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
The handful of inquiring persons at Obernkirchen, whom J.Y. visited on
his return from Norway, continued to claim his sympathy, and one First-day
he joined them at their usual place of worship.
It was, he writes, a refreshing time in this little meeting. When the
little company first met together they were dragged into the street by the
police; but they persevered, and, on making an appeal to the magistrate at
Rinteln, stated their case with so much simplicity that the government has
granted them liberty to meet together undisturbed. How marvellous, the
Friends are protected; and the Baptists, under the same government, are
persecuted with increasing rigor! No interference on their behalf has been
of the least use.--(_Dairy and Letter_.)
In the Fourth Month of 1855 John Yeardley received a certificate "to visit
his friends in Yorkshire, and to hold meetings with persons not in
church-fellowship" with Friends.
I arrived at Halifax, he says, in a letter of the 28th of the Fourth
Month, on Fifth-day evening, and attended the Monthly Meeting of Brighouse
on the 20th. It looked formidable to me in prospect on the first entering
into harness; but I hope the meeting proved a good introduction, and I saw
a good specimen of a large, harmonious, and well-conducted Monthly
Meeting. There might be near 250 members present.
When he had completed the service, he took a week of repose at Harrowgate,
where he briefly reviews his journey.
5 _mo_. 29.--In passing along through my native county, I found many
countenances missing which were very familiar to me years ago, and who are
now gone to their rest. But I was comforted to find in many places a race
of young people springing up who bore the marks of being plants of my
Heavenly Father's right-hand planting, and who gave hopes of becoming
useful in his Church. It is with a grateful heart that I record the mercy
of my Lord, in that he has granted me strength in a remarkable manner to
do what he put in my heart to do, from place to place. Blessed be his
name!
After having finished the service in Yorkshire, I have had a week's
tarriance at Harrowgate. The rest and quiet have proved beneficial to my
health, and very precious have been the seasons of sweet communion I have
been permitted to hold with my God in this retirement.
This summer he repeated his visit to Minden, and hired a lodging at the
Klause. A reflection in one of the letters which he wrote from this
retreat affords a pleasing glimpse of his mind:--
I sometimes think that a large portion of comfort and joy are allowed to
those who really love the Lord; and how chastened are the pleasures of the
humble Christian! They abide with us long after the causes of them are
passed away; and the more our permitted pleasures are enjoyed under a
grateful sense of the goodness of the bountiful Giver, the longer they may
be permitted to us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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