The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-10-28

man skill and art and inaiszts} x makes
itself more and more felt as the one over
powering, ruling fact II fills the scene.
Where IS there any room Tor the things Of
God? Where can the spirit move and
breathe? Where has the soul fled~ Be
cause Of the pressure upon their lives %
the world OF Caesar, because OF the strong
currents that sweep them along, soul and
body, our debts to God too often 60 un.
paid.
You know how it is without my attempt
Ing to describe it in detail. Industry. with
It's iron necessities. grips a man; he hinga
himself with good American pluck and pur-
pese into the thing before him. aud sy
and by the very Roadway Of success, The
very stress of competition, is found TO be
using up all his strength. Soon liis prayers
get thinner and poorer; he has source time
for them and feels less and Tess need for
them. When his days and nights at the
office are through with, Ire 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 he
goes out of town to get the relaxation
which will enable him to keep his place ia
Caesar kingdom.
He does not mean at first to renounce
his obligation to God. For some time he
pays it in the worthless currency OF good
intentions and good-humored apologies. by
his friends begin to justify the dereliction
to God on the score of the increasing
Gains Of Caesar. This laxity on the part
of men and women to-day IA giving back
10 God the things that are Gods IS simply
ppalling in view of Gods unriyalled gifts
and blessings to us. If it be true that to
whom much is given of him shall much bc
required" and that judgment will ever be-
gin at the house of God with the, privi-
eyed what is to be said when we all stand.
as stand we shall, before the Son OF Man?
'le cannot serve God and mammon.
Christ Jecus does not block 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
to run over our souls, like some car or
Juggelnaut, crushing out our religious Tree
dom and initiative, we shat! be horribly
hattened in our manhood, our sympathIes,
our ideals, our conceptions of life. The
results may not appear fully Tor While.
Dut in the end there will be experienced
an impoverishment, an atropny, sinister,
mamed and crippled growth which Will
make us unfit for our citizenship in the
higher kingdom here or there. st. Paul,
in beginning his Epstle to the Romaps--
that IS TO the people who then lived at
the capital city of Caesars realm-aecounts
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 glorihed Him not as God,
neither were thankful. Protesting 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
was an awful blunder. No greater could DO
made by any man or people. They made
the world they lived in their god, their
only god, and worshiped and aerved 10
with their whole hearts They worshiped
power, knowledge. pleasure, wealth. force,
passion, art. They lived for these things
until they fanced that these were the
only things live for. We know the re-
suit. As ey rejected Him. so God re-
jected them. AS a 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
very moment Christ spoke these tremen-
dous words "Render TO God the things
which are Gods" This is the sor5 OF
heathenism which exists everywhere on
this earth where it is me- persstently
kept down by the spirit ddkJesus Christ
ITO God the things that are God's!" ITO
God the things that are God's!' 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
ise1 never to leave you, to struggle on by
Yourself Through Him who condescended
20 make His home in our hearts, who by
His spirit "helpeth our infirmities," 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 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 from 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
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"
| Gems of Thought.