Page:Life of Isaiah V Williamson.djvu/181

Rh Williamson's life is the word of an honest man, speaking modestly and kindly to us, saying, "Here is what I did with my one talent. I found myself with few tools but I made all the use of them possible for nearly a century. My first books were the fields and forests and my first and best teachers were the Quaker mother and father, whose lessons of principle and practice were the sheet anchors of my life. They knew what a shy boy needed and they gave it to me, not so much in words as in deeds; it was their gentleness, patience and religion, of which they never spoke, that I absorbed in our home more than anything in the Fallsington Meeting House or St. Peter's Church, at Third and Pine Streets. From them I learned not to be idle, not to hurry and how to work and to save. They taught me that the way to have anything to spend or give away was to first put it into storage and never to take out as much as I put in.

"From a godly father and mother, I learned that looking silently and inwardly at myself, I would find a light from heaven and that meditation led to prayer and guidance.