CHAPTER LXII.--CHARACTER OF PAUL, AND HIS DOCTRINES.

Paul, standing at the head of the Church in the apostolic age, and being the principal New-Testament writer and the principal teacher and doctrinal expounder of the New Covenant, or gospel dispensation, his practical life and his doctrines must therefore be regarded as constituting a part, if not the principal part, of the basis of the Christian religion. We shall therefore make no apology for presenting here a brief exposition of his character and his doctrines; and we shall show that both present numerous defects and inconsistent and contradictory features.

1. In his First Epistle to Timothy (i. 13) he states that he had been "a blasphemer and persecutor, and injurious", and confesses that he was _particeps criminis_ in the martyrdom of Stephen; yet, in the Acts of the Apostles, he declares, "I have lived in all good conscience before God unto this day" (Acts xxiii. 1). Here is one specimen of his many incongruous statements.

2. He relates the account of his miraculous conversion three times, and in three different ways. In the first statement he says, "The men stood speechless, _hearing a voice_, but seeing no man" (Acts ix. 7). In the second account he says, "_They heard not the voice_ that spake to me" (Acts xxii. 9). In the third statement, when relating the case to King Agrippa, he says, "They were all fallen to the earth" (Acts xxvi. 14); while, in the first account, he had stated, "The men stood speechless." It is evident they could not stand speechless while they were all fallen to the earth.

3. In one account he states that Jesus told him to stand up, and receive his mission; but in another place he says he was ordered to go to Damascus to receive the message.

4. He told the king that he showed himself first at Damascus, and then at Jerusalem (Acts xxvi. 20); but in his Epistle to the Galatians he declares that he did not go to Jerusalem.

5. Again he says he went to Jerusalem, and Barnabas took him by the hand, and brought him to the apostles (Acts ix. 27).

6. And then, again, to the Galatians he declares he saw none of the apostles,n"save James, the Lord's brother" (Gal. i. 13).

7. In 1 Cor. x. 35 he says, "I please all men in all things;" but in Gal.