Charles Simeon of Cambridge (see 12 November 1836). Even
when he was defending the distinctive tenets of Quakerism, he tended
(his opponents thought) to quote the Bible too much. As noted below,
he introduced the study of the Bible at Ackworth School. For all
this, he was opposed by a Rhode Island Quaker, John Wilbur. Their
respective adherents came to be called Gurneyites and Wilburites.
The division gave rise to separate organizations in New England,
Ohio <@ 40 N 83 W>, and Canada. Gurney was committed to Quakerism,
but he was a Christian first and a Quaker second. To be otherwise,
he thought, was to be both a bad Christian and a bad Quaker. He
wrote in his JOURNAL: "I adopt and have professed with the utmost
openness the middle line, on which account my name is cast out as
evil on both sides to a remarkable degree. I wonder I do not mind it
more."

     He died 4 January 1847.

$$$ THE CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION OF QUAKERISM

It is sometimes asked whether the Quaker message is a Christian
message. Quakers have vigorously affirmed that it is.

     Fox, in his letter to the Governor of Barbados <@ 13:10 N 59:35
W>, gave what is essentially a paraphrase of the Apostles' Creed. He
did not argue much about the Creed, because his listeners already
believed it in theory. Instead, he concentrated on the possibility
of realizing the truth of the Creed by direct experience.

>From Fox's Journal:
        Whereas many scandalous lies and slanders have been cast
   upon us, to render us odious; as that we do deny God, and
   Christ Jesus, and the Scriptures of truth, etc. This is to
   inform you that all our books and declarations, which for these
   many years have been published to the world, do clearly testify
   the contrary.

Neave Bradshaw (THE QUAKERS, THEIR STORY AND MESSAGE, London:  Allen
and Unwin, 1953) writes:
   Fox and the early Friends identified this principle--the Light,
   as they called it--with Jesus Christ.... It was not for them an
   impersonal abstractions, a substitute for God or for Christ;
   for them it was CHRIST, manifesting Himself in the hearts of
   men; it was He whom the heathen, obedient to the Light, were
   obeying, even though they had not heard of His earthly
   existence, a more eminent manifestation of Himself than any
   other. This is the Logos doctrine of the gospel of John.

DET writes:
   We do not need to refer merely to what occurred long ago in
   Palestine, important as the historical record may be, because
   the same experience is possible here and now, because the Light
   which shone then continues to shine. The Spirit of God, which
   inspired the men who wrote the Scriptures, is still at work, in
   each human heart, and will be known by all who respond.
   Worship, therefore, is not the performance of a dead ritual,
   but genuine waiting upon the Lord to hear His voice and to know
   His power at first hand.... The God who is like Jesus Christ
   can indeed be inferred by argument, but that is never
   sufficient. It is experience, and especially the experience of
   the changed life, that is the true verification.
        That is another way of saying that Quakers have placed
   strong emphasis on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Though
   Quakers have not made much use of the Trinitarian formula...the
   experiential basis of the doctrine has usually been recognized.
   By this is meant the observation that God, who is, in one
   sense, One, has been revealed in a variety of ways. He is seen
   in creation and in the order of nature; He is seen historically
   in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; He is
   seen experientially, as the Holy Spirit, reaching directly into
   the human heart, giving guidance and strength in life's darkest
   as well as life's brightest ways."

Robert Barclay in his APOLOGY writes:
   By this seed, grace, and word of God, and light wherewith we
   say every one is enlightened and hath a measure of it, which
   strives with him in order to save him, and which may, by the
   stubbornness and wickedness of man's will, be quenched,
   bruised, wounded, pressed down, slain and crucified, we
   understand not the proper essence and nature of God precisely
   taken, which is not divisible into parts and measures as being
   a most pure, simple being, void of all composition or division,
   and therefore can neither be resisted, hurt, wounded, crucified
   or slain by all the efforts and strength of men; but we
   understand one spiritual, heavenly, and invisible principle, in
   which God, as Father, Son, and Spirit dwells; a measure of
   which divine and glorious life is in all men as a seed, which
   of its own nature draws, invites, and inclines to God.

DET writes:
   The early Quaker writers called the Light, "The Light of
   Christ Within." They wanted to identify it with the Christ of
   history. If they had decided otherwise, Quakerism might easily
   have become separated from its Christian roots and have ended
   as something similar to theosophy.
        John 1:9 ("That was the true Light, which lighteth every
   man that cometh into the world.") was used so often that it
   came to be known as "the Quaker text." Over and over, when
   Quakers have been asked to distinguish between the Christ of
   History and the Christ of Experience, they have refused to
   accept the distinction, maintaining, instead, that it is this
   very identity that is the central point. (See, for example, the
   1674 book, THE CHRISTIAN QUAKER, by William Penn and George
   Whitehead.) What Christ said long ago and what He says now must
   be consistent and coherent. The ancient words are supported
   today, as we enter into the continuing fellowship of
   verification, while present leadings are unreliable if they are
   inconsistent with what He said when He walked on earth. In
   short, Quakers take the Resurrection seriously and therefore do
   not suppose that they must mention Christ merely in the past
   tense.
        It is not surprising that an idea as powerful as that of
   the "Indwelling Light of Christ" was full of danger. Just as
   other Christians sometimes put all of the emphasis upon the
   Christ of History, Friends have often had a severe temptation
   to put all of the stress upon the Christ of Experience. In the
   eighteenth century, and even in the first half of the
   nineteenth century, many Friends almost forgot the Biblical
   roots of their faith or, in any case, they neglected them
   sorely. It was always a temptation to make such an excessive
   stress on the "Inward Teacher" that the major deterrent to
   spiritual anarchy was removed.
        Joseph John Gurney recognized this danger, and, in 1816,
   he gave a copy of the Bible to every boy and girl in Ackworth
   <53:39 N 1:20 W> School. When John Barclay [descendant of
   Robert Barclay] visited the school in 1819, he
   expressed his uneasiness at this, stating his belief that
   regular, systematic teaching of the Scriptures was incompatible
   with Quakerism. The evangelical revival among Quakers, led by
   Gurney, was much needed.
        One major danger inherent in the idea of the Light was
   that of a sterile humanism. It was always possible to suppose
   that Quakers were talking merely about human reason or even
   about the natural goodness of men, after the fashion later
   popularized in the French Enlightenment.
        On the one hand [the Quaker intellectuals] rejected the
   pessimism of total depravity as inconsistent with the idea that
   man is made in God's image. On the other hand, they rejected
   the high opinion of man as being fundamentally akin to God, and
   a very nice creature if only left alone. The spirit of man may
   be the candle of the Lord, but it is a candle which often
   sputters.
        We need to maintain the same dualism between ourselves and
   Christ. He was indeed a person of flesh and blood, tempted as
   we are tempted and wounded as we are wounded, but He was, at
   the same time, the very Image of the Living God. God was in
   Christ reconciling the world to Himself, as He is not in us.
   The experience of almost every thoughtful person who seeks to
   confront the Christ of the Gospels, with any seriousness,
   includes the recognition that, in Him, we find something
   different from anything we find in ourselves. He is different
   in kind and not merely different in degree.
        Fox said, "There is that of God in every man." He meant to
   speak of the universality of God's grace, but it is possible to
   understand the phrase as meaning that every man has a piece of
   God in him. Some go so far, in this direction, as to claim that
   the divine in men is all of the divine there is.... It cannot
   be too strongly pointed out that such an immanentist conception
   is wholly at variance with the mainstream of Quaker thought, as
   represented by the brilliant men who became Fox's exponents in
   the learned world. With a concerted voice, they held that the
   saving Light is not a human light, that it is wholly divine,
   and that it comes to men who do not deserve it.

     John William Rowntree, of the famous chocolate-producing family
in York, England, was convinced that the Quaker concept of the Inner
Light was true and important, but saw that, separated from faith in
the Incarnate Christ, it became vague, and ended as a simple
endorsement of whatever the individual wanted to believe. He wrote
(ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES, 1905):
        The difficulties of the doctrine of Inward Guidance are,
   as James Naylor's experience reminds us, serious and practical.
   I would suggest that the solution lies in a deeper
   interpretation of the person and message of Jesus Christ. Apart
   from the thought of God as we see Him set forth in Jesus, and
   the common consciousness of truth as revealed in lofty souls
   who have been touched by His spiritual fire, it is not evident
   how the faults of individual interpretation are to be
   corrected...but with Jesus as the Gospel, witnessed in the
   conscience of a civilization infected by His Spirit, I see the
   balance-wheel to the doctrine of the Inward Light.
        Then, O Christ, convince us by Thy Spirit, thrill us with
   Thy Divine passion, drown our selfishness in Thy invading love,
   lay on us the burden of all the world's suffering, drive us
   forth with the apostolic fervor of the early Church! So only
   can our message be delivered:--"Speak to the Children of Israel
   that they go forward."

     In 1870, Hannah Whitall Smith, a Quaker of Philadelphia <40 N
75:10 W>, published a book called THE CHRISTIAN'S SECRET OF A HAPPY
LIFE.  Since then over two million copies have been sold. Its
message is neither complex or original. The secret of happiness is
complete trust in Christ. She invites her readers to join with her
in the following statement of commitment:
        "Lord Jesus, I believe that thou art able and willing to
   deliver me from all the care and unrest and bondage of my
   Christian life. I believe that thou didst die to set me free,
   not only in the future, but now and here. I believe thou art
   stronger than sin, and that thou canst keep me, in my extreme
   of weakness, from falling into its snares or yielding obedience
   to its commands. And, Lord, I am going to trust thee to keep
   me. I have tried keeping myself and have failed, and failed
   most grievously. I am absolutely helpless. So now I will trust
   thee. I give myself to thee. I keep back no reserves. Body,
   soul, and spirit, I present myself to thee as a piece of clay,
   to be fashioned into anything thy love and thy wisdom shall
   choose. And now I am thine... I trust thee utterly, and I trust
   thee now."

DET writes:
   Any honest study of the life of Quakers in the exciting days of
   their origin cannot fail to show how exceedingly
   Christ-centered they were. The experience of Fox and Burrough
   and Penn was not religious experience in general or the flight
   of the Alone to the Alone. Quakerism began, not with the
   inference that there was in the universe an Oversoul, but
   rather that Christ could be known directly. In the most quoted
   of all of the insights of George Fox, he did not even report
   that he knew GOD; he said that there was one, even Jesus
   Christ, who could speak to his condition. Fox and his
   associates, as E B Castle (APPROACH TO QUAKERISM, London, 1961)
   has said so vividly, "never remained in rapt and
   self-satisfying contemplation of an infinite Beyond." Instead,
   they centered their attention on Christ as their practical
   Teacher in the practical world of concrete events. Castle is
   very clear when he says, "This unhesitating Christian emphasis
   is important, for it established firmly the fact that the
   founders of Quakerism had no doubt whatever that their faith
   was Christ-centered and Christ-derived."

        There is a danger that persons who find other churches
   over-restrictive, and are attracted by what they perceive as
   the freedom of the Quaker way, will assume that that freedom
   means freedom from Christ. Professor Douglas V Steere addressed
   this danger as follows:
      We have now and I predict that we shall have increasingly in
      the future, many men and women in our ranks who treasure our
      tenderness with those who, out of inner honesty, dare not
      formulate the cosmic redemptive scene in even as rigid a way
      as I may seem to have done in this swift statement. I should
      be the last one who would want to crowd or to compel these
      precious seekers to go beyond what their integrity or their
      experience up to now has disclosed to them as valid. But I
      would not want these persons to be deprived of facing the
      fact that the Quaker experience of the centuries, joined
      with that of other Christians over the years, has found this
      windowing of God's own nature in Jesus Christ of compelling
      significance.

$$$ FOR FURTHER READING

 @@@ JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY
     JOURNEY IN NORTH AMERICA, 1973, $50, 0-306-70572-9 Da Capo
     WINTER IN THE WEST INDIES, described in familiar letters to
Henry Clay of Kentucky, 282pp $35 (1969) 0-8371-1022-X Greenwood
Press
     David E Swift, JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY: BANKER, REFORMER, AND
QUAKER, 1962, Wesleyan Univ Pr, Middletown, Conn, LC 62-18346,
255pp+N+I

     D(avid) Elton Trueblood, THE PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS, Friends
United Press, Richmond, Indiana, ISBN 0-913408-02-6 pb

     Hannah Whitall Smith, THE CHRISTIAN'S SECRET OF A HAPPY LIFE,
$5 pb Fleming H Revell Co, 1985, ISBN 0-8007-8007-8

     Douglas Gwyn, APOCALYPSE OF THE WORD: THE LIFE AND MESSAGE OF
GEORGE FOX, Friends United Press, Richmond, Indiana, 1986, ISBN
0-913408-91-3. Gwyn is concerned to present the message of Fox,
based on an analysis of some of his statements. He sees Fox's
thought as based on the New Testament, in particular on the Book of
Revelation. He explicitly disagrees with Rufus Jones, saying:
     "Jones's sense of the universal is tied to an understanding of
human reason as a divine, saving faculty. But we shall see
repeatedly in this study that Fox understands the light as inward
but fundamentally alien to human nature."