The Preparation of the Incarnation

The readers of the series of volumes which I have been allowed to publish on the Life of our Lord, will remember that, when that series was begun, it was thought better to postpone to a later period that part of the entire work which related to the earliest portion of the history. The object in view was to secure at once the completion of that part of the work which seemed to be most required, namely, that on the central portion of the Gospel History, between the Infancy and the Passion. It is this portion on which the Evangelists have dwelt most fully, and which, on the other hand, presents the greatest number of harmonistic difficulties - difficulties which are not incapable of solution, when we once have mastered the principles which are to be applied to the subject, and the solution of which is rich in results for the more perfect comprehension of the work and method of our Lord.