Let our offerings this day be from the heart; and probably the best proof we can have that they come from the heart is a willingness and cheerful readiness to give of our substance to the needy poor.  We must divide out, Brethren, to those who have, on account of the war pressure, been unable to provide for themselves.  Think of the barefooted, half-clad and half-fed children in our land!  I do not undervalue what you have already done.  I know you have done much; but we should not feel that the burden of duty has all rolled from our shoulders so long as there is one needy brother or sister or child in our land.  Brethren, I speak from my heart when I say that the church has never before enjoyed such an opportunity to grow rich, as the present offers.  I mean rich in good works; rich in treasures laid up in heaven; rich in her title to an eternal inheritance in heaven, which our Lord calls “the true riches.”

SATURDAY, January 17.  Buy of Samuel Shacklett (a merchant in Harrisonburg) one bolt of cotton cloth or muslin for Mary Hoover, for which I pay seventeen dollars; and four bunches cotton yarn for which I pay thirty dollars.  This shows the measure of confidence reposed in the Confederate Government.

WEDNESDAY, February 4.  Visit General Jones’s camp at New Market in behalf of some of the soldiers.

FRIDAY, February 13.  Attend the burial of our dear sister, Mary Frances, wife of my nephew, John Kline.  We did all we could for her; but that dreadful destroyer, diphtheria, would have its way, and in much anguish of heart we submit.  She was a lovely and tender plant; too tender for this world.  Her age was twenty years, ten months and eight days.

SUNDAY, February 22.  Meeting at our meetinghouse.  Matthew 22 is read.  Brother Benjamin Funk speaks.  He and Brother Benjamin Driver were with me last night.  Snow fell last night and to-day about ten inches deep.

SUNDAY, March 8.  Jacob Silvins’s little son Jacob is buried to-day.  This is the third one of his children I have helped to bury within the last two weeks.

TUESDAY, March 17.  I am at Nimrod Judy’s.  I this day had a chance to send a letter through the lines to Brother George Hoover, of Indiana.

SUNDAY, March 29.  Preach funeral for three of Brother See’s children.  Youngest, two years, five months and five days old; next, six years, ten months and five days; oldest, nine years, five months and sixteen days.  They died of diphtheria.

THURSDAY, April 2.  Attend the Beaver Creek council meeting.  Joseph Miller is elected to the ministry of the Word, and Daniel Miller to the deaconship.

FRIDAY, April 3.  Council meeting at the old meetinghouse.  Joseph Bowman and Joseph Harshberger are elected to the deaconship.

SATURDAY, April 4.  Council meeting at the Mill Creek meetinghouse.  Isaac Long is ordained, and Noah Flory is elected to the deaconship.  Stay all night at old Daniel Wine’s.