The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1912-03-01

Glasgow, says: 1T affects the whole
supernatural estimate of Christ-His
life. His claims, His Sinlessness, His
miracles, His resurrection from the
dead But the Virgin birth is assailed
with special vehemence. because it is
supposed that the evidence of this
miracle is more easily got rid of than
the evidence for public facts. such as
the resurrection. The result is that
in very many quarters the Virgin birth
of Christ is openly treated as a fable
Belief in it is secuted as unworthy of
the twentieth century intelligence"
In other words, the methods of the
oldest opponents of Christianity are
revived, and it is likened to the Greek
and Roman stories, coarse and vile, of
heroes who had gods for their fathers.
All true Christians believe most EN-
phatically in the fact that the Eternal
Son of God entered into our nature for
the purpose of mans salvation. On
the other hand, those who repudiate. or
deny this article of faith, either hold
a lowered view of Christ's Person. or
deny the efficacy of His work on the
Cross, and rtject His supernatural
claims altogether These are the
kind as Professor Bruce once said,
Who in their denial of the Virgin
birth are apt to deny the Virgin life.
! Further, everything depends on right
views as regards the Virgin birth of
Christ. Who that reflects on the sub
ject carefully can fail to see that if
Christ was Virgin born-if He was
j truly conceived, as the creed says, by
the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin
/ Mary-there must of necessity enter
a supernatural element into His per
son; while, if Christ was sinless, much
more, if He was the very Word of God
! Iincarnate, there must have been a
miracle-the most stupendous miracle
| in the uniyerse-in His origin! II
Christ was, as John and Paul affirm,
and as His church has ever believed,
the Son of God made flesh, the second
Adam, the new redeeming head of the
race, a miracle was to be expected in
His earthly origin without a miracle
such Person could never have been"
LET MY READERS PONDER OVER
THIS STATEMENT.
I Furthermore, the Virgin birth has
an historical setting. There runs, as
| it were, a golden thread of prophecy,
ali through the Old Testament Scrip
lures, indicating preparation, cumula-
tive in character. ever increasing, until
| in Isaiah the climax is reached, and
the idea of the Messiah gathers to it.
self the attributes of Divine King,
and the great Emmanuel prophecy, ex-
tending from Isaiah TIA to 9:7 (com-
pare with Isaiah s. 8, 10), comes like
a flash of celestial light from the Un.
seen Holy, and we hear the wonderful
words: THE LORD HIMSELF WILL
GIVE YOU A SIGN; (this said to the
Iunbelieving King Ahaz); A VIRGIN
SHALL CONCEIVE, AND BEAR A
SON, AND SHALL CALL HIS NAME
IMMANUEL," Oiterally in the He
brew, GOD WITH US.) Now note,
this is none other than the child OF
wonder extolled in chapter 9:6,7; For
lunto us A CHILD is BORN, unto us
a SON is GIVEN; and the government
shall be upon HIS SHOULDER; and
HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED
WONDERFUL, COUNSELLOR, THE
MIGHTY GOD, THE EVERLASTING
FATHER, GATHER OF ETERNITY
1.-THE PRINCE OF PEACE. OF the in
crease of His government and peace
there shall be NO END, upon the
throne of His father David. and upor
His Kingdom etc. This is the
prophecy quoted as fulfilled in Christ's
birth in Matthew 1923, and without {
doubt is alluded to in the rapturou'
land glowing promises to Mary in Luke
I1:S2,SS.
There must have been something ex
Iceptional and extraordinary in The
birth of this child called IMMANUEL
for it was to Ahaz sign of the per
lpetuity of the throne of David in thu
Iages to come. There are echoes o
this testimony in other prophetic scrip
lures. Toke the first, in Micah 5:2,3-
the Bethlehem prophecy quoted
as fulfilled in the nativity (Matthev
5,6)-connecte with the saying
Therefore will he give them up, unit
1.-THE time that she who travaileth hatl
brought forth ("the King from Bethle
hem, who has a nameless one a
mother, and of whose father there il
no mentione). Micah lived in Isaiah
time, and it is apparent that his test
mony was an expansion of Isaiah's. Il
Jeremiah we read, For Jehovah hatl
created a new thing in the earth: !
xrornan ebalI ancnmnase man " Is,