Note 178 — Chapter XIX

This Galenus Abrahams was a Mennonite and a man of considerable note. Sewell, the Quaker historian, who had himself been a disciple of Abrahams, tells us that in this discussion, which lasted five hours, the latter maintained the position that "nobody nowadays could be accepted as a messenger of God unless he confirmed the same by miracle." (See Sewell's "History of Friends," Vol. II., page 368, edition of 1823. See, also, Barclay's "Religious Societies of the Commonwealth," pages 174, 251.) During his second visit to Holland, Fox had another interview with the famous Mennonite which gives an interesting side light on the penetrating power of Fox's eyes, already noticed. "Before I left I went to visit one Galenus Abrahams, a teacher of chief note among the Mennonites, or Baptists. I had been with him when I was in Holland about seven years before and William Penn and George Keith had disputes with him. He was then very high and shy, so that he would not let me touch him, nor look upon him (by his good will), but bid me 'Keep my eyes off him, for,' he said, 'they pierced him.' But now he was very loving and tender, and confessed in some measure to truth; his wife also and daughter were tender and kind, and we parted from them very lovingly."