Radiant with Christ-like love and childlike simplicity, he lived in another world yet kept both feet firmly planted on the ground. He was one of those whom Christ called the salt of the earth--a repository of the rare, otherworldly savor of ancient Christianity. A prophetic witness for the Church, he foretold the Russian Revolution and the second age of the catacombs. In Salt of the Earth, the life and personality of Elder Isidore have been captured with remarkable clarity by the Elder's spiritual son, New Martyr Paul Florensky (1882-1937). Called the "Russian Leonardo da Vinci," Florensky was a fascinating figure unique in Russian history. A master of the most varied disciplines, he was at once a religious philosopher, poet, linguist, art historian, type designer, physicist, astronomer, mathematician, electrical engineer, biologist, botanist, and inventor. During the first decades of the twentieth century, he made several important scientific discoveries and wrote essays which anticipated the development of cybernetics (computers). When describing Elder Isidore in Salt of the Earth, Florensky strikingly combines the analytical approach of a scientist with the "seeing heart" of a Christian mystic. He is able to take the reader directly into Elder Isidore's world, so that by the time we finish the book, we feel that the Elder is already a dear friend. Filled with humor and warmth as well as metaphysical understanding on the part of the author, Salt of the Earth is a tour de force among modern Christian spiritual writings, in the same class as The Way of a Pilgrim.

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    The work of the Holy Spirit is to help us to achieve that purpose. Without His help we are unable to overcome the difficulties that are in the way, whether we consider them from the standpoint of the world or of the individual. If anyone could have looked at the state of the world at the time of our Lord's death he would surely have regarded the work which the Apostles were commissioned to attempt as the most utterly wild and impracticable enterprise that the human mind could conceive. And it was so, but for one fact. That fact was the promise of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to be the great Helper in the undertaking. And equally in the work of uniting the individual soul with God's purpose that Spirit is our Helper. In the work of righteousness He is a Partner with us. In the life of faith and prayer He is our unwavering Prompter and Guide. In the submission of our wills to God and the chastening of our spirits He is the great Co-worker with us. In the bearing of burdens and the enduring of trial and sorrow He joins hands with us to lead us on. In the purifying of every power from the taint of sin He is our Sanctifier.