Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary Part 39

But whilst G.o.d is thus impartial, we must not forget that his acceptance of any and every one depends upon their acceptance of him.

"_He that feareth G.o.d._" I will say something on this. A misunderstanding of this may do serious harm. Let me first say that our heavenly Father, G.o.d, is not a despot or tyrant. There is no element in his nature or essence that in the slightest degree savors of despotism or tyranny. Jesus says: "He that seeth me seeth the Father: the Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. And from henceforth ye have both seen the Father and know him."

Jesus was also called Emmanuel, which, being interpreted, is, "G.o.d with us." Do we, then, desire a correct knowledge of G.o.d the Father?

Let us acquaint ourselves with his Son Jesus Christ, and we will have it, for he came to do the will of the Father. This was his explicit work; and he accomplished it, for he says in his last great prayer: "And now, O Father, I come to thee, having finished the work thou gavest me to do."

Now I ask, Did Jesus ever show anything else than good will toward men? Is there not manifest love in every act of his recorded life? Did he not go about doing good? Did he not say: "No man hath greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you"? G.o.d's love is seen in the life work and words of Jesus.

Now, then, in what sense is Jesus Christ to be feared? In the very sense in which his disciples feared him. But this was not in the sense of being timid or fearful of his presence. On the contrary, they desired to be with him and near him, for they felt secure in his presence. They could take hold of his hands and see the nail prints, and the spear mark in his side. John leaned on his breast at table, and the women took hold of his feet. His word of comfort was: "Fear not," and he often repeated this in their ears. "Be not afraid; it is I." In all this we see the heart of our heavenly Father, for "the Son is the express image of him." In what sense, then, are we to fear G.o.d?

Only in the sense of fear to go counter to his will. "Perfect love casteth out fear." The redeemed saints and angels who stand before his heavenly throne in perfect love know no fear of G.o.d, "for fear hath torment." But we, who still grovel on earth battling with the world, the flesh and the devil, have cause to fear offending his righteous and holy will. But this only when we are tempted to leave some duty undone or to commit some actual sin. As long as we walk in the good way of love, faith and obedience we have nothing to fear. To all such Jesus ever says: "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure [delight, joy] to give you the kingdom."

"_And worketh righteousness._" It is in order now to speak on this point in the text. We know that G.o.d is just, "and there is no unrighteousness in him." The prophet Daniel in his confession said: "O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee." To work righteousness, then, is to do the righteous will of the Father. All works of righteousness have their origin in supreme love to G.o.d and subordinate love to man.

"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" covers the ground. It is very much the same as that other saying of Jesus: "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 command comprehends all the possible relations of men with each other. It takes in the social, moral, civil, commercial, national and religious relations of the human family in all time; and when a man's conduct in these varied relations is governed by the Lord's golden rule, he is working righteousness in the eye of G.o.d and is accepted of him. "_He that worketh righteousness_" takes in every human being that lives a good life. But no one can live a good life without help from the Lord.

Jesus says: "Without me ye can do nothing." Cornelius had help from G.o.d. He feared G.o.d. He wors.h.i.+ped G.o.d. He was a devout man himself, and all his house had the same reverence for G.o.d. He had also heard of Christ, especially of the witness borne by the Holy Spirit, at his baptism, and that of the Father acknowledging his divine sons.h.i.+p.

But Cornelius needed instruction in matters pertaining to the ordinances of G.o.d's house. His knowledge and faith were sufficient for the purposes of living a good, righteous life. He was a man of prayer.

He also possessed that element of goodness which Paul says is greater even than faith, and that element is _charity_. Notice, the angel said to him: "Thy prayers and thine alms are gone up as a memorial before G.o.d." The angel included nothing else. In our acknowledgments of regard and favor in the behalf of any one we refer to one's character and standing in the eyes of men. But the angel made no such reference.

From this we may learn what G.o.d loves most in his people, and that is LOVE. The love of Cornelius for G.o.d was manifested by his prayers.

Loving, faithful, trustful prayers are the proof that we love G.o.d: and kindness, gentleness and goodness toward others, the proof that we love our neighbor. This was manifest in his alms.

But the Lord wanted Cornelius to arise and mount a higher plane in the life of righteousness: a high plane of holy intelligence and knowledge respecting himself and his people. The Holy Ghost falling upon him and the rest brought with it the illuminating power, in verification of the Lord's words: "The Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things." This inflowing power, teaching, quickening, regenerating the soul, is what Jesus means by a man's being born of the Spirit: and in its order and connection "the was.h.i.+ng of regeneration," the water baptism, the water birth into the church, follows. Cornelius was baptized, and all the devout members of his family with him. This is the last mention that is made of him. Very soon after this time that fearful persecution of the saints arose in Jerusalem and Judea, which resulted in their dispersion to foreign countries and places, so that Cornelius may never have enjoyed the privilege of having the remaining ordinances of feet-was.h.i.+ng, the gospel salutation of the kiss, the love feast, and the holy Communion of the bread and wine administered to him and his house. As no church could be organized at the house of Cornelius at that time, these ordinances had to be postponed. In truth, their introduction and observance must always be guarded with care, lest they be abused and perverted, as they were at Corinth some years later. But of this we are sure: "If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted of a man according to that which he hath, and not according to that which he hath not."

I cannot close without a few reflections on what has been said. When Cornelius was told what to do, he did not hesitate a moment. Forthwith he sent for Peter. When Peter came he received him with joy, and would have wors.h.i.+ped him in devout solemnity, had Peter not instantaneously rejected his approach. When the inflowing baptism of the Holy Spirit gave him and those with him the new birth of the Spirit, they were ready to receive the water birth by baptism in water. The water was not forbidden, because no opposition to the Gospel had as yet arisen in Cesarea.

Now, friends, here is an example worthy of imitation. Let me prevail in my appeal to you in behalf of your immortal souls. "To whom much is given, of him they will require the more." Much is given you, my dear friends who have so attentively listened to me to-day. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." To hear is to obey. "He that knoweth to do his master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes." "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" These "words are spirit and they are life." "Learn of me,"

says the best friend on earth, "and ye shall find rest unto your souls."

SUNDAY, May 28. Love feast at Forney's. Christian Schmucker is ordained to the full work of the ministry.

TUESDAY, May 30. Love feast at David Summers's. An election is held.

Brother David Royer is elected speaker; and Daniel Newcomer and David Summers deacons.

THURSDAY, June 1. Love feast at Brother Joseph Royer's, nine miles north of Canton.

SAt.u.r.dAY, June 3. Stay all night at Brother Nathan Stern's.

SUNDAY, June 4. Come to place of Annual Meeting. Breakfast in the shed. Six persons baptized.

MONDAY, June 5. Form committees, and begin to take in queries. Stay all night on the ground.

TUESDAY, June 6. Begin the discussion of questions. Get through with the slave question by noon. All night on the ground.

WEDNESDAY, June 7. Get through with business by eleven o'clock, and the meeting breaks up.

SUNDAY, July 23. This day Joseph Miller and I start to the counties of Pendleton, Hardy, Randolph, Pocahontas, and Highland. I ride Nell.

These two brethren were absent on this journey precisely three weeks to the day. I fear it would be tedious to the reader to trace them day by day and step by step through all the ways they went. Not a day pa.s.sed in which they did not fill one appointment for preaching, and often two. Brother Kline felt at home among the mountains. He had a lively appreciation of the sublime in nature; and more than once does he note the grandeur of some mountain's lofty summit over which he pa.s.sed; the majestic power of some falling stream; or the awful solitude of some deep forest. It was mainly a timbered country through which they pa.s.sed. The regions traversed by the Alleghany mountain proper were in that day still in a state of nature; and the scattered inhabitants very nearly in the same state. Many of them live very remote from any railroad or other public highway.

At a private house, in Randolph County, he says: "Extensive forests of very tall and straight timber which would be exceedingly valuable for building and other purposes, could it be gotten to market, cover large sections of Randolph, Pocahontas, Tucker and other counties further west. But as time goes on population will increase; and after awhile the urgent demands for the timber and other productions of these regions will cause roads to be constructed for their transportation to markets. We should not be backward in our efforts to secure permanent foothold for the truth as we hold and practice it. Many here cannot read for themselves; and it pains my heart to find how poorly they have been instructed in the things pertaining to the way of salvation.

The small amount of preaching they hear is not often of an instructive character. It appeals to the feelings, but does not inform the mind.

This I learn by conversing with them. They are told to believe, it is true; but what their faith is to lay hold of, and what the Lord requires them to do that they may serve him acceptably, is not made clear to their minds. It is not to be inferred that all are on the low plane of intelligence I have described. There is here and there an exception. But the exceptions are rare. And in our preaching we aim to speak, as did Paul, 'as to babes.' As to natural capacity, and their capability of attaining to high intelligence in the things of men and G.o.d, things human and divine, under the hand of adequate instruction, I regard them as being equal to any people in our State."

The two brethren continued in the company of each other throughout this journey. They got home Sunday, August 13.

FRIDAY, September 29. This day Brother Kline starts to the counties of Hardy and Hamps.h.i.+re. He visits Isaac Dasher's, James Parks's, William Michael's, Adam Cosner's, Henry Cosner's, Joseph Arnold's, John Leatherman's, Samuel Arnold's, Adam Michael's, Michael Lyon's, Solomon Michael's, Jacob Cosner's, Martain Lantz's, Enoch Hyre's, Isaac Shobe's, Chlora Judy's, Peggy Dasher's, and James Fitzwater's. He got home Thursday, Oct. 12, after an absence of two weeks. He rode Nell. I beg the kind reader to pardon the entry of the foregoing list of names.

The Editor will here tell a short story of what really took place very recently. He happened to be at the house of one of his friends, and in looking through his library he discovered a very old copy of the life of Isaac N. Walter, who had been dead over forty years. He remarked to the lady of the house: "I see you still have on hand a copy of the life of Isaac N. Walter." "O, yes, and that is the most precious volume to me in all the library. You see from its appearance that it has been handled very freely. Mr. Walter used to come to our house, and whilst papa was not a member of his church he and papa thought a great deal of each other; and whilst I have but a childhood recollection of him, reading that book carries me back in thought to the old home place where I was raised, and calls up the thousand and one pleasant memories of my early days." Thus she went on; and very soon opened to the place where the date of one of Mr. Walter's visits to her father's house was given. She could no longer restrain her tears, but excused them by saying: "You know a woman never forgets her first love, and that is the love of her childhood home."

On this trip Brother Kline baptized Josiah Simons and James Hilkey, October 7.

SUNDAY, October 15. Meeting at our meetinghouse. I baptize eleven persons to-day. They are Noah Rhodes and wife; Frederic Kline and wife; George Wine and wife; Susanna Showalter; Jacob Sanger; John McKee; Catharine Fink, and Polly Wampler.

SUNDAY, October 22. Meeting at the Lost River meetinghouse. Matthew 28 is read. Philip Fitzwater and Catharine Sowder are baptized.

SUNDAY, October 29. Meeting at John Glick's, in Shenandoah County.

After meeting I baptize John Glick and wife. Stay all night at John Neff's.

SUNDAY, November 12. Meeting at our meetinghouse. This day I baptize John A. Showalter; Mary Kline; Mary Kesler; Anna Hoover, wife of Emanuel Hoover, and Mrs. Fogel.

SUNDAY, November 26. This day John Bowman and I take a steamer at Alexandria and attend a Methodist church in Was.h.i.+ngton City. After looking around at the gorgeous displays of artistic ornamentation in the structure and finish of the building itself, and being comfortably seated in a pew cus.h.i.+oned with silk velvet, with my feet resting on a Brussels carpet, I was ready to hear. The first thing I heard was a sort of chant, with organ accompaniment. But I could only now and then distinguish a word chanted; so I could not say amen to their giving of thanks. Next came the reading of the twenty-fourth Psalm. Being a good way back, I could not hear distinctly, but knowing the Psalm by heart, memory served where hearing failed. This was more satisfactory. Next came the musical interlude, and the opening prayer followed. I hardly ever criticise a prayer; but when that prayer was through with it did occur to my mind that if it were to be suddenly answered none would probably be so much surprised as the preacher who offered it. A familiar hymn was now sung, and many in the congregation joined their voices in the song. This was very enjoyable. Next the sermon. The preacher used fine language, and ornamented his discourse with flowery similitudes and opposite figures. Such eloquence as flowed from his lips to-day, other things being equal, does not fail to attract large audiences. But when I took a view of the congregation, and beheld the display of fas.h.i.+on everywhere visible, I could not suppress the inquisitive reflection as to what John Wesley would think of that being a congregation of Methodists, could he suddenly appear among them. Would he own them? And would they own him in his plain dress and old-fas.h.i.+oned ways? And then the thought--what if the next hundred years bring on as great a change in our Brotherhood as the past seventy-five years have unfolded in the Methodist society! But here I let the curtain fall upon my thoughts, to hide them from my sight, for I cannot endure the prospect of such a change.

I aim to cultivate a spirit of forbearance toward all denominations of professing Christians; but I am forced to conclude that in this place the sons of G.o.d have fallen in love with the daughters of men; that the church and the world have shaken hands in a mutual agreement to live together in peace.

MONDAY, November 27. At 5 o'clock we take the train for Baltimore, where we arrive at 6:40 P.M. Stop at Globe hotel.

TUESDAY, November 28. Attend to business in the city, and in the evening go to Michael B. Kline's.

WEDNESDAY, November 29. At 8 A.M. meet Brother D.P. Saylor at the depot, and take cars for Philadelphia, where we arrive at 12:30 P.M.

Dine at Brother John Kagey's; then come to Morristown, and from there to Brother John Umstead's, where we stay all night.

THURSDAY, November 30. Come to Brother Isaac Price's, and then to Brother David Fricke's, where we stay all night.

FRIDAY, December 1. Come to Price's meetinghouse. Make arrangements; take the voice of the church touching the grievance; close our meeting; come to Brother Peter Hollowbush's; stay all night and prepare our papers.

SAt.u.r.dAY, December 2. Come to the meetinghouse again. Brother D.P.

Saylor speaks in the forenoon, and in the afternoon we present our papers and try to settle, but great commotion follows, and we close the meeting. Come to Brother John Price's; stay all night. Night meeting. Speak on John 10:9.

SUNDAY, December 3. Meeting at the meetinghouse again. I speak on 1 Peter 1:22. TEXT.--"See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently."

Scientific moralists teach that man's _love_ is his _life_. They support this statement by what they regard a self-evident truth, that such as a man's love is, such is his life. The wide field for investigation to which this line of thought leads, presents many plausible arguments in favor of the doctrine they hold. For one, I can and must confess that I have never been able to look deep enough into the human soul to find out just what the principle of life is. Neither is it important that I should know. But there is One that does know.

That One needs not that any should testify to him concerning man, for he knows what is in man.

Brethren, you all know to whom my thought now turns. I mean our Lord Jesus Christ. And let the life principle, the heart principle, the love principle be one and the same or not, it is he who says of men: "By their fruits shall ye KNOW them;" not doubtfully, but surely. The life record of every man, written not with pen and ink on paper, but with the finger of G.o.d on the tablet of his memory, will be the basis of his adjudgment to h.e.l.l or his acquittal to heaven. For "a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things; likewise an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things." "And they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of d.a.m.nation."

Man is created for society. He cannot be happy without it. If it would be possible for us to conceive of a world inhabited by but one human being, with all hope of society forever banished, if that human being could ever think at all, it would only be to wish himself dead. All our affections and thoughts are so intimately connected with the affections and thoughts of others as to derive all the zest of their enjoyment from this source alone. We enjoy the pleasures of the table most when those we love enjoy them with us. This feeling is so inwrought in the character that when any we specially love are absent, who we may fear are not faring as well as we, the reflection mars the relish of our food. This is what should be. But the length and breadth of social enjoyment is exactly commensurate with the length and breadth of social love. The man whose heart is so small as to be able to take none but the members of his own family in the grasp of his contracted regard can have a meager enjoyment of life. He is somewhat above a brute, but very far beneath the dignity of a man; and, worst of all, dest.i.tute of the spirit of Christ. "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love G.o.d whom he hath not seen?"

And this thought brings up my text: "See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently."

Brethren, if I could impress these words upon your hearts in a way and to a degree that would be adequate to their importance, I would return home in the happy reflection that I had been instrumental in doing a work by which G.o.d is glorified and my Brethren saved. These words encompa.s.s the whole ground of salvation. Inside this compa.s.s of brotherly love is salvation, and nowhere else. Say what you please, love is what saves man after all. Some say faith saves, and so it does when it is quickened and filled with the warmth of brotherly love.

Otherwise, though it be strong enough to remove mountains, as Paul says, it is nothing. Faith without love is a dead faith. Devils have this kind, and tremble. This dead faith may be compared to ice which is water as to substance, but worthless as to form. Frozen water may bridge rivers; and a frozen faith may bridge some of the streams of earthly life; but it will never bridge the stream of death and land us safe in heaven.