Nothing is more striking (to anyone who feels the Bible as a live thing) than the contrast between the careless commonsense with which Christ and His Apostles admit the need of rulers and the mysterious and authoritative violence with which they declare that the mighty shall be plucked from their seat and the rich shut out of the Kingdom. There is mere light reasonableness in Christ's tone towards the tribute to Caesar. 'Look at a penny for yourself; after all, Caesar mints them; give the man the benefit of the work he does in the world.' There is the same practical tone in St. Paul about the magistrate; 'He beareth not the sword in vain.' That is exactly what a sane mystic does feel about the magistrate; 'After all, he's not there for nothing; there must be some sense in the human tradition of civil obedience.' It is in a very different tone, a tone of apocalyptic truth and terrible reality, that they speak of the spiritual state of rulers, damned in the purple and fine linen or eaten by their gold as by fire. It is arguably Christian to say that wealth and leisure are necessary for a State, but not that they are good for a soul. A Christian might say that the rich we have always with us. But it is not Christian to say that they are anything but a necessary evil. Put not your trust in princes even if you obey them.

-July 17, 1909, Daily News