A FATHER said to his daughter she was “not worth her salt.” The next day the daughter told the cook not to put any salt in anything to send the dinner in without salt, and put no salt on the table. So dinner time came, but all was saltless, and hence tasteless. Its value was found out by its absence. “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 under foot of men” (Matt. 5:1313Ye 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 under foot of men. (Matthew 5:13)).
The little maid in Naaman’s house was the one that made God and His prophet known, and her master was saved by the word dropped to her mistress. Like salt, it might seem a poor thing, but it had its effect.
“Bring a new cruse and put salt therein,” said Elisha to the men of Jericho, when they spoke of the situation of their city being pleasant, but had to confess the water was naught, and the ground barren. Like this world, the pleasures of sin are for a season, but all ends in death.
There has to be a new beginning. Everyone must be “born again,” or “born anew,” as the blessed Lord said to the great teacher in Israel in John 3. “If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation.” “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” “Henceforth we know no man after the flesh.” The old bottle of Judaism will not do for the new wine of sovereign grace. It was a new cruse the salt was to be put in. Truth apart from the work of God in the soul is like putting salt on bad fish or meat—it will never make it better.
Salt keeps a good article. When the salt out of the new cruse was cast into the springs of water, they were healed. Death and barrenness simply declare man’s condition in nature.
If you will read 1 Peter 1:18-25,18Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. 22Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 23Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 24For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:18‑25) you will see how the new cruse is found― “Ye must be born again”―or never enter heaven, for only newborn, and blood-washed ones are there. 2 Peter 1 tells us how the salt out of the new cruse affects the springs of water― “For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
I have just been trying to spell salt in connection with salvation―
It is said of Timothy, that from a child he knew the Scriptures, “which are able to make thee wise unto salvation”; but notice how one gets it, where salvation is “through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” Jonah had to confess “salvation is of the Lord,” and at once he was on the dry ground, saved. He tells us all he passed through, down at the bottom of the sea, with weeds about his head. But he fainted, and, when his strength was gone He trusted another.
Now is the time to get this salvation. Judgment is near, as we see in 2 Peter 3. Repentance is what God looks for from you. “God is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,” and we are so to account God keeping back the judgment, and meantime He delights in mercy. Hence He says “Look unto me, and be saved,” i.e., take salvation from me. The gospel not only shows what you escape, and are saved from; but “the cup of salvation” tells us of something to take in, something to drink in, even fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore. The believing soul says, “I will take the cup of salvation,” and call on the name of the Lord.
But if through indifference and unbelief you do not take that cup, of another cup, you will yet have to drink. “Upon the wicked he shall rain quick burning coals (margin), fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cap” (Psa. 11:66Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. (Psalm 11:6)). “Remember Lot’s wife.” She looked back, and “became a pillar of salt.” “And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt” (Mark 9:47-4947And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: 48Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 49For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. (Mark 9:47‑49)).
“Salvation! Oh, salvation!
Endearing, precious sound!
Shout, shout the word ‘Salvation!’
To earth’s remotest bound:
Salvation for the guilty,
Salvation for the lost,
Salvation for the wretched,
The sad, and sorrow-tossed.
This good gift unto us
Is sent from heaven above;
Then praise the Lord! O praise the Lord!
For all His love.”