The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-08-16
RELIGION OF CHRIST.
Dr.. Talmage Says It Is a Preven-
tive of This Worlds Ills.
An Active Principle Which Constant.
ly Works for the Welfare of
Body, Mind and SOul-A
Mighty Antiseptic.

~ works 1Of tine "eA1ake Oh
Body, Mind and soul-A
Mighty Antiseptic. |
copyright, 1900. by Louis Klopsch.]
Washington,
DR.. Talmage is now travelling in Nor
way, where he has been deeply inter-
ested in the natural phenomena and
the quaint social life of that wonder
full land. In his discourse this week
he argues, contray to the opinion OF
many, that religion is an active princi-
pie which works constantly for the
welfare of body, mind and soul. His
text is Luke 14:34: ''Salt is good"
The Bible is dictionary of the finest
SMILES. 1t employs, among living crea-
lures, storks and eagles and doves and
unicorns and sheep and cattle; among
trees, sycamore and terebinths and
pomegranates and almonds and ap-
pies; among jewels, pearls and anne
thysts and jacinths and chrysoprases.
Christ uses no stale illustrations. The
lilies that He plucks for His sermons are
| dewy fresh; the ravens in His dis
| courses are not stuffed specimens OF
birds, but warm with life from wing
tipto wing tip; the fish He points to are
not dull about the gills, as though long
captured, but a-squirm in the wet net
just brought up on the beach of Tiberi-
as. In my text, which is the perora-
ton of one of His rermons, He picks up
acrystal and holds it before His congre-
cation as an illustration of divine
grace in the heart, when He says.what
we all know by experiment: "Salt is
good"
| 1 shall try to carry out the Saviour's
idea in this text and in the first place
say to you that grace is like salt in it's
beauty. In Galicia there are mines OF
salt, with excavations and under
ground passages reaching, am told,
$50 miles. Far under ground there are
chapels and halls of reception, the col
umns, the affairs and the pulpits of salt.
When the king and the princes come
to visit these mines, the whole place is
illuminated, and the gl,ry of crystal
walls and crystal ceilings and crystal
: floors and crystal columns, under the
glare of the torches and the lamps,
needs words of crystal to describe it.
But you need not go so far as that to
find the beauty of it. You live in q
land which produces millions of bush.
els of it in year, and you can take the
morning rail train and in few hours
get to the salt mines and-salt springs
And you have this article morning
noon and night on your table. Salt has
l all the beauty of the snowflake and wa.
:. ter foam with durability added. 1t il
beautiful to the naked eye, but under
; the glass you see the stars and dla
monds and the white tree branches an0
: the splinters and the bridges of fire a:
i the sun glints them. There is more
t architectural skill in one of these crys
q tails of salt than human ingenuity ha!
Q ever demonstrated in an Alhambra OF
St. Peters.
e Tt would take all time, with an in
;. fringement upon eternity, for an an
s gel of God to tell one-half the glories il
e a salt crystal. So with the grace o
k God. 1t is perfectly beautiful. I hav'
l. seen it smooth out wrinkles of care from
,- the brow. have seen it make an age'
! |
q seen it lift the STOPPING shoulders AM
e put sparkle into the dull eye. Solomon
# discovered it's therapeuticqu qualitieswhel
Y he said: "It is marrow to the bones.
e 1t helps to digestthe food and to purif
is the blood and to calm the pulses an
quiet the spleen, and instead of Tyn
4. dal's prayer test of 20 years ago, put
If ting man in philosophical hospita
IS to be experimental upon by prayer,
IN keeps him so well that he does not nee
le to be prayed for as an invalid. al
e speaking now of healthy religion
n not of that morbid religion that sit
>. for three hours on a gravestone reae
ing Harvey's "Meditations Among th
re Tombs"-a religion that prospers bes
Ia in a bad state of the liver! Ispeak {
r. the religion that Christ preached.
n suppose when that religion has col
- quered the world that disease will
: banished and that man hundre
90 years of age will come in from bushes
80 and say: II feel tired. think it mus
~ be time for me to CO." and without OF
physical pang Heaven will have him.
a, But the chief beauty of grace is
III the soul. II takes that which WI
!. hard and cold and repulsive ar
makes it all over again. 1t pou
upon ones nature what David cal
1.-THE beauty of holiness 1t exit
er pates everything that is hateful al
o. unclean. If jealousy and pride al
~ lust and worldliness lurk about, th'
y are chained and have a very sms
N. sweep. Jesus throws upon the SO
is the fragrance of summer garden
ay He comes in, saying. Il am the rose
= Sharon" and He submerges 1t WI
the glory of spring morning %
says: Il am the light" Oh, he
ID much that grace did for the thr
on Johns! 1t took John Bunyan, I
foul mouthed, and made him Jo
"a. Bunyan, the immortal dreamer. !
took John Newton, the .nfidel sail
and in the midst Of the hurrica
made him cry out: my mothe