Article June 15, 1957 Issue

"HAVE SALT IN YOURSELVES"

DOROTHY S. RADER

Immediately following his presentation of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, Christ Jesus said to his disciples (Matt. 5:13), "Ye are the salt of the earth." In Bible times salt was used not only to make food taste better, but also as a preservative and to sanctify the food offered to the Lord. Salt also came to be a symbol of the most sacred and binding obligations.

It might be said that Jesus used the word "salt" in one of its highest significations. When the disciples had partaken of the spiritual essence of Truth and Love, they would be consecrated to the divine purpose and devoted to the establishment of Truth in their own lives, in order that they might then prosper the lives of others.

Jesus knew how much self-sacrifice of materiality is demanded, how much purification and clarification of thought must take place, to fit one for God's ultimate purpose, Christ-healing. He must have recognized the urgent need of preserving his own teachings through the instruction given to his disciples. Mark records him as saying (9:50), "Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another." It was as if he had said to his disciples, "Your very lives must attest the teachings I give you, through doing the works that I do, and even greater works."

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