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
We had packed as many books and tracts as we well could in our wardrobe
trunks, which were not once opened at the different custom-houses, but the
surplus tracts, &c., we were obliged to put into a spare box by
themselves, and this box was not suffered to pass the frontier of
Sardinia. The first officer was embarrassed, not knowing how to act, and
sent a gendarme with us to the bureau of Sarzana, the next town. The
officer there was remarkably civil, but told us the law is such that books
cannot enter except on conditions to which we could not in our conscience
submit. We therefore left them in the bureau, desiring that they might be
made useful: a person in the office said, in a half-whisper, These are the
books to turn the people's heads. We were glad this loss did not prevent
us from distributing others out of our remaining store, at the inns, and
pretty freely on the road.
Their object in returning by Genoa was to visit the valleys of Piedmont.
They reached Turin on the 19th, and proceeded on the 22nd to Pignerol.
From this place they visited most of the valleys, went into all the
families where Stephen Grellet had been, and had frequent religious
conversation with the pastors and some of the people.
We spent, says J.Y., five days amongst them. The old pastor Best died soon
after the time that Stephen Grellet was there. We met his son, lately
appointed chaplain to the Protestant congregation at Turin. He is a young
man of talent, lively and intelligent, and desirous of being useful in his
new sphere of action. He came to us often at our little inn, and made many
inquiries as to the nature of our religious principles; our conversation
mostly turned on the necessity of the assistance of the Holy Spirit in the
exercise of Christian ministry. This he fully admitted, but was not
prepared to dispense with the necessity of an academical preparation. I
fear that sending the young men to Geneva for this purpose has not always
had a salutary effect.
We thought it right to attend their worship on First-day morning at La
Tour. The congregation consisted of about 900 clean and well-dressed
peasants, many of whose countenances looked serious. The short discourse
of Pastor Peyron was orthodox, and the application impressive and edifying.
He afterwards dined and spent the afternoon with us at the widow Best's,
with several branches of her interesting and pious family. I humbly trust
this day was spent to mutual comfort.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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