The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1904-07-28
THE DEBT TO CAESAR
OUR REGULAR SUNDAY SERMON
The Sacred Obligations We Owe Our
Country, Our Fellow Man, Our
selves and Our God.

SOUTH AMPToN, L. I.-Dr. A. B. Kinsol-
wing, rector of Christ Church, Clinton
street, Brooklyn, preached mere Sunday
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
Caesars; and unto God the things which
are Gods" DIR. Kinsolving said:
Were ever words more palpably just and
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 70 conflict with
the other through some misunderstanding
of the dignity and weight of the respective
obligations.
And not only in private life, but in the
| 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
y
duty 70 God. and then in turn, when the
empire had been conquered by the 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-
enly autocracy sought to bring low and
make subservicnt the things OF Caesar!
You are familiar, doubtless, with the way
the saving was brought about. A party OF
,, young Pharsees-the old nacks mad recent.
ly retired in confusion-had joined with
some Herodians or Jewish nationalists to
put to Jesus catch question to ensnaree
Him. Master" said they with feigned
earnestness, I'VE know that Thou art true,
and teachest the way of God in truth,
neither caresr Thou for any man, for Thou
regardest not the person of men. Tell Us,
therefore: What thinkest Thou? Is it
lawful to pay this distasteful Roman poll
tax or no."
If He had answered eyes" He would
have been at once discredited as the Mes.
siah-King 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, 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, ye hypocrites?
Show Me the tribute money. Whose image
is this stamped on your current coin
Caesars. Very well. Then what is Cae-
sar's 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-
diate 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 great deal Of
time. 1 take it. needs to be spent in en-
forcing this bchest. 1t marks the sanity,
the wnolesomeness OF Christ's religion. 1t
is TO star-gaz;ng cult. The charge against
it of inveterate other worldliness is libel.
Christianity has always taught man to do
nobiy, patiently, heroically his full duty to
the State, to rulers, to society. We are part
of social system which has already taken
shape We are in debt to it in many ways.
1--WE pass its coins freely; we enjoy its en-.
dowments." It's 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. 1t is never perfect.
There is, and for great while to come is
likely to be vast deal that is faulty about
it. But we have no charter from Christ to
be hopelessly sour in our attributes toward
it. We are to trust, you and l, 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 fultilment
of itself. So then, even when we see
things in the nation, the municipality, the
neis shborhood, go wrong; even when we
see tyranny and corruption and abuses, We
are not permitted to turn away in despair
and disgust We have no right to stand
aloof as if our hands would be contamin-
ated by any contact with it. Our duty is
to 60 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, of
God upon the ruins OF the Gynastles I'D
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 heathful 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 l
think our Lord would have us deal with
entire honesty with the facts of science.
To presume to use religious authority to
Geny the ascertained and verified conclu-
sions of a genuine scence-as was done,
for instance, in the case of Calico, and has
often been urged since, is to break Chri,t's
command. Natural science must proceed
along its own distinct and separate lines.
1t cannot 90 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 ii we are at pains at the same
time to render to God the things that are
Gods"
But is it in the point that I have been
urging that most men fail nowadays? Is
it here that we need to throw our empha-