The Penn's Grove record., 1904-07-29
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE BY THE
REV. A. B. KINSOLWNC

morning in st. Andrews Dune Church.
His subject was "Our Debt to Caesar and
Our Debt to God" His text was chosen
from st. Matthew xxii:2l: "Render there
fore unto Caesar the things which are
Eaesar's; and unto God the things which
bre Gods" DIR. Kinsolving said:
Were ever words more palpably just and
fair? Could any statement be more calmly
self-evidencing? Could any disentangle-
ment of the provinces Of God and Caesar
be more distinct, or any declaration of our
respective duty be more lucid? Men have
always been confusing these two things
their debt to Caesar and their debt to God
mixing up in some clumsy fashion the one
with the other, fancying that when they
have discharged one they have done the
other also, finding the one to conflict with
the other through some misunderstanding
of the dignity and weight of the respective
obligations.
history of peoples and States what confu-
sion, what laundering has there been,
Look how the cruel Roman empire tried
through years to crush out the life of the
Christian martyrs for simply doing their
duty to God, and then in turn, when the
empire had been conquered by che church
and the papacy was seated upon its throne
and had erected its palatial Vatican amid
the ruins of the old order, see how the
hanghty earthly embodiment of the heav-
emily autocracy sought to bring low and
make subservient the things of Caesar!
You are familiar, doubtless, with the way
the saying was brought about. A party of
young Pharisees-the old hacks had recent
ly retired in confusion-had Joined with
some Herodians or Jewish nationalists to
put to Jesus a catch question to ensnare
Him. Master" said they with feigned
earnestness, 1--WE know that Thou art true,
and teachest the way of God in truth,
neither carest Thou for any man, for Thou
regardest not the person of men. Tell us,
therefore: What thinkest Thou? Is it
tax or MOI"
If He had answered eyes" He would
have been at once discredited as the Mes
Stalking of Israel. If no" it would
have been treason and rebellion against
Rome. So instead of falling into the trap
set for Him, with a complete, a divine
grasp of the whole situation, He declares a
principle which is the key to this whole
complexity in life wherever it may possibly
occur. why tempst Me, We hypocrites?
Show Me the tribute money. Whose image
is this stamped on your current coin?
Caesars. Very well. Then what is Gaze
ears give back to Caesar, and what is
Gods to God"
The impression it produced at the mo-
ment was profound. "When they had
heard these words they marveled and left
Him and went their way" He had lifted
the whole controversy out of the imme-
dlate and passing circumstances into the
region of largest and widest craftsmanship.
and all the centuries of human history that
have rolled by since have not exhausted its
wisdom.
"Render therefore unto Caesar the things
that are Caesars" Not a great deal of
time, l take it, needs to be spent in en-
forcing this behest. 1t marks the sanity,
the wholesomeness of Christs religion. 1t
Is no star-gazing cult. The charge against
1T of inveterate other worldliness is a libel.
Christianity has always taught man to do
nobly, patiently, heroically his full duty to
the State, to rulers, to society. We are part
of a social system which has already taken
shape. We are in debt to it in many ways.
I'VE pass its coins freely; we enjoy its en-
dowments." Its image and superscription
are on us: We belong of right to our age;
our era of civilization, our nation, State,
city, community. All that is around us is
but the providential setting and environ
ment of our lives. It is never perfect.
There Is, and for I. great while to come is
likely to be a vast deal that is faulty about
it. But we have no charter from Christ to
be hopelessly sour in our attributes toward
1T. We are to trust, you and |, the upward
growth, the slow and painful evolution of
human civilization. We are to believe that
at the heart of the movement there are
~deep-hidden, interior principles which, in
cooperation with those special and power
full incentives which God brings to bear
from above, are steadily bringing the king
dom of Caesar to some better fulfllment
of itself. So then, even when we see
things in the nation, the municipality, the
neighborhood, go wrong; even when we
see tyranny and corruption and abuses, we
are not permitted to turn away in despair
nr1 1I1rr,z+ Nv ho-o - -.-lI - -
aloof as if our hands would be contamin-
ated by any contact with it. Our duty is
to go bravely in and try to discharge our
duty to the civil and secular powers, re-
specting the moral worth of the things of
Caesar, and confidently trusting truth and
God and humanity for the dawning of the
brighter day. We are set as Christians
not to build a dazzling visible church oof
God upon the ruins of the dynasties ed
governments of earth, as was dreamed by
the medieval popes and doctors. No, but
rather is our book to infuse into organized
human society the healthful spirit of the
kingdom of Jesus Christ, and meanwhile,
as Christ's words here clearly teach US, to
keep the two spheres distinct.
And on the same principle precisely ]
think our Lord would have us deal with
entire honesty with the facts Of science.
To presume to use religious authority to
deny the ascertained and verified conclu-
sions of a genuine science-as was done,
for instance, in the case of Calico, and has
often been urged since, is to break Christ's
command. Natural science must proceed
along its own distinct and separate lines.
1t cannot go out of its sphere to teach the
world religion. It's function is to search
out and interpret material facts. But in
its own proper sphere we must respect it. |
We owe it the tribute of our sincerity. |
We must render to Caesar the things that
are Caesars, and there will be no sort of
peril to us if we are at pains at the same
time to render to God the things that are
Gods"
But is it in the point that l have been
urging that most men fail nowadays? Is
it here that we need to throw our empha-
So on this Render to Caesar?" Are there
not certain forces in the realm of Caesar
which of themselves exact the payment of
what is due there? Does not this tribute
get itself paid in as do the State taxes by
a sort of self7acting process, so that in a
rough way it has to be forthcoming? Is
not the real trouble now that we are in
so many cases s~urrendering to Caesar more
and more Of the things which belong to
God?
ut towers over u.s." some one has said,
"this world movement of modern ~civiliza-
ton, with its immense volume and weight
of human interests, human growths, hui
man skill and art and industry. 1t makes
itself more and more felt as the one over
powering, ruling fact. 1t fills the scene.
Where is there any room for the things of
God? Where can the spirit move and
breathe? Where has the soul hed?' Be
cause of the pressure upon their lives of
the world of Caesar, because of the strong
currents that sweep them along, soul and
body, our debts to God too often go I'M
paid.
You know how it is without my attempt
ing to describe it in detail. Industry, with
its iron necessities, grips a man; he filings
himself with good American pluck and pur.
pose into the thing before him, aud by
and by the very Roadway 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 for
them. When his days and nights at the
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 he