Drusilla, his wife, he had
taken away from a Syrian king, who was her lawful husband. Making
money seems to have been his great object; and the great Roman
historian of those times sums up his character in a few bitter words
thus: 'Felix,' he says, 'exercised the power of a king with the
heart of a slave, in all cruelty and lust.'
Such was the wicked upstart whom God, for the sins of the Jews, had
allowed to rule them in St. Paul's time; and before him St. Paul had
to plead for his life.
The first time that St. Paul came before him Felix seems to have seen
at once that Paul was innocent, and a good man; and that, perhaps,
was the reason why he sent for him again, and, strangely enough,
heard him concerning the faith in Christ.
There was some conscience left, it seems, in the wretched man. He
was not easy, amid his ill-gotten honour, ill-gotten wealth, ill-
gotten pleasures; and perhaps, as many men are in such a case, he was
superstitious, afraid of being punished for his sins, and looking out
for false prophets, smooth preachers, new religions which would make
him comfortable in his sins, and drug his conscience by promising the
wicked man life, where God had not promised it. So he wanted, it
seems, to know what this new faith in Christ was like; and he heard.
And what he heard we may very fairly guess, because we know from St.
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