fully-the unlearned, skipping over the sprinkling of Hebrew, Greek and Latin, which they would find in the first part; but clergymen and educated laymen, ruling elders especially, missing nothing. Presbyterians, almost universally, do urgently need to know a great deal which this book would teach them. It would teach them, among other things, what little foundation there is in the scriptures of truth, for either Popery or Prelacy; and what is still more important, it would teach them their personal duties their duties we mean as Presbyterians-of which too many are sadly ignorant. Our church has long wanted such a manual as that which is here furnished. We have recently been gratified, indeed, by reading in the Presbyterian," a number of short and excellent papers on the qualifications and duties of ruling elders; and we hope those papers will do much good. But we still wanted what we have here-the whole subject brought out, placed on the firm ground of inspired warrant, and all that relates to the election, the investiture, and the offices of ruling elders and deacons, fairly stated, and in such detail as to be practically useful. With this book in his hand, no Presbyterian minister, ruling elder, or deacon, need be at a loss for any thing, as a matter of principle or order, which his official station calls him to know or to do, in relation to the eldership, or deaconship (we dislike the word diaconate) of our church.

After all,-sorry we are to say it -there are too many who will think and say, that this small and cheap book, is too large and too dear. The wretched parsimony which prevails in our country, in regard to every thing in the shape of a book, is hardly credible to those who have not had a taste of authorship; and the popular indisposition to read any thing-novels excepted-of greater length than a

tract or a newspaper, is not less to be deplored. But we must take things as we find them; and therefore we respectfully suggest to the author of this essay, the propriety of publishing the last seven chapters of his work by themselves. These chapters are entirely practical; and taken separately, we should hope, that at least every elder and deacon of our church would have reading patience enough to go through them. They would amount to but little more than a third part of the present volume; and hence, too, the price of the extract would be so small, that any one who had a disposition to read on the subject, would be likely to give it. It is not without sensible reluctance that we throw out this suggestion; for we repeat, it is our wish that this whole book, without any mutilation, could find its way into every Presbyterian family of the United States. But as we know this is hopeless, and as it is peculiarly important that the practical part should be widely diffused, we venture to recommend the measure we have mentioned-hoping that there will always be found a considerable number, both clergy and laity, who will prefer to take the work without any diminution. We shall only add, that we think the minute of the last General Assembly, relative to the organization of new churches, might advantageously be appended to the reduced manual which we have recommended, if professor Miller should think proper to form

one.

LUTHER'S COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. (Concluded from p. 258.)

In commenting on the 17th verse of the fifth chapter of this epistle"For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot

do the things that ye would"--Luther admirably shows his acquaintance with the conflicts of the spiritual life; and that the genuine evangelical doctrines, so far from leading to licentiousness, do powerfully promote the sanctification of the believer. We can quote but a part of what he says on this remarkable text.—

"The faithful therefore receive great consolation by this doctrine of Paul, in that they know themselves to have part of the flesh, and part of the Spirit, but yet so notwithstanding that the Spirit ruleth, and the flesh is subdued and kept under awe, that righteousness reigneth, and sin serveth. He that knoweth not this doctrine, and thinketh that the faithful ought to be without all fault, and yet seeth the contrary in himself, must needs at length be swallowed up by the spirit of heaviness, and fall into desperation. But whoso knoweth this doctrine well and useth it rightly, to him the things that are evil, turn unto good; Rom. viii. 28. For when the flesh provok.th him to sin, by occasion thereof he is stirred up and enforced to seek forgiveness of sins by Christ, and to embrace the righteousness of faith, which else he would not so greatly esteem, nor seek for the same with so great desire. Therefore it profiteth us very much to feel sometimes the wickedness of our nature and corruption of our flesh, that yet by this means we may be waked and stirred up to faith, and to call upon Christ. And by this occasion a Christian becometh a mighty workman and a wonderful creator, who of heaviness can make joy, of terror comfort, of sin righteousness, and of death life, when he by this means repressing and bridling the flesh, maketh it subject to the Spirit.

"Wherefore let not them who feel the lust of the flesh, despair of their salvation. Let them feel it with all the force thereof, so that they consent not to it. Let the passions of lust, wrath and such other vices shake them, so that they do not overthrow them. Let sin assault them, so that they do not accomplish it. Yea, the more godly a man is, the more doth he feel that battle. And hereof come those lamentable complaints of the faithful in the Psalms and in the whole Scripture. Of this battle the hermits, the monks, and the schoolmen, and all that seek righteousness and salvation by works, know nothing at all.

"But here may some men say; that it is a dangerous matter to teach that a man

is not condemned, if by and by he overcome not the motions and passions of the is taught among the common people, it flesh he feeleth. For when this doctrine maketh them careless, negligent and slothful. This is it which I said a little before, that if we touch faith, then carnal men neglect and reject works; if works be required, then is faith and conscience lost. Here no man can be com pelled, neither can there be any certain rule prescribed. But let every man diligently try himself to what passion of the flesh he is most subject, and when he findeth that, let him not be careless, nor flatter himself; but let him watch and wrestle in Spirit against it, that if he can. not altogether bridle it, yet, at least he do not fulfil the lust thereof.

"This battle of the flesh against the Spirit, all the children of God have had and felt: and the self-same do we also feel and prove. He that searcheth his own conscience, if he be not an hypocrite, shall well perceive that to be true in himself which Paul here saith, that the flesh lusteth against the Spirit. All the faithful therefore do feel and confess that their flesh resisteth the Spirit, and that these two are so contrary the one to the other in themselves, that do what they can, they are not able to perform that which they would do. Therefore the flesh hindereth us that we cannot keep the commandments of God, that we can. not love our neighbours as ourselves, much less can we love God with all our heart: therefore it is impossible for us to become righteous by the works of the law. Indeed there is a good-will in us, and so must there be (for it is the Spirit itself which resisteth the flesh) which would gladly do good, fulfil the law, love God and his neighbour, and such like, but the flesh obeyeth not this good-will, but resisteth it; and yet God imputeth not unto us this sin; for he is merciful to those that believe, for Christ's sake.

"But it followeth not therefore that thou shouldst make a light matter of sin, because God doth not impute it. True it is that he doth not impute it: but to whom, and for what cause? To such as repent and lay hold by faith upon Christ the mercy-seat, for whose sake, as all their sins are forgiven them; even so the remnants of sin which are in them, are not imputed unto them. They make not their sin less than it is, but amplify it and set it out as it is indeed; for they know that it cannot be put away by satisfaction, works or righteousness, but only by the death of Christ. And yet, notwithstanding the greatness and enormity of their sin doth not cause them to despair, but they assure themselves, that

commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge

of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ."

A thermometer in good preservation was lately exhibited at the French Institute, which, it is affirmed, was the celebrated instrument of Galileo. It is stated to have been secreted from the Inquisition.

"The distance to which icebergs float from the polar regions on the opposite sides of the Line, is very different. Their extreme limit in the northern hemisphere appears to be the Azores; north latitude 42 deg. But in the other hemisphere they have been seen, within the last two years, off the cape of Good Hope, between latitude 36 deg. and 39 deg. One of these was two miles in circumference, and 150 feet high. Others rose from 250 to 300 feet above the level of the sea: and for every solid foot seen above, there must be at least eight feet below water.-Lyell's Geology.

"Severity of climate is not always de

pendent on latitude. In the island of Georgia, which is in the 53d deg. south latitude, or the same parallel as the central counties of England, the perpetual snow descends to the level of the ocean. When we consider this fact, and then recollect that the highest mountains in Scotland do not attain the limit of perpetual snow on this side of the equator, we learn that latitude is only one of many powerful causes which determine the climate of particular regions of the globe. The number and dimensions of icebergs in Baffin's Bay is prodigious. Captain Ross saw several of them together aground in water 1500 feet deep! Many of them are driven down into Hudson's Bay, and, accumulating there, diffuse excessive cold over the neighbouring continent; so that Captain Franklin reports, that at the mouth of Hayes river, which lies in the same latitude as the north of Prussia, or the south of Scotland, ice is found every where in digging wells at the depth of four feet.-Ibid.

"Bones of the mammoth have been recently found at North Cliff, in the county of York, in a lacustrine formation, in which all the land and fresh-water shells have been identified with species now existing in that country. Bones of the bison, an animal now inhabiting a cold or temperate climate, have also been found in the same place. That these quadrupeds, and the indigenous species of

testacea associated with them, were all contemporary inhabitants of Yorkshire (a fact of the greatest importance in geology), has been established by unequivocal proofs by the Rev. W. V. Vernon, who caused a pit to be sunk to the depth of more than 200 feet, through undisturbed strata, in which the remains of the mammoth were found imbedded, together with the shells, in a deposit which had evidently resulted from tranquil waters. These facts, as Mr. Vernon observes, indicate that there has been little alteration in the

temperature of these latitudes since the

mammoth lived there."-Ibid.

Mr. Lyell, in his Geology, mentions a remarkable discovery lately made on Etna, of a large mass of ice, preserved for many years, perhaps for centuries, from melting, by a current of red-hot lava having flowed over it. The extraordinary heat of 1828, having caused the supplies of ice preserved for the use of Catania, Sicily, and Malta, to fail, considerable distress was felt for the want of a commodity regarded in these countries as one of the necessaries of life. The magistrates of Catania applied to Signor Gemmellaro, in the hope that his local knowledge of Etna might enable him to point out some crevice or natural grotto where drift snow was still preserved. Nor were they disappointed; for he had long suspected that a small mass of perennial ice at the foot of the highest cone was part of a larger and continuous glacier covered by a lava-current. Having procured a body of workmen, he quarried into this ice, and proved the super-position of the lava for several hundred yards, so as completely to satisfy himself that nothing but the subsequent flowing of the lava over the ice could account for the position of the glacier. Mr. Lyell, who visited the spot, supposes that, at the commencement of the eruption, a deep mass of drift snow had been covered by volcanic sand showered down upon it before the descent of the lava. A dense stratum of this fine dust mixed with scoriæ is an excellent non-conductor of heat, and might, he thinks, have preserved the snow from complete fusion when the burning flood poured over it. The shepherds in the higher regions of Etna are accustomed to keep an annual store of snow, by simply strewing over it a layer of volcanick sand a few inches thick, which effectually prevents the sun from penetrating. When