Quaker Poem Revelation John Greenleaf Whittier

From Quaker Poems A Collection of Verses

REVELATION From A Gateway to Quakerism
"And I went into the Vale of Beavor, and as I went I preached repentance to the people. And one morning, sitting by the fire, a great cloud came over me, and a temptation beset me. And it was said: All things come by Nature; and the Elements and the Stars came over me. And as I sat still and let it alone, a living hope arose in me, and a true Voice which said: There is a living God who made all things. And immediately the cloud and the temptation vanished, and Life rose over all, and my heart was glad and I praised the Living God."-- Journal of George Fox, 1690.

Still, as of old, in Beavor's Vale,
O man of God! our hope and faith
The Elements and Stars assail,
And the awed spirit holds its breath,
Blown over by a wind of death.
Takes Nature thought for such as we,
What place her human atom fills,
The weed-drift of her careless sea,
The mist on her unheeding hills?
What recks she of our helpless wills?
Strange god of Force, with fear, not love,
Its trembling worshipper! Can prayer
Reach the shut ear of Fate, or move
Unpitying Energy to spare?
What doth the cosmic Vastness care?
In vain to this dread Unconcern
For the All-Father's love we look;
In vain, in quest for it, we turn,
The storied leaves of Nature's book
The prints her rocky tablets took.
I pray for faith, I long to trust;
I listen with my heart, and hear
A Voice without a sound: "Be just,
Be true, Be merciful, revere
The Word within thee: God is near!
"A light to sky and earth unknown
pales all their lights: a mightier force
than theirs the powers of Nature own,
And, to its goal as at its source,
His Spirit moves the Universe.
"Believe and trust. Through stars and suns,
Through life and death, through soul and sense,
His wise, paternal purpose runs;
The darkness of his providence
Is star-lit with benign intents."
O joy supreme! I know the Voice,
Like none beside on earth or sea;
Yea, more, O soul of mine, rejoice,
By all that he requires of me,
I know what god himself must be.
No picture to my aid I call,
I shape no image in my prayer;
I only know in Him is all
Of life, light, beauty, everywhere,
Eternal Goodness here and there!
I know He is, and what He is,
Whose one great purpose is the good
Of all. I rest my soul on his
Immortal Love and Fatherhood;
And trust Him, as his children should.
I fear no more. The clouded face
Of Nature smiles; through all her things
Of time and space and sense I trace
The moving of the Spirit's wings,
And hear the song of hope she sings.

Joseph Cartland House Newburyport, Quaker Ties and John Greenleaf Whittier

New Addition! A story from "The Fisherman" published in 1895-- the Big Cat sent in from Gertrude Whittier Cartland:

According to "The North End Papers" by Oliver B. Merrill and Marge M Motes the heirs of John H. Spring sold the house to Joseph Cartland in 1876. Cartland's cousin, John Greenleaf Whittier (picture below age 49) was a constant presence and he spent his last winter here.

  

By Augustine Jones (Principal of Friends' School, Providence, R. I.) in American Friend. The most important contribution which any community makes to the world is the character and influence of its eminent men. And the same is true of religious denominations. Joseph Cartland, one of the most distinguished members of the Yearly Meeting of Friends for New England, during nearly half a century, deceased at Newburyport, Mass., Sixth month in, 1898, in his 89th year. Portraits below of Joseph and Gertrude Cartland 
                                        
                                 

He was born at Lee, N. H., in the Second month, 1810. It is believed that this town received its name from Lee, in Scotland, on the banks of the river Cart, whence John Cartland, the great-grandfather emigrated early in the last century, settling in Lee, N. H., and building the house, which is still in possession of the family. New Hampshire has been prolific in notable men, with sterling character, as firm and rugged as her own mountains, resting like them upon sure foundations. These she has nurtured to noble manhood and excellent citizenship. Joseph Cartland, like so many other American boys, received his early education in the common schools of his native State, and advanced instruction in a private school at Lee, kept by Dr. Timothy Hilliard, a noted teacher. He became a student at Friends' School, Providence, R. I., in 1830, at the age of twenty, where he continued two years. His brother, Moses A. Cartland, who won distinction as an instructor, became a member of the faculty, and remained in the institution until 1835. Joseph returned to Lee in 1833, his father being deceased, to take care of affairs at the homestead, and continued this service until his brother Jonathan was old enough to take his place. He then gave his attention to teaching, assisting Moses at one time in the Clinton Grove Boarding School, at Weare, N. H., and later in a private school at Lee. The educational influence of these schools has been recognized throughout New England. This result was not due so much to new methods of instruction, to endowment, for educational appliances, as to the tact and personal influence of the teachers themselves, who were possessed with rare gifts for training and guiding youth, and for character molding.
The friendship and affection which bound Whittier to his Cartland cousin often found expression, but perhaps nowhere with more pathos than in his lines to the memory of Moses A. Cartland at his decease:
"In love surpassing that of brothers,
We walked, Oh friend, from childhood's day;
And looking back o'er fifty summers,
Our footprints track a common way."

Religion is always the enduring basis of genuine character, and therefore claims the first consideration in the study of a human career. The Cartland homestead was blessed with a Friends' meeting-house all its own, where the family and neighbors regularly met to worship God. The service was simple, with nothing to detract from or interrupt personal communion with God himself, through Jesus Christ his Son. The influence of these meetings could not fail to train the religious thought to deep meditation, and introspection, to create an independence and individuality which required little outward means for religious growth, its reliance being solely upon Him who is the Bread of Life. Thither in 1825 came William Foster, the philanthropist, traveling in the ministry, and his visit was memorable in influencing the life of Joseph Cartland at about fifteen years of age. Thither also came David Sands and other eminent ministers, stimulating his religious aspirations and awakening his attention to the principles of the Society into which he had been born, securing his loyalty evermore to these simple interpretations of primitive Christianity.
He was engaged in mercantile business with his relative, Isaac Wendell, at La Grande, near Philadelphia, when about thirty-five years of age, where he continued a number of years, and his intellectual and spiritual life took a strong coloring from his environment here which it exhibited ever afterwards.
In 1849 he was elected to the faculty of Haverford College, Pa., where he continued until 1853, discharging some of the duties of President, as that office did not then exist in the institution. He was very efficient, and created here, as everywhere, a multitude of lifelong friendships.

He was married in 1855 to Gertrude E. Whittier, who was then Principal of the Girls' Department of the Friends' School (see below) at Providence. This most congenial union continued more than forty years, during which their names were inseparable in public thought and speech, while their lives seemed to blend into graceful harmony.

Joseph and Gertrude W. Cartland became the Principals of Friends' School in 1855, which at once advanced to a higher grade under their leadership. The quality of instruction was improved, and the course of study and graduation of classes established, which have continued ever since. The new impulse in the direction of higher education emanating from them was felt throughout the Society in America. Other men have since entered into their Tabors. This prosperous work was destined after a brief period of five years to be terminated by sickness. They continued to reside in Providence for about twenty years, and then after spending one winter with their cousin, John G. Whittier, at his home in Amesbury, they settled permanently near him in Newburyport. In the summer of 1881, Whittier spent several weeks with them at Intervale, N. H., and continued to be their summer companion among the hills during the remaining eleven years of his life.
This home at Newburyport will be forever memorable to those who were familiar with it. It had especial attraction for members of the Society of Friends, who were possessed of culture the world over, because here was to be found not only the most interesting literary association, but instinct with essential Quakerism. The writer himself passed a night here in 1887 in company with two eminent English Friends, one of whom remarked that he had found here more than almost anywhere else in America the comfort, repose, and simplicity of a true English home.
Joseph Cartland, in advanced life, had witnessed a great change in the Society of Friends in two generations. He had early seized the fundamental thought of Friends with love and admiration, and found little to admire in a movement which seemed, in his estimation, to be retrogading. Joseph Cartland retained to the end of life his remarkable, upright, manly carriage and intellectual vigor, with the same critical instinct and thoughtfulness, examining new literature which lay along the lines of his faith and discharging sacred trusts in it? distribution for the up-building of Zion. During the anti-slavery conflict in this country he was faithful in his efforts to create a public opinion in favor of Emancipation, and the cause of Peace and International Arbitration always claimed his deep and active interest. He regards age as "opportunity, no less than youth itself, though in another dress," and that, "as the evening twilight fades away, the sky is filled with stars invisible by day." He was in communion with that Divine Spirit which sends the " Gulf Stream of Youth into the Arctic region of our lives." Surely, "the path of the Just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." His gentle, courtly manners, emanating from his real life within, attracted universal attention. Whoever met him was impressed with his generous greeting, and with that chivalric spirit, which, by its genial warmth and sweetness, drew to him the loving notice of all. "E'en children followed, with endeavoring wile And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile." Joseph Cartland had a strong interest in metaphysical studies, and dearly loved generalizations ample and rich, covering all subordinate parts. He was an earnest student of the Holy Scriptures and a firm believer in Christian doctrines of his own Society, but his reading included the writings of the best minds of his age.

GROUP AT STURTEVANT'S, CENTRE HARBORGertrude Cartland at Whittier's left, Mrs. Wade and Joseph Cartland at his right. Mrs. Caldwell, wife of Whittier's nephew, at his left shoulder.

 

Friends' Society Early Meetings Part 1

From Sketches of Lynn, Or, The Changes of Fifty Years by David Newhall Johnson

According to the sketch of the history of the Friends in Lynn, prepared by Samuel Boyce for Parsons Cooke's "Centuries," the first meeting of Friends in Lynn was held in a house on the old road to Salem, near the Lynn Mineral Spring Farm. Such, says Mr. Boyce, was the tradition, based upon a statement in "Neal's History," that about this time (1658) as many as twenty were taken at once from a meeting held at the house of Nicholas Phelps, "about five miles from Salem," and that Nicholas Phelps' house was about five miles from Salem--this house is not stated. This is a mistake.

In History of Salem Perely mentions the home of Nicholas and Hannah Phelps (location West Peabody) was around until Francis Phelps tore it down in 1856 but an oil painting was done and a Mrs Maria Hood of Danvers has it in her collection. 

The Historical Collection of the Essex Institute shows that the estate of Phelps was near the farms of Robert Moulton and Thomas James, in Salem, now West Peabody. A notice of a meeting held there June, 1658, is found in "Felt's Annals of Salem."

"At a monthly meeting held in Salem, the 28th of the twelfth month, 1688, it was concluded to have a meeting once a month settled at Lynn, for the ease of those Friends who are inhabitants there."

By the records of these meetings the first monthly meeting held in Lynn met at the house of Samuel Collins, May 18, 1689, when the following-named persons were present: Thomas Made, Daniel Southwick, John Blothen, William Williams, Samuel Gaskin, Jr., Samuel Collins, Thomas Graves, Edward Gaskin and James Goodridge.

Mr. Boyce savs: "By referring to the records of the meeting, it appears that Friends in Lynn suffered severely for many years by having their property taken from them by distrait for priests' wages, repairing meeting houses, and for military fines. Much of the property taken for priests' wages was for Jeremiah Shepard."

The numbers of Friends increasing in Lynn, they built (1678) a meeting house on what is now Broad Street, on a spot then known as Wolf Hill. This house stood a few rods east of Silsbee Street, andoccupied the land — until 1723 — in front of the present Friends' burying ground. The next was built near the front line of that enclosure, the front extending to the present road bed. Its dimensions were, forty feet in length, and thirty in width, besides an extension on the northeast side, used by the women of the society to transact their part of the business of the organization, according to the usages of this body. This house served the purposes of the society for ninety-three years, or until 1816, when, having outgrown its too narrow limits, a new house was built by the society, on the lot used by them as a burying ground, a few rods — in the rear — from the site of the old meeting house. It stood on this spot until 1852, when it was moved a short distance to its present location on Silsbee Street.

The old meeting house was bought by Thomas Rich, and moved a few rods to the westward and used by him several years as a warehouse for the sale of shoe stock. About 1830 it was used by Samuel Boyce as a shoe manufactory; and about five years later it was bought by James Breed, and moved near to his wharf, to be used as a lumber warehouse. It now stands on the same spot, at the corner of Broad and Beach streets, and is owned by Stephen N. Breed, son of James, above-named, who succeeded to his fathers business. Though it is now a hundred and fifty-seven years old, its stout oaken frame has kept its symmetry intact; white occasional repairs, and the art of the painter, have concealed its marks of age. The R extension" was bought by Nathan Alley, and moved to Exchange Street, opposite Exchange Block, and used by him as a dwelling. It now stands on Fayette Street, opposite the school house, near Collins Street. In 1835 there were about one hundred families belonging to the society in Lynn; and there was but little change during the next twenty years. At' present their numbers are somewhat less.