salt; this salt enters into and impregnates with its healing virtues all the other doctrines and knowledges existing in our minds, and there is no more death or barrenness in us. How expressive, when rightly understood, are the Lord's words, "Have salt in yourselves, and have love one to another.
September Eighth.
JESUS CHRIST, THE FIRST AND THE LAST.
"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end."—Rev. xxi. 6.
OUR great Redeemer makes Himself known to us in every conceivable way, as the true God. He does so that He may reach the minds of all His creatures, who being variously constituted, require to behold Him through the medium best suited to their apprehension, and best adapted to promote, advance, and secure their happiness. But to all He must be the First and the Last, the Almighty; and all must seek Him first, both in the order of time and in the order of importance, if they would secure His aid and His guidance through life. They must see Him in every act of charity, in every principle of faith, in every truth of doctrine; He must be viewed above all, through all, and in all. He is the very essential good. It is His first principle; it is, so to speak, the very esse of His being. God is Love! And where has love been so marvelously displayed, as in the dealings of our gracious Redeemer and Saviour, towards the creatures who, but for His love and His pity, would have been irretrievably lost?
