Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1914 — Short Sermons FOR A Sunday Half-Hour [ARTICLE]

Short Sermons FOR A Sunday Half-Hour

ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL.

BY THE REV. GEORGE CLARK PECK, D.D.

Render therefore unto Caeear the things whioh be Caesar's, and unto God tho thlnga which be God's.— Luke, xx., 25. >

Not to pay Paul by rubbing Peter, nor yet to pay Peter by rubbing Paid, but to disc’ 3 with fidelity both obligations Lis the eternal sanity of Christ, oospel. Commercial pm-* dence advises us to pay whichever creditor presses most bar Ally, whether Peter or Paul. Jesus commands us to pay both. The last thing that religion does for a aaan is to relieve him from any Just obligation whatsoever. Rather, religion declares the sanctity of all duty; oaUs each disciple to royal cltiisachlp in tore worlds.

I have heard of a lad who plUared a few pennies in order that he might swell the missionary total of his Sunday school class. And there hare been ages in which soak was the prevailing style of religious loyalty. Men run away from all msaner of human duties in order that they might fulfil the divine behest. The woitt was full of children el the Almighty who believed that they oouM discharge their full debt to heaven only by pouring contempt upon the sacred things of earth. In a host «f sometimes naive fashions people used to pay Paul by robbing Peter. - —{scarcely need to «fin that stodern sentiment has swung to the opposite custom. In this day men oommonly pay Peter by robbing Paul. They are stiff at the business of robbing, but with a change in the victim. If the former generation shortonod its business hours and sometimes its comercial honor in the Interest of prayers, the present generation inclines to shorten its prayers for the sake of devotion to business. In the words of the Scripture, Caesar is paid at the expense of God. Faithfulness is not an arc of a circle. It is rather a whole circle. Ns man is quit of his obligation to the butcher by paying his grocer’s Wll. Nor can we meet God’s claim by being merely generous in spirit, tolerant toward sinners and goodnatured In the domestic circle. Commercial uprightness is no better substitute for neglect of God than a one-sided cultivation of God is an axouse for business dealings. To bo truly, Christian is to endeavor to moot &ff Just claims, to pay Paul without Fobbing Peter, to render unto Caesar ass his due tribute, yet pot to fall of tfeo part due God, - / . • ;

The financial secretary of a certain society made a practice of earsytng the society’s books down to Me Pl*c# of business. And he earned his special salary as secretory during those hours in which he wee snppoeed to be earning the salary paid him by his business employers. I deal* if he were guilty of any intentional dishonor, but I have never understo ’ how one man can earn two salaries at the same time and for the same time; how he can Justify retting Fetor in order to pay Paul. Bat the war Id is full of men and women who thus earn double salaries. Boose of them steal man’s time to earn Owl's wages; hut a vaster throng es them are taking God’s time to earn men’s wages. Paul must be paid, hence they rob Peter in order to pay hiss. - What a pity that a man should spend so mush time making his fertnae that he should have no time left to make his soul!