FRIDAY, February 1.  Write to John T. Harris, our representative in Congress.  Beseech him to do all he can to avert the calamity that now threatens us, by pouring oil upon the troubled waters until the tempest of passion abates.  I esteem him as an incorruptible patriot at heart.  May the Lord guide him and all the other lawmakers of our land.

SATURDAY, February 9.  Martha Kline, wife of John B. Kline, dies very suddenly to-day.

SUNDAY, February 10.  Funeral of our dear sister, Martha Kline, at our meetinghouse.  TEXT.—­“I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith.”  Age, twenty-eight years and eight days.

FRIDAY, April 5.  Council meeting at our meetinghouse, William Summers and wife, Harvey Fifer and wife, Sophia Fifer, Sally Wampler and Sally Helbert are to-day baptized by Jacob Miller.  A terribly malignant type of diphtheria has recently made its appearance in the Shenandoah Valley and is now invading our immediate neighborhood.  Four of Andrew Crist’s children are now dangerously ill with the disease.  Some in other families have died; and others are sick.  The outlook, both as to health and peace, is very disheartening.  But we are admonished in the Divine Word not to fear.  The people of God have a better portion than this world can give—­“an enduring substance, which death can never reach.”

SUNDAY, April 7.  Attend the funeral of Christian Shoemaker in the Gap.  His age was about eighty years.

SUNDAY, April 21.  Meeting at our meetinghouse.  Great excitement on account of secession and war movements.  The volunteers are being called out to enter the field of war, and God only knows what the end will be.  There is great commotion everywhere in the realm of thought and sentiment, men’s hearts failing them for fear, the sea and the waves of human passion roaring.

THURSDAY, May 2.  Council meeting at our meetinghouse.  I this day baptize Isaac Kline, Lucretia Spitzer, Joseph Wampler and wife, Rebecca Driver, Anna Kline and John McKee’s wife.

FRIDAY, May 3.  Go to Nimrod Judy’s on the South Fork, where I stay all night.

SATURDAY, May 4.  Snow this morning.  Have meeting at Jess Mitchell’s.  Second Corinthians 4 is read.  Stay all night at John Davis’s.

SUNDAY, May 5.  Meeting at Jacob Collers’s on the Shenandoah mountain.  Luke 10 is read.

SUNDAY, May 12.  Perform the marriage ceremony of James Fitzwater and Catharine Showalter, at the house of her father, Brother Anthony Showalter.  I then attend meeting at the Brush meetinghouse, and after meeting witness the baptism by Brother Jacob Spitzer of Mrs. Beahm, Mrs. Henry Frank, Mrs. Hottinger, and two of Michael Showalter’s daughters.

FRIDAY, May 17.  At home calmly enjoying the company of Dr. Jacob Driver, of Allen County, Ohio.