they have is present as well as future: this earth, as well as the promised Canaan, yields to the meek,—as in Joseph, and in Moses, and in David. They have food enough and raiment; their failings are mercifully and not extremely looked upon; they have peace in themselves, and with their neighbours. Seeing then that we have these rewards and hopes, let us receive this new and spiritual law, which Christ teaches us from his throne on the mount, and enrol ourselves as his faithful servants and subjects, and enter into his kingdom. HOMILY X. MATTHEW V. 13-16. 13. Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. 14. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. IT had been said in the prophets, "Sion shall be plowed as a field." The mountain or church of God, which the whole earth was to become, must first be ploughed up again, and sowed with a fresh seed, before it could bring forth such fruit that it might be worthy to be called God's field, his Mount Carmel, his wellwatered Paradise in Eden, his beloved and fruitful vineyard. The world at our Lord's : coming was in urgent need of a fresh culture. Part of it was effete and lay fallow, acknowledging its own unprofitableness and exhaustion, as in those who had built an altar with the inscription, "To the unknown God." Part of it was overgrown and rank with weeds, which thickly occupied it, and required to be eradicated before any profitable seed could be thrown in such were the Pharisees. Our Saviour Jesus Christ came to be our husbandman; to plough, and to sow, and to water, this wilderness of misculture and unprofitableness, and to make it fit for fruit and profitable production, to be gathered in the harvest at his second coming. Now the seed is the word of God. He that soweth the seed is the Son of Man. And the seed is sowed in all grounds: some of which are unprofitable at first, and some are fertile and productive; but all need and must receive the advantages of good culture and labour, to make them good and fruitful if they will. When the land is ploughed and prepared for the seed, then the manure is to be spread over it, and mixed with it, to make the seed spring up, and grow with vigour. Our Lord tells his Ye are disciples that they are this manure. the salt of the earth. Salt of various kinds is useful, and healthy, and palateable to be mixed with the food of man and with the food of animals; it is healthy, also, and invigorating, when used to season the food of vegetables, which is in the soil, and is a nourisher of their growth. Our Lord had just begun to sow the seed, of which He speaks in the parable of the sower; and the first precepts of his Sermon on the Mount, which immediately preceded, Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are the meek; blessed are the pure in heart, these are the first grains of the seed which he came to sow; and he tells his disciples that they must manure them with their savour. Salt is good: but if the salt hath lost its savour, wherewith shall the earth be salted: such salt is only fit for the dunghill. And what is this savour which the salt of Christ's disciples ought to have? The Mosaic law prescribed to them, Offer not the blood of my sacrifice with leaven: Let every sacrifice be salted with salt. What is the meaning of leaven, but worldliness and selfishness what is the meaning of salt, but the opposite, self-denial, the renouncing of the world, and making the treasure of our hearts in heaven, and everlasting friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. David said, I will not offer sacrifices to my God of that which doth cost me nothing; and he insisted on purchasing Ornan's threshing-floor, for the foundation of God's altar, with money. So we come with our offering, however large or small, to the altar of Christ's sacrament; but the purest offering is that of self-denial, and forgiveness of injuries, and good will to all men, with humility and purity, and perfect charity. These are the self-denying graces taught by our Saviour in the foregoing verses of his Sermon on the Mount, which if his disciples cultivate and practise, then they will be a true and fertilizing salt, giving savour to the earth. Our Lord next says to his disciples, Ye are the light of the world. And again, after the parable of the sower, to which we have referred, he says, in like manner, No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it under a bushel. As the first precepts of our Lord's sermon would make his disciples, if they practised them, the salt of the earth, so our Lord's |