There are, no doubt, some among us who had once a far more vigorous Christian life than they have to-day; who were once far more aflame with the love of God than they are now.  And although I know, of course, that as years go on emotion will become less vivid, and feeling may give place to principle, yet I know no reason why, as years go on, fervour should become less, or the warmth of our love to our Master should decline.  There will be less spluttering and crackling when the fire burns up; there may be fewer flames; but there will be a hotter glow of ruddy, unflaming heat.  That is what ought to be in our Christian experience.

Nor can there be any doubt, I think, but that the partial obliteration of the distinction between the Church and the world, and the decay of the fervour of devotion which leads to it, are both to be traced to a yet deeper cause, and that is the loss or diminution of actual fellowship with Jesus Christ.  It was that which made these early disciples ‘salt.’  It was that which made them ‘light.’  It is that, and that alone, which makes devotion burn fervid, and which makes characters glow with the strange saintliness that rebukes iniquity, and works for the purifying of the world.  And so I would remind you that fellowship with Jesus Christ is no vague exercise of the mind but is to be cultivated by three things, which I fear me are becoming less and less habitual amongst professing Christians:—­Meditation, the study of the Bible, private prayer.  If you have not these—­and you know best whether you have them or not—­no power in heaven or earth can prevent you from losing the savour that makes you salt.

III.  Now I come to the next point, and that is the solemn question:  Is there a possibility of re-salting the saltless salt, of restoring the lost savour?

‘Wherewithal shall it be salted?’ says the Master.  That is plain enough, but do not let us push it too far.  If the Church is meant for the purifying of the world, and the Church itself needs purifying, is there any power in the world that will do it?  If the army joins the rebels, is there any force that will bring back the army to submission?  Our Lord is speaking about ordinary means and agencies.  He is saying in effect, if the one thing that is intended to preserve the meat loses its power, is there anything lying about that will salt that?  So far, then, the answer seems to be—­No.

But Christ has no intention that these words should be pushed to the extreme of asserting that if salt loses its savour, if a man loses the pungency of his Christian life, he cannot win it back, by going again to the source from which he received it at first.  There is no such implication in these words.  There is no obstacle in the way of a penitent returning to the fountain of all power and purity, nor of the full restoration of the lost savour, if a man will only bring about a full reunion of himself with the source of the savour.