Modern Civilization in Relation to Christianity. A Series of Essays.
By William M'Combie. (Blackwood and Sons.)—The editor of the Aberdeen Free Press is so much enamoured of the articles which he has contributed to his paper during the last two years that he has made a selection from them and published them in a more permanent form. The re-publication of ephemeral essays is almost always a mistake, and we think this is no exception to the rule. We do not deny that these papers often put a side of a truth which is overlooked in the present day; but the views of writers like Stuart Mill, or even the late Mr. Buckle, cannot be refuted by any one without "a systematic and exhaustive treatment of the subject." It is useless to treat such a thesis as that " Christianity supplies the only force that can secure for civilized communities continued progress" in a fragmentary way. In the course of his labours as a journalist, Mr. M'Combie had thought on many points connected more or less intimately with his subject, but simple juxtaposition will not make such fragments into a whole. We confess what most strikes us in these papers is the plausibility with which Scotch prejudices are defended. The paper on " The Sabbath," as they call it north of the Tweed, is a first-rate instance of this, and yet Mr. M'Combie has not said a single thing in it which is tangible.
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