question was a treacherous one. It was put from a bad
motive to please the Jews; and it was subjecting the
prisoner to a new trial, and for the same unproved offence.
The apostle felt at once what the question involved, and
what injustice it meditated ; that it was an unwarranted
change of jurisdiction which would make his sworn
enemies his judges, and he nobly answered " At Caesar's
judgment-seat I am standing, where I ought to be judged ;
the Jews in nothing have I wronged, as thou knowest
better (than thou choosest to confess). For if I am guilty,
or have done anything worthy of death, I do not refuse
to die, but if there be not one of the things of which they
accuse me, no one can deliver me unto them. I APPEAL
TO CAESAR."
The apostle's life was at stake, and he would not be the
victim of injustice. He was at that moment at Caesar's
judgment-seat, to be tried by his delegate and under his
authority, and there, and there alone, could his trial as
a Roman citizen be conducted. Let him be pronounced
guilty or not guilty at the proper tribunal. He had done
no injury to the Jews, and he hints that Festus must have
been convinced of this during the trial, or by the record of
the previous one. Let him be found guilty on proper
evidence, and he refuses not to die does not beg off from
death. But let him be found innocent, then surely no one
had legal power to remand him to Jerusalem, this want
APPEAL TO CLESAR. 407
of power being even implied in the procurator's question
"Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem and be judged?" But
the apostle knew the hazard, saw the procurator's weak
desire to please the Jews, felt that his case had been too
long delayed, and therefore took it out of the hands of
Festus and out of the hands of the sanhedrim, and
appealed to Caesar. It was a wise and also a necessary
step, and as a Koman citizen he was entitled to take it
to carry his case from the inferior court at Cesarea to the
imperial tribunal at Rome. It needed no written docu-
ment or formal reasons the simple sentence was enough,
such was the power and sweep of the Roman law through
all the provinces of the empire. Festus may have been
surprised by the sudden termination ; but after consulting
for a moment with his assessors, for the privilege of appeal
was guarded by some exceptions, he said, "Thou hast
appealed unto Caesar, unto Caesar thou shalt go." These
last words must have cheered him after two years' deten-
tion, and revived his hope of seeing Rome. Hope so long
deferred may have made his "heart sick," but the way
was at length providentially opened, and Christ's promise,
harmonizing with his own fervent desire, was at length
to be fulfilled.
408 PAUL AT CESAREA.
IF.
BEFORE FESTUS AND AGRIPPA.
ACTS xxv. 13 27 ; xxvi. 132.
Agrippa was a son of the Herod who was struck with
mortal and loathsome agony " by the angel of the Lord,"
during the celebration of games in honour of the emperor
at Cesarea. Acts, xii. 23. At the period of his father's
death he was at the court of Claudius Caesar at Rome, and
only seventeen years of age. Motives of policy kept the
emperor from allowing so young a man to succeed his
father as king over a people so turbulent as the Jews, and
Cuspius Fadus was sent in his room as procurator. But
the small kingdom of Chalcis was conferred upon the
prince, with the supervision of the temple in Jerusalem j
and a short time afterwards he was raised to royal sove-
reignty over those tetrarchies which had belonged to Philip
and Lysanias. He is not called " the king of the Jews,"
but only king ; for Judea was still under a procurator and
attached to the province of Syria. Bernice, his eldest
sister, was of great beauty, and of as great depravity. She
was married first to her uncle Herod of Chalcis, and after
his death she lived with Agrippa under the stain of an
incestuous attachment. To divert the scandal, she married
Polemon, king of Cilicia, but soon left him and came back
to her brother. In subsequent years she became mistress of
Vespasian, and of his son Titus, who was obliged by popular
clamour to part with her as reluctant, indeed, to dismiss
LEGAL OPINION OF FESTUS. 409
her as she was to be dismissed. Josephus records her
career, and she has not escaped the pencil of Juvenal.
No sooner had Festus taken possession of his govern-
ment than Agrippa and his sister came to salute him to
offer their formal congratulations to him, and through him
to the emperor. During their residence with him, Festus
mentioned Paul to them, as " a certain man left in bonds
by Felix ; " and after detailing the circumstances, and the
bearing of the Koman law upon them, contemptuously
narrowed the case to a point, that the whole controversy
was " of one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul affirmed
to be alive." It was true ; the entire dispute did hang
on this Was He who died on Calvary raised again from
the dead ? The gospel rests solely and wholly upon the
affirmative answer, and that affirmative was the soul and
substance of the apostle's preaching. On this statement
of the matter, "Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also
hear the man myself. To-morrow, said he, thou shalt hear
him. And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and
Bernice, with great pomp, and was entered into the place
of hearing, with the chief captains and principal men of
the city, at Festus' command Paul was brought forth."
Before this lordly assemblage Festus again gives a brief
account of the trial of the apostle, with the special declara-
tion " I found that he had committed nothing worthy of
death." But the entire question was beyond the range
of his experience, and he did not know how to word his
despatch to Rome " Of whom I have no certain thing to
write unto my lord. Wherefore I have brought him
before you, and specially before thee, King Agrippa,
410 PAUL AT CESAREA.
that, after examination had, I might have somewhat to
write." Agrippa "being thus appealed to as the principal
personage, at once addressed the prisoner in these words
"Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul
stretched forth his hand and answered for himself
a On all the counts with which I am charged by the
Jews, King Agrippa, I think myself happy in being about
to defend myself this day before thee, especially as thou
art so experienced about all customs and also questions
belonging to the Jews : wherefore I beseech thee to hear
me patiently. My manner of life from my youth, which
from the beginning was among my own nation in Jeru-
salem, know all the Jews, who previously knowing me
from the beginning, can give witness, if they are willing,
that in accordance with the strictest sect of our religion
I lived a Pharisee. And now for the hope of the promise
made to our fathers by God, I stand on my trial which
promise our twelve tribes, intensely engaging in divine
service night and day, hope to reach : for which hope I am
charged by the Jews, O king. What ! is it reckoned by
you a thing beyond belief, if God raises the dead ? Well,
then, I thought with myself that I was under necessity
to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus the Naza-
rene ; which also I did in Jerusalem. And many of the
saints did I shut up into prisons, having received the
(requisite) authority from the chief priests ; and when they
were being put to death, I gave my vote against them.
And punishing them often through all the synagogues, I
forced them to blaspheme ; being exceedingly mad against
them, I persecuted them as far as even to foreign cities.
ADDRESS. 411
In which business being engaged as I was on my journey
to Damascus, with authority and commission from the
chief priests, at mid-day I saw, O king, in the way a light
from heaven, beyond the brightness of the sun, shining
round about me and those who were journeying with me.
And we all having fallen to the ground, I heard a voice
speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew tongue Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? Hard for thee it is to
kick against the pricks. And I said Who art thou,
Lord ? And He said I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.
But rise, and stand upon thy feet: because for this end
I have appeared unto thee, to ordain thee a minister and a
witness both of those things which thou hast seen, and of
the things in which I will appear to thee ; delivering thee
from the people and from the Gentiles, to ; whom (both of
whom) I now send thee, in order to open their eyes, so
that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the
power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgive-
ness of sins and inheritance among the sanctified by faith
that is in Me. Whereupon, King Agrippa, I did not
become disobedient to the heavenly vision: but to those
in Damascus first, and also in Jerusalem, and throughout
all the region of Judea, and to the Gentiles I preached,
that they should repent and turn unto God, doing works
worthy of repentance. On these accounts the Jews, having
seized me in the temple, attempted to kill me. Having,
therefore, obtained help from God, unto this day I have
stood, testifying both to small and great, saying nothing
except what Moses and the prophets did say should come
whether the Messiah was to be a suffering one, whether
fv'mrvitiLsiTV
412 PAUL AT CESAEEA.
as the first from the resurrection of the dead, He is to
proclaim light to the people and to the Gentiles."
The apostle pursues to some extent the same argument
which he had delivered to the Jewish crowd from the stairs
of the temple garrison. He professes his happiness that
King Agrippa is to hear him ; for as a Jew he had some
acquaintance with the themes of Jewish controversy, and
had not the passionate antipathies of the sanhedrim. He
tells what he was, how he was educated as a zealous
Pharisee in the first seat of learning. He held by
the nation's hope that hope which they all cherished,
and which they were so eager to reach. "Our twelve
tribes " is the name which he gives his nation. Ten of
them had gone into hopeless captivity, but a scanty rem-
nant may have come back with Judah and Benjamin.
But the full theocratic number is given, and all of them
possessed the same hope, whatever their diversities of
character and position. Keuben, " unstable as water,"
might fall short of excellence; Simeon might wield the
instruments of cruelty, and be scattered through the com-
monwealth Levi might exult in his Urim and Thum-
mim as he offered sacrifice and burned incense ; Judah
might recline in his vineyard, and wash his clothes in
the blood of grapes ; Issachar might stoop to servitude ;
Zebulun might dwell in his haven, and suck the treasures
hid in the sand ; Dan might occupy the seat of the judge,
and Napthali that of the bard ; Gad might clothe himself
in armour, and Asher realize the blessedness in his name ;
Joseph might be crowned with benediction, and revel in
fatness and wealth ; and Benjamin might crouch as a wolf
RESURRECTION NOT BEYOND GOD'S POWER. 413
among his fastnessess but whatever their peculiarity and
history, whatever their temperament and locality, the
twelve tribes agreed in claiming the one hope, and antici-
pating it, as they engaged in divine service. The inference
of Paul is, that he had preceded them that he had found
what they were in quest of, and that they were bound to
follow him, as he pointed out the way to the blessed dis-
covery.
Then he throws in the question " Why should it be
thought a thing impossible with you, that God should raise
the dead?" Agrippa had been taught this doctrine that
God could raise the dead ; that He who made the body
could reorganize it ; that He who had caused what was not
to be, could surely bring back to being what had been; and
if He did raise a dead man on any special occasion, no one
with the Old Testament in his hand could say that the
statement was in itself, and of necessity, incredible. That
He had raised up Jesus could be easily and satisfactorily
demonstrated ; and His resurrection points Him out, and
glorifies Him as the hope of the twelve tribes.
But he passes away from this theme, and then tells
what he had become, dwelling on the strange phenome-
non which had so suddenly produced the change. He
is minute in his specification. He was not one of those
creatures of such facile temper and constitutional indiffer-
ence, as to have so few settled convictions that a change
of opinion may happen either one way or another, and yet
scarcely disturb their mental equilibrium. Nor was he
one of that class who are liable to continual oscillation,
whose sentiments of to-day cannot be safely predicted to
414 PAUL AT CESAREA.
be those of to-morrow, and in whom, therefore, any altera-
tion of view excites no surprise. He had held very fixed
opinions and acted tenaciously up to them ; did many
things from conviction contrary to the name of Jesus of
Nazareth ; persecuted many of the saints under a commis-
sion from the chief priests ; recorded his vote for their
death when they were tried before the sanhedrim ; punished
them often in every synagogue; laboured by torture to
induce them to blaspheme ; nay, his rage was not bounded
by his country " being exceeding mad against them, I
persecuted them even unto strange cities."
Why and how, then, had he changed changed so
suddenly and so decidedly as not only to cease to be a
persecutor, but to become a preacher of the new faith
with unexampled activity, to suffer the loss of all in
connection with it, and to be a willing martyr for it?
How came that change? It was not by argument, or
as the result of a mental conflict. It was not by close
intercourse with Christians and a more thorough acquain-
tance with their creed and character. The ingratitude
of his employers did not drive him from them, nor did
he petulantly go over to Christianity, because some other
agent had superseded him in their favour. Nor did he
grow colder and colder in his attachment to Judaism, and
at length openly recant when the sanhedrim withdrew
their confidence from him. Ambition could not prompt
him, nor the prospect of wealth allure him. No ; it was in
the midst of his bold and enthusiastic career, as he went
to Damascus with authority and commission from the
chief priests to imprison, torture, and slay the Christian
CAUSE OF PAUL'S CONVERSION. 415
disciples, that he was changed. Therefore, the ordinary
inducement to change opinion and party were not appli-
cable to him.
Why and how, then, had he changed? His simple
answer is that Jesus, the founder of Christianity, met
him and spoke to him ; that He was enveloped in a glory
"above the brightness" of the noonday sun; that this
scene was no hallucination, for it happened "at mid-day;' 7
and that the light also dazzled them which journeyed with
him, and they could attest the truth of his statement.
Jesus then accosted him, told him who He was, and why
He had appeared. The challenge was, " Why persecutest
thou Me?" He and His being one. " It is hard for thee
to kick against the pricks." Such wildness only multi-
plies and deepens the wounds. Had Saul some misgivings
already? Did the scene of Stephen's martyrdom haunt
him ; and were the tones of that prayer still lingering in
his ear? Had he begun to feel the pricks, and to recalci-
trate ere the Master spoke ? At all events his mind was
opened at once to conviction, and would persecute Jesus
no more. He durst not; those words touched his soul, and
filled it with a new power. Jesus then gave him that evan-
gelical commission to declare what he had seen and heard,
and to carry the gospel of salvation to the gentile .world.
The inference which he silently pressed upon Agrippa was,
Could any one remain unconvinced after such a manifesta-
tion any one whose eyes had been dazzled by such glory,
and his ears appalled by such an address ? It was no inner
impression, which a fanatical imagination might create ; but
an outer and a palpable display before his very senses, so
416 PAUL AT CESAREA.
vast and so public, as to be accounted for in no way by
any ocular deception. He had seen the Nazarene in a
glory which the sky could not furnish, and He had spoken
to him ; what else could he do but obey ? He durst not
refuse there could be no rebellion against such a com-
mand ; and, therefore, he honestly obeyed the commission
which he received. He did as he was told, and he could
not do otherwise. It was impossible for him to be " diso-
bedient to the heavenly vision" he "showed first unto
them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all
the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they
should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for
repentance." This conviction was deep and indelible. It
nerved him to suffering and perseverance. It made his
nation his enemy, but he would die rather than cease to
believe and do the work of an apostle.
And thus he describes his labours " Having therefore
obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing
both to small and great, saying none other things than those
which the prophets and Moses did say should come ; that
Christ should suffer, and that He should be the first that
should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the
people and to the Gentiles." This is a resume of his preach-
ing, as he spoke in Damascus and in Jerusalem, throughout
the coasts of Judea and among the Gentiles. He discussed
the question as to the character of Messiah ; proved that
He was capable of suffering, and was to be distinguished
by suffering, as at Thessalonica. He held that He was
risen again, as he had done at Antioch in Pisidia. He
maintained that He was to enlighten the Jew first and then
RESUME. 417
the Gentile, and this he had done in the same Antioch.
Everywhere he had proclaimed these truths a Messiah
who had come, who had been characterized by suffering,
who had risen again from the dead, and who had by His
apostles instructed Jew and Gentile on the momentous
topics of sin and salvation, God and eternity. Everywhere
he had shown that these events and these blessings were
in perfect accordance with the Hebrew scriptures, with
Moses and the prophets, and that, therefore, Christianity
is the genuine and orthodox Judaism. The address is still
meant for Agrippa. The apostle again maintains his con-
sistency as a Jew, and that he propounded no novelty
in preaching a Messiah that should surfer, rise again, and
illumine both Jew and Gentile, but had spoken in perfect
harmony with the utterances of Moses and the prophets.
The fulfilment of prophecy in the sufferings of Christ has
been considered by us under previous heads "Paul at
Antioch in Pisidia," "Paul at Thessalonica."
The Jewish colouring of this address, its reference to
Jewish prophecy and its fulfilment, its use of special terms
such as " forgiveness," "Satan," "inheritance," "sanctified"
and its allusions to a resurrection, made it unintelligible
to Festus, and he broke in with loud and impetuous tones
" Paul, thou ravest, much learning has thrown thee into
madness." " Much learning " is, literally, many letters
many books of the same class as the Jewish scriptures
referred to ; and the continuous study of them, according
to Festus, had subverted his reason. He was regarded by
the governor as an unfortunate monomaniac, heated into
fanaticism by intense application to occult and supersti-
2D
418 PAUL AT CESAREA.
tious learning. Ah ! truly the apostle must have often
appeared as beside himself, for he acted in opposition to
maxims of worldly prudence, and cared not for what most
men labour and struggle. A sceptical age like his, when
selfishness reigned supreme, and men lived but for the
pleasure of the hour, and had no thought of a God who
governs or a judge who will scrutinize ; when serious
thought and settled conviction had ceased to be felt, and
every one was fluttering among opinions and creeds like an
insect among flowers, pleased with all of them by turns,
but attached to none of them such an age must have
branded as a madman the homeless old man, cold,
hungry, ragged, scourged, and shipwrecked yet unwearied
in his zeal and labours as he travelled, preached, wrote,
and suffered his life in danger, and a chain upon his
wrist. They could not gauge his soul they had no
plumb-line of sufficient length. And yet they were the
fools. He had studied the chart and foreseen the danger,
and his feet were now upon a rock while they were making
merry in a vessel which was gliding round the outer edge
of the whirlpool, soon to narrow the circle with increasing
velocity, till amidst shrieks and despair she plunged into
the terrible abyss. Yes, as thou spakest in synagogues,
didst declaim on Mars-hill, bare thy back to the lash, fab-
ricate those tents, shiver on the wreck, or answer before
governors arid kings, resolved to die rather than recant ;
while thou didst hold thy life in thy hand, and priests and
zealots sought to snatch it from thee, all this while thou
wast carrying the truest wisdom with thee wise in doing
the Master's work wise in winning souls soon to shine
APPEAL TO AGRIPPA. 419
wisest among the wise, " like the brightness of the firma-
ment," and having "turned many to righteousness," to be
an orb of surpassing radiance among "the stars for ever
and ever."
The rude and bold interruption of Festus did not dis-
concert the apostle, but he calmly replies "I am not
mad" and he withholds not his title "most noble Festus,
but words of truth and sanity am I uttering" not the mere
hallucinations of a disordered intellect. Then he turns
with graceful tact away from Festus, to whom he was not
speaking, and who had heard and judged him before, and
appeals to the king that he was no stranger to these
things that they were not done in a corner, for his con-
version had been effected on the highway, and his public life
had been matter of notoriety. What might appear insanity
to a Koman like Festus, might yet be an intelligible
and self-consistent narrative to a well-informed Jew like
Agrippa. The appeal burst suddenly " King Agrippa,
believest thou the prophets?" and the reply follows as a
master-stroke " I know that thou believest." The king
was educated in that belief, and had not apostatized from
it; held that "the prophets" were inspired of God, and
that their oracles were true in fact and divine in origin.
The tacit inference was, that Agrippa's faith in the pro-
phets should lead him to faith in the Christ, to whom they
all gave witness. Agrippa saw at once the design, and
replied in compliment to his eloquence "Almost thou
persuadest me to be a Christian." It is universally
admitted that the phrase rendered " almost," cannot bear
that translation. If it have a temporal sense, it may mean
420 PAUL AT CESAREA.
in brief space thou art persuading me to become a Chris-
tian. Or it may have a quantitative sense with little
trouble, or with little argument, you would make me a
Christian. What the motive was that prompted the
declaration we do not know. It was probably a complex
one. He was so far moved by the apostle's earnestness
and sympathy, and he had also some information on the
subject ; but such an impression was not conviction. The
sense may be really, without much ado, thou art trying
to make me a Christian; you would make a Christian of me
as easily and in as off-hand a way as you were made your-
self: the name Christian, of heathen coinage, in his mouth,
does not imply any sincere or decided emotion, for he was
a haughty and light-minded voluptuary.
God had done much for the Herods, but their worldli-
ness and ambition ruined them. The first of them had
been visited by the Magi, and might have hallowed the
great event of his reign the birth of Jesus. Another of
them had the ministry of apostles, if he had chosen to
enjoy it ; but he beheaded one of them, and imprisoned a
second. And this last of them so specially appealed to
on this occasion, listened without conviction, and allowed
the precious opportunity to pass. He still fawned upon
the Roman power, as he did on this visit to Festus ; but
his courtly demeanour could not stay its final fury, and he
lived to see the destruction of Jerusalem.
Agrippa having thus replied, the apostle rose at once to
the occasion, and uttered his last public words for Christ
in Judsea " I would to God, that not only thou, but
also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and
LAST WORDS IN JUDEA. 421
altogether such as I am, except these bonds." This
peroration reaches sublimity so brief is it and so com-
pact sweeping round the bench and the audience, and