The Salt of the Earth by E. E. Messinger

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 27, 1915

The Salt of the Earth

By E. E. Messinger

“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden underfoot of men.” Matt. 5: 13.

The world has been likened to an immense storehouse, where an incalculable amount of provisions are stored; these provisions are represented as decaying for want of salt, which is close by, and which, if applied, would be the means of preserving the foodstuffs; but it must come into close contact with them.

The world is perishing for want of salt; because the gospel is not brought into contact, through its living believers, with the world, many are perishing, suffering, longing for its soothing grace and uplifting power. But who is to blame? Surely not the Originator of the gospel, for he emptied heaven that its work might be done,—a sacrifice we can never, in this world, appreciate in its fullness, for we have little knowledge of the glories of heaven. God was faithful. Evidently the salt has lost its savor, or else it has not been applied. A savorless salt is useless, and misuse makes salt savorless, useless.

“There are many families who could be a great blessing if they would take their belongings and settle in some town or country location where the standard of present truth has never been raised. Many should move into regions beyond, and become just what Christ has said that those who believe in him should be.

. . . The world needs the influence of every believer, as salt which has not lost its savor.”—Sowing Beside All Waters, page 37.

“There are thousands of places to be entered where the standard of truth has never been raised, where the proclamation of the truth has never been heard in America. And there are thousands who might enter the harvest field who are now religiously idle, and as a result, go crippling their way to heaven, expressing their doubt whether they are Christians. . . . Let those who truly love God step out from where there are large churches of Sabbath keepers.”—Id., pages 34, 35.

“God designs that his people shall be the light of the world, the salt of the earth. The plan of gathering together in large numbers, to compose a large church, has contracted their influence, and narrowed down their sphere of usefulness, and is literally putting their light under a bushel. . . . The plan of colonizing . . . is removing the light from places where God would have it shine.”—Id., page 7.

“The Southern field is right in the shadow of your own doors. . . . God calls for missionaries, and asks us to take up our neglected duties. Let farmers, financiers, builders, and those who are skilled in various arts and crafts, go to this field to improve lands, and to build humble cottages for themselves and their neighbors. It is essential . . . that families should settle in the South, and as missionary workers they can, by precept and example, be a living power. . . . In love for Christ, who died to save this poor, downtrodden people, in love for the souls of the perishing thousands, they are to labor for this worse than heathen country.”—Id., pages 62, 63.

These Testimonies, written many years ago, require our special consideration today. We no longer live in days of anticipation of coming conflicts, but are in the times of the last earthly struggles. What we do must be done quickly. We have more members and more large churches than ever before. God is calling for many of his people to move away from the organized churches, and bring the light to communities yet in darkness. Those speaking foreign languages will be able to do much in the many urban and rural foreign communities in this land. There are many places in the Northern and Western States where there are countless opportunities for believers to live and ‘show forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.’ Some might even emigrate to a foreign country, and there live for him.

But our attention is especially called to the peoples of the South. A “worse than heathen country,” it has long been neglected. Taking in Virginia, and other States Southern in spirit, the South contains about one fourth of the population of the United States. The bulk of the ten million Negroes in America is to be found here, not only in large numbers, but in a more helpless, harder-to-be-reached, more degraded, and less educated condition than in other parts of the land.

In most stirring language, believers have been appealed to to labor in self-denial and in their modest ways for the uplift of the Southerners. Some have responded; but “where there is one laborer, there should be one hundred.” Of the ten lepers, one returned in thankfulness. “But where are the nine?” is a question we shall have to answer by and by. Brethren, what shall we reply?

The South is a desperately needy field. People live in ignorance of common, everyday rules of health; consequently there is a large amount of disease on every hand. Many cannot read or write, and need to be taught in simple, childlike terms. There is not only a strong-as-death prejudice between white and colored, but also a powerful rank distinction among the white people themselves,—not an easy field, by any means, but one in which the true soldier of Christ can find plenty of work, and will strive to show forth his Master's truth. Millions in this field have never had the opportunity of accepting the truth. In many places the gospel canvasser has never been seen; in places for a hundred miles in any direction there is hardly an Adventist church, and an isolated member may be the only Adventist for fifty miles or more. I wish that some of our brethren in the Western and Northern States, where there are believers in almost every town, could take a tour through one of the destitute States of the South, noting the scarcity of believers and churches, and the great need.

Believers could accomplish much in new places where the truth has never been preached. Some could start a school; many could impart principles of health, and give simple treatments for the sick; large numbers might be helped by being taught how to keep house, cook, etc. Let the printed page be distributed by selling and free distribution; and let cottage meetings, Sabbath schools, and Sunday schools be held. Doing such work will be following in the steps of the One who “went about doing good,” and will not be without good results.

“Where are the reapers?” Can you not heed God's call for self-supporting workers to take up their cross and follow him? Souls are perishing; the evil one and his cohorts are using every opportunity to ensnare souls; the world's night is stealthily coming upon the doomed inhabitants of earth. Will you permit it to be said of you that in the critical moment you proved untrue? That your refusal to obey the King's summons caused some one to suffer, and finally to perish miserably? Let us labor now; “now is the accepted time.” “Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life.” John 6: 27.

E. E. MESSINGER.