iritual creed, remain contented with its extremely sensual character.
They profess to believe that the fate of the whole human race was
decided by the advent of the Man of Sorrows; yet they commemorate that
event by an unhealthy consumption of the meat which perisheth, and a
wild indulgence in the frivolous pleasures of that carnal mind which is
at enmity with God. Astonished at such conduct, the Sceptic muses on
the inconsistency of mankind. He may also once more consider the
circumstances of the birth of Christ and its relation to the history of
the modern world.

Jesus, called the Christ, is popularly supposed to have been of the seed
of David, from which it was promised that the Messiah should come. It
is, however, perfectly clear that he was in no-wise related to the man
after God's own heart His putative father, Joseph, admittedly had no
share in bringing him into the world; for he disdained the assistance of
a father, although he was unable to dispense with that of a mother. But
Joseph, and not Mary, according to the genealogies of Matthew and Luke,
was the distant blood relation of David; and therefore Jesus was not of
the seed of the royal house, but a bastard slip grafted on the ancient
family-tree by the Holy Ghost. It is a great pity that newspaper
correspondents did not exist in those days. Had Joseph been skilfully
"interviewed," it is highly probable that the world would have been
initiated into his domestic secrets, and enlightened as to the paternity
of Mary's eldest son. The Holy Ghost is rather too shadowy a personage
to be the father of a lusty boy, and no young lady would be credited in
this age if she ascribed to him the authorship of a child born out of
wedlock. Most assuredly no magistrate would make an order against him
for its maintenance. Even a father of the Spiritualist persuasion,
who believed in what is grandly called "the materialisation of spirit
forms," would probably be more than dubious if his daughter were to
present him with a grandson whose father lived on the other side of
death and resided in a mansion not made with hands. It is, we repeat, to
be for ever regretted that poor Joseph has not left his version of the
affair. The Immaculate Conception might perhaps have been cleared up,
and theology relieved of a half-obscene mystery, which has unfortunately
perverted not a few minds.

The birth of Jesus was announced to "wise men from the East" by the
appearance of a singular star.