A Quaker Book of Wisdom: Life Lessons in Simplicity, Service, and Common Sense

Beginning by invoking his Quaker grandfather, Smith, former headmaster at Washington, D.C.'s Sidwell Friends School shows how to ""let your life speak"" for your character and beliefs. He plainly and elegantly introduces us to an often misunderstood faith, in his short and gently funny history of the loosely Protestant sect and its 17th-century English founder, George Fox. Smith shows Quakerism to be neither archaic nor beset with odd ritual: ""its moniker came from those who mocked the first sectarians, saying they trembled or quaked with anticipation as they waited for God to speak to them."" (""And they probably did,"" Smith playfully adds.) In chapters like ""Silence,"" ""Worship,"" ""Business"" and ""Education,"" Smith blends remembrances of childhood worship in Moorestown, N.J., family history and more recent experiences with his recollections of the difficult choices he faced as a result of Quakerism's pacifism when confronted with WWII. He also engages in some philosophical speculation on the practical nature of truth, humility and steadfastness. Amidst the torrent of slim inspirational volumes being published, Smith's book is notable for its quiet strength and for the case it makes, by example, for the virtues of the considered life. (Sept.)