40 MORAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD 



tion the higher critics may decide. (3) The the- 

 ological bearing of the account. That is simply 

 nothing. The theologian may look on in serene 

 indifference while the question is being settled by 

 the two sets of scholars mentioned, knowing that 

 the doctrine of the Sonship of Jesus is not in- 

 volved in the least degree. As already stated, it 

 may not always have been a matter of indiffer- 

 ence to the theologian. There may have been a 

 time when everything from his point of view 

 seemed to hang from it. But to emphasize this 

 fact is only playing into the hands of the higher 

 critic, who may claim, if the case is made strong 

 enough, that the story is accounted for by that 

 fact. It may still be a matter of weight, although 

 involved in much difficulty, to the theologian who 

 has inherited a scientific doctrine, now quite gen- 

 erally repudiated, that a spiritual or moral qual- 

 ity is a subject of heredity. It may still seem im- 

 portant to those who pin their faith to the mar- 

 velous and the extraordinary; but to him that 

 believes that all processes of nature, common and 

 extraordinary alike, are equally manifestations 

 of the divine, and may be used by God as the in- 

 strument of His plans, it can not matter how this 

 controversy is settled. His faith can be adjusted 

 with equal ease to either solution, not because he 

 has a spirit of indifference; but rather because 

 he has the vision of God as filling all in all. Our 

 contention is not an effort to eliminate the virgin 

 birth as a part of the creed ; we have no interest 



