Los Angeles herald., 1907-12-09
PRAISES PRESIDENT
FOR HIS ACTION
DID RIGHT IN REMOVING PHRASE
FROM COINS
Rev. Robert J. Burdette breaches In
teresting Sermon at Temple 6ap-
tist Church-Shows How the
Wor!c Serves Mammon

Robert ]. Burdette preached on the
topic Religious Veneer at the Temple
Baptist church yesterday. He took for
his text Matthew, 22:2O: Jesus saith unto
them Whose is this image and super
scription? They say unto him, Cae-
sar's." DIR. Burdette said in part:
"And that was all of the coin that be-
longed to Caesar-something on the out
side of it, Something a man at Caesars
command put on it.
Long centuries before Caesar was, the
voice of the Lord God proclaimed: .The
silver is mine and the gold is mine.
Let Caesar or Judas. Dives or Lazarus
scratch what little vainglorious inscrip-
tion he will upon its surface.
'If all the religion we have can De
minted on the outside of silver dollar,
lit won't do us bit of good to put 1t on,
and it won't do us a particle of harm to
file 1t off.
zone of the presidents critics-she Is
the richest woman in America-said the
other day, commenting upon the removal
of the phrase, In God we trust from the
new gold coins.
Makes Men Think
1.-The president often speaks without
thinking.
for always subjecting impulse to calm.
deliberate, careful, judicial analysis, and
then speaking with conservative restraint
land non-committal caution, her state
ment is entitled to respectful considera-
Ition.
But whether the president speaks
without thinking or not he seldom
speaks without making all the rest OF
the men in the country think, or think
they think, which is as far as some men
ever get on their way to intellectual pro-
Icesses, and it is also to be noted they
speak just as promptly just as impul-
Isively, just as hair triggery as the presi-
dent can be accused of doing.
"The first time / saw the phrase, as
remember, was on the old trade dollar
which was worth only 80 cents. That
started the irreverent jokes and profane
Icartoons to which the president refers
lin his letter explaining why he ordered
the omission of the phrase from the new
issue of coin.
No Reverence in Words
'"There is no more reverence in the
words on our money than there is in
texts of Scripture printed on cards and
scattered about the street like pearls to
be trampled under the feet of-er-men.
"All our coins of higher value bear the
inscription now. And there has never
been a time in the history of America
when we trusted God less and served
mammon more than we have done in the
past few years.
when we remember what our utter
ignoring of the noble sentiment and our
base, insane, sordid worship Of the coin
which bears it has done for us; how 1T
has lowered our standard of commercial
Integrity; debased our business life; cor
rupted our sense of honor polluted our
politics; sent representatives in congress
and United States senators, members OF
state legislatures and mayors of great
cities to the penitentiaries; how 1t has
made this proud and mighty nation
kissing and a byword among the peoples
Of the EARTH how 1t has covered us with
shame as with a garment-we ought to
be glad to see the hypocritical whine
erased from our coin. 1t has no place
there.
Let Lives Speak
"You might as we'll inscribe Blessed
|are the pure in heart over the doorway
of a brothel just because it is a beautiful
text. When tears of penitence have
washed the stains from our money; when
the 'Napoleons of finance in the spirit
of zaccheus. have restored fourfold all
they have stolen from widow and or
phan and laborer; when we have made
our double eagles weigh as much as the
tiny copper coin Jesus saw fall from the
thin fingers of the poor widow into the
great treasury of the splendid temple;
when the souls of the money changers,
scourged from the very shadow of the
house Of God by the indignation of the
Son have been washed with the balm of
healing grace, we may consistently re-
place the declaration of trust.
"But we will then have no need to
lmegaphone our trust in God from the
changing cymbals of minted silver and
Igold.
'Our lives will speak 1t more sincerely,
faithfully and consistently"