The 18th-century Quaker activist (and early abolitionist) John Woolman is quoted as having said this (below the fold) as he lay dying:
O Lord my God! the amazing horrors of darkness were gathered around me and covered me all over, and I saw no way to go forth; I felt the misery of my fellow-creatures separated from the Divine harmony, and it was heavier than I could bear, and I was crushed down under it; I lifted up my hand and stretched out my arm, but there was none to help me; I looked round about and was amazed. In the depth of misery, O Lord! I remembered that thou art omnipotent, that I had called thee Father, and I felt that I loved thee, and I was made quiet in thy will, and I waited for deliverance from thee; thou hadst pity upon me when no man could help me; I saw that meekness under suffering was showed to us in the most affecting example of thy Son, and thou taught me to follow him, and I said, Thy will, O Father, be done.
I can think of no passage more fitting to eulogize Tom Fox–unless it is this old Quaker song about the founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers), George Fox:
There’s a light that was shining when the world began,
And a light that is shining in the heart of Man:
There’s a light that is shining in the Turk and the Jew,
And a light that is shining, friend, in me and in you.
Walk in the light, wherever you may be,
Walk in the light, wherever you may be!
In my old leather breeches and my shaggy, shaggy locks,
I am walking in the glory of the light, said Fox.
With a book and a steeple and a bell and a key
They would bind it for ever-but they can’t, said he.
O, the book, it will perish, and the steeple will fall,
But the light will be shining at the end of it all.
Walk in the light, wherever you may be,
Walk in the light, wherever you may be!
In my old leather breeches and my shaggy, shaggy locks,
I am walking in the glory of the light, said Fox.
“Will you swear on the Bible?” “I will not,” said he,
“For the truth is as holy as the Book to me.”
“If we give you a pistol, will you fight for the Lord?”
“You can’t kill the devil with a gun or a sword.”
Walk in the light, wherever you may be,
Walk in the light, wherever you may be!
In my old leather breeches and my shaggy, shaggy locks,
I am walking in the glory of the light, said Fox.
There’s an ocean of darkness and I drowned in the night
Till I came through the darkness to the ocean of light;
And the light is forever, and the light will be free,
And I’ll walk in the glory of the light, said he.
Walk in the light, wherever you may be,
Walk in the light, wherever you may be!
In my old leather breeches and my shaggy, shaggy locks,
I am walking in the glory of the light, said Fox.
Go in the light, Friend Tom.
