Napoleon Bonaparte is quoted, "I measure my dreams with the calipers of reason." Indeed, progress, as much as military victory, is about calculation. The rule that guides the calculation, however, is the caliper; for there needs to be a stable starting point from which to move and measure results.

Whether secular or religious progress, history and geography are the fixed points of the caliper rule. The fact that there is both a history and a geography associated with divine…

1A: Like democracy itself, we applaud the Court of Quaker Opinion as the voice and rule of the people.

1C: Like a theocracy, we hearken to the voice and rule of God.

1A: The basic human rights of the individual are both self-evident and inalienable.

1C: Because they are given by God, yet poorly guaranteed by democracies.

1A: Precisely why we reverence a system of government that allows an amendment to guarantee liberty of conscience.

1C: What is amen(d)able…

Immediate: True to the Court of Quaker Opinion, we claim an immediate connection with the divine.

Mediated: As in Psalm 82:6?

Immediate: That of God in us gives us the ability, if not the right, to claim such an association.

Mediated: Actually, you claim the privilege, not the responsibility, of your immediate connection/association with the divine.

Immediate: That of God in us is both Teacher and Guide.

Mediated: And what is not of God in you creates the…

Bonnet: Imploring the Court of Quaker Opinion, we adorn ourselves in a mode of plain simplicity.

Veil: You hide behind your testimony rather than testify to your hidden life in God.

Bonnet: We subject ourselves to our husbandry.

Veil: But bristle at the Scripture that commends wives to be submissive to their husbands.

Bonnet: We who share in the farm work also share in an equality of persons.

Veil: But are ye to be found in the big cities of ridicule and…

For too many of our Meetings, the Light's on but nobody's home for us. The Light has taken us to school, but no one is there for our return. We have so many things to tell and share about the experience of being taught; yet, though many are listening for the Teacher, few care to hear from the student.

Where to go, and what to do about this latch-keyed danger?

Jennifer Elam in "Dancing with God Through the Storm" writes, "A container is a safe environment in which to be with…