THE SALT OF THE EARTH by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jan 25, 1905

THE SALT OF THE EARTH.

By Editor

CHRISTIANS are the salt of the earth, and the earth was never in so great need of that preservative as it is at the present time. The plea of Dharmapala, a Buddhist priest, for Americans to come to India and help to uplift that idol-stricken people, is one of the very strongest evidences that India is decaying for lack of the salt of Christianity. But even Dharmapala, who knows India's condition and her lack as few others, does not know the nature of the salt which she requires. He is not asking for Christian missionaries; but he desires the personal services of those who are willing to work along "ethical, philanthropic, educational, and scientific lines for the most helpless, illiterate, degraded, and superstitious people on earth." These are the words of Dharmapala himself.

It is a sad thing to know that such a condition does exist; it is sadder to know that the system that is responsible for that condition has blinded the eyes of even those who are making the appeal for help, till they appeal to the bare rocks of ethics and science to save them from what their ethical philosophizing has brought upon them. The salt of Christianity would elevate them; but they turn from it to the 333,000,000 gods which that system has invented, and so flounder to their death in the mire of superstition and immorality.

Such men as Dharmapala see the more hopeful condition of the people in Christian lands, but they fail to realize that those blessings are due to the influence of Christianity. They see the results of the Christian preservative, and then strive to secure those same results with a system which has in it none of the life elements of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

India's pitiable condition is the result of sin, the transgression of God's law. That system of idolatry has taught men to regard themselves as a part of Deity; and so, with self deified, and themselves in the service of self, they have carried a form of religion into the lowest possible depths. They have allowed their system of religion to grind them down into immorality, degradation, and ruin. There is nothing but the salt of Christianity that can save them from the certain ruin of such a course. India needs the Gospel of Christ, whether she realizes it or not, and she needs it now. There is no other salvation for her. And in this matter India is but the type of the great world that is still outside of Christ, serving the goddess of self. The great world needs the Gospel, and needs it now, and must have it now, or never know the blessings of its saving, uplifting power. We have the Gospel. Can we withhold it from the world, and still have it? The world needs the light. They who have the Gospel, have the light. Can we keep it to ourselves, and still have it?—Clearly, no.

The duty of the followers of Christ to the idol-stricken world is plainly set forth in the Gospel message itself. That Gospel is a pure, living, flowing stream. Stagnant water is never pure. If we accept the Gospel, and then seek to hold it to ourselves, it is no longer the water of life, and we who so hold it, make of ourselves stagnant pools, instead of living fountains. The condition of the world to-day is appealing to the Christian, stronger than any words can do, for that help which can come to it only through the Gospel. The salt that will

not do its allotted work will very soon lose its savor, soon be worthless. While the world is appealing for the Gospel, they who have it must give it, or its possession will soon mean to them nothing but an empty form, a lifeless husk.