"I believe the doctrine of Fox and Barclay (i.e., briefly, that the 'Word of God' is Christ, not the Bible, and that the Scriptures are profitable in proportion as they are read in the same spirit which gave them forth) to have been a most valuable equipoise to the tendency of other Protestant sects to transfer the idea of infallibility from the Church to the Bible.  Nothing,  I believe, can really teach us the nature and meaning of inspiration but personal experience of it."
        -- Caroline Stephen (1834 - 1909) in Quaker Strongholds

    "You will say, Christ saith this and the Apostles say this, but what canst thou say?  Art thou a child of Light and has thou walked in the Light, and what thou speakest, is it inwardly from God?"
        -- George Fox, 1652

    Gunpowder Friends meet for Bible study on the 4th First Day of each month.  We focus on one book at a time (from Old Testament or New,  and sometimes Gnostic gospels) and use the "Spears" method to guide our understanding.  This method is explained in a pamphlet entitled "Friendly Bible Study" written by Joanna and Larry Spears (Friends General Conference, 1990).

    We find Bible study, and the Spears method in particular, very useful for several reasons:

-  It honors the Biblical emphasis of early Quakers.
-  It respects the diversity among contemporary Friends as to the role of the Bible in their own faith.
-  It is welcoming to all, because there is no pre-reading, the passages contain only a few verses, and there are no right or wrong answers.
-  It nurtures that of God in each participant.

Our study of a selected passage centers around five basic questions.
    1. What is the main point of the passage?
    2. What new light is shed by the current reading?
    3. Is the passage true to our experience?
    4. What are the implications of the passage in our lives?
    5. What are the problems we encounter in understanding the passage, or between our understanding of the passage and our faith?

    Generally, we start by reading the passage aloud and identifying any significant translational differences among the Bibles present.  We then enter a period of silent reflection and writing (about ten minutes) in which each participant develops his or her own individual responses to the five basic questions.

    After the silence, we are all invited to share our responses to each question in turn, starting with the main point and moving through to the problems.  Each person's responses become integral to the group's understanding as a whole.  It is frequently the case that the further into the questions we get, the more our study is driven by our responses and the less it is controlled by the questions themselves.