had reckoned nothing of this life in fighting the fight of the Word of the life to come. Such soldiers could seldom die but on the field of battle. To say, indeed, of a man that he is a soldier, does not necessarily imply such an end: but the bare mention of a companion of Paul will scarcely allow us, without express mention of the contrary, to suppose that he did not fall in that struggle which is never terminated but with life. HEROD AGRIPPA THE FIRST. A. D. 44. : THE family of Herod is equally remarkable for its wickedness and misfortunes. By treachery and the sword its founder acquired the throne, and treachery and the sword never departed from the house. Numerous, as at one time it was, yet in the course of a century scarcely a descendant remained 1. It might have passed away, like the rest of the royal families of the petty kingdoms of Asia, with all its crimes and calamities, into a friendly oblivion. But its destiny set it upon a hill, on a hill high above all other hills and its deeds were performed on a spot where nothing is hidden, which shall not be revealed, and nothing concealed which shall not be known 2. It had dealings with the Church of God. Brought into contact with this burning light all its dreadful deeds of darkness instantly blazed into light, and are still blazing before the astonished gaze of successive generations. Fearful, indeed, is the sight; tremendous, indeed, is the warning. How little did they know on what stage they trod, with what characters they were acting, and that actions which had past away from their own memories, as part of the indifferent routine of their government, would stand for 1 Joseph. A. J. xviii. 5. 3. 2 Luke xi. 2. ever, big with awful consequences, before the face of the civilized world. And yet they might have known they slighted unusual opportunities of knowing and they had unusual darkness for their reward. Four successive generations pass before our eyes in Scripture, three of which persecuted the saints of God, and the fourth comes forward from his obscurity only to deride them. Herod the Great commanded the slaughter to be made in Bethlehem, that he might destroy the Christ. His son, Herod Antipas, having already put to death the forerunner of the Christ, personally mocked the Christ, and gave Him back into the hands of Pilate. His grandson, Agrippa, put James the Apostle, to death. And his great grandson, Agrippa the Second, interrupted St. Paul's words of life with a speech of mockery and insult. Such a family, placed in such peculiar circumstances, cannot fail to supply many an instructive lesson, and the character of Agrippa the First, which is neither so dark as that of his predecessors, nor so insignificant as that of his successor, seems the most suitable to bring forward for this purpose. He was early marked for adversity. His father was the unfortunate Aristobulus, whose death came from the hands of a father, at the instigation of a brother and whose mother, Mariamne, had previously fallen a sacrifice to the same detestable intrigue and cruelty. He was not three years old when he was thus left fatherless. Together with his brothers he was carefully brought up by Herod, who showed such fondness towards these orphans of his own making, as to raise against them the dangerous jea lousy of Antipater, the brother and murderer of their father. At the early age of nine he was at Rome, and, through the intimacy between his mother Bernice, and Antonia, the wife of the elder Drusus, had the advantage of being brought up together with Drusus, the son of the emperor Tiberius. Such society was not likely to correct the profuse disposition which he inherited from his forefathers, nor was Rome the place most unlikely to afford it opportunities for exercise. Accordingly, on the death of his mother, who had restrained this inclination with all her power, he broke loose into a course of lavish expenditure, uniting, however, the ambition with the profuseness of his family. The greater part of his expenses went in endeavours to advance his interests with that insatiable tribe, the freedmen of Cæsar, whose disastrous influence had already begun its career. His consequent embarrassment, added to the death of his friend Drusus, whose associates Tiberius, in his expression of grief, forbade to approach his presence, compelled him to quit Rome, and return to Judea. Here he successively fell into disgrace with two patrons, Herod Antipas, and the Roman governor, Flaccus, whose acquaintance he had gained at Rome. As if a fratricidal curse had remained in the family, he owed this latter misfortune to the malicious treachery of his own brother, Aristobulus. Bankrupt in fortune and reputation, and pursued by creditors, he left Judea, and once again sought Rome. He had now attained all the steadiness and experience which a life of forty years could bestow upon him, and if he had acquired no substantial qualities, the variety of his fortune had taught him knowledge of character, and the different ways by which to insinuate himself into the favour of different dispositions. Adding the studied art of pleasing to the graceful manners of a princely birth and education, he began henceforward a course of ingratiating himself with the persons who seemed most likely to promote that object of which his ambition never lost sight. First of all he gained the favour of the emperor himself, who introduced him with a strong recommendation to his grandson, Drusus; but, with that prophetic discernment, which is so common in the selfish seekers of their own interest in the courts of princes, he attached himself to Caius, otherwise called Caligula. He was particularly well qualified for gaining the friendship (if such a word can be applicable in such a case) of this youth, who found in him his own disposition to lavish profusion, and by directing all his aim at this, as yet principal point of the prince's character, and by a profuse expenditure, from borrowed money, upon his pleasures, he succeeded in obtaining a high place in his esteem. It was a discreditable friendship where Agrippa, a prince of mature age, and good understanding, stooped to minister to the pleasures of a weak and dissolute youth, who had not numbered half his years. Jewish historian tells us, that gratitude impelled him to this friendship, on account of the kindnesses which he had received from Antonia, the grandmother of Caius. And truly, if the corruption of her grandson was acceptable to her, he repaid the debt much more rigidly than his wont. These measures for obtaining the favour of Caius were still further pro The |