HUNDREDS of years have rolled by since the scene and the actors, we are about to depict, have passed away into eternity; but the onward march of centuries has not altered the lessons they should teach us; nay rather, my reader, inspiration has permanently recorded them on the sacred page for your benefit and mine.
Instead of the judge addressing the prisoner, the prisoner addresses the judge. The prisoner, not, the judge, sums up. The governor upon the bench trembles. At his side sits his wife—the unblushing Drusilla, torn from another man's bosom.
The prisoner—the aged apostle Paul—discourses upon themes of eternal import. For a moment the judge of that day sees the bar before which he must appear. No flattering words, no sycophant's speech, fall from the lips of the man who had endured so much and so long for Christ. His spirit burns within him, and his speech is weighty with the approval of Heaven, pregnant with the powerful eloquence of the Spirit of God.
Paul reasoned on “righteousness, temperance (continence), and judgment to come." The unrighteous judge—the money-loving Felix—might well tremble as the aged apostle spoke about the righteousness of God; thus throwing, into deeper color than ever, the deeds of the man in whose power he was for the moment. Well might Felix's cheek blanch, as, with unhesitating speech, the prisoner spoke of his lustful incontinence, his intemperance, and of God's retribution upon such sins.
And what about the judgment to come when all worldly gilt and sham shall have vanished forever, and the guilty judge, stripped of the insignia of his high office, shall stand before the great white throne, to give account of all the deeds done in the body? Well might he tremble.
But Felix is not prepared to give up his sins, and take sides with an earth-rejected Christ. He will dismiss the troubler; he will stay the soul-arousing address. So he says, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." Thus the procrastinator cries. In his words lay for him the death-knell of eternity.
No doubt the apostle left the court that day with a heart big with sorrow, as he knew how the trembler welcomed Satan's false peace back to his heart, and clasped his chains tighter to him,—soon, alas! to bind him for all eternity.
Beloved reader, has this not a voice of warning to you? Have you not sometimes trembled as you thought of God's righteousness—of the punishment of sin—of the judgment to come? Do not stifle these God-given questionings of heart. Do not, like poor Felix, put off. He lost his grand golden opportunity. What an awful power Satan wields over souls!
He said, “When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." What better chance could he have than then? When he stands before the great white throne? No, a thousand times "No." His guilty spirit will then tell him, in thunder tones of remorse, of his lost opportunity.
When he lies upon his death-bed, when his mind loses its grasp of earthly things,—is that the convenient season? Never! When the conscience is more seared,—when the chains of lust are stronger and heavier? Never! God's Word gives the time—"Now." “Behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation “(2 Cor. 6:22(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2 Corinthians 6:2)).
Oh, dear sinner, may God thunder that word “Now" in your ears before it be too late!
Felix does not appear to have ever had a convenient season. He had two years of opportunity, but seems never to have profited by them.
At the end of that time Poreius Festus came into Felix's room, but we never read of a farewell interview between the judge and his prisoner.
“Felix, willing to spew the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound." After this Scripture is fatally silent about the man who was fool enough to throw the golden opportunity away, who stifled the voice of God speaking to his conscience.
Dear reader, we would earnestly seek to lead you to Christ, if not already saved through grace.
Do not rest content with Satan's false peace, which will be awfully disturbed as you exchange the shadows and shams of time for the realities of eternity. The road to hell is paved with good resolutions. Be not content with turning over new leaves—doing your best—being religious; but take Christ as a living personal Savior. He “made peace through the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:2929Whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. (Colossians 1:29)). "Without shedding of blood is NO remission" (Heb. 9:2222And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)). But the Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross, and shed His blood to wash away the sins of those who believe in His name. “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from ALL sin “(1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)).
Do you, yes, you, who know not what a day may bring forth, decide, and decide NOW, for Christ. For “'Tis madness to delay, There are no pardons in the tomb, And brief is mercy's day.”
May God grant it AMEN.
A. J. P.