TUESDAY, October 19.  He started homeward, but stopped at Brother Michael Grabil’s and attended a meeting in Roanoke meetinghouse.  Assisted by brethren Kinsey and Brubaker, he ordained Brother Christian Wirt to the full work of the gospel ministry.

FRIDAY, October 29.  He arrived home safe, after an absence of something over four weeks.  The whole distance, going and returning, was about 600 miles.  This he traveled on Nell’s back.  Good, patient, faithful Nell!

From this time on to the close of the year, Brother Kline was mainly engaged in the practice of medicine, together with his ministerial labors.  On far into the next year the same may be said of his work.  Ever active, no such thing as idleness ever had a place in his life.  Looking through his Diary, observing the unintermitting activity of his life “every day and Sunday too,” I am struck with wonder that he did not get tired.

SUNDAY, March 13, 1853.  Meeting at the Elk meetinghouse, in Page County, Virginia.  Acts 9 was read.  My topic was Saul’s conversion.  There are three points in the conversion of Saul which I noted particularly in my discourse to-day.  They are as follows: 

I. Saul’s conversion was unexpected.  II.  It was miraculous.  III.  It was thorough.

No event could have been less expected than the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.  Lightning from the clear blue sky, or the breaking forth of the sun at midnight, could not have struck both Jews and Christians with deeper amazement than did the report of the change of Saul from persecutor to protector of God’s people.  But this is sometimes God’s way.  Often does he send us blessings and do wonders when we least expect them.  Day breaks at the darkest hour.  In the midst of parching dryness the refreshing shower comes.  The hardest pain is just before the birth.  A sleepless night ends in a joyful morning.  In this way he shows us that the “excellency of the power is not of men, but of God.”

In our religious experiences we sometimes feel prayer a burden; reading and meditation a task.  We loathe ourselves and wonder how Jesus can love us.  Out of such frames of feeling the Lord sometimes suddenly lifts us, by causing light to break in upon our souls, revealing some new truth, some fresh affection, in which we rejoice.  In addition to these instances of unexpected blessings, we sometimes see men gathered into the fold, for whose conversion we had lost all hope.

We need not wonder that Saul’s conversion was wholly unexpected.  He had shown such hostility to Jesus of Nazareth that no ground for hope of any change in him was anywhere visible.  His conviction was therefore, in the eyes of Christians, a miracle.  But it was so only in appearance.  The light, above the brightness of the sun, that shone upon him, was but the same light that shone from the face of the Lord and glistened from his raiment on the holy mount when he was transfigured.  John had a somewhat