A Sincere and Constant Love - Work of Margaret Fell

In 1652, while George Fox was still an itinerant preacher and evangelist with no organized following, he came to Swarthmoor Hall. In a short period of time, Margaret Fell, her daughters and most of her servants became convinced of the truth of the gospel he preached. When Thomas Fell returned home from his work, he also heard Fox and became quite sympathetic, although he never formally became a Friend. Margaret Fell assisted his ministry from that point on, and Fox's time at Swarthmoor then has since been viewed as one of the key events of that historic year which marked the beginning of Friends as an organized movement. After the death of her first husband, Margaret married George Fox. In the six years that followed until his death, their respective ministries and periods of imprisonment kept them apart most of the time.

A True Testimony

The first work of Fell's presented by Wallace is a doctrinal work, A True Testimony, Etc. (the full title goes on and on in the style of that day), published in 1660. In it, she expresses the classic Quaker concern about church institutions being in apostasy, understood in the light of the Book of Revelation. She pleads for worshipping God in spirit and in truth rather than by the outward forms of institutions. In this way, people will be united in the fellowship of the Gospel, and will demonstrate the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). In the accompanying Epistle to the Reader, she writes of how she hopes the reader will read the work:

Now, reader, in soberness and singleness of your heart, read this following treatise without an evil eye and a prejudiced mind. Let the truth of God have place in the heart. Let the light of Christ in your conscience seriously judge, weight the things therein contained, (according to the scriptures) prove all things, and hold fast that which is good. Look not at men, nor at the times, as they stand in relation to men, for in so doing, the god of the world will blind the eye. Look at the Lord, at His truth, and eye his dealing and dispensation of His will, according to His wisdom. Let Him be your fear. Let Him be your dread. Slight not your day of visitation of His love, for truly the Lord, whom we seek, will suddenly come to His temple, and who may

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