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Creeds, Sects, and Denomina-: Quakers

John iii. 1-21. They were first designated Quakers by Justice Bennet of Derby, in 1650, in consequence of George Fox, the founder, having admonished him and all present to quake on hearing the Word of the Lord. The Seekers came into existence in 1646.

The White Quakers, who seceded from the main body about 1840, are distinguished by their white clothing. The original sect of the Shakers, first heard of in the time of Charles I., received its name from the convulsive movements indulged in by its members as part of their peculiar form of 1 worship. The modern sect sprang from a body of expelled Quakers, headed by James Wardley, in 1747. They emigrated to America in May, 1772, and formed a permanent settlement near Albany, New York, two years afterwards. The Mormons derived their designation from "The Book of Mormon," claimed to be a lost portion of the Bible written by the angel Mormon, the last of the Hebrew line of prophets, and found inscribed in Egyptian characters upon plates of gold by Joseph Smith, the founder of the sect, in the year 1827. This work was really written by the Rev. Solomon Spalding, who died in 1816. Joseph Smith died in 1844. The Peculiar People are so styled because they believe in the efficacy of prayer on the part of their elders, and the anointing with oil in the name of the Lord for the cure of sickness as set forth in James v. 14. This sect was first heard of in London in 1838.