Thursday, November 27. Have night meeting in Winchester, Virginia, in the Methodist church. I speak from Luke 13. Subject: "The Strait Gate." Stay all night at Henry Krumm's.
Friday, November 28. Breakfast at Brother Fahnestock's; dine at Brother Mummert's, and have night meeting in the Quaker meetinghouse. Speak on John 4:24. Text: "God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth." As the house in which we have met for worship this evening has been erected by the Friends, or Quakers, and called after their name, I feel that it will not be out of place for me to speak from a passage of Scripture upon which they very much rely, as a strong support to their faith and ways of worship. I must, at the same time, confess that I love these people dearly, as far as my acquaintance with them goes. Their views and convictions in regard to simplicity in manners, and plainness in dress, and general nonconformity to the world; in regard to bearing arms, and using human laws in the adjustment of difficulties between brethren, are so very much like our own that I cannot avoid a strong attachment to them in my religious sympathies. And I would not desire to eradicate this sympathy from my heart if I could. These considerations, in connection with my early knowledge of them in Pennsylvania as being an honest and virtuous people, have always kept me in friendly love with the Quakers.
The language of my text is part of the instruction given by our Lord to the Samaritan woman at the well. She said to him: "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain; but ye [meaning the Jews] say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." She alluded to the temple, I suppose. But our Lord at one stroke levels every support on which these false conceptions of him rested in her mind, by assuring her that God is a universal Spirit, and not confined to any one place; and that the worship which he delights in is not that of form and ceremony, but that of the heart, in the inner man, in spirit and in truth. The meaning of my text also lays the axe at the root of all hypocrisy and spurious professions of religion.
In addition to all this it sets up the only true sanctuary for his worship on earth, the sanctuary which is found in the heart of every sincere and obedient believer in him. Paul says to the Corinthian brethren: "Know ye not that ye are the sanctuary of God? If any man defile the sanctuary of God, him will God destroy; for the sanctuary of God is holy, which sanctuary ye are."
Every step the sinner takes in his return to God, and every step the Christian takes in his walk with God, must be in spirit and truth. Repentance is heartfelt hatred of sin. Faith is a loving acceptance of Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. This confession includes all the ordinances of God's house, which is the church of the living God. How men can think, as many seem to think, that they can confess Christ in spirit and truth, and at the same time reject the chief means by which Christ intends this confession to be made public, I can not see. Baptism, or the immersion of the body in water by a proper administrator, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is either laid aside entirely, or argued out of form, or very lightly regarded. The ordinance of feet-washing, the salutation of the kiss, and the Lord's Supper are entirely cast away. In love I say all this, because I burn with desire to see the Truth accepted in the love of it and obeyed from the heart. When man does this, like little Samuel of old, he responds to the call of the Father who seeketh such to worship him.
Wednesday, December 31. In the year that is just closing, I have traveled 3,578 miles. This I have done mostly on horseback. I have done what I could for God and humanity. I hope that when I come to die I may not have cause for deep regrets, or to mourn over a misspent life. I hope to lay my body down in peace, in the bright hope of a glorious waking up at the call of my Lord.
Thursday, January 8, 1846. Go to Christian Shoemaker's in the Gap and perform the marriage ceremony of John C. Miller and Deborah Shoemaker. Stay all night at Ely Spitzer's.
Thursday, January 15. Write a letter to Henry Kurtz, and one to George Hoke.
Tuesday, February 17. Make an amicable adjustment of complicated business matters between the widow Judith Detrick and Abraham Detrick. It is pleasant to straighten between members of our body business matters which present a somewhat crooked and tangled appearance, when all the parties are willing to have things adjusted through the mediation of disinterested Brethren. How much better this than to go to law! The tendency of private adjustments by arbitration is to heal over breaches of friendship and love between members; but going to law before the world is almost sure to widen them. I am glad to be able to add, here, that I say this, not from any experience with law that I have ever had in my own case, or in that of any of the Brethren; but I speak it from what I have observed in others who have gone to law.
Thursday, February 26. Go to David Kline's and perform the marriage ceremony of Abraham Neff and Elizabeth Kline.