avid Kline, at
half past three P.M.

FRIDAY, December 31. I have traveled this year 5,674 miles. I
am at home, at the home of my life in the body; but I am not at home
as to the life of my spirit.

As on the verge of life I stand,
And view the scene on either hand,
My soul would here no longer stay.
I long to wing my flight away.

Where Jesus dwells I long to be:
I long my much loved Lord to see:
Earth, twine no more about my heart:
It is far better to depart.

SATURDAY, January 15, 1859. Get Howell's "Evils of Infant Baptism." I
regard this as a very instructive work on the subject indicated by the
title.

SUNDAY, February 13. Attend the burial of Christian Kratzer. Age,
eighty-six years, three months and twelve days.

SATURDAY, February 26. Attend a meeting which was held to-day, to
elect directors for the establishment of an academy, to be known by
the name of "Cedar Grove Academy," near my place. John J. Bowman, John
Zigler and Daniel Miller are elected.

SUNDAY, March 6. Attend meeting in Sangersville, Augusta County,
Virginia. Brother Daniel Thomas replies to Soule's sermon on "the
modes and subjects of baptism." Friend Soule is a Methodist preacher
in high standing with his denomination. He argued on the ground that
"whilst the New Testament does allow immersion in water, and favor the
baptism of adults, it does not cancel the validity of the rite when
properly performed by pouring or sprinkling, either in the case of
adults or infants."

Brother Daniel Thomas, on this occasion, exalted the truth by
appealing "_to the law and the testimony_." He proved _baptism_ to be
a positive term as to its signification; that the word BAPTISM, with
its derivatives, has a specific and not a variable sense. He likewise
established the great truth that all the good of obedience consists in
doing what one is commanded to do. He showed that "to obey is better
than sacrifice, and to hearken is better than the fat of rams." Any
departure from the command vitiates the obedience, no matter how
professedly honest the steps of that departure may be. He here quoted
Peter's words: "Baptism is not the putting away of the filth of the
flesh." It does us no more good physically, said he, than would be
derived from bathing or immersing the body in water without any
religious motive connected with it. It is one's conscious obedience in
submitting to the rite, that gives "the answer of a good conscience
toward God