bis. Yet there they were spoken by him, and here for ever they will lie. The dead and anon living One is the centre of Christian faith, hope, love. It is the description he gives of himself: "I am he that liveth, and was dead, and, behold, I am alive for evermore" (Rev. i. 18). Three perennial springs-springs of heavenly truth and infiu- ence, issue out of these simplest and coldest words as uttered by Fe8tus. I. The ieath of Christ has (1) a meaning all its own; (2) a boundless fulness of meaning ; (3) an endless continuance of meaning. 2. The life of Christ, after his death, has a very lustre of light for us, if we think of it simply for what it teaches us about himself. It proclaims him, when all is considered, different from any other, 11nique among men, Prince of life, Victor over death. These are his own dignities. He shines wonderful in the midst of them, did we all but worship far away in wonder and admiration but mystery lost. 3. That risen life, and what followed it-the ascended life, have floods of joyful meaning for us, when we remember all that is distinctly revealed as involved in it for mankind and ourselves. (1) He is every way to be trusted, since he has proved hlmself true herein. (2) He gives us the life he has for himself. (3) He is the very Specimen, the Earnest, the manifest Firstfruits of the life that shall be, for all them that sleep in him. (4) He is even now, though invisible, somewhere surely, and mindful of his people, and watchful over them, their one ever-living sympathizing Mediator and High Priest. (5) He lives above, waiting to receive, to judge, and then to bless his own people for ever and ever. Yes, the vital germa of all the highest Christian hope and faith lie in the words of Festus.-B. Ver. 3.-Seeking favowr to cover wicked devices. Taking advantage of the anxiety to please his new subjects which would characterize the fresh governor, the enemies of St. Paul came to Festus asking a favour; not, however, that they directly asked for what they really wanted. They asked for Paul's trial at a Jerusalem court, where the ecclesiastical offences, with which he was charged, could alone be properly considered. They intended to take advantage of his journey to attack the party and kill Paul-a. scheme which o:ily religious bigotry could devise, for it was one which promiseu little success. Roman soldiers were not wont to lose their prisoners. The incident gives a pain- ful illustration of the miserable servility of religious bigotry. Farrar says, "Festus was not one of the base and feeble procnrators who would commit a ciime to win popularity. The Palestinian Jews soon found that they had to do with one who more resembled a Gallio than a Felix." "Festus saw through them sufficiently to thwart their design under the guise of a courteous offer that, as Paul was now at Cresarea, he would return thither almost immediately, and give a full and fair audience to their complaints. On their continued insistence, Festus gave them the haughty and genuinely Homan reply that, whatever their Oriental notions of justice might be, it was not the custom of the Romans to grant any person's life to his accusers by way of doing a favour, but to place the accused o.nd the accusers fac& to face, and to give the accused a full opportunity for self-defence." Felix may have given Festus some intimation of the enmity felt against this particular prisoner, and some account of the plot to assassinate him, from which he had been preserved by Lysias. Examining the character and schemes of these enemies of St. Paul, we note- I. THEm UNREASONABLE PBEJUDI0ES AGAINST HIM, They were thoroughly " pre- judiced," and religious prejudices are the most blinding and most mischievous that men can take up. No kind of argument, no statements of fact, ever suffice to correct such prejudices, as may be illustrated from both religious and political spheres in our own day. Things corrected or denied a hundred times over, prejudice will persist in believing. When prejudice says, "It must be," all the world may stand in vain and plead, " But it is not." 'l'he prejudice of these men declared that Paul had de.filed the temple, but he had not; it said that he insulted the honoured system of Moses, but he did not. Their eyes were blinded, their hearts were hardened, and all argument was lost upon them. II. PERSONAL FEELING INTENSIFIED RELIGIOUS PREJUDICE. Recall the scene in the court of the high priest, when the person occupying that office temporarily was reproved by the apostle. Nothing increases the hate in an evil-disposed man like his being publicly reproved or humbled. The Sadducees, who were the party to which the high priest belonged, would consider thelllll8lvu insulted in the insult offertld to him. And 962 THE AOTS OF THE APOSTLES. [Oil. nv. 1-27.
the Phnrisee party ware, no doubt, intensely annoyed by being drawn, on the same occasion, into a mere theologi<ll\l \Vrangle, which showed themeelV88 up, ond led to their losing their opportunity of killing Paul. So oft.en personol feeling, injured pride, is at the root of religious prejudioe and persecution, 'l'he fancied loyolty to God of the religious persecutor is really an extravagant anxiety about self. , IIL FAILURE OF SOME BOHEMES AGGRAVATED THE EVIL PURPOSE. The scheme to klll Paul had been thwarted through Paul's nephew and the Roman officer; but the annoy- ance of failure prevented their seeing in the failure a rebuke. What the malicious c1mnot accomplish by open methods they will seek by secret ones, lowering them- selves to Any depths of meanness to accomplish their ends, even fawning upon new go,ernors and begging personal favonre. Beware of the debasing influence of cherished prejudioes.-R T.