This threw a new light on the _independent_ position of Paul.

That he anxiously refused to learn from the other apostles, and "conferred not with flesh and blood,"-- not having received his gospel of many but by the revelation of Jesus Christ--had seemed to me quite suitable to his high pretensions.

Any novelties which might be in his doctrine, I had regarded as mere developments, growing out of the common stem, and guaranteed by the same Spirit.

But I now saw that this independence invalidated his testimony.

He may be to us a supernatural, but he certainly is not a natural, witness to the truth of Christ's miracles and personality.