you hold the paper to the fire; so the smallest letters in the book of our conscience, yea, the least notes, and points, and scratches, which neither any other nor ourselves see well now, shall easily be discerned by the fire of the last judgment.-Featly.

26th. It is not written "Ye shall not," but "ye cannot, serve God and mammon." The difference between "shall not" and "cannot" is only understood by spiritual minds. The worldly mind unconsciously changes the cannot to shall not, and feels disposed to rebel under the constraint of a positive and burdensome prohibition. The spiritual mind never mistakes the cannot for the shall not, but with all the delicacy of its renewed perceptions, feels, oh, how deeply !—I cannot, even if I might. -Rev. Charles Tayler.

The Book Table.

OUR library table holds many more books, pamphlets, and periodicals than we can do justice to, but we must not let them be placed on the shelf without a few words of

comment.

touches and interesting episodes, from the pen of Mrs. Mackay, author of "The Family at Heatherdale." We cordially recommend it for our Sunday school and institute libraries.

Messrs. Gall and Inglis, of Edinburgh, have sent us a goodly parcel of books, got up in their usual neat and effective style. Here are THE RACE FOR GOLD; OR, THE CITY MERCHANT AND HIS COUNTRY BROTHER. 1s. 6d. Well portraying the vital difference between making money an end and a means. THE CORD OF LOVE; by our friend and contributor Mrs. J. S. Dammast, whose name will be a guarantee that the story is lively and interesting. We have also AGNES LEITH, OR THE PATH AND THE LAMP; BURTIE COREY, THE FISHER BOY; NED TURNER, OR WAIT A LITTLE,—sim

We have passed by one little volume longer than we intended, THE YOUNG MAN SETTING OUT IN LIFE, by the Rev. Wm. Guest. It is emphatically the book we should like to place in the hand of every thoughtful and inquiring youth. Mr. Guest understands young men-is in sympathy with them-is qualified to deal with their doubts and difficulties; and we should be only too glad if the work could find its way into the library of every one of our readers. The price is 1s. 6d. From the same firm (Messrs. Jackson, Walford & Co.) we have received OLIVER WYNDHAM, a Tale of the Great Plague; reprinted from that ex-ple stories, with coloured frontiscellent magazine, Our Own Fireside. We believe that such tales as this, which faithfully reproduces the scenes of past history, are well calculated to awaken interest in the annals of our native land. Of CLIFFORD CASTLE, a Tale of the English Reformation (Oliphant & Co.), we may speak in similar terms. It is a very superior work, full of graphic

pieces, and both readable and useful in their tendencies. In SHEER OFF, a larger volume than the others, the authoress, A. L. O. E., confesses that she has tried to weave four stories into one; -a difficult task, no doubt, but the writer is ingenious and original, and "Sheer Off" will be liked in parts and as a whole. Have our readers seen

Job xli. 1.-"CANST THOU DRAW OUT LEVIATHAN WITH AN
HOOK? OR HIS TONGUE WITH A CORD WHICH THOU LETTEST
DOWN?"

1827. The Crocodile or Leviathan.-Both names are mentioned as pertaining to one animal, for, although ancient commentators supposed that the whale, or some enormous serpent, is intended, wherever in Scripture leviathan is mentioned, and especially that the description in Job refers to the whale: ever since the days of Bochart this opinion has given way to the more probable one, that the crocodile is meant, by the references given in the book of Job. This animal most closely corresponds, in form and nature, with the several points in the description; and, moreover, it frequents the large rivers of the regions where it is supposed Job and his friends lived, whereas the whale does not.

The crocodile is the natural inhabitant of the Nile and other Asiatic and African rivers. It is of enormous voracity and strength; it swims very swiftly; and does not hesitate to attack either man or the largest animals. Its form is that of the common lizard of our own fields. Its mouth is proportionally larger than that of FEBRUARY, 1868.

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most other animals, consisting of an immense opening between two. jaws, which move both ways, up and down. The lower jaw has commonly as many as thirty-eight sharp, large teeth; the upper, forty: these teeth are speedily renewed, in case by accident any of them should be lost. The neck and back, and sides, down to the extremity of the tail, are covered with thick, firm-set, and almost impenetrable scales. The animal is amphibious; swimming, when in the water, for the most part considerably below the surface, except when looking for prey; and then it may be seen on the surface, with its back raised above the water, and floating with the stream, as if desirous of being taken, by an unwary victim, for a log of wood, from which it is not needful to attempt to escape.

In the plate the crocodile is represented as lying among the bulrushes, or papyrus of the banks of the Nile; a plant of which, anciently, great use was made in building boats to sail upon that river; and in other fabrics, of which one of the most delicate and interesting was paper constructed out of its inner pellicles or films.

Ancient paintings, marbles, and numerous literary references, identify the crocodile with Egypt, the land of the Nile. Its very name, in the ancient language of Egypt, is nearly identical with the title belonging to its monarchs. Phouro and Pharaoh are but different forms of the same Coptic word; the name in reference to the animal, may denote the point in the description mentioned in Job xli. 34. There is undoubted evidence, not only that the crocodile is taken "with a hook," but that it has been tamed, and worshipped, as the description in Job seemed to indicate. Our readers may see a beautiful translation of this part of sacred poetry, and criticisms upon every section it contains, which are full of good taste, sound learning, and correct judgment, in the late Dr. Mason Good's version, and notes on the Book of Job.

James iii. 7.-"FOR EVERY KIND OF BEASTS, AND OF BIRDS, AND OF SERPENTS, AND OF THINGS IN THE SEA, IS TAMED, AND HATH BEEN TAMED OF MANKIND."

1828. Crocodiles Tamed.-The following extract from a private letter, dated from Kurrachee, in Scinde, on the northern side of the mouths of the river Indus, quoted in the Edinburgh Review, 1844, shows that animals of the class, of which the crocodile is,

perhaps, among the fiercest, have been tamed; and may serve to illustrate the declaration of the apostle in the text.

"As I have no further news, I may as well give you an account of a most extraordinary scene which I witnessed yesterday. Hearing that there were some warm springs worth seeing, at a village about eight miles from hence, I started on foot with a guide to visit them. On getting close to the village, I saw a small swamp, resembling a pool of water left by the rains. It was now half dried up, and quite shallow. The day was intensely hot; and as I had done the distance in a couple of hours, I felt extremely thirsty, and approached the pool. When I got to the edge the guide was with me, and pointed out something in the water which I had myself taken to be the stump of a tree; and, although I had my glasses on, I looked at it for some time, before I found that I was standing within three feet of an immense crocodile! I then perceived that the swamp was crowded with them, although they were all lying in the mud so perfectly motionless, that a hundred people might have passed without observing them. The guide laughed at the start I gave, and told me that they were quite harmless, having been tamed by a saint, a man of great piety, whose tomb was to be seen on a hill close by; and they continued to obey the orders of a number of fakeers who lived around the tomb. I proceeded there immediately, and got some of the fakeers to come down to the water with a sheep. One of them went close to the water with a long stick, with which he struck the ground, and called to the crocodiles, which immediately came crawling out of the water, great and small together, and lay down upon the bank all around him. The sheep was then killed and quartered; and while this was going on, the alligators continued crawling up till they had made a complete ring around us. The fakeer kept walking about within the circle, and if any of them attempted to encroach, he rapped it unmercifully over the snout with his stick, and drove it backwards. Not one of them attempted to touch him, although they opened their mouths and showed rows of teeth, that seemed able to snap him in two at a bite. The quarters of the sheep were then thrown to them, and the scene that followed was so indescribable, that I shall not attempt it: but I think if you will turn to Milton, and read his account of the Transformation of Satan and his crew in Pandemonium, you may form some faint idea how dreadful was the din.' In what manner these monsters were first tamed, I cannot say. The natives, of course, ascribe it to the piety of the saint who is called Mugger Pier, or Saint Crocodile."