the fountain of redeeming mercy, and are made partakers of the triumphs of that Saviour, who remaineth "a King for evermore, and throughout all generations."

SERMON XVII.

HEROD AGRIPPA THE SECOND.

ACTS xxvi. 27, 28.

"King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest? Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian."

THE eloquent and energetic language of St. Paul, as he stood before the tribunal of Festus and Agrippa, and boldly discoursed, not only of his own marvellous conversion, but bore his decided testimony to the truth of the gospel, produced very different effects on the minds of those whom he addressed. To Festus, his energy and zeal appeared to be the result of a disordered fancy, of much depth of study and intensity of thought; and regarding him probably as a well-meaning though mistaken enthusiast, he interrupted the apostle in the midst of his appeal, exclaiming,

"Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad." On Agrippa, however, the arguments advanced by the apostle produced a very different effect. They obviously removed many long and deeply-cherished prejudices; this is obvious from the answer made to the apostle's question, "Believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian."

This Agrippa was the son of Herod Agrippa, whose cruelty in putting James to death, and in imprisoning Peter with the same intent, and whose sudden removal in the very zenith of his glory, have already formed the subject of our meditation. He was the last prince of the Herodian family, and only seventeen years old at the death of his father. His dominions on account of his youth were placed under the Roman government, but he was afterwards permitted to exercise a joint jurisdiction.

The circumstances in Agrippa's life to which our attention is to be directed, is his conduct with reference to the impression made upon him by the reasoning of St. Paul, when having arrived at Cæsarea, with his sister Bernice, for the purpose of saluting Festus, the apostle was brought before them, and permitted to speak in his own defence. Having considered this in

the first place, we shall proceed to consider, in the second, the important practical lessons which that conduct is calculated to convey.

I. It has been maintained indeed that the answer contained in the text, was uttered in derision; that the king wished to express an entire contempt for all that the apostle had adduced, and sarcastically declared, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." The whole passage however seems utterly at variance with an interpretation so forced and unnatural; for the answer of the apostle evidently was dictated by the conviction that Agrippa uttered the true feelings of his heart.

A wide difference existed between Festus and Agrippa as to their previous knowledge of the subjects on which the apostle discoursed, and this in a great measure accounts for the different impressions made upon them. The former appears to have been entirely ignorant of the facts now brought under his notice, until his appointment to the province. Nurtured in heathen ignorance, and having passed his life probably at Rome, he was not likely to be acquainted with the peculiar tenets and expectations of the Jews, nor with the various circumstances which had so lately occurred to excite their attention, and consequently he was less qualified to judge of

the force of the apostle's arguments, and to observe the fulfilment of the prophetical writings in the ministry and death of the Lord Jesus. But this was not the case with Agrippa. He was probably well versed in the scriptures of the Old Testament; these scriptures he regarded as the unerring word of Jehovah, and we have the apostle's own testimony, that he was expert in all customs and questions which were among the Jews. When the apostle, therefore, so eloquently declared that he had said none other things than "that which the prophets and Moses did say should come; that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles;" the king could not withstand an appeal, in which he saw there was none of the wild fancies of a fervent imagination, or the crudities of a distempered brain. He could not deny the facts that were adduced, and he readily exclaimed, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." By this title, first given to them at Antioch, the followers of the Lord Jesus were now generally known.

II. Now we may remark that the declaration of Agrippa adds an important testimony to the truth of those doctrines on which the apostle had discoursed in his presence; doctrines not of