Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary Part 40

But what is to be understood by brethren loving one another with a pure heart fervently? I am afraid that if I attempt to tell what brotherly love is, and how it is to be shown, I will only darken counsel by words without wisdom. There is not a brother or sister in this house who does not know what it is to love another with a pure heart fervently. I will, however, venture to say a little under this head, by way of drawing our minds to think more closely upon it. I will say, first, that when one brother loves another with a pure heart fervently, he tries in all ways and at all times _to do his brother good, and no harm_. This love fills the mouth with good things and the hands with blessings.

But the text implies that this love can be increased, that it may grow ardent, burning, by the use of right means, or suffered to grow cold by neglect. There can be no doubt of the truth of this. In all man's relations to this life, experience shows that love may be fostered by kindness, or frozen by unkindness. This last remark reminds me of a conversation I had with a United Brethren preacher whom I chanced to fall in with in one of the western counties of Virginia. Speaking of his work, and the number of converts he reported at different meetings he had held, led me to ask how they were doing since then. He replied that a goodly number appeared to continue faithful; but he added that some had burnt out by unholy fire, and that others had frozen out by unholy frost. I afterward thought this to myself, that here was the commingled fire and hail which John, in his apocalyptic vision, saw falling from the same cloud. Ah, Brethren, let us beware of the unholy fire of evil pa.s.sion, anger, malice, wrath, strife, that would burn and consume our love for one another; and on the other hand avoid all feelings and expressions or other manifestations of contempt, or neglect, or unkindness that would freeze it to death.

This brings me now to speak of forgiveness. You have read the story, told by our Lord, of the debtor who owed the ten thousand talents, and was forgiven the debt; and how he afterward treated a fellow-debtor who owed him a hundred pence; and how the first debtor was delivered to the tormentors because he would not forgive his fellow-servant. "So shall also my heavenly Father do unto you,"--says our Lord--"if ye forgive not every one his brother from your hearts." Brethren, you and the Lord for it. I this day wash my hands clean of your blood as I repeat in your ears these words of love and warning: "If ye forgive men their trespa.s.ses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespa.s.ses, neither will your Father forgive your trespa.s.ses."

When I was yet a boy in Pennsylvania, before we moved to Virginia, my father very strictly forbade me playing marbles on Sunday. I obeyed his orders for some time; but one Sunday, when father was at church, a neighbor's boy came to our house and persuaded me to play with him. I did it reluctantly. The play did not amuse me as usual. But I transgressed all the same; and in the very act my father saw me on his return home. He called me to come to him. Expecting chastis.e.m.e.nt, I went with trembling steps. I never had felt so unhappy in my life.

"What were you doing?" he asked. I burst into tears. "Are you very sorry for what you have done?" I nodded and wept a.s.sent. "Come a little nearer to me." I went; and he then drew a handkerchief from his coat pocket and gently wiped away my tears, saying at the same time, "I feel sure, Johnny, that you are very sorry for what you have done, and I forgive you with a kiss." Ah, Brethren, if I had never known sorrow before, I had never known joy till after that kiss. In itself it was but the contact of lips; but its power went to my heart; and I can say here solemnly that I had never loved my father before as I loved him after that. Love is what conquers after all. Love is the root and the offspring of happiness. There can be no happiness without love. Therefore, Brethren, "see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently."

After meeting I go with Brother David B. Kline in his carriage, and have night meeting in a schoolhouse near his place. Snows all this day.

MONDAY, December 4. Travel thirty-five miles to-day in Brother George Gipel's wagon to his house. Snowing and blowing all day. Snow wonderfully drifted. Stay all night at Brother Gipel's.

TUESDAY, December 5. Get into Brother Gipel's sleigh and go to meeting at Brother Brachtbil's. From there come to Brother Jacob w.a.n.ger's, near Jonestown, to night meeting. Speak on Rev. 3:21. [This sublime discourse is withheld for want of room.] Stay all night at Brother Brachtbil's. Wonderful blowing of snow continues. Roads blockaded very much.

WEDNESDAY, December 6. Brother John Kline near Millerstown takes me in his sleigh to meeting near his house. Speak on John 14:6. Night meeting at his house. Speak on Revelation 22. Stay with him all night.

Still cold and stormy.

THURSDAY, December 7. Write a letter home, and one to Michael B.

Kline, of Baltimore. Stop at Jacob Frantz's, and get to Samuel Royer's, near Myerstown, for dinner. Afternoon meeting at the meetinghouse. Stay at David Zug's all night. Snowing and blowing continues. Very cold.

FRIDAY, December 8. Meeting at Brother George Bolinger's. John 10 is read. In afternoon come to Brother Samuel Hilsman's. Visit and help to anoint a sick sister. Come to Brother John Gipel's. Night meeting.

Speak of John 14:6.

SAt.u.r.dAY, December 9. Come to David Zug's. Meeting. Speak from Hebrews 2.

SUNDAY, December 10. Meeting at Christian Longenacre's. Speak on Luke 1:77. Night meeting at the widow Eby's.

MONDAY, December 11. Visit Aunt Anna Hershey. She is very weak. Dine at Abraham Hershey's. He takes me to Mount Joy, to Henry Kurtz's, where we have night meeting. Sup at David Sharlocher's, and stay all night with Brother Kurtz.

TUESDAY, December 12. Dine at Brother Jacob Rinehold's, and take the eleven o'clock train in Lancaster for home, where I arrive Friday, December 15.

In the year 1854 Brother Kline traveled 6,463 miles. I feel sure that it is safe to say that every mile he traveled was in the direction of some good object. Here is something for every one to think on: Do all the steps of my life tend in the direction of some good object? Are all my motives pure, sincere, honest, fit for the eyes of the world, and, above all, fit for the eye of G.o.d?

SAt.u.r.dAY, March 31, 1855. Attend council meeting at the Brick meetinghouse in Augusta County. John Brower and Abraham Garber are elected to the ministry, and Enoch Brower and Levi Garber to the deacons.h.i.+p.

THURSDAY, April 5. Attend council meeting at the Beaver Creek meetinghouse. Martain Miller is ordained; Daniel Thomas forwarded; and Joseph Miller, of Th.o.r.n.y Branch, elected to the deacons.h.i.+p.

FRIDAY, April 6 and SAt.u.r.dAY, April 7. On these two days I vaccinate sixty-three persons.

THURSDAY, April 19. Attend council meeting at the Brush meetinghouse.

Jacob Spitzer is elected to the ministry, and Felix Senger to the deacons.h.i.+p.

FRIDAY, April 20. Council meeting at our meetinghouse. Abraham Knupp is ordained; Christian Wine forwarded, and Martain Wampler elected to the deacons.h.i.+p.

SAt.u.r.dAY, April 21. Attend council meeting at the Flat Rock. Jonas Early and Abraham Neff are elected to the deacons.h.i.+p.

SAt.u.r.dAY, May 12. This day Brother Kline and Daniel Thomas, in company of each other, start to the Annual Meeting on horseback. The meeting opened Monday, May 28. They consequently had two weeks before them to spend on the road, and this time they took up in traveling and preaching by the way. They went first to Hardy County, where they filled appointments at different places on the South Fork, South Branch of the Potomac, and North Fork. They then crossed the Alleghany mountains over into Randolph County, where they held a number of meetings. The Diary reports Brother Daniel Thomas as taking the lead in preaching at nearly all the appointments. And well was he worthy of the honor. Few men are ever endowed with better natural abilities for public speaking than was Brother Daniel Thomas. His voice had the rare power of making every word he uttered to be distinctly heard all over a large audience, without any apparent effort on his part. Besides, it was musical. The hearer went away with its expressive inflections and cadences still sounding in his ears. But his voice was not his only forte. He had a mind as full of sanctified wit and quick perception as an egg is full of food. A clear thinker, a cogent reasoner, and I may add, full of love and the Holy Ghost, it is not a matter of wonder that he excelled. What he might have achieved had he lived to an advanced age, G.o.d only knows. His death was caused by an attack of pneumonia. He left a comparatively young family. In the view of the writer, who was intimately acquainted with him, the church of the Brethren has never been called to give up a brighter or better man. He is not _lost_. He has only moved away to the better land.

The following discourse was substantially preached by Brother Daniel Thomas at the dwelling house of Elijah Judy in Hardy County, Virginia, now West Virginia, on the evening of

MONDAY, May 14. _The parable of the sower_ is his subject. He said: This parable, viewed in its natural or most obvious sense, is so easily understood that it would be a suitable lesson for a primary school reader. At the same time it holds within its grasp a fund of spiritual instruction which, being received into the mind and heart, fills both with light so clear as to illuminate many an otherwise dark portion of Revealed Truth. To my mind this parable is the link connecting the two ends of the great chain of G.o.d's work and man's work in both the natural and spiritual life of man.

The Holy Land, as it is called, where our Lord was born, and where he lived and died, comprised three small districts of country called Judea, Samaria and Galilee. These districts, each about the size of some of our Virginia counties, lay along the eastern sh.o.r.e of the Mediterranean Sea. Their gusts of rain, with their lightning and thunder, came from the west as ours do. The south winds came loaded with warmth to them as ours do to us. On the eastern border of this land was the river Jordan, a stream just about as large and swift as your South Branch of the Potomac. Near the northeastern corner of this land lay the beautiful Sea of Galilee, about three miles in breadth, and from four to six miles in length. It was on this sea that our Lord stilled the tempest. It was on the surface of this sea, that he was seen walking as on a smooth pavement.

In our Savior's day the Holy Land was an agricultural country. The farmers raised wheat and barley. These grains are often mentioned in the Scriptures. But they had few fences in that country. The roads ran through farms and fields with no sign of fence on either side. If sheep or cattle were turned out to graze, they had to be watched by men or boys called shepherds. I have been thus particular in my description of this land to enable you the better to understand the parable itself, and its higher or spiritual meaning. But farming has ever been but poorly done in that country, and patches of briars and other filth were suffered to grow. These were sown with the rest of the field, and instead of being dug out were plowed and harrowed over.

No concern was felt about the seed likely to be wasted. The sower opened his hand as freely in crossing the highway or the patch of briery ground as anywhere else. Even those sections of the field which showed no depth of soil on account of underlying rock were treated like the rest. What a site for a parable! But what is a parable?

A parable is a statement of some fact literally or possibly true in the natural world, and used to represent some spiritual truth. It is the correspondence of the external or natural meaning with some internal or spiritual meaning that makes any parable to be what it is.

The parable before us in its external or natural sense teaches nothing beyond what we may learn by the sight of our eyes every year. If it possessed no hidden meaning, no secret of life, it would be no holier than a similar statement in an agricultural paper. This is just what our Lord meant by these words: "It is the Spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you are spirit, and are life."

I think you are now prepared to derive some benefit from the internal sense of the parable before us. It has ever been a great question as to what man is required _to do_ to be saved. If we were to go by what is generally preached at what are called _revivals of religion_, we would only need to say we believe in Jesus Christ, then manifest some joy in the new experience, get up, perhaps, and tell how we feel, and we are ready to be counted in the list of new converts in full possession of eternal life. This experience corresponds with the explanation given of the rocky places: "This is he that heareth the word, and straightway with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but endureth for a while; and when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, straightway he stumbleth."

But here the query very naturally arises: "Are such to be lost? Is there no hope for these rocky-ground, th.o.r.n.y-ground and wayside hearers?" I say such need not be lost. There is salvation for such as truly as for any, if they avail themselves of the proffered gifts. It is wrong teaching, together with the influence of bad examples and bad habits, that has made them to be the kind of ground they are. Here is a lesson for all. Parents, if you desire your children to become good ground, train them up in the way they should go: and when they are old they will not depart from it.

There is another all-important truth bearing upon this connection of my subject; and that truth is that "our Father, G.o.d, is the husbandman." He is the great Farmer of souls, and "with G.o.d all things are possible." It is a thing of very common occurrence, inside the different denominations, for their members to backslide, as they call it. This is not because they could not continue faithful, but it is from a lack of the true knowledge of G.o.d, and a want of reliance upon him, and looking in prayer to him. The divine teachings are very clear on this point in the Christian's life. If an individual will repent, believe the Gospel, and be baptized for the remission of sins, leave off, that is, shun and forsake all evil ways and deeds as sins against G.o.d, he has the blessed a.s.surance that he will be led into all necessary truth. Notice this: "If any man will do his will, he shall KNOW of the doctrine, whether it be of G.o.d, or whether I speak of myself." Again: David says: "Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart." And Solomon says: "The path of the just is as the s.h.i.+ning light, that s.h.i.+neth more and more unto the perfect day." And our Lord applies the prophecy of Isaiah: "The people which sat in darkness saw a great light." He was the great Light which they saw, but they saw him and heard him by going to him.

There can, I think, be no doubt that some have stronger temptations to evil than others. Bad habits, encouraged by long indulgence and fostered by strong natural appetences, are hard to get rid of. But the faith that worketh by love, and purifieth the heart, gets strong enough to remove these mountains of sin; yea, strong enough to enable a man even to _hate_ his own sinful life.

I have known men to reason and conclude from this parable that G.o.d is partial. They speak on this wise: "If the different kinds of ground symbolize or represent the different natures and dispositions of men with respect to believing and obeying the Word, then all have not an equal chance for salvation. If a man (say they) has no better show for bringing forth the fruits of righteousness in a good life than the rocky or th.o.r.n.y ground has for bringing forth a crop of wheat or barley, he can have no show for salvation at all." This argument appears plausible at a first view. And in the estimation of those who look only upon the surface of things it is convincing. The first point of error with those who reason in this way is to be found in their belief that G.o.d has made this difference among men. But the entire history of man, as given in the Bible, shows that men bring upon themselves these varied degrees of opposition to what is pure and good. "G.o.d made men upright, but they have sought out many inventions," says the prophet. Of course he means inventions of evil things. An apostle says: "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." The natural tendency of man with everything of earth is downward. The loveliest garden, by being neglected, will get full of weeds. The most highly improved breeds of domestic animals tend toward degeneracy and deterioration as to quality, unless carefully guarded. Man is no exception to the rule. It is only by watchful care that one generation of people becomes wiser and better than the generation that preceded it. Our Lord would oft repeat such expressions as these: "What I say unto one, I say unto all, Watch." "Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning." "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." "Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation."

There is no heart so stubborn hard but that the softening power of Divine love can mellow it; and there is no soul so full of the thorns and briers of evil pa.s.sions and bad habits, but that the sanctifying power of the truth can cleanse it. Jesus came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. They that be whole need not the physician, but they that are sick. G.o.d is able to do for all who look to him for help, exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think; and in Christ he is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto G.o.d by him. No case of leprosy was ever beyond the power of the Lord to cleanse. No blindness was ever too dark for him to remove. No palsy was ever too dead for him to quicken into healthy life. No fever was ever too burning for him to cool. No demoniac was ever so insane or epileptic, under the power and in the possession of even a legion of devils, but that he could have them all cast out and the possessed one sit calmly, be clothed and in his right mind. Nothing is impossible with G.o.d. The good-ground hearer brings forth fruit unto perfection because he looks to the Lord, through his blessed Word, for help. This help comes through his obedience to its holy precepts and commands.

G.o.d cannot help any one who continues to live regardless of and indifferent to the precepts of his Holy Word.

In a modified sense the same laws govern in the spiritual world that govern in the natural. As it is impossible for G.o.d, according to his established order, to give you a rich and remunerative crop of corn or wheat from a field covered with briers, thorns and weeds; just in the same measure in a spiritual sense is he unable to give you happiness, peace of mind and joy in the Holy Ghost while you continue in a life of sin. "He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."

Brethren and sisters, it may be that some of you fear, at times, that your heart is no better than a bed of rock; or that it is full of thorns; or that it is hard and poor as the beaten road. But such self-examinations give evidence that the Holy Spirit is in your hearts and that he is carrying on a glorious work of grace there. "Blessed are the meek." "Blessed are the poor in spirit." "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." "G.o.d resisteth the proud; but giveth grace to the humble." Be not discouraged. Our Father is the great husbandman, and he knows just how to treat every kind of ground, just what to do in every heart. Then let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.

The foregoing sermon was preached by Brother Daniel Thomas May 14.

Between this and the following Sunday he preached every day once or twice. Brother Kline jotted down one other discourse which he delivered on Sat.u.r.day following, which I am compelled to omit for want of room. On

SUNDAY, May 20, they had forenoon meeting at Josiah Simon's. This day Brother Kline baptized Joseph Summerfield and wife, Mrs. Workman, and Jane Hilkey. In his quaint way he adds: "G.o.d calls, and some still answer. All glory to him."

SUNDAY, May 27, finds the two brethren at the place of Annual Meeting.

They attended meeting in Wine's barn; and also report meeting being held at the same hour in the meetinghouse. He does not give the name of the meetinghouse where the Annual Meeting was held this year, but says that he and Brother Daniel had lodging at Brother Umbenhaver's the first night.

MONDAY, May 28. Annual meeting begins. Take in questions, form committees, and set them to work. We stay all night at Brother Spanogle's.

TUESDAY, May 29. Go to place of meeting. Discuss and dispose of nearly all the queries to-day. We stay at Brother Umbenhaver's.

WEDNESDAY, May 30. Go back to place of meeting and get through; preach awhile; and after dinner we start from Brother Andrew Spanogle's towards home. We get to Matthew Wineman's, where we stay all night.

THURSDAY, May 31. Stop awhile with brethren Michael and Jacob Sollenberger; then by Mercersburg and Clear Spring to Sister Nipe's, where we stay all night.

FRIDAY, June 1. Through Martinsburg and Winchester, Virginia, to Brother James Tabler's where we stay all night.

SAt.u.r.dAY, June 2. Get to Brother John Neff's, in Shenandoah County, and on

SUNDAY, June 3, get home. On this journey Brother Daniel Thomas and I traveled together on horseback 466 miles. Our horses became so attached to each other that they could not bear separation. At any time, when out of sight of each other, they showed almost uncontrolable restlessness and dissatisfaction. I may add here that _one_ of their riders at least was very similarly affected toward _his_ companion by the way. The attachment of our horses was that of mere instinct. It was generated through the sense of hearing, seeing and smelling. But our attachment sprang from higher and more interior causes, such as none but the people of G.o.d can understand and appreciate. It has its place in "the hidden man of the heart," and springs from the unity of our faith and the spirituality of our love.

Death ends the attachments of poor brutes; but the love of Christians for each other rests on a foundation that death cannot destroy. Even here, in our imperfect state, love fills life's cup with joy. How ineffable, then, must be the joy of the redeemed in glory where love is perfect and life is eternal!