2 APRIL 1927, Page 15

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,--In answer to your

correspondent, " El Simarqi," who claims to have had considerable personal experience of Semitic Orientals, I wish to ask him a simple question upon the interpretation of time words in St. John xi : " This is My Body," which he maintains our Lord's hearers would cer- tainly have recognized as " metaphor."

If they did so, why did they go on to say : " How can this man give us His flesh to eat ? " . . . . " This is a hard saying ; who can hear it ? " We read " From that many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Ilim."—I Rector of Flempton cum Hengrave.

Bury St. Edniunds.