St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-08-11
RELIGION s0FsGHRBT.
Dr.. Talmage Says It Is a Preven-
tive Of This Worlds Ills.
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Mighty AH3beptic. ~
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Copyright. 1900. by Louis Klopsch.l

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copyright. 800. by Louis Klopsch.l
Washington.
DR.. Talmage is now travelling in Nor
way, where he has been deeply inter
ested in the natural phenomena and
the quaint social life of that wonder
full land. In his discourse this week
be argues. c0ntray, to Fthe opinisn of
many that religion is an. active princi-
| pie which works constantly for the
welfare Of body, mind and soul. His
text is Luke 1884: "Salt is good"
The Bible is dictionary of the finest
SMILES. 1t employs, among living crea-
lures, storks and eagles and doves and
unicorns and sheep and cattle;s among
trees, sycamore and terebinths and
pomegranates and almonds and ap-
pies; among jewels, pearls and ame-
thysts and jacinths and chrysoprases.
Christ uses no stale illustrations. The
lilies that He plncks for His sermons are
dewy fresh; the ravens in His dis
courses are not stuffed specimens of
birds, but warm with life from wing
tipto 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 Tiberi-
as. In my text, which is the perora-
ton of one of His rermops, He picks up
acrystal and holds it before His congre-
CATION as an illustration of divine
grace in the heart, when He says what
we all know by experiment.: "Salt is
good" i
shall try to carry out the Saviour's
idea in this text and IN the first place
say to you that grace is like salt in it's
beauty. In Galicia there are mines of
salt, with excavations and under
ground passages reaching, am told,
$50 miles. Far under ground there are
chapels and halls of reception, the col,
umns, the affairs and the pulpits of 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 crystal
floors and crystal columns, under the
glare Of the torches and the lamps,
needs words of crystal to describe 1t.
But you need not go SO far as that to
find the beauty of it. You live in =
land which produces millions of bush
els of it in 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 wa
ter foam with durability added. It 10
beautiful to the naked eye, but under
the glass you see the stars and dfa-
monds and the white tree branches and
the splinters snd the bridges of fire as
the sun glints them. There is more
architectural skill in one Of these crys-
tails of salt than human Ingenuity has
ever demonstrated in an Alhambra or
St. Peters. r..
It would take all time, with an in
fringement upon eternity, for an an
gel of God to tell one-haf the glories in
a salt crystal. So with the grace of
God. It is perfectly beautiful. have
Dseen it smooth out wrinkles of care from
the brow. have seen it make an aged
man feel almost young again. have
seen it lift the STOPPING shoulders and
put sparkle into the dull eye. Solomon
discovered its euticqualitieswhen
he said: "It is marrow to the bones"
1t helps to digest the food and to purify
the blood and to calm the pulses and
quiet the spleen, and instead of Tyn-
dars prayer test of. 20 years ago. put
ting a man in philosophical hospital
to be experimental upon by prayer, it
keeps him so well that he does not need
to be prayed for as an invalid. l am
speaking now of healthy religion
not of that morbid religion that sits
for three hours on a gravestone read
ing Harvey's "Meditations Among the
Tombs"-a religion that prospers best
in bad state Of the liver! speak Of
the religion that Christ preached. I
suppose when that religion has con-
quered the world that disease will be
banished and that a man a hundred
years of age will come in from business
and say: Il feel tired. think it must
be time for me to go" 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 lurk about, they
are chained and have a very small
sweep. Jesus throws upon the soul
the fragrance of q summer garden as
He comes in. saying, 81 am the rose of
Sharon" and He submerges it with
the glory of spring morning as He
SAYS: 81 am the light" Oh, how
much that grace did for the three
Johns! 1t took John Bunyan. the
foul mouthed, and made him John
Bunyan. the immortal dreamer. 1t
took John Newton, the lnfidel 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 50 beautiful
or beautifying u the grace of God.
Go all through the deep mine pas
saaes OF Wieliczka and amid the un-
derground Kingdoms Of salt in Hall
stadt, and show me anything so ex-
quisite. SO transcendently beautiful as1
this grace OF God fashioned and hung
in eternal crystals.
Again. grace is like salt in the fact
that it is . necessity Of life. Man
and beast perish without salt. What
are those paths across the western
prairies? Why. they were made there
BY ,:ser AMI buffalo going to and COM
ine away from the salt .'licks." Chem
lists and physicians all the world over
tell NJ that salt il . necessity Of life.
And 50 with the grace OF God; you
must have 1t or die. know . great
many speak Of it as = mere adorn