Connecticut western news., 1900-07-12

IaII, the lungs would struggle with the air, slow levers would crawl through the brain, the heart would futter, and the life would be gone. Salt, a neces- sity for the life of the body; the grace of God, a necessity for the life of the soul!
 Again, remark that grace Is like salt in abundance. God has strewn salt In vast profusion all over the continents. Russia seems built on a saltcellar. There Is one region of that country that turns out 9O,0O0 tons in year. England and Russia and Italy have in- exhaustible resources in this respect Norway and Sweden, white with snow above, white with salt beneath. Aus tria, 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 1t would become more and more significant as the shafts were sunk, and the springs were bored. and the pumps were worked, and the crys- tals were gathered. So the grace of God Is abundant. It Is for all lands, for all ages. for all conditions. It seems to undergirl everything-pardon for the worst sin, comfort for the sharpest suffering. brightest light for the thick est darkness. Around about the salt lakes of Saratov there are 10000 men toiling day and night, and yet they Isnever exhaust the saline treasures And if the 1,600,0O0.0O0 of our race should now cry out to God for his mer- | cy there would be enough for all-for | those furthest gone In sin, for the mur derer standing on the drop of the gal | lows. 1t Is an ocean of mercy, and If | Europe and Asia. Africa. North and | South America and all the islands of | the sea went down In 1t today 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 your sin may be deep and raging. let me tell you that l Gods grace Is a 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 foun- | dations 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 off the robe of his righteousness. robe blood dyed and heaven impearled, and reaches 1t out to the worst wretch in all the earth and says: Put that on! Wear 1t now! | Wear 1t foreverr The Grace of God.
 | Again, the grace of God Is like salt ! in the way we come at It. The salt on the surface Is almost always impure | that which Incrusts the Rocky noun tains and the South American pampas and in India-but the miners go down through the shafts and through the | dark labyrinths and along by galleries | of rock and, with torches and pickaxes, r find their way under the very founda- | tions of the earth to where the salt lies l that makes up the nations wealth. To | get to the best saline springs of the earth huge machinery goes down. bor- ing depth below depth. depth below | depth, until from under the very roots | of the mountains the saline water sup | plies the aqueduct. This water is brought to the surface and Is exposed in tanks to the sun for evaporation. or I 1t Is put in boilers nightly heated, and the water eyaporates, and the salt | gathers at the bottom of the tank. The work is completed, and the fortune is made. So with the grace of God. It Is to be profoundly sought after. With all the concentered energies of body. mind and soul we must dig for 1t. No man stumbles accidentally on 1t. We need to go down to the very lowest strata of earnestness and faith to find 1t. Superficial exploration will not turn 1t 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, leaving nothing but the pure white salt at the bottom of the tank, so, when the Christians soul Is exposed to the Sun of Righteous. | ness, the vapors of pride and selfish ness and worldliness float off and there
 Is chiefly left beneath pure white holi- | ness 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
 worldliness and the specialization oi
 grace.
 Powerful Preservative.
 Have you not been In enough trouble
 to have that work go on? 1 was read
 Ing of Aristotle, who said there was 6
 field of flowers In Sicily so sweet that
 once hound, coming on the track oi
 game, came to that field and was be
 wildered by the perfumes and so lost
 the track. Oh, that our souls might
 become like "a field which the Lord
 hath blessed' and exhale so much ot
 the sweetness of Christian character
 that the hounds of temptation, coming
 on our track, might lose 1t and go howl
 ing back with disappointment!
 But remark again that the grace o1
 God Is like the salt in It's preservative
 quality. You know that salt absorbs
 the moisture of articles of food anG
 lnfuses them with brine, which pre-
 serves them for long while. Salt is
 the great antiputrefactor of the world
 Experimenters, in preserving wood
 have tried sugar and smoke and air
 tight jars and everything else. but al
 long as the world stands Christ's word.
 will be suggestive, and men will admit
 that as a great preservatiye 'salt Ii
 good" But for the grace of God tht
 earth would have become a stale car
 cass long before this. That grace 1!
 the only preservative of laws and con
 stitutions and literatures. Just as sooI
 as a government loses this salt of al
 vine grace it perishes. The philosoph,
 of this day, so far as 1t Is antagonist,
 to this religion, putrefles and stinks
 The great want of our schools of learn
 ing and our institutions of science to