shadow of death;" for what else but its projected and forewarning shadows are frailty, affliction, and morbid gloom? Lives so spent as, in these urgent and unmerciful times, "God's" true messengers must " endure hardness;" must be "in journeyings often;" must labour" in the word and doctrine"-both in studying and teaching the truth; and must be "instant in season and out of season;" with much absti-hearted "Men" must spend them, (unless under nence, and slight and rare recreation. When not actually straining all their strength to lift high the healing Cross, they must be seen bearing it about on their shoulders, in readiness for the next opportunity,-yea, and, if they would win souls, must be heard singing under their blest burden. 6 special advantages of temperament or location), may be expected to wear apace. They are "in deaths oft;" graves gape at every step of their way; and what wonder, if they stumble into one of them-as in the instance of the Missionary, or the Methodist, Ministry-long ere they have numbered their "threescore years and ten"? Fellow-messengers! we track our course across "the mountains" by the foot burial-mounds, or the bleached bones, of others; and, if We follow, it should be in the solemn and devoted spirit of Thomas, "Let us go, that we may die with" them,-or of Paul, “I am ready to be offered, and the time of my de parture is at hand"! You would remember, too, that your Ministers are, for the most part, poor men, and experience the usual inconveniences of compara-prints of some of our predecessors, but by the tive privation. It has in their case, however, some peculiarities, and some aggravations. It is the tax of their entire self-devotion to the service of God and man; a " calling," for such it is, which forbids them, if the Church be but able to afford them a simple subsistence, to ' entangle themselves with the affairs of this life,' In estimating the external trials of Christiar or grow rich by its honourable enterprises. Ministers, you will be reminded, beloved bre Again, the constant claims of Christ's house-thren, by the supposed peculiar allusion of the hold on their time and care will seldom allow them either to economize or to enjoy what they possess, to superintend domestic education, to luxuriate in domestic love, or to husband their scanty savings for the future necessities of the widow and the fatherless. And, once more, the casualties of their station create unusual wants, and require a larger private outlay; while the spirit of their station prompts them to" spend," as well as "be spent, for" the poor of their flocks, and the cause of GoD, often beyond their ability: not to say, that the delicacy of their relation to certain parties, both in and out of trade (who boast themselves Christians, and not "law"-ridden Israelites, in whom is no guile though their own system is by no means without its beggarly elements)—lays open many a generous and gentle-minded pastor to resist less and ruinous imposition. To hard mental or bodily labour, and to straitened finances, your candour would not omit to add frequent ill-health; with its incidents of pain, languor, and nervous irritability, or depression. Adverse as these sensations are to the comfort and even energy of an unremitting, and in many cases unpensioned, service, they often intrude during its active discharge, are often occasioned or aggravated by it, and must often be uncomplainingly endured in deference to its imperious requirements. Nor could your thoughts visit the sick-room of one, who has once and again visited yours in more than thought, without some sense of "the Prophet, of their diversified defects, infirmities III. "But ye have not so learned Christ." You acknowledge that you owe to His servants A TENDER AND RESPECTFUL CONSIDERATION THE MISSION, &c., OF THE EVANGELICAL MINISTRY. | FOR THEIR INFIRMITIES, IN DEFERENCE TO THEIR CALLING AND CHARACTER. "How beautiful are the feet of him, that bringeth good tidings!" Trusting that such is your sentiment, we presume to ask from you a threefold manifestation of it. 99 yet, "let the elders be counted worthy of double honour." Lives there the man, who can despise spent old age, or overtaking poverty, or a sickly frame, or a sorrowful spirit, or even waning pulpit attractions, when associated with a still healthful, experienced, and spiritual ministry? Execrable inhumanity and ingratitude! "Beloved, we are persuaded better things of you." Deal by such men, speak of them, feel towards them, elders or not, as Scottish Christians, and those most worthy of them in sister-churches, are reputed to have ever done-and as their services and sacrifices deserve. For you, or for your brethren up and down the world, they resign much, risk more, travel far, toil hard, are in some instances strangers at their own fire-sides, in no few instances go in mean clothes, and live on coarse food; and, after exhausting their strength and spirits in the zeal of the Lord's house-either sink early into the sepulchre, leaving their wives widows, or their widow-mothers childless-or else live to bury almost all their kindred and companions, and to see the once verdant village-church-yard covered all over with the hoof-prints of the pale horse of Death, until, amidst the multitude of graves, their own is with difficulty found, and scarcely affords depth of earth sufficient for their shrunk and lone remains. And this, we blush to add, often without any competent provision, while they survive, for the comfort of declining years, and always with more or less of the forlorn feeling, not only of 'poor old men,' but of laid-aside, unserviceable, “ supernumerary," Ministers! Said I, despise not such men? I say rather, reverence them; honour their humiliation; think the better of them for every token and trace of self-denial. Venerate that brow, bearing, in almost legible lines, the faithful transcript of the Church's chequered and troublous history—that voice, broken with publishing to you the "good news from a far country"-that hand, tremulous and faltering, as if with having been "all the day long stretched forth" to gather men to GoD-that step, tottering, even now, under other and heavier burdens than its own! Beautiful be the feet of them that preach,' while yet the clods at the grave's edge are crumbling and giving way under them, the long-loved 'Gospel of peace!' 1. In the first place, you will habitually and carefully guard against an opposite treatment, or opinion, of faithful Ministers, because of their sometimes humiliating circumstances, or exterior. Ashamed of them because of these-you could not be ! Why, they owe them, probably, to their love for you, and their zeal to bring you good tidings! Instead of grasping at the world, or spending life in the cultivation and indulgence of purely literary tastes, or even burying their ministry and their souls alive under heaps of scholastic lore, they prefer, and they profess, to study the Bible, and the heart, to preach repentance to sinners, and to watch over the Churches of Jesus Christ. Ashamed of them because of these-impossible! As soon could you spurn from your door the famished and supplicating soldier, because disfigured with the scars and fractures incurred in defending you and your country from aggression, plunder, and bloodshed. As soon could you refuse to take the hand of an honest artisan, because tanned and hardened with the drudgery of preparing for your accommodation the comforts and luxuries of life. As soon could you deride the physical infirmities, the deranged intellects, and the premature decay, of the men, whose midnight-labours in the study, or the senate-house, have enriched your literature, or matured your political Constitution. Almost might you reproach an Apostle with his "thorn in the flesh," or a Confessor with his prison-attire. Nay, might you not be ashamed of HIM, who was cradled in a manger, had not' in lonely manhood where to lay His head,' was arraigned and condemned as a felon, and was "crucified between two thieves"? But no-"Blessed is he whosoever is not offended in Me"! For "surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." "How beautiful were the feet of Him," who, not only brought the Gospel of our salvation from the very lips of Eternal Mercy, but "by Himself purged our sins," and obtained for as a plenteous redemption! How sacred His passion! How glorious His shame! How precious the blood of His Cross! - Now, remember the words of the Lord Jesus, addressed to His chosen Ministers,-" He that despiseth you, despiseth Me." But despise' not the least of these.' 'Let no man despise their youth,' if comparatively young they be; 2. Secondly, bear their burdens, who bear the Lord's, and yours. Do this by continual prayer on their behalf; by 'standing up for them against the workers of iniquity,' and working with them in every righteous and useful undertaking; and by a systematic contribution, ac cording to your ability, but for conscience' sake for the love of the Master-in the name of the prophets'-not only towards the support of those who, with your own approval, still "labour among you," but towards the alleviation of a hallowed old age, when they are worn out, and so domestic pressures and anxieties, when they 'gather up their feet' to die. On whatever branch of Christ's One Church you are honoured to bear fruit, be forward to sustain those resources, whether produced by a generous literature, or by direct appeal, which are at once the temporal and spiritual joy of "the husbandman." In more ways than one, they will "abound to your account." No Church-scheme of this age is more signally just to man, or more certain of acceptance with GoD, than that now nearly consummated by the Free Church of Scotland, and consummated chiefly through the self-devotion of a beloved Brother, whose name her late fiery trial has burnt in upon the heart of her every minister, member, and friend, by which she proposes, having first built up her broken altars throughout the land, to rekindle a hearth-fire in the neighbourhood of each, for those who serve and have suffered for them. May God perfect the success of that scheme, and HIM SELF have all the glory! 3. Above all, in the last place, compensate them for their personal sacrifices by receiving their official message. Give them "the joy," for which, in lowly and distant imitation of their Adored Master, they endure the cross,' and despise the shame.' O!'hear them gladly. Some commentators understand the text to represent the people, to whom the messengers are sent, as standing on the highest mountains of their country, and looking out for their arrival. Hence the exclamation of the Prophet: "How beautiful," or gladdening, to those thus elevated and expectant, "are the feet" the first distant appearance, "of him that bringeth good tidings! Thy watchmen"they who have been on the watch for him"shall lift up the voice, with the voice together shall they sing!" Christian hearers, realize this refreshing imagery. Look out for the "Preacher;” value and desire his instructions; anticipate every Sabbath and every sermon with delight; oft as Christ's "peace" is "published" and assured to you, let your spirits sing for joy; and as 'we preach, so do you believe.' Alas! many there be, who, while they acknowledge, how beautiful are the feet of the messenger, and even the words of the message, will not believe' and 'obey' the one or the other. Romans 10 ch., 15, 16 v.; Ezekiel 33 ch., 30, 31, 32 v.) They have just the same sort of feeling under the preaching of the Gospel, by a man of persuasive address, as under the enchantment of a well-executed sacred song, or recitative, on the same subject. Now, in the name of GOD, who will judge you, and of Christ, who shed out the blood of His broken heart for your reconciliation, have done with trifling about serious things! It is no musical or poetic passion, that we ask from you; it is no merely personal complacency towards your Ministers, that we yearn to elicit; but "the obedience of faith" towards their Gospel, and towards their GOD. Believe our report'-embrace our Saviour' have Him to rule over you'-esteem His rule a good thing," yea, a "great salvation"-break league with all His enemies-cast yourselves on His merits, and obtain His mercy-and "So shall you bless His pleasing sway, 66 And, sitting at His feet, His laws with all your hearts obey And so shall ye be our rejoicing, and we yours, in the day of the Lord Jesus.' To Him be glory and dominion for ever. Amen! ON THE NEW PLANET ASTRÆA, AND THE HARMONY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. WHEN the celebrated Kepler was a very young man, and began to speculate on the harmony of the solar system, he attempted to discover if there was any regular proportion observed in the size of the orbits of the planets. Having failed in this attempt, and finding that there was an extraordinary distance between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, he supposed that a new planet existed between these two;* but in discovering any regular progression in the even with this assumption, he did not succeed distances of the planets. Nearly a century ago, the ingenious M. Lambert of Mulhausen, suggested the probability of a planet existing between Mars and Jupiter; and in the year 1772, Professor Bode of Berlin, published his celebrated Law of the Planetary Distances, which depended on the existence of such an undiscovered planet. This curious law will be understood, if we place in a row the following numbers, each of which is double of the one which precedes it :— 0 3 6 12 24 48 96 192 If we now add four to each of these, we shall have the following series of numbers, which represent, with tolerable accuracy, the relative distances of the planets from the Sun. ON THE PLANET ASTRÆA, &c. Now, if there be any truth in this law, or any physical reason for its existence, there either must have been, or must still be, a planet between Mars and Jupiter, at the distance corresponding to the number 28; and if there are any other planets yet to be discovered beyond the orbit of Uranus, which is very probable, they will be placed at the following distances:Nos.... 192 384 768 1536 3072 &c. Distances 196 388 772 1540 3076 &c. Uranus 1 Supposed new planets So strong had become the conviction that a planet did exist between Mars and Jupiter, that Baron Von Zach had ventured to calculate its probable elements, and twenty-four astronomers formed themselves into a society in the autumn of the year 1800, for the express purpose of discovering this new planet. M. Schroeter of Lilienthal, well known by his accurate maps of the Surface of the Moon, was the president, and Baron Von Zach, astronomer to the Prince of Saxe Gotha, was the secretary to this association; and the members engaged to observe, with the greatest care, every star visible through their telescopes, within the limits of the zodiac. A year had scarcely elapsed before a new planet was discovered between Mars and Jupiter, occupying the very place which corresponded with the distance 28 in the preceding series of numbers, and, what is equally singular, the discovery was not made by a member of the association! This great discovery we owe to Joseph Piazzi, astronomer to the King of Naples at Palermo. When he was observing the stars on the 1st of January 1801, he noticed one in the field of his telescope which had a different aspect from all the rest, and, as it changed its place, and had a very dense atmosphere, Piazzi regarded it as a comet. He continued to observe it till the 2d of February, having on the 24th January sent an account of his discovery to Oriani, La Lande, Bode, and Von Zach, and informed them that he had observed it stationary, and retrograde in the short space of ten days. From this information these astronomers drew the conclusion that the new body was a planet; and all Europe was excited by the intelligence. M. Gauss of Brunswick computed the elements of its orbit, and the astronomers of England, France, and Germany strove to rediscover it. Piazzi himself had been obliged to discontinue his observations by a dangerous illness, and it was not till January 1802, that the planet was rediscovered by Dr Olbers of Bremen. From gratitude to his patron the King of Naples, Piazzi gave the name of Ceres Ferdinandea to the new planet. The king ordered a gold medal to be struck in honour of Piazzi; but the modest astronomer requested that the sum intended for this purpose should be expended on the purchase of an equatorial instrument for his observatory. *The exact mean distance of the new planet is 27.65. 101 Soon after the rediscovery of Ceres, on the 28th March 1802, Dr Olbers discovered a second new planet, to which he gave the name of Pallas. Its magnitude was nearly the same as that of Ceres, not exceeding 200 or 300 miles in diameter; but what was at first almost incredible, its distance from the Sun was nearly the same as that of Ceres, being 27.9, a number almost identical with 28, the place where a new planet had been expected. In the course of other two years, a third planet was added to the solar system by M. Harding, astronomer at the Observatory of Lilienthal, near Bremen; and, strange to tell, this planet also was situated at nearly the same distance from the Sun as its two predecessors, namely, at a distance corresponding with the number 26. Confounded with this superabundance of planets, in a region of the solar system where one only was expected and desired, astronomers hitherto devoted to observation, began to speculate respecting the cause of such extraordinary results. Although one planet only was required to fill the void, and give harmony to the solar system, yet the one actually discovered was so small, that it destroyed the harmony in the magnitude of the planets, though it established a harmony in their distances. The two additional bodies, equally small with the first, became a new source of perplexity, and stamped, as it were, a character of disorder upon the system of the world. In this dilemma it occurred to Dr Olbers that these three small planets were fragments of a larger one; that this planet had been burst by some internal convulsion; and that as all the fragments had diverged from one common centre, there ought to be two nodes in opposite points of the heavens through which they should all sooner or later pass. Having found that these nodes should be in the constellations.Virgo and the Whale, and that it was in the last of these that Juno had been discovered, Dr Olbers examined, thrice every year, these two constellations, till on the 29th March 1807, he discovered in the constellation Virgo, a fourth small planet, to which he gave the name of Vesta, whose mean distance from the Sun corresponded with the number 221. If these four planets are the fragments of a larger one; if a planet has been burst in pieces by an internal force, powerful enough to overcome the mutual attraction of the fragments, we can scarcely doubt that other fragments of different sizes have been projected into space, the larger ones revolving round the Sun in the vicinity of the principal fragments, and the smaller ones at a greater or a less distance, or probably drawn into the sphere of attraction, of the Earth, or any other planet that happened to be nearest to the place of explosion. Adopting this view of the subject, Sir David Brewster, in a paper read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1808 or 1809, endeavoured to show that aerolites or meteoric stones, which so fre- Since these views were published, they have| On the 8th of December, M. Hencke observed, between two stars of the ninth or tenth magnitude, and marked on the Berlin maps, a star of the ninth magnitude, not marked on the maps; and being familiar with that part of the heavens, he was certain that it had moved into its present position. In letters to Professor Encke and Shumacher, announcing the fact, he expressed his conviction that the star was a new planet. It has, accordingly, been observed by astronomers in various parts of Europe; and it has been placed beyond a doubt that it is a fifth member of the group of asteroids revolving between Mars and Jupiter. The following are its elements, as given by Encke :: Epoch of mean lon " 21 6 32 21 24 31 15, 86 49 50 23, 90 49 30 In contemplating the strange phenomenon of fire small planets moving round the Sun in interlacing orbits, and filling up a blank space in the solar system, and in explaining this phenomenon on the supposition that the five bodies are the fragments of a larger planet that has been rent in pieces, and exploded by an enormous force in its interior, the mind does not at first welcome the idea that the harmony of the solar system has been thus established. While we observe around us everything in a state of transition and decay-the mightiest of man's works crumbling into dust, and even his own physical and moral nature in a state of degradation and ruin-we are apt to look to "the everlasting hills" as enduring memorials of divine power, and still more to the system of the world to which we belong, as the type of stability and permanence. But this idea has no reasonable foundation. The perturbations in the planetary are as great and numerous as those in the moral world, and there are elements of decay in our system which forebode its eventual dissolution. We are not entitled, however, to regard great convulsions in the natural world as proofs of defective harmony, either in planets or in systems. The hurricane cleanses the tainted atmosphere through which it rages; the flood cleanses the polluted channel over which it sweeps; and it was by great convulsions in the heart of our own globe, that might have burst it in pieces, that its stratified crust was broken up into mountains and valleys, and hill and dale; and that the gold and silver, the metals and the fuel, the gems and the precious stones which had been hidden in its bowels, were thrown up to the hand of man, that he might collect and employ them. Forests of gigantic growth were gitude, 1846, Jan. O days, 0 hrs. 89° 32′ 12′′ buried in the earth, and cycles of organic life Longitude of Perihelion, Longitude of Node, Inclination of Orbit, Time of Revolution 214° 53' 7" 7 42 . 8 0 207 993 4 round the Sun, yrs. 3 m. 21 days. The time of revolution is about twenty-three days less than that of Juno, and its mean dis * See Edinburgh Encyclopædia, article Astronomy, vo!. ii., p. 641; and Ferguson's Works, vol. ii., Astronomy, p 96 Kosmos, or Survey of the Universe. were necessarily entombed, before this beautiful globe was ready for the reception, and worthy of the admiration, of its intellectual occupants. We cannot venture to conjecture what great purpose has been, or is to be, accomplished by the bursting of a planet. The race that may be allowed to discover it will doubtless feel and acknowledge its wisdom. We who are per mitted but to see the fact must content ourselves with the lesson, not unworthy of being learned, that we have already seen, in the He also describes them as moving singly in closed rings, planetary system, a proof of that mighty agency o in multitudes like a stream. by which "the heavens shall pass away with a |