George Fox
(1624-1691)
“One day, when I had been walking solitarily abroad, and was come home, I was taken up in the love of God, so that I could not but admire the greatness of His love;. . . that all these troubles were good for me, and temptations for the trial of my faith, which Christ had given me.”
—George Fox
More Online Resources
Autobiography of George Fox (print version from Christian Classics Ethereal Library)
Autobiography of George Fox (audio book in mp3 from Christian Classics Ethereal Library)
The Beginnings of Quakerism
The Quakers, or “The Religious Society of Friends,” was founded in the seventeenth century through the ministry of the Englishman George Fox (1624-1691). The name “Quakers” arose when the people who came to mock him were so convicted by his preaching that they began to quake in fear of God’s eternal judgment.
Divine revelation affects people differently. With Fox, it gave him a holy boldness and a righteous indignation at the hypocrisy and formalism of the churches. Like John the Baptist, he dressed in unorthodox clothes—a suit of leather—and began to proclaim divine judgment, even at the doors of other churches on Sunday mornings to startled parishioners.
That was a time in history when people were deathly serious about the Christian religion. Wars were fought and kings and queens rose and were deposed and even killed over different interpretations. As a result, George Fox and later many of his followers were put in jail for what they believed, but that did not stop them, because God was with them.
Quakers in the Underground Railroad
In Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin she described how the Quakers’ extraordinary Christian character changed the heart of a bitter escaped slave with “the light of a living Gospel, breathed in living faces, preached by a thousand unconscious acts of love and good will, which, like the cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple, shall never lose their reward.”Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Stories about George Fox
Fox’s spiritual inheritance came through godly parents who were Puritans. From a young age, he believed in Jesus Christ and was a seeker after God. A turning point in his life came with what he later called an “opening” or what I might call open heavens, when God is speaking to you and you are open to receive. Here is what he said:
“One day, when I had been walking solitarily abroad, and was come home, I was taken up in the love of God, so that I could not but admire the greatness of His love; and while I was in that condition, it was opened unto me by the eternal light and power, and I therein clearly saw that all was done and to be done in and by Christ, and how He conquers and destroys this tempter the devil, and all his works, and is atop of him; and that all these troubles were good for me, and temptations for the trial of my faith, which Christ had given me. The Lord opened me, that I saw all through these troubles and temptations. My living faith was raised, that I saw all was done by Christ the life, and my belief was in Him.”
Autobiography of George Fox, Chapter One
