Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-01-20


and questions abou
religion. These questions are barred out
not because they are not interesting, bu
because they are altogether too interesting
They are subjects concerning which mos
men who think at all have such decided anc
alert convictions that they do not readily
lend themselves to the purposes OF social
gatherings.
Our Lord was once confronted with both
these questions at the same moment. There
appeared before Him a company, strangely
consorted, of ecclesiastics and politicians.
And they said, "Whose side are you on"'
Are you or our side? or are you on our side?
Do you believe in the State, or do you be-
lieve in the Church-which?''
The question was the more difficult, be-
cause it was asked-as we would say to-day
in the heat of political campaign. The
future of the Jewish nation waited upon the
issue. One of two courses must be speedily
adopted, one of two parties must win. There
must be sharp and definite religious re-
bellion, throwing off this Roman and heather
yoke; or there must be definite and final
political submission, shifting of the yoke
into the easiest place upon the national back
and shoulders. The question turned upon
payment OF taxes Shall we resist the tax
and rebel? or shall we pay the tax and sub
NIT? That was what they asked Christ.
A DELICATE QUESTION.
And Christ took that petty, local question
OF provincial politics, and answered it by
the statement of a principle as wide as the
world and as lasting as time. He refused
to descend into the partisan arena. You
are both right, He answered, and both
wrong. "Render unto Caesar the things
which be Casar's, and unto God the things
which be Gods
This is by no means contradictory to that
other word of Christ: Eye cannot serve God
and Mammon." Mammon, among the Jews,
meant the world. The saying world indeed
seems to mean that one or the other, God or
Mammon, the church or the world, must be
given up. But Christ is here His own in
Jerpreter. There is some use after all even
tor 'unrighteous Mammon." Make YOUR
selves friends" by it. Go into the world as
into the field of opportunity. Make your
self so useful in the world, so helpful in the
world, such an enlightening and uplif ting
influence in the world, that other men and
women may have reason to be eternally
grateful to you.
Thus the commanded choice is not one
which forDids all contact with the world,
any more than the service OF God forbids the
service Of Caesar. Men are not to fee from
Caesar into the solitude OF the hermit's cell,
and are not to take refuge against Mammon
behind the rags OF the mendicant or the vow
Of perpetual poverty. When Christ named
us in His prayer, on the night in which He
was betrayed, His petition was not that we
CHI h, ~ol- go Il
we should be kept from the evil And men
and women are not to think that because
they are in the world and full of its duties
and its cares, they are thereby, on account
OF any necessity, removed from God, and
less able to serve Him.
If men look with pity and wonder, rather
than with admiration, upon Simon of
the pillar, perched up high in the air,
taking small interest in the world. and lend
ing no hand to better it, and paying abso-
lutely no service to Caesar; there is another,
his counterpart, who is far less admirable
and to be initiated, and that is the Simon of
the store, or of the office, or of the kitchen.
or of the parlor, who cares only for what
NAV please his senses, not for what NAV
profit his SOUL only for this world, not at
all for the world to come; who puts the
lower before the higher; and pays
NO VISIBLE SERVICE TO GOD.
The Christian is to be a loyal and inter-
ested citizen; he is to vote, and to take his
part in politics. The best course for men
who are desirous of getting the name of God
written in the Constitution of the United
States, is to bring the spirit of God into the
politics of the United States by their ex-
ample.
The Christian is to be working citizen:
he is to give his time and thought and |
strength, to his trade, or his traffic, or his |
profession. 1t is just as much his duty to |
do his daily work industriously, honestly, |
persistently, efficiently, and to support his |
family, as 1t is to say his prayers Every |
man is serving God, who is sincerely and |
hel pfully doing that which he can do best
He is right who affirms that Dickens was
better employed in writing his novels than
he would have been in preaching the gospel.
simply because the one was his mission
rather than the other; that Mendelssohn did
well to compose music instead of going out
as missionary to the Choctaws; and that
was born to serve the world
and his Maker better as playwright than as
4 bishop" He is not robbing God who paws
lis due to Caesar.
But let him who renders untb Caesar that
which is C3ssr's see to it that he does not
itop there. The man of politics, the man of
business, the man of affairs the man of the
world, If he would be a man, must deserve
hat title which is the synonym for all that
s manifest and best in human Iife-he must
,e Christian.
1t is, indeed, to be remembered that
although the choice between God and Caesar,
between God and Mammon, between holy !
living and the calls of busy life, is not
strict alternative, yet there is a choice,
md serious one. 1t consists in the !
luty OF men and women to put God |
lrst, in way so deep, so constant, so COM
'rehensive and pervading, that only an
arneSt person can understand what the
words imply. They are to think in every
lifficulty: What would God have me to do?
They are TO put away every regulation of ,
dammon, every edlct Of Caesar, which runs
ounter to the will of God. Whatever i'm
'edlment comes IN between, the soul and
iod, they are absolutely to cast ort. Ifit
8 the pleasures of the world; if the play or
he ball, or the card party, or the novel,
ONES in between their soul and heaven
making their devotions briefer or their
learts colder, or their good example weaker,
hey are in that respect, and Just so far, to
'ut this spiritual impediment out. Ii it
5 the occupations of the world; if business
ares or household worries hinder the relig-
ous life; if certain commercial methods or {
ertain social customs put a strong strain |
pon the conscience, they are just SO Tar, to !
top.
A COMMON MISTAKE. {
But il was the mistake of those Hebrew j
sligionists and politicians, and it is the {
listake into which some honest people
-umble to-day, to suppose that the common
uties cannot be thoroughly done, and the i
eavenly duties done also. 1t is a good
cal the same kind of blunder which man
Ould make who should take the hour hand
q the face OF his clock, so as not to tire the {
ock. He would be like the man or woman
no says: 81 am so very busy, have so {
ANY cares that will have to leave re-
pion out" \
Why, clock is made to carry an hour 1
and and minute hand together. All its