ascension he had _been made_ both Lord and Christ,--and not by any virtue in his death itself. Not the remotest hint of vicarious atonement! The natural inference is--tho Peter is not quoted as saying so in so many words,--that men are to be saved from death and hades hereafter, because Jesus had escaped from both, and thus not only paved the way, but himself thereby became able to save others also. As is well known, for half a century or more, the followers of the new faith, who for fifteen years were all Jews, or Jewish proselytes, looked with anxious expectancy for the return of this Jesus, with the power and glory of heaven, to set up his earthly kingdom on the throne of David in Jerusalem. Not a word yet about saving men's soul's from hell thru vicarious atonement. No need for a vicarious atonement to save men from hell hereafter, if they were soon to live on this earth forever--those who died before his return to be raised from the dead as he was, while those that remained were to be "caught up in the clouds to meet him in the air and live forever,"--under the benign reign of the Messiah of God. But we are approaching its development. There appears upon the scene one Saul of Tarsus, afterwards known as Paul the Apostle. It is generally conceded that he never saw Jesus in his lifetime; in fact knew nothing of him while he lived. He early became a violent persecutor of the new sect, which for years was only another Jewish sect, as exclusively Jewish in its views and outlook as were the priests and Rabbis. But Paul was a well educated man, a scholar in his day,--and a philosopher. He was a Jew to the core, and lived and died one. We need not consider the story of his trip to Damascus, the supposed miracle on the way, and his conversion to the new faith. He soon became the greatest leader and exponent it had thus far produced; and he put a new interpretation on it, _entirely unchristian_, if we are to take the recorded teachings of the Christ himself as our standard for Christianity. And the Christianity of the world today is much more Pauline than Christian, judged by this standard.