Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel Part 21

In the Fifth Month they attended the Yearly Meeting; and John Yeardley was present at the anniversary of the Peace Society.

5 _mo_. 19.--Attended a meeting of the Peace Society, much to my own satisfaction. It was truly gratifying to hear from those not in profession with us, such strong and decided sentiments against all war, as being not only inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity, but also contrary to sound policy. I am convinced _public_ meetings are necessary to keep alive _public_ feeling, as well as to excite individual interest. As it regards myself, I can say, before attending the meeting I felt but little concern with respect to this great question.

Soon after their return home, they were comforted by the intelligence that a few of those persons at Neufchatel who had so joyfully received their gospel message, had found strength to establish a meeting for wors.h.i.+p.

This information was contained in a letter from Auguste Borel, from which the following is an extract:--

He who tries the heart, and who knew the sincerity of my desires, deigned to hear my prayer on the 24th of February, when, without any previous understanding, we met four in number at my house at ten o'clock in the morning. This day is called with us _Torch Sunday_, and is a day of rejoicing in the world; and, if I ought to say so, during my carnal life it was to me a day of true pleasure, which I always looked for with impatience, because of the great bonfires which are then lighted, and which are seen from our city, illuminating every point of the wide horizon. It is my hope that the G.o.d of love, in the a.n.a.logy of the spiritual order of things, may have kindled in our hearts his sacred fire, and will condescend to maintain and increase it in time and in eternity.

Since that time we have continued our meetings without interruption: our number has not yet exceeded six or seven. We do not force the work, but, recognising that it is the Lord alone who has begun it, I feel daily more and more that He alone ought to direct it.

A portion of this summer and autumn was occupied by John and Martha Yeardley with holding public meetings for wors.h.i.+p within the compa.s.s of Pontefract and Knaresborough Monthly Meetings. Amongst the notices in the Diary of these meetings, are the following:--

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 p.r.o.nounced 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 wors.h.i.+p: 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 pa.s.s 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 Yorks.h.i.+re to Devons.h.i.+re.

Their service commenced with an encouraging meeting at Monyash, in Derbys.h.i.+re.

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 refres.h.i.+ng time. They found in the woman to whom the cottage belonged a bright example of piety and charity.

She has been, says J.Y., a cripple from her childhood; but is able to maintain herself by keeping a school for little children; she is not unmindful, also, to help her poorer neighbors out of her small earnings.

At Bristol, where they arrived on the 1st of the First Month, 1830, they rested a few days at H. and M. Hunt's.

We had, says J.Y. much pleasure in being in this family. Bristol is the largest meeting we have in our Society in England, and to me it was a very trying one on the First-day morning. I was much cast down after meeting; but we staid over the Monthly Meeting on Third-day, which afforded me relief of mind, and I left with as much comfort as I could well desire.

At Plymouth John Yeardley found an object of lively interest in Lady Rogers' Charity School, established to fit girls for becoming household servants. He was gratified with the good order, simplicity, and economy, which pervaded the inst.i.tution. Martha Yeardley suffered much during their journey in Devons.h.i.+re, from the inclemency of the weather; and a heavy fall of snow on the night of the 17th prevented their leaving Plymouth at the time intended. In consequence of this, they hired a lodging, and employed themselves in visiting the Friends from house to house, and in organising an infant school, which the Friends had long desired to see established.

On their return from Plymouth they stopped at Sidcot, where they spent some time at the Friends' school. Here the subject of offering prizes to children came under the notice of J.Y., and like all other subjects connected with education, engaged his serious reflection.

It would certainly be better, he says, if the basis of good actions could be laid in the children's minds on a principle of rect.i.tude and justice, so that they might be taught to do well from a love of truth, and not from a fear of punishment or a hope of reward; but so long as human nature remains unchanged, a check against the one and an incitement to the other seem to be necessary, as a help to overcome the evil in the mind, until that which is good shall become predominant.

They returned to Yorks.h.i.+re through Warwick and Leicester, and on reviewing the journey John Yeardley has the following reflections:--

2 _mo_. 22.--Almost all the meetings we attended on this journey of 800 miles are very small, except Birmingham and Bristol, and the life of religion is low among the members in general; which is not much to be wondered at, when we consider that many of those meetings are const.i.tuted [chiefly] of a few individuals who have had a birthright in the Society--born members but not new-born Christians, without the power or form of religion, no outward means to excite them to faith and good works.

If they neglect the spirit of prayer in themselves, it is not surprising they should grow cold in love and zeal for the n.o.ble cause of truth on the earth. But in the lowest of these [meetings] there is something alive to visit, and in going along we felt the renewed evidence that we were in our right allotment in thus going about, endeavoring to strengthen the things that remain; and though we have had to pa.s.s through much suffering, both outward and inward, yet we have also experienced times of rejoicing in doing the will of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

After the Quarterly Meeting in the Third Month they visited each of the meetings within their own Monthly Meeting, "thinking," says J.Y., "a little pastoral care was due to our Friends at home, seeing we are often concerned to go abroad."

In the Fifth Month they went up to the Yearly Meeting, via Lincolns.h.i.+re, taking several meetings in the way. Among the subjects which occupied Friends in their annual conference this year was that of missions to the heathen, which, it was proposed by some, should he taken up by the Society.

The subject, writes John Yeardley, was fully entered into, and the interest was very great. Many Friends spoke their sentiments freely and feelingly, and the subject was taken on minute to be revived nest year. If this important matter were brought home to each individual of us, there would be more missionaries prepared and sent forth to labor; but we love ease and our homes, contenting ourselves with reading and talking about what is going forward in the great cause of religion and righteousness in the earth.

They returned home through the midland counties, visiting most of the meetings in Oxfords.h.i.+re, and in the parts adjacent; which they had been unable to do the previous year in returning from the West.

It was comforting to us, John Yeardley says, to be with Friends in Oxfords.h.i.+re, whom we had so long thought of. Many of their meetings are small; but there are a few individuals among them precious and improving characters, who, I believe, are under the preparing hand for greater usefulness in the Lord's church. With these we were often dipped into near union of spirit, which sometimes caused the divine life to rise among us to the refres.h.i.+ng of our spirits.

In the Sixth Month they again left home, being minded to see how the churches fared in the eastern part of Yorks.h.i.+re. The point which most interested them in this tour was Scarborough, where they were attracted both by the town itself and by the little society of Friends. "It felt to us," says J.Y., "very much like a home. We lodged at Elizabeth Rowntree's, a sweet resting-place." (7 _mo_. 4.)

At the same time that they reported to their Monthly Meeting the attention they had paid to this service, they received its sanction to undertake a journey in Wales.

It is truly humbling to us, writes John Yeardley, in describing this occasion, thus to have to expose ourselves, poor and weak as we are; but the cause is not our own, but is in the hands of our great Lord and Master. May he help us! (7 _mo_. 19.)

They left home on the 7th of the Eighth Month, and spent the 11th at Coalbrookdale, in the company of Barnard d.i.c.kinson and his wife. From thence Samuel Hughes accompanied them as guide into Wales, and continued with them a week.

He proved, says J.Y., a most efficient helper in this wild country, knowing the roads well, and he was kind and attentive to us and our horse.

The stages are long and hilly, and we are often obliged to go many miles round the mountains to make our way from one place to another. The road to Pales is over the moors; we scarcely saw a house for miles, except here and there a little cot, on a plot of ground obtained as a grant to encourage industry. These little dwellings were generally surrounded by a few acres of well-cultivated land enclosed from the moor. It is much to be regretted that the plan of cottage culture is not more generally promoted; wherever I see it practised I view it with pleasure, as tending to increase the comforts of the poor.

On the 19th they attended the Half-year's Meeting at Swansea. A Committee of the Yearly Meeting was present. Elizabeth Dudley was also there, with a certificate for religious service; and she and John and Martha Yeardley, finding that the errand on which they were come was the same, resolved to join company and travel together through South and North Wales. They were accompanied throughout the journey by Robert and Jane Eaton of Bryn-y-Mor.

As there are very few meetings of Friends in Wales, the chief part of their service was beyond the limits of the Society. They met with great openness in many places from the Methodists and other preachers and their congregations. From the notes which John Yeardley made of their religious labors in this journey, we select several pa.s.sages.

9 _mo_. 13. Aberystwith.--Our first object was to inquire for a place of meeting. We found they were all engaged for that evening, which detained us here a day longer than we had expected; but this little detention enabled us to make acquaintance with two of the Independent preachers, to whom we became much attached in gospel fellows.h.i.+p, A.

Shadrach and his son. The father preaches in Welsh, and the son in English. It was comforting to us to meet with two such pious, humble-minded Christians, laboring diligently to forward the cause of religion. They kindly offered us their chapel for the evening, and after the meeting they both expressed much satisfaction in having been favored with such an opportunity.