he holy of holies, should rule
over him and exact his tribute. Was it not a betrayal of duty to God to
consent to it? Was it not right to suffer any extremities rather than
yield to the imperial claims? There was a party among the Jews who felt
so grievously the degradation and the burden on their consciences, that
they were in a chronic state of rebellion against Rome. They were always
seeking to foment the differences between their own and the Roman
government; and they were prepared to stake their own lives and the life
of the nation on their fealty, as they understood fealty, to God alone.
It was one of the questions most eagerly debated among them, which they
asked the Saviour to solve. A case of conscience,--conscience grieved by
being compelled to support a system of government other than that which
they believed had been ordained to them of God. Our Lord's solution is
most original and striking; and it offers the clearest guidance to us
through the multitude of kindred perplexities which cannot fail to arise
by reason of the ever varying relations of the secular and spiritual
powers in every age of the world. (Matt. xxii. 15-22.) The image on the
tribute money settled the matter. This is _prima facie_ evidence that
Caesar has a right to claim it. The power of putting an image on the
money marks it as a thing between you and Caesar. You accept it and use
it in daily life, at Caesar's hand. That image on the penny, the right of
coining money being represented by it, is the symbol of all the order
and benediction which flow to you from Caesar's rule; and Caesar's right
to exact it back again is distinctly a question between you and the
earthly monarch, into which you have no right to drag, for the purpose
of protest, the name of God. Caesar is ordained of God to take visible
charge of this department, the order of civil society; and he and you
must settle between you the fair adjustment of his claims. A piece of
money bearing Caesar's image is no battleground for the rights of God.
Pay whatever Caesar asks for his purposes, no matter what they may be, so
long as by using Caesar's mintage you give the stamp of your acquiescence
to his rule; and if his purposes seem to you to be wrong, fight him with
nobler things than pennies--with voice and pen, the free utterance of
opinion, and, if needs must be, in the last extremity, with swords.

If Caesar asks your homage to his idol, the bending of your knee, or the
acclamati