The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-08-17

to God on the score OF the increasing
Claims of Caesar. This laxity on the part
OF men and women to-day ]. giving back
70 God the things that are Gods is simply
/; ~ppaliing in view of Gods un-ivalled gifts
and blessings to lis. If it Ge 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 privill-
eyed. what is to be said when we all stand,
as stand we shall, before the Son OF Man!
"Ie cannot serve God and mammon."
Christ .Ic-us does not plock 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.
II we allow the huge mundane machine.
10 run over our souls, like some car of
Juggernaut, crushing out our religious free
dom and initiative, we shall be horribly
hattencd in our manhood, our sympathies,
our ideals, our conceptions Of life. lhe
results may not appear fully for a while.
but in the end there will be experienced
an impoverishment. a atrophy, a 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-accounts
in the following words Tor the sin and
misery, Tue lullulS dllu uCCdNsllSG " lShlI
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 a lie, and wor-
SHIPPED and served the creature more than
the Creator, who is blessed forever" 1t
vas an awful blunder. No greater could be
made by any man or people. They made
the world they lived in their goc, their
only god, and worshiped and .erved it
with their whole hearts. They worshiped
power, Iii Wedge, 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 a punishment He gave
them over to moral corruption, to an
abandoned mind, to a 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
very moment Christ spoke these tremen-
dous words: Render to God the things
which are Gods" This is the sort of
heathennsm which exists everywhere on
this earth where it is not persistently
kept down by the spirit of Jesus Christ.
TO God the things that are Gods" "To
God the things that are God's!" Let that
cry haunt you until it compels you to pay
your debt. I've 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! thea
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.
| v~ictions, 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 a shadow
that passeth away. Aye, trust Him when
He pledges you His help whenever you
| sincerely want to follow Him, and prom
isei never to leave YOU to struggle on by
yourself. Through Him who condescended
to make His home in our hearts, who by
His spirit "helpeth our in6rmities," let US
make such offering to God as yet We can.
Give God, through Jesus Christ, your
| Saviour, first of all yourself. He will ac-
cept nothing in the stead of you. Do not
clutch the portion of goods that faiieth 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 henediction of His smile. In the
face of this tremendous pressure of earth,
| which bears down so L.eavily upon every
| soul. resolve manfully that you will not
| yield; that the great and first command:
ment of Christ. Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God shall be kept. Render unto
| Caesar the things that are Caesars, and
unto Col the things that are Gods"