Tuesday, May 29. Go to place of meeting. Discuss and dispose of nearly all the queries to-day. We stay at Brother Umbenhaver's.
Wednesday, May 30. Go back to place of meeting and get through; preach awhile; and after dinner we start from Brother Andrew Spanogle's towards home. We get to Matthew Wineman's, where we stay all night.
Thursday, May 31. Stop awhile with brethren Michael and Jacob Sollenberger; then by Mercersburg and Clear Spring to Sister Nipe's, where we stay all night.
Friday, June 1. Through Martinsburg and Winchester, Virginia, to Brother James Tabler's where we stay all night.
Saturday, June 2. Get to Brother John Neff's, in Shenandoah County, and on
Sunday, June 3, get home. On this journey Brother Daniel Thomas and I traveled together on horseback 466 miles. Our horses became so attached to each other that they could not bear separation. At any time, when out of sight of each other, they showed almost uncontrolable restlessness and dissatisfaction. I may add here that one of their riders at least was very similarly affected toward his companion by the way. The attachment of our horses was that of mere instinct. It was generated through the sense of hearing, seeing and smelling. But our attachment sprang from higher and more interior causes, such as none but the people of God can understand and appreciate. It has its place in "the hidden man of the heart," and springs from the unity of our faith and the spirituality of our love. Death ends the attachments of poor brutes; but the love of Christians for each other rests on a foundation that death cannot destroy. Even here, in our imperfect state, love fills life's cup with joy. How ineffable, then, must be the joy of the redeemed in glory where love is perfect and life is eternal!
From the last date given to the thirteenth day of September Brother Kline was called to engage with considerable activity in the practice of the medical profession. There was much sickness in his own and adjoining neighborhoods. His death record was very small in proportion to the number of his patients. This fact alone establishes his success as a medical practitioner. The writer has been a careful and candid observer of the different methods and medicines employed in the treatment of the sick for a period of fifty years, and he ventures to give it as his impartial verdict that the course of treatment of the sick, medically, pursued by Brother Kline and the other physicians of his school, was attended by as small a death rate as that of any school in the profession in his day or since. In addition to this, convalescing and recovered patients were rarely heard to complain of any after effects of the disease or medicine. Brother Kline was often heard to speak of this. He would say: "Our patients do not complain of rheumatism, weak joints, broken down nerves, rapidly-decaying teeth, impaired hearing or generally enfeebled constitutions. We give no medicines which can leave any injurious after effects." But, after all, his heart was set on the ministry of the Word. He regarded the life and health of the body as incalculably subordinate to the life and health of the soul. This consideration incited him to untiring activity in preaching, praying, exhorting, singing, and to whatever else might instruct, comfort and encourage the child of God, or warn the sinner of his danger and bring him to Christ.
Thursday, September 13. This day Brother Kline, in company of Martain Miller, starts on another journey to some of the western counties of Virginia. He of late years begins to take company with him on these trips. In the earlier part of his ministry he would often go alone, I guess because no one volunteered to go with him. You remember Brother Daniel Thomas was with him on his last trip before this. Now Brother Martain Miller goes. Martain Miller was a brother of Daniel Miller, near Greenmount, Virginia. He lived near the Beaver Creek meetinghouse, in Rockingham County. His election to the ministry of the Word, his subsequent advancement, and his ordination are given in the Diary. Whilst he was not regarded as a minister of great power in the stand, his influence in the councils of the church at home and abroad was felt and acknowledged. A man like Elder Martain Miller, of ready and deep perception, can quickly arrive at just and wise decisions, which the man of ordinary mind might never be able to reach. Hence the worth of such men as leaders in the realm of thought.
In the year 1862 W.C. Thurman began to preach the second advent of the Lord as near. He subsequently became so bold in the expression of his belief as to name the day on which that greatest of all events might confidently be looked for to take place. As Thurman at that time was a unit in the Brotherhood, and allowed to vent his soul breathings in the church buildings of the Brethren, some, even among the thoughtful, were deeply impressed with the probability of his conjectures being well founded. The writer was present when the following little incident took place, and remembers it with distinctness. It was at Greenmount meetinghouse. Brother Martain Miller had led in preaching that day, but had made no allusion to Thurman. After meeting broke up some of the Brethren privately asked Brother Miller what he thought of Thurman's doctrines. He shut his eyes, gave a very significant but negative shake of the head, and after a brief pause said: "Do not regard them. They will in due time prove their own fallacy. You cannot convince Thurman that he is wild by any argument; but in a short while he will be convinced without argument."
On the evening of the last given date, Brother Martain Miller spoke from Matt. 7:13, at Zion church in Hardy County. From the outlines in the Diary I give the substance of what he said, as nearly as I can. The reader should know that none of the sermons herein given cover the entire ground of the discourse. They only aim at the main points. It is the purpose of the Editor to present these in spirit and word as nearly like the same in which they were originally delivered, as can possibly be done. His familiarity with the sermonic style, manner, general lines of thought, doctrinal views, education and general preaching power of nearly every minister represented in this work enables him, as he thinks, to do this with at least some approach to justice. Without such knowledge, this work would never have been undertaken by him.