21 SEPTEMBER 1934, Page 18

THE VIRGIN-BIRTH

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] have read Professor Quiller-Couch's article in your issue of the 14th inst. with high appreciation,, save where he seems to suggest that if our Lord was not-Virgin-born, then He was illegitimate, and His mother not " an honest.wonarm," The opening paragraphs of the First Gospel and some passages in the Talmud support this inference, but I doubt if any first-class authority on Christian origins today, for reasons I cannot give here, draivs such a coriclusiOn. In the primitive Church there -were many who did not believe in the Virgin'-birth; and yet had no doubts as to the chastity of the Lord's mother. It is the. same in. the Church of England today. May I add that Bishop GOre, like many English theologians, saw Clearly that belief in the Inearnation doeg not necessarily require belfef in the Virgin-birth ?—railli;