(A single) standard of truth

A frequently offered explanation of the Quaker testimony against swearing oaths is that Friends are committed to “a single standard of truth.”  This phrase is understood as implying that our speech should be uniformly truthful, not more so when under oath and less so otherwise.

Friends have stood against oath-taking since the very early days of the Quaker movement.  But the phrase “a single standard of truth” is much more recent.  The earliest occurrence of this exact phrase I have found is in an address by William C. Braithwaite to Five Years Meeting in 1912, entitled “The Essentials of Quakerism,” and published in his book The Message and Mission of Quakerism the same year:

We witness against oaths, because we uphold a single standard of truth speaking, and against distinctions of dress and address, because all men are equal in the sight of God; we oppose war because the armor of the children of light is the armor of righteousness, and disuse the outward form of baptism because the all-important thing is not the form but the inward repentance and cleansing by the blood of Christ.

p. 25

Variants of this phrase can be found a little earlier.  The earliest I know of is in an address by Richard H. Thomas at the Manchester Conference of 1895 and published in the proceedings:

Accepting the words of our great Master, “Swear not at all,” we desire to be found speaking the truth one to another with but one standard of truth.

Report of the Proceedings of the Conference of Members of the Society of Friends in Manchester, p. 385

It is interesting to note that the phrase ‘standard of truth’ is one which occurs with some frequency in earlier Friends literature — but in an entirely different sense, unconnected with the testimony against oaths.  In this earlier literature the phrase is understood figuratively in the sense of a flag or banner, as in an 1842 letter from Nathan Hunt to J.J. Gurney:

I mention England, because there this remarkable people first raised the standard of truth with the Star of Bethlehem upon it, and may it never be lowered by their descendants in that nation in any respect.

Memoirs of William and Nathan Hunt (1858), p. 152

The following is another representative quote, from Thomas Shillitoe:

Third-day had a meeting: fears were excited in my mind the standard of truth was suffered almost, if not wholly, to fall to the ground by those who were in membership with our religious Society here.

Journal of the Life, Labours, and Travels of Thomas Shillitoe in the Service of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (1839), vol. 1, p. 107

The phrase was especially common in the contentious period around the Hicksite separation. It appears, for example, in the epistle issued by the meeting at which the Hicksite branch of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting was originally organized in 1827:

We therefore, under a solemn and weighty sense of the importance of this concern, and with ardent desires that all our movements may be  under the guidance of Him, who only can lead us in safety, have agreed to propose for your consideration, the propriety and expediency of holding a Yearly Meeting for Friends in unity with us, residing within the limits of those Quarterly Meetings, heretofore represented in the Yearly Meeting held in Philadelphia; for which purpose, it is recommended that Quarterly and Monthly Meetings, which may be prepared for such a measure, should appoint representatives to meet in Philadelphia, on the third second day in the tenth month next, at ten o’clock in the morning, in company with other members favourable to our views, there to hold a Yearly Meeting of men and women Friends, upon the principles of the early professors of our name, and for the same purposes that brought them together in a religious capacity—to exalt the standard of truth—promote righteousness and peace in the earth—edify the churches—and generally to attend to all such concerns as relate to the welfare of religious society, and the cause of our holy Redeemer, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

Quoted in James Cockburn, A Review of the General and Particular Causes which have Caused the Late Disorders and Divisions in the Yearly Meeting of Friends held in Philadelphia (1829), p. 220

This phrase was widely used by both Hicksite and Orthodox Friends.  Here are a couple more illustrative quotes:

The power of Truth broke in upon them in a wonderful manner; they seemed melted like wax— some wept aloud, and the Lord was pleased to exalt the standard of Truth, and magnify His power in the eyes of the people. Blessed be His Name for evermore!

Journal of the Life and Gospel Labors of Joseph Hoag (1860), p. 122

I think there is cause for us to magnify the name of Him who has dealt so bountifully with thee!—who, from time to time, (after having brought thee through the deeps,) has raised thee up to bear testimony to his goodness, and enabled thee to exalt the standard of Truth and Righteousness, to his praise, and much, very much, to the satisfaction of thy friends.

Frances Thompson, quoted in Journal of the Life of John Wilbur (1859), p. 89.

Note that in several of these quotes, the phrase appears as part of the longer expression ‘exalt the standard of truth’. This phrase dates back much earlier, long before the Hicksite schism, though it does not appear to have come into widespread use among Friends until then. The earliest occurrence I have found is in a 1666 epistle of Stephen Crisp’s:

But when they shall say, come join with us in this or that, remember you are joined to the Lord by his pure spirit, to walk with him in peace and in righteousness; and you feeling this, this gathers out of all bustlings, and noises, and parties, and tumults, and leads you to exalt the standard of Truth and righteousness, in an innocent conversation, to see who will flow unto that.

The Christian Experiences, Gospel Labours and Writings,
of  that Ancient Servant of Christ, Stephen Crisp (1822), p. 113.

It is natural to suspect that this phrase originates in the Bible; but an electronic search through several translations did not produce any hits.  Do any readers know more?

‘In the manner of Friends’

Quakers will sometimes describe something as done in (or after) the manner of Friends.  This means just what it sounds like it means: that the activity in question is performed in a distinctively or traditionally Quaker fashion.  Most often, this phrase is used of worship or marriage, since in both these areas, Friends’ practice is noticeably different from that of other denominations; but it is occasionally applied to many other sorts of activities as well.

This phrase appears to originate in the first half of the 19th century.  The earliest occurrences I have found are in the Journal of the Life, Labours, and Travels of Thomas Shillitoe (1839), for example in vol. 1, p. 68:

A company of very poor persons at West Houghton, about ten miles
from Warrington, were in the practice of meeting together for religious worship after the manner of Friends, towards whom my attention was turned, with an apprehension of duty to sit with them on First-day in their usual meeting.

The earliest application of this phrase to marriage that I know of is in Life of William Allen, (1847), vol. 1, p. 303, where he describes an interview with the king of Norway, in which the subject of legal recognition for Quaker marriages was discussed:

We spoke of the Friends in Norway, and he told us that the affair of marriage had been before the council, and it was concluded that, provided it was performed after the manner of Friends, and registered, it should be lawful, and that he would protect not only the Friends there at present, but those who might join them in future.

The phrase was used early on for other practices as well, such as shaking hands at the end of a meeting, as in this 1842 report quoted by John Wilbur in A Narrative and Exposition of the Late Proceedings of New England Yearly Meeting pp. 90–91:

We hereby certify, that at the Monthly Meeting of Friends, held at Hopkinton, on the 22d of 8th month last, while the report of the committee in the case of John Wilbur, was in the hands of the women’s meeting, we saw Rowland Greene and Thomas Anthony,
then sitting at the head of the meeting, shake hands after the manner of Friends when breaking up a meeting; but just at that moment, before there was time for others to follow, the women returned the report, and the meeting remained some time longer together.

Stanley Newman uses the phrase to describe the procedure by which a minister requests the approval of a meeting before setting off on a religious journey, in Memories of Stanley Pumphrey (1883), p. 100:

The time was now approaching when after the manner of Friends, this important prospect of service should be thrown before the meetings with which he was connected, for the serious consideration of his fellow-members.

Before closing, perhaps I should say something about the phrase communion after the manner of Friends, used nowadays for waiting worship — predominately, I think, by Orthodox Friends.  This has been around since at least the early 1960′s.  The earliest attestation I have found is in Cecil Riney’s (1964) USC dissertation The Emergence and Development of a Ministry of Music in the Society of Friends, where it appears as part of a sample “Order of Service” on p. 167.

Another relatively early appearance in print is on p. 229 of D. Elton Trueblood’s (1967) biography Robert Barclay.  It is clear from this quote that the phrase was already in reasonably widespread use at that time:

One consequence of this interpretation is that some Friends in the twentieth century now speak of their meetings as “Communion after the manner of Friends.”

This is part of a larger passage in which Trueblood expands on Barclay’s explanation of communion as an inward, spiritual partaking of the blood and body of Christ, not an outward, ceremonial practice with bread and wine.  This conception of communion can certainly be traced back to early Friends, but referring to our worship as “communion in the manner of Friends” is, as Trueblood points out, a modern innovation.