Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1904-07-28
nc friends begin to Justify the deTelictiOn

to God on the score OF the increasing
claims of Caesar. This laXty on the part
of men and women to-day ia giving back
to God the things that are Gods is simply
appalling in view OF Gods unrlvalled glfts
and blessings to us. If it be true that ito
whom much is given of him shall much be
required" and that judgment will ever be.
gin at the house of God with the privil.
eyed, what is to be said when we all stand,
as stand we shall, before the Son of Man!
Eye cannot serve God and mammon."
Christ Jesus does not block the way OF
our paying our just debt 10 Caesar, but
He does warn us with the utmost plain
ness not to give Caesar everything. >,
If we allow 1.-THE huge mundane machine,
to run over our souls, like some car OF
Juggernaut, crushing out our religious free
dom and initiative, we shall be horribly
flattened in our manhood, our sympathles,
our ideals, our conceptions of life. The
results may not appear fully for while,
but in the end there will be experienced
an impoverishment, an atrophy, sinister,
manned and crippled growth which will
make us unfit for our citizenship in the
higher kingdom here or there. st. Paul,
in beginning his Epistle to the Romans
that IS, to the people who then lived at
the capital city of Caesars realm-acccoun
in the following words for the sin and
misery, the failure and decadence of heath
endom: He tells them that when they
knew God, they glorifed Him not as God,
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 blunder. No greater could be
made by any man or people. They made
the world they lived in their, god, thelI
only god, and worshiped and served IT
with their whole hearts. They worslliped
power, knowledge, pleasure, wealth, force,
passion, art. They lived for these things
until they fancied that these were tho
only things to live for We know the re.
suit. As they rejected Him. so God re-
jected them. As a punishment He gave
them over to moral corruption, to an
abandoned mind, to a fostering decadcnce.
"And men crowded around and strovo
for place and food, and the strong beat
down the weak, and the rich were gorgcd
and the poor were sent empty away, and
strife and cruelty filed the earth with
violence" That was happening at the
very moment Christ spoke these tremcn'
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 pcrsStentiy
kept down by the spirit of Jesus Christ.
"To God the things that are Gods! "lo
God the things that are God's,' Let that
cry haunt you until it compels you to pay
your debt. Lave the courage to look on
the one hand at what You are giving to tho
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
10 all Ia, nn,nful that Inht tl
heaven is paid. BY the blood OF the Cruel
fled, give back to God what really belongs
to Him! Your soul, your heart, your con.
victions, your spiritual reality, your eternal
heng-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
ises never to leave YOU to struggle on by
yourself. Through Him who condesccnded
to make His home III our hearts, who by
His spirit "hcipcth our intrmitieS," lie; us
Give God, through Jesus Christ, your
Saviour, first of all yourself. He will ac'
cept nothing in the stead OF yor. DO not
clutch the portion of goods that ialleth 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 from Him,
whether more or less, try to enjoy it as a
child in your Fathers house, under the
constant bencdicton of His smile. In tho
face of this tremendous pressure OF earth,
which bears down SO LcaciIy upon every
soul, resolve manfuly that you will not
yield; that the great and first command,
ment of Christ. Thou shat love the Lord
thy Cod shall be kept. Render unto
Caesar the things that are Caesars, y
unto God the things that are Gods