The Virgin Birth of Christ. 259 ence. Miracle could alone effect such a wonder. Because His human nature had this miraculous origin Christ was the “holy” One from the commencement (Luke 1:35)* Sinless He was, as His whole life demonstrated; but when, in all timé, did natural generation give birth to a sinless personality? THE EARLY CHURCH A WITNESS. The history of the early church is occasionally appealed to in witness that the doctrine of the Virgin birth was not primi tive, No assertion could be more futile. The early church, so far as we can trace-it back, in all its branches, held this doc trine. No Christian sect is known that denied it, save the Jew ish Ebionites formerly alluded to. The general body of the Jewish Christians—the Nazarenes as the)’ are called—accepted it. Even the greater Gnostic sects in their own way admitted it. Thosé Gnostics who denied it were repelled with all the force of the church’s greatest teachers. The Apostle John is related to have vehemently opposed Cerinthus, the earliest teacher with whom this denial is connected. d is c r e d it e d v a g a r ie s . What more remains to be said ? It would be waste of space to follow the objectors into their various theories of a mythical origin of this belief. One by one the speculations advanced have broken down, and given place to others—all equally base- . less. The newest of the theories seeks an origin of the belief in ancient Babylonia, and supposes the Jews to have possessed the notion in pre-Christian times. This is not only opposed to all real evidence, but is the giving up of the contention that the idea had its origin in late Christian circles, and was un known to earlier apostles. THE REAL CHRIST. Doctrinally, it must be repeated that the belief in the Vir gin birth of Christ is of the highest value for the right appre hension of Christ’s unique and sinless personality. Here is
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