VIII AGNOSTICISM : A REJOINDER 295 



to its endeavour to retain the observance of the 

 Law. Long after the conference, some time after 

 the writing of the Epistles to the Galatians and 

 Corinthians, and immediately after the despatch of 

 that to the Komans, Paul makes his last visit to 

 Jerusalem, and presents himself to James and all 

 the elders. And this is what the Acts tells us of 

 the interview : 



And they said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many 

 thousands [or myriads] there are among the Jews of them which 

 have believed ; and they are all zealous for the law ; and they 

 have been informed concerning thee, that thou teachest all the 

 Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling 

 them not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the 

 customs. (Acts xxi. 20, 21.) 



They therefore request that he should perform a 

 certain public religious act in the Temple, in 

 order that 



all shall know that there is no truth in the things whereof they 

 have been informed concerning thee ; but that thou thyself 

 walkest orderly, keeping the law (ibid. 24). 1 



How far Paul could do what he is here re- 

 quested to do, and which the 'writer of the Acts 

 goes on to say he did, with a clear conscience, if he 

 wrote the Epistles to the Galatians and Corinth- 

 ians, I may leave any candid reader of these 

 epistles to decide. The point to which I wish to 



1 [Paul, in fact, is required to commit in Jerusalem, an act 

 of the same character as that which he brands as "dis^imula- 

 faon " on the pait of Peter in Antioch.] 



