The Journal and Letters of John Wilbur

by: John Wilbur

Perhaps more than any other Friend in the nineteenth century, John Wilbur (1774-1856) labored and suffered to uphold the original principles and testimonies of the Society of Friends (as held and maintained by George Fox, Robert Barclay, Isaac Penington, etc.) at a time when multitudes were fast abandoning the faith of their worthy predecessors. Though naturally averse to controversy and conflict, Wilbur labored tirelessly in word and in writing to stop the propagation of those principles that he clearly saw would lead out from a living experience of the indwelling Christ and back into a crossless religion of words. Though loved and admired by the faithful in his day (like John Barclay, Sarah L. Grubb, Daniel Wheeler, etc.), he was persecuted by many members of his own society and eventually disowned by his yearly meeting. Having abandoned its solid foundation, the Society of Friends continued to “mix with the nations” and soon fell into a lamentable state of ruin, but the name John Wilbur came to be forever associated with original Quakerism, and with the small band of worthies who held on till the end. (Original title: Journal of the Life of John Wilbur, A Minister of the Gospel in the Society of Friends; with Selections from His Correspondence, etc.)