Thus was I flung back to the three first gospels, as, with all their defects,—­their genealogies, dreams, visions, devil-miracles, and prophecies written after the event,—­yet on the whole, more faithful as a picture of the true Jesus, than that which is exhibited in John.

And now my small root of supernaturalism clung the tighter to Paul, whose conversion still appeared to me a guarantee, that there was at least some nucleus of miracle in Christianity, although it had not pleased God to give us any very definite and trustworthy account.  Clearly it was an error, to make miracles our foundation; but might we not hold them as a result?  Doctrine must be our foundation; but perhaps we might believe the miracles for the sake of it.—­And in the epistles of Paul I thought I saw various indications that he took this view.  The practical soundness of his eminently sober understanding had appeared to me the more signal, the more I discerned the atmosphere of erroneous philosophy which he necessarily breathed.  But he also proved a broken reed, when I tried really to lean upon him as a main support.

1.  The first thing that broke on me concerning Paul, was, that his moral sobriety of mind was no guarantee against his mistaking extravagances for miracle.  This was manifest to me in his treatment of the gift of tongues.

So long ago as in 1830, when the Irving “miracles” commenced in Scotland, my particular attention had been turned to this subject, and the Irvingite exposition of the Pauline phenomena appeared to me so correct, that I was vehemently predisposed to believe the miraculous tongues.  But my friend “the Irish clergyman” wrote me a full account of what he heard with his own ears; which was to the effect—­that none of the sounds, vowels or consonants, were foreign;—­that the strange words were moulded after the Latin grammar, ending in -abus, -obus, -ebat, -avi, &c., so as to denote poverty of invention rather than spiritual agency;—­and that there was no interpretation.  The last point decided me, that any belief which I had in it must be for the present unpractical.  Soon after, a friend of mine applied by letter for information as to the facts to a very acute and pious Scotchman, who had become a believer in these miracles.  The first reply gave us no facts whatever, but was a declamatory exhortation to believe.  The second was nothing but a lamentation over my friend’s unbelief, because he asked again for the facts.  This showed me, that there was excitement and delusion:  yet the general phenomena appeared so similar to those of the church of Corinth, that I supposed the persons must unawares have copied the exterior manifestations, if, after all, there was no reality at bottom.