Paul appears before the governors in succession-the Sanhedrim, Felix,
Festus, Agrippa, and afterwards Caesar. And here, when occasion offers, we
have striking appeals to conscience; when his defence is in question, the
manly and honest declarations of a good conscience, that rose above the
passions and interests that surrounded him. I pass over in silence the
worldly egotism which betrays itself in Lysias and Festus, by their
assumption of all sorts of good qualities and good conduct; the mixture of
awakened conscience and absence of principle in the governors; the desire
to please the Jews for their own importance, or to facilitate their
government of a rebellious people; and the contempt felt by those who were
not as responsible as Lysias for the public tranquillity. The position of
Agrippa and all the details of the history have a remarkable stamp of
truth, and present the various characters in so living a style that we seem
to be in the scenes described. We see the persons moving in it. This
moreover strikingly characterises the writings of Luke.
Other circumstances claim our attention. Festus, in order to please the
Jews, proposed to take Paul to Jerusalem. But Rome was to have its share in
the rejection of the gospel of grace, of the testimony to the assembly; and
Paul appeals to Caesar. Festus must therefore send him thither, although
embarrassed to know what crime he is to charge him with in sending him. Sad
picture of man's injustice! But everything accomplishes the purposes of
God. In the use of the means Paul succeed no better than in his attempt to
satisfy the Jews. It was perhaps to the eye of man his only resource under
the circumstances; but the Holy Ghost is careful to inform us that he might
have been set at liberty if he had not appealed to Caesar.
In Agrippa there was, I believe, more curiosity than conscience, though
there may have been some desire to profit by the occasion to know what the
doctrine was which had so stirred up people's minds, a disposition to
inquire which was more than curiosity. In general his words are taken as if
he was not far from being convinced that Christianity was true: perhaps he
would have been so if his passions had not stood in the way. But it may be
questioned whether this is the force of the Greek, as generally supposed,
and not, rather, 'In a little you are going to make a Christian of me,'
covering his uneasiness at the appeal to his professed Judaism before
Festus, by an affected and slighting remark. And such I believe to be the
case. The notion of an "almost christian" is quite a mistake, though a
man's mind may be under influences which ought to lead him to it, and yet
reject it. He would have been glad for Paul to be set free. He expressed
his conviction that it might have been done if he had not appealed to
Caesar. He gives his opinion to Festus as a wise and reasonable man; but
his words were in reality dictated by his conscience-words that he could
venture to utter when Festus and all the rest were agreed that Paul had
done nothing worthy of death or of bonds.
God would have the innocence of his beloved servant proved in the face of
the world. His discourse tends to this. He goes farther, but his object is
to give account of his conduct. His miraculous conversion is related in
order to justify his subsequent career; but it is so related as to act upon
the conscience of Agrippa, who was acquainted with Jewish things, and
evidently desired to hear something of Christianity, which he suspected to
be the truth. Accordingly he lays hold with eagerness of the opportunity
that presents itself to hear the apostle explain it. But he remains much
where he was. His condition of soul opens however the mouth of Paul, and he
addresses himself directly and particularly to the king; who moreover,
evidently engrossed by the subject, had called on him to speak. To Festus
it was all a rhapsody.
