Burlington's CCL

58 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION beings will adhere most loyally and actively to something which is definite and crisp and which rings true in their hearts as a compelling force. Have we not perhaps become ineffective as an instrument for the establishment of our Heavenly Father's Kingdom on earth by a " liberalism " that lacks the definiteness that men require for enthusiasm and by allowing our Society to become the hitching post for too many fads over which groups sharply differ ? Would we not be more effective in united zeal for our basic tenets if these individual concerns were organized outside of our society and inspired by the spiritual discernment and growth derived from within it? " Behold what a great fire a little flame kindleth." References Braithwaite, W. C. Second Period of Quakerism. Janney, S. M. History of the Religious Society of Friends. Jennings, Samuel. The State of the Case. Jones, Rufus M., editor. Quakers in the American Colonies. Book V, Chapter 3, by Isaac Sharpless. Keith, C. P. Chronicles of Pennsylvania. Proud, Robert. History of Pennsylvania. Smith, Joseph. Catalogue of Friends' Books. See this for list of writings by George Keith. Smith, Samuel. History of Pennsylvania. BURLINGTON'S CCL Burlington, New Jersey, has recently celebrated the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its settlement. The occasion should have a good deal of interest to all Friends in this country. Here was established the third Yearly Meeting in America. Burlington's intimate connection with William Penn is only one reason for the claim it makes upon our attention. The landing of the settlers from the Kent was made below Burlington in 1677. They came a little farther up and settled and laid out the town at once, and the continuous records of the Monthly Meeting begin "ye 15th of ye 5th Month 1678." The first annual gathering, now Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, was held Sixth Month 28th, 1681, and William Penn attended the session of 1683. While the celebration was not primarily a Quaker function, which it is hoped will be properly observed on the appropriate dates, many of our Friends whose ancestors came so courageously into the wilderness on the Kent, the Martha, the Willing Mind, the Provi- BURLINGTON'S CCL59 dence, the Shield and others of the brave little seventeenth century vessels, visited the old town during the celebration. This began on Saturday, October 8th, at 2 P.M., with the unveiling of a bronze tablet by the Burlington County Historical Society and the West Jersey Council of Proprietors, on the site of their meeting place since 1688, at the corner of Broad and High Streets. It was placed on the wall of the Mechanics National Bank, where once the willow tree stood under which the Councillors met when the meeting was called by the town crier. At two-thirty a meeting was held in the Friends' Meeting House, addressed by Franklin D'Olier and Richard M. Gummere, both descendants of the original Proprietors. Tea was served afterward in the lunch room. The Museum headquarters of the Society was open all day on High Street at the birthplace of J. Fenimore Cooper. Examples of silver made by the Burlington Quaker silversmith, Nathaniel Coleman; books printed by the Quaker bookseller, David Allinson, and others, and currency printed in the town by Benjamin Franklin were exhibited. The present collection has already brought together a notable group of relics and documents showing the early social life of West Jersey. A fire- and burglar-proof vault has just been completed for the safe preservation of these. The house was open all the week. Despite a forty-eight-hour rain, the exercises of the day were very well attended, and the meeting house was full, with many strangers from a distance who were descendants of the original settlers. To these, both speakers of the afternoon paid high tribute, and a sensible feeling of reverence and appreciation was felt by the large audience. Next day the 9th, being Sunday, services in all the places of worship paid tribute to the memory of the past ; and at a Union Service in the Fox Auditorium at 3 o'clock, a great congregation heard some fine renditions...