ed. He early became a violent
persecutor of the new sect, which for years was only another Jewish
sect, as exclusively Jewish in its views and outlook as were the
priests and Rabbis. But Paul was a well educated man, a scholar in his
day,--and a philosopher. He was a Jew to the core, and lived and died
one. We need not consider the story of his trip to Damascus, the
supposed miracle on the way, and his conversion to the new faith. He
soon became the greatest leader and exponent it had thus far produced;
and he put a new interpretation on it, _entirely unchristian_, if we
are to take the recorded teachings of the Christ himself as our
standard for Christianity. And the Christianity of the world today is
much more Pauline than Christian, judged by this standard.

This Paul operated independent of the other Apostles. He was a "free
lance" and launched forth, both in a field, and with a doctrine all his
own. He was thoroly familiar with the whole Jewish system. He knew
all about the meaning and purpose of the sacrifice of atonement. Yet
he was too wise not to know that there was no _intrinsic merit_ in the
blood of bulls and goats to cleanse from sin, or appease the divine
wrath. Yet as a loyal Jew he certainly _believed_ these to be of
divine origin,--and that they must have a meaning deeper than the
physical fact itself. He was a believer in the coming of the
long-promised Messiah--to restore Israel. A man of his knowledge and
foresight might well be able to read "the signs of the times," and see
that the Jewish nation could but little longer maintain its separate
identity against the overwhelming power of the growing Roman Empire.
It must soon be swallowed up and its separate identity lost in the
greater whole. No power in Israel seemed to be able to stem the tide
of events. Remember that this was now some years after the
crucifixion; and after Paul had changed his course towards the new
sect, because of the events about Damascus,--no matter what they may
have been. At any rate, it is quite clear, no matter what the reasons
may have been that induced him to do so, that he had accepted in good
faith, as a veritable truth, the belief in the physical resurrection of
the crucified Jesus. Paul tells us himself that after his escape from
Damascus he went into Arabia for three years,--perhaps to try to think
out some rational interpretation of the meaning of the events that he
had felt himself forced to accept