yed first. This other impulse was the wish to retreat into
solitude and think out the meaning and issues of that which had
befallen him. It cannot be wondered at that he felt this to be a
necessity. He had believed his former creed intensely and staked
everything on it; to see it suddenly shattered in pieces must have
shaken him severely. The new truth which had been flashed upon him was
so far-reaching and revolutionary that it could not be taken in at once
in all its bearings. Paul was a born thinker; it was not enough for
him to experience anything; he required to comprehend it and fit it
into the structure of his convictions.

Immediately, therefore, after his conversion he went away, he tells us,
into Arabia. He does not, indeed, say for what purpose he went; but,
as there is no record of his preaching in that region and this
statement occurs in the midst of a vehement defense of the originality
of his gospel, we may conclude with considerable certainty that he went
into retirement for the purpose of grasping in thought the details and
the bearings of the revelation he had been put in possession of. In
lonely contemplation he worked them out; and, when he returned to
mankind, he was in possession of that view of Christianity which was
peculiar to himself and formed the burden of his preaching during the
subsequent years.

52. There is some doubt as to the precise place of his retirement,
because Arabia is a word of vague and variable significance. But most
probably it denotes the Arabia of the Wanderings, the principal feature
of which was Mount Sinai. This was a spot hallowed by great memories
and by the presence of other great men of revelation. Here Moses had
seen the burning bush and communed with God on the top of the mountain.
Here Elijah had roamed in his season of despair and drunk anew at the
wells of inspiration. What place could be more appropriate for the
meditations of this successor of these men of God? In the valleys
where the manna fell and under the shadows of the peaks which had
burned beneath the feet of Jehovah he pondered the problem of his life.

It is a great example. Originality in the preaching of the truth
depends on the solitary intuition of it. Paul enjoyed the special
inspiration of the Holy Ghost; but this did not render the concentrated
activity of his own thinking unnecessary but only lent it peculiar
intensity; and the clearness and certainty of his gospel were du