that he might not be chargeable to any of them' -- that refined courtesy

which cannot bring itself to blame till it has first praised, and which makes

him deem it needful almost to apologize for the freedom of giving advice to

those who were not personally known to him; -- that self -denying love which

`will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest he make his brother to

offend' -- that impatience of exclusive formalism with which he overwhelms

the Judaizers of Galatia, joined with a forbearance so gentle for the

innocent weakness of scrupulous consciences -- that grief for the sins of

others, which moved him to tears when he spoke of the enemies of the cross of

Christ -- `of whom I tell you even weeping' -- that noble freedom from

jealousy with which he speaks of those who, out of rivalry to himself, preach

Christ even of envy and strife, supposing to add affliction to his bonds;

`What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence or in truth,

Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice' -- that

tender friendship which watches over the health of Timothy, even with a

mother's care -- that intense sympathy in the joys and sorrows of his

converts, which could say, even to the rebellious Corinthians, `Ye are in our

hearts, to die and live with you' -- that longing desire for the intercourse

of affection, and that sense of loneliness when it was withheld, which

perhaps is the most touching feature of all, because it approaches most

nearly to a weakness, `When I had come to Troas to preach the Glad Tidings of

Christ, and a door was opened to me in the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit,

because I found not Titus, my brother; but I parted from them, and came from

thence to Macedonia'.  And `when I was come into Macedonia, my flesh had no

rest, but I was troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were

fears.  But God, Who comforts them that are cast down, comforted me by the

coming of Titus'.  `Do thy utmost to come to me speedily, for Demas hath

forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed to

Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia; only Luke is with me'.

Under the heading, `The Self -drawn Portrait of the Apostle Paul', a

series of fourteen studies ran through The Berean Expositor, in Volumes 31 to

34, a series too bulky to reproduce here; all that we can do is to draw the

reader's attention to the series, in the hope that where fuller light upon

the apostle's character is sought, those articles may make their

We conclude with a few opinions of Paul culled from modern writers.

`He is difficult to comprehend, not because he conceals himself, but because

he reveals so much of himself in his epistles'... Deissmann (St. Paul 62 ff).

Deissmann notes his ailing body and his tremendous powers for work, his

humility and his self -confidence, in periods of depression and of

intoxication with victory, his tenderness and his sternness: he was ardently

loved, and furiously hated; he was an ancient man of his time, but he is

cosmopolitan and modern enough for today.  Findlay adds that he was a man

possessed of dialectical power and religious inspiration.  He was keenly

intellectual and profoundly mystical (cf. Campbell, Paul the Mystic, 1907).

He was a theologian and a man of affairs.  He was a man of vision with a

supreme task to which he held himself.  He was a scholar, a sage, a

statesman, a seer, a saint (Garvie, Studies in Paul and his Gospel, 68 -84).

He was a man of heart, of passion, of imagination, of sensibility, of will,

of courage, of sincerity, of vivacity, of subtlety, of humour, of adroitness,

of tact, of genius for organization, of power for command, of gift of

expression, of leadership -- `all these qualities and powers went to the

making of Jesus Christ's apostle to the nations, the master builder of the

universal church and of Christian theology'.  (Findlay, H. D. B., see St.

Paul the Master Builder, 1905; and