The autumn of this year was taken up with a series of public meetings, mostly in the East Riding, in the greater part of which J. and M.Y. had the company of Isabel Casson of Hull.

In the Eleventh.  Month, at the same time that they returned the minute which had been granted them, for this service, they laid before their friends the prospect of more extensive travel in the work of the Gospel than any they had undertaken before.  The time was come for John Yeardley to pay that debt of Christian love to the benighted inhabitants of Greece which he had felt to press for years upon his mind; and at the same time he and Martha Yeardley believed it to be required of them to revisit some of the places of their former service, and to take up their abode for a while with companies of persons whom they should find like-minded with themselves; and also to perform the unaccomplished duty of visiting the Piedmontese valleys.  Considering the extent of country over which they travelled, the varied nature of their labors, and the large number of serious-minded and sympathizing persons with whom they were brought into relation, this journey may perhaps be regarded as the most active and fruitful period of their lives.  We are able, as we have so often been before, to read their impressions of duty, and their feelings, their hopes, doubts, and aspirations, in J.Y.’s simple and faithful Diary.

11 mo. 7.—­Yesterday was our Monthly Meeting at Pickering, and to me a very memorable one.  We stated to our friends the prospect of a visit to some of the Grecian Islands and the Morea, the Protestant valleys of Piedmont, and some parts of Germany, Switzerland, and France.  It is about five years since I first received the impression that it would be my religious duty to stand resigned to a service of the above kind.  For the last nine months it has not been absent from my thoughts for many hours together.  It has cost me not a little to come at resignation; but my Heavenly Father has been very gracious, and has brought me into a willingness to do his will.  If I know my own heart I have one prevailing desire, and that is to devote the remainder of my days to his service; and my prayers are very fervent that he may be pleased to give me faith, patience, and perseverance to do and to suffer all that his wisdom may permit to befal me.  I am often ready to covenant with him to go where he may be pleased to send, even to the ends of the world, if he will strengthen me with his strength, enlighten me with his light, guide me by his counsel, and prepare me for glory.  “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.”

They left Scarborough in the Second Month, and spent the time which intervened before the Yearly Meeting in social visits in London and the neighborhood, in preparing for the journey and studying the modern Greek language.

Nothing, says J.Y., could exceed the interest which our friends take in doing all in their power to forward our views with respect to the important mission before us.—­(3 mo. 4.)