The 20th, and first of the week, we were at Trenton; the meeting was large, many of the town’s people, of other professions, came in. Strength was made manifest in the midst of weakness, and, as truth arose, the gospel was preached in the clear demonstration of the spirit; many hearts were tendered and comforted, and the few faithful made to rejoice, in a grateful sense of the Lord’s mercies.
The 22d we were at Stony Brook meeting, wherein my heart was made glad through holy help, and I was enabled to labour among them in truth’s authority, to the comfort of the willing-hearted, and the solid peace of my own mind. The two following days we were at Plainfield, and Rahway; in the latter meeting I was wholly silent; but the former was a time of close labour, in a clear plain way, to stir up the minds of the people to more diligence, and an inward humble walking with the Lord; which appeared to be too much wanting among them.
The 25th we attended an appointed meeting at Newark, a town wherein no Friends reside. The meeting was small, and those gathered appeared mostly in a loose uncultivated state of mind; yet, I believe, there were some thoughtful persons present; and, I trust, the meeting was in some degree profitable. I left them with peace of mind, and proceeded that evening to New-York to attend the yearly meeting, which was to be opened there on the next day, with a meeting for Ministers and Elders. After the first sitting of the meeting, I rode home, not only to see my dear wife and family, from whom I had been absent more than five months, but also to assist them in getting out to the yearly meeting. Our rejoicing was precious, and mutual, in and under a sense of the Lord’s mercy and goodness, for whose gracious preservation and help, in this arduous journey, my spirit was made to bow in humble adoration and praise, beyond the expression of language. Oh my soul, what canst thou render unto the Lord for all his benefits! Nothing can be more acceptable, than an entire surrender of thine all to his holy disposing; and to endeavour, as at the present time, to continue humbly to worship at the footstool of his holy throne of grace. Amen.
I was absent from home in this journey about five months and two weeks, and rode about sixteen hundred miles, and attended about one hundred and forty-three meetings.
CHAPTER IV.
Visit to Connecticut, 1799.—Visit to Oblong and Nine Partners, 1800.—Visit on Long Island, 1800.—Visit to Friends in New-Jersey, and Pennsylvania, 1801.
Having felt a concern, for some time, to pay a religious visit to some towns and places in Connecticut, and, in my way, to be with the few Friends at West Hartford, I laid my prospect before my friends in the fall of the year 1799, and received a minute of concurrence and unity from our monthly meeting. I left home the 26th of 10th month, and proceeded to Oblong, in order to meet a committee of our yearly meeting, appointed this year, to visit the quarterly meetings of Nine Partners and Oblong, and the monthly meetings belonging thereto; a proposition having been made for a new arrangement of those meetings, so as to establish another quarterly meeting. I accompanied the committee in the attendance of both quarterly meetings.
After this, we proceeded into Connecticut, attending meetings in our way to West Hartford, in the following manner, viz: three in the town of Sharon, one at Cornwall, one at Goshen, and one at Litchfield. They were all favoured meetings. Four of them were held in meeting-houses belonging to the Presbyterians. The latter meeting was but small, considering the largeness of the town, and the great openness manifested by their leading members; there were three of their ministers, and some other leading men present. Truth was prevalently manifest in this meeting, tendering and comforting the honest-hearted, a number of whom, I believe, were at the meeting, whose words and conduct clearly manifested a hearty thankfulness for, and satisfaction with, the opportunity. Although the great opposition those meet with, in coming out of their old traditions, may prevent any open and manifest effects for the present, yet, I believe, it will be as bread cast upon the waters, which will return after many days; so that his word which goeth forth, may not return void, but will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent, to the praise and glory of his own worthy name, “who is over all, God blessed for ever.”