“YE are the salt of the earth.” So said Jesus Christ to his followers, and the words remain true of his followers to-day. That is to say, the followers of Christ—Christians—are the preservers of the earth.
They are the preservers of the earth because they are Christians. And Christians are not of this earth, but have been “born from above.” They are in the world, but not of the world. They have been “called out” from that which is of the world. Christ has chosen them out of the world, and the world recognizes this fact by hating them. John 15:19.
Christians therefore are the preservers of the world by being unlike the world. They are the “salt of the earth” by being unlike the world in which they are, even as salt is unlike that in which it is placed.
But to this statement that Christians are the salt of the earth, the Saviour added: “but if the salt have lost its 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.
If the salt loses its taste, so that its presence in the food cannot be distinguished, it is good for nothing; it will neither season anything nor preserve it. And if [130] Christians, in the world, become conformed to the world, they are good for nothing as preservers of the world.
And now for years it has stood forth as a fact before all the people, and one becoming ever more prominent, that those who profess to be follower of Christ, the members of the churches, are combining into organizations to work by political methods for the salvation of the state. Through methods which are of the world, and in the use of which they must be identified with the world, they propose to work for the preservation of the world.
While the Word of God which they profess to believe says that the world is preserved only by that which is unlike the world, they propose to preserve it only by that which is like the world.
It is perfectly plain, therefore, that as certainly as the words of Christ are true, the Christians Citizenship and kindred organizations who are working to get control of the popular ballot and to shape legislation, for the preservation of the state, in these very things are working directly for the destruction of the state. In just so far as they make use of these methods they become identified with the world and lose their identity as Christians; for as Christians, they are to pursue methods of work for the uplifting of mankind which rest not upon the power and wisdom of man, but of God; not upon the power of law, but of love.
Why cannot Christians see that in their Christianity—their separation from the world, their nonconformity to it, their very lack of identity with it in anything—lies the only guaranty of the world’s preservation?