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
On the 1st of the Ninth Month they sailed to Odessa, where they had to
remain eight days. In this city they received a visit from a pastor, who
conversed with them on the work of the heavenly kingdom then going on in
the Bast, especially in Constantinople and Asia Minor.
The Saviour's kingdom, writes John Yeardley, in allusion to this
conversation, is spreading, and many instruments are being raised up in
various nations to help forward the great work. The kingdom of Satan is in
danger; he sees it, and stirs up the jealousy of men, setting them against
one another, and, by their seeking through party-spirit to exalt their own
particular religion, hindering the Lord's work. Into whatever nation the
beams of the Sun of Righteousness shine, the inhabitants begin to inquire
the way to Zion, and turn their faces thitherward. This alarms the rulers
whose kingdom is of this world.
From Odessa to Constantinople they had a quick and safe passage. At
Constantinople John Yeardley was deeply interested in the institutions
which the American missionaries have founded for the religious and
temporal improvement of the Armenians. He visited two of these, the high
school at Bebek and the girls' seminary at Has-keui, both beautifully
situated on the shores of the Bosphorus. In the former they found
forty-eight young men,--sixteen Greek and thirty-two Armenian. The
industrial part of the education was particularly gratifying to him.
Cyrus Hamlin, he says, who has the superintendence of their studies and
labor, is wonderfully adapted for his vocation. He is assisted only by
native teachers. The young men looked serious: some of their countenances
were peculiarly impressive, indicating that they had been with Jesus. I
saw them assembled in the school-room, and addressed them for some time;
and C. Hamlin most willingly interpreted into Armenian what I said. It was
a sweet and memorable time. The Armenian teacher would scarcely let go my
hand after the meeting, he had been so touched with the power of divine
love. In the girls' boarding-school we found twenty-five girls, all
Armenians, with the exception of two or three Greeks. It was a lovely
sight to see so many of this class under a course of religious and useful
instruction. Many of the countenances were marked and pleasing, and were
_fixed_ on me with great apparent seriousness while I addressed them,
along with some of the neighbors.----Everett (the conductor of the school)
kindly and most willingly interpreted what I had to communicate. He and
his wife have also a day-school for boys and girls. I consider these
institutions as bright and hopeful spots in the East, from which much
good may arise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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