Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary / Collated from his Diary by Benjamin Funk

by John Kline

Friday, April 20. On this day Brother Kline, in company with Brother Benjamin Bowman, started on a journey to some of the western counties of Virginia, now West Virginia. The first day they got to the widow Miller's, on Briery Branch, in the southwest corner of Rockingham County. The next day they went through North River Gap and got to Henry Sanger's, in Highland County, Virginia, where they had night meeting. Here Brother Bowman delivered a discourse, which, according to the outlines in the Diary, was so pregnant with original thought characteristic of the man that I will endeavor to expand its contracted form and give it a more readable shape. Text.—"Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him: If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

There was great diversity of feeling among the Jews in Christ's day, just as there is among Gentiles now. Some were flint; others, clay in the hand of the potter. "The common people heard him gladly; but the scribes and Pharisees resisted the counsel of God against themselves." If we read the entire chapter carefully it will give us a more impressive view of and a clearer insight into the stubborn hardness of the Jewish heart than any other single chapter that I can now think of. The Jews were so wedded to their worldly sanctuary, so in love with the representative forms of worship, that they could receive no just ideas of genuine spiritual worship. Let me draw a comparison here. Many people seem to think themselves rich when they have plenty of money either in hand or standing out on interest. They think so from the fact that money represents every exchangeable commodity of worldly goods. In it they behold the supply of every bodily want, the service they need and the honor they crave.

This is something like what the scribes and Pharisees, the elders and priests saw in their religion. And these worldly emoluments and benefits are what they feared would be taken away from them, should the great principles of love to God and love to man, inculcated by our Savior, be generally received. They said: "If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him; and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."

The Roman power had a civil regard for the temple so long as it retained its dignity as the national house of Jewish worship. Should it, however, lose this honor by being no longer needed and used as such, the Romans would withhold this regard and convert it—as was actually done years afterward—into a barrack for soldiers. Where would then be the salaried scribe, the domineering and overbearing elder, the rich but hypocritical Pharisee, and the pompous high priest? Their place and their nation would be gone. These considerations, in connection with their inbred conceits that they were the peculiar, chosen and exclusive people of God, caused them to reject the Lord. "He came unto his own and his own received him not." But some did receive him, and "as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his name." It was to such as believed on him that the words of my text were addressed. The text gave them, and it gives the same to us, three promises by the mouth of him whose word is yea and amen.

First promise: "If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples."

Second promise: "And ye shall know the truth."

Third promise: "And the truth shall make you free."

These promises are all so full of love and truth that a long and instructive discourse might be based upon each one separately, and then much of their subject matter remain untouched. We are told how we may be true disciples of the Lord. A disciple is a learner, one who is receiving instruction because of a sincere desire in him to know the truth. We are truly his disciples when we abide in his Word. What is the meaning of the clause, "If ye abide in my word"? Let James, the apostle of charity, answer: "If a man be not a forgetful hearer of the word, but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in his doing." For myself, I must say that learning the lessons of Christ is very much like learning the lessons given in almost any other branch of knowledge. We send our children to school. Some take delight in their books, and make satisfactory progress. Others, that have the same opportunities to learn, seem to take very little interest in their lessons or in the instructions of their teachers, and move on very slowly. Why is this? It is mainly a lack of love for study. One hungers and thirsts for knowledge, another does not. But the one that loves to acquire knowledge is the one that abides in the instructions of his teacher and his books, and he is a true disciple or learner. It is very much the same way in the school of Christ. Some hear, obey and profit greatly by what they hear. Such abide in his words. Such are his true disciples.

Some one may ask: "What are his words in which man must abide?" I answer, They are all the words he has spoken. "Man liveth by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Jesus never uttered an idle or unnecessary word. All "his words are spirit and they are life." In his last great prayer our Lord lifted up his eyes and said: "Father, sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." Remember, too, that the Son spake none but the Father's words; for he said to those very wicked Jews who sought his life: "The things which I heard from the Father, these speak I unto the world." Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms of the Old Testament; and the writings of the New Testament comprise the entire Word of God. It was of the life-giving power of this Word, Old and New, that the angel said to John on the isle of Patmos: "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." All teaching is prophecy; and all teachers of Divine Truth are prophets. And as the spirit and meaning of all the words God has ever declared to man in their most exalted sense bear witness of Jesus and set him forth as the very life and truth and way, this, therefore, is what is meant in what the angel said to John. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth." This Word made flesh was none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. To abide in his Word is to live in him as the way, the truth and the life. In this state we are truly his disciples. We will now turn our thoughts to the

Second Promise.—"And ye shall know the truth." This promise will surely be realized by every one, without exception, who abides in the words of the Lord. It is a promise very much like that other in these words: "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." Books have been written in defense of the truth of Divine Revelation. I have read several. They are ably written, and with good intentions. But I doubt if any unbeliever has ever been converted by any of them. In the first place, unbelievers are not likely to read books on such subjects; and in the second place, without a heartfelt desire to know the truth, they would not be persuaded though one should arise from the dead. To one who loves the truth, the truth bears witness of itself. It is self-evidencing in its own light. It bears its own testimony.