I have referred to this experience of God in rather abstract terms like "Ultimate Reality" and "Inner Light," and tried to make these more specific by relating them to Jesus. But the heart of the Quaker message does not lie in a doctrine expressed in abstract terms, but in an experience of power and grace, known in our hearts and also related to the structure of the universe; known individually and also recognized as belonging to all men, immanent and also transcendent, At the same time, this universal Spirit knowable by all men at all times is focused and made personal in Jesus in a way which makes it appropriate to speak of the universal light as the Light of Christ.
It is from this double emphasis on universal and Christ-like that the Quaker message starts. On this foundation--a mixture of faith and experience--has been built the faith and practice of Friends. It is these two elements, held firmly together, which provide the coherence and unity of Quakerism. From this central affirmation, that there is something of the Christ-like God made known to every person, follows a whole sequence of further affirmations, hammered out in corporate faith and practice through more than three centuries.
