The briny waters of Great Salt Lake have been tried by the
Southern Pacific Railway for a novel purpose and with remarkable
success. Stored in tanks the fluid has been hauled over the
line by water-trains and sprinkled upon the right of way. Under
this treatment the weeds, the bane of the section-hands, have
withered and died. After an experiment of sixteen months the
scheme has now been permanently adopted. This briny water is a
water which brings death to those things it touches.
There is a water we are told which brings life, higher than any
material life, the water of life. It was made known to the world
through the divine teacher. At Jacob’s well in the center of Palestine
He declared Himself to be the water of life. Those who drink from
natural fountains of water will thirst again, and the strength they
gain, the refreshing they receive, will only be temporary. Those
who come to drink of the true water of life will receive spiritual
refreshing. This life-giving water takes away all foulness from the
soil of the soul, by purifying it, by sweetening it, by enriching it.
The weeds of sin in the soul are best destroyed not by the infusion of
something more noxious, but by the infilling of the sweet graces of
life.
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* * * * *
One of the most interesting creatures of California’s great
desert is the tortoise. Frequently a school of them, that we
usually think of only in connection with water, are discovered
afar out in the desert where water is scarce and difficult to
obtain. Dissection shows that in a convenient place upon their
body is located a pair of large water-sacks. These the owner
fills with water as needed and in this way it is kept supplied.
The man who has acquired character and experience so that he has moral
and spiritual reservoirs within is equipped for every emergency. (Text.)
(3447)
* * * * *
At Huntsville, Ala., is a spring that supplies the whole town
with an abundance of pure, fresh water. But the wonder of it all
is that the flow of it is made to operate a wheel that pumps the
water into the homes of the people.
The supply of water is the power of the water supply. God, who is
the water of life, also sends all we need for the operation of all
activities. (Text.)
(3448)
* * * * *
The sources of the soul’s water of life is in the hill-springs, but one
may have to go down into the depths to find it, as these divers bring
up fresh water out of the ocean:
The hottest region on earth is on the south western coast of
Persia, where Persia borders the gulf of the same name. For
forty consecutive days in the months of July and August the
thermometer has been known not to fall lower than 100 degrees,
night or day, and to often run up as high as 128 degrees in
the afternoon. At Bahrin, in the center of the torrid part of
the torrid belt, as tho it were nature’s intention to make the
region as unbearable as possible, no water can be obtained from
digging wells one hundred to two hundred or even five hundred
feet deep, yet a comparatively numerous population contrive to
live there, thanks to copious springs which break forth from
the bottom of the gulf, more than a mile from shore. The water
from these springs is obtained by divers, who dive to the bottom
and fill goat-skins with the cooling liquid and sell it for a
living. The source of these submarine fountains is thought to
be in the green hills of Osman, some five or six hundred miles
away.--_Public Opinion._
(3449)
See SURFACE LIVES; SPRINGS OF LIFE.
=Waters, Lake=--See RENEWAL.
=Waters, Tempestuous=--See ADVERSITY.