Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1900-07-13
REV. DR.. TALMACE,
TIVE EMINENT DIvINE's SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.
Subject. Gods savinG Grace-Reiigion Is
an Active Principle Which WORKS
Constantly For the Welfare OF BODY
and Mind and Soul-Hope For Sinners
TCopyright 1900.

|
.nd Mind and Soul-Hope For Sinners
copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, d. CDR. Talmage is
now travelling in Norway. where ne mas
been deeply interested IN the natural phe.
nomena and the quaint social me u 'i%.
wonderful land. In this sermon nc ar
ques. contrary to the opinion OF many
that religion is an active principle when
works constantly for the welfare OF Dody
and mind and soul. His text is Luxe NV
"a salt is good. ~ f,as+
The Bible is dictionary OF the hhese
SMILES. 1t employs among, living great
ures storks and eagles and doves ana uni
corns and sheep and cattle; among trees,
sycamores and tereblntns ana pomegrah'
ates and almonds and apples; among jew
els. pearls and amethysts and jacinths
and chrysoprases. Christ uses no stale
illustrations The lilies that He plucks IN
His discourse are dewy fresh; the ravens
in His discourses arc not stuffed specimens
OF birds, but warm with life from wing up
to wing tip; the fish He points to are not
dull about the gills, as though long cap
tured but a-squirm III the wei net Jua'
brought up on the beach OF liberals. LII
INV text, which is the peroration OF one o,
His sermons He picks up crystal ana
holds it before His congregation as an Illus
+ration of divine grace In the heart when
He saws what we all know by experiment,
salt is good"
| shall try to carry out the Saviour
Idea in this text and in the trst place say
- YOU that grace is like salt IN lts beauty
"a Galhcia there are mines OF salt Win eH'
cavations and underground passages reach,
ing. [ am told, $50 miles. Far underground
there are chapels and halls OF reception;
the columns. the affairs and the puiplts o,
bo L
to visit these mines, the whole place IS
eliminated. and the glory of crystal walls
and crystal ceilings and crystal floors ano
crystal columns. under the glare OF the
torches and the lamps, needs words OF crys'
tai to describe it. But you need not go sc
lar as that to find the beauty OF salt 10Y
live in land which produces millions OF
hnshels of e in a wear. and you can take
The morning rail train and IN lew hours
ret to the salt mines and salt springs and
Won have this article morning, noon ana
night on your table. Salt has all the
heautv of the snowflake and water foam
with durability added. 1t is beautiful &c
the naked eye, but under the glass you sec
the stars, and the diamonds, and the white
tree branches, and the splinters, and the
bridges of fire as the sun gllnts them;
There is more architectural skill III one OIL
these CRYSTALS of salt than human lnge-
nuitv has ever demonstrated IN an Alham-
bra or st. Peters.
1t would take all time, with an infringe,
ment upon eternity, for an angel OF 900
to tell one-half the glorles IN a salt crystal.
So with the grace of God; 1t IS periec!ly
beautiful. have seen it smooth out win
kles of care from the brow; have seen IL
make an aged man feel almost young
moain: | have seen it lift the STOPPING
Shoulders and put sparkle into the dull eye.
9olomon discovered its therapeutic quail
lies when he said. at is marrow to the
bones" 1t helps to digest the food and
10 purify the blood and to calm the pulses
and quiet the spleen, and instead OF Iyn-
dalls prayer test OF twenty years ago, PIv
ting man in philosophical hospital to be
experimented upon by prayer, 1t keeps nm
so well that he does not need to be prayed
for as an invalid. ] am speaking now OF
healthy relgion-not of that morbid rellg'
ION that sits for three hours on grave
stone reading Hervey's "Meditations
Among the Tombs''-a religion that pros,
pers best in bad state of the liver; l
speak of the religion that Christ preached.
] suppose, when that relglon mas con
ouered the world, that disease Will be ban,
ished. and that a man 100 years OF age VIII
come in from business and say. L am
tired: | think it must be time for me to
20" 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 ano
cold and repusive and makes it all over
again 1t pours upon ones nature VIVA,
David calls "the beauty of holiness" II
cxtirpates everything that Is hateful ano
unclean. If jealousy and pride . ana i us1
and worldliness Turk about, they arc
chained and have very small sweep
Jesus throws upon the soul the fragrance
of a summer garden as He comes IN say
ing. II am the Rose Of Sharon" and Ht
submerges it with the glory of a spring
morning. as He says, Il am the light"
Oh. how much that grace did for The
three Johns 1t took John Bunyan, the
foul mouthed, and made him John Bun
van, the immortal dreamer; 1T took JONI
Newton. the inhde sailor, and In the mlds
of the hurricane made him cry out. MY
mothers God have mercy upon me- i
took John Summerfield from a life OF slr
and by the hand of Christian maker o
e6ge tools led him into the pulpit tha
burns still with the light of that Christian
cloouence which charmed thousands to TIT
Jesus whom He once despised. All, yo'
may search all the earth over Tor anything
so beautiful or beautifying as the grace
God! Go all through the deep mine pas
sages of Wieliczka and amid the under
ground kingdoms of salt In Hallstadt ant
show me anything so transcendently beau
tful as this grace OF God fashioned an'
hung in eternal crystals.
Again, grace is like salt in the fact tina
it is necessity of life. Man and beas
perish without salt What are those path
across the western prairie? Why, the!
were made there by deer and buffalo goin!
TO and coming away from the salt Hicks.
Chemists and physicians all the world owe
tell lis that salt is a necessity OF lie. Ant
SO with the grace of God; you must have ]
or die. | know a great many speak OF !
as a mere adornment, sort of shoulde
strap adjoining a soldier, or light, troth
ing dessert brought In after the creates
part of the banquet of life is over, or
medicine to be taken after powders am
mustard plasters have failed to do thei
work, but ordinarily, mere superhuity!
string of bells around horses neck Will
ne draws the load and in nowise helpin
him to draw it. So far from that decar
the grace of God to be the first and tn
last necessity 1t is food we must take o
starve into an eternity OF famine. 1t
clothing, without which we freeze to tn
mast Of infinite terror. 1t is the plank
and the only plank. on which we can tioaa
shoreward. It is the ladder, and the onl
ladder, on which we can climb up into tn
light 1t is a positive necessity Tor tn
soul. You oan tell very easily what tn
effect would be if a person refused to tax
salt into the body. The energies woui
fail. the lungs would struggle with the all
slow fevers would crawl through the bran
the heart would futter, and the life Woul
be gone. Salt a necessity Tor the Tic 9
the body; the grace OF God, necesSlt
for the life of the soul! -,
Again, | remark that grace is like salt l
I'll cfp N