The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1904-07-28


and by the very headway of success, the
very stress of competition. is found to be
using up all his strength. Soon his prayers
get thinner and poorer; he has scarce time
for them and feels less and less need tor
them. When his days and nights at-tRe
office are through with, he recuperates his
tired energies at the club, where he can
still with the waning nerve power talk
over the course of the market-or else ne
goes out of town to get the relaxation
which will enable him to keep his place IN
Caesar 8 kingdom.
He does not mean at first to renounce
paws it in the worthless currency of good
intentions and good-humored apologies. By
and by even these are omitted, and he and
his friends begin to justify the dereliction
to God on the score of the increasing
claims of Caesar. This laxity on tine part
of men and women to-day il giving back
to God the things that are Gods is simply
ippalling in view OF Gods unrivalled gifts
and blessings to us. If it be true that to
whom much is given of him shall much be
required" and that Judgment will ever be-
gin at the house OF God with the prlvil'
eyed, what is to be said when We all stand.
as stand we shall, before the Son OF Man?
"Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
Christ Je=us does not olock the way OF
our paying our just debt to Caesar, but
He does warn US with the utmost plain
ness not to give Caesar everything.
If we allow "the huge mundane machine
to run over our souls. like some car OF
Juggernaut, crushing out our religious free
dom and initiative, we shat! be rr.bly
| fiattened in our manhood, our symnathles,
our Ideals, our conceptions of life. The
results may not appear fully for while.
l.. l., oal
| an impovershment, an atropny, a sinister,
| make Us Unfit TO-: our citizenship in the
| higher kingdom here or there. st. Paul,
| in beginning his Epistle to the Ronars-
| that is, TO the people who then lived at
| the capital city OF Caesars realm-accounts
| in the following words for the sin and
misery, the failure and decadence OF heath
endom He tells them that wien they
knew God, they gloriied Him not as Cpd,
neither were thankful. Processing them
selves to be wise, they became fools. They
| changed His truth into lie, and wor-
| SHIPPED and served the creature more than
| the Creator, who is blessed forever" 1t
was an awful biunder. No greater could be
made by any man or people. They made
| the world they lived in their. god, their
only god, and worshiped and aerved it
with their whole hearts. They worshiped
power, knowledge, pleasure, wealth. force,
passion, art. They lived for these things
until they fancied that these were the
only things to live for We know the re-
| suit. As they rejected Him. so God re-
| jected them. As punishment He gave
them over to moral corruption, to an
| abandoned mind, to fostering decadence.
And men crowded around and strove
for place and food, and the strong beat
down the weak, and the rich were gorged
and the poor were sent empty away, and
strife and cruelty filled the earth with
violence" That was happening at the
| dous words: Render to God the things
which are Gods" This is the sort Of
heathenism which exists everywhere on
this earth where it is not persistently
kept down by the spirit of Jesus Christ.
40 God the things that are God's! 10
God the things that are Gods" Let that
cry haunt you until it compels you to pay
your debt. 1--we the courage to look on
the one hand at what you are giving to the
world represented by Caesar, and on the
other at what you are actually giving to
God. Is God missing His rights? Is your
duty to Him threatened by the power
and pomp of this massive earth! All! then
be all the more careful that your debt to
heaven is paid. By the blood of the Cruel.
fed. give back to God what really belongs
to Him! Your soul, your heart, your con.
victions, your spiritual reality, your eternal
being-all these to God, for they are His.
Believe Him when He tells you that all
else that we see and handle is but shadow
that passeth away. Aye, trust Him when
He pledges you His help whenever You
sincerely want to follow Him, and prom
ise5 never to leave you to struggle on by
yourself. Through Him who condescended
to make His home in our hearts, who by
His spirit "heipeth our inhrmities," let Us
make such offering to God as yet we can.
Give God, through Jesus Christ, your
Saviour, first of al yourself. He will &C.
cept nothing in the stead of you. Do not
clutch the portion of goods that falleth to
you and try to have them all to yourself
in some far country, where you shall never
hear the Fathers voice or see His, face;
but whatever you do have fromk Him,
whether more or less, try to enjoy it as a
child in your Fathers house, under the
constant benediction of His smile. In the
face OF this tremendous pressure of earth,
which bears down so heavily upon every
soul. resolve manfully that you will not
yield; that the great and first command.
menS of Christ, "Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God,' shall be kept. Render unto
Caesar the things that are Caesars. and,
unto Go! the things that are Gods"