Contents ▼▲
Front Matter The Story of a Beautiful Garden The First Baby in the World and His Brother The Great Ship That Saved Eight People The Tower That Was Never Finished The Story of a Long Journey How Abram's Choice Brought Blessing The Angel by the Well The Rain of Fire That Fell on a City The Boy Who Became an Archer How an Angel's Voice Saved a Boy's Life The Story of a Journey after a Wife How Jacob Stole His Brother's Blessing Jacob's Wonderful Dream A Midnight Wrestling Match The Rich Man's Son Who Was Sold as a Slave From the Prison to the Palace How Joseph's Dream Came True A Lost Brother Found From the Land of Famine to the Land of Plenty The Beautiful Baby Who Was Found in a River The Voice from the Burning Bush The River That Ran Blood The Night When a Nation Was Born How the Sea Became Dry Land and the Sky Rained Bre The Mountain That Smoked and Words That Were Spoke How Aaron Made a Golden Calf and What Became of It The Tent Where God Lived Among His People How They Worshipped God in the Tabernacle What Strong Drink Brought to Aaron's Sons The Scapegoat in the Wilderness The Cluster of Grapes from the Land of Canaan How the Long Journey of the Israelites Came to an What a Wise Man Learned from an Ass How Moses Looked upon the Promised Land The Story of Job The Story of a Scarlet Cord How the River Jordan Became Dry The Story of a Wedge of Gold How Joshua Conquered the Land of Canaan The Old Man Who Fought Against the Giants The Avenger of Blook and the Cities of Refuge The Story of an Altar Beside the River The Presnt That Ehud Brought to King Eglon How a Woman Won a Great Victory Gideon and His Brave Three Hundred Jephthah's Rash Promise and What Came from It The Strong Man: How He Lived and How He Died The Idol Temple at Dan and Its Priest How Ruth Gleaned in the Field of Boaz The Little Boy with a Linen Coat How the Idol Fell Down Before the Ark The Last of the Judges The Tall Man Who Was Chosen King How Saul Saved the Eyes of the Men of Jabesh The Brave Young Prince Saul's Great Sin and His Great Loss The Shepherd Boy of Bethlehem The Shepherd Boy's Fight with the Giant The Little Boy Looking for the Arrows Where David Found the Giant's Sword How David Spared Saul's Life The Last Days of King Saul The Shepherd Boy Becomes a King The Sound in the Treetops The Cripple at the King's Table The Prophet's Story of the Little Lamb David's Handsome Son and How He Stole the Kingdom Absalom in the Wood; David on the Throne The Angel with the Drawn Sword on Mount Moriah Solomon on This Father's Throne The Wise Young King The House of God on Mount Moriah The Last Days of Solomon's Reign The Breaking Up of a Great Kingdom The King Who Led Israel to Sin The Prophet Who Raised a Boy to Life The Prayer That Was Answered in Fire The Voice That Spoke to Elijah in the Mount The Wounded Prophet and His Story What Ahab Paid for His Vineyard The Arrow That Killed a King Elijah's Chariot of Fire A Spring Sweetened by Salt The Pot of Oil and the Pot of Poison The Little Boy at Shunem How a Little Girl Helped to Cure a Leper The Chariots of Fire around Elisha What the Lepers Found in the Camp Jehu, the Furious Driver of His Chariot Elisha and the Bow; Jonah and Nineveh How the Ten Tribes Were Lost The First Four Kings of Judah The Little Boy Who Was Crowned King Three Kings and a Great Prophet The Good King Hezekiah The Lost Book Found in the Temple The Last Four Kings of Judah and the Weeping Proph What Ezekiel Saw in the Valley The Jewish Captives in the Court of the King The Golden Image and the Fiery Furnace The Tree That Was Cut Down and Grew Again The Writing upon the Wall Daniel in the Den of Lions The Story of a Joyous Journey The New Temple on Mount Moriah The Beautiful Queen of Persia The Scribe Who Wrote the Old Testament The Nobleman Who Built the Wall of Jerusalem Ezra's Great Bible Class in Jerusalem The Angel by the Altar The Manger of Bethlehem The Star and the Wise Men The Boy in his Father's House The Prophet in the Wilderness Jesus in the Desert, and beside the River The Water Jars at the Wedding Feast The Stranger at the Well The Story of a Boy in Capernaum and a Riot A Net Full of Fishes The Leper and the Man Let Down through the Roof The Cripple at the Pool and the Withered Hand The Twelve Disciples and the Sermon on the Mount The Captain's Servant, the Widow's Son, and a Sinn Some Stories Jesus Told by the Sea "Peace, Be Still" The Little Girl Who Was Raised to Life A Dancing Girl and What Was Given Her The Feast beside the Sea and What Followed It The Answer to a Mother's Prayer The Glory of Jesus on the Mountain The Little Child in the Arms of Jesus At the Feast of Tabernacles The Man with Clay on His Face The Good Shepherd and the Good Samaritan Lazarus Raised to Life Some Parables in Perea The Poor Rich Man and the Rich Poor Man Jesus at Jericho Palm Sunday The Last Vistis of Jesus to the Temple The Parables on the Mount of Olives The Last Supper The Olive Orchard and the High Priests Hall The Crown of Thorns The Darkest Day of All the World The Brightest Day of All the World The Stranger on the Shore The Church of the First Days The Man at the Beautiful Gate The Right Way to Give, and the Wrong Way Stephen with the Shining Face The Man Reading in the Chariot The Voice That Spoke to Saul What Peter Saw by the Sea How the Iron Gate Was Opened The Earliest Missionaries The Song in the Prison Paul's Speech on the Hill Paul at Corinth Paul at Ephesus Paul's Last Journey to Jerusalem The Speech on the Stairs Two Years in Prison The Story That Paul Told to the King Paul in the Storm How Paul Came to Rome and How He Lived There The Throne of God The City of God

Story of the Bible Told for Young and Old - Jesse Hurlbut




The Story That Paul Told to the King


When Festus came to rule over the land of Judea, in the place of Felix, who had kept Paul in prison so long, he went up to Jerusalem to visit that city. There the chief priests and the leading men spoke to him against Paul, and they asked that he might be sent to Jerusalem to be tried. It was their plan to kill Paul on the way. But Festus told them that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself would soon go there.

"Let some of your leaders go down with me," said Festus, "and bring your charges against him, if you have any."

When Festus came down to Caesarea he called them all together, and sat upon the judge's seat, and commanded Paul to be brought. Then the Jews said evil things about Paul, declaring that he had done wickedly. But they could not prove any of the things which they spoke against him. And Paul said, "I have done no wrong against the law of the Jews, nor against the Temple, nor against the rule of Caesar th emperor."

Festus wished to please the Jews, for he did not know their secret purpose to kill Paul. He said, "Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem, and there be tried upon these charges before me?'

But Paul said, "I am standing before the Roman court where I ought to be judged. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as thou knowest very well, and no man shall give me into their hands. I ask for a trial before Caesar, the emperor at Rome."

It was the law throughout the Roman lands that any citizen of Rome, as Paul was, could ask to be tried at Rome before Caesar, the emperor. When Festus heard Paul's words, he said, "Do you ask to be tried before Caesar? Then unto Caesar you shall go."

So Paul was taken back to the prison at Caesarea to be sent to Rome when his time should come. A few days after this a Jewish ruler named Agrippa, with his sister Bernice, came to visit Festus. He was called "King Agrippa" and he ruled over a part of the land on the east of the river Jordan. While Agrippa and Bernice were at Caesarea, Festus said to them, "There is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix, of whom the chief priests and elders of the Jews asked, when I was at Jerusalem, that I should give orders to have him put to death, or give him into their hands. I told them that the Romans never give judgment against any man until he stands face to face before his enemies, and can make answer to their charges. When they came down to this place, and the man was brought before them, their charges were not the wicked acts that I expected to hear of; but they had some questions about their ways of worship, and about somebody names Jesus, who was dead, but who Paul said was alive. As I could not understand these questions, I asked Paul whether he would go up to Jerusalem, and there be tried. But Paul asked for a trial before Caesar, and I am keeping him to be sent to the emperor at Rome."

"I would like," said Agrippa, "to hear this man myself."

"To-morrow," said Fetus you shall hear him."

So on the next day, Agrippa and his sister, Bernice, and Festus, with the chief men of the city and the officers of the army, came in great state to the hall of judgment, and Paul was brought before them, chained to a Roman soldier. And after a few words by Festus, Agrippa said to Paul, "You may now speak for yourself."

Then Paul spoke in words like these:

"I think myself happy, King Agrippa, to give answer before thee of all the things charged against me by the Jews, because I am sure that thou dost know all the Jewish ways and the questions about the law. I ask they, then, to hear me. My way of life from my youth all the Jews know, for I have lived among them; and if they tell the truth, they would say that I was of those who kept the laws of our people most carefully. And now I stand here to be judged for the sake of the promise which God made to our fathers; that promise to which our twelve tribes, serving God day and night, hope to come. And on account of this hope, O king, the Jews charge me with doing evil; because I believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead to be the King of Israel. Why should it be something thou canst not believe, that God does raise the dead to life?

Paul before Agrippa

PAUL BEFORE AGRIPPA


"In former times I really thought with myself that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this I did in Jerusalem; for I shut up many good men and women in prisons, and when they were put to death I gave my voice against them. I caused them to be beaten and I tried to make them curse the name of Jesus; and being exceedingly mad against them, I sought for them even in cities far away.

"And as I journeyed to Damascus with letters from the chief priests, at mid-day, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, abut the brightness of the sun, shining around me and those who were with me. And as we all fell down upon the ground, I heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why are you fighting against me?'

"And I said, 'Who art thou, Lord?'

"And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are trying to destroy. But rise up, and stand upon your feet, for I have shown myself to you to make you my servant and my messenger to tell of what you have seen, and of what I will show you. I will keep you safe from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan, the evil one, to God, that their sins may be forgiven, and that they may receive a reward among those that are made holy by faith in me.

"O King Agrippa, I did not disobey the voice from heaven, but first at Damascus, and then at Jerusalem and throughout all the land of Judea, and also among the Gentiles, I have spoken, telling men to turn from sin to God, and to show deeds of right-doing. This is the cause why the Jews seized me in the Temple and tried to kill me. Having gained help from God, I stand unto this day, speaking to people, small and great, saying only what is given in the law of Moses and in the prophets: that the Christ must suffer and die, and that he by rising from the dead should give light to our people and to the Gentiles."

While Paul was speaking, Festus said with a loud voice, "Paul, you are mad! Your great learning has turned you to madness!"

For Festus, being a Roman, knew nothing of Jesus or of the truths which Paul spoke.

But Paul said to him, "I am not mad, most noble Festus. I speak only sober and truthful words. The king knows of these things, and I speak freely to him. None of these things are hidden from him, for these things were not done in secret. King Agrippa, dost thou believe the prophets? I know that thou dost believe."

And Agrippa said to Paul, "A little more and you will persuade me to become a Christian!"

And Paul said, "I would before God, that whether with little or with much, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, might become such as I am, except these chains!"

After these words, King Agrippa, and Bernice, and Festus the governor, and those who were there, went away by themselves, and they said to each other, "This man has done nothing deserving death or prison."

And Agrippa said to Festus, "This man might have been set free if he had not asked to be tried before Caesar."