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These verses have been the subject of much controversy. They are obscure and difficult'; but the context is of great assistance, and a uniform interpretation of the term "salted" in the first and second clauses of ver. 50 will do much to remove the hindrances in the way of construing them together. Manuscript authority is not strong enough to compel the rejection of either clause, although our revisers have omitted the latter. Everything turns upon the sense given to "salted." It is evidently "purified," "preserved from corruption," in the second clause. So ought it to be understood in the first. "Consumed "is a sense implied in the sense "purified," and secondary to it. The whole emphasis of the passage is thus in favor of Christian purification. Again, the second clause of ver. 50 does not appear to have been quoted merely in confirmatory or illustrative allusion, but as a statement of the consequence which will flow from the first; the conjunction having a slightly illative force.

I. HOW SPIRITUAL PURITY IS PRODUCED AND SUSTAINED, 1, "With fire:" a figurative term, relating itself to the fire that is not quenched of the preceding passage, and the description of the baptism of the Holy Ghost (Matthew 3:11, 12). "Even when manifested in its most awful forms, it is still true that they who 'walk righteously and speak uprightly' may dwell with 'everlasting burnings" (Plumptre). "Thy God is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24); and that to the evil in his people, as well as that out of which they are taken. This may refer

(1) to the general spiritual experience of the child of God as subject to the influences of the Holy Spirit;

(2) to Divine chastisement;

(3) to "the spirit to which our Savior refers in vers. 43-48, the spirit that parts, for righteousness sake, with a hand, a foot, an eye (Morison). It is an alternative fire," "which indeed scorches the sensibility to agony, but which in the end consumes only what is bad, and leaves the soul freed from those moral combustibles on which the penal fire of Gehenna could feed." "He is preserved from corruption, and consequent everlasting destruction, by the fire of unsparing self-sacrifice (ibid.).

2. This is the universal experience of true. Christians. Because it is essential to the Divine life in the soul, if indeed it be not rather identical with it. Have we endured this scourging," without which no son is received by our Father? Is this our spirit? Herein we can examine ourselves.

II. ITS INFLUENCE. It affects:

1. Christians

(1) individually;

(2) collectively. Have suit in yourselves, and be at peace one with another. Purity of aim and spirit will obviate misunderstandings, and allay bitternesses between true believers.

2. Their sacrifices. It is in a sense the spirit of Christ's sacrifice communicated to theirs. As it was a law of the Levitical code that "every sacrifice should be salted with salt," so it is a law of the spiritual life, fulfilled through the spirit of self-sacrifice communicated to the particular act and object of sacrifice. This applies to the whole outcome and expression of the spiritual life of the children of God, their thought, word, action, as well as to their gifts to the cause of Christ.

3. The general life of the world. "Ye are the salt of the earth." An indirect and incomplete, but still a positive blessing to the world of the unconverted. For this constant renewals of grace are required, from a source independent of ourselves. Watchfulness, prayer, ceaseless self-sacrifice in the spirit of Christ. - M.

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KJV: For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.

WEB: For everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.