Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1900-07-12
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
RELIGION A PREVENTATIVE OF
THE WORLDS ILLS.


NoTWdy, WueTe NC udS Ueeu ueeply
interested in the natural phenomena
and the quaint social life of that won
derful land. In his discourse this
week he argues, contrary to the opin-
ion OF many, that religion is an active
principle which works constantly for
the welfare OF body and mind and
soul. His text is Luke xiv. "a, salt
is good"
The Bible is a dictionary of the
finest SMILES. 1t employs, among nv
ing creatures, storks and eagles and
doves and unicorns and sheep and cat
tie; among trees, sycamores and tere-
binths and pomegranates and al
monds and apples; among jewels
pearls and amethysts and jacinths and
chrysoprases. Christ uses no stale
illustrations. The lilies that he plucks
for his sermons are dewy fresh the
ravens in his discourses are not stuff
ed specimens Of birds, but warm with
life from wing tip to 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 Liberals.
In my text, which Is the peroration of
one Of his sermons, he picks up a
crystal and holds 1t before his con-
gregation as an illustration OF divine
grace in the heart, when he says, what
we all know by experiment. salt Is
good"
shall try to carry out the Savior's
idea in this text and in the first place
say to you that grace is like salt IN
Its beauty. In Galicia there are mines
of salt. with excavations and under
ground passages reaching. ! am told,
ESQ miles. Far under ground there
are chapels and halls of reception. the
columns, the affairs and the pulpits or
salt. When the king and the princes
| come to visit these mines. the whole
place is Illuminated, and the glory OF
crystal walls and crystal ceilings and
under the glare of the torches and the
lamps, needs words of crystal to de-
scribe 1t. But you need not go so
| far as that to find the beauty OF salt.
You live in land which produces mil
lions of bushels of 1t in a year, and
you can take the morning rail train
and in a few hours get to the salt
mines and salt springs. And you
have this article morning, noon and
night on your table. Salt has all the
beauty OF the snowflake and water
foam with durability added. 1t is
beautiful to the naked eye, but under
the glass you see the stars and the
diamonds and the white tree branches
and the splinters and the bridges OF
fire as the sun glints them. There Is
more architectural skill In one OF these
crystals Of salt than human ingenu-
ity has ever demonstrated In an AL
hambra or st. Peters.
Gods Meroiss Innumernbie.
1t would take all time. with an IN
fringement upon eternity, for an an
gel Of God to tell one-half the glories
In salt crystal. So with the grace
OF God. 1t Is perfectly beautiful. |
have seen 1t smooth out wrinkles Of
care from the brow. | have seen 1t
make an aged man feel almost young
again. have seen 1t lift the stoop-
ing shoulders and put sparkle into the
dull eye. Solomon discovered Its
therapeutic qualities when he said, at
digest the food and to purify the
blood and to calm the pulses and quiet
the spleen, and instead of TyndaIs
prayer test Of 20 years ago, putting a
man in a philosophical hospital to be
experimental upon by prayer, 1t keeps
him so well that he does not need to
be prayed for as an invalid. l am
speaking now of healthy region-not
Of that morbid religion that sits for
three hours on a gravestone reading
Harvey's "Meditations Among the
Tomb s'-a religion that prospers best
in bad state of the liver! speak
of the religion that Christ preached. l
suppose when that religion has con-
Quered the world that disease will be
banished and that a man a hundred
ness and say: Il feel tired. I think
it must be time for me to CO." and
without one physical pang heaven will
have him.
But the chief beauty OF grace is In
the soul. 1t takes that which was
hard and cold and repulsive and
makes it all over again. 1t pours
upon ones nature what David calls
the beauty of holiness" 1t extir-
pates everything that Is hateful and
unclean. II jealousy and pride and
lust and worldliness Turk about, they
are chained and have a very small
sweep. Jesus throws upon the soul
the fragrance OF a summer garden as
of Sharon" and he submerges 1t with
the glory Of spring morning as he
says, II am the light" Oh. how much
that grace did for the three Johns!
1t took John Bunyan, the foul mouth
ed. and made John Bunyan, the i'm
mortal dreamer. 1t took John New
ton, the infidel sailor and in the midst
of the hurricane made him cry out,
my mothers God, have mercy upon
mel" 1t took John Summerfield from
life Of sin. and. by the hand of
Christian maker of edge tools, led him
into the pulpit that burns still with
the light of that Christian eloquence
which charmed thousands to the Jesus
whom he once despised All, you may
search all the earth over for anything
so beautiful or identifying as the
grace of God. Go all through the deep
mine passages of Wieliczka and amid
the underground Kingdoms of salt in
Hallstadt, and show me anything so