JOHN X. 10. The true view of a part of John x. 10 has been missed, I cannot but think, by most interpreters. Our Authorized Version is as follows:— "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." This rendering fails to draw out and set forth a part of the important contrasts which the passage contains, and so fails to display a part of the exceeding goodness of our only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The word " it," observe, is in italics, there being nothing to correspond to it in the Greek. ELGO ἔχειν means "to have superabundance." See Liddell and Scott under περισσόν. And now note the contrasts. "The thief cometh not but for (i.) to steal, and (ii.) to kill and to destroy." "I came" (i.) [not to kill and to destroy, but] "that they might have life, and" (i.) [not to rob and deprive them, but] "that they might have a superabundance" [of all that they need, not of life only, and beyond all that ever entered into the heart of man to conceive]. Such are the unsearchable riches of his loving-kindness, such the provision made by the good Shepherd for his sheep. The discourse arose in the question of the Pharisees: "Are we blind also?" The Lord's answer, as his answers often did on other occasions, sets forth general truths, which include the particular case before him, and it implies thus much: You are blind leaders of the blind, and those who follow you will perish. And you are in reality mercenaries, not true pastors of the flock. You serve yourselves, and destroy the sheep. I am the door of the fold: those who enter in by me shall be saved. I am the good shepherd, who give my life for the sheep. Unless you believe on me, and yourselves enter the fold through me, you cannot be even of the flock of God, much less pastors of that flock." Some difficulties in the interpretation of the whole passage will be avoided by observing that verses 1-5 are a parable (here indeed called παροιμία, not παραβολή), and that verses 6, etc., are the explanation of it, as in Matt. xiii. verses 3-8 are the parable, and verses 18-23 the explanation. EDWARD BILEY. THE PHRASE "AGERE PENITENTIAM." I WAS surprised on looking out "Hermas," in my copy of Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, at finding the following statement: "By these three means-visions, commands, and similes-the author endeavours to shew that a godly life consists in observing the commands of God and doing penance.' On referring to the Latin of Hermas's Pastor I found the phrase agere pœnitentiam" was in frequent use, and that the writer in Smith's Dictionary had fallen into the inexcusable error of mistaking agere pœnitentiam" for aught but the Latin equivalent of μeravoeîv, "to repent." On further referring to the portion of the Greek text preserved in the Codex Sinaiticus, I found that the Greek 66 μeтavоeîv corresponded in every place to the Latin "agere pœnitentiam." A father of the antiquity and former renown of Hermas ought not to be thus misrepresented in a work of such circulation and with such pretensions to scholarship as Smith's Dictionary. A. H. W. THE DAYS OF GENESIS I. Days" of ALLOW me to add a few words to the article on the " The same phrase "Let the earth bring forth," which is found in i. 11, occurs again in verse 24. "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind." When, however, the result of this fiat of the Almighty Creator is described, it is not said, as in the case of the vegetation on the third day, "And the earth brought forth," but "And God made the living creature of the earth," etc. The reason of its being said in this last case, "Let the earth bring forth,” is probably to signify what is more fully said afterwards, ii. 19, “ Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field," etc., i.e., that they are "of the earth, earthy." EDWARD BILEY. PER CHRISTUM DOMINUM NOSTRUM. I SHALL feel much obliged by your allowing me to ask through your Journal, whether any reason can be assigned for the period before the above expression, as found in the R. Missal, and in the Latin prayers in the Liturgical Services of Queen Elizabeth, 1560 (Parker Society), having been changed into a colon or semi-colon, as found in the English Liturgies of King Edward VI. (Parker Society), and in our present English Church Prayer Book? In the Private Prayers (English) of Queen Elizabeth, 1578 (Parker), we find the period retained before "Through Jesus Christ our Lord." It will be generally allowed, I suppose, that in all cases, except where the context points out a different sense, where the above short Latin expression is used, some such word as "Oramus" is understood; and if so, "Through Jesus Christ our Lord” means "We offer up this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ," or some such expression to that effect, in obedience to John xv. 16. If so, it forms a sentence by itself; yet we not unfrequently hear clergymen read it as if it formed a part of the previous sentence, which often alters the sense very materially; as in the Prayers for Rain, Fair Weather-also in the Collects for Grace, and for the First, Second, and Third Sundays after Trinity, etc., etc. If the period had been retained in our English Prayer Book they could not well fall into that error. JAMES BRIERLEY. Mossley. NOTICES OF BOOKS. Les Religions et les Philosophies dans l'Asie Centrale. Par le Comte de Gobineau. Deuxième edition. Paris: Didier. ALL our civilisation, Count de Gobineau remarks in, starting, comes from the East. Ex Oriente lux. There is scarcely a form of thought, a metaphysical doctrine for which we are not indebted to Asia. If we add to this fact the other no less undoubted one, that our intercourse with the Oriental world is gaining ground every day, and that in a very short time it will become both politically and commercially of firstrate importance, we shall at once see the desirableness of being more thoroughly acquainted than we are now with the manners, the feelings, the philosophical, religious, and literary views of the Asiatics. Such is the subject of Count de Gobineau's book, and he has discussed it with all the fullness and the accuracy which might be expected from a gentleman who has been long a resident in Eastern climes. Our author begins by pointing out the difference which exists between the European habits of thought and those of the inhabitants of Asia "When a European," he says, "embraces a doctrine, his intellect very naturally leads him to discard everything that does not belong to it-everything, at least, that would form with it too great a contrast. Not that such an operation is either easy or simple. He may, without much difficulty indeed, find out that black and white are incompatible, and that, if we would have the one colour in all its purity, the other must disappear; but the mind has seldom the necessary energy to render the separation as absolute as it should be; in most cases we retain a little of the opinion which we had cast aside. In the case of clear and precise declarations, we may reject such and such dogmas; but it is not so easy to withdraw ourselves from the consequences of these dogmas, from ideas which would not exist if they themselves had no reality: in short the number of consciences which are either decidedly white or decidedly black is everywhere exceedingly rare; the grey ones are those which we most usually meet." Count de Gobineau acknowledges readily that Europeans are of all men those who have best succeeded in adopting apparently homogenous doctrines, and, by way of contrast, he shews us the people of the East fond of antinomies, revelling in a kind of intellectual gymnastics which could not but drive them, in course of time, to scepticism or indifferentism. "They excel, as people say, in splitting a hair into four parts, and of these four intangible quantities they will construct a bridge strong enough to bear a carriage; the most trifling idea supplies them with food for endless meditations. At the same time it is certain that that moral faculty which we call common sense ・・・・ does not perfectly counterbalance their imaginative power, and their rapidity of conception; to tell the truth, they are entirely deficient in common sense, and this want is very apparent in their way of transacting any kind of business." To sum up the above appreciation of the Eastern character, we may say that their extreme fondness for metaphysical investigation leads them to attach the same importance to all theories indiscriminately, as long as they afford food for disputation. Their catholicity of spirit is really a deeply seated scepticism. In the meanwhile every man belongs to some positive religion, Jew, Christian, Mahometan, Hindu, fire-worshipper.-As he was born, so he dies. Conversions from one creed to another are extremely rare; and if a Jew, for instance, happens to embrace the faith of the Koran, his children, nine times out of ten, return to the religion which the father had forsaken. After having thus sketched the broad lines of demarcation between the populations of the East and those of the West, Count de Gobineau goes on to describe the principal features of Persian Islamism, and of that form of Chaldaism which constitutes the religion of the Arabs. The different other religious elements which are to be found in Asia then attract his notice: of the Christians he has very little to say, and that is most unfavourable; the Jews, on the contrary, are praised by him for the energy of their faith, their zeal and their intellectual qualities: "The Jews do not deserve that contempt. The majority amongst them, no doubt, are exclusively absorbed by their material interests, and they offer that external laissez-aller, that untidiness which has everywhere prevented them from exciting sympathy or inspiring esteem; but in Asia as well as in other localities they have the moral energy, the religious pride which raises them above so many catastrophes, and which we find united in some of them with a lively interest for their dogmas, their literature, their sciences. It is Jewish books which the European printing-presses have chiefly sent to Asia during the last hundred years. Those volumes may be met with in rather large numbers; and there is no Hebrew community, be it ever so small, in the most insignificant towns, that does not possess Venetian or Leghorn editions of the most essential works. Nothing of the kind can be said respecting the Christian Churches. Some of the Jewish doctors are deeply read in the Talmudic books, and in metaphysical literature. I was struck with real astonishment the day when one of those savants spoke to me with admiration of Spinoza, and asked me for information on the doctrines of Kant. These names, these ideas-glimpses of other ideas which we might suppose to be unknown to them, reach them through the medium of the works which they procure chiefly from Germany, and the principal entrepôt of which is at Bagdad. Distances do not prevent them from holding intercourse with one another. As far as dogmatic interests are concerned, and niceties of doctrine or questions of civil law, they are in constant communication with the chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, who, designated in their official style under the name of "King of Jerusalem," decides sovereignly on all controverted points. His opinion has force of law, and is never impugned. Thoroughly acquainted with the names and opinions of their most influential European brethren, the Jews inhabiting India and Persia are visited by missionaries or rather collectors who beg from them in favour of the Jews residing at Jerusalem, alms which are never refused. It was by the means of those itinerant collectors that news formerly circulated. At the present day the Jews likewise employ occasionally the means of communication which are at the disposal of Europeans, and which are more frequent and more rapid, if not safer. Not only do their correspondences treat of national questions or of commercial affairs, they embrace also the discussion of doctrinal points, and the exchange of literary productions sometimes, though rarely, in the Hebrew language properly so called, sometimes in the Aramean or Chaldean idiom and with great pretensions to elegancies of style. These compositions are not always of a serious character. A few months ago the learned Jews of Teheran were occupied with a poetical satire, by them considered as admirable, and which had been written by a Rabbi at Jerusalem." It appears from M. de Gobineau's account, that the doctrine of the Sufis enjoys a great amount of popularity still in the East; nor is such a fact astonishing when we think for a moment of the social and political condition of that part of the world. Amidst a population subject to the caprice of despotic sovereigns, where property is not safe, where no man is sure that within a few hours he will not be put to death in order to satisfy the revenge or even the merest whim of a Pasha, that theory must be extremely congenial which teaches the unreality of this present world, the absorption of all things in the bosom of the Deity, and the positive advantage of complete quietism. The Sufis have obtained converts amongst all the classes of Eastern society. "Their means of action," says Count de Gobineau, "are perfect. They have their chiefs, their councils, their monks, their missionaries; and the stages of the doctrine they inculcate are so numerous that there is room for intellects of every degree of culture. The wise men of the sect, the Urefas, measure science to each one according to the strength or the weakness of his mind. If they perceive that one of their maxims scandalizes a neophyte, they have always at their disposal a double meaning which enables them to convince the timid disciple that he was wrong in his objections. If, on the contrary, they perceive that the theological stomach of the proselyte is robust, they feed him upon speculations most hard to digest." M. de Gobineau gives us an interesting list of the principal Sufis, and he shews at the same time that even so comprehensive a system of Pantheism, so thoroughly unencumbered by the trammels of positive religion, was not enough for Eastern philosophers. The contact of European ideas ended by inoculating them with all the vagaries of modern transcendentalism, and their favourite authors are now Hegel and Spinoza-the very philosophers whose theories are most in accordance with Eastern modes of thought. About One of the most curious parts in Count de Gobineau's extremely valuable book is that which concerns the sect of the Bâbis. the year 1843 there lived at Shyraz in Persia a young man, MirzaAly-Mohammed, who was thought to be descended from Mahomet, and who, at the age of nineteen began a religious movement destined to spread throughout the whole of central Asia. By his piety, his zeal, his talents, he soon drew around him a number of eager followers, and a small church was formed. He then assumed the title of Bâb, thus pointing out to himself as to the door by which alone men can attain unto the knowledge of God. In his recently published work, Les Apôtres, pp. 378-380, M. Renan speaks of that "homme doux et sans aucune prétention, une sorte de Spinosa modeste et pieux, élevé, presque malgré lui, au rang de thaumaturge, d'incarnation divine." Such was the Bâb. His attempt roused, of course, the indignation and the hatred of all true followers of the Prophet, and Bâbysm met with the usual fate of most religious reforms it was violently persecuted. The antagonists of the new movement thought that the death of Mirza-Aly-Mohammed would bring about the dispersion of his followers; they were completely mistaken. The terrible massacres of 1852 have only tended to strengthen the Bâbis. Without entering here upon a full description of the doctrines held |