o shadows fell on the
sunrise of enthusiasm and of hope, as, in the good Justice's house
beside the rushing Rawthey, the gathering of the 'great people' began.

The day was Whitsunday, the anniversary of that other gathering in the
upper room at Jerusalem, when the Apostles being all 'in one place,
with one accord, of one mind,' the rushing mighty Wind came and shook
all the place where they were sitting, followed by the cloven tongues
'like as of fire, that sat upon each of them.'

The gift given at Pentecost has never been recalled. Throughout the
ages the Spirit waits to take possession of human hearts, ready to
fill even the humblest lives with Its Own Power of breath and flame.

This was the Truth that had grown dusty and neglected in England in
this seventeenth century. The 'still, small Voice' had been drowned in
the clash of arms and in the almost worse clamour of a thousand
different sects. Now that, after his own long search in loneliness and
darkness, George Fox had at length found the Voice speaking to him
unmistakably in the depths of his own heart, the whole object of his
life was to persuade others to listen also to 'the true Teacher that
is within,' and to convince them that He was always waiting to speak
not only in their hearts, but also through their lives. 'My message
unto them from the Lord was,' he says, 'that they should all come
together again and wait to feel the Lord's power and spirit in
themselves, to gather them together to Christ, that they might be
taught of Him who says "Learn of Me."'

This was the Truth--an actual, living Truth--that not only the
flax-weavers of Brigflatts, but many other companies of 'Seekers'
scattered through the dales of Yorkshire and Westmorland, as well as
in many other places, had been longing to hear proclaimed. 'Thirsty
Souls that hunger' was one of the names by which they called
themselves. It was to these thirsty, hungering Souls that George Fox
had been led at the very moment when he was burning to share with
others the vision of the 'wide horizons of the future' that had been
unfolded to him on the top of old Pendle Hill.

No wonder that the Seekers welcomed him and flocked round him,
drinking in his words as if their thirsty souls could never have
enough. No wonder that he welcomed them with equal gladness, rejoicing
not only in their joy, but yet more in that he saw his vision's
fulfilment beginning. Here in these secluded villages he had been led
u