Monday, August 28. Attend the burial of Brother Solomon Garber. Age, fifty-four years, five months and twenty-nine days.
Wednesday, November 1. On this day Brother Kline, in company with Joseph Miller, son of Daniel Miller near head of Linville's Creek, started on a journey to West Virginia. They got to Jacob Warnstaff's first day—had night meeting in Bethel meetinghouse, near by; meeting at Chlora Judy's, on Mill Creek, next night; meeting at James Parks's, on Looney's Creek, the night following. I will dress up the skeleton of the sermon Brother Kline preached here, as best I can. Romans 14:7. Text.—"For none of us liveth to himself."
The phrase "none of us," as used in the text, means not one of us. I say this to give emphasis to this part of my subject.
The social element, or love for society, is deeply impressed upon all the animate world. We feel the truth of a very common saying—"birds of a feather will flock together"—every time it is repeated in our hearing. This expression, in its most comprehensive sense, applies to everything having life and volition or the power to will. It is seen in the fishes of the sea, in the birds of the air, and in all the denizens of earth, from insects and worms up to the highest forms of organic brute life, and in man. This love for society, or company, or companionship, is so strong that it is the bond of the universe. Without it nothing living could subsist. To make this thought clear to your understandings, let me just call your minds to reflect a little upon what the state of things would be in the natural world if this law of love were reversed in the brute creation. Our domestic animals, instead of feeding together in harmonious and peaceable flocks and herds, would instantly turn to fighting and seeking to destroy each other. The earth would soon be strewn with the dead bodies of beasts and birds, and the waves of the sea would throw drifts of dead fishes upon the shore. But, fortunately for man, this love has never been perverted in the lower orders of creation. Each kind loves its own kind, and seeks its propagation. But man has fallen from this love, the love of his fellowman, into a state of feeling in some respects the very opposite, which is hate. Let the history of the world but unfold her page, and the truth of what I have just said will appear in lines written with human blood. It is from this, and this alone, that human laws have been instituted. It is self-preservation. This is the one single origin and basis of all human law. What protects me from the wrath or cupidity of those who would destroy or devour me, protects you; and inasmuch as all desire such protection, human governments, and laws with fearful penalties annexed, have been instituted. Right here, in a civil and social sense, the words of my text apply with profound meaning: "For none of us liveth to himself." They apply to every statute in every national code, as well as to every local law in every land.
But human laws restrain by fear, and God would have all restraint from evil to spring from love. The gulf between these two principles is immeasurably wide and deep, quite as much so as the chasm between heaven and hell. I said: Human laws restrain by fear. Why does the heart murderer not kill? He is afraid that if he kills me, and it is found out on him, somebody else will kill him who feels himself in as much danger from his bloody hand as I was. Why does the heart-rogue not steal? He is afraid his booty may not balance what it may cost in the way of punishment. So with all criminality. With those who have not the love of God in their hearts, nor the love of their neighbor which springs out of this love, nothing but fear restrains them from the worst of crimes. But this is a very unhappy state to be in, because all fear hath torment. Human beings can never be happy in their social relations, when the fear and dread of each other is the governing principle in their lives. The heart of man was originally created for the exercise of love, for perfect love, which knows no fear. All the happiness and peace of heaven spring out of love made perfect.
"There love springs pure and unrepressed;
There all are loved, and love again:
Love warms each angel's glowing breast:
Love fills each shining saintly train."
Fear, with its long and varied list of torments, primarily springs from a sense of guilt. We have a clear example in proof of this in the third chapter of Genesis. Immediately after the fall Adam is represented as saying to the Lord: "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, and I hid myself." Now, Adam had heard that voice before; it was the voice of love; but, oh! how changed! The voice itself was not changed; but the ear that heard, and the eye that saw, and the heart that felt its power, these, these were changed. Ever since that sad day man has been subject to fear, and has sought to hide himself from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord God still loved Adam, and right there and then gave a promise to save man. That promise is in these words: "I will put enmity between her seed and thy seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This was spoken to the serpent. Christ Jesus our Lord is the seed of the woman. He bruises the serpent's head under our feet whenever we sincerely desire him to do so. The head of the serpent stands for sin and transgression of God's holy law in all its forms, with the evil loves which prompt us thereto. The heel which the serpent shall bruise is man's natural body, and the natural feelings incident to him from his connection with this body. Diseases, the infirmities of age, with all the pains and anguish of body and mind; yea, death itself, and the fear of death, all, all are but the bruises which the serpent, the devil and Satan is inflicting upon the heel of the woman's seed.