264 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



co-ordinate Jesus even with the men of " supreme 

 genius." If any are content to accept this ex- 

 planation of that marvellous personality whose 

 " story will melt the noblest hearts " as long as 

 men love righteousness and truth they must surely 

 be allowed the privilege, while with equal earnest- 

 ness we who also desire to be loyal to the truth 

 find in Him qualities which forbid His classifica- 

 tion even with men of the loftiest genius. In the 

 first place, the number of such men who remain 

 unaccounted for after their mothers are known 

 as well as their fathers is not large. But the 

 mother of Jesus is known as well as the mothers of 

 most ancients, and nothing either in the New Tes- 

 tament records or in authentic tradition warrants 

 her classification among the great and silent souls 

 who have swayed the world through their sons. 

 Indeed, who shall constitute the list of supreme and 

 utterly lonely men of genius who, intellectually and 

 spiritually, are like Melchizedek, without father 

 and without mother.? Is there any name which 

 forces itself upon attention except that of Shake- 

 speare ? And perhaps it would be better to wait 

 until the question whether the real genius was 

 Shakespeare or Bacon is settled before drawing 

 any very weighty inferences from him. 



In this study it will be observed that nowhere 



