the call came to them from a promising or unpromising field, on
them rested the duty of responding. In the great Sermon on the Mount,
our Lord, after finishing with his gentle and sweet benedictions,
abruptly turned and, with changed tone and impressive words, said to his
disciples, "Ye are the salt of the earth." On you rests the obligation
of becoming the conservative element in society. Confronting as they did
a decadent civilization and a vanishing religious faith and a general
heart-despair, they were to be the saviors of men. Pungent and
preservative as salt, are ye to be in the midst of a putrid age. Few,
too, as they were in numbers, and without honor as well, yet they were
to be the light of the world. On their luminousness depended their power
to influence. The radiancy of their life and teaching was to penetrate
the surrounding gloom. Later on follows the divine imperative to "Go
forth and disciple all nations."

However unfavorable the outlook, however inadequate they seemed for the
undertaking, they were to attempt what was enjoined. It lifted them to
an altitude never before reached, and made them conscious of a power
never before possessed.

This is the principle which we need to apply to the emergencies in which
we are called to act. We get from others what we tell them we expect.
There is something in human nature that likes to be trusted with
responsibility; something in us that responds to great occasions. You
remember when Nelson fought that pivotal naval engagement at Trafalgar
against the combined fleets of France and Spain, he gave to his command
as a motto to inspire them to do their best, "England expects every man
to do his duty." That brought every soldier and sailor under the eyes of
the country whose interests they were upholding, and nerved each one to
deeds of valor. It awakened a sense of responsibility and called forth
their noblest service. So our Lord seems to be saying to American
churches and to the constituency of this Society, "'Ye are the light of
the world.' On you depends the evangelization of these despised Chinese.
Treating them now contemptuously and now even brutally, ye are called to
be salt to them, thus saving them from moral deterioration, and
inoculating them with the spirit of the Gospel. Ye are to illuminate
them with the light you have to shed as followers of Christ, and the
responsibility is laid upon you to carry to them the principles of that
faith which has giv