mpler and Anna Driver at Mother Wampler's; also the marriage
ceremony of Eli Summers and Sophia Frank.

SUNDAY, December 24. Get word of the death of Uncle Frederic Kline. Go
up to his place.

MONDAY, December 25. Uncle Frederic is buried to-day. Age,
seventy-five years, ten months and fourteen days. Stay all night at
Christian Garber's.

THURSDAY, December 28. Perform the marriage ceremony of Michael B.E.
Kline and Elizabeth Rhodes.

SUNDAY, December 31. At home. I have traveled in the year that is just
at its close 4,411 miles. The year appears very short. When I review
its labors and toils I am forced to reflect upon the imperfection of
my work. I have never delivered a discourse that was satisfactory to
me throughout. I hardly ever fail to see some lack of thought right
where I wanted to make the truth clear and impressive. Often and often
the reflections of my mind, as it were, hear a voice within saying:
"Why did you not put it this way? Why did you not think of that very
appropriate passage of Scripture, which would have fit the place so
nicely, and have been so expressive?" I do not suppose that any one
will see this little book while I live. After I am gone it may he
consigned to some dark closet, with the rest of its kind, as useless
rubbish. But should it ever fall into the hands of any minister of the
Word who may be afflicted in his work with thoughts akin to those I
have expressed in this review of the year, I beg him to be encouraged
rather than discouraged by them. I believe they are messages from the
Lord, who constantly seeks our highest good and greatest usefulness.
Satan, if he could, would induce us to believe that we are all right,
just what we should be; and in this way inflate us with a profound
sense of our own importance, and in this pride of heart make us esteem
ourselves greatly superior to all others. How this feeling differs
from that inculcated by Paul: "Let each esteem another better than
himself"! How different, too, from the words of the meek and lowly
Jesus: "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted"! These reviews and
criticisms of our works and ways tend to make us more thoughtful and
circumspect in the future. We seek to have our lacks supplied, our
wants relieved, and are induced thereby to apply our minds to the
study of the Word with more vigor, looking at the same time to the
Lord for the enlightening guidance of his Holy Spirit. It now lacks
just ten minutes of midnight.