The King, looking at Paul, with more curiosity than contempt, said,
"Thou art permitted to speak for thyself."
Then Paul, addressing himself principally to Agrippa, delivered a most impressive address as follows:
An Impressive Address.
"I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I shall answer for myself, before thee, of all the things charged against me by the Jews; because I know that thou dost know all about the customs and the questions which are among the Jews. I ask thee then, to hear me patiently.
"My manner of life from my youth, all the Jews know, for I lived among them; and if they would tell the truth, they would testify that after the most strict sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee. And now I stand and am to be judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers; that promise unto which our twelve tribes, constantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For this hope, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing which thou couldst not believe, that God should raise the dead?
"At one time, I verily thought myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth; and this I did in Jerusalem: and many of the Saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and even when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.
"And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them who journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, saying, in the Hebrew tongue:
"'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?'
"And I said, 'Who art thou. Lord?'