72 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
72 lines
3.8 KiB
Plaintext
IN HOC ANNO DOMINI
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When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole
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of the known world lay in bondage. There was on state, and it was
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Rome. There was on master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.
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Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was
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long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society,
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for the centurions saw that it was so.
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But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression,
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for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was
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the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax
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from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry
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treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people.
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There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There
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were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What
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was a man for but to serve Caesar?
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There was persecution of men who dared to think differently, who
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heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was
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enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for
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those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all,
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there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the
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strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?
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Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from
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Galilee saying, "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's
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and unto God the things that are God's."
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And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new
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Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but
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his God. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of
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these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." And he sent this
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gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the
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earth.
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So the light came into the world and the men who lived in dark-
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ness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man
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would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.
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But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth
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did set men free, although the men of darkness were offended and
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they tried to put out the light. The voice said, "Haste ye,
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Walk while you have he light, lest darkness come upon you, for he
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that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
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Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward
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Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other
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Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was
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nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their
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birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.
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Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the
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land sand there would be a burning of books and men would think only
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of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed
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only to new Caesars and to false prophets. Then might it come to
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pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in
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the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the
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darkness.
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And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren,
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the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in
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each of the years of his Lord:
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Stand fast therefore in the liberty
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wherewith Christ has made us free
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and be not entangled again with the
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yoke of bondage.
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This editorial was written in 1949 by Vermont Royster, now editor
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emeritus of the Wall Street Journal, and has been published
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annually since.
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