that he was a member of the Society of
Friends, and a minister well approved by the church.

Before we pursue further the sequence of events, two passages from the
diary may be here transcribed, which could not have been inserted in the
order of time without interrupting the narrative. The first of these
conveys a lesson of practical wisdom, and exhibits the method by which the
writer was able to succeed and to excel in what he undertook. It is the
true comprehension and resolute acting upon maxims such as these, which
makes so much of the difference between one man and another.

1821. 7 _mo_. 2.--No man can excel in everything; therefore it is
highly important for each mind to consider attentively for what it is
calculated, and what end it is designed to answer by him who created it.
As secular affairs are often more expedited by a judicious arrangement,
than by hard doing indiscriminately at the mass; so will undertakings of
superior importance be more advantageously attained by keeping a single
eye, and looking for best direction to make a proper selection of what
ought to be done and what ought not to be done. I was long too much
wavering on this head, to my great loss; but I now hope it is become a
settled point, find I have clearly seen for what service I am designed in
the church militant here on earth; therefore, through the assistance of
divine grace, I hope to pursue nothing but in subordination to this main
design. For a little mind to aim at great things would be to thwart the
whole; but to endeavor to be faithful in small things, seems to be the way
to attain the end.

From the other entry we shall extract only a few words, but they are words
fraught with deep instruction:--

9 _mo_. 7.--"Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." Without
purity of heart we cannot see the pointing of the Divine Finger.

On the 18th of the Second Month, John Yeardley attended Pontefract Monthly
Meeting, held at Wakefield.

It was, he says, a precious season; I felt my friends very near to me in
spirit, and expressed to them in tenderness and love what lay on my mind;
and in the conclusion the power and goodness of the Most High were so
awfully felt that I could not forbear kneeling down to offer him thanks,
and to supplicate that he would he pleased once more to bind up the
breaches in the walls of our Zion, and grant that when we were separated
one from another we might never he separated from his presence.