WORDS WORD by Charles L. Feinberg, Th.D., Ph.D. Director, Talbot Theological Seminary S a l t from the
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STATE OF ISRAEL AND THE JEWS TODAY Prophetic significance of present develop ments in Palestine. Revised, up-to-date edi tion. 64 pages, 29 illust., 35c. GOG— ALL AGOG RUSSIA Sets the Stage for Conflict. PALES TINE the Cockpit of a World Struggle. Cur rent News in tne Light of Ezekiel 38. 40. pp. Up-to-date Edition. 25c, postpaid. IS OURS THE CLOSING GENERATION? THE sign of the end of the age? Relation of Current Events to Mt. 24. 40 pp. 25c. THE JEWS AND ARMAGEDDON Why will all Nations gather against Jerusa lem? What is the final outcome? The relation of CURRENT NEWS to COMING EVENTS in light of Prophecy. 40 pp. 25c. JACOB'S TROUBLE Why the Nation's Anguish? When the De liverance? What the Outcome? 24 pp, 15c. A MODERN JONAH Current Events in the Light of the Prophecy of Jonah. 32 pp. 25 cents, postpaid. WATCHMEN Upon the Walls of Jerusalem A challenging Message in behalf of Jewish Evangelization. 24 pp. 10c. THE JORDAN RIVER A Typological Study, a Revelation of Imman uel in Immanuel's Land. 24 pp. 10c. A GUEST IN A PALESTINE HOME An Exposition of Rev. 3:20 with Illustrations from Oriental customs. 24 pp. 10c. Handbook of Practical Aids for WITNESSING TO JEWS Desgined to help Christians witness effective ly to Jews of their own neighborhood. Order for pastor, friends, and study groups. "In tensely practical," says Torrey Johnson. "Shows exactly how," says Keith Brooks. 96 pp., cloth board covers, $1. (In paper, 50c.) Total: $2.80, But:— ALL TEN BOOKS— $2.50, (postpaid). CHICAGO HEBREW MISSION (or $2.00 if paper bound Witnessing to Jews is chosen) 818 Independence Blvd., Chicago 24, III. W om en 's Christian Medical College Ludhiana, India Training young Indian Women to become doctors, nurses, dispensers, mid - wives The new Government of India is demanding an upgrading of this medical college by 1953. If this is not done it will mean that this sound, evangelical work of over fifty years will be cur tailed. We need funds AT ONCE for equipment, scholarships, our Surgeon's salary. Miss Lucy Powel, Sec.-Treas., R3, Norristown, Pa.
M y interest in salt dates from my childhood days. In the orthodox Jewish home in which I was reared, it was not uncommon for me to hear my father — when salt had not been placed on the table by oversight — call for “melah, me- lah” (Hebrew for “ salt” ) before he would say the blessing for the bread. The necessity of salt was thus re peatedly impressed upon the mind. Later it was learned that the rabbis, with the Old Testament sacrifices in mind, had recommended that the blessings at meals should not be recited without salt. The Hebrew word for salt is melah and the Greek word is halas (from which comes the word “ halite” for rock salt). There are more than two- score passages on salt in the Bible. A wide variety of uses for this sim ple word is to be found in these references. It would indeed be dif ficult to overestimate the importance of this commodity of everyday life. A sixteenth century writer com pared salt to earth, air, fire, and water, calling it the fifth element because of its importance to life. Thomas Jefferson said: “ Salt is a necessary of life.” All man’s food is produced by nature from plant and animal life, except salt. Serious reactions result from the lack of salt in human diet. Experiments with rabbits recently showed that when salt was withheld from their food, they became ner vous in the first few days. Later paralysis resulted and ultimately death. Cattle deprived of salt ulti mately become sterile. Medically, in the absence of blood for trans fusion, a weak salt solution is given, because salt is an important com ponent of blood. Murders have been committed for salt, and wars have been fought over salt. Salt has not only been used for the living, but for the dead as well. The Egyptians used it in their embalming. The old Russians put a bit of salt in the coffins of the dead to indicate the incorruptibility of the human spirit. The same was done by the Scotch long ago. Numerous places in different lands have been named after salt. A throughfare in Rome is called Via Salaria. In the Holy Land we find the Salt (Dead) Sea. In our country we have Salina, N.Y. and Kansas; Salinas, California; Saline in Arkan sas, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, and
Nebraska; Salineville, Ohio; Saltvale, N.Y.; Saltville, Va.; Salt Lake City and Saltair, Utah; and Grand Saline, Texas (where we have visited one of the greatest salt mines in the world). Italy has its Salina, Mexico has its Salina Cruz, and Ecuador has its Salinas. Because Roman soldiers received their wages in salt, we got our word “ salary” for wages. When a work man is “ not worth his salt,” he de serves no remuneration. In our country we speak of a lively and witty guest as “ the life of the party.” The Arabs say, “ He is the salt of the party.” In Palestine salt was obtained from the hill Jebel Usdum (Arabic for Mount of Sodom) at the southern end of the Dead Sea. This hill is 10 miles long and almost wholly of rock salt. (See Genesis 19:26.) Salt was also procured by the evaporation of the waters of the Dead Sea. He brews always called it (and do to day) the “ Salt Sea,” but the Greeks named it the “ Dead Sea,” because of the absence of all marine life. The Sea is 340 square miles in area and contains 11,400 million tons of salt. The Jordan River gives 850,000 tons of salt annually to the Dead Sea. In Biblical times, as now, salt was used in the home for seasoning. Job 6:6 mentions it, and the saltiness of salt is commented on by our Lord Jesus in Mark 9:50. Salt cannot be salted, because it is that preservative principle itself; when it is gone, it cannot be replaced. When it has lost its taste, which can be done through excessive impurities, it can not be used like other refuse- as a fertilizer. It is good for nothing. (Matt. 5:13; Luke 14:34, 35.) From this physical fact spiritual truth is drawn for believers. In our spiritual lives we are to be rightly seasoned, as it were, so that harmony can pre vail among the children of God (Mark 9:50), and to this end pleasant and wise speech is absolutely essen tial (Col. 4:6). But the right propor tion must always prevail. It is well- known that, because too much salt destroys vegetation, it has become a symbol of death and destruction. A salty land is a barren and unfruit ful land. (Deut. 29:23; Job 39:6; Psa. 107:34; and Jer. 17:6.) To sow a city with salt meant to doom it to perpetual desolation. Judges 9:45 CON TINUED ►
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