13th.--The Countess Schaffgotsch sent her butler with a message from the castle that she would be glad if we would call on her. She gave us a hearty reception, and thanked us for taking so much interest about the people. On our presenting her with some books;--But I am a Catholic, she said. We told her that made no difference to us; we loved all who loved the Lord Jesus. She spoke very sweetly of the influence of the spirit.
14th.--The Countess paid us a long visit, and spoke much of the Roman Catholic faith. She has no more faith in the efficacy of the prayers of the saints than I have, and said she had not prayed to them now for four years; their church only advises, not commands it.
16th.--We went to dine with the Countess Reden and her sister, who live at the castle in Buchwald, one of the most lovely spots in the most lovely of countries. It is truly a peaceful abode, whose inmates fear their God, love their neighbor, and greatly esteem their king. We had been announced to the Countess from Berlin a week before; she and her amiable sister received us as a brother and sister beloved in the Lord. I never witnessed more intelligence combined with Christian politeness and real simplicity. The Countess is about seventy-six years of age; she is the president of the Bible Society, and the spiritual mother of all that is good in the neighborhood. She nursed the present king on her lap when he was a baby, and her great influence with him now she always turns to good account in serving benevolence and religion. Both she and her sister spoke with much affection of dear Elizabeth J. Fry, and her visit with Joseph John Gurney.
26th.--Our last meeting, on First-day evening, consisted of all men, several of whom had come from Erdmannsdorf and the colonies of the Tyrolese. They seemed to appreciate the time of silence, and expressed much satisfaction with having made our acquaintance, and with the meeting.
On the 30th of the Fifth Month, J. and M. Y. quitted Warmbrunn and proceeded towards Bohemia.
We passed, says the former, through Hirschberg. Goldberg, Liegnitz, and to Dresden, Leipzig, and Halle, making acquaintance in all these places with serious persons, and, I hope, scattering here and there a little gospel seed; but truly we may say, It is sown in weakness. At Halle we were much gratified with our visit to Dr. Tholuck, but I think, not less so with his wife, a most lovely person, delighting to feel and to do good.
On arriving at Dresden, it became evident that Martha Yeardley, who had, suffered much for some time from an affection of the windpipe, required repose and medical care; and they concluded to rest awhile at the baths of Töplitz. The illness of his wife, and some degree of bodily indisposition from which he himself suffered, did not prevent John Yeardley from employing the time in the diffusion of evangelical truth.
He had heard at Berlin that within a few months several hundred Bibles and Testaments had been sent into Bohemia, and had been eagerly bought there by awakened persons. He thought that if a translation could be made into the Bohemian language of some simple religious tracts, much good might be done by their dissemination; but he supposed that the intolerant laws of the Austrian Empire, which forbad all freedom of religious action, were still in full force. His account of his feelings and those of Martha Yeardley under the burden which this supposition imposed on them, and of the agreeable manner in which permission was unexpectedly granted them to print and circulate their little messengers of peace, must be given in his own words:--
Our hearts yearned towards the people, but we were afraid to give them tracts, which in other places had often been the means to conversation and to making acquaintance. This brought us low in mind; the body was already weak enough before. We thought it would not do to pass through the country in this state of depression, without trying to remove the cause. I went, therefore, the next morning to the head of the authorities, took with me one of our little tracts, mostly Scripture extracts, and asked whether I might be allowed to have the little book, or such as I then presented to him, printed for circulation. He received me politely, indeed kindly, and looked pleased with my tract, saying as be turned over its innocent little pages, Ah, nothing about politics; nothing against the religion of the country: it is very good, it is beautiful. You are quite at liberty to print and circulate such tracts as these. And when he found that the object was to do good to all, without cost to the receiver, he said, That is lovely.--(Letter of 6 mo. 23.)
The Bohemian translations were not made until J. and M. Y. went to Prague, which they did on the 22nd. Their feelings on entering this city, and the manner in which they were helped in their work of love, are described in the following diaries:--