FRIDAY, September 25.  Brother Kline passed through Jerome, Petersburg and Mansfield and got to Brother John Hoover’s.

MONDAY, September 28.  “This evening,” says he, “I am at Judge Watts’s.  Having been unavoidably delayed by having to get my horse shod, darkness overtook me five miles away from here, and nothing but a continuation of thick woods appeared in every direction.  More than this, the wolves set up a howling in a very threatening manner.  Had I been compelled to pass the night in the woods, I would have been in danger of being devoured by them.  Whilst alone in the darkness I thought, How quickly would these ravenous creatures fall upon and devour an unprotected sheep!  And how surely would the wolves from Satan’s den fall upon us and make a prey of our souls if Jesus, the Good Shepherd, did not guard and protect us through the spiritual darkness of this world!  Several verses of one of Watts’ old ’cradle hymns’ came to my mind whilst thinking over these things.  They run thus: 

  “’Once, as oppressed with sleep I lay,
    With pining hunger bold,
  A prowling enemy came by,
    And robbed my little fold. 
  But Thou, Great Shepherd, dost not sleep
    Nor slumber oft like me;
  So that no foe can steal a sheep
    Eternally from Thee.’”

TUESDAY, September 29.  “This evening I am at Brother Abraham Miller’s in Allen County, Ohio.  From Judge Watts’s to this place is only five miles.  But how different my feelings this evening from what they were last evening!  Then I was alone in the woods, in hearing of wolves in several directions, with darkness on every side; now I am here with my beloved brother and his pleasant family.  Oh, what will it be, what the ineffable joy to find ourselves, some day, in heaven, eternally safe from all danger and harm!”

Brother Kline spent the time between this and the next Sunday in traveling and visiting.

SUNDAY, October 4, he attended a love feast at which he made some very beautiful and appropriate remarks on Luke 4.  “There is,” said he, “much of human nature set forth in this chapter.  So long as Jesus spoke of the things that pleased the assembled Jews they ’all wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.’  They applied these gracious words to themselves, and flattered themselves into the belief that they were ‘God’s favorites’ on account of their inherent virtues.  But when the Lord indirectly spoke of them as starving widows in God’s sight, and filthy lepers, ’all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.’  When flowers are thrown upon the surface of a calm lake—­so the poets say—­the lake is made to smile with dimples of delight; but when heavy storms of truth are thrown in, the mud at the bottom is stirred up, and the lake boils with filth.  Brethren, let us try to ’cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord;’ and then we will not get angry when the truth is presented.”