The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-23
os ANGELES. CAL. June 1e.-In this sermo nthe preacher shows the

this sermo nthe preacher shows the A evil of official corruption and wick edness in high places, a lesson which has a peculiar application to governors and judges in our own day. The text is Acts xxiv., 9. "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season I will call for thee"
 What is a change of venue?' I asked a lawyer friend. "A venue" he an- swered, lis merely the legal name for the place of a trial. Now, the place of venue is sometimes changed for the con- venience of witnesses. Sometimes it is due to the fact of a county judge being an interested party in a civil suit Some times, as In a murder case where tine whole region is inflamed with passion, lhe trial is changed to another county far away from where the deed has been com mitted so that the defendant may be able to get jury of twelve unbiased men to pass a just verdict upon his motives and his deed. Never since the world was started has 1t been fair to try man be- fore a prejudiced or a partial court
 Now, Claudius Lysias, commander Of the Roman troops, who had charge of the temple at Jerusalem, was an hon est official He knew that Paul was be- ing mobbed by the populace and could never get a fair and an impartial trial in the Hebrew capital. He also knew that the longer Paul stayed there the bltterer would become the prejudices of the people. So he said thus: 'I know what I will do I will send the prisoner north to Caesarea Palestin about fifty five miles away. Then by the change of venue Paul will be in a new city under an impartial judge" So Claudius Lyslas sends Paul to Felix, the governor of Cae- sarea Palestina, with a letter stating the case. That was the reason why the venue of Paul's trial was changed from Jerusalem to Caesarea Palestina.
 But Paul did not get a speedy trial at Caesarea. He was summoned before the governor again and again. There he faced his witnesses. There he pleaded for his life. and there he preached righteous ness, temperance and Judgment to come with such power that Governor Felix trembled. The judge in this case became the defendant, and the defendant became the judge Then Felix trembled and an- swered: 'Go thy way for this time. When I have a more convenient season, l will call for thee" As Felix resisted the pleadlngs of Paul, some of are resist ing our Saviors calls to the better and the truer life
 Governor Felix was like many sinners in our day. He wanted to conceal for little while longer his domestic sins. He wanted to go on practicing his libertin- isms unmolested. He wanted to do just as David did when he took unto himself Uriah's wife to be his wife He wanted to do as Herod did when he took unto himself Herodias his brother Philips wife, to be nis wife. He wanted to do as Augustus did when he brutally divorced his own wife, Scribonia, to marry Livia, who was the wife of Tiberius Claudius Nero. He did as Mark Antony. who de- liberately turned his back upon his beau tiful wife, the noble and chaste Octavia, in order to enter a sinful alliance with the far famed vouptuary Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen He did as thousands of men and women of this generation are doing today in the divorce courts, who, by secret or open immoralities, are defying the sacred law of the marital relations, making the old fashioned name of hus- band and wife a mere secular arrange ment and bringing such a discredit upon the wedding ring that it is of no more strength than spiders web, which can be snapped in a day.
 Come, Paul; tell us who was this Dru- silla sitting beside Governor Felix, listen ing to thy inyectives? Was she prin- cess? Yes; thes records show she was the daughter of a king. Was she beauti- full? Oh, yes. Legend tells us she was one of the most beautiful women of all the east. Was she a queen? Yes; she was now the wife of the ruler of a province. She was the consort of Caesa- req Paestina. But she had been more than that. She had been the wife of the king of Emesa. She deliberately left her first husband because Felix fell In love with her and could offer her more beautiful palace in which to live. Thus as John the Baptist pointed his condemna- tory finger at Herod and said, "It Is not lawful for thee to have her! thou hast no right to Herodias,' Paul was pointing the condemnatory finger at Governor Felix when he reasoned of righteousness which forbade such unions. And today Paul is pointing the condemnatory finger at every man and woman who is cher ishing at heart an Illicit love. He Is say ing, Tn the name of God, thou must not, thou shalt not, covet thy neighbor's wife nor his daughter nor his sister, thou shalt not coYet any one who has not been given to thee in holy wedlock." And yet there are thousands of men and women today absolutely debasing and de- stroying their spiritual lives because they are loving those of whom God has said Thou shalt not have them nor love them"
 Who DrusllIa Was.
 Now, is Pauls denunciation of Felix and Drusilla being hurled against any one here? Is every man and woman mar ried or unmarried among us morally and socially clean? Is there any time since our government was started when the sin of adultery and the sin of wholesale and prohigrate divorce were prevlant dl lut pTeSenl udN <AIo we 1ol HIS d ton rapidly drifting toward such a con dition as existed in ancient Rome whenn it was not considered a disgrace for wom- an or a man to be divorced four or five times and where virtue was sneered at as one of the nonessentials of the purity of the domestic hreside? Ought the epitaph which was cut into the mob of Titus Claudius Secundus to be your epitaph? Here Is all that remains of him. The loves and wines and amours destroy our bodies, but they make up life. Farewellf' Oh, my friend. like Felix of old, art thout a living devotee of wine and licen- tious affections? What Is thy life before God and man in a true domestic sence? Hast thou, immortal leper. a Drusllla sitting by thy side? If thou hast, then Paul is preaching unto thee righteous ness and temperance and Judgment to come. Thou eanst not stop thine ears to his arralngment any more than David could ignore Nathan or Herold ignore John the Baptist or Felix could tempor- ize with Paul. Is thy domestic life a morally pure. clean life That Is what God is asking thee today. Better crush that hideous skeleton of sin which thou hast hidden away in thy closet. Crush 1t in Gods name. and crush it now.
 Felix Was Corrupt.
 But Felix had more than the sin of libertinism laid at his door. He was, like Pilate. officially corrupt. He was ready to sell his soul. his honor, his oath of office. He was ready to sell everybody