The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1900-11-02
RELIGION OF CHRIST.
DR.. Talmage Says 1t Is a Preven-
tive of This Worlds Ills.
An Active Principle which Constant
ly Works for the Welfare of
Body, Mind and SOul-A
Mighty Antiseptic.


the quaint social Efe of that wonder
ful land. In his discourse this week
he argues, contray 10 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 l4:34: salt is good"
The Bible is a dictionary of the finest
SMILES. 1t employs. among living crea-
lures. storks and eagles and doves and
unicorns and sheep and cattle; among
trees, sycamore and terebinths and
pomegrarates and almonds and ap-
pies; among jewels, pearls and ame-
thysts and jacinths and chrysoprases.
Christ uses no stale illustrations. The
lilies that He plucks 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 10 are
not dull about the gills. as though long
captured, but a-squirm in the wet net
just brought up on the beach of Iiberi-
as. In my text. which is the perora-
tion of one Of His rermons. 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"
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.
2SO miles. Far under ground there are
chapels and halls OF reception. the col
umns. the affairs nd the pulpts Of salt.
When the king nd 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 ii.
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 il in a 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. IT is
beautiful TO the naked eye, but under
the glass you see the stars and oia-
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.
IL 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
seen 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 Observation-Disclosures
he said: "It is marrow 10 the bones
II helps to digest the food and 10 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
10 be experimental upon by prayer 1t
keeps him so well that he does not need
10 be prayed for as an invalid. | am
speaking now Of healthy religion
not of that morbid religion that sits
for three hours on gravestone read /
ing Harvey's "Meditations Among the I
Tombs"-a religion that prospers best I
in a bad state of the liver. l speak Of .
the religion that Christ preached l /
suppose when that religion has con- |
uuered the world that disease will be /
banished and that a man a hundred /
years Of age will come in from business /
and say: 81 feel tired. think il must .
be time for me TO 60" and without one
physical pang Heaven will have him.
But the chief beauty of grace is in 4
the soul It takes that which was
hard and cold and repulsive and
makes it all over again. 1t pours
upon ones nature what David calls
1.-The beauty of holiness 1t eXtir-
pates everything that is hateful and
unclean If 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 summer garden as
He comes in. saying, 81 am the rose OF
Sharon" and He submerges it with
the glory of spring morning as lie
saws: 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 it
took John Newton, the infidel sailor,
and in the midst of the hurricane
made him cry out: "My mothers
God. have mercy upon me.' 1t took
John Summerfield from a 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 10 the Jesus whom he once
despised. All. you may search all the
earth over for anything so beautiful
or Identifying as the grace Of God.
Go all through the deep mine pas
sages of Wieliczka and amid the I'M
dercround kingdoms Of salt in Ha9-
stadt. and show me anything so ex-
puisite 20 transcendently beautiful as