Conversing with his disciples shortly after the transfiguration, Christ Jesus gave them a valuable recipe for harmonious living. He said to them, as recorded in Mark (9:50), "Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another." If there is one thing above all else which mankind need and desire today it is to "have peace one with another." The Master's recommendation for bringing this about employs language somewhat strange to modern ears, but the admonition to have salt in ourselves is found to have a most practical and potent significance when the origin of the expression is examined.
The use of salt, both in the savoring of the food of men and beasts and as an ingredient in sacrificial offerings, is recorded in the Old Testament a number of times. Levitical law required, "Every oblation of thy meat offering 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" (Lev. 2:13). Salt, therefore, to the Hebrews was an indispensable part of their sacrificial rites. It served as a preservative to prevent pollution and decay. Its use ensured that every offering was laid before God without semblance of impurity or contamination. Thus salt came to be regarded as a symbol of durability and purity and when eaten with bread betokened a motive and intent of utmost integrity. The "covenant of salt" observed by the ancients constituted an assurance that hypocrisy and duplicity had been purged from the proceedings and that the utmost reliance could be placed upon whatever agreement was thus solemnized.
Christ Jesus and his disciples were familiar with the Levitical law and the symbolic significance of its many requirements. Their journeys led them often near the shores of the Dead Sea, the source of the salt which had been used by priest and penitent throughout many earlier generations. So when their great Teacher made reference to salt, as he frequently did, the lessons he taught were of lasting value to his disciples. The passage in which this article finds its title can be, and has been, of wholesome value to present-day disciples of the Christ. Christian Scientists understand what is meant by the injunction, "Have salt in yourselves," and they have learned to expect that obedience to this demand will bring them into a state of "peace one with another."
