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