phesus. It seemed to mean a
whole chapter of a novel in itself.

And there was the good centurion--Christ always seemed to have a
sympathy for soldiers--who was willing to save Paul when the ship, on
its way to Rome, was run aground. So he reached Melita where the amiable
barbarians showed him no small courtesy. And one could not help liking
the Romans; that is, the official Romans, even Felix, whose wife was a
Jew like St. Paul, and who, disgusted when the Apostle spoke to him of
chastity and of justice to come, yet hoped that money would be given him
by Paul, and frequently sent for, and often spoke with him. And how fine
seemed the Apostle's belief in his nobility as a Roman citizen! He
rendered unto Caesar the things that were Caesar's. And one could easily
imagine the pomp and circumstance when Agrippa and Bernice entered into
the hall of audience with the tribunes and principal men of the city!
And one could hear St. Paul saying, protecting himself nobly, through
the nobility of a Roman law:

For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner and not to
signify the things laid to his charge,

and Agrippa's answer, after Paul's apologia:

In a little thou persuadest me to become a Christian!

But the story did not end then. I rehearsed over and over again what the
King Agrippa might have said to his sister, the noble and beautiful
Bernice--I knew nothing of the lady's reputation then--and how finally
they did become Christians. In my imagination, princely dignity and
exquisite grace were added to the external beauty of religion; and Paul
went to Rome protected by the law of the Romans. And yet the very
fineness of his attitude was the cause of his further imprisonment.
"This man," I often repeated with Agrippa, "might have been set at
liberty, if he had not appealed to Caesar."

It was St. Paul who sent me back to the Prophet Micheas, who had
previously struck me as of no importance at all, and I read:

And Thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, art a little one among the thousands
of Juda; out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be the
ruler in Israel; and his going forth is from the beginning, from
the days of eternity.

And back again to St. Matthew--

But they said to him: In Bethlehem of Juda; For so it is written by
the prophet; And thou, Bethlehem, the land of Juda, art not the
least among the princes of Juda; for out of thee shall come forth
t