[A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume I (of 3) by Thomas Clarkson]@TWC D-Link bookA Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume I (of 3) INTRODUCTION 225/423
Here a number of Quakers, of different ages and of both sexes, from their different divisions, repair also.
It is expected that[22] all, who can conveniently attend, should be present on this occasion. [Footnote 22: There may be persons, who on account of immoral conduct cannot attend.] When they are collected at the meeting-house, which was said to have been fixed upon in each division, a meeting for worship takes place.
All persons, both men and women, attend together.
But when this meeting is over, they separate into different apartments for the purposes of the discipline; the men to transact by themselves the business of the men, and of their own district, the women to transact that, which is more limited, namely such as belongs to their own sex. In the men's meeting, and it is the same in the women's, the names of the deputies beforementioned, are first entered in a book, for, until this act takes place, the meeting for discipline is not considered to be constituted. The minutes of the last monthly meeting are then generally read, by which it is seen if any business of the society was left unfinished. Should any thing occur of this sort, it becomes the [23]first object to be considered and dispatched. [Footnote 23: The London monthly meetings begin differently from those in the country.] The new business, in which the deputies were said to have been previously instructed by the congregations which they represented comes on.
This business may be of various sorts.
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