Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary Part 54

Near Abraham Funk's house, about two miles west of Broadway, the road runs along the North Fork of the Shenandoah river, where the bank is probably one hundred feet high, and very steep. This part of the road lay directly in the line of the company's route, and, unfortunately, just as they got into the road, right at this very steep place on the bank of the river, an alarm of "Rebel scouts" seized the whole company, and all together they went down to the river's edge, none seriously hurt except Mr. Sellers, who had his leg broken. I made a frame this morning to hold the fractured parts in place, and hope he may do well. We are keeping the whole matter a profound secret to save the life of a good man. He was taken back to Abraham Funk's, where he is at this time receiving treatment in secret from me.

SUNDAY, April 19. Meeting at our meetinghouse. Epistle of Jude is read. Abraham Glick is with us, and likewise Solomon Sherfey, of Tennessee. Go to Abraham Funk's. George Sellers is doing well.

SUNDAY, April 26. Meeting at the Elk meetinghouse, in Page County, Virginia. I speak from Heb. 2:3. TEXT.--_"How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?"_

I always feel embarra.s.sed when I attempt to speak from this text. The subject is so vast, and the matter so important, that my best efforts fall far below the just demands of my theme. Nothing can properly be said to be saved which has never been lost or in danger of being lost.

And in every case where anything is saved, the greatness of the salvation depends upon the value of the thing saved, together with the measure of effort and sacrifice required to effect it. Some years ago a very destructive fire was raging in the city of Pittsburg. A gentleman, who claimed to have been an eyewitness of the fire, related the following incident to me. He said the firemen had just rescued a family from a burning building, and thought they had all out, when one of the rescued ladies looking around screamed out, "O, save my Bessie!" "Where is she?" was cried out. "In the north room up stairs!"

A n.o.ble-hearted fireman, almost exhausted, risked his life to rescue what he of course supposed to be a child; but what was his indignant surprise on reaching the room, to find that the missing "Bessie" was only a pet cat! The enraged fireman kicked the cat and cursed its mistress. But his feelings would have been different had Bessie been a little child softly sleeping in its cradle. This incident may help us to realize the truth contained in the statement already made, that the _greatness_ of any salvation depends upon the _value_ of the thing saved as well as upon the effort and sacrifice made to save it.

It is plain that man's salvation is the subject of the text. But is man lost? And if lost, in what sense is he lost? We read in Matt.

18:11, "For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost." It is man's _life_ that is lost--natural or bodily life, and supernatural or spiritual life. But is man's bodily life lost? It is, "for death hath pa.s.sed upon all men." The sentence of bodily death: "It is appointed unto man once to die." "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." If any supposes the death of the body to be a small thing, let such a one go to a well-filled graveyard and pa.s.s one hour in serious meditation in this silent city of the dead. Let him think of the tears that have fallen there, of the sighs of anguish that have reluctantly escaped from broken hearts. Let him think of the innocent beauty and loveliness that lie buried there, of the hopes and the joys that have been driven from the heart by the hand of the destroyer; and then let him ask himself if "the wages of sin" is a thing of small account. Let his mind run a little further, and he can but see that the graveyard's solemn tale to the end of the world must be yearly told. Death here writes his name anew every pa.s.sing season in the fresh mounds raised above the dead. And not only so, but the voice of reason whispers into the ear of every pa.s.ser-by the solemn word, "This place is waiting for you."

Now, an apostle says: "It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." And another apostle, as if commenting on this pa.s.sage says: "He shall change our vile bodies that they may be fas.h.i.+oned like unto his glorious body." I now ask, Does not this show that the salvation in the text is truly _a great salvation_? But I have as yet but touched the hem of the garment. And, indeed, in our low and contracted state of mental power here we are barely able with our highest and broadest reaches of thought to lay hold of more than the hem of salvation's garment. "Heaven is his throne, and the earth is the footstool of his feet." What the footstool is to the throne, nay to him that sits upon it, such are our highest and purest conceptions to the salvation which the Lord has provided. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to know what G.o.d hath provided for them that love him."

I stated that man's life is lost. I have said something about the bodily life that is lost by sin. I now turn to say something about the spiritual life that is lost by sin. Paul says, and I am sure he means what he says: "To be carnally minded is death." Now, what is it to be carnally minded? Or, in other words, what is the carnal mind? Paul answers in a general way, that it is ENMITY against G.o.d. Such a degree of enmity that all who are carnally minded cannot and do not love G.o.d, nor take pleasure in his service. Life is love; and love is life. The spiritual _life_ that is lost by sin is what Jesus came to redeem and save, and this life is man's love. Man's LOVE is perverted. It is turned away from the Lord G.o.d and the neighbor, and directed to self and the world. And when a man loves himself more than G.o.d, and the world with its sinful l.u.s.ts and pleasures more than he does his neighbor, he is carnally minded.

Now let us turn to the Lord's words. In the Gospel recorded by Luke a certain lawyer is represented as asking the Lord this question: "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said unto him: "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" He answering said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy G.o.d with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." Jesus said unto him, "Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live."

Brethren, does not this look like the key to salvation? Does it not open the door to a view of eternal life and blessedness? Our Lord says: "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

When any one gives his heart to G.o.d in love like this, I think he is in a saved state. And is it not a great salvation? Perfect love of that which is good is perfect peace, because it drives evil from the heart, which is the cause of all human misery. But the Lord, and the Lord only, can change man from darkness to light and from death unto life. He is the only Savior. He saves man by his Word and Holy Spirit.

He stands at every man's door and knocks. If any man will open the door, he will enter that man's heart and dwell with him forever; and Christ in the heart is salvation and eternal life.

THURSDAY, May 14. Go to Abraham Funk's. George Sellers is nearly well, and in fine spirits. At half past five o'clock I start to the Annual Meeting. Stay all night at Jacob Wine's.

FRIDAY, May 15. Dine and feed at Newman's furnace. Then go up through the Trout Run valley, cross the Church mountains and get into the Lost River valley near the place where the river disappears at the base of the mountain. Stay all night at Landes's. I have seen no scouts or pickets to-day.

SAt.u.r.dAY, May 16. Get dinner at Jonathan Flory's, and stay all night at Abraham Miller's.

SUNDAY, May 17. Stay at Brother Abraham Miller's all day. Have preaching in the afternoon. Stay all night again.

MONDAY, May 18. Cross the Potomac river at Old Town; go up the towpath; pa.s.s through Gibbontown near Flint Stone, and get to Abraham Ritchey's, where I stay all night. Traveled thirty-three miles to-day.

TUESDAY, May 19. Get to Henry Hershberger's in Snake Spring valley, where I stay all night. Twenty-eight miles to-day.

WEDNESDAY, May 20. Get to Brother Adam Sn.o.berger's before dinner; but spend balance of day there and in making a few calls. Have evening meeting at the meetinghouse one mile away. Speak from John 10:9. Stay all night at Brother Sn.o.berger's.

THURSDAY, May 21. Come to Samuel Snider's; then to council meeting at meetinghouse; and after dinner come to Brother Daniel Sn.o.berger's at Yellow Creek, where I stay all night. Fine day. It is ten miles from Brother Snider's to Brother Sn.o.berger's.

FRIDAY, May 22. Meeting at the meetinghouse. Subject, Hebrews 1. After dinner go to Brother Leonard Furry's. Night meeting at the meetinghouse. I speak from Rom. 1:16. Stay at Brother L. Furry's all night. Fine day.

SAt.u.r.dAY, May 23. Come fourteen miles to Clover Creek Meeting there in forenoon and afternoon. Stay all night at Brother Dellinger's.

SUNDAY, May 24. Meeting at three places to-day. A delightful day as to weather; and should be enjoyable to all in the way of good speaking.

MONDAY, May 25. Commence taking in questions in afternoon. Cloudy all day. Stay all night at Brother Dellinger's.

TUESDAY, May 26. Discuss questions all day. Cloudy all forenoon, but clears up in afternoon. Stay all night at Brother John Brumbach's.

WEDNESDAY, May 27. Discuss questions, but get through with business by two o'clock; and the Annual Meeting breaks up. I come to Brother Daniel Sn.o.berger's, where I stay all night.

THURSDAY, May 28. Go to a store at Enterprise and buy a few articles.

After dinner come through Snake Spring valley and across b.l.o.o.d.y Run to Jesse O'Neil's, where I stay all night. Fine day.

FRIDAY, May 29. Come six miles to Chanyville; then eleven miles to Gibbon; then two miles to John Deacon's where I get dinner and have Nell fed; then twenty miles to Brother Abraham Miller's in Hamps.h.i.+re County, Virginia, where I stay all night. Fine day.

SAt.u.r.dAY, May 30. Come ten miles to Souer's, where I dine and feed; then five miles out to the pike, and eight miles to North River; then three miles to Brother Wilson's, but to get there have to ride two miles out of the way to pa.s.s unmolested. Stay all night at Brother Wilson's. Rain to-day.

SUNDAY, May 31. Come twenty-two miles to Nimrod Stradaman's, where I dine and feed; then sixteen miles to James Fitzwater's, where I stay all night. Fine day.

MONDAY, June 1. Come ten miles to Michael Wine's; get dinner, and in afternoon cross the mountain and get home.

It may not be out of place to call the reader's attention to several points of special interest connected with this journey of Brother Kline to this the next to last Annual Meeting it was his privilege to attend. Let the reader think of the distance to be traveled over in going and coming--three hundred and thirty-four miles--all on the back of his favorite Nell. Over a good road, in a time of peace, with plenty of familiar friends by the way, such a distance with a good horse would be but a delightful recreation to one accustomed, as was Brother Kline, to horse-back riding. But a great part of his way lay through a mountainous and thinly-peopled country, with only a path in some places to direct his course; and, worst of all, he did not know where he was safe from arrest, as army lines at this stage of the war were almost constantly changing. How great, then, must have been his love for the Brethren! Where can another man be found to compare with him in fearless resolution to do what he believed would be pleasing to the Lord and the Brethren, whom he loved more than he did his own life! Neither was he encouraged by the Brethren at home to go. They advised him not to go. But his heart was fixed; and his loving soul would have been filled with melancholy sadness to have stayed at home and thought of the warm hearts and kind hands he might have met by going. He would rather see his Brethren and die, if necessary, than _live_ without the sight.

From the time of his return from this journey to the close of the year he did not venture far from home in a northern direction. On the twelfth day of August he and Jacob Wine went on the yearly visit prior to the visit council. They had to go to the counties of Pendleton and Hardy, as the members in those counties were included in the district over which Brother Kline was one of the overseers. They held visit councils over there, and on their return home the two brethren were arrested and taken before the military authorities on the eighteenth day of August, 1863. Brother Jacob Wine came home with Brother Kline to Brother Kline's house. They had been there but a short while when they were both arrested. They gave a satisfactory account of their business in those two counties, and were accordingly released. On the twenty-fourth, just six days after the previous arrest, he was picked up again and required to give account of himself. This he did in a humble, truthful way, and was again let go. The following is on the last page of the Diary for this year.

In this year, 1863, I have traveled 4,260 miles, all on horseback. I have preached thirty-eight funerals: _fourteen_ for children under five years of age; _eight_ for children between the ages of five and ten years; _six_ for persons between the ages of ten and twenty years; _three_ for persons between twenty and thirty years; _two_ for persons between thirty and forty years; _two_ for persons between forty and fifty years; _three_ for persons over eighty years of age.

In the last five and one-half months of our beloved brother's life, or that portion of it which he lived between the first day of January, 1864, and the fifteenth of June, the memorable day of his death, are not very full of interest. By this it is meant that the state of war in Virginia, together with the hopeless condition of the Confederacy and the demoralizing tendency of that condition upon the soldiery of the land, raised insurmountable barriers in the way of activity on his part. We find him mostly at home, save that he was much called to see the sick and preach funerals in his immediate vicinity.

SUNDAY, May 1, he attended meeting at Green Mount for the last time.

He preached from Luke 19:7. The Editor was present, and still retains some recollections of his line of thought; so that by means of these, together with the Diary notes of this discourse, a tolerably just reproduction of it may here be given. He seemed to be more than usually pathetic in his delivery. In one of his tender appeals he caught the writer's eye, and he can never forget the irresistible but refres.h.i.+ng flow of tears that followed.

TEXT.--"_And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner._"

The Bible is a unit. The sum of its love and truth culminates in the declaration that "the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost." The portion of the chapter read in your hearing, which immediately precedes my text, is a sufficient introduction to it. The history of Zaccheus therein given is, or should be, familiar to all.

But my text may comprise some instructive and comforting truth to us, which we, like those who attended the steps and heard the words of the Lord in the flesh, may not so readily apprehend.

The disciples were deeply impressed with the sinless purity of their great Teacher. But they did not as yet understand the character of his mission. They could not rid their minds of the thought that his coming was for the purpose of establis.h.i.+ng, in some way, they knew not how, an earthly reign of power and glory which would eclipse all that earth had ever beheld. Hence we read that at one time they wanted to take him by force, and make him a king. At another time the mother of two of his disciples interceded in behalf of her two sons that the one might sit on his right and the other on his left in his kingdom. What sublime visions of worldly glory she had; and how deeply were her vain imaginations rebuked! "Ye know not what ye ask."

These considerations aid us in our efforts to apprehend the character of the impediments and obstacles in the way of our Savior's glorious work of love. And here springs up a thought which I will dwell upon for a little. I can not avoid the belief, forced upon me as it is by what I see daily and have seen, that men do not widely differ now from what men were in our Lord's time in the flesh. They do not love his unqualified declaration--"My kingdom is not of this world"--any better now than men did then. National greatness, in which the rich and powerful may bear oppressive rule over the poor and weak, is the height of their ambition. Such are not willing to eat and drink with publicans and sinners. Things unseen and eternal are out of sight to mortal eyes. Men doubt the declaration of the Bible that:

"Beyond this vale of tears, There is a life above Unmeasured by the flight of years: And all that life is love."

It is this unbelief that fosters their love for the world and for themselves. And the pride of heart that naturally goes with the love of self is not willing to stoop to what is not highly esteemed among men. It is not hard to see from the words of my text that there was a very large measure of self-pride still clinging to the hearts of those who composed the crowd now in attendance upon our Lord on this his last journey from Jericho to Jerusalem. They thought it a stoop in him, and out of place that he should condescend to go to be guest with a man that is a sinner. It is plain from this that they did not know themselves. Like the Pharisee, they justified themselves, and were ready even to thank G.o.d that they were not like other men. But our Lord came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. And we should notice that by sinners he means such as _feel_ and _know_ themselves to be sinners. Jesus adapted himself to the _felt_ wants of those he came to save. He had no sin-forgiving words for the self-righteous. He had no blessing for the proud in spirit. He had no promise for those who exalted themselves.

I love to contemplate this glorious feature of our blessed religion.

The docile, teachable disposition of the little child, coupled with the honest confession of Peter: "I am a sinful man, O Lord," is the low plane of feeling upon which the Savior enters the soul. It was declared by a prophet respecting his first advent into the world: "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low." Mountains and hills in this pa.s.sage signify the proud and self-exalted desires and l.u.s.ts of the wicked man, which are to be laid low because such states of heart and life forever oppose themselves to the meekness and gentleness of Christ. But the principle of humility, signified by a valley, is to be exalted: not that humility exalteth or can exalt itself; but this truly humble state of mind prepares man to receive the Lord's saving truth, and this exalts a man. "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

For myself, Brethren, I can say with the Apostle Paul, that "in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not. For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.... I delight in the law of G.o.d after the inward man: but I perceive a different law in my members, warring against the will of my spirit, and bringing me into captivity to the sway of sin in my members." Paul here speaks of the inward man, and of the members or outward man. This takes my thought to the tabernacle in the wilderness. It had an outer court and an inner sanctuary. The tables of G.o.d's holy law were placed in this most holy place. It was right in this most holy place, over the mercy seat, which was the golden cover to the ark that contained the tables of the law, that Jehovah had his dwelling place. It was there he talked with Moses. The outer court was for offerings, and served as a place for the confession of sin and its forgiveness.

Brethren, I am glad to think we are like this tabernacle, that we have a most holy place, an inner sanctuary, in the inmost of our heart, where Jesus has his dwelling place with us, and where his voice alone is heard. In this holy of holies we feel his love, and it is there we see his face. It is there that he appears to us the fairest among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely. It is here that we sing:

"Jesus, I love thy charming name; 'Tis music in mine ear; Fain would I sound it out so loud That earth and heaven might hear.

"Yes, thou art precious to my soul; My transport and my trust: Jewels to thee are gaudy toys, And gold is sordid dust.

"I'll speak the honors of thy name With my last fleeting breath: And, dying, clasp thee in my arms, The antidote of death."

Brethren, this is what I have gained, it is what you have gained, it is what we all have gained by placing ourselves in sight of the Lord as he was pa.s.sing by. In itself, it was a small thing that Zaccheus did. The tree which he ascended was not hard to climb; he was nimble, for he _ran_ on before; and it did not take him long to climb, for he had not much time. But in motive the act was great, because it was done to get a sight of Jesus the Lord. The Lord knew this, and knew also that his motive was not one of idle curiosity, but honest desire to see him and to learn something more concerning him. And see how he was blessed. Although he was looked down upon as being a sinner, and felt in his heart that he was a sinner, still the blessed Savior regarded it not out of place for him to go and be guest with him, and crown the occasion with the joyful annunciation: "This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham." All who believe in the Lord from the heart are sons of Abraham, and heirs of G.o.d according to the promise.