Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    An Interpretation of Friends Worship
    An Interpretation of Friends Worship
    An Interpretation of Friends Worship
    Ebook65 pages53 minutes

    An Interpretation of Friends Worship

    By Jean Toomer

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJul 1, 2010
    An Interpretation of Friends Worship
    Author

    Jean Toomer

    Jean Toomer (1894-1967) was an American writer and prominent fixture during the Harlem Renaissance. He was born into a mixed-race family, including his grandfather, P. B. S. Pinchback, who was the first U.S. governor of African American descent. Toomer attended multiple universities focusing on a wide range of subjects like sociology, history and philosophy. He began writing essays about the African American experience, particularly in the southern states. His best-known work, Cane, was published in 1923 and was revered among both Black and white critics. It catapulted Toomer’s career making him one of the most recognizable writers of his era.

    Read more from Jean Toomer

    Related to An Interpretation of Friends Worship

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      DHARMA & DEVOTION

      Mar 21, 2023

      DHARMA & DEVOTION
      4 min read

    • Article

      Pastor Jo Swart

      Aug 26, 2022

      Pastor Jo Swart
      7 min read

    • Article

      What Grandpa Taught Me

      May 27, 2022

      What Grandpa Taught Me
      4 min read

    • Article

      Drama Queen

      Jul 21, 2021

      Drama Queen
      5 min read

    • Article

      Keeping the Faith

      Jul 23, 2019

      Keeping the Faith
      6 min read

    • Article

      Does Your Life Light You Up?

      Apr 28, 2020

      Does Your Life Light You Up?
      4 min read

    • Article

      Living My Vow

      Jan 19, 2021

      Living My Vow
      5 min read

    • Article

      Treading The Spiritual Path

      Jan 22, 2018

      Treading The Spiritual Path
      10 min read

    • Article

      Mohsin Zaidi

      Aug 28, 2020

      Mohsin Zaidi
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Incurable Optimist

      Sep 11, 2019

      The Incurable Optimist
      8 min read

    • Article

      Welcoming Faith

      Sep 27, 2022

      Welcoming Faith
      5 min read

    • Article

      Joseph R. Lee Analyses Dreams

      Feb 27, 2020

      Joseph R. Lee Analyses Dreams
      22 min read

    • Article

      The Happiness Explorer

      Feb 16, 2023

      The Happiness Explorer
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Happiness Explorer

      Feb 16, 2023

      The Happiness Explorer
      4 min read

    • Article

      Inspiration from Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha

      Feb 28, 2019

      Hermann Hesse’s timeless book, Siddhartha, should be required reading for any spiritual seeker. The book is about Siddhartha’s journey as a respected son of a Brahmin. Everyone expects that he will follow in his father’s footsteps. He enjoys an idyll

      3 min read

    • Article

      Discover Your Dharma

      Mar 26, 2020

      Discover Your Dharma
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Rosary In My Pocket

      May 23, 2023

      A Rosary In My Pocket
      4 min read

    • Article

      Is God a Christian, Jew, Muslim or Hindu?

      Oct 14, 2020

      WHY I am not a religious person. I owe no one an explanation. Of late, however, it has become necessary for me to respond to my harshest of intolerants, those who anoint themselves as gatekeepers or enforcers of the faith and worse still those who ar

      2 min read

    Reviews for An Interpretation of Friends Worship

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      An Interpretation of Friends Worship - Jean Toomer

      Project Gutenberg's An Interpretation of Friends Worship, by N. Jean Toomer

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: An Interpretation of Friends Worship

      Author: N. Jean Toomer

      Release Date: February 11, 2008 [EBook #24576]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRIENDS WORSHIP ***

      Produced by Mark C. Orton, Stephen Blundell and the Online

      Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

      An Interpretation of

      Friends Worship

      By

      N. Jean Toomer

      Published by

      THE COMMITTEE ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF

      FRIENDS GENERAL CONFERENCE

      1515 Cherry Street, Philadelphia 2, Pa.

      Price twenty-five cents

      CONTENTS

      Copyright 1947

      Friends General Conference

      Transcriber's Note:

      Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.

      INTRODUCTION

      I was not more than ten years old when I first heard mention of the Quakers. The grown-ups of my family were talking among themselves, speaking of an uncle of mine who lived in Philadelphia and operated a pharmacy near the university. I had never seen this uncle and was curious about him, so my ears were open. Presently a reference to the Quakers caught my attention. I wanted to know who the Quakers were. What was told me then I have remembered ever since. The Quakers, I was told, are people who wait for the spirit to move them.

      A picture formed in my mind. Many a time I had seen my grandmother sitting quietly, an aura of peace around her as she sewed or crocheted or did her beautiful embroidery work. So I pictured older people, most of them with white hair like my grandparents, all with kindly faces, gathered in silent assembly, heads bent slightly forward, waiting to be moved. It never occurred to me that young people, boys and girls of my age and even younger, might be present and participating.

      As the word spirit meant nothing definite to me, I could have no idea of just what would move the Quakers, but I had a sense that it would be something within them, perhaps like the stirrings that sometimes moved me, and I may have had a vague notion that this something within them was somehow related to what people called God. I never thought to ask what the Quakers might do after they were moved.

      Had I been invited in those days to attend a Friends meeting for worship I would have gladly gone. I would have gone because my picturings had given me good feelings about the Quakers. I would have gone because, young though I was, I liked to be silent now and again. Sometimes my best friend and I would sit quietly together, happy that we were together but not wanting to talk. Sometimes I would go off by myself on walks to look at the wonders of nature, to think my own thoughts, to dream, to feel something stirring in me for which I had no name. Or I might withdraw for a time from the activities of the boys and girls and sit on the porch of our house, my outward eyes watching them at play, my inward eyes turned to an inner life that was as real to me, and sometimes more wonderful than my life with the group.

      Certain experiences I had when alone, certain experiences I had with my young friends, attitudes and feelings that would suddenly arise in me at any time or place—these made up the mainstream of my religious life. Such religion as I had was life-centered, not book-centered, not church-centered. It arose from the well of life within me, and within my friends and parents. It arose from the well of life within nature and the human world. It consisted in my response to flowers, trees, birds, snow, the smell of the earth after a spring rain, sunsets and the starry sky. It consisted in my devotion to pet rabbits and dogs, and to some interest or project that caught my imagination.

      I had been taught several formal prayers. One of

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1