yer in themselves, it is not surprising
they should grow cold in love and zeal for the noble 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 pass 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 Lincolnshire,
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 Oxfordshire, 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
Oxfordshire, 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 refreshing of our spirits.

In the Sixth Month they again left home, being minded to see how the
churches fared in the eastern part of Yorkshire. The point which most
interested them in this tour was Scarborough, where they we