THE VIRGIN BIRTH [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Modest
enquiry united to charming courtesy demands a response. I will, therefore, try, as briefly as possible, to answer Mr. Athelstan Riley's " simple question " : What right has he [Dr. Major] to remain in a Church which puts the doctrine of the Virgin Birth into its prayers and into the creeds, which he is bound to recite publicly or privately every day ? "
As Mr. Riley states that he is no " professional moralist," and since he plainly regards me as a professional immoralist, it would be useless for me to use any arguments of my own to convince him that my position is morally justifiable. I therefore refer him to the decision of an eminent English ethical authority, Professor Bernard Bosanquet. Mr. Riley may recollect that the question of clerical veracity was argued by Professor Henry Sidgwick and Dr. Hastings Rashdall in the pages of -the International Journal of Ethics, 1896 and 1897. It fell to Dr. Bosanquet to review the argu- ments of the contestants. He delivered his judgement as follows : " I do not believe that the problem of remaining or not remaining a minister of a certain church ought to be represented-primarily by the question Of believing or not-believing in some of the documents in which it (the Church) requires belief- to be professed. I do not think that this is the primary question even for the most critically minded.
" (That question is] whether reading together the various for- mularies and accepted expressions of the Church's dec.:rine, and considering its history and present work and aims, its ( a se seems one desirable to promote, and one in promoting which the indi- vidual could find his best life work. In reviewing this question, anyone would give weight to such a fact as that. formularies, to him obsolete, have to be recited by him in the ritual with an expression of belief. But to anyone who has been able to decide the main question in the affirmative, the question of veracity would be so greatly modified as to present little difficulty."
Nevertheless, the increasing number of English people, who feel themselves excluded from our Church Services by those very difficulties emphasized by Mr. Riley, does stress the
need for credal and liturgical reform. H. D. A. MAJOR. Ripon Hall, Oxford.
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