THE government of Guatemala has granted to A. H. Palmer, Esq. and others, of the city of New-York, the right to open a direct canal communication for ships, from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, through the river San Juan and the lake Nicaragua, with the privilege of an exclusive navigation for twenty years.

The whole extent of excavation will not exceed 17 miles, (the distance between the lake and the river,) which will require a lockage of 200 feet. The work is required to be completed in 18 months, and it is said will be commenced with 6000 men from this country.

GREECE AND TURKEY.-Late accounts inform us of an insurrection of the Janizaries, and of their consequent destruction. The Janizaries, as our readers all know, are a corps of Infantry of the Turkish army, composed principally of young Christian slaves, trained and inured to labour and hardship. They are at present divided into two classes-into those who are paid and those who are not paid. The former have, from the time in which they were created a distinct order, composed the infantry of the Imperial Guard. The latter are entitled to the prerogatives of Janizaries, and are obliged to suffer no restraint but to fight in time of war. The principal residences of the Janizaries are at Constantinople and the larger cities. Five hundred formed the guard of the Seraglio, and received their rations from the Sultan's kitchen. The whole number of this corps of militia is variable at different times: it has of late amounted to nearly two hundred thousand men. The occasion of their revolt was an attempt at a new organization of the troops after the Europe

an models. No sooner were the new regulations proclaimed than the Janizaries incorporated in the regular arshowed their discontent; which soon increased to open revolt. Unable to withstand the force brought against them by government, the rebels betook themselves to their barracks, where they were massacred and burnt to the number of several thousands. More than fifty chiefs who surrendered themselves as prisoners were strangled. The Sultan, encouraged by this success, persisted in his determination to put in practice the European system; and sent his orders for the suppression of the Janizaries into all parts of the empire.

The latest news from Greece is more encouraging. The chiefs were acting with greater energy and unanimity and had successfully resisted several attempts at an attack on Ath

ens.

Lord Cochrane sailed about the first of June to take the command it is said of the Greek naval force. He collected a fleet of eight ships, off cape St. Vincent, and expected to be in Greece by the end of June. His flag ship is a steam vessel of 400 tons, on Mr. Perkin's principle. Great hopes are entained of his success. A letter was received at London, from his Lordship while on his voyage to Greece, enclosing a copy of his manifesto to the Pacha of Egypt; in which he warns him against continuing to lend his aid in the subjugation of a Christian people exhorts him to direct his attention to the improvement of his own people, with other nations; and assures him that all the evils he inflicts on Greece, must ultimately recoil on himself. It is understood that this expedition has the secret concurrence of the British government.

SAMUEL FISHER DARRACH, third son of James and Elizabeth Darrach, was born in Philadelphia December 1st, 1797, and died at Weinheim, Germany,

September 30th, 1824, aged 26 years and 10 months.

He united himself to the Church of Christ about the sixteenth year of his

age, and soon after entered the freshmen-class of Princeton College, to fit himself for the study of divinity. Here he became distinguished for a talent for public speaking and the mathematics. On taking his degree, the valedictory oration was awarded him.

After residing one year at home, enjoying the instructive society of his pastor, the Rev. Thomas H. Skinner, and employing his intervals from study in exhortations to the destitute in the suburbs of the city, and in frequent visits to the Prison, a favorite resort, he returned to Princeton, and entered the Theological Seminary. Here he remained two years or more; and then visited Andover where he resided one year devoted to the study of Biblical Criticism.

In the fall of 1823 he was licensed by the Presbytery of Philadelphia; and called to preach in and about his native city, in Bridgtown, New Jersey, and in the city of New-York.

His pulpit labours gave much promise; and his friends fondly hoped that the unobtrusive but ardent spirit of piety which had hitherto confined him to private studies, was now about to engage him in public usefulness. But the desire of research, and the disposition for retirement which nature and habit inclined, and ill health permitted him to indulge, disinclined him to pas

toral duties. Retirement and study suited his natural disposition. On the death of his mother his only surviving parent, his health being much impaired, he determined to gratify his wish to visit Europe, where he might, under new and as he supposed, more favourable circumstances, prepare himself more completely for a critical study of the bible.

But how true is it, that God's ways are not our ways. This youthful servant of Christ died a few months after his embarkation without having arrived at his greatly desired place of improvement.* His sickness was of short duration: and of such a nature, as from its first onset, to deprive him of intellect. It is however, a great consolation to his friends, that, in addition to the kind and respectful attention which was given by the public officers of the town of Weinheim and by many in the neighbourhood, both during his sickness and after his death, he was also favoured with the friendship of the Reverend Doctor Caldwell of the College of North Carolina who had been his fellow traveller from Paris. The death of this young servant is indeed a painful, mysterious providence; but we should be still and learn that the Lord reigns.

* Halle.

No. 10.]

For the Christian Spectator. LAY PRESBYTERS, NO. xx.

JOHN CASSIAN, after leaving a monastery at Bethlehem, and visiting others in Egypt, was ordained a deacon by Chrysostom at Constantinople. (a) Thence he went to Rome, and finally to Marseilles, where he was made a presbyter, and resided till his death, A, D. 440. The Greek was probably his native language, but he appears in Latin. (b) He wrote Instructions for Monks, in 12 books; Conferences with Egyptian Ecclesiastics; and of The Incarnation, in seven. These writings incidentally, but correctly, describe the government of the church, at that period, as episcopal; yet express an opinion, that the first state of the church was monastic, and all things common, and that the latitude given by the council of Jerusalem was because of Gentile infirmity. But when, even from this, the church had degenerated, some, possessing the fervour of the Apostles, left the cities, and retired into private situations, who are thence called Monks, Anchorites, Eremites and Ascetics.

[1826.

ter the sacraments. But sometimes vain glory suggested clerical preferment, and a desire of the office of presbyter, or deacon. Each of these was then a clerical grade, (c) the office of presbyter was consequently undivided, and that of deacon being also clerical, the possibility of an inferior presbyter is excluded.

Seniores in the writings of Cassian, mean either abbates, or the monks, who are entrusted with the care of the noviciates, (d) except when taken for the christian fathers, never ecclesiastical officers, for he deemed it an important maxim, that a "monk should by all means shun the bishops;" which he said he could not always rehearse, without confusion, for he had not been able to escape their hands. (e)

SOCRATES, SOZOMEN, and THEODORET, wrote ecclesiastical histories of the same times, beginning in the reign of Constantine the great, and terminating about the times of Theodosius the younger. Their concurrent testimony evinces the continued influence of the canons of the council of Nice, established by the authority of the Ro

(c) "Nonnunquam vero clericatus gradum, et desiderium presbyteri vel diaconatus innuitit." Scil. cenodoxia. Lib.

(a) De incarnatione, lib. VII. c. 31.

(b) Collatio I. c. V. p. 219. 1826.-No. 10,

(d) Lib. XII. c. 14. p. 193. Col. I. c. 22. p. 235.

(e) Lib. XL. c. 18. p. 181. de institutis.

man emperor; which, with various modifications, are still the fundamental laws of the Catholic ecclesiastical government; and have been, and probably always will be unceremoniously enforced, whereever her physical means have extended or shall be supplied. These historians are competent, but not always credible witnesses even of the things which occurred in their own times; for great allowances must be made for the ignorance, credulity, and depravation of the people, and the arts and ambition of a clergy; who maintained their establishment by the vigilant exercise of their new authority, and the substitution of monkish legends and fraudulent devices, in the place of the simplicity of the gospel, and its saving truths.

SOCRATES was born at Constantinople, (a) in the reign of Theodosius the first. After a liberal education, he studied and professed the law, and wrote his history in seven books.

Canonical ordination, introduced, as we have seen, without either scriptural precept, or Apostolic example, could neither enlarge, nor limit the office of presbyter, its essence was the same, the ordainers being still presbyters. Also the ambition of preachers rendered convenient, custom established, and civil authority confirmed a diocesan form of government; but neither were the essentials of the church of Christ thereby destroyed, nor have presbyters gained; whether considered as bishops or priests, for lay presbyters as yet, had no existence, a particle more or less of legitimate scriptural power, than had been at first given to them. As members of the social compact, they may receive and bear its authority; and as officers of civil society, they ought to be respected; but when they claim, hold, and exercise municipal offi

(a) Socrat. lib. V. c. 24.

ces, by a divine right, because the office of presbyter is of such nature, their pretensions are absurd, and where their discernment justifies the charge of disingenuity, wicked.

At that period, no prudent Christian would have refused to abide by those canons of councils, which being the supreme law of the empire, secured the people from Pagan persecution, under which they had groaned so long. Also the high respect entertained for the canon law, at the first, appears by many examples. When the church at Constantinople were told that Proclus, whom they had elected, could not become their head, because a canon had forbidden the translation of a bishop, (a) they submitted without complaint. But on the next vacancy, it having been discovered that no such canon existed, they, after twenty years, reelected the man of their choice, who became their bishop. (b) Also the fact, that the bishop of Rome was deemed to have passed the bounds of priestly order in punishing the Novatians, (c) clearly shows, that the public knew that the civil was to be merely auxiliary unto, not superceded by ecclesiastical authority, in the application of force. It was deemed also a departure from rules, though highly expedient, that Silvanus, bishop of Troas, should appoint a layman to try those causes, which the clergy had been, before that period, authorized to decide. (d) This could not then have been a novelty, had lay presbyters previously existed in the church. Nor have we, in all the seven books of Socrates, discovered so much as a word, or hint of the existence of such an office, whilst bishops, presbyters, and deacons, frequently occur, and always in the character of clergy.

HERMIAS SOZOMENES, a native of

(a) Lib. VII. c. 36. (b) Ibidem c. 40.
(c) Lib. VII. c. 11. (d) Lib. VII. c. St.

Palestine, (a) cotemporary with Socrates, wrote nine books, and dedicated his history to Theodosius the younger.

This writer presents, neither a vestige of the long sought office of a subordinate presbyter, nor of any diversity among presbyters, except the surrender of the exercise of a portion of their authority to one of their number, then exclusively denominated bishop. The excellency of his style challenges our regard to his senses of terms. For bishop, he uses promiscuously eίσκοπος, προσβαλης, (b) προεσίως, (c) ἡγουμενος, (d) and προστασία and επισ xon as convertible terms. (e) It would have been unaccountable, had Paul intended by the very same word, a subordinate lay presbyter, (f) which other writers have adopted to distinguish the bishop. But the Apostle, and every Greek reader of his letter, understood by it, the presbyter who presided in the church or presbytery. And this ruling elder, was the man in every church, who, according to Jerom, received by a general custom, and became accountable for, the exercise of the higher powers of the presbytery. That each church, with few exceptions, still had, under the Nicene establishment, its presbyters, is abundantly evinced. Thus instead of the confessions of lapsed professors made to the presiding presbyter, in the presence of the witnessing multitude of the church, as in a theatre, (g) the duty

(a) Sozom. Histor. lib. V. c. 15.

(b) χειροτονησει της αντιοχέων εκκλησίας προστατην. Lib. II. c. 19.

(c) τους προεσίωση των εκκλησίων.

Lib. VI. c. 4.

(d) Lib. VI. c. 32. (e) Lib. VIII. c. 1.

(f) 1 Tim. V. 17.

(β) ως εν θεατρῳ υπο μαρτύρι των πλη #si Ins exxλndias. Sozom. lib. VII. e. 16,

was assigned to one of the presbyters in every church. At Alexandria this change did not obtain, for it had been there the custom, and still was, when Sozomen wrote, for each presbyter to have his own charge, over all of whom one was the bishop;(a) and as each presbyter preached in his own place, so the bishop also alone in his, the arch-deacon reading the scriptures. (b)

Other diversities also existed; in some provinces there was a single bishop, in others, bishops were consecrated in the villages, εν κωμαις επίσκοποι ιερονουνται. (c) Also the custom in Rome of having only seven deacons, was not followed in all places.(d)

THEODORITUS, a native of Antioch, was at seven years of age received for the sake of education into a monastery, and afterwards instructed by Theodore of Mopsuesta, and Crysostom. From the episcopate of Cyrus, a remote city of Syria, which he had reluctantly accepted, he was translated to Antioch, afterwards deposed by a council, and finally by another restored to his former see, where he died A. D. 457. His principal works are his commentaries upon the pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Psalms, Canticles, &c. all the prophets but Isaiah, and all the epistles of Paul; an an ecclesiastical history in five books. He wrote also dialogues, sermons on Providence, letters, and on several other subjects. His piety is unquestionable, his talents