in virtue of their office, ought not to be, and they have the highest authority for not claiming to be, judges or lawgivers.  They have not, and ought not to claim, any authority to decide on the lawfulness of paying tribute to Caesar; any such claim must be strenuously resisted.  The use of religious sanctions as weapons of political warfare is not wholly obsolete.  We hear of it from across St. George’s Channel—­it should be condemned like poison gas on the battlefield.  And, lastly, it must never be forgotten that there are certain things with regard to which attempted suppression by law is certain to result in evil and disaster.  With regard to these things the influence of religion, on the other hand, may be all-effective if it is kept absolutely distinct from any question of legislation or of legal penalties.  The spheres of religion and the criminal law must never be confused.  Shakespeare, “the mirror of human nature” for all time, once blended bitter irony with infinite pathos.  “Measure for Measure” has its warning for every age.  It would be well to study the ugliest as well as the most beautiful parts of that drama, and see what it really means, and what is its lesson.

Exercised within its proper sphere the influence of religion may still be as potent a force now as in the past.  It may inspire the right frame of mind in dealing with every question, may encourage hope, sustain faith, and diffuse charity.

Reiterated until wearisome we hear the question asked, “What is wrong with the Church?” sometimes from outside with a tone almost of contempt, with little, or no care, for remedy if anything be wrong; sometimes from within with a note of anxiety, uncertain whether it is safe to confess openly the fact that anything can so be wrong.  To the question coming from within the Church, a voice might answer from the outer galilee, “Is not what is wrong with the Church—­like what is wrong with most of us—­thinking, perhaps talking, too much of itself, considering what figure it makes in the world, rather than in self-forgetful devotion giving itself to the work set before it, to delivering some message in which it intensely believes as necessary for mankind?” It has been likened to a bride; is not the bride too self-conscious, thinking whether her garb is not fine enough or too fine, her possessions too small or too large, her influence too weak or opposition to it too strong?  How much discussion is devoted to the question, what phrases must be repeated, what forms adopted, to pass the janitor who guards her doors!  As has been truly said, the really useful reform for all of us would be that each should do his appointed work at least ten per cent. better than he has done it before.  The work to be done should be the special work assigned to each and for which each is best fitted.  We long for peace, but in settling the constitution of a League of Nations it will be the jurist not the churchman who will help us.  In aiming at political or industrial peace the practical