Benjamin Bowman is the son of Benjamin Bowman, who settled in Rockingham County, Virginia, about or very soon after the breaking up of the war of the Revolution.  This elder Benjamin Bowman had three sons,—­Samuel, Benjamin and John,—­all of whom married, raised highly respectable families, lived and died in the same county in which they were born.  These all became members of our Brotherhood; and Benjamin is at this time a very active and acceptable preacher of the Word, and promises to be a very agreeable companion on the journey we have now undertaken together.  He is no great talker in the way of conversation, but what he says is generally to the point.  Very considerate in forming an opinion, and exceedingly careful in reaching a conclusion, he is not likely to be wrong in anything he asserts to be true.  By means of these habits assiduously cultivated, he has built up a reputation for reliability which not only aids him in business, but stamps the seal of truth on his discourses from the ministerial stand.  He will not readily debate a matter you may present to his mind, even if his views do not coincide with yours at the time; but after due consideration he will let you hear from him with arguments not to be refuted.

We stay first night at Celestine Whitmore’s on Lost River.

THURSDAY, May 4.  After we were on the way this morning Anna changed her mind and preferred going back to Brother Whitmore’s.  So we took her back, and they will convey her home.  Travel thirty-three miles, and stay second night at Joseph Smith’s.

FRIDAY, May 5.  Go through Romney, Virginia, and at the end of thirty-five miles stay third night at McNaer’s.

SATURDAY, May 6.  Go through Frostburg, and come to Jacob Lighty’s.  We have night meeting.  I speak on Acts 17:30.  TEXT.—­“The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.”

Athens, the capital of Greece, was a large city.  It was noted as the chief seat of Grecian learning, refinement of taste, cultivation of genius, and skill in the production of almost everything belonging to the fine arts.  It had its philosophers, statesmen, orators, lawyers, priests, poets and painters.  It had its high and low orders in society.  But when Paul beheld the city his spirit was moved in him, for he saw that it was wholly given to idolatry.  Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him and said:  “He seemeth to be a setterforth of strange gods.”  They said this among themselves, because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.  But they did not seem inclined to do him injury as the Jews had done in some other places, but gave him a chance to speak in the Areopagus, a large building in the city called the Hill of Mars, or Mars’ Hill.  In this building Paul preached a wonderful sermon, the whole of which you may read in Acts seventeenth chapter.