Bluestocking Redneck

Thursday, May 8, 2025

Throwback Thursday: Life From The Dead Sea

For ages past the Dead Sea has been considered a place of death and desolation.
Today it has suddenly become a center of life and activity. This body of water
that was looked upon as utterly useless has been found to be
the most valuable inland sea in the world.

Dead Sea In Israel

Image courtesy/Tales of Israel

It was only a few years ago that the discovery was made that the waters of
the Dead Sea contain very valuable mineral salts that are in great demand
in the modern world. Two of these salts that are found in abundance in the
Dead Sea water are potash and bromine.

Potash is a fertilizer that enriches poor soil and makes it more productive. Bromine is
a widely used ingredient in medicine. Hence, from the so-called Dead Sea there is
coming new life for the soil and new help in healing the bodies of men.

Truly life is coming from the Dead Sea in these latter days.

For many years a Jewish engineer carefully studied the chemical composition of
the water of the Dead Sea. He finally became convinced that it was a "water mine"
of unlimited possibilities in supplying potash and other chemicals that are so
vitally needed by the world today. Later, he was joined by Major T.G. Tulloch,
a British engineer, who also made an exhaustive study of the Dead Sea water.

An international company of both Jews and Gentiles was organized to commercialize
the enterprise. It was called the Palestine Potash Ltd. In 1930, a concession for "mining"
the water of the Dead Sea was granted to the company by the government.
The project has been amazingly successful.

Even in 1931, the first small plant was producing more than a ton of refined bromine
each day. A potash factory was built and in three years they were exporting as much
potash as they had expected to produce in ten years. Some time ago, Major Tulloch
gave a lecture in London, before the Royal Society of Arts, on the work that
is being done in extracting mineral salts from the Dead Sea.

He declared there is sufficient potash in the Dead Sea to supply the world with it for
the next 2,000 years. He said in part as reported in the Jewish Daily Bulletin: "From time
immemorial the Dead Sea has been a synonym for all that is useless and unprofitable.
Travelers' tales made it out to be a spot where the climate was unbearable and deadly,
and where it was impossible for human beings to live. All these tales have been
proved to be entirely false. The Dead Sea today is a thing of life, pulsating with
health, and conferring benefits on thousands of human beings."

The Dead Sea may soon become a popular health resort as well as a place of
commercial activity. In the winter the climate is warm and balmy and one can
bathe in the sea all year round. We went bathing in the Dead Sea in the afternoon
and greatly enjoyed the experience. The water is so saturated with salt that one cannot
sink in it-but one must be careful not to let the head go down and the feet go up!

One is almost staggered by the computed wealth of the chemical salts of the Dead Sea.
It is estimated that the potential value of the potash, bromine, and other chemical salts
of its water is one trillion, two hundred and seventy billion dollars-$1,270,000,000,000.
This is said to be four times the wealth of the United States!

One might naturally ask why it is that valuable mineral salts such as potash
and bromine are found in the waters of the Dead Sea in addition to the common
salt that is in ordinary sea water. It was very interesting to discover that it is the
river Jordan and other minor streams that pour this chemical wealth into the
cauldron of the Dead Sea day by day.

It is said that the river Jordan daily empties into the Dead Sea nearly seven million
tons of water mixed with sulphurous and nitrous matter! Further, it is the hot springs
near the southern end of the Sea of Galilee that in turn pour their chemical wealth
into the river Jordan. So we see that the wealth of the Dead Sea was not deposited
in a moment but that it has been accumulating for thousands of years past.

But this potash plant at the northern end of the Dead Sea is not the only
interesting thing in the district. There is another wonder at the southern end
of the sea. It is the "Mount of Sodom" a solid mountain of salt which may
mark the site where once stood the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The
salt is being mined and sold by a firm which has its factory at the
north end of the sea not far from the potash plant.

Mount Sodom & Lot's Wife

Image courtesy/Dead Sea

The salt is ordinary table salt and is not mixed with other chemicals like
the water of the Dead Sea. The manager told us that the mountain is about
six miles long and three miles wide and one thousand feet high. There is
a crust of three to six feet of earth on the top of the mountain but the
rest of it is solid salt which is 98 percent pure.

The salt is quarried out of the mountain and carried by steamer to the factory
at the other end of the Dead Sea. In the midst of the mountain they found a vein
of transparent crystal salt. The manager took a piece of it and struck it with a hammer.
It broke into rectangular blocks. Again, he struck one of the smaller blocks and the
same result followed. He said that crystal salt always breaks into such blocks.

The manager declared that there was sufficient salt in the Mount of Sodom

to supply the entire world for centuries to come.

It was late afternoon as we re-entered the motor-car and began the upward climb
of nearly 4,000 feet back to the city of Jerusalem, for the Dead Sea is more than
1200 feet below sea level and Jerusalem 2600 feet above sea level.

For the first few miles the heat of the Jordan Valley was terrific. It beat against
our faces like a blast from a furnace. It was a real relief when we saw a sign
marked, "Sea Level" and realized that in a few moments more we would be
mounting above the heat and enjoying the cooler air of the Judean hills.

Praise God that even the waste waters of the Dead Sea are being utilized
in transforming the land of Palestine from a desert to a "garden of Eden."

"Life From The Dead Sea"
An excerpt from the book,
"Rebuilding Palestine According To Prophecy"
(1935)
By George T.B. Davis
The Million Testaments Campaigns
1505 Race Street
Philadelphia, PA
Printed in the United States of America

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

The Glory Of The Flower

The rainbow comes and goes,

And lovely is the rose;

The moon doth with delight

Look round her when the heavens are bare;

Waters on a starry night

Are beautiful and fair;

The sunshine is a glorious birth;

But yet I know where'er I go,

That there hath past away a glory from the earth.

Dorothy Rose In Bloom

Photograph by Daniel Kelly

(May 7, 2025)

What though the radiance which was once so bright

Be now forever taken from my sight,

Though nothing can bring back the hour

Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower,

We will grieve not, rather find

Strength in what remains behind.

Excerpts from the poem,
"Ode On Intimations Of Immortality
from Recollections Of Early Childhood"
(1807)
By William Wordsworth
(1770-1850)
English romantic poet
Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom

MeMe's Words Of Wisdom: "Scatter What Matters"

Timeless words of wisdom from one of my favorite YouTube cooks!

And everybody remember... Shine for Jesus!

"Scatter What Matters"

Diane Leary/MeMe's Recipes

(May 7, 2025)

Wednesday's Word: Jehovah Rophe "Jehovah Heals"

"And Moses prayed before the LORD; and the LORD showed him a tree, and when he
casted it into the water, the water became sweet; there the Lord taught him laws and
ordinances, and there He tested him, and said to him, "If you will diligently hearken to
the voice of the LORD your God and will do that which is right in His sight and will
obey His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will bring none of these
plagues upon you which I have brought upon the Egyptians
for I AM the LORD your healer.
(Exodus 15:25-26)

Jehovah Rophe

"Jehovah Heals"
Image courtesy/FaithGateway

In the wilderness of Shur, the Israelites had no water. At Marah, they had water, but,
it was bitter; so that they could not drink it. God can make bitter to us that from which
we promise ourselves most, and often does so in the wilderness of this world, that
our wants, and disappointments in the creature may drive us to the Creator,
in whose favor alone true comfort is to be had.

In this distress the people fretted, and quarreled with Moses. Hypocrites may show
high affections, and appear earnest in religious exercises, but in the time of temptation
they fall away. Even true believers, in seasons of sharp trial, will be tempted to fret,
distrust, and murmur. But in every trial we should cast our care upon the Lord
and pour out our hearts before Him.

We shall then find that a submissive will, a peaceful conscience, and the comforts of
the Holy Ghost, will render the bitterest trial tolerable, yea, pleasant. Moses did what the
people had neglected to do; he cried unto the Lord. And God provided graciously for them.
He directed Moses to a tree which he cast into the waters,
when, at once, they were made sweet.

Some make this tree typical of the cross of Christ, which sweetens the bitter
waters of affliction to all the faithful and enables them to rejoice in tribulation.

But a rebellious Israelite shall fare no better than a rebellious Egyptian.
The threatening is implied only, the promise is expressed.

God is the great Physician.

If we are kept well, it is He that keeps us; if we are made well,
it is He that recovers us. He is our life and the length of our days.

Let us not forget that we are kept from destruction, and delivered from our enemies, to
be the Lord's servants. At Elim, they had good water and enough of it. Though God may,
for a time, order His people to encamp by the bitter waters of Marah, that shall not
always be their lot. Let us not faint at tribulations.
-Matthew Henry's Commentary