Solomon Garber is advanced to the second degree in the ministry of the
Word. Sarah Norman is reinstated to the fellowship of the church.
WEDNESDAY, April 26. Attend the funeral of the widow Sister
Cherryholms in the Gap. Age, fifty-nine years. Sister C. was a woman
of real force of character. Her house was a welcome shelter for the
Brethren and others who often visited her.
MONDAY, May 1. Attend the funeral of old Sister Evers, widow of John
Evers. She died at John Hawse's. Age, seventy-two years, three months
and three days.
WEDNESDAY, May 3. Brother Benjamin Bowman, with Sister Catharine his
wife, and Brother John Wine, with Anna and myself, start to Ohio. We
go in two carriages. To such as are not used to traveling in this way
a journey to Ohio and back in a two-horse carriage, over all kinds of
roads, through all the changes of weather likely to occur at this
season, and I may add, among all kinds of people, might look like an
undesirable undertaking. But for myself I can say I do not dread
making the start. I am best satisfied and most delighted when doing
something for God and humanity. But the company I have on this visit
makes the anticipation of it especially pleasant. Brother John Wine is
a live man; cheerful, but ever earnest and sincere; lively, but never
light or frivolous. His mind is always inquisitive, seeking for
knowledge in every line of truth. Hence he asks many questions. If
your answers involve any doubt as to their correctness, or fail of the
clearness he thinks should appear in the instructions of a teacher to
his pupil, he will dispute a whole day with you on a single question,
rather than appear to be satisfied with your answer when he is not.
With a mind hard and sharp as flint, he strikes fire out of everything
he hits. But he has sense enough, and goodness enough, never to strike
fire where he has reason to fear there may be danger of causing an
explosion. He is the son of Samuel, in the Brush, and brother of
Christian Wine. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Zigler, in
Timberville, Rockingham County, Virginia. He now resides on his farm
about two miles away from where he was born and raised. He is an
eminently good and useful brother.
Benjamin Bowman is the son of Benjamin Bowman, who settled in
Rockingham County, Virginia, about or very soon after the breaking up
of the war of the Revolution. This elder Benjamin Bowman had three
sons,--Samuel, Benjamin and John,--all of whom married, raised highly
respectable families, lived and died in the same county in which they
were born. These all became members of our Brotherhood; and Benjamin
is at this time a very active and acceptable preacher of the Word, and
promises to be a very agreeable companion on the journey we have now
undertaken together. He is no great talker in the way of conversation,
but what he says is generally to the point. Very considerate in
forming an opinion, and exceedingly careful in reaching a conclusion,
he is not likely to be wrong in anything he asserts to be true. By
means of these habits assiduously cultivated, he has built up a
reputation for reliability which not only aids him in business, but
stamps the seal of truth on his discourses from the ministerial stand.
He will not readily debate a matter you may present to his mind, even
if his views do not coincide with yours at the time; but after due
consideration he will let you hear from him with arguments not to be
refuted.
We stay first night at Celestine Whitmore's on Lost River.
THURSDAY, May 4. After we were on the way this morning Anna changed
her mind and preferred going back to Brother Whitmore's. So we took
her back, and they will convey her home. Travel thirty-three miles,
and stay second night at Joseph Smith's.
FRIDAY, May 5. Go through Romney, Virginia, and at the end of
thirty-five miles stay third night at McNaer's.
SATURDAY, May 6. Go through Frostburg, and come to Jacob Lighty's. We
have night meeting. I speak on Acts 17:30. TEXT.--"The times of this
ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to
repent."
Athens, the capital of Greece, was a large city. It was noted as the
chief seat of Grecian learning, refinement of taste, cultivation of
genius, and skill in the production of almost everything belonging to
the fine arts. It had its philosophers, statesmen, orators, lawyers,
priests, poets and painters. It had its high and low orders in
society. But when Paul beheld the city his spirit was moved in him,
for he saw that it was wholly given to idolatry. Some of the Epicurean
and Stoic philosophers encountered him and said: "He seemeth to be a
setterforth of strange gods." They said this among themselves, because
he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. But they did not
seem inclined to do him injury as the Jews had done in some other
places, but gave him a chance to speak in the Areopagus, a large
building in the city called the Hill of Mars, or Mars' Hill. In this
building Paul preached a wonderful sermon, the whole of which you may
read in Acts seventeenth chapter.
But to-night I wish to speak on just one thing that Paul said in that
sermon, and these are the words: "God commandeth all men everywhere to
repent." When we are commanded to do something, we like to know what
it is we are commanded to do. Now I will tell you. It is to repent.
But you may say, "I do not exactly know what that means." I will now
tell you about all I know of the meaning of the words repent and
repentance. The Lord Jesus knew exactly what these words mean, and I
will give you his definition. He said to the Jews: "The men of Nineveh
repented at the preaching of Jonah." Now let us turn to the book of
Jonah in the Old Testament and see what the men of Nineveh did at the
preaching of Jonah, and we will then understand what the Lord meant
when he said they _repented_. You must know what Jonah's sermon was.
It was so plain that all could understand it, and so short that all
could remember it, This is the sermon: "Yet forty days and Nineveh
shall be destroyed." The city had more than a hundred and twenty
thousand people in it; and it took Jonah three days to go from one end
to the other with his message of destruction; but at the end of the
first day "the people of Nineveh believed God; and when the word came
unto the king of Nineveh he arose from his throne, and laid his robe
from him, and put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes and said: Let man and
beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yea, let
them turn, every one from his evil way. And God saw their works, that
they turned from their evil way."
Now, notice, when God commands all men everywhere to repent, he means
for them to do what the Ninevites did, but in a more spiritually
enlightened way. They believed God. This is the first step in
repentance, as this same apostle says: "He that would come unto God
must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him." The Ninevites had no written word as we have,
that gives us intelligent knowledge of God as he is revealed in the
face of his Son Jesus Christ. All they knew of him was from tradition,
and what they could see of him in his works. But they believed God,
and gave proof of it by turning from their evil way. Now, friends,
this is just what God commands all men to do. This is what he commands
every impenitent man and woman in this house to do to-night.
But some of you may say: "I have no evil way from which to turn. I do
an honest business; I lead a sober life; I am true to my marriage
vows, and live a moral and orderly life generally. What lack I yet?"
Let me ask you: Why do you live in this orderly and consistent way? Is
it because you love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength, and
your neighbor as yourself? If you can truly say that this love is the
hand that leads and draws you in your good life, I say, Thank God! I
have found a brother of whom I am not ashamed. But anything short of
this love is short of what God requires, and you with the rest are
called upon to repent. You still have a way that is evil in God's
sight. That way is the love of self and the love of the world. The
Pharisees were just as particular and careful in regard to their moral
or outside life as you can ever be; and still the Lord said to his
disciples: "Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye can in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven."
Their righteousness proceeded all from the love of self and the world.
Their ambition culminated in the honor, respectability, credit and
wealth such a life procured for them; and on this account the Lord
Jesus said of them: "Verily, they have their reward."
But our blessed Lord says again: "Except a man deny himself, and take
up his cross daily, he cannot be my disciple." This means repentance.
It is commendable in the eye of society of almost every grade to live
a decent, orderly, virtuous life; but if this sort of life be led from
any motive short of the love of God, what is said of the Pharisees
must also be said of this: "Ye make clean the OUTSIDE of the cup and
the platter, but the inside is full of hypocrisy and deceit." Now,
true repentance makes clean the INSIDE of the cup and the platter,
"that the outside may be clean also."
"Repentance is to leave
The things we dearly love;
And o'er our sins to grieve,
And seek the things above."
After meeting we go to David Beichley's, and stay fourth night.
SUNDAY, May 7. Meeting at Jacob Fige's. John 5 is read. Then come to
Jacob Miller's, near Milford, and have night meeting in a schoolhouse
near by. Stay fifth night with Brother Miller.
MONDAY, May 8. Go to council meeting at Joseph Lighty's. An election
for deacons is held. Stay sixth night at Christian Miller's. Rain this
afternoon and night.
TUESDAY, May 9. Dine at Emanuel Beichley's on Indian Creek, and stay
seventh night at Joseph Folger's, near Mt. Pleasant.
WEDNESDAY, May 10. Stay eighth night at Beidler's tavern, in East
Liberty.
THURSDAY, May 11. Breakfast and dine in Pittsburg, and stay ninth
night in Economy.
FRIDAY, May 12. Stay tenth night at Jacob Leedy's, near New Middleton.
SATURDAY, May 13. Get here to my dear Brother Henry Kurtz's, where we
stay eleventh night.
SUNDAY, May 14. Meeting at Brother Jacob Summers's near by. Ephesians
6 is read. Brother Benjamin speaks first, and John follows him. They
speak of the Christian's armor; that it is not for the flesh, but for
the spirit; that it is not for defense against persecution and trials
in our life here, but for defense against the wiles of the devil; that
it should be constantly worn, and kept bright by daily use. After
meeting the Brethren agree to have a little love feast this evening,
and a good time we have. Stay twelfth night at Brother Henry Kurtz's.
MONDAY, May 15. Pass through a number of little towns and villages and
at the end of forty-four miles to-day find ourselves pleasantly
received by my very dear Brother George Hoke, with whom we stay
thirteenth night.
TUESDAY, May 16. Meeting at Brother Solomon Kiser's. Mark 1 is read.
Three persons baptized. Stay fourteenth night at Brother Michael
Sprinkel's, near McDonelsville.
WEDNESDAY, May 17. Get to Brother Jacob Kurtz's, where I have the
pleasure of meeting again the dear family that showed me so much
kindness two years ago. Stay fifteenth and sixteenth nights here. If
the meeting with those we love, and a brief stay with them, can give
us so much joy here in our imperfect state, what will be the measure
of our joy when we meet in that world where all is perfection, and
partings are known no more! "In his presence there is fullness of joy:
and at his right hand there are pleasures forevermore."
THURSDAY, May 18. Evening meeting here at Brother Jacob Kurtz's, where
we stay sixteenth night.
FRIDAY, May 19. Meeting in River Brethren's meetinghouse, near George
Harting's. Luke 14 is read. Come to Wooster, Wayne County, and stay
seventeenth night at John Overholtz's.
SATURDAY, May 20. Meeting in the Campbellite meetinghouse. John 4 is
read. Evening meeting at Brother John Shoemaker's. John 15 is read.
Stay there eighteenth night. Heavy rain to-day and night.
SUNDAY, May 21. Meeting at Brother Eli Dickey's. Revelation 21 is
read. Brother Benjamin Bowman gave us some delightful thoughts
suggested by these words: "Behold! I make all things new." He said:
"This promise is generally thought to point for its fulfillment to the
golden day when God's people shall realize in fact what John saw in
vision,--'a new heaven and a new earth.' I believe that day is coming.
I believe the tabernacle of God will be with men; that God will dwell
with them in that Holy City, the New Jerusalem. But I ask here, first
of all, whence arises the necessity for making all things new? If the
existing order of things is faultless, why this renovation? There must
be imperfection, there must be a defect somewhere. Whatever else these
words may comprehend, I for one regard them as applying to the church
as it will then appear, as Solomon describes it, 'comely as
Jerusalem;' the New Jerusalem he means; 'and terrible' in the power of
its righteousness and truth, 'as an army with banners.'
"Notice right here the striking similarity of the text to what Paul
says. What does my text say? 'Behold, I make all things new.' What
does Paul say? 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old
things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.' What is it
to be in Christ? It is to be filled with his truth as a sponge is
filled with water when immersed in it. It is to be filled with gospel
light as a healthy eye is filled with light in the blaze of a clear
day. And when the spiritual eye is single, that is healthy, not
double-sighted, our Lord says the whole spiritual body shall be full
of light. The light is in the body, because the body is in the light.
I mean just what the Lord meant, the spiritual body, for Paul says:
'There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.' But he goes
on and says: 'However, that which is natural is first.' This we can
all see and know. We know that we were not naturally born of God.
'That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit,' and what is born of the Spirit is the spiritual
body.
"To be in Christ is to be in his love. I was once asked this question
by an individual who probably wished to puzzle me. He said: 'You
preach that a man must be in Christ to be saved, and at the same time
say that Christ must be in the man. How is this?' I answer by using a
very plain illustration. I said to him: When you get uncomfortably
cool in the shade, and move to where the sun can shine full upon your
body, do you not feel its warmth? Now, I said to him, the warmth of
the sun is in your body, because your body is in the warmth of the
sun. Just so we may say it is with us in a spiritual sense. The love
of Christ enters our hearts when we place ourselves where that love
can reach us. Now let me say, by way of digression from my main point
that the love of Christ will never enter a man in a drinking saloon or
in a gambling hall, because it is not there. Such places are as
destitute of the truth and divine love of Christ as the darkest and
coldest night is destitute of the light and heat of the sun. 'Behold,
I make all things new.' This is just what the Lord will do in every
man's mind and heart, spirit and soul, thoughts and affections,
purposes and their accomplishments, who opens the door and bids him
come in. This is the glorious work of regeneration.
"But, Brethren beloved, let us inquire a little as to whether the
church, our own church I mean, needs to be made over anew, or as we
may say, needs to be renovated. Can any brother or sister in this
house say: 'I am just as pure in heart as I desire to be. My faith
never grows weak; my love never grows cold. I am as innocent and pure
in all my affections and thoughts as a little child. I have no
jealousy or envy in my soul. I never get angry, or think of wishing
evil to any one. I have the spirit of Christ in me in all perfection,
and have purified myself even as he is pure'? I repeat the question
with emphasis, Is there a soul in this house who can truthfully say
all this? I can answer boldly that there is not, for it is not given
to man away down in his imperfect state here to have such sinless
perfection. The most heavenly-minded amongst us have often to mourn
over our shortcomings; and the holiest man or woman, looking into his
or her own heart with an eye filled with the light of gospel truth,
can but at the best say, with the poor publican: 'God be merciful to
me a sinner.'
"But there is a day coming when all things shall be made new, and we
shall be made new with the rest. I do not want to be understood here,
however, as believing that God will in any sense force his renewing
power upon any one; or that this renewing power will be enjoyed in the
world to come by any but such as earnestly desired it here. I believe
that when we get into the other life our eyes will open to such clear
visions of the beauty of holiness and the excellencies of heavenly
love, all thoughts of evil will be rejected with a repugnance
something like what we would feel here by having the most offensive or
poisonous substance thrust into our mouth. It is declared concerning
the New Jerusalem that nothing shall enter therein that defileth, or
worketh abomination, or maketh a lie. Nothing shall enter therein that
defileth. Our Lord has graciously told us the things that defile a
man. He says: 'Evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, lasciviousness, an evil eye,
blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within,
and defile the man.' Now, these are the Lord's own words; and they
enable us to understand just what is meant by the words, 'nothing
shall enter therein that defileth.'
"Now, Brethren, when the angels that meet us at the gate of the Golden
City shall take of the blood of the Lamb, and, with gentle hands, wash
away every stain of defilement from the sins here enumerated, and we,
thus cleansed, find ourselves safe, forever safe, within its blessed
walls, will we not shout and say: 'Behold! all things have become
new'?"
Stay nineteenth night with Brother Eli Dickey. We are now in Ashland
County, Ohio. Heavy rains to-day, and waters very high.
MONDAY, May 22. Pass through Richland County, and stay twentieth night
with Brother Samuel Shaffner, four miles from Bucyrus in Crawford
County.
TUESDAY, May 23. Night meeting at Benton. Subject: "The Miracles of
Christ's Healing Power." TEXT.--"And he healed all that came unto
him."
We hardly need being told that man is composed of body and soul; that
the body is the visible, material part of man, in which the soul,
man's invisible part, finds its home. Man's material part is but
little superior to that of the rest of the animal creation. It is
subject to the same laws. It must be fed and sheltered. It finds
enjoyment in food and drink, and comfortable surroundings, very nearly
akin to what we see in the life of brutes. Like them it is subject to
natural decay, liable to disease; and like them, must die. But man is
in possession of capacities and capabilities infinitely superior to
anything the rest of God's sentient creation enjoys. He has a soul
which is capable of unlimited attainments in the knowledge and love of
God, and in the knowledge and love of his fellowman. The heathen
philosophers supposed they had done their whole duty to themselves and
the world when they could vainly believe that they had realized in
their experiences what they thought a compliance with their favorite
maxim: "Know thou thyself." Whilst Christians believe and feel that
self-knowledge, or the knowledge of one's self, is very important, at
the same time they have longing aspirations to know all they can of
the Being who created this self, this thinking, reasoning, loving,
restless thing within them, called a living soul. Brutes have no
aspirations, no desires of this kind.
Right here we may see what God loves. It was not man's animal or
bodily life that brought the Lord into our world, for this is not the
man. It is the soul or spirit within the body that is the real man,
and all these souls collectively make the world that God so loved that
he gave his only begotten Son to save it. God never loved trifles. The
fact that God loved the world of man is proof that man, as a being
capable of glorifying God by reciprocating his love, was worthy of it.
This key opens the way to a glimpse of man's high destiny, attainable
by his taking hold of the Hand reached down in love to lift him up.
God's Word is the only book that can give man a true knowledge of
himself. It is the only source from which he can learn that he is a
sinner by his habitual transgressions of the great, law of love that
would bind all the units of God's intelligent creation into a
brotherhood of ineffable and eternal happiness. It was to redeem man
from this deplorable state, and deliver him from the destroying power
of sin, that Jesus came into the world. But when he came he found man
so low down in the darkness of ignorance, so stupid and slow to open
his eyes, so benumbed by the chilling power of the love of self, so
infested and possessed by evil spirits of hell, that but little
impression could be made upon him, except such as could be felt and
seen by means of his bodily senses.
These statements, which are true, account for the miracles wrought by
the Lord. In working them, however, he had a two-fold purpose. The
first was to arouse the people from their dormant state to one of
consciousness that a Being of superior power was among them. This they
were made to feel by his healing touch, his cleansing hand, and his
life-restoring virtue. And what was the effect of all this? It had
very much the same effect in one way that kindness toward children in
the way of giving them little presents, and gentleness and tenderness
in the way of gratifying their bodily desires and wishes, has upon
them. They love the one who treats them in such ways. Now, the Lord
healed the people. He healed all that came to him, of whatever bodily
ill they were suffering. He fed them, too, and did it all so lovingly
that they believed him to be the best and most powerful Friend they
had ever known. They followed him in throngs. They felt secure, bodily
secure and safe when they were with him. But we must not forget that
they followed him, not on account of the words he had spoken to them,
the instructions he had imparted, but "for the loaves and the fishes."
We almost instinctively say, in our meditations upon these things:
What a pity they could not discover in him something higher to believe
in and love than the mere power and will to heal their bodily ills and
minister to their bodily wants! This strong faith in his power and
readiness to minister in a miraculous way to their external, worldly
enjoyments and comforts is what led them to try to take him by force
and make him their king. Having now given you his first object in
working miracles, I turn to the second.
Here a great field for thought opens to our view, from which a volume
could be written. Every miracle the Lord wrought, just like every
parable he spoke, has a double line of truth, an inner and an outer
sense. These are related to each other as the soul and body are
related. Jesus says: "My words are spirit, and they are life." His
miracles, when rightly understood, are the same. "They are spirit and
they are life." Their spirit and life enter us through the light they
contain. Let us look at one or two with a view to find what spirit and
life we can: One Sabbath day Jesus met a man in a Jewish house of
worship, called a synagogue, whose right hand was WITHERED. Notice,
the man's hand was withered. This means that it was dead, just as we
mean that a plant is dead when it is withered, or so nearly dead that
its life is almost gone. This man's hand must have been powerless. He
could not use it to do anything; and it was his right hand. He could
not move a joint of it. It was simply powerless.
But notice particularly what Jesus commanded him to do. He said to
this very man: "Stretch forth thy hand." Does not that look like an
unreasonable command? The man might have plausibly said: "I cannot do
this. I have not been able to reach my hand to my mouth in the past
year. I can not do as you tell me." But instead of urging objections
he instantly obeyed, for the words, "Stretch forth thy hand," were not
more than out of the Lord's mouth when we read, "And he did so: and
his hand was restored whole as the other." Now I ask, Did this man
have any part to act, or duty to perform in this miracle of healing? I
answer, He did; and without his obedient coöperation his hand would
have been left dangling powerless at his side.
Is there not a lesson here? Let us try to gather crumbs of instruction
from it. If you take your Bible and concordance, and hunt up the
places where the expression "right hand" is used, you will plainly see
that "right hand," when spoken of as the "right hand" of God, means
_power_, the power of God. As applying to man, it means the same, the
_power_ of man. In this sense the right hand of every unconverted man
and woman is _withered_ under the blighting curse of sin. But Jesus is
present to heal. He is ever ready to heal all who have need of healing
now, just as truly as when he was visibly among men. But he cannot
heal you without your willing consent to obey his commands. He first
of all commands you to repent, for now "God commandeth all men
everywhere to repent." The moment you are willing to obey this
command, that moment he will give you the power to obey. Without aid
from the power of the Lord that man never could have stretched forth
his withered hand; but the instant he was willing to obey, that very
instant he received the power to obey.
Again he says: "Give me thy heart." But your heart is all withered
too. It is so chilled and blighted by the cold, and damp, and darkness
of sin, that, like the man's right hand, without help of the Lord, it
is powerless. But the instant you feel a _desire_ to give your heart
to the Lord, such desire as the blind beggar had to receive his sight;
such desire as the poor leper had to be cleansed; such desire as the
publican had that God would be merciful to him a sinner; I say the
instant you feel such desire to give your heart to God, that instant
he will give you power to do so. It surely was a great relief to that
man to have his withered hand restored to healthy activity. It may not
have been very painful; indeed, it may have been so lifeless that
there was not much feeling in it. So it may be with your heart. And
let me say to you that if you really give God your heart in faith and
love he will so effectually heal it that it will beat with new life,
and the warm blood of love and truth from his Word will flow through
it until your greatest joy will be found in doing his will.
Stay twenty-first night in Benton.
WEDNESDAY, May 24. Stay twenty-second night at Lupton's.
THURSDAY, May 25. Go to Squire Knapp's and make deeds. Then to meeting
at Brother Heastand's. Part of John 1 is read. In afternoon return to
Lupton's and finish business with him. Stay twenty-third night at
Lupton's. Fine weather.
FRIDAY, May 26. Stay twenty-fourth night at Brother Jacob Bowers's.
Beautiful weather.
SATURDAY, May 27. Council meeting at Brother Jacob Bowers's, Jr. Night
meeting at Brother Thomas's, where we stay twenty-fifth night. Fine
weather continues.
SUNDAY, May 28. Meeting at Brother Jacob Bowers's, Sr. Speak from
Matthew 3. John's baptism was unto repentance. The people came to him
and were immersed of him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. This
was their first step in repentance. From this they were to keep on
bringing forth fruits meet for, or corresponding to, repentance. The
outside life was to be the exponent of the penitent heart within. He
also pointed them to him who was to come after him, that is, Christ.
He would baptize them in the Holy Spirit and fire. This was literally
fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Baptize one person to-day. Stay
twenty-sixth night at Brother Rotebauch's.
MONDAY, May 29. Go westward to Daniel Miller's, Solomon Wine's, Jacob
Miller's, and stay twenty-seventh night at Samuel Miller's.
TUESDAY, May 30. After meeting we go to Isaac Miller's in Richland
County, where we stay twenty-eighth night.
WEDNESDAY, May 31. Stay twenty-ninth night at Jacob Miller's.
THURSDAY, June 1. Visit Daniel Wine's, David Good's, Jacob Earley's,
David Weaver's, where we have meeting; then go to Samuel Earley's,
where we stay thirtieth night. A very fine day.
FRIDAY, June 2. Stay thirty-first night in Tymocaty.
SATURDAY, June 3. Dine in Upper Sandusky, and stay thirty-second night
at Brother Heastand's. Rain this forenoon.
SUNDAY, June 4. Meeting at Brother Solomon Miller's on Silver Creek.
First Peter 2 is read. Two persons baptized. Evening meeting at Stone
meetinghouse, on Honey Creek near David Rupp's. Luke 14 is read. Stay
thirty-third night at Brother Rupp's.
MONDAY, June 5. Stay thirty-fourth night with Brother Isaac Hartzog.
TUESDAY, June 6. Stay thirty-fifth night with Brother Jacob
Harshbarger. Fine day.
WEDNESDAY, June 7. Stay thirty-sixth night with Brother Cober.
THURSDAY, June 8. Stay thirty-seventh night with Brother Jonas Kline,
nine miles from Ashland.
FRIDAY, June 9. Get back to Brother Jacob Kurtz's, eight miles from
Wooster, in Wayne County, where we stay thirty-eighth night. Fine day.
SATURDAY, June 10. Annual Meeting begins. Peter Nead and I speak.
Three persons baptized. Love feast this evening. Delightful weather.
Stay thirty-ninth night at Brother Kurtz's place.
SUNDAY, June 11. Public meeting to-day. A great concourse of people.
Preaching at both house and barn. Fine weather continues. Stay
fortieth night at same place.
MONDAY, June 12. Council meeting is ready for questions. But few are
handled. Business goes on slowly. Stay forty-first night at same
place. Fine, clear day.
TUESDAY, June 13. This day we progress briskly. Much business is
transacted. Very fine weather continues.
WEDNESDAY, June 14. Finish business, and in afternoon we come to
Brother Sprinkel's, one mile from Canton, Stark County, where we stay
forty-third night. Very fine weather, but somewhat dusty.
THURSDAY, June 15. Call at Brother George Shiveley's; and have night
meeting at Brother Rothrock's, where we stay forty-fourth night. Speak
on John 1. Warm day.
FRIDAY, June 16. Stay forty-fifth night at John Shelly's, five miles
from Richmond, Jefferson County. Fine weather.
SUNDAY, June 18. Dine with Brother Jacob Shideler's and stay
forty-seventh night with Charles Guthrie, near Brownsville, in Fayette
County, Pennsylvania. Rain to-day.
MONDAY, June 19. Stay forty-eighth night with Brother Michael Thomas.
Rain this afternoon and night.
WEDNESDAY, June 21. Stay fiftieth night at Brother Daniel Arnold's in
Hampshire County, Virginia.
THURSDAY, June 22. Dine at Brother Zachariah Arnold's and stay
fifty-first night in Moorefield, Hardy County, Virginia.
FRIDAY, June 23. Dine at Isaac Dasher's in Hardy County, and stay
fifty-second night at William Fitzwater's, in Rockingham County,
Virginia.
SATURDAY, June 24. Breakfast at Daniel Fulk's at foot of Mt. Pleasant
in Brock's Gap, and then home. On this journey Brother John Wine and I
traveled in my carriage 1,083 miles. Brother Benjamin Bowman was not
with us all the time. He left us after we got among relatives and
acquaintances who were not the same, in these respects, to us that
they were to him. Otherwise they were the same to both alike, for they
were nearly all Brethren. But we met again at the Annual Meeting, and
returned home together. We had much pleasant conversation on the way,
and endeavored to build each other up by giving a religious turn to
our discourses. They are both clear-headed thinkers. I feel sure the
time has been well spent by our mutually improving each other, aside
from the good I hope we have done to others. May our heavenly Father
bless this happy journey to the present and everlasting good of all
who may have heard our public or private words of warning, of
instruction, of encouragement to the weak, of confirmation to the
strong, is my prayer. Amen.
Anna was safely conveyed home, nicely and tenderly cared for in my
absence, and I find her as well as I could expect.
THURSDAY, July 13. Perform the marriage ceremony of William Carrier
and Barbara Summers.
WEDNESDAY, July 26. Meeting at Forrer's Furnace. I speak on the
fiftieth verse of the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm. TEXT.--"This
is my comfort in my affliction." I have chosen this subject on account
of the afflictions which some of you have lately passed through, and
which are, I learn, still clinging to others in this neighborhood. As
I have been called--or sincerely believe that I have been called--to
administer medical relief to the sick, and have thus had much
experience in the sick room, and by the sick bed, I will venture to
offer some observations regarding the ways in which the sick should be
cared for and nursed, that they may be comforted in their afflictions
as to their bodily feelings. This done, I will endeavor to say
something regarding the ways in which their souls may be comforted.
The bed for the sick should be soft, but not heating. Nothing can be
more regularly and uniformly comforting to the afflicted than a soft
and easy bed. It need not be costly. Clean straw of oats, cut fine, is
my preference over all other materials. To stir the bed, the patient
need not be taken out, but gently, very slowly and tenderly, moved to
the opposite side first prepared, left there awhile, and then in the
same gentle way returned to the front, similarly prepared. Cleanliness
is next to religion, pure and undefiled, in the sick room. All fumes
of tobacco or other unpleasant smells should not be allowed for a
moment in the sick room. All offensive odors can most readily be
gotten rid of by ventilation. This can be best secured by opening
doors or windows, or both, if necessary. This should be repeatedly
done daily in all weathers. At this season windows should be open all
the time; but the patient should not be exposed to heavy draughts of
air. Unnecessary conversation is very distressing to most sick people,
even though the words be spoken low or in a whisper. Some of you, no
doubt, have had experience of this fact. People kindly feel it a duty
to visit the sick. One does not know that another is going, and each
being impelled by a sense of duty, more go than can be needed; and in
determining who shall return home, and who shall stay, conversations
take place that are often very distressing to the patient. I remember
a conversation I had with one of my own patients once, who had just
shortly before that time recovered from a severe and protracted
illness. He said to me: "Brother John, do try to set the people right
about visiting the sick. There is so much wrong about it the way it is
carried on now that very often more harm than good is done. I
remember," said he, "one night while I was sick. You had been coming,
I think, near three weeks, and I was beginning to mend. In the evening
I felt so much better I thought I was going to rest well and get some
good, natural sleep. But about eight o'clock several neighbors came in
who got to talking; and seeing that I appeared better they were
encouraged to keep on, under the impression that I was strong enough
now to stand it. Ah," continued he, "they did not know they were
almost killing me; for I became restless; and being very weak every
nerve and fiber in my body seemed to be excited into a state of
distressful commotion, from which I did not fairly recover during the
next three days. When you came again you gave very strict orders not
to allow more than one attendant in the room at a time, aside from the
nurse; and after that I began to mend again and got well."
One thing more, and I will leave this feature of the subject. This,
although last in order, is first in importance, because it is the very
basis of recovery. I mean food and drink. Very sick patients, we all
know, can take, and require very little; but that little is
all-important both as to quality, and uniformity as to quantity, and
exact regularity as to time in its administration. I will say here
with emphasis, that in no regard is it more important to comply
punctiliously with the instructions of an intelligent physician, than
in the nourishment given the sick. Without nourishment, recovery in
any case is impossible. How very important, then, that it be rightly
composed and properly administered! Food should be made as attractive
to the patient as possible. This should be carefully kept in mind when
preparing it for patients in a state of convalescence or recovery. The
nerves of the stomach at such time are often very sensitive, and small
excellencies in its quality will be highly appreciated, and slight
deficiencies as readily detected.
You remember, I started out with the text: "This is my comfort in my
affliction." I have tried to give you some bits of counsel as to the
means and ways by which the afflicted may be comforted physically. I
now turn to the means and ways by which they may be comforted
spiritually. But here a difficulty confronts us at the very start. We
cannot make pathological examinations of the soul's distress, and
conclude from these what therapeutic agents to employ for its relief,
as we can in that of the body. In the last we are governed almost
exclusively by the visible and tangible symptoms; but regarding the
first, we are deprived of all these, and are compelled to rely mainly
upon the oral testimony of the sufferer himself. I have repeatedly
been called to the bedside of the dying in compliance with their wish
to receive some comfort, some consolation in their last moments,
before launching out on the unknown deep of eternity. But, alas! with
the exception of a few, paid to humble and obedient followers of the
meek and lowly Jesus, nearly all such visits have caused me to feel my
own absolute incompetence to do them any good, and only left me to
witness the sun of their life go down in clouds and darkness. But
David says: "THIS is my comfort in my affliction." In saying this he
must have in mind some particular idea; some state of feeling
springing out of some previous preparation of heart, which he can
claim as his comfort in his affliction. The few verses preceding the
text give a clew to this very state of mind and heart. Let us look
over them and see what it was. In verse 44 he says: "I will keep thy
law continually for ever and ever." Verse 45: "I seek thy precepts."
Verse 46: "Of thy testimonies also, I will not be ashamed." Verse 47:
"I delight myself in thy commandments which I have loved." These
declarations make manifest David's love for the Lord; and the joy
springing out of this love is what he calls his comfort in his
affliction.
It was once my privilege, and I can say my happy privilege, to pass a
night beside the dying bed of a faithful minister of the Word. His
deathless and joyful spirit took its flight from earth about four
o'clock the following morning. He did not suffer much pain, and had
strength to express his feelings and thoughts to a limited degree. His
mind was clear. He was dying of a hemorrhage which no power on earth
could check. His comfort in his affliction was so great that from the
joy and peace in his soul he distinctly said to me, in these exact
words: "This is the happiest night of my life." He would sometimes
say: "I love God. I love all his dear people. I will soon join the
spirits of just men made perfect." About four o'clock in the morning
he asked to be turned in the bed, and he was gone. Ah, friends, this
brother had comfort in his affliction; nay, more, unspeakable comfort
in death. This is what all may enjoy in a greater or less degree, who
are laid on beds of affliction. A good life, a life lived in obedience
to the commandments of our Lord, is sure to bring peace to the soul
when we are in health, and this peace will not leave or forsake us
when affliction or misfortune overtakes us. Our Lord says: "Peace I
leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth,
give I unto you." Again he says: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of
me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." We take his yoke upon us
when we repent of our sins, believe on his name, love to do his
commands, come over freely and fully on his side, and work for him.
Instead of working for what is perishable, we work for that which
endureth to everlasting life. We come out of the darkness of sin and
death into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For the wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
our Lord.
MONDAY, July 31. Harvest meeting at the Flat Rock. David Kline is
elected speaker.
SATURDAY, August 26. The job of building the abutments for the bridge
at Coots's is let to contract.
MONDAY, August 28. Attend the burial of Brother Solomon Garber. Age,
fifty-four years, five months and twenty-nine days.
WEDNESDAY, November 1. On this day Brother Kline, in company with
Joseph Miller, son of Daniel Miller near head of Linville's Creek,
started on a journey to West Virginia. They got to Jacob Warnstaff's
first day--had night meeting in Bethel meetinghouse, near by; meeting
at Chlora Judy's, on Mill Creek, next night; meeting at James Parks's,
on Looney's Creek, the night following. I will dress up the skeleton
of the sermon Brother Kline preached here, as best I can. Romans 14:7.
TEXT.--"For none of us liveth to himself."
The phrase "none of us," as used in the text, means _not one of us_. I
say this to give emphasis to this part of my subject.
The social element, or love for society, is deeply impressed upon all
the animate world. We feel the truth of a very common saying--"birds
of a feather will flock together"--every time it is repeated in our
hearing. This expression, in its most comprehensive sense, applies to
everything having life and volition or the power to will. It is seen
in the fishes of the sea, in the birds of the air, and in all the
denizens of earth, from insects and worms up to the highest forms of
organic brute life, and in man. This love for society, or company, or
companionship, is so strong that it is the bond of the universe.
Without it nothing living could subsist. To make this thought clear to
your understandings, let me just call your minds to reflect a little
upon what the state of things would be in the natural world if this
law of love were reversed in the brute creation. Our domestic animals,
instead of feeding together in harmonious and peaceable flocks and
herds, would instantly turn to fighting and seeking to destroy each
other. The earth would soon be strewn with the dead bodies of beasts
and birds, and the waves of the sea would throw drifts of dead fishes
upon the shore. But, fortunately for man, this love has never been
perverted in the lower orders of creation. Each kind loves its own
kind, and seeks its propagation. But man has fallen from this love,
the love of his fellowman, into a state of feeling in some respects
the very opposite, which is hate. Let the history of the world but
unfold her page, and the truth of what I have just said will appear in
lines written with human blood. It is from this, and this alone, that
human laws have been instituted. It is self-preservation. This is the
one single origin and basis of all human law. What protects me from
the wrath or cupidity of those who would destroy or devour me,
protects you; and inasmuch as all desire such protection, human
governments, and laws with fearful penalties annexed, have been
instituted. Right here, in a civil and social sense, the words of my
text apply with profound meaning: "For none of us liveth to himself."
They apply to every statute in every national code, as well as to
every local law in every land.
But human laws restrain by fear, and God would have all restraint from
evil to spring from love. The gulf between these two principles is
immeasurably wide and deep, quite as much so as the chasm between
heaven and hell. I said: Human laws restrain by fear. Why does the
heart murderer not kill? He is afraid that if he kills me, and it is
found out on him, somebody else will kill him who feels himself in as
much danger from his bloody hand as I was. Why does the heart-rogue
not steal? He is afraid his booty may not balance what it may cost in
the way of punishment. So with all criminality. With those who have
not the love of God in their hearts, nor the love of their neighbor
which springs out of this love, nothing but fear restrains them from
the worst of crimes. But this is a very unhappy state to be in,
because all fear hath torment. Human beings can never be happy in
their social relations, when the fear and dread of each other is the
governing principle in their lives. The heart of man was originally
created for the exercise of love, for perfect love, which knows no
fear. All the happiness and peace of heaven spring out of love made
perfect.
"There love springs pure and unrepressed;
There all are loved, and love again:
Love warms each angel's glowing breast:
Love fills each shining saintly train."
Fear, with its long and varied list of torments, primarily springs
from a sense of guilt. We have a clear example in proof of this in the
third chapter of Genesis. Immediately after the fall Adam is
represented as saying to the Lord: "I heard thy voice in the garden,
and I was afraid, and I hid myself." Now, Adam had heard that voice
before; it was the voice of love; but, oh! how changed! The voice
itself was not changed; but the ear that heard, and the eye that saw,
and the heart that felt its power, these, _these_ were changed. Ever
since that sad day man has been subject to fear, and has sought to
hide himself from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord God still
loved Adam, and right there and then gave a promise to save man. That
promise is in these words: "I will put enmity between her seed and thy
seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This
was spoken to the serpent. Christ Jesus our Lord is the seed of the
woman. He bruises the serpent's head under our feet whenever we
sincerely desire him to do so. The head of the serpent stands for sin
and transgression of God's holy law in all its forms, with the evil
loves which prompt us thereto. The heel which the serpent shall bruise
is man's natural body, and the natural feelings incident to him from
his connection with this body. Diseases, the infirmities of age, with
all the pains and anguish of body and mind; yea, death itself, and the
fear of death, all, all are but the bruises which the serpent, the
devil and Satan is inflicting upon the heel of the woman's seed.
But, Brethren, Christ is bruising the head of the serpent daily under
our feet. Every temptation to do some forbidden thing, every
inclination to indulge evil and impure desires and thoughts, fairly
resisted and overcome, is just that much of the serpent's head, of his
very life, bruised and crushed under our feet. Now, it appears to us
as if we did all this of ourselves, and in our own strength. But this
is very far from the truth. Jesus says: "Without me ye can do
nothing." "I am the way, the truth and the life." All the spiritual
life, which embraces all pure and holy thoughts, affections, motives,
with all the truth and holy love in the Christian's soul, is from the
Lord. Man of himself is nothing but evil, and but for the Lord's
redeeming and saving arm would forever sink to lower and yet lower
depths of ruin. But just turn with me to the twenty-first chapter of
Revelation, fourth verse, and see to what the Lord offers to exalt
man. We there read: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed
away." There is quite an excitement over California at this time.
Thousands have left their homes to try their fortunes in the far-off
land of gold. Some have already perished in the attempt to reach the
shining Eldorado, and many more may have to suffer the same sad
experience. But the Gospel invites the sinner to a city whose gates
are of pearl, and whose streets are paved with gold, and where the
society is exempt from all the ills of life; for there they die no
more.
Brethren, let us live not for ourselves, but for others, as far as
lies in our power. Our love feasts show our love for one another, and
our social equality with each other insomuch as we all eat together:
and our beautiful order in washing one another's feet sets forth our
readiness to help one another in the Christian life, for "none of us
liveth to himself."
SATURDAY, November 4. The two brethren have forenoon meeting at old
Brother Parks's, and Joseph Miller speaks in a somewhat general way on
First Corinthians 15. In the evening they have meeting at Enoch
Hyre's, and Brother Kline speaks on John 14:6. TEXT.--"I am the way."
His thoughts on this passage are so original and instructive that I
will endeavor to extend and elucidate them as best I can.
This passage, said he, comprehends the whole Christ as the Son of man.
As the way, the holy way, we may trace and follow his steps, and walk
in him from the manger to the cross; from the cross to the grave; and
from the grave to his exaltation at the right hand of the Father in
heaven. Of this way the prophet Isaiah speaks in these words: "And an
highway shall be there, and it shall be called, The way of holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it; ... but the redeemed shall walk
therein." Is not this a delightful view of Christian life as it was
exemplified by our Lord! The prophet calls it the highway of our God.
Like the way of Noah's ark, it is above the tops of the loftiest
mountains of sin and death and destruction. Like the way of the ark
again, it is the way of holiness, for righteous Noah and his family
are upon it.
But I wish to call the attention of all here to-night to the
particular line of truth and motive the Lord had in mind when he said,
"I am the way." By thus pointing out the way, and showing that eternal
life and happiness are the blessed reward of walking in it, I hope to
induce some here to-night to enter it. I might here generalize
somewhat by calling your attention to the fact that it is natural for
us all, when going anywhere, to feel best satisfied when we know the
way we are on is the right way to where we want to go. It is true,
however, one may tramp along through life over public roads, merely to
get a subsistence from the fragments he may pick up by the way, and be
wholly indifferent as to where the road is conducting him. I will not
say that such a life is a fair representation of the thoughtless
sinner's way, as regards all preparation for a future state of
existence, but I will ask him if it is not so? But let us
particularize.
The first recorded words that Jesus uttered were spoken by him when he
was twelve years old. They were addressed by him to his parents when
they found him in the temple: "How is it that ye sought me sorrowing?
Did ye not know that I must be about my Father's business?" This was
his first public step in the way we are to follow. We all have the
same Father to love and obey that Jesus had, and he is none other than
the God who made us. It is his business to fit and prepare us for
everlasting happiness; and when we are about his business as Jesus was
we are reciprocating his love by doing his pleasure. But this was only
the beginning. No further record of Jesus is given until about
eighteen years after, when he came to the Jordan to be baptized of
John. But John said: "I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest
thou to me? But Jesus said, Suffer it to be so now; for thus it
becometh us to fulfill all righteousness."
Some may think lightly of baptism, but if it "became" the King of
glory to be baptized in water to fulfill all righteousness, how can
any one esteem it lightly, who has any regard for his soul? Since he
himself is the way, can we rationally conclude that he would do
anything for a guide to us that is unimportant? He had no sins to
confess, it is true; but still he must be baptized to fulfill all
righteousness. How important, then, must it be for us to submit to
this ordinance, who are all defiled with sin!
"Ashamed of Jesus! yes I may
When I've no sins to wash away:
No guilt to shun, no good to crave;
No love to give, no soul to save."
But now I must call your attention to his Sermon on the Mount. This is
the most instructive, truth-abounding and love-abounding sermon the
world has ever heard. It is a summary of the love, the truth, the
purity of heart, the humility of soul, the poverty of spirit, the
hungering and thirsting for righteousness, the forgiveness, the
charity, the meekness of the true child of God. Hence our blessed Lord
says right at the close: "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and
doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house
upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the
winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was
founded upon a rock." I want to tell you right here that Jesus
fulfilled every jot and tittle of its truth in all its varied and
minute applications, in the pure and holy life he lived on earth. He
thus became the way.
I have sometimes been accosted by others on this wise: "You teach a
doctrine of works! You teach that people must do so and so to be
saved. I understand the Word to teach that Christians are saved by
faith without works." I have occasionally answered such accusations, I
fear, perhaps, in not the true spirit of meekness, by retorting that
if some professing Christians are ever saved at all it will surely be
without any works on their part. But usually, when I am rightly at
myself, or better, when my heart is with the Lord, both in answering
and preaching, I say, We as Brethren believe and teach that "faith
without works is dead." All good works are done in faith. And no man
can believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with his heart, without loving
him; because faith is a loving acceptance of all the truth revealed by
the Lord to man. Our heartfelt reception of that truth leads to
obedience, and obedience is good works. For "by works faith is made
perfect." When he says: "This DO, and thou shalt live," he does not
lose sight of the loving faith in which it is to be done. When he
says: "So let your light shine before men, that they may see your GOOD
WORKS, and glorify"--YOU? No!--"your Father, which is in heaven." It
is by good works, then, that we are to glorify our Father which is in
heaven.
Again to the Sermon on the Mount. I told you a while ago that this
sermon sets forth the living way, or the living Christ. All the
parables and miracles aim at nothing higher than to prepare the minds
and hearts of the people to do, in an enlightened way, the things
commanded and taught in that wonderful sermon. Obedience to all the
ordinances of God's house is but a showing to the life and in the life
that meekness, that state of heart purity, that forgiveness, that
charity or brotherly love, that heavenly mindedness, which shine forth
in clear light there. But all the good there is in that sermon
consists in the doing of it. I may think of loving my enemy, and of
praying for him, and of forgiving him, but will the thought avail
anything, unless I carry my thought out in the acts of my life? Our
Lord prayed for his enemies even on the cross. They had nailed him
there, so unjustly too; but in the anguish of his distress he said:
"Father, forgive them; they know not what they do."
One thought more, and I will close. We must not forget that the Lord,
by his Holy Spirit, is the life of the way. Of ourselves, and left to
ourselves, we could never enter the way. Without the Lord's power in
us through his Holy Spirit we can do nothing. This great truth in its
fullness, accepted and believed in the heart, is the highest
attainment in faith that man is capable of. The deeper and warmer our
love for the Lord is, the clearer and stronger our faith grows; and
the clearer and stronger our faith is in him, the firmer are our
assurances that he is our life. We feel so free, so at liberty to do
just what we will, either good or bad, that the truth of our absolute
dependence upon God for every good affection and thought, for every
good motive and its attainment, is a lesson we are slow to learn.
Peter had not learned this lesson when, confident in his own strength,
he declared that he would not forsake the Lord. It is this sense of
our own weakness that leads us to pray. Prayer must proceed from the
heart. Otherwise it is not prayer, but a mere form of words. The Lord
will never help any one spiritually who does not feel the need of
divine help. Saul was struck down when the divine light flashed upon
him with a radiance above the brightness of the sun; but that light
only blinded him. The Lord then sent Ananias to inquire in the house
of Judas in Damascus for one called Saul of Tarsus: "For," said he,
"behold he prayeth." Without this prayer Saul would nevermore have
seen anything. This prayer was the opening of his heart to do the will
of the Lord, for in it he said: "Lord, what wouldst thou have me to
do?" I need only add here that the very first thing he was commanded
to do was: "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on
the name of the Lord."
SUNDAY, November 5. The two brethren had meeting at Isaac Shobe's and
stayed all night at Jacob Bargdoll's. On
MONDAY, November 6, they had morning meeting at Isaac Dasher's, and
night meeting at Nimrod Judy's, where they stay all night.
TUESDAY, November 7. They dine at William Hevner's in Brock's Gap, and
reach home in the evening.
The editor is making these transcripts from the Diary January 26,
1899; just a little over fifty years after the entries were made. He
was then a young man; and the current of life's forces, like a mighty
river, has borne him on its bosom over a large part of the
territory--especially in the two Virginias--traveled over and preached
over and prayed over by our long since sainted brother, Elder John
Kline. He lived to see good results from his labors, but they were not
strikingly conspicuous. As the Diary shows, now and then a brother, a
sister, applies for, and receives baptism at his hands. But we must
not overlook the truth that he was breaking the ice of indifference to
all the claims of religion in the minds and hearts of these people. He
was the very first minister in the Brotherhood to begin and carry on
what may be called an aggressive effort to spread a knowledge of
gospel truth through the present counties of Pendleton, Hardy, Grant,
Hampshire, Mineral, Randolph and Pocahontas in what is now West
Virginia. Other active and able ministers of that day, a few of whom I
will here name, all living in the Shenandoah Valley, would cheerfully
go with him; but he led the way. Those whose names I will give were
Benjamin Bowman, Daniel Miller, Abraham Flory, Isaac Long, father of
the very excellent and able preacher Isaac Long, Jr., Martain Miller,
brother of Daniel; John Harshbarger, and a little later on Jacob Wine
and Christian Wine. These are all gone to the heavenly shore, to live
in the paradise of God. But their works do follow them. They follow
them, and will follow them to the end of time, in the form of new
houses of worship erected by a largely increased and increasing
membership; by an increase of enlightened piety, as exemplified in its
possessors by their nonconformity to the world and their attendance
upon the ordinances of God's house. Here, however, we see only the
beginning of the good fruits from their sowings. The records of the
book of life; the palms; the white robes and crowns; the song of Moses
and the song of the Lamb will better tell than we ever can here the
exceeding preciousness and excellence of their works.
THURSDAY, December 7. Perform the marriage ceremony of Benjamin
Wampler and Anna Driver at Mother Wampler's; also the marriage
ceremony of Eli Summers and Sophia Frank.
SUNDAY, December 24. Get word of the death of Uncle Frederic Kline. Go
up to his place.
MONDAY, December 25. Uncle Frederic is buried to-day. Age,
seventy-five years, ten months and fourteen days. Stay all night at
Christian Garber's.
THURSDAY, December 28. Perform the marriage ceremony of Michael B.E.
Kline and Elizabeth Rhodes.
SUNDAY, December 31. At home. I have traveled in the year that is just
at its close 4,411 miles. The year appears very short. When I review
its labors and toils I am forced to reflect upon the imperfection of
my work. I have never delivered a discourse that was satisfactory to
me throughout. I hardly ever fail to see some lack of thought right
where I wanted to make the truth clear and impressive. Often and often
the reflections of my mind, as it were, hear a voice within saying:
"Why did you not put it this way? Why did you not think of that very
appropriate passage of Scripture, which would have fit the place so
nicely, and have been so expressive?" I do not suppose that any one
will see this little book while I live. After I am gone it may he
consigned to some dark closet, with the rest of its kind, as useless
rubbish. But should it ever fall into the hands of any minister of the
Word who may be afflicted in his work with thoughts akin to those I
have expressed in this review of the year, I beg him to be encouraged
rather than discouraged by them. I believe they are messages from the
Lord, who constantly seeks our highest good and greatest usefulness.
Satan, if he could, would induce us to believe that we are all right,
just what we should be; and in this way inflate us with a profound
sense of our own importance, and in this pride of heart make us esteem
ourselves greatly superior to all others. How this feeling differs
from that inculcated by Paul: "Let each esteem another better than
himself"! How different, too, from the words of the meek and lowly
Jesus: "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted"! These reviews and
criticisms of our works and ways tend to make us more thoughtful and
circumspect in the future. We seek to have our lacks supplied, our
wants relieved, and are induced thereby to apply our minds to the
study of the Word with more vigor, looking at the same time to the
Lord for the enlightening guidance of his Holy Spirit. It now lacks
just ten minutes of midnight. I will retire with the retiring year,
wishing to all a good-night, and joyful eyes to behold the dawn of the
new year.
THURSDAY, February 22. Hear the distant report of cannon in
commemoration of the birth of George Washington, which is said to have
occurred on the twenty-second day of February, 1732. It is presumable
that those who find pleasure in public demonstrations of this sort are
moved by what they regard as patriotic feelings and principles. Let
their motives and enjoyments spring from what they may, they have a
lawful right to celebrate the anniversary of his birth in any civil
way they may choose. But I have a somewhat higher conception of true
patriotism than can be represented by the firing of guns which give
forth nothing but meaningless sound. I am glad, however, that these
guns report harmless sound, and nothing more. If some public speakers
would do the same, it might be better both for them and their hearers.
My highest conception of patriotism is found in the man who loves the
Lord his God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself. Out of
these affections spring the subordinate love for one's country; love
truly virtuous for one's companion and children, relatives and
friends; and in its most comprehensive sense takes in the whole human
family. Were this love universal, the word _patriotism_, in its
specific sense, meaning such a love for one's country as makes its
possessors ready and willing to take up arms in its defense, might be
appropriately expunged from every national vocabulary.
Perform the marriage ceremony of Isaac Brady and Leanna Hulvey, at
John Hulvey's.
SATURDAY, March 3. Night meeting at John Mongold's on Lost River. I
speak from Luke 10:42. TEXT.--"But one thing is needful."
Various interpretations have been given of this text. Having given it
a good deal of thought myself, from the belief that a right
understanding of the passage is all-important, I will endeavor to make
clear to your minds what appears to me the Lord's meaning. All of you
take time to-morrow to read the tenth chapter of Luke, and you may see
many things I will not take time to notice to-night.
"But one thing is needful." If one were to come to each of you
privately to-night, and say to you: "I have plenty of this world's
goods to give away, tell me what you need, and I will supply you," and
remove all doubt from your mind of his meaning to do what he said, we
might be surprised at the varied answers and statements that he would
receive. Possibly--but I sincerely hope there are none such here
to-night--some might say tobacco, or snuff, or whisky. There are,
however, many things really needed for the support of life in this
world, and it is a part of wisdom to know our real needs, and how best
to supply them. Our Lord, on one occasion, referred to the two most
general needs of people,--food and clothing,--in which he instructed
them not to be forgetful of God in all their efforts to obtain these,
for, said he, "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all
these things."
Our Lord does not limit our bodily wants to one thing; so it cannot be
any worldly good he has in view. It must then be a need above, and of
vastly more importance than any worldly consideration. On one occasion
our Lord uttered a self-evident truth in these words: "He that walketh
in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth." By darkness in this place
ignorance of divine and spiritual things is meant. Again: "The people
which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the
region and shadow of death, light is sprung up." In this passage
darkness means ignorance and light means knowledge from teaching.
Sitting in the region and shadow of death is a figure so strong in its
import that we hardly know how to show forth its full significance.
Sitting implies an easy state of mind and feeling. The region of death
signifies the place where the love of self and the love of the world
bear rule, and find their gratification and satisfaction in worldly
enjoyments, and that place is man's depraved and spiritually dead
heart. The shadow of death signifies that beclouded state of the
understanding which is the inevitable consequence of being satisfied
to sit in darkness. Is not this altogether a frightful picture of
man's unenlightened and unregenerate state? But it is a true picture,
for it is given by the Lord, who knows what man is and what is in man.
Have I wandered away from my text? By no means. I have held up this
picture to show that man is so deeply sunk in darkness or ignorance
regarding himself and God that without instruction in the truths of
God's holy Word he does not know and he never would know what he does
need. Prior to the discovery of America the native Indian did not know
that he needed anything beyond what he then had in a natural way.
When the white man came and got acquainted with him he might have
addressed him in the exact words of my text as applied to his social,
moral and civil state and surroundings: "One thing is needful." That
one thing, properly infused and evolved, and in connection with such
infusion and evolution therefrom, properly applied to use, would have
transformed him from a savage to a civilized state; from temporal
misery and wretchedness into the enjoyments of life, liberty and the
high pursuits of happiness.
You may now wonder what that one thing would have been. One word
expresses it all, and that word is EDUCATION. The wonderful gifts of
divine goodness, in the shape of latent treasures of coal, iron, and
the precious metals; the exhaustless fertility of American soils; the
salubrity of its climates; the boundless power of its falling streams,
all, all these were here for the Indian alone, for hundreds, perhaps
thousands of years before the white man came. Why did he not use them?
Because he lacked the one thing needful, the proper education or
development of his mind, the knowledge of understanding the ways and
means of converting the heterogeneous into the homogeneous; the
useless into the useful; the ill-formed into the suitable. What the
Indian lacked is the very basis of the white man's individual and
national prosperity.
I have here laid a broad foundation on which I hope to erect a
superstructure of doctrine that may do us all good. I will here say
that EDUCATION into the knowledge and love of God's revealed Truth in
its true relation to man's life is the one thing needful to every
human being. I use the word EDUCATION in its most comprehensive and
exalted sense, that of preparing the mind and heart for the attainment
of the highest and noblest ends of life on earth and in heaven. In
this sense it takes in salvation with its happy experiences and
results. It takes in regeneration, that wonderful and radical change
in man wrought by God through his Holy Spirit, by which man passes
from darkness to light, and out of death into life.
The word _disciple_ means a learner, one who is receiving instruction.
Our Lord had twelve disciples whom he was training in a special way
for a special work. He was divinely educating them. He was opening
their minds and hearts as he opened Lydia's heart so that she attended
the things spoken of by Paul. He was imparting to them by parables, by
miracles, and by private interpretations, and still above all by the
examples he set, the means of acquiring this spiritual, this divine,
this heavenly education that would carry them through life by his
help, and make them the very pillars and grounds of the truth when
they should behold His face no more on earth. This heavenly training,
then, or the training of man's mind and heart for a heavenly life on
earth and for the ineffable enjoyment of that life above, is the one
thing needful. A deep consciousness of this is what led Mary to sit at
the Lord's feet and hear his words. The want of this left Martha to be
careful and troubled about many things--things of time and sense. A
desire for this high attainment caused David to sing so sweetly these
beautiful words: "One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will
I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days
of my life." By dwelling in the house of the Lord David meant with the
Lord's people: and as the Lord is always in his house with his people,
dwelling in his house is dwelling with him. All, in every age, who
sincerely desire to know the Lord, to do his will, and enjoy his
presence, desire to dwell in his house, which is the church of the
living God. They desire, like Mary, to sit at his feet and hear his
words. They sit at his feet and hear his words when in deep humility
of soul they hear his Gospel preached, or sung, or prayed; or when
they read it themselves.
Can I not prevail on some here to-night to accept Mary's happy choice,
to choose that good part which shall not be taken away from them?
SUNDAY, March 4. Meeting at Nesselrodt's. John 13 is read. Stay all
night at James Fitzwater's, and come home next day.
FRIDAY, March 16. Jacob Ritchey in the Gap is taken with a very severe
attack of cramp colic. I relieve him speedily and effectually by means
of active treatment. I found him in a state of almost indescribable
distress from the acute pains he had. I decided very quickly, after a
brief examination, that the cause of his trouble lay in a spasmodic
contraction of the muscles of the bowels. The powerfully antispasmodic
action of lobelia and steaming caused the nerves to let go their
abnormal grip, and he was well.
SATURDAY, March 31. Council meeting at Shaver's meetinghouse below
Woodstock in Shenandoah County, Virginia. Brother George Shaver is
established in the ministry, and Brother Neyhiser advanced.
FRIDAY, April 13. Council meeting in the Brush meetinghouse. Jacob
Miller, son of Daniel Miller, is elected to the ministry of the Word.
FRIDAY, April 20. On this day Brother Kline, in company with Brother
Benjamin Bowman, started on a journey to some of the western counties
of Virginia, now West Virginia. The first day they got to the widow
Miller's, on Briery Branch, in the southwest corner of Rockingham
County. The next day they went through North River Gap and got to
Henry Sanger's, in Highland County, Virginia, where they had night
meeting. Here Brother Bowman delivered a discourse, which, according
to the outlines in the Diary, was so pregnant with original thought
characteristic of the man that I will endeavor to expand its
contracted form and give it a more readable shape. TEXT.--"Then said
Jesus to those Jews which believed on him: If ye continue in my word,
then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free."
There was great diversity of feeling among the Jews in Christ's day,
just as there is among Gentiles now. Some were flint; others, clay in
the hand of the potter. "The common people heard him gladly; but the
scribes and Pharisees resisted the counsel of God against themselves."
If we read the entire chapter carefully it will give us a more
impressive view of and a clearer insight into the stubborn hardness of
the Jewish heart than any other single chapter that I can now think
of. The Jews were so wedded to their worldly sanctuary, so in love
with the representative forms of worship, that they could receive no
just ideas of genuine spiritual worship. Let me draw a comparison
here. Many people seem to think themselves rich when they have plenty
of money either in hand or standing out on interest. They think so
from the fact that money represents every exchangeable commodity of
worldly goods. In it they behold the supply of every bodily want, the
service they need and the honor they crave.
This is something like what the scribes and Pharisees, the elders and
priests saw in their religion. And these worldly emoluments and
benefits are what they feared would be taken away from them, should
the great principles of love to God and love to man, inculcated by our
Savior, be generally received. They said: "If we let him thus alone,
all men will believe on him; and the Romans will come and take away
both our place and our nation."
The Roman power had a civil regard for the temple so long as it
retained its dignity as the national house of Jewish worship. Should
it, however, lose this honor by being no longer needed and used as
such, the Romans would withhold this regard and convert it--as was
actually done years afterward--into a barrack for soldiers. Where
would then be the salaried scribe, the domineering and overbearing
elder, the rich but hypocritical Pharisee, and the pompous high
priest? Their place and their nation would be gone. These
considerations, in connection with their inbred conceits that they
were the peculiar, chosen and exclusive people of God, caused them to
reject the Lord. "He came unto his own and his own received him not."
But some did receive him, and "as many as received him, to them gave
he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his
name." It was to such as believed on him that the words of my text
were addressed. The text gave them, and it gives the same to us, three
promises by the mouth of him whose word is yea and amen.