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
Fifth mo. 26th, I left Friedensthal to visit my friends in Minden and its
neighborhood; and after spending about two weeks there, I felt very much
inclined to give our friends the meeting at Rotterdam. I set off,
accordingly, the 7th of the Sixth Month, and travelled seven days through
a desert country to Amsterdam, I went almost one half of the way by water,
across the Zuider Zee from Zwolle to Amsterdam. After spending a few days
in Amsterdam, I went, with J.S. Mollet, who is the only Friend in that
city, to Rotterdam, where we met with M.S. and M.T. Thomas Christy,
junior, had accompanied them, from London. M.S. had letters of
recommendation to many persons in Amsterdam, whom we visited; and though
some of them were first-rate characters in the place, it is surprising
with what affection and kindness they received us. J.S. Mollet accompanied
us to Pyrmont.
An account of his journey, both going and returning, is also contained in
J.Y.'s diary: it presents some additional notices which claim a place
here.
Before leaving Minden for Rotterdam, he twice visited Eidinghausen, and
saw some young men who were under suffering because of their refusal to
serve in the militia.
One in particular (he says, in writing up the diary), a sweet young man,
at this moment may be in torture. O, how I feel for him! My soul breathes
to the Almighty Father of mercies on his account, that he may he
strengthened to endure all with patience for the sake of his Lord, who has
given him a testimony to bear against the spirit of war and fighting.
At the conclusion of the second meeting at Eidinghausen, he says:--
The meeting was fully attended, and I afterwards dined alone in the
schoolroom with a light heart. I thought I could say, After the work is
done, food tastes sweet.
At Rotterdam, John Yeardley and his companions made the acquaintance of a
"very interesting missionary student, who believes he has a call to go on
a mission to the Greeks, and is waiting for an opening: his name is
Guetzlaff." At Amsterdam, a letter from Guetzlaff introduced them to the
priest of the Greek church in that city, Helanios Paschalides, a man of
child-like spirit, and long schooled in affliction, who had become
awakened to his own religious wants, and who believed himself called to
return to Greece and instruct his countrymen. These two interviews are
memorable, as being, probably, the commencement of the strong interest
which J. and M.Y. evinced in the Greek people, and which issued, years
afterwards, in a religious tour in that country. At Zeist, where there is
a settlement of Moravians, the ministers, finding the Friends desired to
convene their members in a meeting for worship, readily consented.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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