The parable of The Talents has shamed a multitude into activity, while
the parable of The Vineyard has been an encouragement to those who have
neglected early calls to service. He used the great preservative, salt,
to illustrate the saving influence His followers would exert on society
and warned them not to lose this quality. He likened them to a city set
on a hill and to the light that illumines the entire house.

Christ gave the world a philosophy that fits into every human need; He
sounded all the depths. In the first and third of the Beatitudes He
exalts humility--a virtue difficult to cultivate, and even to retain
after one has cultivated it. Some one has suggested that pride is
such an insidious sin that the humble sometimes become proud of their
humility. Christ sets two prizes before the humble--the poor in spirit
are to have the Kingdom of Heaven for their recompense while the meek
are to be given the earth for their inheritance.

The mourners are to be comforted and the merciful are to obtain mercy.
Righteousness is to be the reward of those who hunger and thirst
after it, and the peacemakers are to be crowned with one of the most
honourable of appellations, the children of God.

He devotes double space to those who are reviled and persecuted for His
sake, foreseeing the fierce opposition which His Gospel would arouse. In
the study of the Beatitudes one Sunday, I asked the members of an adult
class which they considered first in importance. Although there was
quite a wide difference in preference, the Sixth, "Blessed are the pure
in heart, for they shall see God," received the highest vote. And what
can be more important than the cleansing of the heart of all that
obstructs one's view of God? The Creator is equally near to all His
creatures--He is no respecter of persons. It is man's fault if he allows