Bi-Centennial of the New Garden Meeting—Chester County, Pennsylvania

BI-CENTENNIAL OF THE NEW GARDEN MEETING. 83 tion and is almost his disciple. Quickly it all crystallized into a system emphasizing such tremendous realities, realities so long forgotten that it is no wonder if mistakes in such a company passed for truth. Here it is, the wonder of wonders, God speaks within the soul, as the Guide and Arbiter of life. He is the Inner Light of every man. Man needs but to be still to hear His voice, or to open the soul's eyes and he may behold Light. Hence grows a splendid perception of human equality and brotherhood , and denunciation of bloodshed and war. Hence, too, a system of worship, the keynote of which lay in the elimination of all outward aids and replacing these by waiting upon the Spirit." From " The Fellowship of Silence," Chap. IX, pp. 158-160, by Cyril Hepher [a High Churchman]. London, Macmillan & Co., 1915. BI-CENTENNIAL OF THE NEW GARDEN MEETINGCHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. The name New Garden was brought to this country from the north of Ireland. It took root first in southeastern Pennsylvania , and has been carried since to settlements of Friends in the south and west. On the 18th of last Ninth month occurred the 200th anniversary of the establishment of New Garden Monthly Meeting in Chester County. The day proved one of the fairest, and the company of 2,000 that gathered found that the local committee had left nothing undone to minister to the success of the occasion . The papers and addresses given were all of a high order, and the participation in the program of a company of some twenty children (members of one or the other meeting) added to the interest. Francis R. Taylor, of Philadelphia, gave the main address at the morning session, and the honors of the afternoon were divided between J. Barnard Walton, of George School, and 84BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY. J. Mason Wells, of Kennett. Two valuable historical papers were given by Sarah M. Cooper and Truman Cooper, and other shorter addresses completed the program. The first Friends to settle Pennsylvania naturally made their homes near the Delaware, but they quite as naturally soon moved west among the hills, and as early as 1708 sales of land had been made as far back as New Garden. At this date, or soon after, the Quarterly Meeting at Chester was composed of fourteen constituent meetings, and where New Garden was " set up " in 1715, these nine meetings became parts of it—Newark, New Garden, Nottingham, Bradford, Sadsbury, Dutch Creek, Hopewell, Fairfax and Warrington. The most prominent Friend connected with New Garden Meeting in the past was Enoch Lewis. Numerous interesting anecdotes were related of him by more than one speaker. Other family names associated with the meeting's history found themselves respected in meetings of the same name in North Carolina and Ohio. No record of the proceedings of the meeting on Ninth month 18th is to be published, a fact much to be regretted, but the two historical papers have been printed in successive issues of the Friend during Ninth and Tenth months.D. H. F. WILLIAM PENN'S PRAYER FOR PHILADELPHIA. The Friends' Historical Society of Philadelphia has been engaged this summer in having made, and ready to be properly placed, a large bronze tablet which contains the prayer of William Penn for his city. The suggestion came from Stanley R. Yarnall, and has the approval of Director of Public Works Morris L. Cooke. The proof has been seen by the committee in charge, and it is now before the City Art Jury, who must pass upon it before it can be placed under the tower, at the right side of the north exit from the courtyard of the Municipal Buildings. It is hoped that an early date will see it in place. The work is being done by Bureau Brothers, of Tioga, and ...