But his admirable good sense, and the truly prophetic instinct which he had of his mission, guided him with marvelous certainty.

By the sentence, "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's," he created something apart from politics, a refuge for souls in the midst of the empire of brute force.

Assuredly, such a doctrine had its dangers.

To establish as a principle that we must recognize the legitimacy of a power by the inscription on its coins, to proclaim that the perfect man pays tribute with scorn and without question, was to destroy republicanism in the ancient form, and to favor all tyranny.

Christianity, in this sense, has contributed much to weaken the sense of duty of the citizen, and to deliver the world into the absolute power of existing circumstances.