I wish many more could have heard the brother's edifying discourse.
After the forenoon meeting was dismissed, brethren Henry Kurtz, Shively, Christian Kline and myself start homeward, and come to Brother Daniel Kinsey's, where we stay all night.
MONDAY, May 12. We all get to Siler's tavern, where we stay all night.
TUESDAY, May 13. We pass through Lexington, Fairfield, Greenville, and on to Jacob Forrer's, where we all stay over night. We have fine weather.
WEDNESDAY, May 14. We all come to Brother Abraham Garber's, and after dinner go to meeting at the meetinghouse. Hebrews 12 is read. Stay all night at Brother John Myers's.
THURSDAY, May 15. All go to Brother Frederic Kline's, near Dayton, Virginia, for dinner. Call at Brother Daniel Garber's, and in evening get back to my house.
FRIDAY, May 16. In afternoon we have meeting in Brother Samuel Kline's dwelling house. Brother Shively speaks from John 4:14, 15. Text: "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw."
I here give, as nearly as I can, a brief outline of Brother Shively's interesting discourse. He spoke of water: its purity, its beauty, its utility, its abundance.
"Water," said he, "when it is free from all extraneous substances, is the purest thing in the world. The curse that fell upon the ground, whereby it would no longer yield its spontaneous increase to support and comfort man, doomed it to bring forth thorns and thistles instead. 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread.' 'Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.' These fearful words are still true of the ground to-day. Wherever man inhabits the earth, labor, sweat and constant attention are the price which has to be paid for comfortable subsistence in this world. But water is not included in all this. It really is not a constituent of the ground. It may be in the ground, but it is not of it; and its tendency is to leave the ground as quickly as possible, under favoring conditions, as though it felt that ground is not its place. The ground gives rise to poisonous vapors which produce disease; but pure water never does. The only impurities that ever enter water come from the ground as their original source.