October 30. George Fox. In his diary, Fox wrote that the Lord showed him: “being bred at Oxford or Cambridge was not enough to qualify men to be ministers of Christ … then the Lord … let me see His love, which was endless and eternal, … and that love let me see myself, as I was without Him.”
This upset Fox’s world, and for the next years, he prayed and read his bible.
In 1647, Fox worked as an itinerant shoemaker and preacher, and in 1649, he interrupted a sermon in Nottingham and was jailed. His sentence was short, and the jailer came to believe in Jesus.
After a sermon in Derby, Fox said that people should stop arguing about Jesus and start obeying Him. For that speech, on this date in 1650, he was jailed for a year. And again, the jailer found new life in Christ.
At Fox’s trial for this offense of telling the truth, he asked the judge to “quake before the Lord.” The judge may not have quaked, but he did label Fox and his companions: Quakers. Here’s his story.
When our enemies fall, kindness helps them stand back up.
In the seventeenth century, the Church of England, who were also called Anglicans, taught that only Anglicans could be saved. Fox disagreed in public and taught that other denominations could be saved, too.
This not only made other ministers angry, but it made the government furious. They quickly tossed him into prison on charges of blasphemy, and even though he was a peaceful man, he ended up in the same place as criminals: the House of Correction.
Knowing God was with him, Fox accepted his sentence, but he wondered how he would be able to minister if he were in prison.
Alone in the cell, cold and dark, Fox knew his stay would be anything but pleasant. Many inmates viewed him with a hateful eye. One person who treated him the worst was the prison’s keeper, Thomas Sharman, who hated the things the preacher said. When Sharman passed Fox in his cell, the warden said ugly things about the preacher as if wanting to bring him extra harm.
But Fox would not respond with cruelty; he wanted to obey God and treat his enemies with goodness because that’s what God led him to do.
Day by day, Sharman taunted Fox, but Fox answered in kindness. He knew in his heart that God’s love was more powerful than any man’s hate.
But one day, as Fox was walking around his cell to stretch his legs, he heard a dreadful noise coming from down the jail’s hallway. He hurried to the edge of the door and pressed his face against the cold, hard surface to hear what was happening. The dreadful noises were coming from Sharman.
Panic had overwhelmed the prison’s keeper, and he battled thoughts that terrified him. He rambled like a madman, searching for some sort of relief. “I have seen the day of judgment,” Sharman wailed, “and I saw George there, and I was afraid of him, because I had done him so much wrong, and spoken so much against him to the priests and professors, and to the justices, and in taverns and ale-houses.”
Fox felt astonished. Had the prison’s keeper dreamed about him? Had God made Sharman realize that his mistreatment of Fox was a sin?
Fox waited, curious as to what Sharman would eventually say to him. As night fell, the prison keeper approached and entered Fox’s cell. But instead of his usual taunts, Sharman offered an apology.
“I have been like a lion against you,” Sharman began, his voice shaking with guilt, “but now I come like a lamb, and like the jailer that came to Paul and Silas, trembling.”
Fox listened as the jailer spoke with humility. How was it the man who had been bent on taunting him was now full of apology and regret? Surely God was at work.
Sharman asked Fox if he could stay with him in the cell for a little while. And Fox reminded him that Sharman was in control of the cell and could do as he wished. But the jailer wanted to make sure Fox was alright with it.
Fox agreed, knowing as a minister he could somehow help, and they sat together as Sharman shared how he had been plagued with guilt over how he had treated Fox. Fox listened and ministered as the jailer spoke through the night, and Sharman did not leave until morning.
Though Fox wasn’t removed from prison immediately, he was granted some leave to walk a mile on his own. Sharman eventually confessed to Fox that one of the justices, who had imprisoned him, had also been plagued by guilt, and this was his way of offering Fox a chance to escape. But Fox remained in the prison so as not to cause more trouble until he could be released legally. While there, he continued to minister to other prisoners and to local people who came to the prison, including Sharman’s own sister. Fox kept that up for a year until he was released.
“Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing” (1 Peter 3:9 NIV).
Here’s a challenge: take five minutes today and write out a prayer for someone who has mistreated you. When our enemies fall, kindness helps them stand back up.
Hodgkin, Thomas. George Fox. Boston: Houghton, Methuen and Company, 1896. Internet Archive. Accessed April 8, 2019. https://archive.org/details/georgefox01hodggoog/page/n12/mode/2up.
Penny, Norman. Journal of George Fox. London: J.M. Dent & Sons LTD, 1924. Internet Archive. Accessed April 8, 2019. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015012082130&view=1up&seq=12.
Do You Want to Learn More About This Man?
At a meeting held in a Leicester church to discuss religious issues: A woman asked a question from the first epistle of Peter, “What that birth was—a being born again of incorruptible seed, by the word of God, that liveth and abideth forever?”
The local priest said to her, “I permit not a woman to speak in the church.” This brought Fox to his feet, who stepped up and asked the priest, “Dost thou call this place a church? or dost thou call this mixed multitude a church?”
But instead of answering him, the priest asked what a church was? To which Fox replied, “The church is the pillar and ground of truth, made up of living stones, living members, a spiritual household, of which Christ is the head; but he is not the head of a mixed multitude, or of an old house made up of lime, stones and wood.” This set them all on fire; the priest came down from his pulpit, the others out of their pews, and the discussion was broken up. (From Janney’s Life of Penn)
Story read by: Chuck Stecker
Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter
Audio production: Joel Carpenter
Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/
Project manager: Blake Mattocks
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