Paul's Reasoning Before Felix
W. Auld, jun. Acts 24:25 And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go your way for this time… Consider — I. THE MANNER OF PAUL'S PREACHING. He did not utter dogmatic assertions nor deal in vague declamation, in airy speculation which might please but not profit, in the artifices of rhetoric in order to produce effect. 1. He addressed man as a rational being; his great object was to enlighten the mind and carry conviction to the judgment. True, until the heart be moved no good can be done. But as in nature, so also it is in grace — light must first be created. It would be like tracing figures on the sand, to be effaced by the returning wave, if we excited the feelings of the heart without having beforehand imparted knowledge to the head. 2. "He reasoned." But "What," asks the infidel, "is there in the Christian religion to reason about? It is the religion of babes, not of men." True our religion is fitted for babes; and it is its greatest glory that "a wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein." But this is also as true, that among its disciples it tells of a Locke, a Newton, and a Bacon. And on what occasion did ever Christianity shrink back from inquiry? 3. "He reasoned." He did not leave the individual, as the saying is, "in the hands of God." On the contrary, he bent his whole soul to produce conviction and conversion in the mind of Felix. II. THE TOPICS OF WHICH HE THUS PREACHED. Faith and practice; and what God hath joined together let no man put asunder. 1. "He spake concerning the faith in Christ." 2. "He reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." III. THE EFFECT WHICH THIS SERMON PRODUCED. 1. That sermon is worthless which does not reach the heart; and that heart must have been hard indeed that could have withstood the reasoning of an inspired apostle and on such important subjects. Felix felt, not grief for sin, only terror on account of its punishment. The apostle had entered with the candle of the Lord into the recesses of his bosom, and disclosed all those images of wickedness which, with all the cowardice of conscious guilt, Felix had striven to conceal from himself. "He trembled," like the meanest criminal that ever stood at his own tribunal; like the benighted traveller, when all on a sudden the lightning discloses the awful precipice whose brink he is approaching; like the man under sentence of death, when in his cell at the midnight hour he hears the knocking of the hammer erecting the scaffold on which he is to die on the morrow: "he trembled" — like Belshazzar when he saw the handwriting on the wall that proclaimed his days to be numbered and his kingdom to be departed from him. 2. These impressions were the result of God's Spirit; but they were of short duration: like one suddenly awakened out of his sleep, he felt a moment's alarm, but he again folded his arms to slumber. Could the apostle have told him how he could be happy without requiring to be holy — how he might escape hell and enjoy earth — gladly would Felix have listened to his message. But since the apostle could preach no gospel but that which proclaimed salvation, not in sin, but from sin, Felix dismisses the preacher, but retains his Drusilla. (W. Auld, jun.) Parallel Verses KJV: And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. WEB: As he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was terrified, and answered, "Go your way for this time, and when it is convenient for me, I will summon you."