The Worlds Great Sermons, Volume 3 | Page 8

a sinner alarmed, but not converted; a sinner who desires to
be saved, but delays his conversion: a case, alas! of but too common occurrence.
You perceive already, my brethren, the subject of this discourse: first, that St. Paul
reasoned before Felix and Drusilla of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come;
second, that Felix trembled; third, that he sent the apostle away; three considerations
which shall divide this discourse. May it produce on your hearts, on the hearts of
Christians, the same effects St. Paul produced on the soul of this heathen; but may it have
a happier influence on your lives. Amen.
Paul preached before Felix and Drusilla "on righteousness, temperance, and judgment to
come." This is the first subject of discussion. Before, however, we proceed further with
our remarks, we must first sketch the character of this Felix and this Drusilla, which will
serve as a basis to the first proposition.
After the scepter was departed from Judah, and the Jewish nation subjugated by Pompey,
the Roman emperors governed the country by procurators. Claudius filled the imperial
throne while St. Paul was at Caesarea. This emperor had received a servile education
from his grandmother Lucia, and from his mother Antonia; and having been brought up
in obsequious meanness, evinced, on his elevation to the empire, marks of the inadequate
care which had been bestowed on his infancy. He had neither courage nor dignity of mind.
He who was raised to sway the Roman scepter, and consequently to govern the civilized
world, abandoned his judgment to his freedmen, and gave them a complete ascendency
over his mind. Felix was one of those freedmen. "He exercised in Judea the imperial
functions with a mercenary soul." Voluptuousness and avarice were the predominant
vices of his heart. We have a proof of his avarice immediately after our text, where it is
said he sent for Paul,--not to hear him concerning the truth of the gospel which this
apostle had preached with so much power; not to inquire whether this religion, against
which the Jews raised the standard, was contrary to the interest of the State; but because
he hoped to have received money for his liberation. Here is the effect of avarice.
Josephus recited an instance of his voluptuousness. It is his marriage with Drusilla. She
was a Jewess, as is remarked in our text. King Azizus, her former husband, was a heathen;
and in order to gain her affections, he had conformed to the most rigorous ceremonies of

Judaism. Felix saw her, and became enamored of her beauty. He conceived for her a
violent passion; and in defiance of the sacred ties which had united her to her husband, he
resolved to become master of her person. His addresses were received. Drusilla violated
her former engagements, and chose rather to contract with Felix an illegitimate marriage
than to adhere to the chaste ties which united her to Azizus. Felix the Roman, Felix the
procurator of Judea and the favorite of Caesar appeared to her a noble acquisition. It is
indeed a truth, we may here observe, that grandeur and fortune are charms which mortals
find the greatest difficulty to resist, and against which the purest virtue has need to be
armed with all its constancy. Recollect these two characters of Felix and Drusilla. St.
Paul, before those two personages, treated concerning "The faith in Christ"; that is,
concerning the Christian religion, of which Jesus Christ is the sum and substance, the
author and the end: and from the numerous doctrines of Christianity, he selected
"righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come."
Here is, my brethren, an admirable text; but a text selected with discretion. Fully to
comprehend it, recollect the character we have given of Felix. He was covetous,
luxurious, and governor of Judea. St. Paul selected three subjects, correspondent to the
characteristics. Addressing an avaricious man, he treated of righteousness. Addressing
the governor of Judea, one of those persons who think themselves independent and
responsible to none but themselves for their conduct, he treated of "judgment to come."
But who can here supply the brevity of the historian, and report the whole of what the
apostle said to Felix on these important points? It seems to me that I hear him enforcing
those important truths he has left us in his works, and placing in the fullest luster those
divine maxims interspersed in our Scriptures. "He reasoned of righteousness." There he
maintained the right of the widow and the orphan. There he demonstrated that kings and
magistrates are established to maintain the rights of the people, and not to indulge their
own caprice; that the design of the supreme authority is to make the whole happy by the
vigilance of one, and not to gratify one at the expense of all; that