Chapter XXVI: Richard Sellar and the 'merciful Man'

_'To resort to force is to lose
faith in the inner light. War only
results from men taking counsel
with their passions instead of
waiting upon God. If one believes,
as Fox did, that the most powerful
element in human nature is that
something of God which speaks in
the conscience, then to coerce men
is clearly wrong. The only true
line of approach is by patience to
reach down to that divine seed, to
appeal to what is best, because it
is what is strongest in man. The
Quaker testimony against war is no
isolated outwork of their
position: it forms part of their
citadel.'--H.G. WOOD._

_'The following narrative we have
thought proper to insert in the
very words of the sufferer, as
taken from his own mouth. The
candid Reader will easily excuse
the simplicity of its style, and
the Plainness of its Expressions.
It is the more like the man, and
carries the greater evidence of
the Honesty and Integrity of the
Relator, viz. "An Account of the
Sufferings of Richard Seller of
Keinsey, a Fisherman, who was
prest in Scarborough-Piers, in the
time of the two last engagements
between the Dutch and English, in
the year 1665." These are (says
the writer) the very words that
proceeded from him, who sat before
me weeping.'--BESSE, 'Sufferings
of the Quakers.'_