Article July 6, 1981 Issue

More salt

ELEANOR YOUNG CLAPP

A delightful play by Jerome K. Jerome tells of a seedy boarding-house run by a penny-pinching landlady. The guests exhibit assorted characteristics, such as vanity, charm, greed, yearning, hopelessness. A stranger applies for admission and is given a small back room on the third floor. He is a luminous, Christlike character who sees only the better self of each guest, discerns their inner desires, and treats each with respect. As a result, one by one they become aware of this "better self" and find their lives transformed. Then the stranger leaves as quietly as he came.^{The Passing of the Third Floor Back (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1921) .}

We might say the stranger gave some evidence of that "salt" we read of in Jesus' words to his disciples: "Ye are the salt of the earth.... Ye are the light of the world."^{Matt. 5:13, 14.} Of course, "salt" can have many metaphorical meanings. In ancient times it often referred to what was most useful.^{See The Interpreter's Bible, Vol. VII (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1951), p. 289 .} But there is a point, too, in a modern definition: "That which preserves, corrects, or purifies." When Jesus healed the man with the withered hand, he preserved the spiritual identity of the man and purified the man's concept of himself. He also corrected the mortal belief of matter's limiting domination and substance. This preserving, purifying, correcting, is Christly activity. Mrs. Eddy in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, describes the Christ in this way: "The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error."^{Science and Health, p. 583.}

Jesus urged us to keep the savor in our salt, that is, keep the vitality, zest, and effectiveness of the Christ in our lives. We can exercise every day our love for good, because God, or good, loves us and we reflect that love. The Christ reveals the full manifestation of Mind—man and the universe. The Christ is Truth's communication to us, and we respond by acknowledging the Christ and loving it. Then, the "salty" part of our work is to let this real, spiritual manhood season our lives. Mrs. Eddy admonishes us, "Let us watch, work, and pray that this salt lose not its saltness, and that this light be not hid, but radiate and glow into noontide glory."^{Ibid., p. 367.}

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