mpt to investigate. If it be judged
of from a purely rationalistic standpoint, there are no historical and
no scientific data which will enable us to do otherwise than simply
discredit the accounts of the Nativity, as they are given by Matthew and
Luke. On the other hand, if the narrative of Christ's birth is accepted
with that reverent faith which has endured through nineteen centuries of
Christendom, and has been and still is held by men of unrivalled
intellect, there is nothing more to be said than the language of worship
and wonder. We may well regret that John and Mark, or at least one of
the epistolary writers, did not corroborate the testimony of the two
first-named Evangelists; the scant importance Mary seems to have
acquired in the Apostolic Church may appear inconsistent with the
stupendous nature of her experiences; yet here is no subject for vain
reasoning; we stand before a mystery which belongs wholly to the realm
of faith. The science of Christology demands the acceptance of this
supernatural event. But it is as little within the province of this book
to defend the faith as it is to apply the canons of Higher Criticism to
the writings of the New Testament.

In the picture which the Scriptures give us of Mary there is no touch so
human as that which represents her, at the first intimation of the
coming of her Son, hastening southward to confer with her cousin
Elizabeth. To a woman must the news first be whispered, before it gains
the observation of the man to whom she is espoused; and not to the
gossips of Nazareth, but to her holy and sober-minded kinswoman alone
could Mary impart her hopes and her fears. Poetic expression was a
Jewish woman's birthright; Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, and Judith, each had
magnified the Lord with a song; let Mary also, in the assurance that her
Offspring is to be the Messiah long foretold, voice the exultation of
her soul in like manner. "Behold, from henceforth, all generations shall
call me blessed.... He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and
exalted them of low degree."

Augustus Caesar sent forth an edict that all the world should be taxed.
It was an act of which we should have known little and thought less, had
it not marked the occasion of the birth of Him to whom the world will
never cease to pay a tribute of homage.

In the birth of Jesus, the mystery of motherhood is glorified, nay,
almost deified. Mankind needed that also. The pagan world had always
sought