Sands, David, 1745-1818

pp. 227-231. David Sands was born into a Presbyterian family at Cowneck, Long Island, on 11 mo. 4 1745. When he was fourteen, his family moved to Cornwall, Orange County, where the sickly youth spent much of his time in contemplation of religious matters. In doing so, he was "given to see and understand the necessity of being a true Christian, and not merely a nominal professor ... ; he was not entirely satisfied with many points of his Presbyterian profession of religion. ... His inward exercise increased, and for several years he
suffered a great anxiety of mind. ..."

The story of his conversion as related in his journal, and of his subsequent life as a Quaker, are an excellent illustration of the "inward crucifixion" described by Rufus Jones, and of the intense, "prophetic" personality he ascribes to Quaker ministers. Sands became a merchant. Still under the burden of religious doubt, he attended an appointed meeting held by the English Quaker Samuel Nottingham. While he was impressed by Nottingham's message, "the idea of being a Quaker seemed then impossible for him to reconcile. The plain humble appearance seemed to him to be more than was necessary for any man in order to assist him to be a Christian." His religious agony aggravated his lifelong ill health, and he was forced to abandon commerce for school teaching. He spent many days alone, pondering his condition.

He began attending Nine Partners meeting, where he became friends with such Quakers as Aaron Lancaster, Aaron Vail, Paul Upton, and Paul Osborn. His health somewhat restored by his new religious confidence, he reentered mercantile life, and requested membership in Nine Partners Monthly Meeting. And though his journal records that he "was received with much satisfaction to himself and generally so to the Society," his doubts must have been detected by the members of the investigating committee, who delayed acceptance of his request for eleven months. Once he joined, Sands became a staunch conservative, actively defending what he considered to be orthodox against the "speculative and unsound opinions" of his day. His intensity even affected his marriage. He applied to the meeting for clearance, but failed to show up to receive his answer. An inquiry revealed that he was
laboring "under a Cloud of Discouragements," which a committee of the meeting cleared off.

Sands' inward crucifixion occurred during his conversion, so it was consequently an easy step for him to take up the ministry shortly after becoming a Quaker. He delivered his first testimony in 1772, and was recorded a minister in 1775, four years after joining the Society. That same year, he accompanied Aaron Vail on his (Sands') first religious visit, a journey to sixteen New England meetings, including the one at Providence, where he became a friend of Moses Brown. Sands went on to a career as one of the great ministers of the Society, becoming acquainted with many of the most important Quakers of his era, and travelling, extensively in Pennsylvania, New England, the South, Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, France and Germany.

He was one of the most controversial figures of his day. His opinions caused dissent wherever he went, in some cases to the extent that he was asked to shorten his visits to some meetings. Although his death on 6 month 4 1818 preceded the Hicksite schism by ten years, he was responsible for introducing into Quakerism the evangelical strain which became known as "orthodox" thought. His view of morality, of dedication to God, and of salvation was very much like that of the revivalists who followed him. ... His exercise led him to oppose the two great bugbears of his followers-Elias Hicks and Thomas Paine. Hicks had always preached a form of his doctrine of the Inner Light's sufficiency for all religious purposes, but when he began to formulate it more concisely after 1815..., Sands, repelled by it, opposed it vigorously for the remaining three years of his life. Hicks represented all that evangelism opposed, in deemphasizing the Bible, the church, and the soteriological functions of Jesus. Thomas Paine, and deism in general, quite naturally frightened those who believed in a personal relationship to divinity Elias Hicks included. Sands took the opportunity to upbraid Paine in person, accosting him in Paris in 1797, and delivering himself of his opinion of the religion of reason in a heated debate.