The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1900-07-13
RELIGION OF CHRIST.
DR.. Talmage Says 1t Is Proven
tive of This Worlds Ills.
An Active Principle which Constant
" Works for the welfare of
Body, Mind and soul-A
Mighty AntIseptic.
copyright, 1900. by Louis Klopsch.l

DIR. 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
he argues, contrary to the opinion OF
many, that religion is an active princi-
pie which works constantly for the
welfare of body mind and soul. His
text is Luke 14:34: salt is good"
The Bible is dictionary of the finest
SMILES. 1t employs, among living crea-
lures, storks and eagles and doves and
uniforms and sheep and cattle; among
trees, sycamore and terebnths and
pomegranates and almonds and APP
pies; among jewels, pearls and anne
thysts and jacinths and chrysoprases.
Christ uses no stale illustrations The
lilies that lie pluckSfor 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-
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"
l 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 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 cf reception. the coll
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 it,.
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 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. 1t is
beautiful to the naked eye, but under
the glass YOU see the stars and dia-
monds 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 crys-
tails of salt than human ingenuity has
ever demonstrated in an Alhambra or
St. Peters.
II would take all time, with an in
fringement upon eternity, for an an
gel of God to tell one-half the glories in
a salt crystal, So with the grace of
God. 1t is perfectly beautiful have
SCENT smooth out wrinkles of care from
the brow. have seen il 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 therapeutic qualiteswhen
he said at 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-
dals prayer test of 20 years ago, put
ting a man in a philosophical hospita
TO be experimental upon by prayer il
keeps him so wei that he does not need
10 be prayed for as an invalid. | an
speaking now of healthy religion
not of that morbid religion that sits
for three hours on a grayestone read
ing Harvey's calculations Among the
Tombs"-a religion that prospers best
L = 81. l. ia.
the religion that Christ preached.
suppose when that religion has con
quered the world that disease will b,
banished and that man hundred
years of age will come in from business
and say: 81 feel tired. ] think it mus
be time for me 10 60" and without ont
physical pang Heaven will have him.
But the chief beauty of grace is il
the soul. II takes that which wa
hard and cold and repulsve ant
makes it all over again. 1t pour
upon ones nature what David call
"the beauty of holiness" 1t eXtir
pates everything that is hateful an,
unclean. If jealousy and pride an,
lust and worldiness Turk about, the.
are chained and have a very small
sweep. Jesus throws upon the sou
the fragrance of a summer garden a
He comes in, saying, 81 am the rose o
Sharon" and He submerges it wit
the glory of a spring morning as II
says: 81 am the light" Oh, hoy
much that grace did for the tire
Johns! 1t took John Bunyan, tn
foul mouthed and made him job
Bunyan, the immortal dreamer,
took John Newton, the lnfidel sailor
and in the midst of the hurrican
made him cry out; my mother
God, have mercy upon me!' 1t too
John Summerfeld from a life of 81
and by the hand of n Christian make
of edge tools, led him into the pulp