MR. BROM:CLEM:MST'S ANSWER TO THE BISHOP OF OXFORD.
ETo THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") " I am going to pass to the other extreme [the 'other extreme ' refers to the Resurrection—T. P. B.] of Our Lord's Life in order to emphasise a difference and a sameness in regard to the evidence of Our Lord's birth of a virgin. Different because this was no part of the ground upon which men were called upon to believe. This was no part of the Apostolic testimony. It was essential to the Apostolic, testimony that it should be a testimony of what they had seen and heard all the time they companied with Jesus. It is of the essence to perceive this. The manner of Our Lord's birth was no part of the original Apostolic testimony . . . and still to- day this question is not a- ground on which belief is asked!'
This is an excerpt from the report of the fourth lecture on " The Historical Trustworthiness of the Gospels " Bishop Gore delivered at neon on Wednesday, December 10th, 1902, in St. Philip's Church, Birmingham, printed in the Church Times for December 24th, 1902, and which report also appeared in the Birmingham Daily Post for December 11th, 1902, in the Guardian for December 18th, 1902, and in the Church Family Newspaper for December 19th, 1902. Files of any of these may be consulted at the several pub- lishing offices.
Further, I would refer your readers to an article in the Nineteenth Century for November, 1904, entitled " Mr. Mallock and the Bishop of Worcester " (Dr. Charles Gore), written in defence of Bishop Gore by the Rev. H. Maynard Smith, the article being introdtced by a letter from Bishop Gore himself to the editor of the Nineteenth Century. On p. 752 the writer of the article, refers to the lectures in these words :—" Let us turn, then, to his [Bishop Gore's] last utterances on the subject,—to his Advent sermon in St. Philip's, Birmingham, in 1902, &c., &c." In a note, Mr. Smith says :—" These sermons [so Mr. Smith calls these ' lectures '—T. P. B.] were fully reported at the time of de-
livery in the Birmingham Daily Post, in the Church Times, and in the Fraternal Visitor. I quote from shorthand notes corrected in the Bishop's own hand." Res ipsa loquitur.
As the aim of argument or of discussion should not be victory, but progress, I am " playing the game " in forwarding by con- current post a copy of this letter to Cuddesdon.—I am, Sir, &o., THEODORE P. Bitosm.srear.
The Presbytery, Criggleswick-in-Craven.
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