he first journey was
Belgium; in the second, the Rhine country; in the third, they were called
to sow seeds of Christian doctrine in lands lying beyond the limit of any
former travel--viz., in Silesia and Bohemia.

This was the first time that the Roman Catholic country of Belgium had
called forth the exercise of their Christian charity. They left London in
the Seventh Month, and spent about three weeks in travelling through the
country, resting chiefly at Ghent, Brussels, Charleroi and Spa. They were
accompanied as far as Brussels by Robert and Christine Alsop, and through
the whole journey, by an ingenuous young man whom they had engaged to
assist them, named Adolphe Rochedieu. The religious opening which awaited
them at Brussels was very encouraging; few incidents which arose in the
course of their numerous journeys were of a more animating character than
the acquaintance which they made with the pastor Van Maasdyk and some of
his flock. We give the narrative from J.Y.'s Diary and letters.

7 _mo_. 19.--H. Van Maasdyk paid us a long visit this morning. He was
educated in a convent in Belgium, and becoming a priest, he exercised the
functions which devolved upon him with much credit to himself, and to the
satisfaction of his superiors, until the year 1836. He possessed a Bible
in Latin, which he never read. He had the cure of a large parish, in
which, down to the year above mentioned, there was not a single copy of
the Scriptures in the Flemish tongue. About that time the colporteurs
introduced the New Testament in Flemish, and some copies of the Bible,
which greatly excited the priests, and in particular the bishop, who said
the translation was mutilated and falsified, and commanded that the
members of the Catholic Church who had received copies, should either burn
them themselves, or bring them to the cures for that purpose. Van
Maasdyk's parishioners accordingly brought their Bibles and Testaments
(five copies) to him to be burned. He was zealous in the Romish faith, and
had preached violently against the distributors of the wicked books, as
they were called; and he was about to fulfil the command to burn them,
when suddenly he felt something in his heart which restrained him, and he
thought, I will at least first examine the foundation of the bishop's
charges. He took up his Latin Bible, and placing beside it the copy in
Flemish, began with the charge of mutilation. He found it not at all
abridged. He then went