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THE

AMERICAN BAPTIST MAGAZINE.

Vol. 15.

December, 1835.

No. 12.

"THE THINGS THAT ARE GOD'S."

WHEN certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, attempting "to catch our Saviour in his words," asked him, Is it lawful to give tribute to Cesar, or not? his memorable reply was, "Render to Cesar the things that are Cesar's, and to God the things that are God's." God is a proprietor no less than Cesar, and he has a right to the control and use of all that belongs to Him.-The justness of this principle none will question, who apprehends the meaning of the terms in which it is expressed. The right of property, and the right of control, are, in their nature, correlative; at least so far, that the former, if unrestricted, implies the latter. To deny this, would deny to the term property all significancy. It follows, of course, that if the right of control is conceded, its exercise should, in ordinary cases, be freely allowed in other words, we should render to every one the things that are his.

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The duty of rendering to any one the things that are his, is not affected by the mode in which he has made them his. It is enough that they are his property. Justice requires that they be placed at his disposal. He may have acquired a title to them by the application of labor or skill. All the results of labor or skill belong, of right, to him who has expended them, and has purchased, as it were, by that expenditure, the entire p ct. Thus the husbandman has a right to the fruits of the ground which he has tilled, the artizan to the manufactures which he has wrought. So, too, an individual may have secured a title to property by original or long-continued possession, as he who first occupies a tract of unappropriated land, or harvests first its spontaneous fruits; nor can he be divested of that title by a fellow-man, without injustice or a free surrender. And on this principle every man may be said to have an original or prior right to his life, his per

son, and the free use of his powers, subject only to the Lord of all. Again, the right of property may be acquired by purchase, or barter, or gift, where the prior owner transfers his right to another. Still the application of the principle advanced by our Saviour is invariably the same. Whether in these or in other ways the right of property be acquired, it is enough to ascertain that it is acquired. The right exists, and, by its natural import, it is a right to be exercised. We may do what we will with our own. Similar remarks might be made in regard to the nature of the things over which the right of property is asserted.

The applicability of the principle we have advocated to "the things that are God's," is most plain. Whatever is his, is his by supreme and unquestionable right, and the exercise of his right is not to be restricted. The only point of inquiry is, What are the things of God? Nor can we doubt here. "To Him are all things;" things material and things spiritual, visible and invisible, all are his property. And they are his to control,—to perpetuate and use, or to destroy. Whatever exists is the product of his skill, the work of his hands. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. He, too, in the strictest sense, is the original and exclusive proprietor. From his storehouse came all the materials of which the things that were created consist. The dust was his, from which He made man. It was the inspiration of the Almighty that breathed into him the breath of life, so that man became a living soul. Wisdom and strength were also his his, the earth, our dwellingplace, and all its furniture: his, the air we breathe, the light of the sun, and times and seasons. As original possessor, therefore, he has a prior title to all things before all and none can supplant his right but with his own free renunciation. This right of property in the things that are made, is distinctly asserted in the word of God. Thus, in the 50th Psalm, vs. 7-12, Jehovah says, "Hear, O my people, and I will speak: O Israel, and I will testify against thee. I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt-offerings to have been continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor hegoats out of thy folds: for every beast of the forest is MINE, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I KNOW all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are MINE. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is MINE, and the fulness thereof." And this right of property He claims not less in regard to men; as in Ezek. xvii. 4, Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine;" connecting, too, it should be noted, with this assertion of ownership, the exercise of sovereign control,-" the soul that sinneth, it shall die." Similar representations are made in other portions of the Sacred Word. Indeed, the whole revelation of God assumes from the first, that all creatures are his, and that He has a right, because they are his, to do with them as seems to him good. On this ground it is, that he claims to be their Sovereign, establishing, as He judges

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best, the principles of his universal sway, enacting his laws, enforcing them with sanctions, and awarding praise or blame, happiness or sorrow, to every rational creature. Apart from this right of property in his intelligent creatures, the unerring wisdom of God would still have discerned their highest interest and duty, his unbounded goodness might have constrained him to counsel them for their best good, and his almighty power would have sustained him in the enforcement of his pleasure; but neither wisdom, goodness, nor power, nor all combined, would have given him the right of control. It is the relation of all things to him

as their Maker, or more definitely, his right of property in them as derived from that relation, that constitutes his right to do with them according to his pleasure. The right of property and the right of control are here equivalent, and alike based on the act of creation.

It is on this basis, primarily, that the Bible rests the divine claims to man's submission and service. Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay? Of him and through him, and (therefore) to him are all things. The Apostle Paul makes the same truth to bear on the Athenians, Acts xvii. 24: God that made the world, and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth,-founding the divine supremacy over heaven and earth manifestly on the fact, that God was their Maker. And when he adds, Seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, he still connects the act of creation with the exercise of dominion,-that God hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, and assigned to all nations their first and great work, that they should seek the Lord. In a peculiar sense, however, it may be said that God has acquired property in man, and with it the right of control, by purchase. Debtors to the law of God, we owed ten thousand talents, and had nothing to pay. God, in the greatness of his compassion, appeared for us, paid our debt, redeemed us from the curse of the law, and restored us, unless the gracious plan be frustrated by our ungrateful and suicidal perverseness, restored us to liberty, and joy, and endless life. Thus we become the property of God by a new title. God has made the purchase, at no less cost than the sacrifice of his beloved Son.

But if God is the original and sole proprietor of all created things, if he has, of right, a supreme control over the possessions entrusted to our hands,-if we ourselves, body and spirit, are God's, and we are under obligation to render to him the things that are his, how shall we fulfil this obligation?

There are two ways in which one's property may be rendered to him. It may be absolutely surrendered into his hands, to be used and made available by himself, or by the agency of a third person, to whom it may be committed; or it may be retained in trust by the individual already in possession of it, and applied ac

cording to the will, and in subserviency to the interests, of his employer. In either case, the owner may be said to have the control and use of his property. He receives the full avails of his capital and skill, whether he transacts bis business personally, or directs the faithful agency of another. The agent, or steward, consults his pleasure, labors for his interest, and honestly appropriates to his advantage all that is committed to his trust, rendering to him, in times and ways required, the whole income, and standing ready, every moment, to give up the capital itself, and relinquish all subordinate control.

Now, in both these ways we are continually called upon to render to God the things that are God's. Some things he requires to be absolutely given back to Him; of others, He exacts, for a season, merely the use and profit, employing us as his agents or stewards. Time, and opportunity to do good, He gives us hour by hour, and hour by hour He calls them back, with their avails. He gives us property, and talent, and influence, and in some measure leaves them to our discretionary control, enjoining simply their wise investment. Yet of these He expects, from time to time, the increase, and often designates a new appropriation; till eventually, and perhaps with little warning, He summons to a final adjustment, assumes the sole disposal of the trust, and appoints the just award.

There is, in particular, one species of property entrusted to us, which above all we are required to render to God, and the honest surrendry of which affects essentially the right return of every other. God has given us moral affections, capacities of love, reverence, gratitude. He requires of us their faithful exercise. He claims for himself, their first, and highest, and habitual appropriation. He demands that they animate and characterize all that we do in his employ; nor will He forego their influence in the presentation of whatever we proffer to his service and glory. This fact throws additional light on Christ's injunction. It does not mean, that we should render to God the things that are his, by constraint, as a debtor, coerced by the unbending rigor of law; nor yet, that we should make the surrendry as an act of mere justice, yielding, as men of common honesty, to the claims of right, and the promptings of conscience. It implies more than this. It respects the state of the heart; it reaches to the moral affections; it requires nothing less than their full and hearty presentation to God, as the first fruits of his harvest, to be offered to him, with praise and rejoicing. Whatever fails of this, comes short of Christ's requirement. Nothing can be substituted in its stead. The affections of the heart must be rendered to God, and rendered first; and then, whatever else of the things of God is in our possession, it will be rendered to him, not by constraint, nor as an act of justice merely, but as a pleasure, a privilege, a high honor. But the way of man with God is not so. We are dishonest toward God, and do not render to him the things that are his. We consult for our own fancied interest,seek our own honor, please our

selves. What the will of God may be, what disposition He requires us to make of our time, our property, our talents, our influence, our hearts, is seldom a subject, with us, of earnest and deep inquiry. Of many it may be said with melancholy truth, they could not live more indifferent to the claims of God had they no knowledge of the being of God. The most explicit and urgent enforcements of his will, addressed to their minds, have scarcely a meaning. "Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God," is a requirement that may excite a momentary stare; but what thought does it convey to the understanding, what appeal does it make to the conscience? They still live on, as though God had not said it; and all that He has entrusted to them, that they may show forth his praise,-their time, property, talents,— they esteem, and apply, as if exclusively their own. Even some who in words acknowledge God as their Maker and Lord, in acts deny Him. Called to relinquish their trust, or make a new investment or appropriation, they hesitate, murmur, and often refuse. Especially do men withhold the affections of their hearts; and though God urges his claim unequivocally and unceasingly, they disallow and resist it with an obstinacy as unyielding as it is foolish and base.

And have you thought, reader, how exceedingly great is that folly and baseness? In what estimation would you hold the character of that man, who should prove unfaithful, uniformly, utterly, irreclaimably unfaithful to his employer,-a steward, who, entrusted with interests of most grave moment, and property of immense value, and expressly advised of the will of the owner, should heedlessly allow them to waste away and perish, or wantonly lavish them on unworthy and unauthorized projects, or knavishly appropriate them to his own emolument or gratification? It would be no extenuation of his baseness, to say, that he did not voluntarily assume the trust. The free committal of such a trust was of itself an honor, an unspeakable blessing, if rightly used, a special token of benevolent regard. And it laid the subject of it under the obligation of gratitude to be faithful, an obligation more sacred against violation or neglect, than if he had received the trust by express contract, for the benefit of the employer. What then shall we think of the baseness of him who defrauds God, and to the crime of flagrant dishonesty adds the vilest ingratitude? Will a man rob God, his Maker and Lord? Yet he has robbed God: he is now robbing God: he robs God daily and hourly, of the things that are God's, if he is not rendering to Him his affections, his service, his praise; all that he is, and all that he has. He cannot draw a breath, he cannot think, he cannot feel, without defrauding God, unless in heart he is devoted to God, and seeking supremely God's glory.

And as the baseness, so is the folly of withholding or misapplying the things of God. The ways in which He commands us to render to him his own, are not more fitted to honor him, than to benefit us, nor can we more effectually thwart our best interests,

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