To my mind there is something peculiarly interesting about that primitive simplicity and frankness with which the members of this body express themselves.  She desired to caution me against the temptations of too much flattery and applause, and against the worldliness which might beset me in London.  Her manner of addressing me was like one who is commissioned with a message which must be spoken with plainness and sincerity.  After this the whole circle kneeled, and she offered prayer.  I was somewhat painfully impressed with her evident fragility of body, compared with the enthusiastic workings of her mind.

In the course of the conversation she inquired if I was going to Ireland.  I told her, yes, that was my intention.  She begged that I would visit the western coast, adding, with great feeling, “It was the miseries which I saw there which have brought my health to the state it is.”  She had travelled extensively in the Southern States, and had, in private conversation, been able very fully to bear her witness against slavery, and had never been heard with unkindness.

The whole incident afforded me matter for reflection.  The calling of women to distinct religious vocations, it appears to me, was a part of primitive Christianity; has been one of the most efficient elements of power in the Romish church; obtained among the Methodists in England; and has, in all these cases, been productive of great good.  The deaconesses whom the apostle mentions with honor in his epistle, Madame Guyon in the Romish church, Mrs. Fletcher, Elizabeth Fry, are instances which show how much may be done for mankind by women who feel themselves impelled to a special religious vocation.

The Bible, which always favors liberal development, countenances this idea, by the instances of Deborah, Anna the prophetess, and by allusions in the New Testament, which plainly show that the prophetic gift descended upon women.  St. Peter, quoting from the prophetic writings, says, “Upon your sons and upon your daughters I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy.”  And St. Paul alludes to women praying and prophesying in the public assemblies of the Christians, and only enjoins that it should be done with becoming attention to the established usages of female delicacy.  The example of the Quakers is a sufficient proof that acting upon this idea does not produce discord and domestic disorder.  No class of people are more remarkable for quietness and propriety of deportment, and for household order and domestic excellence.  By the admission of this liberty, the world is now and then gifted with a woman like Elizabeth Fry, while the family state loses none of its security and sacredness.  No one in our day can charge the ladies of the Quaker sect with boldness or indecorum; and they have demonstrated that even public teaching, when performed under the influence of an overpowering devotional spirit, does not interfere with feminine propriety and modesty.