Not much occurs in the diary to claim attention, until they reached Friedberg, not far from Frankfort.

10 mo. 7.—­Sat down to our little meeting, after breakfast, and reading, on First day morning.  It was to us both a season of deep feeling.  My dear M.Y. was so filled with a sense of our own weakness, and the Almighty’s goodness towards us in a wilderness travel through a dark country, that she knelt, and was enabled to pour forth a heart-felt supplication for a precious seed of the kingdom in the hearts of the people among whom we were; and also that He would in his tender mercy remember us his poor instruments, and in the right time cause light to break forth on our path, preserve us in the way we ought to go, and make us willing to suffer for the sake of his suffering cause:  to which my heart said, Amen!

At Frankfort they formed acquaintance with J.H. von Meyer, ex-burgomaster of the city, a learned and pious man, who had made a new translation of the Bible into German, and had stood firm for the cause of real Christianity in the midst of much declension.  In the afternoon they drove to Offenbach to see J.D.  Marc, a Christian Jew, who had earned experience in the school of suffering.  He said, amongst other things, that he could never preach but when he believed it to be his duty, and then he could declare only what was given him at the time; this he considered to be the only preaching that could profit the hearers.  His views on the inutility of water baptism were so decided, that when converted Jews asked him to administer to them this rite, he told them he could not recommend it, for it would do them no good.  He gave them many names of awakened persons in the Palatinate:—­

Where, says John Yeardley, there is still a lively-spirited people who hold meetings for religious improvement; perhaps the descendants of those who were visited by W. Penn in former days.

The next day they returned to Frankfort, and made the acquaintance of Pastor Appia, a Piedmontese, who, with his wife, was very friendly; and when he heard that they had left their own land to visit his native country, marked out a route for them, and gave them letters of introduction.  “When I am with such good people,” observes J.Y., in relating their interview with Appia, “I am always uneasy in my mind that I am not more worthy.  May the Lord strengthen me!”

On the 10th, they went to Darmstadt, where they met with several enlightened Christians.  One of these, Leander van Ess, had been a Roman Catholic priest; and although a zealous promoter of Christianity in the face of persecution, and favored with a more than ordinary degree of spiritual light, he had thought it right not altogether to forsake that communion, but remained amongst the Romanists to do them good.  He had translated the New Testament for their use.  At parting with his new friends he embraced them, gave them his blessing, and wished them a prosperous journey.  “I felt myself,” says J.Y., “comforted and strengthened by this visit.”