And yet with wondrous patience He puts up with a great deal of salt that
seems to have nearly reached the utterly saltless stage, hoping to get rid
of the unsaltiness, and then to give it a new saltiness. For, be it keenly
marked, when the saltiness has quite gone out of the salt, when the
preservative quality has quite gone out from that body of people which He
has placed in the world as its moral preservative,--then look out. Aye,
"look up,"[48] for that's the only direction from which any help can
relieve the desperateness of the situation. And "lift up your heads," for
then comes a new preservative to the rotting earth-life. But some of us
will smell the smell of the decay before the new salt begins to work.



The Thing in Us That Wants Things.


It was along toward that tragic end, when the tension was tightening up to
the snapping point, the bitter hatred of the leaders yet more bitter, the
crowds yet denser, the terms of discipleship yet more plainly put with
loving, faithful plainness, that a characteristic incident happened.[49] A
young man of gentle blood and breeding, and influential position, came
eagerly, courteously elbowing his way through the crowd that gathered
thick about. Our Lord had just risen from where He had been sitting
teaching, when this young man, in his eagerness, came running to Him. With
deep reverence of spirit he knelt down in the road, and began asking about
the true life, the secret of living it. Our Lord begins talking about
being true in all his dealings with his fellow-men. The young man
earnestly assured Him that he had paid great attention to this, and felt
that there was nothing lacking in him on this score. The utter sincerity
and earnestness of his spirit was so clear that the Master's love was