It was to His disciples that Jesus said, “Ye are the salt of the earth.” Salt is a preservative. Were it not for the salt in the ocean, it would become stagnant, and conditions on land would be averse to human life. The Lord’s people are regarded as the salt of the earth because it is for their sake and the Gospel’s that men are spared at all in their sinfulness. This was shown in the case of Sodom, after it was condemned to overthrow. If ten righteous persons could have been found in the city, it would have been spared. This great fundamental truth is the Biblical answer to the fallacious National Reform theory that a nation is a moral person, that as a nation it sins aside from the sins of the people, and is spared because as a nation it repents, and as a nation its sins are forgiven. The truth is, the nations are spared because of the “salt” there is in them propagating the Gospel, seeking out the souls here and there that are susceptible to the truth. If national sins are separate from individual sins, and are forgiven by the Lord independent of individual sins, then why may not the nation be forgiven and saved independent of the moral condition of the individuals? Again, the forgiveness of sin means eternal salvation, if the pardoned subject endure to the end; so that, if the nation continue to do right unto the end, it would logically and justly be entitled to the endowment of immortality, without regard to the condition of the people as individuals. But what would a nation be without the individuals? The absurdity of this theory of national sin and national righteousness and national salvation is further shown in the assumption that national atonement for sin can be made with national law. According to the National Reform doctrine, the nation’s sins can be forgiven and the nation can be saved, if the government will enact such religious laws and perform such other religious acts as the “reformers” shall dictate. In other words, national salvation is by law and by works. This doctrine would have some foundation if it were recognized that the whole scheme of human nationality is secular, and therefore temporary. As such, its continuance and prosperity is dependent largely upon the justice and equity of its laws and practical policy. But when it is assumed that the nation, independent of the individuals composing the nation, is a moral person, having a conscience and moral responsibility, and commits sins just as individuals do, the absurdity is absolutely irrational. This demands an exercise of faith (or there could be no forgiveness of sin) on the part of the nation, and the National Reform theory would assume that this is possible, no matter what the people do; for they are depending upon this very thing to bring about the moral reformation of the people. The experiment of salvation by works, or by human law, was tried to the full by the Papacy, and the result was the Dark Ages. National Reform is only that experiment over again. Then the people, who composed the nations, were preserved, kept from utter destruction, by means of the “salt” that was sprinkled amongst them. Prophesying of that time, the Lord had said, “Except those days be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect’s sake, those days shall be shortened.” And the days of persecution were shortened by the Reformation, in order that the “salt” should not all be destroyed. The tendency of the national policy of civil-law religion then was to destroy the true people of God; and if that had been accomplished, if the “salt” had all been destroyed, then verily “no flesh” could have been saved; naturally it would have all gone to decay—just as Sodom fell the very day that Lot went out, and as Jerusalem was allowed to fall as soon as the disciples of Christ fled at the signal which the Lord had previously given them. See Matt. 24:15-20. When the spirit of church-and-state union crept into the ancient church, the “salt” began to lose its savor (Matt. 5:13), and the more the church depended upon the civil government for power, the more its saltness, or preserving quality, departed from it. So we see a like result to-day, as the so-called National Reform principle leavens the church and the government: “If the salt have lost its savor [the Holy Spirit], wherewith shall it be salted?” What can take its place? What can the church do without it? If the only recognized power and representative of Christ be gone, who can be saved? for the total departure of the Spirit makes the close of human probation. And what then shall become of the futile endeavors to save nations, or society, or even an individual, by any power of civil government? What will become of Caesar’s attempts to enforce the law of God, or of any other scheme of salvation by human works? Salvation is “not by [human] might, nor by [human] power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.”