In the summer of this year he was himself laid for some weeks upon a bed of sickness, with a complaint of the stomach.  He viewed this time of suffering as profitable in assisting his resolution to undertake the religious mission to which his mind was still continually directed.  In a letter to Thomas Yeardley, of the 1st of the Ninth Month, he says, “Such is my stubborn will that I am not to be effectually pleaded with, until I am brought down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, or judgment.”  His wife, who was too ill to leave her chamber, has a memorandum respecting her husband’s illness, under date of the 29th of the Eighth Month.  It seems to have been the last which her pen ever traced.

Since I wrote, my dear husband has had an awful attack; but the Lord has again been merciful in restoring him to ease once more.  Yesterday (may the Lord enable us to keep covenant) we laid our Isaac on the altar.  O, to be wholly our kind, our Heavenly Master’s, who cares to provide for us, for soul and body; who takes nothing from us but what he knows would harm us, and gives us a hundred-fold of that which is good in lieu.

Prior to this time John Yeardley had not confided to his brother the thought which so long had occupied his mind.  In the letter just referred to he speaks of it as “an important concern which had long been the companion of his secret thoughts by day and his visions by night,” and says:—­

It now seems to be approaching so near a state of maturity that I feel freedom to communicate it to thee.

For about three years past I have had an increasing apprehension that it would be required of me to take up a temporary residence among those who profess with Friends on the other side of the water, particularly with the few in the neighborhood of Minden and Pyrmont, and probably at some time with those in the South of France.  But my visit is likely to be paid in a way different from any that have been made before.  I have never seen that the nature of my concern would require any document from the Quarterly or Yearly Meetings; neither do I think it would answer my present views; because the secret language of my heart has been for many months past, “Go dwell among them, go dwell with them.”

I should be in want of some employment, and the first thing that presents to my view is to offer my services to a few of my friends in the yarn and flax trade; articles which are largely imported into Yorkshire, and which seem to be the natural production of the country, within the circle where I should be likely to reside.

His brother’s answer to this letter was most consoling and encouraging:  in reference to it he says, it seemed with him as it was with Peter in the prison, when the angel smote him and the irons fell off.

And O, he adds, that I may be willing, now that a little light begins to shine, to gird myself, bind on my sandals, cast my garment about me, and follow my Lord, thinking no hardship too much to endure for so good a Master. (Diary, 9 mo. 21.)