The 23d we attended a meeting at a place called the Gap, where there was a small meeting of Friends. It was, however, a large collection, many of other societies attending, more than the house could hold. Many of them appeared to be a raw insensible people, void of any right idea or knowledge of true religion, which made the meeting very trying and painful; yet not without some degree of favour towards the conclusion, by truth’s obtaining the victory over death and darkness. Whilst in this neighbourhood, my mind was brought into a state of deep exercise and travail, from a sense of the great turning away of many among us, from the law and the testimony, and the prevailing of a spirit of great infidelity and deism among the people, and darkness spreading over the minds of many as a thick veil. It was a time in which Thomas Paine’s _Age of Reason_ (falsely so called) was much attended to in those parts; and some, who were members in our society, as I was informed, were captivated by his dark insinuating address, and were ready almost to make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. Under a sense thereof, my spirit was deeply humbled before the majesty of heaven, and in the anguish of my soul, I said, “spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thy heritage to reproach,” and suffer not thy truth to fall in the streets. The 24th we attended the monthly meeting at Fairfax, which was an exercising season, things being much out of order, for want of more faithfulness among the members, and a due attention to discipline. I laboured among them in the ability received, for their encouragement, and incitement to their respective duties; but alas for us, most men mind their own things, and not the things that are Jesus Christ’s. A worldly spirit too much prevails among the professors of truth, to their great hurt, and to the great grief of the honest-hearted, who are in travail for Zion’s prosperity, and Jerusalem’s peace.