The handful of inquiring persons at Obernkirchen, whom J.Y. visited on his return from Norway, continued to claim his sympathy, and one First-day he joined them at their usual place of worship.

It was, he writes, a refreshing time in this little meeting.  When the little company first met together they were dragged into the street by the police; but they persevered, and, on making an appeal to the magistrate at Rinteln, stated their case with so much simplicity that the government has granted them liberty to meet together undisturbed.  How marvellous, the Friends are protected; and the Baptists, under the same government, are persecuted with increasing rigor!  No interference on their behalf has been of the least use.—­(Dairy and Letter.)

In the Fourth Month of 1855 John Yeardley received a certificate “to visit his friends in Yorkshire, and to hold meetings with persons not in church-fellowship” with Friends.

I arrived at Halifax, he says, in a letter of the 28th of the Fourth Month, on Fifth-day evening, and attended the Monthly Meeting of Brighouse on the 20th.  It looked formidable to me in prospect on the first entering into harness; but I hope the meeting proved a good introduction, and I saw a good specimen of a large, harmonious, and well-conducted Monthly Meeting.  There might be near 250 members present.

When he had completed the service, he took a week of repose at Harrowgate, where he briefly reviews his journey.

5 mo. 29.—­In passing along through my native county, I found many countenances missing which were very familiar to me years ago, and who are now gone to their rest.  But I was comforted to find in many places a race of young people springing up who bore the marks of being plants of my Heavenly Father’s right-hand planting, and who gave hopes of becoming useful in his Church.  It is with a grateful heart that I record the mercy of my Lord, in that he has granted me strength in a remarkable manner to do what he put in my heart to do, from place to place.  Blessed be his name!

After having finished the service in Yorkshire, I have had a week’s tarriance at Harrowgate.  The rest and quiet have proved beneficial to my health, and very precious have been the seasons of sweet communion I have been permitted to hold with my God in this retirement.

This summer he repeated his visit to Minden, and hired a lodging at the Klause.  A reflection in one of the letters which he wrote from this retreat affords a pleasing glimpse of his mind:—­

I sometimes think that a large portion of comfort and joy are allowed to those who really love the Lord; and how chastened are the pleasures of the humble Christian!  They abide with us long after the causes of them are passed away; and the more our permitted pleasures are enjoyed under a grateful sense of the goodness of the bountiful Giver, the longer they may be permitted to us.