Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1900-07-12

| sort OF shoulder strap adornlnB
soldier, or light, frothing dessert
brought In after the greatest part OF
the banquet of life is over. or a medi-
cine to be taken after powders and
mustard plasters have failed to do
their work, but ordinarily a mere
superfluity, string OF bells around
horses neck while he draws the load,
and in nowise helping him to draw it.
So far from that, declare the grace
of God to be the first and the last ne
cessity. 1t is food We must take or
starye into an eternity OF famine. Ii
Is clothing without which We freeze
| to the mast of infinite terror. 1t is
the plank, and the only plank. on
which We can float shoreward. 1t is
the ladder, and the only ladder, on
which we can climb up into the light.
1t is positive necessity for the soul.
You can tell very easily what the eff
feet would be II a person refused to
take salt into the body. The energies
would fail, the lungs would struggle
with the air, slow fevers would crawl
through the brain. the heart would
| futter, the life would be gone. Salt
a necessity for the life of the body;
the grace of God a necessity for the
life of the soul.
Again I remark that grace is like
salt in abundance. God has strewn
salt in vast profusion all over the con-
tinents. Russia seems built on salt
cellar. There is one region in that
country that turns out $4,000 tons a
year. England and Russia and Italy
have inexhaustible resources in this
respect. Norway and Sweden, white
with snow above. white with salt be-
meath. Austria yielding 100000 tons
annually. Nearly all the nations rich
in it-rock salt, spring salt, sea salt.
Christ. the Creator Of the world, when
he uttered our text, knew it would be-
come more and more significant as the
shafts were sunk and the springs were
bored and the pumps were worked
and the crystals were gathered. So
the grace Of God Is abundant. 1t is
for all lands, for all ages, for all con-
ditions. 1t seems to undergrad every
| thing. Pardon for the worst sin, COM
fort for the sharpest suffering, bright
est light for the thickest darkness.
Around about the salt lakes Of Saratov
there are 10000 men toiling day and
night, and yet they never exhaust the
saline treasures. And il the 800, 000,-
900 Of our race should now cry out to
God for his mercy there would be
enough for all-for those farthest
gone in sin, for the murderer standing
on the drop Of the gallows. 1t is an
ocean Of mercy; and II Europe and
Asia, Africa, North and South Amer
lea and all the islands OF the sea went
down in it today they would have
room enough to wash and come up
clean. Let no man think that his
case Is too tough a one for God to
act upon. Though your sin may be
deep and raging. let me tell you that
| Gods grace is bridge not built on
earthly piers. but suspended and span
ming the awful chasm Of your guilt,
one end resting upon the rock OF eter-
nal promises and the other on the
| foundations OF heaven. Demetrius
wore a robe so incrusted with Jewels
that no one after him ever dared to
wear 1t, but our King. Jesus, takes on
the robe OF His Righteousness, a robe
blood-dyed and heaven-impearled, and
reaches it out to the worst wretch in
all the earth and says: Put that on!
Wear it now! Wear 1t forever!"
Pure Below the Surface.
Again, the grace of God is like salt
/ in the way we come at it. The salt
on The surface is almost always i'm
pure-ttst which incrusts the Rocky
mountains tad the South American
pampas and in Ii5ia; but the miners
go down through the shafts and
through the dark labyriathe and along
by galleries of rock and with torches
and pickaxes find their way ua6er the
| very foundations OF the earth, to
where the salt lies that makes up the
nations wealth. To get to the best
saline springs of the earth huge ma
chinery goes down. boring depth be-
low depth, depth below depth, until
from under the very roots Of the
mountains, the saline water supplies
| the aqueduct. This water Is brought
to the surface and is exposed in tanks
to the sun for evaporation, or it Is
put In boilers nightly heated, and the
water evaporates, and the salt gathers
at the bottom of the tank-the work
is completed and the fortune made.
So with the grace Of God. II is to be
profoundly sought after. With all the
concentrated energies of body, mind
and soul we must dig for 1t. No man
stumbles accidentally on it. We need
to go down to the very lowest strata
| of earnestness and faith to find it.
Superficial exploration will not turn
it up. We must strive and implore
and dig until we strike the spring
foaming with living waters. Then the
| work of evaporation begins, and as
when the saline waters are exposed to
the sun. the vapors float away, leav-
| ing nothing but the pure white salt
at the bottom OF the tank. so, when
| the Christian soul Is exposed to the
Sun OF Righteousness. the vapors OF
pride and selfishness and worldliness
float of, and there is chiefly left be-
meath pure white holiness Of heart.
Then. as in the case OF the salt. the
furnace is added. Blazing troubles.
stirred by smutted stokers OF darkness,
quicken the evaporation OF worldli-
ness, and the capitalization of grace.
| The Pivotal battle.