s to me just one solitary
flower testifying to the presence in the gospels of Matthew and Luke of
the same root of thought and feeling which everywhere blossoms in that
of John. It looks as if it had crept out of the fourth gospel into the
first and third, and seems a true sign, though no proof, that, however
much the fourth be unlike the other gospels, they have all the same
origin. Some disciple was able to remember one such word of which the
promised comforter brought many to the remembrance of John. I do not see
how the more phenomenal gospels are ever to be understood, save through
a right perception of the relation in which the Lord stands to his
father, which relation is the main subject of the gospel according to St
John.

As to the loving cry of the great brother to the whole weary world
which Matthew alone has set down, I seem aware of a certain
indescribable individuality in its tone, distinguishing it from all his
other sayings on record.

Those who come at the call of the Lord, and take the rest he offers
them, learning of him, and bearing the yoke of the Father, are the salt
of the earth, the light of the world.

_THE SALT AND THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD._

'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. Ye are the light of
the world. A city that is set on an hill, cannot be hid. 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. Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father
which is in heaven.'--_Matthew_ v. 3--16.

The Lord knew these men, and had their hearts in his hand; else would he
have told them they were the salt of the earth and the light of the
world? They were in danger, it is true, of pluming themselves on what he
had said of them, of taking their importance to their own credit, and
seeing themselves other than God saw them. Yet the Lord does not
hesitate to call his few humble disciples the salt of the earth; and
every century since has borne witness that such indeed they were--that
he spoke of them but the simple fact. Where would the world be now but
for their salt and their light! The world that knows neither their salt
nor their light may imagine itself now at least greatly retarded by the
long-drawn survival o