Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1902-07-04

scription and thenpay tribute to whom
tribute is due. In determining our OBJ
legations to the world and to God it is
not always as easy to distinguish the
image and superscription as it was on
the penny which was held out to our
Lord, but the distinguishing mark is
there somewhere, and should your eyes
not be sharp to see it, if you viii but
show it to the Lord He will help you,
for eff any of you lack wisdom let him
a: of God, that giveth to all men lib
orally and upbraideth not; and it shall
be given him." Failure to distinguish
the image and superscription may rob
Caesar or may rob God, which in either
case results in confusion, and discord,
and distress, and ruin. Individual lives
have been rendered useless if not posi-
lively harmful and nations have gone
to decay and ruin through failure to
render unto Caesar the things which
are Caesars and unto God the things
which are Gods. The true patriot is
the one who, avoiding partisanship of
every kind and blind national pride,
seeks to give Caesar his due while at
the same time he renders to God that
which it is His right to expect and Ge-
mand. tits so easy to rob God through
a misdirected and intense patriotism.
1t is possible to rob Caesar through in
tense religious fervor and misdirected
service to God. The perfect adjust
ment of the affairs of nations and in
dividuals demands that neither Caesar
nor God shall be robbed, and the true
patriot recognizing this underlying
principle of all government and the
true religion seeks with Divine guild
arce and wisdom to realize it in
his relations to his country and his
God.
Robbing Caesar.-There are many
ways in which Caesar may be robbed
of his just tribute. Almost innumera-
BILE are the causes and forces which
lower and vitiate the privileges and
responsibilities of citizenship. The ma
ton, the community, the home are be-
ing robbed of their just tribute by self
ish love of ease, by greed for gold, by
mad rush after pleasure. Space will not
permit US to enumerate the long list
which will readily suggest itself to
one upon moments thought. We
wish to speak of just one way in which
Caesar may be robbed, and which per-
haps would not readily occur to your
mind. Caesar is being robbed in some
cases to-day, if not in many, by mis-
taken devotion to God and zeal in His
service. When we get too much reli-
gion for the world, God will translate
us as He did Enoch. Jesus prayed not
that the Father would take His fol-
lowers out of the world, but that He
would keep them from the evil. AS
follower of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who came into the world to save it,
you have a responsibility towards the
nation under whose flag you rest in
peace and safety, towards the commu-
nifty in which you rear your family,
in the home which should be to you
the dearest, the best and brightest spot
on earth, which will not cease until
your spirit has departed to be with
its Lord or the trumpet has sounded
and you have been caught up into the
air to meet your Lord as He comes
in the clouds of glory with His saints.
Read the thirteenth chapter of Ro-
mans, the third chapter of Titus the
second chapter of /. Peter and other
portions of Gods Word to which these
chapters will lead in thought, if you
Christian has responsibilities and SOL
emn obligations towards the home, the
community, the nation.
I know Gods Word tells me to
come out and be separate from the
world. I know John writes with
the finger of God: "Love not the
world, neither the things that are
in the world" I know that the
world is under condemnation for sim
and that Satan, like a roaring lion,
goeth about seeking whom he may
devour. I know that spiritually we
are to dwell in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, here and now, but don't find
line which tells me to go about in
the world with my head in the clouds,
Sinking the paying of my just tribute
to Caesar, and forgetting the world
lost in sin, and which Jesus is able
to save through you and me. There
is spiritual ecstasy which is selfish
in its enjoyment and destructive to
practical, Christlike contact with the
world. Paul got away up into the
heavenlies with Christ, but notice he
didn't stay there. He tells the CORN
thians that he determined not to know
anything among them but Jesus Christ
and Him crucifed; and as the crucified
Lord he sees Him hanging on the tree
with the sins of the world rolled upon
Him, and he goes forth and becomes Il
servant unto all that he might gain
the more for Christ. Unto the Jews
he becomes as a Jew, that he might
gain the Jews. To them that were with
out law, as without law, that he might
gain them that were without law. He
became all things to all men, that he
might by all means save some. Paul's