The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-07-14

the grace of God to be the first an
the last necessity. II is food we mus
take or starve into an eternity {
famine. 1t is clothing without whic
we freeze to the Nast of infinite tel
ror. 1t is the plank, and the onl
plank, on which we can float shore
ward. 1t is the ladder, and the onl
ladder, on which we can climb up int
the light. 1t is a positive necessit
for the soul. You can tell very easil
what the effect would be II persol
refused to take salt into the body
The energies would fail, the lung
would struggle with the air, SLOW
fevers would crawl through the brain
the heart would futter, and the lif
would be gone. Salt a necessity To-
the life of the body; the grace of Goo
a necessity for the life of the soul.
Again / remark that grace is lik,
| salt in abundance. God has strewI
salt in vast profusion all over the con
tinents. Russia seems built on a salt
cellar. There is one region of that
country that turns out 10000 tons in
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
become 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 condi-
tons. 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 if the 1000, O00,-
600 of our race should now cry out to
God for His mercy there would be
enough for all-for those farthest gone
the drop of the gallows. 1t is an ocean
of mercy; and if Europe and Asia. Afri-
ca. North and South America and all
the islands of the sea went down in it
to-day they would have room enough
to wash and come up clean. Let no
man think that his case is too tough
| one for God to act upon. Though
'our sin may be deep and raging. let
ne tell you that Gods grace is bridge |
lot built on earthly piers, but sus-
pended and spanning the awful chasm |
# your guilt, one end resting upon the
'ock of eternal promises and the other
N the foundations of Heaven. Demet-
ius wore robe so incrusted with
ewels that no one after him ever dared
o wear it, but our King, Jesus. takes
If the robe of His Righteousness. robe
Hood dyed and Heaven impaired. and
II the earth and says: Put that on!
Year it now! Wear it forever"
Again, the grace of God is like salt
n the way we come at it. The salt
n the surface is almost always impure
that which incrusts the Rocky noun
aims and the South American pampas
nd in India; but the miners go down
trough the shafts and through the
ark labyrinths and along by galleries
rock and, with torches and pickaxes.
nd their way under the very founda-
ons of the EARTH to where the salt
es that makes up the nations wealth.
O get to the best saline springs of
lie earth huge machinery goes down,
oring depth below depth. depth below I
epth, until from under the very {
BOTS of the mountains the saline wa ,
r. supplies the aqueduct. This wa
r is brought to the surface and is ]
,posed in tanks to the sun for evap- ,
alton, or it is put in boilers nightly !
eated. and the water evaporates, and S
lie salt gathers at the bottom of the q
nk-the work is completed. and the {
rtune is made. So with the grace of S
I'd. 1t is to be profoundly sought S
ter. With all the concentered ener- f
es of body mind and soul we must Ii
g for it. No man stumbles accident O
ly on it. We need to go down to the
ry lowest strata of earnestness and
it'll TO find it. Superficial explora ton
II not turn it up. We must strive and =
plore and dig until we strike the y
ring foaming with living waters.
len the work of evaporation begins.
d as when the saline waters are ex- ,
sed to the sun, the vapors float away. !:
wing nothing but the pure white ),
1t at the bottom of the tank, so. when
e Christian soul is exposed to the :"
n of Righteousness, the vapors of y
ide and selfishness and worldliness VI
at off, and there is chiefly left be- II u
ath pure white holiness of heart. ~
en-, as in the case of the salt, the -,
mace is added. Blazing troubles. l
rred by smutted stokers of dark "A
SIS. quicken the evaporation of world st
ess, and the capitalization of grace. NJ
Have you not been in enough trouble ~
have that work 60 on? was read -
, of Aristotle, who said there was a =,
ID of flowers in Sicily so sweet that n
&c a hound, coming on the track of a.,
ne, came to that field and was be- u:
dered by the perfumes and so lost -
. track. Oh, that our souls might be- y,
ne like "a field which the Lord hath ="
ssed" and exhale so much of the
eetness of Christian character that
hounds of temptation, coming on tn
: track, might lose it and go bowling tel
TX with disappointment! rl'
'ut, L remark again, that the grace of tr'
is like the salt in its preservative tel
llity. You know that salt absorbs M
moisture of articles of food and in FL
es them with brine, which preserves ;"
m for a long while. Salt is the IN
at antiputrefactor of the world. Al
perimenters, in preserving food, VI
'e tried sugar and smoke and air It's