SERMON XVII.

THE CONJUNCTION OF GOODNESS AND TRUTH.

"For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good; but if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another." MARK ix. 49, 50.

THIS is one of those passages of Scripture, which, in the letter alone, are difficult to be understood, and which seem to convey but little instruction to the reader. Yet it is a part of the Divine Word, and therefore must, when rightly understood, be full of truth spiritual and practical. A knowledge of the spiritual sense of the passage, as interpreted by the Science of Correspondences, will reveal to us that hidden truth.

Salt is often mentioned in Scripture, and always in such a manner as to show that it represents some principle which is of importance to man's spiritual welfare. Thus, among the laws regulating offerings and sacrifices, ordained for the Israelites, we find this command: "And every oblation of thy meatoffering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt

thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat-offering with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt."* Now, as all the Jewish offerings and sacrifices represented worship of the Lord, the salt which was required to be offered with them, plainly signified some quality or principle, absolutely necessary to true worship from the heart. So it is written in the Book of Kings,† that the prophet Elisha healed the waters of Jericho by casting into them salt; which miracle, like all the miracles recorded in the Divine Word, represented spiritual operations which take place in the mind of man.

Moreover, by considering the valuable properties of salt in the natural world, we may have reason to believe that it must represent some highly important principle in the world of mind. It is an element that pervades the material globe, and performs most important uses there. It is scattered through the earth, and fills the seas,-both fertilizes the ground, and keeps pure the waters of the ocean. Indeed, it is the great preservative in nature: its presence is a safeguard against taint and corruption. The animal creation, too, instinctively seek for it as an ingredient necessary to their health, and it is an indispensable means of giving a proper relish to the food of man.

A substance in nature of such universal utility and necessity, must-if it be a truth that the world of matter corresponds to the world of mind,-evidently represent some principle of very general and extensive †2 Kings ii. 19-22,

*Leviticus ii. 13.

influence and efficacy in the spirit and heart of man. The science of correspondences teaches what this principle is it is the conjunction of goodness and truthor rather, the desire for that conjunction. This it is which is represented by salt. Goodness and truth are the two great and universal principles, that give life to the spiritual world—to the mind of man; just as light and heat are the two grand elements that enliven the material world, and without which nothing animate can exist. But, it is to be observed, in order that these latter elements, heat and light, may produce their full effect in the natural world, they must be united if separated, they have little power. In winter, for instance, when the light is separated in a great degree from its partner, heat, and is, as it were, left alone,-nature lies dead; the earth is barren; vegetation perishes, or else hides itself in the ground, waiting for a happier season; man, too, and the whole animate creation suffer. But when the genial spring comes, and heat is conjoined again with light,-what striking effects are at once produced! what a change comes over the face of

nature! Where there was the barrenness of death

before, life and beauty now appear. The soft verdure shoots up from the earth, and covers the hillside and valley and plain; the gay flowers burst forth, and expand, and show their beautiful faces to men ; and the graver but more useful fruit-tree puts forth its blossoms, and prepares to sustain its precious burthen. The woods, too, resound with the merry song of birds; all nature is vocal, and seems to rejoice

in its new state. In the beautiful language of the Psalmist, "The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing." Man, too, feels the influence of the change; his heart is gladdened, his spirit lightened, and he rejoices, in unison with all created things.

Such are the wonderful effects produced by the single and apparently simple cause the union of light and heat. But these operations in the world

of nature are intended to represent correspondent and more important operations that take place in the world of mind. Heat and light correspond to goodness and truth. As it is with light separated from heat,-so, when truth is divorced from its proper partner, goodness, it is winter in the mind. of man. The intellect, indeed, is enlightened, but the heart is cold and dead; there is no warmth, no love for his fellow-man, no gratitude to his Maker. There is no expansion of soul, no free flow of affection, expressing itself in beaming looks and kindly words. Wrapped up in his own selfishness, such a man moves on his cold way, hard and unfeeling; there is brightness in the intellect, perhaps, a clear knowledge of truths and doctrines-but what will that avail him? it will serve only to light him to his doom: his condemnation must be the greater. "The servant that knows his lord's will, and does it not, shall be beaten with many stripes!"

But, now, let him resolve to change his course

* Luke xii. 47.

to become a good man, as well as an enlightened one ; let him resolve and strive to put in practice the truths he knows, the Divine commandments, by resisting his natural selfish and worldly inclinations, and striving to love the Lord above all things and his neighbor as himself;-in a word, let the warmth of love begin to join itself to the light of truth-and what a change will presently appear. New and heavenly life enters the soul. The soil of the mind, in which before the seeds of truth lay unproductive and barren, now begins to put forth-"first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." Pleasant thoughts and gentle affections spring up-beautiful flowers, which brighten and gladden the mind. And as correct principles and kind intentions are put forth more and more into life and act, fruits are produced, good fruits-upright and generous actions, benevolent deeds, and faithfulness, truthfulness, and charity, in all the uses and relations of life and with all these, a spirit of genuine piety and love to the Lord. Thus the mind becomes a fertile garden, a paradise, an Eden: heaven dwells there, and the Lord; for the Lord said, "If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”* And then will the mind be filled with blessedness; for where heaven and the Lord dwell, there cannot but be blessedness and peace for the Lord is the "Prince of Peace."

Such, then, are the effects of the union of spiritual heat and light-the conjunction of goodness and truth * John xiv. 23. S