The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1914-08-29
1 PLEASANT FIELDS
/ Of HOLY WRIT.
Save for my daily range
among the pleasant fields of Holy
4 Writ,
Z / might despair. -Tennyson
International Sunday School Lesson
Third Quarter. Lcoson 9. Matthew
22:l5-222. August 80, 1911
A Day Of Questions
The Story.

Handel, when composing his ora
toriO, The Messiah" was found
bathed in tears. What touched
him was the prophets words, He
was despised.' The despsing of
Jesus was as evident in the tenn
pie as at the cross. And physical
pains are not so severe to a
spiritual soul as wounds inflicted
upon that higher nature Lowell
says: Our modern martyrdOms
are done in type" SO Jesus was
crucified again and again before
ever he came to the cross. We
come now to the last onset of his
despising critics. The Pharisees
Jesus implacable foes, were deeI
in the plot, but, for the time, with
consummate cunning, kept them
selves in the background. They al
lowed some of their understands
to consort with the hated Herodi.
ans in the willy scheme to trap the
great reforming Rabbi. The Ian
guage Off the address was charac-
teristically Herodian. 1t was era.
cious, empty platitude, which these
traitorous sCyophants had learned
| in the court of the Idumean. The
honeyed phrase with which they
baited their trap was the grossesr
insult of all the many that were
ever heaped upon Jesus. Gould
| they imagine he would be flatter.
ed by it? The horns of the di-
lemma, on one or the other OF
which they expected Jesus to be
imapled, were these: If, for exam
pie, he should say it was obliga-
! tory to pay tribute to the hated
Romans, he would inflame the Jew
| ish populace to the highest degree
| What, pay tribute to heather
| tyrant to enable him to live in lux,
ury in his golden palace on the
Tiber?" If he should say, on the
other hand, that such a tax ought
not to be paid, he would lay him
self open to the charge of seditior
against the most alert and virile
| government the world has ever seen
Before nightfall he would be in 6
Roman prison and his career, Sc
| threatening to Phariseeism, would
be at an end forever. 1t was q
well-laid scheme Many a great re,
former has been undone by one fal
less cunning. But the very pro
pounding of such conundrum
shows that the questioners had nc
| idea with whom they were dealing
Jesus knocked the cunning dialec'
teal trap into .smithereens. He
the irvn TUu = stn T'ireIf-i}fe
called them ''HyP0cfftes. He an
swered fools according to thei1
| folly when he said, Render Gaze
sar Caesars things He left the
| question still open whether taxes
were Caesars right The indivi,
dual must decide. The very hold
| ing up of the penny and the max
ing the questioners themselves
read the inscription increased the
| fog in which Jesus deliberately
and under the circumstances justi-
fiedly wrapped the whole matter
Like a skilled helmsman he steer
ed between Scylla and Charybdis
He gave no offense to the popu-
lace. He had not affirmed that
| they must pay the odious taX On
the other hand he had given no
occasion for his enemies to lodge
complaint of treason with the Ro-
man officials. He had not said
that the Jews must not pay the
tax. The Herodian question, ask
ed so deftly, proved boomerang
and came HURTING back to the
camp of the conspirators. They
were dumbfounded. They could
not get away quickly enough. They
were in abject fear lest Jesus should
follow up his advantage and put
them in still worse form with the
mercurtal populace.
The Teachers Lantern.
The climacteric character of this
controversy is apparent from the
large space given to it in the Cos