fort and encouragement, which I trust I shall ever
remember to advantage; but O that I may be resigned to wait the appointed
time in watchful humility, patience, and fear! for I find there is a
danger of seeking too much after outward confirmations, and not having the
attention sufficiently fixed on the great Minister of ministers, who alone
is both able and willing to direct the poor mind in this most important
concern, and in his own time to say, "Arise, shine; for thy light is
come."

12 _mo_. 22.--My poor mind has been so much enveloped in clouds of
thick darkness for months past, that I have sometimes been ready to
conclude I shall never live to see brighter days. Should even this be the
case I humbly hope ever to be preserved from accusing the just Judge of
the earth of having dealt hardly with me, but acknowledge to the last that
he has in mercy favored me abundantly with a portion of that light which
is said to shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.

We shall leave for the next chapter the relation of his first offerings in
the ministry, and conclude this with a striking passage which we find in
the Diary for this year.

John Yeardley was all his life very fond of the occupations of the garden.
A small piece of ground was attached to his house at Barnsley, which he
cultivated, and from which he was sometimes able to gather spiritual as
well as natural fruit.

Under date of the 22nd of the Seventh Month, he writes:--

A very sublime idea came suddenly over my mind when in the garden this
evening. It was introduced as I plucked a strawberry from a border on
which I had bestowed much cultivation before it would produce anything;
but now, thought I, this is a little like reaping the fruit of my labor.
As I thus ruminated on the produce of the strawberry-bank, I was struck
with the thought of endless _felicity_, and the sweet reward it would
produce for all our toils here below. My mind was instantly opened to such
a glorious scene of divine good that I felt a resignation of heart to give
up all for the enjoyment of [such a foretaste] of _endless felicity_.

CHAPTER II.

FROM HIS ENTRANCE ON THE MINISTRY IN 1815, TO HIS COMMISSION TO RESIDE IN
GERMANY IN 1820.

1815.--After the long season of depression through which John Yeardley
passed, as described in the last chapter, the new year of 1815 dawned with
brightness upon his mind. He now at length saw his spiritual bonds loosed;
and the