perpetual synod of prelates, permits this very decree to be signed by five ex-patriarchs of Constantinople. But when the Tome goes on to stipulate that this synod is to be supreme, and free from all secular interference, it is shown to array itself in direct opposition to the national law of July 23. 1833, which places it "under the sovereignty of the king;" and to the constant teachings of ecclesiastical history in reference to the practice of the church. Professor Pharmakides considers this point of so great importance, that he devotes over one hundred pages to the illustration of the immense influence which, from the days of the first Christian emperors, the civil government has exerted in the Church. Respecting the obligations imposed by the Tome upon the Synod of Greece, our author shews that they are unwarranted by the customs of the Church, and derogatory to the dignity of an independent body. For instance, the patriarch directs the Hellenic Synod to submit to his judgment all difficult cases in which counsel is required, but makes no mention of reciprocity on his own part. The holy anointing oil, which, according to the Tome, must be obtained from Constantinople, is proved to be destitute of a Biblical origin, though its use is now necessary in the Greek rite of baptism; but its composition has never by any canon been forbidden to the priesthood, much less to all except the patriarch. We consider worthy of special attention the remarks of Professor Pharmakides, on pages 570-577, in reference to the deplorable neglect of the preaching of the Word of God in the Oriental Church. This duty he conceives as belonging exclusively to bishops, one of whose great qualifications, according to St Paul, is aptness to teach; and to such presbyters and deacons as are authorized by them. And he states that, while the Church of Constantinople has made no efforts to remedy the almost total neglect of this essential obligation, steps have been taken in that direction by that of Greece.* The work of Professor Pharmakides was destined to prove *We cannot forbear transcribing a few sentences from the indignant description of the Oriental hierarchy given by Professor Pharmakides, in this connection. "But, unfortunately, the Word of God is bound among these pastors! The tongue of these holy pastors cleaves, dry and immovable, to the roof of their mouths! Why? Is it because the spiritual authority is in captivity to the civil, as some wise dignitary foolishly asserts? But the Word of God has never been bound by the secular power among the pastors either of Greece or of Turkey. The mouth of the teachers of the faith has, therefore, been stopped, and their tongue has cleaved, dry and immovable, to the roof of their mouths, not because the spiritual authority is in captivity to the civil, but because the teachers are wholly ignorant and unlearned. The so called bishops of the Eastern Church being of such extraction as this, for the most part, having generally no education, and having as their sole occupation the amassing of gold to minister to their luxury, how can they preach the Word of God according to their sacred obligations?"—Page 174. the final blow to the Synodical Tome against which it was directed. The fruit of so much artifice and priestly craft was quietly dropped, and a law completely at variance with its provisions was introduced, and passed by both Chambers of the Legislature, with scarcely a dissentient voice. The entire kingdom was now to be divided into twenty-four dioceses, to be filled by one metropolitan, ten archbishops, and thirteen bishops. The Holy Synod retained its former constitution, and new bishops were to be chosen and consecrated as soon as practicable, the king, in each instance, selecting one of the three candidates presented by the Synod.* By the rejection of the Tome, the ecclesiastical independence of the Hellenic kingdom has been established on a firm, and, humanly speaking, immovable foundation. The yoke of the patriarch had, indeed, been shaken off nearly thirty years before, and the independence of the church formally proclaimed by the law of 1833, and re-affirmed in the constitution of 1844. But the emission of the Tome was designed to renew its subjection to a foreign court and an alien primate. In proportion as the attempt was adroit and insidious, the rebuff was signal. Where so many in the community were at first disposed to favour its acceptance, in the end it numbered a very few supporters. The principal agent in the accomplishment of this result was, as we have seen, Theocletus Pharmakides. Having studied in his youth for several years in a Protestant University of Germany, under the influence of evangelical professors, he there imbibed more correct views than most of his countrymen possess, of the nature and government of the Christian Church. A profound study of ecclesiastical history has opened to him an exhaustless arsenal from which to draw weapons for demolishing the baseless fabric of superstition and priestly assumption. In their use he is free, and almost reckless. His opponents are treated with an unsparing severity that is justly deserved, but not always necessary. Not a flaw in their arguments remains unnoticed, and so complete and thorough is his demonstration, that the candid reader rises from a careful perusal of his work fully persuaded of the impregnability of his more important positions; a persuasion which none of the numerous rejoinders by G. A. Mavrocordatos and others can shake. At the same time, it should not be forgotten that Pharmakides is a reformer only in respect to some externals. While, from his education, we cannot doubt his personal conviction of the correctness of that system of truth which, in its essential features, is common to the whole Protestant Church, on docΕφ τοῦ Λαοῦ, pp. 999, 1002. * trinal points he maintains an entire and significant silence. We are not aware that a single corruption of the Christian faith is unmasked, and when we watch the masterly ability with which the growth of a lordly hierarchy from primitive equality is exhibited, we regret that the still more important doctrinal defections and loss of spiritual life are left untouched. The place of a Luther in the Christian Church can be filled only by one who, like him, has been led by the Divine Spirit from dependence on forms and works of righteousness, to a clear and vital apprehension of the doctrine of justification by faith. This, not learning or native talent, is the test of the reformer, as it has been said to be that of the church. May men trained in the school of Luther soon arise, to commence in Greece, by the blessing of God, a work similar to the great Reformation of the sixteenth century in Western Europe! ART. V.-Final Destruction of the Earth by Fire. THE final destruction of our world by fire is a doctrine of revelation. Nothing can be more clear or definite, nothing more unequivocal, than the language used by St Peter touching this subject:" But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" (2 Peter iii. 7-12.) Although no clear statement is made of this doctrine in the Old Testament Scriptures, yet the Jews held it among their traditions. According to Josephus, it was revealed to Adam, who predicted that the world would be twice destroyed, once by water, and ultimately by the force of fire. Antiquities, book i. chap. ii. sec. 3. That such a revelation was made by Jehovah to some of the antediluvians, is probable from the tradition which prevailed quite generally among the ancient nations, among all the history of whose opinions have come down to us. It was believed and taught by the Greek philosophers, especially the Stoics and Epicureans. That it pervaded the Eastern philo sophy may be inferred from the distorted traces of it which may still be found in the various forms of religion that have sprung up in the same lands, inheriting the opinions of antiquity. Ovid, a distinguished Latin poet, who flourished about a quarter of a century before the Christian era, expressed, in his immortal verse, the tradition of the Roman Empire relating to this subject, which is thus translated by Dryden : "Remembering in the fates a time when fire The scene of the above is laid far back in the past. Jupiter is about to destroy, with his lightnings, the existing race of men, on account of their great wickedness; but calling to mind this ancient prediction, he lays aside his wrathful thunderbolts, and determines to destory them by a flood. Thus we see that among the heathen, both ancient and modern, in lands widely separated from each other, among nations not only ignorant of the Scriptures, but without intercouse with each other since the confusion of tongues, the opinion has prevailed in common with Christians, that the world is to be destroyed by fire. Admit that it was revealed from heaven to some of the patriarchs when "the whole earth was of one language and of one speech," and the prevalence of this belief is easily and sufficiently accounted for. Deny it, and all is inexplicable mystery. It may be gratifying to the Christian to recognise the existence of this tradition among pagan nations, and to trace it through devious windings back to the source whence it came -the source of all true revelation; but he has a more sure word of prophecy on which to found his belief of the final dissolution of all things. To him the declaration of an inspired apostle is "the word of God." He is convinced by this most substantial of all arguments: "God hath said so, therefore it is true." To an intelligent faith, this is moral demonstration, and secures an unwavering assent. Yet there are those who reject, wholly or in part, the doctrine referred to, of the final and complete dissolution of our world. Such a superficial scepticism may be founded, partly upon a corrupt desire of the heart that it may not be so, and partly upon a false conception of the intellect that it is either impossible, or contrary to the nature of things. Such a scepticism exists, and is lurking around the outskirts of the Christian Church, and to some extent, we fear, within its pale. It affects, at least in some localities, a class of well-meaning young men, who would shudder at the idea of becoming, or of being called, infidels. It is for this class more especially that we submit this paper. Representatives of this class of persons existed even in the days of the apostles. Their descendants, the scoffers, will, doubtless, to the end of time, continue to come in the same spirit. In the preaching of that day, as now, the destruction of the world was associated with the second advent of Christ. Some unwisely fixed the time of his coming as near at hand, and when the appointed season had passed, the ancient sceptics tauntingly replied: "Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." યુન The uniform stability of nature was to them a sufficient assurance that the present order of things would continue forever, that the solid foundations of earth could not be shaken, that its mighty masses of rock and sea could never be overcome by fire. For such a conclusion as this, there is, doubtless, some outward seeming. So stable and uniform is nature in all her movements and operations, that the skilful mathematician can tell the exact moment of an eclipse of the sun or moon; of the transit or occultation of a given star, which occurred six thousand years ago; and if the same state of things should continue so long, he can exactly calculate every similar event for ten thousand years to come. Observing this uniform regularity and precision in the operation of nature, the young novitiate in science and philosophy is strangely prone to lose sight of God, and forget the power that first made and still moves the universe. Amazed and bewildered by what he contemplates, he mistakes effects for cause, and the uniform law of movement for the constantly moving force. How true the remark of Bacon, that prince of philosophers: "A little philosophy inclineth men's minds to atheism;" and no less true when he added: "But depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion." We are of those who believe that science, truly so called, when rightly understood, nowhere presents any real obstacle to the fulfilment of any prophecy in the Scriptures, or contradicts any truth therein revealed. We believe that the testimony which nature and science are now giving, independent of the Scriptures, amounts to strong presumptive evidence that the world is approaching its final conflagration. To some points in this testimony we wish briefly to refer. 1. If this globe should be finally destroyed by fire, it is nothing more than we have reason to believe has already happened to other worlds which were once in sight of ours. It is said that, "in the year 1572, Tycho Brahe, on passing from his chemical laboratory to his observatory through the |