I not long since read what purported to be a true story of a man by the name of Casper Hauser, who had been intentionally brought up in a dark cave from his very infancy. Up to mature manhood he had never seen a ray of light, except what proceeded from the dim lantern which his keeper used in supplying him with food and other things. Had this man been told, while in the cave, of the wonderful light of the sun and the beauties of the outside world, he would not have been able to understand what was told him. But if he would have been willing to take the hand of some true friend and be led out into the light, he would not have needed any argument to convince him that what he had heard was true. Like the queen of Sheba, when she visited King Solomon, he might have said: "It was a true report I heard, but now mine eyes have seen it, and the half had not been told me."

Let me say to you, friends, that right here in this Divine Word is one greater than Solomon, whose eyes are as a flame of fire to illuminate the sinner's dark understanding, and whose countenance is as the sun shining in his strength to warm and cheer the sinner's cold and cheerless heart. That one is Jesus. As the Divine Word, he revealed his glory on the mount, and Peter in the joyfulness of his heart said: "Lord, it is good to be here." How often does the true disciple, when the Word is revealed to his heart, in the warmth of its love and light of its truth, feel like exclaiming in the same words: "Lord, it is good to be here!" But not all know the truth; and we ask, Why is it so? In answering this question several things have to be kept in mind. Some—but very few in our land—are not in reach of the preached Word, are not instructed so as to be able to read it, and are so situated socially as to hear nothing of the Gospel. Some are born deaf, who can neither hear nor read. Some are born idiots who are incapable of understanding. With such ignorance is no sin. But what shall we say of the great army of unbelievers who, in the very blaze of gospel light, shut their eyes and, like the Gergesenes, beseech the Lord to depart out of their borders. These "love darkness rather than light; and they will not come to the light." This answers the question, "Why do not all know the truth?" They will not abide in his words. They will not do the truth: "For he that doeth the truth cometh to the light." We now turn to the

Third Promise.—"And the truth shall make you free." This is the most precious promise of all. It is just what the truth will do for every one who knows the truth and obeys it in his life. It will make him free. Like the Jews, some may say, "We have never been in bondage. We are free now, and how can you say, The truth shall make us free?" The Lord may answer you on that. The Jews claimed the same freedom that you claim. They said: "We be Abraham's seed, and have never been in bondage to any man." But Jesus answered: "Verily, verily I say unto you, Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin." You decide now for yourself whether you are a bondservant or a free man. Do you commit sin in the love of it? Do you willingly transgress God's holy law contained in the Ten Commandments? If so, Jesus says you are a bondservant of sin. Paul says the same in these words: "To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are, whether of sin unto death; or of obedience unto righteousness."

Again: You are commanded to repent and believe the Gospel. You are commanded to be baptized, confessing your sins. Have you complied with these plain precepts of Holy Truth? If not, the seal of bondage is still upon you, and every day you live in sin stamps that seal deeper and yet deeper upon your heart. But there is balm in Gilead for you if you will accept it; and there is a physician there for you, if you will but let him administer the remedy. That balm is the heavenly, holy, healing Word of the Lord, and that Physician is the Lord himself. Do you ask how you are to take it? Take it in faith, "for he that believeth is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God."

"And the truth shall make you free." Thousands on earth and millions in glory bear testimony to the truth in these words. A living, loving belief in the words of Jesus; a faith that works from love and purifies the heart is the only power that will break the yoke of sin. This faith God is ever ready, through his Holy Spirit, to help you to have. Of yourself you can do nothing; but the very last words Jesus uttered on earth were these, "Lo! I am with you to the end of the world."

Sunday, April 22. The two brethren had meeting at Doe Hill, in Highland County. They took dinner at Joel Siple's, and had night meeting at George Wine's. On the twenty-third they went down the South Fork to Jacob Stone's and had meeting in one of his outbuildings. In the afternoon they had meeting at the widow Hoover's on the Fork, and stayed all night at Dr. John Keister's. On the twenty-fourth they had meeting at Bethel church in the forenoon; got dinner at Jacob Warnstaff's, and in the afternoon have meeting at Zion church in Hardy County. They stayed all night at the widow Peggy Dasher's. Mrs. Dasher (quoting from Diary) is a member of the Methodist denomination, and a very kind and hospitable woman. She lives up to her Christian profession as taught by her Discipline. We held family worship in her house and tried to impress upon the minds of her sons, who are intelligent and promising young men, the "one thing needful," the giving of their hearts to the Lord.

Wednesday, April 25. They had meeting at Nimrod Judy's. Brother Kline spoke from Matthew 18:11. Text.—"The Son of man is come to save that which was lost."

If man could fairly realize what he has lost through sin; and what may be gained by forsaking all for Christ; in other words, what it is to be lost, and what it is to be saved, he could not rest satisfied to remain one moment longer in his sin-ruined state. Like the Philippian jailer, he would instantly cry out, "What must I do to be saved?" Like the people on the day of Pentecost, being pierced as to their hearts by what they heard and saw, he would say: "Brethren, what shall I do?" "The Son of man is come to save that which was lost." It is of the utmost importance to know what was lost, so as to know what it is that the Son of man came to save. I will try to tell you this. It is you, it is I, it is every human being upon the face of the earth. And are all lost? Yes, without an exception. To what extent are we all lost? To the extent of all that is of us—body, spirit and soul. And are our bodies lost? Yes, our bodies are lost to all that God intended them to be. Our bodies were never designed to be the abodes of disease and suffering; neither were they intended to be subject to infirmity from age. When God looked down upon a finished creation he saw that it was good, yea, very good. Can this be said of our bodies now? Let the blind, the deaf, the lame, the countless sufferers on beds of affliction, the child-bearing mother, the decrepit consumptive, the rheumatic invalid, let these say whether our bodies are very good now. And how about our spirits? I use the term spirit here in the sense of its being the basis of human perception and thought. Are our spirits or minds very good? Let those who are trying to learn and look into the secrets of knowledge and science answer this. From the child in school to the highest rank in scholarship ever held by any man, the same complaint comes up, that lessons are hard, and what is acquired as knowledge is very unsatisfactory.

But I have touched only the hem of sin's garment in what I have said. If the soul or will of man were still very good, I mean to say here that if man had not lost his love for his fellow-man and his love for God; in other words, if man still loved the Lord his God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself, feebleness of body and weakness of mind would be matters of small moment. The body is soon done with any way; and the mind or intellect is still sufficiently clear for all the purposes of life in this world; and when once disengaged from the body that here clogs and fetters it,—as it will be at death,—in the hope of being lifted to a higher sphere of perception and thought, the loss to man suffered by the fall in these two departments of his being would be comparatively small.

But man's will or inmost love is the secret spring of life. From this all his affections flow; and right here we find his Marah, the bitter waters of his soul. In reading the story of the children of Israel in the wilderness we learn that they came to a place where the waters were all bitter. Brethren, that place is right in our own hearts. Our hearts are the springs from which these bitter waters flow in the form of "evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness." Mark 7:21, 22. What an outflow of bitterness! Enough to flood a world to destruction! And this destruction had come, and its arm would have held its power over man eternally, had not the great Prophet, the Moses of love, come and cast a tree into the waters whereby they were made sweet. The Lord in his Word is this tree. He is the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. His voice comes to us from far: "I am the Lord that healeth thee; for the Son of man came to save that which was lost."