Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/51

Rh for so many ages, and been abused to such low ends, continues to occupy so prominent a place? Bishop Ellicott, in his Essay, supplies an answer, which, so far as it goes, is admirable, and after the disgust we must have felt at some previous details, is positively refreshing. It shows that after all there is a reason for the phenomena. The Bishop says: —

"Our vital interest in Him of whom they pretend to tell us more than the Canonical Scriptures have recorded, is the real, though it may be, hidden reason why these poor figments are read with interest even while they are despised." (p. 156.)

And again: —

"We know before we read them that they are weak, silly, and profitless — that they are despicable monuments even of religious fiction, — yet still the secret conviction buoys us up, that perchance they may contain a few traces of time-honoured traditions — some faint, feeble glimpse of that blessed childhood, that pensive and secluded youth, over which, in passive moments, we muse with such irrepressible longing to know more — such deep, deep desideration." (p. 157.)

After showing that the interest in the Apocryphal Gospels has revived since the mythical theory of the