RESIDENCE OF ELDER JOHN KLINE.

LIFE AND LABORS

OF

ELDER JOHN KLINE

THE MARTYR MISSIONARY

Collated from his Diary

By

BENJAMIN FUNK

Elgin, Ill.:
BRETHREN PUBLISHING HOUSE,
1900.

INTRODUCTION.

In the burying ground of the Linville's Creek German Baptist church in Rockingham County, Virginia, there is to be seen a marble slab engraved with the name John Kline.

In walking through a cemetery and pensively viewing the memorials of the departed, one question of deep interest often presses upon the mind and heart: Are these, whose names are here recorded on slab and obelisk, still alive and in the possession of conscious being, or are they dead—

"All to mouldering darkness gone;

All of conscious life bereft?"

We turn to earth, and from her lips the ear of reason catches deep-toned words of assurance that death is not the end of life. The hue of the butterfly's wing, "the flower of the grass," the beauty of the vernal year, these all, all teach the sublime truth that "all great endings are but great beginnings." The voice of God from the unrolled page of plainer if not diviner truth, says: "These are not dead, but sleeping—they shall wake again."

Satisfied on this point, the next question turns to the lives and characters, works and words of those who lie buried here. Were they good or bad? Are their spirits now in heaven, or somewhere else? There are two classes, however, concerning whom no such questions arise. The first class is made up of those who have died in their infancy; and ever and anon while looking at the "little lamb," or "rose bud," or "young dove" not yet fledged, the words flow into the mind as from the lips of Jesus: "Of such is the kingdom of heaven." The other class is composed of such as have given clear evidence, by profession and life, that they are the children of God. The words for them come as did the others, from the page of Heavenly Truth, "Therefore are they continually before the throne, and praise him day and night in his temple."

The epitaph of John Kline is read without a doubt ever springing up in the mind of any one who knew him. We saw him, not as Elisha saw Elijah in sight, ascend to heaven; but with the eye of faith we saw him clothed in a celestial body; and with the ear of faith we heard the welcome: "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

THE ANNUAL MEETING OF 1878.

In the year 1878 the Brethren's Annual Meeting was held with the Linville's Creek church. Brethren and sisters from many sections of our Union were present. Many graves in the cemetery by the meetinghouse were to be seen. Epitaphs were read by the throngs of people who walked around to view them. Few of these bore anything beyond the simple inscription of the name and the two facts that fall to the lot of all: The time of birth and the time of death.

But there was one grave from whose humble mound each visitor seemed eager to pluck a flower, a leaf, or any other little thing that might be carried back home and enshrined in a casket for a memento of one never to be forgotten. That grave was the grave of John Kline.

One sister, with tears in her eyes, said: "He preached my mother's funeral." Another said: "He used to visit us in Ohio; and we always loved so much to see him come." A brother said: "I traveled with him over two thousand miles, and he was always one thing." Others said: "The meeting is lonesome without him." "He was at our love feast in Pennsylvania the year he was killed," said another. It would be vain to attempt to follow up all the affectionate memories that were expressed by the loving throngs of sanctified hearts that surrounded his tomb.

In this book Elder John Kline is set forth not as dead, but as alive; as living and moving amongst us again. His life work stands recorded on earth as well as in heaven. With untiring perseverance Brother Kline kept a record of his work every day for a period of twenty-nine years. These records contain two great facts common to the life of every man, woman and child.

First Fact.—Where he spent the day and night.

Second Fact.—How he spent the day and night.

A truthful record of these for many, made public, would blast their reputation abroad and blight their peace at home. But not so with our beloved brother. Whilst it is true that he had no expectation of his Diary ever being published, it is equally true that it does not contain a single entry of which he has cause to be ashamed before man or God. That the entries are faithful and true needs no proof other than the testimony that thousands still living are ready to bear to his untarnished name as a man honest and honorable in all things.

As a Christian, the beloved ministering brethren who spoke at his funeral are to-day not ashamed to apply to him the same words they applied to him then, and which were taken as the subject of discourse on that occasion. In speaking of his appointment to the ministry they took these words: "And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost." Acts 6:5. They also added the other words spoken of Stephen in the eighth verse of the same chapter, a man "full of grace and power." Can anything loftier be said of a man's qualification for the work of the ministry?

As Stephen was the first Christian martyr, and Brother Kline the last then known, they closed their discourses in heartfelt realization of these words: "And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him." We all took part in the lamentation—the writer himself being present and speaking on the occasion—and felt that the ruthless hand of violence had wickedly torn from our midst a friend and counsellor whose place could not be filled by any other.

As a kind-hearted, loving mother puts her child's best new dress on it before taking it to church or in public, so have I endeavored to clothe the diary of Brother Kline in a suitable attire of Sunday clothes. I sincerely believe that the work in this form will be highly acceptable to the Brotherhood at large; and as Brother Daniel Hays says in a letter to me, "productive of much good."

Part II of Introduction.

This book, if carefully read, will instruct both young and old. In this age of progress, when the forces of nature and art are being applied to practical ends; when "men are running to and fro and knowledge is wonderfully increased," it becomes us as intelligent Christians to look around and see whether we are not living in perilous times.

Far be it from me to discourage any one from seeking that knowledge which is good, or from availing himself of the benefits to be derived from the arts and sciences; but if this knowledge and these benefits are sought and gained only for worldly ends, only to add to worldly accomplishments or worldly treasure, they are dangerous for time and ruinous for eternity. What support can the soul have in its deep conflict with temptation, or in the dark hour of affliction or bereavement, when stayed on this world only? In all the tenderness of a father's heart I turn to the youth of our land and say to them in the words of the best Friend that God himself could give: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," and all earthly blessings will be added unto you.

In the following pages you may see what one man may do by "patient continuance in well doing." Brother Kline was a man "subject to like passions as we are." He was once an infant just as you were, and lay at his mother's breast. He very well remembered, when an old man, how he felt when she made for him his first pair of "pants." When that kind mother put them on him, pleased and smiling in the tenderness of her nature, "the first use that I made of my hands," said he to me shortly before his death, "was to feel for the pockets." "We incline," continued he, "to carry this feature of our boyhood into youth and age. The pocket never ceases to be a very important appendage to our dress, and the hand inclines to put into it every valuable thing it can."

Brother Kline never went to school very much. He learned to read and write both German and English; and he also studied arithmetic. Further than this he never went in school. He did not have the advantages of free schools as young people now have. But you may learn from this that one may carry on his education after leaving school. In fact, schools only open the way for acquiring an education.

When a boy I was very fond of reading the lives of great men. I did not then know very much about poetry, but I surely did feel something of the fire that Longfellow has made to glow with so much heat and light in his "Psalm of Life." I am glad to add, by means of this book, one more name to the list of great men, so that in the lines which follow he too may be included.

"Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime;

And departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of Time:

Footprints, that perhaps another

Sailing o'er life's troubled main—

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother—

Seeing, may take heart again."

Elder John Kline will be set forth in this work as one of the great Pioneer Preachers of the Cross. A brief but clear outline of many of his sermons, together with the time and place of preaching them, will be given. Many of the love feasts which he attended, and the substance of what he said at some of them will also be noted.

He has left a record of the name of every family he ever visited in all the States, together with the day and year when such visits were made. Those brethren and sisters of the Lord who still remember him, will, while reading this work, live over again the years that have passed away and been almost forgotten. You will again listen to the voice of his holy, healing words at some love feast long ago gone by. You will again sit with him by the "old home hearthstone" as it used to be when father and mother were living, and all the brothers and sisters together in the room, and hear him talk and sing, and read and pray. And will not this exercise of the mind and heart be pleasant? Will it not be profitable? Will it not serve to refresh your love to Christ and the Brotherhood? May it not rekindle in your heart a flame of that first and tender love which shone so brightly when first you saw the Lord? You then could sweetly sing:

"Jesus, I my cross have taken,

All to leave and follow thee."

Since that time many cares and toils and afflictions and bereavements, perhaps, have caused you to sigh in mournful memory:

"What peaceful hours I then enjoyed!"

and the heart-sobs sadly echo:

"But they have left an aching void

The world can never fill."

In such seasons of sadness and despondency it is helpful to the heart to hold communion with the great and the good through the medium of their writings. Men who leave such comforting testimony behind them are a blessing to all within the circle of their influence while living, and when dead they continue to speak. Their words are felt and blessed on both banks of the "River of Time" as it flows down through the ages.

There were a few points in the life and character of Elder John Kline which may very appropriately be referred to here. I sincerely hope that all the youthful members of the Brotherhood, especially, may become acquainted with these points.

The First Point.—He was truthful. He never spoke positively about anything without first examining the matter carefully; and even then he said about it only what he knew to be true. How different this habit from that of many who speak positively about things which they do not well understand, or which they are for the most part ignorant of!

The Second Point.—He never spoke evil of any one. It is not to be understood from this that he spoke good of every one. On the contrary, he spoke freely of the sinner and to the sinner; warning him of his danger and pointing him to his impenitent doom. But it is to be understood that he never spoke evil to injure any one. Whatever he said in that way was to reform and to bless. His heart overflowed with love to all.

The Third Point.—He was temperate. During a long personal acquaintance with him, I never knew or heard of his taking a drink of ardent spirits or intoxicating liquor of any kind. If he ever did use any at all, it was only as a medicine. But as he was very temperate in his eating, and judiciously careful of himself generally, he was rarely ever sick.

The Fourth Point.—He was abstemious. This, in connection with strict temperance and pure morality, made him a clean man. His mouth was not polluted with chewing tobacco. His nose was not defiled with snuffing tobacco. His breath was not vitiated with smoking tobacco. He consequently never used tobacco in anyway. My dear young reader, in all the love of my heart, I urge you to "go and do likewise, that it may be well with thee."

LIFE AND LABORS

OF THE

MARTYR MISSIONARY

Elder John Kline.

We have no certain account of the time and place at which Brother Kline was set forward to the ministry of the Word. On Sunday, Feb. 8, 1835, he spoke for the first time after his appointment to the ministry of the Word. This much, at least, is inferred from its being the first entry made in his Diary.

He, and Elder Daniel Miller, from near the head of Linville's Creek, in Rockingham County, Virginia, were together at John Goughnour's, west of the town of Woodstock, in Shenandoah County, Virginia. The meeting was at Goughnour's dwelling house. Brother Miller put John Kline forward to take the lead in speaking. Brother Kline had previously selected the subject, and thought upon it, to be ready, in the event of his being required to take the lead in speaking. Matthew 11 was read; and Brother Kline took his text. It was verses 4, 5 and 6 of the chapter read. These are the words: "Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me."

"It may be proper in the first place," said he, "for us to inquire why John sent the message to Jesus which gave rise to the words of the text. The message may appear strange to some, as John had, not long before, pointed out Jesus as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. He had seen the 'Heavenly Dove' descend from the open heavens and abide upon him as he came up from the baptismal wave, and had heard the Father's voice from beneath the same uplifted veil: 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' It is my belief that John had become doubtful. The iron gates of Herod's castle had shut out from him all bodily comfort, and with this his hope seemed to vanish. This experience has had many a repetition in the realizations of good men since John's day. He felt himself neglected. If Jesus is the friend I took him to be, why does he not come to my rescue? I do not understand him. How can he feel satisfied to know that I am lying here in great bodily distress and perplexity of mind, and put forth no effort to release me, and thus restore me to useful activity in his service? Many, many, not in Herod's castle, but in other castles, such as beds of affliction, castles of poverty, castles of persecution, castles of bodily infirmity, castles of bereavement, castles of losses and crosses in one way and another, have had the same experiences, the same doubts and misgivings.

"John resolved to try to find out about all this if possible. So he sent the messengers. Here note the love of Christ. He does not upbraid John for this half reproachful message. He calmly returns to him in the shape of an answer a series of the most wonderful truths the world has ever heard; truths which, in their spiritual sense, comprehend the work of salvation on the part of Jesus from the alpha to the omega. 'Go and show John again the things which ye do hear and see.' The use of the word 'again' implies that a similar answer had been returned to John at least once before. This testimony, with the love in which it was sent, may have refreshed John's love for Jesus, and reassured his faith. The last words of the returned message contain something like a gentle reproof to John, 'And blessed is he that is not offended in me.'

"I think the Lord knew that John had been somewhat offended in him; that he had doubted his love, or his wisdom, or his power, or all these together; and that the Lord's apparent neglect of him was traceable to a want of these perfections. Doubts of this kind, from weakness of the flesh and spirit, have often been known to invade the hearts of other good men, when the divine love has been partially veiled from sight in seasons of great distress. Even our Lord himself upon the cross cried out, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' I cannot think that the divine love ever did forsake him for one instant. It was so only in appearance to him.

"The things connected with the life-work of Jesus, which John's messengers had just seen and heard, bore a much stronger testimony to his divinity and Messiahship than any declaration he could have made by mere affirmation. Here is verified the old proverb: 'Actions speak louder than words.' All may see a valuable lesson here. We are commanded to let our light shine. What an honor it would be to Christ and the church, if every member of it would be able to point to his good works as proofs of the sincerity and genuineness of his religious profession!

"Notwithstanding John's doubts and impatience, the Lord still loved him tenderly; and after the messengers had departed, he said to the multitude: 'Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.' Our way would have been to include this encomium in the message, and let John hear it. In our way of thinking this would have done him more good than the other. But as the heaven is high above the earth, so high are the Lord's thoughts above our thoughts, and his ways above our ways.

"Could our eyes catch a glimpse of the bliss that thrills John's heart in heaven to-day, we would no longer wonder why the Lord left him lie in Herod's castle."

Sermon by Elder John Kline.

Preached at Forrer's, in Page County, Virginia,
Sunday, February 15, 1835.

Text.—And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals: and so he did. And he saith unto him: Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me.—Acts 12:8.

Peter's hands were chained, and he was lying in a cold and gloomy prison in Jerusalem. Herod, who was at that time viceroy of Jerusalem and Judea, had imprisoned Peter just to please the Jews. These were the bitter enemies of Christ.

It looks to us as if it would hardly be worth while to pray for the recovery of a sheep already dragged into a den of wolves, and lying there only waiting to be devoured. But the saints at Jerusalem did pray for Peter, and they had to pray secretly too. You may be sure they did not pray to be heard of men. They were only afraid that men might hear. But there was one that did hear. For "the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands."

You know something about Peter's disposition. He often spoke without thinking very well what it might be best to say; and sometimes he acted without thinking what it might be best to do. On this occasion I do believe that he would have followed the angel through the streets of Jerusalem, bare-footed and in his night clothes, if he had not kindly ordered him to gird himself and bind on his sandals and cast his garment about him.

I, for one, do believe that all the miracles and providences wrought by the Lord and recorded in his Word are for the instruction and ultimate good of all who read or hear them.

THE LESSONS OF INSTRUCTION.

I. Sometimes men who have been subject to very bad habits are, by the Gospel and the Holy Spirit, led to forsake them. They form new loves. They find joy in a new life. Old things with them have passed away. They come from the baptismal wave clad, as it were, in a new garment, even the beautiful garment of salvation; and the new song in their mouth is praise to our God. I can name some of this class in our church who have run well; some who have fought the good fight of faith with unflinching courage and resolution to victory complete. But others have been made to weep and lament from the fearful truth that this same beloved Brother Peter tells us, that "our adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour," for they have been devoured by him.

In the garden of Eden the devil came to Eve in the form of a serpent. I imagine this to be his most natural form. We sometimes see him caricatured as a man with horns and cloven feet. This is a mistake. A man in this form would make a frightful appearance. But the devil never approaches any one in a way to frighten him. He is too cunning for that. A fox takes care not to frighten away his prey. Even the lion, when he is seeking his prey, never roars at that time, but crouches and hides in the tall grass or thicket until his prey comes near enough, and then he springs upon it with a single bound. The reason why Peter calls him a roaring lion is because he roars furiously after his prey is in his power. His roaring then is but a note of victory and defiance. The devil knew that he would not frighten Eve by coming to her in the form he did, because she had never then, as yet, known anything of evil. But when he comes to men now in the serpent form, he comes as "a snake in the grass."

I sometimes think that age adds shrewdness to the devil's plans. He comes to men in so many forms and ways, first to delude and then to destroy, that they may be called legion. But, as Paul says, "We are not ignorant of his devices, for Satan is transformed into an angel of light."

He learns to know every brother's and sister's weak point. To the brother who has been fond of ardent spirits he comes behind the deceitful, covetous smile of the rumseller. In this instance the order of the fable is reversed. There the ass put on the lion's skin; here the lion puts on the skin of the ass. To the brother whose weakness is adultery he comes in the form of a harlot, "jeweled and crowned." To the brother whose special sin has been covetousness he comes as a friend. He takes him by the hand, leads him to the top of some high mountain, there shows him the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and pledges to him the enjoyment of all this glory and power if he will but fall down and worship him.

Now, Herod was a type of this devil, and the prison in which Peter was chained is a type of the "horrible pit" into which many a good-meaning Christian has been cast by him. But even for such there is quite as much hope as there was for Peter. The Lord is ever nigh to redeem and to save. But there must be a willing mind. If Peter had said in his half-asleep state, "Just leave me alone—I'll come after awhile—I'm too sleepy to go now"—what then? It would have been impossible for the Lord to rescue him, if he had not been willing to be rescued by the Lord.

Some, who have "been taken captive by the devil at his will," keep awake in a certain sense. The pall of darkness and deep sleep has not yet settled down upon them. They are conscious of their situation. They know and feel that they are in the hands of the enemy, but how to escape is the trouble with them. If such would only have the mind and will to do as Christian and Hopeful did in "Doubting Castle," they could readily find a key in their bosoms with which to unlock every gate, and thus make their escape.

II. In this respect they differ from Peter, for "he was sleeping between two soldiers." Besides this, there were men stationed at the door to keep watch all night. But the Lord is prepared for every emergency. What storm can sink a ship when Omnipotence is at the helm? If you or I, brethren, were to see a brother confined and guarded as Peter was, I greatly fear we would utterly despair of ever seeing him rescued; especially so if public sentiment were rife with malice and rage against him. I fear we would say, It is no use to pray for that man. Nothing short of a miracle can save that man; and miracles are not wrought by prayer nowadays. But the loving hearts gathered together in secret places in Jerusalem thought not so. They "made unceasing prayer for him."

Now let us note the order in which the Lord proceeded to answer these prayers. He came to Peter and smote him. Whether the stroke was light or heavy is a thing of little consequence. It succeeded in awaking the man. This was its object. I think the Lord gave Peter only a slight tap on the side, because he was not hard to wake up that night. But there are some, and I have known such, whom the Lord had to smite very hard to stir them from their sleep. They open their eyes in amazement and wonder why they have been so smitten. Unfortunately for some of this class, they open their eyes, but they see not; they hear, but they heed not. I think I have known a few such; and I fear the Lord said of them what he said of Ephraim: "He is joined to his idols, let him alone."

III. There is a third class, and they compose a great multitude, who have, so to speak, grown up in the devil's prison house, and have grown so used to his ways that they are willing to stay there. These may be said to be bound with two chains. Their love of the world is one chain, and their love of self is the other. I may be addressing some now who are thus bound. Let us see. Jesus says: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And a second is like to it which is this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Does every one who is now under the sound of my voice do this? Are you sure, my friend, that you love God more than the world, and that you love your neighbor as yourself? What proof have you to give of this? Jesus again says: "If ye love me, keep my commandments. He that loveth me will keep my words." There can be nothing more perfectly in harmony with human nature in all its phases than these declarations of our Lord. Where is the subject that is unwilling to render obedience to the prince or king that he loves? Where is the loving child that refuses to obey its parents? I tell you that obedience is the test and proof of love. Do you obey our Lord Jesus Christ? Do you say "No"? Then, my dear friend, let me say to you, in all candor and love, you do not love him. You may imagine that you do, but your imagination on this point is a delusion. But perhaps you are ashamed to confess him. Hear again what the Lord says: "He that is ashamed of me and my words, of him will the Son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his glory."

But perhaps you ask: "How am I to get rid of my chains?" Get rid of them, my dear unconverted friend, just as Peter got rid of his. The Lord is just as willing and as able to rescue you from the chains of sin and the thraldom of bad habits as he was to rescue Peter from the chains with which the Roman guard had bound him. The Lord came to him, not in darkness, but in light. He brought the light with him. He never works in darkness. Even when he was about to fashion the world, the first thing he did was to throw a flood of light all over its wide, chaotic surface. But the light which he caused to shine in the prison did not wake Peter up, although it must have shone in his eyes. So he smote him on the side, and no doubt shook him gently.

Peter opened his eyes and saw the light. The angel "raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly." At the very first move he made to stand on his feet, his chains got loose, and when he rose to his feet they fell right off. This is the way you are to get rid of your chains. The Lord comes to you as he is present now and says to you, "Arise up quickly, and follow me." The very moment you firmly resolve to obey him in love, that very moment will your chains begin to get loose; and when you arise to follow him in the way his Word directs, they will fall off.

You may here see how the Lord works with man. It is said the angel raised Peter up; and at the same time, while he had hold of him, he ordered Peter to arise up quickly. This is just the way we would do in trying to get one awake and up, whom we dearly loved if he was in great danger. An infant we would pick up and carry out; but one in health and strength we would expect to act for himself; we, at the same time, doing what might be necessary on our part. Just so the Lord acts with every poor sinner. He comes with light and he comes in love. Sinner, I am sure he has come to you to-day. He is saying to you now, Rise up quickly, and follow me.

And where does the good Lord propose to lead the sinner? He offers to lead you out of your prison house of sin into "the glorious liberty of the children of God." He proposes to take you out of darkness into "his marvelous light." He will, if you but rise up and follow him, give you eternal life, and a home in heaven forever, free from sickness, sorrow, pain and death. Will you not go with him?

VISIT TO A SICK WOMAN.

After preaching the above sermon, Brother Kline, in company with Brother Kagey, visited a sick woman living on Forrer's land. He says: "She seemed to be suffering a good deal in body; but more, I think, in spirit. We told her that Christ Jesus was the only substantial hope we had to set before her; that faith in him would bring salvation and peace to her soul. I read to her from the Sermon on the Mount: 'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for if ye know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things unto them that ask him.' The best thing that our heavenly Father can give us is a heart to love and obey him. God works in us both to will and to do the things that please him; but we at the same time must have a willing mind to do them. In this way we come to be co-workers with God.

"'Baptism,'" I said to her, 'is the first public act of obedience required at our hands. Here our sins are in figure washed away; for baptism is called in the Word 'the washing of regeneration.' As a newborn child is washed before it is clothed and set before the family, so the newborn child of God must be washed and made pure before he or she can come into the church as a full member. But the baptism of the child of God denotes a spiritual cleansing; whilst the washing or bathing of a newborn infant means only bodily cleansing. Hence Peter says that 'baptism is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God.' This means that it fills the heart with a sense or feeling of 'righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.'"

"After instructing her awhile in this way we ended our call with prayer."

On Sunday, March 15, there was meeting in

DANIEL MILLER'S DWELLING HOUSE.

This is about five miles north of Harrisonburg, in Rockingham County, Virginia. It is at present occupied by Benjamin Miller, the youngest son of Daniel Miller. He stands high as overseer of the Greenmount church. He has a numerous family of intelligent and godly children, all now grown up, and members of the Brethren church.

At the time of this meeting, Brother Daniel Miller's family was young, and most of the children were at home, eighteen in all; and all children of one mother. Brother Kline says: "I felt deeply impressed with the weighty responsibility resting upon the father and mother of this pleasant and orderly household; and not upon them only, but upon us also, who are preachers of the Word. In this feeling, I proposed the reading of the fifteenth chapter of John's Gospel. I spoke briefly from these words: 'If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin.' John 15:22."

Sermon.

"These words are a part of our Lord's farewell counsel to his little band of chosen disciples. This was just before his betrayal into the hands of his murderers. He spoke to them about this sinful world. He told them how the people of the world would treat them, and what they would think of the glorious Gospel which they were soon to proclaim. 'In the world,' said he to them, 'ye shall have tribulation; but in me, ye shall have peace.' The text does not teach that men who are ignorant of God's Word are sinless; neither does it teach that the doctrine which our blessed Savior taught tends to make men sinners. Oh, no! But this is what it means: That God is so merciful and gracious that until men are instructed and warned of their danger, he does not hold them severely accountable. But when the light of truth is shed around them, and the way of life and salvation pointed out to them, and they then shut their eyes to the light and close their hearts to knowledge, he holds them accountable, and deals with them as sinners.

"I feel now to address a few words to the dear young people who are assembled here. The Lord bless you in the dew of your youth, while your hearts are yet tender; before age and sin have made you hard, give your hearts to God. This you can do by loving our Lord Jesus Christ, who laid down his life for you. When you love him with the heart, you believe on him with the heart; and when you believe on him with the heart, you have a desire in your heart to obey him by doing his commandments. You will purify your souls by obeying the truth. 'Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.' 'Seek the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near;' for, saith he, 'they that seek me early shall find me.'

"But you may desire to know how you are to seek the Lord, and where you are to look for him. I hope you are thinking of this now; so I will tell you. The only place where the Lord can be found is in his Holy Word. There you find him in the form of the man Christ Jesus. And whilst he is there set forth as the 'man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,' he is also set forth as the 'true God and eternal life.' He there says: 'If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.' 'And he that drinketh of the water that I will give unto him shall never thirst.' This water is the truth of his Word. It so fills the soul with love and light and joy and peace, as to become a fountain of delight within us. Reading God's Word in the right spirit is drinking of the Water of Life. When this truth finds a place in the memory through the love of it, the memory keeps our thoughts perpetually supplied with it, and thus it becomes, as our Lord says, 'a fountain within us unto everlasting life.'"

Saturday, March 21, Brother Kline, in company with Brother Daniel Miller, went to Brock's Gap, and spent the night at Brother Sunafrank's.

BROCK'S GAP.

This is a small area of country in Rockingham County, Virginia, containing about one hundred and fifty square miles. It is the head basin of the north fork of the Shenandoah river. It is almost completely surrounded by high and rugged mountains; and where the river has broken a gap for its outlet the scenery is not surpassed by that of Harper's Ferry.

A considerable number of people live in it, and there are some good farms and thrifty farmers. In Brother Kline's day Brock's Gap was only a mission field. At this time the German Baptist Brethren have two well-built and commodious houses of worship in it. At the time Brother Kline commenced preaching there they had no house of worship and the membership was very small. The membership at this time includes some from nearly all the leading families in the section. The Fulks, Fawleys, Richies, Hevners, Moyerses, Smiths, Doves, Lambs, Shoemakers, and many others are represented in the Brotherhood.

Sunday, March 21.—The two brethren crossed the Shenandoah mountain and arrived in

SWEEDLIN VALLEY.

This valley lies in Pendleton County, West Virginia. It extends northward along the west foot of the Shenandoah mountain for about eight miles, and is separated from the South Fork valley west of it by Sweedlin mountain. It is the habitation of a good many families, is exceedingly picturesque, and is in some respects beautiful.

The two brethren were called here to preach the funeral of old Brother Nazlerode. His father had been a Hessian, and served under British colors in the American Revolution. At the close of the war he, with many others, declined returning to his native home in Hesse-Darmstadt in Germany, and decided to stay in America. But this class of citizens was not very welcome among the patriots of American liberty. They were looked upon with a degree of opprobrium; and hence they sought homes in the more remote and secluded valleys among the mountains. Brother Nazlerode had died some time before. The preaching was at the house where the old brother had lived.

Sermon by Daniel Miller.

Brother Daniel Miller spoke first in the German language. He took for his subject 1 Pet. 1:24, 25. "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass: ... but the word of the Lord endureth forever."

He spoke very beautifully and impressively on the short-lived pleasures of earth. He said that the new birth and the new life, which lift man to God and fit him for heaven, are not begotten of the corruptible seed of man, but of God through the Word of his Truth, which liveth and abideth forever. He pointed them to Jesus as the "Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." He then, in a very affectionate manner, exhorted all to accept the salvation offered and walk in the way that our Lord has made plain in his Word.

Brother Kline followed and said: "Brother Daniel and I both felt moved to pity when we considered the situation of these people. They have a poor chance to hear the Gospel, and but few of them can read the Bible. We closed the services suitably, and then went to friend Jacob Wansturf's and spent the night."

Monday, April 13.—Brother Kline, in company with Brother Frederic Kline, went to Brock's Gap on the yearly visit. He says: "We found some of the members in a very poor condition. One sister, in particular, moved my feelings deeply. Her husband is somewhat dissipated and does not provide for his family as he should. She is the mother of three small children; and, judging from their present appearance, they have undergone a good deal of suffering for want of food and clothing. None of them have any shoes; and the thin coverings they have on are so patched and darned that one can hardly tell the kind of goods they were originally made of.

"I inquired how they were off in the way of food. She replied that they had about a peck of corn meal in the house and several bushels of potatoes buried in the garden; and she reckoned they could do right well till she could get some more washing and other work to do. I gave that patient, uncomplaining sister three dollars out of my own pocket money. 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' There is a day coming when we shall more fully realize this truth than now."

THE YEARLY VISIT CONTINUED.

Tuesday, April 14.—"We have found a quiet and peaceable state of feeling in the Brotherhood generally. There is, however, among the younger members, too great a tendency to conform to the world in dress and conversation."

MEETING AT BENJAMIN BOWMAN'S.

Friday, April 17.—"His son, Samuel Bowman, was baptized to-day, and the subject of discourse was the baptism of Jesus as recorded in Mark's Gospel. John seems to have been a sort of open link by which the chain of prophecy in the Old Testament was united with the chain of its fulfillment in the New. As a prophet, he went forth in the spirit and power of Elijah. But Elijah of old uttered his prophecies surrounded by midnight darkness. John utters his in the light of the rising Sun of Righteousness; and they all point to the future glory of that Sun. The Sun rose publicly from the waters of Jordan in the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when the Spirit of God in the form of a dove descended upon him, and a voice came out of heaven, 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.'

"What a recognition! What a reception! And will not our heavenly Father meet every true-hearted believer in the same way, as he rises from the baptismal wave? Not visibly, to his natural eye; not audibly, to his natural ear; but by the Holy Spirit bearing witness with his spirit that he is a child of God. For 'baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God.' This is its first blessed power."

Sermon by Elder John Kline.

A Funeral Sermon at Sunafrank's in Brock's Gap,
Sunday, April 26.

Text.—Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live.—John 5:25.

The Lord spoke these words to the Jews. They would not believe that he was the Son of God. They sought to kill him, not only because he had broken the Sabbath by healing a man on that day, but also because he said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. In his reply to them he uttered some of the most wonderful truths the world has ever heard. He said: "The dead shall hear."

In the ear of a Jew these words had an ominous ring. They could not gainsay them in a direct way, because the Lord had, that very day, and before their eyes, wrought a miracle which was almost equal to that of making a dead man hear. It appears strange to us that any class of people could harbor feelings of enmity toward one so kind and good as Jesus was. But the Jews were a very proud people, and exceedingly vain in their imaginations. And because the Lord would not flatter them, and give them credit for great knowledge and wisdom in divine things, they fell out with him and hated him.

Jesus does not say that all the dead shall hear. But he does mean that all shall have a chance and the power to hear if they will. But who are the dead of whom he speaks? They are all who are not spiritually alive; Jews and Gentiles. The Scriptures in many places speak of men as dead who are bodily alive. They are dead in one way, and alive in another. I will explain this. In respect to faith in the Lord and love to him, the Jews were dead. There was no spiritual life in them. Jewish worship was all an outward, external thing. But God regards a man's spirit, his heart. "For they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him."

There stands a tree. It is just now in full bloom, and the sight is beautiful. A few months ago that tree was dead in one sense and alive in another. It was winter-dead. There were neither leaves, blossoms nor fruit upon it. Had it continued in that state, it would be cut down as a worthless thing. But it had a receptacle of life, and that life is in the sun which imparts heat and light to everything. The sun makes the earth warm; the watery vapors to ascend and form clouds which give rain; the sap to rise and form itself into leaves, blossoms and fruits. Every unconverted man and woman, just like that tree in winter, is dead as to all divine or heavenly life in the soul. Let us see: He is dead as to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. He does not love him. He lives just as if there were no God to love and obey; no hell to shun; no heaven to obtain. He does not love the people of God as such. But, notwithstanding all this, he has a capacity, such as God has given to every man, to be made alive in Christ Jesus. Christ is called the Sun of Righteousness. He is so called because he, like the sun in our sky, rises and shines upon the evil and the good; and whosoever opens his heart to the light of this Sun is filled with the light of truth and love, and made alive to walk in the way of righteousness before him.

This light comes through his Word, the Gospel of our salvation, as it is proclaimed by his faithful ministers, and falls upon every sinner. If the sinner will open his ears to the voice, and his eyes to the light, the promise in the text is that he "shall live." Jesus says: "I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall have the light of life. In him is light, and the light is the life of men." But if the sinner, like the owl, closes his eyes to the light of truth, and his ears to the voice of the Lord, he will abide in death, and, like the owl, love darkness rather than light forever.

Sunday, July 19, Magdalena Wampler and John Miller's wife baptized.

Sermon by Elder Daniel Miller.

In the German Language, at the Linville's Creek Meetinghouse.

Text.—And there went out unto him all the country of Judæa, and all they of Jerusalem; and they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.—Mark 1:5.

Judging from the multitudes that went out to John's baptism, his preaching must have created a lively sensation in Jerusalem and Judæa. All who went out were Jews. In justice to the text, we must notice the fact that the word all, as there used, applies only to the common people. These came to John confessing their sins. He pointed them to the "Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." The scribes and Pharisees and lawyers, the chief men of Judæa and Jerusalem, went not out to be baptized of John. These had no sins to confess; no ignorance to deplore; no spiritual ailments or infirmities. "They that be whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick."

It was with the common people that John succeeded in preparing the "way of the Lord." May we not also do the same? When we induce men to think upon the subject of religion, when we persuade them to repent and believe the Gospel, we too are preparing the way of the Lord. The Word of Truth does not have free course all over the world yet. Many amongst us oppose it. Millions far away are still in pagan darkness. But every soul that truly believes in Jesus and is baptized has the promise of salvation; and every such soul is a fresh light in the world's darkness. The more of such lights we can get to shine in the world the lighter will it grow, and the more and more will the way of the Lord be prepared.

In John's day the people were not ashamed to come and be immersed in the Jordan. There does not seem to have been any doubt or uncertainty with them as to the mode or form of baptism. Every one went to the river Jordan. If a few drops of water, applied to some part of the body, had answered the end of baptism as well as the immersion of the whole body in water, I think most of them would have saved themselves this long journey. They would have called John to Jerusalem, to that wealthy and populous city. He could have just passed through the streets with a pail or pitcher of water in his hand, and with little trouble could have applied a few drops to the head or face of each one that asked it.

For want of room, we now pass over all the entries in the Diary from July 19 to September 11. This time was actively taken up by our beloved brother in attending love feasts, council meetings and regular appointments. In body he was robust, vigorous and active: in spirit he had long reaches of faith and hope and love. This incited him to great activity; and I often heard him say: "An hour misspent or trifled away is just so much time given to Satan."

JOURNEY TO OHIO AND RETURN THROUGH
KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE.

This journey occupied two months to the day. Friday, September 11, he passed up through Brock's Gap, and down the Lost River Valley.

LOST RIVER.

This is a small but very clear and beautiful stream in Hardy County, West Virginia. It flows through a rich and delightful valley between Church mountain on its eastern side next to Shenandoah County, Virginia, and the South Branch mountain on its western side. After a course of about twenty miles in a northeasterly direction it suddenly disappears at the base of a mountain extending like a huge dam across the valley. After a subterranean passage of a few miles it reappears on the opposite side "clear as crystal." From this point to its mouth in the Potomac it bears the name of Ca-capon or Capon. Tradition says this is an Indian name, and means found. This stream, from its head to its mouth, may aptly represent the life, death and resurrection of the Christian.

STATE OF THE COUNTRY.

For the information of the young especially, many of whom it is hoped will read this book, I will give a brief description of the state of the country through which our beloved brother expected to travel, partly alone and on horseback. No doubt you have read the story of George Washington, not quite twenty-one years of age, starting on horseback with only a single companion, to carry a letter from Dinwiddie, Governor of Virginia, to the commander of the French military forces at Venango, in the extreme northwestern part of Pennsylvania. Washington delivered the letter and returned the answer. Many books of American history give an account of this wonderful achievement, and praise the man who performed it.

Brother Kline, in part, passed over very nearly the same ground on this journey that Washington had passed over on his. Washington went with a motive altogether worldly. He was complying with the wish of the governor of his State. Brother Kline went with a motive as far transcending in sublimity and importance anything appearing in that of Washington as heaven is high above the earth, and the thoughts and ways of God are above those of men. He went to raise men from the depths of sin into which they had so deeply fallen, and exalt them to companionship with angels in the skies. His mission was to turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. He laid no claim to any power within himself to do this; but he went in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and in the power of him who is able and mighty to save.

We must bear in mind, too, that this journey was undertaken more than fifty-eight years ago. A very large part of the country through which he had to pass was yet in a state of virgin forest. No railroads bore the lightning trains on their bosoms. Very few houses in much of the country were to be seen; and many of these offered little besides shelter, and some barely that. There were hardly any bridges. Broad and deep rivers had to be forded on horseback, or crossed in what the Indians called a canoe. This is a kind of long boat made from the body of a single tree, by cutting or burning out the inside, and leaving the bottom, ends and sides like a trough. He reports having crossed some streams in this kind of a boat. His life was several times endangered by crossing deep waters.

Saturday, September 12, he arrived at Abbey Arnold's, in Hampshire County, West Virginia. On the thirteenth he attended a love feast at Daniel Arnold's nearby, and reports a very joyful meeting with the Brethren whom he had not seen for a time.

Monday, September 14, he took leave of the Brethren in Hampshire County, and directed his course through Maryland into Pennsylvania; and on Friday, September 18, he crossed the Ohio river, two and one-half miles below Acreton. He was ferried across in a flatboat.

Sunday, September 20, he arrived at Brother George Hoke's. He says: "I have been exposed to some bad weather, and have passed over some bad roads; but to meet such a dear and kind brother as George Hoke, and be received in such a pleasant way as I have been by the dear brother and family, is more than a compensation for all the exposure and toil it has cost."

As nearly as I can, I will now give the substance and manner of a conversation which took place the same evening between Brother Kline and Brother Hoke. The Diary is silent upon it, but Brother Kline related it to me himself in the year 1862. Brother Jacob Miller, of Greenmount, Virginia, told me afterwards that Brother Kline had related the same to him. The weather being a little cool and damp, the two brethren sat by the fire. I will name the parties in the order of the conversation.

Kline.—Why do not we ordain deacons in the same way the seven were ordained at Jerusalem?

Hoke.—Do you think the seven were deacons?

K.—Yes, I have always thought so.

H.—I do not think they were.

K.—Well, here is a difference of opinion between brethren.

H.—Let us try to get together on this point.

K.—I desire, above all things, to know the truth, and to see eye to eye with all the Brethren on every point of Holy Writ.

H.—So do I. Now let us see. I do not think the seven were deacons, because they are nowhere called deacons. Have we a just right to call them deacons when the Word does not call them so? Again: I must think the church at Jerusalem was fully organized before any demand was found for the appointment of the seven. Did it not have deacons at the start? Who attended to gathering up food and hunting shelter, and making general provisions for the comfortable entertainment of thousands of brethren and sisters, and their children besides? I rather think that the deacons already in office attended to these things. But the number of the brethren increased so rapidly that the deacons needed help in the way of general oversight, and the most natural thing in the world would be for them to apply to the apostles for advice in regard to the matter. But the apostles replied, "It is not reason that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables." This proves that they had not done so before, and that it would not be right for them to do so now. Hence the importance of getting men of real executive ability to serve the present necessity. Such ability and fitness they found in the seven whom they set apart to that work. But they must not only possess business tact; they must be "men full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, and men of honest report," whose record in life proved their honesty. This, Brother John, is my opinion as to the reason why the apostles were so particular on this point. These seven men would certainly have a great deal entrusted to their general keeping; and unless they were honest, they might take advantage and make personal gain out of it. They soon got things so arranged in the hands of the deacons, that Stephen, one of the seven, could leave and give all of his time, or most of it, to preaching; for we are directly informed that the opposing Jews "were not able to withstand the wisdom and the spirit in which he spake." Right on the strength of this began the terrific persecution which soon resulted in the martyrdom of Stephen, and eventuated in the dispersion from Jerusalem of all the leaders and most of the influential and well-known members of the body. Philip only, of all the seven except Stephen, is mentioned in the New Testament after this. It seems that after he had preached for some time he married and settled down at Cæsarea, where, years after, Paul found him, and spoke of him as one of the seven—not deacons—although it would have been very easy for Paul to call him such, had he been a deacon. Paul here calls him Philip the evangelist. Acts 21:8.

K.—I must admit, Brother George, that your argument is fair and pointed, and I will reconsider the whole subject. I never before saw the office and appointment of the seven in the light in which you have presented it to me this evening.

H.—I believe there are points in addition to those already given, but you may find them yourself.

Monday, September 21, Brother Kline attended a love feast at Brother Snider's.

Wednesday, September 23, he attended another at Brother Samuel Mishler's. He spoke beautifully on 1 John 3:2: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him."

A SHORT DISCOURSE.

In my view, there is no passage in the Bible which requires a stronger faith to believe it fully than the one just quoted. No passage that I know of sets forth in such lofty terms of description the exaltation and glory of the redeemed. Often have I heard persons express their wonder that Jesus did not tell us more about heaven and the future state. This text itself tells us infinitely more about this than we are capable of comprehending. Let us think a little.

I. It tells us that we are now the sons of God. To be the son of a rich man is esteemed a great boon; to be the son of a king is an honor and fortune enjoyed by few. But what are favors like these compared with being a son of God! No wonder John says in another place: "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!" Take the words of my text all to yourself, my brother, my sister: believe it; love it; and ever rejoice in the light of it. You desire to know how you attained to this high distinction. I will tell you. Jesus came to you in his blessed Word with the assurance that "as many as receive him, to them gives he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name; which are born, not of blood; nor of the will of the flesh; nor of the will of man; but of God."

"This promise ever shall endure,

Till suns shall rise and set no more."

You received the Lord by believing on his name. This is faith. You believed with your heart; that is, your faith was full of love, and your love was attended and followed by obedience, and this made your faith complete. It is yours now to rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

II. But you can hardly believe that you are to be just like Christ. On the mount you saw him glorified. "His face did shine as the sun, and his outward form was white as the light." Now Paul says: "He shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like unto the body of his glory." "Then shall the righteous shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

O brethren, let us look at the bright side of the Christian's life, for it has a bright side, and that is the side next to heaven, on which the light of heaven forever falls. I am not unmindful of the fact that, figuratively speaking, one side is turned to earth, and the earth in many respects is a very dark place. On the earth-side "clouds and darkness are the habitation of his throne;" but on the heaven-side "the city hath no need of the sun to shine in it, for the Lord God and the Lamb are the light thereof; and there shall be no night there." "We are fellow-citizens with the saints [in glory], and of the household of God." Oh, brethren, let us walk worthy of our high calling. "Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God concerning you."

Friday, September 25. Brother Kline passed through Jerome, Petersburg and Mansfield and got to Brother John Hoover's.

Monday, September 28. "This evening," says he, "I am at Judge Watts's. Having been unavoidably delayed by having to get my horse shod, darkness overtook me five miles away from here, and nothing but a continuation of thick woods appeared in every direction. More than this, the wolves set up a howling in a very threatening manner. Had I been compelled to pass the night in the woods, I would have been in danger of being devoured by them. Whilst alone in the darkness I thought, How quickly would these ravenous creatures fall upon and devour an unprotected sheep! And how surely would the wolves from Satan's den fall upon us and make a prey of our souls if Jesus, the Good Shepherd, did not guard and protect us through the spiritual darkness of this world! Several verses of one of Watts' old 'cradle hymns' came to my mind whilst thinking over these things. They run thus:

"'Once, as oppressed with sleep I lay,

With pining hunger bold,

A prowling enemy came by,

And robbed my little fold.

But Thou, Great Shepherd, dost not sleep

Nor slumber oft like me;

So that no foe can steal a sheep

Eternally from Thee.'"

Tuesday, September 29. "This evening I am at Brother Abraham Miller's in Allen County, Ohio. From Judge Watts's to this place is only five miles. But how different my feelings this evening from what they were last evening! Then I was alone in the woods, in hearing of wolves in several directions, with darkness on every side; now I am here with my beloved brother and his pleasant family. Oh, what will it be, what the ineffable joy to find ourselves, some day, in heaven, eternally safe from all danger and harm!"

Brother Kline spent the time between this and the next Sunday in traveling and visiting.

Sunday, October 4, he attended a love feast at which he made some very beautiful and appropriate remarks on Luke 4. "There is," said he, "much of human nature set forth in this chapter. So long as Jesus spoke of the things that pleased the assembled Jews they 'all wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.' They applied these gracious words to themselves, and flattered themselves into the belief that they were 'God's favorites' on account of their inherent virtues. But when the Lord indirectly spoke of them as starving widows in God's sight, and filthy lepers, 'all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.' When flowers are thrown upon the surface of a calm lake—so the poets say—the lake is made to smile with dimples of delight; but when heavy storms of truth are thrown in, the mud at the bottom is stirred up, and the lake boils with filth. Brethren, let us try to 'cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord;' and then we will not get angry when the truth is presented."

I would like very much to give the name of every family with which Brother Kline passed a night throughout this entire journey, and also the name of every brother and sister and family called on, but want of space absolutely forbids.

October 5 and 6 were spent at a council meeting near Brother Butterbaugh's. He does not say, but I guess this was in Montgomery County, Ohio. The names—Samuel Fouse, David Miller, Abraham Erbaugh, Samuel Kline, John Brower, Abraham Flory—all occur in close connection as having been visited by him.

Sunday, October 11. Brother Kline attended a meeting at which he reports Jacob Rife, John Garber, James Smith and George Miller, all from Virginia, as being present with their families. They have come to find homes in Ohio. They had arrived there on Friday before, which was October 9. It may be very gratifying to the children and grandchildren of these parents to find out the exact day on which their fathers and mothers arrived in the county and State where they settled.

Monday, October 12. Meeting at Brother Hoffert's. Brother Kline spoke to-day on Matthew 25. I can give only a slight touch of his discourse: "This chapter," said he, "is full of wonders. The parable of the talents; the parable of the ten virgins; and a description of the general judgment. Both parables are intimately connected with the judgment, and indicate the broad basis on which it will be conducted. I believe that the virgins in the parable represent professors of Christianity. They all had lamps. They all slumbered and slept. In these two respects they were all alike.

"But the great difference between them at once appears, when the announcement is suddenly made, 'Behold, the bridegroom cometh! go ye out to meet him.' Then the folly of the foolish, and the wisdom of the wise is first disclosed. The foolish had provided no oil for the replenishing of their lamps. I fear they were like too many now, who, in the heat of excitement, under the influence of misguided instructors, blindly fall into the ranks of those who take the name of Christ in one hand and the fashions and pleasures of the world in the other, and thus move on through life. Alas! such have lamps that may answer for this life, and oil enough and of a kind to keep their lamps aglow while living in this world; but when the day of trial shall come their lamps will prove useless for want of the right kind of oil. The only oil that will burn in the presence of Jesus, and whose light he will own, is the oil of heavenly love proved by a life of self-denial and obedience to his Word. Lord, help us, that we all may love thee more, and through obedient faith in thee find the door of heaven open to our ransomed spirits."

Wednesday, October 14. Our beloved brother now takes leave of the brethren and sisters in Ohio and starts on his way to Tennessee. On the fifteenth he is ferried across the river from Cincinnati to Covington in a flatboat, and from this point he pushes on to Lexington, Ky., which he reaches on the seventeenth, having traveled from home to that point, 788 miles. Think of it! The toil of this journey, on horseback; over rough or bad roads; through thinly settled sections of country, and dark forests; in sight of Indians, and in hearing of wolves; more than sixty years ago; and all for Christ and a burning love for his people. Well could he say what he publicly expressed at a love feast at the Linville's Creek meetinghouse some years after this: "I have a house that will accommodate fifty: and a heart to accommodate a hundred if they could find room in my house."

He pushed on, scaled the Cumberland mountains; got across the Cumberland and Clinch rivers as best he could, as both were high from the recent rains, and arrived

Friday, October 23, at Christian Shank's, in East Tennessee. On the day before he stood by the tree that marks the spot where the States of Virginia and Kentucky corner on the line of Tennessee. He says: "I could not help thinking while there, What a glorious country we have in prospect, and what a goodly land it may come to be, if the people can be induced to turn to the Lord and become faithful followers of the meek and lowly Jesus. What a work we have to do! How much wickedness have I witnessed on my way since I left home! In our way of looking at it, enough to sink a world. By turning once around I can look over a part of three States; but how few of the followers of the Lord are found in each, compared with the number who know him not, and who ask not for him."

He reports delightful weather. After spending some days among the Bowmans, Zimmermans, Crouses, Garbers, Basehores, and others, attending love feasts, councils and appointments for preaching, he reports a night meeting at Hase's schoolhouse. This was on the night of

Thursday, October 29. The people were somewhat Calvinistic in their views, and his discourse was so pointed in that direction that I will give a few thoughts presented in it.

Sermon by Elder John Kline.

Preached at Hase's Schoolhouse, Tennessee.

Text.—Enter ye in at the strait gate.—Matt. 7:13.

I tried to impress upon all present the danger of continuing in the broad road of sin. This includes every lust of the flesh, everything the heart desires through the eyes, and all the pride and vanity of life. I said to this audience: I learn that there is quite a Calvinistic or predestinarian sentiment in this community; and from the expression of the countenances of some of you I fancy I hear some of you saying to yourselves: "How can a dead man hear, except the Lord first give him life; or a blind man see, except the Lord first open his eyes?" I will answer your questions in order.

Lazarus had been dead four days. Jesus called to him with a loud voice to "come forth." How could Jesus expect the dead Lazarus to hear? Why did he call? Why did he not first make him alive; and then after he found out that he was alive, and stirring round in the grave, call to him and tell him to come out of that dark place? This is precisely the way a Calvinist would think he ought to have done. But Calvinism was not known in the Lord's day, and so he took a very different way. He threw his voice into that cave, and it went right into the ear of the dead Lazarus, because his power went with the words, and the very instant they struck the ear of Lazarus the life was in his body and he heard. Thunder and lightning always go together; but Calvinists think the lightning must always be first.

The resurrection of Lazarus is a clear exemplification of our Lord's meaning where he says: "My words are spirit, and they are life." No sooner did the Lord call to Lazarus than his heart began to beat and his lungs began to breathe. The Lord's words to him were life and breath. Spirit [in one sense] means breath; and life means a beating of the heart; for as long as man's heart beats there is life in him. Is any one here to-night willing to charge our Lord with the folly, the madness of commanding one of his creatures to do what he knows he cannot do?

Sinner, if the popular view of election be correct, I have a word of comfort for you right here. In Jer. 13:21 we read this question: "What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee?" I will tell you what to say. When you stand before his judgment seat and hear from his lips, "Depart, thou cursed into everlasting fire," just say to him: "Why do you condemn me? You told me to enter in at the straight gate, it is true; but you did not give me the power to move in that direction. I was blind, too, and you did not open my eyes. I was all leprous with sin; I knew that all the time; but you did not cleanse me, although you cleansed others. I am told that you say in your Word that you are no respecter of persons; how then can you make such a difference in your treatment of men, when you have 'included all under sin?'"

Now I say to you, poor sinner, the Lord never will and he never can send you to hell with such questions in your mouth and in your heart.

There is no need of one sinner under the sound of my voice going to hell, because Jesus is the strait gate and he is the narrow way of life; and wherever his Gospel is preached his power goes with it, just as it went with his voice into the grave of Lazarus, or fell upon the bier of the widow's son. The blind man did not see until he went to the pool of Siloam and washed; but did not the power of Christ go with him?

Say not then, O sinner, "I have not the power to believe, repent and obey the Gospel." You have the power. God is giving you now, this very moment, all the power you need to reach hither your hand and take the gift of his grace. He has already opened your eyes to see the light of his truth; and were I to say to you this night that you are too dead to feel your duty; too blind to see the path; and too grossly ignorant to know your right hand from your left hand in spiritual things, you would feel yourself grossly insulted by me. But I do not say so; I do not believe so; and in this connection—and I beg you to think seriously upon it, to read the Bible and pray over it—I must repeat the language of Jeremiah: "What wilt thou say, when he shall punish thee?"

Sunday, November 1. Meeting and love feast at Bowman's meetinghouse. This was Brother Kline's last meeting with the Tennessee Brethren on this visit among them. I must extend the outlines of his discourse as it was his last among them for some years.

A Short Discourse by Elder John Kline.

Text.—He died for all, that they which live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him, who, for their sakes, died and rose again.

This was Christ. Our natural feelings and desires are selfish. Jesus has given us the clearest example of unselfish love the universe has ever witnessed. "For God commendeth his love to us"—that is, he shows the exceeding greatness of it—"in that, when we were enemies, Christ died for us." I do not believe that we ever, in this world, can fully understand the merits of our Savior's life, death and resurrection. Enough for us to know that he has opened a "new and living way" by which we may come back to our heavenly Father and be his children again.

Do you know that Adam was a son of God? Luke calls him so. But he, like Esau after him, sold his birthright, lost the divine image in which God had created him, and fell from his sonship. But now we read: "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not, with him also, freely give us all things?" The phrase, "all things," as here used, includes a restoration to our former sonship with God. We, as the children of God, are exhorted to follow in the steps of our blessed Lord. This not only means that we are to shun evils and bear reproach, but it also means that we are not to live unto ourselves and for ourselves alone, but unto him and his people; for "He went about doing good."

John says: "We love him because he first loved us." We, who are here assembled in his name, can truthfully repeat this language. But how do we prove to ourselves and the world that we do love him? It is by letting our light shine. Men do not light a candle and put it under a bushel. A city on a hill cannot be hid. Brethren, I hope we have all made clean "the inside of the cup and the platter;" for this is the only way in which the outside can be kept clean. A pure life flows out of a clean heart, and it can come from no other source. We show our love to the Lord by observing his ordinances: by baptism, by washing one another's feet, by partaking with each other of the Lord's Supper, by communing with him in his broken body and shed blood, symbolized by the bread and wine: next, in "denying ourselves of all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world."

Think on this last text a little bit. "Soberly" means calmly sincere; not moved by fits of excitement. "Righteously" means doing right; right toward God by obedience, and right toward men in our dealings with them and in our influence upon them. Many a brother has ruined his power for good by not being watchful. He told "jokes." He delighted in frivolous, trifling things. He put on a square face at church, to be sure; but a little disappointment would lengthen it fearfully, and a little fun or glee would broaden it out of all Christian shape.

For the benefit of such and all, I will define the last but not least word in the apostle's category—"godly." Brethren, this means like God; and it includes all the rest, for "God is love." To abide in God is to live in holy, heavenly love. "Abide in me, and I in you." Wonderful, wonderful words! This is heaven on earth.

The apostle says: "We have been made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." A beautiful figure. We sit in the sun, or in sunny places, when the light of the sun falls upon us in that position. We sit in heaven, or in heavenly places, when the light of heaven with its love falls full into our souls. I feel like giving utterance to the emotion of my heart in that sweet old love-song of ours:

"My willing soul would stay

In such a place as this;

And sit and sing herself away,

To everlasting bliss.

"Here the Redeemer's voice

Sheds heavenly peace around;

And life and everlasting joys

Attend the blissful sound."

And now I will close in the words of Paul's valedictory to the saints at Corinth: "Finally, brethren, farewell: Be of good comfort; be of one mind; live in peace. And the God of love and peace shall be with you." Amen!

Tuesday, November 3. Our beloved brother started on his homeward way down the Valley of Virginia. He passed through Abingdon, Salem, Lexington and Staunton, and on

Tuesday, November 10, he reached home after an absence of two months to the day. He says: "I have been absent from home just two months to the day; and in this time I have traveled on horseback 1,317 miles. With much thankfulness to our Father in heaven, do I recount my protection and preservation through the dangers and toils of traveling; the strength and support given me in preaching the Word; and the great joy I have had in meeting so many dear brethren and sisters in the Lord. Amen!"

Thus closes one of the most remarkable missionary tours on record. One would feel sad to think that no memorial should be reared in commemoration of it. But the heart finds relief in the thought that this book will perpetuate the memory of it to future generations, as a tale that will never grow old.

Brother Kline spent the remainder of the year about home; in visiting the sick; in attending to his domestic interests; and in preaching at the different appointments in the district. The Brethren at this time had but few houses of worship. They consequently held meetings in the dwelling houses of Brethren; some of which had been constructed with an eye to that end.

BROTHER KLINE'S OPINIONS RELATIVE TO
THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE.

The Diary shows that in the course of this year, Brother Kline entered a new field of useful activity. In his desire to do good; in his heart of general beneficence, we are reminded of the philanthropy of Howard and Wilberforce. They, it is true, wrought in a wider sphere, and operated on a grander scale; but it may be seriously questioned whether they had any more of the love of God in their hearts, or any deeper sympathy for suffering humanity in their souls, than was to be found in our truly devoted pattern of genuine benevolence, Elder John Kline. This new field was that of administering medical relief to the afflicted.

Friday, January 1, 1836. He says: "I have long had doubts in regard to the curative efficacy and health-restoring virtue of the regularly established course of medical practice of the present day. Active depletion of the body, by copious blood-letting, blistering, drastic cathartics and starving, is, to my mind, not the best way to eradicate disease and restore the diseased human body to its normal state. I am well aware that every age has had its own way of treating diseases, and every age has thought its own way the best; but fashion and custom have, no doubt, had quite a controling power in this as in other things; and 'the fashion of the world passeth away,' because there is little or nothing of substantial good in it."

SAMUEL THOMPSON.

"Dr. Samuel Thompson, of Vermont, is introducing a new system of medical practice which I believe to be more in accordance with the laws of life and health than any I know of. His maxim, applied to disease, is: 'Remove the cause, and the effect will cease.'

"Every diseased condition of the body is the effect of some cause. This cause being removed, the disease, either simple or complex, must yield to the restorative forces of nature. But to diminish the activity of these forces, by copious depletion of the body, to be followed by a regimen so severe as to withhold, almost absolutely, the nourishment and support nature demands, is, in my view, to say the least, irrational."

Had Brother Kline penned these words fifty years later in the century, they could not be more in harmony with the popular theory of medical science as it is taught in the schools of the present day. They are almost prophetic. He goes on: "I am therefore determined to try the new way of treating disease, and see what I can do with it. I feel sure it will do no harm, even if it does but little or no good."

His subsequent success as a physician for many years proves that he was not mistaken in the conclusions at which he arrived preparatory to his entering the field of medical practice.

He procured his remedies in their virgin purity from the mountains, meadows and woods, either in person, with hoe in hand, or through agents whom he employed for the work. Lobelia, Boneset, Pleurisy-Root, Black-Cohosh, Blue-Cohosh, Lady's-slipper, Red Raspberry, Ginseng, Spignet, Black-Root, Seneca-Snake-Root, Gentian, May-Apple, Golden-Rod, and many other roots and herbs were quite familiar to him, not only as they were seen growing in their native mountains, fields and forests, but also as to their medical properties and uses.

No recreation could be more delightful to the true lover of nature than to get on a good horse and go with him to see the Brethren, as he called it. This may sound a little odd; but the reader must know that Brother Kline rarely went on an errand with a single aim. His object seemed to be to crowd into his life all the service for both God and man that it was possible for him to do. In this desire to do good he would sometimes humorously repeat the old saying: "Kill as many birds with one stone as you can."

When the season approached for gathering "roots and herbs" he would sometimes write to the Brethren among the mountains of West Virginia, that they might expect him to be with them at a given time. This announcement always sent a thrill of joy through their hearts. The news of his coming spread rapidly; and he was sure of large congregations for that sparsely settled country.

One Sunday, toward the close of his life, he said to me: "Brother B——, would it suit you to go with me over to Pendleton and Hardy? I have a line of meetings in view; and if it would suit you to go with me I will be very glad of your company. I want to gather some medicines by the way, and as you are fond of rambling among the mountains you may enjoy the trip and make yourself useful at the same time."

I agreed to go. So on Thursday morning about the latter part of July, very early, we mounted our horses. "Old Nell"—as he called his favorite riding mare, that had up to that time, as his Diary will show, carried him on her back over thirty thousand miles—seemed to understand where we were starting for, and how fast she ought to go. In the early part of the day she walked very moderately; but as the hours went by she quickened her gait, and really walked with a livelier step in the evening than she had in the fore part of the day. Soon after our arrival the people began to come together for night meeting at the house where we staid.

After a most refreshing supper and a little rest we were ready to engage in the sacred duties of worship. Brother Kline very kindly took the lead in the services, and in a very plain way delivered one of the best discourses I have ever heard on Col. 1:12. This is the Text: "Giving thanks to the Father, who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light."

He showed, in a very impressive way, that if an heir to an estate is not qualified to appreciate that estate, to enjoy it by making a right use of it, it can do him but little good. From this thought his mind ascended heavenward; and he said that heaven, with all its glory and bliss, can never be a desirable inheritance to any but to those who are qualified or prepared for it. Those who are thus qualified are described in the text as "the saints in light." He then drew a most lively picture of the difference between a saint in light and a sinner in darkness. It almost chilled my blood to see how low in the scale of intelligent beings the one stands contrasted with the lofty elevation of the other.

The next day we repaired to the Shenandoah mountain to procure medical herbs. We went up into a very deep and rich hollow, where it looked as if the rays of the sun could hardly penetrate, and soon I saw his face light up with something that evidently pleased him. "Ah! here it is," said he. "What is here?" I asked. "Don't you see this patch of Ginseng?" he replied. "Is this Ginseng? It is my first sight of it."

As I was much younger than he I insisted upon using the hoe; but no! He was so pleased that he seemed to want to do all the digging himself. When a supply of Ginseng was obtained we went to the top of the ridge, where we found a considerable quantity of Seneca-Snake-Root, an article very much in demand at the present day.

The next thing sought for was the Red Raspberry. We hunted and hunted, and were on the point of giving up the quest, when, at the extreme head of a very rough mountain hollow, we discovered a "patch" of the bushes. They were full of berries of a bright scarlet, resembling somewhat in form the common raspberry, but in some other respects they were quite different. They were very beautiful. If the plant would bear domestication it would be highly ornamental. Having filled a "poke" with the raspberry leaves, we set out to return to the place where we had left our horses. I doubt exceedingly whether I could have found the spot; but his familiarity with the mountains generally, and his acute perception of topographical relations in particular, enabled him to find the place without difficulty.

On our way back to where we had left our horses, however, we came across a "patch" of Golden Seal. This is a graceful plant, each one having a single calyx enclosing the seeds, somewhat in the shape of a button or seal of a bright yellow color; hence its name. "The root of this plant," said he, "is an excellent alterative and tonic." We dug up the yellow roots with zest; but being by this time very hungry, I began to fear that we might come across a "patch" of something else that might still longer delay our return. But he seemed satisfied with his success, and we found our horses all right. "Old Nell" had, however, loosed the strap of her halter, and was quietly browsing around. When she heard us coming she threw up her head; and at the call of his voice she came up to him.

It was past two o'clock when we got back to Brother Judy's. Dinner was soon served; and to this day I do feel that if ever I have been truly thankful for the good things of this life it was then.

We followed up the line of appointments to the last one, and returned home.

And now, my dear reader, I can truly say, that if it is as pleasant to you to read these reminiscences as it is to me to write them, you are well repaid.

Sermon by Peter Nead.

Preached at the Linville's Creek Meetinghouse,
Sunday, January 3, 1836.

Text.—Unto you therefore which believe he is precious.—I Pet. 2:7.

Dear Brethren, this chapter is full of instruction and encouragement. Peter knew by experience what it is to backslide. Now, that he is restored again to full fellowship with the Lord and the church, Jesus seems nearer and more precious to him than ever before. In the seventh verse he says: "Unto you therefore which believe he is precious." I know he must be so, because he is so precious to me. I shamefully denied him when he most needed my loving support, and swore that I did not know him in the darkest hour of his temptation. Who can comprehend his grace? The meekness, the gentleness, the calmness of his forgiving heart under trials the deepest, under persecutions the greatest, even unto death, are surely worthy of God incarnate.

"'I know not the man' were the very last words he heard me utter on his way through tribulations to the cross; and I added oaths to the declaration. I now fail to find words to express my surprise and joy at the message he sent me on the morning of his resurrection. When he was placed in the tomb I had no hope of his ever coming out thence. But what surprised and overcame me more than the direct news of his rising was the special message of love he sent me by the women who saw him first. He said to them: 'Go and tell my disciples and Peter, that I go into Galilee, and there they shall see me.' His forgiving love singled me out as one of its special objects, because I was such a vile sinner, and had treated him so badly. Brother Paul calls himself the 'chief of sinners,' because he persecuted the saints of God; but I feel that I must be, for I denied his Son. Truly did Paul say of all such great sinners as we are: 'Where sin abounded, grace did also much more abound.' Thanks to my risen Lord, I can now with heart and voice join the chorus of those that sing:

"'O, the length and the breadth,

And the depth and the height

Of the love of Christ!

It passeth all understanding!"

I have here represented Peter as giving us some of his experiences; and I believe that my representations are correct; for in the chapter next preceding the one just read, we find this joyful exclamation: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." I must think that the mercy was much more abundant than Peter expected, for it wrought an effect upon him which he calls a regeneration, or a sort of new birth. At any rate, he says he was "begotten again." It looks as if it made a new man of him. It gave him new life. He never denied his Lord again. When called to fulfill the prophecy of the Lord concerning "the death by which he was to glorify God," he faltered not, but met it "as seeing him who is invisible."

Brethren, some of us may, at times, have a taste of Peter's experience. We feel so vile in our own eyes, that, like him, we go out, and over our sins "weep bitterly." Ah, but these are "pearly tears" in God's sight. Though we may not know it, though we may still feel too bad to repair, on bended knees, to a "throne of grace," yet God knows how to value them. They are precious in his sight; and it is your experience and mine that after seasons of this kind he sends us the brightest tokens of his love, and we are joyfully amazed that it is so.

I once, when a boy, disobeyed my father. I have in mind a particular instance of disobedience, and of a character very trying to his patience. When I came rightly to myself and realized my sin I was afraid to meet him. He discovered, without any confession on my part, what I had done. I expected severe punishment. To my surprise he met me with a smile. Taking me by the hand he said: "Let us go out into the orchard." We sat down upon the fallen trunk of an apple tree, and gently placing one arm around my neck, he said: "Peter, do you know that I love you?" I instantly broke down under the weight of this arm of love, and answered as well as my sobs would let me, "Yes, sir!" "Do you love me?" he next said. Again I answered, "Yes, sir!" "Then never again disobey me, my boy, and we will have a sweet and happy life together." And I can say from my heart, right here, I never did.

I now think, dear Brethren, that you are prepared to understand what Peter meant by the words: "Unto you therefore which believe he is precious." You feel that he is precious to you, because he has taken away your sins by giving you a new heart and filling you with his love. You can now say with the Apostle John: "We love him because he first loved us." Now then, inasmuch as ye love him, "abide in his love," and "the God of love and peace shall be with you." May his grace, mercy and peace be with us all forever. Amen!

Sermon by Elder John Kline.

Preached at Tobbins,
Sunday, January 10.

Text.—As ye therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.—Col. 2:6.

Paul addressed these words to the church at Colosse, a city of Asia Minor, in the Roman province called Phrygia. It may be of interest to you for me to tell you something about the character of these people at the time Paul first visited them. Ancient history gives a very dark picture of this. What Paul said of Athens applied equally to Colosse: "The city was wholly given to idolatry." The lower classes, especially, were very ignorant, having no knowledge of God save that which the light of nature gave them.

But when Paul went into their midst, preaching the Gospel of salvation, the prophecy of Isaiah, concerning Zebulon and Naphtali, was fulfilled unto them, as it had been before at Capernaum on the shore of the Galilean Sea: "The people which sat in darkness saw a great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, to them did light spring up." They opened their eyes to the light and rejoiced to see it; and their hearts to the love it revealed, and they took it in. They accepted Christ Jesus the Lord in all his fullness. Faith became to them a living principle. They felt its truth as surely as though with their natural eyes and ears they saw and heard all that it comprehended for time and eternity, for earth and heaven.

But you want to know how I find all this out. Turn with me to the first chapter of Paul's letter to them, and I will show you. Now notice that right in the beginning he addresses them as "saints and faithful brethren in Christ." By "saints" he means that they are holy; and by "faithful brethren" he means to tell how they got to be so. This, I think, is saying a good deal for them; but he goes on: "We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you; having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus; and of the love which ye have toward all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens."

You now see that these Colossian brethren had the three essentials that distinguish a Christian from a pagan, a saint from a sinner, and an angel of light from a demon of darkness. These three are faith, hope and love; but of these Paul says that "love is the greatest." This they had in large measure, because it extended "toward all the saints." It is natural for every Christian to love some of the saints when he is free "to pick and choose;" but to love all is quite another thing.

If you will thoughtfully read this first chapter through, you will see the high place these Colossian brethren held in Paul's confidence, not only as to faith and love, but also as to the enlightenment of their understandings with heavenly wisdom. He sets forth our Lord Jesus Christ as the triune God—Creator, Redeemer and Savior—in loftier terms than are to be found anywhere else in his epistles. Had there been any doubt in his mind as to their ability to understand these revelations, and thus profit by them, they would have been withheld. He would have fed them with milk, as he did his Corinthian and Hebrew brethren, and not with strong food.

My text says: "As ye therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." They had received him in faith, and hope, and love. So were they instructed to walk in him. "Ye have been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead." "Inasmuch then, as ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated on the right hand of God." "Set your affections on the things above, not on the things that are upon the earth. For ye died; and the new life which ye now live, ye live by faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you." "Avoid fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry; for the wrath of God is revealed against all these things. And ye know that a little while ago ye lived and walked in all these things." This last quotation tells what these brethren had been, and the foregoing quotations show what they were when Paul wrote to them.

After a careful study of these good instructions, these faithful brethren could not mistake the way in which they were to walk. Paul not only showed them how to get into the good way in the first place, but he also told them how to keep in the way. It is one thing to get into the right road to any place, but it is quite another thing to keep it. In writing to his Galatian brethren, Paul says: "Ye did run well for awhile; who turned you out of the way?" Ah, brethren, there are many by-roads leading off from "the king's highway." I have known brethren and sisters to start well, to all appearance, and run well for a time; but by and by the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches, and other things, like the thorns in the parable, choked the Word in their hearts, so that they brought forth no fruit unto perfection.

AN ILLUSTRATION.

In my travels among the mountains of our Virginia I have often seen the laurel holding out its evergreen but poisonous leaves in sprays of most enticing beauty. Miles and miles of road, in one unbroken stretch, may there be seen densely hedged on either hand by this beautiful emblem of sin and death. Herds of cattle and flocks of sheep are every year driven over these roads. Every herdsman and shepherd knows the danger to be apprehended from the inclination of some of either kind to "sidle" off from the plain and beaten track and pluck the green leaves of the laurel to their own destruction.

Many a time have I overtaken flocks of sheep, some of which were lying along the road "down with the staggers." This last is the name of the disease which is brought on by taking laurel. The old sheep avoid it. They will not taste it. The young sheep and lambs are the only ones that incline first to taste and then eat it. It is hardly necessary for me to point out to you the lesson of instruction to be gathered from what I have just said. The staggers, by veterinary surgeons, is said to be a kind of drunkenness often fatal in its effects.

The Prophet Isaiah speaks of some who "are drunken, but not with wine; who stagger, but not with strong drink." I fancy I hear someone in the congregation say: "I guess they must have taken laurel." Precisely so, friend! They took the very laurel that has been the ruin of thousands of the Lord's sheep and lambs. Let me tell you exactly what I mean.

The love of worldly pleasure is laurel of one kind. It blooms forth in the desire for fine dress, gay company, night gatherings, social parties, and the like things.

Worldly treasure is laurel of another kind. It blooms forth in the desire for worldly possessions, no matter how obtained, and only to gratify selfish ends. I have known some old sheep to take this kind.

Ambition to be great and highly honored is still another kind. This is the "deer-tongued" laurel, the very tallest kind that grows, and has the richest looking flowers. But it is just as poisonous as any, and it blooms forth in the desire to be admired for beauty, to be looked up to for superior power and wisdom, and to be held in high honor for great deeds. I have known some old sheep and even leaders of the flock to eat of this kind until they staggered considerably. It was plainly visible in their steps that their heads were not exactly level. I am glad, however, to be able to say, that in the flock to which we belong, I have met with very few who ever gave any signs of being afflicted in the way last described.

In his letter to the Philippian brethren, Paul says: "For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ."

But, brethren, there is a remedy for all these evils. God has provided the remedy. Nor is it a bitter draught. It is the "milk and wine" of his Word. Both mean Truth. I used to wonder why the Prophet Isaiah used both terms, when both mean the same thing. Now I will tell you. He says: "Come unto me, buy wine and milk, yea, buy wine and milk without money, and without price." Milk is truth in its simplest and plainest forms. Gospel truth presented in a way that very young and uninstructed minds may readily take it in, is what Paul calls "milk for babes." But wine is the very same truth extended and expanded into forms of instruction adapted to the understandings of "men in Christ Jesus."

All are invited and even exhorted to come; to come to the "fountain that was opened in the house of David." It is the same that is meant by the "river of the water of life which proceedeth from the throne of God and of the Lamb." I exhort every one, both old and young, to study God's Word for the truth it contains, represented by the beautiful symbols set before you therein. Even the unconverted sinner is invited to come and take of the "water of life freely."

"Here pardon, love, and joy divine

In rich effusion flow,

For guilty sinners lost in sin

And doomed to endless woe."

The interval between the last given date and Monday, February 15, has nothing in it claiming special notice. But here he says: "To-day I attended the funeral of little Susanna Brower, who died yesterday morning. As it is our privilege to 'rejoice with those who do rejoice,' so it is our duty to 'weep with those that weep." I could but weep to see the remains of this interesting little girl laid in the cold and silent grave. I think it was the ancient Romans who personified death in the form of a walking skeleton, scythe in hand, cutting down whatever the whim of his fancy might suggest. This representation may accord with the relentless strokes his scythe is sometimes seen to make; but the light of heaven reveals a Hand that holds his bony arm within its grasp; and that Hand is the hand of our God. For,

"'Not a sparrow to the ground may fall

But our Father's in it: Heart of Love that governs all.

Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.'"

"Heaven is largely made up of children; and until every crown shall have a head, and every white robe have a wearer, God will recall his own."

Wednesday, March 16. Brother Daniel Trump and Sister Polly Moyers were both buried to-day. These make six funerals that I have attended in the space of four weeks.

"One by one, we cross the River;

One by one, we're ferried o'er;

One by one, the crowns are given

On the bright, celestial shore."

Sermon by Elder John Kline.

Preached at the Old Brick Meetinghouse, Augusta County, Virginia,
Sunday, April 24.

Text.—Lest there be any ... profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.—Heb. 12:16, 17.

Esau and Jacob were twin sons of Isaac. But Esau was born first; and this, according to the law of primogeniture in that day, gave him special privileges, among which was the right on his part to a double portion of the heritage to be received from the father.

This right Jacob treacherously bought of his brother Esau. Rebekah, their mother, was favorable to the contract, and laid the plan for its successful completion. Esau had been unsuccessful in his pursuit of game, and soon found himself in a famishing condition. Jacob took advantage of this, and proposed to purchase the birthright. He said to Esau: "Sell me this day thy birthright." And Esau said: "Behold, I am at the point to die; and what profit shall this birthright do to me?" And he sold his birthright to Jacob. "Then Jacob gave Esau bread and a mess of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright."

Esau is here regarded as a profane or wicked person, because he did not more highly esteem the blessing to which he was born. Paul refers to this fact, to teach us that it is our duty, as the regenerated or "firstborn" children of God, to place a very high value upon our relation to him conferred by this birth.

"Esau found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." This means that all his sorrow or regret for the foolish bargain he had made would not and could not place him back where he was before. The blessing of his father had been given to another past all possibility of calling it back. I do not, and can not, however, as some do, apply this to the sin against the Holy Ghost. The blessing of Jacob was all external. It comprehended only earthly things. I will read it, so that you may hear it: "God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee; and blessed be he that blesseth thee." There is nothing in all this giving Jacob any claim to special favor from God, beyond that of mere earthly good. Neither does the sale of the birthright exclude Esau from any higher claim. He did not sell his right to serve the Lord, and thus inherit a heavenly blessing.

The people of God sometimes do things in the way of sin that cause them deep distress. At the same time they do not shut themselves irrevocably out of heaven, because repentance and reformation of life will reinstate them into the divine favor, and place them back into the good way again. But such may lose much, both in the church and the world by the misstep. After the sin of adultery, for example, has been fairly proved against a brother or sister, he can hardly reinstate himself fully into his former standing either in the church or in society at large. Thus is he like Esau. He has sold his birthright; yet still the Lord is ready, with outstretched arms, to receive him the moment he resolves to return, just as the loving father received his prodigal son. Thus it is with many other sins. They leave a sting in the heart which may rankle and fester a long time; and a stigma in the character which may never, in this world, be entirely wiped out.

In regard to the relation of Esau and Jacob, one more thought presses upon my mind, and I will give it utterance. In Jehovah's prophecy to Rebekah before the birth of the children, these words from his own lips were spoken: "The elder shall serve the younger." And in the prophecy of Malachi, the Lord Jehovah is represented by the prophet as saying: "I loved Jacob; I hated Esau." Paul to the Romans quotes both these passages.

The Bible reader justly enquires: "Why this opposition to Esau and this favor to Jacob, when the children, as yet unborn, had done neither good nor evil?" Paul says it was: "That the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth." Brethren, I do sincerely believe that right here we find the key to many obscure passages in Paul's writings on the subject of election and predestination. God can do nothing without means. Ends as surely imply means as effects imply causes. Esau and Jacob are the Lord's chosen, elected, predestinated means of teaching his people a lesson of instruction that covers the whole ground of every Christian's state and experience from the alpha to the omega.

Every true child of God possesses two distinct natures. A knowledge of this wonderful truth lies within the range of every one's experience. But it is equally confirmed by divine revelation. Paul calls the one nature or consciousness the outward man, and the other the inward man. The one bears the image of the first Adam, and is of "the earth earthy;" the other bears the image of the last Adam who is the Lord, "and is heavenly." Esau represents the first; and, as such, he can not inherit the heavenly birthright, because he is carnal, and "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven."

As the antitype of this great truth which underlies the scheme of redemption, God could not but "hate Esau," because "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, are not of the Father, but are of the world." "But Jacob he loved," because Jacob is the child "born of God" in the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, "the inner man," which after God, is "created in righteousness and true holiness." "The elder shall serve the younger." This means that "the natural body" must be brought under subjection and serve "the spiritual body." For "there is a natural body" first born, and "there is a spiritual body" last born.

In another place Paul uses lofty terms to designate these two. He there calls the one "the earthly house of this tabernacle," which must perish; the other "a building of God, a house not made with hands"—God's hands—"eternal in the heavens." The reason why he says "in the heavens" is because it is in the light of heaven; just as he says in another place, "We have been made to sit together in heavenly places," by which he correlatively means just the same that we mean when we say we sit in the sun, meaning that we sit where the light of the sun shines upon us.

Now, Brethren beloved, I have been very brief on a subject that might be profitably expanded into a volume. I hope that I have given you points by which you may take the subject and think upon it for yourselves; and thus add faith to faith, and knowledge to knowledge. May God add his blessing to what I have said, that it may prove to be strength in much weakness.

During the interval between the twenty-fourth and the twenty-eighth, Brother Kline visited many Brethren in Augusta County, Virginia.

Thursday, April 28, he attended a love feast at the brick meetinghouse. Of this he says: "The afternoon meeting was well attended. The second chapter of Peter's first letter was read. Much good instruction for self-examination was given, both in German and English, from the general scope of the chapter. I made a few remarks on the middle clause in the seventeenth verse: 'Love the brotherhood.'

"I fear we do not speak and exhort one another as plainly and warmly as we should on this most essential part of every true believer's experience and life. What keeps us a united and happy people? Love of the Brotherhood. What keeps us from quarreling with one another, from slandering and defrauding one another? Love of the Brotherhood. What keeps alive our sympathies for each other in times of distress and in seasons of sorrow? Love of the Brotherhood.

"This is the golden chain that binds us together on earth, and will forever bind us together in heaven. As the rain first comes from the sea, and after refreshing and beautifying the land goes back to the sea again, so it is through us, Brethren, that the love we receive from Christ here will be made perfect and return to him there. Oh, Brethren, 'let us not love in word only, but in deed and in truth.'"

Wednesday, May 4. Peter Nead and Daniel Garber started to the Annual Meeting.

Sunday, May 22. Meeting at the Linville's Creek meetinghouse. Brother Kline spoke briefly on Acts 2. He said: "As this is the traditional day on which the Holy Spirit was poured out in a miraculous way, so that the whole house wherein the apostles and brethren were sitting was filled with his presence, so that they were all baptized in the Holy Spirit and in the heavenly fire, we think it good to meditate and speak upon these things.

"It may be that we err by believing that each apostle was endowed with the gift of all the tongues here enumerated. It would be natural, I think, for those who spoke the same tongue to sit or stand together in companies. We may, even at the present day, see examples and instances of this in large cities and public places. Here we see a group of Germans. There, a company of Swedes, or Dutch, or Italians. People of the same nationality as naturally seek for each other as birds seek for their own kind.

"The order appears beautiful to our minds in the light of this interpretation. Each apostle was gifted by the Spirit to speak in one tongue at least. If we go to the pains to count, we will find there were nearly as many apostles as nationalities represented. In this way all could speak at the same time; each one to his own group or class of hearers, in gentle tones of voice; and all in the house hear at least one speak in the tongue in which he was born. This interpretation relieves the mind of the apparent confusion which seems to have pervaded that assembly, from a mere cursory reading of the account given of it in the second chapter of the Acts.

"I pray God, that our dear Brethren in Yearly Meeting to-day and to its close may all, like the apostles, be of one mind and speak the same thing."

Sunday, June 5. Meeting at the Dry Fork. Brother Kline made a few remarks upon Eph. 5:14, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."

"We called upon the drowsy, sleeping sinner to arise from his deadness and indifference, pointing him to the promise that Christ would shine upon him and give him the light of life. Whilst speaking on this subject to-day, I related what was said to be a well authenticated fact which I lately read.

"An Indian, one evening, tied his canoe fast to a tree not far above the falls of Niagara. Feeling that all was secure, he lay down in his canoe and went to sleep. Just about the break of day the fastening from some cause got loose. Very probably the cord was untied by some mischievous person. The Indian continued to sleep. Noiselessly the canoe glided down the stream, nearer and yet nearer the awful brink, softly rocking its sleeping victim to destruction. Just before the frightful leap, roused by the thunder of the cataract, the poor Indian awoke, only in time to see himself hurled into eternity.

"O, how many unconverted men and women are borne down upon the stream of time, unconcerned, thoughtless, careless of the doom that so surely awaits them!"

Sermon by Elder Daniel Miller (German).

At Lost River Meetinghouse, West Virginia,
Sunday, July 3.

Text.—But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.—John 1:12, 13.

This Scripture has a very deep meaning; and it should be well understood, since the power in us to become children or sons of God depends on the nature of our birth. If this be in any other nature than that of God, it is like counterfeit money; it may look to be all right, and pass current for a while, but it will not bear the test of a rigid scrutiny.

Some are born of blood. Such may be those who adhere to a certain church, and hold certain articles of faith without examining the Word, because their father and mother and other blood relatives held the same, lived and died in that faith, and lie buried in the churchyard where they worshiped.

Some are born of the will of the flesh. Such may be those who make a profession of religion; but because they cannot have their own way in everything, and take the lusts of the flesh with them under the cloak of a Christian profession, they either forsake the people of God entirely or else never come into their number.

Some are born of the will of man. Such may be those who suffer themselves to be influenced by others; coaxed, persuaded, nor even induced by the promise of reward, to join a certain church and worship in a certain way, because it is fashionable and in good style.

Some are born of God. Such are those who out of an honest heart bring forth the fruit of the Spirit unto perfection.

Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, shows the striking contrast between the fruit of man's fleshly, sensual or animal nature and that of his spiritual or renewed nature. The first he calls the flesh; the last, the spirit. Man's spirit is what is born again. In one place he designates the new birth as "being renewed in the spirit of the mind." In another place as "dead to the world, but alive unto God." The prayer of such is: "Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?" Finding a clear answer to this prayer in the Word of Truth, they are willing to follow its leadings. They descend into the baptismal wave "for the remission of sins." They go into the house of God and are not above stooping to wash one another's feet. They eat the Lord's Supper. They commune with him in the emblems of his broken body and shed blood. They continue to walk as nearly as they can in all the commands and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

The difference between the present and future state of the man who lives after the flesh and that of the man who lives after the spirit is very sharply marked in many places in Paul's writings, in words that cannot be easily misunderstood. He uses such language as this: "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds [lusts] of the body, ye shall live." "To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." "He that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God,"—which is the new birth,—"is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

All these quotations are in perfect accord with our Lord's closing words to the Sermon on the Mount: "Every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: ... and it fell: and great was the fall of it."

I do not think it is very hard for any one to tell the kind of birth he is of. As an individual can tell by looking in a glass, if in no other way, whether he is black or white, so the professor of religion, by turning to the Gospel Mirror, can see what kind of a birth he is of.

I sometimes feel sorry when I think that a child has no control over its own natural birth. If it is born black and into slavery, poor little thing, there it has to remain for life, and bear and suffer all the evils incident to its color and condition. If one is born with natural deformities which baffle all surgical skill; or with blindness or deafness past all remedy; we can but pity and weep. True, our sympathies are aroused, and but for such objects probably the very purest and noblest springs in our nature would remain forever sealed with ice.

But, thanks to our God, no such unalterable conditions ever attend man's spiritual birth. He himself is a party to the covenant under which every spiritual birth is effected from conception to parturition. God is one party; and man, in whom the new spiritual birth is to be effected, is the other party. This I speak in respect to the divine, heavenly birth. Men are the parties on both sides in all the other births spoken of in the text. God has nothing to do with them.

The Jews were nearly all born after these ways. Most of them seem to have been "born of blood." "We have Abraham to our father." Some were born of the "will of the flesh," for when the Lord told them the truth "they took up stones to stone him." These were included among those to whom he said: "Ye are of your father the devil." The will of the flesh and the will of the devil in spiritual things is one and the same. Some among them seem to have been "born of the will of man." There may have been a good many of this class. When the Lord was teaching in Jerusalem many asked the question; "Have any of the rulers believed on him?" Such were the children of the rulers, born of their will.

One fact is true of all these births; no matter how black, or deformed, or blind, or deaf, all these were spiritually, they were all born just as they wished to be; and all chose, with comparatively few exceptions, to remain in the state in which they were born. On the day of the crucifixion spirits from all classes of births culminated in the cry: "His blood be on us and our children."

I hope what I have said may awaken some thought in the mind of each hearer, as to the state of his own heart. Do I love the Lord my God with all my heart, and my brother as I love myself? Do I show this love in my dealings with him, and in my daily conduct towards him? Do I show my love to the Lord by walking continually in his ways? Enoch walked with him thus for three hundred years. Am I careful to follow his example during the few years allotted me here? If I do not love my brother and find delight in his company here, how can I be happy with him in heaven? If I do not love the Lord here, in whose love alone there is bliss, what will heaven be to me?

No wonder the doom of the hypocrite is so fearful! When his cloak is removed and the wolf appears in the presence of the angels, will they not shrink from him as one of us would shrink from a viper coiled about our feet?

Brethren, let us be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as we know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Brother Kline bore a hearty testimony to Brother Miller's discourse throughout.

A Short Discourse by Elder Daniel Garber.

Sunday, August 7.

Text.—For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.—John 1:17.

By the law spoken of in the text we are to understand the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, as they are usually called. We are not to understand that this law is not truth. Far from it. It is truth so sacred and holy in God's sight that he directed Moses to construct an ark or small chest out of pure gold and place therein the two stone tablets on which the law was engraved by the finger of God, and keep them there forever.

Jesus the Lord honored it. He fulfilled it, not only in the letter, but in the spirit. His outward life was so righteous that none could convict him of sin. "He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners:" not separate in the sense of not eating and drinking with them, of not associating and conversing with them; but separate in the sense that he was not, like them, a transgressor of the law of God.

The Lord's heart and hand were together in all he did. His thoughts and his words were one. His looks, and all the expressions of his face, were but images of the love within. His denunciations against Pharisaical hypocrisy, cloaked under the guise of outward rectitude, were like an avalanche of snow and ice, unlocked by the rays of the Sun of Righteousness.

Jesus said: "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail." A tittle is a very small point in a letter. Many Hebrew letters have dots or tittles. A change in the tittles of the letters that compose a word changes the meaning of the word. But Jesus says not a tittle shall pass from the law. It will to eternity mean just what it means now, and will continue to be the bond of union with saints and angels forever in heaven. It is all love. Love is the alpha and the omega of the law; for the law is of God, and "God is love."

Some people call mercy God's darling attribute. They clothe her in a white robe down to the feet; they fill her eyes with the milk of human kindness and her mouth with the tender words of forgiveness. But justice is a very different personification in their eye. He is not only masculine as to gender, but all his looks and ways have an air of condemnation in them. He is a dark-faced, frowning judge, forever watching with keenest eye not only the outward life of every man, but his mind and heart within; and is always ready to pass judgment against every one guilty of the slightest transgression and disobedience.

Such conceptions may not be sinful; but they are very far from agreeing with the revelations God has made of himself to men. In these he discloses himself as "a God merciful and gracious; abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands; slow to anger; ready to pardon; and of great kindness." (Nehemiah 9:17.) He is just, it is true. But what is justice? I answer that justice, in its highest and divinest sense, is equal good and equal right to all. And does not this imply love? I do unhesitatingly declare that there is quite as much love in the administrations of justice as there is in the bestowments of mercy.

In justice, however, the love appears in one light; and in mercy or grace the love appears in another. God's love for the holy angels and the spirits of just men made perfect is unmixed love, or the love of complacency. This manifestation of his love is justice in its highest and purest sense. God's love for sinners who have transgressed his law, and who, on this account, are "miserable and wretched, and poor, and blind, and naked," is mixed love. It is mixed with pity, and is what is called the love of compassion. This manifestation of his love is grace in its highest and purest sense. This is just what our Lord Jesus Christ brought with him. If all the race of mankind had continued righteous, as man was when first brought into being, the word grace would never have had a place in heaven's vocabulary. But since man has fallen, fallen into sin, into death both corporeal and spiritual, into sickness and sorrow, into labor for his bread, into hunger and thirst, and anxieties and cares, God has ever pitied him. Instead of our Lord's saying, "God so loved the world," he might have said, "God so pitied the world."

In reading the New Testament now you need not wonder why the word grace is so often met with. It means just what Jesus has brought into the world—love for sinners. "He came not to condemn the world, but to save the world." But notice, he brought not only love but truth with it, and truth is neither more nor less than the forms or manifestations of true love. Let me illustrate this. You love your brother. But he does not know it until you manifest your love by the thousand ways that are open for this in your associations and dealings with him. Every manifestation of this love is a truth by which you prove that you do love him.

How does our Lord prove that he loves sinners? By the truth that manifests or shows it. In the first place he went about doing good, in the way of healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, cleansing the lepers, making the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, and the dead to come to life. In the next place he showed his love by the meekness and patience with which he bore the scoffs and sneers, and persecutions of the opposing Jews. In the next place, by the promises of eternal life and salvation which he gave to the very worst of sinners, on the easy terms that they repent of their sins, by turning to God and living a life of faithful obedience to his Word. In the next place,—and all the other proofs culminate in this,—by dying upon the cross, by which he atoned for the sins of the whole world. In this, his last temptation, he conquered sin, death and hell; and as a mighty Conqueror he has become the Captain of our salvation and the Author of eternal life to all them that obey him.

But light will not enter the eye that is closed; neither will the words of grace and truth enter the heart unless there be a will to take them in. Some here present, I feel sure, have taken the words in, and ye rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Yours is the joy that no man taketh from you. Yours is an unfailing treasure in the heavens. Yours to sing:

"Should earth against my soul engage,

And fiery darts be hurled;

Now I can smile at Satan's rage

And face a frowning world.

"Let cares, like a wild deluge, come,

And storms of sorrow fall,

So I but safely reach my home,

My God, my heaven, my all.

"There shall I bathe my weary soul

In seas of heavenly rest;

And not a wave of trouble roll

Across my peaceful breast."

But I am sad to think how many there are who have never yet "tasted that the Lord is gracious." May I not induce some to look to him to-day? There is life in a look when it springs from love and is followed by obedience. "Look unto me, saith the Lord, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth." Sinner, thou art one of these ends. Look and live.

BAPTISMAL SCENE AT BENJAMIN BOWMAN'S,
SUNDAY, AUGUST 29.

Peter Driver and wife, and Benjamin Byerly were baptized to-day.

Whilst it is our delight and joy to see even the vilest and the lowest come into the church through the divinely appointed way, still it is an additional pleasure, especially in the view of helpfulness to the cause, when such excellent and true-hearted people as those above named cast in their lot with us.

These dear people will draw their children into the church where they are, and many of the grandchildren will follow their steps. Thus will they sow the seeds of a good life by the power of example, and others will reap the harvest. These, in turn, will sow again for others, until, after awhile, all will realize the truth of our Lord's words: "He that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together."

LOVE FEAST AT BEAVER CREEK MEETINGHOUSE,
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24.

Preparatory services began at two p.m. Second Corinthians 5 was read. There was much good speaking. One brother's remarks on the ninth verse deeply interested me. They were in substance as follows: Text.—"Wherefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto him."

No better aim can ever have place in the breast of man or angel. But how natural it is for us to aim to please ourselves and others! There is no wrong in trying to please others, when that aim does not conflict with what pleases God. But for any one, especially a minister of the Gospel, to make it his chief aim to please others, that he may become popular and be highly esteemed of men, is an abomination to God.

Whether we are as humble and self-denying in all things as we should be, is a subject for self-examination, not only on the part of our lay brethren, but as well on the part of us who are ministers of the Word. Self-love is self-worship. "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve," is as true to-day as when it was hurled against the devil from the lips of Jesus Christ. Worship is love; and love unites us to the Lord, as the branch is united with the vine which is its life. Man has no spiritual life in himself other than what comes from the Lord.

A man's home life is his real life. In the presence of his family, when no stranger's eye or ear is nigh, he is out and out himself, and he then and there appears in his real character. But when absent, either among his brethren or strangers, he aims to put the best foot foremost and leave a favorable impression. I do not say that this is true of every one; but I do say, and say it from the depth of my soul's deepest affection, that the apostle's resolution should be true in the heart of every brother and sister: "We make it our aim, whether at home or abroad, to be well-pleasing unto God."

BAPTISMAL SCENE AT THE LINVILLE'S CREEK MEETINGHOUSE,
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9.

John Zigler and wife, Celestine Whitmore and wife, and David Haller were baptized to-day.

I rejoice that these good people have cast in their lot with us; and hope that they will prove to be a blessing and an ornament in the church. Brother David Haller is a very sensible and active man, with a young family, and he can do much for the good cause. Brother Celestine Whitmore will exert a good influence on Lost River. And Brother John Zigler will show to the world how an active business may be carried on in a godly way. "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, did put on Christ."

History tells us that Xenophon, in his famous retreat from Cunaxa, wore a wolfskin about his shoulders and breast. This was becoming to him as the general of an army of Greeks trained to slaughter, and bent on cutting his way through all opposition with the sword. It might also have been a suitable covering for each soldier in his army; since the uniform of an army is thought to signify, in some measure, the spirit by which the soldiers are incited to action.

The uniform of the soldier in the army of the Lord should, therefore, signify the spirit and mind that is in him. If the spirit is that of nonconformity to the world, so should the dress or uniform be. If the spirit is that of meekness, humility, kindness, goodness, purity, peace and love, the dress of both sexes, each in its appropriate form, should correspond to these affections of the heart.

Thursday, October 20. Brother Kline and Daniel Garber started to

THE GLADES.

The Diary does not say where the glades are, but, from the churches and Brethren visited, it is inferred that they lie in the southern part of western Pennsylvania.

Among the places named at which they attended meetings may be mentioned Abraham Beachley's; Myers's schoolhouse; William Miller's; Brother Blaugh's; Berben; Brother Moser's; Dr. Krone's; Jacob Myers's and Bearkles. At the last-named place a council meeting was held at which brethren Cover and Fahrney were established in the second degree of the ministry. "They both," so the Diary says, "have a good report from those that are without, as well as from those that are within."

On their homeward way our two brethren had night meeting at Abbey Arnold's in Hampshire County, Virginia. The last chapter of Revelation was read. Brother Kline says: "Toward the close of my discourse I gave a farewell invitation to sinners to come and take of the 'Water of Life freely.' After meeting one man came to me and said that he was tired of drinking of the bitter waters of sin and thirsted for the sweet 'Water of Life.' I told him that our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life as revealed in his Word, is the Water of Life, that our loving acceptance of the truth of his Word as a matter of faith, and our living a life of obedience to God in conformity with that truth is drinking the Water of Life. It then becomes eternal life to our souls. I tried to encourage him to drink in this way; but I do not know what he may do."

DEPARTED MINISTERS.

Some things may appear in this book that are of little interest to the general reader. In this respect, however, it may not differ from many other books. The reader should kindly bear in mind that nearly all of the ministers and other Brethren whose names appear, in the fore part of the work especially, are known on earth no more, save as they live in the memory of those whom they have left behind.

In the list of deceased ministers are to be seen the names of Peter Nead, Abraham Flory, Daniel Garber, Daniel Miller, Martain Miller, George Hoke, Benjamin Bowman, Jacob Wyne, John Wyne, Daniel Thomas, John Harshberger, and a host of others. The records of these noble ministers of the Word are on high. No earthly monuments have ever been reared in honor of their achievements; and they need none. The good they have done by leaving the world and the church better off than they found them has won for them a crown of glory in heaven as imperishable as the throne of the eternal. The reader should remember that a sort of filial love for these men still lingers in the memory of many, who, in their younger days were personally acquainted with them. They heard them preach; and they looked up to them as children to parents. A lock of hair from a loved one long since passed away, is a little thing,—a very little thing in the eye of a stranger,—but in the eye of a loving friend it is above price. So some things in this work, apparently trivial to the general reader, may be highly prized by others. I will give, for an example, the following statement:

Monday, November 21. Peter Nead and Benjamin Bowman go with me to Harrisonburg, and obtain license of the County Court of Rockingham County, Virginia, to perform the ceremony of marriage.

This statement, taken from the Diary, may seem of no consequence to some; they may feel, as their eyes glance over it, that it is of no interest to them; when at the same time, to others it will be an incident they will never forget. Many can now say that one or the other of these ministers performed the ceremony when their father and mother were married. One or the other of these names stands upon the "Marriage Record" in many an old Family Bible. Even the grandchildren will find interest in things like these; and to learn more about these, and many other great and good men who have lived and died in the church of the Brethren, will not only interest the mind, but improve the heart.

A MAGNIFICENT DISPLAY OF THE AURORA BOREALIS.

Thursday, January 26. This night, says the Diary, a very wonderful display of the Aurora borealis was witnessed. The sky was all over a bright red, with white streaks streaming up from the north. The sight was wonderfully grand. As to the cause of this sublimely beautiful phenomenon various opinions have been held, and various theories launched upon the waves of scientific thought; but none, as yet, to my knowledge, have covered the ground of a satisfactory solution. Let the cause be what it may, there seems to be no good reason for fearing any harm to the earth or its inhabitants from its occasional appearance.

I have since learned, however, that many people were frightened at the sight, and feared that the last day was at hand. One sister in particular, not far from here, wrung her hands screaming almost spasmodically, fearing in her soul that the next thing would be the sound of "the last trumpet."

Some may smile at this; but suppose the trumpet had then sounded! Would those who now smile, or perhaps laugh, have been able to hear the thunder of its voice with a steadier nerve than she? Her faith was strong; nay, too strong for the weakness of her feeble body. She believed every word of Divine Truth. She believed in a final judgment, than which nothing is more positively declared in the sacred Scriptures. But because she had never seen such a sight before, and as no one could account for it, the conclusion was quickly reached that it was supernatural and sent as a herald of the coming Lord.

But he will come, and every eye shall see him. But "who shall abide the day of his coming?" Only they who shelter under the almighty wings of Jesus. "How often"—said he to Jerusalem, and now to every one else—"would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen doth gather her chickens under her wings." To those who laugh at sacred things now, it may then be said what follows in the above connection: "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."

"Hide me, O my Savior, hide;

'Neath the shadow of thy wing."

The above phenomenon lasted till midnight.

Sunday, February 12. "Peter Nead was with me at the Plains to-day." Whether Brother Kline saw or heard something in Peter Nead to-day that especially wrought upon his attention, he does not say; but this follows in the entry: "Brother Nead gives promise of becoming a very able speaker and a very useful man. May the Lord prosper him in all he sets his heart and hand to in his service." The church now knows the singular correctness of Brother Kline's estimate of the man, written over sixty years ago.

Brother Nead, like many other good and live men, may have had some apparent eccentricities in the direction of practical conservatism and the like; but, take him through and through, it is questionable if the church has ever been favored with a purer or sounder man.

Thursday, May 4. Preparations are being made to-day for the Annual Meeting. The brethren and sisters are all alive with desire to make all the visiting brethren and sisters as comfortable as possible during the meeting.

The Diary reports the arrival, during the next week, of brethren from Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Among those named are John and Joseph Bowman, Henry Kurtz, George Hoke and Brother Yant.

Thursday, May 11. Brother Beachley arrived. Brother Kline reports something like a heavenly feeling permeating the heart at the sight of the arrival of those beloved brethren. They all stopped with Brother Kline, whose house and heart both were large enough for their reception and entertainment.

As editor of this book, what would I not give for an exact report of the heart-refreshing conversations and sweet interchanges of thought and sentiment enjoyed by this group of heavenly-minded brethren, during their sojourn here! As a relief, however, to this thought another comes to mind, that this same group are again together, not for a "Yearly Meeting," but for an eternal meeting. The last one has been called to glory. The cross then; the crown now.

The interviews of brethren with each other fifty or sixty years ago present a striking contrast when placed side by side with those of the present day. The native simplicity, the artless manners, and the honest motives of all betokened a purity of heart and life that was truly charming. We mourn the absence of these marks of genuine piety, when at the present day, we see artistic display, formality, stiffness, and a "putting on" of studied courtesies and civilities on the part of many. The exterior of the hive is more ornamental now than it was then, and the swarm may have the appearance of better order in some of its workings, but it is a question whether there is as much pure honey inside. The robe may be more showy, but there is less wool in the "nap."

Friday, May 12, and Saturday, May 13, were spent at the meetinghouse preparing to have everything in order.

YEARLY MEETING BEGINS.

Introductory Sermon by Elder George Hoke, of Ohio,
Sunday, May 14.

Text.—And it came to pass, that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.—Luke 24:15.

To the true child of God no conceptions of bliss are worthy of being compared with those that flow from an ideal companionship and association with our Lord Jesus Christ.

"To dwell with him; to feel his love,

Is heavenly bliss enjoyed above:

And the sweet expectation now

Is the same bliss begun below."

The text selected is suited to the occasion that has brought many of us together. We have met to commune in our thoughts with each other, and to reason together. Since the first hour of my arrival here I could but notice the delight, and even joy, on the part of many at meeting former acquaintances and renewing the ties of love, both social and Christian, that have bound us together in one common Brotherhood for years in the past, and which are still to bind us and our children's children together in the future on earth and the eternity in glory.

The subject for to-day naturally divides itself into three propositions:

I. They communed and reasoned together.
II. Jesus himself drew near.
III. Jesus himself went with them.

We readily enough, at the start, inquire who they were that communed and reasoned together. This we never can know with certainty, until the scales of mortality drop from our eyes. One, we are told, was Cleopas by name. It may have been the same Cleopas whose wife had stood by the cross. Some think the other was Luke, the writer of the Evangel, whom Paul calls the beloved physician.

Slowly and sadly, with crushed hopes and broken hearts, these two loving disciples of our Lord were wending their way from the scenes of confusion that had attended his crucifixion in Jerusalem to a quiet little village about eight miles distant, called Emmaus. Here, at least, they hoped to find exemption from the taunts and sneers of the infatuated mob in the city, whose mutterings were still to be heard in the distance, like those of a cyclone that has done its work.

I. "They Communed and Reasoned Together."

The particular point in their conversation is not stated, but it is included in the general topic which is given as "the things which have happened in Jerusalem concerning Jesus of Nazareth." The imagination here finds scope to multiply themes without limit, on which they could reason, and over which they could be sad. At this very point of time, just when despair, like darkness at the close of an evening twilight, had settled down upon the entire landscape of their mental sight,

II. "Jesus Himself Drew Near."

"But their eyes were holden that they should not know him." This simple statement has more than once caused "smiles in tears;" smiles at the half playfulness of Jesus talking to these two beloved disciples as a tender father sometimes talks to his little children; and tears at the condescending love of Christ our God and Lord, walking as a wayfaring man with two of his heartbroken creatures. Can you take this in, and not fall at his feet and kiss them? Can you take this in, and not look up into his face smiling through your tears?

And then he said: "Behooved it not the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?" This very sentence, by which he shed the first rays of light upon the dark waters of their storm-beaten bosoms, tells the whole tale of Christ's redeeming love. The cross and crown! Joy of earth and bliss of heaven! The cross of dishonor; the crown of glory! The cross of death; the crown of life!

"But their eyes were holden, that they should not know him." He came as the divine Word. He is the truth and the life of the Word; for "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Though they knew not that it was he, still their hearts did burn within them as he opened unto them the scriptures. "Beginning at Moses he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." They do not tell us the passages he quoted and explained; but it is believed we have them all in our Bibles. I think it is evident we have all the Scriptures now that were extant then; and it is our great privilege to hunt up for ourselves and others these broken pieces of the Bread of Life.

The word "holden" means simply, held back; restrained. For wise reasons he held back the sight of their eyes that they should not know him. Had they known him at first sight, it would have interfered with and prevented the accomplishment of his gracious purpose to make himself known in the "breaking of bread." In this very act he has taught his people one of the most precious lessons in all the Christian's experiences. He is the Bread of eternal Life. His whole Word is but one great loaf, and he is that loaf. And how my soul quivers with the thought that if we invite him in as these loving disciples did, and ask him to abide with us, he will take a seat with us at table, and break unto us the Bread of Life. Our spiritual eyes will be opened, and we shall joyfully know him. Then will

"Our hearts grow warm with heavenly fire;

And kindle with a pure desire;

While our blest Savior from above

Feeds all our souls with holy love."

None but those

"that know the Lord,

And taste the sweetness of his Word,"

can ever know the joys of his salvation.

III. "Jesus Himself Went With Them."

We are not informed how many of the sixty furloughs they had already passed over on their way when "Jesus himself drew near, and went with them;" but from the loving kindness of our Lord we readily conclude they had not gone very far. "Can a mother forget her sucking child? Yea, she may forget; yet will not I forget thee." He knew the depth of their disappointment and the grief that followed when they could say: "We hoped that it was he which should redeem Israel." "We hoped—;" but alas! all hope is now forever gone. It lies buried with him in his tomb.

If one born blind could unexpectedly open his eyes to see the light of the morning sun in a cloudless sky, the surprise and joy could not be greater than were these to the two sitting at the table. They forgot to eat. They were so filled with the sight of the Lord that their hunger for that which merely represented him was all gone. They not only saw the proof of his resurrection; but in him they felt the resurrection of their own buried faith, and hope, and love.

"They rose up that very hour,—" I do not believe they sat still one minute after he vanished out of their sight—"and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, ... saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon." This was to them one of the wonders connected with his rising, as Simon had so shamefully denied him so shortly before. But such is the fullness of his grace, that where sin abounds, grace does much more abound unto all such as are willing to receive it.

Some people do not believe the story of the resurrection. But, strange to say, they can believe something a hundred times less reasonable, and absolutely false. They can believe that a lie has done more to better the condition of mankind in this world than all the truth that has ever been told. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the keystone to the great arch upon which rest all the truths of Divine Revelation. Destroy this, and the arch, with all upon it, falls a pile of ruins.

There is one special fact connected with the Lord's resurrection which we must not forget. He never appeared to any but his own. They, only, had eyes to see him. Some may wonder why he did not go out into the streets of Jerusalem and there, to gaping crowds, show his risen form with the nail prints and the spear mark still fresh in his hands and his feet, and in his side. In answer to this I have but little to say, more than that he was ever averse to casting pearls before swine or giving that which is holy unto dogs. I will add this, however, that as none but spiritual eyes can see him now, so none but spiritual eyes could see him then. This is what he meant by saying: "Yet a little while, and the world beholdeth me no more; but ye behold me: because I live, ye shall live also."

And now, my dear Brethren, what have we learned by our meditation to-day? If we have learned to know the Lord a little better, that we may draw nearer to him, we are edified, and our preaching and hearing have not been void. In all our communings with him, Brethren, let us believe and love with all our hearts. In our reasonings together let us know and feel that "he is nigh, even at hand." When we are in the way of duty, we love to feel that Jesus is with us, that he knows all we think, and sees all we do; but when out of the way, when walking in forbidden paths, how abashed and confused would we feel, if "Jesus himself were to draw near!" O brethren and sisters, let us so live, that every thought and word and act of our lives may be fit for his eye. Lord, give us grace so to live. Amen!

Yearly Meeting Opens

At the Linville's Creek Church,
Monday, May 15.

Brethren Henry Kurtz, John Garber, Umstead and Price spoke in exposition of the Word and doctrine in the forenoon meeting, which opened at 8 a.m.

Brother Price took the lead, and spoke from 1 Peter 1:12. I will give a faithful report of his discourse as nearly exact as it can be made from the very brief outlines left by Brother Kline. Had the thought ever entered Brother Kline's mind that his Diary might at some future day be published in a regularly prepared form, I feel sure he would have left more extended entries on points of intense interest.

Text.—"Which things the angels desire to look into."

Salvation is infinitely the most momentous subject that can engage the thoughts of men. It embraces a knowledge of God on the one hand and a knowledge of man on the other. It is a pleasing thought that as the knowledge of God is unfolded to the mind, a knowledge of man's own sinful and lost condition flows in along with it; so that the very same light which enables him to perceive the love and goodness and truth and holiness of God imparts to him at the same time a view of his own sinful state. He is led to see and feel in himself a spiritual condition which is the very opposite of that which he discovers in God his Creator, Preserver and bountiful Benefactor.

The Bible tells us that "in the beginning God made man upright," that he created him in his own image, after his own likeness, and pronounced him, with all else that he had made, "very good." But how is man now? What is his moral and spiritual condition? I appeal to the heart experience of every one in this house for an answer. Brother, there is no charge on the part of the church against you. The church has never at any time preferred a charge against you. You are loved and held in high esteem by all the brethren and sisters. The laws of your land have never brought an accusation against you. You have, in the most minute particulars, been "a law-abiding citizen." More than all this, you labor to do all the good you can, by feeding and clothing the poor; by helping to keep up the church, and by aiding in the spread of the Gospel. You also help your neighborhood, county and State by paying all your dues and by voluntary contributions of money or labor to public improvements, education and whatever else may be for the general good, as necessity may demand.

But, with all these excellencies in your character and life in full view, I ask you, as in the presence of God: Do you feel in your heart that you are a good man? Would you be willing for the world and the church to know every thought and imagination and desire that enters your heart and passes through your mind in the short space of one day of your life? Do you feel that all within is fit for the eye of God? I know, or think I know, just what is in your mind, and your answer is in words like these: "I do not feel that I am good. It is only by constant watchfulness, by looking to Jesus in his Word, and by reading his Word with prayer, in connection with my attendance upon the ordinances of his house, that I am enabled to walk in the path I go, and lead the life I do.

"'He leadeth me: he leadeth me:

By his own hand he leadeth me.'

"His promise, 'Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,' sustains my hope and assures me that 'he will never leave me, nor forsake me.' Thus, God being my helper, I do all the good I can, and shun the evil. In this way 'I labor, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing to him; and work out my own salvation with fear and trembling;' feeling, however, at the same time, a blessed assurance that it is God who worketh in me both to will and to do the things that are pleasing in his sight."

Brethren, this is salvation. It is the sum of "the things which many prophets and wise men desired to see, and saw them not; and to hear, and heard them not." But let us look at the divine forces, brother, that have wrought in you this wonderful change from a life of self-love, into which you were born by nature, to a life of divine love, joyful, holy, heavenly love to God and your brother, into which you have been born by the Spirit.

Peter tells us something about this in the chapter read. He here says: "Ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; but with the precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ.... Ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth; ... having been begotten [or born] again, ... through the word of God, which liveth and abideth."

He now introduces the contrast between man's natural birth and his spiritual birth: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit;" and he says:

"All flesh is as grass,

And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass.

The grass withereth, and the flower falleth."

"Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," is the doom of flesh and blood sealed to every mortal as a consequence of sin. No wonder the grave is sad and lonely to the contemplation of those who have no hope of aught of life or love beyond it. It is sad to think how many have no higher claim to life and happiness than mere fleshly, bodily existence. But our Lord hath "brought life and immortality to light," and

"The good Spirit of the Lord

Reveals a heaven to come;

The beams of glory in his Word

Allure and guide us home."

"Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be;" but we know that we have the promise of "an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away."

Brethren, this inheritance which Peter talks of—what do you think about it? Is it something extraneous to the man, something outside of him? Or is it something intrinsic to the man in his renewed state, something internal, something inside of him? I, for one, believe that man's eternal and blissful inheritance, which Peter and John and Paul describe in such glowing terms, is in the man himself, in his adaptation to the bliss-inspiring garniture of heaven. It is "Christ in him the hope of glory."

This exalted and blissful state of man redeemed is what Peter calls his "inheritance which is incorruptible." Think of it, Brethren. No more sin to bewail; no more sickness to suffer; no more death to dread! It is also "undefiled." No more "filthiness of the flesh;" "neither idolatry, nor adultery, nor whatsoever loveth and maketh a lie." And "that fadeth not away." The luster of the eye; the bloom of the cheek; the facial expressions of beauty and love, purity and truth, know nothing of decay in the amaranthine bowers of spotless purity.

We often wonder about heaven. But I will tell you, Brethren, what I believe about it. I do believe in my very soul that every Christian man, after the death of his body, finds himself in the very heaven he takes with him from this world; and that every man's heaven is the love and the truth that abound in his mind and heart. If his heart is filled with love to God and to his brother, and his mind stored with the truth of God as revealed in his Son Jesus Christ, that man's heaven is in him. Do you remember, Brethren, that when Jesus was on earth he said that he was also at the same time in heaven? Now let me show you this. He says to Nicodemus: "No man hath ascended to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." John 3:13.

And right here a difficulty confronts us which we must try to settle. Did not Elijah ascend to heaven? How about Moses? These two redeemed saints were both of them in heaven at the very time our Lord said this to Nicodemus. Very shortly after this conversation they made their appearance, not only to Jesus, but to Peter and James and John on the holy mount in glory. How had they gotten there? I will tell you just what I think our Lord meant. He meant to teach that stupid, materialistic Nicodemus that people do not go to heaven by merely ascending, like as one would ascend or go up from a lower room in a building to a higher one. He meant to teach him that heaven must be in the man, inwrought into his character and life. This follows in perfect harmony with what he had just before told him about the new birth and a change of heart. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," and nothing more. But Paul says: "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." Elijah had not really ascended. The Lord just took him up as he had taken Enoch many years before. He was in heaven whilst on earth, just as Jesus was. The only change he underwent in his departure from this world was a change in the relations of his state. While here his state was a heavenly state, but surrounded by earthly things. After his departure from earth his state was the same; but his surroundings were heavenly, and he could feel at home.

THE ANGELS.

No wonder, Brethren, that the angels desire to look into these things. Some very good and wise men are of the opinion that all the angels of heaven are none other than saints redeemed from the earth. How this may be I do not know; but some things that the Bible says about angels seem to favor this conclusion. The main thing in this direction is the deep interest they have always felt, and the active part they have always taken in the things of man's salvation. Paul covers this whole ground by a single sweep of his pen. "Are they not all," says he, "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" Of course he means by the heirs of salvation those still tabernacling in the flesh, and still exposed to the ups and downs of the waves of life.

I think, though, that one reason why the angels feel such a deep interest in the things of man's salvation is because they are there—in heaven, I mean—always beholding the face of our Father who is in heaven. They see and feel the glory; they know the bliss of that celestial state. So full of love are they even for poor, fallen, lost, ruined man that we are told by the Lord himself that "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." Their joy in this is commensurate with the exalted knowledge they have of the blessedness of true penitence. In it they see light shining in the darkness of the poor sinner's heart. Peace to the waves of his storm-beaten soul,—a new creature in the image of their and our Lord Jesus Christ coming forth into the enjoyment of a new life in him; deliverance from the bondage and power of sin, and restoration to the glorious liberty of the children of God! How much more than all this they see in the return of one soul to God. I do not know; and we never can know fully until we go up higher.

"The blessedness of those above,

Why longs my panting soul to know?

For future bliss I know is love,

And love is felt by saints below.

"But love so pure, exalted high

Beyond compute, beyond compare—

No eagle wing that height may fly;

No mortal breathe that upper air.

"There, love springs pure and unrepressed;

There, all are loved, and love again.

Love fills each burning cherub's breast;

Love fires each flaming seraph train.

"Soon, soon shall I, this conflict o'er,

From sin be freed, with love be fired;

Soon, soon in heaven, my God adore,

With love, celestial love inspired."

And right here this thought comes to mind: If angels are so much interested in the salvation of men, should not men be quite as deeply interested in the salvation of one another? If there are such exultant emotions of joy in the bosoms of angels over one sinner that repents, should there not be an equal measure of joy in the bosoms of men from the same cause?

But the text says: "The angels desire to look into these things." We should not infer from this that their knowledge of the way of salvation is limited, or that they meet with difficulties in the way of understanding it. Oh, no! Their desires are being constantly met and supplied with the means of acquiring knowledge upon this subject, fully up to the measure of each one's capacity to take it in. We may, therefore, justly infer from the text that the subject is immensely vast in its proportions and range.

As salvation is infinite in respect to the truths contained in it and connected with it, so is it also eternal in respect to the scenes and experiences through which the redeemed will be forever passing.

"Could we, so rich in rapture, fear an end,

That ghastly thought would drink up all our joy;

And quite unparadise the realms of light."

And here, dear brethren and sisters, another thought comes to mind suggesting another question: If angels desire to look into the things of man's salvation, should not men have an equal desire to look into them? Should not those who still have the stream to cross, and to whom the ford looks somewhat dark and uncertain, be quite as much interested in it, and in all connected with it, as those who are safely landed on the other shore? Think of this, will you? Let me impress this thought: If the angels, who are out of the reach of all harm and danger, feel such a glow of interest to learn all they can about the way in which all are saved; should not men, who are still exposed to danger, feel an equal or a still deeper interest?

But how is it with the bulk of professors? Who of you, my dear Brethren, make the Bible the man of your counsel? Who of you read and study it with that devotion of faith which makes you feel that your eternal life is in that Word? With joy would I give you the touch of heaven's galvanism to quicken your souls to a livelier sense of the transcendent importance of this matter. I feel sure that many of you do read. You love your Bible because it tells you of your sin and your Savior, of your cross and your crown. But how is it with many? They read some, no doubt; partly from a sense of duty and to quiet their consciences; but not, I fear, with a deep and inmost desire to learn the things of salvation.

Brethren, if the Bible be true, it is tremendously true. It is true with a power that lifts the contrite, penitent, faithful follower of our Lord to the gates of the Holy City, and opens them to him; and it is true with a power that sinks the faithless, impenitent, careless, sin-loving sinner to hell. To which class do I belong? With which class am I going to spend a long eternity? I am happy to see in the luster of many an eye here the evidence of your being in the class first named, and on the side of salvation. God grant that all may be in that number; and in a better world and a purer life, with angels on high, sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb.

Brother Price was followed by brethren John Garber, Henry Kurtz and Umstead, all bearing testimony more or less extended. The services were brought to a close, and an intermission was given. In the afternoon queries were taken in.

Tuesday, May 16. The meeting was continued to-day. Seven queries were disposed of. Love and harmony abound.

Wednesday, May 17. The meeting was brought to a close to-day. The business being all disposed of, it broke up in the afternoon by the singing of the hymn:

"Blest be the dear uniting love

That will not let us part;

Our bodies far apart may move,

We still are joined in heart."

O my God, I pray that we, as thy dear people, may ever be thus joined in heart; that we may ever be of one mind and speak the same thing; that thy Spirit may fill us and guide us into a clear understanding of thy revealed will that we may not err therein; that we may keep all pride and emulation of the flesh out of our hearts; that each one may esteem another better than himself with all lowliness and meekness; with long-suffering; forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man; unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Amen!

Thursday, May 18. Some of the Brethren from a distance start home to-day. Set things in order at the meetinghouse. While thus engaged our thoughts would turn to the pleasant season of brotherly communion we had just passed through. I can but wish and pray that the same spirit of love and union may pervade every meeting yet to be held in the Brotherhood, through all time, to the end of the world.

Thursday, August 10. Benjamin Bowman and Samuel Wampler were established in the ministry to-day, in a council at our meetinghouse.

Tuesday, August 29. Brother Kline and Brother Flory start to Maryland and Pennsylvania on horseback. Brother Abraham Flory, by the way, was a suitable companion for Brother Kline. He loved home, it is true, and he had a home worthy of being loved. But when he made up his mind to go he left all his home cares behind; and, like Abraham of old, he said to these servants of life: "Stay ye here while I go yonder to worship; and I will return again unto you." He consequently never fretted about home in his absence; but was habitually calm and self-possessed. Even a rainy day or high water did not interfere with the equilibrium of his mild temper.

These two brethren were well mounted. Their horses were good travelers, not only as to gait, but bottom as well. This, in common parlance, means great power of endurance. We must not forget that this journey was undertaken more than sixty years ago. The two travelers did not know what weather they might have to contend with on a journey which was to occupy more than five weeks. Umbrellas were rare in that day; but even if they had been abundant they were too much "after the fashion" to have been used by these unfashionable brethren. Indeed umbrellas were not used by the Brotherhood, at least in Virginia, until many years after this.

A great coat, made of heavy and compact stuff, with long skirts reaching to the feet, and a large cape attached, covering completely the shoulders, and buttoning over the breast, constituted a covering defying both rain and storm. Superadded to this was a very broad-brimmed hat of solid felt. Every saddle in that day was provided with what was called a coat-pad. This was a flat leather pad fastened to the saddle just behind the seat, and furnished with straps and buckles so as to hold an overcoat, when properly rolled up and fastened, in perfect order whilst traveling. Leather saddlebags well stocked with changes of clean underwear completed the outfit.

Thus equipped, these two brethren started on their journey. Their spirit in all this reminds one of what passed between two ministering brethren of another persuasion who were traveling together, neither so well equipped nor mounted, but on foot. Trudging along in the face of foul weather to meet an engagement, Comer said to Proctor:

"I don't mind the rain

If souls I may gain."

To which Proctor instantly replied to Comer:

"I can face every storm of rain and foul weather,

When I and my Lord are walking together."

Wherever Brother Kline and his companion went they were recognized, whether personally known or not, as Dunkard Preachers. No doubt the sneer was sometimes thrust at them, and the lip curled with contempt by those whose stolid ignorance and stupid brains had locked the door against the inflow of good breeding and truth. But in the eyes of all honest, sincere-minded people their mission was one of mercy, truth and love; and they were loved and respected accordingly.

Near the close of the third day of travel, they passed

HARPER'S FERRY.

Brother Kline's experienced eye took in the whole scene at one view. He says: "The scenery here is greatly surpassed by that of many places within the Allegheny ranges. It is not nearly equal to the South Branch Gap below Petersburg in Hardy County, Virginia; nor does it at all compare, in sublime grandeur, with the Rocks at the mouth of the Seneca, in Pendleton County, Virginia. It is tame in comparison with either of these places. But so goes the world. It is with places as with people. When one gets a name by being lauded high by some distinguished personage, as Thomas Jefferson, for example, he soon has the eyes and the ears of the world; whilst others, more worthy, perhaps, in all the elements of true greatness, are left unnoticed and unknown. This thought awakens my recollection of a stanza in Gray's 'Elegy.' It touches tenderly and beautifully upon the neglect and lack of appreciation often experienced by real beauty, virtue and goodness. Here is the verse:

"'Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear;

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,

And waste its sweetness on the desert air.'

"But we must tone our criticisms down to a just standard. The lack of fame with many justly meriting it is not their own fault, nor is it the fault of the world; but the trouble lies greatly in the place of their birth and in the surroundings of their lives. If the South Branch Gap had had its birth at Harper's Ferry the summit of its fame would reach the clouds; whilst Harper's Ferry, born among the rugged recesses of the Alleghenies, would never be thought of. The world is not so partial and full of favoritism as we think. It readily takes up what suits its uses and its tastes, without stopping to inquire whether there might not be something better found."

Crossing the Potomac at the Ferry, they go to Brother Letherman's and spend the night.

Friday, September 1. Love feast at Brother Herschman's in Middle Valley. Luke 3 was read. Three persons were baptized. Next day the brethren go to Beaver Dam, and pass the night at John Garber's.

At this time letter postage was very high, as much as twenty-five cents on some letters; and the transportation of mails very slow. Regardless of this, however, by means of letters, Brother Kline knew just where to go and what to expect before starting on a journey. Appointments for preaching, councils and love feasts fell in the line of his route from beginning to end. Have a little bit of patience, please, and let me quote the entries just as I find them in the Diary for this journey. If they do not interest you, they may interest others deeply, especially the children and the grandchildren of the good people named in them.

Sunday, September 3. Love feast at Beaver Dam. Luke 14 was read. Three persons were baptized.

Monday, 4. Visit Brother Deah's and Saylor's, and stay all night at Joseph Engle's.

Tuesday, 5. Meeting at Pipe Creek. Luke 16 was read. Stay all night at Peter Royer's.

Wednesday, 6. Meeting at Rupp's. John 1 was read. Stay all night at Christian Royer's.

Thursday, 7. Stay at Brother Keeney's.

Friday, 8. Love feast at Brother Keeney's. John 18 was read.

Saturday, 9. Visit Jacob Myers's. Stay all night at David Brillhardt's.

The families visited in the order of Brother Kline and Brother Flory's route were as follows: Christian Longenacker's, John Zug's, Abraham Zug's, Daniel Zug's, Jacob Gipe's, John Gipe's, Abraham Harshey's, Shoemaker's, Brother Myers's on the other side of the Susquehanna, Andrew Deardorf's, David Pfoutz, Fogelsanger's, John Stauffer's, Brother Royer's, Brother Holsinger's, Welty's, Fahrney's, Joseph Emert's, Eschleman's, David Kinsey's, Brother Martain's, James Tabler's; Carter's, in Frederick County, Virginia, Jonas Goughnour's, in Shenandoah County, Virginia; and home Tuesday, October 3.

Brother Flory and I did not separate for one day or night on this journey. He preached a good deal, and has, I think, left a very good impression. He related a little incident about a local preacher with whom he was personally acquainted, and which he stated for a fact, that has several times amused me. It came in at a suitable place in one of his discourses. The preacher had been regularly receiving one hundred dollars a year from his Conference, for stated preachings to several poor congregations not far from his home. The preacher owned a farm and a mill, both at the same time; and with the two combined he became independent. His brethren saw this and concluded that he ought no longer be paid the hundred dollars a year; so the pay was withheld. But his preaching stopped as suddenly as his pay. When asked about the cause of this he pointed to his mill wheel and said: "Do you suppose that that wheel will run if you keep the water off?"

The brethren and sisters generally appeared to be alive to their spiritual interests. The meetings were usually well attended, and good attention was paid to the preaching. In some places, however, worldliness in dress and manners is becoming too apparent.

In Maryland we happened to fall in company with a man traveling our course, who represented himself as a United Brethren preacher. He was very plainly dressed himself, and as we were plain I guess he thought that to give his conversation a turn upon the fashions of the world would not be unpleasant to us. At any rate he went on to tell how pride was gradually creeping, inch by inch, into his own denomination; and, "worst of all," said he, "it looks like it is beginning to take hold of some of our preachers." He then stated that at their last yearly Conference, the bishop had scored some of them fearfully about it. He then repeated what the bishop had said on the occasion about the

ORIGIN OF FASHIONS.

"Some of you may be curious to know from what place the American people obtain their fashions. I will tell you. They get them from New York City. And from what place does New York City get them? From London. And from what place does London get them? From Paris. And from what place does Paris get them? I answer," said the bishop, "that Paris gets them from hell through the devil and his agents."

In the journey from which I have just returned I preached twenty times; attended eight love feasts; visited and conversed with many families on religious topics. In all this service, if I know my own heart, I have been actuated by no selfish motives. As Paul said: I desire that my service may be acceptable to the saints; but to make it so, I have used no deceit, no flattery, and have put forth no effort of any kind save that of trying, by the grace of God, to make myself a faithful minister of Jesus Christ. As one called to preach the Gospel, this is my duty at all times. Conscious of this, I aim to be "instant in season, out of season." May God bless our labors, including those of the dear brother who was with me. "Paul may plant, and Apollos water; but God only can give the increase." We must, by his grace, use all means to keep the Brotherhood pure, by defending it against the inroads of worldliness and pride in every form. May God forgive all our sins. Amen!

Sunday, October 15. Brethren Martain Myers and Samuel Lehman were with us at our meeting to-day. They spoke beautifully on John 5:24.

Resolutions Made by Elder John Kline,

Monday, January 1, 1838.

He says: I now resolve

To do all the good I can this year.

To shun all evil in thought, word, and deed as far as I can.

To learn all I can of wholesome truth.

To make the best use I can of what I learn and know. To do all this with an eye single to the glory of God and the good of mankind.

Could any one resolve better? Could an angel from heaven, if sent down to live with men on earth, resolve to a better purpose? But it is easier to resolve than to carry into effect; easier to think wisely than to act wisely; easier to plan well than to execute. But of this one thing I am sure: If Brother Kline failed in any of the above resolutions, his failure was not chargeable to his will, but to his weakness. Even Paul could say: "To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. When I would do good, evil is present with me." The cause of this conflict in the course of every Christian's experience is what has been very appropriately called "indwelling sin." The serpent's head may be bruised to death, but the tail will not die until the sun goes down. It is true, the tail is not at the dangerous end of a snake; but while the tail rattles and wriggles it gives evidence that there is still some life left; and before one turns away from it in the satisfied assurance that it needs no further attention it might be well for him to look again and make sure, beyond all doubt, that the head end has been crushed to death.

A Funeral Sermon by Elder John Kline.

At the Burial of Mrs. Lauck,
Feb. 7.

Text.—Man that is born of woman, is of few days, and full of trouble He cometh forth as a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.—Job 14:1, 2.

The bulk of Divine Truth is addressed to our faith. We are not expected to receive it as we receive knowledge that is based upon our own experience, or upon the experience of others. God expects us to take his Word for the truth of what he says, whether we fully understand it or not. He addresses our faith, as a father does his child when he seeks to inculcate some truth or principle which the child cannot fully comprehend. But the text selected for this occasion is not of this character. It is addressed to our knowledge and every day's observation and experience. We have only to look at ourselves and at others to see and feel the truth that it tells. It is not, therefore, given to teach, so much as to remind us of what, in the busy whirl of life, we may for a time partially forget. The benefit of being reminded of our mortality comes to us in the way of leading us to seek for something better than this world can give.

The phraseology of the text is exquisitely beautiful. Notice the smoothness of its rhythm, the simplicity of its style, the harmony of its cadences: "Man that is born of woman, is of few days, and full of trouble." This is the direct opposite of what all naturally desire. All living human beings would rejoice in a life of many days, exempt from trouble. "He cometh forth like a flower."

"They bloom in beauty, side by side;

They fill one home with glee."

This is pleasant to contemplate; and if the beauty could but last, forever free from all decay, few would wish for aught of life or love beyond the things of time and sense. But, alas! "he is cut down—" and soon

"Their graves are severed far and wide,

By mount, and stream, and sea;"

and these graves all tell a tale of buried hopes, buried love, buried peace.

"The same fond mother bent at night

O'er each fair sleeping brow;

She had each folded flower in sight:

Where are those dreamers now!"

We can but sigh our sadness in the closing lines of this beautiful poem—

"Alas, for love! if thou wert all;

And naught beyond, O earth!"

Thus do Inspiration and Poetry alike paint the sombre realities of life and death; and point to death as the doom of life.

But I do not love to dwell upon these sad scenes, and will turn your attention at once to a birth that knows no death, to a flower that never fades, to a beauty that knows no decay. And can this be true? Can it be that there is a deathless life, a fadeless flower, a shadowless beauty? It may be that some of you are skeptical about things like these. You may have the unbelief that held the heart of Aaron Burr's daughter against all comfort, when she saw her son die. In her agony of despair she cried out: "Omnipotence itself can never restore to me what I have lost in my only boy."

Your faces may be turned the wrong way. You may be like Lot's wife, looking back. And one might just as well talk to a pillar of salt about the glory, and the beauty, and the bliss of the eternal state of the righteous after death, as to talk to men whose backs are heavenward and their faces earthward. You have no eyes in the back part of your heads. Your ears are set to hear what is said to your face, and to catch the sounds that meet you in front. You must turn yourselves round. And more than all this, you must open the eyes of your understandings that the light may shine in, and take the wads of earthly wax out of your ears that you may hear the Savior's words of "spirit and life," and loose the strings of your hearts that the good and truth of God's Word may enter. If you will do this I will show you wonderful things. I will show you a fountain from which, if you drink, you will never thirst again. Not like the fabled "Fountain of Youth," which many sought, but never found. The fountain I mean has been found by millions of the human race. It has quenched their thirst forever.

Do not, I beseech you, understand me to mean that one drink of its water is sufficient to do this. No! no! But I do mean that after you have come to the spring and taken one drink it is your privilege to stay by it forever: nay, more; the spring, like the Rock in the wilderness, will follow you wherever you go; and by and by a spring will be opened up in your own heart, flowing with the same sweet water of everlasting Life, and then you can sing:

"I heard the voice of Jesus say,

Behold, I freely give

The Living Water: thirsty one,

Stoop down and drink, and live.

"I came to Jesus, and I drank

Of that life-giving stream:

My thirst was quenched; my soul revived:

And now I live in Him."

But I will show you bread also. It is wonderful bread. The Israelites, many centuries ago, kept a representation of this bread upon the table connected with their altar of worship; and they called it "showbread," because it showed something to come. A kind of bread also fell upon the face of the ground all around them, when they were encamped in the wilderness; and they called it "manna." They gathered this in the morning, and the supply never failed. But it did not keep them from dying. They died all the same as if they had lived on wheat bread, as we do. It is of this that Jesus says: "Your fathers did eat of the manna in the wilderness, and they died." But our Lord, in speaking of the Bread of Life, which is none other than the great love of God in Christ Jesus, says: "This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of heaven: if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever."

Live forever! Does not that sound pleasant in your ears? Does it not have the note of solid comfort? If you believe it, it does. It is on this account that our Lord says so much about faith. Faith makes a man thirsty for the water of eternal life, and faith makes a man hungry for the bread of eternal life. Millions in heaven to-day, each one out of his own heart, can sing:

"I heard the voice of Jesus say:

I am the Bread of Life:

Eat of this Bread, O hungry one,

And have eternal life.

"I took the Bread he gave me then:

My hungry soul it fed;

For this, he said, I gave my life,

And on the cross I bled."

When our Lord was on earth he spoke to the people and to his disciples mostly in parables. In fact we are told that "without a parable spake he not unto them." It is from this that so many similitudes, and metaphors, and figures of speech are found in the New Testament. Thus, water and wine, in many places, mean divine truth; and bread means divine love. And now I will venture to make a statement for the consideration of every thinking mind in this house—a statement which, if it be true, is of infinite and eternal importance—and it is this: Love and truth support and keep life in man's spirit, just as bread and water support and keep life in man's body.

Jesus said to the tempter: "Man does not live by bread alone." Do any of you suppose that Jesus meant to inform the devil that man needs other kinds of food in addition, such as meats, and fruits, and vegetables? He had no such thought. He did not mean to inform or instruct the devil by anything he said to him. But he did mean to teach his tried and tempted followers to the end of time that love and truth are the very life and support of man's spirit. "My words," says he, "are spirit, and they are life." Man may love, and ardently love, what is evil. But divine truth tells him what to love. Hence our Lord's answer is about equivalent to this: "Man does not live by bread [love] alone; but by [water also, which is the truth of] every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

And now, in conclusion, I will ask you, friends, do any of you desire everlasting life? If you do, I say unto you, Come to Jesus. Accept his love. He loved you "and gave himself for you." Accept him by faith. He is the Bread of eternal Life. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." He invites you to come and take of the water of life freely. This water is none other than the truth of his Word. Be filled with it. Be immersed in it. As a most impressive emblem of your willingness to be thus, submit to the ordinance of baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

By your immersion in the name of the Father you declare to the world, and say to the church that you believe that God the Father loves you, and wills your salvation; that you accept his love in faith, and prove your faith by this act. By your immersion in the name of the Son you profess your faith in the efficacy and sufficiency of what Jesus Christ did to save you, that he is the Word made flesh, and that men should honor him, even as they honor the Father. By your immersion in the name of the Holy Ghost you profess your faith in the power and everlasting presence of the Holy Spirit in your heart, to lead you into all truth, to make you more and more holy by means of this truth, until you are filled with it, thoroughly leavened with "the leaven of truth and sincerity." The Holy Spirit is called "The Spirit of Truth," and "if the truth make you free, ye shall be free indeed;" free from falsities in your faith. What benefit can there be in believing what is not true? Whoever yet found any substantial good in believing a delusion, a falsehood, an error? But we do read of some who "believe a lie that they may be damned." This sounds rough I know; but it is their own fault, because they love a lie; and "whosoever loveth a lie" is excluded, shut out of the Holy City, because nothing but truth and love can enter there. I again call upon every one here present to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and, believing, he shall have life in his name.

AN ENCOURAGING THOUGHT.

The following encouraging thought comes into Brother Kline's mind in connection with a review of his work on Lost river. It is dated:

Sunday, February 18. One man may sometimes strike a hard stone a good many times without breaking it; when another may take the same hammer, strike it in a slightly different place, or in a different way, and it falls to pieces. It may be that the first man's strokes accomplished more than he knew of. The force of his blows may have diminished the solidity of the stone, and thus made it easier for the second man to break. If I cannot see much fruit of my labor here now, perhaps some, who will come after me, may.

THE COVE.

Sunday, April 22. Brother Kline and Daniel Miller had meeting in a place among the mountains in Hardy County, Virginia, called the Cove. This consists of an area of country so nearly enclosed by mountains of a somewhat circular form that it has but one outlet both for its streams and its inhabitants. Viewed from the summit of some neighboring peak it has the appearance of a vast amphitheatre whose dome is the sky, whose floor is a variegation of corn and wheat fields interspersed with beautiful green meadows, and whose walls are the substantial mountain masonry of nature's own sublime art. Here these two beloved brethren broke the Bread of Life to a small gathering of people, mostly residents of the place we have described.

Acts 3 was read. After many instructive remarks by Brother Kline concerning the great Prophet spoken of in the latter part of the chapter, Brother Daniel Miller followed with a brief discourse, so clear, so pointed, so forcible, that I will give his remarks as nearly as I can in the order and manner in which he presented them.

He first endeavored to draw the attention of the unconverted part of the audience specifically to these words: "Every soul, which will not hearken to that prophet, shall be utterly destroyed." "I know of no expression in the Bible," said he, "more sharply pointed than this. The word 'destroyed,' as here used, does not mean blotted out of existence. But it does mean cast out as evil, unfit for the companionship of God's people in heaven. In much the same sense of the word it is said that intemperance destroys men. It unfits them for the duties of life, and for the society of the pure and the good.

"A ship may be said to be destroyed even though its dismantled hulk still floats upon the sea, borne by the waves and driven by the winds. A fruit tree is destroyed when a worm, secretly gnawing at its root, girdles it with a belt of deadness. It may still stand, but fruitless and lifeless. An eye is destroyed when it becomes so far injured by disease or accident as to be forever out of the reach of power to restore its sight.

"And is this the sense in which every soul will be destroyed who refuses to hear this Prophet? Most assuredly it is. O, friends, how shall I tell you the difference between a soul saved and a soul destroyed? The one is forever happy, the other forever miserable. The one is an eye that sees and enjoys all the beauties of earth and sky, the other is an eye forever blind. The one is an ear that will forever hear the melodies of heaven, the other is an ear forever deaf to all but the wailings of hell. The one is a ship completely rigged and fitted to bear herself nobly and safely over the surging surface of a stormy sea, the other, a floating hulk; mastless, sailorless, only waiting to be cast upon some desert shore to rot.

"But no one can ever have a just excuse for being thus destroyed; for it is plain that whosoever hears this Prophet shall be saved. Jesus Christ is a wonderful Savior. 'He is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God through him.' Will not you come? 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world.' The text does not say that God will destroy every soul that will not hearken to that Prophet. I do not believe that this is meant. Our Lord says in one place: 'Fear him, who, after he hath killed the body, is able to destroy both soul and body in hell: yea, I say unto you, Fear him.' Who is this that is thus to be feared? I tell you that it is sin, impersonated in the devil. Sin, sin is what is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Sin, disobedience to God, transgression of God's law, has placed the seal of death upon every living human body in the world; and sin has stamped the seal of death upon every unsaved soul in hell.

"O friends, I am afraid of sin. I am afraid to disobey my God and Savior. I am more afraid of sin than I would be of smallpox in an infected district. I am more afraid of sin than I would be of leprosy on the plains of Syria. That or this could only kill my body; but sin is able to destroy both my soul and body in hell.

"It is plain that to hear the voice of that Prophet, who is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ, to hear his voice with an ear to find out what he says and what he wants us to do, and then in love and faith to do it, is the only way any soul has by which to escape the threatened destruction. I wish that I could implant in the heart of every sinner here to-day such a fear of sin and its awful consequences as would lead him to flee for refuge, to lay hold of the hope set before us in the Gospel. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is this house of refuge. Sinner, come to him. No, no! You need not do that, for he comes to you, and you only need rise up and open the door and let him in."

A SINGULAR PHENOMENON.

Friday, June 1. This day, says the Diary, I witnessed a very wonderful appearance about the sun. About eleven o'clock I saw a bright circle around the sun like a rainbow, with the sun in the center. At the same time there was another circle somewhat larger than this, on the west side of the sun; and the east side of this ring rested upon the face of the sun. At the points where the rings crossed each other there was a peculiar brightness and blending of colors. The whole was a sublime and beautiful sight.

Sermon by Benjamin Bowman.

Preached in Brock's Gap, Virginia,
June 17.

Text.—There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God.—Heb. 4:9.

FROM NOTES IN THE DIARY.

We are informed by the Apostle of the Gentiles that the sojourn of the children of Israel in the wilderness and the subsequent dealings of Jehovah with them were examples to us who live under the gospel dispensation. These examples comprise two great facts:

I. Their obedience was always attended with blessings.
II. Their disobedience was always attended with sufferings.

These two great facts comprehend the all of man's life and experience in both worlds, from the alpha to the omega. I am well aware that many in this assembly are not Bible readers. I will therefore give you a brief sketch of the children of Jacob or Israel as I find it in the books of Moses and the book of Joshua, which comprise the first six books of the Bible.

Jacob, who is also called Israel, was the grandson of Abraham. He had twelve sons, of whom Joseph was the next to the youngest. These twelve sons, with their descendants through all time, are called the children of Israel. Later on they are also called Jews. The Jews of the present day claim to be the descendants of these twelve sons of Jacob or Israel. Joseph's older brothers became envious of him and sold him to a company of merchants who carried him into Egypt. Here he was elevated by the Lord to a position of great power, to a place and power next to the king on his throne.

Soon after this a very grievous famine came upon the land of Canaan, the country in which Israel, with his other sons, still lived. They heard that there was plenty of food in Egypt, and so Jacob sent his sons there to buy grain for bread. When they arrived in Egypt, to their great surprise, they found their brother Joseph there, whom they had sold to the merchants for thirty pieces of silver. He received them kindly, supplied their immediate wants, and very soon made arrangements for them and their father Jacob to come down to Egypt and live with him. And Jacob went down into Egypt and lived with his son Joseph till he died.

These Israelites grew and multiplied in Egypt until they became a great people. But the time came when the Egyptians oppressed them, laying heavy burdens upon them; and treated them as slaves. At this time the Lord said to Moses: I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt; and I now send thee thither to bring them out of that land, and into a land that I will tell thee of. Under the leadership of Moses, the most interesting and instructive part of their history is found.

After a succession of miracles, wrought by Jehovah through Moses, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, agreed to let them go. But they had to pass through a desert and uninhabited country, which lay between Egypt and the land of Canaan. Pharaoh knew this, and to get revenge for the way the Lord had compelled him to let them go he gathered a very large army and pursued after them. Just at the time Pharaoh thought he had them in his power, and when the whole camp of Israel trembled with fear of being suddenly destroyed by the hosts of the Egyptians, the Lord opened a passage for the children of Israel through the

RED SEA.

The Red Sea, at this place, had a very smooth bottom of sand, as has been discovered since, although it is very deep, and perhaps twenty miles across. The water stood like a wall on both sides of this passage. Some of you may think this could not be. I will here relate the substance of a conversation, which is said to have really taken place between the first English minister to Siam, and the king of that country. Siam is a very hot country in the south part of Asia. There is never any winter, or even cool weather, in that country. So the people there know nothing of ice, and even the king himself had never heard of any such thing. The English minister told him many things about England and other countries, and among other things referred to the effect of cold upon water, that it makes it hard.

"You do not say," said the king, "that water gets hard in your country!" "Indeed I do," said the minister. "It sometimes gets so hard all over the surface of broad rivers and lakes that men, and even heavy beasts, may walk upon it with dry feet; and if your heavy elephants were there, even they could walk upon the hard water too." "I have, thus far," replied the king, "been willing to listen to you, and believe what you say; but now I know you lie."

So it may be with some who read or hear the story of the children of Israel. They may think it all reasonable and fair enough, until they come to the passage through the Red Sea: there faith stumbles and falls. But we must never forget that all things, not self-contradictory, are possible with God. It is just as possible and easy for him to crystallize the billows of an ocean as to freeze a drop of dew on a blade of grass. At the command of Moses they enter this avenue through the deep, walled by the waves, and roofed by the sky. Surely no eyes but theirs ever witnessed so sublime a sight.

"Water to right of them;

Water to left of them;

Water in front of them;"

while over their heads passed the cloud of Jehovah's presence and glory to follow in their rear; at once to hide them from the sight, and to shield them from the attack of the enemy that was pursuing them. I can hardly ever read this simple statement without a tear. The kindness, the love of the Lord in thus placing himself between his children and their enemies, like as a tender father would shield his offsprings from danger, always melts my heart. But this is just the way the Lord always does. If his own dear people will but shelter under his wings, the devil will never be able to get one of them.

Some of you may wonder why the Lord did not close up the way behind them, after they were all in, so that Pharaoh and his hosts would be compelled to stay back. But God knew best. He is wiser than men. He allowed the Egyptian army to enter. They followed just as close behind the Israelites as the Lord would let them come. The way was still open, and Pharaoh, no doubt, thought the way as free for him, and quite as safe too, as for Moses. His intention was to slaughter the whole camp of Israel as soon as his army got through. But see how he failed! The salvation of Moses was the destruction of Pharaoh. When the children of Israel had all reached the land in safety they ascended the hills on the shore to look back at the long train of Pharaoh's host. But what did their eyes behold! All at once the walls of water broke down; and the sea closed over them.

It seems strange to us now that Pharaoh would venture to follow the Israelites. We now think he might have known it would prove his own destruction. But this is one example of the folly of which Satan is always guilty. At the very time he thinks victory is within his grasp disappointment and defeat overtake him. Let me show you another instance of this.

For some time he had been plotting the destruction of our Lord Jesus Christ. One time he tried to have him cast down a very steep place on the side of a hill. But he failed. At another time he tried to have him stoned to death. But the Lord escaped out of his hands. At last, however, he succeeded in having him put to death. He entered into the heart of a man by the name of Judas, and made arrangements with him to betray our Lord into the hands of his enemies. The plot was successful, and when Satan saw our Lord expiring on the cross he felt jubilant over the victory he had gained, in the belief that he had now rid the world of its most dangerous foe to his kingdom. But you see how it turned out. The resurrection and glorification of our Lord have given such a deathblow to Satan's power that, after awhile, the eyes of all heaven will see that old Serpent, the devil, and Satan cast into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

After the children of Israel all got through the Red Sea they formed a camp on its eastern shore, and each family prepared the food they had brought with them to eat. But the supply soon gave out, and as there was none to be had in the desert where they were encamped they began to fear that they must all starve. They complained to Moses, and he carried their complaints to the Lord. Very soon the manna began to fall in abundance.

THE MANNA.

This was a kind of bread which fell all over the ground at night, and looked like hoar-frost. They gathered it every morning, except the morning of the Sabbath day. It was just what they needed to satisfy their hunger and impart health and strength to their bodies.

The Lord also caused a great spring of fresh water to burst out of a solid rock near the camp; and thus they were supplied with water.

We can hardly see how these people could ever turn against the Lord and become unthankful and disobedient toward him after he had been so kind and done so much for them. But they became so. They even went so far as to make a golden calf to worship instead of Jehovah, who had brought them through the Red Sea. For this they were sorely punished.

After awhile Moses died, and Joshua led them into the land of Canaan, after they had wandered about in the wilderness under Moses for the space of forty years. The land of Canaan was a good land, flowing with milk and honey, and if they had been willing to serve the Lord by obeying his commands they would have found rest and peace. But they never found either rest or peace, because they were never able to drive their enemies from the land. They found many enemies in the land when they entered it, and on account of their disobedience to the Lord they were unable to rid the land of Canaan of them. This is what is meant by the verse that next precedes my text: "For if Joshua had given them rest, the Lord would not have spoken of another day."

But as Joshua failed to do this, on account of their disobedience, we have the words of the text: "There remaineth therefore a rest unto the people of God." But where is that rest? In the beautiful lines of Montgomery we ask:

"Oh, where shall rest be found?

Rest for the weary soul:

'Twere vain the ocean's depth to sound;

Or pierce to either pole.

This world can never give

The rest for which we sigh."

Where may be found that favored spot in whose delightful shade the soul may fold her wings and be at rest? I imagine that some of you are now saying to yourselves, "This rest is in heaven." In this you are right, in one sense. Heaven is a place of rest to those who are prepared for it. But let me say to you in all candor and love that heaven is rest only to those who first find rest here in our Lord Jesus Christ. He is now calling to every sin-burdened sinner: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The hardened unbeliever could no more be happy in heaven, even if allowed to enter there, than a fish could be happy out of water. Heaven is not the sinner's element. Besides, an unconverted sinner can never get there.

"Those holy gates forever bar

Pollution, sin, and shame;

For none can find admittance there,

But followers of the Lamb."

Rest must first be found in Jesus by coming to him, accepting his yoke, and working in his service. And to encourage all to do this he himself says: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." If you want to find out how easy his yoke is, and how light his burden, take it upon you, and see if it does not give your soul rest.

I sincerely believe that Charles Wesley, long ago, gave expression to feelings similar to those of some in this house, in the lines of a beautiful hymn, a part of which I will repeat. See if it does not find an echo in your soul:

"O, that my load of sin were gone!

O, that I could at last submit,

At Jesus' feet to lay it down!

To lay my soul at Jesus' feet!

"Rest for my soul, I long to find:

Savior of all, if mine thou art,

Give me thy meek and lowly mind;

And stamp thine image on my heart.

"Break off the yoke of inbred sin:

And fully set my spirit free:

I cannot rest till pure within:

Till I am wholly lost in thee."

You will realize the truthfulness of every one of these lines by coming to Jesus and fully consecrating your life to him. But rest does not necessarily imply inactivity. It means a heart and mind at peace. It means a heart filled with love to God and his people. It means a life of good works, wrought in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. This is the rest that remaineth unto the people of God. It begins here; it goes on eternally in the heavens.

THE YELLOW SPRINGS (at present Orkney Springs).

This health and pleasure resort is near the head of Stony Creek, in Shenandoah County, Virginia. It is now universally known by the name of "Orkney Springs." It is beautifully situated near the eastern base of the Church mountain. From the yellow color of the sediment, left by its chalybeate waters, it first got the name of Yellow Springs.

It was, for many years, a favorite health resort for the German population of Rockingham and Shenandoah Counties in Virginia. Almost every Sunday during the "spring season," there would be preaching there by the ever earnest German Baptist Brethren. Attentive audiences would assemble under the shade trees, and on rustic seats listen to the plain but earnest sermons of such men as John Kline, Peter Nead, Samuel Wampler and others. All was quiet and order. But the goddess of fashion soon found her way to this lovely spot, and a long train of worshipers at her shrine, robed in rustling silks and sparkling with jewels, followed her leadings. In a few years not only the character, but the very name of the place was changed. It is at this time a very popular pleasure resort for the rich and fashionable.

On Sunday, August 19, Brother Kline delivered a very interesting and instructive discourse at the above-named place. It is with profound emotions of gratitude that I report this sermon. I was there myself and heard it. Whilst I do not retain in memory much of the substance of it, being at the time very young, I do well remember the feelings of veneration and regard for the preacher with which his earnest manner and kind looks impressed me. Little did I then think that fifty-five years from that date I would be expanding that discourse, and thus preparing it for the eyes of the world, from the leaflets of the Diary that was then being faithfully kept by that good man.

Sermon by Elder John Kline.

Preached at Orkney Springs,
Sunday, August 19.

Text.—Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.—Rev. 22:17.

In view of our surroundings and the attractions that have drawn so many of us to this quiet and beautiful mountain retreat, I feel that the subject selected for to-day suits the occasion.

When I look at a mountain spring and see the wavelets playing on their pebbly beds, or chasing one another down their steep descent, I am ever led to think how free from all the taints of sin these innocent drops of water are! Not one of them has ever transgressed the divine law of its being. Not one has ever failed in a single point to fulfill its mission. Are you thirsty? They never refuse to quench your thirst. Does your field need rain? They never refuse to wet the ground. Always ready, they cheerfully serve the behests of God and man.

The diversity of the applications and uses of water, the variety of its forms—its frozen state in that of ice, its fluid state in that of a liquid, its aëriform state in that of clouds and other modes of atmospheric suspension—all these, together with its transparency and cleansing power make it a most appropriate emblem of Divine Truth. As such, water is much spoken of by the prophets in the Old Testament, and by our Lord in the New. I will here quote some passages from each:

"Then with gladness shall ye draw waters out of the wells of salvation." Isaiah 12:3. What can be meant by the "wells of salvation," but the fountains of truth in God's Word?

By way of describing the abundance of the supply of truths from this source I will here quote from the forty-first chapter of Isaiah, as follows: "I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water: ... that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand." One man is a hillside; another is a valley. One man is a desert; you think he never can be made to produce anything. But he shall be supplied, and thus be made to blossom as the rose. Others are dry land of a general character; but there is water enough to make all fruitful: so that instead of the thorn, the myrtle; and instead of the thistle, the fig; and instead of the deadly upas, the olive shall grow.

In Jeremiah's description of the departure of the Jews from the truths of God's Word we find the following complaint against them from the mouth of the Lord himself, recorded in Jer. 2:13, "My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." This can mean nothing, spiritually, but a departure from the truth of God as revealed, and substituting in its place some false doctrine of man's own invention.

Jesus said: "If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink." For, said he: "My words are spirit, and they are life." His words are the water of life. This explains my text.

It might surprise some of you if I were to point to that spring yonder and say, "There flows the water of life." But would I not tell the truth? Can man or beast live one moment without it? Let us think a little. What is your blood? It is water, holding in solution the various elements with which your bones, and sinews, and muscles, and nerves, and other tissues of your body are to be supplied and nourished. Can man or beast live a moment without blood? Then they cannot live a moment without water. Can trees and plants live a moment without sap? They cannot, because their sap is their blood. But the water of that spring, indispensable as it is to your bodily life, ceases as to its uses in this respect when this end is met; and if man had no life other than that of mere corporeal or animal existence, no other water would ever be demanded by him. In that case there would be no need of the invitation given in the text.

But every human being has a twofold nature. He has a spiritual body as well as a natural body. Paul says: "If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body." Man's natural or physical organization consists of flesh and blood. Paul calls this the "outer man." This is man's animal or sensuous nature. Man's spiritual body consists of will and understanding. Paul calls this the inner man; because it is the interior, "hidden man of the heart." This is capable of becoming the higher, nobler, better part of man, because it is the "house" of his affections and thoughts, of his loves and enjoyments.

There is a wonderful difference between the two natures; and yet the one corresponds to the other so perfectly that in all of man's experiences, in all that pertains to his life in this world, the two natures make one man. Whilst this is so, we must not forget that our natural bodies are mortal; they will soon die. But our spiritual bodies are immortal; they will never die. This is quite as true of the evil as of the good. The spiritual bodies or souls of men will live on, after the death of their natural bodies, through the countless ages of eternity,—the good, in the enjoyments of ineffable bliss; the evil, in the sufferings of deepest woe.

And is this true? Can it be that one or the other of these experiences is sure to be realized by every one present here to-day? Can it be so? Or am I here just beating the air to make you and me hear myself talk? I solemnly protest that I am not here for that purpose. I have a higher aim, a nobler end. But let me point you to my authority for what I say, and show you the Rock on which my faith is built. All the authority which any man dare claim on this subject is found in God's revealed Word. I will here quote a few passages:

"When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all the nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.... Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.... Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.... And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal."

These words are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ; he here portrays, in one grand view, the good state of the righteous in the next world and the evil state of the unrighteous. In the very inmost of my heart I believe what our Lord here says, and out of the abundance of my heart my mouth now speaks. I also sincerely believe, friends, that every one here to-day can most surely determine for himself, even while living in this world, whether he will be happy in heaven forever, or miserable in an everlasting hell. You may justly ask, "How can this be determined?"

I answer that a man's life in this world determines this for every individual, as surely as the fruit of a tree makes the quality of the tree known. Notice these passages from Paul's writings: "He that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." "To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." "God will reward every man according to his works."

Every intelligent man can know with certainty what kind of seed he is sowing. Is he sowing the seeds of love and good will to his neighbor, the seeds of peace, and order, and comfort, the seeds of faith, and hope, and love? He surely can know what his will is, at least; and if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted of a man according to what he hath; and if he does his all it is the widow's mite in God's eye. Every intelligent man can know with certainty whether he loves God or loves him not. His readiness to keep his commandments is the proof of this both ways. I tell you, friends, there is no getting around this. Your obedience to our Lord is the unquestionable and undeviating test of your love. "He that loveth me, keepeth my words. He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings." "A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things: but an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things." Is not this plain?

It may now be asked, "How is an evil man to become good?" No question of deeper interest can ever be asked. No answer of deeper importance can ever be given. The Lord direct me in this. Relying on his Word, I answer, that the very first step in the direction of this change is to respond to the invitation given in my text: "Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." Jesus says to Nicodemus: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." To be born of water is to drink of the water of life—the truth of God's Word—by hearing it, by loving it, by believing it, by obeying it, until it makes a new man out of him,—a new man in the image of Christ our Lord.

As a most impressive and appropriate emblem of this change water baptism has been ordained by the Lord; and every convert to Jesus Christ is commanded to submit, cheerfully in love, to this ordinance. Baptism, say what you please, is one of the first fruits of this change. To the church it is the external act of the internal birth. To be born of the Spirit is to live the life and enjoy the blessedness of the kingdom of God, which is a life of righteousness, a life of peace, a life of joy in the Holy Ghost.

All this is effected by taking the water of life freely, by drinking in the truth of God's Word because one loves it, because one desires in the heart to be saved, because one desires in the heart to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

"If any man thirst," says Jesus, "let him come unto me, and drink." The water of this mineral spring here can do no one any good except he drink it. But not one of us can go to that spring yonder and take a drink of water from it without the power of God in us. "In him we live, and move, and have our being." But he gives us the power so freely that in the use of it we are unconscious of any power within us but our own. So with drinking of the water of life. The power of every one to drink is all of the Lord, but is so freely given by him, and so freely used by us, that it is to all intents and purposes the very same as if it were all of ourselves: and this makes us accountable.

Jesus wants every man's will to drink the water of life. A sick man may come here to regain his health. But upon tasting it he may say, "I do not like this water; I have no thirst for it; let me have some of another kind." But his physician says: "You must drink it or you will die." He obeys his physician and drinks the water. After awhile he begins to feel better, and as his health improves the water tastes more natural to him; and by and by, as he regains his health, he loves it and feels loath to leave the spring. But no one ever need leave the fountain of divine love and truth: for if a man drink of it freely to the healing of his soul, it will be in him "a well of water, springing up into everlasting life" and he will love it more and more.

In a large spring you will hardly ever see all the water come from one orifice or opening. It boils up through the sand and pebbles in many places; and one observer will think this the main stream, and another that. So with the water of eternal life. It is not all found in one verse; nor in one chapter: nor in one book even. Jesus said to the devil: "Man liveth by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

Ah, friends, time would fail me, were I to attempt to bring to your minds the many precious promises we have in Jesus Christ. His Word is full of them; and I most affectionately exhort every one here to-day to go to that Word and find the water of eternal life.

You may sit by the spring;

And in your soul you may sing:

"I heard the voice of Jesus say:

Behold, I freely give

The Living Water; thirsty one,

Stoop down, and drink, and live.

"I came to Jesus, and I drank

Of that life-giving stream:

My thirst was quenched; my soul revived;

And now I live in him."

DIRECT FROM THE DIARY.

Thursday, October 4, 1838. Attended the funeral of one of Brother Christian Niswander's sons. His age was thirteen years and one month.

Monday, October 8. Attended the funeral of another one of Christian Niswander's children to-day. Age, nine years, nine months and twenty-one days.

Sunday, October 14. I attended the funeral of Susanna, daughter of Brother Christian Niswander, to-day. She was fifteen years and nearly seven months old. This is the third child that this deeply bereaved family have been called to part with in the brief space of ten days. Gladly would we pour into their bleeding bosoms the oil of consolation. We weep with them that weep. Our tears mingle with theirs. We lead the way with them to the throne of grace. Our Father on high, pity them, and do for them exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think. Help them to feel that their dear children are not dead; that their deathless spirits have soared above all sickness, sorrow, pain and death. Thus we pray, and thus we try to comfort. But our feeble, tender, sympathizing natures sink under the load of grief; and the eye of faith but feebly catches the rays of hope that beam from the pages of Heavenly Truth. Verily, here we see through a glass darkly.

Sermon by Elder Daniel Garber.

Preached at Arnold's Meetinghouse,
Sunday, October 28.

This sermon was delivered in the course of a visit brethren Kline and Garber were making among the churches and Brethren in Hampshire County, West Virginia. They left home October 25, and returned October 31, by way of Moorefield and the South Fork in Pendleton County, West Virginia.

Text.—Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love.—Eph. 5:1, 2.

Some one has said of this letter to the Ephesians that it is the whole Gospel in a nutshell. This may be true; but I must confess for myself that in some parts the shell is so very hard, that in my efforts to crack it the broken fragments, under the hammer of investigation, fly out of sight, with the kernel still sticking in them. It may be that Peter had some of these hard shells in mind when he said: "Our beloved brother Paul hath written many things hard to be understood; which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they also do the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." The Lord forbid that I should thus do with any of the Scriptures.

I am delighted to say, in full view of all this, that there is not much danger of the honest seeker for truth being misled by anything Brother Paul has left on record. If there is any danger at all of this kind, I think it is to be found in giving what he says on election and predestination a wrong interpretation. I have been frequently asked how I interpret his strikingly bold utterances on this subject, and how I reconcile them with my belief in the absolute freedom of the human will.

In the first place, I unhesitatingly profess my belief in the absolute freedom of man's will. How else could man comply with the injunction given in the text: "Walk in love?" If he has no will of his own, why give him a command? This freedom of man's will is a logical necessity. Reason demands it. Now, let us look at this a little. If man is not free to choose between good and evil; between right and wrong; between truth and falsity; wherein lies the reasonableness of instructing him? of exhorting him to do what is right, and to shun what is wrong? of commanding him to do good, with promises of reward for his obedience, and threatenings of judgment and fiery indignation as the sure penalties of his disobedience and sin?

Some admit the freedom of man's will to do evil, but not to do good. But do you not see that if this be true man's will is only half free—free to act in one direction, but not in another? On this assumption, where is the reasonableness of giving him admonitions, invitations and entreaties to do good, when he has not the power within him to comply?

You may answer by quoting the Lord's words: "Without me ye can do nothing." I fully believe these words of our Lord. But if you apply them specifically to the will, they prove that men can do neither good nor evil without the Lord. This you may not admit; but I believe it is just what our Lord meant. All life is from him as God. All beings, the evil as well as the good, "live and move in him." I believe that our Lord is, every hour and every moment of every man's life, seeking to turn the heart, the will of the man from evil to good, from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to himself. "He causeth his sun to rise on the evil and the good; and sendeth his rain on the just and on the unjust."

The light and heat of the sun, as well as the falling of the rain, are beautiful emblems of the life-giving love of our heavenly Father. He freely imparts the power to every one who hears the words of gospel grace, to love and obey him if he will; to turn from his sins, and walk in newness of life. It is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance; and repentance is neither more nor less, and nothing else than a change of one's love or will from evil to good; from the love of self and the world to God supremely.

Thus briefly have I sought to prepare your minds for a few remarks I propose making on the doctrine of election.

Election simply means a choosing. It is an undeniable fact that our Lord Jesus Christ elects, chooses, accepts every one that truly repents or turns his heart from evil to good. "Him that cometh unto me," says he, "I will in no wise cast out." "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved." "Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." Truth is the broad platform on which the elect of God forever stand; and love is the golden chain that first drew and forever binds them there.

PREDESTINATION.

There is not a living thing upon the face of the earth but is predestinated to a certain end. The horse, in his very creation, is predestinated to be the horse in kind, and to serve the end of his creation; and his nature and characteristics as such admit of no change. Predestination is one of the essentials of God's eternal order. If the horse, or the ox, or anything else which God has created, could be changed from the nature and order of its creation, confusion would be the inevitable result.

I do not wonder that Paul wrote what he did upon predestination, because it implies the immutable, eternal order of God's love and wisdom. Heaven and earth may pass away, but Christ's love shall never pass away from the lowliest and poorest soul that loves and obeys him. His love to Christ is the seal of his predestination to eternal life.

"He that believeth the Son hath life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." This is the sum of election and predestination. God's eternal love has given to man the way of man's salvation. All who choose that way are on that very account elected and predestinated to eternal life in heaven. Elected, because this fits them for heaven: predestinated, because it is God's eternal purpose to save all such. Predestination applies equally to the impenitent; because, according to the same plan and the principles involved in it, they must be forever lost.

Nothing can be more reasonable than that God's elect, the people of his choice, should be holy and without blame before him in love; that they should be followers of God as dear children, and walk in love. This is both the cause and the proof of their election to eternal life.

If you will take the pains to look into a dictionary for the word walk, you will find that it means: To conduct one's self; to order one's life. Every man feels in himself the power to order his own life according to what is just and right in the sight of God and men. To regard man in any other light would be to place him on a level with the brute. It would be taking away from him his moral feelings, and depriving him of the just exercise of his will through the understanding. Whilst man feels in himself this power, still he must not forget that all life is from God, and that without God man is nothing. "Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us." And every true child of his can say: "I love him because he first loved me."

Sinner, let me say to you that God loves you and wills your salvation. But he cannot save you without your will to be saved by him. You must reciprocate his love. You must answer his call. You must obey his voice. His Holy Spirit is now saying to you: "Be thou reconciled to God. Turn thou, turn thou, for why wilt thou die?" You need not pause and wonder whether or not you are one of his elect. I can answer this myself. I say to you that in your present state you most assuredly are not one of his elect. But if you truly repent of your sins by giving your heart to him in love and obedient faith, just as surely as his Word is true, you will become to be one of his elect; for election is salvation. But if you stay away, who is to blame? "He that will not plough by reason of the cold, shall beg in harvest." If you fail to sow, where will your ingathering be? But note this: "He that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." To sow to the Spirit is to do the will of God from love to God; and to all who do this, the promise is sure.

Brethren and sisters, I must exhort you to remember the text. Don't forget it as you go home after meeting closes. When you get home look for it. Some of you, I fear, have already forgotten the place where it is found; so I will tell you again. It is the first, and part of the second verse of the fifth chapter of Paul's letter to the Ephesians. These are the words: "Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children; and walk in love."

You know that good children imitate good parents. They follow their examples. Now ye are called to follow the leadings of God, to imitate the examples of love he has set before you. Let me present to you some of these: "If any of you have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." This is the best way to settle a quarrel I have ever found.

Here is another: "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them; for this is the law and the prophets." This means that all that God has ever spoken to man is to the end that each one love his neighbor as he loves himself. No one can be a true neighbor who does not love God. The neighbor, then, that is to be loved in this way must be a brother or sister in the Lord; and none but a brother or sister in the Lord is capable of loving in this way, and to this degree. So you see that love to the neighbor, such as the law of Christ sets forth, implies supreme love to God. This love makes heaven here, and there, and everywhere.

Here is one more: "Love not in word only, but in deed and in truth. He that hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"

Brethren, the devil does not like the odor of charity and faith in the church. It is worse in his nose than the smoke of burning brimstone. If you want to keep him out of the church, all you have to do is to keep brightly burning the fire of love on the altar of every heart; and from these altars, all together, there will ascend the odor of an incense that will put the devil to flight and keep him away forever.

Friday, December 7. Brother Kline, in company with brethren Brower and Rodecap, started to

THE PASTURES.

The Pastures comprise a considerable scope of rich grazing country in the western part of Augusta County and the eastern part of Highland County, Virginia. This section is watered by two principal rivers of small size, respectively called the Calf Pasture and the Cow Pasture. They are tributaries of the James river in Virginia. Here these brethren preached day and night for some time.

We rarely find anything amusing in the Diary. Brother Kline's mind and heart were too deeply imbued with sincerity in religion and the life flowing out of it, to give place to things of a light or trivial character. But for once, on this journey, we find one entry that brings a smile to the face: One evening, when they were all seated around the fire at Brother Henry Snell's the conversation turned upon a company of Indians that had, shortly before, passed along that way. They asked permission to spend the night in one of Brother Snell's outbuildings, which was cheerfully granted.

These Indians, Brother Snell went on to relate, had killed a wild turkey on their way that day, and in the evening asked the family for a suitable vessel in which to cook it. This being furnished, they went on to prepare the turkey for the pot. This they did in true Indian style. Two squaws went through the performance. One took hold of one wing, and the other took hold of the other wing; and thus between the two most of the feathers were removed. They then opened the bird, removing such of the internal viscera as were thought not fit for food, washed it in a vessel of water, and then put it on to cook in the very same water they had washed it in.

Brother Kline could not help applying the last point in the above incident to some features in the lives of men. He says: "That minister who gets up and in a beautiful and glowing discourse sets forth the Christian 'cleansed from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit;' and then comes down to mix with the world, and follow its fashions and vanities, is cooking his turkey in the same water he washed it in. That professor of religion who, to appearance, makes a very humble confession of his sins, with seeming repentance and deep contrition of heart, only to go away and thrust himself again into the filthiness of his former life, is cooking his turkey in the same water he washed it in."

REFLECTIONS ON THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR.
FROM THE ENTRY OF DECEMBER 31.

This evening closes the work of another year. The record of this year is now nearly complete. Have I any idea of that record? I think I have. Of one thing I feel sure. It has not been kept with paper, pen and ink. Neither has it been written in the skies. Each one's yearly record is written by no hand but his own, and upon no tablet but that of his own heart. Each one's life, therefore, is his record. This, before God and the angels, is a faithful transcript of his mind and heart within. "A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things; likewise an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things." The good things of the one and the evil things of the other constitute the life record of every man. This makes character, and character is the basis on which men make up their opinions of one another; but the heart, out of which the character grows, is the book that will be opened before the throne, out of which every one will be judged. A good heart is each redeemed saint's book of life: and an evil heart is each lost soul's book of condemnation.

Hence we are told by our Lord "that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment;" and that "whatsoever is spoken in the ear in the closet shall be proclaimed upon the housetop." Good words leave the lines of their light upon the heart's love-tablet; but evil words leave their shadows in the chambers of the soul, and deepen the darkness there.

Sermon by Elder John Kline.

Preached on Lost River, West Virginia,
March 3.

Text.—Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.—Matt. 7:13, 14.

It is declared that our Lord spake to his disciples in parables; "and without a parable spake he not unto them." A parable is a brief statement of such facts as men are well acquainted with; which facts are designed to correspond to or represent things they are not well acquainted with. Every parable, then, carries with it two lines of thought. The one line is natural, and is based upon the natural things given in the parable. The other line is spiritual, and follows the natural line, as a shadow follows its substance. My text is not properly a parable, but it is in the parabolic form, and must be treated as such.

We notice at once the two gates and the two ways. We also notice that these two ways or roads lead in opposite directions and to opposite destinies. These statements the simplest mind can lay hold of. Even young children know what gates are, and what roads are. They can also look in thought toward the ends of roads, and comprehend, in some measure at least, what is meant when they are told that one road ends in a great fire that will burn forever, and that the other ends in a delightful garden where flowers of beauty and fragrance, with fruits of exquisite taste and healthfulness, hang upon trees and vines of unfading loveliness.

It is never necessary to speak to the simple-minded man or child about the freedom of the human will. Their lessons in this are learned from observation and experience. By experience every one knows that he has the power to choose what he likes and to reject what he does not like. Even beasts, and birds, and reptiles do the same. They choose and appropriate the foods they like. They mate together according to the same free will, which is their love. Birds select their roosting places, and construct their nests where and how they will. "Foxes have holes;" but this is so because God first made the caverns in the rocks, and the foxes afterward chose them for their habitations. Every unit in the whole animate world, not only chooses the place of its abode, but also the modes and means of its subsistence. Even plants in a state of nature conform to this general law. Shall man, born to glorify God and enjoy him forever, be cut short in the free exercise of his will? I cannot believe it. But I do believe that the brightest saint in heaven is where he is because it was first his will to go there; and being there, it is forever his will to stay.

I am not ignorant of the arguments advanced by the other side. Many good, but, I believe misguided men, hold the opinion that man is so depraved as to his will, so lost to all sense and understanding of what is good, that he is wholly incapable of choosing the right and shunning the wrong. But I believe the Lord knows just what man can do and what man cannot do. And it is a thing self-evident to my mind that Goodness and Wisdom has never yet commanded man to do anything that is out of man's power to do.

Let us grant that man is dead in trespasses and sins, as Paul represents him. But does not Jesus say: "My words are spirit and they are life"? The Lord's words have life in them; and if man will but hear them with his natural ear, as you now hear me speak, and then be not a forgetful hearer, but be a doer of the Word; this man shall be blessed in his deed; and soon be filled with the new life of God.

The text opens in these words: "Enter ye in at the narrow gate." This is impossible for any one to do without his knowing what the narrow gate is, and where it is. Whilst we have no direct and positive information upon this point in connection with the text, we still may learn something by noticing into what it opens. The narrow gate opens into the narrow way, and this leads to life. The narrow gate and the narrow way are one. I mean by this that entering the narrow gate means making a start in the direction of a good life, and walking in the narrow way is progress in a good life. But where is the gate, and where is the way? I answer:

"The Gate is before you, and so is the Way;

The Gate is wide open, and no toll to pay."

and this gate is our Lord Jesus Christ as set forth in his Word.

"Where'er we seek Him, He is found;

And every place is holy ground!"

But, my dear hearers, do not for a moment imagine that it is a small thing to make the change here implied. First, it means a change of the heart or will. Of course no one ever leaves a road that leads in one direction, to turn right around and enter upon another that leads in the very opposite direction, without a great change of mind. Second, it implies that there has been new light imparted, new truth received into the mind. This new truth teaches the understanding that it is neither wise nor safe to keep the broad road, because it leads to destruction. Fear of destruction, then, on the one hand, and the love of life on the other are involved in this change.

I am just now reminded of what we are told in history that a great man, many years ago, left his home in Europe and came across the Atlantic ocean in his own ship to hunt for the fountain of youth that was confidently believed to exist somewhere in the wilds of America. This fountain, it was said, possessed the virtue of imparting youth to the aged, and life and health to the sick and dying. To the dying it was, Drink and live; to the aged it was, Bathe in its waters and return to the vigor and beauty of youth. As this great man was far advanced in age he thought it would be wise to make an effort to find this fountain, which never has existed but in the imaginations of silly men; and never will exist in any other way in this world. Of course he failed to find it; and, worst of all, he died in the vain effort.

But not so with any that have ever entered into the narrow way through the narrow gate. It surely leads to life, as thousands now living in this world can testify. It does appear to me that this change is quite as rational, quite as harmonious with man's common sense, as anything that he does in the daily course of his life's experiences and operations. The intelligent, rational man acts from reason in all the affairs of life. What he loves he calls good, and what he fears or hates he calls evil. This he shuns and that he covets, and puts forth every effort of mind and body to gain it.

In this fact we find the truth of our Lord's words verified: "The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light." The word generation in this place means state or condition from which proceeds a given manner of life, and daily attention to business. The men of the world are active as to their works, and watchful as to their interests. This watchfulness and activity is what our Lord calls their wisdom, and in its degree it exceeds that of the children of light. Our minds and wills act as freely in choosing the things of religion, and doing the duties connected therewith, as they do in the things that belong to this life only.

But we must not forget that every one who enters in by the narrow gate is but a child in experience when he first enters. He is but a lamb. But the Good Shepherd and Father go with him, leading him and feeding him. Like Enoch, he walks with God.

The text does not say that the narrow way is life; but that it leads unto life. To my mind it is clear that whenever the "sinner forsakes his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts," he then and there enters in by the narrow gate. This is repentance. He returns to the Lord by the narrow way: and the Lord is life.

It may well be asked why the gate and the way are narrow. The narrow gate is the truth of God's Word as it is first found and loved: and the narrow way is the same truth as it is followed and obeyed. Truth is always a straight or narrow track, because any departure therefrom, either to the right or left, is error and falsity.

Jesus says: "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." This door is just as narrow as the gate. He also says: "I am the way." As such, he is so narrow that, as the prophet represents, it is as if a fire of destruction were on the one hand and a flood of wrath on the other. Ah, Brethren, the truth can never be made to bend. It is as the builder's line to the foundation; and as the plumb line to the column.

To such as walk in the narrow way our Lord says: "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish." Is not this encouraging? It is to be in the Lord, and the Lord in us. It is to be a live and fruitful branch of the true Vine. It is to be a son of God, an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ. It is, when the coil of mortality is laid aside, to shine as the sun in the kingdom of our Father in heaven.

It would afford me much joy to find some here to-day ready to enter in by the narrow gate. Do I hear some one say: "I feel that I ought to leave the broad road that ends in destruction, but I cannot"? It is true, you can of yourself do nothing. If left to yourself you would never draw another breath; you would never again move your hand or foot. But for the life-supporting power of the good Lord you would instantly be a dead man or woman in every sense. Do not forget that in God you live, and move, and have your being. This is as certainly and as literally true of every man's natural life as of his spiritual life. God is constantly present with you; for without him you can do nothing.

Now, since he is ever present with you, sustaining a life which you acknowledge is not being spent in his service and to his glory, will he not much more give you at the same time power and love and faith to do his will? O, try him. Try my Lord in one sincere, humble, honest, fervent prayer. Say, Lord, open my eyes. Take away my heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh. "Create in me a clean heart; and renew a right spirit within me." My friend, the moment you sincerely wish to do his will by loving and obeying him he will enable you to do so, as surely as he now enables you to rise to your feet and walk home, or go wherever you will and do what you choose.

It is not a small thing the Lord means when he says: "Consider the lilies of the field, ... they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If God so clothe the grass of the field, ... shall he not much more clothe you?"

My friend, let me here impress your mind with the sublime truth that it is quite as much in accordance with the Lord's way, and quite as harmonious with his love, to clothe you with power to do his will as to clothe the grass of the field with beauty. He gives life and beauty to every sparrow. Are you not more in his eye than many sparrows? Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. O friend, think of it. He even hears the young ravens when they cry. And will he let your soul perish? Will he suffer your naked soul to sink into hell when you cry to him for help? Perish the thought! For it "is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners"; not to condemn them.

What is it to be saved? Let the Lord answer: "He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed out of death unto life." This is salvation.

THE FOREST.

This is a section of country in the southwestern part of Shenandoah County, Virginia. In early days it was very densely timbered, and its few scattered inhabitants were said to live in the forest or woods. In this way they were locally distinguished from those living in the eastern part of the county, along the North Fork of the Shenandoah river. At present it is one of the wealthiest and most highly cultivated sections of the county. The population is largely composed of German Baptist Brethren. Many of these are now distinguished for piety and usefulness. In this number we find the names of Peter Myers, Benjamin Wine, Daniel Wine, Christian Haller, Samuel Garber, Martain Garber and others, with their descendants, many of whom are church members. Brother Daniel Hays married in this section, and formerly resided there; but he now lives near Broadway, in Rockingham County, Virginia.

Among the deceased from this section, posterity will long remember the name of Jacob Wine, who was, for many years, so noted for his liberality and activity in the ministry. His uncle, Michael Wine, was, perhaps, no less distinguished for his outspoken opposition against everything he did not like, as well as for his earnest defense of what he believed to be good and true. Such men, by force of character in the direction of right, secretly carve their names upon the rock of memory, where they defy the surges of time.

Here may be seen the old Flat Rock meetinghouse, a substantial brick structure, so-called from the rock on which it stands. This is limestone, and presents a comparatively smooth and level surface, probably two hundred and fifty feet in length, by two hundred feet in breadth. The formation is wonderful, and affords a striking emblem of the Rock of Truth on which are founded the doctrines and practices of the Brethren.

May 10, 11 and 12 were spent by Brother Kline in visiting, mostly with a view to religious conversations and instructions. In these three days he visited Martain Good's, Abraham Glick's, Christian Garber's, David Wampler's, Peter Nead's, George Kline's and Daniel Glick's.

Thursday, May 13, there was council meeting at Christian Garber's. John Wine, John Harshberger and Joseph Miller were elected for speakers. Martain Miller and Solomon Garber were elected for deacons.

Sunday, June 6. Meeting at the Flat Rock. I baptized Emanuel Grabil and Christian Funkhouser. John 3 was read.

Sunday, June 13. Meeting at our meetinghouse. Matthew 3 was read. I baptized James Mauck and Susanna Shull.

Sunday, July 18. Meeting at Jesse Whetzel's on Lost River. Acts 3 was read. Brother Daniel Miller is with me. In the afternoon we had meeting again, and Brother Jacob Motz was baptized.

Sermon by Elder John Kline.

Preached at William Fitzwater's,
August 8.

Text.—We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God.—2 Cor. 5:20.

Every chapter and every verse of Gospel Truth discloses the love of God in one way or another. Our Lord came into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world; and all the words that make that salvation known to men are words of love. I am sure we think too little upon

THE LOVE OF GOD.

In my talks with sinners I very often discover in them a sort of impression that God is their enemy. I would not, on any account, intentionally misrepresent a single individual; either as to the opinions he may hold or the secret sentiments he may entertain; but I am impressed with the belief that if the hearts of many, if not all, unconverted persons could be laid open to view, they would in their inmost recesses disclose the belief or impression that God is not their friend; that he does not wish them well; that he is only bearing with them until it suits his time to cut them off and send them to hell. This sentiment springs from a consciousness of sins indulged and duties neglected. Hence, when such fall into deep affliction, when danger threatens or destruction impends, they call on God to have mercy upon them; and beg him to turn away his wrath.

A wrong interpretation of many passages in the Bible tends to foster this impression. I will here quote a few passages of this kind, and then interpret them according to what I believe to be the truth. When the children of Israel were about ready to cross the Jordan over into the land of Canaan, Moses said to them: "Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness.... Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry with you, to have destroyed you." Deut. 9:7, 8.

The Old Testament abounds with passages of similar import, and many are found in the New Testament. But let us examine carefully the kind of wrath and anger to which the Lord may be provoked. It cannot be such wrath as men and devils feel. In Rev. 12:12 we read these words: "The devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."

We can not, we dare not, think for a moment that the word wrath, when spoken of God, means the same as when spoken of the devil. The devil's wrath implies a feeling in him to do all the evil and mischief he can. But the wrath of God cannot mean anything like this; because, when his wrath burns the fiercest, he is still ever ready to forgive all who repent and turn from evil. Nay, he even entreats and beseeches men to be reconciled to him, that his anger may be turned away. I might quote many passages in proof of this. I have time to give but one from the Old Testament. When the Lord made an end of laying before the children of Israel the blessings and the curses, he wound up all by saying: "And there shall cleave naught of the cursed thing to thine hand: that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers; when thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God."

An appeal to the light of reason must convince any unprejudiced mind that our heavenly Father is angry and wrathful toward no one, in the sense of willing evil to him, or of seeking an opportunity to do him mischief. Men may, and no doubt often do, have this feeling; but it is a wicked feeling. Perish the thought of such wrath ever having a place in the heart of our heavenly Father. The Apostle Peter says: "The Lord is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

But let us crown all this argument with the Lord's sunrise upon the night of Nicodemus. Here it is: "God so loved the world,"—the very worst, and wickedest, and most depraved and abandoned part of it; he made no exceptions—"that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."

Do not imagine that God, our Creator, took a spell of love and good will when he sent his Son into the world. God does not take spells, either of love or wrath. He is the same yesterday, to-day and forevermore. The same God who brought destruction upon the disobedient, wayward, unthankful tribes of Israel, is the God who so loved the world. He loved it then, just as he loves it now. He loves it now, just as he did when he sent his Son to die for its sins. But let us inquire a little further into the nature of the

DIVINE WRATH.

When I am crossing deep water I always find it best to be calm, go slowly and steadily, and look well to the point where I expect to land. The wrath of God is such only in appearance. The real wrath is in man, and upon man. Let me explain this. Our blessed Savior says: "Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect:" "for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."

There lies a man who gave himself up to intemperance. Alcohol had permeated his body, carrying its deadly poison into every nerve, and fibre, and tissue of his entire organism. He exposed himself to the sun's rays on a very hot day, and he fell dead from sunstroke. The wrath of the sun destroyed his life. God made the sun to rise on the morning of that day; and God filled the sun with its heat; but it was wrathful to the man who was not prepared for it, and to no one else. Nature everywhere rejoiced in its light and heat; the corn grew; the hay was cured; and devout hearts thanked the Lord for that lovely day.

Right there, on that sand, is where a man once built his house. He was told by many that it was not a safe place to build a dwelling house, that it would certainly be in danger of being swept away by high water. He would not hear, but went on building; and finally he moved in. But great wrath came upon him; for in one night his house, with all in it, including himself, was washed away. Wise people all over the land rejoiced to see the rain. It had been a dry time, and everybody said: "What a fine rain! It has replenished our wells and flushed up our springs. The mills can now start up again. When the ground dries off a little people can go to plowing again." But this very same rain was destruction and wrath to the foolish man who had built his house in the way of its flood.

You may now better understand what I mean by saying that the wrath of God is not wrath as we usually understand the word to mean; but wrath only in appearance. The Lord did not send the flood to destroy that man's house; the flood was just as necessary as the rain, and its end quite as benevolent. The destruction of the man's house was purely the result of his own folly.

All just laws are founded upon love, because their highest end and aim is to protect the good. But the law, "which is holy, just, and good," is full of wrath to the evil doer when it overtakes and punishes him for his crimes. But does the good law, which essentially is nothing but love, change? Is it to-day in a good humor, and to-morrow angry? Such is our heavenly Father. To the wise and good he is love, both in appearance and essence; but to the foolish and evil, the very same unchangeable love assumes the appearance of anger and wrath. You are now prepared for

THE TEXT.

"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." The life of Jesus on earth was a life of love. A part of the angelic chorus as it floated down from the skies, announcing the birth of the Son of God, was: "Good will toward men." Good will toward men was everywhere manifested by our Lord in the life he lived and in the death he died. In his life "he went about doing good;" and no part of that good gave him deeper joy than to see sinners repent of their sins.

The burden of John's ministry, by which the way of the Lord was prepared, had for its keynote: "Repent, and bring forth fruits meet for [corresponding to] repentance." When our Lord sent out the twelve to preach, he charged them to say: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Right here I wish to impress your minds deeply with this thought that repentance and reconciliation mean one and the same thing; at least, there can be no reconciliation without repentance. Reconciliation is repentance made perfect.

What keeps men in a state of enmity toward each other? It is pride, self-will, and self-love.

Pride says: "I will not bow to him. He has got to come to me."

Self-Will says: "If he will not accede to my terms, there will be no reconciliation."

Self-Love says: "What would others think of me, were I to humble myself to him?"

It is self-evident that just so long as this state of feeling exists with the parties, the enmity will remain. Where deep enmity exists, both parties may be in fault, as is often the case; but this is not necessarily so. There are cases where the fault and enmity are all on one side, and nothing but love and a desire for reconciliation on the other. I just now call to mind a case of this kind. An avowed infidel had been at considerable expense to have his daughter educated in the refinements of learning and art. She excelled in these, and became her father's pride.

But a day came when her heart was stirred within her. Accidentally meeting with these words of Paul, "She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth," her mind was led to think and wonder what they could mean. Her father had taught her to look upon religion as a thing of mere superstition, and to treat the Bible as a book of fables and delusions. But these words clung to her thoughts, and with them some others which fell from the lips of the minister who preached where she sometimes went to church.

Finally she opened her heart to a minister who took great care to instruct her in the way of salvation, and gave her a Bible. This she read to the illumination of her mind and heart, made an open profession of her faith, was baptized, and would have gone on her way rejoicing every day but for one thing. That one thing was her father's displeasure. His daughter's conduct in the things of religion had wounded his pride. He became wrathful, and for a time lost his self-control. In this outburst of passion he ejected her from her home, and threatened her minister with violence. In this case you readily see that the fault and enmity are all on one side, and if a reconciliation is ever effected it must be based upon the repentance of the guilty party.

I see you are interested to know how all this turned out. I will tell you very briefly. About two years after the above occurrence the lady's father met with a very serious accident, in which his leg was broken and his body otherwise injured. His recovery was slow. When he could begin to sit up a little he thought what a comfort it would be to have his daughter's company, if she still were as she once had been.

Waiving all this, he resolved to ask her to come back home. She had been with her uncle all this while. Having returned home in compliance with her father's request, she showed him all the kindness and attention in her power. One day, when the two were alone together in the room, he asked her what had induced her to treat him as she had done. Her tearful eyes and gentle words, as she told him of the love of Christ which had constrained her to do as she had done, of the joy and consolation she felt in his service, of her bright hope of bliss with angels and glorified saints in heaven so impressed him that he listened with rapt attention. He had never been so talked to before. From this time on, up to his complete recovery, conversations on the subject of religion were of daily occurrence; and I am happy to say that they resulted in deep and godly repentance on his part, which effected a reconciliation to his daughter and her minister forever.

My dear, unconverted friends, the enmity between you and your God, like the enmity of this father towards his daughter, is all on one side, and that is your side. No steps are needed to reconcile God to man. No such steps ever have been needed, because God holds no enmity in his heart towards men. His words of invitation, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest," mean love, love to the guilty. "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink," means love. His bleeding heart on the cross, and his bleeding hands, and his bleeding feet and his side, all, all mean love. He ever loves you, and asks you to be reconciled to him. He is not visibly here now, but he has committed to his faithful ministers this word of reconciliation; and as a very humble one of their number I take up the refrain, and in the words of my text I say to you and to all: "Now then, I am an ambassador for Christ, as though God did beseech you by me: I pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."

ELDER JOHN KLINE AND ISAAC LONG VISIT PENNSYLVANIA.

Thursday, August 12, the two brethren started on their journey. They attended council meeting at the Flat Rock. Here they took leave of the Brethren, and started on a journey that was to occupy about five weeks. Brother Kline, as was his custom when his spirit stirred him to go on a journey of this kind, had sent many appointments ahead; and many were eagerly expecting and hopefully awaiting his arrival.

The imagination can find much pleasure in accompanying these two brethren on this protracted visit to the churches. Both on horseback, they had every opportunity to view the country as they passed along; and many must have been the remarks and observations suggested by things along the way. Brother Kline's mind was peculiarly active, and his temper and social disposition genial in an eminent degree. It was never my privilege to be with him on one of these protracted excursions, but from the short ones I occasionally took with him in later years, I feel sure that each day, all else favorable, was a sort of heavenly delight.

Seeing a fine looking tree in the forest, whose leaves and branches and general appearance showed that it was solid to the core, straight grained, and deeply and firmly rooted in the soil, he would say: "That tree is a fair representation of a good church member. He stands upright. You see he does not lean to one side or the other. He holds his head high in the perpendicular line of justice and truth. The squirrels that run up and down on his trunk and over his Branches do not annoy him: these are his little charities. They feed on his fruit, to be sure; but a pleasant smile is all the account he takes of them. You tap him with a mallet, and his trunk gives out a dull but certain sound of solidity to the core. There is no wind-shake about him. His thrifty appearance proves this. The storms, in the church and out of the church, have never disturbed the solid texture of his faith and Christian integrity. He is not twisty. The fibers that compose his huge trunk are just like his principles; they all run straight up and down. You always know how to take him, and what to depend on when you have him.

"But there stands another tree of a very different character. Tap that tree, and the drum-like sound tells you at once that it is hollow. You can see, too, by the furrows in the bark not running up and down in perpendicular lines, that it is twisty. It can hardly be said to be wind-shaken, for there is not enough solid timber in it to be affected in that way. The few nuts or acorns which it bears are worthless; for there is not sufficient vitality about it to mature its fruit. It would have been to the ground long ago but for the support given it by that other tree on which it leans. I leave you to form your own opinion of the church member represented by this tree. I hope there are not many such, for if there were I fear we would not be able to find enough solid material to build a house that would stand."

Brother Kline was gifted with that fortunate cast of mind which enabled him to draw from nature themes for thought and conversation, which added much to his happiness when alone, and to his geniality in company; and not only so, but even in his preaching he drew largely from the magazines of God's creation. I have not a doubt that if all the items of interest that passed between himself and Brother Long, in the way of conversations on this journey, could be collected and presented in proper form they would make a most instructive and entertaining volume. I sometimes fear that the world's best thought escapes its hands. It may, however, so turn out that after awhile stenography will set her delicate nets and catch these wild birds which now flit by us on such active wing that we catch but a glimpse of their forms and beauty.

Friday, August 13, the two brethren got to Jonas Goughnour's, below Woodstock, in Shenandoah County, Virginia. They had meeting in a schoolhouse near by. Brother Isaac Long, at this early day, gave clear indications of the ability and usefulness which have characterized his ministry to the present time. Trained to correct business habits from early youth, he carried them over into his church work; and judging by his success, to plan and to perform, to design and to execute, with him mean one and the same thing.

Between the fourteenth and twentieth of August the two brethren visited John Rowland's, Emanuel Long's, Joseph Long's, Daniel Reichert's, Daniel Long's, David Kinsey's and John Brandt's.

Friday, August 20. The two brethren, in company with David Kinsey and John Brandt, go to Brother Nussbaum's. They went through London, Path Valley and Fennelsburg. They must have had a long ride this day; but who could think the road long with such company? The next day they went towards Huntingdon. Brother Kline says they crossed a tolerably high mountain this day, and dined at Brother Jacob Berket's.

I wonder how they kept him from wandering off and hunting for medicinal roots and herbs while crossing that mountain. You may be sure that no patch of Lady's Slipper, Golden-Seal or Golden-Rod escaped his eye. The absence of a hoe is all that saved them from a deal of trouble with him. They went on through Shirleysburg, and got to Brother Andrew Spanogle's about sunset.

Following Brother Kline on this and similar journeys, by means of the Diary, enthuses my soul with an undefinable longing to have been with him. The excitement, and danger, and hurry and bustle constantly incident to travel at the present day were all unfelt and unfeared by this company.

Brother Kline's habit was ever to rise early; and, especially on excursions like the present, would he often rise before the family and walk out to take the air, as he said, and see the sun rise. This he did even when the days were at their longest. To get up with him and take a walk before breakfast to some elevation not distant from his lodging place, and hear him discourse upon the rising sun, the balminess of the air, the clearness of the water, the songs of the birds, the delicate tints and wonderful mechanism of the flowers of fields and woods, was a treat of rare enjoyment.

Sunday, August 15. They all attended a meeting and love feast. John 15 was read. Five persons were baptized. The four brethren stayed all night at Brother Umbenhaver's. On the twenty-third they dined at Brother Seacrist's; then crossed the Juniata to Waynesboro and stayed all night at Brother Kensel's. On the twenty-fourth they attended a love feast near Brother Samuel Myers's. Hebrews 2 was read. One person baptized. On the twenty-fifth they went to Brother Dolyman's. On the twenty-sixth they went through Lewistown; then down the canal to Mifflinburg, and on to Michael Basehore's, where they had meeting. Acts 10 was read. From this place they went to David Myers's, where they had night meeting. Mark 11 was read.

From some unknown cause, here is the first sermon outlined by Brother Kline in all this journey. He may have been too busy, at times, to give the outlines; and at other times may not have felt like doing it. There is so much originality of thought in the outlines that I here reproduce his discourse as nearly as possible.

Sermon by Elder John Kline.

Preached at David Myers's, in Pennsylvania,
August 26.

Text.—"By what authority doest thou these things?"

It was an exceedingly bold act on the part of our Lord to cleanse the temple at Jerusalem in the way he did it. In justification of his right to do this he appealed to what was written: "My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves." But reference to this authority involved other questions of grave import in the minds of the scribes and Pharisees. They wished to doubt his right to appeal to this Scripture, because they were unwilling to concede his claim to the divine sonship. To raise as strong a breast of opposition against him as possible, there "come to him in the temple the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders, and say to him, By what authority doest thou these things?"

Most unexpectedly to them, they were confronted by another question quite as direct, from whose point and power they quailed: "The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?" Whilst many of the scribes and Pharisees and elders had never condescended to show John enough respect even to be present at any time when he was baptizing in the Jordan, still they knew, and felt most keenly, the power of his teachings and work upon the common people; for "all held John to be a prophet;" "but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him," John.

To all human appearance, the influence of the baptism and teachings of John, upon the common people, saved our Lord's life upon this and probably other occasions, for the scribes and chief priests sought opportunity to destroy him; but they feared the common people. In this we discover traces of the good accomplished by John's mission, which was "to make ready a people prepared for the Lord;" and this people was the common people.

Our Lord, however, had a much higher thought and loftier end in the question he put to these men than that of merely saving his life by the facts involved in the question.

When a minister, either diplomatic or religious, on foreign soil, is asked for his authority, it is absolutely necessary for him to produce satisfactory credentials of his investment with the office and the honor he may claim. Our Lord's credentials must be clear and satisfactory, beyond those of any other minister, because no others ever have been or can be subjected to such a rigid scrutiny and to such scathing tests as those were which he bore. They must present a more imposing front than that of the power to work miracles. Others had wrought miracles before. Moses had made the bottom of the Red Sea dry ground; and with a single stroke of his rod had cleft a mighty rock to the gushing forth of a flood of water from it. Elijah had raised the widow's dead son, and had kept her cruse of oil and her barrel of meal replenished; so that the famine came not nigh her door. The walls of Jericho had fallen under the sound of Joshua's band of rams'-horn trumpeters; and, in fact, miracles had, in one way or another, been connected with almost all the events recorded in the Jewish Scriptures. On the evidence of these facts the scribes and Pharisees said to him in scorn: "Art thou greater than our fathers, which are dead? and Moses, and the prophets, which are dead?"

You may now perceive how necessary it was for our Lord to have some higher claim to authority, in the eyes of these unbelieving Jews, than they were willing to see in his power to work miracles. This higher testimony to his authority was given by his Father, signed and sealed by the Holy Spirit, in the presence of witnesses, as Jesus came up out of the water when he was baptized. It was on the bank of the Jordan that "the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him; and lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." To this fact all four of the evangelists bear testimony, in nearly the same words.

Peter, in an address recorded in the first chapter of the Acts, indirectly affirms that many witnessed our Lord's baptism and the attendant manifestations from heaven. To his mind it was an essential part of the qualifications of a candidate for the apostleship, that he had been a witness of our Lord's baptism, as well as of his resurrection. And why not? The proofs of his Sonship, of his Messiahship, of his union or oneness with the Father, of the Father's love for him, and of the acceptableness of the Son's work and obedience, were as clear and undeniable in the first as in the last.

After a brief consultation among themselves over the question propounded unto them by our Lord, these deceitful Jews decided that the most expedient answer they could frame would be to confess that they "could not tell." No wonder, now, that he told them that "the publicans and harlots would enter the kingdom of heaven before they would." We may here see a verification of the fact that love must precede faith. The truth may be forced upon one, and he be compelled to acknowledge it; yet, unless he falls in love with that truth, he will not believe it as a thing of faith, and will not think and act correspondingly thereto.

"Convince a man against his will—

He's of the same opinion still."

We may here, very properly, inquire why the heavenly testimony was given at our Lord's baptism. Why were the Father's acknowledgment and approval of his beloved Son not given in the temple of Jerusalem, in the presence of his enemies, that they might be convinced; or in one of its populous streets on a public day, that the world, in a representative sense, might know of him? It is impossible for men or angels to know the mind of the Lord where he has not revealed it. He has withheld from us any direct information on this point; but we may draw some inferential conclusions, which may serve to satisfy the mind and rest the heart.

It is a matter of fact that the Father never put his Son on exhibition; neither did the Son ever seek any place of honor or distinction before men. "He was meek and lowly in heart." The Word made flesh, the Way and the Truth and the Life did not appear on earth to be gazed at as a thing of mere curiosity, nor examined and handled as an article of merchandise.

Men have their opinions; and especially at this day is there a decided tendency with many to make a show of their denominational strength and numerical importance; but, really, it appears to me that the Son of God shunned observation, and apparently shrank from the echo of his fame. More than once did he kindly request those with him to say nothing about some sublime manifestation of divine power and love which he had just given.

Whatever else baptism may signify, to my mind it is plain that it is the visible door to the visible kingdom of heaven on earth. Christ the Lord is King of that kingdom; and as such it behooved him to enter it by the same door through which he has commanded that all his future subjects shall enter; and that door is water baptism. "He that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice." The fold is the kingdom; the shepherd is the Lord; and the porter is John the Baptist.

How fitting that the divine recognition be given at the door of the kingdom in which the Lord is to be crowned "King of kings." A few honest-hearted witnesses were all the Father wished, before whom to make known this glorious disclosure of love for his Son.

Baptism is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh. This is not its legitimate result. Its effect is the answer of a good conscience toward God. When one submits to this ordinance in the right spirit, and it is properly administered, it never fails of being followed by this happy experience. It gives the heart peace and rest in Christ. "The eunuch went on his way rejoicing." "The jailer rejoiced, believing in God with all his house." These rejoicings followed baptism in each case. The Psalmist says: "The testimony of the Lord is sure, enlightening the eyes: the statutes of the Lord are pure, rejoicing the heart. More are they to be desired than gold; yea, than much fine gold; for in the keeping of them there is great reward."

Baptism is both a testimony and a statute. It is a testimony because it bears witness to the truth by the joy it imparts; and it is a statute because it is a written command of God which it is the duty of every believer to obey; and in the keeping of it there is great reward.

Friday, August 27. They had meeting at Henry Hart's. Acts 3 was read. Two brethren were advanced from the deaconship to the ministry of the Word, and two were elected to the deaconship. The twenty-eighth they spent mostly with Brother John Royer. The twenty-ninth they attended two meetings: one at Brother Joel Royer's, and the other near the same place. At Joel Royer's, Brother Isaac Long took the lead in speaking; and from the outlines of his discourse, given in the Diary, I am assured it is worthy of being expanded into a sermon, and of holding a prominent place in this work.

Sermon by Elder Isaac Long, of Virginia.

Preached at Joel Royer's, in Pennsylvania,
August 29.

Text.—"A sower went out to sow his seed."

There is one feature about my text for to-day that is likely to draw at least momentary attention. That feature is its simplicity. I am glad to hope that this may give rise to a query in the mind of each hearer in substance something like this: "What can he have to say on such a simple text as that? I am going to listen and see what he will make of it." I see your eyes have turned to me now; but, beloved brethren and sisters, whilst the eyes of your bodies are turned to me from feelings of curiosity, I beg that the eyes of your understandings and hearts may be turned to the Lord, for grace, on my part to speak, and on your part to hear.

The text, in its simplicity of phraseology and external sense, looks like a nut without a kernel. It comes to the ear like the uncertain sound of a trumpet: "A sower went out to sow his seed." No part of the farmer's work, however, is more common in its seasons than this; and I may add with emphasis, that no part of the farmer's work in its seasons is more important than this. The life of the world depends upon two great facts—seeding and harvesting; and when the Lord established his covenant with Noah after the flood, two of the essential provisions of that covenant were couched in these words: "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest shall not cease." I never read that covenant but with delight, because I love farming, and when at home farming is my business. Here is my covenant with the Lord, and my assurance that my seedings will be blessed.

There is one thing in the provisions of that covenant to which I wish to call special attention. It is all found in one compound word, and that word is

SEED-TIME.

It does not read seeding and harvest. Seeding means the act of sowing seed. The Lord in his covenant does not say that this shall not cease; because the act of sowing seed or seeding depends upon man: he only assures man that seedtime, or the time for sowing seed, shall not cease. But notice the other part. He does not say harvest-time; but he says that harvest shall not cease, because he makes the harvest. He speaks positively here of results, as being able and forever willing to fulfill what he covenants to do. In this covenant, man's work is implied as well as God's work. Man's part of the work is to sow the seed when the time is given. God's part is to bless the seed sown, by giving the harvest. In all of man's labor pertaining to providing for the support and comfort of his body, "we are coworkers with God."

Our heavenly Father deals with us as children. By natural things he instructs us in spiritual things. Paul says; "First that which is natural; afterward that which is spiritual." This is God's order.

REASON AND FAITH.

Some think that reason must yield to faith. Others think that faith must yield to reason. The opinions on both sides are wrong, because both imply a conflict between reason and faith, when in truth no such conflict ever has existed, nor can it exist. Reason is neither more nor less than the intelligent operations of the mind in seeking to know the truth; and faith is but a willing acceptance and acknowledgment of that truth when it is known. In one way of looking at it, faith and knowledge are one; only faith is a loving acceptance, by the will, of what the understanding is assured of being true. What the understanding doubts can never be received by the will as a thing of faith.

Wisdom is the union of faith and knowledge in man, and becomes more and more his guiding light in all intelligent action. If man's wisdom be merely that of earth, it is not genuine; but if it be heavenly, it is true wisdom, and leads more and more to God, and eternal life in him. Wisdom says that there must be a sort of reciprocal correspondence between the seed and the ground on which it is sown. This fact involves several principles based upon experience. The sower must know what kind of seed he is sowing. "It may be of wheat or some other grain." He should know what preparation the ground requires to make the hoped-for harvest. He should know what fertilizers and stimulants are likely to do most good. He should also know the right time for sowing his seed.

A mere knowledge of these principles, however, is not sufficient. There must be a practical application of them, in the way of complying with the necessary conditions, or the sowing will prove a failure. The seed that fell by the wayside was picked up by the birds. That which fell on the rock perished. That which fell among the thorns was soon overcome by their superior rankness of growth, and it made nothing. Only that which fell into good ground made a remunerative return.

MAN'S WILL IS THE FIELD.

I may say to you now that man's will is the field which our Lord meant in the parable here recorded; "and the seed is the Word of God."

Notwithstanding the practical explanation given of this parable by our Lord, a degree of obscurity still broods over it in the minds of many Bible interpreters. What made the bad ground bad; and what made the good ground good, and how the bad ground is to be made good and productive, are questions that puzzle the minds of many. Some may not agree with me; but I do believe that the diversities in human nature, set forth and described by our Lord in this parable, all relate to the will. What makes the difference between a good man, and a bad man? Brethren, it is the will. A good man does good from a good will, and a bad man does bad from a bad will.

Let us take the wayside hearer. There is no defect about his understanding. His head is as clear in matters of business as any man's. He understands what the preacher says when he is sowing the seeds of gospel truth as readily as any one in the congregation. Why then does the devil take away the Word out of his heart? I answer, because the devil is very fond of doing that sort of work; and the man does not object. In other words, the wayside hearer has no will to keep the Word in his heart. If he had a will to keep the Word in his heart, and live conformably to it, the gates of hell could not prevail against it. He would then be good ground according to the measure of his capacity, and the life of love and obedience growing out of it.

Take the rock-hearer next. He has a very thin skin of soil over the surface of the rock that lies underneath. From the way he goes to meeting and talks about religion, you might readily conclude that all he needs to become a bright light in the church is a little encouragement. He says: "That was a splendid sermon we heard to-day. It did me good to hear that man talk. I could listen to him for a week;" and he tells the truth; for if the man stays a week, and works up something of an excitement, this rock-hearer will go every night and praise every sermon. I am sorry to say, however, that the devil does not try very hard to get the Word out of that man's heart, because he knows that if he leaves it alone just a little while it will die out of itself. The real trouble with this man is a want of will to reduce to practice the truth received into the understanding. The rock, underneath the skin of soil that hides it, is a will which is wholly averse to the life of self-denial and godly obedience set forth in the Word which he hears. He loves the world and himself more than God; and the delight or joy with which he hears the Word is all in the understanding. The words of life and salvation fade from his memory, because there is no desire in his heart or will to retain them, as the things that belong to his everlasting peace.

Next in order comes the thorny-ground hearer. He may be a man of talent, perhaps a genius. Naturally thoughtful and ambitious, he covets both wealth and honors. He is not entirely forgetful of the claims of religion upon him. He goes to church with his family; behaves genteelly; invites the ministers to his house, and entertains them very hospitably. He thinks religion a very good thing in society, and one that ought to be encouraged. You often hear people say of him: "What a pity he is not a member of the church: how much good he could do!" In all matters of public interest he takes an active part. During an electoral canvass he is all astir, and wonders how any one can be indifferent at such a time, or even show a moderate degree of coolness. He is a useful man in society, and his loss would be keenly felt by the community. The real trouble with this man is akin to that of all the rest. It has its seat right in the will. He loves the world, and the world loves him; and to hold his place in society he must comply with its demands. He must not be scrupulous about small matters. He must take a drink with a friend. If invited to take part in some pastime or popular amusement, even if it be of doubtful moral character, he dare not decline the invitation. If memory should even blow the ashes from some live coals of truth, and conscience remonstrate, he must ignore all weakness of that kind. Such and such-like are the thorns that choke the Word, and it brings no fruit to perfection.

Last, but not least, comes the good-ground hearer. I have reason to believe that most of you know him from your own experience; therefore I will not describe him here. But before I conclude I desire to direct your attention to a few points more in the line of my thought.

Who is to blame or to incur the responsibility for the failures of fruit in the three classes of hearers given in the parable? Some say the devil is to blame, because he throws every obstacle and impediment that lies in his power in the way of the growth of the seed. Others say the Lord is to blame for not having made the ground better by nature. Others again say—and these say what is true—that the hearers are to blame. The Word came with just as much power to these unfruitful classes as it did to the good-ground hearer. "But it was not mixed with faith in them that heard." Whose fault was it that they did not believe? Manifestly their own.

I fully believe that man's will is free. And I do also believe in my very soul that it would be the pleasure of the Lord to save every human being born into existence. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" Ezekiel 33:11 and 18:31.

But man's will cannot be forced. The Lord cannot compel any one to love him, any more than one of us can force a man to be our friend who inwardly hates us. The Lord is every day seeking to turn the hearts of men to himself through the life-giving, holy, healing power of the Word of gospel grace. He does this through the faithful ministers who preach it. In this way he causes the sun of truth and love to rise and shine upon even the very worst of sinners, and sends the rain of his grace to fall upon them. Without the sun and the rain the seed would forever lie dead in the ground; but what is very wonderful in the gospel seed is the fact that it carries along with itself, as it falls upon the ground, all the light, and heat, and moisture it needs. Our blessed Lord says: "My words are spirit, and they are life."

In illustration of this let us notice the power of his words in several instances recorded in the New Testament Scriptures. Let me refer to Jairus's daughter. She was dead. Every one could know this that saw her. Jesus said to this dead girl: "Maiden, arise." Her spirit came back into her. The heart, that before was pulseless and still, began to beat; and the breast, over which the pall of death had fallen, began to heave. In obedience to his word she rose up and lived. Were not his words spirit and life to this girl? The very same thing took place with the dead boy, the only son of the widow of Nain. Things no less wonderful were of daily occurrence in the life of Jesus. The cleansing of the lepers, the healing of the sick, the casting out of devils, all, all proved the spirit and life that are in his words.

His words, however, have not only natural life and breath in them; but they have spiritual life and breath; and this means eternal life. My brother, my sister, if the Word of Christ is in your heart you have a holy, heavenly beating there of love to God and love to all his dear people; and you have a holy, heavenly breathing after more knowledge of his words, and for larger and clearer views of the revelations of his grace. These are proofs of the inward, heavenly life in the soul.

DO NOT FORGET THE TEXT.

Every intelligent human being is a sower of some kind of seed. Every one is either sowing the Word of God or the word and spirit of some one else; but let the seed be of whatever kind it may, this thing is sure: "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. He that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." Sowing to the flesh is living after the flesh with its affections and lusts; but sowing to the Spirit is crucifying and mortifying the flesh, and living the new life of faith, and hope, and love.

Brethren and sisters, there is a mighty, mighty difference between the two. What has the mere fleshly, carnal mind to hope for in the world to come? It can feel no delight, no enjoyment in heavenly things, such as love to God and love to man. It knows nothing of that love which is the bond of perfectness.

You can always tell what a man's love is by the company he keeps. If his love is of worldly things only, you will see him in worldly company, and hear him talk only of worldly things. Notice the books and papers he reads. They are of the same character. He enjoys no other readings. He delights in no other company and conversations. This man is sowing to the flesh, and he will be sure to reap corruption. His treasure is all on the earth; his harvest is here; and he is sowing no seed for a harvest of glory and bliss in the world to come.

The good ground hearer is a very different man, and he sows far different seed. His seed is Divine Truth, and his field is his own spirit. He digs up the thorns and the thistles by the roots; destroys the serpents, and drives out the wolves and the foxes. In this way he mortifies the body of sin and crucifies the flesh with its affections and lusts. In a well prepared soil he plants the fig and the olive, the vine and the pomegranate. In the place where the lion lay, the calf shall lie down in peace; and instead of the wolf and the fox, the sheep and her lamb shall feed in safety. Where the serpent hissed and the basilisk was waiting to sting, the myrtle and the rose shall bloom. Thus is the desert made to rejoice and the wilderness to bloom. The man who thus subdues and cultivates his own spirit that is within him, all by the help of God, is sure to be everlastingly blessed in his deed. He will reap a rich harvest of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, here and eternally in the heavens.

Friday, September 17. The two brethren reached home. Of this Brother Kline says: "Brother Isaac Long and I have been together nearly all the time on this journey, which has occupied just five weeks. It makes me feel somewhat lonely to part hands with such an agreeable companion in labor; so cheerful; so full of the Spirit; so wise in counsel; so clear in judgment. I feel that we have been together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Ah, well! not long till we shall no more take the parting hand! The Brethren everywhere showed us much love. May the Lord continue to bless them, both temporally and spiritually."

Between the twenty-ninth of August and the above date they attended quite a number of love feasts and other meetings. The Diary reports many families visited in Huntingdon and Bedford Counties. Probably many of the older brethren and sisters, then belonging to the families named, may still remember this visit. Among the names reported are to be found the Spanogles, Altebergers, Becks or Bocks, Allebaughs, Browns, Bicheys, Sniders, and others.

Want of space absolutely forbids any further notice of the Diary for this year.

Sunday, January 23. Peter Nead is with us to-day at our meetinghouse. He spoke at some length from Acts 13. To those who could follow him his discourse was very instructive. He traced Paul in his journeys with Barnabas and John, from the first place named in the chapter to the last.

Sunday, April 3. Meeting at Samuel Wine's in the Brush. Luke 14 was read.

Tuesday, May 10. Brother Kline, in company with Abraham Stoner and David Kline, started to the Annual Meeting. On the evening of the twelfth they got to William Deahl's, near the place of meeting.

Friday, May 13. Council meeting opened. Many Brethren present. He says: "The acquaintance, brethren and sisters form with each other at these meetings, is not the least good accomplished by them. We stay to-night at Solon Garber's."

Sunday, May 15. Public meeting to-day. Matthew 11 was read. Love feast to-night. We stay all night at William Deahl's.

Monday, May 16. Started homeward, and got as far as to Brother B. Bear's.

Friday, May 20. Got home this evening. Often will my thoughts return to the churches attended and the homes visited. I could not help cautioning the Brethren in some of the congregations against the inroads of pride and fashion. The younger members, particularly, need to be instructed in regard to these things, that they may avoid conformity to the world in dress and other things; not because the church, as such, opposes them in it; but because the Word and Spirit of the Lord opposes them in it. The love of Christ, that is, our love for him and his people, and the way of holiness, lead to a life of self-denial for his sake. The new nature in Christ does not crave the vain and often hurtful fashions of the world. It is best, for both body and soul, to dress plainly, but comfortably; and to live, in every respect, according to the same rule. The godliness that is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and also of that which is to come, is not conformed to this world.

Thursday, June 2. Council meeting at the old Garber meetinghouse. The subject of marrying was under consideration. It was laid to continue as the church has heretofore held it. The enemy of souls was ready to interfere with the holiness and innocence of our first parents in the garden of Eden. Time has not changed his nature. Nothing but the flaming sword of God's Word and Spirit can keep him out of the church. The flaming sword! It gives light and heat to the children of God; but threatens destruction to their enemies. All should bear this sword; not sheathed in a scabbard, but forever held high in the right hand, ready to be used whenever the enemy approaches.

Saturday, August 13. Daniel Miller and I go to Brother Nasselrodt's in Brock's Gap and take dinner with him. In the afternoon we go on to Lost River, and stay all night at Jacob Motz's.

Sunday, August 14. Meeting at Brother Motz's. John 15 was read. After meeting we went to the Yellow Spring, where we stayed all night.

Sunday, August 21. Meeting at Neff's schoolhouse. Matthew 25 was read. Also meeting at Samuel Wine's in the Brush. Matthew 25 was read there. Also meeting at Pleasant Valley. Brother Koontz was baptized.

Wednesday, August 24. Went to Benjamin Bowman's and back home. We have had a wonderful rain to-day. Waters higher than they have been for twenty-eight years.

Sunday, September 4. Meeting in our meetinghouse. Romans 6 was read. John Miller and Abraham Deitrich's wife were baptized by Benjamin Bowman.

Thursday, September 8. Anna [Brother Kline's wife] and I go to Lost River to attend a love feast. We stay all night at Celestine Whitmore's.

Sunday, September 11. Meeting and love feast at Mathias's. Hebrews 8 is read. We have a delightful day and night, and many people are assembled. I speak on the chapter read, and also upon the general scope and design of the epistle to the Hebrews. Hebrews, and Jews, and Israelites are all one; each being only a different name for the same race of people. The name Hebrew and Hebrews appears to have been derived from Eber or Heber, the grandson of Shem. The name Jew and Jews is supposed to have been derived from Judah, one of the sons of Jacob. The name Israelite and Israelites was derived from Jacob, whom the angel of the Lord called Israel.

This epistle was written to the Hebrews, or Jewish Christians, to remove from their minds some difficulties and obscurities in their way of rightly understanding the way of salvation provided by our Lord Jesus Christ. On account of their former connection with the ceremonial law and the Mosaic ritual, it was hard for them to see and appreciate the simplicity that is in Christ. Like Naaman the Syrian, they thought the ceremonial part should possess more parade and show, to have in it the required virtue. He thought that bathing his body seven times in the river Jordan was a ceremony too simple to remove his leprosy: so these Hebrew Christians thought the simple ordinances of the house of God were too insignificant to take away their sins. They had been instructed in the ordinances of a worldly sanctuary and a worldly priesthood. As Christ had abolished all these, by giving to the church the spiritual substance of which these were the shadow, it was necessary that they be very particularly and plainly taught how this was done. The writer of this epistle has shown this in very clear light.

The chapter read speaks of the True Tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. It presents Jesus as the Mediator of a better covenant, which has been established upon better promises. This is the covenant: "I will put my laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them: I will be to them a God; and they shall be to me a people. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." These are cheering words: "Their sins will I remember no more." Beloved brethren and sisters, this is precisely the way God deals with every one of his truly penitent and obedient children. He remembers their sins no more. No matter how great sinners they have been, no matter how they have abused and dishonored him, he holds nothing against them. In this we may see the spirit we should all possess. We are all commanded to be followers of God, as dear children, and walk in love.

I have sometimes heard a brother or a sister say: "I can forgive, but I cannot forget." Brethren, we would not feel very well if the Lord were to say this to us and of us. How would we be made to feel if our blessed Lord were to say to each of us: "I am willing to forgive your trespasses against me; I am willing to save you, because I have promised to save all who repent and believe my Gospel; but I can never forget the way you have treated me, and will never be willing to trust you as I could have trusted you; and can never again have the same confidence in you that I would have had, had you treated me in a different way"? Such forgiveness as this on the part of our Lord toward us would rob salvation of all its joy. It would turn the sun into darkness and the moon into blood. It would change the harmony of heaven into notes of discord in our ears. But this would be the very sort of forgiveness that is implied in the saying: "I can forgive, but I cannot forget."

Notice, however, the care and the order apparent in the insertion of that loving clause, "and your sins will I remember no more." Notice the introduction: "I will be to you a God; and ye shall be to me a people." In what follows the Divine Love is strongly marked: "For I will be merciful to your iniquities, and your sins will I remember no more." This last crowns it all. The same thing is meant by the prophet in another place where the Lord says: "As far as the east is from the west, so far have I removed your sins from you;" and again: "He hath cast our sins into the bottom of the sea;" so deep down are they that they will never rise up against us any more.

Such must our forgiveness of one another be, brethren and sisters, if we would imitate the Lord. We should never forget that genuine forgiveness implies a complete forgetfulness of all trespasses in the past. Our Lord says: "If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses." To forgive from the heart is to forgive in love; and love thinketh no ill of one's brother or sister.

Let each one examine himself. If you feel in your heart that you love the Lord your God with all your heart, and your brother and your sister in the Lord as you love yourself, I feel authorized in behalf of Christ and the church to say to you that Jesus will remember your sins no more. You have a right to sing the song:

"Savior, more than life to me,

I am clinging close to thee;

Let thy blood, by faith applied,

Keep me ever near thy side.

Every day and every hour,

Let me feel thy cleansing power,

Till my soul is lost in love,

In a brighter world above."

Tuesday, September 20. Love feast at our meetinghouse. John 3 was read. David Correll and Abraham Miller and his wife were baptized.

Wednesday, September 21. Benjamin Bowman and I start very early to Hampshire County, Virginia. We get dinner at Rorabaugh's, and reach Moorefield by night, after a ride on horseback of forty-seven miles.

Thursday, September 22. Go to David Vanmeter's for breakfast; reach Abbey Arnold's for dinner, and get to the love feast at David Arnold's just after the first meeting. We have delightful weather, good order in the house, and a pleasant meeting.

Friday, September 23. Meeting again. Revelation 3 is read. Stay at David Arnold's all night.

Saturday, September 24. Go to Joseph Arnold's, and in the afternoon to Joseph Leatherman's, where we have night meeting. I speak on Luke 24:48.

Sunday, September 25. Attend a love feast at Solomon Michael's. Revelation 3 is read.

Monday, September 26. Homeward through Petersburg; dine at Isaac Shobe's; then to night meeting at Sister Chlora Judy's. We speak on Matthew 11. Stay all night.

Tuesday, September 27. Cross the South Fork mountain over to Jacob Warnstaff's, where we have an afternoon meeting. Speak on Luke 28. We also have night meeting at the same place. Brother Benjamin speaks on Luke 16. His talks are not lengthy, but they are very pointed, and prove that they come from a thoughtful and studious mind.

Wednesday, September 28. We both get home.

Sunday, October 2. Meeting at Henry Huffman's in Page County, Virginia. Mark 1 is read. Isaac Spitler is baptized.

Saturday, December 3. Samuel Wampler and I go to Lost River. We stay all night at Silas Randall's.

Sunday, December 4. Meeting at Brother Celestine Whitmore's. Matthew 7 is read. Silas Randall and his wife are baptized. We stay all night at Celestine Whitmore's.

Sunday, January 1, 1843. I and Frederic Kline go to George Fulk's schoolhouse in the Gap. We have meeting, and I speak on John 15. We dine at George Fulk's, and in the evening return home.

Sunday, February 19. Meeting at our meetinghouse. John 3 is read. In afternoon Peter Nead and I go up to Benjamin Bowman's, at the head of Linville's Creek, where we have night meeting. Brother Nead speaks very beautifully on John 15:14, "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you."

Thursday, March 30. Visit Dr. Newham, and take him through "a course of medicine." This last expression frequently appears in Brother Kline's Diary. The phrase, "course of medicine," was first introduced by Dr. Samuel Thompson, the founder and propagator of what afterwards assumed the name of "The Thompsonian System of Medical Practice." To the minds of many very worthy and sensible people in Virginia and other States, Dr. Thompson's definitions of disease, and his corresponding views of their treatment, appeared quite reasonable. They met with great favor in some communities, and by many were enthusiastically received. Among the latter Brother John Kline stood in the foremost rank. He espoused the "Theory and Practice of Dr. Samuel Thompson" with unreserved confidence. In his zeal to do good with it he furnished the medicines and administered them to hundreds of the afflicted; and to many free of charge.

The phrase, "course of medicine," was meant to comprehend in its signification the whole routine of treatment demanded by nature to rid itself of disease. This usually consisted of a Lobelia emetic or vomit, more or less thorough as the symptoms of the impending disease appeared to require. Preparatory to this vomit, and in connection with it, warm and stimulating infusions or teas were administered to induce very active sweating, or "free perspiration," as it was called. As an aid to this, steaming the patient was sometimes resorted to. The "course" usually took up several hours. After all was gone through with, the patient was allowed to rest, excepting, however, the administration of a few mild sedatives or soothing nervines, to induce sleep. The reader may conclude that the patient very likely needed rest after all this treatment.

Prejudice against the system has grown old, and nearly died out; and, at this point of distance in time, it may be calmly said that "the course of medicine" very often seemed to do much good. Many were ready, at any time, to bear testimony in behalf of its efficacy in their own individual cases, and in those in their families; and it is hard to conclude that mere confidence in the treatment, and in the hands by which it was administered, could effect so much good.

Brother Kline went into it with a sort of zest and zeal that looked a little as if he might have hitched it to his train of religious duties. Be this as it may, one truth is sure, a truth which Wordsworth has beautifully woven into the poetic lines which follow:

"The sick he soothed; the hungry fed;

Bade pain and anguish flee:

He loved to raise the downcast head

Of friendless poverty."

Sunday, May 28. To-day we held our first regular meeting in our new house. It has been decided to name it "The Brush Meetinghouse." This is a frame building, constructed by Christian and John Wine, sons of Samuel Wine.

"The Brush" is a small section of country in Rockingham County, Virginia. It lies between the North mountain on the west side and Linville's Creek on the east; and between the North Fork of the Shenandoah river on the north and the head waters of Muddy Creek on the south. It comprises, probably, sixteen square miles.

Samuel Wine, one of the pioneers of the German Baptist Brethren, raised a very useful and respectable family in the very heart of the Brush. Of his sons, Christian, and John, and Samuel, and George were set to the ministry of the Word in the church of their father's choice. Michael, the only other son, is a deacon.

Jacob Mitchell, who spent his last years in the same Brotherhood, raised a very respectable and intelligent family in the Brush, at the place now occupied by his son Joseph A. Mitchell, and officially known as Cherry Grove; that name having been given to the post office kept at the place, from the great abundance of sweet cherries which for many years have grown there and in the vicinity to great perfection.

Anthony Showalter, father of John A. Showalter, and grandfather of Anthony J. Showalter, both favorably known as composers and teachers of music,—raised a numerous family of noble boys and girls in the same section, nearly, if not quite all of them, members of the Brethren church.

All of the above-named brethren were personal friends of Brother Kline, who often visited them at their homes.

David Haller, whose name is often seen in the Diary, was another intimate friend of Brother Kline. He held membership in the church many years, and assisted in building the Brush meetinghouse. From what has been said of the Brush, it appears to have been favorable to the reproduction of the race, both numerically and substantially. Brother David Haller had born unto him from a first and second marriage twenty-two children, nearly all of whom grew up to manhood or womanhood. The question was once asked: "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" History forever answers, yes! Truth echoes the same answer to the same question, applied to the Brush.

Sunday, June 4. Meeting at the Flat Rock. Mary Pope is baptized.

Sunday, June 25. Meeting at the Powder Spring. Peter Beacher is baptized. We dine at Abraham Funkhouser's and stay all night at Abraham Swartz's.

Thursday, June 29. Attend a very sad funeral to-day. Brother John Zigler's child was drowned, and quite dead when discovered. It was one year, seven months and twenty-eight days old. The death of a child is always distressing; but when death comes by accident, it is much more so. Brother John Zigler lives in Timberville, Rockingham County, Virginia.

Monday, July 10. Dine at Sister Judy Deitrick's. Call on Dr. Biggs, whose headquarters are at John Higgins's. He is a straight up and down Thompsonian doctor. He seems to fear no opposition. He says that such plain, common-sense principles as underlie Thompson's System of medical practice must stand the test of time, and eventually win the day. He says that Dr. Thompson was the first to formulate the Axiom: "Remove the cause, and the effect will cease." Disease is removed from the body by expelling the cause. Nature, when the cause of disease is removed, will of herself, restore health to the body. Reduce the strength of the patient, and you reduce the patient's power to get well. Do bleeding, blistering, starving and drastic purges strengthen the vital forces, or add power to the recuperative system? No! All these tend to reduce the restorative forces by weakening the alimentary, respiratory, circulatory and nervous systems of the body; the only powers upon which the physician may rely, and to which he dare look for the restoration of the sick to health. Such are the convictions which the doctor expressed to me in the brief interview I had with him to-day. Stay all night at Joseph Miller's.

Saturday, July 15. Brother Daniel Miller and I go to Brock's Gap, dine at George Moyers's, and stay all night at Celestine Whitmore's.

Sunday, July 16. I baptize Magdalena Moyers and Barbara Tusing. We stay all night at Charles Snider's.

Friday, August 11. Attend harvest meeting at the Flat Rock. It behooves us, at these meetings, to be on our guard, lest we fall into a feeling of self-satisfaction. I mean by this that it is possible for us to become so well satisfied with ourselves now that we have returned thanks to the Lord for the rich gifts of his love, in the bountiful harvest we have just gathered, that we have no need of being watchful as to the use we make of it. Brethren, if our thankfulness be from the heart, this very feeling will lead us into a desire to make a right use of what the Lord has given. Perhaps it would be better for us to take up more time at our harvest meeting in talking about the ways and means of using the gifts of God, and how best to apply them to the end that will do most good to one another and the poor, and thus most honor and glorify him. I made remarks similar to these, and think that I will speak more on the same line of thought to-morrow.

Saturday, August 12. Harvest meeting at our meetinghouse. After meeting, go up to Isaac Ritchey's in Brock's Gap, and stay all night.

Sunday, August 13. Jacob Stirewalt, a Lutheran minister, preaches and administers the sacrament at Sowders's church to-day. I happen to be present, and am reminded of my boyhood experience in Pennsylvania, when I used to be in the Lutheran church on such occasions, and when it often fell to my lot to pump wind for the organ. In the afternoon we have meeting at Jacob Whetzel's. I stay all night at James Fitzwaters's.

Sunday, August 27. Meeting at Daniel Garber's. Matthew 13 is read. Brother Daniel Miller baptized three persons to-day. This day also Samuel and Joseph Good and their wives are baptized.

Friday, September 15. Creek and river very high. A great freshet. A very wonderful washout occurred in the side of the North mountain, above Turleytown, back of Elijah Baker's. It is supposed to have been caused by a waterspout or cloud-burst, as it is sometimes called. A great flood of water seemed to fall on the side of the mountain on a small patch of ground, uprooting trees, overturning rocks, and carrying all in one huge mass into the hollow below, where they lodged. The flood, rolling on, carried off Moses Pumphrey's milk-house, and did some other damage.

Wednesday, October 4. Meeting and love feast at Beaver Creek. Hebrews 12 is read. The brethren and sisters were exhorted to "follow after peace, and the holiness without which no one shall see the Lord; to take heed lest any fall short of the grace of God by living unholy lives." Whilst it is the duty of the housekeepers to look after the purity and order of the church at all times, still it does appear that a special eye should be had on the body at the times of our love feasts. "All things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do." There should be no spots in our feasts of love. All should be unspotted love and purity in Christ Jesus. Otherwise our services may not be acceptable to him. If there be anyone amongst us to-day who feels and knows in his own heart that he is a fornicator or profane person as Esau was, any one that is conscious of having in himself any feeling of bitterness towards the body or any member of it; I hereby, according to authority from the Lord, admonish such not to approach the table of the Lord. Such sins should be publicly confessed before the church; and according to the words of the Lord, the church has authority to loose the brother or sister from such sins, when deeply and duly repented of. "Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven."

But I here entreat all to think soberly. Let none stay away from the table of the Lord on account of a feeling of unworthiness before God. "For the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." When we are meek and lowly in heart under a deep sense of unworthiness and shortcomings, then it is that the spirit is bearing witness with our spirits. Though free from sin, still our Lord confessed that he himself was "meek and lowly in heart." Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

After such exhortations and instructions the brethren and sisters joined in singing that heart-cheering old hymn:

"Arise, my soul, arise;

Shake off thy guilty fears:

The Bleeding Sacrifice

In my behalf appears.

Before the Throne my surety stands;

My name is written on his hands."

We have had good weather all this day and night, and a fine meeting.

Monday, October 16. Between this date and the twenty-third Brother Kline, in company with Anna, his wife, visited the following named families: Daniel Glick's, David Wampler's, Widow George Kline's, Samuel Miller's, Jonas Wampler's, Daniel Wampler's, Jacob Hoover's above Staunton, Joel Garber's, Jacob Zigler's, Christian Kline's, Jacob Wine's, Martain Good's, Joseph Miller's, Daniel Garber's, Frederic Kline's, Jacob Earley's and Flory's. He attended a number of meetings in connection with the foregoing visits, and reports the Brethren and relatives generally well.

Wednesday, October 25. Brother Kline started to Hampshire County, West Virginia. He went by way of the South Fork and Moorefield in Hardy County, West Virginia; and got to Brother Nicolas Leatherman's by Thursday night, after two very hard days' ride on horseback. On this journey he visited John Leatherman's, Daniel Arnold's, Joseph Arnold's, David Good's, Solomon Michael's and others. He attended a love feast and one other meeting at Arnold's meetinghouse, and had night meeting at Solomon Michael's. Here his subject was the baptism of John. From Solomon Michael's he went to Brother Stingley's in the west part of Hardy County, West Virginia, where he met and filled an appointment for preaching. From this place he went to Parks's; and on

Wednesday, November 1, he took dinner at Saul Hyre's, above Petersburg, and stayed all night at Isaac Shobe's.

Thursday, November 2. He had meeting at the widow Chlora Judy's on Mill Creek, where he spoke from John 1:29. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." The next day he had meeting at Rorabaugh's on the South Fork; and in the afternoon went across the Shenandoah mountain to Brother Nesselrodt's. He says: "I crossed two very high mountains to-day. It is cloudy and cold, threatening snow."

Saturday, November 4. Snowing fast this morning. Go on to Mathias's on Lost River, where I meet a small gathering of people at night. Snows fast all day, and meeting small; but I nevertheless speak as best I can on the last two verses of the ninth chapter of John. These are the words, and what follows is an outline in substance of what I said: "And many came unto him; and they said, John indeed did no sign: but all things whatsoever John spake of this man were true. And many believed on him there." Our Lord's work on earth in the flesh, was now fast drawing to a close. Honest hearts were accepting him as the Savior of the world. His enemies, on the other hand, were becoming more violent in their opposition to him, on the ground that if they would let him go all men would believe on him. One striking feature of our Lord's spirit and doctrine was that of "nonresistance" of personal or bodily enemies. "My kingdom," said he, "is not of this world; else would my servants fight." Ignorant of the power of love, these Jewish enemies of our Lord could foresee nothing in the tendencies of his doctrines but the destruction of their city Jerusalem, and the same also of their nationality as a people.

Although John did no sign or miracle, still he told the truth about Jesus; and inasmuch as he did this in the beginning of our Lord's ministry, and was beheaded soon after, it was in itself strong evidence in favor of our Lord's Messiahship. The people could plainly see the agreement between the life and teachings of Christ and what John had said they would be. The agreement was too exact and uniform to be accidental. This led many to believe on him. They alleged that all things whatsoever John spake of this man were true; and they came unto him. In this they showed their wisdom. How they hung upon his words! How their hearts did burn as he opened unto them the Scriptures! Like Mary, many sat at his feet and heard his words.

At the present day, when any begin to inquire the way of salvation, instead of going to the Word wherein the way is plainly revealed, and the Lord may be found, they go to their preacher, or to others whom they regard as safe guides, or to books that purport to lead inquirers into the right way; and very often they are wrongly taught and misled. If there be one here to-night who is anxiously inquiring the way to Jesus, I say to him: "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world!" "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father and the holy angels." "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." A good many tongues are found in the mouth with which men make "confession unto salvation." But they all speak the same thing, and the thing which they all speak is humble obedience to the Word of the Lord. Baptism is one tongue. Feet-washing is another tongue. The Lord's Supper is another tongue. The Communion is another tongue. A quiet, honest and peaceable life is another tongue, and one that speaks very loud for Christ. Temperance in eating and drinking, and abstemiousness in the way of rejecting the use of all unnecessary or injurious things is another tongue of power on the Lord's side. Come to Jesus. Confess him in these ways, and thou shall live.

Sunday, December 31. Meeting on Lost River. Matthew 2 is read. Stay all night at Christian Halterman's.

It is said that the centipede has a hundred feet. It may have; and it does seem that superstition, or the belief in supernatural things of a trivial nature has quite as many; and, like the fabled animal of ancient times, has also a hundred heads.

This evening I overheard a conversation among some young people where I stayed, in which one said that every New Year's night, that is, the night in which the New Year comes in, the cattle and sheep all get on their knees, as if they might be in a devotional posture of body. They talked as if they really believed that this might be so. I do not know how this impression has come about; but I have heard this before, and guess that some mischievous or sportive person tried to make some one else believe that cattle and sheep kneel only on New Year's night, when the truth is that they kneel whenever they lie down to rest. I have often thought it a pity that people are so ready to believe in marvelous and supernatural things which can do them no good, and so backward to believe the most marvelous truth the world has ever known; the truth that God has provided eternal life and salvation for all who are willing to accept it on the easy terms upon which it is offered.

In this year I have traveled, mostly on horseback, three thousand, two hundred and sixty miles.

Monday, January 1, 1844. I feel sure that the work of the year cannot be entered upon more suitably than by making arrangements for building a house of worship unto the Lord. The need of a house of this kind has long been felt among the Brethren on Lost River. We have here, as elsewhere, "not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God" publicly, as Paul says he did among the Ephesian brethren, "and that from house to house." But it is best to have a stated place of worship, and with this in view we have this day made arrangements to build a meetinghouse, to be known as the Lost River meetinghouse. Celestine Whitmore, Jacob Mathias and Silas Randall have been elected trustees; and Celestine Whitmore, one of the number, has been elected master builder.

Saturday, February 24. Raise the new meetinghouse on Lost River. Stay all night at Silas Randall's.

Tuesday, March 26. My dear old father dies this night, at forty minutes past three o'clock in the morning. He has lived to a great age, has seen all of his children settled in life and doing well, has served his day and generation to good purpose by a faithful discharge of duty as a husband and father in his own family; as a kind and ever-obliging neighbor in his community; and far, very far outweighing all these, he has honored his God by embracing the faith set forth in the Gospel of the Son of God, the faith that works by love, that purifies the heart, and that overcomes the world. All great endings are but great beginnings. The end of our Savior's life on earth was but the beginning of his life of ineffable glory and exaltation in heaven. As the Head is, so shall the members be. In his own measure, as it hath pleased the Lord to give my father grace, so shall his reward in glory be. Death is the door through which we enter life.

"Farewell! we meet no more

On this side heaven:

The parting scene is o'er,

The last sad look is given,

"Farewell! O may we meet

In heaven above:

And there, in union sweet,

Sing of a Savior's love."

Thursday, March 28. Daniel Miller and Benjamin Bowman preach father's funeral. The earth that covers the body and hides it from sight does not bury our hopes. The anchor of the soul is sure and steadfast. It has its hold upon the things within the veil, which are eternal and immovable. I will not sorrow as those who have no hope. Father's age was eighty years, eight months and twenty-two days.

Sermon by Elder John Kline.

Preached at Old Father Kagey's,
Sunday, March 31.

Text.—For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.—2 Cor. 4:16.

Our heavenly Father makes known to his children the things necessary for their instruction in the way of a holy life, that they may do his will in all things and live well-pleasing to him at all times. To this end many precious promises are held up to our spiritual vision, and many encouragements set forth to animate us to love and duty. Hence Paul says: "For this cause we faint not. Even though our outward man perish," that is, show signs of decay and approaching death, "yet the inward man is renewed day by day." This natural body in which we live and move, in which we serve and suffer, is what Paul calls "the outward man." Elsewhere it is called "a natural body." It is the offspring of the natural act of generation between the father and mother, and is in its nature bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. This is why it is called a natural body. In the text it is called "the outward man," because it is the external part of the man; is visible; has weight; may be handled and felt; and is the medium of direct sensation. It is also the seat of suffering and sin, and is subject to death and decomposition as its end. Of this body it is written: "Dust thou art; and unto dust shalt thou return." Paul says: "In me, that is, in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing." He is very particular to tell us in which part of him it is where no good thing dwelleth. He says: "In my flesh."

But there is "an inward man" about which none of these things can be said. This is elsewhere called "a spiritual body." It is so called because it is born "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." It is also called "a new creature in Christ Jesus." Generation, in a natural sense, implies the begetting and bringing forth of the "natural body" the "outward man," "the old man;" but regeneration implies the begetting and bringing forth of "the spiritual body," "the inward man," "the new man," which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Peter says: "Born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever."

But it matters not how good a thing may be, if it is out of our reach or beyond our power to get, it can do us no good. But the new life in the soul, the eternal life of the spirit, is not out of the reach of any, is in reach of all. Even the dead shall hear his voice, and they that hear shall live. "He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath everlasting life." "Whosoever cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." "He that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." "This is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

Obedience to the ordinances of God's house has its place here in connection with faith. By works is faith made perfect. The first command that Paul received in connection with his conversion was: "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord." The instruction of Peter to the convicts on the day of Pentecost was: "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." In preaching Jesus to the eunuch Philip evidently preached our Lord's baptism, else what would the eunuch have known about baptism? How else can we account for his remark to Philip and implied request: "See, here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized?" "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest," was Philip's answer. Sinner, you are invited to come and take of the water of life freely. Come, believe, obey, and live forever.

Friday, April 12. Plant corn in the lower field.

Saturday, April 13. Finish planting the lower field. I never plant corn or commit any seed to the earth, but I am filled with wonder in the contemplation of God's power. In my thoughts over things of this kind my mind and heart find pleasant relief, by recalling in memory the beautiful similitude which Mark, alone of all the evangelists, has left on record for us. These are his words: "And he [the Lord] said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed upon the earth, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, he knoweth not how. The earth beareth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." These words greatly encourage me to labor more faithfully in the ministry of the Word: for as we know the Lord has power to make the dry seed in the dry ground grow unto a rich harvest, we know not how, so has he power to make the seeds of his truth spring up and grow in the hearts of men unto a harvest of eternal blessedness in heaven. But as the corn must be tended, the field kept clean, and the ground kept in order during the growing season, so must the Word in the heart be guarded from the inroads of evils, such as are clearly described in the Lord's own words.

Saturday, April 20. Council meeting to-day on Lost River. Celestine Whitmore elected speaker, and Silas Randall elected deacon. Stay all night at John Miller's.

Sunday, April 21. Meeting at Whitmore's. Luke 14 is read. Humility was my subject to-day, founded on the words of the eleventh verse. Pride is the opposite of humility. The proud man exalts himself and refuses to follow in the footsteps of the meek and lowly Jesus.

"God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." So says the Apostle James. And why is this so? Because the proud man, in his sense of self-sufficiency, feels no want at the present which he thinks he is not able to supply, and dreads no want in the future, either because he does not think of any future life, or because he has persuaded himself to believe there is no future state of existence. God can never give grace to such a man, in such a state, because he will not receive it. A thing may be offered, but it can never be said to be given unless it is received. Wherefore the Apostle Peter says: "Humble yourselves therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time." When God exalts a man, when God lifts a man up, he then is lifted up, he then is exalted, sure enough. This is the exaltation to which we may truthfully apply Paul's exultation: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him."

Sunday, May 12. Meeting in our meetinghouse. Ephesians 4 is read. Samuel Myers and his wife are baptized.

Tuesday, May 14. Council meeting to-day at our meetinghouse. John Bowman, of Franklin County, Virginia, and Brother Barnhardt, of Roanoke County, Virginia, were with us to-day; and they are with me this evening to stay all night.

Thursday, May 16. Raise the mill, and in the afternoon go to the Gap and marry George Fawley and Catharine Fulk.

Saturday, June 1. Love feast to-day at our meetinghouse. Brother Daniel Barnhardt, of Roanoke County, Virginia, and Brother John Bowman, of Franklin County, Virginia, and Brother Peter Nead were with us. We had much good speaking by the visiting brethren on the 10th chapter of John and other passages of Scripture.

Sunday, June 2. Go to Daniel Miller's to meeting. Luke 14 is read. I then go to Joseph Miller's where I stay all night.

Monday, June 10. This morning the intelligence comes of the sudden death of Reuben Yount. He was found lying dead in the road. It is supposed that he was killed by being thrown from his horse on his way home last evening.

Tuesday, June 11. Reuben Yount was buried to-day. Age, twenty-five years and thirteen days. Verily the sons of men sink into the grave like raindrops into the sea, and are seen no more. As unexpectedly as the pitcher is broken at the fountain, even before it is filled with water, so unexpectedly does death come to many.

Monday, June 24. Finish making hay. We have about twenty-two tons in all.