"I say again, Let no man think me foolish; but if _ye do_, yet as foolish receive me, that I also may glory a little. That which I speak, I speak not after the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of glorying. Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. For ye bear with the foolish gladly, being wise _yourselves_. For ye bear with a man, if he bringeth you into bondage, if he devoureth you, if he taketh you _captive_, if he exalteth himself, if he smiteth you on the face. I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet whereinsoever any is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also. Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I more; in labours more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty _stripes_ save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep; _in_ journeyings often, _in_ perils of rivers, _in_ perils of robbers, _in_ perils from _my_ countrymen, _in_ perils from the Gentiles, _in_ perils in the city, _in_ perils in the wilderness, _in_ perils in the sea, _in_ perils among false brethren; _in_ labour and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, there is that which presseth upon me daily, anxiety for all the Churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is made to stumble, and I burn not?"--2 COR. xi. 7-29 (R.V.).