in all good conscience until this day. This is a most conspicuous example that conscience is not a proper guide. He had the approbation of his conscience both in persecuting the Christians and in preaching the gospel. He caused division in the council by declaring himself a Pharisee, which resulted in a discussion between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and thus ended the trial. Paul was here rescued and returned to prison by the chief captain. And the night following the Lord stood by him and said: "Be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem so must thou bear witness also at Rome." a Then follows a conspiracy to kill Paul, forty men having bound themselves under oath to do this. It was prevented by the chief captain, who sent him by night under strong military escort to Cesarea, with a most gracious letter to Felix, the Roman governor. Paul was here kept as a distinguished prisoner in Herod's judgment-hall, and the centurion was commanded to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintances to minister or come unto him. The history of the imprisonment at Cesarea may be presented under three distinct heads: First, the charges. Second, the trial before Felix and Festus. First, the Jews from Asia, who had laid hands on Paul, said: "This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the people and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the tema Acts xxiii. II. ple and hath polluted this holy place." a Tertullus, the orator who was chosen by the high priest and elders to accompany them to Cesarea to prosecute Paul said in his discussion before Felix, the governor: "We have found this man a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes; who also hath gone about to profane the temple.' These charges he urged eloquently, but his speech was without avail before the governor. Second. Then the governor beckoned to Paul to make his own defense, which he cheerfully did, saying: "They neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues nor in the city; neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me." c He not only refutes the charges but implicates his accusers and makes a most memorable plea for Jesus and the resurrection. Felix deferred the case for certain days, when he appeared again before him and his wife. Upon this hearing, when Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled. He was next accused of the Jews before Festus, the successor of Felix. The charges were not proven. Paul makes a brief defense and appeals to Cæsar. The case was so weak that Festus said, "It seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him.”d This was the reason assigned for inviting King Agrippa to hear Paul. a Acts xxi. 28. b Acts xxiv. 5, 6. Acts xxiv. 12, 13. d Acts xxv. 27. Third. This brings us to Paul's defense before Agrippa, where he makes a model speech in reason, rhetoric, and power. The manhood of the great apostle rises here to its full stature. It is not only a convincing defense of an innocent and distinguished prisoner, but is a most powerful and persuasive argument for the Christian faith. Paul's speeches here at Cesarea must ever rank with the most telling of all time. Before him Felix trembled, against him Festus could find no case, and would have set him at liberty had he not appealed to Cæsar. And Agrippa exclaimed to Paul, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." a & Acts xxvi. 28. CHAPTER XXIX THE PRISONER OF THE LORD From Cesarea to Rome as a Prisoner. Preaches Two Years and is Released. Paul's Last Days. Prayer-its Place. Terms of Pardon Divine and Unchangeable. FROM Cesarea Paul is sent as a prisoner to Rome. On this journey, against the warning of Paul, they set sail from Crete and encountered a great storm, and were driven before the wind for fourteen days. During the storm an angel of God stood by Paul and assured him that he would be brought before Cæsar, and gave him the lives of all that sailed with him. The ship was wrecked on the coast of Melita and, notwithstanding the great peril, all reached the shore alive. After three months they took passage on a ship for Rome. When he arrived in Rome he was suffered to dwell by himself in his own hired house, with a soldier that kept him. There he called the chief of the Jews together. He told them why he was sent a prisoner from Jerusalem to Rome, and explained the facts of his imprisonment, of which they had not heard. "And when they had appointed him a day there came many to him into his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. And some believed the things which were spoken and some believed not. "And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him." a Here in Rome, at the close of the history of Paul, as given in Acts, and near the close of his eventful life, we find him preaching the kingdom of God to the Jews, teaching them things concerning Jesus Christ. And we are informed that some of them believed the things that were spoken and some believed not. The burden of Paul's preaching in Rome, as elsewhere, was the kingdom of God as foretold by the prophets and as now established under the ascended, ruling, reigning Christ. Those who believed no doubt came into the kingdom upon the same terms ordained by Christ, submitted to by Paul himself, and required of all believers. It has been shown in the preceding history that these terms were uniform. Paul dwelt two years as a prisoner in his own hired house, preaching the kingdom of God. The weight of evidence, both from some of Paul's epistles and early Christian writers, is that at the expiration of two years, or shortly thereafter, Paul was released; that he made another missionary journey, that he was again imprisoned in Rome, tried, condemned and beheaded without the walls of the city in the year 68, the last year of the reign of Nero. From the best information obtainable, seven years elapsed a Acts xxviii. 30, 31. |