Christ the Seed of Abraham.--This brings us again to the divine promise given to Abraham: "In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Undoubtedly that promise was fulfiled in the coming of the Son of God as the Redeemer and Savior. In the body he was a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and in more ways than one he has been a blessing to all nations. The Gem and Its Setting.--In treating this great theme, however, it is not enough to consider that such a personage as Jesus of Nazareth lived and labored and died. We must not separate the gem from its setting. We must not isolate the central fact of the Savior's personal ministry from the related facts that went before and followed after. Christ came to save the world; but the house of Israel prepared the way for his coming, gave him a proper lineage through which to come, and after his crucifixion carried on the work he had inaugurated. This is especially true of the patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, and others bearing the Priesthood; but it is also true, in a general way, of the whole house of Israel. The Salt of the Earth.--While there is but one Savior in a universal sense, and in the sense of the atonement and the resurrection, that Savior has many assistants, sent to play subordinate parts in the great drama of salvation. Did not Jesus tell his disciples that they were "the salt of the earth"--the saving or preserving element among men? And did he not warn them against allowing "the salt" to "lose its savor"--its power to save and preserve? For how could they save others, if their own feet were not firmly planted upon the Rock of Salvation? Followers of the Lamb.--John of Patmos saw a Lamb standing upon the Mount Zion, "and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads" (Rev. 14:1). And he heard a voice from heaven saying, "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." Then they follow him in the work of salvation, not only in this world, but also in the spirit world, where he ministered while his body was lying in the tomb. Who are these 144,000? They are not the whole house of Israel, which numbers millions; but they are "of all the tribes of the children of Israel," twelve thousand of every tribe. The Prophet Joseph says: They "are high priests, ordained unto the holy order of God, to administer the Everlasting Gospel; for they are they who are ordained out of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, by the angels to whom is given power over the nations of the earth, to bring as many as will come to the Church of the First Born" (D&C 77:11). They are not the entire army of the Lord, but might well be termed the flower of that army, the body-guard of the great Captain of Salvation.