Passing over Mont Cenis, they directed their course to Geneva, where they arrived on the 3rd of the Eighth Month, rejoiced to be once more on the English side of the Alps. On their outward journey their sojourn in this city had been short, but now they found it needful to make a longer visit, and were thankful in being permitted to mingle again in intimate communion with those who understood the language of the Spirit. They paid and received many visits, and held two religious meetings at their hotel, at the latter of which about fifty persons were present.
One of the most interesting occasions of which they speak was a Missionary Meeting, in which the minister Olivier unfolded his experience of a divine call to leave his country, and go abroad on the service of the gospel. The voice which he described as having been sounded in his spiritual ear, and the manner in which he received it, must have struck John Yeardley as singularly in accordance with the call to a similar service which he himself had heard so distinctly in his younger days, and which, like Olivier, he had for a long time hidden in his heart.
8 mo. 4.--In the evening I attended the Missionary Meeting in the Chapel de l'Oratoire. Pastor Merle [d'Aubigné] opened the meeting by a short prayer, and singing, and then gave a narrative of the liberation of the slaves in the English colonies, according to the account received from England. Pastor Olivier, from Lausanne, was present. He is about to depart for Lower Canada, and he spoke in a very touching manner of the way in which the mission had first opened on his own mind. When the concern was made known in his heart, he kept it there in secret prayer to the Lord for direction, and whenever he heard what he believed to be the same voice, it was always--Go, and the Lord will go with thee. A real unction attended while he gave us this account; the way in which he spoke of it resembled the manner of one of our Friends laying a concern before a meeting: many hearts present felt the force of his words. His exhortation to the young persons was excellent. Pastor Gaussen concluded the meeting with an address and lively prayer.
Among the friends with whom they had religious intercourse were Pastors L'Huillier, Gallon, and Molinier. The last was a "father in the church" to them. After some conversation on the state of religion in Geneva, he proposed their sitting awhile in silence, well knowing the practice of the Society of Friends in this respect. John and Martha Yeardley had each a gospel message to deliver to him, after which he took them both by the hand, and offered up prayer for their preservation and the prosperity of the Society to which they belonged. "It was," says J.Y., "the effusion of the Holy Spirit, accompanied with power, and refreshed our spirits."
With Pastor Gallon John Yeardley had a long conversation on the principles and operations of the Société Evangelique.
I find them, he says, more liberal in their views than had been represented, and their extent of usefulness is already considerable. In their Academy they instruct young men with a view to their becoming ministers, missionaries, school-masters, &c., as the prospect for their future usefulness may open under the direction of Divine Providence. In a place like Geneva, such an institution may be well: while we regard it with some caution lest it should run too high on points of doctrine, we cannot but hail with peculiar satisfaction such a favorable opportunity of educating young men in the sound principles of Christianity, that they may happily prove instruments in the Divine Hand to check the spread of infidelity.
From Geneva they went to Lausanne. Their old friend, Professor Gaudin, took them to see several pastors, and other pious persons, and on First-day, the 17th, he and his family, with some other serious-minded individuals, joined them in their hour of worship at the inn.
It was, says J.Y., a time of a little encouragement to our tried minds, for we had been brought into doubt as to the utility of resting here, although we had seen, as we believed, in the true light, that we ought to seek out a few who could unite with us in our simple way.
On the 18th they went on to Neufchâtel, where they were received as before with much affection, and where they proposed to settle down for the winter, after making a tour in some neighboring parts of Switzerland.
On the 20th they went to Berne, and hired a lodging, for the purpose of devoting themselves to religious intercourse with persons of the interior class. As soon as it was known they had arrived, their acquaintance rapidly increased, and they found it difficult to receive all who came. One of their first acts was to renew their intercourse with the Combe family at Wabern, where their visit in 1828 had left a sweet remembrance.