Address Before Agrippa
181
to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews;
wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently.”
Did the mind of Agrippa at these words revert to the past his-
tory of his family, and their fruitless efforts against Him whom Paul
was preaching? Did he think of his great-grandfather Herod, and the
massacre of the innocent children of Bethlehem? of his great-uncle
Antipas, and the murder of John the Baptist? of his own father, Agrippa
[256]
I., and the martyrdom of the apostle James? Did he see in the disasters
which speedily befell these kings an evidence of the displeasure of
God in consequence of their crimes against his servants? Did the
pomp and display of that day remind Agrippa of the time when his
own father, a monarch more powerful than he, stood in that same
city, attired in glittering robes, while the people shouted that he was
a god? Had he forgotten how, even before the admiring shouts had
died away, vengeance, swift and terrible, had befallen the vainglorious
king? Something of all this flitted across Agrippa’s memory; but his
vanity was flattered by the brilliant scene before him, and pride and
self-importance banished all nobler thoughts.
Paul again related the familiar story of his conversion from the
stubborn unbelief of a rigid and bigoted Pharisee to faith in Jesus of
Nazareth as the world’s Redeemer. He described the heavenly vision
that filled him with unspeakable terror, though afterward it proved to
be a source of the greatest consolation,—a revelation of divine glory, in
the midst of which sat enthroned Him whom he had despised and hated,
whose followers he was even then seeking to destroy. Transforming
mercy had made Paul a new man from that hour, a sincere penitent
and a fervent believer in Jesus. It was then that he was called to be an
apostle of Christ, “by the will of God.”
Paul had never seen Christ while he dwelt upon the earth. He had
indeed heard of him and his works, but he could not believe that the
promised Messiah, the Creator of all worlds, the Giver of all blessings,
would appear upon earth as a mere man. He had looked for him to
[257]
come in robes of majesty, attended with royal pomp, and proclaimed
by the angelic host as king of the Jews. But he found that he had not
read the Scriptures aright; Christ came as prophecy foretold, a humble
man, preaching the word of life in meekness and humility. He came to
awaken the noblest impulses of the soul, to satisfy its longings, and to
crown the work and warfare of life with infinite reward.