Here is the material on Meetings for Worship from the New England
Yearly Meeting (1840) discipline.  (Note that the section dated
1829, which does not specifically pertain to meetings for
worship, appears to have been added to guard against what were
seen as Hicksite deviations.  NEYM did not have a Hicksite sepa-
ration.  Similar doctrinal material in the Philadelphia (Ortho-
dox) discipline was inserted under Conduct and Conversation.)
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                      MEETINGS FOR WORSHIP

     As it hath been our care and practice from the beginning,
that an open testimony for the Lord should be borne, and a public
standard for truth and righteousness upheld in the power and
spirit of God, by our open and known meetings, against the spirit
of persecution, that in all ages hath sought to lay waste God's
heritage; and as only through faithfulness, constancy and
patience, victory hath been and is obtained; so it is our advice
and judgment, that all friends gathered in the name of Jesus,
keep up these public testimonies in their respective places, and
not decline, forsake or remove their public assemblies, because
of times of sufferings, as worldly, fearful and politic profes-
sors have done, because of informers and the like persecutors;
for such practices are not consistent with the nobility of truth,
and therefore not to be owned in the church of Christ.  1675.

     Let every one be watchful against an earthly spirit, for
that will choke the good seed, and bring forth a slighting or
neglecting your testimony in your first-day and week-day
meetings, and bring a decay of your strength and zeal for God,
and his truth, and bring a weakness upon you, by reason whereof
you will not be able to stand in an hour of temptation.  1639.

     Agreed that friends that live distant from meetings be
reminded to keep meetings in their families, to wait upon God,
that their children and families may come to be seasoned in their
spirits by the truth and the Lord's power, and that they may have
his blessing upon their families.  1698.

     Advised that all friends be careful to attend meetings for
worship and business, at the times and hours appointed, and not
to detain meetings out of season.  1715.

     Advised that friends keep their children to a constant,
seasonable and orderly frequenting, as well of week-day as of
first-day meetings, instructing them to have their minds stayed
in the divine gift, to wait upon the Lord therein, to receive a
portion of his spiritual favor; that they, from the tendering
virtue of the Holy Spirit, may be engaged in heart and mind to
walk worthy of so great a grace, and in a holy zeal to honor God,
submit to bear the cross, endure the shame, and become public
witnesses for him amongst the sons of men.  1723.

     And we earnestly exhort that you hold fast the profession of
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, without wavering, both in respect
to his outward coming in the flesh, his sufferings, death,
resurrection, ascension, mediation and intercession at the right
hand of the Father: and to the inward manifestation of his grace
and Holy Spirit in our hearts, powerfully working in the soul of
man, to the subduing of every evil affection and lust, and to the
purifying of our consciences from dead works, to serve the living
God; that through the virtue and efficacy of this most holy
faith, ye may become strong in the Lord, and in the power of his
might, which will enable you to worship God in spirit with
acceptance, and preserve you in a lively frame of mind, from a
drowsy and lukewarm spirit, which in all our religious
assemblies, ought to be guarded against with the utmost care and
circumspection.  In this lively faith and pure life of Christ you
will have victory over the world, over your desires after the
grandeur and perishing things thereof, and over all corrupt
customs and fashions, which are contrary to the purity of the
gospel, and our ancient Christian testimony.  1736.

     The importance of steadfastly maintaining our ancient
principles, respecting the doctrines of the Gospel, coming
renewedly under our consideration, we earnestly recommend and
enjoin upon quarterly and monthly-meetings, and upon all faithful
friends, to be watchful over our members, as it regards the
profession of their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, both as to
his outward coming in the flesh, wherein he tasted death for
every man, and was the propitiatory sacrifice for our sins, and
not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world,
suffering the just for the unjust, that we might be brought unto
God through Him;--and to his spiritual appearance in the heart,
for "unto them that look for him, shall he appear the second
time, without sin, unto salvation."  And if in any instance there
should be manifested any deviation from our Christian principles
in these respects, that they proceed to labor with such in the
spirit of meekness and wisdom, endeavoring to bring them to a
sense of their departure from our acknowledged principles, that
if possible they may be restored to soundness of faith.  And if
there should be any who should persist in their errors,
notwithstanding such labor in brotherly love, that our testimony
be maintained by testifying against such.  1829.

     In all your religious meetings for the worship of Almighty
God, let your minds be seasoned with an awful sense of real and
true devotion, and be ye exemplary to the flock of Christ.  Let
the solemn gravity of your deportment be such as may demonstrate
to others, that you are in earnest in the great duty of waiting
upon and worshipping God in spirit; that serious and tender-
hearted inquirers may be encouraged to come and partake in your
assemblies of that inward and spiritual consolation and
refreshment, which the Lord is graciously pleased to impart to
the souls of such as are humbled in his sight, and approach his
holy presence with reverence and fear.  1744.

     Take care, we beseech you, in this day of ease and liberty,
lest a spirit of lukewarmness and indifferency prevail over you,
to the stopping up the streams of the water of life, and
rendering you like a barren heath in the desert, which knoweth
not when good comes.  We entreat you to be especially watchful in
this behalf that an indolent and sluggish disposition appear not
among you to the stumbling of such serious inquirers as may
attend our meetings, in expectation of that life and power, which
the observation of your indifference and unconcernedness may give
them too just cause to suspect that ye yourselves are strangers
to.  1741.

     Let not the smallness of your numbers discourage you from
constantly attending those meetings, inasmuch as the words of
Christ remain unchangeably true and steadfast, "Where two or
three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst
of them." Mat. 28:20.  But it hath been justly observed, that
where remissness and neglect of attending meetings for worship
have prevailed, it hath been too often an inlet to further
declension, and such other undue liberties as truth and its
guidance do by no means admit of.
     We therefore tenderly exhort such as, through fear of
neglecting their temporal concerns, or other considerations, are
kept from a due attendance of these meetings, seriously to
consider that gracious promise left upon record: "Seek ye first
the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you."  Some of us have to testify, by blessed
experience, that our affairs have not suffered by giving up our
time, the few hours set apart for religious worship; but on the
contrary, our minds have been thereby greatly strengthened to
come up with propriety in the duties we owe to God, to our
families, and to all mankind.  1758.

     As it hath pleased divine goodness clearly to manifest
amongst us the way of life and salvation, and to instruct us
where and how to wait for him, prize, we beseech you, these
precious privileges; keep all your meetings in the name of the
Lord, and let your minds be established in a humble waiting upon
him with reverence and fear; so shall strength be added to
strength, and being more closely united to him, you will
experience the indwelling of his blessed spirit.  1761.

     When gathered in your religious assemblies, be truly
concerned to retire to the divine and heavenly gift, which will
minister to every state and condition though you may have no
outward teaching, and will direct you to wait, without being
restless or uneasy, till it be a proper time to break up your
meeting with that decency and solemnity which should attend our
minds in such service [1755]: And be not apt, as the manner of
some is, at the close of your meetings, hastily to enter into
discourses about the affairs of this life, much less the vain
amusements thereof; a practice inconsistent with the Christian
gravity which at such times ought, in a special manner, to season
the minds of persons so lately assembled for the worship of God,
in spirit and in truth.  1748.

     Persons professing with us, who absent themselves from our
religious meetings, either on the first or other days of the
week, and disregard the repeated advice and endeavors of friends
to stir them up to this necessary duty, are to be dealt with by
the monthly-meeting to which they belong, even to disowning such,
if the case requires it.  1770.
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Next week:  MEMORIALS

Licia Kuenning
Friends of Truth/Glenside Friends Meeting/Quaker Heritage Press