Because we cannot reasonably expect to erect a constantly expanding structure of social activism upon a constantly diminishing foundation of faith, attention to the cultivation of the inner life is our first order of business, even in a period of rapid social change. The Church, if it is to affect the world, must become a center from which new spiritual power emanates. While the Church must be secular in the sense that it operates in the world, if it is only secular it will not have the desired effect upon the secular order which it is called upon to penetrate. With no diminution of concern for people, we can and must give new attention to the production of a trustworthy religious experience.

…John Woolman is [also] worth remembering because, more than most Christians, he kept his inner and outer life together. In the happy expression employed by Elizabeth O’Connor, this man of travel engaged, at the same time, in both an inward and an outward journey. The inward journey was marked by an unusual sense of holy obedience. “I have been more and more instructed,” he wrote near the end, “as to the necessity of depending upon the fresh instructions of Christ, the price of peace, from day to day.” The outward journey was marked by an increasing sensitivity to suffering and to an intelligent effort to eliminate as much of this suffering as is humanly possible. What is most remarkable in Woolman’s potent example is the complete bridging of the chasm that so mars our current Christian scene. His devotional experience and his social concern, far from being in conflict, actually required each other. He was acutely conscious of the danger of a social witness that could have become hard and cruel in its denunciation of others. “Christ knoweth,” he said, “when the fruit-bearing branches themselves have need of purging.”

–Elton Trueblood, The New Man for Our Time