Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary Part 50

TUESDAY, July 31. Come to Middle Fork of Cheat river (eight miles), but find the river past fording, and have to go round by the bridge (five miles), and on to Brother George Yager's (five miles), where we dine; then to the meetinghouse, where I speak on John 14:6. We then come to Peck's Run. meetinghouse and speak on Rev. 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."

Stay all night at Philip Dupoy's. Much rain to-day.

WEDNESDAY, August 1. Afternoon meeting at Houser's (ten miles); speak from John 3:16. Stay all night at Houser's. Fine day.

THURSDAY, August 2. Meeting at ten o'clock, and love feast in the evening. Luke 14 is read. Brother Solomon Garber baptizes Mrs. Jacob Neff. Fine day and night. The love feast to-night is a healing balm to our hearts.

FRIDAY, August 3. Council meeting at Houser's meetinghouse. Joseph Houser and Joseph Michael are forwarded to baptize, perform marriage ceremonies, and do other work within the defined limits of their degree in the ministry. Come to Brother George Yager's (ten miles), where we stay all night. Fine day. I baptized two persons to-day.

SAt.u.r.dAY, August 4. After dinner come round by the bridge (six miles) to Middle Fork (five miles), to Union schoolhouse (six miles), and have meeting. Subject, John 14:16, 17. Stay all night at William Wilson's. Clear and warm day.

SUNDAY, August 5. Very heavy rain throughout the forenoon. Start at one o'clock to Union meetinghouse (seven miles); have meeting.

Subject, Mark 4:24. Go to John Skidmore's (five miles), where we stay all night.

MONDAY, August 6. Come to Josiah Simon's (four miles). We have meeting at the meetinghouse. Make remarks on the general scope of Hebrews 4, and particular remarks on the thirteenth verse. Counsel after meeting.

Josiah Simon is forwarded to baptize. We stay all night at Levi Wilmot's (six miles).

TUESDAY, August 7. Dine at John Wiat's; then to Abraham Summerfield's (eighteen miles) to meeting. Subject, t.i.tus 2:11, "For the grace of G.o.d that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men." Stay all night at Thomas S. White's.

WEDNESDAY, August 8. Come to Seneca meetinghouse (twelve miles). Luke 14 is read. Dine at Elburn's; stay all night at Ely Bland's (eight miles). The entire time between Thursday, July 26, and the above date we have spent in Randolph County. We are now in Pendleton County.

THURSDAY, August 9. Come to Circleville on the North Fork of the South Branch (seven miles). Meeting in Circleville. Subject, Hebrews 12:1, 2, 3. Dine at Samuel Sollenberger's. Afternoon meeting. Brother Solomon Garber speaks from Heb. 2:1, 2, 3. Stay all night at Solomon Pharo's.

FRIDAY, August 10. Come to Brother Noah H. Lamb's. Meeting at Friend Run schoolhouse (eight miles). Subject, John 1:11, 12, 13. Dine at Noah H. Lamb's. Meeting at schoolhouse again. Brother Solomon Garber speaks on conversion and baptism. Nine persons are baptized, viz, Noah H. Lamb and wife, Henry Elyard and wife, Ban Lambert and wife, Elias Wimer and wife, and John Wesley Lambert. Fine day but warm. Brother Solomon Garber's remarks on conversion were very searching. It is difficult to see how any one, after hearing such a discourse with an understanding mind, could be self-deceived. I have great hopes in regard to the genuineness of those who have been baptized to-day. His remarks on baptism were necessarily brief, but pointed and clear. We stay all night at Henry Elyard's.

SAt.u.r.dAY, August 11. Come to John Hammer's on the South Branch, a few miles below Franklin. Have meeting at the home of Jacob Hammer.

Subject, Acts 10. Dine at Jacob Hammer's. Meeting in the afternoon.

Solomon Garber speaks from James 1. Stay all night at John Hammer's.

Fine day.

SUNDAY, August 12. Come to Mountain Grove (four miles). Speak on John 3:4, 5, 6, 7. Dine at John Eye's. Afternoon meeting at Lough's church.

Brother Solomon Garber speaks from 2 Cor. 5:17. Come to Joel Siple's where we stay all night.

MONDAY, August 13. Rain last night and this morning. Come to Peter Warnstaff's (seven miles), take dinner with him and his kind mother and sister; and at three o'clock start to John Fulk's, on top of Shenandoah mountain (eight miles), where we stay all night.

TUESDAY, August 14. Stop awhile at Philip Ritchey's; dine at Philip Baker's: and in evening get home.

MONDAY, December 31. Cloudy this morning. Snow eleven inches deep. I work at my sleigh. Clears up prettily this evening. I have traveled in the year 1860, 5,686 miles; married five couples; preached twenty funerals, ten for children under ten years of age, one between ten and twenty, two between thirty and fifty, two between sixty and seventy, and five above seventy.

TUESDAY, January 1, 1861. The year opens with dark and lowering clouds in our national horizon. I feel a deep interest in the peace and prosperity of our country; but in my view both are sorely threatened now. Secession is the cry further south; and I greatly fear its poisonous breath is being wafted northward towards Virginia on the wings of fanatical discontent. A move is clearly on hand for holding a convention at Richmond, Virginia; and while its advocates publicly deny the charge, I, for one, feel sure that it signals the separation of our beloved old State from the family in which she has long lived and been happy. The perishable things of earth distress me not, only in so far as they affect the imperishable. Secession means war; and war means tears and ashes and blood. It means bonds and imprisonments, and perhaps even death to many in our beloved Brotherhood, who, I have the confidence to believe, will die, rather than disobey G.o.d by taking up arms.

The Lord, by the mouth of Moses, says: "Be sure your sin will find you out." It may be that the sin of holding three millions of human beings under the galling yoke of involuntary servitude has, like the bondage of Israel in Egypt, sent a cry to heaven for vengeance; a cry that has now reached the ear of G.o.d. I bow my head in prayer. All is dark save when I turn my eyes to him. He a.s.sures me in his Word that "all things work together for good to them that love him." This is my ground of hope for my beloved brethren and their wives and their children. He alone can provide for their safety and support. I believe he will do it.

WEDNESDAY, January 30. Write a letter to John Letcher, Governor of Virginia, in which I set before him in a brief way the doctrines which we as a body or church, known as Brethren, German Baptists or Dunkards, have always held upon the subject of obedience to the "rightful authority and power of government." We teach and are taught obedience to the "powers that be;" believing as we do that "the powers that be are ordained of G.o.d," and under his divine sanction so far as such powers keep within G.o.d's bounds. By _G.o.d's bounds_ we understand such laws and their administrations and enforcements as do not conflict with, oppose, or violate any precept or command contained in the Divine Word which he has given for the moral and spiritual government of his people. By _government_, to which we as a body acknowledge and teach our obligations of duty and obedience, we understand rightful human authority. And by this, again, we understand, as the Apostle Paul puts it, "the power that protects and blesses the good, and punishes the evildoer." The general Government of the United States of America, const.i.tuted upon an inseparable union of the several States, has proved itself to be of incalculable worth to its citizens and the world, and therefore we, as a church and people, are heart and soul opposed to any move which looks toward its dismemberment.

This is in substance what I wrote to John Letcher, Governor of Virginia.

I likewise attend Abraham Shue's sale: The candidates for seats in the Convention to meet in Richmond were on the ground, actively speaking both publicly and privately. Mr. George Chrisman, one of them, a man of preeminent wisdom in things relating to government, publicly avowed himself opposed to secession on the basis of both principle and policy. "On the ground of principle," said he, "secession violates the pledge of sacred honor made by the several States when they set their hands and seals to the Const.i.tution of the United States. On the ground of policy," continued he, "the secession of Virginia will culminate in the breaking up of her long-cherished inst.i.tutions, civil, social, and, to some extent, religious."

FRIDAY, February 1. Write to John T. Harris, our representative in Congress. Beseech him to do all he can to avert the calamity that now threatens us, by pouring oil upon the troubled waters until the tempest of pa.s.sion abates. I esteem him as an incorruptible patriot at heart. May the Lord guide him and all the other lawmakers of our land.

SAt.u.r.dAY, February 9. Martha Kline, wife of John B. Kline, dies very suddenly to-day.

SUNDAY, February 10. Funeral of our dear sister, Martha Kline, at our meetinghouse. TEXT.--"I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith." Age, twenty-eight years and eight days.

FRIDAY, April 5. Council meeting at our meetinghouse, William Summers and wife, Harvey Fifer and wife, Sophia Fifer, Sally Wampler and Sally Helbert are to-day baptized by Jacob Miller. A terribly malignant type of diphtheria has recently made its appearance in the Shenandoah Valley and is now invading our immediate neighborhood. Four of Andrew Crist's children are now dangerously ill with the disease. Some in other families have died; and others are sick. The outlook, both as to health and peace, is very disheartening. But we are admonished in the Divine Word not to fear. The people of G.o.d have a better portion than this world can give--"an enduring substance, which death can never reach."

SUNDAY, April 7. Attend the funeral of Christian Shoemaker in the Gap.

His age was about eighty years.

SUNDAY, April 21. Meeting at our meetinghouse. Great excitement on account of secession and war movements. The volunteers are being called out to enter the field of war, and G.o.d only knows what the end will be. There is great commotion everywhere in the realm of thought and sentiment, men's hearts failing them for fear, the sea and the waves of human pa.s.sion roaring.

THURSDAY, May 2. Council meeting at our meetinghouse. I this day baptize Isaac Kline, Lucretia Spitzer, Joseph Wampler and wife, Rebecca Driver, Anna Kline and John McKee's wife.

FRIDAY, May 3. Go to Nimrod Judy's on the South Fork, where I stay all night.

SAt.u.r.dAY, May 4. Snow this morning. Have meeting at Jess Mitch.e.l.l's.

Second Corinthians 4 is read. Stay all night at John Davis's.

SUNDAY, May 5. Meeting at Jacob Collers's on the Shenandoah mountain.

Luke 10 is read.

SUNDAY, May 12. Perform the marriage ceremony of James Fitzwater and Catharine Showalter, at the house of her father, Brother Anthony Showalter. I then attend meeting at the Brush meetinghouse, and after meeting witness the baptism by Brother Jacob Spitzer of Mrs. Beahm, Mrs. Henry Frank, Mrs. Hottinger, and two of Michael Showalter's daughters.

FRIDAY, May 17. At home calmly enjoying the company of Dr. Jacob Driver, of Allen County, Ohio.

The Editor was intimately acquainted with Dr. Driver; and as he and Brother Kline were lifelong friends and in later years of their lives brethren, a brief reminiscence of Dr. Driver will here be given: Jacob Driver was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, about the year 1801.

His parents came from Pennsylvania, and their baptism into the church of the Brethren is noted in this biography. About the year 1838, Jacob, their eldest son, became very strongly impressed with the rational and logical arguments given by Dr. Samuel Thompson in a work written and published by him ent.i.tled: "GUIDE TO HEALTH." This guide indicated and represented the way from sickness back to health as being very short and easy to find, exempt from dangers and free from doubt. Jacob Driver entered the field of medical practice, and his success in that line added enthusiasm to his faith, by which as time went on, mountains were removed. He soon deservedly acquired the t.i.tle of "Doctor;" and although not conferred by a medical college, still the t.i.tle of "Doctor of Medicine" has rarely been conferred by diploma upon a man more worthy to hold it, or borne with the honors of better success. His removal with his family to Allen County, Ohio, in the autumn of 1852, was deplored by many families in Rockingham, who had learned to depend upon him as their most trustworthy medical adviser.

He died in Allen County about the year 1867, leaving an excellent lineage of sons and daughters, among whom Jacob, his youngest son, is now an active minister in the church of the Brethren. The ties of affection which bound the hearts of Brother John Kline and Jacob Driver into an inseparable union were those of a double brotherhood: brethren in church, and brethren in medical practice.

SAt.u.r.dAY, May 18. Dine at John Bowman's above Harrisonburg, and stay all night at Daniel Thomas's.

SUNDAY, May 19. Meeting in the Beaver Creek meetinghouse and at two other places near by. A very great concourse of people on the ground.

The spiritual peace and composure of heart, however, usually manifest in the Brotherhood on all former occasions of this kind, is sadly interfered with now by the distracted state of our country. But the weather is pleasant, and we hope to have a good meeting. Preaching in the meetinghouse to-night, and also in Dayton, Virginia.

MONDAY, May 20. The Annual Meeting opens to-day at Beaver Creek meetinghouse, in Rockingham County, Virginia. First, organize for counsel; take in questions; have public preaching in forenoon. "Much people." In afternoon form subcommittees. Some rain and mist to-day.

Stay all night at Martin Miller's.

TUESDAY, May 21. Proceed with business to-day; work through four committees. Cool but pleasant day. Stay all night at Isaac Miller's.

WEDNESDAY, May 22. Get through with business by eleven o'clock, and the Annual Meeting breaks up, most of those present from the North as well as from the South carrying away with them heavier hearts than they ever before have borne from a meeting of this kind. Many prayers were offered in the course of its progress in the behalf of our country. The Shekinah of G.o.d's care may be gloriously waving over our heads now, and we not able to see it. The Red Sea is before us, but Jehovah will part its waters for us to go through unharmed.

When Egypt's king G.o.d's chosen tribes pursued, In crystal walls the admiring waters stood: When through the desert wilds he led their way, The rock relented, and poured forth a sea.

What limits can Almighty Goodness know, When seas can harden, and when rocks can flow?

SAt.u.r.dAY, June 1. Go to Jesse Mitch.e.l.l's, in Pendleton County, Virginia, where I stay all night.

SUNDAY, June 2. Meeting at Jesse Mitch.e.l.l's. Speak from 1 Cor. 1:17.

THURSDAY, June 6. Attend the burial of Brother Samuel Myers near the head of Linville Creek. His age was forty-six years, eight months and eight days. He leaves a widow and comparatively young family to battle with the ills of life. May G.o.d bless and keep them as he only can.