Quaker Spirituality and the Use of Plain Speech

Excerpt on Peculiar Customs of Quakers - Chapter Three - Language from Thomas Clarkson's A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume I

No Need to be Ashamed of the Plain Language by Kenneth Morse

Elizabeth Stirredge's exhortation to her children to adhere to plain speech and plain dress.

No. 12. Worldly Customs by Kenneth Morse

George Fox on "Thee and Thou"

A Letter to the Truly Concerned by Kenneth Morse

Elizabeth Gurney Fry, Quaker humanitarian (1780-1845)
I used to think and do now how little dress matters. But I find it almost impossible to keep to the principles of Friends without altering my dress and speech. . . . They appear to me a sort of protector to the principles of Christianity in the present state of the world.

Epistle 104
1655

"Writing, Printing, Speaking"

AND none quench the Spirit's Movings in the least Degree, nor none go beyond. And feed not upon that which Dies of it self, but on that which cometh from above: Know the Son of Man's Flesh, which is your Bread, and his Blood, which is your Drink: which who eats and drinks of, hungers no more, nor thirsts no more, but hath the Endless Life. Nor none Write, Print nor Speak (for God) but as ye are moved of the Lord God; for that reacheth to that of God in others, and is Effectual. Nor none stop Writing ...

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Quaker Jane's
Recommended Reading

I am not Amish or Mennonite, but some people who come to my website are interested in knowing more about these groups. I can recommend these books as authoritative and relatively inexpensive sources of further information.

An Introduction to Conservative and Old Order Mennonite Groups

Quaker Testimonies on the Plain Language Witness

Quaker Spirituality and the Use of Plain Speech

Epistle 1041655

"Writing, Printing, Speaking"

Epistle 104
1655