Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1900-08-17
Again, grace is like sal. in the fact

ing away from the salt clicks" Chem
lists and physicians all the world over
tell us that salt is necessity OF life.
And so with the grace of Col; you
must have it or die. / know a great
many speak of it as mere adorn-
ment, sort of shoulder strap adorn-
ing 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 q
mere superiority, a 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. 1t 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
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 for
the life of the body: the grace of God
a necessity for the life of the soul.
Again l 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 in
year. England and Russia and Italy
have inexhaustible resources in this
respect. Norway and Sweden, white
with snow above, white with salt be-
Meath. Austria, yielding 100000 tons
annually. Nearly all the nations rich
in it-rock salt, spring salt, sea salt.
Christ, the Creator of the world, when
He uttered our text, knew it would
become more and more significant as
the shafts were sunk and the springs
were bored and the pumps were worked
and the crystals were gathered. So
the grace of God is abundant. 1t is for
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 Saratov
there are 10000 men toiling day and
night, and yet they never exhaust the
saline treasures. And if the 1,6O0, 0O0,-
900 of our race should now cry out to
God for His mercy there would be
enough for all-for those farthest gone
in sin, for the murderer standing on
the drop of the gallows. 1t is an ocean
of mercy; and if Europe and Asia, Afri-
ca, North and South America and all
the islands Of the sea went down in it
to-day they would have room enough
to wash and come up clean. Let no
man think that his case is too tough
one for God to act upon. Though
your sin may be deep and raging, let
me tell you that Gods grace is bridge
not built on earthly piers, but sus-
pended and spanning the awful chasm
of your guilt, one end resting upon the
rock of eternal promises and the other
| on the foundations of Heaven. Demet-
RUS wore a robe so incrusted with
Jewels that no one after him ever dared
to wear it, but our King, Jesus, takes
off the robe of His righteousness, robe
blood dyed and Heaven impaired, and
reaches out to the worst wretch in
all the earth and says: "Put that on!
Wear it now! Wear it forever"
Again, the grace of God is like salt
in the way we come at it. The salt
on the surface is almost always impure
that which incrusts the Rocky noun
tains and the South American pampas
and in India; but the miners go down
through the shafts and through the
dark labyrinths and along by galleries
of rock and, with torches and pckaxes,
find their way under the very founda-
tions of the earth, to where the salt
lies that makes up the nations wealth
To get to the best saline springs OF
the earth huge machinery goes down
boring depth below depth, depth below
depth, until from under the very
roots of the mountains the saline wa.
ter supplies the aqueduct. This wa.
ter is brought to the surface and Is
exposed in tanks TO the sun for evap-
Grafton, or it is put in boilers nightly
heated, and the water evaporates, and
the salt gathers at the bottom of the
tank-the work is completed, and the
fortune is made. So with the grace OF
God. 1t is to be profoundly sought
after. With all the concentered ener
gies of body, mind and soul we must
dig for it. No man stumbles accident
ally on it. We need to go down to the
very lowest strata Of earnestness an6
faith TO find it. Superficial exploration
will not turn it up. We must strive ant
implore and dig until we strike the
spring foaming with living waters
Then the work Of evaporation begins
and as when the saline waters are ex
posed to the sun, the vapors float away
leaving nothing but the pure white
salt at the bottom of the tank. SC, wher
the Christian soul is exposed to the
SIM of Righteousness. the yapors oil
pride and selfshness and wrrldliness
float off, and there is chiefly left be-
meath pure white holiness of heart
Then, as in the case of the salt, the
furnace is added. Blazing troubles
stirred by smutted stokers of dark
ness, quicken the evaporation of world
illness, and the capitalization of grace
Have you not been in enough trouble
| IN have that work Do 0T2 I was read.