Page:The kernel and the husk (Abbott, 1886).djvu/283

Rh XXV

——,

I had not forgotten that, in order to complete the brief discussion of the miraculous element in the New Testament, it is necessary to give some explanation of the origin of the accounts of the birth of Christ. Your last letter reminds me of this necessity, and you put before me two alternatives. "If," you say, "Christ was born of a Virgin, then a miracle is conceded so stupendous that it is absurd to object to the other miracles: but if Christ was not born of a Virgin, then, unless the honesty of the Gospel narratives is to be impeached, some account is needed of the way in which the miraculous legend found its way into the Gospels;" and you add that you would like to know what meaning, if any, I attach to the statement in the Creed, that Jesus was "born of a Virgin."

As you probably anticipate, I accept the latter of your alternatives, and I will therefore endeavour briefly to shew how the story of the Miraculous Conception "found its way into the Gospels." But first I must protest against your expression as inexact. The story of the Miraculous Conception, so far from having "found its way into the Gospels found its way into only two out of the four, namely, St. Matthew's and St, Luke's. And this fact, strong as it is, does not represent the strength of the negative argument from omission. Of the nine authors, or thereabouts, of the different books in the New Testament, only two contain any account, reference, or allusion