Heady Days, Transposing ‘Transcendent’ for ‘God’ in Howgill’s recollection catches a like times of the transcendental meditationist spiritual regeneration movement (SRM) of the 1970’s where near one in 300 in the USA had come to meditating.. Heady days ‘experimentally’, that we knew, for those who were there.
Howgill: The Kingdom of Heaven did gather us and catch us all, as in a net, and his heavenly power at one time drew many hundreds to land. We came to know a place to stand in and what to wait in; and the Lord appeared daily to us, to our astonishment, amazement and great admiration, insomuch that we often said one unto another with great joy of heart: ‘What, is the Kingdom of God come to be with men? the Quaker movement grew to 1% of the population of England, reaching up to 10% in some places such as Bristol. They were the most successful sect of the 1650s. “..their spirituality is focused on the inward-- what we can term as interiorized. We can see this in the form of worship which Quakers adopted, and in the style of early meeting houses like the one at Brigflatts. They worshipped in stillness and silence, usually for about three hours, without any outward form or ritual. Everyone was spiritually equal. Everyone was a minister. Nobody stood at the front, because everyone was fulfilling the priestly role, one to another.” Francis Howgill.. a recollection from Francis Howgill about those heady days of 1652 when he and others experienced spiritual transformation and joined the Quaker movement.. [We] were reckoned, in the north part of England, even as the outcasts of Israel, and as men destitute of the great knowledge, which some seemed to enjoy; yet there was more sincerity and true love amongst us and desires after the living powerful presence of God than was among many in that day who ran into heaps and forms but left the cross behind them. God out of his everlasting love did appear unto us, according to the desire of our hearts, who longed after him; when we had turned aside from hireling (clergy) -shepherds’ tents, we found him whom our souls loved; and God, out of his great love and great mercy, sent one unto us, a man of God, one of ten thousand, to instruct us in the way of God more perfectly; which testimony reached unto all our consciences and entered into the inmost part of our hearts,
