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.