fire. We are here forewarned, that every one of the people of God shall be purified by trial, and kept from corruption by affliction. Fire is the emblem of affliction; and salt of purification. To be salted, is to be preserved from spiritual decay to be salted with fire, is to be preserved from such decay by a process like that of the refiner's furnace. We know by experience that the effect of fiery trial often is to purify. Even when purification seems hardly needed, its effect is to strengthen the Christian character. But it is commonly needed, to refine: to carry off the earthly mixture which adheres even to the sincere Christian to wean his affections more completely from things below: to show him the worthlessness of all that belongs to this present world: to subdue his remaining pride of heart: to draw him closer to God here, before he enters into his everlasting kingdom. St. Paul describes the process, saying, "Tribulation worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience hope." Patience, and experience, and hope, are the seasoning of the Christian's heart; and these, as we know from observation, and are here assured by St. Paul, these are strengthened and confirmed by the fire of tribulation.

1

The Lord proceeds farther, to say, Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. This introduces a new idea, a third metaphor, taken from the worship of the Jews. A sacrifice is an offering made to God. These sacrifices were 1 1 Rom. v. 3, 4.

2

were required by the law of Moses. "An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen." Unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to put His name there, thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks."3

With such sacrifices God was well pleased, whilst the law remained in force, and the shadows prefigured the reality which was to come: the typical victim represented "the Lamb of God," who "by His one offering of Himself once offered, made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world."

But when the law, being fulfilled, had now "vanished away," the sacrifice was to be of another kind. It was the man himself, who being "reconciled to God through the blood of the everlasting covenant," was devoted to him, and was now required to present himself, his soul and body, "a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable unto God." But like the animal sacrifices of the law, he too must be purified. The law required that the victim should be pure and without blemish and that it might be preserved from any approach towards corruption, a strict command was given, being rendered necessary by the climate of Judea, "Every oblation of thy meat

2 Ex. xx. 24.

Deut. xii. 6.

Rom. xii. 1.

offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking for the meat offering. With all thy sacrifices thou shalt offer salt." To the typical sacrifice, therefore, salt was indispensable, that it might be pure and uncorrupt. And so the spiritual sacrifice, the Christian heart, must be salted with salt; secured from corruption by that which has the power of preserving it; by that which is to the spiritual part of man, what salt is to the animal substance, and keeps it from decay.

That which does thus preserve the Christian, is his faith. Faith is to him, what salt was to the sacrifice: it "purifies his heart" through the power of the Holy Ghost," and makes him fit for the service to which he is dedicated. So seasoned, so preserved, he is able to sustain the heat of temptation, and to come out entire and unimpaired from the fire of persecution. If it were not so, there would be proof against him that his faith were not that true and genuine faith with which every sacrifice must be salted that it may be "accepted of God."

What therefore we learn from this difficult but instructive sentence, is, that if trials come upon us, they are not to be looked upon "as a strange thing," but expected: and that they may even be so severe, as to be properly compared to a furnace of fire. There have been many periods in the history of the Church, when this prediction has • Acts xv. 9.

5 Lev. ii. 13.

proved literally and exactly true: when they who have resolutely "kept the faith, and could not be turned from their stedfastness," have been torn from their families and homes, have "had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection."

We are likewise taught that the Christian must be endued with a quality which may enable him to withstand these trials, and preserve him from the destruction which they would otherwise bring upon him: even that quality which has "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword," turned fear into confidence and weakness into strength: that taith which is the "substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.'

LECTURE XXXIV.

PARABLE OF THE REBELLIOUS HUSBANDMEN.

MARK Xii. 1-12,

(Matt. xxi. 23-46. Luke xx. 9-18.)

1. "And He began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.

2. "And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard.

3. "And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty.

4. "And again he sent unto them another; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled.

5. "And again he sent another: and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some."

WHEN the owner of uncultivated ground reclaims it and prepares it for the use of the husbandman, his object is, to receive a portion of the returns; his share of the produce, or its value. This parable compares the design of God, in revealing Himself to the Jewish nation, with the design of the owner of uncultivated land. He had "showed them what is good;" He had given them means and encouragements for performing it: and He required of them to "do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk