"THE FOOL HATH SAID" 275 



from the lands of the East, nearest to the origin 

 of our human race, came the wise men led by the 

 guidance of the star: "And entering into the house, 

 they found the child with Mary his mother, and 

 falling down they adored Him." 



Such was now the source from which all true 

 social progress was to flow in the years to come. 

 "Our Jesus, who is reproached with having been 

 born in a village, and not in Greece or any well- 

 known country," wrote Origen against Celsus, 

 "who is despised as the son of a poor laboring 

 woman, has yet been able to stir up the whole in- 

 habited world, surpassing the influence of Themis- 

 tocles of Athens, Pythagoras, Plato, or any 

 philosopher, ruler or leader in any part of the 

 world." Must not everyone, he continues, who 

 carefully studies these facts, be struck with amaze- 

 ment at the victory of this man? Yet more than 

 man was He whose coming the great social 

 prophet Isaias had proclaimed in those words 

 which the Christian world repeats with him today: 

 "For a child is born to us, and a son is given to 

 us, and the government is upon his shoulders : and 

 his name shall be called, Wonderful Counsellor, 

 God the Mighty, the Father of the World to 

 come, the Prince of Peace." * Here, then, and 

 not in materialistic evolution, must be sought the 

 source of all our future social progress. 



ibid., IX :6. 



