by Leonard Ravenhill
"The most remarkable incident in modern history perhaps is
not the Diet of Worms, still less the battle of Austerlitz or Peterloo,
or any other battle.
"The most remarkable incident is passed over carelessly by
most historians and treated with some degree of ridicule by others
- namely, George Fox's making for himself a suit of leather.
"No grander thing was ever done than when George Fox, stitching
himself into a suit of leather, went forth determined to find truth
for himself - and to do battle for it against all superstition and
intolerance."
This was Thomas Carlyle's considered opinion about the poor, uneducated
English shoemaker, George Fox. So hard was his itinerate preaching
life that he made for himself that famous pair of leather breeches,
which have since become historical. Those breeches were known all
over the country, says Macauley the historian. In the middle of
the 17th century men feared the man dressed in that famous suit
as much as the Jordan spectators, centuries before, feared the man
who had the leathern girdle about his loins and who ate locusts
and wild honey. And rightly so, for George Fox and John the Baptist
were kindred spirits.
George Fox first saw the light of day in 1624 at Drayton-in-the-Clay,
Leichestershire, England. His godly parents belonged to the Church
of England and endeavored to bring up their children in the fear
of the Lord. George's first step in his long quest for spirituality
was at the age of eleven when he surrendered his heart to the Lord.
Ever after, he sought to live an honest and upright life.
The Reformation fires of one hundred years before had burned themselves
out. Among the clergy there abounded much education, loose-living,
and ease. The Protestant church had a name to live but was dead.
George Fox did not enjoy any personal direct communion with God
until he was nineteen. Then for some time his soul was full of strange
longings and continual reachings out after God. The Christians he
met did not possess what they professed. So deeply was he grieved
and distressed over examples of their hypocrisy that he could not
sleep all night but walked up and down in his room praying to God.
He sought help from man but found none.
His relatives did not know what to make of George. One kind soul
said that marriage was the remedy for his melancholic state of mind.
Another preferred the view that he should enlist in the army. A
third believed the use of tobacco and singing psalms would bring
relief. No wonder the seeking soul thought that his advisers were
all "miserable comforters." One man, supposedly experienced
in the things of God, was "like an empty hollow cask"
to George Fox. Seeking the advice of a clergyman, Fox accidentally
stepped on the minister's flower bed, whereupon the angry cleric
flew into a rage.
Finding no help from men, Fox gave up seeking from that source.
With the Bible as his guide, he began looking to the Lord alone
for help. Slowly the light began to dawn upon him. He was led to
see that only those who had passed from death to life were real
believers in Christ. Once and for all Fox settled it that "being
bred at Oxford and Cambridge did not qualify or fit a man to be
a minister of Christ."
When George Fox was about 23, he began preaching to others the truths
revealed to him. He was mightily used of God. Thus he came in the
nick of time "to save the church from deadness and formalism,
and the world from infidelity." He was sent of God to call
the church to real spiritual worship.
Fox began his preaching with a limited education, without any special
training, and without special advantages of any kind. He so preached
that men got the shakes. The name Quaker was attached to Fox and
his followers because of the quaking of the men who came to scoff
but stayed to pray. Though he made others shake, no man could make
him shake.
Walking bare-footed through the crowded market at Litchfield, England,
this man in the leather suit upraised his hands and voice, shouting,
"Woe unto Litchfield, thou bloody city! Woe unto Litchfield!"
He feared neither man nor the consequences of his tirade. At first
the crowd was amused, then serious, then terrified.
Here was a man with unquenchable zeal. He had "heard a voice."
Beat him they might, cast him into prison they would, mock him as
a madman they laughingly did. But still he proclaimed the message
of Christ. Shut out of churches, George Fox made a stone his pulpit
and preached to the crowds in the streets. Taken from the street
meeting to the jail, he made the jail a cathedral to declare the
wonderful works of God. Often he was found praising the Lord in
a stinking prison cell.
From judge to criminal, from Lord Protector to kitchen maid, Fox
bore a burning witness. "He iterated the British Isles,"
says one of his biographers, "preaching and protesting as no
man before him had ever done. In his preaching he wore out clothes,
horses, critics, persecutors, and eventually himself."
Many times Fox prophesied of future events that were revealed to
him. Visions often came to him. Once in Lancashire, England, as
he was climbing Pendle Hill, he had a vision of a coming revival
in that very area. He "saw the countryside alive with men,
all moving to one place." I have worshipped in the old mullion-windowed
meeting house erected after the great visitation of God in that
area.
In personal appearance Fox was a large man with remarkable piercing
eyes. His words were like a flash of lightning. His judgment was
clear, and his logic convincing. His great spiritual gift was a
remarkable discernment. He seemed to be able to read the characters
of men by looking at them. He likened the temperaments of people
to a wolf, a serpent, a lion, or a wasp. He could meet a person
and say, "I see the spirit of a cunning fox in you." "You
have the nature of a serpent." Or "Thou art as vicious
as a tiger." Fox was far in advance of any other person in
his day.
The great secret of Fox's power was his faith in God. He started
with scarcely any advantages, but soon he influenced the whole world
for God. His one desire was the extension of Christ's kingdom on
earth. Through his influence England, Ireland, and Scotland were
soon ablaze. In 1661 several of his followers were moved to go beyond
the seas to publish truth in foreign countries. In 1664 he married
Margaret Fell. In 1670-73 he sailed for the West Indies and North
America. Though he was persecuted even there, the work spread.
No religious or political reformer was ever imprisoned as many times
as George Fox, and oh, what prisons! But his times in prison were
missionary labors. Not in solitary confinement, he always had a
congregation. But he made converts. His fame spread and people came
in crowds to hear him.
A distinguished American governor, Livingston, was justified in
giving the following elevated opinion of "the unshakable shaker":
George Fox alone has, without human learning, done more than any
other reformer in Protestant Christendom towards the restoration
of real, primitive, unadulterated Christianity and the destruction
of priest craft, superstition, and ridiculous, unavailing rites
and ceremonies.
He left us an example of fearless, devoted service that alas, but
few have ever tried to follow. "He saw hell and heaven, God
and judgment with such a clear vision that he was forced to go out
in season and out of season to snatch poor sinners from their awful
doom. Constantly he appeared just where nobody expected him, blocking
the road to hell and pointing the road to heaven - and all because
he was completely delivered from all regard for public opinion and
utterly impatient of useless routine."
How cities throughout the world today could be made to quake by
workers as full of God and faith, as reckless as to their life and
interest and comfort, as determined to wreck the devil's kingdom
as George Fox was!
Once Fox grasped the truth that he sought for, there was a steady
calm in his spiritual life. There were no ups and downs; his life
was pure and childlike and truly hid with Christ in God.
His preaching was plain but powerful. It may have lacked eloquence
or clearness, it may have been given in involved sentences and been
almost unintelligible, but the Holy Ghost was never lacking in all
of Fox's discourses. He excelled in prayer.
The work by which Fox is principally known is Fox's Journal. This
book, which was printed three years after his death, is one of the
world's most famous books, "rich in spiritual insight, in noble
simplicity and in moral fibre." It was Fox's presence and spoken
words which made the deep impression vividly portrayed in his journal.
George Fox died in London, January 13, 1691. If you are ever in
London, go to his grave right opposite John Wesley's church in City
Road in the weary-looking Bunhill Field. Despite its moss and age,
you will read on the leaning tombstone, "Here lies George Fox!"
He is in good company, for beside him, waiting for the great day,
sleep Wesley's mother, Sussannah, Isaac Watts, Daniel Defoe, and
other famed folk. George Fox, who honored the Son will one day be
honored by Him. Sleep on, faithful, fighting Fox!
"Above all, George Fox excelled in prayer. The inwardness and
weight of his spirit, the reverence and solemnity of his address
and behaviour, and the fewness and fulness of his words have often
struck even strangers with admiration as they used to reach others
with consolation. The most awful, living, reverend frame I ever
felt or beheld, I must say, was the prayer of George Fox. And truly
it was a testimony. He knew and lived nearer to the Lord than other
men, for they that know Him most will see most reason to approach
Him with reverence and fear." By William Penn
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