Thus closes one of the most remarkable missionary tours on record.  One would feel sad to think that no memorial should be reared in commemoration of it.  But the heart finds relief in the thought that this book will perpetuate the memory of it to future generations, as a tale that will never grow old.

Brother Kline spent the remainder of the year about home; in visiting the sick; in attending to his domestic interests; and in preaching at the different appointments in the district.  The Brethren at this time had but few houses of worship.  They consequently held meetings in the dwelling houses of Brethren; some of which had been constructed with an eye to that end.

BROTHER KLINE’S OPINIONS RELATIVE TO THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE.

The Diary shows that in the course of this year, Brother Kline entered a new field of useful activity.  In his desire to do good; in his heart of general beneficence, we are reminded of the philanthropy of Howard and Wilberforce.  They, it is true, wrought in a wider sphere, and operated on a grander scale; but it may be seriously questioned whether they had any more of the love of God in their hearts, or any deeper sympathy for suffering humanity in their souls, than was to be found in our truly devoted pattern of genuine benevolence, Elder John Kline.  This new field was that of administering medical relief to the afflicted.

FRIDAY, January 1, 1836.  He says:  “I have long had doubts in regard to the curative efficacy and health-restoring virtue of the regularly established course of medical practice of the present day.  Active depletion of the body, by copious blood-letting, blistering, drastic cathartics and starving, is, to my mind, not the best way to eradicate disease and restore the diseased human body to its normal state.  I am well aware that every age has had its own way of treating diseases, and every age has thought its own way the best; but fashion and custom have, no doubt, had quite a controling power in this as in other things; and ‘the fashion of the world passeth away,’ because there is little or nothing of substantial good in it.”

SAMUEL THOMPSON.

“Dr. Samuel Thompson, of Vermont, is introducing a new system of medical practice which I believe to be more in accordance with the laws of life and health than any I know of.  His maxim, applied to disease, is:  ‘REMOVE THE CAUSE, AND THE EFFECT WILL CEASE.’

“Every diseased condition of the body is the effect of some cause.  This cause being removed, the disease, either simple or complex, must yield to the restorative forces of nature.  But to diminish the activity of these forces, by copious depletion of the body, to be followed by a regimen so severe as to withhold, almost absolutely, the nourishment and support nature demands, is, in my view, to say the least, irrational.”