Trial at Caesarea
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cleansed from guilt and be enabled to render obedience to the law of
his Maker.
Thus Paul, the prisoner, urged the claims of the divine law upon
Jew and Gentile, and presented Jesus, the despised Nazarene, as the
Son of God, the world’s Redeemer.
The Jewish princess well understood the sacred character of that
law which she had so shamelessly transgressed, but her prejudice
against the Man of Calvary steeled her heart against the word of life.
But Felix had never before listened to the truth, and as the Spirit of God
sent conviction to his soul, he became deeply agitated. Conscience,
now aroused, made her voice heard, and Felix felt that Paul’s words
were true. Memory went back over the guilty past. With terrible
distinctness there came up before him the secrets of his early life of
profligacy and bloodshed, and the black record of his later years. He
saw himself licentious, cruel, rapacious. Never before had the truth
been thus brought home to his heart. Never before had his soul been
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so filled with terror. The thought that all the secrets of his career of
crime were open before the eye of God, and that he must be judged
according to his deeds, caused him to tremble with dread.
But instead of permitting his convictions to lead him to repentance,
he sought to dismiss these unwelcome reflections. The interview with
Paul was cut short. “Go thy way for this time,” he said; “when I have
a convenient season, I will call for thee.”
How wide the contrast between the course of Felix and that of the
jailer of Philippi! The servants of the Lord were brought in bonds to the
jailer, as was Paul to Felix. The evidence they gave of being sustained
by a divine power, their rejoicing under suffering and disgrace, their
fearlessness when the earth was reeling with the earthquake shock,
and their spirit of Christlike forgiveness, sent conviction to the jailer’s
heart, and with trembling he confessed his sins and found pardon.
Felix trembled, but he did not repent. The jailer joyfully welcomed
the Spirit of God to his heart and to his home; Felix bade the divine
Messenger depart. The one chose to become a child of God and an
heir of heaven; the other cast his lot with the workers of iniquity.
For two years no further action was taken against Paul, yet he
remained a prisoner. Felix visited him several times and listened atten-
tively to his words. But the real motive for this apparent friendliness
was a desire for gain, and he intimated that by the payment of a large