Sunday, December 29. Meeting in our meetinghouse. The two ministering brethren, John Huffman and Nathan Spitler, both from Page County, are with us.
Monday, December 30. Write to General Jackson and to Charles Lewis.
Tuesday, December 31. Traveled this year 3,930 miles. Preached thirty-eight funerals. Baptized about fifty converts.
Wednesday, January 1, 1862. At this time medicines were scarce and physicians in the army. As a consequence of this the demands for Brother Kline's professional services as a physician were largely increased. The Diary for this year shows an almost incredible amount of labor performed by him in this line. He was called to go twenty miles to see patients on Lost River. He also treated patients in Pendleton and Shenandoah counties, and many in Brock's Gap and in his own and adjoining neighborhoods. He had no day of rest. In connection with all this labor and responsibility, the Brotherhood looked to him for counsel and comfort on every hand. At the same time he wrote many letters, not only to distant Brethren, but to men in civil and military place and power.
Saturday, February 15. He wrote a letter to John Letcher, at the time Governor of Virginia; another to Secretary Benjamin, and one to Charles H. Lewis. His leading object in all his correspondence with these and other men in high civil and military positions was to acquaint and as far as possible familiarize the minds of these men with the true idea as to who the Brethren are, what they have ever been, and how they have come to regard arms-bearing as they do.
The correspondence we are now considering may be regarded by some as having been a small thing. Some may say: "It is a small thing to write a letter to the President of the United States, or to a member of his Cabinet, or to a member of Congress, or to the Governor of one's State." A small thing, no doubt; in itself quite as small as to write to any one else. It may be said that the greatness of all such correspondence depends upon the magnitude of the subject involved. Let us look at the subject involved here. We see some thousands of the most devoted Christian people the world has ever known standing in jeopardy; not one of all their number seems to know what to do. Their situation at this time reminds one of Israel camped on the mountain beside the valley of Elah, in hearing of the guttural defiance of the giant. At this critical hour, when something must be done, when some special but heretofore untried effort must be put forth to avert the impending destruction, a man of the Brethren, unassuming in all respects, about five feet seven inches in height, heavy-set, with a large but symmetrical face, hair down to the neck beautifully parted from the forehead across the middle of the head, voluntarily sets to work in secret through the mails to see what can be done. God only knows the full measure of Brother John Kline's service and influence in this way. It is a true saying that "to succeed is the best proof of success," and subsequent events show that Brother Kline fully realized this proof. As a humble observer of the movements of that day, and with a tolerably clear recollection of them, the Editor can only express his belief that Brother Kline's correspondence, with his other influence, contributed largely toward the enactment of the Confederate provision by which all the members of regularly organized Christian denominations or churches which have from their earliest establishment uniformly taught and practiced as one tenet of their faith non-arms-bearing and nonresistant principles, shall be perpetually exempt from all military duty to the Confederate States of America, or to any state belonging thereto, upon the payment of five hundred dollars to the person duly appointed to receive the same, for every member so exempted, and otherwise subject to military duty under existing orders.
The above is not the "Law of Exemptions" in exact words, but it is that part of it which was made for the Brethren, in exact sense.
Saturday, April 5. This forenoon I am about home. In the afternoon I am taken to Harrisonburg and put in the guard house. My place is in the large jury room of the court house, up stairs, with others who are captives with myself. Rain this evening.
Sunday, April 6. Rain and snow all last night, and continues on so all day. Have preaching in our captive hall. My subject is "Righteousness, Temperance, and a Judgment to Come." I aimed at comforting my brother captives and myself with the recollection that Paul was once a captive like ourselves, and that in this state of imprisonment he preached upon the text which I have selected for this day. I said:
Brethren, if any have cause to tremble, we have none. Those should tremble who seek to lay obstacles in the way of others who aim to do good and no evil. As a rule, prisoners are nervous and sometimes tremble when taken into court: but judges are proverbially calm and self-composed. Hence the old adage: "As sober as a judge." But this order is entirely reversed in the case of Paul before Felix. Here we see that Paul is calm, collected and self-possessed, and that Felix is first nervous, and soon trembles all over. In this trial it appears that the judge is convicted of guilt by the prisoner himself, and that the prisoner shows himself clear. But this is not the only case in which an innocent criminal has stood before a guilty judge. Felix had never heard such a sermon before. All that he had ever heard were most probably eulogistic in character, and spoken in praise of the Roman emperor and his subordinates. Felix was one of these, and it was natural for him to appropriate quite a large share of this praise to himself. But he did not find a eulogist in Paul. Panegyric had no place in Paul's earnest nature. Life and death, holiness and sin were subjects of moment too great and too real to be trifled with. If Paul would have stooped to flattery he might have quickly obtained his release, because Felix and those following him in office confessed they found no cause of death in his case. They kept him bound merely to please the flattering, deceitful Jews.