„ „ Manchester Sermons, 62.
M'Fadyen (J. E.), The City with Foundations, 221. Maclaren (A.), A Year's Ministry, i. 165. Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, iv. 17. Smith (Gipsy), As Jesus Passed By, 139. Spurgeon (C. H.), The New Park Street Pulpit (1858), No. 171. Trench (R. C), Westminster and other Sermons, 32. Vaughan (C. J.), The Church of the First Days, 534.
„ (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), i. No. 296.
i86
The Lash of the Law.
And as he reasoned of righteousness, and temperance, and the judgement to come, Felix was terrified, and answered, Go thy way for this time ; and when I have a convenient season, I will call thee unto me. — Acts xxiv. 25.
Waiting for the Sekmon.
1. The scene of this incident was Csesarea. The sermon was preached in the presence of Felix, the Eoman governor of the province. Look at him, as he sits there, with a woman of extraordinary beauty at his side. He has made her his own by ruthlessly breaking up the domestic circle of another. She is only eighteen years of age; a princess by birth, and, though she knew it not, soon to die. She was a Jewess by nation, and there was at that time a Jew in prison at Csesarea, for Christ's sake. What more natural than that Drusilla should wish to break in upon the tedium of official life by hearing Paul plead ? Felix had told her of the speech of the orator Tertullus, and of Paul's answer. Her curiosity was stirred ; she wished to see and hear this countryman of hers, whose fame was so widely spread. And so it was arranged that Paul should appear before Felix and Drusilla.
2. It needs courage to preach to only one or two persons. There are those who can preach to the crowd. It takes a man with the vision of the Cross to preach to two people. It takes courage to preach to the man who sits in a high position, when he is close to you, when he is in his own house and you are sitting at his table, or in his own room face to face.
3. It was the glory of St. Paul that he " became all things to
all men " ; we are here helped to understand what he meant by
187 J
188 THE LASH OF THE LAW
this boast. Had he seen before him one of the weary and heavy- laden — a Philippian jailor, crying out of the depth of a contrite and penitent heart, " What must I do to be saved ? " — the Apostle would have changed his voice, would have brought other things out of his treasure-house. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" — "Behold the Lamb of G-od, which taketh away the sin of the world " — so had he reasoned of the faith in Christ to him. But he saw none such here ; on the contrary, a proud stout-hearted sinner, sitting in the seat of judgment, but executing unrighteous judgment there, and to this man "he reasoned of righteousness, and temperance, and the judgement to come."
II.
The Appropriate Sermon.
The details of the argument we do not know, the heads we do. Probably there would be an appeal to the Jewish Scriptures, with which Drusilla could not fail to be familiar ; probably also to the Stoic and Epicurean maxims which floated in the then atmosphere of Koman thought, and could not have escaped the notice of Felix; certainly there was the intensity of a living conviction; certainly also a masterly division of the subject into heads of the deepest and largest interest. There are three heads.
i. Righteousness.
"He reasoned of righteousness"; perhaps it is more true to say he reasoned of justice. Doubtless righteousness has to our minds a larger sense, but St. Paul's expression on the whole implies more generally what we mean by justice.
Justice ! It is one of those fundamental and primary intui- tions, of the existence of which in the human mind we can give no rational account, except that it is there by the will of the Creator. It is simply a fact about man — a fact which gives the lie to materialistic philosophy — that he is conscious — certainly more or less conscious — of the power of the moral law and of the absolute obligation laid upon him to obey it. Now, justice is a fundamental principle in the moral law. It
ACTS xxiv. 25 189
has been defined to be "the constant and perpetual will to render to every man his right."
f Were I certain that one prayer and only one was to be granted to me, I would breathe it for the righteousness of the king, as the best means of reaching the interests of the world at large.1
But Justice has two aspects — Justice to Man and Justice to God.
1. Justice to Man. Let us look at some of the rights of man which are safeguarded by justice.
(1) First of all a man has a simple, a most elementary right to his own property. It is a mistake to suppose that the laws which govern and repress dishonesty are sufficient to ensure this elementary right as against those who disregard it. Here is a man who fancies that he should like to become the owner of something which he sees in a shop ; perhaps he is moved by some passing whim, perhaps he wishes to make money out of it, perhaps he is driven to desperation by the pangs of hunger. He watches his opportunity, he appropriates the property, and finds himself convicted as a thief in the strong clutches of outraged law. But here is a man, well dressed, well supplied with the necessaries of life, moved by no unbearable pangs of hunger, who passes the same shop, is moved with the same desire of acquiring ; and he, instead of stealing the article, goes in and buys it, but does not pay for it, knowing that he cannot pay for it then, and, perhaps, will have some difficulty in paying for it at all. In the sight of God he has virtually stolen those goods. And people who can ill afford it are deprived of their means of livelihood because he holds what is really their property.