Short Notices [pp. 722-738]

Short Notices.
moral guide to that guidance. In no fair meaning of the terms
can we adopt the broad proposition, "conscience is not a moral
guide," while it is a fundamental truth, that without the light
of revelation, it is a wholly inadequate guide. But even then
we sin in disobeying it, for to disobey it is to do what we are
convinced we ought not to do. That there is sin in this, is
intuitively evident. It seems to us, that the doctrine, that conscience is not a moral guide, at once dethrones it from its supremacy over the man, which all feel that it possesses de jure, if
not de facto: that it lends sanction to that disregard of the
dictates of conscience which saps the very foundations of religion and morality; and that it is by no means requisite in order
to maintain the fallibility of conscience when the due means of
enlightening it are neglected, or to support the infallible
authority of the Scriptures as a rule of life. Men may err and
commit sin indeed, in obedience to the behests of a blinded
conscience. But the spinal cord of religion and morality is
paralyzed, when they abjure fealty to conscience as their moral
guide. What we object to in the mode of statement upon
which we have animadverted, is not so much what we understand is intended to be said, as the mode of saying it.
A Poor Fellow; By the author of "Which: the Right or the Left?" New
York: Dick & Fitzgerald. 1858.
The title of this book does it injustice. It raises the impression that it is of a vulgar and trivial character. From the partial examination we have been able to give it, we find it quite
otherwise. It is one of those religious dramatic stories, which
few will begin to read without reading to the end. Through a
variety of characters, all of which have their numerous representatives in the real life of our great commercial cities, it gives
us an impressive exhibition of the power of evangelical truth
and piety, as the effectual and only cure of scepticism, vice,
avarice; of the arrogance, heartlessness, and cruel pride, gendered by immense wealth suddenly and dishonestly acquired;
as the only spring of enduring and effective philanthropy, and
of genuine relief from the miseries induced by sin, social, individual, temporal, and eternal.
The Model Merchant; or Memoirs of Samuel Budgett. Philadelphia:
Presbyterian Board of Publication.
Mr. Budgett's life and character were, we believe, first
brought into public prominence in Mr. Peter Bayne's work on
the Christian life, which also first made its author, (now editor
of the Edinburgh TVitness,) known to the American public.
730
[OCTOBER