" "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I
confess before my Father and the holy angels." "Whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved: for with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." A good many tongues are found in the mouth with which
men make "confession unto salvation." But they all speak the same
thing, and the thing which they all speak is humble obedience to the
Word of the Lord. Baptism is one tongue. Feet-washing is another
tongue. The Lord's Supper is another tongue. The Communion is another
tongue. A quiet, honest and peaceable life is another tongue, and one
that speaks very loud for Christ. Temperance in eating and drinking,
and abstemiousness in the way of rejecting the use of all unnecessary
or injurious things is another tongue of power on the Lord's side.
Come to Jesus. Confess him in these ways, and thou shall live.

SUNDAY, December 31. Meeting on Lost River. Matthew 2 is read. Stay
all night at Christian Halterman's.

It is said that the centipede has a hundred feet. It may have; and it
does seem that superstition, or the belief in supernatural things of a
trivial nature has quite as many; and, like the fabled animal of
ancient times, has also a hundred heads.

This evening I overheard a conversation among some young people where
I stayed, in which one said that every New Year's night, that is, the
night in which the New Year comes in, the cattle and sheep all get on
their knees, as if they might be in a devotional posture of body. They
talked as if they really believed that this might be so. I do not know
how this impression has come about; but I have heard this before, and
guess that some mischievous or sportive person tried to make some one
else believe that cattle and sheep kneel _only_ on New Year's night,
when the truth is that they kneel whenever they lie down to rest. I
have often thought it a pity that people are so ready to believe in
marvelous and supernatural things which can do them no good, and so
backward to believe the most marvelous truth the world has ever known;
the truth that God has provided eternal life and salvation for all who
are willing to accept it on the easy terms upon which it is offered.

In this year I have traveled, mostly on horseback, three thousand, two
hundred and sixty miles.

MONDAY, January 1, 1844. I feel sure that the work of the year cannot
be entered upon more suitab