23 JUNE 1939, Page 20

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR, Wi . h twenty-five years'

subscription to The Spectator behind me, I can recollect reading few articles with greater interest than " The Gospels Re-read." As a young man who "did eagerly frequent doctor and saint," nothing appeared more repugnant than the prospect of everlasting life as ex- pounded by Jesus Christ. And now in the evening of an active life (selfishly not wholly dissatisfied with such service as circumstances have happily enabled my rendering to others) calmly and contentedly I can contemplate dissolution undis- turbed by hopes of heaven or fears of hell. Lest it be thought that such is too easy merely to say, three times in distant lands, by accident of earth and fire and water, have I shaken hands with the great destroyer. Perhaps study of the other great Eastern teachers who escaped the quite unnecessary divinity imposed upon Jesus Christ, to support which so many super- stitions appear to have arisen, induces peaceful anticipation of death, since there appears little to differentiate the moral expositions of any one of them.

I trust the much-appreciated attitude of The Spectator, as enunciated in your footnote to Mr. C. W. Early's letter, will