DAY, February 11. Perform the marriage ceremony of Jackson See and
Bettie Whitmore.

THURSDAY, February 20. Perform the marriage ceremony of Solomon Hulvey
and Catharine Ritchie.

MONDAY, February 24. A fearful storm unroofs part of my barn to-day.

SATURDAY, March 8. Council meeting at Beaver Creek meetinghouse. The
church has under consideration the matter of preparing for Annual
Meeting to be held at the Brick meetinghouse, near Christian Kline's,
on Middle river in Augusta County, Virginia, to begin Saturday, June
7, 1851.

SUNDAY, March 9. Meeting at the Beaver Creek meetinghouse. First Peter
1 is read. Afternoon meeting in Bridgewater, in the Lutheran church.
Speak on John 3:29. TEXT.--"He that hath the bride is the bridegroom:
but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him,
rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy
therefore is fulfilled."

This is a wonderful testimony, borne by John the Baptist. It at once
shows the love which that wonderfully great and good man had for the
Lord, and at the same time his own deep humility of heart in his
presence. And the Lord's testimony concerning John given in these
words, "He was a burning and a shining light," is equally wonderful,
and carries with it the great love he had for John.

John had many friends. All held him to be a prophet of extraordinary
character; and if his popularity had tended to corrupt the honest
simplicity of his heart he would not have borne this testimony to
Jesus. But he goes still further in his disavowal of all claim to
preferment by confessing and not denying that he is not the Christ. He
says: "He must increase, but I must decrease." Jesus was the sun
rising in his splendor; John the moon paling in his light.

The church is the bride. The Lord is the bridegroom. "He that hath the
bride is the bridegroom." There is a doctrine of deep interest
involved in John's testimony. It concerns every one of us to know it.
It is the relation subsisting between the Lord and the church. This
relation is represented as that existing between husband and wife, the
very nearest that can subsist between two human beings--the
unification of one with the other to the extent that they are no more
twain, but one flesh. Reference to this relation of the church to the
Lord is to be found in the Scriptures at several places. Isaiah
prophesying the glory of the true Christian church exclaims: "For as
the bridegroom rejoicet