The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1900-07-13
TALMAuE'S SERMON.
RELIGION A PREVENTATIVE OF
THE WORLDS ILLS.
1t Is an Active Principle, Says DIR. Tai
mage, Which Constantly Works for
the Welfare OF tho Body, Mind and
Soul.

DR.. Talmage is now travelling IN
Norway, where he has been deeply
interested in the natural phenomena
and the quaint social life of that won
derful land. In his discourse this
week he argues, contrary to the opin-
ion of many, that religion is an active
principle which works constantly for
the welfare of body and mind and
soul. His text is Luke xiv, "a, salt
is good"
The Bible is dictionary of the
finest SMILES. 1t employs, among nv
ing creatures storks and eagles and
doves and uniforms and sheep and cat
tie; among trees, sycamores and tere-
binths and pomegranates and al
monds and apples; among jewels,
pearls and amethysts and jacinths and
chrysoprases Christ uses no stale
illustrations. The lilies that he plucks
for his sermons are dewy fresh; the
ravens in his discourses are not stuff
ed specimens of birds, but warm with
| life from wing tip to 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 I'D on the beach of Liberals.
In my text, which is the peroration OF
| one of his sermons, he picks up a
crystal and holds it before his con-
gregation as an illustration of divine
grace in the heart, when he says, what
we all know by experiment. salt is
good"
shall try to carry out the Saviors
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, l am told,
$50 miles. Far under ground there
are chapels and halls of reception, the
columns, 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 or
crystal walls and crystal ceilings and
CIySldl uOOlo dllu VI J oee'i NS'NiAASf
under the glare of the torches and the
lamps, needs words of crystal to de-
scribe it. But you need not go so
far as that to find the beauty of salt.
You live in a land which produces mil
lions of bushels 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 water
foam with durability added. 1t is
beautiful to the naked eye, but under
the glass you see the stars and the
diamonds and the white tree branches
and the splinters and the bridges of
fire as the sun glnts them. There is
more architectural skill in one of these
crystals of salt than human ingenu-
ity has ever demonstrated in an AL
hambra or st. Peters.
Gods Mercies Innumerable.
1t would take all time. with an In
fringement upon eternity, for an an
gel Of God to tell one-half the glories
in salt crystal. So with the grace
Of God. 1t is perfectly beautiful. l
have seen it smooth out wrinkles Of
care from the brow. / have seen it
make an aged man feel almost young
again. l have seen it lift the stoop-
ing shoulders and put sparkle into the
dull eye. Solomon discovered Its
therapeutic qualities when he said, 1T
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 Tyndal's
prayer test of 20 years ago, putting
man in a 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 region-not
of that morbid religion that sits for
three hours on a gravestone reading
Harvey's "Meditations Among the
Tombs"-a religion that prospers best
in bad state of the liver! / speak
of the religion that Christ preached. l
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 busl-
ness and say: Il feel tired. / think
it must be time for me to 60" 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 Turk about, they
are chained and have a very small
sweep. Jesus throws upon the soul
the fragrance OF summer garden as
he comes in, saying, Il am the rose
Of Sharon" and he 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!
/ II tOok John Runvan the foul mouth