Reakirt, Carter Hickling, Thomas Marsh, James Wray, Alexander Nesbit, George Fithian.

FORM OF COVENANT,

USED AT THE ADMISSION OF MEMBERS TO THE COMMUNION OF THE CHURCH.

Do you believe in one only living and true God, infinitely excellent and glorious; and that there is a Trinity of persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in this divine essence? Do you believe in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice? Do you believe that you are sinners, and as such deserve the wrath of God forever? Do you believe in Jesus Christ as the Saviour of sinners, the only mediator between God and man? Do you believe in the necessity of the renewing and sanctifying operations of the Holy Spirit; and that you must be holy, in order to be happy? Do you believe in the resurrection of the dead, and in a general judgment? Do you believe these things? [Here the candidates bow assent.]

And now-do you take this God-the Father, to be your Father-the Son, to be your Saviour-and the Holy Ghost, to be your Sanctifier; and do you receive these Scriptures as the rule of your faith and practice? Do you, as far as you know your own heart, unfeignedly repent of all your sins; and look and trust for salvation to the righteousness of Christ, received by faith in him? Do you engage to walk with God in the ways of new obedience? Do you promise subjection in the Lord, to the constituted authority of this Church, and to walk in brotherly love. with its members? And do you engage to be diligent in the use of the means of grace, such as reading the Scriptures, prayer, self-examination, and attendence on the public worship and ordinances of God's house? And thus, through the grace of God strengthening you, you engage to act until death? [Here again the candidates bow assent.]

Then the Minister says-in consequence of the profession which you have now made, and the engagement into which you have now entered, I do in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, receive you to the communion of this Church, and give you a right to all its privileges.

[This is followed by a suitable exhortation, to the new members and the congregation.]

FORM USED AT THE BAPTISM OF CHILDREN.

Baptism was instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ, the great Head of the Church, to be a seal of the covenant of grace, and the ordinance of admission to a visible standing in the Church. The water in this ordinance implies guilt and pollution; and represents to us justification by the blood of Christ, and regeneration and sanctification by his Spirit. But you are not to conclude that this, or any outward ordinance whatever, will be sufficient for the salvation of the soul; it is the blood of Christ alone that cleanseth from all sin, and to this you are exhorted ever to look for your own salvation, and that of your children. If it should please God to spare your lives, and the life of your child, until it comes to years capable of receiving instruction, it will be your duty to teach it, or cause it to be taught to read God's holy word; to instruct it in the

great principles of the Christian religion, of which there is an excellent summary in the Confession of Faith and Catechisms of our Church, which are recommended to you for your own perusal, and to be diligently taught your child to pray for it and with it; to set an example of piety and godliness before it; and by all the means of God's appointment to bring it up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. These duties, or whatever you are convinced, or shall be convinced from the word of God, to be binding on you as Christian parents, you do promise and covenant, in the presence of God and His Church, that as God shall give you strength will endeavour to perform and do? [Here the parents bow assent.]

Review and Criticism.

PROPHECY VIEWED IN REFERENCE TO ITS DISTINCTIVE NATURE, ITS SPECIAL FUNCTION, AND PROPER INTERPRETATION. BY PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D.D., Professor of Theology in the Free Church College, Aberdeen, Edinburgh. T. & T. Clark. [Through Smith & English, 36 North Sixth Street, Philadelphia.]

Luther used to say of the old ritual, "Like Moses, it is dead and buried, and let no man know where its place is." In these latter days, there have been the most extensive diggings all around the prophecies, with a view to find where the place of the old ritual is. Men of learning and of piety have been led away from the spirituality of the Old and New Testaments, and have assigned honours to the dispensation of types and shadows which God never intended to bestow. In other words, not a few evangelical Christians concur with the Jews in confidently anticipating not only a restoration of the Jewish people to the land of Palestine, but also a re-institution of the rights and services of the law, to be performed in a Christian spirit, and frequented by Christian worshippers from every region of the earth. The principle on which these extravagant and extraordinary religious views is attempted to be established, is at variance. with the fundamental principles of the divine administration in general, and especially at variance with the genius and spirit of Christianity. As the theory in question is derived from a false interpretation of the prophecies, a work, discussing the nature, function, and interpretation of prophecy, is the best mode to counteract the tendency of the theological novelties pressed upon the attention of the theological world with so much misplaced industry and ill-judged zeal.

Dr. Fairbairn's work is thoroughly didactic, and based upon Scripture. It is divided into two parts. The first part is an "Investigation of Principles," and discusses, 1. The proper calling of a prophet, and the essential nature of a prophecy. 2. The place of prophecy in history, and the organic connection of the one with the other. 3. The proper sphere of prophecy-the Church. 4. The prophetic style and diction, with its peculiarities; first, poetical elevation; secondly, figurative representation; and, thirdly, the exhibition of events as present or successive only in relation to each other, rather than as linked to definite historical epochs. 5. The interconnected and progressive character of prophecy.

The second part is the "Application of principles to past and prospective fulfilments of Prophecy," and discusses, 1. The apologetic value of

prophecy, or its place and use as an evidence for the facts and doctrines of Scripture, showed in the prophecies respecting the Jewish people, the Messiah, and the destruction of Jerusalem. 2. The prophetical future of the Jewish people. 3. The prophetical future of the Church and kingdom of Christ; first, in their relation to the kingdoms of this world; second, in their relation to the character, working and fate of the anti-christian apostasy; third, a supplementary section, containing an outline of the Apocalypse, from chapter v. to xx., with special reference to the three great series of seals, the trumpets and vials. 4. The prophetical future of the Church and kingdom of Christ in their relation to his second coming, and the closing issues of his mediatorial kingdom.

It will be thus seen that Dr. Fairbairn goes to the root of the matter, as he is very apt to do. Dr. Candlish, of Edinburgh, in proposing in the last General Assembly, to translate Dr. Fairbairn from the Aberdeen College to the new Theological College at Glasgow, said, "A more admirable contribution to theological literature, has not appeared for many years, than this work of Dr. Fairbairn on Prophecy. Its completeness, its clearness, its thorough discussion of the whole subject in a systematic way, from first to last, will render it, I think, the standard work on prophecy at this time." The two works on Typology and on Prophecy, are monuments of theological learning and piety. We make a short extract, which will be read with interest by inquiring minds.

Another, and quite essential principle of prophetical interpretation, as of every species of writing which is accordant with truth, is that the mode of understanding its declarations must involve nothing absolutely incredible, or contrary to the nature of things. By things of this description we do not mean what may be designated natural impossibilities; for the whole work of grace, like the birth of Isaac and of Christ, is of that sort; it is above nature, and in such a sense contrary to it, that if the laws and forces of nature alone were to operate, it might justly be pronounced impossible. To the heart of faith such things are not incredible, because it takes into account the supernatural grace of God, which does what nature is alike incompetent and unwilling to do, by bringing to its aid a truly divine energy. But there are limits even to the operations of grace, and of the power of God generally. There are things of a providential kind, which we may say God cannot do, as we say, in respect to his moral character, that he cannot lie. And no interpretation of the prophecies can be sound, which, when fairly and consistently applied, would involve the belief of such things being brought to pass.

"Now some things of this description, in our opinion, have already been specified under this general head, as flowing from that style of interpreting the prophecies, against which we contend. Such are the self-contradictory statements, which on this literal style are found in them (noticed at p. 94, sq.), since both parts cannot be literally verified; and such, also, those which presuppose the existence of states and communities, that have altogether ceased to exist. These are spoken of, not in the general sense of lands or countries, but of corporate societies and distinct races, standing in a known and definite relation to the covenant-people. In this respect the old condition of things referred to in the prophecies is gone; and gone irretrievably. But there are other things of the same nature mentioned of the covenant-people themselves. Thus the prophecy in Zech. 12, which is commonly pressed as one of the clearest proofs of the permanently separate condition and restoration of the Jews in the latter days, implies the existence of the old organization also as to families; the family of David is represented as mourning apart, and the families of Nathan, of Levi, and of Shimei. In other prophecies of a like nature, the priests and Levites are mentioned apart, even the children of Zadok, as contradistinguished from the other priestly families, and every tribe in its own order (Isa. 66: 21; Mal. 3:3; Ezek.

44: 15, 48). But all such internal distinctions have long since perished; the course of divine providence has been such as to sweep them entirely away. And from the very nature of the case, such distinctions, when once lost, can never be recalled; the revival of them would involve, not the resuscitation of an old, but the creation of a new state of things. So long as any prophecies were depending for their fulfilment on the separate existence of tribes and families in Israel, the distinction betwixt them was preserved; and so also were the genealogical records, which were needed to attest the fulfilment. These prophecies terminated in the Son of Mary, the branch of the house of David, and the lion of the tribe of Judah; but with him, this, and all other things ceased-a new era, inde pendent of such outward and formal differences began. Hence, we find the apostle discharging all from giving heed to eudless genealogies, as no longer of any avail in the Church of God; and the providence of God shortly after sealed the word by scattering their genealogies to the winds, and fusing together in one undistinguishable, inextricable mass, the surviving remnants of the Jewish family. Now, prophecy is not to be verified by halves; it is either wholly true, in the sense in which it ought to be understood, or it is a failure. And since God's providence has rendered the fulfilment of the parts referred to manifestly impossible on the literal principle of interpretation, it affords conclusive evidence, that on this principle such prophecies are misread. In what it calls men to believe, it does violence to their reason; and it commits the word of God to expectations, which never can be properly realized.

"The ground on which these remarks are made, holds also in regard to their predictions; for example, to that of Zech. 14: 16, which speaks of all nations going up to worship every year at Jerusalem, and to keep the feast of tabernacles; to that of Isa. 66: 23, which affirms the same respecting the new moons and even the Sabbaths; to that of Ezekiel, chap. 40-48, which sketches a temple and city and a new distribution of the land, which by no conceivable adjustments can be brought within the bounds of the possible. It was never intended to be so; its aim was to unfold by means of the old external symbols and relations, freshly arranged and expanded, certain great truths and elevating prospects (as we have shown in our Commentary on that part of Ezekiel); and similar ends were aimed at in all the other prophecies of a like description. By being so viewed, it is true, they are rendered less specific in their meaning, and we can derive little information from them regarding the precise arrangements and forms of things in the latter periods of the Christian dispensation. But then, it never was the design of prophecy to give us such information; this is the province of history, not of prophecy. It is the part of the latter to inculcate great principles, to lay open the springs of God's moral government, to awaken earnest longings and expectations regarding the good in prospect for the people of God, and indicate the greater lines and more marked characteristics of those spiritual movements, on which the destinies of the church and the world are to turn. These are its leading objects; but for subordinate details of providential arrangements, we have no warrant to look to it, unless it be in exceptional cases, such as times of peculiar darkness or great emergency."

We shall probably make additional extracts from the chapter which discusses the "prophetical future of the Jewish people."

THE ROMAN EXILE. BY GUGLIELMO GAJANI, Professor of Civil and Canon Law, and Representative of the People in the Roman Constituent Assembly in 1849. Boston: published by John P. Jewett & Co., and for sale by Lindsay & Blakiston, Philadelphia, pp. 450.

This is the personal history of an Italian exile, written by himself. It contains many incidents of thrilling interest, particularly concerning the election of Pope Pius IX, and the events which succeeded, up to the time of the dispersion of the Constituent Assembly by the French army. Many in our country supposed this Pope to be favourable to reform, the

friend of liberty, &c., and public meetings were called in several of our large cities, speeches delivered, and resolutions adopted to encourage him in his laudable efforts to give free civil institutions to the people of Italy. But according to the statements in this volume, no such design was ever entertained by him. He appeared to yield for a while to the public sentiment which demanded a reform; and the revolutionary patriots made use of his name as a watchword among their fellow-citizens, to arouse and extend the spirit of liberty. But this was not done by his permission or approval. He was at heart a despot, and would have displayed, as he has done since, his decided opposition to the movements of the people if he had possessed the power to control them. Despotism is an essential element of Papal rule. The former can never be remedied without destroying or enervating the latter. The circumstances of this struggle for liberty and its failure through the intervention of a foreign army cannot fail to excite in American hearts mingled emotions of sympathy and indignation, sympathy for those patriots now in exile, and indignation that the Pope should be sustained in the exercise of political power against the will of the Italian people, by the presence of French bayonets. Let these facts be read and pondered.

THE CAMEL; his Organization, Habits, and Uses, considered with reference to his introduction into the United States. By GEORGE P. MARSH. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1856.

The learned author of this pleasant and useful volume has raised the fame of camels, and done them honour in return for their great service. It seems that the meaning of the word "camel" is "Ship of the Desert," although some affirm that it simply means vehicle. Mr. Marsh's book contains a large amount of information about the breeds, the general anatomy, the training, the burden, the speed, the endurance, the military uses, &c., of the camel. The hump, which is one of the chief peculiarities of the camel, is thus described:

"The hump is simply a fleshy or rather fatty protuberance upon the back, like that of the bison, unsupported by any special bony process, and it is least developed in the highest bred animals, so that the mahari of the Sahara is popularly described as being without that appendage. The fulness of the protuberance, however, depends much upon the condition of the animal. The state of the hump is a test constantly referred to in the sale or hire of the camel, and the jockeys resort to various contrivances to give it an unnatural plumpness and solidity. When the camel has been, for a length of time, full fed, and subjected to moderate labour only, the hump assumes a greater plumpness of form and hardness of texture; but if ill kept or overworked, the fat of the hump is absorbed, the protuberance becomes flaccid, and it is sometimes even reduced to little more than its skin. It undoubtedly serves as a repository of nutriment, and the absorption of its substance into the general system appears to be one of the special arrangements by which the camel is so admirably fitted for the life of privation to which he is destined.

"According to Burckhardt, when the animal is in the best possible case, in which condition he is only found among the richer nomade Arabs, and even there but rarely, the hump is of a pyramidal shape, covers nearly the whole back, and its length is not less than one-fourth of that of the entire body. Of all the mem. bers it is last exhausted and last fattened. In long journeys it slowly wastes away, and a repose of three or four months is required to restore it to its full

The camel-dealers perforate the skin, and blow up the hump of the living animal, as dishonest butchers do their meat, to make it look full. Tavernier I, 1832. † Bedouins, 264.