The Salt
Common salt is found in two forms-liquid and solid. Sea-water is full of salt, and in some places, brine-springs, or salt-springs flow out of rock like ordinary streams. And salt is also found solid, like rock, and is dug out of the ground, as coal is, by mining. This form of salt is called rock salt. There are famous salt mines in the Salt Range in Punjab, which are worked by Government.
Salt is also got out of the sea. The seawater is let into shallow pools on the shore and is left there until the water goes off into the air in vapour, and leaves the white, salt crystals at the bottom. The salt is then gathered and as it is mixed with sand and mud, it is put into large pans and washed, and then is melted again in clean water. This water is heated and goes off in steam, leaving the pure white salt behind.
Salt is a very useful, and indeed a necessary thing. First, it is used to flavour food. Meat and vegetables and bread without salt would be very tasteless, and some people can hardly eat them if no salt is put in.
For meat-eaters, salt is really necessary. Meat cooked and eaten without salt will in time make us unhealthy and even give us certain diseases.
Salt has a wonderful power of keeping things from going bad. Fish or meat kept in salt will keep good for a long time. Ham and bacon boiled in saltwater and kept in brine (liquid salt) for weeks, will keep sweet and good for months. This is what Jesus Christ had in mind when he said to his disciples, “Ye are the salt of the earth.” He meant that, as salt keeps the meat from going bad, so good men by their goodness stop human society from getting morally rotten.
