Those who come at the call of the Lord, and take the rest he offers them, learning of him, and bearing the yoke of the Father, are the salt of the earth, the light of the world.

THE SALT AND THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.

’Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?  It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.  Ye are the light of the world.  A city that is set on an hill, cannot be hid.  Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven.’—­Matthew v. 3—­16.

The Lord knew these men, and had their hearts in his hand; else would he have told them they were the salt of the earth and the light of the world?  They were in danger, it is true, of pluming themselves on what he had said of them, of taking their importance to their own credit, and seeing themselves other than God saw them.  Yet the Lord does not hesitate to call his few humble disciples the salt of the earth; and every century since has borne witness that such indeed they were—­that he spoke of them but the simple fact.  Where would the world be now but for their salt and their light!  The world that knows neither their salt nor their light may imagine itself now at least greatly retarded by the long-drawn survival of their influences; but such as have chosen aspiration and not ambition, will cry, But for those men, whither should we at this moment be bound!  Their Master set them to be salt against corruption, and light against darkness; and our souls answer and say, Lord, they have been the salt, they have been the light of the world!

No sooner has he used the symbol of the salt, than the Lord proceeds to supplement its incompleteness.  They were salt which must remember that it is salt; which must live salt, and choose salt, and be salt.  For the whole worth of salt lies in its being salt; and all the saltness of the moral salt lies in the will to be salt.  To lose its saltness, then, is to cease to exist, save as a vile thing whose very being is unjustifiable.  What is to be done with saltless salt!—­with such as would teach religion, and know not God!

Having thus carried the figure as far as it will serve him, the Master changes it for another, which he can carry farther.  For salt only preserves from growing bad; it does not cause anything to grow better.  His disciples are the salt of the world, but they are more.  Therefore, having warned the human salt to look to itself that it be indeed salt, he proceeds:  ‘Ye are the light of the world, a city, a candle,’ and so resumes his former path of persuasion and enforcement:  ’It is so, therefore make it so.’—­’Ye are the salt of the earth; therefore be salt.’—­’Ye are the light of the world; therefore shine.’—­’Ye are a city; be seen upon your hill.’—­’Ye are the Lord’s candles; let no bushels cover you.  Let your light shine.’  Every disciple of the Lord must be a preacher of righteousness.