Mission with Prophetic Power: The Journal of John Woolman (SRSC 12)

Chapter 2: Learning to Speak (1743–1756)

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the first of the week, I was at the meeting in New Town, in which we experienced the renewed manifestations of the love of Jesus Christ to the comfort of the honest-hearted. I went that night to Flushing, and the next day I and my beloved friend, Matthew Franklin, crossed the ferry at White Stone; were at three meetings on the main, and then returned to the island, where I spent the remainder of the week in visiting meetings. The Lord, I believe, has a people in those parts who are honestly inclined to serve him; but many, I fear, are too much clogged with the things of this life and do not come forward bearing the cross in such faithfulness as He calls for. My mind was deeply engaged in this visit both in public and private, and at several places where I was, on observing that they had slaves, I found myself under a necessity, in a friendly way, to labor with them on that subject; expressing, as way opened,* the inconsistency of that practice with the purity of the Christian religion and the ill effects of it manifested among us. The latter end of the week their Yearly Meeting began, at which were our friends John Scarborough, Jane Hoskins, and Susannah Brown from Pennsylvania. The public meetings were large, and measurably favored with divine goodness. The exercise* of my mind at this meeting was chiefly on account of those who were considered as the foremost rank in the Society;* and in a meeting of ministers and elders way opened* for me to express in some measure what lay upon me; and when Friends were met for transacting the affairs of the church, having sat awhile silent, I felt a weight on my mind, and stood up; and through the gracious regard of our heavenly Father,