It is hoped that this pamphlet may be useful to individuals and meetings on the growing edge of Quakerism because, though the 20th century differs radically from the 17th, the methods by which the Society of Friends is growing today do not differ essentially from those of the earliest times. The opportunities open to the founders of the Society of Friends are open to us now and their methods are still applicable.
This study may also be useful to readers who are not Friends but who are interested in religion based on inward life. As a contribution to the history of religion and particularly to that much misunderstood form of religion called mysticism, it may supply relevant information. Historians, if they notice Quakerism at all, tend to neglect what might be called its inner side. This is not surprising because the inner side is subjective and largely incommunicable. Yet the results of the Quaker movement, particularly in early America where Quakers at one time or another governed five of the colonies, cannot be understood without reference to the inward experiences out of which their equalitarian and democratic ideas arose.
