That Joseph was not the father of Mary's Child ought to be self-evident to every logical, intellectual and decent mind. When he discovered she was about to become a mother, he determined to divorce her. Divorce in Israel was both solemn and serious. The parties to divorce must present themselves to the elders in open meeting. The case would be fully and searchingly tried. If the woman were found guilty, she would be taken out to a public place or field. The whole populace would surround her and under command of the elders, without mercy, they would stone her to death. Joseph knew this would be the doom appointed to Mary if he sought publicly to divorce her. He was not willing to do that. He believed she had proven false to him. But he still loved her. He therefore determined to put her away pri vately. He would put in the claim of annulment against his own vows, and set her aside, having henceforth no more to do with her. This is what the Scripture means when it says : "Then Joseph her husband (mark, even before the marriage he is recognized as "husband," as she is, as "wife") being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily" (Matt. 1:19). But the living God never allows us to be in doubt about the truth. After the angel nad spoken to Joseph and had bidden him without fear to take Mary to himself, we read in Matthew that he "took unto him his wife: and knew her not till she had brought forth her first born son: and he called His name Jesus" (Matt. 1:24, 25). This is the plain statement that marriage between Joseph and Mary had not been consummated before he brought her home ;that it was not consummated till after Jesus was born. It is the Holy Ghost demonstration that so far as Mary was concerned, she was virgin to Joseph till after Jesus was born. What more would you have? What more need you have to prove, at the least, that Joseph was not the father of Jesus? Since then Joseph was not the father of Jesus, behold where it places Mary if Jesus were not Virgin Born. It brings her into the light as Joseph's accredited wife, and it makes her guilty of breaking wedlock. It m a k e s h e r guilty of fornication. It makes her guilty of adultery. Deny the Virgin Birth, and this is the category in which by inexorable logic you are under bonds to put Mary, the mother of Jesus. Deny the Virgin Birth, and you give to Mary, the mother of Christ, a stain, a shame, that all the waters of all the seven seas can never wash out. Think you a light matter to put this indelible stain upon the mother of our Lord? Deny the Virgin Birth and this is what you do. Consider, I pray you, 2. The effect this denial of the Virgin Birth must have upon the Name and reputation of Jesus Himself. If some man other than Joseph were the father of Jesus, and He were begotten and conceived out of wedlock, then He was an illegitimate child, a child who had no legal right to come into the world. This is what you must face: Jesus Christ, an illegitimate son. But that is not all. Deny the Virgin Birth, make Mary a faithless wife, guilty of breaking wedlock, and you make her son something more than illegitimate. It is plain enough what that something more is. It is just this : If some other man than Joseph were the father of Jesus we have to reckon this — that man was not known. He was not known in that day. He has not been mother of a child of whom he was not the father. As his wife, continued on the next page
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