Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the GospelYeardley, John
Religion
Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel
Yeardley, John
Clergy -- United States -- Biography; Quakers -- Biography; Yeardley, John, 1786-1858
8 _mo_. 16.--A public meeting at Wooldale, to which name many more
people than could get into the house. The Friends said they never saw so
large a meeting in that place. Many of those present expressed their
satisfaction by saying they could have sat till morning to hear what was
delivered. It is an easy matter to become hearers of the word; but it was
the doers of the word that were pronounced happy.
23_rd_.--Meeting at Otley, in the Methodist chapel. It was not very
full, but very solid and satisfactory. The last public meeting in this
place was held in silence, which might probably be the cause of a small
attendance on this occasion. It is bard work to bring the people to see
and feel the advantage of silent worship: the time is not yet come, and
perhaps never may. We must be willing to help them in the way pointed out,
and try to strengthen the good in all; for if they are only brought to the
Father's house, it matters not in what way or through what medium.
In the Eleventh Month they returned to the Monthly Meeting the minute
which had been granted them, and received at the same time a certificate
to visit some meetings of Friends in the midland and south-western
counties.
Before they left home for this journey, they received intelligence that
John Yeardley's early and intimate friend James A. Wilson was no more.
11 _mo_. 24.--My heart, says J.Y., is pained within me, while I
record the loss of one with whom I have been for many years on the most
intimate terms. He has long had an afflicted tabernacle and a suffering
mind, which, I believe, contributed to his refinement, and prepared him
for the awful change. He had been recommended to go to a warmer climate,
and had taken up his residence at Glouchester, where he died, which
prevented us from attending him in his last moments. He possessed much
originality of character, joined to sincerity and genuine piety; and I
doubt not he experienced the fulfilment of this promise: "Behold, I have
caused thy iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change
of raiment." (Zech. iii. 4.)
On the 11th of the Twelfth Month they left home, and during the next two
months were closely occupied in visiting various meetings from Yorkshire
to Devonshire.
Their service commenced with an encouraging meeting at Monyash, in
Derbyshire.
13_th_.--The first meeting we attended was at Monyash. It was larger
than we had expected, in consequence of strangers coming in, and proved
rather a lively commencement to our spiritual course of labor.
On the 14th they held a meeting in the Potteries, in a cottage belonging
to one of the few Friends in the place. Word having got abroad that
strangers were expected, many of the neighbors came in, so that the rooms
below-stairs were filled: it was a refreshing time. They found in the
woman to whom the cottage belonged a bright example of piety and charity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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