SALT OUT OF THE SALTSHAKER

Salt that stays in the saltshaker has potential, but no actual power.  It must be applied to what it intends to season or preserve.  The preacher needs to spend some time in his study or he will have nothing to say, but if he does not get out among sinners, how can he reach them?  The words of Spurgeon here are a reminder of this.  But, if you empty the shaker, and fail to replenish the supply, then that is an error also.  When I read Spurgeon’s words here, I was reminded of a comment made by my old preaching professor—the late Kenneth Ridings.  He said, “The most spiritual thing you can do when you are tired is sleep!”  If we have no rest, we will have no potency when among men.  If we stay away from the people, we will not permeate the society.  Consider what Spurgeon said in this context:

When the mind gets fatigued and out of order, to rest it is no more idleness than sleep is idleness; and no man is called lazy for sleeping the proper time. It is far better to be industriously asleep than lazily awake. Be ready to do good even in your resting times and in your leisure hours; and so be really a minister, and there will be no need for you to proclaim that you are so. The Christian minister out of the pulpit should be a sociable man. He is not sent into the world to be a hermit, or a monk of La Trappe. It is not his vocation to stand on a pillar all day, above his fellow-men, like that hair-brained Simon Stylites of olden time. You are not to warble from the top of a tree, like an invisible nightingale; but to be a man among men, saying to them, "I also am as you are in all that relates to man." Salt is of no use in the box; it must be rubbed into the meat; and our personal influence must penetrate and season society. Keep aloof from others, and how can you benefit them? Our Master went to a wedding, and ate bread with publicans and sinners, and yet was far more pure than those sanctimonious Pharisees, whose glory was that they were separate from their fellow-men. (Lectures to My Students, Spurgeon, pp.167-168, Kindle Version).