This brings me now to speak of forgiveness.  You have read the story, told by our Lord, of the debtor who owed the ten thousand talents, and was forgiven the debt; and how he afterward treated a fellow-debtor who owed him a hundred pence; and how the first debtor was delivered to the tormentors because he would not forgive his fellow-servant.  “So shall also my heavenly Father do unto you,”—­says our Lord—­“if ye forgive not every one his brother from your hearts.”  Brethren, you and the Lord for it.  I this day wash my hands clean of your blood as I repeat in your ears these words of love and warning:  “If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

When I was yet a boy in Pennsylvania, before we moved to Virginia, my father very strictly forbade me playing marbles on Sunday.  I obeyed his orders for some time; but one Sunday, when father was at church, a neighbor’s boy came to our house and persuaded me to play with him.  I did it reluctantly.  The play did not amuse me as usual.  But I transgressed all the same; and in the very act my father saw me on his return home.  He called me to come to him.  Expecting chastisement, I went with trembling steps.  I never had felt so unhappy in my life.  “What were you doing?” he asked.  I burst into tears.  “Are you very sorry for what you have done?” I nodded and wept assent.  “Come a little nearer to me.”  I went; and he then drew a handkerchief from his coat pocket and gently wiped away my tears, saying at the same time, “I feel sure, Johnny, that you are very sorry for what you have done, and I forgive you with a kiss.”  Ah, Brethren, if I had never known sorrow before, I had never known joy till after that kiss.  In itself it was but the contact of lips; but its power went to my heart; and I can say here solemnly that I had never loved my father before as I loved him after that.  Love is what conquers after all.  Love is the root and the offspring of happiness.  There can be no happiness without love.  Therefore, Brethren, “see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.”

After meeting I go with Brother David B. Kline in his carriage, and have night meeting in a schoolhouse near his place.  Snows all this day.

MONDAY, December 4.  Travel thirty-five miles to-day in Brother George Gipel’s wagon to his house.  Snowing and blowing all day.  Snow wonderfully drifted.  Stay all night at Brother Gipel’s.

TUESDAY, December 5.  Get into Brother Gipel’s sleigh and go to meeting at Brother Brachtbil’s.  From there come to Brother Jacob Wanger’s, near Jonestown, to night meeting.  Speak on Rev. 3:21. [This sublime discourse is withheld for want of room.] Stay all night at Brother Brachtbil’s.  Wonderful blowing of snow continues.  Roads blockaded very much.

WEDNESDAY, December 6.  Brother John Kline near Millerstown takes me in his sleigh to meeting near his house.  Speak on John 14:6.  Night meeting at his house.  Speak on Revelation 22.  Stay with him all night.  Still cold and stormy.