They then crossed the Alleghany mountains over into Randolph County, where they held a number of meetings.  The Diary reports Brother Daniel Thomas as taking the lead in preaching at nearly all the appointments.  And well was he worthy of the honor.  Few men are ever endowed with better natural abilities for public speaking than was Brother Daniel Thomas.  His voice had the rare power of making every word he uttered to be distinctly heard all over a large audience, without any apparent effort on his part.  Besides, it was musical.  The hearer went away with its expressive inflections and cadences still sounding in his ears.  But his voice was not his only forte.  He had a mind as full of sanctified wit and quick perception as an egg is full of food.  A clear thinker, a cogent reasoner, and I may add, full of love and the Holy Ghost, it is not a matter of wonder that he excelled.  What he might have achieved had he lived to an advanced age, God only knows.  His death was caused by an attack of pneumonia.  He left a comparatively young family.  In the view of the writer, who was intimately acquainted with him, the church of the Brethren has never been called to give up a brighter or better man.  He is not lost.  He has only moved away to the better land.

The following discourse was substantially preached by Brother Daniel Thomas at the dwelling house of Elijah Judy in Hardy County, Virginia, now West Virginia, on the evening of

MONDAY, May 14. The parable of the sower is his subject.  He said:  This parable, viewed in its natural or most obvious sense, is so easily understood that it would be a suitable lesson for a primary school reader.  At the same time it holds within its grasp a fund of spiritual instruction which, being received into the mind and heart, fills both with light so clear as to illuminate many an otherwise dark portion of Revealed Truth.  To my mind this parable is the link connecting the two ends of the great chain of God’s work and man’s work in both the natural and spiritual life of man.

The Holy Land, as it is called, where our Lord was born, and where he lived and died, comprised three small districts of country called Judea, Samaria and Galilee.  These districts, each about the size of some of our Virginia counties, lay along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.  Their gusts of rain, with their lightning and thunder, came from the west as ours do.  The south winds came loaded with warmth to them as ours do to us.  On the eastern border of this land was the river Jordan, a stream just about as large and swift as your South Branch of the Potomac.  Near the northeastern corner of this land lay the beautiful Sea of Galilee, about three miles in breadth, and from four to six miles in length.  It was on this sea that our Lord stilled the tempest.  It was on the surface of this sea, that he was seen walking as on a smooth pavement.