31_st_.—­I am somewhat busily employed in this busy city in visiting the young men.  I find very ready access to them, and my engagement has the hearty concurrence of all my friends.  I am abundantly convinced that it would have been a great mistake to have ran away from the place without making the attempt at the performance of the present service.  The usual meetings for worship have been seasons of divine favor, some of them, I think, extraordinarily so, which I consider a great mercy in my Heavenly Father, when I consider the weakness of the poor instrument.  It has been announced for me to give a lecture this evening in the large meeting-house, on my travels in Europe, a sound which almost frightens me.  Friends really do not know what a poor thing I am.

By the kindness of a friend, we have been supplied with a pleasing personal reminiscence of John Yeardley’s visit to Bristol, which will help to represent him as he was in later years.

Bristol, 6 mo. 8, 1859.

Since thou informed me of thy intention to compile a memoir of our late dear friend John Yeardley, I have endeavored to recall the circumstances of his visit to this city in the spring of the year 1856.

My impression is, that the most striking feature in his character was his childlike simplicity, both in word and conduct.  This very characteristic, whilst it really increased his influence for good, especially with the young, rendered it perhaps more difficult to trace, and now to describe, the precise manner in which it was exercised.  I believe that his Christian labors here were very seasonable and very important, and that he was enabled to perform a service which scarcely any one else would have been equally qualified to render.

There was in him, so far as my observation went, no approach towards an assumption of spiritual dignity; nor was there, on the other hand, that which is perhaps a more frequent defect, anything of feigned humility.  His whole character seemed to me perfectly unaffected.  To whatever extent, therefore, his natural disposition may have fitted him for profitable intercourse with the young, I think that the qualities which I have attempted to describe rendered him peculiarly acceptable to them.  Many times, whilst he was amongst us, he alluded—­I believe even in his public ministry—­to his delight in their society, somewhat in this manner:  “I love the company of those who tread the earth with an elastic step.”  This prominent trait in his character was a striking illustration of what may be termed the corrective tendency of true religion, by which in advanced life he was enabled to place himself, under the precious influence of the love of Christ, in thorough sympathy with those whose circumstances, in many respects, were so different from, his own.