Matt. V. 13. Ye are the salt of the earth: hut if the salt have lost his savour, tcherevith shall it he salted ? it is thenceforth goodj for nothing, hut to he cast out, and to he trodden under foot of meiu
LITTLE do the world think how much they are indebted to those very saints whom they " revile and persecute for righteousness' sake^" The extirpation of them (which is so much desired by many) would leave the world an entire mass of corruption, without any thing to heal its disorders, or to stop its progress towards utter destruction. Were they removed out of it, the rest would soon become as Sodom and Gomorrha^ The representation given of them in the text fully justifies this idea. They are called " the salt of the earth." This, of course, must be understood of those only who have the spirit of religion in them: for all others, whatever they may possess, are as vile and worthless as the real Christians are good and excellent.
The words before us will lead us to consider,
L The worth and excellence of truly spiritual Chris- tians—
The use of salt, as intimated in this expression of our Lord, is to keep other things from putrefaction and corruption.
This is the office that has been executed by all the saints of old —
[View them from the beginning ; and they will all be found active in their generation, and zealous in benefiting tlie world around them. Noah preached to the antcdikiviaiis an hundred and twenty years, indefatigably exerting himself to bring them to repentance. Lot, in Sodom, " vexed his right- eous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds," and strove to turn the people from their horrible abominations. All tlie prophets in successive ages laboured in the same blessed work, using all their efforts to lead their hearers to the knowledge of the only true God, and to an obedience to his holy laws. How the Apostles acted in relation to this, it is needless to observe. They lived for no other end, but to make known the way of life, and to "turn men from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God."
All, indeed, were not favoured with the same success. Those who preceded the Saviour, rather sowed the seed, than reaped the harvest: but his disciples, through the influence of the Spirit of God upon their labours, were instrumental to the
^ ver. 11. b isai. i. 9.