【选注者言：盐，可调味，且有清洁、防腐的功效。盐，对人类的重要性不言自明，但以盐喻“人”则为鲜见。本文便独树一帜，譬喻奇巧，寓意不俗。文末提出了这样一个问题：Are you going to be worth your salt? 其中的worth one’s salt竟是一常用的英语成语！】

    “You are the salt of the earth. ” Matthew 5:13. 

    This figure of speech is plain and pungent（尖刻的；敏锐的）. Salt is savory, purifying, preservative. It is one of those superfluities（奢侈品） which the great French wit defined as “things that are very necessary”. From the very beginning of human history men have set a high value upon salt and sought for it in caves and by the seashore. The nation that had a good supply was counted rich. A bag of salt, among the barbarous（原始的，未开化的） tribes, was worth more than a man. The Jews prized（重视，珍视） it especially, because they lived in a warm climate where food was difficult to keep, and because their religion laid particular emphasis on cleanliness, and because salt was largely used in their sacrifices. 

    Christ chose an image which was familiar, when He said to His disciples, “you are the salt of the earth. ”This was his conception of their mission, their influence. They were to cleanse and sweeten the world in which they lived, to keep it from decay, to give a new and more wholesome（有益于健康的）flavor to human existence. Their function was not to be passive, but active. The sphere of its action was to be this present life. There is no use in saving salt for heaven. It will not be needed there. Its mission is to permeate（弥漫，遍布，充满）, season（调味）, and purify things on earth. 

…

Men of privilege without power are waste material. Men of enlightenment（启迪，启发；教导，开明）without influence are the poorest kind of rubbish. Men of intellectual and moral and religious culture, who are not active forces for good in society, are not worth what it costs to produce and keep them. 

…

You college students are men of privilege. It costs ten times as much, in labor and care and money, to bring you out where you are today, as it costs educate the average man, and a hundred times as much as it costs to raise a boy without any education. This fact brings you to face with a question: are you going to be worth your salt?    

Version

“你们是人世间的盐。” 〈〈马太福音〉〉（第五卷，第十三章）

此喻平实而尖锐。盐可调味，有清洁、防腐的功效。一位伟大的法国智者称之为“非常必要”的奢侈品之一。自人类历史的初期，人们便奉盐为珍品，在岩洞、在海边，到处搜寻。储盐量高者，被列为富国。一包盐，在原始部落，其价高于一个人。犹太人尤其珍视盐，因为，他们生活在气候温暖的地带，食物难以保存；因为，他们的宗教格外注重清洁；还因为，他们需要用大量的盐来加工祭祀供品。

耶稣基督在对他的门徒布道时，选用了这个常见的形象化比喻，“你们是人世间的盐。”这是他对他们的使命和感化力的构想。他们将净化、美化他们生存的这个世界，免其堕落，为人类的生存添加一份清新而又更健康的情味。他们所起的作用不是消极的，而是主动的。这一作用的实施范围是尘世。天堂不需储盐，天堂无此需求。盐的使命便是渗透、调味、净化尘世间的万物。

……

有名无实者无异于废料一块，慧而不鸣者无异于败絮一堆。有智慧、有道德、有宗教修养者，却不能积极地为社会作些有益之事，则不值得栽培、抚养。

……

你们大学生有超出常人的优越地位。你们如今出人头地，所花费的心神、劳力及财力，十倍于培养一个普通人，百倍于抚养一个没有受过教育的男孩。这个事实迫使你面对一个问题：你是否值得尊敬？

点字成金

本文以salt为题，围绕salt层层展开、步步升华；salt一词也逐渐跳脱“盐”之本义，在文章末尾显现出别样洞天。

This fact brings you to face with a question: are you going to be worth your salt?

其中，worth one’s salt 是较为口语化的用法，意为“称职的，胜任的，有能力的。值得雇用的；应受尊敬的”（good or competent at the job or profession specified）。

例如：

1）Any engineer worth his salt should know how that machine works.

任何一个称职的技师都应知道那台机器怎样开动。

2）No trade union movement worth its salt could allow that to happen.

没有哪一个名副其实的工会运动能允许那种事情发生。