The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1902-1905, 1903-05-22
PAUL BEFORE AGRIPPA.

There were holiday times in C@-
sarea. The marble metropolis by the |
sea was in festive dress to welcome
the descendants of her founder. |
There had been u succession of feteS |
in the ampitheater and banquets III |
fine palace. But "after many days" |
naval. and gladiatorial
spectacles began to clOy upon the |
royal guests. Festus bethOugh him |
81 If of an eXpedient. He would by |
way of variety give Agrippa and Der
nice an intellectual tournament. He
would call the Nazarene enthusiast
from prison and the company OF his
yellow parchments, and have him
give the king an exhibition of that
orai Orical power of which
he had himself already had a sample.
He would by this means kill two
birds with one stone," entertain his
guests and at the same time find the
means of eXtricating himself from an
awkward plight. Agrippa's famili-
urity with Jewish questions might
serve him well in the wording of
to the emperor in the
case of this prisoner, who, though so
manifestly innocent, had been com
PEELED to appeal his case through the
procurator's failure to acquit him.
FcstuS determined that the spec
iNcie Of the audience chamber should
not be whit below that of the
theater in scenic effectiveness. The
phantom sovereign should be tickled
by being made the presiding officer
at 4 mock trial. 1t was a splendid
assemblage. The chiefs, military,
civil and social, were there. Festus
wore the crimson robe of office.
Agrippa the insignia of royalty, Ber-
nice blazed in jewels.
Once more, aud on the same spot,
the current religions of the day APP
pcared in triangular antagOniSln.
Heathenism had its representative
in Festus--a cOnfesscdly nOhler char
&ctpr than FeliN-but before the in
terviuw ended displaying by his rude
exclamation the inVeterate ObtuSe-
ness of the heather mind in spiritual
matters. To the procurator Paul's
talk about Il resurrection was prilna
facie evidence that the mind of the
prisoner was unhinged. He had no
such conception of the Deity his power
and love, as to make the raising OF
the dead credible to him. The cynic
ism of the heather not only put him
out of touch with Paul, but left him
powerless to even understand the
self-obliviOuS spirit of the great mis-
sionary. 10 the Roman official the
great ideal of life was to steer be-
tween the capricious anger of the
emperor on the one hand. and that of
the heterogeneous population he gov
erned on the other.
Judaism had II representative on
this occasion, better known to his
tory than the one who stood for it in
the scene which TRANSFERRED in the
same room two years before. Agrip-
pa, the guardian of the temple, nom
inator of high priests, deliberately
trained in all matters of Jewish re-
ligion and casuistry,n was very in
carnation of Hebrewism.
Thoroughly versed though he was
in the prophets, he, with most He
brews, had failed to preceive that
the Jewish seers pictured a suffering
rs well as a victorious Messiah.
Agrippa could not but see the COM
pleteness with which Paul freed HIM
self from the charge of apostasy; he
could not but see the "true identity
between Christianity and Judaism"
but while tacitly admitting it, he
| lacked the moral courage to avow it;
and as Felix in the same place had
soothed his conscience with pOul,
tice, so Agrippa parried his with a
Jest.
At the third angle. as glorious
representative of Christianity, stood
! Paul, two years nearer his corona
ton than when he last occupied such
Il position. Paul might have sulked
in his cell. Agrippa had no juris-
| diction. The case was already APP
again save in Caesars court. Paul
might have shown his pique at Fes-
fuss hardness in acquitting a prison.
er whose enemies had not been able
to gather any evidence against him
in two years of his illegal imprison-
ment. Had Paul taken this fact, in
which he would have been entirely
justified under the circumstances,
| the SNOWY drawing-room audience
which Festus had planned for the
amusement of his royal guests may
have been Hamlet with "Hamlet
left out"
But Festus had counted not in vain
upon the ingenious character of his
captive. Paul promptly appeared
when summoned. He recognized
this as one of the opportunities which
the sanity Ananias had assured him
| he should have of bearing the Lords
name before kings. He was not for
IL moment dashed by his splendid
and numerous auditory or the dis
| advantageous circumstances under
which he appeared before it He
saw in Agrippa, with all his regal
state, and Bernice, whose charms
neither Titus nor Vespasian could
resist, the children of one who, hard
by the very place where he stood,
was smitten of God and eaten by
worms. These 'pOmpOus inanities
of reflected power We're all uncOv
cred to the practIced eye of Paul. A
dying man, he addressed dying men.
THE TEACHERS LANTERN.
Paul did his utmost for Festus and
those whom he represented. He set
! forth astonishing truths in such an
astonishing manner as to draw from
the lips of the procuratOr loud cry
| like that of the centurion at the cruel
fiXiOn, only not so candid-an ejaclla-
ton which checked the majestic
stream of the apostles eloquence,
but did not otherwise ruffle his ex-
quisite courtesy
But the ambassador in chains ad-
dressed himself chiefly to Agrippa,
whom he recognized as the official
representative of his loved nation.
He was consciously bearing his last
testimony on soil of the Holy Land.
1t was a swan-song, the last recorded
address of Paul In it he poured out