thick darkness for months past, that I have sometimes been ready to
conclude I shall never live to see brighter days. Should even this be the
case I humbly hope ever to be preserved from accusing the just Judge of
the earth of having dealt hardly with me, but acknowledge to the last that
he has in mercy favored me abundantly with a portion of that light which
is said to shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.


We shall leave for the next chapter the relation of his first offerings in
the ministry, and conclude this with a striking passage which we find in
the Diary for this year.

John Yeardley was all his life very fond of the occupations of the garden.
A small piece of ground was attached to his house at Barnsley, which he
cultivated, and from which he was sometimes able to gather spiritual as
well as natural fruit.

Under date of the 22nd of the Seventh Month, he writes:--


A very sublime idea came suddenly over my mind when in the garden this
evening. It was introduced as I plucked a strawberry from a border on
which I had bestowed much cultivation before it would produce anything;
but now, thought I, this is a little like reaping the fruit of my labor.
As I thus ruminated on the produce of the strawberry-bank, I was struck
with the thought of endless _felicity_, and the sweet reward it would
produce for all our toils here below. My mind was instantly opened to such
a glorious scene of divine good that I felt a resignation of heart to give
up all for the enjoyment of [such a foretaste] of _endless felicity_.