The life and work of St. Paul

560 *HE LIFE AKD WOBZ O* ST. PAUL.
could even for a moment fancy that he would bo converted to the heresy oi
the Nazarenes with their crucified Messiah! Yet he did not wish to be
uncourteous. It was impossible not to admire the burning zeal which neitheu
stripes nor prisons could quench the clear-sighted faith which not even such
a surrounding could for a moment dim.
" '" l You are trying to persuade me offhand to be 'a Christian ! he said,
with a half-suppressed smile ; and this finished specimen of courtly eutrapelia
was his bantering vnswer to St. Paul's appeal. Doubtless his polished remark
on this compendious style of making converts sounded very witty to that
distinguished company, and they would with difficulty suppress their laughter
at the notion that Agrippa, favourite of Claudius, friend of Nero, King ot
Chalcis, Itursea, Trachonitis, nominator of the High Priest, and supreme
guardian of the Temple treasures, should succumb to the potency of thig
" short method with a Jew." That a Paul should make the kintf a Chi-istian (!)j
would sound too ludicrous. But the laugh would be instantly suppressed ii
pity and admiration of the poor but noble prisoner, as with perfect dignity
he took advantage of Agrippa's ambiguous expression, and Said, with all the
fervent sincerity of a
"
loving heart, I could pray to God that whether '
in
little '
or ' in much/ * not thou only, but even all who are listening to ma
to-day might become even such as I am except," he added, as he raised hia
fettered hand "except these bonds." They saw that this was indeed na
common prisoner one who could ;
argue as he had argued, and speak as ha
had spoken; one who was so filled with the exaltation of an inspiring idea, so
enriched with the happiness of a firm faith and a peaceful conscience, that
he could tell them how he prayed that they all all these princely and dis-
tinguished people could be even such as he and who yet in the spirit of
entire forgiveness desired that the sharing in his faith might involve no share
in his sorrows or misfortunes must be such a one as they never yet had seen
or known, either in the worlds of Jewry or of heathendom. But it was useless
to prolong the scene. Curiosity was now sufficiently gratified, and it had
become clearer than ever that though they might regard Paul the prisoner
as an amiable enthusiast or an inspired fanatic, he was in no sense a legal
criminal. The king, by rising from his seat, gave the signal for breaking up
the meeting ; Berenice and Festus, and their respective retinues, rose up at
the same time, and as the distinguished assembly dispersed they were heard
1 iviXivft "in brief," "in few words "(of. irpo^ypo^a V oAiyR Eph. iii. 3), "tout d'un,
coup." It cannot mean |" almost," which would be trap faiyov, or oAfyou Sel. On the
conatut involved in the present iri'e?, see my Brief Greek Syntax, 136. But it is very
doubtful whether we have got Agrippa's real remark. A reads wdOn (Lachm.), and
perhaps irt/fltis may have come from an original ircfl, "you are persuading yourself
(cf. ov n-i.'9oM