Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary Part 31

FRIDAY, May 18. Start to the Annual Meeting. Ride Nell. Stay first night at Isaac Dasher's.

On this journey the Editor can not depart from the simple but beautiful and almost childlike daily entries in the Diary. If they appear monotonous to the reader, the Editor begs him to leaf over them and find something that will suit his taste better. He must, however, say something about Nell. She proved to be a very remarkable mare indeed. For strength and endurance, through cold and heat, in hunger and thirst, over mountains numberless and pathless woods and valleys, on long and exhausting journeys, Nell has had few equals. History has not been willing to drop the name of Bucephalus; and Nell is more worthy of a place on its roll. He bore a conqueror for a corruptible crown: she bore a conqueror for an incorruptible crown. His was an earthly service; hers a heavenly. The name of Nell, under very peculiar and distressing surroundings, will appear again.

SAt.u.r.dAY, May 19. Meeting at Elijah Judy's. Hebrews 12 is read. After meeting go to James Parks's, and stay second night.

SUNDAY, May 20. Meeting at Patch's church on Looney's Creek in Hardy County, Virginia. Speak from Acts 2. Dine at John Stingley's. Have night meeting at Jacob Cosner's, where I speak on Hebrews 12, and stay third night.

MONDAY, May 21. Come to meeting at Solomon Michael's. Elections are held. Thomas Clarke and Michael Lion are established; William Michael is elected speaker; William George and Thomas Lion are elected deacons. Come to Samuel Arnold's on New Creek, and stay fourth night.

TUESDAY, May 22. Dine at Robert Broadwater's on the Alleghany, and stay fifth night at Eli Whetzel's.

WEDNESDAY, May 23. Meeting and elections. First John is read. John Ogg is elected speaker, and Eli Whetzel deacon. Love feast in the evening.

A little company of brethren and sisters, with the Lord in our midst.

A time I shall probably never forget. Stay sixth night with Brother Whetzel.

THURSDAY, May 24. Meeting at the Greenville church. Matthew 5 is read.

In the evening have meeting in a schoolhouse near the widow Berkley's, and stay seventh night at her house.

FRIDAY, May 25. Meeting in a schoolhouse near Daniel Beachley's.

Matthew 24 is read. Five persons baptized. Stay eighth night at John Beachley's near the Berlin meetinghouse.

SAt.u.r.dAY, May 26. Meeting at the meetinghouse. John 3 is read. Stay ninth night at Brother J. Beachley's.

SUNDAY, May 27. Meeting at the meetinghouse. Acts 2 is read. Stay tenth night at same place. We had much edifying speaking on the chapter read. One beloved brother spoke at some length on these words in the last verse of the chapter read: "Having favor with all the people." He said in substance: "Brethren, the having favor with all the people is very pleasant to us naturally, and encouraging spiritually, if the favor be of the right kind and obtained in the right way. I am here reminded, in the way of a comparison, of what a distinguished statesman once said of the presidency of these United States. He said it is an office that is neither to be directly sought nor directly declined. I do not think his statement would be far out of the line of true wisdom if applied to us as Brethren, in relation to our standing in the eye of society at large. What may be truthfully said of one brother or sister in private life, in this particular regard, may be truthfully said of our entire Brotherhood in a public regard.

"We all know how pleasant it is to enjoy the favor, the friends.h.i.+p and respect of those living around us. The enjoyment from this source has given rise to the formation of 'harmonies' and 'colonies,' with some.

Such establishments are favorable to social enjoyment, no doubt; but it is to be feared that segregation in that form may engender feelings akin to selfishness, and dwarf the higher impulses to general good.

But the favorable regard in which we may be held should not be sought as a consideration of the first importance. To serve and please the Lord should be the first and foremost aim of every brother and sister.

If the favor and respect of others meet us in the line of duty, as set forth in our doctrines and practices as a Brotherhood of believers in and humble followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, let us regard it as a desirable token of good already done, and a promise of good that may still be done.

"Brethren, a review of our growth in numbers and influence as a body of Christians, with our original and, in the eyes of the world, peculiar observances as to ordinances in the church, and deportment and customs in the world, is to say the least pleasantly surprising.

Our name as Brethren is hardly a century old, if I am rightly informed; and what are we now? A legion, not of devils, but of angels for good. And may I not here add the words of my text, 'Having favor with all the people'? I do not think these historic words are to be construed to mean that the Brethren of that Pentecostal day had no enemies; but that they had the favor of the disinterested and unprejudiced cla.s.ses. This is just what I think _we_ have, where we are known. There has been a day,--but thank G.o.d that day is past,--when public opinion, if history be correct, was largely the reverse of what it is with us. Vice, then, was virtue; and goodness was criminal. Rebukes of sin and calls to repentance and reformation of life were silenced by the martyr's f.a.ggot and stake. We cannot here, and we would not if we could, attempt to trace the sublime array of causes, both divine and human, that have contributed to the happy change we now enjoy; but sure it is, we now realize the ideal dream of the far-off seer, described in these words: 'But they shall sit, every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid.' We have the favor of the people when we have the favor of the government; for the people are the government.

"Brethren, we have cause for inexpressible emotions of grat.i.tude to G.o.d for the favor we enjoy. The outlook is bright; the sky of promise calm and serene. It is said that a Grecian patriot and statesman once a.s.sumed a very weighty responsibility, which required him to leave his home and State to meet it. He seemed loath to go. He expressed fear that things would not go on in his absence as they had in his presence. Finally, however, he secured a pledge from every member of the Athenian court that no change in the order of government and the laws should be made during his absence. He went; but such was his love for his country that he never returned. Brethren, the time is not far distant when I, your humble servant, burning with love for my church and people, will have to leave my home and country. Nothing, I say nothing, could give me more comfort when I make the start than the a.s.surance on your part that you will make no changes in our faith and rules of order, _in_ church and _out_, during my absence. Then will I bid a joyful farewell to all, feeling that no changes from our present order will ever be made, for I will never return."

MONDAY, May 28. Our Annual Meeting begins. Questions received and some motions made. Stay eleventh night at same place.

TUESDAY, May 29. Council continues. Good order and love prevail. Stay twelfth night at same place.

WEDNESDAY, May 30. The business having all been disposed of in a way as satisfactory as we could do it, after prayer and the singing of the hymn,

"Blest be the dear uniting love That will not let us part,"

the meeting closed, and we gave each other the parting hand about 10 A.M.

Have night meeting at Brother John Ogg's on way home. Speak from part of Luke 13, and stay thirteenth night with Brother Ogg.

THURSDAY, May 31. Stay fourteenth night at Thomas Clark's.

FRIDAY, June 1. Stay fifteenth night at Jacob Cosner's.

SAt.u.r.dAY, June 2. Meeting at Rorabaugh's on New Creek, in Hamps.h.i.+re County, Virginia. Acts 10 is read. Get to Enoch Hyre's and stay sixteenth night.

SUNDAY, June 3. Meeting at Enoch Hyre's. Part of Acts 2 is read. Polly Stambaugh is baptized. Cross the mountain to Leonard Brake's, where I stay seventeenth night.

MONDAY, June 4. Attend the burial of Frederic Dove in the Gap. Age, eighty-seven years, two months and seventeen days Stay at Dove's eighteenth night.

TUESDAY, June 5. Attend the burial of Brother Na.s.selrodt, near Dove's.

Age, sixty-one years, five months and twenty-eight days. In the evening get home.

FRIDAY, August 17. Attend the burial of Elizabeth, daughter of William Hevner, in the Gap. She died of typhoid fever. I speak from these words in Psalm 103: "Surely, man's days are as gra.s.s: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth: ... and the place thereof shall know it no more." Her place in the home is sadly vacant. We can only bow in tearful sympathy with the bereaved family.

THURSDAY, September 6. Perform the marriage ceremony of William Miller and Sarah Shoemaker, and the same for Levi Runion and Elizabeth Aubrey.

FRIDAY, September 7. This day Brother Kline started on another journey to Hamps.h.i.+re County, Virginia. He attended a succession of meetings and love feasts both going and returning, as was his custom. He got home September 21, after an absence of just two weeks. He does not forget Nell. On the evening of his arrival home he says: "On the journey from which I have just returned, Nell has carried me 221 miles. If Martin Luther and John Wesley are correct in their opinions, Nell may be rewarded for her uncomplaining faithfulness, in a future state of existence. But as we have no a.s.surance of this, I desire to reward her in this world as well as I can, for her gentle and untiring service. I think the comfort of brutes generally is not thought of as much as it should be. Solomon says: 'The righteous man regardeth the life of his beast; but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.'

Prov. 10:12. Solomon deals out a bit of very cutting sarcasm here, in the subordinate clause of his proposition; but it is fairly merited by such as are cruel to brutes. People do not, I am sure, regard the comfort of brutes as they should. There are, here and there, n.o.ble exceptions; but horses labor faithfully for us, and very often the only reward they get is harsh treatment and scanty feeding. The Lord has graciously given to man the supremacy over the brute creation. But man should not show his supremacy by acting the part of a tyrant; but, like a wise ruler, 'do justice and love mercy.' Whatever else may be brought against me on the day of judgment, I am resolved, by the help of G.o.d, that no brute shall there, in fact or figure, rise up and say: 'You mistreated me intentionally.'"

SUNDAY, September 30. Attend the burial of William Hevner's son Harvey. He died of typhoid fever. His age was twenty-seven years, two months and four days. It has been a very short while since his sister Elizabeth pa.s.sed away. We should weep with those who weep: but our deepest sympathy for others cannot give us a realization of the depth of grief felt by bereaved parents and their children. Happy are those who can look beyond the tomb to have their sorrows healed.

Between this time and the close of the year Brother Kline made only one long journey. He and Anna went in his family carriage to Maryland first. After attending a number of love feasts and other meetings around Frederic City and Shepherdstown, they went down the c.u.mberland Valley beyond Harrisburg, and after a few days' sojourn there they return by very nearly the same route they went. They were just three weeks and two days on this journey.

END OF 1849.

Whole distance traveled this year by me is 3,903 miles.

SUNDAY, February 12, 1850. Meeting at Buck Hill, in Shenandoah County, Virginia. I speak from John 6:44, 45. TEXT.--"No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him."

I here note the substance of what I said. My text sets forth the two great facts which all should know: _man's weakness_ and _G.o.d's power_.

The first part of the text declares man's absolute weakness in himself and of himself. In another place our Lord says: "Without me ye can do nothing." In the text he says: "No man can come to me." Had he stopped here we would be left without hope. But he did not stop here.

Immediately, as if by the same breath of love, he adds: "Except the Father which hath sent me draw him." This part shows that if the Father does draw a man he can come to Jesus. Now, then, does the Father draw? The prophets say he does in these words: "And they shall all be taught of G.o.d." He draws them by teaching them. In what follows we may learn the power of this Great Teacher. Notice very particularly: "Every man,"--this means every human being, whether man or woman,--"every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me."

But here are things very deep. Our minds inquire to know how the Father, whose voice we have never at any time heard and whose shape we have never seen, can teach us. It is through the Son that the Father speaks, for the Son bears this testimony himself in these words: "I speak not from myself; but the Father which sent me, he hath given me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life eternal: the things therefore which I speak, even as the Father hath said unto me, so I speak." Nothing can be plainer than this that Jesus spoke with authority, the divine authority of the Father, and that he is G.o.d the Father manifest in the flesh, the Emmanuel--G.o.d the Father with us. For further proof of this, turn to Isaiah 9:6, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty G.o.d, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Again our Lord says: "All power is given to me in heaven and on earth." Paul's teaching harmonizes with this: "For," says he, "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the G.o.dhead bodily." By the G.o.dhead he means the Divine Head of creation, providence, redemption and eternal salvation: "For all things were made by him;" and as Paul again says: "In him all things consist," or hold together.

We are now prepared to understand how Jesus could know the thoughts of men, and why he needed not that any should testify to him of man, for he knew what was in man. He knew all this by creation and preservation, by his power of perception which is boundless, and his knowledge which is infinite. Man's body, when viewed intelligently, with its organs of life and motion, is a thing of wonder in our eyes.

Anatomy reveals in its organs, designs and purposes in their structures and uses which overwhelm us with astonishment. What, then, must the soul be, when its structure and organization, essence and power as far exceed those of the body as the man who lives in the house exceeds the house? For the body is nothing more than the house or habitation of the soul. Paul calls it "our earthly house." He says: "In this we groan--it will be dissolved." He then immediately turns his thought to the renewed soul or spiritual body, and calls it "a building of G.o.d, a house not made with hands." All things, then, pertaining to our souls, being naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do, we may rest secure in the belief that whatever he tells us about ourselves is true. He knows just what we can do and what we cannot do. And it is he who says, "No man can come to me, except the Father draw him."

But perhaps some inside this house are saying within themselves: "Is man not free to choose good or evil--to do right or wrong?" I answer that he is free,--free as the eagle in the air; free as the fox in the bramble; free as the lion in the desert; free as birds and beasts are free to comply with the instincts of their natures and the inclinations of their wills. Man's freedom is what makes him a responsible being. He is yet more free than the brute creation; because that is bounded by the limits of capacity. But man's mind is capable of indefinite expansion and elevation in knowledge. Still the text is true: "No man can come to me, except the Father draw him." Let me draw a comparison here. A king once made a great supper and invited many to come and partake of it. At the right time he sent forth his servants to tell them that were bidden to come, for all things are now ready. Did they go? No! They all began to make excuses. You see they were free, free to go, and free to stay away. They chose to stay away, and in this very way every sinner uses his freedom; he chooses not to come to the Lord.

When a man's will or a woman's will is set on something they love above everything else, can they of themselves change their wills? I have known several instances in which a young lady set her affections upon a man who was not her equal in any respect, and very far below her in general character. I have known the mother of such a lady to bend over her daughter, and with tearful eyes entreat her to withdraw her affections from that unworthy object and give them to another who, in breathless suspense, and with a soul and character and surroundings worthy of her, was but waiting to receive them. And did that young lady change? Did she withdraw her love from the unworthy object and give it to the other? She did not. Her answer every time was: "Mother, I _cannot_." Just in this sense, relatively, the sinner is free. He is free to love most what he likes best, and that is himself and the world. In this state he would forever remain but for "the grace of G.o.d which bringeth salvation." Right here comes in the necessity for the change of heart, the new creation and regeneration, as Paul calls it; the being born again, as the Lord and Peter call it, upon which everything depends, and without which no man can enter the kingdom of heaven. This is connected with the drawing of the Father, "for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh upon the heart."

When I was young I could not understand what it is to come to Jesus, to be with him, to follow him. I thought I could readily see how people could come to him to be healed, and to be cured of their diseases, and to be fed by his liberal hand, when he was visibly on earth in the flesh. But he is no longer here in that form. I was in darkness. My eyes could behold no form which I could approach unto; no visible steps for me to follow; hear no audible voice of comfort to encourage, of instruction to enlighten, and of commands to obey.

Where, thought I, is he to be found, and how are we to know when we have found him? These and many other similar thoughts occupied my mind, until I wondered much why he did not stay when he was here. I suppose that many young but thoughtful minds have wandered, and others at the present time are now wandering in this same wilderness of doubt and uncertainty. Let me say to you, my dear young friend, that Jesus is here as truly now as he was when visible to natural eyes. As G.o.d, he is here in his glorified state. To every one who desires him he says in words of warmest love, "Lo, I am with you alway." These are his very words. He is everywhere. He said, just before his death, by way of encouraging his disciples: "I go away, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh away from you." He continued: "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come unto you." But he has promised yet more than his presence to go with all who love him: he declares in words we can understand that "if a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Again he says: "He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit." In his last prayer to the Father he says: "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one." These promises ought to a.s.sure every one of the greatness and the power of the love of Christ; since he loves us so much as to be willing to come and dwell with us and be in us forever.

It is by faith that we come to him. We see him with the eye of faith.

We walk with him by faith, not by sight. We love him because he first loved us, and gave his life to redeem and save us. All this and much more we learn in his Word. His Word is the Gospel which is able to make us wise unto salvation. Let me exhort all of you, old and young, to read and search for its hidden treasures, for therein are contained the words of eternal life. It is the duty and privilege of every one to pray. Prayer is the eye that looks to Jesus, and the heart that says: "Lord, save, or I perish." Faith is the hand that lays hold of his saving promises. Obedience is the whole man in active service on the side of the Lord Jesus Christ.

SUNDAY, March 3. Go to Sellers's schoolhouse. Speak on John 14:6. Dine at Felix Senger's; then home.