The essay On the Office of the Ruling Elder, by
Dr. SAMUEL MILLER, of New Jersey, is the result of the thought of more than twenty years. The general duty of this officer of the Presbyterian Church is, " to cooperate with the pastor in spiritual instruction and government." The object of the learned Professor of Eccle- siastical History and Church Government, is to raise the "standard of public sentiment" in reference to the character of the elder, to show the vital necessity of a reform in this matter, and to prove the divine authority of the office. Dr. MILLER takes up the last point first, and infers the Scriptural appointment from Scriptural testimony ; he then traces the existence of the officer through the primitive Christians, the Waldenses, and other witnesses of the truth in the dark ages, and among the Retainers down even to our own time. He next discusses the necessity and nature of the ruling elder's office; expounds its duties; enters minutely into the qualifications proper to the character, the mode of his election, ordination, and resignation, and winds up with an account of the temporal and spiritual advantages of the pure Presbyterian plan of discipline. The work is learned and elaborate, but sometimes minute and sometimes diffuse, so that its character as a composition is rather ineffective.
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