Citations:salt

English citations of salt

Noun

			1678
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

• 1678 — John Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress.

  So he read it to his fellow; after which they both concluded that that was the pillar of salt into which Lot's wife was turned, for her looking back with a covetous heart, when she was going from Sodom for safety. [Gen. 19:26] Which sudden and amazing sight gave them occasion of this discourse.

  This woman escaped one judgment, for she fell not by the destruction of Sodom; yet she was destroyed by another, as we see she is turned into a pillar of salt.

Verb

• 1961, The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science:

  Varied and unrelenting efforts of operators and their allies, first to inhibit the formation of chartered mining companies, then to purge the County of their influence and salt the soil against their future reappearance, therefore continued unabated over subsequent years. Although politically Schuylkill was a Democratic stronghold, such measures as these, like the tariff or internal improvements, cut across political lines.

• 2012, Elizabeth Bear, Range of Ghosts, Tor Books (→ISBN), page 148:

  He licked his lips and lifted his chin, and for the first time she saw the raw, fresh scar across his throat and realized how he must have come by it. And that he would take what she had said as a personal judgment. “There were a lot of dead,” he said. “Do you have salt? We must salt the earth, the animals, ourselves. Our weapons—” “Of course,” she said, comprehending. And realizing that Tsering was watching them with a line of concentration drawn between her eyes, understanding ...

Verb: salt the earth (meant positively, in Christianity)

• 1996, Leadership Ministries Worldwide, Preacher's Outline & Sermon Bible-KJV-Matthew 1: Chapters 1-15, Leadership Ministries (→ISBN), page 69:

  “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest” (Jn.4:35). “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Ga.6:9). (5:13) Mission: the disciples' mission is to salt the earth. Note a critical point: believers are the salt of the earth, not of heaven. They can do nothing to salt heaven. They cannot penetrate, flavor, or preserve heaven.

• 2003, Viola Harvey Smith, So Be It, AuthorHouse (→ISBN), page 232:

  Christ is to speak through our lips, minister through our hands, walk to errands of mercy on our feet. The church is to make it possible for Christ to accomplish the building of His kingdom on earth. And what is the prime purpose of this organism ? First it is to salt the earth with the spirit of Christ. Salt gives taste and tang to the feast of life, and salt is a preventive as it stands in the way of rottenness and says, "You shall not pass." The church is the saving salt without which civilization rots.

• 2013, M. Scott Boren, Difference Makers: An Action Guide for Jesus Followers, Baker Books (→ISBN), page 19:

  And because most people present would have been poor farmers, salting their grain offering would have been a common practice. Jesus was saying that the people of God are this sign. Like salt, Jesus followers add flavor and preserve the earth. If we cloister ourselves from the world and keep ourselves from rubbing shoulders with our neighbors and networks, we fail to salt the earth. If we force ourselves and our faith on others, we ruin what we are meant to preserve. The way we are ...

• 2013, John Argubright, Christian Fairy Tales: Biblically Based Fairy Tales, John Argubright (→ISBN), page 21:

  ... gave always got stuck between your teeth and they never made it into your heart. The fourth man was a Chocolate-covered popcorn preacher. His sermons got really messy, especially on warm days. Chocolate being the color of brown, the same color of something you step in once in a while out in the yard. His theology just really stunk. Then finally, the fifth man was a good oldfashioned popcorn preacher. His sermons had just the right amount of salt to salt the earth with. And those ...