A Good Biting Word

C. T. Studd, the brave and daring British missionary to Africa of long ago, wrote the following challenge, “Heroism is the lost chord, the missing note of present-day Christianity. Had we the pluck and heroism of the flyers, or the men who volunteered for the North and South Polar expeditions, or for the Great War, or for any ordinary daredevil enterprise, we could have every soul on earth knowing the name of and salvation of Jesus Christ in less than ten years.”¹

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (Matthew 5:13, New International Version).

“Men and women are of no use to Me, said Jesus, unless they have the true property of salt. A Scotch version renders that, ‘If it has lost its tang.’ ‘Tang’ is a good biting word. People who look upon Christianity as something pleasant and easy, have no tang, no bite, no aseptic influence in the world, nothing to stop the spread of corruption.”²