The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-08-16

of edge tools, led him into the pulpit |
that burns still with the light of that
Christian eloquence which charmed
to the Jesus whom he once
despised. All, you may search all the
earth over for anything so beautiful
or beautifying as the grace of God.
Go all through the deep mine pas
sages of Wieliczka and amid the un-
kingdoms of salt in Hall
stadt, and show me anything SO ex-
quisite SO transcendently beautiful as
this grace of God fashioned and hung
in eternal crystals.
Again, grace is like salt in the fact
that it is a necessity of life. Man
and beast perish without salt. What
are those paths across the western
prairies? Why, they were made there
by deer and buffalo going to and COM
ing away from the salt ''licks." Chem
lists and physicians all the world over
tell us that salt is necessity of life.
And so with the grace of God; you
must have it or die. I know great
many speak of it as mere adorn-
ment, sort of shoulder strap adorn-
ing a soldier, or light, frothing des-
sert brought in after the greatest
part of the banquet of life is over,
or a medicine to be taken after pow
ders and mustard plasters have failed
to do their work, but ordinarily a
mere superfiuity, string of bells
around horses neck while he draws
the load, and in nowise helping him
to draw it. So far from that, declare
the grace of God to be the first and
the last necessity. It is food we must
take or starve into an eternity Of
famine. 1t is-clothing without which
we freeze to the mast of infinite ter
ror. 1t is the plank, and the only
plank, on which we can float shore
ward. 1t is the ladder, and the only
ladder, on which we can climb up into
the light. 1t is a positive necessity
for the soul. You can tell very easily
what the effect would be if person
refused to take salt into the body.
The energies would fail, the lungs
would struggle with the air, slow
fevers would crawl through the brain,
the heart would futter, and the life
would be gone. Salt necessity fol-
the life of the body; the grace of God
a necessity for the life of the soul.
Again / remark that grace is like
salt in abundance. God has strewn
salt in vast profusion all over the con
tinents. Russia seems built on salt
| cellar. There is one region of that
| country that turns out 10000 tons il
a year. England and Russia and Italy
| have inexhaustible resources in thi:
respect. Norway and Sweden, white
with snow above, white with salt be
meath. Austria. yielding 100000 ton!
annually. Nearly all the nations ricl
in it-rock salt, spring salt, sea salt
Christ, the Creator of the world, whe1
He uttered our text, knew it woult
become more and more significant a
| the shafts were sunk and the spring
were bored and the pumps were worked
and the crystals were gathered. s.
the grace Of God is abundant. It is TO
all lands, for all ages, for all condi
tions. 1t seems to undergrad every
thing. Pardon for the worst sin, com
fort for the sharpest suffering, bright
est light for the thickest darkness
Around about the salt lakes of Sarato
there are 10000 men toiling day an
night, and yet they never exhaust tn
saline treasures. And if the 1000, 900
600 of our race should now cry out t
God for His mercy there would b
enough for all-for those farthest gon
in sin, for the murderer standing o
the drop of the gallows. It is an ocea
of mercy; and if Europe and Asia, Afr
! ca, North and South America and a
the islands of the sea went down in
! to-day they would have room enoug
to wash and come up clean. Let n
man think that his case is too toug
a one for God to act upon. Thoug
your sin may be deep and raging, X
me tell you that Gods grace is a bridg
: not built on earthly piers, but su
pended and spanning the awful chasl
of your guilt, one end resting upon tt
rock of eternal promises and the oth'
! on the foundations of Heaven. Deme
: RUS wore a robe SO incrusted wit
JcWelS THAI HO Ouc dAtcI Hill CsCL udAS
to wear it, but our King, Jesus. taxi
E off the robe of His righteousness a rol
t blood dyed and Heaven impearled, al
reaches out to the worst wretch
all the earth and says: "Put that OF
: Wear it now! Wear it forever"
e Again, the grace of God is like sa
i in the way we come at it. The sa
8 on the surface is almost always impu
t that which incrusts the Rocky mou
e tains and the South American pamp
and in India; but the miners 60 dow
a through the shafts and through Il
8 dark labyrinths and along by galleri
of rock and, with torches and pickax'
8 find their way under the very found
Is tions Of the earth, to where the 81
= lies that makes up the nations wealt
d To get to the best saline springs
d the earth huge machinery goes dow
y boring depth below depth, depth bell
II depth, until from under the We
IL roots of the mountains the saline v
Is ter supplies the aqueduct. This v
If ter is brought to the surface and
h exposed in tanks to the sun for evs
Sc ,~,,< In I,o;larc yv,irhf