Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1900-07-13

sweetness of Christian character that
the hounds of temptation, coming ON
our track, might lose it and go bowling
back with disappointment!
But, I remark again, that the grace OF
God is like the salt in its preservative
quality. You know that salt absorbs
the moisture of articles of food and in
fuses them with brine. which preserves
them for long while. Salt is the
great antiputrefactor of the world.
Experimenters, in preserving food,
have tried sugar and smoke and air.
tight jars and everything else, but as
long as the world stands ChriSt's words
will be suggestive, and men will admit
that as a great preservative ''salt is
good" But for the grace of God the
earth would have become stale car
cass long before this. That grace is the
only preservative of laws and constitu-
tons and literatures. Just soon as
a government loses this salt of divine
grace it perishes. The philosophy of
this day, so far as it is antagonistic to
this religion, putrefies and stinks. The
great want of our schools of learning
and our institutions of science to-day
is, not more Leyden jars and galvanlc
batteries and spectroscopes and phil
osophical apparatus, but more of that
grace that will teach our men OF
science that the God of the universe is
| the God of the Bible. How strange it is
| that in all their magnificent sweep OF
the telescope they have not seen the
| morning star of Jesus and that in all
their experiments with light and heat
they have not seen the light and felt
the warmth of the Sun of Righteous
nessi We want more of the salt of
| Gods grace in our homes, in our
schools, in our colleges, in our social
life, in our Christianity. And that
which has it will live; that which has
it not will die. proclaim the tenden-
cy of everything earthly to putrefac-
ton and death-the religion of Christ
the only preservative.
My subject is one of great congratu-
lation to those who have within their
souls this gospel antiseptic. This salt
| will preserve them through the tempta-
| tions and sorrows of life and through
the ages of eternity. I do not mean to
say that you will have smooth time
because you are Christian. On the
contrary, if you do your whole duty. 1
will promise you a rough time. You
march through an enemy's country.
and they will try to double up both
| TANKS and to cut you off from your
source of supplies. The war you wage
will not be with toy arrows, but sword
plunged to the hilt and squirting on
your steed over heaps of the slain. But
I think that God omnipotent will see
you through. think He will. But why
do I talk like an atheist when I ought
to say I know He will? '.Kept by the
power of God through faith unto CON-
plete salvation"
When Gov. Geary, of Pennsylvania,
died, years ago, lost a good friend.
He impressed me nightly with the
horrors of war. In the eight hours
that we rode together in the cars he
recited to me the scenes through
which he had passed in the civil war.
He said that there came one battle
upon which everything seemed to
pivot. kilograms from Washington
said that the life of the nation de-
pended on that struggle. He said to
me: 81 went into that battle, sir,
with my son. His mother and ]
thought everything of him. You
know how father will feel toward
his son who is coming up manly and
brave and good. Well, the battle
opened and concentered, and it was
awful. Horses and riders bent and
twisted and piled up together. 1t was
) awful, sir. We quit firing and took
; to the point of the bayonet. Well
sir, didn't feel like myself that day
I had prayed to God for strength fol-
that particular battle, and I went into
it feeling that had in my right arm
the strength of ten giants" And as
the governor brought his arm down
on the back of the seat it fairly made
the car tremble. "Well," he said, "the
) battle was desperate, but after awhile
| we gained a little, and we marched
; on a little. I turned round to the
) troops and shouted: Come on
boys!' and I stepped across dead
: soldier, and, 10, it was my son!
saw at the first glance he was dead
and yet I did not dare to stop a min.
ute, for the crisis had come in the
battle. So I just got down on my
knees, and I threw my arms around
him, and I gave him one good kiss
: and said, tGood-by. DEAR and sprang
up and shouted Come on. boys!
So it is in the. Christian confetti is
a fierce fight. Eternal ages seem de.
: pending on the strife. Heaven is
waiting for the bulletins to announce
the tremendous issue. Hail of shot
cash of saber, fall of battle ak, groan-
ing on every side. We cannot stop
for loss or bereavement or anything
: else. With one ardent embrace and
one loving kiss we utter our fare.
wells and then cry: 'sCome on, boys!
There are other heights to be cap