First day. Felt my mind drawn to attend to-day a meeting, a few miles from home, held, for the present, by indulgence of Friends. I was led forth in a line of encouragement and caution to a seeking travailing remnant; and in warning to the indolent and self-righteous, endeavouring to show them the danger of resting in such a polluted state; many hearts were contrited, and a comfortable solemnity clothed the meeting, for which we were made thankful to the gracious Author of all our blessings. Second day. This day spent in manual labour, a less proportion of which would suffice for me, if every other man was disposed to do his part: but the poor and the indolent must and will be helped. Third and fourth days. Mostly occupied in my temporal concerns, with attendant poverty of spirit, and a longing after spiritual food, free from condemnation. Fifth day. Attended our preparative meeting, at which our queries were read, and answers prepared to be sent to the yearly meeting; but too much, I fear, in a formal way, and may, if not well guarded against, become a snare to us, as the brazen serpent was to Israel. Sixth day. I can say little more than that I wearied myself with hard labour in assisting my workmen to build stone fences. In the evening read Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, in which I think he has fully shown the final end and abolishment of all outward ordinances and observations in matters of religion. Seventh day. This day I spent mostly in manual labour. Some little interruption of mind by the improper conduct of one of my labourers. How hard a thing it is to find, in such persons, honesty, industry, and a suitable deportment, united in the same individual; and yet it is no more than ought to be in every man, and it is always their duty and interest to be so. First day. At our meeting to-day the fire seemed very low on the altar. Dulness, and a spirit of heaviness were too predominant with many; occasioned, no doubt, by a too near attachment to the world, and the things of it, with some, and by too much lightness and vanity with others. Alas, how much good seed is lost by the wayside, in stony places, and on thorny ground. Just at the close, I was engaged to call the attention of the people to the necessity of having always a proper point, or object to aim at, a right centre to all their hopes and desires; and that God was the only proper object for man to set his heart upon, as the doing his will is the whole sum and substance of all true religion and worship. Second, third and fourth days. Spent in usual labour, with a peaceful mind.