Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel by John Yeardley
page 16 of 520 (03%)
page 16 of 520 (03%)
|
customers of his mother's dairy. His elder brother Thomas worked on the
farm. Their attendance at Burton meeting brought the family under the notice of Joseph Wood, a minister of the Society, residing at Newhouse, near Highflatts, four miles from Penistone. Joseph Wood had been a Yorkshire clothier, but relinquished business in the prime of life, and spent the rest of his days in assiduous pastoral labor of a kind of which we have few examples. To attend a Monthly Meeting he would leave home on foot the Seventh-day before, with John Bottomley, also a Friend and preacher, and at one time his servant, for some neighboring meeting. He would occupy the evening with social calls, dropping at every house the word of exhortation or comfort. The meeting next day would witness his fervent ministry. In the afternoon they would proceed to the place where the Monthly Meeting was to be held the following day, which they would attend, filling up the time before and after with social and religious visits. In the intervals of the Monthly Meetings, when not engaged on more distant service, it was his practice to appoint meetings for worship in the villages around Highflatts, and very frequently to visit those places where individuals were "under convincement," particularly Barnsley and Dewsbury, where at that time many were added to the Society. On his return home from these services he would spend the day in an upper room, without a fire, even in the severest weather, writing a minute account of all that had happened. It was in 1803 that Joseph Wood first had intercourse with Joel Yeardley's family. Under date of the 19th of the Fourth Month, he says, speaking of himself and some other concerned Friends:-- We felt an inclination to visit Joel Yeardley's family, who are under |
|