Journal of the Life and Religious Labours of Elias Hicks — Background and Themes

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Authors: Hicks, Elias, 1748-1830 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2020 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Hicks, Elias, 1748-1830 -- Diaries; Quakers -- United States -- Diaries; Hicksites Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 172,414

Reading time 750 min

Text sections 25

The source record for Journal of the Life and Religious Labours of Elias Hicks — Background and Themes measures this digital text at 172,414 words, 12 hr 30 min estimated reading time, and 25 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 32.4 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Hicks, Elias, 1748-1830 -- Diaries,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #61777

Elias Hicks's journal records his travels and religious labors as a Quaker minister, structured by dated entries that move between meetings, family life, and inner spiritual struggles, with recurring imagery of refining fire and the inward coming of God.

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Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
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Birth, 1748. Early visitations of Divine grace. Apprenticeship. Trials and temptations. Marriage, 1771. Renewed visitations of Divine love. Appearance in the Ministry. Situation of Friends during the war. Journey to Philadelphia, 1779. Visit to Friends on the Main, 1781. Illness, 1781. Visit on Long Island, 1782. Visit to the meetings on the Main, 1782. 7

Visit to Nine Partners, 1783. Visit on Long Island, 1784. Visit to New-York and Staten Island, 1790. Visit to Vermont, 1790. Visit on Long Island, 1791. General visit to Friends of New-York yearly meeting, 1791. Visit to the meetings of Ministers and Elders, 1792. Visit to Friends in New-England and Vermont, 1793. 25

Visit to the meetings of Ministers and Elders, 1795. Visit to Friends in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, 1798. 54

Visit to Connecticut, 1799. Visit to Oblong and Nine Partners. 1800. Visit on Long Island, 1800. Visit to Friends in New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, 1801. 82

Visit to Friends in Canada, and some of the northern parts of the yearly meeting of New-York, 1803. Visit on Long Island, Staten Island, and New-York, 1806. Visit to Purchase, Nine Partners, and Stanford, and some adjacent parts, 1806. Visit to Nine Partners, 1807. Visit to Purchase, Nine Partners, and Stanford, 1808. Visit to the subordinate meetings, 1808. Visit to Purchase, 1809. Visits on Long Island, 1812 and 1813. Visit to Purchase in 1813. 106

Engagements at and about home, 1813. Visit to Friends in the middle and southern States, 1813. 132

Engagements at and about home, 1813 and 1814. 159

Visit to Purchase, and engagements at and about home, 1814. 184

Visit to families of Friends in New-York, and engagements at and about home, 1815. 206

Engagements at and about home, 1815. Visit to the monthly meetings within the circuit of Nine Partners quarterly meeting, 1815. 229

General visit to Friends in New England, 1816. 253

Engagements at and about home, and within Westbury quarterly meeting, 1816 and 1817. 273

Engagements at and near home, 1817. Visit to some parts of the yearly meetings of Philadelphia and Baltimore, 1817. 294

Engagements at and near home, and within the limits of Westbury quarterly meeting. Visit to some parts of the yearly meeting of New-York, 1818. 322

General visit to Friends of the yearly meeting of New-York, 1819. 355

Journey to Ohio in 1819. Visit to the neighbouring inhabitants in 1819. Visit to Farmington and Duanesburgh quarterly meetings in 1820. Visit to some parts of Pennsylvania, and to Baltimore, in 1822. Visit to some of the lower quarterly meetings in 1823. 373

Visit to Baltimore to attend the yearly meeting in 1824. Visit to the inhabitants of the eastern part of Long Island in 1825. Visit to Scipio quarterly meeting in 1825. Visit to Southern and Concord quarterly meetings in Pennsylvania in 1826. Visit to the families of Friends in Jericho and Westbury monthly meetings in 1827. Visit to Friends in some parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio in 1828. 396

Continuation of his visit to Friends in some parts of Ohio, Indiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey in 1828. Decease of his wife in 1829. Visit to Friends in the yearly meeting of New-York in 1829. 411

Letter to Hugh Judge in 1830. 439

His decease in 1830. Memorial of the monthly meeting of Jericho in 1830. 444

JOURNAL OF ELIAS HICKS.

Birth, 1748.--Early visitations of Divine grace.--Apprenticeship.--Trials and temptations.--Marriage, 1771.--Renewed visitations of Divine love.--Appearance in the Ministry.--Situation of Friends during the war.--Journey to Philadelphia, 1779.--Visit to Friends on the Main, 1781.--Illness, 1781.--Visit on Long Island, 1782.--Visit to the Meetings on the Main, 1782.

Having experienced many mercies and preservations, both spiritual and temporal, in passing through this probationary state, I am induced to record some little account of them, under a sense of humble gratitude to my gracious and merciful Creator and Preserver.

I was born on the 19th day of the third month, 1748, in the township of Hempstead, in Queens county, on Long Island. My parents, John and Martha Hicks, were descended from reputable families, and sustained a good character among their friends and those who knew them. My father was a grandson of Thomas Hicks, of whom our worthy friend Samuel Bownas makes honourable mention in his journal, and by whom he was much comforted and strengthened, when imprisoned through the envy of George Keith, at Jamaica, on Long Island. Neither of my parents were members in strict fellowship with any religious society, until some little time before my birth. My father was at that period united in membership with Friends; but as his residence was mostly at some distance from meetings and in a neighbourhood where very few Friends lived, my associates, when young, were chiefly among those of other religious persuasions, or, what was still worse for me, among those who made no profession of religion at all. This exposed me to much temptation; and though I early felt the operation of divine grace, checking and reproving me for my lightness and vanity, yet being of a lively active spirit, and ambitious of excelling in my play and diversions, I sometimes exceeded the bounds of true moderation, for which I often felt close conviction and fears on my pillow in the night season.

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Elias Hicks's journal opens not with a narrative of his birth but with a preface by his connections, who assembled the manuscript after his death. The work itself is a record of religious engagements, structured by dated entries that trace his movements across Quaker meetings in New York, New England, Pennsylvania, and beyond. Hicks writes in a plain, earnest voice, often noting his bodily indisposition alongside spiritual consolation. The journal's rhythm alternates between public ministry—where he preaches on the inward coming of God as a refiner with fire—and private reflection, where he measures his peace of mind against physical pain. This dual focus on outer travel and inner condition gives the text a distinctive texture, as each entry becomes a small drama of waiting, labor, and occasional release.

The Movement of the Journal: Travel as Spiritual Discipline

The journal is organized by journeys, each chapter heading listing a sequence of visits: “Visit to Nine Partners, 1783. Visit on Long Island, 1784. Visit to New-York and Staten Island, 1790.” This catalog of destinations is not merely itinerary; it reflects a life given over to the discipline of travel. Hicks rarely stays long in one place. He moves from meeting to meeting, often under physical strain, and the act of traveling itself becomes a test of faith. In one entry, he writes of almost giving up the prospect of getting to meeting, but “put on my usual resolution and went,” finding peace there. The journal thus traces a geography of spiritual labor, where each new location offers an opportunity for ministry and for the inward arising of God.

Recurring Images: Refining Fire and the Inward Physician

Hicks returns repeatedly to a cluster of biblical images: the refiner with fire, the fuller with soap, the balm in Gilead, the physician. These are not decorative; they structure his theology. He insists that salvation comes not from outward observance but from an inward purification: “it is also necessary for us to know this arising to be within us and not without us.” The strong man armed must be bound and cast out by a stronger—God—who cleanses the heart. This language of refining and cleansing appears in multiple entries, often in the same phrasing, suggesting a core set of convictions that Hicks adapts to each audience. The repetition gives the journal a homiletic unity, even as the settings change.

The Body in the Text: Pain, Peace, and the Daily Round

Hicks is remarkably candid about his physical state. He records “much bodily pain, which is more or less my common lot,” and notes that severe pain can be endured “without a murmuring thought” when accompanied by peace of mind. This attention to the body is not incidental; it anchors his spiritual claims in concrete experience. The journal moves between public meetings and private days spent “in my family affairs, mostly attended with sweet peace of mind.” The domestic and the ministerial are interwoven. Hicks does not present himself as a disembodied voice; he is a man who feels pain, who attends funerals of careless neighbors, who hopes his labor will be “as bread cast upon the waters.”

Structure and Silence: What the Journal Leaves Unsaid

The journal’s structure is deceptively simple: dated entries, each recording a meeting, a journey, or a day at home. But within this framework, much is left implicit. Hicks rarely explains his motives for a particular journey; he simply records that he undertook it. The preface notes that the manuscript was collected after his death, and the journal itself offers no overarching narrative arc. Readers must infer connections between entries. The silence around certain events—the war, for instance, is mentioned only in a chapter heading—suggests that Hicks’s focus is relentlessly inward. The journal is not a chronicle of outward history but a record of the soul’s progress, and its gaps are as telling as its entries.

Readers approaching this journal should attend to its rhythms: the alternation of travel and rest, of public preaching and private pain. Hicks’s voice is consistent but not monotonous; his repetitions reveal what mattered most to him. The journal rewards slow reading, allowing the reader to trace the movement of a mind that sought, above all, to know the inward arising of God. It is a document of spiritual discipline, not a narrative of events, and its value lies in the patient attention it demands.

There’s something about reading Elias Hicks’s restless entries—his fire and waiting—that makes me think of those old court ladies, their quiet days measured in ink and longing. Both felt time passing through them, and left us only the warmth of their noticing. I keep Journal near Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan — A Closer Reading now, two kinds of patience side by side.