The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-02-02
Dodgers of Taxes VIII Not Pay Their Church
 Dues SAYS VOTE SHOULD BE
 REL|GIOUSLY CAST 1is Text is Taken From christ's ln- structlons to "Render Therefore Unto Ceasar the Things
 Of Ceasar.

The Rev. A. j. Dickinson, D. D., pas tor of the First Baptist church, yesterday spoke on the duty of the tax payer and his obligations. He also touched on the relation of the church and the state, stating that they are not as far separated as modern teaching in its extreme form attempts to show. The sermon is as fol- lows:
 Render therefore unto Caesar the things of Caesars-Mt. 22:2l.
 For twenty years Judea had been under the direct rule of Caesar, though his governor in Syria and his procurator at Caesasea, and his taxes were paid to the fiscus of the emperor. This was a per- petual and direct reminder of the fact that the people of Jehovah were subjects to the reign of heather Rome. The Herodious who still hoped for the restora- tion of the house of Herod as in the days of Archelous, repudated the rightfulness of the rule of Rome. The Pharisees also being Puritons of the letter of Johovah's law denied in their hearts the rightful- ness of the reign of heather Rome. So it was a burning political and religious question whether it was lawful to pay tribute to Caesar or not. Yet this dis cussion had to be conducted at low breath because Rome brooked no such treason as the questioning of the rights to her tribute, and no one dared to go on record as against her in this matter.
 Now the Herodians cordially wated the Pharisees, but they here make common cause of this antagonism to Jesus and plot to catch a reasonable speech from him on this question of paying tribute to Caesar, which would give ground for his arrest and conviction and crucifixion. They readily saw that to put this prophet out of the way the consent of Rome must be had for his death and this could most easily be gotten upon charge of treason. This passage is their first attempt to procure such an arraignment of him by catching him in some reasonable utter ance. It failed through the adroitness of our Lord, but finally they did arraign him before Pilate and secure his sentence upon a charge of treason, in saying that there was another king than Caesar.
 Jesus Says Pay.
 The trap which they here set Jesus walks right through without springing. They send spies to him feigning them selves to be righteous who say to him. Preacher, we know thou art true and carest not for any one; for thou regard est not the person of men, but of a truth teachest the way of God" That Is the way to talk to preacher If you want to throw him off his guard and get him to make an ill-advised deliverance by be- ing reckless with the truth, drawing his fire before he Is fortified It Is the same strategy the Devil tried on the Lord in his temptation in the wilderness and has suc- ceeded a thousand times and more. To put the matter in plain and unvarnished language it is, Teacher we know that you are so loyal to your calling that you will commit suicide in its behalf Get a man on that promise and he Is both O fanatic and a pool. So these feigned friends by such transparent plotting pre- stunned to throw Jesus off his guard to ask him to commit treason by answering their question, "It Is lawful to give, they do not say pay tribute unto Caesar or not. Say yes or nor" But Jesus per- ceiving their wickedness and craft in the temptation proceeds to spring the trap while 1t was yet in their hands to the hurt of their fingers. He said 'Ye hypo- critics. why tempt ye me, get me the Denorius. the tribute money.
 Jesus seems never to have carried money and when he had need of any to illustrate his teaching he borrowed 1t from the congregation and got 1t from the fish's mouth to pay his taxes. So they brought him the Denorius He held 1t up before them and said, whose image and superscription Is this?" They hssed out in feigned hostility '"Tis Caesor's." He answered, then render unto Caesar the things that are Caesor's and unto God the things that are Gods" The an- swer amazed them and they could not take hold of it. They thought that teaches loyalty both to Caesar and to God. We thought all Jews believed that Caesar and God, state and religion, were separate and inconsistent the one with the other Man cannot be both pious and patriotic in the empire and this teacher hath told us to be both and made the two duties coordinate and of a common moral origin. There is no cause in such an answer for arraignment either before civil or ecclesiastical tribute"
 The Modern Doctrine.
 do not believe that this saying of Jesus will bear the weight of the modern doctrine of the separation of church and state, which in the extreme form in which it is now beginning to be presented and advocated, is not only not scriptural, but in the face of what our Lord here seems to teach. That the sphere of the civil is a realm in which the religious have no right to enter. or that the kingdoms of this world can never as such become the Kingdom of our Lord is a teaching not only without shadow Of warrant in scripture teaching. but directly in the face of that teaching and of the very nature of man as a social and at the same time religious creature. The notion that the Bible cannot be taught in the state schools, that court or legislature may not be opened with prayer or con- ducted with reverence for the Creator, or that the voter may not regard his relig- ious impulses in deciding his choice as an elector, nor political policies have regard to religious culture, 1t seems to me needs only to be stated to people con versant with the scriptures in order to be effectively refuted.
 What the Lord Teaches.