Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary Part 13

He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings." "A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things: but an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things." Is not this plain?

It may now be asked, "How is an evil man to become good?" No question of deeper interest can ever be asked. No answer of deeper importance can ever be given. The Lord direct me in this. Relying on his Word, I answer, that the very first step in the direction of this change is to respond to the invitation given in my text: "_Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely_." Jesus says to Nicodemus: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of G.o.d." _To be born of water_ is to _drink_ of the water of _life_--the TRUTH of G.o.d's Word--by _hearing it_, by _loving it_, by _believing it_, by _obeying it_, until it makes a new man out of him,--a new man in the image of Christ our Lord.

As a most impressive and appropriate emblem of this change water baptism has been ordained by the Lord; and every convert to Jesus Christ is commanded to submit, cheerfully in love, to this ordinance.

Baptism, say what you please, is one of the first fruits of this change. To the church it is the external act of the internal birth. To be _born of the Spirit_ is to live the life and enjoy the blessedness of the kingdom of G.o.d, which is a life of righteousness, a life of peace, a life of joy in the Holy Ghost.

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

"If any man thirst," says Jesus, "let him come unto me, and drink."

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

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

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

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

You may sit by the spring; And in your soul you may sing:

"I heard the voice of Jesus say: Behold, I freely give The Living Water; thirsty one, Stoop down, and drink, and live.

"I came to Jesus, and I drank Of that life-giving stream: My thirst was quenched; my soul revived; And now I live in him."

DIRECT FROM THE DIARY.

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

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

SUNDAY, October 14. I attended the funeral of Susanna, daughter of Brother Christian Niswander, to-day. She was fifteen years and nearly seven months old. This is the third child that this deeply bereaved family have been called to part with in the brief s.p.a.ce of ten days.

Gladly would we pour into their bleeding bosoms the oil of consolation.

We weep with them that weep. Our tears mingle with theirs. We lead the way with them to the throne of grace. Our Father on high, pity them, and do for them exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think.

Help them to feel that their dear children are not dead; that their deathless spirits have soared above all sickness, sorrow, pain and death. Thus we pray, and thus we try to comfort. But our feeble, tender, sympathizing natures sink under the load of grief; and the eye of faith but feebly catches the rays of hope that beam from the pages of Heavenly Truth. Verily, here we see through a gla.s.s darkly.

_Sermon by Elder Daniel Garber._

_Preached at Arnold's Meetinghouse, Sunday, October 28._

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

TEXT.--Be ye therefore followers of G.o.d, as dear children; and walk in love.--Eph. 5:1, 2.

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

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

In the first place, I unhesitatingly profess my belief in the absolute freedom of man's will. How else could man comply with the injunction given in the text: "Walk in love?" If he has no will of his own, why give him a command? This freedom of man's will is a logical necessity.

Reason demands it. Now, let us look at this a little. If man is not free to choose between good and evil; between right and wrong; between truth and falsity; wherein lies the reasonableness of instructing him?

of exhorting him to do what is right, and to shun what is wrong? of commanding him to do good, with promises of reward for his obedience, and threatenings of judgment and fiery indignation as the sure penalties of his disobedience and sin?

Some admit the freedom of man's will to do evil, but not to do good.

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

You may answer by quoting the Lord's words: "_Without me ye can do nothing_." I fully believe these words of our Lord. But if you apply them specifically to the will, they prove that men can do neither good nor evil without the Lord. This you may not admit; but I believe it is just what our Lord meant. All life is from him as G.o.d. All beings, the evil as well as the good, "live and move in him." I believe that our Lord is, every hour and every moment of every man's life, seeking to turn the heart, the WILL of the man from evil to good, from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to himself. "He causeth his sun to rise on the evil and the good; and sendeth his rain on the just and on the unjust."

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

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

Election simply means _a choosing_. It is an undeniable fact that our Lord Jesus Christ elects, chooses, accepts every one that truly repents or turns his heart from evil to good. "_Him that cometh unto me_," says he, "_I will in no wise cast out_." "_He that believeth and is baptized_, SHALL BE SAVED." "WHOSOEVER WILL, _let him take of the water of life freely_." TRUTH is the broad platform on which the _elect_ of G.o.d forever stand; and LOVE is the golden chain that first drew and forever binds them there.

PREDESTINATION.

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

I do not wonder that Paul wrote what he did upon predestination, because it implies the immutable, eternal order of G.o.d's love and wisdom. Heaven and earth may pa.s.s away, but Christ's love shall never pa.s.s away from the lowliest and poorest soul that loves and obeys him.

His love to Christ is the seal of his predestination to eternal life.

"He that believeth the Son hath life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of G.o.d abideth on him." This is the sum of election and predestination. G.o.d's eternal love has given to man the way of man's salvation. All who choose that way are on that very account elected and predestinated to eternal life in heaven.

_Elected_, because this fits them for heaven: _predestinated_, because it is G.o.d's eternal purpose to save all such. Predestination applies equally to the impenitent; because, according to the same plan and the principles involved in it, they must be forever lost.

Nothing can be more reasonable than that G.o.d's elect, the people of his choice, should be holy and without blame before him in love; that they should be followers of G.o.d as dear children, and walk in love.

This is both the cause and the proof of their election to eternal life.

If you will take the pains to look into a dictionary for the word WALK, you will find that it means: _To conduct one's self; to order one's life_. Every man feels in himself the power to order his own life according to what is just and right in the sight of G.o.d and men.

To regard man in any other light would be to place him on a level with the brute. It would be taking away from him his moral feelings, and depriving him of the just exercise of his will through the understanding. Whilst man feels in himself this power, still he must not forget that all life is from G.o.d, and that without G.o.d man is nothing. "_Herein is love; not that we loved G.o.d, but that he loved us._" And every true child of his can say: "_I love him because he first loved me_."

Sinner, let me say to you that G.o.d loves you and wills your salvation.

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

Brethren and sisters, I must exhort you to remember the text. Don't forget it as you go home after meeting closes. When you get home look for it. Some of you, I fear, have already forgotten the place where it is found; so I will tell you again. It is the first, and part of the second verse of the fifth chapter of Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

These are the words: "_Be ye therefore followers of G.o.d as dear children; and walk in love_."

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

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

This love makes heaven here, and there, and everywhere.

Here is one more: "Love not in _word_ only, but in deed and in truth.

He that hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compa.s.sion from him, how dwelleth the love of G.o.d in him?"

Brethren, the devil does not like the odor of CHARITY and FAITH in the church. It is worse in his nose than the smoke of burning brimstone.

If you want to keep him out of the church, all you have to do is to keep brightly burning the fire of love on the altar of every heart; and from these altars, all together, there will ascend the odor of an incense that will put the devil to flight and keep him away forever.

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