36 MORAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD 



divinity of her Son. If now we suppose that she 

 never so used it, and that it was used only after 

 her death, we have destroyed its value for her, 

 and hence for others. 



If the value of the account to these two is thus 

 eliminated, there remains no value in it except to 

 the apologist, and for him it rests upon the false 

 assumption, as we contend, of the doctrine of 

 hereditary sin in normal human nature. If Mary 

 is not the witness that established the fact, it 

 clearly is in the region of speculation, the motive 

 of which is to relieve Jesus of the taint of orig- 

 inal sin. 



2. From a biological point of view this story 

 is of trivial importance in any age which knows 

 the process of the origin of a physical human life. 

 It is a physical fact that is to be accounted for 

 in any possible supposition, and the alleged vir- 

 ginal conception in any case can account only for 

 an animal life which is to be used by a spiritual 

 being. That God should use one physical agency 

 rather than another has no significance whatever 

 as to the nature of the spiritual being, who shall 

 instrumentally use the animal nature thus pro- 

 duced. 



Concerning the ascetic tendency which may 

 have been a factor in the origin of the story, 

 Garvie (op. cit. 93) says: "The ascetic tendency 

 to depreciate marriage and to exalt celibacy did 

 undoubtedly find encouragement in the belief in 

 the virginity of the mother of Jesus. But this 



