he reading
was particularly suited to the state of a woman Friend present, who was
laboring under the temptation that she had committed the unpardonable sin,
and could find no rest day or night. I could not prevent them from
expressing their thankfulness for such a mark of Providential
interference, in this way to afford the poor woman a little relief and
encouragement.

Four days afterwards, having then returned to Friedensthal, J.Y.
adds:--"Since our visit to Hille, the person above-mentioned is dead!"

The depression under which John Yeardley labored, from the loss of that
comfortable presence of his Lord which had been almost from his youth as a
lamp shining continually upon his head, seems to have reached its lowest
point in the early part of this year. Under date of the 24th of the Second
Month he says:--

I have this morning once more been enabled to pour out my sorrowful spirit
before the Father of mercies in a way that has afforded me some relief and
encouragement. In bitterness, and, I may almost say, in agony of soul have
I spread before him some of those circumstances which have been a cause of
unspeakable distress to me for many months past, and rendered me unfit for
almost every service, temporal or spiritual.

Thou knowest, O gracious Father, I long to have my ways and steps
regulated by thy holy will. Therefore I beseech thee, have mercy on my
faults, and blot out from thy remembrance all my sins, and everything
wherein I have in weakness offended thee; and be pleased to give me
strength to become more perfectly and lastingly thine. O how sensibly do I
feel my own weakness, and that without thee I can do nothing, not for a
moment preserve my own steps.

In the midst of his discouragement his mind was directed towards the
accomplishment of another part of the commission which had been entrusted
to him before he left England.--viz., to sojourn for a time amongst the
Friends in the South of France. Accordingly, early in the Third Month he
went to Minden, and laid before the Two-months' Meeting, his intention of
going to Congenies for this purpose, and also of seeking a religious
interview with some serious people in the neighborhood of Cologne.

This information, he says, was received by my friends with much sympathy
and, I trust, weightiness of spirit, and I felt a little strengthened by
the expression of their feelings and unity with me in this concern. A
certificate of their approbation was