Is this story true? Here is the hook, and here
is the name of the book. The fathers like Jerome
told it as true. Notwithstanding, the cruel crit-
ics of our day deny its credence, and pronounce
it a fiction. They say it was invented by some
Jewish enthusiast for the purpose of embellish*

34



BETWEEN THE TESTAMENTS

menty and to satisfy Hebrew pride. True or
untrue, it is certainly a good story, and has a
thrill in it. It is calculated to make the Septuor
gint go. The fact is, people like just such a
story; and the more marvelous it is the better —
i. 6., the more readily is it accepted and believed
and told and boasted about. For example, what
would the Nativity be without those bewitcUng
stories which center around the cradle manger
of Bethlehem? — ^the stories about the Star in the
East, and the coming of the Magii, and the flash-
ing of the Glory-light, and the Song of the
Angels, and the Nunc Demittus of Simeon, and
the Magnificat of the Holy Mother ! If the crit-
ics should ever rob us of these, they would re-
duce the Nativity to the merest commonplace oc-
currence and rob Bethlehem of much of its
power.
For centuries men believed the wonderful
story told relative to the origin of the Septua-
gint, because the Septuagint was able comfort-
ably to carry just such a story; and because the
story satisfied the law of harmony and fitness.
