We are to emit light for others to see by; and it is that they may see our good works. All Christians perform good works. They are all of them doers. They are the most practical men in the world, though regarded by many as visionaries. There are, to be sure, speculators and theorists enough in the church, but real Christians are working-men. But what is the use in our good works being seen? Why is it not enough that they be done? Does not humility dictate that they should be concealed, rather than exposed? The thing is impracticable. “A city that is set on a hill, cannot be hid." Were the thing possible, the attempt at concealment might be proper enough, if there were no others to be influenced by the sight of our good works. Whether a candle in an uninhabited house be on a candlestick or under a bushel, is a matter of little consequence; but not so if there be people in the house. The Christian's good works are to be visible; not that he may be applauded for them, but that men may thence be led to glorify God. Now, a question. Do we shine? And by the light which we evolve, do observers see our good works? Have we any good works for them to see? And are they such good works as, seeing, they will instinctively refer to the grace of God as their cause, and so be led to glorify him? We are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that we should show forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light.

I would not have any one suppose that a Christian is to make an effort to let his good works be seen to be

ostentatious of them. No, he is only to let his light shine. He is active in doing good works, but quite passive in showing them. A luminous body makes no effort in emitting light. Indeed, it cannot help shining. A Christian has only, in all his intercourse with men, to act out the Christian spirit, and be governed by the fear of God and the principles of his holy religion, and the thing is done. The light is emitted, and the good works are seen. And this is the way, under God, to commend truth to the conscience, to reach the hearts of men, and make converts to God. Yes, this is the way. "Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that whereas they may speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." Another question. Is this what we are doing-shining so that men, knowing we profess the religion of Jesus, see, in looking at us, how pure, lovely, excellent, and divine a religion it is, and are led to say, "Verily it must be from God, and we must embrace it too-we will be Christians?"

The other object for which Christians shine, is to enlighten others. But on this I cannot now enlarge. Only this I would observe. See how far Christians shine. They do not merely illumine some little sphere. They are the light of the world. Their influence reaches to the ends of the earth.

Would we make good our Saviour's assertion with respect to ourselves, would we be the light of the world, let us first take heed that the light which is in us be not darkness; and let us next have a care that our light

make discovery to others of good works. Let us do them. Then, as for those who see us, it is their fault, not ours, if they are not converted. And as for those who are too far off to see us, it only remains that we carry them the light, or send it to them.

THE SALT OF THE EARTH.

HERE is something else which Christians are. All that they are cannot be told in a single sentence. It requires many. Some content themselves with a partial representation of the Christian character. But the proper plan is to bring together all the Bible has to say about it, and then aptly to arrange the parts so as to present a full and perfect delineation. Many seem to think that every definition of religion in the Bible is intended to exhaust the subject. It is a great mistake, and one which, 1 fear, is fatal to many.

Christians are the light of the world, as has been already said. But this is not all they are, they are also “the salt of the earth," and the same individuals are both these; they do not merely shine for the benefit of the world—they act upon it in another, more immediate, and more energetic manner: they are not merely light to it, but salt to it also. They preserve it.

Here let me remark what a useful people Christians are. What are more useful, I may say indispensable, than light and salt? How could we get along at all without them? Well, Christians are these to the moral

world. They enlighten it. They discover moral excellence to it. Yea, they preserve it from perishing. The world would not keep but for Christians. They are the salt of the earth. How soon Sodom was destroyed after Lot left it. He was the salt of Sodom. That one good man saved the city while he remained in it; and if there had been nine more, they might all have remained, and Sodom should have been spared. Well may I say, how useful Christians are to their fellow-creatures. And I may add, how variously useful they are. If they were merely light to the world, they could be very useful, but they are also salt to it.

Moreover, what a disinterested people Christians are. It is not to themselves mainly that they are so useful, but to others. Not a man of them liveth to himself. Light shines not for its own advantage, and salt exists wholly for the benefit of other substances; and how completely it spends itself on them, and loses itself in them. Such are Christians. They please not themselves. They seek not their own. This is what we are, if we are Christians.

And now I have another grave reflection to make. How different Christians are from the residue of men! How very unlike them! Others are not the light of the world, and the salt of the earth. No, they are the world-the persons that require the light—the dark objects. They are the earth, which needs the salt for its preservation. They are the corrupt mass. Now, light is very unlike the objects it illumines, and salt very unlike the substance it preserves or seasons.

If it were not, it would not at all answer the purpose intended by its application. Well, just as unlike other men, unregenerate men, the men of the world, are Christians as unlike as are light and the world, or salt and the earth. But some say this is figurative language. What if it is? Figures mean something. They mean as much as literal phraseology. And the meaning of figures is as easily gained as that of any other kind of language. But St. John speaks on this subject without a figure, and he employs one of the strongest and most striking expressions I have ever read. To many ears, it does not sound at all charitable. He says, speaking in the name of Christians, "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness;" or, to translate the original more literally, and to make the contrast still more striking, in the wicked one. This is his account of the difference between Christians and others. Christians are of God; all other men are in the wicked one. Nor is it wonderful that Christians are so very different from others, when we consider that they become such by being created anew in Christ Jesus. Such a work of God upon them must needs make them very unlike those who are not the subjects of it. Creation makes a vast difference in things. The first creation did. The second does also. The new creature differs widely from the mere creature. The Christian is eminently distinguished from the

man.

Christians are exhorted not to be conformed to the world. It would seem impossible that real Christians