Elder John Kline will be set forth in this work as one of the great Pioneer preachers of the Cross.  A brief but clear outline of many of his sermons, together with the time and place of preaching them, will be given.  Many of the love feasts which he attended, and the substance of what he said at some of them will also be noted.

He has left a record of the name of every family he ever visited in all the States, together with the day and year when such visits were made.  Those brethren and sisters of the Lord who still remember him, will, while reading this work, live over again the years that have passed away and been almost forgotten.  You will again listen to the voice of his holy, healing words at some love feast long ago gone by.  You will again sit with him by the “old home hearthstone” as it used to be when father and mother were living, and all the brothers and sisters together in the room, and hear him talk and sing, and read and pray.  And will not this exercise of the mind and heart be pleasant?  Will it not be profitable?  Will it not serve to refresh your love to Christ and the Brotherhood?  May it not rekindle in your heart a flame of that first and tender love which shone so brightly when first you saw the Lord?  You then could sweetly sing: 

  “Jesus, I my cross have taken,
  All to leave and follow thee.”

Since that time many cares and toils and afflictions and bereavements, perhaps, have caused you to sigh in mournful memory: 

  “What peaceful hours I then enjoyed!”

and the heart-sobs sadly echo: 

  “But they have left an aching void
  The world can never fill.”

In such seasons of sadness and despondency it is helpful to the heart to hold communion with the great and the good through the medium of their writings.  Men who leave such comforting testimony behind them are a blessing to all within the circle of their influence while living, and when dead they continue to speak.  Their words are felt and blessed on both banks of the “River of Time” as it flows down through the ages.

There were a few points in the life and character of Elder John Kline which may very appropriately be referred to here.  I sincerely hope that all the youthful members of the Brotherhood, especially, may become acquainted with these points.

The first point.—­He was truthful. He never spoke positively about anything without first examining the matter carefully; and even then he said about it only what he knew to be true.  How different this habit from that of many who speak positively about things which they do not well understand, or which they are for the most part ignorant of!

The second point.—­He never spoke evil of any one. It is not to be understood from this that he spoke good of every one.  On the contrary, he spoke freely of the sinner and to the sinner; warning him of his danger and pointing him to his impenitent doom.  But it is to be understood that he never spoke evil to injure any one.  Whatever he said in that way was to reform and to bless.  His heart overflowed with love to all.