g
meeting at Addison Harper's. A few references to the life of Brother
Addison Harper may not be out of place here. The Editor was intimately
acquainted with him. Brother Harper's early life was largely passed on
the Atlantic ocean as a sailor. He settled in Rockingham County,
Virginia, in the later years of his life, and openly avowed his
disbelief of holy revelation. A few years prior to the date above
given he was honored by the people of his county with a seat in the
Virginia State legislature. When the Rebellion broke out in 1861 he
raised a company of Confederate volunteers and served as their captain
through the war. Very soon after the surrender, when worldly ambition
had succumbed to the direful state of the Southern people, his mind
seems to have sought for something more enduring than aught the world
could offer. He turned to religion with the honest purpose of seeking
to learn if _that_ might have in it such proofs of its genuineness and
reliability as would give better hopes to his soul than those which
had so sadly disappointed him in life. One day as he and I were riding
together to attend a meeting in which we both took part, I asked him
to tell me the secret of the power that had made him a minister in the
church of the Brethren. Said he, "It is all traceable to two great
facts: first, the humble, peaceful, moral and charitable lives of the
members; last, the simple and unperverted truths they teach." "Without
the first," continued he, "the last would have made no impression on
my heart; but the proofs they gave of their _honesty_ in the _first_
led me to believe there must be _truth_ in the _last_; and the more I
learn about it, the more I am convinced that I was right. Johnny Kline
repeatedly preached at my house before the war, but I paid very little
attention to what he said. I always admired his earnestness, and the
simplicity of his manner, but beyond these I paid him but little
respect outside of the civilities of common decency. But now it is
different. I would willingly part with all I have to enjoy but one
hour's conversation with him, to but tell him how I now feel toward
him in my _new life_, and how much I now appreciate what I then could
not understand."

SATURDAY, August 6. Love feast at Michael Wine's, in the Gap. Absalom
Rodecap and wife are baptized by Jacob Miller. Fine day and evening. I
officiate at love feast. Brother Martain Miller is with us, and his
feelings are very deeply mov